Leveling Down

Looks like this month is the biggest 2D fighting game month of the year, and that’s saying something considering Street Fighter IV’s console release back in February kicked off the year. Why is July 2009 so significant for 2D fighting game fans on the 360/PS3?

07/01: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Limited Edition
07/21: King of Fighters XII
07/29: BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Regular Edition
07/29: Marvel vs Capcom 2

I was on the fence about purchasing the recently released BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. While it’s scoring highly in reviews, I know that deep down I’m just not a hardcore fighting gamer. I tried for a couple months to get competitively good at Street Fighter IV, but as I expected, I just didn’t have enough patience or drive to learn it. And if Street Fighter can’t get me to want to play competitively online, can anything else?

Still, I like the fresh start that BlazBlue will give me: completely new characters so I won’t be stuck with a shoto or fighting shotos, a fresh new combat system to learn, and while 12 characters seems like a meager list to choose from, it should allow me to learn the game a lot quicker so it’s a boon in a sense. I am also digging the artistic style to the game – reminds me a little bit of Darkstalkers but of course this game is running on the Guilty Gear engine.

After reading Sirlin’s Playing to Win though, I was inspired enough to buy BlazBlue. Maybe this game will be the 2D fighting game that I can actually get into and excel at. Or if anything, it’ll at least be another game my younger brother can come kick my butt in when he visits next month.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMSS12iY1X0]

Whoa. I don’t usually buy special editions for games, and the Prestige Edition for Modern Warfare 2 is pretty over the top with the inclusion of toy night vision goggles. $150 seems like a very expensive price to pay, but besides it most likely being the most popular game of the year, Amazon is actually running a couple promotions right now that make getting the Prestige Edition a lot less expensive. So much, in fact, that I will most likely be pre-ordering it.

1. Amazon is giving a $10 gift card with pre-orders of all versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
2. Amazon is running a trade-in promotion now where if you trade in at least $50 worth of games (shipping is free), you will get a coupon code for 50% off any game or accessory (even pre-orders).

If you can find $50 worth of games you’re no longer playing in your house, you can trade them in and basically pay off all of the $150 on Modern Warfare 2 Prestige: $50-$60 games + $75 coupon, + $10 gift card.

What’s also interesting is that the 50% off coupon code also works for other “big” bundles as well, such as the $250 Rock Band Beatles bundle, the $150 SF4 Tournament stick, or the $150 Tekken 6 wireless stick bundle.

If you’re interested, might want to move soon since the Amazon trade-in promotion expires Sat July 18.

1. I buy Left 4 Dead on the 360 when it first comes out.

2. I get my friends to buy Left 4 Dead on the 360 after it goes on sale.

3. I write a Left 4 Dead expert guide (that actually becomes pretty popular!)

4. My friends and I get all of the Achievements on Left 4 Dead

5. I sell my copy of Left 4 Dead

6. Steam puts the PC version of Left 4 Dead on sale for PC.

7. I buy the PC version for $25

8. I end up not playing the Steam version because my friends don’t have it and I’m too used to the 360 controller to play the game.

9. I miss playing Left 4 Dead with friends

10. I go out and buy Left 4 Dead on the 360 again.

11. I am happy…I think.

I decided to start replaying BioShock again after getting bored of Burnout Paradise. It’s still amazing! My wife overheard “Rapture” on the TV and asked, “Didn’t you already play this?” Wow. Considering the last time I played it was a couple years ago, I’m actually pretty impressed that she remembers Rapture. I don’t think she remembers any video games I’ve played but perhaps that’s just a testament to how memorable the game was.

The good thing about playing the game two years later is that while I do recall the general plot and twists, I’ve forgotten about most of the actual gameplay itself so I’m liking my jump back into it. In a way, maybe I’ll do this again with all the games in my collection: break them out a couple years later to see if they’ve aged like wine or do not stand the test of time.

As expected, BioShock still rocks. Not only is it a great refresher in time for the sequel, but it’s still an amazing game everyone should pick up if you want a well crafted story, depth and adventure to your traditional run and gun FPS game. After playing so many recent games that are five or six hours in length, BioShock’s 20+ hour length comes as a pleasant change of pace.

I’m actually slightly worried that BioShock 2 won’t be as good as its predecessor. Not only is it not being developed by the same studio, but four studios are involved this time. Plus, there’s multiplayer. Why do we need multiplayer this time around? Everyone will be playing Modern Warfare 2 anyway. What also sucks is that Take 2 is worried and has decided to push BioShock 2 back to first half of 2010 - most likely to avoid competing with Halo 3 ODST and Modern Warfare 2.

I just saw the film, Taken, this past weekend and had to mention it here. While this is primarily a video game-oriented blog, Taken is the kind of film that you should see if you’re interested in watching a video game-styled movie.

Note that I say video game-styled movie – not a video game-based one. Video games that turn into movies generally aren’t so great, with the latest ones including: Max Payne, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Hitman, etc. The opposite is true as well, but the transition from movie to video game sometimes isn’t as bad if you don’t count all of the generic kids films.

Taken is a movie that when you watch it, you feel like it could totally be based on a video game, or a video game could be based on it. Thankfully, neither is true. Thus, we can enjoy the film for what it is: a 90 minute action gamer’s thrill ride all on film. R rating for gratuitous violence? Check. Protagonist that is not only intelligent, but a badass that doesn’t take crap from anyone? Check. Tons of action where the protagonist goes around killing dozens of bad guys without even thinking about it? Check.

In a sense, watching this movie is almost like watching someone get the Mile High Club Achievement in Call of Duty 4 without restarting – but through 90 minutes of film. Well, the first segment of the movie is not exactly action-packed, but I forgive it since it needs to set the scene for Liam Neeson to switch into the killer that even Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne may question. Definitely check it out if you’re in the mood for a thrilling film that bears many similarities to a video game without being constrained by one. Apparently it did so well that a sequel is already in the works!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTrf5anN4k8]
Every time I watch this video, I want to play Mirror’s Edge again…

Some GameStop exclusive price drops on some big name games in the past few days that I had to share:

360|Wii Guitar Hero World Tour – Band Kit $89.99 (from $189.99)
360|PS3 Bionic Commando $19.99 (from $59.99)
360|PS3 Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. $19.99 (from $39.99)
360|PS3 Wheelman $19.99 (from $39.99)

Other prominent titles that received a universal price drop include:
360|PS3 Dead Space $29.99 (from $39.99)
360|PS3 Mirror’s Edge $19.99 (from $29.99)
360|PS3 Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena $39.99 (from $59.99)
360|PS3 Prince of Persia $19.99 (from $29.99)
360 Gears of War 2 $39.99 (from $59.99)
PS3 Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition $19.99 (from $29.99)
PS3 Metal Gear Solid 4 $29.99 (from $49.99)
PS3 Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction $29.99 (from $49.99)
PS3 Valkyria Chronicles $39.99 (from $59.99)
Wii MadWorld $29.99 (from $49.99)
Wii House of the Dead: OVERKILL $29.99 (from $49.99)
Wii de Blob $19.99 (from $29.99)
Wii Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles $19.99 (from $29.99)
PC Spore $19.99 (from $39.99)
PC World in Conflict: Complete Edition $19.99 (from $29.99)
DS Chrono Trigger $19.99 (from $29.99)
DS Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure $19.99 (from $29.99)

Unfortunately for me, I’ve played almost everything that I’ve wanted to off this list. I’m  tempted by the $19.99 price for Bionic Commando and H.A.W.X. but with them both closer to a 70 on Metacritic, I’ve decided to skip over them entirely. No more backlog building on mediocre games, even if they’re free!! Also, Bionic Commando must have set a new record in price drop history to go from $60 to $20 in less than 2 months.

I do recommend practically all of the games that got universal price drops though, such as Mirror’s Edge & Henry Hatsworth. Looks like EA went on a price cutting spree…

Kotaku ran an interesting article recently that has EA wondering how even though only 1.5 copies of Dead Space were sold, over 3 million 360 and PS3 unique users have played the game. Considering the very small dent that piracy plays on the 360 and PS3, this number is pretty staggering.

But at the same time, it’s perhaps not so surprising that it’s not a game that people would hold onto for a long time due to what I’m surmising as the following:

1. 10 hour length
2. Horror game
3. No multiplayer

I remember about a month after BioShock was out, my local Gamestop was flooded with used copies of the game, and while BioShock is more of a 20-25 hour game, it also lacked any sort of multiplayer to keep gamers from holding onto the game.

What surprises me about this article is not Dead Space’s numbers specifically (I’m guessing other single player games like BioShock see similar numbers), but the apparently huge outlets that allows for the same number of people to play the game without buying it as those that actually do buy it.

The fact that I have connections to game developers makes it tough since I hope their games sell so they can continue making more games, but at the same time, I’m partaking in used game purchases myself because I can’t help saving money. Why can’t the digital medium for gaming come sooner? Then this will all go away and I’ll no longer have a conflict of interest…

I’ve been going on a Burnout frenzy since I got my 360 back, spending a good number of hours in both Burnout Revenge and Burnout Paradise. After putting about five hours into Burnout Paradise, I’ve decided that it’s just not as good as Burnout Revenge – even after all of the free DLC and updates.

For those that have never played the Burnout games, I highly recommend them as I’m not a driving game fan but I really love Burnout Revenge. The Burnout games are definitely less sim and more arcade, and reward you by driving more aggressively and destroying opponents’ cars by forcing them into walls, trucks, etc. Burnout Paradise eschews the traditional racing game structure of Burnout Revenge and other racing games by switching over to a full open city.

In Burnout Paradise, you drive around the city and can pull up to most intersections to start one of the races that also take place in the city. I’ve yet to play the multiplayer, which can probably lend itself to some fun with you and some buddies all driving around the same city, but from a single player standpoint, this open world interaction for a racing game is just superfluous. It’s like the PS3′s Home compared to the 360′s Dashboard – bloated and unnecessary when you want to get to the real content (I’m also worried the Halo 3 ODST campaign may play out similarly).

I’m a lot more critical about timesinks in games these days since I have so little time to play. Do I really enjoy driving around the city looking for the next race to participate in or to change my car for the right race type when in Burnout Revenge I could have just selected the race and car from a menu? It seems like the only “benefit” that came out of this open world is to allow for hidden collectibles (ramps to jump and billboards to break), which in and of itself is just fluff anyway. From what I remember too, the developers remarked that there would be no loading time in this open world but there is plenty of loading before a race starts or when you’re changing your cars (it’s quite noticeable when you’re changing cars).

Burnout Paradise isn’t a bad game, but it’s definitely not as good as its predecessor. Besides the lack of benefits coming out of switching to an open world interface, several gameplay features and racing modes that were present in Burnout Revenge did not carry over to Paradise, which result in an ultimately less enjoyable racing game. I’ll most likely jump back to Burnout Revenge for my Burnout fix in the future.

If you’ve been keeping up with my exploits as of late, I’ve decided to sell most of the 360 games in my collection that I was probably never going to play (and they were also generally low scoring). In addition to that, I’ve gone back and rebought games I’ve previously sold, like Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Gears of War 2, etc. I’ve even decided to reacquire Halo 3 – because even if I didn’t love the game, I respect it for what it was and believe it should still sit in my 360′s permanent collection.

However, I was a little curious about getting back into the multiplayer so I started reading up on it and was shocked. Unlike Call of Duty 4, the DLC map packs in Halo 3 are actually required if you want to play like half of the modes (http://www.bungie.net/online/playlists.aspx). Even my favorite one: Team Slayer – i.e. Team Deathmatch, requires that you own all the DLC map packs. What the heck? I never buy DLC map packs, and am disappointed that I have to if I want to play such a common mode. Of course there are the hardcore Halo players that are going to be like, “If you want to play, buy it cheapskate!” I don’t like the game enough to practically spend another $20 on maps, and just want to play Team Slayer out of the box.

I guess maybe people like me are the minority, because at least one argument is sound: forcing people to buy the map packs to play Team Slayer at least keeps the Team Slayer userbase unsegmented – you’re either playing it with all the maps possible or not at all. Some are recommending to just wait and buy Halo 3: ODST, since that contains all of the Halo 3 DLC content. I guess maybe I have to if I ever want to get back into Halo 3 multiplayer again. But then what’s the point of getting Halo 3 today?

I received my Xbox 360 back from Microsoft right in time for this past holiday weekend. Talk about a fast turnaround time.

Check out the timeline:
Sat 06/20/09 - 360 gets the 3 red lights
Mon 06/22/09 - 360 dropped off at UPS to ship to Texas repair facility
Thu 06/25/09 – Email indicating 360 has been received at Texas repair facility
Thu 06/25/09 – Email indicating 360 has been repaired at Texas repair facility
Mon 06/29/09 – Shipped out of Texas repair facility
Thu 07/02/09 – Received at home

Wow – I sent my 360 in and received it less than two weeks later. While I think this turnaround is phenomenal, one thing that surprises me is that I got two emails on Thursday 6/25/09 – one indicating that my 360 was received and only a few minutes later I got another email indicating that my 360 was repaired. It actually surprises me a bit that they were able to fix my 360 in less than a day, and not the month-long wait I was anticipating. The console I got back is the same serial number for my 360, so they really fixed it. It’s not like they just kept mine and sent me a different refurbished one.

Sucks that it looks the motherboard wasn’t upgraded - I’m still stuck with the Zephyr. It came back in a nice package though which seems like a coffin that will be useful should one of my 360s die again in the future. Only time will tell, and while I had a 3 year warranty on the 3 red lights before this repair, I now only have a 3 month warranty. Eep…I’m not sure what I’d do with it if it were to break again after that…