I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of BioShock 2 – I was amongst the camp that felt the original was nearly perfect and figured a follow up was a cash-in that might ruin the franchise. I finally picked the game up when it was on sale for cheap around Christmas, and finished it last week. Wow, was I wrong, I really love the gameplay in BioShock and thoroughly enjoyed the sequel. espion4ge already reviewed the game way back when though, so I picked up the Minerva’s Den DLC (also on sale) and gave it a whirl. Another cash in, or worth it? Hit the jump to find out.

BioShock 2 in a Neat Little Package
There’s a good amount of content in Minerva’s Den. It’s not a tacked on side mission nor a short trip to get another character (ahem, Mass Effect). Minerva’s Den is a stand-alone story, complete with its own plot and characters. There are one or two characters from the main storyline, but for all intents and purposes, Minerva’s Den could be described as an XBLA-sized BioShock game. It took me about five or six hours to finish, which is a good amount of content for the price (and a steal at the $5 price I paid).

In a lot of ways, the storyline in Minerva’s Den is better than BioShock 2′s. It was a bit more unexpected for me, and I had that feeling of “what is going on here?” that I enjoyed so much in the first game. The story is nicely fleshed out by audio diaries as always, and the ending has a really nice payoff. I appreciate that the plot was well thought out – it feels like 2K put a lot of love into the game. I don’t really want to spoil anything, but you are Subject Sigma, another Big Daddy, and you are receiving orders (as usual) in order to get Rapture’s genius computer system up to the surface. The DLC is basically made up of two levels, plus a boss level at the end. Pretty substantial!

New Additions
Minerva’s Den features a new additions to BioShock 2. There is a new plasmid, Gravity Well, which is pretty cool. It essentially allows you to create a black hole that sucks splicers into it. It’s also used to open up some doors in the game, although that is mostly unnecessary. I think they put them there just to encourage you to use the plasmid (it’s pretty useful).

Another new addition to the game is the infernal brute splicer, who is just as tough as he sounds. They are stronger than regular brute splicers and give you fire damage when you melee them. Yikes. They also tend to show up when you are defending a little sister who is harvesting Adam, so that makes it even tougher. Sometimes Alpha Daddies come in too. It’s a lot of fun.

Final Thoughts
Like espion4ge said in his BioShock 2 review, if you enjoy BioShock gameplay there is a lot more of that to be had here, and it’s much improved. I thought Minerva’s Den had a strong story though, something that BioShock 2 couldn’t boast of. It’s a condensed version of BioShock 2, one that you can play through in an afternoon if you’d like. It’s long enough to have a nice payoff at the end and I felt happy with my experience. Personally, even though I prefer Mass Effect 2 as a game, I thought Minerva’s Den was better than Lair of the Shadow Broker (they both cost $10). It’s essentially a standalone game, so it’s a shame it wasn’t released separately like Dead Rising 2: Case Zero or Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. Still, if you have a BioShock 2 disc, Minerva’s Den is well worth your time. If you can get it for $5, it’s a solid A.

Final Grade: A-

Our Awards & Holiday Shopping Guide are just about done, but today I get to talk about some of my favorite categories. Which stories really stuck with me this year? What new IPs are out there that might stand the test of time? And how do all the sequels this year stack up? Hit the jump to find out!

Best Story

Mass Effect 2
Alan Wake
Heavy Rain
Red Dead Redemption [winner]
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Fallout: New Vegas

I really enjoy the stories in games, and this year had a few good ones. Mass Effect 2 didn’t necessarily live up to the story of the original, but I still enjoyed the story a lot. Even though it was mostly about building up your squad, I found the back stories and personalities of each character very compelling. Mass Effect 2 isn’t the greatest story, but it’s still an enjoyable ride, and the last mission is a great payoff.

Alan Wake almost won this category, until we realized the ending was a bit cheesy. It’s too bad, because this story about a horror fiction in a creepy lake town had all the makings of a real winner. The ambiance, the twists and turns in the story, and the premise are all great. It’s just too bad the “twist” at the end is a little too cliche. Still, Alan Wake is a story worthy of Stephen King.

I loved Heavy Rain and was seriously considering picking it as the winner as well. Then I started thinking about it more, and realized that if this is the STORY category, Heavy Rain just has too many plot holes to win the category. It’s still a great story, but there is a website out there that points out all the plot holes (Google it if you’re interested). I really enjoyed searching for a serial killer and the dark story – it’s just…did I mention plot holes? As a game, though, the plot holes are kind of fun!

At first, Red Dead Redemption seemed like a long shot, but I eventually decided to give the game a try. I’m glad I did, and Red Dead Redemption ended up winning Leveling Down’s Best Story award. Red Dead Redemption is a great……redemption story, one with a cool main character, a unique old school western world, and a lot of fun side missions. GTA IV kind of wore on me at the end because Niko’s character rang hollow – I don’t feel the same way about John Marston. The story keeps you wanting more, and the ending really tugs at the heart strings.

My runner up in this category is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Red Dead Redemption is a deeper, more nuanced story. Enslaved is a summer blockbuster. The story is a fast and action packed ride that never stops. You are moving from locale to locale, set piece to set piece as the game just barrels on towards it’s conclusion. It’s a lot of fun: the popcorn flick of this year’s crop of video games.

Not surprisingly, Fallout: New Vegas rounds out the nominees in Best Story. Obsidian, the makers of the original Fallouts, did an amazing job with the story. They have taken all the great things in Fallout 3 but improved on the story. New Vegas involves a series of different warring factions and you have to decide where your loyalties will lie. It’s a lot of fun and feels a lot bigger and graver than Fallout 3′s story: that’s a great thing.

Best New IP

Bayonetta [winner - tie]
Darksiders
MAG
Heavy Rain
Alan Wake
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West [winner - tie]
Vanquish

It was actually kind of tough to come up with a winner in this category. As espion4ge has mentioned, 2010 kind of feels like the year of the sequel.

espion4ge chose Bayonetta as his winner in this category. He absolutely loved this game, and this is what he had to say about it:
When I think of the Best New IP category, I think of the game that I would like to see a sequel from moreso than any other. Since Bayonetta was my favorite action/adventure game of the year, I can’t imagine anyone being surprised that this is the game I would love to see a sequel from most. The game had what I considered perfect gameplay design, oozed a sexy style in its female protagonist and combat mechanics, and has set the new bar for action/adventure games. If other current action/adventure games matched the level of gameplay that Bayonetta provided, I wouldn’t be as zealous to play a new Bayonetta sequel. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to see anything out now or on the horizon that can provide this old-school hardcore gamer the thrills and highs that Bayonetta could. Even if the sequel has a storyline as non-coherent as the first, with the gameplay so good, I won’t even care. Now Platinum – please release a sequel!

Darksiders feels like a Zelda knock-off, but in a good way. The game feels like an homage to Zelda, but a worthy game in and of itself. Even though it feels like Zelda, the premise is very un-Zelda: in a post-apocalyptic world, you play as one of the four horsemen in the apocalypse. Instead of killing weird things that shoot rocks out of their mouths, you are killing angels and demons. Anyway, Darksiders is a lot of fun and a nice little new IP.

MAG (Massive Action Game) is a super ambitious first person shooter on the PS3 that almost lived up to the hype. It allows up to 256 players to duke it out in massive battles. More interestingly, there is a promotion system where you can work your way up from a grunt to a commander who oversees squads in battle. It takes unlockables in a new direction, and a sequel should be coming soon.

Now while the story was riddled with holes, Heavy Rain as a whole is an amazing new IP. Quantic Dream billed it as interactive drama, and it stands as one of the most unique games released this year. The control scheme makes a player really feel like a part of the action, and the different ways that the story can play out really make your decisions feel weighty and important. I doubt there will be a sequel (it wouldn’t make sense), but I’d love to see another game in this vein released.

Alan Wake is also a great new IP, and the story was continued through various DLC offerings. I’m pretty sure the series could still sustain a sequel, although there’s not much more for me to say that I didn’t say in Best Story.

My winner in this category is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Besides being a popcorn flick, this game is also a lot of fun. The gameplay is pretty simple to pick up, but deep enough not to get boring. It also takes place in a unique post-apocalyptic world, a completely different world than Darksiders. I really hope this game gets a sequel, but I don’t know if it has the niche following that Bayonetta does – my fingers are crossed!

Rounding out this category is Vanquish, a third person shooter that takes place in the future (but not post apocalyptic! Seriously, what is with the future!?) You have an awesome suit. You fight Russians. DARPA is involved. It’s kind of like Metal Gear Solid, minus sneaking and extended cut scenes but plus Gears of War type action. The game has kind of flown under the radar, but with mostly positive reviews, it’s worth a look.

Best Sequel

Mass Effect 2 [winner - tie]
BioShock 2
Dead Rising 2
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Civilization V
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner - tie]

To start things off, here’s espion4ge:
How does one decide on the best sequel for a game among this year’s so many sequels? I like to think of a Best Sequel as a sort of “Most Improved” award. What sequel among this list of nominees has considerably improved over its predecessor? While all the games in this category are good in their own way, some of them are arguably not better than their predecessor. Mass Effect 2 is a definite huge improvement over the first one. In my review of the first one years ago, I was actually not a huge fan of the game at all. The storyline was interesting, but the game itself was short, the scope of the world was tiny with mundane optional planets to drive around, and the Achievements were poorly designed (how many times am I supposed to go through this game?). Bioware listened to all of the negative feedback from the first game, and fixed every issue I had with the original game – making the sequel an amazing product. The game is lengthy now, the galaxy feels a lot more vast, there are new characters to recruit, and even the choices you made in the first game affect the sequel – something that I have not ever seen done before to this degree. In short, Mass Effect 2 is the best sequel of the year and I applaud the developers for learning from the first game.

People weren’t sure that Bioshock 2 should even have made, but in the end it turned out pretty well. Even though it couldn’t top the story of the original, subtle tweaks to the gameplay and plasmids along with a brand new protagonist AND antagonist combined to make a game that drew on all the great aspects of the first. Thus Bioshock 2 is a solid sequel, it isn’t a major improvement but it didn’t feel like a cheap cash in either.

Dead Rising 2, on the other hand, did feel a bit like a cash in. Ameliorating that feeling is the fact that the original came out like four years ago. Dead Rising 2 is one of those sequels that feels exactly like its predecessor, for better or worse. It’s still the same zombie killing fun you remember from Dead Rising, but it also contains a lot of the same glitches and bad design choices as well. It’s a game for fans of the original, but I’d personally recommend Case Zero.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, feels like a major expansion pack to Assassin’s Creed 2 – an awesome one. You get to gallivant through the one major city in Italy you missed, Rome, while advancing the story and setting things up for Assassin’s Creed 3. The combat has been streamlined for the better – one of the few things I didn’t like about Assassin’s Creed 2. More importantly, there is this awesome new guild of assassins that you can use to do your assassinations for you. How is that not a winner?

Of course, a list of best sequels wouldn’t be complete without the token Call of Duty game. Treyarch seems determined to get out of Infinity Ward’s shadow, and Call of Duty: Black Ops is their best Call of Duty game yet. With an interesting single player and a slower but more balanced feeling multiplayer, Black Ops is a solid entry in the series. I wish they could have included SpecOps, but with so much to do on one disc, it’s tough to complain.

As espion4ge pointed out elsewhere, if you are interested in jumping into a time machine and traveling 24 hours into the future without knowing where the time went, Civilization V is your best bet. The game has become more user-friendly and accessible and is still just as addicting. What that pretty much means is that you’ll get addicted faster. Civ V is THE turn based strategy game, and you could feasibly get by playing ONLY Civ V for the next year.

Speaking of games you can play for one year straight, my winner in this category is Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. Although it feels a lot like the original, Blizzard has made a lot of tweaks for a better experience. The interface has become easier to use with “smart” groups, making the gameplay more accessible and less frustrating. The addition of the Wing Commander-esque navigation menus between missions is a lot of fun, and the story is great and ends on a nice cliffhanger. The only thing bad I have to say about Starcraft 2 is that it gets me in trouble with my wife. It’s difficult for me to pay attention to her when my allies are in combat!

As someone that is a big fan of gaming in all of these categories, I’ll be presenting the best shooter games, games with the best gameplay, and the most addictive games of this year. See if you can guess the winners before the jump!

Best Shooter of 2010

MAG
BioShock 2
Halo: Reach [winner]
Medal of Honor
Vanquish
Call of Duty: Black Ops

MAG was the first major shooter released this year as a PS3 exclusive, and came from Zipper Interactive, the team behind the Sony exclusive franchise: Socom. The primary unique differentiator between MAG and other FPS games is its 256 player matches. While traditional multiplayer shooter games are 4 on 4 to 8 on 8, 128 on 128 completely blows it out of the water. Unfortunately, the sheer scope of the game highly encourages team play and objectives – something that gamers seem to have a hard time grasping these days. Combine that with the fact that once you pick one of the three factions in the game and you’re stuck with them for the rest of your MAG career and we can see why MAG didn’t quite live up to its hype. But, if this does sound interesting for you as a PS3 gamer, consider checking it out.

Shortly after MAG was released, BioShock 2 made its way to the masses. I was a huge fan of BioShock 1, picking it as my Game of the Year in 2007 over Call of Duty 4. It was basically a perfect game with a fitting end. Yet, most likely because the statistics showed far more people having played BioShock than the number of sales, Take 2 decided to put together a sequel with multiplayer in the hopes that more people would hold on to their copies of the game. Unfortunately, while the core BioShock 2 campaign is enjoyable and brings more BioShock gameplay for those that couldn’t get enough of the first, its multiplayer and even its relevance aren’t quite good. If you want more BioShock, definitely give BioShock 2 a look since it’s only $20 now and is a lengthy adventure. But is it necessary? Definitely not.

Halo games traditionally launch in the Fall and mark the beginning of the holiday season. Halo: Reach was no exception, and unlike Halo: ODST last year, Halo: Reach delivers the most engrossing experience for a Halo game to date: a campaign, Firefight, and multiplayer. While its campaign is a bit weaker than previous iterations of the game, as a whole – Halo: Reach is the pinnacle of the Halo series to date. Of course, the game is not an overhaul as much as it is a refinement of the series, so for those that never enjoyed Halo or have gotten sick of traditional Halo gameplay – you may want to avoid this one. But even with me as a Halo “non-fan”, I can appreciate the amount of effort Bungie put into their last Halo game – and the game rightfully deserves the place of Best Shooter of the year.

Medal of Honor is EA’s reboot of the franchise, and while it isn’t quite good enough for cmfl3x or I to have picked it up just yet, it can be enjoyable for the right type of shooter fan. First off – the game’s campaign is decent and seems to be getting praise. It’s the multiplayer that seems to really alienate the shooter user base. First off, keep in mind that the Medal of Honor multiplayer is not by the same team that did the campaign – it’s by DICE, the team behind the Battlefield and Battlefield: Bad Company games. DICE was riding high off of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and its strong team-based gameplay, but they decided to make Medal of Honor’s multiplayer a hybrid of Battlefield and Call of Duty style mechanics. This worked out to displease strong fans of both Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare 2, but for some the combination was actually quite enjoyable.

It’s very rare for a non-Western shooter to be good, but it seems like many gamers besides me love Vanquish. Vanquish is a unique shooter that straps the player into a jetpack-like device, allowing you to slide, dodge, and slow down time as you run and gun your way through the game. The gameplay never seemed that amazing to me, and combined with its short 5 hour length was enough for me to hold off on buying it for now. But, critics and fans seem to really dig it – so here’s a game that I didn’t really think was too hot but I’ll probably check it out when I can get it cheaper.

The final, and biggest shooter of the year comes out last: Call of Duty: Black Ops. In this four year since the Call of Duty series rose to prominent fame, we have another Call of Duty game that does do nearly everything right to satisfy the shooter fan: an interesting and engaging campaign, co-op through an infinite zombie mode, and a more balanced and refined multiplayer experience. The biggest negatives going for it though are that it’s the 4th Call of Duty game in as many years in a row, and it doesn’t quite deliver as an overall package compared to last year’s Modern Warfare 2. But for those that still can’t get enough Call of Duty, Black Ops delivers and is only slightly bested by Halo: Reach this year in the shooter category.

Best Gameplay of 2010

Bayonetta
Super Street Fighter IV
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]
Civilization V

As a hardcore gamer, gameplay is the most important feature a game can provide for me. Each of these games I am about to describe are simply at the pinnacle of gameplay for their respective genres through a proper combination of input, feedback, challenge, skill, and enjoyment. For a game to even be considered on this list, it follows a very important requirement: easy to learn, hard to master.

Bayonetta is the pinnacle of action/adventure gameplay design, and something that I hope Western developers will eventually get to understand. The feel of combo-ing several enemies in a room, watching your rating go up, performing finishing moves with over-the-top theatrics, slowing down time as you dodge attacks and counter opponents into oblivion all require a certain amount of skill to pull off. You can’t just hit one button over and over again like Western action/adventure games, and one thing that Japanese action/adventure gameplay design has over Western action/adventure gameplay design is that you personally feel like the badass, not the weapon you are holding. For games like Bayonetta – the weapon is irrelevant as you could be wielding a toothpick and still kick butt. Bayonetta can be so daunting, but when you get it, you don’t wish for the game to ever end.

The Street Fighter games have come long way. Even with the move towards more complicated gameplay elements in games like Street Fighter III and Capcom vs. SNK, Street Fighter IV (and Super Street Fighter IV as a result) brings the gameplay back to its roots. The gameplay is not overwhelming enough that it turns away less hardcore fighting game fans, yet is not underwhelming or imbalanced enough to drive away the more hardcore fighting game fans. In short, it may very well be the fighting game with the most perfect gameplay design – making it sit right here among this year’s nominees. Of course, it’s a bit cheating to consider Super Street Fighter IV as a game of this year, as it is more an expansion to last year’s Street Fighter IV so it gets some points deducted when considered for the winner of this category. But, with the amount of content put into the game, it is worth every penny.

So far on this list, we have a nominee that is the pinnacle of action/adventure gameplay design, and another that is the pinnacle of fighting gameplay design. It should be of no surprise to anyone then to see Starcraft II weighing in as the pinnacle of real time strategy gameplay design, and winning the category altogether. Starcraft I was released over 10 years ago, was perfectly designed, and became a sport in Korea with several TV channels dedicated to the game. What other game has people clicking everyone as fast and as much as they can in order to raise their average APM (actions per minute) in order to become better Starcraft players? Starcraft II’s gameplay had a lot to live up to and did not disappoint. Starcraft II has taken gameplay from Starcraft 1, added in innovative new units, buildings, and gameplay elements, all while still preserving the Starcraft look, feel, and balance. Like Street Fighter, Starcraft II is played very competitively, but can be enjoyed on so many levels. Starcraft II is the most entertaining game released this year to simply spectate – I can watch replays of matches for entire days and not miss a beat. It’s this level of gameplay that makes it worthy of winning the Best Gameplay award of the year.

While the gameplay of Super Street Fighter IV and Starcraft II have elevated both games to international competition, Civilization V makes the list of nominees for Best Gameplay purely due to how well it plays for a turn-based strategy game. Every new Civilization game is met with great fervor and acclaim for good reason: they are remarkably designed. Save for the arguably iffy AI, Civilization V introduces several new gameplay elements to the series such as the switch to hexagonal grids allowing for six sides of attack, and the removal of the ability to stack units on the same tile. These major gameplay changes combined with the Civilization polish have strategists learning the game all over again and enjoying every minute of it.

Most Addictive of 2010

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]
Halo: Reach
Civilization V
Call of Duty: Black Ops
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

What a surprise: Starcraft II wins another category on this year’s 2010 list. This time around, cmfl3x and I both easily voted for Starcraft II as this year’s most addicting game. (I think I’ve logged over 200 hours into the game myself.) There are a combination of features in Starcraft II that make it so addicting. The first off is that its gameplay is just so well designed that you want to keep playing it. The beginning to the end of a game of Starcraft II is so much fun to play that you’re ready to play another one right behind it. On top of this, Blizzard has set up matchmaking and leagues for levels of play, enabling all players to get competitively matched with players of their own skill level – making each game quite thrilling and interesting. The final “nail” on the coffin that can suck you in for Starcraft 2 are the Achievements and Portrait unlocks. Starcraft II has a huge Achievement point system just like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, drawing players in to do various things in both the single player and multiplayer game to increase their Achievement score. Then there’s the portrait unlocks that you also get for completing various challenges in the game online and offline, as well as wins in particularly multiplayer modes. Just the gameplay would have been enough for the game to be considered among this year’s most addictive, but everything else just brings it to the top.

I speak from firsthand experience when I say that Halo: Reach is addictive. After all, I’m not even a Halo fan but I just kept playing it. The reason? Challenges. Halo: Reach’s tiny addition of Daily and Weekly Challenges and a revised leveling system that takes into account cP gained from all modes of play as well as Challenges completed had me like a dog jumping through hoops to acquire those delicious Challenge bonus cP. The Challenge system opened up the game for me, persuading me to try new modes or things I would generally skip over otherwise. But yes – I will admit that without the new cP leveling system and Daily/Weekly Challenges, I would have stopped playing the game much sooner than I did.

A Civilization game being nominated in an “addictive” category is about as surprising as a McDonald’s serving french fries. Unlike the other games in this category, Civilization V is one game where if you are not watching the time, you could miss out on sleep entirely. It’s not hard to see why a game that allows you to build up and empire and rule the world can be considered addicting. The biggest problem about the game is the whole “one more turn” desire. When do you stop playing? After you sit for several minutes analyzing the current landscape to make a move but quit so that you don’t get to see what happens as a result of the move you planned to make? Or how about after you’ve made a move, and then you see all of the other nations responding to your move. Do you quit then without getting to react? How can you quit this game at all?!

While Call of Duty: Black Ops is not as addictive as last year’s Modern Warfare 2, it still follows the new Call of Duty formula of playing online, earning points for killing opponents or completing challenges, and then leveling up to unlock new items and gear. The concept of playing an enjoyable game to unlock more stuff is always going keep people addicted, and Call of Duty: Black Ops has enough of this going on to land itself in this year’s nominee list. Unfortunately, it may be among the least addictive games in the Call of Duty series, either due to features lacking compared to last year’s Modern Warfare 2 or the fact that the series itself is just getting stale. I liked leveling up to unlock stuff 4 years ago – but why am I doing this again for the fourth year in a row?

One game that cmfl3x and I did not want to mention on this list but I feel like the list would not be kosher without it is the new World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. I almost don’t want to consider the World of Warcraft game and its expansions in the gaming category, as the franchise is more like a drug than a game in how addicting it can become. Of course, many ex-World of Warcraft fans thought the original core game was fantastic and that these subsequent expansions have never been able to restore the glory of the primary game, but I don’t see how Cataclysm won’t be enough to hook in current World of Warcraft addicts. It’s hard to evaluate this game as it’s just throwing more content for the World of Warcraft player – who would already be addicted to the game should this expansion have never come out. Regardless, I highly recommend avoiding this expansion and the entire game if you want to actually see daylight and have some real world responsibilities but for those in the hole, might as well enjoy more content!

I beat BioShock 2 about a week ago, so this review is a litle bit overdue. Of course, if you’ve been following my gaming exploits as of late, you’ll know that I’ve been currently enamored with acquiring a PS3 and have already traded in my copy of BioShock 2 to help fund its purchase. Perhaps me getting rid of the game might be a strong indication of it not being a good game, but that’s not quite true. At the right price, I think anyone is willing to sell anything. If I were offered $25 for it, I would have kept the game, but read on for why I felt BioShock 2 deserved to be sold for $40.

The Campaign – Now That I’ve Completed It
If you’ve already read my initial impressions about the game, you’ll probably aware that I looked at it favorably, but also felt that the game seemed a bit unnecessary due to its storyline. Now that I’ve completed the game, I can fully state that my initial impressions were on target.

The primary positive aspect of the sequel is that it plays just as good as the original. The new development team behind the sequel was very successful in capturing the gameplay mechanics and overall feel of the original game. Fans of the original will enjoy this game and be able to get right into it. The game is also as lengthy as the original – and clocked me in at maybe about 20 hours (there is no Rainbow Six Vegas letdown here with the original campaign going for 20 hours but the sequel going for 6). Of course, part of me can’t help but wonder how many of those 20 hours of “gameplay” was me scrounging around in trashcans and shelves looking for items. This isn’t really any different from the first game, but maybe the BioShock series as a whole can be subtitled “Garbage Sifter” since I feel like I’m doing that for a good amount of time in the game. And of course, the annoying part about it is that often times all of the items you find you’ve already hit the max capacity for ammo or money you can carry, so you can’t even pick it up. But, overall, these quibbles of mine are more minor complaints of the series as a whole rather than the sequel. The bottom line from a pure gameplay standpoint is that the BioShock 2 campaign is enjoyable and plays quite similarly to the first game, which I considered game of the year. For fans of the original that want more BioShock, this game will not disappoint you from a gameplay standpoint.

The main negative of the sequel is that the storyline and environments are just not as interesting as the first. The sequel feels a bit forced, as it’s like “Hey, it’s 10 years later, and many people are coming back to Rapture again and there are Little Sisters running around all over the place!” Even the primary “villain” in the game is bland and boring. So from a pure immersive feel, the campaign seems to lack the soul of the former. In comparison, I felt that the Modern Warfare 2 campaign was excellent and continued the premise set forth by Call of Duty 4′s campaign. Not so much here in BioShock 2. The game is enjoyable since you’re still using plasmids, controlling turrets, finding different ammo types for your various weapons, etc. There just doesn’t seem to be much of a reason for you doing so. It’s certainly not like the first game where you feel this sense of urgency and discovery guiding your actions.

Multiplayer
Considering I sold the game already and jumped back into Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer, that’s probably a nice indication of how I feel about BioShock 2′s multiplayer. While it mimics the Modern Warfare level up and customization system, substituting plasmids for perks, it’s still not that great. I played a couple hours and leveled up to 11, and felt that I wasn’t digging the game.

So why is this game not as good as Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer? First of all, I believe that BioShock’s game engine in general is not particularly well suited for fast paced multiplayer gameplay. When put into such a frenetic system, the game engine just doesn’t hold up. You feel sluggish in moving, and it takes a lengthy amount of time before you can actually kill someone. Unlike Modern Warfare 2′s design of “who shoots first often wins”, BioShock 2′s mechanics seem to borrow more of Halo 3′s design of “if you’re shooting someone in the back, they can still turn around and kill you before you’ve fully unloaded your clip into them”. Of course, Halo 3 is popular, so there are plenty of fans out there that like this “dance” that two opposing players can get into before someone emerges the victor, but as a more tactical player and less of a twitch player these days, I prefer first strike having the major advantage. Due to weapon damage being reduced, it’s just not possible. I found it frustrating that after unlocking the grenade launcher, I would shoot one and it would only take out half the life of my opponent, and while I was busy reloading the second round so I could make the kill, I would get shot to death. It’s a freaking grenade. Come on!

I did enjoy a couple of the unique multiplayer modes that BioShock 2 offers, since they make use of the Little Sister. In this game, the Little Sister often represents the flag for the various modes, and while many of BioShock 2′s multiplayer modes are already present in Modern Warfare 2, the Capture the Sister mode was pretty innovative and one of the more refreshing and enjoyable modes I spent some time playing. In this mode, the two teams get split into the Attackers side and the Defenders side. The Attackers objective is to get to the Little Sister, pick her up, and take her to an ‘extraction’ point. The Defenders are tasked with preventing it from happening. At the same time, one of the Defenders always randomly spawns as a Big Daddy. Any time a Little Sister is captured, the Attacking team scores a point and the two switch sides for a few rounds before the match is concluded. The mode really requires a lot of teamwork, because not only is distracting/taking down a Big Daddy an immensely difficult task, but the Defenders are all pretty much camping in the room that the Little Sister is in so the Attackers really have their work cut out for them.

Unfortunately, Capture the Sister was not enough for me to want to continue playing BioShock 2′s multiplayer. It’s functional, but like the campaign, it’s lacking something that really draws you into it. What happened for me was that after playing BioShock 2′s multiplayer, I gained a reinvigored interest in playing Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer and am loving it now. Playing the BioShock 2 multiplayer after Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer is like some MMORPG fan playing World of Warcraft and then trying another MMORPG. They realize it’s just not as good and end up missing WoW, so they return to that. With BioShock 2′s multiplayer driving me back to Modern Warfare 2, that can’t be good for its staying power.

Final Thoughts
My conclusive review on the campaign is that if you enjoyed the gameplay mechanics of the first game and love the idea of jumping into new levels to continue that gameplay, pick up BioShock 2. But if you thought BioShock’s storyline and environmental design played a strong part in what made the first game so good, you may want to hold off on the sequel. For me, the first game’s combination of captivating storyline and enjoyable game mechanics are what made it so good. The sequel falters on the storyline aspect, making it inferior to the first. Of course, overall, the BioShock 2 campaign is still quite good – it’s a 20 hour ride that is more enjoyable than campaigns for many other games. It just fails to be as good as the first. To be fair, it had very lofty expectations to live up to.

The multiplayer in this game did lack a level of polish and innovation that would allow it to successfully compete with Modern Warfare 2 (and even Bad Company 2). I do understand why Take-2 wanted multiplayer in the sequel, as the publisher was hoping that people wouldn’t just turn around and sell the game right after beating the campaign. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what I’ve done. The multiplayer is a decent little distraction, but ultimately, it is not much better than that and probably wasn’t worth implementing.

BioShock 2 is a very good game, but its campaign is not as good as the first game and its multiplayer is not better than what’s already out there these days. The game industry’s standards continue to grow! If this game was the first BioShock and came out a few years back during the time of multiplayer with rooms and no customization, it could have flourished. But today, it’s merely just a good game that will most likely be quickly forgotten. Maybe pick this up later down the line if you want some more BioShock lovin’, but it’s not a game you need to go out and buy right away.

Review: B+

Earlier this week, Take-Two announced that the first of several DLC packs for BioShock 2 would be released starting in March. I’ve been digging BioShock 2′s campaign so far, even if it does feel a bit unnecessary, but multiplayer is still up in the air for me. If you’ve read my initial impressions on the game, you’ll remember that I thought the multiplayer was playable as it’s set up just like Modern Warfare’s rank progression and unlock system, but it still doesn’t compare with Modern Warfare 2. Take-Two’s recent announcement of DLC has sort of infuriated me in a way, on two counts. Read on to to see what gets me to proclaim that this series has sold out.

From Take-Two’s press release:

Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, the first of several planned downloadable packages, contains a number of customization features that will allow players to further their character’s development in BioShock 2′s multiplayer modes and provide a deeper multiplayer experience. The pack includes:

• Rank Increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
• New playable characters Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
• 20 new trials
• A third weapon upgrade for each weapon

Strike #1 – Releasing DLC to a game only about a month after its release
Other games are guilty of this as well, including Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, but for the most part, I believe that most of the “launch DLC” is generally free as part of EA’s new initiative to bundle DLC as part of a retail game in order to dissuade people from buying used copies. But this new BioShock 2 DLC will cost us $5, and all it is is server-side stuff. There’s probably going to be nothing that we’ll have to end up downloading, so not only does it leave a bad taste in my mouth that they are trying to make money off of me so soon after release, but over content that probably won’t even really be downloaded.

Take-Two should have at least had some tact and perhaps waited a couple more months or so to make it seem like they didn’t plan on releasing this DLC one month right after the game shipped. But, maybe it seems like these days, even after games go gold, the studios keep working on the “DLC” since it’s now pretty much normal to try to make more money off DLC. It’s a disturbing trend, but because people do buy this DLC, I can’t complain too much on this issue but the next one is what really caused me to flip my lid.

Strike #2 – Releasing DLC that increases Multiplayer Unbalancing
BioShock 2′s multiplayer already seems a bit unbalanced since when you rank up you unlock new weapon types, weapon upgrades, and plasmids (a level 30 would demolish a level 1 player). But now Take-Two has decided to go down a more ridiculous path by being the first company I am aware of that is charging for DLC that will allow for the increase in level cap for multiplayer competitive play. People loved when level caps were increased through DLC in games like Fallout 3 and Borderlands, but that’s because it allowed gamers to continue enjoying the game solo.

If we read the details of the press release, it’s shocking to see that if someone pays $5 more, they can rank up to 10 levels higher than us, get access to better rank rewards, and more weapon upgrades. Is this a bit too far? It would be like Modern Warfare 2 DLC increasing the level cap to 80 for those that bought it, but it’s not even a fair comparison because Modern Warfare 2′s starting equipment for a new player can stand toe-to-toe with higher level players. BioShock 2 is not quite the same. In any case, I am not happy about this and hope that no one buys it to send Take-Two a message: this DLC is the worst of the worst!

I finally got to spend several hours with BioShock 2 these last few days, so I’m ready to share my impressions. If you’ve been following Leveling Down for a while, you’re probably aware that my Game of the Year in 2007 was BioShock. That was a crazy good year in gaming, so for it to beat out Halo 3, The Orange Box, Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4 for me that meant it was ridiculously good. The sequel has been handed off to 4 different developers, and there’s even multiplayer now which has learned a thing or two from Modern Warfare. Does the sequel look to carry the quality of the first or even surpass it? Read on for my impressions of BioShock 2 after playing through about a quarter of the campaign and an hour of the multiplayer.

Being a Big Daddy
The biggest gameplay and plot change in the sequel is that you play as a Big Daddy.  From a pure “feel” standpoint, I don’t think that the developers did enough to make you feel like a Big Daddy. Sure, I can use a drill now, but why do I move like a regular person, am able to use plasmids, yet can’t communicate with other Big Daddys? There didn’t seem to be enough development in what it really is like to play as a Big Daddy for the entire game – it’s almost more like you’re wearing a Big Daddy’s weapons and that’s it. And to be fair, that’s ok from a pure gameplay standpoint, since it’s simplified and feels like the first game, but I just think that an opportunity was missed to really give the player a feel for what it’s like to be a Big Daddy if that’s what the goal was.

The one new enjoyable gameplay feature to becoming a Big Daddy (besides using the drill) is that you get to take Little Sisters on “harvest runs”. To be honest, it’s just weird to me that I have to go kill another Big Daddy to take over his Little Sister, as these guys are basically my brethren. In any case, once you do the dirty deed and kill another Big Daddy, you’re able to somehow convince the Little Sister that you’re her new Big Daddy so she leads you to corpses that she wants to draw Adam from. The moment you set her down and allow her to start harvesting Adam, that’s when the Splicers come swarming in like insects out of the woodwork. It’s pretty fun to defend the Little Sister as she harvests Adam, and I thought it was at least one aspect of gameplay that allowed you to experience more of what being a Big Daddy is like. I had no complaints to this, and simply wished to see more aspects of being a Big Daddy like this gameplay example. Good stuff here.

Comparisons to the Original
First off, some of the things I didn’t really like after first playing this game. It’s been a while since I played the original BioShock, so I was surprised that in the sequel, I was limited to only being able to only carry 5 med kits and 5 Eve Hypos at a time. I’m pretty certain the cap can eventually be raised later, but I guess this was a new limitation put in for balance reasons. And sadly, once again, there’s a cap on the amount of money you can carry, so I found myself hitting the $600 limit pretty often in only a few hours of playing the game. In the original BioShock, you traveled between levels via sort of an underwater elevator, so you were able to return to levels if you wanted to. This was removed in the sequel, and you aren’t able to go back to previous levels so if you miss anything in this game, too bad.

One of the things that got changed for the better is the hacking minigame. It’s a lot faster now and works quite well. In the original, you had to move pieces on a grid around to set the pipe up to flow from one area to another, but in this one, there’s simply a needle that moves back and forth and you have to just hit A when it gets into the green (or blue, for a bonus). Hit it in the red and the alarm goes off, and hit it anywhere else and the hacking fails. Simple, straightforward, and effective. There are also “remote” hacking darts now, which allow you to fire into a turret or something far away and hack at a distance. Quite convenient.

When I think about it, there were not that many things I could think of in BioShock 2 that I liked more than the original, but that’s probably not a bad thing since the original was already such an amazing game in my eyes. The fact that the sequel doesn’t really do anything worse from a pure gameplay standpoint means it plays just as enjoyably as the first. If you enjoyed the first, the second preserves the gameplay, but now makes hacking less frustrating. Unfortunately, the game’s soul seems lacking, and that’s most likely because the plot and storyline this time around can’t compare to the first. I don’t feel like I’m in an interesting storyline at all – but rather, just some unnamed Big Daddy running around Rapture. I think I miss Andrew Ryan!

Multiplayer
Surprisingly, BioShock 2′s multiplayer is playable and can be worthwhile entertainment – if you don’t already have Modern Warfare 2 sitting on your shelf. My initial conclusion for BioShock 2′s multiplayer in my little time played is that it’s a solid effort in taking what makes Modern Warfare multiplayer so addicting, but applying it to the BioShock universe. Unfortunately, BioShock 2′s combat engine is not as polished or playable as Modern Warfare 2′s, so it feels far inferior. But if you can get past the weaker engine, there’s definitely a lot of multiplayer gaming to be had.

There’s a leveling system for BioShock 2 multiplayer just like Modern Warfare, and I believe you can rank up to 50. Along the way, you eventually unlock up to 3 loadouts, and each loadout allows you to equip two weapons, two plasmids (active special abilities), and three tonics (passive special abilities). As you level up, more weapons, weapon enhancements, plasmids, and tonics get unlocked, as well as new Challenges that probably also grant exp bonuses. The unlockable items pale in comparison to Modern Warfare 2, but the addicting premise of Modern Warfare’s unlocking and customization is present. It does seem a bit unbalanced though, in that higher level unlocks seem to be a lot stronger than low level ones. Why use the first level’s pistol when I can unlock a machine gun? In any case, I haven’t leveled enough to really see the majority of what gets unlocked, so I’ll hold off on really trying to analyze it for now.

There are a few different game types, but the three primary game modes I played were team deathmatch, domination, and “capture the sister”. Team deathmatch is self explanatory, and domination has both teams trying to capture and hold 3 bases on a map to win. Capture the sister is a unique multiplayer mode for BioShock 2 and it pits two teams taking turns attacking and defending a Little Sister. The objective of the attacking team is to pick up the Little Sister and bring her back to their base while the Defending team is tasked with preventing that from happening. Both sides continue to alternate between Attacking and Defending over several rounds and the Defending side always has one player randomly spawning as a Big Daddy. The player in the Big Daddy suit is very powerful, but his life does not regenerate. In both Team deathmatch and domination, a Big Daddy suit spawns at random during the match, so both sides have an equal opportunity to get to it.

In my hour with the multiplayer so far, it seems quite playable, but again I would wonder why anyone would be playing this instead of Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer when Modern Warfare 2 does pretty much everything BioShock 2 is trying to do much better. Even though there are several varied multiplayer modes, matchmaking, and a leveling/customization system just like Modern Warfare, the actual gameplay itself is just sort of blah. The multiplayer just doesn’t feel amazing to play, but I consider that more of a limitation of the game engine itself than the design. BioShock has always been more of a slower FPS, so when you’re forced to play it at a frenetic pace, it just doesn’t feel solid. But, who knows – I’ll continue to play it more to see if I end up really enjoying it.

Parting Impressions
After playing about a quarter of the campaign and a few levels of the multiplayer, I have to admit that BioShock 2 came together well. The multiplayer is decent, but can’t compare to stuff like Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2, but it is certainly set up such that you can play it for many hours. The campaign is still quite addicting for me, so the magic of the original BioShock’s gameplay seems to have been preserved by the new developers of the sequel. Unfortunately, the only thing that seems lacking in the campaign is the engrossing storyline of the first.

BioShock 2′s storyline so far seems quite forced, as the characters in this game are not as interesting, the plot not as gripping, and even the protagonist is boring compared to the original game’s protagonist, Jack. Maybe that’s what comes out of a sequel that wasn’t exactly necessary from a plot standpoint? While BioShock 2 does not seem like a sequel that is better than the original, I certainly find myself craving to go play it, and can’t wait to jump back into it some more this weekend. That means the game can’t be that bad can it? Hopefully once I complete it, I will be able to finally decide on a score for this game. From my initial impressions, the sequel seems to be off to a great start. Let’s hope it finishes strong!

For many of you around the country (and world!), this was a normal work-week, but if you were in the DC metro area like I was, you had a blizzard that had you stuck at home for practically this entire week. The blizzard got things off to a bad start for me by knocking electricity out early on last weekend, but it was restored by Sunday and I can’t imagine if I were stuck at home with no power for the rest of the week. Otherwise, it was pretty much a nice extended little 6-day weekend. I’m not going to complain about being home for so many days (I”m grumbling that I actually have to go into work today since it took me 4 nearly hours to get in), but I will mention one problem that this blizzard has caused: I still cannot get my hands on BioShock 2. Instead, I’ve settled for playing Brutal Legend. Read on for my “BioShock 2″ wait and initial thoughts of Brutal Legend.

The Wait for BioShock 2
Amazon sent me an email Monday to inform me that BioShock 2 was shipped overnight through UPS and would be delivered Tuesday. The blizzard had already done most of its damage over the weekend (the heaviest snow of 2-3 feet) and Monday was a day off just because the streets and outdoor subway systems could not be cleared in time for commuting to work so schools and offices were pretty much closed. There was hope that BioShock 2 would come Tuesday, because after all, we were probably going back to work on Tuesday right?

Tuesday was another day of closure, and there wouldn’t be any snow until later that night. UPS indicated that the package was out for delivery! Here I was, practically twittling my thumbs all day Tuesday waiting for the UPS truck to arrive at my house with the game. The snow wasn’t quite super cleared off my street yet, so I tried calling the warehouse and the guy informed me that they were making deliveries that day. 7PM came around and no delivery of BioShock 2, but more delivery of snow.

Wednesday morning greeted us with another foot of snow on top of the 2-3 feet that were still being cleared out earlier this week, which meant another day off. With more snow and the day off, I knew I would not be seeing BioShock 2 on Wednesday, so I couldn’t hold out any more and just started playing Brutal Legend. For me, I tend to enjoy playing single-player games one at a time. Start one and finish that one before starting a new one. I was scheduling my gaming in such a way that I would be ready to start BioShock 2 Tuesday, but it was not meant to be.

Thursday was a surprising day off again, but I guess that was because crews needed time to clear out the foot of snow that arrived Wednesday. Another day off, and UPS again doesn’t deliver BioShock 2. But oh well, I’ve already sort of moved past it and resigned myself to playing Brutal Legend.

Today being Friday, I’m sort of annoyed we have to go into work, but at the same time, this must mean that UPS has to work today as well right? They will deliver BioShock 2 to my house today right?! RIGHT?! If I don’t get it today, looks like we have a 3-day weekend coming up so I won’t get it until next Tuesday. I know I’m supposed to be older and more mature now, but pre-ordering a game for pick-up on release day but not being able to get it until a full week later is a lot to bear for someone as enthusiastic about games as I am. For me, playing new games on release night is a way of showing some support and respect for the game, much like fans for films like to go to see it on release night/weekend. Sure, you can go see it the following weekend, or the following month, when crowds die down, but you’re no longer part of the magic!

In any case, if I was asked if I preferred going to work all week and getting BioShock 2 on time versus having a six day weekend without BioShock 2, I would have unequivocally chosen the latter. I got a backlog to get through, so the time off was helpful, but it would have been even better if I knew that I was going into a 6-day weekend. Then I probably would have actually set aside the entire 6-days to tackling a lengthy JRPG or something. Instead, I’d have to find out at the end of one day if I was going to work the next day.

Brutal Legends Impressions
As for my thoughts on Brutal Legend so far, it’s not exactly what I expected. I thought the demo was great, and I heard that it was more of a RTS game than action/adventure. I love RTS games, so I thought this would be right up my alley, but it’s not. It’s a very weak RTS game, as there’s not much strategy involved at all rather than just massing an army and attacking/defending two-three nodes by your base. Also, there’s no management of different unit types – it’s pretty much everyone zerging. I don’t see how each of these RTS battles could be played differently. Still, the writing and dialogue are superb and hilarious, and I am charmed by the game’s world and characters.

In a way, the game is like a mash up of GTA, MMORPG, and an RTS game. You travel a huge world like an MMORPG taking on sidequests such as killing a certain number of animals, racing opponents, etc. in order to earn money to purchase new upgrades for your car, etc. The missions all have cutscenes and dialogues like GTA, and the major battles are all “RTS” style. The RTS is probably the weakest aspect of the game, and I think the game could even be stronger without it. With its inclusion however, it probably not only disappoints true RTS fans like myself, but probably doesn’t do much to make itself enjoyable for non-RTS fans either. Still, I’m keeping an open mind since this is a new IP. Hopefully I get through this game by the end of this three day weekend so I can jump into BioShock 2.

Please Valve, do not release Left 4 Dead 3 in 2010!

With cmfl3x and me going on a blogging holiday break starting tomorrow, this entry will be our last post for 2009! Similar to cmfl3x, I also several holiday wishes for 2010 but I’ve narrowed it down to three possible wishes that would make me a happy gamer next year and they all relate to sequels: BioShock 2, Starcraft 2, and Left 4 Dead 3 (well, Left 4 Dead 2, to be more exact).

1. BioShock 2 Turns Out to be Just as Good as the Original
BioShock was my favorite 360 game of 2007. The combination of action, storytelling, RPG, and length made it the perfect single player gaming experience for me. With the game being released  only about a month and a half from now, I’m trying to get more excited about the sequel but at the same time, “bracing” for impact in case it falls short. What worries me is that BioShock 1 was led by Ken Levine, the Creative Director at 2K Boston. The sequel is not being developed by 2K Boston, but instead by the newly formed 2K Marin without any of Ken Levine’s input. Furthermore, BioShock 2 will have multiplayer modes developed by Digital Extremes, a company that isn’t exactly making a huge name for itself with its only recent title being Dark Sector.

A new studio behind a sequel to many players’ 2007 game of the year along with multiplayer modes being added to a game that should not have multiplayer has me worried. If I had three gaming wishes for 2010, one of them would be for this game to be just as good as the first. Often times a good sequel to a game is the result of the developers of the original game learning what worked and didn’t work in the original, and using their intimate knowledge of the original game to craft a better sequel. After all, the sequel really should just be an extension of the first game right? Now that a new studio is taking over the sequel, there’s a lot of odds against it turning out just as well so I’m hoping it doesn’t come out as a dud like Devil May Cry 2.

2. Starcraft II Releases in 2010 (and consequently, the beta arrives by summer)
For many Blizzard RTS fans, it was a tough year in 2009. We started getting all of this information about Starcraft II, saw videos of different matches, and there was indication that we would have been playing the Starcraft II beta in the summer of 2009. Apparently Blizzard was too ambitious with what they wanted to do in the total redesign of battle.net, and thus we are now waiting with baited breath until the new battle.net releases so we can hear word about the Starcraft II beta. If the beta doesn’t hit by summer of 2010, we may not see the retail release until 2011.

For me, the release of the Starcraft II beta is practically the release of the game. I remember playing the betas of Warcraft III and World of Warcraft months in advance of the retail releases, and the transition from beta to retail was practically seamless – I just needed to go out and actually buy a physical copy of the disc. Please Blizzard, get your new battle.net working so all of us can enjoy Starcraft II in 2010. And if we’re enjoying Starcraft II in 2010, it’s possible we could then be enjoying Diablo III in 2011!

3. Left 4 Dead 3 Is Not Released in 2010
For my final gaming wish next year, I’ll wish for Valve not to release another sequel to Left 4 Dead. This is somewhat of a loaded wish though. What I’m honestly wishing for is that Valve devotes its Left 4 Dead franchise resources to improving upon the two games already out before putting out another sequel.

Left 4 Dead 2 is a great game. Valve, can we have more time to enjoy it before it becomes obsolete like the first one? If Valve continues to pump out Left 4 Dead sequels, that honestly means not enough effort is being put into supporting the original games. I don’t care if Valve claims that it’s possible to develop both downloadable content for the existing games and work on Left 4 Dead 3 at the same time. If you’re putting your resources on the sequel, that’s less people being devoted towards making new content for your existing products and I would argue that Left 4 Dead’s “content” suffered for that same reason.

The announcement of the Left 4 Dead 1 survivors appearing in a Left 4 Dead 2 DLC campaign next year is a step in the right direction, but is far from a full integration that many Left 4 Dead fans are dreaming of. Instead of churning out sequels, why not figure out a way to bring the two worlds together? I know it’s too much to ask to put the Survivors from each game in each others’ levels and even mix the Survivors together (too many new lines), so my more “reasonable” desire is to see Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 stages all being selectable in Left 4 Dead 2. If you pick a Left 4 Dead 2 stage, you have to play using Left 4 Dead 2′s survivors, and if you pick a Left 4 Dead 1 stage, you have to play using Left 4 Dead 1 survivors. Just getting everyone to be able to play all nine campaigns (or 10, with Crash Course) with the same disc would be the ultimate Left 4 Dead experience, much like being able to play Rock Band 1 songs in Rock Band 2. I feel that this is a reasonable way to unite the two games and it would go a long way towards making fans see that Valve is putting as much effort into supporting the Left 4 Dead franchise as it is with Team Fortress 2.

The first trailer for Bioshock 2′s multiplayer was released last week, and “Wha?” was the first thing I could mutter after I saw it. Suffice to say, I’m actually not digging it. While the trailer does seem to highlight that the general gameplay mechanics of the original game are included accurately (photo taking, turrets, plasmids, a Big Daddy), it’s far too frenetic with everyone running all over the place and killing each other.

What makes Bioshock such a great game in the first place is the slow pace you could take to explore the game, and then forced to react when you come upon the crazed splicers. Do I want to actually play as a splicer though? Not in particular. I’m afraid Bioshock 2′s multiplayer is just going to consist of people all running around like crazy and shooting each other with no real gameplay depth. What are we, 12 years old? This was the case with Grand Theft Auto 4′s adversarial multiplayer – an addon that was not only unnecessary, but not well implemented either.

Will Bioshock 2′s multiplayer follow in Grand Theft Auto 4′s footsteps? I hope not, but isn’t a trailer supposed to want to make you want to play the game more and not less? Bioshock’s strengths lie in its storytelling and exploration – not its combat engine. Grand Theft Auto 4′s strengths lies in its open-world quests and characters – again not in its combat engine. Yet for some reason or another, someone thinks that these types of games need adversarial multiplayer. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, and BioShock 2 multiplayer ends up with some innovative adversarial modes or features like in Call of Duty 4 or Shadowrun. I just hope BioShock 2′s single player is still good, as that is all that really matters.

A few months ago, the 2009 fall/holiday lineup looked something like this: Splinter Cell: Conviction, BioShock 2, Guitar Hero 5, Halo 3: ODST, Forza 3, Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, Ghost Recon 4, Heavy Rain, Brutal Legend, Red Steel 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Bayonetta, Dark Void, etc. etc. etc. On top of all that, optimistic gamers were hopeful that Starcraft 2′s first installment would hit before Christmas as well. Alas, it was not meant to be. In what can only be described as an epidemic, title after title has been delayed until 2010 and beyond.

Whether it’s the economy, publishers wanting to avoid the glut of games at the holidays, or both, for some reason everyone has been pushing back their release dates. Frankly, that’s just fine with me. Last year’s holiday was a complete overload and overkill, there were so many amazing games out that I had to push some games like Mirror’s Edge back four months. Other games, like Dead Space, I never ended up getting around to finish. I was worried that I’d have to pick and choose a lot again this fall, but luckily a lot of those decisions have been made for me. Now I can concentrate on 2 or 3 games (or just Modern Warfare 2) without feeling like I’m missing out.

So, for the record:

Games I’m definitely getting: Halo 3: ODST, Modern Warfare 2, Beatles Rock Band (no more plastic tho), Tales of Monkey Island (when the complete season is done), Uncharted 2 (woops, I don’t have a PS3 but I’d get it if I did)

Games I want but aren’t must have: Left 4 Dead 2, Guitar Hero 5, Brutal Legend

Games I’m interested in: Borderlands, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario and Luigi DS

Games I’m sad to see get pushed back: Starcraft 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Heavy Rain (again, PS3 only), Bioshock 2

Hopefully, all the games that got pushed back will be better off for it. Ultimately, I think these delays are probably good for games, more spread out releases means less gems getting lost in the shuffle. I’ll just have to learn some patience in the mean time.

P.S. – If you’re interested, 1up has compiled a list of the notable delays. Also if I’ve forgotten anything please point it out!