Leveling Down

Amazon’s gaming deal of the day is Fallout 3 – unfortunately, only the PS3 version is on sale. If you haven’t played the game that cmfl3x and I both rate as our game of the year for 2008, you don’t know what you’re missing. Pick it up…now!

Also consider these two recent price drops on EA PS3 games as well:
Mercenaries 2 $19.99 (360 version is still $29.99) [Amazon.com]
Battlefield: Bad Company $19.99 (360 version is still $29.99) [Amazon.com]
Army of Two $19.99 (360 version is also $19.99) [Amazon.com]

Fallout 3 PS3 $34.98 [Amazon.com]

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 not perfect, Fallout 3 is my game of the year

Fallout 3 is in every sense of the word, a role-playing game. It’s not a role-playing game that has come to be associated with Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior but rather, a game where you get to choose a specific role for your character and play that role throughout the game. I consider Fallout 3 to be more an adventure game first and foremost, with minor RPG elements. You can honestly just play through the game looking for rifles and shooting at enemies, and not even really worry about the stats and Perks you want to assign your character.

In this day and age where almost everyone has played Call of Duty 4, they understand what assigning perks to your character means though. In short, I think the gaming world has grown up a little such that Fallout 3 can and should really be played by everyone. It’s the best single player game released this year. I still firmly believe that if you enjoyed BioShock and want something with more depth and satisfaction, then Fallout 3 should be the next purchase you make. And if you haven’t played BioShock yet, what’s wrong with you?

Good
- excellent recreation of a post-nuclear DC wasteland
- immersive gameplay that can have you playing hours without even noticing
- no set way to go through the game allows for playing the game in many different roles

Bad
- level cap stops progression too early in the game
- lack of a variety of enemy types
- lack of a minimap window on the main screen (but map is accessible in menu)

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Fallout 3 does an excellent job of immersing you in a post-nuclear war torn DC.

2008 has been a tough year in gaming for me to decide on a game of the year. Most of the big name releases this year have all had flaws in some form or another that have prevented them from being a game that clearly rises above the rest. Ninja Gaiden II had its technical issues, Call of Duty: World at War is another WWII rehash in the series, Gears of War 2 has broken matchmaking and balancing even worse than Call of Duty: World at War, Fable II never fully delivers on its epic promise, Dead Space manages to entertain but not kill the competition, and Left 4 Dead’s lack of any sort of persistent stats or ranking prevent it from being less than what it could have really been. Well, I’m glad I finally got around to Fallout 3, and it’s looking like there is a game that may emerge as my game of the year for 2008.

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This past week I’ve spent most of my time playing through Gears of War 2. I didn’t really enjoy the first Gears of War too much and had to force myself to beat it, but I enjoyed Gears of Wars 2’s campaign a great deal more. It’s clearly bigger and better as Epic claimed. I appreciated that there was a great deal of variety in the game, and the pacing was excellent. It didn’t have the depth of storyline that Epic was trying to sell (i.e.: “going to rival BioShock!”), but I had fun from beginning to end. After beating it on Normal, I jumped right back into Insane mode and just dusted that a couple of days ago. It was a little bit tough, but I didn’t think it was tougher than the first, as General Raam on Insane solo was probably the toughest boss I’ve ever fought this console generation. I guess coming off of Call of Duty: World at War’s Veteran mode also made this seem like a slight downgrade in difficulty too. There were no infinite enemy respawns here, so just taking your time works.

I also dabbled a bit in the offline multiplayer modes with bots, and while it was slightly entertaining, I can’t help but feel that the multiplayer in the Gears of War series doesn’t flow well due to the mechanics of the game. Gears of War is more about taking cover, popping and shooting, but that’s just not how human players end up playing each other. From what I’ve read so far, it seems that people online just run around shotgunning and chainsawing each other. I tried to play some online, but never got a chance to play due to the horrible design of the matchmaking system. I waited about 5 minutes and said forget it. Some people say they wait 25-45 minutes and still can’t get into a game! I’ll try playing online again some this weekend so I can get a review out for it next week.

Horde mode is pretty fun though and like Call of Duty: World at War’s zombie mode, probably one of the more enjoyable modes of Gears of War 2. While I was only able to play with one buddy Tuesday night, we made it to Wave 10 before deciding to call it quits that night. It was pretty crazy – by Wave 10 we were being attacked by Theron Guards, Bloodmounts, Boomers, and Kantuses (or Kanti?). I think the Horde mode fits in better as a multiplayer for Gears of War 2 since you can focus on taking cover while engaging waves of enemies. And it’s in the true spirit of teamplay like the campaign emphasizes.

I was remarking that I think what makes this type of mode so enjoyable is that it keeps the core gameplay design that made the classics so successful. Gears of War 2’s Horde Mode (and Call of Duty: World at War’s Zombie mode) seem to be this generation’s Space Invaders. Here we were, defending a location and taking cover against wave after wave of attacking enemies. Now to get a modern day realization of other classics like Pac-Man. Oh wait, wouldn’t that be Beautiful Katamari?

With Left 4 Dead on sale on Monday, a few of my other friends ordered the game and I ordered a copy for my brother as well. We gave it a spin last night and I took him through the Death Toll campaign on Normal so he could get used to the game. I think it was a bad idea, as we got through it pretty easily so I’m afraid that the lack of challenge may have put him off a bit. I forgot that he tends to like challenge more than me, and with us dropping Tanks with only a few shotgun blows, he was probably wondering where the fun was to the game. Next time I’ll have to turn it up a notch to Advanced and see if he starts squirming!

I began Fallout 3 as well last night, and I actually got a little bit overwhelmed. Most games I’ll just pop right in and start playing with no problems. But with all of the stats and permanent character upgrades, I have to really sit and plan how I want to make my character in Fallout 3. And with my plan to get the Achievements all in one run, I have to plan even more due to the landscape changing based on how I play through the game, causing certain Achievements to no longer be available. In short, there’s a lot I have to keep track of to play this game in an optimal way without coming across any spoilers. Guess I’ll crank out my spreadsheet today and start figuring out what Perks I want to level so I won’t have to decide on the spot…