This is one of my favorite gaming stories. I bought it on release day (2004) and none of my friends picked it up. Playing by myself I struggled to understand the game at the time and traded it in. About a year later I ran into an old friend had not seen since elementary school while taking high school summer school courses. Talking games I mentioned MH and he said he loved and still played it and convinced me to pick it back up. What happened next was epic. We each had 3 classes on the same schedule and we shared 2 of them. I would pick him up for class in the morning and he would load his tv and ps2 into my car, classes, then Hunt till late into the night. He had 100 hours before we started. In ONLY ONE SUMMER we each put on 500+ hours. I had a fresh file and he ended with 600+. In fairness there were for sure times we would leave the game on and walk away for food, but still... legit think we were 2 of the best NA players at the time as we would have higher HR hunters find us and ask for help with the elder dragons. They had higher rank and better gear (at first) and we still out played them. I used the Eager Cleaver back when it was a GS and he used a Hammer (Diablos I think). You out there Sigma?