Leveling Down

I know I sound like a broken record, but Halo Wars continues to provide hours of enjoyment. Last night, during an epic 2v2 battle, I was reminded of why I love playing multiplayer real time strategy so much. First, nothing can top defeating a human opponent. There is a major difference between fighting the AI, who is following a certain algorithm and only adheres to it more carefully as the difficulty increases, and taking on another human player, his or her brain, and all the strengths and flaws that are contained therein. Second, in a multiplayer match, you need to constantly shift your strategies, take risks, and in an evenly matched game there is always that point where you need to risk it all in order to win. Third, I love RTS for the way it encourages multitasking, you always need to be doing two, three, or four things at once, and that multitasking is what makes the games feel so frenetic and out of control (at least that’s how I play). Finally, long RTS battles force you to have “video game stamina”, in battles of attrition, the waning desire to keep playing really threatens your ability to pull out a victory.

Last night’s battle was amazing because over half of it we played 2v1. Normally, playing 2v1 should be a huge advantage, but the player who was left was obviously much better than us and he had us on the brink of elimination multiple times. It was a match that my partner and I never thought we were going to win until we finally did, and afterwards I was so tired I didn’t even really want to play anymore. Major props to our opponent, and I am incredibly sad that Halo Wars does not support replays.

What does support replays, however, is Starcraft 2, and the media has been asked to submit their beta requests by June 19th, so my anticipation is building. I really hope the game supports matchmaking, though I don’t know if Blizzard does that sort of thing. One of Halo Wars few advantages over the original Starcraft is that I don’t have to type 2v2 Lost Temple!!!!!! every time I want to play. Regardless, I am confident Starcraft 2 will live up to its pedigree and I cannot WAIT.

I got EA Sports Active for myself (and not my wife, as some of you readers will probably recall) a while back and I’m ready to post my impressions. They are actually quite positive, as I’ve been getting a pretty good workout every day for about 25 minutes a day and definitely breaking a sweat. There are some negatives though, which I’ll detail below.

Here’s what I loved about it:
- 30 day fitness challenge with three difficulty levels, allowing you a continuous 25 minute workout each day with a structured exercise plan of working different parts of the body, etc. (unlike Wii Fit, where it’s “here’s a bunch of minigames, do whatever you want.”)

- It’s definitely a workout. While you only burn maybe 100-120 calories each workout, you will probably be sore the next day (and you’ll also sleep quite well that night after you work out). The jump lunges kicked my butt.

- Wiimote functionality works decently, with some exercises having you hold the remote in your right hand and the nunchuk in your left hand, and others having you put that nunchuk in the thigh holster that comes with the game.

What I didn’t quite like:
- Wii Fit board is pretty useless. It’s like the developers only put it in as an afterthought and to be honest, I will probably stop using it myself because the activities you do with it are few and stupid. It doesn’t even calculate your weight!

- While the Wiimote functionality works, it’s not super great at detection, so sometimes the trainer will think you didn’t finish a rep. Also, with it not being 100% accurate, it makes me wonder if I’m even doing some of these exercises correctly and would have liked more guidance. Sometimes I have to shake my Wii-mote & nunchuk for it to register that the rep is complete.

- The included resistance band that you are supposed to use to do shoulder presses, bicep curls, etc. is not very strong. By supplementing it with light free weights, I was able to get a much better workout. But for those that don’t have free weights, I don’t know if you’ll really tone much of your muscles with just the included resistance band.

Overall, I think it’s definitely worth buying for $60 if you just want a routine exercise program that you can work out to every day. I’ll probably be doing it for a while, and I’ll chart my weight progress as well. It’s the best “exercise game” out on the market right now, but there’s definitely room for improvement and I’m sure based on how well it is selling, sequels will be imminent.

Don’t be fooled…

This past week I decided to buy Call of Duty 4: Game of the Year edition since it was on sale at BestBuy for $30. I figured, with the map pack selling for a few bucks online, this is a pretty good deal since I can get back into the game and even try out the new maps before the sequel hits this fall.

Apparently I was not the only one to discover that now there is no map pack in CoD4: GOTY edition. Even though the original 2008 press release for the game clearly states that it contains the map pack, subsequent printings of this GOTY edition stopped shipping with them. So basically, CoD4: GOTY is the exact same thing as CoD4 – except it says “Game of the Year Edition” on the cover and disc.

What the heck? Talk about misleading. At least in the 360 gaming world, a GOTY edition for any game means extra content, even if it’s free DLC like Left 4 Dead GOTY with the extra survival modes. A game comes out, sells well, DLC comes out for it, and then a GOTY edition for that game comes out bundling the DLC that was already released. Activision has taken it one step further (or back, I would argue), by removing the DLC that came with the GOTY edition, and yet still call it the GOTY edition.

Fortunately, the game still rocks and while I was curious to check out the new maps, from what I’ve heard they’re not great so I’m not going to sweat it too much. But beware if you’re thinking you’ll find the new maps in your GOTY edition!

I think Sony and Microsoft are facing a bit of an identity crisis. Nintendo is destroying them in the “console war”, but are they really at war with Nintendo anymore? Are motion controllers (or cameras, in the case of Project Natal) really going to attract more casual users to these hardcore systems? It seems like a big risk. My thoughts: Natal will be used for interface, Minority Report type stuff, which really doesn’t have much to do with games. The Sony 1:1 motion control stuff looks more promising in terms of games. But either way, it’s something I personally didn’t need. The Wii games I enjoy the most minimize motion controls (see: Punch Out).

When I heard that Bioware was doing a Star Wars MMO, I didn’t blink an eye. After all, I’ve never played a MMO before. Then, this came out. If the game is half as good, I may need to buy a better PC.

Finally, for anyone who twitters, behold the pulse of gamers…in real time.

Recently I have regretted selling two games: BioShock and Call of Duty 4. I have always simply sold my games after I get all of their single player Achievements and played “enough” of the multiplayer. But now during this dry spell of gaming I realize I don’t have any good console shooters left to play on my 360. Why did I think Call of Duty: World at War would be an easy replacement for Call of Duty 4? That was a big mistake…

Best Buy is selling Call of Duty 4 Game of the Year Edition for $30 and Amazon is selling it for $35 (as well as BioShock for $20), so I am starting to considering the “rebuy” of both of these titles. I’ve yet to play another game that has made modern warfare as much fun as Call of Duty 4 or a shooter that is as immersive as BioShock.

With BioShock and Call of Duty 4 being my favorite games of 2007, will that mean next summer I will be regretting my decision to have sold off Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead? Maybe not, with sequels to Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty 4, and BioShock all releasing this fall, as well as a Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition releasing for $60 with all 5 DLC. One game at a time I guess. The first thing I need to decide is if Call of Duty 4 is worth a rebuy. And I’m starting to suspect that it is. Dang it!

Since I’m stuck in the gaming doldrums, I find myself drifting back towards multiplayer games, not to play competitively but just for mere enjoyment. In the past week, I went back to these “old” games, which I point out because these are games that I hope everyone gets a chance to try out if they haven’t:

- A group of 4 of us jumped into Left 4 Dead Survival mode on one of the “new” maps (Death Toll) and proceeded to dismantle another team. There is just something fun about collaborating as a team to inflict utter destruction upon your enemies. It does make me think Valve didn’t need to make a sequel yet, the original is still an incredibly solid and robust experience. Of course, I’m still gonna get the sequel…

- I don’t think I’d ever play Halo Wars by myself anymore, but 2v2 and 3v3 games are still incredibly satisfying. After putting over 100 hours in the game, I think my team has preferred strategies to deal with any situation. For a relatively simple RTS, the strategy still is quite deep, as evidenced by our team of 3 getting it handed to us by a Covenant mixed infantry army. This is the RTS on console that everyone should have wanted, except it turned out nobody did. Sad.

- I played a few matches in Call of Duty 4 just because the Modern Warfare 2 trailer made me feel nostalgic. Not much more needs to be said about this game, but I think I am finally about to hit my first prestige. Huzzah!

- Also, I think the 1 vs 100 beta is worth checking out if you can play with friends. I can’t speak to the version that doesn’t feature a “one”, but the regular game is pretty amusing and a good way to just hang out with friends online.

I think my hardcore “gamingness” peaked years ago, with all that competitive PC gaming like Quake, Starcraft, etc. Ever since then I’ve been slowly moving on a downward trend, shying away from most multiplayer games and simply being content playing single player games where I don’t have to get all competitive. Well recently, it looks like the trend has taken a further drop.

Ever since I relocated and have such little time to play nowadays, I’ve come to the realization that I am no longer a fan of Achievements. I just don’t have the kind of time to hunt down every little thing these days, and if I had the option to, I would probably now turn off all Achievements for my 360 games. Then I could simply play the games for the sake of playing. But, I guess for now I’ll do my best to just play without caring about Achievements any longer.

I bought Bionic Commando: Rearmed a little while back when it was on sale for $5, and have spent maybe an hour or two playing it. But I can’t even get past the first level! Granted, I picked Hard difficulty and I’m still getting reacquainted with the fact that I can’t jump and have to use the grappling arm for everything, but man, it’s tough. It made me think two things: “Wow, I really beat this game when I was a kid?” and “I guess I’m getting a little too old for this since I can’t even beat the first level.”

Instead, I spend my evenings now playing Guitar Hero World Tour, EA Sports Active, and Punch Out!! What the heck has happened to me?! Who would have thought that I’d be spending more time playing the Wii than the 360. Dark times indeed…

 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-jmYz1PzV8]

When you think of good games, it’s generally a couple years between release titles: BioShock & BioShock 2, Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, even Gears of War and Gears of War 2. So it comes as somewhat of a surprise to me that the Left 4 Dead 2 game has already been announced and is coming out exactly one year after the first one.

It makes me wonder how much thought really needed to be put in for the sequel. I guess the tech is already completed, so there’s just new levels and perhaps monsters to create, but then doesn’t it seem more like an expansion than a full-priced sequel? It’s basically a team just creating new levels, so I can see why it would take only a year. But it does give me some feeling that Valve is selling out and perhaps adapting the Activision model of a Guitar Hero and Call of Duty game every year. Of course, I’ll be complaining about this Left 4 Dead 2 sequel being released far too soon but I’ll still be in line to buy it day 1 and end up enjoying it. After all, this E3 video looks great.

I guess I’m conflicted – it may seem contradictory that I say I enjoy the series but I don’t think the sequel should be released this soon. Does that even make sense? It sounds more like it could be an expansion that simply added in these new levels and playable characters, as opposed to a sequel that forsakes the original altogether. Apparently, I’m not the only one as there’s already a thread over 100 pages long about people not liking the fact that a sequel to Left 4 Dead 2 was already announced…

Protip: By quickly hitting the 1 and 2 buttons when you enter the knockout animation, you can avoid a KO and even a TKO

Certain games hold a special place in my heart, a pantheon of gaming that is immune to all criticism or negativity. The original Punch Out was such a game, and so I approached the Wii version apprehensively, afraid that it would taint my 20+ years of warm fuzzies. But Punch Out Wii is a game that, like the new Star Trek movie, simultaneously reboots, remakes, and remasters an old classic.

The reason I loved the original Punch Out was its challenge: not the difficulty (though it was difficult), but the manner in which the game challenged you. It taught me pattern recognition techniques that still are vital in gaming today, and did it in a fun and enjoyable way. Punch Out Wii takes the same formula and turns it up to 11. The standard mode is already impressive, as opponents begin to try to fake you out and show off 3 or 4 patterns that you need to recognize. The title defense mode unlocks after you beat the game, and it frankly is invigorating to lose to Glass Joe. It’s almost like a puzzle game, you need to figure out each fighter’s tricks, but in title defense mode, a fighter can have upwards of 8 of them. In the harder levels, the fighters turn into multi-form level bosses, every time you knock them down their patterns change and they just get tougher and meaner.

Nintendo has proven once again that they are geniuses. The thing about this game is, I get frustrated when a fighter knocks me down, but I never doubt that I can beat them. So I just pick myself up off the mat and try again until I take Don Flamenco, King Hippo, or Super Macho Man down. Throw into the mix a hilarious cast of characters and fifteen remixes of the old Punch Out theme (each fighter has their own stereotypical remix of the theme), and what you get is a title that displaces its predecessor in the pantheon. I messed around with the original after I got the Wii version, and found it still to be charming in a nostalgic sort of way, but make no ifs, ands, or buts about it: there’s a new champion in town.

A funny thing happened with my most recent Gamestop online order, whose contents include: EA Sports Active for the Wii and Raiden Fighters Aces for the 360. If you want Raiden Fighters Aces, you’re going to have to order it online – it’s got such a small print run that no brick & mortar store seems to carry it, so you either have to grab it from Amazon.com or Gamestop.com. For $20, I wanted to get in on this hardcore shooter collection. Whether I end up playing it or not is a different story, but for some reason it just makes me happy to buy hardcore games at good prices.

I was also showing EA Sports Active to my wife earlier since I discovered that this game is consistently the top selling game on Amazon.com for the last couple of weeks (but it recently got dethroned by The Sims 3). I wondered why everyone kept buying it so I started reading glowing reviews about what a great workout you can get, etc. and asked my wife if she was interested since she loves working out. She pretty much scoffed at it since she goes to the gym already, and after all the hype I got from reading it and sharing it with her, even after she didn’t care for it I ended up buying it for myself.

I told my wife afterwards that I bought it, and she replied, “I figured”. What?! You think you know me huh? I’m really a hardcore gamer! How can you figure me for buying an exercise game?! Maybe I am becoming a casual gamer after all or my wife knows how easy it is for me to pull the trigger on any game I get interested in -_-