since taka’s been working quite a bit lately (poor thing is working like 12 hour days), i’ve found lots of free time to play video games, most of which i spend playing halo 3. halo 3 has 2 ways to rank your skill online. one is with experience points which you receive if you are in the upper 49% in a rumble pit type game, or if your team wins in a co-op game. if you lose your game, you don’t lose any experience points. the other way you are ranked is with your skill rank, which goes up when you win your games, and goes down when you lose them.

i can’t figure out the exact algorithm for the skill level increase, as it becomes more difficult the higher you get. it seemed relatively easy to get a rank of 25 in the “lone wolf” ranked games, but after that, i had to be in either 2nd place twice in a row, or first place to rank up, and then once at 29, i had to win 1st place twice in a row to rank up to 30, which is where i’m currently at. and at this point, everyone else is in the same boat as you, having to win the game, or rank back down, so you really are competing against someone just as good as you. it seriously took me about 10 hours of gameplay to move up from rank 25 to 30, and it got pretty frustrating, being at 29, winning first place, but then getting last place the second time, and moving back down to 28. a couple of times i’d spend hours and end up exactly where i started, i felt like i was gambling.

amidst my failings in halo 3, i’d pick up forza 2, which i’m finally getting into. i finished all the “proving grounds” races and got through the first 5 or so “amature cup” races, winning first place in all. i’m currently in the muscle car championship, which sucks, because all of those cars have slow pickup and lazy ass suspension. the graphics in forza 2 are beautiful, and the modding and competition is setup very similarly to the gran turismo series. most of the races i’ve been in so far have been with relatively slow cars though, and i look forward to unlocking some faster cars and tracks.