It doesn't always start out with, "Let's play a game." Sometimes it starts with, "What do you want to do?", and after much deliberation often develops into an evening of the same routine. For us, that's usually a home-cooked meal, an hour of getting the kids bathed and put in bed, and finally getting to relax and watch whatever portion of a Hulu show we can take before passing out.
Monday night my wife surprised me by suggesting we play Halo: Reach. She had been resisting for some time now.
Here is our evening in pictures.
After twenty minutes of playing with armor permutations and colors in the Armory, she finally settled on the ODST helmet with our wedding colors: pink and turqoise. Her emblem? A first aid cross backing an arowhead, celebrating her Choctaw heritage and nursing profession. Her service tag? RNDN. Say it out loud.
Once that was all squared away, I chose Gruntpocalypse rules in the splitscreen Firefight menu and chose Overlook as the map. I set the loadout to DMR rifles with unlimited ammo; figured we could start off easy.
It was anything but. Who knew that a bunch of little headshot magnets could cause so much mayhem? We were overrun quickly, but still managed to pass the map and grab some neat screenshots.
Heather also got to try out the jetpack right off the bat. She still has to work on those light landings.
Did I mention that she got a brutal execution? Such a proud moment for me.
For the most part I stood to the side and tried to make as little noise as possible. You gotta let the babies take baby steps, you know? Can't rush things.
Pffft.
With the final wave of reinforcements vanquished, we grinned like little kids and decided to play one more before calling it a night. You can't open a bag of potato chips, eat a few, then close it without killing something with rockets.
This time I picked Beachhead, with Rocketfight rules and all enemies. I figured it would be fun to see her recoil away from Elites and Hunters. Much to my surprise...
She started taking potshots at the dropships right away. She can be downright tenacious sometimes.
We equipped jetpacks once again. In a map with balconies - and a rocket launch on your shoulder - it just makes more sense to be able to rain down the destruction, rather than be in the middle of it.
...(Case in point.)
We each bagged a Hunter and at least one vehicle. It wasn't "epic" in every definition of the word, but to us it was a sweet escape from reality. We had so much fun that Tuesday evening she expressed interest in playing again.
Alas, more important things have intervened thus far. Soon, however, our appetite for destruction will get the better of us...very soon. When that day comes the dishes will sit uncleaned, the empty garbage cans will remain standing at the curb, and the children will be put in bed early.
And while the Covenant scramble to figure out what just hit them, a smug smile will creep across our faces - because unbeknownst to the enemy...
...we might just make the next Firefight night a double date.