Is it me, or does it feel like following the narrative of Halo  can be headache inducing.  Epic games hired a AAA writer to tie down the story in Gears of War, and the most memorable line in the game is Cole’s “Wooh!” Let’s not even bring up Gears 2, complete with the laughable meltdown of Dominic Santiago followed by the cheesy dialogue. Where did narrative go? What happened to the tragic narratives that focused on themes like; Love, Betrayal, Death(and I don’t mean come back as a Zombie)? Has it been replaced by INSERT SPACE MARINE SHOOTER HERE?

…continued

I started this uncanny tradition 3 years ago. Two weeks after my first child was born, I picked up all of my Playstation  2 and Xbox games on a whim. Notfying my wife of the possibility of another addition to the family, my diabolical plan was formed. Trade in everything I could to purchase an Xbox 360. The 60  gigabyte pro was $399.99 at the time and all of my friends,(Sam, Scott, and Allen) all ponied up the big dollars already. Gamestop offered me a paltry $200 dollars for a PS3 slim, roughly 10 PS2 games, an Original Xbox, and 6-10 Xbox games. Ok, I know I got ripped off, but I was happy to walk out of the store with a brand new XBox 360 and no games!  I was just glad to be in the now, and all of those cool graphics that I heard about could now be experienced on my 27 inch Daewoo T.V. Oh yeah, since my TV was standard def, I didn’t really get to experience those Hi-Def crisp graphics, that the box mentioned. But at least I had a 360 and could do cool 360 things like Xbox Live revamped.

Now, it has been 3 years since that impulse purchase and i have reached that eclipse again. Being a new parent causes many emotional responses. It’s  truly a life changing experience, and I won’t begin to embark on explaining the joys and pitfalls of parenthood. But, I must pose a question to the community. I just had my second child a few days ago, and it’s time to keep the tradition going and purchase another system. The PS3 price drop has my impulse trigger finger tingling, and I spent the past week convincing the wife why I must buy one. Walking through Gamestop a few days ago and  contemplating my inevitable Playstation 3 purchase, scheming Alfred took over. Thumbing through games, adding up costs, I had an epiphany; do I really want a Playstation 3. There were only a few games that look interesting, which I couldn’t get on the 360. Scary thought. here’s my thought process;

*I’m at the point where I can buy a PS3 after waiting for years.

*It would be great to have a different perspective for the show.

* A Blu – Ray player is nice, but not mandatory, but cool

* Home sounds interesting, Having a Batcave sounds cool. In a geek sort of way.

*Unchartered 2, Warhawk, Killzone 2, Socom -   ok, Socom is stretching it.

Don’t know if this justifies $220+ Dollars, but I keep telling myself that this will add depth to the show.

I kept walking through the store and saw the Wii setup in the corner. Wii sports resort was loaded up on the Demo Unit. Well, maybe I can play a round of frisbee Golf and try out the Wii Motion Plus Accessory. 1 hour later I have to unglue myself away from it. Maybe 50+ million people knew secretly how fun the Wii is and I was extremely late to the party. So, now I want a Wii, and here’s my reasoning

*Wii Motion Plus is very accurate, and Tiger Woods 2009(Wii) might be awesome with the accessory.

*Games drop in Price faster than other games, and the library is deep.

* Legend of Zelda:TP, MadWorld, Resident Evil Exclusives, Punchout, Animal              Crossing….Mario

*Wife and Kids will Love it.

Okay, so there’s my reasoning. What are your reasons why you would prefer one over the other?

Listening to this week’s show has me pondering one word….Value. How much is an Xbox Live Arcade game worth? 1600 Space Bucks for what?!?!? The Wii is just “two gamecubes duck-taped together.” The DS is just a gimic? The $199.99 Xbox 360 is worthless? “Nintendo is just printing money!” All of these phrases  are familiar to those who follow the gaming industry. Analysts predicted winners and losers, but no prediction could accurately detail the flux of this console generation. Because they couldn’t accurately predict the the gamers’ definition of “value” would also change with the console cycle.

…continued

The last time me and my wife hurried home for an event was 5 years ago. We would stroll through the mall on a Saturday night, and would stop shopping to hurry home and watch “The Practice.” Those were the “good ole’ days” before we commonly became  known as Mommy and Daddy. Now, weekend nights consist of preparing our 3 year old for bed and maybe renting a movie from RedBox. I will usually fall asleep before the previews of the movie.  Life has definitely changed since we received the title, parents.

All of this change has definitely took it’s toll on our lives. Our Saturdays began with cartoons, and deciding who would get to sleep in, while the other one got out of bed to tend to my daughter. The loser would always complain that things weren’t fair.

We quickly realized how we were becoming roommates instead of spouses. I would reminisce on the days of happiness and bliss. I remember coming home from work and just making plans for the weekend. Just driving on Saturdays, and always having fun. Of course, hurrying to get back home on Saturday nights to watch our evening lineup.

We needed that spark again. How could we get back to those days of feeling carefree. Simply just having fun sitting in the room together. The answer came in a small 32 megabyte download. Being the gamer in the house certainly has it’s advantages and dis-advantages. My wife is very supportive of my gaming habits, and allows me to enjoy myself. She’s not a console gamer, but she is a fan of puzzle & trivia games. She loves CrossworDS, Scenet IT….you get the point. I would play 1 vs. 100 while she sat on the couch. It didn’t take long before she was answering the questions and telling me which button to press.  Our  community always partied up when we play 1 vs. 100, so we would help each other out. After a few weekends of chatting with the community we began to pan in advance the start times of the game, so we would be home in time to play with everyone else.  It was deja-Vu.  Our daughter was in bed by 8:30pm, and the rest of the night was ours. Life is good again, and we spend time talking and enjoying each other.  We are back to being happy again.

Let’s just clear the air, because I know what everyone’s thinking. It’s been a while since I posted a Friday Fire. Yes, I am also aware that it’s Monday. I’ve been gaming as long as I can remember, and I’ve been trading in games equally as long. It’s a viable way to accrue new games without having to section of part of the weekly paycheck. In my adolescence, I would gather up all of my trades and march to my local game store(babbages, game trader, etc.), and proceed to trade them in. I never had much of an issue with the process, since I went home with a new game in the end. Being broke throughout high school meant, I traded in most of my games. Some of my most notables are; Original Final Fantasy VII, Goldeneye 007, Resident Evil(PS1), Zelda:Ocarina of time, Metal Gear Solid. Just to name a few. Luckily, I’ve been able to find some of these games in their original form at local collector’s shops. I didn’t realize that I was a collector until we started GamerHusbands. Recording the weekly shows and reminiscing about “Old School” games brought out my desire for all of my old games that I traded in.

I was talking to, GHR community member, BabyGurlz, and we we’re talking about some of the great XBox 360 games that we’re released earlier in the life cycle. A lot of the games that we mentioned, I had traded in, and just thinking about those games(Forza2, Bioshock,CoD4, etc) made me think. I don’t have that many games. The most I ever had on the 360 was 11. And, that included three Guitar Hero Games. Like most people on Xbox Live, I move with the flow of the industry. When Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 released, I called my Blockbuster 6 times to see if they had it available to rent. Our whole community played that for a while and then moved on to the next game. This has become the norm for devout gamers due to the frequency of new games being released. Babygurlz was explaining to me how she never trade in games, because she might want to play them again. Our conversation caused me to have an epiphany, because each game contained a value that cannot be represented by a dollar sign.

I don’t want people to think that I’m against trading in games. Nowadays, gaming is more important to people than ever. I think game stores provide a valuable service to it’s customers, and GamerHusbands wouldn’t have near the coverage without the availability of this service. The games that I owned over the years are like time pieces that hold great memories. Halo 2 is the first on-line multiplayer game I experienced. Me, Allen, Scott, and Sam would spend many friday nights playing Halo 2, talking trash, Kicking Arse, and taking names. We were becoming close friends and didn’t even know it. Zelda:Ocarina of time showed me how important Art direction and Storytelling produces an amazing game, even on an underpowered system. My brother hardly plays games anymore, but he Will talk to you all night about our times with Call of Duty 4. I’m not saying to keep every game you buy, but beware of trading in some of your greatest memories money can’t buy.

this is Scott’s first post. Read the Friday Fire below Explaining why I re-posted it!

1 year 1 month. That’s how long GamerHusbands Radio has been around. Some of you can remember the startup days when we didn’t have this website. No matter what we were working with, we always seemed to make the best of it.

Nowdays, it seems like becoming a podcaster is as common as a teenager wanting to be a rapper, but I truly believe you can tell the level of passion in the product. For many years I was just skating around the rink of life. Just going in circles. Sometimes an obstacle would come up, and I would dodge it. Sometimes overcoming the obstacle, and colliding head-on other times. 1 year and 1 month ago, my life was forever changed. An idea that started out as a small desire turned into something a lot bigger. Everytime I plug in my microphone and prepare for the show, it feels like i’m the luckiest man alive. How many people get to live our their dream. There are so many people who are just skating around the circle of life. I should have been to bed a few hours ago. My body is requesting some sleep, but after 1 year and 1 month, I’m still just as excited about each post I put up. I think we have some of the most talented staffs for a gaming website. We all work full time jobs also, and the majority of us has wife/kids. I went back to the first page on this site, and I could just feel the excitement in our first posts. Reading Soctt’s first post is amazing. Sometimes, it amazed me because he is so creative. His Call of Duty post is a sample of that. I think a lot of people didn’t see that post, but if you are reading this article, then you can see where I reposted it for your viewing pleasure. All of our staff is really talented. The guys that write have their own personalities and writing styles, and it all adds up to an eclectic mix of content. Tristan, our community manger, is contacting developers and lining up interviews. Everyone on staff works extremely hard, so I want to give a shout-out to them: Tristan, Allen, Robert, Joe, Chuck, Kevin, and Sam.

When I talk to my brother, he reminds me of how big of an accomplishment we have made. I never stop to enjoy the scenery, because I’m always looking ahead. That’s the negative side of passion. When you put so much into your hopes/dreams, there is always some sort of sacrifice that happens, whether intentional or unintentional. We sacrifice time with our wives and kids to write articles and record the show. Sam walks in the door from work, and turns on his mic. That’s tough when you’ve been under a car all day. We all make sacrifices of sorts to do this. With all of the sacrifice, this is, and always will be my passion. We never talk about these topics on the show. We always aim to keep it positive. Everyone on staff works very hard to keep GHR running, and we all have a passion for making this the best it can be.

I’m really exctited about the upcoming things we have. We appreciate everyone that has been a part of GHR, and definitely want to show our sincerest gratitude to you. We are just getting warmed up for 2009, so get ready, get excited, and strap your seatbelts down and place your tray tables in the upright position. Year 2 is starting off very fast, and the train is just picking up speed.

Hosting a podcasts definitely has it’s advantages and Disadvantages. The weekly investment of hours sometimes prove to be too much for aspiring podcaster. Also, there is usually little to no monetary gain involved. The payoff is building a community of people that listen to your show. Watching as commentors post in the forums and on forum topics, is more valuable than money, and the community is the reason that podcasters work tirelessly at building their craft. I get excited everytime someone just sends me a message about the show, or just want to say hi. It’s even more exciting when someone in the community actually wants to hang out with you.

In mid December Sam(GHR Superman) and I(GHR Maverick) decided to take Bizz up on his offer to have a Rockband party. Honestly, we were a little nervous, because we never met Bizz personally and he is a very vocal person. So we set out one cold Friday night in December to play some Rockband. Expecting Bizz to look like a George Constanza look-alike, I was pleasantly surprised when a young bearded college-looking student came to the door. We ended up having a great night. Honestly, we rocked out to all types of songs. I’ll even admit some of my favorites. “Gimme Shelter” The Rolling Stones, “Maps” Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Roam” B-52′s, “Creep” Radiohead. We had a great Band. I was on Bass Guitar, Sam- Drums, Laurie(Mrs. Bizz) – Vocalists, and Bizz Lead Guitar.

Sometimes, as podcasters, we get so caught in the daily grind of making a show/working on the site/life, that we lose track of even why we started podcasting. That night of extreme rocking out, and I mean ROCKING OUT, I forgot about all of my stresses. I wasn’t thinking about forum posts, or download numbers. This is the reason we started GamerHusbands. This night showed me that we have done more than build a community. We built friendships!