Leveling Down

Now that I’ve beaten the campaign in Modern Warfare 2, I’ve been spending the last several days of my solo gaming time playing Assassin’s Creed II. This was a game that I wasn’t actually planning to purchase, as I didn’t love the first one (which amusingly, wasn’t a game I had planned to purchase when it released either) but I took the leap anyway. What’s interesting is, this time around, Assassin’s Creed II looks to be a much better game than the first, and a shining example of a sequel where the team addressed a lot of the negative feedback from the original.
More »

The last two big holiday titles of the year were released yesterday, and delivered to my door courtesy of Amazon. Yet, after checking out my friends list during prime time last night, it wasn’t quite apparent that these big holiday titles had arrived. Scanning through the dozen or so people online on my list yielded just one guy at the bottom playing Left 4 Dead 2, with no Assassin’s Creed 2 in sight. About half of my friends online last night were playing Modern Warfare 2, which is a pretty respectable number as the night of Modern Warfare 2′s release, about 3/4 of my friends list were playing it. I was surprised to see that even Brutal Legend got more of a spotlight than either Left 4 Dead 2 or Assassin’s Creed 2 last night among my friends. Maybe Left 4 Dead 2 won’t ruin the holidays for me after all and I’ll still have people to play it with when I get to it later.

More »

Barring the somewhat mixed reviews describing the game as being too expensive for what it is for some people ($60 for a 4-5 hour campaign, a Horde mode,and 3 new multiplayer maps), Halo 3 ODST most likely still had phenomenal day 1 sales. How do I know? Just look at my online friend list the night of Halo 3 ODST’s release!

I’ve been slowly making my way through the campaign so far, and I’m actually digging it more than previous Halo campaigns. I’ve yet to figure out why besides its accessibility, but I’m sure after more time with it I’ll know. Still, I admit that I am somewhat shocked to see the “foothold” it has on the 360 community. I’ve yet to play a game where I look on my friends list and everyone online is playing the same game. The only other game that has potential to dominate my friends list on release day like Halo 3 ODST is Modern Warfare 2 - but even then, Halo seems to be a more uniting game for 360 owners than Call of Duty.

A recent poll conducted by OTX indicates that only about half of the Halo 3 ODST purchasers plan on picking up Modern Warfare 2, although I’m surprised that almost half of them are interested in Assassin’s Creed 2, a sequel to a single player game I found a tad repetitive. I guess I’ll just have to see on November 10 what happens to my friends list that night, so don’t let me down Modern Warfare fans!

This friends thing really is some good viral advertising for 360 games as well. I’m glad I’m a part of the club that is playing this game on release day, and if I didn’t have it, I would feel totally left out seeing everyone playing it last night. Here’s to hoping for some good Firefights and online multiplayer in the immediate future…

Oh, and don’t forget to download the free Halo 3 ODST Premium Theme if you haven’t already!