Leveling Down

For the next few weeks, my Xbox is going to take a backseat to my favorite sporting event of the year: March Madness. What little time I have left for video games will probably be spent playing Dragon Age: Origins, and since we’ve covered that on the site, I figured I’d try something new: a video game bracket!

I’ve chosen 28 of my favorite games across 4 different categories (“regions”), and as the NCAA tournament plays itself out, so too will you get to watch this video game bracket play itself out. Why am I doing this? Well, I love brackets, first of all. Secondly, it’s a chance for me to take a trip down memory lane and narrow down some of my favorite games of all time. I recognize that a lot of times comparing games is like comparing apples to oranges, which is why I separated the games by genres (loosely).

Anyway, I’ve left the 8 seed open in all four regions, so I need YOU, the Leveling Down reader, to suggest games to finish out the bracket. Hit the jump to see the selection committee’s (aka, cmfl3x’s) criteria and some other notes about this totally awesome tournament.

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BioShock 2’s campaign plays like the original, but is it as good as the first?

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.
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BioShock 2’s multiplayer is about to take a turn for the worst.

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.

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In BioShock 2, you get to play the role of a Big Daddy

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.
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If you can tell, the little black box on the right side of this shot is my mailbox. The snow was practically up to that level.

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.

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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).
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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.

I decided to start replaying BioShock again after getting bored of Burnout Paradise. It’s still amazing! My wife overheard “Rapture” on the TV and asked, “Didn’t you already play this?” Wow. Considering the last time I played it was a couple years ago, I’m actually pretty impressed that she remembers Rapture. I don’t think she remembers any video games I’ve played but perhaps that’s just a testament to how memorable the game was.

The good thing about playing the game two years later is that while I do recall the general plot and twists, I’ve forgotten about most of the actual gameplay itself so I’m liking my jump back into it. In a way, maybe I’ll do this again with all the games in my collection: break them out a couple years later to see if they’ve aged like wine or do not stand the test of time.

As expected, BioShock still rocks. Not only is it a great refresher in time for the sequel, but it’s still an amazing game everyone should pick up if you want a well crafted story, depth and adventure to your traditional run and gun FPS game. After playing so many recent games that are five or six hours in length, BioShock’s 20+ hour length comes as a pleasant change of pace.

I’m actually slightly worried that BioShock 2 won’t be as good as its predecessor. Not only is it not being developed by the same studio, but four studios are involved this time. Plus, there’s multiplayer. Why do we need multiplayer this time around? Everyone will be playing Modern Warfare 2 anyway. What also sucks is that Take 2 is worried and has decided to push BioShock 2 back to first half of 2010 - most likely to avoid competing with Halo 3 ODST and Modern Warfare 2.

Recently I have regretted selling two games: BioShock and Call of Duty 4. I have always simply sold my games after I get all of their single player Achievements and played “enough” of the multiplayer. But now during this dry spell of gaming I realize I don’t have any good console shooters left to play on my 360. Why did I think Call of Duty: World at War would be an easy replacement for Call of Duty 4? That was a big mistake…

Best Buy is selling Call of Duty 4 Game of the Year Edition for $30 and Amazon is selling it for $35 (as well as BioShock for $20), so I am starting to considering the “rebuy” of both of these titles. I’ve yet to play another game that has made modern warfare as much fun as Call of Duty 4 or a shooter that is as immersive as BioShock.

With BioShock and Call of Duty 4 being my favorite games of 2007, will that mean next summer I will be regretting my decision to have sold off Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead? Maybe not, with sequels to Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty 4, and BioShock all releasing this fall, as well as a Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition releasing for $60 with all 5 DLC. One game at a time I guess. The first thing I need to decide is if Call of Duty 4 is worth a rebuy. And I’m starting to suspect that it is. Dang it!

The stock market has dropped below 7000 points, people have less disposable income, and video game studios all over the country are filing for bankruptcy or shutting down altogether. Though video games have been touted as “recession-proof”, that really isn’t the case; consumers are buying less titles and taking less risks, staying away from question marks and sticking to sure-fire franchises.

In this first of a two part feature, espion4ge and I have compiled a list of our favorite mainstream titles that you can get under $30 now. If you’re trying to save money and haven’t played these games yet, I’d definitely recommend picking some of them up. In many cases you can buy two of these games for the price of one new title today so if you’ve missed out on some of them, there are great deals to be had.

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