Leveling Down

Grand Theft Auto 4 is the best Grand Theft Auto game yet and is an experience all gamers (who are old enough) should enjoy.

I finally got around to completing Grand Theft Auto IV, a year after it was initially released. As a testament to the game, even reviewing it now I have to say that it still holds up very well. My background on the Grand Theft Auto games is that I started with Grand Theft Auto III on the PS2, enjoyed it a lot, and bought both Vice City and San Andreas but did not enjoy either of those two as much as III. The funny thing is, I never finished any of those three games. While my fondness for the games got lower and lower after each iteration, I have to say that Grand Theft Auto IV won me back as a fan of the series, and I will explain why in my review.

Good
- excellent storyline
- a living, breathing, NYC world
- more conveniences than previous GTA games, like taxis

Bad
- poor competitive multiplayer design
- car handling is a bit too floaty
- lack of certain gameplay features & customization in previous GTA titles

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For anyone that still has yet to purchase this game, I guess maybe the wait was worth it? (If you’re on the fence, check out my review tomorrow.) Newegg has the Special Edition of the 360 game for the low price of $39.99.

The Special Edition includes:
- Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system with special packaging.
- Grand Theft Auto IV Art Book, featuring never-before-seen production artwork from Grand Theft Auto IV.
- Selected soundtrack CD from Grand Theft Auto IV, featuring new material from top artists, only available on this release.
- An exclusive Rockstar key chain for the safety deposit box keys.
- Completing the collection is a limited edition Rockstar duffel bag.

I own the Special Edition myself, and I’ll say it’s a nice package. While the artbook and soundtrack CD are pretty dinky, the lockbox and duffel bag are nice so I’d say it’s worth it at that price point…

Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition Xbox 360 Game ROCKSTAR [Newegg.com] via Cheap Ass Gamer

Talk about making a lot of people happy. This may actually be a game I’ll purchase on Xbox Live! The game was announced earlier this week and it will be $15 on both Live Arcade and PSN – a steal compared to the astronomical prices for PS2/Xbox versions of the game since they went out of print. A PSN demo will be released tomorrow, but sadly, no Live demo has been announced. I guess the d-pad is really making the PS3 home to fighting games.

The game will feature online ranked matching as well as quarter match modes where 4 people can sit in a room to play and chat, something that was noticeably absent with Street Fighter IV. It will also have several graphics options – the original Dreamcast pixels or better filtering for a smoother look on HD tvs. Looks great to me.

I don’t know if I can go back to Marvel vs Capcom 2 after getting into Street Fighter IV, but my friends and I played that game in college for hundreds of hours so I may just pick this up for nostalgia alone. I guess it’s time to dust off my team of Cyclops, Omega Red, and Jill. Or maybe I’ll learn some new characters…because after all, there’s 56 of them!

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 Confirmed With HD, Online Support, Demo Coming [Kotaku]

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. looks similar to Ace Combat 6, but manages to throw in a few new features.

One of the last games on my current “to potentially buy when it’s cheap enough” is Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. Surprisingly, Ace Combat is what got me into the genre – most notably Ace Combat 4 and 5 on the PS2. Having just completed Ace Combat 6, I decided to give the H.A.W.X. demo a whirl to see if it was a game I should potentially get. After all, now that Ubisoft owns the Tom Clancy name, they can slap that on anything but will it mean it’ll actually be good? After the disaster that was EndWar, I’m a little more skeptical about Tom Clancy so read on for my thoughts on the H.A.W.X. demo.

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Dawn of War II looks like an RTS game, but actually plays almost more like an RPG.

I started playing Dawn of War II this week, a PC RTS/role playing game hybrid that is turning out to be pretty good. This is the first PC game that I’ve started seriously playing ever since Blizzard’s Warcraft III & World of Warcraft, so it’s actually a little bit jarring coming back to keyboard and mouse after years of using the 360 controller. I mentioned last week that I was having trouble playing Left 4 Dead on the PC using a mouse and keyboard after being so accustomed to the controller, but luckily, Dawn of War II keeps things pretty simple. Read on for my thoughts on this PC game that is the first Windows game that has Achievements and uses the Xbox Live matchmaking servers.

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Like espion4ge, I’ve found my way back to Liberty City as well

Mirror’s Edge
I have put a lot of hours into the game, slowly working through the story but I’ve also started working through the time trial mode. I came within 0.90 seconds of a three star time on “Cranes Two” on my fourth or fifth try, which was pretty exhilarating. Unfortunately, I spent the next hour and a half trying to shave that 0.90 seconds off. My thumb started hurting and I had to give up. I managed not to destroy my controller though, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Halo Wars
A week off of playing and I’ve gotten pretty rusty. I guess that means I’m old. I still need to finish the game in legendary and find all the black boxes, so hopefully I’ll be able to get to that soon. I still need to get back to Dead Space though but jet lag has put that on the backburner.

Left 4 Dead: Survival Mode
I played this with a few friends, and I enjoyed it a lot. I really enjoyed it but I’m not sure how into it my friends were. Basically it’s like fighting a bunch of finales and standoffs, which I actually really enjoy. I also think it’s fun to have goals you are trying to beat, surviving for a certain amount of time in this instance. Hopefully people will be willing to put a few more hours into this with me!

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
I’ve finished about 40% of the game so far, and the difficulty level is really starting to ramp up. I get the feeling the platform is going to start becoming Ninja Gaidenesque, i.e. I’m going to need to start memorizing where enemies are going to spawn and stuff. I think I’ll need to better understand how the puzzling elements power me up in the platformer pretty soon.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)
A friend lent this to me and I started playing it as a change of pace to Henry Hatsworth. It’s pretty cool, Liberty City looks pretty much the same except it’s a top down view. I think I even drove by Roman’s taxi hub. The dialogue is horrible – I don’t know if they are making fun of bad Chinese Engrish or what but it leaves a lot to be desired. I hear the story is pretty much a throwaway though, so we’ll see if the gameplay holds up.

I’m glad I finally gave Grand Theft Auto IV a chance, as it’s nearly consumed my entire week of gaming.

Grand Theft Auto IV – Had a lot of free time this week so I decided to get back into GTA4. This game I bought at launch and after playing it for about 30 minutes, decided I would eventually pick it up again later. Well, I started playing it this past weekend and I got hooked. Already beat the storyline, and am now just trying to clear all of the extra stuff. I’m surprised how much I like the game today, and realize now why it’s so good. Expect a (quite overdue) review on it next week.

Ace Combat 6 – All done! Sucks that 400 of the 1000 Achievement points are multiplayer based, but what can you do. Maybe I can go pick up Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. now…

Left 4 Dead – The free DLC has arrived for the game, consisting of Versus for the two other campaigns, as well as a new Survival mode for all four campaigns and a new lighthouse level. I already sold my 360 version, but I’ve been playing it a bit on the PC. I have to say, going from a 360 controller back to mouse and keyboard is really difficult. I’m so out of it when it comes to gaming on the PC now that I’m trying to map the Left 4 Dead controls to my Logitech PC control pad just so it can feel like I used to play it on the 360. Talk about regressing! Anyway, I need to play the survival a bit more to see if it’s really good but for now I’m not too impressed. It feels like I’m just playing the finales to each of the scenarios again, and I wasn’t that big of a fan of them to begin with. Now it’s even harder since regular infected still pour out at the same time as the tanks so it definitely doesn’t send you to a happy place when you play this mode haha

Ace Combat 6 – perhaps the best air combat game on the 360, but is that saying much?

In my initial impressions for the game, I was complaining about how difficult the game was. Once I discovered that you were able to have your Allied forces assist you in the more troublesome spots in the game, I was able to get through areas that I thought were ridiculously tough. Now I feel the game is not too hard, provided you can handle arcade flight sim games where down is up and up is down. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed my time with this short game as it had a lot of hardcore things for me to do to complete it, but overall, I don’t know if it’s that good of a game. Read on for my review for a game that I bought nearly two years ago but didn’t get to play until now.

Good
- still one of the best arcade flight sims on the 360
- lots of unlockables and challenges for the more hardcore player
- co-op, while very limited, can be pretty enjoyable

Bad
- weak story
- short game
- lack of matchmaking and empty multiplayer

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Should you get this game? “Yeah yeah yeah!”

Seeing as how I’ve spent the last four hours on a plane unlocking (almost) everything in the game, I figure I owe Rhythm Heaven a quick review. As espion4ge said in his impressions, Rhythm Heaven is a rhythm game filled with a bunch of mini-games. It kind of reminds of Warioware, Inc., one of my favorite Game Boy Advance games, not only because it has mini-games but due to the presentation and progression as well. There are a few things I have problems with, but all in all Rhythm Heaven is well worth the price of admission.

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Battlefield Heroes has a cartoony look somewhat like Team Fortress 2

Battlefield Heroes is the next Battlefield game from EA DICE, the creators of Battlefield and Mirror’s Edge. After Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield Bad Company, where was the Battlefield franchise going to go next? Apparently back to WWII (ugh), but with technology the way it is, Battlefield Heroes has been simplified in such a way that it is an online web based game. You just go to the Battlefield Heroes website, log on, and hit the Play button. A new window opens to the game client, and soon you’re into the game. Read on for my thoughts on the time spent with the beta.

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