Leveling Down

Final Fantasy XIII’s most notable innovation is its combat system

I started Final Fantasy XIII last week and have played a good 10 hours into it (after eight hours I’m already on disc 2 of 3?). To be honest, I’ve had a tough time trying to get myself to sit down and play through it, as I’ve been on a Modern Warfare 2 frenzy and have actually spent more time playing Modern Warfare 2 than Final Fantasy XIII over this past week. Still, 10 hours is a pretty good amount of time to spend on this game to share some initial impressions. When I think about it, this entry is practically long enough to be more of a review on it, but read on for my lengthy impressions of the game. A review may follow once I’ve completed it (and it’ll most likely be shorter than this entry).
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I think helicopters play a pretty big role in Just Cause 2

Some of the sites I follow have been saying a lot of good things about Just Cause 2, so when the demo was released on Xbox Live I figured I’d give it a shot. It’s an open world sandbox game (where have I heard that before) tasking you with taking down an evil dictator on some remote island. I played the 30 minutes the demo allowed, but left it asking one question: WHAT!?

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My PS3 Library continues to grow, system be darned!

It’s been a little while now since I last gave an update on my PS3 hunt, so for today I am going to share what I’ve been up to on it for the last couple of weeks. It’s a good sign for me that I should get a PS3, because even after two weeks, I haven’t changed my mind on wanting it. Then again, part of me now is wondering if the reason why I want to acquire one so badly is simply because I can’t find one.

Anyway, if you think it was as easy as just clicking a button online or driving to a store and grabbing one, you are sorely mistaken (although, I guess it could have been that simple if I stopped changing my mind). Read on to see the ups and downs I’ve been going through these last two weeks in order to actually attain this coveted console, and I haven’t even gotten it yet!

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While Yakuza 3 was just released here in the states, Yakuza 4 will release in Japan next week.

My wife and I booked a two week trip to Japan for our vacation this year, and we’re heading out there in May – one week in the Tokyo area and one week in the Kyoto area. I’ve never even been in Japan overnight (stopped over a couple times in Narita airport, but never actually went into Tokyo), so I was pretty excited. I’ve grown up playing Japanese video games, watching Japanese anime, and reading Japanese manga. So isn’t it basically the dream of a gamer (or otaku, in my case) to visit the “Land of the Rising Sun”? I thought it was, until I started seriously thinking about what to buy when we go to Japan in a couple months. I’m coming up quite short.
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Mundane moments with your family set you up for a heavy emotional payoff later

The first trophy you unlock in Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain is called “interactive drama”. It’s an apt trophy name, and it sets the tone for the rest of the game. Heavy Rain is a PS3 Exclusive, and it’s an amazing game (and another argument for all games being multiplatform so I can stop stealing my friends’ PS3s), but now that I’m done with it I think I can hold off on getting a PS3 for awhile, or until espion4ge gets one at the very least! The game creates a brand new experience and perhaps a new genre in video games, but small issues prevent the game from truly realizing it’s potential.

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Since I posted about Blizzard on Monday, here’s another Blizzard related entry that I have been pondering as of late. I was at Target with my wife this past weekend, and as we were waiting in line to check out, I noticed that the kid in front of me, who was probably an underclassman still in high school, was buying a 60 day pre-paid World of Warcraft card. These cards are $30, and allow the World of Warcraft account holder to play the game for two months (the monthly subscription is $15 a month to play). Three thoughts went through my mind as I saw this WoW card go down the cashier belt:

1. People actually buy these things?
2. Do I say something?
3. Should Blizzard even be selling these?

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Mass Effect & Dragon Age – Bioware’s own Star Wars & Lord of the Rings?

So coming off of Mass Effect 2, I decided I needed some more Bioware in my life, so I picked up Dragon Age: Origins to give it a whirl. I’m really digging the game and am getting pretty into it, although I still think Mass Effect 2 is the better game in my mind. Maybe that’s because every step of the way in Dragon Age I’m just comparing it to Mass Effect. I decided to jot down a few of my thoughts into writing.

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The results of being hacked: losing all of your equipment yet having a nice amount of gold…

This past weekend, I received an email from Blizzard Entertainment informing me that my account password had changed. The email went on to state that if I had requested the change, to disregard the email. But if I did not request the change, then I would need to contact Blizzard immediately in case my account had been compromised. I did not request the password change, so I got a bit worried. I tried to log onto my account on the battle.net website, and surely enough, my password was no longer valid. Someone had actually somehow hacked into my battle.net account! This freaked me out. Read on to see what transpired…

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Been seeing this dude on my 360 dashboard for several days now…

After about a month or so of R&R away from Modern Warfare 2, I jumped back into the game this past weekend and haven’t stopped playing it since. I had been playing Bayonetta, Brutal Legend, Band Hero, BioShock 2 (that’s a lot of B’s!), and GTA IV: The Lost and the Damned. After spending some time with BioShock 2′s multiplayer, it sort of jolted me back into wanting to play Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer. After all, why play BioShock 2′s multiplayer when I could be playing something else far superior? Here is a recount of me getting back into the game, consisting of my thoughts on how it feels to be back, and whether I have what it takes to keep up with the “kids” these days…

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With the firing of Infinity Ward CEO Jason West and Infinity Ward President Vince Zampella, will we ever see another Modern Warfare game as good as the first two?

Video games news outlets were all a twitter about the strange machinations going on at Infinity Ward, the Activision owned developer responsible for Modern Warfare. A quick summary of what went down:

- Late Monday night, rumors come out that bouncer-types showed up unannounced at the Infinity Ward offices, unnamed staffer states Infinity Ward staff is “freaked out”. Two senior employees not seen since they had a meeting with Activision big shots [Kotaku]
- Tuesday morning, it is confirmed that President Jason West and CEO Vince Zampella are no longer with Infinity Ward, and that they were let go for “insubordination” (Did they not properly execute a Code Red?) [Wired]

- In an official press release, Activision announces that Treyarch will release another COD title this year, Infinity Ward is working on two downloadable map packs for Modern Warfare 2, and a third studio, Sledgehammer Games, is working on a Call of Duty ACTION ADVENTURE game [Giant Bomb]

Now, we don’t usually report news here on Leveling Down, but this story is so crazy and has me freaked out in multiple ways. Here’s why…

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