Leveling Down

Since its inception, Leveling Down has been about the thoughts of two hardcore gamers as we scale back in our gaming lifestyles. During this time, we have reduced the number of games we purchased and played, the amount of time we played, the number of achievements pursued, the number of blog entries each week, and many other aspects of our gaming lives as we grow older. Where has all the time gone? We now have more responsibilities in our lives, and struggle with just trying to find time each day to get some good quality gaming in.

The end of this year marks the next phase of our Leveling Down journey: the end the blog. With such limited time to play now (let alone write about gaming), and perhaps even the real world affecting the way we review our games, we believe it’s the logical next step for us. We’ll still try to keep on gaming for the foreseeable future, so find us on Xbox Live, PSN, Steam, Battle.net, etc. Thanks for all of your support and see you online!

- espion4ge

I’d also like to thank our fans who have supported and read the blog over the years. As we’ve been leveling down, it’s been a privilege to share in that experience with you all, even online. I also would like to extend my personal gratitude to espion4ge for giving me the chance to write and play with him here. It has been a lot of fun and I’m glad for the opportunity.

Like espion4ge said, it’s a good time for both of us to end the blog – especially considering I’ll be playing Skyrim for the next three months! Peace out everyone, it’s been a blast.

- cmfl3x

Another year is almost over. Time sure flies these days! Over the course of this past year, I feel like I’ve leveled down the most since the blog started in 2008. By the end of 2011, my gaming library has dwindled down to only a fraction of the games I owned at the beginning of the year (I only own 2 PS3 games now!), I’ve actually skipped the purchase of several notable titles I would have usually bought (Dead Island, Catherine, Dark Souls, etc.), and generally feel like I may not even be buying more than a handful of games going forward (perhaps only Diablo III and Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm next year).

For our last entries of 2011, cmfl3x and I decided on providing our thoughts on our game of the year for 2011 as well as any other reflections on the year. As you can see from above, my thinking is that I’ve leveled down a lot over this past year. But, I did enjoy some games this past year as well! Hit the jump for my favorite games of 2011.

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Good old Remington…is the ACR MW3′s most popular assault rifle?

I haven’t been going as strong with Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer since I’ve been spending most of my time these last several days trying to accomplish two things: 3-star all Modern Warfare 3′s Special Ops missions and beat Gears of War 3 on Insane difficulty. I succeeded in the Special Ops missions (the last few were pretty rough), and am now trying to beat Gears of War 3 on Insane before 12/25 as per Tom Cruise. I’m trying to fulfill his Impossible Mission! But, other than that, I have been spending time with Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer, and am going to spend this week’s entry discussing my thoughts on my favorite (and sometimes least favorite) weapons, equipment, and attachments for Team Deathmatch play.

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Recon is one of the strongest new Perks in Modern Warfare 3

Skyrim, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 sit on my game shelf sealed. Uncharted 3 sits in my Playstation 3 and I’ve literally forced myself to play the game but always quit after completing one chapter. I’ve made it about halfway through that game. All four of these titles are big games that I would be totally stoked to play, if I wasn’t so into Modern Warfare 3.

It’s crazy – I cannot tear myself away from Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer – even knowing that I should be playing through and beating those other single player games quickly so I can sell them, but I cannot resist the allure of turning on Modern Warfare 3 any moment I have time to game. cmfl3x is probably the same way, since it seems like he’s playing it nearly as much as I am! (We’re each probably closing in on 40 hours logged in the multiplayer) In any case, since all I’m playing is Modern Warfare 3 these days, I’ll probably be posting Modern Warfare 3 themed entries through the rest of this month. For this week, I’ll share my thoughts on the Perks specifically from a Team Deathmatch point of view.

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Modern Warfare 3 brings the craziness of the Modern Warfare franchise to new heights

Almost a month later, I’ve managed to make my way through Modern Warfare 3′s campaign, hit the first Prestige in Multiplayer, and spent some limited time with the Special Ops. I can finally write up a review for the biggest game of the year. Considering how much time cmfl3x and I have been spending with Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer, it’s a wonder if we ever get a chance to play anything else. Hit the jump for my thoughts on all three sections of the game.

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I certainly wasn’t among those fighting to get in to buy games for $30 this past Black Friday

Another Thanksgiving has passed, and from then through now we saw a ton of gaming deals. It’s through these past few weeks that I recognized another significant “leveling down” in my gaming life. While it may not seem like it based on how much I’ve been playing Modern Warfare 3, please allow me to explain! haha

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Is Call of Duty Elite telling me I should just stick with just the L118A and P90?

It’s been 3 days now since I last got to play Modern Warfare 3, and I have to admit that it’s been a little rough. I thought it was a better idea to not bring my 360 with me when I flew with my wife to my inlaws’ house to spend Thanksgiving week, but now I’m not so sure. I’m practically counting down the days until I can get back and play, but luckily, outside of being able to read the official Modern Warfare 3 guide at Target when we go out shopping, I have access to Call of Duty Elite in the evening. Seeing as this is all I have for my Modern Warfare 3 entertainment in this week away from my 360, I figured I’d share my impressions on it for those of you wondering what it’s all about.

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Ratchet has some new toys to play with 2009′s Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time

Amidst the flurry of major release titles this Fall and Holiday season, I’ve still been working on my backlog and the most recent backlog game I’ve beaten is Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time for the PS3. I wasn’t a huge fan of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction since I felt like it was too similar to the other titles, but I think that A Crack in Time does bring some interesting new gameplay elements to the series and I found myself enjoying it more (maybe even more than Batman: Arkham City!). Hit the jump for my “retro” review on this 2009 title…

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launch in Australia

I still remember years ago how I first tried out the Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta, and was completely blown away. I think I even ran around getting beta invites for friends because I thought it was so awesome. Modern Warfare 2, again, blew me away and I definitely had some good times with those. Now Modern Warfare 3 is here today, and I’m pumped once again. World at War and Black Ops? Forget it – Modern Warfare is where it’s at. Surprisingly, there’s a lot of things that have changed for Modern Warfare 3, so I compiled some information and wrote something up so those of you that are going to be getting into Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer can start thinking about how you want to best get into it.

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In Batman: Arkham City, Batman can now dive from the tops of buildings onto thugs below

I was able to hunker down and beat Batman: Arkham City this past weekend, and for those wondering – it really is about an eight hour game if you avoid the sidequests. Now that I’ve gone through the primary storyline, here’s my abbreviated, yet “debatable” review.
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