Leveling Down

World of Warcraft & Team Fortress 2 continue to give PC gamers updates

It’s interesting for me to see the “evolution” of the PC gaming landscape. Growing up on Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem, I’ve lived through the rise and decline of the PC gaming scene, from the introduction of first person shooters, real-time strategy games, online multiplayer, 4X strategy games, and now MMORPGs. If you’ve also grown up with fond memories of Doom & Quake, I highly recommend checking out the book, Masters of Doom. It’s a well-written book that chronicles how John Romero and John Carmack met, formed id Software, and completely shook up the gaming industry. Having said that, today’s entry will contain my more general thoughts on the PC gaming landscape, and why I’m still excited for its present and future.
More »

Henry Hatsworth is an innovative and charming platform/puzzle game that should appeal to all types of gamers.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS) – I know someone that worked on this game, and he’s been pretty excited about its release this week. He’s so excited that he’s been visiting various Gamestops and retail stores the last couple of days to see how many copies are coming in and who is buying them. Thus, you can understand his dismay when he discovers that most Gamestop employees never heard of it, and instead ask him if he’s interested in buying GTA: Chinatown Wars instead. Of the Gamestops that did get the game in, they only get 1-2 copies. (I guess there’s always Amazon.) It’s unfortunate that it may get lost in the flood of big name titles this month on the DS, but I’ve played through it and it’s a solid game. It’s basically Mega Man + Tetris Attack, but my only real issue with it is that the difficulty *really* ramps up in the latter half of the game. If this is your cup of tea – start looking for it! With a tiny number of copies hitting retail stores around the country, it may prove difficult to find once word gets out. For more on it check out the IGN review, which gave it a 9.0, and how much hardcore gamers are loving it over at NeoGAF.

Street Fighter IV – So begins my downward spiral. I hit 2000 Battle Points last week and was pretty happy with it, but when I tried playing some this week, I must have lost nearly all of my 20 or so matches I played, dropping me all the way back down to 1200 or so. The competition this week has been ridiculously tougher than before, and I’m seeing far less of the “Ken players” that I saw when the game first released. It’s almost like the people that weren’t that good with the game have already moved on, so now it’s only hardcore players left. I’m playing against all sorts of characters I have no idea how to fight against since I didn’t see them before, and I’m also seeing more 4000+ BP players who are just nuts. I fought one Cammy player who would just rush at me and constantly spam light attacks as well as a light jump into the air and Cannon Striking me over and over. Before I knew it, it was already over. “What just happened?!” I asked myself.

Resident Evil 5 – I grabbed this over the weekend at Toys R’ Us since it came with the free $20 gift card, but I honestly can’t figure out how to spend it. Last week they had the “any 2 $20 games for $30″, but the selection was terrible at the Times Square Toys R Us, and now this week they have “$20 off any 2 $40+ titles”. But what the heck is left for me to get considering my huge backlog? There’s some games I kind of want, but not for $10 off their $60 retail price. So yeah, that’s my conundrum over the $20 gift card. They didn’t have 1600 point cards either, but hopefully they stock them at some point since I decided I’d end up just doing that if it came down to it.

Oh as for the game itself? Decent so far. It honestly has gameplay mechanics similar to Resident Evil 4, but for some reason I’m just not that into it. I see that half of my friends list is playing the game, but for some reason I’m just not that excited to play it after having beaten the first few levels. It’s not seeming as short as I thought, but it’s not giving me an “awesome vibe” like I had when playing Resident Evil 4. Consequently, I’ve been spending more of this week playing Halo Wars and Street Fighter IV instead. Expect some impressions on the game from me next week though.

Halo Wars – Picked this up this past weekend and I’m actually enjoying it more than I thought. While it’s simpler than Red Alert 3, I’ve actually grown pretty used to the controls and it’s quite doable with the d-pad jumping between my armies and bases, hitting the R trigger to switch between unit types in my groups, etc. I think I’m at mission 9 or so, and for the most part, Legendary difficulty hasn’t been too tough although I had to restart a few times in missions 6 and 7. I haven’t had a chance to play online yet, but I’ll probably try to get some games in if I can finish up the single player campaign this weekend.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Ended up picking the PC version of this game at Best Buy this past weekend since it was $10. Ironically, it was pretty much right after I traded in the 360 version of the game across the street at Gamestop for like $15. I figured the game was pretty enjoyable and patches keep coming out for the PC version so maybe I’ll see what it’s like – plus, it has the new expansion with Ric Flair. I was shocked though to discover how zoomed in the PC version of the game was. I tried to zoom out as much as I could but it’s still probably zoomed in at least twice as much as the 360 version. Crazy stuff.

Last week cmfl3x and I presented you with a list of games that we felt were good value from a standpoint of being enjoyable for pretty much every type of gamer. This week we’ll share more “niche” titles – games that you can enjoy – provided you’re into the genre. Again, we want to look at games that are good value – ones that either have a lengthy/replayable single player campaign or plenty of multiplayer hours to keep you coming back while at the same time being enjoyable while being inexpensive.

More »

Over 80 hours into this game already. But I’m excited because that means a new game to play is around the corner…

Infinite Undiscovery – A few more Achievements left in the game to get and I will be totally done. I’m hoping to get them this weekend, when I beat the optional end-game boss on the hardest difficulty for that 1 Achievement point. By beating her, I should also hopefully unlock the other most difficult Achievement in the game – one that relies on me having collected every one of the unique 880 items in the game. If I don’t get that Achievement, I’m done anyway – not going through it again and trying to collect every single item.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Finally got the 1000 in the game! cmfl3x and I played a few online matches this week and it wasn’t bad, but without matchmaking, it’s time for me to part ways with the game. It seems like no one really plays 2v2 online though, as it took me maybe 20 minutes before being able to find three other players to start a game.

Street Fighter IV – Still playing this, especially whenever my brother has time to play. We’ll just hop in a room and play for hours. Surprisingly, my Sagat is giving his Abel a little more trouble than we both expected, so either I seem to be catching up to him in fighting game ability or I’m learning how to use the imbalance of my character against him. I prefer to think it’s just the former, but I’m sure it’s a mixture of both. I hit my current goal of breaking 2000 Battle Points this week, and I’m definitely starting to see higher level players. Played against a 4500 player once, and when I lost, I only lost 1 point and he only gained 1. Wha?!

Peggle – Been playing this on my DS. I’m sort of addicted to the game. I never played it much before, but with it coming out for the DS I figured I’d try it out and now I’m playing it on my subway commute home from work every night. I can definitely see why the Japanese are addicted to Pachinko – Peggle seems to take that addictiveness of watching a ball bounce around different pegs but also adds more pinball-like gameplay enhancements that are now making my subway trip home far too short each night.

Resident Evil 5 – Still struggling for a long time trying to decide if I should go pick up the game today since Toys R Us is giving out a $20 gift card with it. The thing is, I don’t know what to put the $20 gift card towards. I think it expires at the end of the April, so it’s kind of forcing me to have to use it sooner rather than later. Maybe I’ll just get at 1600 point card or something.

While the PC version of Red Alert 3 is superior, it’s still enjoyable on the 360.

cmfl3x and I have been playing this game on and off for the past two months, and it’s only now that I can finally put out a review. Either we’re incredibly slow gamers, or the game is just that lengthy. Well, it’s a little of both, as cmfl3x and I decided to play through all 27 campaign missions on co-op together and were only able to continue in progress when both of us were available and had the time to do so. That, plus 27 campaign missions is a pretty lengthy amount of time for a game, and we definitely got more than enough game length just from the campaign to justify the title’s price. For the most part, the game is enjoyable, but of course that depends on how you feel about a real time strategy game being played with a controller. If you’re open to the idea, or even looking for one with a lengthy campaign after discovering how short the Halo Wars campaign was, you should definitely give Red Alert 3 a shot.

cmfl3x will also contribute his thoughts on the game to the review.

Good
- lengthy and enjoyable campaign with co-op support
- campy/amusing cutscenes, stars, and units
- skirmish mode and multiplayer extend game length even further

Bad
- still cumbersome to play optimally without a keyboard and mouse
- somewhat of a barebones multiplayer with only 4 player support and no team matchmaking
- the shoddy AI partner if you’re playing campaign levels on Hard difficulty

More »

Kind of a slow week for me, there’s been a lot going on and even though my fiancee was out of town this weekend I didn’t get to play as many games as I had hoped. I saw Watchmen instead, which was a pretty good substitute. Fans of the comic should definitely check it out (though I’m sure they already have), and those wondering what the big deal is might want to do some homework before they go to the theater. Television Without Pity has a pretty good primer for those who are interested (and it’s spoiler-free). I know this isn’t a movie blog but if people watched it I’m curious as to what everyone thinks (no spoilers!). It’s semi-game related, there’s an over-priced prequel that you can play through!

Halo Wars – Grabbed this on launch day and have been working with a friend on playing through on Heroic difficulty co-op (guess I’m used to playing RTS co-op now). We were doing fine until Mission 6 when the Covenant sent us straight back to Harvest. I was so upset I ended up beating it on my own, but it took me twice the “par” time for the map. I don’t know if I just stink at the game or the mission is unfair. Impressions on the game so far will be up this week. Teaser: Mixed bag.

Street Fighter IV - Finally beat Seth with every single character on medium. It felt more like work than fun, and it didn’t really help me get too much better at the game. I plan on spending all my time with the game online for a week or so, hoping to learn some new tricks to take back to the challenge modes.

Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 – Played this a little over the weekend to pick up some more achievements. Slowly working my way to 1000, but it’s gonna be a bit of a grind. The end of the final campaign was pretty fun, overall I definitely got my money’s worth out of this game. I’m curious as to how it plays online, espion4ge and I might try later this week.

Far Cry 2 – Playing through the back half of the game, still enjoying myself quite a bit. I’m starting to get some better weapons too so that makes everything fun. Also, the second half of the world map feels a lot different from the first half, which I think is a great design choice. More people should have tried this game! It’s not too late…

Street Fighter IV online with my brother was how I spent the majority of my gaming this week.

Street Fighter IV – Finally convinced my brother to pick up the game, and we’ve been spending a good amount of time this past week playing it online. Even though he had barely played it prior to picking it up, he proceeded to destroy me right after we started playing. I was only able to win one of the 8-9 matches we played and I was using Sagat! But still, ever since then he’s started using Abel and that’s all we play. I’ve been learning a lot though from playing with him and while he’s clearly better, playing with him is actually making me better too so I’m happy about that.

Infinite Undiscovery – When will this game end?! Going on 60 hours or so now and have just beat the game on the hardest difficulty. Now all that remains is that final optional (ridiculously tough) end-game dungeon and I’ll be able to move on. Too bad I’ll need about another 10-15 hours in this dungeon before I can walk away victorious.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – cmfl3x and I beat the campaign early this past week so he could move on to Halo Wars. Some of those missions make me wonder if it’s even possible to beat with an AI partner on Hard difficulty. Maybe I’ll try it out sometime since we’ll be putting out a review for it next week.

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts – Picked it up since it was on sale at Amazon for $20 this week. I wasn’t too impressed with the demo, but it seems like people that play it say it’s awesome: the equivalent of playing with Legos but in a video game. So I guess I’ll just have to see for myself. Add another game to the backlog…

Crysis & Crysis Warhead – Both were on sale for $10 each at Best Buy this week so I picked those up too. At first I wasn’t planning on Crysis Warhead due to the intrusive Securom DRM, but apparently EA has released patches on Crysis Warhead, Spore, and Red Alert 3 (on the PC) that allows you to deauthorize the game on your PC so you don’t run out of installs. My PC gaming backlog is almost up to double digits now…

Resident Evil 5 – Comes out next Friday but the sad news is: it’s a 7 hour game. What a massive disappointment. Resident Evil 4 was a 20 hour game and this is about the same length as Call of Duty 4 or Gears of War but without any sort of multiplayer. It’s practically Army of Two and even Army of Two had multiplayer! Grr.

Between now and Sunday 3/15/09, all Reward Zone members can print out a coupon to receive $20 off on any of the following titles:

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Premier Edition
Crysis
Crysis Warhead
EA Sports 08 Collection
FIFA Soccer 09
The Orange Box

Since all of the titles retail for $29.99 each, that makes them $9.99 after coupon. You only need one coupon and it is good for all of the games in one transaction, but not more than 3 of one title. Use the in-store locator to find games you’re looking for, as the deal is only good in-store and requires a Reward Zone membership and the coupon print out. Reward Zone membership is free and you can sign up right on the website.

For those worried about DRM on some games like Red Alert 3 and Crysis Warhead, EA released patches to allow you to deauthorize the DRM on the games so you can have your installs back. In short, the games are still worth picking up for $10 each if you are interested.

I picked up Crysis & Crysis Warhead last night myself (Crysis still even had the $49.99 sticker on it but rang up for $29.99). I was considering double dippping on the PC version of Red Alert 3 as well, but it wasn’t in stock at my local Best Buy.

$20 Off Select PC Games coupon [Best Buy Reward Zone]

espion4ge asked me if I wanted to start contributing weekly gaming thoughts, so from now on I’ll be posting them to start the week off and he will finish on Fridays. Here we go!

Street Fighter IV – I’ve been working my way through medium difficulty, trying to unlock the “Storied Reputation” achievement. I can’t say it’s tons of fun, but I do have a good handle on how to deal with Seth now. Unfortunately, that’s not really helping me with online play. I haven’t won a single match against my buddy LargeLobster yet. I need a sensei…

Far Cry 2 – I finished the first act of the game and moved into the southern part of the game world, which means I need to wander around finding/collecting things again (even though I’ve given up on collecting all the diamonds, there are other smaller things to collect that I want to do). I have to say, the story is picking up – the transition from Act I to Act II was pretty heavy. I’m really enjoying this game.

Guitar Hero World Tour – I finally finished my last band career. Having a bass career is kind of lame, even though some of the bass lines are pretty difficult. I gotta say, the game actually was a lot more fun on my second run through (when I wasn’t playing it in the wake of Rock Band 2). Go figure.

Left 4 Dead – Got some Versus play in with some buddies. Still can’t drop this game yet, probably the best 40 dollars I’ve spent in a long while.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 – espion4ge and I are almost done with the final campaign. I don’t know if it’s because the Japanese require more micromanaging, or because they have the most difficult campaign, but we’ve come across some pretty hard missions. We’re trying to finish the last two missions before Halo Wars comes out tomorrow, but if the last few missions we’ve played are any indication, we might not make our self-imposed deadline. I’m pretty curious to see how Halo Wars ends up playing, since everything I’m reading says it’s too simple. RA3 is not, so I wonder if Halo Wars will feel even more dumbed down for me.

Street Fighter IV – After struggling to decide whether to buy it at launch or not, I ended up going for it. The presentation in this game is amazing! Unfortunately, I’m getting my butt whooped online. Playing the AI and online is so different – you can pull off flashy combos and stuff against the AI, but against humans, it seems like it’s all about safe moves and frame advantage. I’m such a noob when it comes to this stuff, but maybe I’ll get better in time.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – cmfl3x and I have continued to make our way through the campaign, just finishing off the last two missions on the Allied campaign late last night. We must have retried each of those missions 3-4 times, as it gets pretty hard on Hard difficulty. The last Allied mission is rough – there’s a timer and we ended up destroying the last building when the timer hit 0:00 (maybe it even hit -0:01 heh). It was funny because both the Victory and then the Defeat videos started playing one right after another, but luckily we got the Victory endscreen. Talk about a close call!

Left 4 Dead – Just when I thought I was done with it, the PC version has to go on sale and I ended up picking it up. Expect a write-up with my thoughts comparing it to the 360 version at some point.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 – Never considered picking this up since it’s a PC game, but the fact that it’s tied into the Live system and has its own Achievements has me interested. Maybe I’ll wait for a price drop.

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad – Campy Japanese zombie beat-em-up playing as a girl in a bikini sounds like it could be enjoyable as I like zombies and I like Japanese developed games. A girl in bikini doesn’t hurt either but since my wife may not like the idea of seeing me play as a scantily clad woman throughout the game I’ll hold off on this one for now.

Sins of a Solar Empire – Picked it up since it was on sale at Best Buy this week. I think it got lots of 2008 PC game of the year awards, so I’m curious to check it out. Supposedly it’s a cross between an RTS and a Civilization game, but in space. I’m not the biggest space strategy gamer, but maybe this one will turn out ok for me.