I cashed in some of my Best Buy Reward Zone points recently and picked up a couple of classic Xbox games — Halo and Halo 2. Tiger Lilly and I enjoy gaming together and these games have been a lot of fun. I can’t help but notice some differences in our styles of combat, however.

For example, in my other gaming I typically play the WWII “Brothers in Arms” series. These games pride themselves on being realistic, so there are no health packs and “level ups” to be found. As such, I’ve learned to move carefully and to peek around corners to keep myself and my squad alive and it’s a hard habit to break. TL on the other hand goes charging off in the direction of enemies as soon as they pop up on the tactical display, typically wreaking carnage with an occasional, “Whoops, I died.” Her eyes and reflexes are also sharper than mine, so as she’s blowing Covenant and Flood to pieces she’s also scooping up useful debris before I even see it. “Cool — a rocket launcher!” or “Whoa, sentinel beam!” are usually my first clue that valuable items arewere for the picking.

She’s also liable to run out of the range of my HUD so that I lose track of her in a melee. My most common utterance when we’re playing is, “Okay, now where are you?” This usually results in her making her character (and its green overhead triangle) jump up and down until I can draw a bead on her. Either that or I simply follow the trail of body parts she’s left in her wake. Nevertheless, we’re getting pretty good at working in tandem, flanking enemies and alerting the other when we’re throwing a plasma grenade, and she hardly ever runs in front of my sniper rifle any more.

It does feel a little odd serving as wingman for a 15-year-old, and I suppose there are more edifying things I could be doing with her other than burning a few hours a week saving humankind. I figure it doesn’t hurt, though, to let her know I’ve got her back. And that — wingman or not — I am the Master Chief.

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