Added note, it was really nice to hear all of the little tributes to Chew last night.

Heeeeeello.
Hi ______.
Pee break!
Protect your neck!

Had a nice chat with Nic early on as well, and eroc sends his regrets...said Chew had a "one of a kind laugh". He's right, of course. Damn I'll miss that. Every time I ended up in a dual knifing, I couldn't help but think of Chew chuckling.

Good to have a few laughs with you guys after such an utter bullshit event.

Chess,

First up: thanks to you, slider, and your crew for your amazing comments about Chew. You guys are great. FYI: he told me the day that the "boot him now!! boot him now!" happened. Im chuckling about it now. Perfect timing and a brilliant reference to one of the zillion things we both totally loved. It reminds me of another looney tunes daffy inspired moment: When Chew would come down and visit friends in chicago, every time he left, as he drove off we would yell to each other "YIKES! AND AWAYYYYY!" just as daffy did in the classic robin hood inspired cartoon where he kept swinging from a vine into trees.

Chess...please take good care of yourself and your fellow soldiers over in Afghanistan. Come home safe and sound. Thank you for what you are doing for this great country. We are in your debt.

Jeff Mashke

Chew was/is a good friend.

And no worries. I mostly just hate to miss 7 months of shooting these douchebags.

My wife tries not to laugh at my jokes, especially when she's in the same room while I'm playing Warhawk, because she doesn't want to encourage me. Still, even she had to laugh at my frustration at being knifed and my self-commentary: "Grr... You hear that, kids? That's what indignation sounds like."

Your first knives and nades is pretty crazy...and moreso with that many people. I thought you did fine.

Oh, it was a blast! The utter chaos and the constant giggling!

There was no one in the turret to watch me table dance on Archipelago.

Awesome night the other night. Knives and nades was epic - we need to have that near the end of the night more often. I loved my binoc strike I had no idea where they are and I killed 2 (nic and die cast? - I think) jokers with well timed nades. Saw that that one of them must have had it in their inventory and was camping for the right time to unleash hell. 5 kills at once was tasty .Enjoyed the multiple simultaneous knife kills.
The Chew references were awesome. And I was glad to be able to get a couple of kills in on Chess before he leaves on his journey. I know I'm just repeating what others have said but take care and come back safe. One of the best things about my job is that since I work in the VA health care system I deal with Veterans every day and I always thank them for their service. I really appreciate what they do for their country. So thanks Chess. Sorry for the delay in posting this but I've been dealing with my own family issues. We just recently found out my 7 month old son has renal issues and has a blockage. We got good news yesterday though (good doesn't do it justice - great/phenomenal news is more appropriate) - he had a renal scan yesterday and it turns out both his kidneys are functioning properly. The nephrologist believes surgery will relieve the pressure from the blockage and we are being refferred to an excellent pediatric surgeon. (The best nuclear medicine radiologist in the country has confirmed this for me)

That is great news. Still, it must be hard. My daughter had the flu for 24 hours, and I could barely handle that. I can't imagine the stress of something as serious as the fear of renal failure. Keep us posted, Cruz.

Thanks Cruz, and I'm glad you got good news.

I would normally disapprove of the binoc strikes in K&N, but with that many people, it was pretty funny.

I forgot to mention my favorite part from the game this week. I was in my warhawk tailing a flag carrier who was in an APC. I started shooting at them and they turbo'd up and blasted away, so I got on top of them and started shooting some more. Then they released the force field and I just hovered in front of them, swaying back and forth as they sat still inside their protective bubble. It felt like an eternity, but then Spatula's voice sounds, "Oooh, this is like in Phantom Menace when Qui Gon is fighting Darth Maul!"

That was me driving spatula

"Can't we have one fucking night without a Star Wars reference."

damn.


I had completely kept away from this forum while my ps3 was dead because I didn't need the frustration of not being able to play with you guys, so I am just now catching up.

As everyone has said, Chew was the anchor of this group and could always be counted on for at least one memorable moment a week. He would constantly blow me out of the sky with his damn missile turrets and play defense better then anyone, even when Chess and I would sign him up for cannon fodder on horde mode. I still feel bad that the only time he ever dropped out of the game without saying goodnight was when he was getting base raped in one of our horde games because Chess and I bit off way more then we could handle. He was a class act and Warhawk will never be the same.

damn

Chess-

Stay safe brother. We all get to sit around in our comfy chairs and play stupid games because of your sacrifice, so Thank You. It will be hard to keep this crew in line without you to rally around(battlefield was totally dead until you said it was cool ) so get back quick and safe


Cruz -

Sorry and happy to hear about your news. I cannot imagine having to deal with such serious health concerns with my kids as it would tear me up, so I hope you are doing ok. I am glad to hear it sounds like everything is looking up. Please do keep us posted.

I appreciate that, and of course your comments about Chew are spot-on.

I never really thought of it that way. It probably has more to do with the sheer number of players I bring than it has to do with any influence I have, but I appreciate the sentiment. I'm not too worried about Battlefield continuing since it requires so few players to work, but I'm honestly a bit worried about Warhawk if my work buddies wander off.

Not likely, if I'm playing...

I was thinking about that, too. I wonder if there are DVDTalkers we can encourage to come back, like ween if his PS3 is up and running.

Also, I wonder if we can try to bring in other players from "the real world" like chess has.

I picked up a used copy at a pawn shop for $8 and am giving it to a friend (he used to post here a long time ago under a username I can't even find anymore; must've been cleaned out by the system when IB bought the boards). He hasn't gamed in a while (three babies will do that to a guy) and after I told him about Warhawk and BFBC2 he seemed interested. He has Battlefield 1943 after playing BF1 so he and I might play that a little until he picks up BFBC2.

Ironically, my wife and I are meeting him and his family on Tuesday night and that's when I'm giving him the copy of Warhawk, so it's possible if our meeting goes late there's no Warhawk for me next week.

On another note, my brother and I played a little split-screen Warhawk for the first time and we both had fun, but man, it was an adjustment for me to have the vertical split-screen cut out so much of my periphery. Wish they had the ability to go horizontal split screen.

If you have a third controller, hook it up as player 3. Don't spawn player 3 and instead bring up the map with select. You'll keep your aspect ratio and have an onscreen map.

Cons: Screen size, obviously, and you limit the maximum number of players on your team by one.

I plan to play more regularly after my Mon/Wed classes end.

Hi guys... I am Sara Westgor, one of Chew's "real life" friends. First, please let me say that I am sorry for all of you because I know that your online family was as close to Chew as we were. I know all about you! Muahhhhhh... And I know that Chew misses you all as much as you miss him.

I was having a totally shit day after spending the afternoon at Chew's house taking care of some things for his parents. I left there an emotional wreck and then read an email from Chew's best friend, Jeff Mashke, with a link to this thread. After reading all of your posts about Chew, I cried some more but I had a bunch of laughs too - thanks to your memories. You all sound as awesome as Chew described you.

There were some days when I'd secretly roll my eyes at ALL of you - like, um, the opening night of Wicked. Nope - can't go THAT night because it's a Tuesday!!! Chew wouldn't give up a night with you all and I had to get our tickets for a different night. This happened on many occasions over the past two years, but it was all worth it because he was so into his game nights.

Ok, enough of this sappy babbling from this chick. But I certainly couldn't let the opportunity go by without telling you guys how much you meant to Chew and that you don't ever have to meet someone face to face to form an amazing bond. Thank you for making him so happy and sharing tons of great kills and memories with him!

*** CHESS: THANK YOU for serving our country and making life better for all of us. Blessings to you, your family and to all you serve with. I appreciate your selflessness with all of my heart.

Thank you so much for posting that message for us, Sara. We miss Chew very much, and Tuesday was so bizarre knowing he wouldn't show up. I wish you and Jeff could have been in there with us, the whole night was like a little dedication to him. I'm the resident mute, but everybody was having a good time sharing their favorite Chew quotes and memories. It was both a great time and terribly depressing all at once.

Your story about tickets to Wicked is something I can relate to as I recently passed up on going to the movies so I could play Warhawk. I know there was some inner eye rolling going on there.

I like everybody here, but there was something about Chew that really showed that he was a great person offline. He never had a bad thing to say about anybody, even at times when others would get frustrated and angry during the games he would kind of laugh it off or just let out a big sigh and find something fun and productive to do. Truly a stand up guy from what I could tell.

Yes he was...

Thank you for the note Sara, and that is an awesome story...from our perspective anyway. Really, the only two people who I was absolutely certain would be in the game from week to week were Chew and me. I would certainly plan life "stuff" around Warhawk night, and it's amusing to me to think that he did the same.

I was thinking about my first and last online interactions with Chew. He and I were the very first ones to play together in this group, and it started out with me basically being a target for him and coaching him along. I had a microphone, and he didn't yet, so I was just talking to him and letting him shoot at me. The funniest moment of that night was him hovering over me in a Warhawk and trying to shoot me while I talked him through it and shot at him with a pistol, which does no damage to a Warhawk. He never did manage to kill me, and I'm not sure he ever got in a Warhawk again.

And my last Warhawk interaction with Chew was on the two-year anniversary. It was on a map we hadn't played in forever called Northern Bridge. I remember him shooting me down from impossibly far away with a tank shell and thinking "Daaaaaamn...Chew has gotten dangerous." Just to be clear, he shot a moving jet with a decent pilot from absurdly far away...with a tank. I respawned and rushed back to get my sweet revenge only to be lit up by a missile turret and sploded...with maybe 20 seconds left in the map. At the time, I was probably , but in hindsight, it's so fitting that he finished up by embarrassing me two times in a row in the most Chewish ways possible.

Yes he was.

In the interim, he and I had a ton of great laughs together in Warhawk as he got better and better. I always check the teams at the beginning of every map to see if they are balanced, and I have to admit that I'd always look hoping Chew was on my team, because if you have Chew, your flag is DEFENDED....period.

I'm just glad we got him one night a week, and I'm gratified to hear that he got some joy out of his time with us.

Had to google "Wicked".

Suddenly wishing I could take my PS3 to Afghanistan.

Not even sure I'll have a personal internet connection...much less a fast enough one.

Im supposed to be working on a paper for class, but I have been stalling and I just read most of the first 50 pages of this thread instead…so far twice Slider has said he is going to pick up a mic…Also on page 53...
...I guess that was the beginning of the end.

shit is pretty funny though. I had forgotten when Chew was mad at Flip for team damage.