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

I think I’m getting old, because it took me awhile to figure out what even came out this year. Still, I’ve managed to put together a list of my favorite games of the year. 2011 was a bit weird, I didn’t really feel like there were any new IPs that got me excited – instead it was a year filled with sequels. Well done sequels, but sequels nonetheless. Nevertheless, there were a lot of games worth playing, even if I didn’t get around to them all.

LA Noire
There were a lot of problems with this game, but it still deserves respect for introducing an amazing motion capture technology to the world of gaming. The storyline and characters varied from hokey to awesome, but overall I really enjoyed the game and found it well worth playing. Originally I was excited to see what the team could do in the future, but alas, Team Bondi is no more. Hopefully other developers can piggyback off of what they have done and continue to have characters who emote in such amazing ways.

To the Moon
Like I said in the review, you don’t play To the Moon for the gameplay. If the game DID have gameplay to speak of, I probably would have made it my game of the year. The story was just that compelling to me. It’s a short and sweet downloadable title for the PC that I’m sure few of you will end up checking out, to your own detriment!

FIFA 12
I don’t play a lot of sports games, but if you are looking for bang for your buck, you can sink hours and hours into FIFA 12 without even scratching the surface of all there is to offer. The new tactical defending really changes the way you defend and makes the game more true to the actual sport. The only down side of FIFA 12 is the lack of Champions League (whose rights are owned by PES), but with so much else to do, you (almost) don’t miss it.

Portal 2
The first Portal was so shocking in its ingenuity that it was going to be hard to top. Portal 2 didn’t quite manage that feat, but it came pretty close. The expansion of the Portal world along with some hilarious moments helped solidify this first person puzzler as one of the best in class. Valve really knows how to make their video games and Portal 2 is no exception.

cmfl3x’s 2011 Game of the Year – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
I really tried not to make Modern Warfare 3 the game of the year, but the simple fact of the matter is I sank almost as much time in MW3 over the past two months as I did into all my other games for the previous ten. I had actually hit a bit of a gaming lull before Modern Warfare 3 came out, but after release I was back to my gaming ways.

The single player wasn’t as strong as the previous two games, but the multiplayer just keeps me coming back for more. For some reason, the formula isn’t stale yet – in fact, I find it more addicting than before. I’m not sure if that’s a product of game design or changes in me personally, but either way, Modern Warfare 3 has been my go-to game since November, and thus it’s my game of the year for 2011.

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!

Regular readers of this site know I’m a sucker for strong narrative in my games. When I think about narrative driven games, Uncharted, Bioshock, and a select few others come to mind. Now, I can add To the Moon to that list, albeit in a totally different kind of way. To the Moon is a small indie game released on PC, and is an excellent piece of storytelling in digital form. I played through the entire game in four hours last night – and enjoyed almost every minute of it.

To the Moon is at its heart a science fiction story. The main characters are two doctors, Dr. Roselund and Dr. Watts, working for Sigmund, a company that dives into the memories of people on their deathbeds to give them one final, wonderfully memorable experience before they go. To do this, the story blends elements from Inception, Memento, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s a testament to the game that it doesn’t feel like plagiarism at all – it’s created it’s own world and set of science rules that make sense in context.

The doctors have a patient named Johnny, who wants to go to…you guessed it. To get him there (in his memory), the doctors get inside his head via technology, and take small steps backwards through his memories. They travel backwards in time by identifying different mementos that are important to Johnny. The game does a great job of telling the story from end to finish – with a few twists along the way.

What resonated with me the most about To the Moon was the ease with which I could identify with the characters despite never having experienced what they go through. To the Moon is an emotionally rich story, touching upon themes of life, death, love, and a whole slew of others in the middle. It also asks questions about how one values their memories, good or bad, joyful or painful. The game does all these things in a subtle way – it rarely spells anything out, instead allowing the player to make connections between his or her own emotional experience to better understand what’s going on in the game. I loved every minute of the story, and its greatest feat was I immediately wanted to spend quality time with Mrs. cmfl3x after. When does that usually happen when playing games?

The game looks like a classic 16-bit SNES RPG. The characters emote via pixels, yet they convey quite a bit of feeling all things considered. The game looks great and has a lot of artistic style, but Skyrim this is not. It’s more like Final Fantasy VI. I didn’t mind it at all, but I’m sure there are some people who would like to see a more technical product. The music more than makes up for the graphics, it’s a beautiful piano driven soundtrack that fits what is going on screen perfectly.

You’ll notice I haven’t said much about the gameplay. To be honest, I’ve been avoiding it because there’s not much of it, and hopefully by this point you’ll want to play the game enough to overlook that fact. The game is mostly pointing and clicking to make the narrative progress, with some light puzzle elements and a badly timed shooter portion. If you’re looking for a game to test your gamez skillz, To the Moon will not fit the bill. I’m not even sure it had to be a video game, but I respect the developer’s desire to use the digital medium. Also, on balance, it’s way more enjoyable than other narrative game/non-games (I’m looking at you Heavy Rain and L.A. Noire!) I’d rather have a game where there is little or no gameplay than a game where the gameplay gets in the way of the story. For the record, To the Moon has a better story than both the aforementioned.

In the end, your interest in To the Moon will probably boil down to your interest in heartfelt stories via video games. For me, the experience was near perfect – it was tragic, uplifting, funny, and meaningful along the way. Right now it’s only available via Freebird games ($12) but supposedly it’s going to Steam too. I totally thought it was worth the money – it felt like a narrative experience, almost like going to a movie or something. If you’re low on cash, you can always wait for a Steam sale! Either way, I loved To the Moon, and I hope you will too.

Final Score: A

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!

Unfortunately, I haven’t played enough new content for a new post, but I’ve been playing enough games to do a thoughts post. The simple fact of the matter is, I’m addicted to Modern Warfare 3 (50 hours and counting). The real question is, can anything change that?

Modern Warfare 3 – Still Fun
I’m about halfway through my first prestige, and I’m tempted to prestige twice for the first time ever in a COD game. In fact, I’d only prestiged in one game before this (MW2). For some reason, progress feels faster in Modern Warfare 3. Like espion4ge, I’ve gotten a really good feel for the maps (except Downturn which I’ve literally only played 6 times). I’ve also been experimenting with different perks. Recon pro definitely is good, although I still prefer not to be blown up by predator missiles (Blind Eye).

I haven’t really gotten into Special Ops at all, and single player was interesting but not as good as the first two. I just felt like the game tried to do too much, going into too many countries. I could have lived without that. Overall, I’ve definitely gotten my $60 worth out of this game – I’ve completely given up on Uncharted 3 and have to force myself to play Peace Walker. I’m even ignoring my favorite TV shows. Will the madness stop?

Battlefield 3 – A Contender?
I really enjoy the Battlefield series, especially the squad system. I remember when everyone was playing the original Modern Warfare, I liked to take breaks and play BFBC with espion4ge and another friend and I couldn’t convince ANYBODY else to buy it. Well, Battlefield 3 went on sale a few days ago and I picked it up to play with loyal reader Largelobster.

I played a game or two, but I haven’t played enough to really comment on the gameplay. It looks and sounds amazing, and at least at first glance it feels a bit more realistic. What have I been able to conclude with my brief time with the game? ORIGIN SUCKS. It is like a incredibly poor version of Steam, and I hate, hate, HATE that I need to use the web portal to boot up BF3. Worse, there are just some stupid design decisions like you have to be alive to change the settings in the game. Why!? WHY!? It’s a good thing the game looks and sounds so awesome, otherwise I’d probably just swear it off altogether. Largelobster and I are going to try to alternate between BF and MW – we’ll see if it sticks.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – A Change of Pace
I’ve been playing MGS for a change of pace from time to time. It’s a really fun game, and I can see why it reviewed so well. My only problem with the game is the length of the cutscenes. I don’t mind the length on their own – I mind that I can’t pause it! I got chewed out by Mrs. cmfl3x because we left for something late because of an overdone cut scene. Let me pause, game! It’s simple! That’s what the start button was created for!

Peace Walker reminds me how much Hideo Kojima cracks me up. Why, thank you for the cultural lessons about Costa Rica and banana farms! It’s completely unnecessary, but I love how Kojima deems that kind of stuff important enough to put in the game. Only Kojima can balance an over the top military story with fun facts. Thanks, dude!

Skyrim – Want
There are rumors that Skyrim is going on sale next week. I WANT. That is all. There are dragons to be killed!

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!

Metal Gear Solid has long been one of my favorite series (although only espion4ge has the right to say it gave him a gamertag!). I still remember watching my friend play through the entire Tanker chapter of MGS2 without even having a memory card to save on. When the new Metal Gear Solid HD Collection was released, I saw and seized the opportunity to own two of my favorite games of all time and a third game (Peace Walker) that I had never played.

Tactical Espionage Action
I played some of each of the three games included in the collection: MGS2 (Sons of Liberty), MGS3 (Snake Eater), and Peace Walker. The first thing I noted is how foreign the controls feel, especially in MGS2. It’s a bit jarring to see how far third person games have come since then (thank goodness!) Despite some quirky controls, the games still control fine, even on a Xbox controller.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Metal Gear Solid is a game based around “solo sneaking missions.” Most iterations have valued stealth over direct engagement which provides a unique experience. It’s still a lot of fun to sneak around and try not to alert guards, although it’s still as frustrating as ever to run away or fight guys when you get caught. Still, the action and gameplay is only half the experience which can be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective.

Where’s the Action?
The defining characteristic of the Metal Gear Solid series isn’t the action: it’s the sheer amount of dialogue and cut scenes you need to watch. You can literally be watching the screen for like 20 minutes at a time before you need to pick up the controller. I used to enjoy watching through all the cut scenes, but with my limited gaming times these days, it can be a little maddening to spend only half the time using the controller.

The cut scenes are pretty cool the first time around though. Hideo Kojima really can spin a good yarn and although at times the plot can be completely confusing, it’s never boring (not to me at least). My least favorite parts are codec conversations (or equivalent). It’s fun watching cut scenes, but watching two faces talk to each other for 10 minutes is decidedly less fun.

HD Action
The HD quality of the “HD Collection” seemed a bit of a mixed bag for me. MGS2 doesn’t look all that great – it definitely looks better but maybe my eyes are too used to real HD to appreciate it. I can’t really remember what it looked like on PS2. Snake Eater and Peace Walker look excellent, maybe because they looked better to begin with. The controls on those two games also feel much better and more modern.

The sound and music of these games is as excellent as ever. Metal Gear Solid has one of my favorite soundtracks of all time and these three games are no exception. It’s also nice that all the VR missions and added bonuses have been included so that I can try those out for the first time as well.

Parting Thoughts
I saw on some forum that Metal Gear Solid HD Collection is “the best deal in gaming since The Orange Box.” I think that may be true, with one caveat: you probably need to be a Metal Gear Solid fan to truly appreciate it. The amount of content you get for $50 (or $35 in my case) is astounding. Of course, a lot of that content you are required to watch as opposed to play, but hey who’s counting. You can always skip the cut scenes if you don’t want to watch them again!

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

Let’s start by calling Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary what it is: a cheap money grab playing off the tenth anniversary of the Halo franchise. With that business out of the way, let me point out what else the Anniversary edition is: a beautiful looking re-enactment of the classic that kept the Xbox alive. Surprisingly, the game still feels relatively fresh all things considered, although things that were annoying ten years ago still are annoying now. Is it worth checking out, or for die hards only?

The Highs
For starters, Halo looks great in HD. There is a neat feature where you can hit the select button and switch between the original graphics and the remade ones and the difference is stunning. I guess it should be expected considering the new hardware, but it still is a sight to behold.

Halo remains an excellent game after the last ten years. There are some great moments that still hold up after all this time. Looking back, I think Bungie did a great job – splitting Master Chief and Cortana before the Flood reveal, the various twists and turns in the plot, and other moments throughout the campaign.

Another high is the combat itself. Halo’s subtitle was combat evolved, and it really did change the face of gaming in a lot of ways. First of all, it proved that first person shooters could work on a console, of course, now they are a dime a dozen. More importantly, the combat is difficult and challenging, even annoyingly so at times. I played through the entire campaign on Normal and died way more than I should die at that difficulty level. It was a different time back then, and games have definitely gotten easier. Still, playing through Halo again made me realize how fresh and unique the combat was at the time.

Overall, the presentation is great. The music has been remastered, so that sounds good, and everything looks good as well as I said. In general, if you are a Halo fan, this is probably worth having, if only to be able to play the original game again. Of course, if you’re a Halo fan, you also know some of the series’ problems.

The Lows
I’m not sure if they were working off the old engine, but my only fault with the redesigned look is that the mouths don’t always sync up to the audio. It generally isn’t a problem because of Master Chief’s helmet, but it still should be noted.

The real lows are the things that have annoyed me about the original Halo since release. A lot has been written about the amount of backtracking in the original game, and it’s mostly true. It’s annoying! By my count, at least 5 of the 10 levels take place in the same areas. Not only are you backtracking a lot, but a lot of the levels look exactly the same. Also, I remember hating the Library (which is still awful and awfully hard, for what it’s worth), but I didn’t remember how much I hated the level AFTER that. It definitely got a little tedious in some of those middle chapters.

Since everything looks the same, it’s also relatively easy to get lost. The game has compensated for this with some markers on the ground with the new graphics, and they are VERY welcome. I think it cut down my getting lost by like 75%.

What may or may not be a low for you is the sheer difficulty of the game. As I mentioned, the combat can be quite unforgiving. Check points occur at random times, they don’t always pop up and if you miss one it can really suck to lose a significant amount of progress. Also, I’m not sure if it was due to my playstyle or due to the game itself, but I found myself very low on ammo a lot of times. It kind of made the game survival horror-y, which was cool, but it also could get frustrating. Your mileage will vary depending on the type of game you like.

Final Thoughts
All in all, I enjoyed Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary more than I thought I would. It was a nice bit of nostalgia, and the game still shines all these years later. After I finished the game I found myself on Wikipedia just reading up on some of the lore and stuff like that (it can get confusing!) Is this remake a cash grab? Most definitely. But is it worth the cash? I’d say so – and I didn’t even bother to go online to get killed by 10-year olds on Hang Em High. Actually, come to think of it, they weren’t even born when this game came out. Maybe I’ll go find them and frag them after all!

Final Grade: A-