Some people enjoy gaming as a favorite pastime while others simply cannot resist taking their obsession to the next level. The Dedicated Gamer is about the passionate, talented, and sometimes flat out psycho people who love their video games and find interesting and impressive ways to express that eternal adoration. Whether it’s through confectionery delights, cosplay, or specialized crafts, all of these gamers have one thing in common: they’re nothing if not dedicated.

*All images are direct links back to the source.

If this evening will find you avoiding any and all new releases that end in “2″, perhaps you will consider stopping by The Running Riot for their scheduled Firestream Firefight. Louis Wu (of HBO), Jironimo (of Ascendant Justice), Insane54 (of Forge Hub), and Firestream (of Halo Charts) along with myself  will be indulging in a round or two of Halo 3: ODST’s Firefight set to broadcast via Livestream. A little birdie told me that we will be playing on Legendary so I anticipate numerous rampant plasma grenades and betrayals galore. And that’s just from Louis Wu! :rimshot:

Source [Wil Wheaton's Twitpic]

Source [Flickr]

Phillip Reece has a wide range on interests, two of which include the Call of Duty franchise and the always enthralling translation of hexadecimal digits. Imagine his surprise when the two came together to create a romantic little easter egg in the recent spoiler-ridden Modern Warfare 2 trailer. After recognizing the series of letters and numbers that make a brief appearance in the video at the seven second mark as hex code, he huddled up in his bathroom A Christmas Story-style until he decoded the secret message. He finally determined that it reads “RaymeLovesSarah” which is an apparent reference to the budding relationship between Infinity Ward engineer Rayme Vinson and his soon-to-be wife Sarah Mantia. Just know that while you’re celebrating the release of the latest first-person shooter, Rayme and Sarah are celebrating a release of different sorts, if you know what I mean.

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The Katonian Press, a regular offering brought to you by the evil genius and criminal mastermind behind the always scintillating WITFITS, will soon be your best source for weekly fake gaming news, assuming it’s not already. Grab a cup of coffee, open up The Katonian Press, and enjoy it for what it is: a satirical look at various things gaming-related.

Gamer Travels Back In Time To Warn Herself Not To Play Darkest of Days

Gamer Angela Boseman had just returned home from her local big box retailer with a copy of 8monkey Lab’s Darkest of Days with the hopes of enjoying a little first-person shooter fun.  Normally she would check the reviews or play the demo, but this time she just picked up the title on a whim.  She had gotten a message from a random stranger on Xbox Live telling her to check it out since it was “the closest thing to ‘Quantum Leap: The Video Game’ she’d ever get to play”.  Her purchasing decision was clouded by a need for a good FPS fix and an amorous desire dating back to her teen years for Scott Bakula.

As she pulled the jewel case from the shopping bag and prepared to rip away its plastic wrapping with her teeth, the hair on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end.  The air felt unusually dry and electrified, like the moment before a lightning strike.  She became aware of a snapping, tearing sound, growing ever louder, seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.  The smell of ozone hung in the air.  Suddenly, with a flash of light and low resounding boom that she felt more than actually heard, a shimmering sphere appeared in the middle of her living room.  It was glassy and perfect, like the impossibly still surface of a cold, clear lake.  She was frozen in awe and shock, and totally unprepared for what came next.  A figure emerged from the sphere.

“Angela!” it called to her, in a voice that was strangely familiar.  “I have come from the future with a grave warning:  Do not, under any circumstances, play Darkest of Days!”

Angela was barely able to compose herself, her mind at a loss to explain what she was experiencing.  “Who… who are you?” she managed to squeak out.

“I am you,” said the stranger, “and you are about to make a very big mistake.”  The woman did indeed bear a strong resemblance to Angela, though the years had clearly not been kind to her.  Her once supple, youthful face had been ravaged by time and hard living, wrinkles furrowing across a mournful expression that had long ago forgotten joy.  Her hair was thin and gray now, with little sign of its former luster.  “Do not play that game,” she said forcefully.

“What, this?” Angela asked incredulously, “Why, is it going to red-ring my Xbox or something?”

“Worse!” exclaimed Future Angela, “The consequences are even more dire than having to wait on a repair from Microsoft.  The game will ruin you.  I am a living testament of that.”  Future Angela made a sweeping gesture over her body to accent her point.  “It commits the gravest sin a game can commit against a gamer…”

“It charges you for Avatar clothing?” quipped Angela.

“No!” Future Angela bellowed angrily.  “It’s a complete and total waste of your time!“

Angela looked again at the game in her hands.  It couldn’t be that bad, she thought to herself.  The whole situation was crazy.  Maybe she was hallucinating.  Maybe it was bad beans in her Chipotle burrito.

“Okay, just wait a minute,” she rebuked.  “How can I believe you? This is all a little too much to process.”

“Just trust me,” insisted Future Angela. “I am you.  We’re the same person.”

“So you said, and yea you look a little like me, if I had been ridden hard and put away wet. But there’s no way for me to be sure.”

“Fine,” said Future Angela, “I’ll prove it to you.”  She thought for a moment.  “In addition to that game, you bought a bunch of batteries.  You already have rechargeable battery packs for your game controllers, so you intended those for…”

“Okay, so maybe you are me”, interrupted Angela quickly.  “But c’mon, even if it’s not great, I can at least get some easy achievements.”

“Really?  You think so?”  Future Angela walked over to her younger self and clapped her firmly on the shoulders.  “You don’t.  You’ll play for over an hour and a half and get nothing.”

“Nothing?” Angela was incredulous.

“Nothing. Zero. Zilch.  Not a single damn achievement in over an hour of play.  For Halo’s sake, you can get 10 Gamerscore just for going into a menu in Madden, and The Beatles: Rock Band will hook you up with a fiver just calibrating!”

Angela was starting to regret her purchase.  But she really didn’t feel like hopping in the car and going back to the store to return it.  So maybe she’d have to work a bit for her Gamerscore, at least she’d get to shoot stuff.

“You still aren’t convinced, are you?”  Future Angela rolled her eyes.  “You fight in the Civil War using a machine gun and no one notices.  Not even your enemies.  You can shoot them, and they’ll stand there and do nothing. ‘Why does my stomach suddenly hurt? Must be this awful hardtack we Rebel soldiers have to eat. I couldn’t possibly have been shot while twiddling my thumbs here on a battlefield!’”

Angela made a face. “Well, at least you get to shoot stuff.”

“Ugh!” Future Angel was losing patience. “Yea, sometimes.  But then there’s the glowing guys that aren’t supposed to die.  You have to throw green balls at them.”

“Green balls?”

“Look, I don’t fucking know.  What I do know is that throwing balls at people is weird and isn’t fun.  Unless it’s dodgeball, which even in the context of the American Civil War would still have made more sense than this anachronistic nightmare of a title.  And don’t get me started on the turrets.”  Future Angela pantomimes putting a gun to her head and pulling the trigger.

Angela was quickly running out of reasons to doubt her supposed future self.

“Is the voice acting any good?” she asked, grasping at straws.

“If English is your second language… sure.”

Angela resigned herself to the truth.  She had bought a bad game.  But other than wasting some money, how could it be that much of a calamity?

“Suppose I believe you that it’s a horrible game,” she started. “What’s the big deal?  I mean, clearly you lived to a ripe old age and even saw the invention of time travel.”

“Did I?” asked Future Angela, narrowing her eyes.  “I don’t think you understand.  I don’t come from decades into your future. I came here to warn you when I couldn’t take it any more.  I came here after my will to live had diminished and my spirit was nearly broke.  I came here after only playing the game for four hours.”

Angela’s mouth fell open and her copy of Darkest of Days dropped to the floor, not clattering about but simply coming to rest, as if weighing far more than a simple game should.  Before her stood the vision of herself utterly wrecked by a truly awful game.

“The receipt is still in the bag!” she exclaimed, running over to where she had set it on a counter. “It’s not too late, I can return it tonight!”  Angela’s future self smiled at her.

“I knew you’d make the right decision,” she beamed.  “I must go now so as to not alter your timeline any further.  But with any luck, I will soon cease to exist.”

As Future Angela stepped backward toward the spherical portal from whence she had appeared, her younger self stopped her.  “Thank you,” said Angela. “For everything.  But I’m confused, if you only come from a few hours in the future, how did you manage to travel through time?”

“Someone from my future decided to pay me a visit,” she explained.  “I wanged him on the head and stole his time travel dealy.”

“But why were you visited, then?” asked Angela over the ever growing noise of the time portal, which had begun to crackle and hiss as Future Angela approached it.

“Because,” answered her future self, slipping into the portal, her voice fading as if being heard from a great distance.  “He didn’t want me to give you this.”  Her arm trailed her as she disappeared into the glassy surface, and in her outstretched hand she bore a familiar shape.  With a great noise like the gears of the cosmos grinding together followed by an almost comical “pop!”, the time portal and Angela of the future disappeared.  But she had left behind a gift for her present self.

Angela knelt down and picked up the jewel case laying there on the floor.  Upon it was a title as if from a dream.

“Halo: Reach.”

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If you are at all intrigued by Halo Legends, a series of seven short anime-styled films produced by Microsoft’s 343 Industries that focuses on the rich Halo universe, today is the day to watch the first full episode. Titled The Babysitter and putting the spotlight on the rivalry between the SPARTAN-II Commandos and the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, the video will be available via WayPoint for 24 hours only. My day has already started and if yours has too, you should probably hurry and get it while the getting’s good. I’m hoping for bewbs. And perhaps a tentacle or three as well.