The time has come for my month long hiatus to come to an end. There has been distraction after distraction that has prevented me from writing for so long. The foremost has been school; Jr. Year in high school is time consuming. For years everyone has been warning me that this year will be the hardest of my high school career. I find however that it is not difficult as much as it is time consuming. It all comes down to an endurance run; there are times when I go to sleep at two doing work only to rise again four hours later. The workload seems to be dying down slightly and I am finally getting into the rhythm of things. These two things will hopefully culminate in more time for me to write.

I'm writing this post a day after one of the most significant days in gaming history. Yesterday was November 9, and it was the five year anniversary of Halo 2. Nevertheless, today might arguably be the most significant date yet. Today as you undoubtedly know is the launch of Modern Warfare 2. Yes, the game of the decade is finally here. It seems odd though; looking back it seems there was more hype for Halo 2. No game will ever pass the level of hype achieved by Halo 2. It will forever live on in my mind as a game that achieved mythical status. Bungie would release a single screenshot and the world would wet their pants. The day Halo 2 launched it felt like the world came to a halt. Perhaps it was my youth that provided me these ideas although I remember there was something surreal about that day.

I didn't feel that same atmosphere in the weeks leading up to today. Sure there were ads, some of the best I've ever observed, but I didn't feel the rush. I didn't feel the adrenaline of the world the same way I did back on that fateful day in November. No game to date has achieved the same epic hype level that Halo 2 had.

This has to do in part with the expectations that went into the game. Back in 2004, everyone was expecting an end to a legendary tale. Perhaps it was because the hallmarks of the ads were the campaign; the world expected to finish the fight. There was a desire to discover how Earth defends itself. Contrary to Halo 2, Modern Warfare's ads focused on the multiplayer. The whole driving force was being able to frag your friends. Had Activision instead focused on the story it would have surpassed the hype level achieved by Halo 2. Modern Warfare 2 is the sequel to one of the most emotional games yet. Its predecessor is one of the only games that make you feel attached to the characters. When Jackson dies, you care. No other game has ever brought me so near to tears the way Modern Warfare did. It's that emotional story that Activision should have banked on to drive the hype level sky-high.

The developers of Mass Effect 2 have stressed all along that your decisions in Mass Effect matter and will carry over to the sequel. For example if you killed Wrex then he's dead for good. If you treated Joker poorly, that may come back to haunt you. So here's something that shocked me; I was playing the Bring Down the Sky DLC and at the end I [spoiler] decided to let Balak live in return for the chance to save Kate Bowman. After I disabled the bombs and opened the cell that she was held in, the game snapped to a conversation. In it Kate told Shepard that she couldn't believe he would let Balak go in order to save her. And then it happened; the Love theme played in the background. I thought something would happen. After all, the only other time I heard it was with Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. Instead though, Kate opted out of the conversation to tend to her wounded brother. So I wondered; is that something that they will expand upon in Mass Effect 2? They definitely had something going on there.

Will she be in Mass Effect 2?

What would you do when the biggest racing game of the year comes out with a demo? I did what any sensible person would do and downloaded the Forza 3 demo from XBL. Having played a few races, I'm not sold. I remember now why I didn't preorder it, or buy Forza 2 for that matter; the game is just too realistic. It's fun to flip opponent's cars, but that's about all there is for me to do. Those crashes show off the new and improved damage modeling system in which cars can be flipped in a number of different (and fun) ways. I'm not that big on realistic racing games, they're just not as much fun for me as an arcade racer. Although a big factor in my dislike for it was the fact that I cant change the steering sensitivity (or at least that I'm aware of). That makes it hard for me to turn the wheel the right amount and thus I end up going off course all too often. But now that I think of it, the reason I'm going off course could be due to me staring at the amazing vistas. They're are drop dead gorgeous! It's the best scenery I've ever seen in a racing game!

For those that are thinking about buying it though I have one question for you; do you like racing games? The game will certainly appeal to racing fanatics and is trying to appeal to the casual gamer by having multiple difficulty settings. Nearly everything can be turned on or off; everything from guiding lines and auto braking to Anti Lock Brakes. This makes the game accessible to the casual gamer who just wants to play a quick race here and there. So if you like racing sims then Forza 3 is for you, otherwise pick up a copy of Dirt 2, or Split Second.