One of the things my wife and I used to
do when we first started hanging out was play Halo
together. It was one of our common interests—that and classic
literature, watching Fellini films, and a few other things.
Our play sessions were exclusively one-on-one competitive matches, and the
only maps we really played were "Beaver Creek," "Hang
Em High," and maybe a little bit of "Chill Out." Of
course, anyone who's opinion actually matters will agree that "Hang
Em High" is the greatest Halo
map of all time, and it's where we staged our most competitive
battles. So many places to hide it out. So many opportunities to
pistol snipe from opposite ends of the map. It always seemed like
holding down the top of the main platform area provided the most
advantageous position—easier to defend from above than to challenge
from below.
At any
rate, I remember what must have been our first "Hang Em High"
match when we played at her apartment, and it was an intense one. She was
pretty ruthless with a shotgun and invisibility cloak. I barely won
that game by a score of 50 to 49.
I
tried to get her interested in playing some cooperative games with
me, so when she gave me a copy of Lego Star Wars II for
Christmas I thought we could take it for a spin together. I must have
gotten a little greedy on one of the early levels, however, rushing
off to a distant area of the map to collect some errant blocks while
she lingered behind. Unfortunately, this not being a split-screen
game, I inadvertently caused her to get screen stuck in some hazard
area where she proceeded to die and respawn in continuous
succession. She did not find it amusing, and it would be a while
before she would agree to play any game cooperatively with me again.
Tomorrow
marks our fifth-year wedding anniversary, and while I don't mean to
boil our marriage down to being all about video games, this is
a video game blog and — once
again — we're in the final hours of the last day of the month.
My
wife eventually did play more games with me, and we've shared some
good times. We bopped our way back to Coney Island while playing through the brilliant Rockstar adaptation of The Warriors—particularly
fitting, seeing as she introduced me to the film a couple years
prior. We trudged and blasted our way through the entirety of
Borderlands 2 and its
four DLC chapters. Talk about a long and repetitive game, that one,
but with a couch companion it was actually a lot of fun and not a bad way to pass the time
together. More recently we shot up enough robots to populate a small
country in Shoot Many Robots,
and we've acted as each other's wingman (or wingwoman) while playing
through each of the hectic campaigns in Left 4 Dead
and its sequel. There have been other games as well. It's pretty easy to
feel kind of dead inside whenever you binge away the precious hours
of your life sitting solitary in front of a TV screen with a
controller in your hand, but I never feel that way when I'm spending
it with her.
I
don't take it for granted that I managed to marry someone who is not
only smart, beautiful, and funny but who also likes
to play video games with me. I mean, come on! How awesome is that?
So
here's to five years of marriage to my lovely companion—fellow vault
hunter, space marine buddy, and apocalypse survivor. May we continue
to love and cherish one another, enjoy one another's company, and
embark on many new adventures both real and virtual.
And I
promise I will try harder not to get stupid mad and frustrated when I
die.
