Leveling Down

Between Starcraft II and Super Street Fighter IV, the winner is no surprise.

A couple months back I had talked about how excited I was for playing Super Street Fighter IV and Starcraft II – two of the most hardcore competitive games that hit this year. During May and June, I had my hands full with both the Starcraft II beta and the retail release of Super Street Fighter IV. While I juggled my time back then playing both games, as the summer went on I found myself drifting more and more away from Super Street Fighter IV. Now that Starcraft II is out, the relationship I have with Super Street Fighter IV is definitely over – even though I think we can still be friends.

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Although the tech has progressed, 3D still gives me a headache. Is it the answer for gaming?

I found this year’s E3 pretty disappointing. Microsoft was all focused on its Kinect stuff, which seems not tailored to gamers at all. Sony focused on the Move and 3D tech, simultaneously pushing their games and their 3D televisions (funny how that works). Meanwhile, Nintendo just played to gamers’ nostalgic tendencies by introducing new versions of a bunch of old franchises. This left me with one question: Where is the innovation?

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I just started playing Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker at the end of last week after beating Portable Ops. This past weekend, I took my wife to the mall (as usual) and with the Metal Gear Solid games not working too well for portability in a mall, I decided to bring my DS and Dragon Quest IX instead. After putting about an hour or two into both games now, I’ve started to really enjoy both. I like each so much that I had a very difficult time deciding what to play today on the subway. So…I ended up packing both my DS Lite and my PSP into my bag to bring to work. This can’t keep happening though. Only one will become the victor…who will it be?

Read on for the background behind each of these major portable heavy hitters this summer as well as my very short initial impressions of both.

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Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops continues the tale of Naked Snake, a.k.a. Big Boss

It’s been about a month and a half since I picked up the Big Boss PSP bundle, as I was so excited to play Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Of course, it was recommended that I play through Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops first, and so I’ve finally done so. Now Peace Walker is finally sitting in my PSP! In any case, I am ready to share a review on Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Is it still worth checking out today?
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Hi – my name is cmfl3x. And I’m an achievaholic.

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Kratos goes on a gruesome God-killing spree in God of War III.

After clearing through the first two God of War games earlier, I decided to make my way through God of War III to complete the trilogy. Keep in mind that I’m someone that has not ever really loved the gameplay of the God of War games, but surprisingly, God of War III has enough going for it that even I was generally impressed with it. Hit the jump for my review.
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The Void Ray seems to be used by 3/4 of my opponents that choose Protoss.

The Starcraft II beta has been up for a little while now in Phase 2, and we’re less than two weeks out from the retail release. Suffice to say, I’ve been spending a good amount of my gaming time with that game and because of that, I have another Starcraft II related post. I don’t know if this is necessarily more of a gripe or more of a strategy article, but based on how much I’ve played Starcraft II, I believe that one of the Protoss’s new units, the Void Ray, is overpowered and needs a nerf. Allow me to explain why, as well as share what you can do against Void Rays – at least in team games.
[NOTE: I have updated this article as of 8/18/2010] More »

Everyone knows Rock Band is a huge hit, but what else appeals to non-gamers?

Last week I started the conversation about the types of games non-gamers (specifically, wives and girlfriends) could enjoy or at least tolerate. After laying out some general principles and looking at some broad areas of gaming, this week I’ll be narrowing my focus and talking about some specific genres that might appeal to non-gamers. I’ve organized the games from most appealing to least, in general. As always, your mileage may vary, and I’d love to hear others’ ideas as well!

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Torchlight improves on many things over Diablo II, but lacks any sort of multiplayer.

Torchlight is a relatively recent Diablo-style action RPG game that was released on the PC last October. Being a single player only game, it retailed for $20, but with it also being on Steam, it’s gone on sale several times for the measly price of $5. At $5, it’s a recommended purchase for anyone, but at $20, I believe you may need to be more of a serious solo Diablo player to get your money’s worth. I’ve sank about 7-8 hours into the game so far, and am ready to share my thoughts.
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How many times do we have to tell you Blizzard – Battle.net isn’t Facebook!

These last couple of days, Blizzard and Starcraft 2 have been in the gaming news in a big way. With Starcraft 2 less than a month away, Blizzard has seen fit to provide fans with good news and terrible news. The good news is, Blizzard has released “Phase 2″ of the beta test for Starcraft 2, so those of you that have been undergoing withdrawal from the Starcraft 2 Beta can get back in and play (add me – account name: espionage, character code: 315). I’ve played a couple games myself and it looks like the beta is certainly back with a lot more stuff going on such as new Achievements and the ability to play AI on all difficulty levels. The terrible news, however, is their announcement that any forum participation in the official Starcraft 2 (and soon to be World of Warcraft) forums will be posting with your RealID – your real first and last name. Terrible terrible news.
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