Recent headlines:
World: Third Brexit vote must be different – Speaker (Just expect Brexit headlines for the next few weeks, I guess)
Gaming: Halo: The Master Chief Collection devs were sent far too much pizza by fans (IT’S HAPPENING!!! Future Kristian, I am SO jealous of you!)
I’m watching the livestream reveal for Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC in a public bathroom, with the sound off, squinting at the hosts and wondering if now would be an opportune moment to learn how to lipread. Only a few minutes go by, however, before a very obvious trailer appears on the screen for the game. It’s only when the Steam logo appears at the end that I discover that the stall next to me is also occupied, by the type of person who lets out a discreet cough when their cubicle neighbour hisses “yes!” and pumps the air for seemingly no reason.
Well, maybe I’d just had a really fantastic poo, Steve. Don’t judge.
Nowadays I’m lucky enough to own a good gaming PC, a PS4 and a Nintendo Switch, leaving only the Xbox base untouched. The only Xbox exclusives I’ve ever been interested in, however, are Forza, Sunset Overdrive, Crackdown, maybe Gears of War – and Halo. Halo, most of all. With the announcement of the Master Chief Collection for PC, I no longer feel restricted by any kind of system boundaries, which is the kind of childhood dream that feels wonderful to finally fulfil. Part of my dream came true a few years ago when Destiny 2 was announced for PC, Destiny being the successor IP to developer Bungie’s Halo series, of which many of their design philosophies are also prevalent in.
This was just the start of a week full of scraps of good news, so I’m sat here feeling pretty good about life, barring the fact that I seem to have contracted the actual plague. I feel creatively fuelled, with a new video series on the brain and even a few story ideas pulling at my synapses. (I don’t know if that phrase makes sense, but a quick Google threw up terms that I do not have the degree required to decipher.) I haven’t had a significant emotional conundrum to tackle all week, unless you count a volume of Batman being so surprisingly eloquent at portraying grief that I dreamed about my own experiences with it. Besides that, though, that leaves me with little to blog about, which is a problem for this journal. Well, is it? It shouldn’t be! I can talk about positive things too. It’s just that a lot of attainable happiness in my life currently exists in the form of me being able to chill out, in a game, with a friend, at my desk, without anything tugging at my brain. And that’s just not fun to write about, is it?
Speaking of old videogames though, my father found a WoW Battle Chest in his travels the other day which I immediately purchased from him. It contains discs for vanilla and the Burning Crusade, manuals and two full guide books for each. I’m elated as this product was my entry into the franchise, but I lost mine years ago due to negligence on my part. Having spent literal thousands of hours in Azeroth since then, it’s amazing to own this simply as a physical link to my virtual second life. Plus, the vanilla game guide may come in useful when they release Classic WoW this summer! Nevermind WoWDB or WoWWiki, future Kristian is going to live that true oldschool experience and flick through a guide.
Apologies for the fragmented nature of this entry; I started writing it with a massive headache, and then got distracted by a Ratchet and Clank speedrun hosted by the game’s original developers. (It’s been a good week for my favourite game franchises.) One more completely disconnected thread before I leave though: I’ve decided to buy the occasional lottery ticket. I’ve always been quite cynical regarding the lottery, but looking at it rationally I can’t think of many reasons to hate it. They’ve just started a version of it that’s fairly cheap and nets you £10k a month for thirty years if you win, which is somehow immediately more appealing to me than a large sum at once. The idea of not having to worry about income and to have the funding and the time to pursue my own creative interests is… frankly, too enticing to fully put into words. I suppose I’d prefer the trickle over the lump sum because I value freedom of self over wealth. Not that I’ll ever win, but hey, on the off-chance, it’d be fun to read about it in my journal through time.
Perpetually Perturbed 