Leveling Down

My new PS3 Slim sits below a 360 in my entertainment center

After popping in Metal Gear Solid 4 into my new PS3 Slim to give it a test run, I finished the initial install and Solid Snake said, “Kept you waiting, huh?” Dude, you don’t know the half of it. It’s been about a month and a half since I first tried going to my local Gamestop to try to even buy a PS3, but now that it’s finally here, I’m relieved. Although I’m not really playing it much yet (anxious to start Mass Effect 2!), I’m still happy it’s set up and I can actually play it. Read on for my thoughts on finally receiving the system and my initial (re-)impressions of it.

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What’s this old school looking game I’ve been playing? Hit the jump to find out! (Don’t worry, there’s an English version)

For some reason I have been doing a lot of random stuff lately in my gaming life. I don’t know if it’s because it’s nice out and causing me to hunker down and play marathon sessions less or what, but recently I haven’t stayed too focused on one game and am just kind of going wherever my Xbox takes me. This has led to some fun gaming experiences so I figured I’d share with everyone, plus there is some stuff that I think others might like to check out as well!

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For every positive Final Fantasy XIII implements, there seems to be a corresponding negative.

I beat Final Fantasy XIII this past weekend. I can’t go so far as to say I’ve completed it, but I at least got to see the game’s ending! The core campaign was about a 50 hour game, but the game is actually split right down the middle in terms of the first 50 hours being the very linear main storyline, and the second 50 hours being all of the optional sidequests that are the more traditional Final Fantasy aspects that you would expect. The verdict is still out on whether or not I will end up going back to trying to do all of the optional stuff after beating the game, but I have an idea of what they are about so I believe I have enough to share my final thoughts on the game in this review.

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Bailout, one of the 3 new maps in Modern Warfare 2′s Stimulus Map Pack

I wasn’t originally planning on buying the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map Pack, but peer pressure dictated otherwise. The last few days consisted of map pack veterans humiliating me as I braved the gauntlet that is the Stimulus playlist. $15 dollars and 5 hours later, I think I’ve played enough to put down my impressions about the five “new” maps. Are they worth stimulating Activision’s bottom line?

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My fond memories of Dragon Age: Origins have been dulled by the number of extra DLC that “expand” the game.

Last Friday I posted about how I felt that EA’s Project $10 initiative is working, and I’m a supporter of it. Hey, I’m all for supporting developers and publishers to make money off their own products and if it came down to it, I wouldn’t mind if the used market disappeared altogether. EA has been coming back into the spotlight in a positive way with gamers these days, while Activision has gone the other way. But there’s one thing that EA is now more guilty of than others at this point that I am annoyed with: DLC for single player games. Read on for my thoughts why.

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EA is now including one-time use codes in their more popular recent releases

I don’t buy every game at launch. In fact, I rarely do these days except for games I’m willing to pay the $60 price tag for on day 1. But with interesting games that aren’t worth the $60 on day 1, I’ll wait until I either have more time afterward or the game is cheaper. Gamestop fills this niche for me, as they often run promotions such that I can buy a game still retailing for $60 at about half that for the used price. I don’t love buying used games, but at half the price it’s certainly something I partake in from time to time. Publishers and developers hate this, as Gamestop makes all the money from used game sales. EA has implemented “Project $10″, and for me it’s actually worked. Read on for what it’s about and why I think it works.

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Over a decade old, Starcraft still comes out on top and will have its pennant hung from the rafters at Leveling Down for 2010.

What is left to say? At this site that caters to older gamers, Starcraft is the cat’s pajamas. After running through the Sun-Tzu (RTS) Region with a couple of scares, and after barely beating Bioshock to make it to the finals, Starcraft won the championship by a score of 60-40. Perhaps this is fitting, considering Starcraft’s sequel is (finally) being released this year. And maybe if games hadn’t been going head to head with one another, Starcraft might not have ended up on top. As it is, Starcraft endured all five of its matchups and is Leveling Down’s 2010 Video Game March Madness champion! After the break, some final thoughts about the tournament and a look forward to next year.

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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is getting a lot support from fans, but it’s debatable if it’s even better than its predecessor.

I finished Battlefield: Bad Company 2′s campaign this past weekend, and have spent a decent number of hours in the multiplayer that I can give a pretty thorough final “review” on my time with the Xbox 360 version of the game. In short, if you enjoyed the first Battlefield: Bad Company game, the second one pretty much continues more of the first, although I’m not sure if it’s necessarily better. I’m not one of the people that was really blown away by this game like I was with Modern Warfare 1 or 2, and regret to say that I’ll probably be putting this game back on the shelf without even spending a considerable amount of time in the multiplayer. Read on for my thoughts why.

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It’s been a long road, but we have weeded 32 games down to 2, and it’s a fight to the death to find out who will be the winner of Leveling Down’s Video Game March Madness 2010! Hit the jump to see the last two standing (although I suppose you could just look at the above image), and let’s take a look at how the Final Four shook out in two results that were as close as humanly possible. For some reason, the polls didn’t close at 6 PM so the results are as of 6 PM. And voting is now open, so vote for the CHAMPION!

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Trying to get through Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Dante’s Inferno, and Mass Effect 2 before the end of the month is shaping up to be a bit ambitious…

I’m bad. My backlog continues to balloon even though I thought I solved this problem before. Now with the entire PS3 exclusive library (pretty large, actually) going to be a part of my backlog later this month, I have to seriously figure out what I’m going to do. Apparently I can’t stop myself from buying games that go on sale, so the next best thing I can do is to try to make an estimate of what I will be playing over the course of the next month and come up with some realistic goals to give myself some sort of control. Read on for what I am forecasting my gaming time to be within the month of April…

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