Leveling Down

For the next few weeks, my Xbox is going to take a backseat to my favorite sporting event of the year: March Madness. What little time I have left for video games will probably be spent playing Dragon Age: Origins, and since we’ve covered that on the site, I figured I’d try something new: a video game bracket!

I’ve chosen 28 of my favorite games across 4 different categories (“regions”), and as the NCAA tournament plays itself out, so too will you get to watch this video game bracket play itself out. Why am I doing this? Well, I love brackets, first of all. Secondly, it’s a chance for me to take a trip down memory lane and narrow down some of my favorite games of all time. I recognize that a lot of times comparing games is like comparing apples to oranges, which is why I separated the games by genres (loosely).

Anyway, I’ve left the 8 seed open in all four regions, so I need YOU, the Leveling Down reader, to suggest games to finish out the bracket. Hit the jump to see the selection committee’s (aka, cmfl3x’s) criteria and some other notes about this totally awesome tournament.

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Ever sit down and think what your ideal engagement range for first person/third person shooter games is? I was musing over this thought myself recently after playing several of these games with some friends and thinking about why I’m excited for Modern Warfare 2 tomorrow. I noticed that most of my friends play differently, and for a shooter, there seems to be an ideal range that people prefer to engage enemies at. This “epiphany” may actually lead me to understand the primary reason why I am not a huge fan of hugely popular online shooters like Halo and Gears of War – my ideal range doesn’t seem to be handled the way I like.

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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.

With my brother in town visiting for an extended stay, I’ve started looking into games that we can both play together online off the same 360. He’s into competitive games (especially fighting games), while I’m more into co-operative games, so I figure we can meet in the middle with games that we can play against other people while still being on the same team. The trick is finding these types of games that allow for us to both play together on one console and still fulfill those requirements!

It’s slim pickings but here’s the list I’ve compiled:

Halo 3
This is probably the highest rated and most popular game of this list that allows for both of us to go online and play adversarial modes off the same console. Of course, you either like Halo or you don’t. I’ve come a long way in that I don’t find Halo 3 as bad as the first couple, but ultimately, I’ll always end up choosing a Battlefield or Call of Duty game over it if I were playing online alone.

Gears of War/Gears of War 2
I believe that both games allow for us to play on the same console in adversarial matches, as well as the Horde mode in Gears of War 2. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of the adversarial in the Gears of War games (too imbalanced since the gameplay design doesn’t work well for multiplayer) and my bro isn’t too into the Horde mode (he finds it too mindless).

Left 4 Dead
Every mode is available for us to play online with split screen, but I don’t enjoy the Versus mode so this is more co-op friendly than “co-op adversarial” friendly. The problems I have with the Versus mode is that it doesn’t really reward skill as much as it does figuring out where all the glitches and optimal “smoker pull spots” are. In other FPS adversarial games if you just go in completely new, you actually stand a chance based on your FPS skills alone. But in Left 4 Dead Versus, if you don’t know all the glitches/spots or how to deal with them, you’re done before you even started.

Unreal Tournament III
The 360 version is the only one with split-screen online, allowing us to play adversarial modes. Unfortunately, there’s no matchmaking in the game and the userbase is tiny. No one plays ranked anymore, and for unranked games, you’ll be lucky to find one or two matches. Game is practically already dead.

Age of Booty
From the same guys that did the matchmaking code of the Halo games, Age of Booty is an Xbox Arcade title that I felt my brother and I would enjoy. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a big following for the game so practically no one plays it online anymore, just like Unreal Tournament III.

In short, it looks like very slim pickings. I would have loved to see one of the Call of Duty games or Battlefield games offer split-screen online, or even older titles like the Rainbow Six games, the GRAW games, Team Fortress 2, and Shadowrun. Maybe we will have to get back into Halo after all, since it’s the best of what’s available. Perhaps it’s a good time too since Halo 3: ODST “drops” next month.

Is Left 4 Dead a $60 game? Or is it really only worth half that?

Recently, news hit the gaming industry that Valve’s Left 4 Dead half price sale ($24.99) on the PC was met with remarkable success. Gabe Newell, one of the co-founders at Valve, remarked that it was an experiment that surprised them: when Left 4 Dead went on sale for half price, it actually made more money for Valve than the initial launch window of the game when it sold for its full price. This is pretty unprecedented, because when you think about it, who ended up buying it for $24.99? Didn’t we all already buy it back in November? I’ve never taken an economics class, but I’ve heard people state that according to economics theory, if a game is selling ridiculously higher with a reduced price then perhaps the original price is too high.

Today’s discussion topic between cmfl3x and me revolve around the pricing of games and what we feel they are worth.

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Are Avatar’s six Achievements really worth 1000 points if they can all be unlocked in a minute?

I’ve managed to score a 50k+ Gamerscore in my years with the 360. And while that pales in comparison to the guys with 6 digit Gamerscores, it still sometimes manages to illicit some responses from players in online matches (both good and bad). But what is the point of the Gamerpoint score anyway? In this discussion topic, cmfl3x and I will discuss our thoughts on the implementation of Microsoft’s Achievement system and this new site we joined called TrueAchievements.com.

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

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

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

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Going to change up my weekly thoughts entries to shortened gaming related thoughts I’ve had each week. Here’s this week:

Left 4 Dead – Finally got the 1000. Dang it why did one of my friends have to just get the game this week though. Why couldn’t he have gotten it weeks ago?!

Shadowrun – Cool now maybe I can get back into this for multiplayer since I no longer have another multiplayer game to play at the moment.

Mirror’s Edge – Stupid Time Trial modes. I better just suck it up and beat them. Maybe I can clear them out this weekend.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway – I should try to beat this soon so I can get rid of it while it still has some value.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – I wanted to start it but it’s getting bumped down so I can get through Brothers in Arms first.

Call of Duty: World at War – Tried it out again recently and maybe I won’t be able to hit the first Prestige after all. It’s just not fun anymore and the fact that I’ll have to put maybe 20 more hours in to get it means I’m pushing it back in my backlog queue in hopes the desire comes back later.

Prince of Persia – Looks interesting, but dang it there’s an Achievement for collecting like 1001 gems or something in the game? Ugh I’ll get to it later then. Same reason I ended up putting Naruto: Rise of a Ninja off.

Gears of War 2 – Epic announced that they’re actually going to release a patch to balance the multiplayer game sometime this month? Too late. And why aren’t they fixing the matchmaking that still takes 10 minutes to find a game?!

Multiplayer in Gears of War 2 may be underwhelming, but the single player is an excellent ride from start to finish.

I’ll come right out and say it: I’m not the biggest fan of either the Halo or the Gears of War series. While I don’t like the “empty your entire clip into the guy before he dies” style combat of Halo, I can understand why the Halo series is popular: Bungie has put a lot of care and effort into Halo 3’s multiplayer so it’s no wonder the game is at the top of the Live charts even today. What I still don’t quite get is how Gears of War 1 and 2 are so popular from a multiplayer standpoint. The gameplay is relatively elementary, movement of the characters is too sluggish, and the games generally don’t play well in an adversarial way. Yet the kids love it. Is it the gore? I almost feel like Gears of War online is this generation’s Mortal Kombat – a versus game that is poorly designed yet elicits enough gruesome shock value to be entertaining. Why then, does a more refined and better designed multiplayer offering from Epic, Unreal Tournament III, have only a fraction of the fans?

I have a lot of problems with Gears of War 2’s multiplayer, but I did fully enjoy the single player and Horde modes. Apparently I’m not alone on this either, as several fans are fuming that Epic actually recently released a $10 map pack when they haven’t even fixed all of the problems in the multiplayer yet.

Good
- Excellent presentation
- Interesting and varied campaign
- Horde mode is a lot of fun for co-op

Bad
- Lack of epic boss fights like in the first game
- Multiplayer gameplay mechanics are broken
- Matchmaking is broken

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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…