If Only it was True

So, some of you may be wondering where I've been the past few days...or weeks. It's simple actually(isn't it always?), a few weeks ago I played the demo for NCAA Football 11 and that made me want Fall to come even quicker and it also made me want a football game for the 360. So a couple weeks ago I went down to my local game store and picked up NCAA Football 10. Yeah I know it's not the new one with all the fancy features and all; but hey, it was 20 bucks cheaper! So far, I have had several intense games and a couple blowouts also. Anyways, what's all in this post? Well, hopefully I'll be able to talk about a bit the football game and how I've done it. Maybe I'll even manage to fit it some talk about Reach. Yeah, pretty sure I'll be able to fit that in there somewhere; I'll make room. Anyways, moving on.


Like I said, a couple weeks ago I picked up the football game(I can find a way to use it this sentence again) and have enjoyed it so far. It is by far one of the best Collegiate football games I have played. Before I continue though, you might be asking(more likely not) "What is the team you chose to use?" Well, that team is my favorite college team; Illinois. There really isn't a whole lot to say about it though. I did start a Dynasty on it, which kind of has you playing as the coach of the team; but you're still actually playing the game. On my first season(Which I started three days after getting the game) I went 8-0 in conference play and 12-0 overall. But wait; that's not it though! I finished that season rated #1 in the Coaches' poll and all that stuff, plus went to the BCS National Title game against #2 Boise State with the same record. Despite it being a video game, I was actually nervous a little when playing the game knowing that something would happen. So, the kickoff happens and Boise State is receiving for the first half. Okay skip all that and go ahead several downs and Boise State is close to scoring a touchdown. Luckily our defense held them off at our own 15 yard line and they only escape with a field goal. Okay, so now I'm wondering what to do now since we're down 3-0 and I'm not having much luck getting my running game going. So I decided to start passing on them with the occasional option run play thrown in there. Well it works I then take the lead 7-3 and build on it from there. In the end the final score is Illinois 63 - Boise State 3. Yeah...umm, owned. After winning that bowl game, I ended finishing the season and 13-0 overall. At the end of my first season I still had another two years for my contract with Illinois, however; I got a couple job offers also. One was with Alabama, which had a really good season that year(in that game that is) and another one was North Carolina I believe though I'm not sure how they did. I also had the choice to renew for another six years with Illinois, well I decided to renew my contract for the other six years. Right now I am currently in my second season of it and am ranked #5 in the Coaches' Poll with an overall record of 7-0. So far in the second season and in conference play I am 3-0 already beating Michigan, Minnesota and just recently, Indiana. So far the only team that has shown any sign of possibly beating me was the game against Minnesota. I still won that game, but the final score was 62-24. I know, I know; that's still double their score so why should have worried about that? Well they scored a TD first, which put us down 7-0; however on the kickoff I return it for a touchdown thus evening up the score. Fast forward into early in the second quarter I score another TD taking the lead 14-7. Soon afterwards they score yet another touchdown and tie the game up. Halftime rolls around finally and I have the lead at 21-14; second half starts and I just take off from there and finish the game with the previously stated final score.


Really the only thing else I have done was started a "Road to Glory" mode thing.... What you basically do is create a player and start with your state's high school championship playoffs and try to get a scholarship to a college. I did that, won the Illinois State playoffs with a local high school and got scholarship offers from a whole bunch of places. I decided to sign with....with.....I can't say it....with Iowa. That left a bad taste.... Yeah, so since I'm an Illinois fan I don't care a whole lot for Iowa. However, I was guaranteed a bunch of stuff by signing with Iowa, one of which was being a starter for them. I would have liked to sign with Illinois(obviously), but they wanted me as a second string and I was hoping for a starter position. What I am thinking of doing is creating another player(probably someone on defense) and seeing what I can get there. I don't know really, it's the least of my concerns since I want to see how I can do in the Dynasty I started; that and Reach is only a couple weeks away, but hey who's counting right?



Moving onto that map I said I was going to make before Reach came out. Yeah, so that was like two weeks ago and I haven't started it yet. So obviously by now I have decided to scratch the idea of creating it in Halo 3's Forge and just wait until Reach comes out(two weeks!) and start it in Forge World. I don't know where I will build it exactly, but I am thinking about going to The Quarry and building it there. I know it's an open area and all that so how will people know where the boundaries of it are? Well, they're called death barriers for a reason. Since it's in an open area that obviously means that some stuff might change, however this could be a good thing in the long run. Luckily that means it should give me the chance to make it a little larger than what the Sandbox version currently could be. I can see some really cool stuff being worked into the new version of it with all the stuff we'll have at our hands in Forge World. As of right now I don't know if I'll try to make an exact remake of it(with the general geometry and weapon placement) or if I'll make some changes to it. However, it's going to be along the same concept of the one I was planning on making in H3's Forge. I know, it sounds like I just contradicted myself there; but if you read it carefully I'm basically stating that since I'm planning on building it in a different place some of it might change if I can't make it work properly...or something like that at least. Anyways, moving on before I confuse you even more.

So, after reading Bungie's weekly update for August 20th, 2010 I am really excited for Firefight even more. So if you watch the one video showcasing the Firefight gametype called "Skeet Shoot(-ing)" I really liked the way that one looked. After seeing that video though it made me start hoping that they included in the game the option to save custom Firefight settings(which I'm sure they did), but also the ability to upload them to your file share for the game and download other variants and such. A lot like the way we can download custom maps and gametypes in Halo 3 already, but only with Firefight 2.0 for Reach since we are going to be able to edit all sorts of settings for that mode. I have already mentioned a few ideas in earlier posts that I have made about some settings that I might change in order to make a game of Firefight interesting. I have yet to see some gameplay of the one built-in Firefight mode called "Gruntpocalypse." I guess it's nothing but Grunts and whatever load-outs you have to choose from. Sounds like a real good version to play when you want to waste some time or just have fun and don't want to play a regular game of Firefight. I have seen some footage of Firefight Versus and it looks fun. I'm honestly note sure how often I will play it, but I'm sure I will at some point just to check it out even.
Something that I think would be really cool to do, but I think it's not going to happen and is to late implement is if you could make your own Firefight maps using Forge World. Now at first I was against the idea of being able to create your own maps and using them in Firefight; but honestly, I think it could possibly be a really cool feature to have. I can easily see it being used and some great community Firefight maps being made in the end; especially from the more "known" Forgers in the Halo community. The one thing I would have done if you could have been able to do it is make even just a part of an old Firefight map from ODST. I would leave the basic geometry and layout of said section if at all possible and just adding maybe some extra cover if I wanted to and certainly adding some more weapons laying around the main area of the map. Like I said though, I doubt it we're going to be able to do and since the game comes out in 10 days(again, not counting...) it is most likely too late to put it in the game right now.

Anyways, I think that is all for now. I am hoping to have another post out possibly before Reach comes out; but I'm not going to guarantee anything. I can guarantee that I will have a post out sometime shortly after Reach is released as I'll be wanting to talk about all the neat new stuff in it and I can do so here. So until then, keep killing aliens...or whatever it was your were doing before arriving here. Oh yeah, I also got around to changing the picture for the header of my blog. It's a screenshot I took from the Reach Beta. If I remember correctly I am the Elite that is on the right hand with what was left of the laser blast in my face. I swear when that happened I was dead...