Just when it was starting to look like I was updating the blog semi-regularly, Halo 3 comes out and I completely forget about everything else. For a while I was seriously considering writing a comprehensive Halo 3 review, but I figured everyone who comes here probably bought the game immediately and by September 26 already knew everything about the game. I was also thrown by the fact that my Halo 3 Beta Impressions post earlier this year was an absurd 10-page single-spaced Word document, and a write-up of the full version of Halo 3 would almost certainly be much longer. I figured I could better put that time into something like writing a novel… or playing Halo 3.

I’ve also considered writing up a few more Random Gaming Updates, but in reality they would be more along the lines of Random Halo 3 Updates, since that’s all I have been playing and all I will continue to play for the foreseeable future (with the exception of occasional DS gaming). Also, with the inclusion of the screenshot feature on bungie.net, it’s much easier to just take a picture of a cool gaming moment, instead of writing a paragraph about it, and as we all know, laziness will always prevail.

I’m still throwing around the idea of giving my impressions on Halo 3’s story, since I am such a nut for the Halo fiction, but if I do decide to make that write-up I may wait until after I’ve read the upcoming Halo novel so I can incorporate impressions of the two into one post (and yes, I know Contact Harvest is a completely different story from Halo 3; I just don’t want to write two blog posts if I can help it). I also have quite the urge to write a long rant blasting the imbeciles who are so convinced that Halo 3 must lead in to the Marathon trilogy, and Halo 3 somehow “confirms” that the two take place in the same game universe, but that too is for another day.

You may be wondering what the point of this blog entry is, and to be completely honest, I’m not quite sure either. So… uh… screenshots! Yeah, let’s talk about screenshots. I’ve gone a bit screenshot happy as of late and am wondering how I ever got by in Halo 2 without it. I’ve caught some really awesome moments and am already starting to fill up my gallery. Since the gallery can only hold 20 shots and the recent screenshots page only holds 30, I’m probably going to start uploading screens that are in danger of being lost to flickr, since I hardly use my account there anyway. In the meantime, check out some of my personal favorites, especially some taken from last Saturday’s Legendary co-op run with Eric, Chloe, and Fatty (if you want to watch us play for five hours, e has video of all of the levels in his file share).

I have mentioned (bragged?) in the past how I managed to do a wheelie in the Mongi in the beta by taking in off a mancannon in Valhalla, but I am much more amused by taking it up a notch and doing a Warthog wheelie. No mancannon here; instead I took it off a rock while driving downhill, somehow spun it around, and started driving uphill like this. I guess I need to try for a Scorpion wheelie now eh?

Eric, thinking he is so cool because he got to play as the Chief (despite the fact that I was party lead. Someone explain that to me please…) decides to stage an unprovoked attack on me with the Gravity Hammer. Don’t go to the video to confirm the unprovoked nature of the attack though. Videos lie…

I’m not a great sniper to begin with, so when I got a no scope kill at this range from a moving Mongi I was elated to say the least. It was definitely luck and not skill, and will probably never happen again, but it was cool nonetheless. What can I say; Chloe is a good driver...

This is only one of our many Warthog crashes over the course of our co-op marathon (many of the best ones occurred on the last level, but I haven’t gotten around to getting shots of them). Fatty (the dead Arbiter in the picture) admitted responsibility for this crash, and didn’t drive much after it. It’s notable that I didn’t drive any Warthogs during the entire co-op campaign. The only time I really drove was when I got a Scorpion, which promptly exploded at the hands of a fuel rod gun-wielding Grunt.

Well, that was fun eh? Perhaps now that I’ve effectively bored you I’ll go play more Halo 3…