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.

Crysis 2
While there have been several major titles released in the last several months of 2011, there were some good ones released early in the year as well. As I looked through the list of games released in 2011, the game I fondly remember most was Crysis 2. For fans of the first game, Crysis 2 may not have been what they expected, but for fans of more contemporary shooters, Crysis 2 was just what we needed. The scope of the sequel was changed from the open world “driving” around North Korea to a much tighter contemporary shooter in New York City. It’s probably one of the longest shooter campaigns I’ve played in recent memory, and it was very cool to basically feel like the Predator in NYC. Enemy AI could have been better, but all in all, it was quite an epic campaign. Multiplayer was also quite enjoyable, and I was sad that it never took off as much as I’d like. It was basically Call of Duty multiplayer with all of the interesting Predator-like features and unlocks you could get from the Crysis nanosuit, and I had a lot of fun playing the multiplayer in the early half of 2011.

Portal 2
When I beat the last level of Portal 1, I exclaimed to myself, “The game is over now? This last level where I’m actually out in the open world with my portal gun is what I want to be playing – not all of that labrat stuff!” Portal 2 definitely delivered in that aspect, allowing us to play through an entirely new campaign in an open world and all sorts of new puzzle related elements were introduced. On top of that, Portal 2 had some great voice acting and humor – it’d probably win my award for the funniest game of the year. Sadly, for some reason or another, Leaderboards and Time Trials were noticeably absent when the sequel launched, but the problem was eventually rectified with free DLC months later. Portal 2 also introduced co-op, and it was a hefty number of levels. Unfortunately, as much as cmfl3x and I played it together, I never really enjoyed it at the level of the single player campaign. I found it more frustrating than fun, and maybe it was due to the pressure of having to not only solve puzzles with another player, but also having to coordinate exactly with the other player as well. I remember being more frustrated with the co-op levels than entertained by them!

Uncharted 3
For some reason or another, even though I have to somehow force my way through the campaign of every single Uncharted game, I still like the series. I have a huge man-crush on Nathan Drake, as he’s basically a contemporary Han Solo and such a great character to follow the exploits of. While the gameplay hasn’t changed too much in this third game in the trilogy, I enjoyed the storyline most in this game of the three due to the exploration of Nathan’s and SUlly’s past. It brought great character and emotion to the epic scope of the series, and I would give Uncharted 3 my vote for the game with the best character design for 2011. Uncharted 3 also has a slew of co-op and multiplayer modes. While they are quite functional and entertaining in their own way, the Uncharted series’ primary strength has always been about its story-telling and characters, and not its gameplay. The multiplayer is a decent diversion, but with other bigger multiplayer titles around, it has a long way to go to be able to compete with them.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The Modern Warfare series of Call of Duty is my favorite shooter series. I thought when Modern Warfare 3 came out, I would have been sick of the entire Call of Duty series by now as I quickly got bored of Black Ops. I am glad to have been completely incorrect with Modern Warfare 3. At this time, it’s probably the game that I have spent the most multiplayer time on in 2011. The tweaks made to this game from earlier titles are all made for the better – different playstyle choices, more counters to pointstreaks, more game modes, etc. With everything going for its multiplayer, Modern Warfare 3 easily wins my award for Best Multiplayer Game of 2011. Its campaign is decent and closes out the trilogy relatively well, but it doesn’t quite stack up to Modern Warfare 2′s campaign. Spec Ops missions in Modern Warfare 3 also seems a bit weaker than Modern Warfare 2′s missions, and I’m still perplexed by the addition of a Survival Mode in Modern Warfare 3 but only limiting it to 2 players max.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I haven’t even opened the shrinkwrap on Skyrim yet, but I pretty much have an idea how good the game is. The last two games Bethesda Softworks developed, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3, both won my game of the year awards the years they were released. I can’t imagine Skyrim being worse than either of those two epic games, and as soon as I find some free time, I’m going to get myself lost in Skyrim once again. Several gaming outlets have already declated Skyrim as their game of the year for 2011, but with how similar it seems to Oblivion and the fact that I haven’t even played it yet to know for sure, I’m not quite ready to call it my game of the year. I’ll at least give it my pick for Best RPG of 2011.

My Previous Game of the Year Choices
Here are my picks for Game of the Year the last five years:

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2007: Bioshock
2008: Fallout 3
2009: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2010: Starcraft 2

My 2011 Game of the Year Choice

Gears of War 3
This may surprise some, as I never enjoyed the first two Gears of War games that much, but love Gears of War 3. The game, overall, is the total package. It is the only game on this list that provide so many different things, and does all of them well. It’s what I would consider a perfect video game and the pinnacle of the series. The campaign was lengthy, epic, emotional, and improved over the first two games. On top of that, Epic was able to finally provide 4-player support to the campaign, something that very few other shooters can accomplish these days. The Arcade mode and the addition of mutators allow for multiple playthroughs of the game, something that I have already partaken in.

Outside of the campaign, there’s also a well designed survival mode that lets up to 5 players play together through up to 50 Waves of progressively more difficult enemies. Not content to just leave it the same as Gears of War 2′s Horde Mode, Epic decided to provide players of this new Horde mode the ability to earn money and spend it on defensive structures and fortifications to aid in surviving. It easily blows away Modern Warfare 3′s paltry 2-player Survival Mode. And while I prefer Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer over Gears of War 3′s, it’s all a matter of taste. I find Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer to be so enjoyable due to its epic “Michael Bay” style over-the-top frenetic action (and sometimes imbalanced) gameplay.

I also appreciate Gears of War 3′s multiplayer, and will return to it once I start getting my fill of Modern Warfare 3. Gears of War 3′s multiplayer is classic FPS versus game design: start everyone off with the exact same weapons and equipment. Provide them with the ability to change their skins and weapon colors as they level up, but always keep pure gameplay equal at all times. In many ways, Gears of War 3′s multiplayer is more hardcore than Modern Warfare 3′s, but with the addition of a Team Deathmatch mode in Gears of War 3, it opens the game up a lot to newer, less experienced players like myself. It’s great.

Gears of War 3 is not only the best sequel of the year as it improves over its predecessor in every category, but it’s such a complete game that it’s hard for me not to award it my choice for Game of the Year. And with the January DLC allowing for the ability to “Prestige” in Gears of War 3, I may end up playing this game for a lot of 2012 as well!

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.

Primary Weapons
Assault Rifles
I’m an assault rifle player, so I use these for maybe 90% of my time in Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer. My favorite overall assault rifle is the Type-95. I’ve always been a burst assault rifle user since Modern Warfare 1, and my accuracy has generally been considered decent (I usually have an accuracy of 20%+ when I check Leaderboards). The Type-95 is great because it’s a more powerful weapon than the other burst assault rifle, the M-16. It’s so powerful that it kills in one burst, and unlike the other non-burst rifles, the Type-95 has a Rapid Fire attachment. Put this thing on and the opponent basically doesn’t have time to move in between the 3 rounds fired. I like the Type-95 at medium-far distance, so I’ll often equip a shotgun attachment and Acog scope on it so I’m covered near and far. The biggest problem with the Type-95 is its iron sights are terrible. I have to use a red-dot sight or an acog scope on it which forces me to use up one attachment slot anytime I want to use the Type-95. With the Type-95 being so good, why don’t I unlock it from the start with a Prestige token?

One answer: The M4A1. The good old M4 is an excellent, excellent assault rifle and is unlocked right away from the beginning of the game. It has very little recoil so it remains highly accurate, and is in general an overall good assault rifle. Its iron sights are very usable, giving me an attachment to use on other things. I prefer the M4A1 in short to medium engagements and even for CQC, so I’ll almost always equip a silencer on it. Without needing to put on a sight, I’m free to add on other various attachments such as a heartbeat sensor or grenade launcher while still keeping the silencer. Great overall weapon that can be used all the way until its “replacement” assault rifle.

The M4A1’s replacement, and my second favorite assault rifle weapon after the Type-95 is the ACR 6.4. It’s basically just like the M4A1 in that it has a great iron-sight, very little recoil for high accuracy, but it just feels like a more powerful weapon so naturally, it feels like the M4A1’s bigger brother. Just like the Type-95 is to the M16, is the ACR to the M4A1. No reason to go back to the M4A1 with the ACR.

The next assault rifle I will consider using after I complete the leveling of the Type-95 is the MK14. This thing is semi-automatic, so you have to press the trigger for every round you wish to fire. This seems like a natural progression from the Type-95’s burst fire, so I’m looking forward to checking out its powerful rounds and high accuracy.

Sub Machine Guns
I only use SMGs on a couple of levels if I feel like running and gunning (Underground and Arkaden). My favorite SMG, and maybe it’s just because it’s a carry-over from previous Modern Warfare games, is the P90. This gun overall has no real drawbacks, but it has one benefit that none of the other SMGs have: a huge clip. With SMGs having such high fire rates, the P90 allows you to fire longer and reduces the number of reloads you need. On other SMGs, you can be stuck reloading between enemies because your SMG fires so quickly, but the P90 reduces that probability, making it the most preferred SMG for me.

My second favorite SMG is the PP90M1. While it doesn’t have the clip-size that the P90 has, it fires faster and seems like a more powerful SMG than the P90. It all depends on playstyle. Perhaps running around with PP90M1 and Sleight of Hand for faster reloads just makes it an overall better choice. As for me, I usually switch over to the PP90M1 once I max out the P90.

This Prestige time around I may check out the MP7 as well. I hear that it gets some praises, but because it gets unlocked so late and the amount of time I spend with SMGs is minimal, I never got a chance to look into it.

Light Machine Guns
I don’t use Light Machine Guns in Team Deathmatch, and don’t recommend them since they limit your mobility. However, if I had to pick one, I think I would go with the MK46. It seems to provide the best balance overall after I’ve tried all five machine guns in both Team Deathmatch and Special Ops.

Sniper Rifles
Current maps in Team Deathmatch don’t provide for good sniping (you just won’t get that many kills with it) so I’ve since stopped sniping. My favorite sniper rifle though would be the L118A. The reason why it is so preferred by many snipers is that it has high mobility. Like the LMGs, sniper rifles are very heavy so they don’t allow you to travel as quickly around a map. I believe the L118A is the lighest sniper rifle, and this is beneficial because with the killcams you won’t be able to stay in the same place forever. If I could stay in the same place, I would probably stick with the starting sniper rifle, the Barrett 50Cal since it’s such a staple sniper rifle and unlocked from the start.

Shotguns
I’m not a shotgun player either, but if I had to choose one, it’s a very easy choice: the Striker. If you see anyone running around a map with a shotgun, it’s most likely this one in particular. I believe that there is some incorrect calculation with the number of pellets fired by it or something that allow for it to do more damage than it does. Add on the Range Weapon proficiency to it and you can see why people run around with it. I’m not a fan but won’t deny how effective it is.

Secondary Weapons
Machine Pistols
Personally, I think Machine Pistols should not even be allowed as secondary weapons. Why put automatic weapons as secondary weapons that rival those of primary weapons? For machine pistols, everyone knows by now which is the best one: the FMG9 – especially in Akimbo mode. Why does it kill so quickly and is still so accurate in Akimbo mode? No one knows, but try asking it to the players that run around solely with FMG9 Akimbo…

Handguns
Don’t bother with picking one of these for a secondary weapon with the much more useful launcher and more lethal machine pistol in the same slot.

Launchers
Stinger is obviously the best anti-air weapon since it has two rounds and auto-lock. I almost always have this as my secondary, since I don’t bother with using it against enemy opponents. Outside of the Stinger, I’ve seen the occasional Javelin user that tries (and sometimes succeeds) in using the Javelin on human opponents as well. Not my cup of tea at all, but it’s the second-most popular launcher I’ve seen in Team Deathmatch.

Weapon Proficiencies
Weapons have so many useful attachments that my preferred Weapon Proficiency is almost always Attachments. I love paring a Silencer with a sight, or a Silencer with Heartbeat sensor, or a sight with Rapid Fire, or Extended Mags with a Silencer, etc. Almost always I will use Attachments if I have the option. If I haven’t earned it yet, I’ll just stick with Kick since better accuracy seems to be more useful than the stronger bullet penetration of Impact. For run and gun SMG classes, since I fire from the hip and all I need is the silencer, I’ll usually go with Range as my sole Weapon Proficiency.

Lethal
All of them are pretty good (except C4 doesn’t really have much purpose in Team Deathmatch) so I will use each depending on the situation. If I’m being stealthy or camping, I’ll go with the Bouncing Betty or Claymore. Between the two, I prefer the Claymore just because it’s stronger, cannot be ducked, and for some reason, seems less easy to spot. But, at times if I’m using the Recon Perk and prefer to be more offensive, I’ll go with either the frag grenade or the Semtex. I am terrible with the Throwing Knife however, and fail to understand its usefulness. I guess it’s good if you’re in a situation where you’re out of ammo and cannot reload so you use the knife instead? Personally, I’ve had very little success ever killing with it, but for some reason, opponents can kill me with one from across the map. Maybe that’s my next equipment piece to learn and figure out.

Tactical
Usually by default, I’ll go with Flash grenades. I prefer Flash grenades over Concussion Grenades because with Concussion grenades, your opponents can still see you so they can still shoot at you. When not using Flash grenades, I also consider a few other tactical equipment as well. EMP grenades can take out opponent pointstreak rewards like the Assault Drone, Recon Drone, and even the Pavelow. The Scrambler and Portable Radar are also good devices when used correctly – especially so when several players are using it. I used to use the Scambler when I sniped without a silencer since I would often remain in solitary locations, so the Scrambler would conceal my location. Portable Radar is basically like a UAV constantly on for a certain location. If several players throw these down in key areas of the map, you may not even need UAVs.

Weapon Attachments
There’s quite a variety of weapon attachments and many of them have their own uses (even the shotgun) so I’m not going to go into each one. However, I personally have a strong dislike for the holographic sight and even the Hybrid Scope because both of them obscure too much of the screen when I aim down the sight. I hate the reflecting on the holographic sight; it blocks part of the sight itself in the sunlight or whatever and it generally just makes it more difficult to aim. I’m a huge fan of the Red Dot Sight of course, and now I’m liking the ACOG scope on larger maps. Suppressor is also one of my faves since it fits my playstyle more, and Extended Mags, Shotgun, and Thermal Scope can have their uses depending on your setup. I don’t like the Grenade Launcher just because kills aren’t so easy with them like they are against AI in the campaign, and it’s annoying to hit someone with a grenade launcher, then they turn around and just kill you because you’re stuck reloading when you could have just killed them with your assault rifle. I’m also not a huge fan of the heartbeat sensor, because it makes me pay too much attention to it rather than trust my instincts on the levels and the flow of the game. I like Rapid Fire a lot on the Type-95, but it sees very little use otherwise.

Summary on Weapons, Equipment, and Attachments
It’s always good to watch the killcam if you get killed by someone and are wondering what they are running. Often times, you will see these very popular weapons that I like: the Type-95, the ACR, the Striker, P90, PP90M1, etc. I guess they are popular for a reason? In any case, give them a try – they’re usually popular for a reason!

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.

As I’m over halfway through my first Prestige, I’ve finally started coming into my own. When Modern Warfare 3 first released, I was doing fine, maintaining a decent K/D ratio (decent to me, at least), but as time went on, I felt like players were getting better and I was not improving so I continued to die more often and kill less. My K/D ratio had been steadily dropping for a while, but now it’s been moving up again consistently. I mentioned to cmfl3x over this past weekend when I played with him that I had this “epiphany” with regards to the game, and now I feel like I’m a lot better because of it. Of course, there are several reasons why I think I’m doing better nowadays, and one of the reasons is my refinement of how I am using the Perks.

Perks
I played around with several different Perks in my first “playthrough” of multiplayer before I Prestiged, trying to use them all and pretty evenly and unlock all the Pro modes. Now in my second playthrough, I am well aware of my favorite ones and made the right decision to stick to the ones that I feel are most effective in Team Deathmatch for my playstyle.

Slot 1
For the Perk 1 slot, I am a big fan now of Recon & Recon Pro. The other Perks probably have their own marginal uses, but almost always I will go with Recon/Recon Pro as the front-runner for slot 1. Just being able to tag opponents by throwing a grenade over a wall to see where they are and where they are facing is too valuable. Equip a grenade launcher on your assault rifle, flash grenades, and a regular grenade and that’s 5 times you can tag enemies in each life you get. Recon Pro allows me to tag opponents with just bullets, so by simply firing on someone, everyone else on my team can see where the opponent is and where he is facing for something like 12 seconds? It’s an absurd amount of time where if I don’t kill the guy, one of my teammates surely will so the Perk helps out my team considerably.

Two other Perks I’ll consider are Scavenger if I’m using a silenced automatic weapon (since that means more rounds fired and more rounds needed to kill so it’s definitely possible that I will run out of ammo) and Extreme Conditioning (if I’m going for a run&gun SMG CQC class on certain maps). Sleight of Hand is faster reloading, and I don’t think it’s necessary and cannot compare to being able to see where opponents are and where they are facing. Blind Eye is far too defensive – with the ability to simply shoot down air support with Stingers, I would probably never go for it.

Slot 2
Assassin/Assassin Pro blows everything else in this slot away in my opinion. Not showing up on UAV is ridiculously good compared to any other Perk out there in this slot. Maybe it’s just my playstyle, but not giving my opponents the ability to find me beats the benefits of any of the other slots. Put on a silencer as well and you can go around killing without opponents ever knowing where you are.

In second place I would consider Hardline/Hardline Pro for getting pointstreaks faster and Quickdraw for faster aiming, but to have either of those basically gives opponents the ability to find you and shoot you in the back so I would only consider them if I played against opponents who never used UAVs. Quickdraw allows you to aim down the sight faster, so it’s good when facing enemies point-blank, but if you’re doing that often you probably won’t be living very long lives. Plus, if you use Stalker in Slot 3, you can already move quickly while aiming down the sight so it renders Quickdraw kind of pointless. Hardline is decent, but because Killstreaks aren’t as devastating in Modern Warfare 3 as they have been in the past, I don’t think it’s as necessary. Plus, all of the good ones start at 9+ kills, so needing 8 instead of 9 isn’t something I’d rather have than Assassin.

Blast Shield & Overkill can be useful in certain instances, but I would almost never use them. I might use Blast Shield on Dome, just because it’s so easy to throw grenades there, but that’s the only map.

Slot 3
I almost always go Stalker/Stalker Pro. Being able to move at normal speed while aiming down the sight is ridiculously powerful. You can correct your aim on the fly and move relatively fast so you are always ready to shoot. On top of that, Stalker Pro basically removes the ability for you to get killed by Bouncing Betties and Claymores so I’ll take this Perk every time I use an Assault Rifle (which is basically 90% of the time).

Steady Aim is really the only other Perk I would use instead of Stalker and that would be if I were running and gunning with SMGs. If I’m going CQC, I’m not going to even bother aiming down the sight. I just run around hipfiring with the SMGs and Steady Aim definitely allows me to play that way on maps like Underground and Carbon.

I would consider Marksman if I were sniping, but outside of that, it’s not as useful as Stalker for two reasons. The first is anyone with Assassin Pro doesn’t show their name, so it completely counters the Marksman Perk, so you’ve wasted it. The other issue I have with Marksman is that when you can see their names highlighted, they’re generally too far away for you to take the shot when you’re not sniping, so you can’t do much about it even if you see their names.

SitRep is terrible since most players won’t use Claymores/Bouncing Betties and Stalker Pro already nullifies them. Dead Silence has its possibilities for stealthy classes, but I would probably prefer Steady Aim over Dead Silence if I were going to be close enough to enemies where I would worry that they could hear me. Very situational, and I believe most of the time opponents won’t hear you anyway unless they are wearing headphones.

Summary on Perks
So yeah from a Perks point of view, for any assault rifle class I will almost always go Recon Pro, Assassin Pro, and Stalker Pro. Maybe for a silenced assault rifle I will go Scavenger instead of Recon, but Assassin and Stalker are bread and butter. If I were to go with an SMG class, I’d consider switching to Extreme Conditioning, but keep Assassin Pro in the second slot and pick up Steady Aim in the third slot. I used to snipe, but not much anymore since there aren’t really any good sniping maps in MW3.

Next week I’ll talk about my thoughts on the weapons, equipment, and maybe pointstreaks and deathstreaks. Stay tuned!

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.

Campaign
The Modern Warfare 3 campaign takes place right after Modern Warfare 2 leaves off. The baddie is still Vladimir Markarov, and you assume the roles of a few characters that accompany Captain John Price and Soap as they hunt down Markarov.

In comparison to previous the previous Modern Warfare campaigns, I felt that Modern Warfare 3′s campaign came up a little short. It’s still an adrenaline rush from start to finish, but I guess it just felt to me like it was trying too hard to top the “epic-ness” of the previous games. The first game had the nuke go off, then the second one had the United States under attack, and in Modern Warfare 3, we find ourselves across various countries around the globe all under attack by Markarov’s men. Does this mean if there’s a Modern Warfare 4, Earth will be attacked by aliens? Just seems to be the trend as the scope of the game’s epic-ness continues to grow. I guess the next one may just be called Future Warfare, and not Modern Warfare at that point.

Stuff blows up, buildings get destroyed, it’s all crazy and it works. It’s Modern Warfare through and through; you get to play a variety of missions – stealth, snipe, assault, and you get to assume command of various gadgets and vehicles that provide for some innovative ways to kill your enemies. For fans of the Modern Warfare franchise, Modern Warfare 3′s campaign seemingly closes the trilogy off pretty well, but it just doesn’t reach the same highs that Modern Warfare 2 did. I guess for us American gamers, it’s not easy to beat the idea of fighting enemies in the White House and in suburban neighborhoods similar to where we grew up in.

Special Ops
The special 1 to 2 player co-op missions from Modern Warfare 2 return with Modern Warfare 3. Again, they are contained to 2 players at most, and are varied enough to be enjoyable and interesting. Leaderboards help make it more competitive, and allow for friends to try to beat each others’ scores. New to the Modern Warfare 3 franchise in Special Ops is a Survival Mode, which allows up to two players to take on infinite rounds of various enemies on any of the multiplayer maps. You earn money by taking out enemies and beating rounds, and you can use the money to buy weapons, gear, Perks, etc. It’s a pretty enjoyable diversion and I would even go so far as to say that even without Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer, the game is probably worth picking up just for the Campaign and Special Ops modes alone.

My only real peeve with Modern Warfare 3′s Survival mode is that it is limited to 2 players. In this day and age, 4-player Survival mode is the norm, and even the zombie mode from Treyarch’s Call of Duty games featured 4-player support. It’s disappointing that 4-player is missing here, but on the bright side, I’ll admit that it’s nice that Modern Warfare 3′s Survival mode is playable solo.

Multiplayer
Even though half of Infinity Ward has jumped ship since the release of Modern Warfare 2, I am happy to see that the remaining members of Infinity Ward and the new studios that helped with Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer kept the Modern Warfare feel and excitement. I thought that perhaps I was getting tired of Call of Duty after not really enjoying Black Ops multiplayer, but I am relieved to say that it was not the case. Once I got into Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer, I couldn’t stop and I still want to play it all the time even after hitting my first Prestige. It’s as addicting as ever, and sadly for other games, I just don’t have time to play them anymore because I’m enjoying Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer so much.

The minor addition of allowing a setup to allow for killstreak rewards to carry over even after dying as well as objectives counting towards streak rewards definitely helps the game out for players that aren’t young and can’t devote several hours a day to compete with the kids. Even little changes like getting points for taking down enemy air support and being able to pick up and move your claymores are all welcome refinements to making the gameplay even more enjoyable. For the most part, I am entirely happy with the Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer, and think it’s good enough to be worth the price of the game alone.

The only real issue with Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer is the map design. While there seems to be more maps out of the box compared to previous Call of Duty games, Modern Warfare 3′s maps just don’t stack up to Modern Warfare 1 or 2′s. Nothing seems particularly memorable; there is very little height on maps, and there aren’t really any sniper friendly maps. Having put in over 24 hours into the multiplayer already, I got the maps down but I still don’t really enjoy them too much compared to past games.

Final Thoughts
Outside of a short campaign, a lack of a 4-player survival mode, and relatively bland map design for multiplayer, Modern Warfare 3 is amazing. It may not seem as phenomenal today as Modern Warfare 1 and 2 did back when they released, but it carries the torch well and is definitely worth your time. What makes the Call of Duty series so fun is its control and speed; no other FPS moves as silky smooth or feels as great as Call of Duty – especially the Modern Warfare series.

Don’t tell Activision I said this, but Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer is good enough that I would pay a monthly fee to play it. In a sense, I already am since I signed up for the Elite service in support of the game (and to get access to all of the DLC). Despite the few negatives that the entire Modern Warfare 3 package has, it’s still the best FPS multiplayer game out there and thoroughly recommended.

Final Grade: A

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

Liquidation Strategy
cmfl3x recently posted an article about collecting video games like he does baseball cards. I found that I had been doing the same for the last several years. Very recently I came to the realization that with my time fleeting, I would most likely never go back and play older games in my video game collection. It was at this time that I decided to start selling as much of my collection that I could while I still got a decent value on them. Over the last month, I’ve sold 30+ games. If this were a year or two ago, I would have never dreamed of selling them, let alone selling games that I had never beaten or even played. But, with such little time, I finally realized that I needed to be realistic. If it’s not going to be as fun as Modern Warfare 3, why keep it?

So with that, I sold the following games to Amazon:
Alpha Protocol – $6.30 (never played but figured I never would get to it)
Batman: Arkham City – $36.45 (beat it and will never play again)
Borderlands Game of the Year – $12.15 (never opened but beat the original game)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – $6.75 (beat it and will never play again
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – $15.50 (beat it and will never play again)
Dance Central – $19.75 (imported songs into Dance Central 2, so will never touch again)
Deadly Premonition – $6.05 (started but did not like)
Demon’s Souls – $9.45 (started it but it was too frustrating)
Fallout 3: GotY Edition – $13 (beat it and will never play again)
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition – $16.20 (never opened but beat original & first expansion)
iNFAMOUS – $10 (started but did not like)
Left 4 Dead – $4.45 (beat it and will never play again)
Left 4 Dead 2 – $9.45 (beat it will never play again)
LittleBigPlanet GotY Edition – $9.00 (started but did not like)
Killzone 2 – $6.50 (beat it and will never play again)
Killzone 3 – $15 (beat it and will never play again)
Mass Effect – $8.45 (beat it and will never play again)
Mass Effect 2 – $8.80 (beat it and will never play again)
Mirror’s Edge – $4.80 (beat it and enjoyed it but won’t play again)
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time – $10.45 (beat it and will never play again)
Resident Evil 5 – $9.45 (beat it and will never play again)
Resistance 2 – $6.50 (started but did not like)
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution – $10.80 (never played but already have Civ 5 and haven’t even played that yet)
Soul Calibur IV – $5 (started it but did not like)
Tekken 6 – $8.10 (beat it and will never play again)
The Orange Box – $9 (beat it and will never play again)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – $5.50 (beat it and will never play again)
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction – $6 (never played but figured I never would)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – $7.50 (beat it and will never play again)
Valkyria Chronicles – $9.00 (beat it and will never play again)
Vanquish – $9.40 (beat it and will never play again)
Virtua Fighter 5 – $4.15 (beat it and will never play again)
Way of the Samurai 3 – $8.75 (never played but figured I never would)

In total, they netted out a little under $330 – so on average about $10 each in Amazon credit. While it sounds like a long list of games, I still have a ton more. Unfortunately, several of the games I have not sold I think are undervalued, so I’m not ready to trade in titles like Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden II for $2-$3 each yet. And if they’re only giving me 25 cents for Guitar Hero 2 or 3, I might as well hold onto them. I’m also hoping titles like Portal 2 and Crysis 2 move up past their current $10 or so trade-in price.

The Short List
With several games already sold, I do still have a shortlist of titles I am keeping in case I ever have time to play them. These include:

Red Dead Redemption (campaign & Undead Nightmare)
Fallout: New Vegas
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Bioshock 2 (just for Minerva’s Den)

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to any of them, but it’s nice that my “backlog” is a much shorter list now.

A Reduced Buying Strategy
In the past, when I had time, I would pretty much put every game that even slightly appealed to me in one way or another on my “To Buy” list. This would include all of the following games that have already been released:

Rayman Origins
Saints Row: The Third
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
Battlefield 3
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record
Ace Combat Assault Horizon
Rage
Dark Souls
Dead Island
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Catherine
Shadows of the Damned
Tekken Hybrid
LittleBigPlanet 2
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection
God of War: Origins Collection
Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten
No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise
Resistance 3
Infamous 2

Of course, with such little time now, I am able to actually contain myself from going out and buying all of them. Of the entire list, only 2 games stood out for me as titles I still want to pick up: Deus Ex Human Revolution & the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection. I’ve yet to play either of them, and I think they are both unique enough and highly regarded enough that I still want to check them out. All of the others seem to be either remakes of titles I’ve already played, sequels to games I never actually played through in the first place, or simply sequels that do not sound interesting enough.

To be fair, Rage, Catherine, and Shadows of the Damned are all unique new games, but none of them appeal to me as much as they would have in the past. Rage got lackluster reviews, Catherine’s primary gameplay is puzzle-solving elements (not my cup of tea) and Shadows of the Damned doesn’t really have that level of presentation that I expect out of games these days. Of course, when you compare other games to games like Gears of War 3 and Modern Warfare 3, Japanese developed titles are not going to look so hot. But too bad! My time is too limited now so I just have to play the best stuff.

Thanksgiving Weekend Shopping (Or lack thereof)
Almost all of those games in the list above were on sale at some time during this past weekend. Titles like Metal Gear Solid HD Collection & Battlefield 3 for $30 seemed quite appealing, but I had to ask myself several times if I would ever actually play them. Eventually I came to the realization that I wouldn’t, so as good as the deals were, I didn’t buy them.

I was pretty stymied that I couldn’t buy any video game related stuff for Black Friday, so I ended up pouncing on a 4 GB Xbox 360 Slim w/ Kinect for $150 as part of an Amazon Lightning Deal. Hours after I bought it, I again wondered to myself, “Even though I bought this thing for half its retail price, what the heck am I going to do with a second Kinect?” So later that night, I contacted Amazon customer service and had them cancel the order. Instead, I found myself buying other non-game related things for Black Friday. Kind of sad that I’m more excited about the Dyson D25 vacuum we got for cheap this past weekend than anything else these days, but maybe that’s par for the course with my leveling down.

The Immediate Future
I figure going into the end of this year, there are really only two games that I want to keep playing into the new year: Modern Warfare 3 and Gears of War 3. I enjoy multiplayer for both games a lot, and with those two, I don’t know if I really need to be buying anything else. Of course, I have a couple other titles I want to beat and quickly sell while their value is high: Skyrim & Uncharted 3. Unfortunately, I find myself these days asking if I should play one of those single player games so I can sell them quickly or just keep playing Modern Warfare 3 since it’s the most fun. Every day is a struggle but we will see what happens. I’m already an Elite member, so I’ll be getting all the new DLC and playing Modern Warfare 3 for the long haul.

I want to slowly move towards having basically no games except for the newest multiplayer title or two that I play consistently. That’s quite a dramatic departure from my old hardcore mentality of “buy and collect everything that seems interesting, even if I never get around to playing them”. This fundamental change in my mindset of no longer wanting to “collect games” is certainly another breakthrough in leveling down, isn’t it?

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.

Some Background
When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 first launched, a website for Call of Duty Elite was also launched around the same time. Elite was part of a “service” that Call of Duty players could access through their web browsers and check their info when they were away from the game (i.e., at work). Unfortunately, the team behind Elite did not adequately prepare for the huge influx of gamers that hit the servers hosting Elite, and ever since the Modern Warfare 3 launch, the Elite website has been unresponsive for most of the time. Fortunately, things are starting to function a bit better now, and the goal is to have Elite up and operational by December 1st. For now though, it’s working pretty decently for me so far, so here are my thoughts on the various sections of the Elite website.

Career
The Career section of the website is where I have been spending the most of my time.  In this section, it’s broken up into several parts that are all quite interesting to study when you’re away from the game. The first part is Recent Matches. Here, you’re able to study the last several matches you played, and besides your overall stats for the match, there are detailed kill-logs and heatmaps for each one as well. The next section, Custom Classes, is where I found myself spending the most of my time. I thought it was no big deal when it was advertised that you could tinker with your custom classes on the website. “Why would anyone want to do that?” I asked myself. But now I’m in a situation where I can’t get to the game, and customizing my five classes is the closest I can get. It’s actually pretty fun and a very welcome feature.

There’s also a Challenges section where you can view all challenges and the progress you are making on each one to sort of plan out your Challenge attack plan if you are going for them. Changing your custom classes as you study the Challenges all from a website is great stuff when you are away from the game. There’s also a Vault where you can upload videos and screenshots from your matches, as well as  Leaderboard tracker where you can add other players you want to compare yourself to. Finally, at the bottom of the section, is the Weapon Performance section. I like this a lot, as it tells you right away how you are doing with each weapon. For weapons you’re not doing so well on, it’s probably worth considering either switching to a different one or learning how to use it effectively.

Connect
The Connect section consists of two primary sections: Groups and Clans. Groups allow you to add yourself to open groups that are not locked down in any way. You can create any group and others can join it if they decide to look for the same group name. There are current Groups associated with cities and countries and by joining any group, you can basically compare yourself to others in the Group. There’s really not much else there since it’s so informal.

Clans is the big part of the Connect section, and in this section, you can create or join Clans. What’s neat about forming a Clan is that the Clan has experience levels to gain as well, so when the clan levels up, clan members receive benefits like Double XP and the like. In order for the clan to level up, the clan needs to enroll in operations and competitions, and it seems like only paying members of Call of Duty Elite ($50/year) count and can access the clan rewards.

Compete
The Compete section appears to be about scheduled events of varying nature that you can enroll in as a player to compete. Some require a screenshot, others require scoring the highest in something against everyone else that enrolls in that competition, etc. Personally, I don’t find myself anywhere skilled enough to enter any of the competitions.

Improve
Surprisingly, I found this section pretty interesting. Under Improve, you can read view the maps and objective markers for each gameplay mode, tips on every customizable item in the game, and tips on every gameplay mode. While it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t seem like much more verbiage is going to be added to this section, it’s definitely a good place to read up on the different weapons, perks, and strike package rewards to understand them better. Some of the weapons also have video guides – hopefully all of them get them since I enjoyed watching the ones that were already available.

Elite TV
Elite TV seems similar to Improve since it’s basically several videos and many of them are videos on how to improve: videos that teach you how to effectively use different weapons and how to play each map. Currently, only about 7 or so of the maps have videos  available and only a handful of of weapons have videos. I’m guessing with time these will continue to grow. If I were near a 360 now, I would probably be playing, but away from home, these videos are great!

Parting Thoughts
So, there you have it. For someone away from Modern Warfare 3 but still with access to the Internet, Call of Duty Elite is great. Granted, games like Halo and Battlefield have already been providing stat-tracking via websites, but neither of those games has the fan following that Call of Duty does, so I’m glad that Elite has been created. It’s going through some growing pains now, but when everything gets straightened out, the website looks like it definitely provides some good value for fans of Call of Duty such as myself.

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…

The Highs
Outside of bringing the variety of weapons to level up, humor, and adventure platforming that the series is known for, A Crack in Time introduces several new gameplay features to breathe some life into the aging series. The first new feature comes straight from the game’s title: A Crack in Time features the element in certain parts of the gameplay. The time gameplay isn’t anywhere near as puzzling or maddening as titles such as Braid, but it does add a little bit of intellectual thinking to the mix. Throughout the game, Clank will find himself in “puzzle rooms” where he will have to record multiple copies of himself to go hit buttons. At the end of the puzzle, all of the buttons must be pressed by all his recorded copies so that he can continue. Figuring them out gave me the sort of feeling I would get from figuring out Portal room puzzles, but luckily here, if you don’t feel like solving them, you can just skip them (and not get the monetary reward for solving them). I would have liked to see the time element explored further, but because this is a family friendly game, I’m guessing Insomniac decided to just keep it all relatively simple.

Another gameplay element introduced by A Crack in Time is the use of the hover boots. With them equipped, Ratchet can travel quickly across a map, and often times it feels like Tony Hawk skateboarding gameplay has been added to the mix. Unfortunately, while you can’t do flips and twists for point multipliers, there are ramps on certain levels as part of “hover boot” paths.

My favorite new aspect that A Crack in Time brings to the table is the entire meta element of the space gameplay. In previous Ratchet & Clank games, they would fly from planet to planet, and in the previous title, sometimes you would go through Starfox style shooting levels from one planet to another. In A Crack in Time, you now have the freedom to explore several different solar systems with your own freedom. Think Mass Effect 2′s systems + Super Mario Galaxy style presentation and that’s pretty much what A Crack in Time’s space traveling plays like. You can fly to various planets (big and small) and land on them to find various upgrades, collectables, etc. It reminded me a lot of Super Mario Galaxy’s star collecting on various planets. My favorite part of it all (and maybe it’s just because I haven’t played a game like X-Wing or TIE Fighter in a while) is how you fight and take on enemy starships throughout space. It’s funny – I don’t like sandbox gameplay, but for some reason or another, I really enjoyed A Crack in Time’s space sandbox. You could fly to the large planets to continue the storyline, or fly to smaller planets and asteroids to help other inhabitants out or engage enemy fighters in space.  It’s a great “lite” space-combat sim metagame, and certainly hit the spot for me since I hadn’t played one of those in years.

While Clank’s puzzle solving elements were enjoyable, the general action segments were flat

The Lows
Unfortunately, this game does have it share of lows. The first low that I wasn’t a big fan of in the game was how Ratchet & Clank were split for nearly the entire game. You would play each of them separately, and it just felt off playing as Ratchet and not having Clank’s gadgets. Clank’s gameplay was even worse. Outside of the interesting time-based puzzle rooms, Clank’s enemy encounters were quite soporific due to him only being able to melee attack.

I also was not a big fan of the weapons this time around. Every Ratchet & Clank game always has new and interesting weapons, but I found that A Crack in Time’s weapons were not too enjoyable to use. I realize that with so many titles in the series, it’s getting tougher and tougher to come up with new weapons (just like the Mega Man series probably stretched the boss variety quite thin), but all I can say is that I love Ratchet & Clank games for the weapons and I wasn’t really feeling it in this one. What also was annoying was the aiming; it wasn’t quite accurate as I would have liked. Using weapons like the shotgun were just difficult to use in 3rd person when the auto-aim wasn’t working and being unable to move while aiming in first person also made it just annoying.

There were also some frustrating platforming elements, and it was almost more so because the aiming and movement were sometimes unresponsive due to how the platforming was designed. There was one area where I kept dying after landing from a ramp with my hoverboots, and for some reason or another, as soon as I would land, the system would turn my character 180 degrees and have fly off the ledge and into the lava to die. This happened several times and I could not understand why it was doing it. Fortunately, the game does have frequent checkpoints to reduce the frustration, but I must admit that I did get frustrated from time to time.

Hoverboot segments added an interesting new skateboarding style gameplay element

Final Thoughts
I basically forced myself to start playing A Crack in Time after not being too impressed with the previous game, Tools of Destruction, but ultimately once the game got underway, I enjoyed it a lot. Fans of the traditional Ratchet & Clank games may actually not like this game as much due to the less interesting weapons and the addition of new gameplay elements that are not typically Ratchet & Clank. I believe they added some much needed variety to the series, but am slightly disappointed that the core gameplay (weapons and platforming) weren’t as spot on as in previous games.

Final Grade: B+

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.

Quick Summary of Major Changes
- Prestige is now at level 80 and Prestiging allows you to buy stuff at the Prestige store (such as double exp, stat resets, etc.)
- Each weapon has its own weapon level. Killing with a weapon raises its experience level, allowing you to unlock attachments, profiencies (also new to MW3), and challenges for the weapon.
- Killstreak System replaced with Strike Chain System and pointstreaks
- Pointstreak rewards are scrollable (you don’t always have to use the highest streak reward anymore) and pointstreaks restart after third poinsterak reward is earned

Weapon Proficiencies
Weapon proficiencies are sort of like “Perks” for weapons. Only one Weapon Proficiency can be put on a weapon at a time, but you can have a weapon proficiency equipped as well as a weapon attachment.

Kick – Reduced recoil (available for all weapons)
Range – Increased range (available for SMGs and Shotguns only)
Attachments – Equip two attachments (available for all weapons)
Focus – Reduced flinch when shot (available for all weapons)
Melee – Faster melee (available for SMGs and Riot Shield only)
Stability – Reduced sway (available for all weapons)
Impact – Better bullet penetration through walls (available for all weapons except SMGs and shotguns)
Speed – Faster movement with weapon equipped (available for LMGs, Sniper Rifles, and Riot Shield only)
Damage – Shells do more damage (available for Shotguns only)
Breath – Hold breath while aiming down the sights (available for Assault Rifles only)

Weapon Attachments
Weapon attachments have been present in Call of Duty multiplayer since Call of Duty 4, and Modern Warfare 3 will have some new ones added to the list:

Red Dot Sight
Suppressor
Grenade Launcher
Rapid Fire
Grip
Akimbo
Tactical Knife
ACOG Scope
Heartbeat Sensor
Hybrid Sight
HAMR Scope
Shotgun
Holographic Sight
Extended Mags
Thermal Scope
Variable Scope

Perks
Perks are back and for the most part, the same as in previous Call of Duty multiplayer games. Accomplishing the Perks tasks a set number of times unlocks the Pro version of the Perk, granting additional abilities on top of the core Perk’s abilities. Each player is able to equip one Perk from each of the three Tiers by default.

Tier 1 Perks
Recon – Explosive damage paints the target on the mini-map
Recon Pro – Bullet damage paints the target on the mini-map
Sleight of Hand – Decreases the reload time for all weapons by 50%
Sleight of Hand Pro – Swap weapons faster
Blind Eye – Undetectable by air support and sentries
Blind Eye Pro – Launchers lock-on quicker and extra bullet damage versus air support and sentries
Extreme Conditioning – Allows users to sprint for longer periods of time [Unlocked at Level 4]
Extreme Conditioning Pro – Climb obstacles faster
Scavenger – Pick up ammo from fallen enemies [Unlocked at level 39]
Scavenger Pro – Start with extra mags

Tier 2 Perks
Quickdraw – Allows faster aim down the sight
Quickdraw Pro – Recover from equipment and grenade usage quicker
Blast Shield – Increases explosive resistance
Blast Shield Pro – Increases flashbang and stun grenade resistance
Hardline – Each Strike Chain Reward requires one less point
Hardline Pro – Every two assists count as a point towards pointstreak. Deathstreaks require one less death.
Assassin – Undetectable by UAV, portable radar, thermal, and heartbeat sensors
Assassin Pro – Immune to Counter-UAVs and EMPs. Player name not displayed when enemy aims at the player
Overkill – Allows player to carry two primary weapons, but second weapon cannot have attachments [Unlocked at level 47]
Overkill Pro – Allows use of attachment(s) on secondary primary weapon

Tier 3 Perks
Marksman – Identifies enemy targets at a longer range by showing their player names at a greater distance
Marksman Pro – Longer hold breath
Stalker – Faster movement speed while aiming down the sights
Stalker Pro – Delays detection-triggered explosives
SitRep – Enemy explosives flashing red
SitRep Pro – Magnifies the sounds of enemy footsteps
Steady Aim – Increases accuracy of a weapon when fired from the hip by reducing the size of the crosshairs by 35%
Steady Aim Pro – Have weapons faster after sprinting
Dead Silence – Silences footsteps and reduces the effect of the Recon perk
Dead Silence Pro – Negates falling damage

Strike Chain System
The Strike Chain System replaces the Killstreak system from previous Call of Duty games. In those games, you were able to select your Killstreak rewards and when you killed the specified number of opponents without dying, a Killstreak reward would unlock. In Modern Warfare 3, Killstreaks have been replaced with Pointstreaks, because the developers wanted to give players the option to be rewarded for other tasks (such as objectives) in addition to simply killing without dying. I believe a kill is considered 1 point and an objective-related task is also a point. When you start Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer, you will be able to customize three Strike Packages but can only use one at a time. The rewards are also different for each of the Strike Packages, and I believe that only three rewards can be selected at a time.

Strike Package 1: Assault
If you decide to select the Assault Strike Package, this is the classic Call of Duty Killstreak system: you need to kill players without dying to unlock pointstreak rewards. If you die, your pointstreak chain resets. But like previous Modern Warfare games, the Assault class is the only Package that allows for Pointstreak killchaining. This means kills from one pointstreak count towards the next, so if you were to get two kills from a Predator Missile Pointstreak, you would then be able to use the Attack Helicopter pointstreak. Get 5 kills from that same Attack Helicopter and you can then call in the Pave Low!

Assault Strike Chain Pointstreak Options
UAV – Shows enemies on the minimap (3 points)
Care Package – Airdrop a random point streak or ammo (4 points)
IMS – The Intelligent Munitions System detects and eliminates enemy combatants (5 points)
Predator Missile – Remote control Missile (5 points)
Sentry Gun – Airdrop a placeable Sentry Gun (5 points)
Precision Airstrike – Call in a directional airstrike (6 points)
Attack Helicopter – Call in an Attack Helicopter (7 points)
Strafe Run – Strafing Run of 5 Attack Helicopters on a designated point (9 points)
Little Bird Guard – Get personal air support from a Little Bird Guardian (9 points)
Reaper – Laser missile targets remotely from the Reaper UAV (9 points)
Assault Drone – Airdrop an Assault Drone (10 points)
AC130 – Be the gunner of an AC130 (12 points)
Pave Low – Heavily armored assault helicopter (12 points)
Juggernaut Recon – Receive advanced armor via carepackage with M60E4 LMG and MP412 revolver (15 points)
Osprey Gunner – Be the gunner of a V-22 Osprey (17 points)

Strike Package 2: Support
While the Assault Strike package is the traditional killstreak system we’ve seen in Call of Duty multiplayer for the last several titles, the Support Strike package is completely new and different. The first of the major differences between the packages is that dying does not reset your pointstreak with the Support Class. This means if you get 3 kills, die, and then get 2 more kills after you respawn, you will be eligible for a 5 pointstreak Support Chain Reward if you had one selected. Another major difference is that with the Support Pointstreak kills, you cannot killchain to get higher level Pointstreak rewards. This actually works out fine due to the third major difference: most support Poinstreak rewards are not kill related. The Support Strike Package is more team-oriented and therefore more defensive based.

Support Strike Chain Pointstreak Options
UAV – Shows enemies on the minimap (4 points)
Counter UAV – Obscures enemy maps for 30 seconds (5 points)
Ballistic Vests – Deploy a bag of Ballistic Vests for your team (5 points)
Airdrop Trap – Kill enemies with a booby-trapped airdrop crate (5 points)
SAM Turret – Automated SAM turret that destroys aerial pointstreaks (8 points)
Recon Drone – Control a Recon Drone, targeting enemies for your team (10 points)
Advanced UAV – Call in an Orbital Recon that shows the position and direction of enemies (12 points)
Remote Turret – Deploy a small turret and remotely control it (12 points)
Stealth Bomber – Call in an Airstrike undetectable on enemy maps (14 points)
EMP – Temporarily disable enemy electronics (18 points)
Juggernaut Recon – Receive advanced armor via carepackage with M60E4 LMG and MP412 revolver (18 points)
Escort Airdrop – Have a V-22 Osprey airdrop and protect 4 Care Packages and 1 Airdrop Trap (18 points)

Strike Package 3: Specialist
The Specialist Strike Package is also very different from the other two packages – because it does not have any Poinstreak rewards at all. Instead, with the Specialist Package, the player gets an additional Perk (selected by the player) for every two, four, six, and eight kills. At eight kills, the player automatically gets all Perks except for Overkill (the ability to carry two primary weapons). This reminds me of Crysis 2; the player basically becomes stronger and stronger as he kills, and he himself is the Killstreak reward. Once the player is killed, all additional Perks are lost.

Deathstreaks
If you continue to get killed online without making any kills yourself, Deathstreak rewards get unlocked for you to give you a helping hand in trying to get a kill. Once you kill again, the Deathstreak counter is reset. You are able to choose from the following options:

Juiced – Gives player a 7-second speed boost upon respawning (4 deaths)
Final Stand – After lethal damage, fall onto ground but can still shoot sidearm (4 deaths)
Martyrdom – Drops a live fragmentation grenade upon death (5 deaths)
Revenge – See the position of the last enemy that killed you. Killer will appear with a bright crimson color (5 deaths)
Hollow Points – Extra bullet damage (5 deaths)
Dead Man’s Hand – After lethal damage, fall onto ground but can detonate C4 on self (6 deaths)

As you can see, Modern Warfare 3 has even more customization options for how you want to play online. Before you even start playing, you should definitely consider selecting the weapon(s) you want to specialize in, the attachments and proficiencies you want to use on them, the Perks you want to use, the Strike Package and Strike Package Rewards you want to use, and finally, the Deathstreaks you want to use. It’s a lot to take in at once, but it should be a lot of fun. See you online!

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.

Highs
The first thing that hits you when you start Batman: Arkham City is how spot on the presentation and feel for the game are. The game is dark like the more recent Batman flicks directed by Christopher Nolan, and the overall tone, graphics, music, etc. are all quite impressive. I believe Batman: Arkham City is still running on the same Unreal engine that the previous title utilized, but the scope of the game has increased dramatically and being able to grapple and fly across the rooftops as Batman would is one thrill that any superhero fan will enjoy. Being able to hear conversations from thugs throughout the city also gives it quite an immersive feel and is a nice touch.

One of the biggest criticisms I had about Batman: Arkham Asylum was the lack of unique bosses; nearly every boss encounter was pretty much 1 or 2 of the big guys that would charge at you. Thankfully, this time around in Arkham City, there’s a little bit more variety and the bosses do feel like bosses. They were a little easier than I expected, but I am happy that at least Rocksteady Studios decided to design some bosses this time around.

If you are a fan of sandbox gaming, Batman: Arkham City does it well. There’s basically always things to do, whether it’s side missions that deal with other enemies in the Batman universe, helping people, or even just going after all of The Riddler’s hidden collectibles – a fan of sandbox games can spend dozens and dozens of hours just sandboxing it up.

The Ridder seems to hog most of Batman’s sidequest time in Arkham City

Lows
Unfortunately for me, I’m not a fan of sandbox gameplay, and therefore I didn’t enjoy the game as much as I expected to when I bought the game. felt like most of the sequel’s actual gameplay outside the sandbox was not that different from Arkham Asylum, so it didn’t seem very innovative or interesting to me. Batman: Arkham City compared to Arkham Asylum feels like BioShock was given a sequel and made sandbox. While the sandbox in Arkham City was done well, I just didn’t think it was necessarily better for the game (just like I don’t think a sandboxy BioShock sequel makes for a better game either). As I mentioned in my impressions, the now “open world” field makes things more of a hassle to get to, and it results in a loss in the tightness of the first game. Of course, I’m probably in the minority when I say I don’t play Grand Theft Auto games to mess around with the city. For fans that do enjoy superheroes and sandbox, Batman: Arkham City is the ultimate superhero sandbox game.

I also felt that in this sequel, the storyline was not that interesting. It wasn’t focused enough and there were too many characters running around. I liked how the first one was primarily Batman and Joker going at it in Arkham Asylum; in this sequel you got all sorts of random characters showing up here and there and they almost feel forced in at times. In a way, the inclusion of so many characters in Arkham City reminded me of why I don’t really enjoy playing games that are licensed titles: things feels forced, there’s not enough development, and the licensing handicaps original creative ideas.

There was also just too much of a focus on Riddler content. Hundreds of hidden collectibles, Riddler riddles in every zone, hostages that you had to rescue from him, etc. Conversely, some of the other licensed characters you’d fight for just one battle and that would be it. For those that don’t care much for riddles and collectathons, you’ll be disappointed that it feels like outside the primary storyline, most of the optional stuff is chasing after Riddler’s “question marks” for hours.

Catwoman is playable in parts and you can take out enemies that look like Soap MacTavish

Final Thoughts
Batman: Arkham City is the first game I played in a while where I felt really impatient to want to have it end. To be honest, I don’t know if it’s because it’s not a good game, or because I’m starting to feel like I’m outgrowing gaming in general. Personally, I think it’s the latter. (It’s for this reason alone that I am a little concerned with my current gaming reviews and how I rate them.)

With Batman: Arkham City – I’ll simply put that if you like superheroes, Batman, and sandbox games, this is basically the perfect game for you. If you enjoyed Arkham Asylum but don’t really care much for superheroes or sandbox games, this is not a must-play game. Outside of the sandbox gameplay and mini sidequests, Arkham City doesn’t really bring enough innovation as a sequel. At many times, it felt too drawn out as you are forced to travel around the city to get to different objectives.

Final Grade: B+