In Part 4 of the Awards/Shopping Guide, Leveling Down will be tackling some of the more controversial categories: Best Story, Best Value, and Most Overrated. Admittedly, these categories are VERY subjective and are only our opinions, and on some counts even espion4ge and I don’t see *exactly* eye to eye. Nonetheless, controversy is a lot of fun, so might as well give it a shot!

Best Xbox 360 Storyline of 2009

Batman: Arkham Asylum [winner]
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
Halo 3: ODST
Brutal Legend
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Assassin’s Creed II

As I’ve stated before, I love a good yarn, so if a game’s got a great story, I’ll forgive a lot of its flaws. I originally got into video games because of story, which is why I was so into role playing games when I was a kid. There were some games with great stories this year, so if you are interested in a game with a good story, this category is your best bet.

All six of the games above have great stories, but I loved Batman: Arkham Asylum the most. It’s challenging to take a character who has been used in so many other mediums and create a new, unique, and gripping story, but the writers in Batman: Arkham Asylum did a marvelous job of pulling it off. The premise of the story is awesome: the Joker gets himself arrested so that he gets locked up in Arkham in order to hatch his diabolical plan. It’s a classic comic book story, but the story is paced extremely well and features a lot of guest cameos from classic villains. The island of Arkham comes alive as you make your way through it, and I wanted to keep playing to see what happened in the end. Sure, you know you’re going to defeat the Joker, but the ride was one well worth taking.

The Secret of Monkey Island is an old classic that was re-released with redone graphics and voices for XBLA this summer. Its story is great because it’s so unique: you are a wanna-be pirate who gets caught up in a zany adventure that pits you against a zombie pirate.

Halo 3: ODST is on this list because it had such a unique take on storytelling. The game is set in an open hub world and you find yourself separated from your squad-mates. You gradually discover what happened to them by reliving (playing) through their memories. It’s a great way to tell a story, and probably would have won the category if it were not for weak characterization. I couldn’t really tell the difference between the ODSTs…not a good thing.

Brutal Legend is my runner-up in this category, and as I’ve stated elsewhere, it is a well-written heavy metal epic. The story is much deeper than it has any right to be, and there are some instances where I was genuinely shocked by what happened. It’s a bit weird that you can’t have more than one save game, which is really unfortunate, since I would love to replay the game and story again without resetting my stats.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been praised enough on this site and elsewhere, but its story is to be noted for its absolute insanity. It is a roller coaster of a thrill ride that is not to be missed.

Last, but not least, Assassin’s Creed II tells a great story about revenge. The main character, Ezio, is much more likable than Altair was, and he actually shows growth throughout the course of the game…albeit not much. The intertwining of Ezio’s storyline with what’s going on in the contemporary world with Desmond Miles is pretty cool too. The biggest drawback of this game is they somehow completely messed up Kristen Bell’s character model…unacceptable.

Honorable mention goes to Dragon Age: Origins and Ghostbusters: The Video Game, two games that we haven’t had the chance to play through yet, but that we’ve heard great things about. Dragon Age: Origins is supposed to have a great storyline affected by your choices, though I’d expect nothing less from Bioware. Many also claim that Ghostbusters is practically a sequel to the movies. Expect our impressions on both games in the coming months when we get through our backlogs.

Best Xbox 360 Value of 2009

Battlefield: 1943
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Borderlands
Dragon Age: Origins
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 [winner]
Left 4 Dead 2

When thinking about best value, I always think about how much gaming and enjoyment I can receive for a title relative to the amount of money I spent on it. Since multiplayer-focused games have the most legs, usually they end up being the best value (since you never “beat” the game, there’s rarely a reason to stop until you get bored). But to be a good value, a game also has to be worth all the hours you pour into it. All of the games in this category will give you plenty of gaming for one fixed price.

Unsurprisingly, the one XBLA title in this list is a multiplayer game. You can pick up Battlefield: 1943 for the low price of $15 and get a nice pick up and play multiplayer first person shooter. The three maps are pretty well balanced, and the vehicles are very fun to use. DICE’s Frostbite engine is holding up nicely: huge explosions and breakable cover prevent people from camping too much, speeding up the action. Unfortunately, most people have moved on to Modern Warfare 2, so this train has more or less left the station.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a single player title with a good amount of re-playability. The story mode is lengthy, but where you will really find a lot of value is in the combat and predator challenges. If you want to get 3 bats (stars) on each challenge, it will take you much longer than the story mode. You also need to be a bit of a glutton of pain, so it’s not going to be for everyone. But if you love a hefty challenge, there is a lot of value to be found in Arkham Asylum.

The first person shooter WoW-type game Borderlands needs to be mentioned in this category because if questing and looting is your type of thing, there are 50+ hours of gameplay for you in this game. Grab three friends and run around Pandora killing everything that moves and looting every chest you find. Then, after you finish the game, do it again until you hit the level cap! Borderlands features addicting gameplay that is slightly marred by some curious design decisions, but is a good value for your money nonetheless.

Dragon Age: Origins is this year’s Fallout 3 and this category’s runner up. You’ll pour 60+ hours into the game’s main quest and then you will be tempted to play it again to see what happens as a different character! Though the game is better on the PC, Bioware did a good job with the 360 port (with Achievement support!). If you are a solo gamer who nonetheless wants to get a lot of playtime into one game and one game only, you could probably survive all of 2010 with Dragon Age. Unfortunately, Dragon Age isn’t for everyone, which is why it came in second to…

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Would you expect anything else? You’ll spend 6 hours on the campaign. Then you’ll spend another 10 doing it on Veteran. Then you’ll spend another 10-15 hours trying to get 3 stars on every Special Ops mission. Then, if you feel like it, you can dip your toes into multiplayer. Oh, and if some of those things don’t sound appealing to you, you’ll STILL get your money’s worth from the aspects that are appealing to you. I’ve poured over 36 hours into this game, and I’m not even halfway to my first Prestige in multiplayer. Modern Warfare 2 is the perfect game to bring with you to a deserted island…provided that deserted island has a high speed internet connection. (Note: I wrote this BEFORE I saw espion4ge used the same analogy yesterday – great minds think alike I guess.)

In case you don’t feel like fighting humans, you could always pick up Left 4 Dead 2. It features the same addictive gameplay of the original, but with more game modes and more maps. You can pick up the game for $40 in most places now – an amazing value. The only thing is, you really want to be playing this game with friends, so make sure you party up!

Xbox 360 Most Overrated Game of 2009

Street Fighter IV (Metacritic: 94)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Metacritic: 92) ["winner"]
The Beatles: Rock Band (Metacritic: 89)
Left 4 Dead 2 (Metacritic: 89)

This is a tough category to call, and definitely controversial. To me, an overrated game is hyped more than it deserves or scored higher than it deserves. Obviously, it’s a very subjective category, but it’s also a lot of fun to think about. So every game on this list is a game that I, cmfl3x, believe isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For the record, I love all four of these games, so before you flame me, consider that!

Don’t get me wrong: I think Street Fighter IV is a great game. I also think it benefited from being the most mainstream Street Fighter game since Street Fighter 2. The game is very well done and well balanced, but are the new characters that great? Do I really care about Rufus and EL FUERTE!? The online multiplayer’s lack of quarter matches is also inexcusable and just detracts from the fun. So despite all its great qualities, I think Street Fighter IV was definitely overrated.

Street Fighter benefited from nostalgia, while the “winner” in this category, Batman: Arkham Asylum, managed to become overrated due to the relative mediocrity of its competition. Outside of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and a few other exceptions, there haven’t been many good superhero games, so when Batman came out, it blew people away, and rightfully so. Yet the game does have flaws which all the positive press managed to ignore. There really isn’t a lot of exploration to be done, and some gameplay sections are a bit repetitive and oversimplified. For example, the Scarecrow portions of the game are awesome story and setting wise, but incredibly lame gameplay wise.

The Beatles: Rock Band is a pretty amazing experience, but the fact of the matter is, it’s just too short. There are 45 songs, but remember, many Beatles’ songs are under 4 minutes long. Compared to other music games, there is much less re-playability. And of course, if you don’t like The Beatles, you are out of luck. The game is great, especially for fans of the Beatles, and its presentation is top notch, but you’re still paying top dollar for a much shorter experience.

Finally, after all the hype, controversy, and anticipation, Left 4 Dead 2 unfortunately feels like an expansion. An excellent expansion, no doubt, but the game still is a bit overrated. There are some new modes, maps, and weapons, but does that justify a full-on sequel? I guess I’m kinda of biased, because I still wish Valve had taken more time with this game (and not released it after Modern Warfare 2). Regardless, the game is definitely worth playing, just be aware that it’s basically a refined version of the first…without Louis.

Our 2009 Xbox 360 Awards/Holiday Shopping Guide will wrap up tomorrow with both espion4ge and me sharing our own nominees and winner for best game of the year. Stay tuned!

One of the Xbox 360′s strongest features compared to other consoles is its multiplayer gameplay, which can probably be attributed to the Live infrastructure. It is thus not surprisingly to see strong multiplayer games on this system. For today’s awards, I will be discussing the best multiplayer games released this year, and the one better than the rest.

I will also be discussing the best new IP and best sequel of the year. It’s good to see that in 2009, there were nearly an equal number of good new IPs and sequels. The moment we begin seeing only sequels releasing and new IPs no longer developed is the moment the game industry stops advancing. It’s easy to support sequels since you know what you’re getting yourself into, but this year was perhaps the year with the largest number of development studios shutting down. Continue to take a chance by supporting new IPs – the developers need this type of support to stay in business and come up with new and exciting games to push our industry forward!

Best Xbox 360 Multiplayer Game of 2009

Street Fighter IV
Halo Wars
Battlefield 1943
Halo 3: ODST
Borderlands
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 [winner]
Left 4 Dead 2

In determining the best multiplayer game of the year, I’ve considered not only whether the game itself is fun to play, but various other aspects that come with multiplayer: customization options, co-op, ease of use, appeal, etc. In short, the best multiplayer game should provide for the best overall multiplayer experience.

Street Fighter IV took several steps forward in the online multiplayer arena for fighting games – most notably the automated matchmaking while you played Arcade mode and the ability to unlock and use titles to further personalize yourself online. The big misstep in Street Fighter IV’s multiplayer was the lack of any sort of party room where multiple players could join and take turns fighting each other together. This will be fixed when Super Street Fighter IV comes out in March of 2010.

While Halo Wars was the only serious RTS game released on the 360 this year, its multiplayer was quite well done and the gameplay was simplified enough to be quite playable on the console. Matchmaking was in-place, allowing you to take on 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 matches with either random partners or arranged teams – just like in Blizzard’s Warcraft III games. Borrowing a page from the Halo games, Halo Wars has extensive stats tracked for every game played, and you can access these stats through the website to see how you perform, what your opponents were ranked at, the results of each match, etc. In short, the game provides a very strong multiplayer infrastructure to be a competitive game. Unfortunately, not many Xbox 360 players are still playing Halo Wars these days, as arranged team matchmaking can take several minutes before you’re able to go up against another team.

Battlefield 1943 belongs up here as the only “multiplayer” only title of the list. At $15, 360 owners are able to download this Live Arcade title and jump right into a handful of online maps and play the beloved primary Battlefield mode: Conquest. The vehicular combat that the series is known for is present, as well as stat tracking on the EA website. One minor thing to consider about Battlefield 1943 is the simplification of the game by having unlimited ammo and only three distinct, yet intuitive classes. It works, and while I would have loved to see more maps, it was certainly fun for the $15 we spent playing it this past summer. Playing with friends can be a little dicey in the game though, as you can still be split onto separate teams from your squad from time to time if your squad dominates too much.

Halo 3: ODST is a controversial multiplayer package. Within the game comes a new multiplayer Firefight mode, allowing for you and up to three buddies to take on wave after wave of Covenant as long as you can stay alive – injecting an enjoyable arcade style co-operative mode to the Halo universe. But is that really enough to make Halo 3: ODST stand out as one of the stronger multiplayer games this year? Nope. This is why Halo 3′s multiplayer and every charged map to date is included with the game. This stands as potentially a fantastic bargain for those that have never played Halo 3 multiplayer before, but for 360 owners, if you haven’t already played Halo 3 multiplayer by now, you probably never will. For many of us, we bought the game, played some Firefight, and were done with it.

Borderlands gets points for the thought that was involved in implementing a RPG game like this with up to three other buddies. The enemies scale in difficulty, the loot gets more impressive, and every player can go back into their own solo games with the progress and quests they made in multiplayer. Everything seems like it’s going to be an enjoyable multiplayer game – and it is, provided that you and all of your buddies only play together when everyone is on. Unfortunately, people can’t realistically all maintain the same gaming schedules, and thus the RPG element of Borderlands hurts the game’s multiplayer component enough to make it a difficult game to enjoy with friends. This is not really inherent to the design of the game, but the mere limitations of making an RPG have multiplayer.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is Leveling Down’s vote for Best Multiplayer Game of the Year. If it’s one game that you are stuck on a desert island with but have an Internet connection, this is your best bet. The amount of multiplayer customization the series has become known for in this game is ridiculous, allowing any player to focus on his strengths when playing competitively. With so many guns, accessories, Perks, Killstreak rewards and the like, you can play multiplayer however you want. And while Modern Warfare 2 also has an addictive experience level system, it doesn’t hinder your progress in the game – it merely provides you with more options. Throw in the ability to unlock new custom emblems and logos to display in-game, over 20 co-op missions, and many different game modes besides the traditional Team Deathmatch, and we have a multiplayer game here that some players may not budge from until Modern Warfare 3 comes out. The only negative issue about the multiplayer is that Party Chat is disabled for several of the game modes, but there are manual workarounds.

One thing that Left 4 Dead 2 excels in on the multiplayer side that the other games nominated in this category can’t touch is co-op. Left 4 Dead 2′s primary campaign focuses on just you and three buddies trying to make your way through over 20 well-designed levels and specifically for this aspect, the game cannot be beat. There’s no experience levels you need to worry about in this game (like Borderlands) – grab three other guys and start killing some zombies. On top of that, Left 4 Dead 2 has a few more competitive modes if co-op isn’t enough. There’s a Survival mode where you compete to stay alive the longest against ridiculous odds, and a Versus mode & Scavenge mode where you and up to three other players can take on four other players with one side playing as the Survivors and another side as the Infected and the two sides switching every round. From what I understand, new to Left 4 Dead 2 is team matchmaking, allowing you and your buddies to go up against other teams within the Versus mode. The adversarial modes in Left 4 Dead 2 don’t play as well as they do in Modern Warfare 2, due to a lack of customization, unlocks, and even simple stat tracking. Still, Left 4 Dead 2′s co-op makes it still a game worth considering for multiplayer fans.

Best Xbox 360 New IP of 2009

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Shadow Complex
Batman: Arkham Asylum [winner]
Brutal Legend
Borderlands
DJ Hero
Dragon Age: Origins

While some companies are content to release sequel after sequel for minimal risk, others take a chance and decide on something completely new. Ironically, these games themselves have potential to spawn sequels, so my criteria in determining which game is the best new IP is the one that I am anticipating the sequel from most.

In a fighting game world populated with sequels such as Street Fighter IV, Soul Calibur IV, Virtual Fighter 5, Tekken 6, and King of Fighters XII, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger stands alone as one of the only new fighting game IPs to the market. It’s also a very good fighting game with fresh character design, an innovative gameplay style that keeps all the characters very unique, and excellent presentation. If you tire of all the other fighting games on the market and want something completely fresh, BlazBlue is the one to check out.

Some consider Shadow Complex their game of the year, and while I may not feel that strongly about the game, I believe it does deserve a spot here on the best new IPs list of 2009. Shadow Complex successfully combined a “2.5D” Unreal graphics engine with Metroid style gameplay, and the result was a modernized version of the beloved classic. Unfortunately, its primary drawback is that the story was practically non-existent. I also don’t see how a sequel to the game could work – will you find yourself in a new abandoned base and unarmed, only to look for new gear upgrades in order to unlock new rooms? Shadow Complex is a great game, but whether it can be a great franchise is yet to be determined.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is our Best New IP of the year. This was somewhat of a technical call, as the Batman IP has been around for quite a long while. However, this particular Batman gaming IP is new, and it looks very promising. The graphics engine was phenomenal, the combat system perfect, and the amount of lore in the Batman universe can easily lend itself to more sequels. Of all the nominees in this list, I’m most anticipating a sequel to Arkham Asylum, with the hopes that the investigation gameplay is more refined (Batman is the world’s greatest detective, after all) and the bosses more unique and better designed next time around.

Brutal Legend was an interesting “experiment” for Tim Schafer. It combined action/adventure with real time strategy, and infused that combination with heavy metal and humor. The storyline, voice actors, and presentation were well regarded, but the gameplay itself fell a bit flat. Apparently the mixing of the action/adventure and RTS genres left out enough aspects from both genres to not really please fans of either genre. Fortunately, Tim Schafer has been building a fanbase with every new game he designs, and whatever he designs next is sure to keep the charm that all his games have had. To be honest, I’d be more interested in seeing a completely new game from him rather than a sequel to Brutal Legend. Does he even do sequels?

Borderlands is one of the bigger new successful IPs this year, and for good reason: it is one of the first games to successfully combine FPS with RPG. While its multiplayer suffered due to the inherent limitations of RPG aspects in general, the combination was solid from a single player standpoint and I’m sure there are many new fans of not only the game, but the genre. My hopes is that in future sequels, the weapon types are a bit more varied and items are less randomly generated.

DJ Hero is also one of the new interesting IPs created this year. It actually had a lot going for it: an exciting track list, a new peripheral, and innovative gameplay. But perhaps people have already tired of music peripheral games, and the lack of any sort of real party mode for DJ Hero led to its poor sales and probably the end of the franchise. One also has to wonder at this point whether or not the Hero name in the title helps it or hinders it due to the over-saturation of Hero games nowadays.

Rounding out the top new IPs for this year is Dragon Age: Origins, a new RPG from the makers of Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect. While this looks to be a solid RPG (and winner of our best RPG of the year), the game doesn’t seem to bring many new innovations to the table as an epic fantasy RPG and a spiritual successor to the beloved Baldur’s Gate series. With this first game being titled “Origins”, sequels in the Dragon Age franchise are bound to be released. Note that some complain that the game is too long and it has too many moral choices with game-channging consequences, so perhaps there’s such a thing as too much RPG in an RPG!

Best Xbox 360 Sequel of 2009

Street Fighter IV
Resident Evil 5
Guitar Hero 5
Tekken 6
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Assassin’s Creed II [winner]
Left 4 Dead 2

In determining the best sequel award, I’ve evaluated the winner based on how much better a game is than its predecessor(s). If the jump is significant, it has cause to be considered an amazing sequel. But what if the game before it was already amazing? That begs the question of whether the sequel is even really necessary. Regardless, let’s get to the list.

Street Fighter IV is our runner up for Best Sequel. It’s tough to really think what Street Fighter IV is a true sequel to: Street Fighter II or Street Fighter III. Unlike the other games in this category where their predecessors are on the same console generation or only one console generation prior, both Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III were on consoles several generations prior to the Xbox 360. While each of these earlier Street Fighters stood out strongly on their respective console generations, it wasn’t until Street Fighter IV was released that many fighting game fans finally felt that Street Fighter had caught up to the present. Let’s face it: Street Fighter IV closed the generation gap by wowing fans, and for that it is recognized as an outstanding sequel.

Resident Evil 5 is a pretty good game in its own right, but an example of a sequel that is worse than its predecessor. Of course, being the sequel to a game that many considered game of the year (and even game of the system for the Gamecube), meant Resident Evil 5 just had too much pressure to live up to. If you can deal with the AI partner or find a friend to play it through with, the game is actually quite enjoyable.

Guitar Hero 5 – while rated pretty highly and many call a definite improvement over Guitar Hero World Tour, the question that many of us are wondering about is whether this was even a necessary sequel. Sure it was slightly better than its predecessor, but when the bulk of the enjoyment for these types of games falls merely on the songs, implementing a Rock Band based DLC store may be a better way to go than to churn out sequel after sequel onto disc with limited export functionality. Still, it looks like Neversoft is finally catching onto what Harmonix has been trying to accomplish. Perhaps there won’t be the need for a Guitar Hero 6. Wait, who am I kidding?

Tekken 6 is also starting to get a bit guilty of the “over-sequel” syndrome as it’s a sequel that plays it safe and continues to satisfy the fans. But does it reinvent itself? Does it succeed in driving new players to the genre? No. The core gameplay is present, with tons of characters (the character select screen is actually pretty overwhelming!), and Namco is again off to their old antics of creating some single player beat-em-up mode that sucks. I feel like they’ve been experimenting with this since maybe Tekken 2, and they still haven’t gotten it right. Fortunately, the fighting game itself doesn’t suffer so I’ll simply conclude that it’s a decent game, but not a huge improvement over its predecessor.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 actually did everything right for a sequel. It continued the over-the top yet captivating storyline of Call of Duty 4, while introducing a completely new Special Ops mode for co-op. On the multiplayer side, the amount of improvements may seem minor for those that haven’t been following the series, but Call of Duty 4 fans do notice everything. Now the question I ask myself with this game is, “Is Modern Warfare 2 that much more awesome than Modern Warfare 1?” I can’t help but say no. Modern Warfare 1 was a phenomenal package when it was released back in 2007, and Modern Warfare 2 is no different when it was released this year. It just continues the high standards set forth by its predecessor.

It may be surprisingly for some of you, but Assassin’s Creed II is our pick for Best Sequel of 2009. In a way, our Best Sequel award is also comparable to a “Most Improved” award, and Assassin’s Creed II improves over the original Assassin’s Creed in many ways, making the sequel far better than the first. While the first game polarized players, the sequel is unanimously applauded. Take cmfl3x for example – he couldn’t even get through the first game before getting bored, but he’s already gone through the sequel in the span of practically only a week and loving it! This game deserves a look from those that had problems with the first as it’s not only an excellent sequel, but a lengthy and enjoyable game in its own right.

Rounding out the Best Sequel category for this year is Left 4 Dead 2. Left 4 Dead 2 falls into a similar problem that Modern Warfare 2 does when being considered for the Best Sequel category: the original one was awesome during its time already and the sequel, while quite good, doesn’t quite put the first one to shame. I would argue that the Left 4 Dead 2 sequel lacks the charm of the first, but from a technical standpoint, Left 4 Dead 2 provides lots of new enjoyable content and is well recommended for anyone that is eager for a new setting in the Left 4 Dead universe.

It’s that time of the year again…as 2009 draws to a close and the holiday season is upon us, cmfl3x and I decided that we wanted to do our own “Leveling Down” gaming awards for 2009 where we choose winners in several categories for Xbox 360 games that have been released in 2009. At the same time, we also wanted to preserve the holiday shopping guide that Leveling Down produced last year but felt that the awards and the shopping guide were too similar.

Instead of separate 2009 awards and holiday shopping guide posts, we’ve decided to combine them this year into one. Every game we’ve nominated within our awards are games worth considering for the holidays, but at the same time, we’re also declaring the winner. Consider the awards as, if you can only buy one game from the nominees of the category, buy the winner. But if you are further interested in other games from the category, you should definitely pick them up as well as they have aspects that all make them worth considering. Game boxes have been provided for all nominees, and all of them link to Amazon, our gaming retailer of the year due to not only their ridiculous gaming deals, but their constant vigilance in price matching practically all competitors.

Our 2009 awards/shopping guide will span all week, with cmfl3x and me alternating posts and writing about a few categories each day. This will culminate on Friday when we both share our own nominations for Game of the Year, and our picks for Game of the Year. I will kick things off today with three categories: 2009′s Best Fighting Game, Best Role Playing Game, and Best First Person Shooter for the Xbox 360.

Best Xbox 360 Fighting Game of 2009

Street Fighter IV [winner]
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Tekken 6

It’s hard to believe that Street Fighter IV released this year since it was back in February that the game came out. Compared to the other fighting games that were released in 2009, Street Fighter IV reigns supreme. It is THE sequel to Street Fighter II for many of us that grew up with the game, and jumped off the band wagon once Street Fighter III came out. It unites fans of the classic Street Fighter games with fans of the more current Street Fighter games – a remarkable feat. The roster is huge and full of fan favorites, the gameplay is simple to learn yet deep enough to be played at a competitive level, the graphics are truly revolutionary and fitting for this generation, and the excellent matchmaking allows fans to play the game competitively from the comfort of their own homes. In short, it’s easy to understand why Street Fighter IV is our 2009 fighting game of the year.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger is our runner up for fighting game of the year. Developed by the makers of Guilty Gear, BlazBlue came out of nowhere for me and after I picked it up and played it, I had a great time. The game is fresh with completely new characters, contains very functional matchmaking, and a single player mode that has players really learning about the storyline and background of each character. I would have liked to see more characters, as BlazBlue’s playable roster doesn’t compare to Street Fighter IV’s, but the game should be next on your list to buy if you’re a fighting game fan and Street Fighter IV has lost its appeal for you.

Marvel vs Capcom 2 is a $15 Xbox Live Arcade title, and while it’s worth mentioning here as a fighting game to look into, it is beginning to show its age. All the craziness of the game is still there and matchmaking works online, but at this rate you’re either still a fan or have moved on. Today’s fighting games are a bit less frenetic, but if jonesin’ to play as Spiderman and Wolverine once again, Marvel vs Capcom 2 will deliver. Just be aware that the character list is quite unbalanced and you may get frustrated playing online against others that have been playing it for many years.

Tekken 6 is the last fighting game to be released in 2009 worth considering for fighting game fans. At its initial launch, the game’s online was terrible but over Thanksgiving Namco has since released a patch to alleviate the problems. I haven’t played the Tekken games since the PS2, but I have picked up Tekken 6 and plan to delve into it later this month. The game has a huge roster of characters, but for some reason or another, its core gameplay has never really resonated with me compared to other fighting games. Tekken tends to focus more on juggling combos than traditional combos, and has single-player departures that tend to suck. Tekken 6 appears to be no different. I don’t see much innovation in this game compared to Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue, the other stronger titles in this category. Still, it’s the only 3D fighter released this year, so if you prefer that to 2D fighters, this is the game to get.

Best Xbox 360 Role Playing Game of 2009

Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
Magna Carta 2
Dragon Age: Origins [winner]

2009 was a tough year for role playing game fans on the Xbox 360. After the deluge of titles from Mystwalker and Square Enix in the past, we’re left with just one pure Japanese RPG released in 2009: Star Ocean: The Last Hope. I actually owned this game for a while, and tried it out for a bit. It’s not a bad game, as it follows traditional J-RPG classic RPG design. If you like J-RPGs and the idea of spending hundreds of hours in a sci-fi based one, Star Ocean 4 is worth considering – even if the reviews of the game are less than stellar. It seems like American reviewers don’t really enjoy J-RPG games much these days, as they didn’t score Lost Odyssey too highly either so if you liked games like Lost Odyssey, perhaps Star Ocean: The Last Hope may also provide you with similar enjoyment.

Sacred 2 was a 360 port originally released on the PC. I tried out the PC demo and while it was decent, I wasn’t going to seriously play it enough to get it. It’s gotten mixed reviews, but it resonates strongly with the right crowd. If you’re a Diablo fan and enjoy collecting loot in an action-RPG style game, Sacred 2 is the only game you’ll be able to play this year on the 360 that can handle that. However, there are inherent technical issues with the game, with complaints such as slowdown, interface problems, and other minor things that account for a lack of presentation. Players also complain about the lack of a pause feature. But, if you want an action-RPG game to play on the 360, this is most likely the primary replacement to Too Human.

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition I mention here only because it was released this year. With it being our pick for 2008′s game of the year, it cannot seriously be considered as a competitor for this year. Having said that, if you have not played the game yet, this is the definitive title to get as the game of the year edition contains all five released downloadable content that would have cost players $50 or so alone for just downloading. The most important part of the DLC is that it raises the level cap from 20 to 30, ensuring a much lengthier experience you can enjoy in the world of Fallout 3.

Magna Carta 2 is a Korean developed J-RPG game, and I say “J-RPG” because the developers have created it specifically adhering to Japanese RPG game design. However, the game actually plays more like an action-RPG, and is very reminiscent of Infinite Undiscovery. Sadly, Infinite Undiscovery and Magna Carta 2 were devastated by american reviewers. I personally enjoyed Infinite Undiscovery a lot, and because of that I’ve already picked up Magna Carta 2. There are still fans for both games, and there seem to be more fans of Magna Carta 2 than I would have thought. So with Magna Carta 2, perhaps it’s worth not listening to the reviewers if this type of game interests you.

The final nominee we have for best 360 role playing game of 2009 is Dragon Age: Origins. Compared to the other games, it was easy to realize that Dragon Age: Origins would be our winner even though neither cmfl3x and I have even played through it yet. It’s in my backlog (like practically every other big game released this holiday season), but I’ve read enough about it and even played the web-based game to understand what it’s going for. To be honest, it wins by default because Fallout 3: GotY is ineligible, and the other three RPG games are good for only certain types of RPG fan types, while Dragon Age: Origins brings it all together. If you are simply a general RPG fan, Dragon Age: Origins is the game to buy. The game is quite lengthy, has a deep storyline, and is developed by the team behind RPG greats such as Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and the game is considered the spiritual successor to the PC franchise Baldur’s Gate. The one big negative to the game appears to be the graphics. The game looks gorgeous on the PC, but on the 360 version, complaints seem to condemn the game as having Xbox 1 level graphics. I’m sure they can’t be that bad, but that is perhaps the biggest thing to consider. Most people recommend picking the PC version if possible but if the 360 is all you got, it’s still the best RPG game of this year.

Best Xbox 360 First Person Shooter of 2009

Battlefield 1943
Halo 3: ODST
Borderlands
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 [winner]
Left 4 Dead 2

What defines what is the best first person shooter of the year? Of course it would have to be played in first person, but what I’m thinking about is when one is shopping for a gamer who doesn’t have any of this year’s top FPS games and is a FPS fan, the winner of this category is the game to get. Which is the overall package that will delight a FPS fan?

Battlefield 1943 is an Xbox Live Arcade only title, and while it has a hard time comparing to the other games on this nominee list, it holds its own as quite an enjoyable Live Arcade title. The game released in the summer of 2009 for $15, and prior to that, there had been no other online FPS game for fans to engage in. Battlefield 1943 definitely scratched the itch, as it brought the core Battlefield Conquest gameplay back, with three different land maps and an air map. Does it still hold up compared to this holiday season’s titles? Not really, but for a fraction of the cost, it’s still worth checking out for multiplayer FPS fans.

Halo 3: ODST did not release to rave reviews like its predecessors. It did some interesting things with the “open world” campaign and Firefight modes, but many felt that its $59.99 price tag was far too high for what it provided: a 6 hour campaign, co-op Firefight without matchmaking, and all of the Halo 3 multiplayer with all DLC maps and three new ones. Most fans of Halo already had Halo 3, so while it sounds like a good deal for those completely new to Halo, people were upset that they were spending $60 to complete a short campaign and play Firefight. The game did not have legs, and many players have already moved onto either Modern Warfare 2 or Left 4 Dead 2. Is it a good game? Sure it’s worth playing if you’re a Halo fan and the Firefight mode is a lot of fun with friends. But with no truely new multiplayer component, it’s a game that will most likely gather dust once you’ve gone through it.

Borderlands is more of a mixture between FPS and RPG, as you play the game in first person and shoot guns but you have to adhere to RPG principles like finding new weapons for damage upgrades and taking into account damage increases and reduction due to player and enemy level differences. Borderlands proves that this mixture between FPS and RPG works brilliantly, and for fans of both genres, the game is worth picking up. Unfortunately, like Halo 3: ODST, it doesn’t seem to be a game that has legs. It’s quite lengthier than Halo 3: ODST (at about 25 hours for each playthrough, with 2 playthroughs required to max out at level 50), and even provides 4-player co-op, but the RPG limitations prevent co-op from really being possible unless you have a dedicated crew that will only play it together at the exact same time.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the juggernaut in this list, and easily the winner of this category due to it being a more complete package than any other FPS on this list. If you want to play the game’s multiplayer, it’s awesome and has so many things going on that you could be engaged with it for months or years. There’s so much going on that I’ve even had to write a guide for it, and it’s so fun that even when you die you can’t help but keep coming back. At the same time, the campaign, while a bit on the short side at 6 hours, is also quite a thrillride from start to finish with a storyline that has you on the edge of your seat at practically every level. Still on top of that, if you wanted even more from the game, there’s an entirely new mode called Special Ops that consists of over 20 levels that you can play through co-op with a friend. These levels are quite enjoyable, ranging from one player in an AC-130 covering another player as he makes his way across the map to both players holding out together against several waves of increasingly difficult enemies. In all, Modern Warfare 2 is the First Person Shooter of 2009, and should not be missed. It has practically everything a first person shooter fan could ever want.

Left 4 Dead 2 was released one week after Modern Warfare 2, and amusingly enough, I am now writing about it in the paragraph after gushing about how amazing Modern Warfare 2 is and why it won. Left 4 Dead 2 actually pulls second in this category for 2009, as it brings more to the table over its predecessor: more special infected zombies, more weapons, more levels, longer levels, more adversarial modes, increased difficulty, and the list goes on. Of course, whether it was all necessary is questionable by fans of the original but I will definitely admit that if I ever get tired of Modern Warfare 2, I can see Left 4 Dead 2 carrying my FPS burden until Battlefield: Bad Company 2 releases in March. My recommendation is to pick up Modern Warfare 2 & Left 4 Dead 2, but if it can only be one for your FPS fan, it’s Modern Warfare 2 all the way.

Stay tuned tomorrow when cmfl3x presents our next categories!

While this review may seem to have arrived somewhat late, cmfl3x and I recently agreed on an article writing system here at Leveling Down that differentiates between impressions and reviews. Going forward, please keep in mind that when we write “impressions” articles, it means we’ve played a bit into the game, and are therefore writing what our initial impressions are. Reviews, meanwhile, will only be named as such when we want to write about a game that we’ve completed already so we’ve fully realized what the game has to offer. Often times if we come out with impressions for a game first and do not put out a review later, it implies that our initial impressions carried through the rest of the game and it wasn’t necessary to “set the record straight” by writing a review of the game after completing it. Borderlands doesn’t quite fall into the category of being exactly the super awesome game I professed it to be in my initial impressions, and so I want to follow up on it with this review now that I’ve collected the 1000 Achievement points.

I pre-ordered Borderlands, canceled it, bought it on sale, convinced cmfl3x to buy it, barely played it with him, beat it for myself, and then stopped playing it altogether. That’s basically the order of events that occurred, and I’m trying to think back and see what went right and what went wrong with this game.

First, the positives. The game had a very enjoyable combat system. Borderlands is fast and could be played just like an FPS game without paying too much attention to RPG elements . It perfectly mixes of FPS and RPG, and it makes me wonder if this is what Hellgate: London was trying to achieve. While Hellgate: London failed with its combat engine, Borderlands succeeds. The guns are effective and it uses the Call of Duty control system so any FPS fan should be able to pick this up right away. At the same time, enemies all have life bars, levels, and provide experience points. It’s intuitive and enjoyable to play – which is one of the most important aspects of what makes a good game. Combined with varied enemies, excellent presentation, and speckled with humor, it’s a game that should be experienced.

The design for multiple players playing online together worked very well too. In online co-op console games in the past, often times players would have to join one player’s game and it would be off only one player’s save file so nothing except maybe money would be carried back to the other players’ games. This is not the case in Borderlands – if you complete quests in the host’s game, they will be marked complete for you when you return to your game as well, making the transition between single player and multiplayer pretty seamless (unless the host is completing quests that you don’t have the prerequisites for). So it plays well and the jump between solo and multiplayer play was designed expertly.

Now here are where several of my negatives come in and they revolve around the items, the actual ability to play together, and the re-playability. The items were disappointing to me in several ways. While Borderlands was advertised as having a ridiculous numbers of different guns, realistically, there were basically only a select number of functionally different weapons. You had combat rifles, SMGs, shotguns, magnums, etc. – clear weapon types that were different. And then the only real differentiation for each of those weapon types was whether it had one of four elemental attacks and whether it had a scope or not. There wasn’t much variety at all outside of the alien weapons, but for most of the game you end up just using traditional stuff with certain elemental artifacts (alien weaponry is rare and only shows up near the end of the game). These regular weapons were enough to get the job done and it was fun finding more, but the weapon variety just didn’t live up to the “over 17 million” weapon combinations or whatnot that were advertised for the game.

Weapons didn’t really ever drop from enemies or bosses either – at least not the random stuff. It was disappointing that they were practically only found in the weapons chests, and the lack of being able to trade or determine loot rules also made the item system more annoying than it had to be. Of course, now that I’ve played through the game, I can see why there wasn’t much of a desire by the developers to create a trading window or to set up loot rules – the loot just wasn’t that interesting nor did it have enough variety. On top of that, item duping was quite prevalent, as it was as easy as dropping whatever items you had in a host’s game, resetting your game, and coming back in so the host could have the items you dropped on the ground because you had them in your inventory again. The problem lays in the fact that the game only saves your inventory at checkpoints and when you quit the game the way you’re supposed to. It doesn’t save when you just reset the console or drop to dashboard since it has no time to save.

The “actual ability to play together” was another annoyance of mine with the game. While cmfl3x and I bought this along with a couple other friends, we were all playing at completely different paces so after a while, it just wasn’t possible to play together with our levels so far apart. This game has a heavy action component but the leveling makes a significant difference for people to play together. With the focus being on completing quests, if you’re too high or too low to complete the host’s quests, it’s just not as enjoyable. Even five levels apart is just too much. I tried to alleviate this situation by creating a low level alt character to play with cmfl3x, but that leads to my other big issue: replayability. The game just doesn’t have much of it. Sure, you can beat the game and go through it on a harder difficulty to fight leveled up monsters (if you want to hit the max level of 50), but to play through the game as a different character is not much fun. This is in part due to two problems: the first being that the characters are just not different enough because the game focuses on guns that are usable by all four characters, and the second being some characters are just not as well balanced as the others.

My main character was Brick, a Berserker that ended up specializing in all weapon types but could use Rage to melee enemies and gain life at an extraordinary rate at the same time. I tried an alt as a Soldier, and the Turret just didn’t compare at all to the Berserker’s Rage ability. I felt gimped. And I had a ridiculously tough time soloing as a Hunter. A sniper class with a special that just sends a bird to attack enemies but doesn’t help you snipe just doesn’t add much value for a Hunter. Eventually my Hunter had to start learning close range weapons, which is not what I wanted as a sniper rifle-based class. Both my Soldier and Hunter had trouble staying alive due to the lack of an ability to self-regenerate health as efficiently and as quickly as the Berserker. And even then, they were all basically using the same weapons anyway, so I didn’t feel like playing one class was an entirely different experience than another since my Beserker had basically the best special ability, and also leveled the sniper rifle to be quite proficient in it as well.

One other thing to note is that I actually felt the game was more enjoyable playing solo than multiplayer. The difficulty certainly ramped up considerably in multiplayer matches, as it seemed like the enemies’ damage and health bars multiplied by the number of players in a game. But the thing was, I didn’t really feel connected to other players when playing co-op. In World of Warcraft, you would have quests you could solo by yourself, and then there were instances/dungeons that you would take on with a party. Dragging around 2-3 other guys while running quests that you could solo yourself not only isn’t efficient, it’s not that fun (how enjoyable is going on errands and dragging your friends along in real life?). I’ll admit though that the “instances” in this game were enjoyable as a group, and I only wish there were more of them and more rewards for the players to share. But each of these instances was few and far between compared to the number non-instance quests where you’d drive somewhere, shoot some enemies or collect something, turn around and turn in the quest. Surprisingly, it not only ended up being more efficient to just go through the game myself, but more enjoyable for me as well.

So what am I trying to say with all this? Is the game good? Is it worth buying? Even after that flood of criticism, my answer is still yes. The game is good and worth buying. It does a remarkable job of combining the FPS and RPG genres together, with an intuitive combat system and a lengthy game (if you want to go through the game twice to level to 50, each playthrough lasts about 25 hours). While it lacks more replayability than most class-based online RPG games, it’s a very enjoyable solo game. As a co-op multiplayer game, it can’t quite beat stuff like Left 4 Dead, and therefore, falls short to me in that aspect. I bought this game hoping to play it with friends, and while the infrastructure is in place to do that, it netted out to become less enjoyable playing with others due to certain limitations of the game design. I whole-heartedly recommend it as a solo game, but as a multiplayer game, it depends if you can get your friends to play consistently together and at the same time throughout the game. Maybe it does sit somewhere between Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead, but that in itself makes for quite a decent game if you’re willing to take on certain tradeoffs that come with the mixing of the genres.

I’ve never played an MMO. I don’t know what it means to “Ding!” a level. I’ve never been too into getting “loot”. So when espion4ge starting peer pressuring me to get Borderlands, I wasn’t really buying. But with all the positive press out there, and my friends all going nuts about the game, I decided to give it a shot, and figured I’d might as well write about it. So – was it worth it?

Well, to keep this short: the jury’s out. Borderlands is a great game, but it definitely hasn’t gripped me like it has the rest of my friends list. I keep thinking about Modern Warfare 2, and even played a game of Halo Wars the other day. I definitely see how the game is addicting: it’s fun to turn in quests, to level up and to trick out my character (I’m playing as a Siren) in a way that suits my playstyle. It is very satisfying to phasewalk and burn a bunch of bandits up in the process.

At the same time, I find Borderlands a lot less fun to play by myself. I spend most of my solo time just getting to a point where I can play with others. The game isn’t really fun to me unless everyone is at around the same level, so I’ve spent time on my own to level up to a point where I can play with my friends. That being said, going on missions with friends is a lot of fun, and the enemies definitely drop more interesting loot. I really dig playing this game with friends, and if some of your friends are playing it you should definitely consider picking it up. I’m just not sure I’ll still be playing it when (Ding!) Modern Warfare 2 comes out, but I guess I’ll find out next week!

So you picked up Borderlands and want to play with other people but don’t know where to start? Unlike other FPS games on the 360 with co-op, Borderlands requires you to pick a class type and sticking with it through to the end. Therefore, picking the one that best suits your playstyle is vital.

In many ways, Borderlands shares similarities to MMORPGs I’ve played in the past, and I will bring some of those tips here to those of you new to Borderlands with little experience playing MMORPGs. Look here for some tips on how to play nicely with strangers or even friends.

One caveat: I have yet to really get to the endgame for this, so many of my tips here are from my MMORPG experience as well as consolidating all of the relevant Borderlands information I found online. Some of it may apply and some may not, but this is what is going through my head as I prep for Borderlands with buddies.

Determine Classes With Your Friends Early On
Ideally, if you have several friends to play with, have everyone agree on playing different classes. This is sort of common sense: not only will you be potentially fighting over the same weapons, but other weapon types that drop will go to waste and you won’t even get to make use of the variety of abilities for all four classes.

Plan Your Class Out
Figure out how you want your character to be at level 50 (the max level in the game) and where you want to put your 46 ability points towards. On top of that, once you’ve figured out your build, next you want to determine how the points get allocated. Which skills are most important? Each of the three trees ends in a “super ability” so you should decide which tree you want to go down first.

Brick: http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/brick/
Roland: http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/roland/
Lilith: http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/lilith/
Mordecai: http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/skilltree/mordecai/

Why You’re Playing as a Team in the First Place
Borderlands ups the difficulty with more players, making it important to stick together. Your reward for it? Better experience and better loot. Harder “trash” enemies may not require much teamwork for a full 4 person team (all guns blazing), but harder bosses will require the teamwork. To be the ideal team player, you want to build your character up with skills, abilities, and weapons that support the ideal role your class should play in a 4-person boss encounter at max level.

Consider Two Builds
You will most likely play Borderlands solo or with other players. Unlike Diablo, in Borderlands you can reallocate your skillpoints by paying money, but the cost goes up everytime you want to respec to discourage people from changing back and forth. You should ideally have a build where you’ve allocated your abilities in such a way to play the game alone (maxing out abilities that increase your own firepower and survival) and a different team-based “build” (maxing out abilities that help your teammates, whether it’s team bonuses, healing, etc.).

Creating Alts
If paying to respec back and forth between two different builds may seem too ridiculous, consider creating an alternate character or two. Alts are basically second and third characters, so you can use one character perhaps for just solo play and another character for team-based play. Alts often times solve the problem of friends that can’t all play together at the same time – you can maybe keep one character for solo play, one for only playing with your friends at designated times, and one for maybe public games. You can even make an alt the same class – but this time maybe each of the two classes have builds specific for their roles.

Now that I’ve hopefully explained class and alt management, it’s time to find out what each class specializes in so it makes it easier for you to decide which playstyle you enjoy most.

Brick
CLASS: Berserker
TEAM FUNCTION: Tank
UNIQUE ABILITY: Brick’s Berserk ability forces him to drop his weapon to attack with fists. During this period of time, Brick gains resistance to all damage types and regenerates health.
PREFERRED WEAPONS: rockets/melee
TEAMPLAY: Due to Brick’s unique damage resistance ability + melee, he functions best as a tank. For those new to this terminology, it means he will be the primary class engaging any boss or enemies and holding their attention. No other class has as much defensive prowess as Brick, so he defaults to being the punching bag. In a team-based fight, Brick should try to have every enemy’s attention because all of the other classes will drop more quickly due to their lack of health/defense. Basically, as Brick, your goal should always be to have every enemy attacking you and none of your party members. With a focus on melee, Brick is less gear dependent than the other three classes.

Roland
CLASS: Soldier
TEAM FUNCTION: Support/Healer
UNIQUE ABILITY: Roland’s ability allows him to drop a stationary turret down that can also provide the team with cover.
PREFERRED WEAPONS: combat rifle, shotgun
TEAMPLAY: Roland’s “Soldier” class is a bit misleading, as he functions best in a team capacity as a support/healer. This is due to the primary fact that one of his unique abilities that no other classes has is to heal other players by shooting them. Throw in the fact that he has several abilities that he can upgrade on his turret to provide ammo, health, and even reviving capabilities for the team means that this is his calling. In a team-based setting, he should simply be healing the tank class so the tank can survive long enough to keep all enemies on him.

Mordecai
CLASS: Hunter
TEAM FUNCTION: Ranged Damage
UNIQUE ABILITY: Mordecai is able to call down a pet falcon to attack and confuse enemies
PREFERRED WEAPONS: sniper rifle, pistol
TEAMPLAY: While Mordecai’s unique ability is not as useful in a teamplay setting, he is probably the most powerful attacker of the four classes, with abilities that allow him to increase not only his critical hit damage, but the amount of damage on his preferred weapons and the rate at which he can fire. This is balanced with the fact that he has poor defense, making soloing potentially difficult. But in a teamplay setting, he has the rest of his team to hold the enemies’ attention, allowing him to pick them all off one by one.

Lilith
CLASS: Siren
TEAM FUNCTION: Close Combat damage
UNIQUE ABILITY: Lilith has the ability to Phasewalk, allowing her to turn invisible and move really fast. Entering/exiting Phasewalk does damage to nearby enemies and Lilith can gain damage bonuses from meleeing an enemy (which brings her out of Phasewalk).
PREFERRED WEAPONS: SMG/melee
TEAMPLAY: Lilith tends to function very similar in a solo or team-based game: dealing damage. For those that play MMORPGs, she seems to be a strange hybrid combination of a rogue, mage, and elementalist. It’s really up to the player how to play her, but I prefer the rogue route, as one ability gives her an 800% damage bonus when meleeing an enemy in Phasewalk. At the same time, when she enters and exit Phasewalk, she does area effect damage, hurting any enemies in the area. The two viable builds for her are either an assassin, using Phasewalk and meleeining whenever she can to kill weaker enemies and to deal major damage to bosses, or an elementalist where she relies on an SMG and various abilities that make use of elemental attacks that cause damage over time on the enemies. Most likely, Lilith players will play in some sort of combination of the two, Phasewalking and meleeing when possible and using the SMG when waiting for Phasewalk to become available again.

How All Four Classes Work Together
Now that you understand what each of these four classes is about, it’s time to imagine what it’s like for a party of all four of these classes taking on a monster boss at the highest level in the game (level 50).

Brick, the tank class, will hold the boss’s attention by meleeing and staying up close to the boss. Roland will be positioned behind Brick and constantly healing him by shooting him and throwing down his turret. Mordecai will be positioned even further away, simply sniping the boss as often as he can, and getting ammo from his rifle by the use of Roland’s turret (since it should be specced to produce ammo). Lilith will be off to the side of the other three repeatedly entering Phasewalk to get up close and meleeing the boss before hiding again until the Phasewalk ability is recharged. In a sense, Brick tanks, Roland heals, and Mordecai and Lilith damage the boss until it drops. So, in Borderlands you have a tank class, a healer class, and two DPS classes. It’s now up to you and your friends to decide which classes to pick.

An Optimal Party
I have yet to play public games at a high level in Borderlands, but if it’s anything like a traditional MMORPG, each party of four is optimal with one tank, one healer, and two DPS. With the lack of classes in this game, that really means an ideal party will consist of Brick, Roland, and a combination of Mordecais and/or Liliths with all classes playing in their team-based roles. If you had a party of two Bricks and two Rolands, you may survive longer but you’ll be seriously lacking in firepower due to no DPS classes. And with four DPS classes, who is going to tank the bosses? Your whole party will get splattered real quick.

Class Popularities
Damage dealing classes tend to be the most popular in MMORPGs, while healing classes tend to be the least popular. I guess people seem to have more satisfaction in killing an enemy than preventing an ally from dying. What’s interesting to me is that I’m seeing Roland as the most popular class so far in my limited online play with Borderlands, and this may be due to his class being labeled as “Soldier”. After all, I’m playing this on the 360, a console that is best loved for FPS games so I’m guessing it’s not just me that naturally gravitates towards that class. Even I myself originally created a Soldier to learn the game with because I saw combat rifle as one of his specialties. However, keep in mind that the soldier functions ideally as a healer in a team-based role, so while it appears that the Soldier class may be very popular, I would argue that based on past evidence of healing classes, there are probably only a small subset of people actually playing the Soldier class as a healer. If you’re going to create a soldier, make sure you heal!

When to Handle Loot Drops and Trading
With no loot system in Borderlands, I’m not even going to try recommending a way to handle loot drops if you play in a public game, but among friends, you may want to consider what I’ve devised. First off, don’t have everyone stopping and inspecting gear after every drop (except maybe after a big boss). Instead, take the opposite approach: have everyone just grab everything during the chaos of every drop, but don’t bother inspecting or trading yet. Just keep moving and if you see one of the players not moving, you know he’s inspecting the pickups so you can ”encourage” him to keep moving.

Instead, I recommend inspecting the weapons everyone has picked up the next time all of you reach a vendor, so you can ask if anyone wants it before you sell it. Often times when you get to a vending machine, someone has to stop to buy ammo or sell stuff anyway, so trading weapons then is a natural time that won’t slow down the action.

Weapon Priorities
As for the weapon types themselves, note that there are already specific weapon types that each class is geared towards, even if anyone can “master” any weapon type. Some classes have skills or abilities that allow them to get more value out of a particular weapon type, so in the interest of fairness and creating a rule system, you may want to consider the following:

Rocket Launchers – Brick gets first pick
Combat Rifles -  – Roland gets first pick
Shotguns – Roland gets first pick
Sniper Rifles – Mordecai gets first pick
Pistols/Revolvers – Mordecai gets first pick
SMGs – Lilith gets first pick
Alien Rifles – open since it depends on the weapon itself and which class can make the most use out of it

If you want to master a weapon type that is not among your primaries, it is more polite to allow the primary class for that weapon to decide first whether or not he will use it. If not, it’s all yours – just make sure you disclose early on to the other players what weapons you want to use outside of those that your class prefers. And if there are multiple players playing the same class in your party, if one player gets first pick on the weapon drop, then let the next player playing the same class get the first pick on the next drop. This brings me to the next refinement in handling loot drops…

Rarity Threshold
All of the gear drops in Borderlands falls into a certain rarity type molded after World of Warcraft, with the most rare color, orange, at the bottom of the list:

White – Common
Green – Uncommon
Blue – Rare
Purple – Epic
Orange – Legendary

When playing with your friends, it’s helpful to agree upon a rarity threshold, which basically determines if a friend should bring something to your attention that he’s picked up or about to get rid of. The threshold generally is set at Green or Blue, so that often means that if a player is about to sell a green or blue item (or higher), he should ask the corresponding class that can use that item if he wants it or not. If you and your pals set rarity threshold to Blue, it means anyone that picks up anything white or green can just sell it without telling any of the other party members, but anything Blue, Purple, or Orange you have to disclose!

Gear Is Not As Important Early On
If you’re not level 50 yet, don’t worry about not getting every little item as you’ll always find something better as you continue to level up. Your goal should really be to level to 50, so you can find the endgame loot. That’s when it’s probably time to make sure the agreed upon loot rules and who gets what weapon types are in place. If a level 20 orange weapon drops and for some reason or another you aren’t able to get it, don’t sweat it too much. You’ll most likely find a blue item or even a green item a few levels later that will already be better than it. But if an orange weapon drops at level 50, then is the time to raise a fuss if you aren’t given it when you should be.

Utilizing the MMORPG “pull” Strategy
This is something to consider if you wish to play conservatively due to the area being more difficult, your team is underleveled, etc. The MMORPG “pull” strategy involves the party of four setting up in an area that is safe for them, and having just one player (most likely either Mordecai, due to his long range, or Lilith, due to her speed and cloaking) attacking one enemy and running back to the group. This pulls the enemy towards the group, and the group can take the enemy out very quickly and efficiently without having to engage extra enemies. Then the party advances and the puller grabs the next enemy group. If you don’t do a “pull” strategy, it’s possible that your party may simply be triggering all sorts of enemies nearby during your fighting, and you may get overwhelmed and killed. Perhaps Borderlands isn’t that difficult, but considering switching to this tactic when needed if you are outmatched or things look tough. Have the enemies come to you, not the other way around!

Parting Thoughts
This is all the advice I have on the topic for now. When I get into it more and make my way to the endgame, I’ll add more tips I’ve learned or revise what I’ve written above accordingly. Please feel free to share your tips as well!

In my last entry about Borderlands, I made the decision to cancel my pre-order due to the fact that the item management system in the game turned out to be terrible. However, the game did have aspects that I was interested in, and with Best Buy running a Buy 2 Get 1 free sale on all console games $59.99 or less, I bit. (For those wondering, my 3 games ended up being Borderlands, Fallout: GotY Edition, and Brutal Legend.)

Anyway, on to Borderlands. Barring the issues with the item system that made me cancel my pre-order in the first place (no trading window, a lack of unique developer designed items, no loot rules, etc.), the game is fantastic in every other aspect and definitely recommended. I came to terms with accepting that I would play this game more for the action/RPG experience, and not to be a lootwhore. After all, people have already figured out a way to easily dupe items on the 360 version, so no real sense in coveting gear because it can all be shared anyway. My new goal in the game is to reach 50 with each of the 4 classes, but with Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 on the horizon, reaching 50 with one class is probably more practical.

So what is Borderlands and why am I really digging it? The main reason I’m enjoying it is because it combines aspects of several top tier games. When I first started playing it I thought to myself, “Wow, Borderlands is like the current generation’s Phantasy Star Online.” Phantasy Star Online was an addictive online action-RPG that was released originally on the Dreamcast, but also found success on the Gamecube and Xbox due to its online play. People had to pay monthly fees to play it, but you joined up with several other players online and went through dungeons and quests together killing enemies to level up and find cool loot.

Borderlands preserves the most enjoyable aspects of Phantasy Star Online: the social aspect of the game – allowing for up to four players to play together with enemy difficulty scaling and better treasures dropping. At the same time, Borderlands implements a well-designed quest system that is not unlike soloing in World of Warcraft or practically any online MMORPG these days. I for one loved to solo in World of Warcraft, doing quest chain after quest chain since you were always rewarded with loot and experience. Borderlands implements the quest chain system superbly as well, and I can’t help but reminisce about WoW questing when I play Borderlands.

Tying the package together is the sound FPS system of the game. Surprisingly, the FPS mechanics in the game work very well. Fallout 3′s FPS mechanics were kind of hokey, but Borderlands is very intuitive because not only are there understandable statistics on weapons like accuracy and kickback on a weapon, but the control system is basically the Call of Duty 4 system. Fans of Call of Duty 4 will be right at home in playing this game and aiming for headshots. It can very much be played as a FPS game so it should appeal to action gamers as well.

For those of you that have yet to experience such addictive online RPG games such as World of Warcraft and Phantasy Star Online, surely you must have experienced the addictive nature of Call of Duty 4′s leveling up and challenges. Borderlands is like that (it has its own set of challenges that provide extra exp) but now throw in 4-player online co-op and tons of new weapons to find and share and you have a game that you can play with friends for many, many hours.

In summary, I can forgive Borderlands’ poor item system because all the other aspects of the game are just so well done and enjoyable. I even forgot to mention the amount of humor present in the game, as it doesn’t quite take itself so seriously and makes the game even more amiable. I recommend the game to anyone that was a fan of any of the action-RPG games that I’ve mentioned above, or even FPS fans that want to play a game where the emphasis is on co-op and not adversarial. Pick it up today for yourself and 2 friends, with Best Buy running the Buy 2 Get 1 free sale and let me know if you want to play co-op. I’m soloing for now, but would love to find some people to play it with – after all, I’m going to have to since people don’t really share loot in public games…

I’m somewhat sad to say this, but I have decided to cancel my Borderlands pre-order. After learning more about the game, I’m disappointed to discover that it is not going to be a day 1 purchase for me. I thought that this game was going to be Diablo + Fallout 3 with co-op, but it falls very short on the most important end: the Diablo part.

The reasons for its downfall?

1. Millions of randomly generated guns
Marketing and advertising are pushing this as a selling feature, but the biggest drawback that comes out of this is that there is a very minimal amount of unique, non randomly-generated items. For Diablo players, we loved finding Set Items and Unique Items – I did boss runs and planned my characters over specific item drops and loot tables. And the best thing about unique “non-generated” items is that when someone else sees you with it, they know right away you have an awesome weapon. Millions of randomly generated guns means everyone is running around with some random gun so there’s no real sense in a better item – just what you prefer. I couldn’t care less for the yellow items in Diablo with all the random modifiers. Give me something that everyone can respect and actually want!

2. FFA looting
Diablo II was released nearly 10 years ago, and the looting was free-for-all. That meant when a boss died, all the items it dropped just appeared in a pile near its corpse so everyone would inch close as it got close to dying and click whatever they could get like kids going after candy from a broken pinata. It didn’t matter if you couldn’t use the item – you knew someone who could, or you could use it for an alt, or you could trade it for an item you could use, etc. It was barbaric and there was a lot of arguments that ensued over item drops.

Since then, multiplayer action RPGs and even MMORPG’s, have dealt with FFA looting in two ways: rolling for loot in some way or another, or having the item drops from a boss only show up for each particular player. The second option meant that whatever you saw drop was yours – and no one else could see it (Diablo 3 will implement this system). Unfortunately, the developers of Borderlands are still back in the stone-ages and actually take some sadistic delight in seeing Borderlands players fight over loot. Their argument is not to play with loot-stealers, and not to worry about it at all because there are plenty of drops to go around (yeah, right…I’m sure there’s plenty of epic drops to go around -_-). What if you play as the sniper class in Borderlands though? It means you’re further away than anyone else, so the only way you’ll actually be able to get item drops is if the people you play with let you get the items. In any case, this practically closes off public online games since no one needs to really care about anyone other than themself in public matches.

3. No Trading Window
I don’t understand what Gearbox was thinking when they made this game. A number of people considering buying this game are Diablo fans who want to play a FPS-based loot game. Loot is the center of this game! So it boggles my mind why Gearbox decided to not put in a trading window in the game. This means two separate players will have to each drop an item, and then run to the other item to perform a trade. And what happens if one player tries to cheat the other by dropping something stupid? It’s a train wreck all around. In their defense, the developers stated that if it was a heavily requested feature, they would put it into the game via a patch. That’s great, but what does it mean to be heavily requested? Anyone that even is interested in a game like this would want a trade window…

What’s hard to believe that is that while Too Human was critically panned, from a functional standpoint it worked. The actual gameplay could have been better, and there could have been more unique drops instead of randomly generated crap, but at least in Too Human you could set loot distribution rules and there was a trade window. I hate to say it, but Gearbox should have actually taken notes from the way Too Human handled loot. In any case, I’m saying goodbye to my pre-order for Borderlands. Diablo III can’t come soon enough…

This game has been on my radar for a while now, but with new footage coming out lately, I’m more excited than before. I’ve always been a big Diablo fan, and after playing games like Sacred, Titan’s Quest, and even Hellgate: London, I’ve never played another loot-based game that’s nearly as good. Phantasy Star Online comes close, but it was ruined by hacking and had a monthly fee.

Borderlands is apparently inventing a new genre the development team is dubbing “RPS”, mashing FPS mechanics with action/rpg lootwhoring. Throw in 4-player online co-op, and it has the potential to play like a combination of Fallout 3 + Left 4 Dead (without the zombies) - two of the biggest games of last year. If this game is as good as I hope it turns out, I will end up nagging my buddies to all get it like I always do.

One of the potential issues I have with the game right now is that Gearbox is claiming that Borderlands can randomly generate thousands of different weapon drops. While that may sound interesting for some, what I care about most (and what will give the game “Diablo” like longevity) is for there to be a healthy amount of unique and set weapons that are not randomly generated along with a marketplace for trading them. For the Diablo players out there, I want the gold and green items to exist in this game and not just thousands of yellow ones! The second potential issue I see is how will multiplayer be handled? Will all of our characters and their info be kept on the server, and if so, how will that be done without incurring a monthly fee? I don’t want to have to play off of some guy’s savefile like Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Gearbox will have an exciting game on their hands if everything is done right. Please don’t mess up!