Ahhhhhhhggggghhhrrrrr!!  A Non-gaming day?…  Have I suffered the infamous RROD?  Has the local power station melted down?  Nope, the answer actually demonstrates that I do exist in a world outside of the virtual one that I so often propagate.  In fact it also shows that behind the rugged battle-scarred Halo head gear exists a man of love, kindness and humility, probably not unlike the ‘Chief’ himself.  I bet at some point between Halo CE and Halo 2 he took the odd day off to take Cortana to the movies or out to dinner.  As for me, I’m taking the lovely Mrs Saw out to the local Thai restaurant, where we shall celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.

My better half is what I would describe as a ‘non-gamer’, she really doesn’t comprehend the enjoyment I get from endlessly shooting bad guys.  I think that some of this is due to her having incredibly bad 3D spatial awareness, I’m not saying she’s clumsy, but she does lose her bearings (not marbles) surprisingly easily.  At some point a sat-nav is going to be a God-send of a gift to her.  She’s tried to understand my fascination with the world of Halo bless her, but I have to say it was comical to say the least. 

For those of you familiar with Halo CE, you’ll remember the first level where you are working an escape through the stricken Pillar of Autumn.  Surrounding you are ship-shaking explosions, multiple Covenant incursions and general mayhem reigning throughout.  The level is constructed predominantly of poorly lit corridors with many twists and turns.  Unfortunately this was far too much for my beloveds’ strictly 2D perspective.  The cross-hair of her Assault Rifle was soon buried up into a corner of a room, and she was spinning the Chief round manically yelling “I’m stuck!”  It’s very endearing really, and she does understand that when the view shifts into the third dimension she just as well put the controller down.  There has been the Wii, which has undoubtedly pushed her toward the title of ‘almost a casual gamer’.

I can’t grumble, Mrs Saw has put up with my gaming hobby for over 10 years now and accepts that those headshots are part of my required R&R.  In more recent times she’s even been most supportive of my newly expanded gaming role in the form of my XboxGameZone reviews.  Not only has she understood my need to go ‘work’ on the Xbox and spend hours at a time typing, but she also devotes time to proof my pieces.  Now although this doesn’t take long to slot in the odd comma where I’ve made a sentence far too long, but it does mean that I do make her read about ‘games’. 

A big thank you Mrs Saw, or should I say ‘Tank you’ in view of my latest piece ‘Death Tank’, you’re my rock and I love ya more than ‘twelvety’.

I dedicate my Death Tank review (I’m sure she’ll be dead chuffed….Not) to the wonderful Mrs Acksaw, and should you want to read it you can check it out here: XboxGameZone

Right enough with the sloppy love stuff I’m off to pop some heads!