Video Games

I'm a video game freak. I know, a real shocker to any of you that know me. Over the Christmas holiday, I logged some serious hours on the GameCube and PC, playing several games. I finally finished Metroid Prime. I love that game. It was a huge! I received it for Christmas last year, and I played it quit a bit. I got right up to the last boss, but then got frustrated when I couldn't beat him right away. I stopped playing it for a while, but then in December I started a new game. This time I got all the way through. However, now I have a new difficulty level to defeat!! Woohoo, more game time :-D In addition, I received a couple of new games for Christmas: SSX3 and Halo. I loved SSX Tricky, so I was really excited to start playing 3. I wasn't disappointed. The game has a lot of the same mechanics as the last one, with a couple of new maneuvers thrown in for good measure. In addition, this time you can race down the entire mountain. Before, you could race down a single track, but then would need to restart. Now, all of the race tracks chain together to form one enormous track. My best time down the entire mountain is just under 25 minutes. That's right, 25 minutes of continuous racing down the slope. I don't know how the developers pulled it off, but it is really amazing. I was in the habit of starting playing at around 10pm (when Jenn went to bed) and crawling back up to bed around 3:30 or 4 in the morning. Fortunately, I could still sleep in until 11 or even noon.
I haven't played Halo much, but what I have seen is pretty fun as well. This is a game that I have on the PC, that originally came from the XBox. It is a lot like Half Life, only you have teammates that help you out. Sometimes they aren't much help, as they tend to shoot each other in a crossfire. They do make good alternative targets for the enemies when you are trying to make a quick escape though.
So now I have quite a collection of games that I have not yet completed.

• SSX3
  
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003
  
• Neverwinter Nights
  
• Halo
  

I know that when the little one arrives, I'm going to be much more interested in spending time with him/her than on the arcade. So I'm going to do my best to get as far as I can in the next few weeks. This is also good practice at sleep deprivation, which several people have told me I will experience with the child.

SSX3 threw in a really interesting wrinkle though. I beat all of the racing challenges with a gold medal. On my last race, however, I earned a Platinum medal. Hmmm... Platinum, what could this mean. I went online and learned that Platinum medals are earned for getting an outrageously good score. Evidently there are some really high goals set for earning them. This is going to make it much more difficult to finish this game in time. I must dedicate myself to my purpose.... :-P