Leveling Down

There have been several advertised video game deals for this Friday. Most of the deals either last today only, through the weekend, or while supplies last. A lot of the better deals (i.e. Dead Space for $30, Left 4 Dead for $40, Fallout 3 for $40, etc.) have already ran out so I suggest if you like a certain price, you should buy it immediately. I went ahead and scoured all of the various game retail sites to see which deals were still available and have tested each of these links myself.

Deals appear to be valid as of 9AM-11AM EST, the time it took me to make this post.

Xbox 360
Alone in the Dark [$11.95 Amazon]
Armored Core: For Answer [$19.99 Gamestop]
Battlefield: Bad Company [$32.99 Amazon] [$29.99 Gamestop]
BioShock [$19.95 Amazon] [$19.99 Circuit City] [$19.99 NewEgg]
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway [$17.95 Amazon] [$19.99 Circuit City] [$19.99 Gamestop]
Call of Duty 3 [$14.99 Circuit City]
Call of Duty 4: GOTY Edition [$39.99 Gamestop] [$39.99 NewEgg]
Call of Duty: World at War [$45.90 GoGamer]
Conan [$9.99 Circuit City]
Condemned 2: Bloodshot [$14.95 Amazon]
Dead Rising [$9.99 Circuit City]
Fable II [$49.99 Amazon] [$49.99 NewEgg]
Fallout 3 [$49.90 GoGamer]
Far Cry 2 [$37.99 Amazon] [$37.99 Best Buy] [$37.90 GoGamer]
Fracture [$14.90 GoGamer]
Frontlines: Fuel of War [$9.90 GoGamer]
Gears of War 2 [$49.99 Amazon] [$49.90 GoGamer] [$49.99 NewEgg]
Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition [$44.90 GoGamer]
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith [$29.99 Gamestop]
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Wireless Bundle [$59.99 Circuit City]
Guitar Hero III Wireless Bundle [$49.95 Amazon] [$54.99 Circuit City]
Guitar Hero World Tour [$42.90 GoGamer]
Guitar Hero X-Plorer Controller [$9.99 Circuit City]
Infinite Undiscovery [$18.95 Amazon]
Left 4 Dead [$49.99 Gamestop]
LEGO Batman [$29.95 Amazon]
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition – Colonies Edition [$19.95 Amazon] [$14.99 Circuit City]
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe [$39.95 Amazon]
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Collector’s Edition [$49.95 Amazon]
PURE [$29.95 Amazon]
Saints Row [$9.95 Amazon]
Shaun White Snowboarding [$29.95 Amazon]
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution [$39.95 Amazon] [$49.99 Gamestop]
Soul Calibur IV [$49.99 Amazon] [$49.99 Gamestop]
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [$39.95 Amazon]
Tetris Evolution [$9.99 Circuit City]
The Club [$14.95 Amazon]
The Last Remnant [$39.95 Amazon]
Tom Clancy’s End War [$37.99 Amazon]
Too Human [$19.95 Amazon]
Turok [$14.99 Best Buy]
Viking: Battle for Asgard [$14.95 Amazon]
Warriors Orochi 2 [$29.95 Amazon]

Playstation 3
Armored Core: For Answer [$19.99 Gamestop]
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway [$17.95 Amazon] [$19.99 Best Buy] [$19.99 Circuit City] [$19.99 Gamestop]
Call of Duty 4: GOTY Edition [$39.99 Gamestop] [$39.99 NewEgg]
Call of Duty: World at War [$49.95 Amazon]
Condemned 2: Bloodshot [$14.95 Amazon]
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit [$29.95 Amazon]
Fallout 3 [$42.90 GoGamer]
Far Cry 2 [$39.95 Amazon]
Golden Axe: Beast Rider [$29.95 Amazon]
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith [$29.99 Gamestop]
Guitar Hero III Wireless Bundle [$49.95 Amazon] [$54.99 Circuit City]
Heavenly Sword [$19.95 Amazon]
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore with Microphone [$19.99 Best Buy]
Lost Planet Extreme Condition [$19.95 Amazon]
Metal Gear Solid 4 [$39.99 Amazon] [$39.99 NewEgg]
Midnight Club Los Angeles [$38.99 Amazon]
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe [$39.95 Amazon]
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Collector’s Edition [$49.95 Amazon]
MotorStorm [$14.95 Amazon] [$19.99 NewEgg]
Overlord Raising Hell [$24.99 Gamestop]
PURE [$29.95 Amazon]
Resistance: Fall of Man [$19.99 Amazon] [$19.99 NewEgg]
Resistance + Motorstorm [$40 Best Buy]
Soul Calibur IV [$37.99 Amazon] [$37.99 Best Buy]
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution [$39.95 Amazon] [$49.99 Gamestop]
Viking: Battle for Asgard [$14.95 Amazon]
Warhawk (w/o headset) [$14.95 Amazon]

Wii
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree [$19.95 Amazon]
Cooking Mama: Cook Off [$14.95 Amazon]
de Blob [$39.99 Gamestop]
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith [$24.99 Amazon] [$19.99 Gamestop]
Guitar Hero III Wireless Bundle [$49.95 Amazon]
Guitar Hero World Tour [$35.90 GoGamer]
LEGO Batman [$29.95 Amazon]
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games [$29.95 Amazon]
Mercury Meltdown: Revolution [$9.95 Amazon]
MySims Kingdom [$29.95 Amazon]
Nights Journey of Dreams [$9.95 Amazon]
No More Heroes [$14.99 Amazon] [$14.99 NewEgg]
Okami [$19.99 Circuit City]
Resident Evil 4 [$9.95 Amazon]
Samba De Amigo [$19.99 Gamestop]
Shaun White Snowboarding [$29.95 Amazon]
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [$39.96 Amazon]
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz [$9.99 Amazon]
The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return [$19.99 Amazon] [$19.99 Best Buy]
Wario Land: Shake It! [$29.95 Amazon]
We Ski [$19.95 Amazon]

PC
BioShock [$9.99 Best Buy]
Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 [$33.90 GoGamer]
Crisis Collector’s Edition [$19.99 Gamestop]
Doom 3 [$9.99 Best Buy]
Empire Earth II Platinum Edition [$9.99 Best Buy]
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars [$4.99 Circuit City]
Fallout 3 [$30 GoGamer]
Far Cry 2 [$29.90 GoGamer]
Left 4 Dead [$34.90 GoGamer]
Lord of the Rings Online + Mines of Moria Expansion [$29.99 Gamestop]
Spore [$34.90 GoGamer]
The Sims 2: Deluxe Edition [$4.99 Circuit City]
The Sims 2 Double Deluxe Edition [$9.95 Amazon]
Unreal Tournament III [$9.90 GoGamer]
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning [$19.95 Amazon] [$32.90 GoGamer]
World of Warcraft Battlechest [$14.99 Circuit City] [$19.99 Gamestop] [$19.90 GoGamer]
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion [$25.95 Amazon]

I’ll probably be picking up Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway for $17.95 at Amazon, and maybe Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition for $9.95 to play this Christmas when I’m back home (only system my parents have is a Wii). Sucks that pretty much everything else I wanted I already have!

How many rockets does it even take to destroy a tank?!

I haven’t even started the single player to Call of Duty: World at War yet and have already dove into the multiplayer with a few of friends. Having played the three levels in the beta/demo, I kind of knew what to expect. Unlike some of my other friends who I notice get on to play it pretty often, for some reason the game is just not clicking for me like Call of Duty 4 was. It wasn’t clicking much for me in the beta, and the addition of the new maps in the retail has not really changed that feeling. My biggest gripes seem to be the addition of tanks and the changing of unlocking a sight from 25 kills to 75 kills. The game in general just seems really imbalanced from a multiplayer standpoint.

This is all coming from someone who did decently in Call of Duty 4. I had a k/d ratio of about 1.5, a max kill streak of 20 or 21, was able to use every weapon in the game, and did the F.N.G. time in a little over 16 seconds.  I’m not just some guy who sucks at these types of games. They’re practically my bread and butter.

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I ended up splitting up my gaming time this week between Fable II and Call of Duty: World at War. It’s funny too because even though it seemed like no one was too into the beta, it ends up several of my friends got World at War – four of them, in fact. So now whenever there’s three or four of us on, we hit up Call of Duty: World at War, otherwise I’m playing Fable II. I just completed Fable II last night, so I’m making good progress on my game queue. I’ll probably dive into the single player campaign of Call of Duty: World at War next, since I’m already playing the multiplayer and that will allow me to put out a review on it. My buddy chullyQ is telling me though that going through the game on Veteran is even more aggravating than it was on Call of Duty 4, so I’m not exactly looking too forward to it.

I was saying earlier that I wouldn’t buy any more games unless I made significant progress through my current game queue, but I couldn’t resist. I ended up buying Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, and Left 4 Dead as sort of a Christmas present for myself. These were the only titles I was interested in of the big holiday releases, so now that I have them I can rest easy and feel content knowing that I’m caught up on buying all of the video games I wanted this holiday season. Getting through them all of course will be another matter. For that reason I’m pushing Fallout 3 a little further back in the queue, even though that’s the game I want to start playing most. I figure I’ll beat the shorter ones first and clear ‘em out of the queue through baby steps.

I’m pretty excited that I am now holding the top three multiplayer games of the holiday season though: Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, and Call of Duty: World at War. Unfortunately, all my friends seemed to jump onto the Call of Duty: World at War train so that’s what I’ll be sticking with for now. But I do hope either some of them pick up Gears 2 and Left 4 Dead, or I meet some more mature and skilled people that want to play Gears 2 or Left 4 Dead online. I’m quite interested in playing the Horde mode in Gears of War 2. Taking on wave after wave of enemies with four other buddies sounds like a romping good time. I don’t care too much for the adversarial stuff in the Gears game since I’m not the biggest fan of the game mechanics, although with matchmaking now implemented I’ll probably try all the modes out to see how they play.

I tried out Guitar Hero World Tour as well and didn’t care for it. The game just felt a lot clunkier to navigate through compared to Rock Band 2, and it actually gave me a similar feeling that I had when I bought a PS3. I felt conflicted between the 360 and the PS3 when both were next to each other since they were similar yet different. There was really only room for one of them in my life so the PS3 went back. I felt the same way about Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2. The two seemed similar and even with a decent amount of the songs are different, it felt superfluous to own GHWT when I was still enjoying (and will continue to enjoy) Rock Band 2. I think the Guitar Hero franchise may be dead for me. Long live Rock Band!

After buying the remaining games I wanted this holiday season as a Christmas present to myself, I figured I’d write an article on games to consider for the 360 gamer in your life this holiday season. Of course, if you’re my age, that 360 gamer in your life is probably you, and you’ll just do what I do and buy yourself the games. But which ones?

I’ve put together a list with some of my quick thoughts on the big titles to consider this holiday season, along with how I feel about each one. Keep in mind that I haven’t played all of them, but I’ll speak a little about each one based on what I’ve experienced, read, or heard. I will continue this feature for the PS3 and the Wii as well.

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Dead Space ends up being a pretty gruesome and graphic game, but not really horror.

After staying up until 2:30AM Thursday night, I got the 1000 in Dead Space last week and am ready to review it. I thought it was a great game for the most part, and gave me a BioShock/System Shock 2 vibe but with more of an Aliens/Event Horizon/Doom 3 style approach. The game plays from a 3rd-person perspective (like Gears of War) rather than 1st-person like BioShock and Call of Duty.

The Good:
- innovative combat design
- Overall presentation and polish
- replayability

The Bad:
- a bit too confined and slightly repetitive due to all the corridors
- not scary enough
- reloading every time you die takes a while

More »

Xbox 360
Fable II [$59.99 with $10 gift card Target]
Halo 3 [$39.99 Amazon]
Grand Theft Auto IV [$37.99 Amazon]
The Last Remnant [$39.99 Amazon]
Assassin’s Creed [$23.99 Amazon]
Mass Effect [$24.99 Amazon]
Infinite Undiscovery [$29.97 Amazon]
Too Human [$29.96 Amazon]
Xbox 360 13 Month Gold Card [$38.99 Amazon]

Playstation 3
Dual Shock Controller [$40.96 Amazon]
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue [$29.99 Amazon]
Playstation 3 40 GB Metal Gear Solid 4 Limited Bundle [$399.96 Amazon]
Ratchet & Clank: Future Tools of Destruction [$33.99 Amazon]
BioShock [$44.99 Amazon]
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune [$41.99 Amazon]
Resistance 2: Collector’s Edition [$59.99 Amazon]

Nintendo Wii
Popstar [$59.99 with $10 gift card Target]
Sonic Unleashed [$39.99 Circuit City] [$39.96 Amazon]
Super Mario Galaxy [$36.99 Amazon]
Super Smash Bros. Brawl [$39.99 Amazon]
Animal Crossing: City Folk [$42.99 Amazon]
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games [$36.99 Amazon]
Cooking Mama: Cook Off [$17.99 Amazon]
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle [$59.99 Amazon]
Trauma Center: New Blood [$19.96 Amazon]
Super Paper Mario [$36.99 Amazon]
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption [$36.99 Amazon]
Okami [$24.99 Amazon]

PC
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 [$39.99 Circuit City] [$39.99 Amazon]
Left 4 Dead [$39.99 Circuit City] [$39.99 Amazon]
Spore [$39.99 Circuit City] [$39.99 Amazon]
Bioshock [$9.99 Circuit City]
Mercenaries 2: World In Flames [$29.99 Circuit City]

It’s a short week this week since Thanksgiving Day all stores are closed and they’re all running special sales Friday through Sunday. That’s probably why the brick & mortar stores don’t have much stuff on sale. Fortunately, Amazon has many games still on sale this week, including new additions like The Last Remnant and Animal Crossing: City Life.

If you are interested in getting into Guitar Hero and haven’t gotten in by now, this is probably the best deal you’ll see in a while (sorry Wii owners):

For $100 on the PS3 or 360 ($80 for PS2) you will get:
1 copy of Guitar Hero World Tour
1 wireless Guitar Hero World Tour guitar
1 copy of Guitar Hero 3
1 wireless Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul guitar

The price says $120 on the website, but you have to go through checkout and after entering your payment information, you must enter the code B1G1FREE in the coupon code field. Expires 12/31/08.

Each of those two Guitar Hero game and guitar bundles already retails for about $100, so to get both for $100 with free shipping is pretty neat. Apparently Guitar Hero World Tour isn’t selling as well as Red Octane expected. Either that or maybe gamers are already oversaturated with plastic guitars. Unfortunately for me, ever since the drum set was introduced with Rock Band, I no longer care much for playing the guitar in these games.

Guitar Hero Double Guitar Bundle (2 Games+2 Guitars) – Xbox 360 [RedOctane.com] via Cheap Ass Gamer

As can be seen, my game backlog is huge. Yesterday I was feeling pretty happy I made some progress on shrinking it when I beat Silent Hill: Homecoming last week and Dead Space will be done this week. Next, I figured I’d hop back into Fable II and clear that out. I was telling myself that I’m not going to get any more games until I make significantly more progress on this queue, but the holiday season is tough with all the good games out. Two of my friends already got Call of Duty: World at War, and asked me if I was getting it. Of course I would, since I had already seen them playing it. I was waiting for a while to see if any good deals came out and I finally bit last night when I found it for $38 new. I figured it was also a good opportunity to try out the Xbox Live Party with them since the NXE update hit yesterday.

I don’t know whether to try to finish up Fable II next or jump right into Call of Duty: World at War. Part of me wants to complete Fable II just so I can be done with it (and also get a review out), but I got turned off of it. Besides the simple storyline, I think I’m just annoyed with all the little nuances that come with some of the Achievements for that game – especially one that requires me having to trade dolls with other players and another with me having to play the public games that I don’t even have. People got the public games free if they pre-ordered Fable II, but since I didn’t, I have to pay $10 to play them so I can get the corresponding Achievement? Pretty annoying. Maybe I’ll just beat the game and skip out on the dolls and public game oriented Achievement. I’m guessing it’s the OCD part of me that likes seeing the 1000/1000, but there’s only so many hoops even I’m willing to jump through to get there.

Finally, with Black Friday rolling around the corner, I’m sure there will be plenty of gaming deals to be had. I’m actually on the lookout now for Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, and even Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Then my game queue will be even longer, but I’m thinking after these holidays, I’ll have some time to push through many of these games. Yes…that’s what I’ll tell myself…

Your newly created Avatar shows up on your profile at Xbox.com

For those of you that didn’t know, the New Xbox Experience is now live and will automatically download to your 360 the next time you turn it on. The major features of the update are:

1. New Dashboard Interface
2. Avatars and Avatar integration in upcoming Live Arcade games
3. Xbox LIVE Party – up to eight friends in a voice chatroom that can also join games together
4. Netflix instant streaming in HD
5. Fully install any game on the HDD to speed up loading
6. Delete any games with 0 Gamerscore on your profile

I downloaded it this morning before I left for work and gave it a quick look. After a quick installation, there’s a cool dramatic opening that makes you feel like you’re about to experience something great. Before you get into the new Dashboard you are forced to create an Avatar, which I hastily did in 5 minutes. Not as much detail in terms of facial design compared to the Mii’s on the Wii (you can’t move facial features around on the face), but it’s ok. Thankfully, you have an option of either keeping your Gamerpic or using your Avatar as your new Gamerpic. I stuck with my current Gamerpic.

After I created my Avatar I just sort of browsed through the new Dashboard and noticed that it seems like there’s just a lot more advertising. It’s like Microsoft made everything more compact in order to throw more ads onto the screen! To be honest I was underwhelmed with the update considering I was pretty excited before it released. I guess the biggest thing will be the Xbox LIVE party feature, which I will still have to test out. I’m still skeptical though that the party feature will get you and all of your friends on one team. Only one way to find out though I suppose!

New Xbox Experience [Xbox.com]

If you’re like me and realizing that your Gold subscription is going to end in a few months, you may need to get another one (you can go to Xbox.com and check your account information for when your Gold subscription expires). Newegg is offer both options for good prices with free shipping (and no tax for NY residents!). Amazon is also matching the 13 month price.

XBox Live 13 Month Card: [$38.99 Newegg] [$38.99 Amazon]

Xbox Live 12 Month Card bundle: [$59.99 Newegg]
Bundle includes chatpad, new headset compatible with regular controller and chatpad, and Project Gotham Racing 4

I guess what it comes down to is whether you think $20 more dollars is worth it for a chatpad, headset, and the Project Gotham Racing 4 game. I have a chatpad myself and it’s pretty useful when I want to type long messages to people and the pad + headset bundle already retails for $29.99 itself. In fact, I am considering buying the bundle even though I already have a chatpad…