Halo 5: Guardians is finally released!!! For those that don't know me, I'm a bit of a gamer. Sometimes I have difficult choice between blogging and gaming. (If I'm not updating, that means I'm gaming. Sorry!) One of my favourite games is Halo. Usually I line up for the midnight launch at BestBuy, but this year I heard that the Microsoft Store at Metropolis at Metrotown was going to hold a launch party with Halo themed food and music so I decided to check it out since I had to wait until midnight to be able to play my digital copy of the game anyways.


 I was 41st in line. My friend was 7th! At 6pm, we were let into the party.

The line was very organized. We were given these lanyards and a code to enter for prizes that were drawn throughout the night.


A few TVs were set up around the store so people could try out Halo 5 before the midnight release. Nothing spoilery of course!

 A live DJ played some tunes.

The Halo LIVE broadcast event was put on the big screen but it was very hard to hear any thing with the music on.

I was kind of disappointed with the food...This was not at all Halo themed.

Apparently Halo themed meant a small Chipotle burrito with a Halo sticker stuck to it... -____- *FAIL* But I guess food is food. Other people weren't complaining.


 The store was decorated with some of these Spartan heads around.


We also were able to get our heads pasted onto a suit of armour. I did it but I must have entered the wrong email address and how my photo is going to be forever floating in cyberspace.

I read that BestBuy was going to have Master Chief and Locke show up so I expected something similar at a Microsoft store but when I asked they said NO! WHAT?! They weren't going to be showing up at the Metrotown location! It was still early so I hopped onto a train to the Pacific Centre Microsoft store where I saw through updates on social media that Master Chief WAS in attendance!

 The party was still going strong at Pacific Centre.

 Right away I found the Master Chief and Cortana!

There were a lot of cosplayers there! Here's Master Chief playing some Halo 5. He seems to be enjoying it! I also heard that there was an epic entrance where all the cosplayers marched in, while Halo music played, that I missed because I was CLEARLY AT THE WRONG LOCATION.

This location seemed to have more game stations to play at as well.


 Oh, Chief! Why are you ignoring Cortana?!
 Cool drink station! They had pizza and desserts as well, I think.

 Awww I missed the cake!

It used to look like this:

At the Halo 5 Launch Party :DD #awesome#MicrosoftBC#MasterChief

A photo posted by Catherine (@cat_nguyen1) on Oct 26, 2015 at 6:13pm PDT

So cool!

 There was a DJ here playing music as well.


I'm so glad I went to this Microsoft store, because I got a photo with this guy! This guy is so tall, he is the perfect spartan!

 Look at this guy! He towered over everyone! So cool!

The parties at the Microsoft stores were cool. I enjoyed myself and I'm glad I found the Chief and his friends finally!

Now excuse me while I play Halo 5! See you out on the battlefield!

Sunday, August 10th is the last day for you to attend the Evolution of Gaming exhibit at the Centre for Digital Media! The exhibit is open until 8pm today.  It's a very interesting with many retro games; it'll certainly bring you down memory lane if you are old enough! It is an interactive exhibit so you can actually play the games.

"You died of dysentery" This is Oregon Trail.

There are tonnes of games available to play such as the old Super Mario Brothers, Packman, Pong, you name it. My favourite game found in there was Oregon Trail on an old Apple computer. I used to play it all the time in elementary school!

And if you haven't ever tried Oculus Rift (a virtual reality headset for 3D gaming), they have it as well! You are able to play as a giant ape, smashing down a building in Vancouver. It was my first time trying it out and it was pretty cool! It really make you feel you are in the game environment.


The game is based on the 1986 game, Rampage, where you control the ape to smash down building. In this Oculus Rift version, you ARE the ape.

 It uses a Kinect to detect your arm movements.

Then you just flail your arms around to smash the building in the game. This can be a little dangerous because you can't see the real world anymore and you may be tempted to walk around as well. Don't! Haha.



 Here the volunteer is watching the game play on the screen. There are duplicate screens because one is for your right eye and one is for your left; that is what makes the 3D immersive effect.