Leveling Down

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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Fallout 3’s Operation Anchorage – really worth $10?

cmfl3x asked me a little while back if I was looking forward to the Fallout 3 downloadable content. He seemed pretty excited about it and I felt bad telling him but no, I didn’t share in his excitement. In fact, while there are games I may fully enjoy, like Ninja Gaiden II or Fallout 3, I’ll never buy their DLC. To this day, I have not paid for downloadable content for any traditional game, and I don’t plan on ever doing so. Why? Because I don’t believe in what it stands for. Obviously if downloadable content is free, such as Burnout Paradise’s motorcycles and whatnot, or BioShock’s extra plasmids, then sure – it is always welcome. It’s when it starts getting charged for that it gets on my nerves.

I actually wrote up an entire article just knocking on it, but then felt it may come off as too much of a rant so I held off. I figure that if I could turn it into a discussion topic with cmfl3x, it’d be a little more civil.

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Does being good or evil even matter in video games?

I’ve created a new section for Leveling Down called Discussion. In this section we will be posting gaming related discussion that either cmfl3x or I may have from time to time with members of the gaming community or even just between ourselves. In some ways, this isn’t really different from one of us posting an article and the other one commenting on it but we’ve structured it in such a way that we expect the other to sort of reply – at least to have somewhat of a conversation. These posts may be nothing more than idle chit-chat, but I guess this is what aging hardcore gamers chit-chat about. Feel free to jump into the discussion with your comments as well.

This first discussion topic was suggested to me by cmfl3x, as he asked me how I felt about how morality was currently handled in video games.

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The Little Sister and Big Daddy pair, a scary combination of a ghastly girl and her genetically enhanced bodyguard.

The ride of gaming bliss that is BioShock has finally ended for me. After spending whatever time I could last week, most of the weekend, and Monday night, I’ve completed it. It’s crazy how excited I was to play the game when I first picked it up on Tuesday, but one week later I’m already mentally preparing to move onto Blue Dragon. Still, BioShock is one of the best games I’ve ever played on the 360. Reviewers love this game, but the question now is how much this reviewer loves the game. Do I love it enough to give it a perfect score?
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