Leveling Down

In Batman: Arkham City, you’ll be doing a lot of traveling – but fortunately, with some fun toys

I have so little time to game nowadays, and I’m not yet done with Gears of War 3 yet, but the combination of K-Mart offering a $30 gift card with Batman: Arkham City and reviewers going gaga over the game had me impulsively buy it. I’ve been able to sink a few hours into it so far this past weekend, and my plan was to try to beat it and trade it in quickly before switching back to Gears of War 3. But I guess it’s not going to be as quick as I thought.
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With so much going for it, Gears of War 3 is a must-own title for all gamers

As a gamer who preferred the 360 over the PS3, it’s always been kind of odd that I could never get into the 360′s most important IPs: Halo & Gears of War. With Halo, I warmed up to the series some after spending time with Halo: Reach, but I eventually sold that game because it still wasn’t enjoyable enough to me. Gears of War 3 finally succeeded in not only getting me to really enjoy it, but it has drastically changed the way I thought I would play the game. Hit the jump to see why I love this game so much.

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In my limited time so far, Gears of War 3 is outclassing its predecessors in every possible way

After finally making replaying through the campaigns of Gears of War 1 and 2, I am now able to start Gears of War 3. Talk about some waiting time eh? I might have to think twice about replaying Modern Warfare 1 and 2 before jumping into Modern Warfare 3. Regardless, now that I’ve got a chance to put some hours into the Gears 3 campaign & multiplayer, I do have some thoughts to share on it.

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Does the Call of Duty Elite membership make the Hardened Edition of MW3 worth it?

Speaking of us getting old and not having time to play games anymore, I’m sitting here typing up this blog entry in the only spare time I have when I could be playing something! But, let’s change the subject and take a break from discussing how much less time cmfl3x and I have to play games nowadays. I’m going to talk about one of the only two games I plan to buy on launch day for the rest of this year: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. I know I’m getting it, but the questions is which version: the regular edition, or the Hardened edition that is $40 more, but comes with a year of “Call of Duty Elite” included in the package (which retails for $49.99 so it would be a $10 savings). Let’s see what the heck Call of Duty Elite even is and whether its selling points make it worth the purchase for someone like me – a major Modern Warfare fan, but also a very leveled down gamer…

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Should I just play Gears of War 3 on Casual difficulty?

It’s interesting to see how much I’ve leveled down in my gaming life over the last month or so. I thought that it’d be more gradual, but it is happening all at once like flipping a light switch. In the past, I loved playing practically any non-sports game that got decent word of mouth or reviews. And as a completionist, I wanted to play several of those games to their fullest potential, which meant getting all of the Achievements/Trophies associated with those games. But now, it’s crazy to see how much my gaming tastes have changed, my outlook on the industry, and my general disposition on gaming simply isn’t like it once was. Hit the jump to see what my kind of thoughts consume me now.
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Valkyria Chronicles uniquely blends gameplay from the strategy and third-person shooter genres

Valkyria Chronicles is the next game I hit up on my slowly shrinking backlog. For those that don’t know much about this game, it’s a Japanese “turn-based strategy game” that Sega released on the PS3 back in 2008. Since then, it’s been popular enough to have spawned two sequels on the PSP, an anime series, and a manga series. I had picked up the sequel on the PSP months back, but having wanted to play through the original game first, this was the next game on my backlog. Hit the jump to see if this older PS3 game still holds up today.

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Child of Eden brings the gameplay that made Rez popular but also adds in some extreme visuals

I loved the Dreamcast. When I think back to my favorite consoles prior to this generation, my first thoughts are the SNES and the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast was beloved by many a hardcore gamer, as it featured an amazing library and one of these hits was a little known gem called Rez. As a prequel to Rez, Child of Eden was definitely on my radar, but like basically every other game released these days, I didn’t think it was worth picking up on launch day. But when Best Buy had it on sale briefly for $9.99 prior to Labor Day weekend, that was more than cheap enough for me to check out so I drove to my nearest Best Buy right after work to snag myself a copy. Hit the jump for my thoughts now that I’ve played through it a couple times.

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Yakuza 4 introduces three additional characters to play in the campaign for some variety.

Most of my gaming time over the last couple of weeks has been devoted to one game on the PS3: Yakuza 4. As someone that loves Japanese culture, I was a bit disappointed with the previous iteration in the series, but still decided to pick up the most recent Yakuza title once I found a good deal on it. I’m glad I did – while Yakuza 4 looks very similar to Yakuza 3, it’s thoroughly a better game. Hit the jump to see why.

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Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 & Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip are among the PSP’s best games

Even though I’m not a sports game fan, surprisingly, the two games that have occupied most of my PSP gaming time for the last several months are two Hot Shots games: Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 and Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip. I had never played a Hot Shots game prior to these two games on the PSP, and have now discovered how addicting the Hot Shots combination of sport and RPG can be. Hit the jump to see my quick reviews on both titles.

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Yakuza 3 brings the popular Japanese franchise into HD.

Yakuza 3 was one of the first PS3 games I played through and beat, but I never got around to writing a review on it. I recently picked up Yakuza 4, and I told myself that before I could even start playing Yakuza 4, I would finish this review so here we go. The Yakuza series is very popular in Japan, as it’s pretty much the Japanese version of our GTA games. It’s somewhat open-ended but a lot more linear and smaller in scope than the Grand Theft Auto games, but in the Yakuza games you tend to play the role of a Yakuza member who has a good heart. Yakuza 3 is the first Yakuza game on the PS3, and having never played the first two games, I’ll share my thoughts on it as a first time player of the franchise.

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