Nicole finally had her mid-terms today, meaning she can finally play Borderlands for a few hours before work. She can really play now though, considering I didn't steal the hard drive before leaving for work this morning, leaving her without profile and game save. Long story short, she got a little angry yesterday because I took both to work with me because my boss declared it a 'pizza and chaos' day from noon on where we all hung out in the company's bar and played Borderlands and Modern Warfare 2 all day. I figured she'd be happy to know that I work in such a lax environment, but instead, she lambasted me for not really working all day (half truth) and was more than a little discontent that I took the hard drive with me. She was happy enough though considering it was her birthday and all.

Anyways, I unlocked a bunch of MW2 achievements yesterday including the 'Colonel Sanderson' one whereby you must mercilessly slaughter 7 chickens in 10 seconds or less with grossly inappropriate munitions for the job. Although, to be fair I'm sure that using a grenade was at least a little more humane than using say, an MP5.

After spending some time fragging it out at work I went home and...played some more with my buddy, Lucas. I'm shameless I know, but when it comes to achievements sometimes you just have to be a man about it and say, "You know what? I know it's my girlfriend's 21st birthday but these terrorists aren't going to kill themselves (usually)."

Anyways, what achievements have you all been racking up?

Before I go ranting, I suppose I should say why I've decided to become more active here at Destructoid. In a nutshell, I struggled with writing here because I already have a website I run with Nicole where we just blog about geeky news and whatnot. Then it hit me that this is an incredible community, and keeping that in mind I'm a little less restricted here in a way and I can rant about whatever mundane thing comes to mind without worrying about my (lack of) readership. I'm not saying I'll keep these postings devoid of any substance, but when those days come and I post little more than, "I f*cking hate the vehicle mechanics in Borderlands" I feel comfortable doing it here.

Anyways, back to the topic of discussion. I was completely ecstatic that I got to go to the Modern Warfare 2 midnight launch last night. Conversely, Nicole was completely pissed that she got stuck working and couldn't go with me, making me stay up til 4 in the friggin' morning so she could play it with me. Even with games I'm not terribly thrilled about I'll hit midnight launches just to witness the spectacle that is a collective group of gamers exhibiting a shared passion about their personal poisons.

There's just something about the raw energy of everyone who's made a special effort to be among the first ranks of those that want to storm the game of the moment. For me, in particular, it was Halo 2, Burning Crusade, and probably a myriad of others.

However, it's not just that, I'm also a total whore for cheap/free swag, and if ever there was an hour where a retailer can pull me into the jaws of the 'suggestive sale', it's at that holy hour transitioning one day to the next. Seriously, I'm powerless to avoid buying a collector's edition or add yet another t-shirt to my horrifyingly large gamer-centric wardrobe.

In closing, I just wanted you all to know how I feel about the midnight launch phenomenon. What were some of your favorite midnight launches?

In, ya know...7 hours or so. Just the same I'm totally pumped about the midnight launch tonight. Actually, in truth I get pumped about EVERY midnight launch I attend. I suppose the reason I enjoy going so much is that all of the true fans come out of the woodwork to commune with other like-minded fans who aren't afraid to be giddy as school-girls before their precious product launches.

As far as Gears of War 2 goes, I suppose you could say that it hasn't had an outrageous amount of time to build the kind of dedicated fan base that was apparent at the Fallout 3 launch, but I imagine there will be more than enough blood-thirsty veterans out tonight ready to finish (er, continue) the fight against the Locust Horde.

As you can probably tell from the title; yes, I will be picking up the collector's edition. However, I have to say that the speed at which publishers are jumping on the collector's edition bandwagon is astonishing. Actually, it's not so much astonishing or unexpected as it is mind-numbingly irritating. I'm a gamer on a budget and while I love having a shiny collector's edition to call my own, there are a lot of games that simply don't warrant it imho. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for my rabid obsession with game accessories.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to console myself with my photo-realistic uh, photo of Dom and Maria tonight. Hoorah!