It’s been a little while now since I last gave an update on my PS3 hunt, so for today I am going to share what I’ve been up to on it for the last couple of weeks. It’s a good sign for me that I should get a PS3, because even after two weeks, I haven’t changed my mind on wanting it. Then again, part of me now is wondering if the reason why I want to acquire one so badly is simply because I can’t find one.

Anyway, if you think it was as easy as just clicking a button online or driving to a store and grabbing one, you are sorely mistaken (although, I guess it could have been that simple if I stopped changing my mind). Read on to see the ups and downs I’ve been going through these last two weeks in order to actually attain this coveted console, and I haven’t even gotten it yet!

Saturday 2/27 & Sunday 2/28
It was Gamestop that got me interested in a PS3, with their current promotions of 60% bonus trade-in credit and $120 on my refurbished Xbox 360. I drove to my nearest Gamestop that weekend carrying my 360 in hand trying to attain a PS3. As many of you may recall, I had no such luck as they were sold out at every Gamestop in the entire DC area. If I could have taken advantage of these promotions at Gamestop, I would have had to probably pay $50 or so out of pocket (stupid tax!) after trading in one of my refurbished 360 consoles and 3 games. Definitely easy on the wallet. I went home from Gamestop dejected.

Monday 3/1
I ended up grudgingly ordering a PS3 Slim off the Amazon website after I couldn’t acquire the system at Gamestop, since Amazon had a 1 month estimated delivery date. With the Gamestop promotion ending on 3/15, I thought it would be a good idea if I was just got on the Amazon list, so if I couldn’t find a PS3 in a Gamestop by 3/15, at least I could just get one from Amazon later (and tell a little white lie to my wife that I found a Gamestop that had it in stock). No tax and free shipping meant $300 flat. All was well until two days after I placed the Amazon order that Amazon updated my order to inform me that my PS3 would be delivered Monday, March 8th. I still wanted to give myself a chance to find one at a local Gamestop, so I ended up canceling my PS3 order at Amazon.

Wednesday 3/3
After I canceled my Amazon order, I spoke to my brother and informed him of my plans to buy a PS3. He then told me his launch 360 red-ringed on him the other day. I volunteered to give him one of my three 360s – in fact, the one I was planning to trade in at Gamestop. Unfortunately, that meant that if I was holding onto this 360 for my brother, I could no longer trade it in towards a PS3. That also meant I didn’t have to buy it at Gamestop. That ultimately meant…I should not have canceled my Amazon order! If only he had brought that to my attention before I canceled my Amazon order…

Since then, Amazon has not had the PS3 in-stock, so I wandered to the Newegg site. When Amazon runs out of stock, they generally just show the next affiliated retailer that has the system stocked, but Newegg has a little button that says “Auto-Notify”. It can’t hurt, I told myself as I clicked the button and entered my email address.

Saturday 3/7
With my intent to buy a PS3 clear, I also knew I wanted to pick up a couple of games that I knew would be hard to find, as they were older PS3 releases: Valkyria Chronicles and Folklore. I drove around to a few Gamestops to acquire these exclusive PS3 titles, and at least came home successfully nabbing perhaps the last copy of each from the only stores in my area. The Gamestop clerk asked me if I wanted to pre-order any other PS3 games, but I told him I would think about it later if I could find a PS3 first. I was a little bit happier though when I got home that night, since I was able to find the games I wanted to buy. It actually makes me wonder if I actually enjoy buying games as much as I do playing them.

Monday 3/8
One week ago, I was working from home, so when I got the email at 12:21PM EST that the PS3 was in-stock, I hurried to the site and sure enough it was there. But Newegg was not giving free shipping on the product, and instead had a shipping cost of a little over $12. I thought, “Sure why not – I’ve been kicking myself for not getting the PS3 at Amazon.” I ordered it, and got the confirmation. A minute afterwards, I thought, “Wait, doesn’t Newegg usually participate in Bing Cashback? I could have gotten some money back on this $300 purchase!” Going to the Bing Cashback site, I did see that Bing was giving a 2% Cashback on Newegg purchases, and for $300, $6 would certainly reduce the $12 shipping cost. So I canceled my order at Newegg, went in and tried to buy the PS3 again. Unfortunately, it was sold out. The PS3 Slim was in stock at Newegg from 12:21PM EST to about 12:24PM EST. I canceled my order to try to save $6, and there went my hopes of getting a PS3. I grumbled and hit the button “Auto-notify” once again.

I was starting to get desperate. This was the second time that I had actually ordered a PS3 and canceled it, and now couldn’t have it. I did notice though that K-Mart was running a promotion last week: “Buy a PS3 and get God of War Collection Free”. I don’t remember the last time I went into K-Mart. Still, with such a good deal, I was thinking that maybe people don’t really go to K-Mart to buy PS3s, so I drove over to check. I was actually dumbfounded to see that the K-Mart near me stocked basically all of the newest games. It had 3 copies of the God of War Collection available, but unfortunately, no PS3s. The woman said to try calling the next morning, since they may get some in then.

Later that night after dinner, I came back upstairs and checked my email. Apparently Newegg had the PS3 in stock again at 6:21PM EST. But with just my luck, everyone in my entire area lost Internet that night courtesy of Comcast. By the time I was able to finally get online again, the PS3 was sold out once again at Newegg and hasn’t returned since.

Tuesday 3/9
When I woke up Tuesday, I tried to call K-Mart multiple times to see if they got a shipment of PS3s in. I was never able to get through to their electronics department as it seems like it was really poorly managed. I was frustrated. But then a deal arrives almost from the heavens itself: Dell ran a Dell Daily Deal and was selling the PS3 Slim 120GB for $269.99, and on top of that, God of War Collection for $19.99. The problem with buying from Dell though, is the sales tax. Fortunately, Dell had free shipping, and was participating in 10% Bing Cashback. I jumped on this deal. I was a little bit annoyed that when I jumped on it, the Cashback dropped from 10% to 5%, but still, after all the discounts and everything, I was able to order a PS3 Slim 120GB model with God of War Collection for $290 shipped to my house. The bad part? Estimated delivery date of March 26, 2010. I guess I won’t get a PS3 in time for my birthday after all.

Wednesday 3/10
“Should I go check to see if K-Mart has the PS3 Slim in stock?” “Should I cancel my Dell order?” “NOO STOP CANCELING YOUR ORDERS!!” I finally told myself. And surprisingly, Dell updates the estimated delivery date of my order for the PS3 and God of War Collection to Thursday, March 11, 2010. I read on the Slickdeals.net forum that several people got notification shipments of their PS3s from Dell, and then some even said they were already holding their PS3s in their hands. Even a couple people said Dell tried to deliver two PS3s to them (?!). Still, I didn’t quite care. All that meant was that I would be getting my PS3 the next day!!

Thursday 3/11
My wife decides to work from home on Thursday. Wait, what? So does that mean she will see when the PS3 gets delivered? Hopefully not, since she is still under the impression that I am not spending money on the PS3 because I’m trading stuff in at Gamestop. How will I explain the huge Dell box at our front door? Luckily, I don’t hear a peep from her all day on the subject, so maybe I can sneak it by her when I get home. As soon as I get home, what do I see? A package from Dell that is far too small to contain a PS3 in. The thing I feared ended up happening: Dell just shipped me the God of War Collection only and updated my order status to delivered. Well where the heck is my PS3? Now I have 4 PS3 games sitting on my shelf but I can’t even play them.

Friday 3/12
I call up Dell support to get an update on the status of my PS3. I had hopes that maybe it would get delivered the next day, since many people were all saying they got their PS3s from Dell. It was not to be for me. The customer service rep (amazingly fast time to get through to customer service at Dell compared to Blizzard, btw) told me that the PS3 is backordered, and they are waiting for more stock from Sony. The expected delivery date for my PS3 is now April 14th. Wait, so when I originally purchased it, the estimated delivery date was March 26th but you updated it to March 11th for some people and dropped mine all the way back to April 14th? Grr. You’re mistakenly sending other people two PS3s at a time and can’t even send me mine? All they could say was that the PS3s went out in the order they came in as, so deep down, I know I can’t blame anyone but myself for not ordering before they ran out of stock.

Today
Yeah so anyway, I’m kind of pissed about all of this right now. I almost want to cancel my Dell order, but with my luck, it’ll probably end up being ready to ship right after I cancel it. But seriously – I have to wait an entire month from now just to get it? And the cruelest part is, the new date Dell gave me was not even for the PS3 part of my order. I’m actually annoyed with the entire Dell order process right now. Why can’t you guys learn a thing or two from Amazon? What good is your delivery estimate, order updating, and shipment notification if none of them are correct in your system?! Gah. So yeah – the wait continues. I guess that means I will be able to spend more time with Final Fantasy XIII as well as ranking closer towards prestiging in Modern Warfare 2. But the PS3 continues to slip my grasp. Of course, probably by April, there will be PS3s available in every store so it’ll be just my luck that I went through all of this only to find them in abundant supply on store shelves when I get mine. C’est la vie.

My wife and I booked a two week trip to Japan for our vacation this year, and we’re heading out there in May – one week in the Tokyo area and one week in the Kyoto area. I’ve never even been in Japan overnight (stopped over a couple times in Narita airport, but never actually went into Tokyo), so I was pretty excited. I’ve grown up playing Japanese video games, watching Japanese anime, and reading Japanese manga. So isn’t it basically the dream of a gamer (or otaku, in my case) to visit the “Land of the Rising Sun”? I thought it was, until I started seriously thinking about what to buy when we go to Japan in a couple months. I’m coming up quite short.

Growing up on video games, companies like Nintendo, Capcom, and Square Enix are synonymous with wonderful gaming memories for me. To be able to visit the country that these companies are based in is a sort of a dream come true. I’ve seen photos of people lining up before a huge game release in Japan, and in a way, I want to be able to do the same. I’ve already told my wife I want to visit the Akihabara district so I can go walk the game stores to see what they’re like. But ultimately, I’ve come to the realization that as much as I want to take part in Japan’s gaming culture, I’m just not going to be able to.

When I think about it, can I even buy a video game in Japan? What am I going to do with a game that won’t even be compatible on my American console? And what am I going to do with the fact that it’ll be entirely in Japanese? And really, is Japanese gaming as relevant anymore? Are we seeing awesome Japanese games that are not being translated into English and being released in America? There’s only been a few examples of those games in my recent memory: Shonen Jump All Stars & Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!!. If we go further back, Square did its fans a total disservice by not releasing Tobal 2 on the PS1 here in the states.

What is missing today? What can I buy on my 360 (or future PS3) that isn’t going to come out in the states anyway? An idol simulator? A horse racing game? A bullet hell shooter? To a degree, bullet hell shooters can be decent, but even if I were to find something interesting, I’m not prepared to pay like $80-$100 after the exchange rate for one of these Japanese games that I won’t be able to read. Something like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom could have been a good import, except for the fact that it actually did see release in America!

Times have changed I guess. Japan is no longer the “mecca” of video gaming, as America continues to innovate and become central. Some Japanese companies are adapting and now developing games for a global audience, which basically means: Western release. This brings me back to the original question I’ve been pondering: what can I even be excited about buying in Japan as someone that loves so many different Japanese entertainment media?

Right now, all I can think about buying are maybe some Gashapon figures (the Japanese capsule toys) of some of my favorite video game characters. But what am I? 12? I go to Japan and all I can bring back are some little toys? Of course, this is not to say I won’t be enjoying our actual trip. There are all sorts of enjoyable things to do and sites to see in Japan, but as an American gamer, I am finding it difficult to put together a shopping list of anything to bring back that is gaming relevant. If any of you readers have any recommendations on what to buy in Japan, please share!

Since I posted about Blizzard on Monday, here’s another Blizzard related entry that I have been pondering as of late. I was at Target with my wife this past weekend, and as we were waiting in line to check out, I noticed that the kid in front of me, who was probably an underclassman still in high school, was buying a 60 day pre-paid World of Warcraft card. These cards are $30, and allow the World of Warcraft account holder to play the game for two months (the monthly subscription is $15 a month to play). Three thoughts went through my mind as I saw this WoW card go down the cashier belt:

1. People actually buy these things?
2. Do I say something?
3. Should Blizzard even be selling these?

1. People Actually Buy These Things?
The first thing that crossed my mind was, “Whoa – Target stocks WoW game cards?” It was quickly followed by, “Whoa – someone is actually buying one?” Who buys these anyway? Don’t you need a credit card to activate the account? I realized though that sure enough, maybe kids too young to have credit cards do fund their WoW game-time using cash. That’s what the kid did: he handed a tightly crumpled up $50 bill to the cashier to fund his WoW timecard and a pack of gum he grabbed from the candy section of the checkout.

I was a kid once. Where did he get a $50 bill at that age? I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a job. Suffice to say, the kid didn’t look like the straight A student type either. This made me wonder if that $50 bill was being used towards the best purchase in his life at the moment. Did he skip out on meals to save up to play the game two months longer? Was he not buying school books instead? Who knows.

2. Do I Say Something?
I’ve been through the World of Warcraft. That game took up a couple years of my life and it is probably the most addicting game I’ve ever played. For those who have never played it, the reason why it is so addicting for me is because of the ridiculously strong social element involved. You meet other players in the game, become friends, start a guild together, and depend on each other every night to run dungeons since you can’t solo them alone. The dungeons award treasures that you can wear and walk around in the world and be admired by newer players (being fawned over as a celebrity, even in a game world, never gets old). In short, there is a ton of positive reinforcement to playing the game and therefore it becomes very difficult to quit.

Fortunately for me, I had already graduated college then, had a nice job on Wall Street, and was able to simply go to work, come home, eat dinner, and play the game every night. I didn’t have much else of a care in the world, and so my non-work life revolved around World of Warcraft. Guildmates became my primary form of social interaction and we would stay up late into the night having fun – perhaps too much fun. But, I had no other real-life responsibilities at the time, so it was ok. Eventually I grew out of it (once I realized how much of a time sink it was and the fact that I wanted to get married).

However, for kids in school, or even college, I honestly think that playing World of Warcraft is a very bad idea. When I was working at my job, I didn’t have homework every night. I didn’t have to socialize at school and make friends. For kids to juggle World of Warcraft with going to school, I don’t think they will end up OK. Sure, there may be a select few that can engage in World of Warcraft and still go on to become super successful, but if I had kids, I wouldn’t let them play World of Warcraft. That’s just a bet I’m not willing to take. I believe that their focus will no longer be on school but on the game, and they’ll spend many of their hours thinking about how to get further in the game rather than how to get further in life. And if they’re having a tough time at school, World of Warcraft is a perfect escape for them to run away from their problems instead of dealing with them head on.

All of these thoughts were going through my mind as I saw the kid in front of me buying the game card. It’s not really my problem if a kid wants to buy something with his own money. Not like I’m his father, his teacher, or anyone of any authority over him. But it just made me sad to see the kid buying the card. In the end, I couldn’t say anything and watched the kid walk out the door with a 60 day extension on what I felt could potentially be harming his life. That led me to my final thought.

3. Should Blizzard Even Be Selling These?
In order to play World of Warcraft, I believe you have to activate the account with a credit card. Most players are old enough to have a credit card that gets billed every month if you are an active WoW player. But Blizzard was “smart” enough to release these pre-paid game cards for players that wanted to play but didn’t have credit cards to keep their accounts active.

That makes me really think though: what gamers don’t have credit cards? Kids. They’re not old enough to have credit cards, and sure, we can blame the parents for allowing their kids to play World of Warcraft, but it would have been a lot easier if these World of Warcraft game cards didn’t exist. That way, kids won’t be trying to find some dubious way to make money to get their next month’s WoW fix. If you want to play the game, you better be mature enough to have a credit card or know someone with a credit card that is willing to pay for you. Why don’t we let kids gamble in casinos? Why don’t we let them smoke? Drink alcohol? All of these things we believe kids won’t be mature enough to make a good decision on, and while World of Warcraft is a game, I also think it’s almost something more than that.

World of Warcraft is a dangerous game to play, and while I can’t necessarily blame Blizzard for these pre-paid game cards, I just wish they thought about the implications to allowing kids to play (and get addicted) to World of Warcraft. Maybe as a business, Activision/Blizzard’s bottom line is obviously most important, but for me as an aging gamer, I do care about our generation’s future – particularly gamers, since I still am one myself. The best I can say is for any of you readers considering playing World of Warcraft, really think about what you’re getting yourself into before you start!

So coming off of Mass Effect 2, I decided I needed some more Bioware in my life, so I picked up Dragon Age: Origins to give it a whirl. I’m really digging the game and am getting pretty into it, although I still think Mass Effect 2 is the better game in my mind. Maybe that’s because every step of the way in Dragon Age I’m just comparing it to Mass Effect. I decided to jot down a few of my thoughts into writing.

Star Wars vs. Lord of the Rings
The Mass Effect universe has been compared to Star Wars (biotics = the force), and Dragon Age really feels like Lord of the Rings. I kept waiting for them to talk about Mordor and Sauron during the intro movie, which I think does a great job of setting the feel for the game. Dragon Age has dwarves, elves, and humans (sound familiar?) while Mass Effect has a wide array of alien races who all manage to speak English. For my money, both these games top the licensed Star Wars and Lord of the Rings games out there, at least in this console generation!

Silent Protagonists!?!?!
I think I’d definitely recommend both games, but I think you might want to play Dragon Age first. Why? Because there are so many awesome dialogue options, but you never hear yourself speak!! Coming off of Mass Effect, where Shepard has so many funny lines, it was a real bummer when I found out my character in Dragon Age didn’t speak at all. The lines delivered by NPCs in both games are great, but it really takes me out of the experience when I don’t speak in Dragon Age.

Micromanaging Inventory is No Fun
Frankly, I hate micromanaging my inventory, and I didn’t remember how much I hated it in the original Mass Effect until I was forced to do it again in Dragon Age. The Dragon Age inventory system is especially annoying because I don’t know what’s valuable or not! I really wish Dragon Age had the trimmer system from Mass Effect 2, but I guess it is set in olden times, so they needed to carry stuff in packs? Or something? Inventory limits suck.

Build Your Team
It’s funny that both these games revolve around gathering allies for a huge battle. Mass Effect 2 felt epic, and so does Dragon Age. The difference is Dragon Age feels like a much larger scale. In Mass Effect 2 you build a small team, but in Dragon Age you are building an ARMY. I’m really excited to see what happens in the end after I gather all of my allies: it’s going to be Lord of the Rings meets William Wallace. Epic!

Overall, I don’t think you can go wrong with either game. Bioware is quickly climbing up my list of the top developers out there!

This past weekend, I received an email from Blizzard Entertainment informing me that my account password had changed. The email went on to state that if I had requested the change, to disregard the email. But if I did not request the change, then I would need to contact Blizzard immediately in case my account had been compromised. I did not request the password change, so I got a bit worried. I tried to log onto my account on the battle.net website, and surely enough, my password was no longer valid. Someone had actually somehow hacked into my battle.net account! This freaked me out. Read on to see what transpired…

Luckily, as the account was still my email address, I was able to reset the password and log back into my account. When I logged in, the first thing I noticed was that the person who “hijacked” my account started the World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King 10 day trial. I am basically speechless that someone would do that. Does this mean that they’ve already logged in as one of my characters? Ugh.

I called up Blizzard’s customer support (and waited for 45 minutes) before actually getting through to someone. Once I did, she was able to verify that someone did get into my account, and that the person was in China. Wha? How did some Chinese gold farmer get into my account? And did they take all my moneys? How did they do that? I’m slightly concerned that this gold farmer was able to gain access to my WoW characters, but because I don’t play it much anymore it’s not as big of a deal. What bothers me is that on my battle.net account, all of my Blizzard games are registered there with their CD keys. I guess he now has CD keys to my copies of Starcraft and its expansion, Diablo II and its expansion, and Warcraft III and its expansion. Grr. At least this was before I bought Starcraft II, because that would be a problem if my Starcraft II key was compromised.

What did I do next? I ended up downloading all of the updates just to load WoW to see if the hacker did any damage (and hopefully kick them out as well once I logged in). All of this was over an hour after the password change request, and by the time I logged in, the damage was done. My main and basically all my alts were naked. Anything that wasn’t soulbound was sold and my inventory and bank accounts were practically empty. What was odd was that on my main, I had almost 1000 gold. I wondered if I really had that much when I quit playing, and if not, did that mean I took control of my account before the hacker was able to transfer the money elsewhere? I did notice a couple letters in my mailbox that consisted of something like 50 g each for the sale of Pristine Black Pearls or something at the Auction House, so it looks like the hacker put some of my stuff up for sale.

Fortunately, I think Blizzard deals with this all the time, so I was able to petition a GM and inform them that my account was hacked and all of my gear and items were basically sold. I actually thought about it for a little while if I wanted to get the GM to restore all my characters, because now I at least had nearly 1000 gold on my main. Maybe that was compensation enough? In any case, I ended up doing it because I felt that having no gear at all at that level would be too difficult if I were to want to play again.

Hours later, I got emails informing me that my characters had been restored. I logged into my main and apparently, if your characters were hacked and you lost all your gear, you get letters with gear attached to them. I think I got maybe 7-8 letters with 12 attachments each. It was pretty crazy to keep opening more and more epics. I also noticed that I had over 700 gold once my main character was restored. So what happened to all the money? Was the extra 250 gold on my hacked main a result of just all my epics being sold at a vendor? I was also surprised that the hacker had gone onto my level 2 alt that I used to store all my snowballs. Apparently they were all sold, because my alt got maybe something like 400-500 snowballs back in the mail from the GM!

In any case, looks like everything is restored, and I have changed the email and password to my Blizzard account. I still ask myself how the hackers did it though. How did they find my account? I doubt I have a keylogger installed on my machine and I have firewalls, spyware scanners, etc. I never fall for these stupid phishing scams, and I haven’t even played WoW or visited a WoW website in months. Did they just brute force guess my passwords?! And how did they get my email? I’ve never been successfully hax0red before, so this is all a little startling to me. I’ve since proceeded to try to change my passwords for every login of importance, but even then, it’s quite a harrowing task and now I need to actually implement a system for managing all of my accounts and passwords. So for those of you that are reading, I recommend you update your passwords from time to time – those Chinese gold farmers must be expanding to hacking now to try to meet their weekly gold quotas!

After about a month or so of R&R away from Modern Warfare 2, I jumped back into the game this past weekend and haven’t stopped playing it since. I had been playing Bayonetta, Brutal Legend, Band Hero, BioShock 2 (that’s a lot of B’s!), and GTA IV: The Lost and the Damned. After spending some time with BioShock 2’s multiplayer, it sort of jolted me back into wanting to play Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer. After all, why play BioShock 2’s multiplayer when I could be playing something else far superior? Here is a recount of me getting back into the game, consisting of my thoughts on how it feels to be back, and whether I have what it takes to keep up with the “kids” these days…

The Jump to Ground War
Prior to going my Modern Warfare 2 vacation, I started playing the mode Ground War, which is the mode for 9 on 9 players on a variety of maps that switch between Team Deathmatch and Domination. My friends and I started playing it just because it allowed for parties and party chat (to this day I still don’t understand why Ground War allows parties and Team Deathmatch does not). I was pretty shaken up over this mode for a while, as it was crazy and I was so used to Team Deathmatch with 5v5 or 6v6. Now I can’t put it down. I’ve converted over to Ground War, and even when I play the game solo it’s the primary mode I always choose to play. I’ve since “graduated” past Team Deathmatch and prefer Domination now, but unfortunately, there isn’t a mode that is 9v9 Domination only. Ah well.

How Does It Feel to Be Back?
My first game after the hiatus I was really timid, playing very conservatively and trying to figure out how to use my weapons. I even forgot how to swing my knife! I think I ended up going 2-2 that first match, a laughable kill/death score in a round with 17 other players. I found myself running and hiding in a corner more often than wanting to engage. But as I got back into it and continued to play more rounds, it was all coming back and I was jumping back into the game.

What’s most interesting is that in a way, I think I benefited from the time away from the game. I remember my last couple of weeks playing Modern Warfare 2 before I took the break that I was having a hard time keeping up with my opponents. I would keep changing weapons, trying to figure out what I should be using on what level and why. It may sound weird, but I felt like I lost my Modern Warfare 2 identity. I was struggling to stay among the top contributors of my team, and I honestly took the break because I had grown slightly frustrated that I hit a roadblock.

Upon returning to the game, I found myself re-analyzing the way I play the game, or really, learning new things for the first time. I was no longer in the mindset of the past and shackled down by what I had already thought I should be doing. Now I started using different tactics, and started embracing different weapons. Can you believe that prior to my break, I had never killed anyone with a Semtex grenade? I’ve come back fresh, and am willing to try new stuff.

The one primary negative behind going away for a month is that all the players I’ve encountered nowadays are some level of Prestige so they’re far more experienced than I am. In a way, while I’ve started learning new things since my return, my scores have been very erratic. But, I’ve decided to start grouping the maps into which ones I do well on, which ones I am ok on, and which ones I don’t do well on. Hopefully, this will allow me to figure out some insight on how to play better.

The Maps – My Personal Breakdown
This is a list of maps that I’m analyzing from a Ground War perspective. If you think that maybe you’re also struggling on certain maps as well, feel free to post your maps too, as this may be a good learning experience for everyone. If people are wondering what my loadouts are, I have an M-16 assault rifle loadout, an Aug LMG loadout, and a Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle loadout. I also have an SMG and a stealth loadout, but I have stopped using those for Ground War as they don’t do as well due to the large number of players.

Maps I Don’t Do Well On
Afghan – this is one of my worst maps. I still have not found a good groove to be in for this map, since I tend to have a hard time finding enemies (even on Ground War!). They always seem to be on the opposite side of the map that I’m on, and with everything being sandy, it’s quite tough to make out opponents at times. I think what makes this map more challenging to me than any of the other maps is that this one tends to have the most vertical differences in terrain. Meaning, almost always on the map, no one is ever going to be aligned at the same level as you – they’ll either be higher or lower on rocks, ledges, bunkers, stairs, etc.

Derail – I’m actually ok on this map for Domination, but Team Deathmatch I just don’t know what to do. It’s such a long map that I not only have a hard time trying to figure out which areas to occupy, but I also have a hard time finding opponents.

Skidrow – I did well on this map on regular Team Deathmatch, but with Ground War, it’s a different story. I’m not a close quarters type of player, yet in Domination, Flag B sits right in the middle of the apartment hallway and it is the craziest area of the entire map. Perhaps the map is just too small for my liking with 18 players, but in any case, I’d still prefer this map over Afghan or Derail.

Scrapyard – same issue as Skidrow. I do fine on this map with fewer people, but on Ground War, it’s just too small of a map to have any sort of tactics besides run and gun. Practically nowhere is safe, and I’m more of a medium to long range player, so this map gives me some trouble.

Maps I Break Even On
Favela – I used to have some trouble on this map, but I’ve since gotten better since it seems like several players enjoy climbing onto the tops of the roofs. I just check those roofs every once in a while and I do all right.

Terminal – The middle section of the map that you can climb up a ladder to is an ideal killing spot, as you have cover, and you can kill people that try to move through the main hall with all the windows. Get a turret up there and watch the kill count come pouring in.

Karachi – I used to dislike this map a lot, but I tend to get Domination almost every time on this map so it’s grown on me. If there’s ever a map to use an LMG on, it’s this one.

Quarry – this map is sort of in-between my don’t do well on and do decent list, as I think it’s a little too big for me. But, it seems that many players like gathering in the corner section of the map where all the warehouses are, so that seems to be a good hotzone to prepare at.

Invasion – I used to love this map on regular Team Deathmatch, but on Ground War, it’s perhaps a little too crazy for me. One game I may do well on, and then the next I’ll just get destroyed. Then again, it seems like all of the maps I tend to “break even” on follow that.

Highrise – this map is nuts with 18 people, but I tend to do all right. There’s always sniping opportunities between the two buildings, but also, if I just feel like usin an assault rifle, I tend to hang out in the area around the helicopter since you’re not really exposed to sniper fire there.

Maps I Excel On
Estate – Any map with open fields I tend to excel on, since I favor the mid to long range game. Often times I’ll set up at the small shack in the field, or even by the main mansion and just pick off opponents that try to push their way towards the house (which always happens).

Sub Base – this map is a little chaotic for Ground War, but for some reason or another, I generally do well on it. Most likely it’s because there are so many people running around the area where Flag A would be as well as the middle section where Flag B would be, so all you have to do is wait for them to come to you.

Rundown – I enjoyed this map on Team Deathmatch, and enjoy it even more on Ground War. This is perhaps the perfect map for 18 players, as it’s a small town with chokepoints across several bridges and plenty of windows that both sides can take advantage of. Being a fan of both the assault rifle and the sniper rifle, I certainly can get my fair share of kills on this map.

Underpass – I used to be ok on this map, but I do a lot better now that I’ve switched to practically using only the sniper rifle on this map. The long section on the east side of the map where Flag B would be for Domination is a good sniping area, whether you’re on the north or south side of the map. And then there’s the main windowed building in the southern central section of the map. If you’re in the building, you can snipe from the windows, and if you’re not in the building, you can try to snipe players that are in those windows.

Wasteland – another map I enjoy and excel in on Ground War. This is basically a sniper’s map, since it consists of such a large field. With a Thermal Scope, things get fun. Call in some aircraft, and watch that killcount fly.

The Future
Bad Company 2 has already come out, and part of me does want to jump into that game, but ever since my return to Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer, I think Bad Company 2 can wait. I think I jumped from level 49 to 55 over the span of this past week, so I’ve certainly been enjoying myself and do want to continue playing it to Prestige. Of course, Final Fantasy XIII comes out next week, and I hear that’s a 100 hour game. Plus, my hunt for a PS3 continues, so who knows how my Modern Warfare 2 playtime will look after this weekend. But one thing is for certain: as of now, I’m back to Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer and will continue to play it as my primary multiplayer game – unless I get into the Starcraft 2 beta. I just need to figure out how to get better on the maps I’m struggling with!

While espion4ge was busy having his heartbroken on being denied a PS3 at the last minute, I was experiencing heartbreak of a different sort: sports heartbreak. Battling a fever, I drove 4 hours to get home to watch the United States play Canada in the Gold Medal game in hockey. The game was well worth it, even if the final result wasn’t what I’d hoped. At least Canada never beats us in baseball…oh wait, they did. Whatever. I’ve more or less stopped playing sports video games, but watching hockey always makes me want to pick up a hockey title, since hockey games are my favorite type of sports game, and also because hockey video games make me nostalgic. For what? I’m glad you asked.

NES: Ice Hockey
This game was released in 1986 but is still relatively fun to this day (I own it on Virtual Console). In this 4 on 4 hockey game, you could pick to play as one of six countries: United States, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Canada, Poland, or the big bad USSR. For being such a simple game, there were some strategic decisions to be made: you could build your 4 player team (not including goalie) out of skinny guys, average guys, or fat guys. Skinny guys ruled the faceoff circle, but sucked at everything else except being fast, average guys were average, and fat guys had wicked slapshots and would knock you down without so much as a check but couldn’t win a faceoff for their life. My friends and I used to play this game a lot, and between choosing rosters, switching people in the faceoff circle, and controlling your goalie with the same inputs you were using to control your players (simultaneously), there was a lot of fun competition to be had. I miss the days when you hit A to pass and B to shoot. Also, I can make sure the US beats Canada at hockey in this super old school version!

My favorite sports game ever

SNES: NHL ‘94
NHL ‘94 is considered the best hockey game of its generation, and maybe even one of the best of all time. Although the game removed fighting from the ‘93 version (and bleeding heads), you still were able to injure players by checking them extra hard and the addition of one timers more than made up for it. My friends and I used to play this game until the sun rose, and since they used to always pwn me at Street Fighter (and still do), this was the only game I wanted to play since I stood a fighting chance. Being a NJ Devils fan, I remember using Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermeyer (who was on the ice for Canada on Sunday!) to finish my hard checks. I still remember my go-to scoring moves: wrap arounds, fake wrap around centering pass for a one timer, and rush down one side and pass to other side for one timer. This game was so famous it was even referenced in the movie Swingers. Incidentally, I had the chance to play on my friend’s SNES a few years back…over a decade later, the game is still awesome. Emulate onto Virtual Console Nintendo!!

For followers of Leveling Down, you all are most likely aware of how entrenched I am in the 360. I own three 360 consoles, probably something like 70+ Xbox 360 games, and have even bought and returned a PS3 at one point. Well, now I’m back to wanting a PS3 once again. It didn’t seriously hit until this past weekend, due to a variety of factors that have all come together to make me seriously lean towards purchasing one. And when I am seriously considering purchasing one, there is often very little to stop me once my mind has been made. Read on for reasons for my “capitulation”, my worries, and even how my PS3 hunt went this weekend.

Reason #1 – The PS3 Now Has Games I Want to Play
The PS3 exclusive library has come a long way since the days when Metal Gear Solid 4 was released on the system. When I originally bought a PS3 back then in the summer of 2008, I didn’t know what else to play after I beat it so I returned the system. Now that it’s been more than a year and a half later, there are actually games I want to play. By now, it’s probably no surprise that I tend to enjoy games with classic gameplay mechanics – and thus I tend to be among the small group of people that still favor Japanese developed games.

To a typical American, the games for buying a PS3 will most likely be Uncharted 2, Little Big Planet, and of course, the upcoming God of War III and Gran Turismo 5. While I would play those games if I had a PS3, they are not system sellers for me. The games that I’m most interested in are still Japanese developed games. I still own my copy of Metal Gear Solid 4 (signed, no less haha), but the first two games I’d actually be most interested in acquiring are Valkyria Chronicles and Demon’s Souls. These are two Japanese developed strategy/RPG games. And then I might consider White Knight Chronicles, and am looking forward to The Last Guardian coming out later this year. While PS3 owners are going nuts over God of War III this month, I’m actually interested in getting a PS3 so I can pick up Sega’s Yakuza 3, which is also releasing this month. So as you can see, the games that I want to play on the PS3 are not the typical American set of games.

Sure, I’ll go and pick up the Ratchet & Clank games, the Uncharted games, the God of War games and such when appropriate, but those games are more “filler” games for me between the serious Japanese releases. In any case, the PS3 has enough exclusive titles now that I want to give it a second chance and maybe now is the time to do so.

Reason #2 – Gamestop is running perhaps their best trade-in promotion ever
Currently, Gamestop is running two different trade-in deals that work in my favor towards acquiring a PS3:
1. Any trade-in gets a 50% bonus (+10% for Edge card holders)
2. Any system traded in towards another system gets a $30 bonus

The first one is a monstrous deal for owners of recent games they’ve already beaten. Over the past year or so, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to just keep my 360 library, and no longer sell them even after I am done with them, but I couldn’t resist taking advantage of a few “deals” that Gamestop was providing.

Left 4 Dead 2 had a base price of $29.75, which gets bumped up to almost $50 after the 60% bonus. DJ Hero was $30, and got bumped up to almost $50 as well. BioShock 2’s base price was a little lower at $25, but after the bonus, $40 trade-in credit is not a bad deal considering I bought it from Amazon for $44. I ended up trading in all three of those games (sorry for those of you that still play Left 4 Dead 2), and got almost $150 for just those 3 games. If only I had Mass Effect 2, which I believe has a base of $35, which would have gotten $56 after the bonus. $56 trade in?! Crazy.

I have a ton of other games I could have traded in as well, but stuff like Assassin’s Creed 2, Bayonetta, Dragon Age: Origins, and Tekken 6 were only getting about $15-$16 base, making them only about $25 after the bonus. The rationale behind which games I decided to trade in were almost like how I was analyzing stocks. We all know games are depreciating assets. Gamestop, for some crazy reason or another, wants to buy my copy of Left 4 Dead 2 for nearly $50. I’ve already pretty much played most of what I wanted out of it, so why do I want it to sit on my shelf for the next several months and drop in value? Why not sell it to them now, and then if I want it again, buy it later when it sells for $20-$30? I think the $25 mark or so is the turning point for me where I decide to sell or hold a game. I loved Bayonetta, and if they were going to give me $40-$50 for it, I would have sold it since I can go buy it again in half a year for half that. But if they’re only buying it for $25, forget it – the cheapest price it’ll probably drop to will be around that price, so I won’t have really gained anything from selling it now and buying it later.

In any case, I would be able to trade in three “high value” games towards a PS3 purchase. Now the hardware deal is also good – $30 bonus on any system traded in towards a PS3 purchase. I bought my third Xbox 360 Arcade for $100 these past holidays, since it was a Jasper unit and my other 2 360s had already red-ringed, been sent to Microsoft, and were now out of warranty. Gamestop is currently offering $90 for an Xbox 360 Arcade unit (bare console with no hard-drive, composite cables, power cable, and wireless controller), and the $30 bonus brings it up to $120. I realized that with 3 Xbox 360s, I could really stand to exchange one for a PS3, since the PS3 is actually a better media streamer than a 360 (PS3’s codecs appear to stream digital files noticeably better than the 360) and I would also be able to play PS3 exclusives with it. Again, I asked myself, if Gamestop wants to buy my out-of-warranty refurbished non-Jasper Xbox 360 for $120 when I bought a Jasper unit for $100, why not?

The combination of these high value games and the 360 trade-in would net me close to $300 already, which meant I was practically on my way towards acquiring a PS3.

Reason #3 – Got the Wife’s Approval
The hardest throughout all of this was of course, getting my wife’s approval. She obviously is not a huge fan of being married to a hardcore gamer (I actually hide all my games, because she would probably go nuts if she saw how many I had). With the number of games I already own for my 360, if I were in her shoes, I would never let me get a PS3. That just means more and more games and another system to get games for. Fortunately, my wife is loving and she knows it makes me happy but that doesn’t even matter. What matters is how I spun the purchase to her, which was very delicately.

Sunday morning, I sat down with my wife and was like, “Honey, we have to talk about something important.” She started freaking out and was wondering what it was, so then I broke the news to her: “I’d like to get a PS3. But wait! Let me explain!!”

I illustrated to her that I had 3 Xbox 360s, and would actually be trading in one of them for a PS3, as well as a few games I no longer played. Thus, I would not be paying much out of pocket at all for the new system. She seemed to understand, and said, “Ok – just this one time. Only because you’re exchanging one system for another.”

Woohoo! I quickly retorted though that I couldn’t accept a “just this one time”, as there could always be justifiable reasons why I would do what I would do. But did she seriously think about what she had just said? Only because I’m exchanging one system for another? It’s not like clothing exchanges or whatever girls do – this was a completely different system I was exchanging for, with its own library of games. My wife messed up. I cackled sinisterly to myself after running out of the room.

Later she told me that she appreciated that I was truthful with her about my intent to acquire a PS3. I basically blurted out that I had to (but I wish I hadn’t told her that). If my wife sees me playing the 360, she has no idea what I’m playing. I could buy a new 360 game every week (sometimes it actually feels like I do o_O) and she wouldn’t know. But if I was playing a PS3, she would definitely notice. So it’s not the approval of any game purchasing that is the problem, it was getting around the fact that she would see me holding a PS3 controller. I couldn’t avoid that, so I had to ask. But I knew she would let me when I told her that I wouldn’t really be spending any money to acquire it. It’s funny that I just need to get approval from the wife to buy a console, but in the years to come that means even more money spent on the games for it, which don’t require approval. Funny how that works out. (And, hopefully my wife never reads this entry.)

Off to Buy a PS3
All of this spanned between Saturday and Sunday, and my asking of her was Sunday morning. After she granted me permission, I drove towards my nearest Gamestop Sunday morning to trade in my 3 high-value games and my oldest 360 for a brand new PS3 slim. I got to the counter, and here is how my conversation with the clerk went:

espion4ge: I’d like a PS3 please. I have a bunch of stuff to trade in for it.
Gamestop Clerk: Sorry, we’re sold out of PS3s.
espion4ge: But, the website says you have some in stock here.
Gamestop Clerk: Oh, those are on hold for people that reserved it.
espion4ge: Oh…ok, can you see if there are any other Gamestops in the area that have the PS3 in stock?
Gamestop Clerk: The entire region is sold out man. The nearest Gamestop store that has one is probably in New Jersey.
espion4ge: When is the next time you’ll get more PS3s in?
Gamestop Clerk: I have no idea.
espion4ge: Can I get on the reserve list?
Gamestop Clerk: Sorry, we are no longer doing that.
espion4ge: Uh, ok, can I just trade these 3 games in then.

And that was it. Talk about a let down. I had gotten all excited over this past weekend to go buy a PS3, and I ran into quite a wall. I was surprised that the PS3 was out of stock all over, and when I got home, I called several of the Gamestop stores in the region to see what they would say. All of them were sold out, and one at least told me he thinks they will come in on the 26th. The 26th of March?? What the heck? I did some searching online, and found some articles from Sony saying to expect shortages in February. Great, that’s just the time I want to get it too. Even Amazon has a 1-2 month delivery estimate for the PS3.

People are suspecting whether or not these shortages are genuine, due to the PS3 selling more than Sony anticipated over the holidays, or whether they are fake in order to build up demand. Ah well, there’s nothing I can do but wait now, and in a way, it’s good that if I want to get a PS3 I have to wait a month. That gives me time to re-evaluate if I really want it.

My Primary Concern With Purchasing a PS3
Now that all systems are go and there are actually reasons why I can get a PS3 now, part of me is still afraid of getting one. It makes me wonder if getting one will actually be a step forward in “leveling down” my gaming even more. I do know a couple of people that have moved from a 360 to a PS3, to eventually not much gaming after that. Will I go down that same path?

With a new shiny PS3 sitting next to my 360, will I really be able to keep coming back to the 360 and tell the PS3 that it’s only supposed to be played occasionally and is secondary to the 360? I honestly don’t know. Part of me likes owning only the 360 so my focus is just on that, so having two similar and competing systems at this age in my life may be a big mistake. Is it honestly possible to own both a 360 and a PS3 and enjoy them both in their own ways? I really don’t know if I have that much gaming love to share around. But, I guess I have a month to think about it.

I wrote the title of this post about three hours ago. I was planning to say how Insanity Mode in Mass Effect 2 started out rough, but then got progressively easier and that I was blowing through the game, but then I just spent the last three hours on ONE mission, so I think I will back off of those plans for now.

I’ve been working through Insanity Mode on and off for about three weeks now (I took a long break when I borrowed a PS3), and in general I am finding it to be an enjoyable challenge. I’m playing it very similarly to how I played Gears of War 2’s Insane mode, staying back and using a sniper rifle. The challenges of Insanity Mode in Mass Effect 2 are using ammo wisely and micromanaging my teammates.

I actually think it’s pretty fun to set my teammates up at the optimal angles of attack and to manage their powers. Unfortunately, a lot of the battles are just boiling down to me bunkering down and picking off enemies one by one, since they don’t seem to charge forward. The only exception are the enemies that charge forward, who make life incredibly difficult.

Anyway, if any of you are trying to beat Insanity Mode, here are a few things I have learned:

- Use powers wisely; they will save you ammo
- On that note, make sure you choose the right characters for the right missions. Check the enemy types you will likely be up against and choose your allies accordingly.
- Barrier is VERY useful as an advanced training power, provided you unlocked it via a previous playthrough.
- Any enemy that is running at you to melee you must be dealt with immediately
- Conserve medigel and heavy weapon ammo
- Try not to throw your controller out the window

I had all these other ideas about what to write, but I think this game has fried my brain. If I figure out some tricks that work, maybe I will put together an Insanity guide later. If anyone has tips though, I’m all ears!

Today is President’s Day in the United States, so we’re off (and I just woke up). I’ll use today as a short entry to recommend you gamers see the film Zombieland – especially if you’re a fan of the Left 4 Dead games. Zombies seem to be popular in both films and video games, but they’ve become very popular in video games as of late and it looks like they’re also seeing a “resurgence” in film as well.

The movie is a little on the short side, but it has a lot of humor and it’s done quite well. It’s surprising that the people who created Zombieland did not mention taking any influence from the Left 4 Dead games, since it has so many things that we’ve experienced in both Left 4 Dead games. One thing that we’ve experienced in the Left 4 Dead games that seems to also occur in Zombieland is the lack of a plot. The plot for the film is not much better than the plot for either of the Left 4 Dead games. Well – maybe a tiny bit better. But all you need to really know is that these 4 survivors are trying to make their way across the United States, which is now basically Zombieland since everyone has pretty much turned into zombies.

Zombieland really is for us gamers, as the main character is the young guy on the left in the shot above and his narration is what guides us through the film. His thoughts and mannerisms are easily identifiable for gamers, as he comes up with all sorts of rules to survive such as always checking the backseat when entering a new vehicle. We even see him spending time playing World of Warcraft in his apartment before the zombie infection begins, which is a nice little touch for fans of the game.

This honestly feels like a Left 4 Dead movie. 4 survivors come together and team up to take on a zombie horde that has ravaged America, all with their own distinct personalities and traits. I don’t want to give too much of the film away, but definitely check it out if you enjoy Left 4 Dead!