Hey, Internet! Please allow me to turn your world upside-down:
I like Halo!
It’s like a crazy Warthog jump upending everything you’ve ever known and loved!
My liking Halo has never struck me as being a particularly big deal. I mean, I enjoy plenty of video games, especially first-person shooters with a strong story component, and I’ve had a soft spot for Bungie games since I first saw my graphic design professor misusing his juiced-up Power Mac 8100 to turn armies of three-eyed aliens into gooey xenokibble.
To judge by the reactions I’ve witnessed when people learned I helped EGM tackle Halo 3, though, it actually is a horrible shock to many people. A life-altering revelation, perhaps. I guess the general assumption is that I only like old games… or quirky Japanese games… or RPGs… or Nintendo first-party stuff… or handheld games… or whatever. Since that’s what I usually write about, when I write about games. But you know, a newpaper reporter who writes the crime beat doesn’t only live to think about crime; I’ve always assumed it was a given that the same holds true for any kind of writer.
So for 1UP, I tend not to cover much of the more mass-market/mainstream titles, because so many other people already cover them in such exhaustive detail; I prefer to focus on niches that I like and that might otherwise be neglected. I mean, Ray only has so much time in the day for writing, and Shane has a sort of manic, wild-eyed look about him that makes me question the sanity of his views. I can’t trust anyone who spends that much time staring at the ceiling.
This doesn’t mean I don’t like mainstream/mass-market titles, though. I’ve put in a stupid number of hours playing GTA games, I dig Halo, Crackdown was amazing, the Half-Life games are great, I generally love anything Final Fantasy-related, yadda yadda yadda. It’s just that there’s more room for me to say something unique about, for instance, Castlevania or Odin Sphere or whatever, since fewer people write about them fervently.
(Besides, I seem to recall Castlevania and Mega Man and the like being cutting-edge mainstream games, once upon a time.)
So what have we learned today? Like the saying goes, “when you assume you make an ass out of u.” But not me. I’m way too awesome to be tarnished by your ill-informed preconceptions.
Here’s me totally disregarding the moral of the story, but I figured people were more confused at how they decided that they were going to send Jeremy Parish to write about it. To use the crime writer example, why are they sending the crime writer to write about sports? Is the sports writer sick?
The whole idea of the enthusiast press choosing what games to write about is one I have some difficulty accepting. I always assumed there was some sort of reason why most of the enthusiast press only covered games from retail, or more recently download services run by publishers, as opposed to mixing in the odd outstanding shareware/freeware game. Although perhaps this unflattering stereotype is behind the times (where is the Cave Story review guys I’m having trouble finding it).
I would also make some sort of snarky remark at the somewhat troubled relationship 1up seems to have with story games, but that’d just be asking for trouble.
Y’know, if you like Warthogs, you might want to check out bungie’s site. They’ve got a news feature with a picture of a full size and fully functional Warthog they made for the Halo shorts that are being filmed.
Why did you even bother to write that up? No one’s gonna kill you for liking games (beside old ones), but, yes, some people that post on Talking Time are pretty scary.
I’d like to add that your writings on games no one cares about are exactly what I enjoy the most over here, because, as you said, no one writes about them. I’ve had the opportunity to play some pretty cool games that I wouldn’t have noticed in the first place, thanks to this site, so, thanks a lot.
What the heck? Am I banned for life around here? My previous comment was perfectly on-topic and polite.
Yeah, whatever, frat boy. Hope you have time to teabag some Mexican Jew lizards before you have to run off to the Linkin Park show.
My debut in Halo was as a pink armored trooper named “Hibiki.” I liked to hop around in the wide open spaces of Blood Gulch daring people to snipe me. Until I got the hang of aiming (HAHA) I racked up a legendary number of vehicular homicides instead.
Later I learned a fun tactic: If I changed my handle to various hard-to-pronounce things, people would get flustered trying to yell at me and leave themselves open to another kill. That’s Psy-ops, people.
Personally I’d be more surprised if Parish didn’t like Halo or Half Life or what have you, because they’re simply good games. Like the old saying goes, there are only two types of games: good and bad.
You know what happens when you make an assumption: You make an ass out of u, and mption.
…….I don’t know you in real life, do I, R^2?
Anyway, Halo single player is boring. Multiplayer can be a blast, and Co-op is always fun. Just not enough fun for me to buy a system this time around…
I wrote this up because it was very amusing to see message board post after message board post saying, “Buh? Parish likes Halo?” Especially after everyone I worked with did a double-take and said, “Buh? You like Halo?”
Excuse me, but I know the differance between a Jeremy Parish and a Tomm Hulett, thankyouverymuch.
Also: 1up Yours needs more JP. Anyone hear it?
Like a fine wine, my podcasting presence is most enjoyable when exercised in moderation.
Also: grows more bitter with age.
Sir, a fine wine does take time to mature, but after too long it just becomes vinegar. Don’t make Sharkey even more unappetizing than he already is.
P.S. Much love to the Sharkey
i dont see why this would surprise anyone; parish is like the internet’s biggest marathon fan, and halo is just the natural progression of that series.
Incidentally, here’s the significance of the number 7:
http://www.musanim.com/miller1956/
“The whole idea of the enthusiast press choosing what games to write about is one I have some difficulty accepting. I always assumed there was some sort of reason why most of the enthusiast press only covered games from retail, or more recently download services run by publishers, as opposed to mixing in the odd outstanding shareware/freeware game.” Perhaps it’s because the people who sell retail games are the only ones who can afford advertising in the magazines? Also, share/free ware games don’t need to be reviewed quite so much because you don’t have to drop a Grant (or more) to try them out.
So what you’re saying then is that Nintendo first-party games are akin to crime?
*Hijacks topic and changes it to retro*
Where has the Retro Roundup gone?
The person that matters answers and the others discuss.
E3 happened. I’m working on a three-week wrap-up edition right now. Don’t panic, man, don’t panic.
I’m not surprised about the liking Halo.
Do you like Halo MULTIPLAYER, JP?
P.S. Thanks for telling me about Crackdown way back on this very site. I got it with my 360 and it was flippin’ sweet.
Complaining about Halo’s singeplayer kind of misses the point, because even though Halo 1 was overlong, and Halo 2 had no ending, I liked them way more than the multiplayer because I didn’t need to be an idiot savant to enjoy them. Playing Halo online is kind of like Starcraft because if you aren’t a perfect machine of snipe, so to speak, you’re deadmeat. And not the cool dog from Fallout kind of deadmeat, either.
Are we allowed to like Ikaruga? Or does the IGN quote on the box ruin it for us hardcore types.
I think it’s more that cliques tend to surround certain games, and these cliques repel each other, and these cliques then cause very little interaction with games beyond each individual clique. A frat boy isn’t going to wake up at night and worry what his friends at the Pokemon Pearl message board think about him and his opinion on Totodile, and an RPG gamer won’t feel comfortable around people who think being drunk and high while on Live is the pinnacle of hilarity. People see Parish here enjoying something like the Boktai series, and they figure he’ll be repelled by Halo by the people who play Halo, when Parish actually doesn’t seem to care. Working in the game industry gives him more access to video games, while the rest of us have to wait for our friends to tell us “hey man, this TOTALLY awesome game just came out! From Japan!” If no one tells us to buy teh Haloez, then we typically won’t buy teh Haloez. There are Halo players who have a hidden hunger for Persona 3, and not a few Persona 3 buyers could probably stand even the faux human interaction of Halo over Live.
Didn’t you also write the strategy guide to Halo 2 a couple of years back for 1up? I think you were generally positive about it too, so I wonder where all the surprise comes from.
Inattentiveness? Or maybe the fact that it doesn’t matter worth a fat damn.
Parish loves Bungie. I have always known this truth of the ‘frog.
Whoa!
Seriously haven’t been to your sight regularly in years, but something of a shocker. Although I like Halo too, but maybe I have always held you at a higher standard of elitism.
I once skipped an entire level in Halo 2 (on Hard) by driving through it on the Puma.
I’m hardcore.