Leveling Down

In Fable 3, your primary quest is to take the crown – but the game does not end there.

Fable 3 is another game I completed a few weeks back, and I’ve finally gotten around to reviewing it for today. As the Xbox 360 library continues to dwindle in exclusive franchises, the Fable series is one of Microsoft’s remaining franchises to assist Halo and Gears of War against the sheer number of Sony-exclusive franchises. My first experience with the Fable franchise is with Fable 2, and I found that game to be quite charming and enjoyable. Hit the jump to see if the third game in the series continues the trend.

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Welcome to Leveling Down’s 3rd Annual Gaming Awards/Holiday Shopping Guide! For those of you that are first time readers of our awards/holiday shopping guide, cmfl3x and I have basically compiled a list of various games released this year into different categories. We choose a “winner” of each category, but at the same time, all games mentioned as nominees in each category are worth considering – hence, the shopping guide aspect of it. If you can only pick one game from the category, go with the winner. If you enjoy that category a lot, consider checking out all of the nominees on that list!

As cmfl3x and I discussed the various categories and selected winners for each one, some categories we did not always agree on the same winner. This year, instead of forcing one another to see agree on the same game, we have instead allowed for ties – so there is a potential of two winners for each category. Our gaming tastes are not exactly the same and I didn’t think any of you would gain much from us forcing only one winner.

Our 2010 Gaming/Awards/Holiday Shopping Guide will span across all gaming platforms, and will run over the next two weeks on our normal Monday, Wednesday, and Friday posting schedule. Next Friday’s entry will conclude this year’s feature with our 2010 Game of the Year.

Without further ado, hit the jump for today’s categories: Best Action/Adventure Game and Best Role Playing Game.

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Are these four games enough to hold against this holiday season’s sequels?

Going into this year’s holiday gaming season, I am lacking enthusiasm. I don’t know if it’s because I’m busier now or if the current games this holiday season are just not as exciting as in the last couple of years. To be honest, most of the games I am about to call out I haven’t played yet, but based on buzz I am reading and demos I’ve played today’s entry will sort of be my knee-jerk reaction as to why I am not excited about what’s in store for the 2010 holiday season.

The problem is, we have so many sequels that are worse than their predecessors or sequels that don’t exactly blow their predecessors out of the water. This leads me to find practically all of them lacking in the excitement category that I have had in past holiday seasons. How many sequels are being released this holiday season? Let’s see!

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One of my friends asked me last night if I was going to trade in Halo 3: ODST now that I had the 1000 in it. He was saying it gets something like $35, which is pretty good considering we ended up getting it for around that (or even less) when it first came out. In the past, I used to trade in practically any game I got all the Achievements I wanted in and moved onto the next game in my queue.

Over just this past year alone, I’ve started winding down on my gaming tendencies (yes, it’s hard to believe but I’m less hardcore today than I was years ago), and actually started missing games I had gotten rid of. So I started rebuying games that I knew I would want to replay again at some point, just for fun. Looking at my 360 collection today, I’ve realized that more than half of the games I currently own I’ve sold and reacquired.

Nowadays, I’ve decided that no matter how good of a deal it is to trade in/sell a game that I enjoyed, I won’t get rid of it since the amount of work it takes to reaquire the game just doesn’t make up for the nice little “deal” I got when I sold it. What majorly sucks is that several of the games I end up wanting to reacquire turn into Platinum Hits titles, and I hate that design. Therefore, I’m forced to scour used game bins or find people online to buy from that can get me non-platinum hits versions that are not all scratched like crazy. I feel like I’m in some sort of game rebuying netherworld where I’m paying for my mistakes. I owned these games in mint condition and now I’m spending time trying to track these same games down that will no way be in as good condition as when I owned them. Why couldn’t I just have been happy with my original copies and not sell them in the first place?

Currently, I’ve been spending the last few weeks trying to rebuy the following games:

Mass Effect – I actually want to replay through this before playing the sequel coming out early next year, but the tough part is of course finding a non-platinum hits version in great condition.

Assassin’s Creed – Like Mass Effect, I do want to play this game again before the sequel releases next month but have to find a non-platinum hits version in great condition.

Fable 2 – Platinum hits was announced to be released in January, so I still have time to reacquire this game and I know I will want to play through it again before Fable 3 releases.

The Orange Box – I actually have cravings from time to time to play Team Fortress 2, and while I own it on the PC, people on the PC are too hardcore (clans and whatnot) so I just want to play it casually with my 360 controller. Plus, I figure I will want to play Portal again from time to time.

Once I successfully repick up these titles, I’ll only have a few left to go. Good thing I didn’t sell Halo Wars since I do have cravings to play that game too. In any case, that’s my simple warning to you – if you feel like at some point you may want to replay a game (just because it was amazing, you’ll miss it, or a future sequel gets you to want to replay its predecessor, etc.), consider holding onto it. I want to spare you this ordeal that I’m going through today…

I had to laugh at espion4ge’s post last week detailing Halo 3: ODST’s kung-fu grip on his friends list. Last week’s release, combined with the out of this world reviews for the upcoming Uncharted 2 on PS3 got me thinking about what games are system sellers on the big gaming systems (especially because I’ve felt tempted to buy a PS3 lately, though I have resisted that urge for fear of death). Some of these games justify the very purchase of the system itself, which are “must have” games for their respective systems. Anyway, I only own a 360, Wii, and DS, but I did my best to compile these system sellers anyway.

Xbox 360

System Seller: Halo Series
Halo is basically the reason why Microsoft is still in the games’ market today. Halo and Halo 2 singlehandedly saved the original Xbox from turning into the next Jaguar or 3DO, and ODST just showed once again that Halo is as popular as ever. Love it or hate it, Halo sells boxes.

Must Have Exclusives: Gears of War Series, Fable Series
A lot of people who don’t like Halo love Gears of War, the original cover based 3rd person shooter. It’s bloody and full of machismo which makes it pretty popular. Fable 2 (and the recently announced Fable 3) are also incredibly popular for the wide range of choices they give the player: the quintessential western RPG.

Upcoming: Mass Effect 2, Halo: Reach, Fable 3

Playstation 3

System Seller: God of War III
People probably will disagree, and it’s bit a ridiculous since this game isn’t even OUT yet, but I think God of War III is PS3′s system seller. None of PS3′s exclusives can really compete with Halo’s grip on the gaming community, but God of War comes close. I know people who bought a PS3 just in anticipation of this game, and they’ve been waiting ever since. The time is near…

Must Haves: Uncharted Series, Little Big Planet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone Series
PS3 makes up for its lack of a killer app with a bevy of very strong exclusives. Resistance, MLB: The Show, and Gran Turismo could all be added to this list. The Uncharted series is incredibly well reviewed and hailed as the next Tomb Raider, but for some reason, it doesn’t seem as popular (to me at least) as it deserves. And I still don’t get why Little Big Planet didn’t hit it big, but Sony’s trying to remedy that with the sequel.

Upcoming: Heavy Rain, Little Big Planet 2, God of War III, Final Fantasy Versus XIII
Note: I am more interested in Heavy Rain than any other game on the horizon, including Modern Warfare 2. Hopefully that game turns out better than the last game I was intrigued by did. I’m looking at you, Scribblenauts.

Anyway, it’s weird to start with 2nd and 3rd place, but 360 and PS3 are the “hardcore” systems. I’m sure I may have missed some exclusives. If I’m being honest, I actually think PS3 has more to offer in terms of exclusives. But Halo still trumps them all for me, plus I find Xbox Live so superior that I have no problem paying for it. I’m always checking out what my friends are playing, and it does a great job of building more of a gaming “community.” But to each his own…

Next week: Wii, DS, and PSP. Until then, what’d I miss? And please, if you own a PS3…tell me what’s awesome. I’ve only played MGS4.

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

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

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

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Does being good or evil even matter in video games?

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

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

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While having a kid in Fable II sounds neat, the dog ultimately proves to be a more lovable companion.

I never ended up playing the first Fable, but having now completed Fable II, I have to say that the series does deserve its fan following. Fable II is an adventure-RPG game that plays like an offline World of Warcraft style game while also including Sims-like character statistics and management. The game is quite enjoyable for the most part, with its main problem being that it suffers from not being able to deliver on some gameplay aspects it flirted with.

Good
- The dog companion is quite innovative and enjoyable
- Charming presentation
- Intuitive and engaging combat system

Bad
- Limitations on many of the grander aspects of the game
- Poor co-op
- Several bugs combined with no save slot management system

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As can be seen, my game backlog is huge. Yesterday I was feeling pretty happy I made some progress on shrinking it when I beat Silent Hill: Homecoming last week and Dead Space will be done this week. Next, I figured I’d hop back into Fable II and clear that out. I was telling myself that I’m not going to get any more games until I make significantly more progress on this queue, but the holiday season is tough with all the good games out. Two of my friends already got Call of Duty: World at War, and asked me if I was getting it. Of course I would, since I had already seen them playing it. I was waiting for a while to see if any good deals came out and I finally bit last night when I found it for $38 new. I figured it was also a good opportunity to try out the Xbox Live Party with them since the NXE update hit yesterday.

I don’t know whether to try to finish up Fable II next or jump right into Call of Duty: World at War. Part of me wants to complete Fable II just so I can be done with it (and also get a review out), but I got turned off of it. Besides the simple storyline, I think I’m just annoyed with all the little nuances that come with some of the Achievements for that game – especially one that requires me having to trade dolls with other players and another with me having to play the public games that I don’t even have. People got the public games free if they pre-ordered Fable II, but since I didn’t, I have to pay $10 to play them so I can get the corresponding Achievement? Pretty annoying. Maybe I’ll just beat the game and skip out on the dolls and public game oriented Achievement. I’m guessing it’s the OCD part of me that likes seeing the 1000/1000, but there’s only so many hoops even I’m willing to jump through to get there.

Finally, with Black Friday rolling around the corner, I’m sure there will be plenty of gaming deals to be had. I’m actually on the lookout now for Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, and even Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Then my game queue will be even longer, but I’m thinking after these holidays, I’ll have some time to push through many of these games. Yes…that’s what I’ll tell myself…

In Fable II, if you’re well-known you’ll attract a crowd of followers whenever you enter a town.

I never got in on the Fable game for the original Xbox, as I was too busy playing World of Warcraft or something during that time period. I ended up picking up the original game several months back for a few bucks since I figured I wanted to try it before the sequel came out. I played it for about two hours total, broken up over several various days. I had a negative initial impression on it at first, but as I played it a bit further it got a little better. The thing I disliked most about it was the game was running in basically low resolution on a 4×3 box on my LCD. It looked dated and the dialogue/humor/etc. was definitely not American. I sort of struggled to understand the nested action/expression system in the game, and it was not very intuitive.

You can laugh, flex, etc. and people you do it to give you a reaction, but the confusing thing is that when you hit the D-pad direction (left, up, or right for a different expression theme), it performs the expression but then switches to the next expression in that group. So say I want to perform a playful expression like dancing. I hit the D-Pad right and when it’s over, intuitively I would imagine that if I hit the d-pad right again, I could dance again. But no, the d-pad right action is now whistling – a different expression but one that still falls under the social category. I had a hard time grasping that for a while and didn’t like how the specific expression assigned to a button would change automatically after I used it. Regardless, I pushed on for a bit and found the combat enjoyable enough to get further into the game. But then it seemed to suddenly branch out too much and I didn’t quite care what to do next so I just stopped playing.

For this holiday season, I expected to be spending dozens of hours in one game only: Fallout 3. Fable 2 was more of an afterthought for me – after not really “getting into” the first one. But when I saw it for cheap I decided to pick it up. And I’ve discovered it’s actually pretty good.

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