I missed the first two days of BaD. I have an excuse. I was sick; chest colds are terrible things. So this is a three-in-one covering what I played last week.

Minecraft: I got the 1000 emeralds achievement. I slept next door to the stone mason and sold him everything he wanted. I ripped through the last 90 in an hour or so. 
     Not content to just leave the game once the achievement was done, I built a ridiculous end times bunker with blast proof walls and double iron doors. I put the nether portal and the enchantment table with library on the roof. I made an internal mine shaft and planted a surrounding forest for all my resources. I'll be safe from snow crash, right?

Halo C.E.: I played the first few levels in Halo C.E. Anniversary Edition, both the 360 version and the one in Master Chief Collection. They are the same I noticed.
     In MC Collection, I played one of the cross game challenges.  These line up levels from all four main Halo games (I’m not sure if Reach and ODST levels are in there as well). I played three levels, one from 4, 1 and 3 that all showcase areas on the Halo rings. I got stuck on the last one though. It’s a snowy flood level where I had to keep running or be overwhelmed by flood. Thing is, there isn’t a run button in Halo. I suppose you are always running but I couldn’t run fast enough to get through the level. The trick, of course, is firing at the right time and picking the right weapons. Apparently the Brute Hammer is not one of the “right” ones, but I can’t resist that thing. It’s so much fun.
      I also played random firefight levels with real players. I love PvE multiplayer. I started using the jetpack a lot. I fly up above a group of enemies, drop a grenade, and then land with energy sword in hand to finish them off. Very fun.

Half-Life 2: This is my game for February, number two on my all-time greats list after Halo C.E..
     I’m working on the three achievements I left from when I last played it, probably many years ago. The first one is crossing the sand area in the Sandlot level without alerting the alien bugs. I used the gravity gun to maneuver wreckage to step on. I failed several times, but then I realized I could save anywhere, and so it became easier, and I got it. It’s weird to get an achievement on a game I played back in 2007. Mark and I fist bumped to celebrate it.  
                The second one was for killing all five snipers on (I think) level 12. Since I started the level from the menu, I didn’t have any rockets, so I had to toss grenades in windows all the way through. It’s tricky but not terribly hard. I’m not sure what foiled me last time I tried it.
                The last one I’m still working on. It’s discovering all the lambda caches. These are secret places holding extra health or ammo marked with the lambda letter. I had gotten 36 of the 45 before. I’m using a YouTube walkthrough to help me check them all because I’m not sure which ones I missed. Over the weekend I got up to 40 of 45 after traversing 9 of the 15 or so chapters in the game. I’m getting quite absorbed in replaying it this way. It’s still a great game.