Another year is almost over. Time sure flies these days! Over the course of this past year, I feel like I’ve leveled down the most since the blog started in 2008. By the end of 2011, my gaming library has dwindled down to only a fraction of the games I owned at the beginning of the year (I only own 2 PS3 games now!), I’ve actually skipped the purchase of several notable titles I would have usually bought (Dead Island, Catherine, Dark Souls, etc.), and generally feel like I may not even be buying more than a handful of games going forward (perhaps only Diablo III and Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm next year).

For our last entries of 2011, cmfl3x and I decided on providing our thoughts on our game of the year for 2011 as well as any other reflections on the year. As you can see from above, my thinking is that I’ve leveled down a lot over this past year. But, I did enjoy some games this past year as well! Hit the jump for my favorite games of 2011.

Crysis 2
While there have been several major titles released in the last several months of 2011, there were some good ones released early in the year as well. As I looked through the list of games released in 2011, the game I fondly remember most was Crysis 2. For fans of the first game, Crysis 2 may not have been what they expected, but for fans of more contemporary shooters, Crysis 2 was just what we needed. The scope of the sequel was changed from the open world “driving” around North Korea to a much tighter contemporary shooter in New York City. It’s probably one of the longest shooter campaigns I’ve played in recent memory, and it was very cool to basically feel like the Predator in NYC. Enemy AI could have been better, but all in all, it was quite an epic campaign. Multiplayer was also quite enjoyable, and I was sad that it never took off as much as I’d like. It was basically Call of Duty multiplayer with all of the interesting Predator-like features and unlocks you could get from the Crysis nanosuit, and I had a lot of fun playing the multiplayer in the early half of 2011.

Portal 2
When I beat the last level of Portal 1, I exclaimed to myself, “The game is over now? This last level where I’m actually out in the open world with my portal gun is what I want to be playing – not all of that labrat stuff!” Portal 2 definitely delivered in that aspect, allowing us to play through an entirely new campaign in an open world and all sorts of new puzzle related elements were introduced. On top of that, Portal 2 had some great voice acting and humor – it’d probably win my award for the funniest game of the year. Sadly, for some reason or another, Leaderboards and Time Trials were noticeably absent when the sequel launched, but the problem was eventually rectified with free DLC months later. Portal 2 also introduced co-op, and it was a hefty number of levels. Unfortunately, as much as cmfl3x and I played it together, I never really enjoyed it at the level of the single player campaign. I found it more frustrating than fun, and maybe it was due to the pressure of having to not only solve puzzles with another player, but also having to coordinate exactly with the other player as well. I remember being more frustrated with the co-op levels than entertained by them!

Uncharted 3
For some reason or another, even though I have to somehow force my way through the campaign of every single Uncharted game, I still like the series. I have a huge man-crush on Nathan Drake, as he’s basically a contemporary Han Solo and such a great character to follow the exploits of. While the gameplay hasn’t changed too much in this third game in the trilogy, I enjoyed the storyline most in this game of the three due to the exploration of Nathan’s and SUlly’s past. It brought great character and emotion to the epic scope of the series, and I would give Uncharted 3 my vote for the game with the best character design for 2011. Uncharted 3 also has a slew of co-op and multiplayer modes. While they are quite functional and entertaining in their own way, the Uncharted series’ primary strength has always been about its story-telling and characters, and not its gameplay. The multiplayer is a decent diversion, but with other bigger multiplayer titles around, it has a long way to go to be able to compete with them.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The Modern Warfare series of Call of Duty is my favorite shooter series. I thought when Modern Warfare 3 came out, I would have been sick of the entire Call of Duty series by now as I quickly got bored of Black Ops. I am glad to have been completely incorrect with Modern Warfare 3. At this time, it’s probably the game that I have spent the most multiplayer time on in 2011. The tweaks made to this game from earlier titles are all made for the better – different playstyle choices, more counters to pointstreaks, more game modes, etc. With everything going for its multiplayer, Modern Warfare 3 easily wins my award for Best Multiplayer Game of 2011. Its campaign is decent and closes out the trilogy relatively well, but it doesn’t quite stack up to Modern Warfare 2′s campaign. Spec Ops missions in Modern Warfare 3 also seems a bit weaker than Modern Warfare 2′s missions, and I’m still perplexed by the addition of a Survival Mode in Modern Warfare 3 but only limiting it to 2 players max.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I haven’t even opened the shrinkwrap on Skyrim yet, but I pretty much have an idea how good the game is. The last two games Bethesda Softworks developed, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3, both won my game of the year awards the years they were released. I can’t imagine Skyrim being worse than either of those two epic games, and as soon as I find some free time, I’m going to get myself lost in Skyrim once again. Several gaming outlets have already declated Skyrim as their game of the year for 2011, but with how similar it seems to Oblivion and the fact that I haven’t even played it yet to know for sure, I’m not quite ready to call it my game of the year. I’ll at least give it my pick for Best RPG of 2011.

My Previous Game of the Year Choices
Here are my picks for Game of the Year the last five years:

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2007: Bioshock
2008: Fallout 3
2009: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2010: Starcraft 2

My 2011 Game of the Year Choice

Gears of War 3
This may surprise some, as I never enjoyed the first two Gears of War games that much, but love Gears of War 3. The game, overall, is the total package. It is the only game on this list that provide so many different things, and does all of them well. It’s what I would consider a perfect video game and the pinnacle of the series. The campaign was lengthy, epic, emotional, and improved over the first two games. On top of that, Epic was able to finally provide 4-player support to the campaign, something that very few other shooters can accomplish these days. The Arcade mode and the addition of mutators allow for multiple playthroughs of the game, something that I have already partaken in.

Outside of the campaign, there’s also a well designed survival mode that lets up to 5 players play together through up to 50 Waves of progressively more difficult enemies. Not content to just leave it the same as Gears of War 2′s Horde Mode, Epic decided to provide players of this new Horde mode the ability to earn money and spend it on defensive structures and fortifications to aid in surviving. It easily blows away Modern Warfare 3′s paltry 2-player Survival Mode. And while I prefer Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer over Gears of War 3′s, it’s all a matter of taste. I find Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer to be so enjoyable due to its epic “Michael Bay” style over-the-top frenetic action (and sometimes imbalanced) gameplay.

I also appreciate Gears of War 3′s multiplayer, and will return to it once I start getting my fill of Modern Warfare 3. Gears of War 3′s multiplayer is classic FPS versus game design: start everyone off with the exact same weapons and equipment. Provide them with the ability to change their skins and weapon colors as they level up, but always keep pure gameplay equal at all times. In many ways, Gears of War 3′s multiplayer is more hardcore than Modern Warfare 3′s, but with the addition of a Team Deathmatch mode in Gears of War 3, it opens the game up a lot to newer, less experienced players like myself. It’s great.

Gears of War 3 is not only the best sequel of the year as it improves over its predecessor in every category, but it’s such a complete game that it’s hard for me not to award it my choice for Game of the Year. And with the January DLC allowing for the ability to “Prestige” in Gears of War 3, I may end up playing this game for a lot of 2012 as well!

espion4ge and I don’t usually write about the same games, but since Gears of War 3 is the end of a pretty important trilogy, I figured I’d make the exception. It’s funny – I always anticipate the threequels more, but it seems like espion4ge always ends up enjoying them more than I do (see: Halo Reach). I don’t disagree with his review, Gears of War 3 is a fine game, but I felt the campaign lacking in points. Yes, it is probably the best Gears of War campaign to date, but I feel like overall the Gears of War series’ campaigns are weak in general. I know you don’t play Gears for plot, but I still found myself wanting more after I finished the campaign the other day.

A Fun, Enjoyable Romp
I’ll start with the enjoyable stuff first. Like espion4ge said, Gears of War 3 is a lot of fun to play. I had a lot of fun playing it on Normal, probably more fun than I had playing Gears of War 2. The nice thing about playing on Normal is you barely have to use the cover system at all. Well, I guess that’s nice depending on your perspective.

From where I was standing, it was a lot of fun. I just ran around shooting Locust/Lambent with no regard for my safety. Every once in awhile I ducked into cover, but after that I’d just jump out and run around again. Sometimes, when I got bored of that, I just ran from enemy to enemy chainsawing them. Yay!

I also agree with espion4ge: Gears of War 3 looks beautiful. It’s great to be walking around Sera, the game really does a good job of showing the effects the long war has had on the planet. From destroyed cities to underwater ruins, the game looks amazing. It’s also incredibly epic, and brings the trilogy to a satisfying conclusion. There are some aspects of the campaign that do bug me though.

Fetch!
I think the campaign was a little too long. What seems to make it long are pointless fetch quests. I spent an entire act looking for fuel. When it was over, and I finally reached my destination, I had one more thing I had to do: FIND FUEL. Not only did I feel like an entire act was wasted (though there were some powerful narrative beats in there), but it makes me feel like it’s all so pointless.

Part of me was like, well, maybe that’s what the game is trying to say: war is pointless, and you have to do pointless things in order to survive. If that’s the message they were trying to send, then I applaud them for trying to be so deep, but since the point is unclear, I don’t know. They could have done a lot better job driving the point home.

Up Close and Personal
The only thing that bothers me about the core gameplay is the number of enemies that get up in your face. In a cover based shooter, it’s weird having to deal with enemies that get right up against you. Making things worse in this game is the fact that the Lambent EXPLODE when you kill them, so if they are up in your grill, they blow up in your face even if you kill them.

Things didn’t get too bad on Normal difficulty, but I’ll be curious to see how espion4ge feels about it on Insane. In general, I hate fighting the Lambent just like I disliked fighting the Flood in Halo. I’m not sure why these games insist on bringing a third race into the mix – I was perfectly happy chainsawing Locust. Now if I want to chainsaw a Lambent I gotta worry about it literally blowing up in my face!

Still, a Great Game
For the record, I still really enjoyed the campaign, and definitely felt the storyline was a step up from the past. In Gears of War 2 they tried to make things feel a little more serious and 3 really takes the next logical step. I didn’t love it as much as espion4ge, but I’d still give it a solid B+. Also, the game deserves points for its ending – it wraps up the game, and the trilogy, in fine fashion. I don’t remember being impressed with the end of Halo 3, but Gears ends with a nice cinematic. I’m not sure if we’ll see Marcus Fenix again (probably), but if this is his last showing, he’s gone out on a high note. NICE!

As a gamer who preferred the 360 over the PS3, it’s always been kind of odd that I could never get into the 360′s most important IPs: Halo & Gears of War. With Halo, I warmed up to the series some after spending time with Halo: Reach, but I eventually sold that game because it still wasn’t enjoyable enough to me. Gears of War 3 finally succeeded in not only getting me to really enjoy it, but it has drastically changed the way I thought I would play the game. Hit the jump to see why I love this game so much.

Campaign Mode
I touched on the campaign some with my initial impressions of the game last week, but now that I’ve completed the game, I can confidently say that it’s the best campaign mode of the entire series so far. Gears of War 3′s campaign is positively epic – and what’s more, it’s beautiful. Nearly all of the game’s levels are outdoors, brighter, and more colorful than the first two games. While I don’t want to spoil the storyline, I will say that it is the most engaging of the series. Again – I adore that there are so many Gears characters in the game; it makes the game’s scope seem huge and it is. The new enemy types also make the campaign much more varied; it feels like Left 4 Dead/Resident Evil at times and that’s a great thing.

Gears of War 3 is worth it just for its single player. The campaign mode is a meaty thrill ride from start to finish – but even once you’ve beaten the campaign, there’s a lot more. Gears 3 is the first time the series has incorporated an Arcade Mode, and I’m getting really into it. You get score multipliers the longer you stay alive, the higher the difficulty you play on, and the more mutators you turn on. It’s all been done before in games like Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, but it works very well with Gears of War 3. I love that there are still checkpoints in the Arcade Mode, so if you die, you can still keep going. Conversely, I don’t think the Call of Duty Arcade Modes allow reloading of checkpoints. Another addition to Gears 3′s campaign is the long sought after 4-player campaign mode. Gears of War 3 FINALLY did it! You can play through the entire campaign with 3 other friends, and one exceptionally cool feature introduced in Gears of War 2 I believe is also present in Gears of War 3 is that each player can set their own difficulty so you can play with friends of varying skill levels and everyone can still have fun. In short, everything about the campaign is perfect; I had no negatives and think the game is worth it for the campaign alone. But wait – there’s more…

The Gears 3 campaign takes you through a variety of levels, including Cole’s old stadium

Versus Mode
I never got into the competitive modes for Gears of War 1 or 2. I tried, but with everyone rolling around shotgunning each other due to the absurd number of Lancer assault rifle bullets it took to kill opponents just turned me off of the game altogether. Fortunately, this time around, the developers really retweaked the weapons (and continue to do so). While the Gnasher shotgun is still responsible for the most kills in Unranked play, it’s interesting that the Lancer rifle has the most kills in Ranked play. The Lancer assault rifle is now a viable weapon, which means that players are actually using cover and getting into firefights instead of just rolling and shotgunning. In fact, all of the starting weapons have their uses for different maps making for a more varied multiplayer experience.

Gears of War 3 also introduces a couple new multiplayer modes (in addition to keeping several of its classic modes): Capture the Leader and Team Deathmatch. Capture the Leader revolves around both teams trying to capture and hold a person for as long as possible, while Team Deathmatch is the first time the Gears of War series gets a Team Deathmatch mode. Suffice to say, Team Deathmatch is the most popular gametype online and rightly so – it’s quite newbie friendly for players like myself that are finally playing Gears multiplayer for the first time. In Team Deathmatch, each team has a total of 15 extra respawns that are used by the team. When a team exhausts those respawns, each of the five players on the team will no longer be able to respawn once they die so the objective is to deplete the opposing team’s respawn count to zero, and then kill each player for good. The mode is great for new players because even if they die, they can continue to play while there are extra respawns available.

Bots return as well for offline practice and play; it’s good to go against them to learn maps or practice weapons when you want to get better. I practice against bots often when I want to try new stuff.

Gears of War 3′s multiplayer maps are generally symmetrical yet tight for more action

Horde Mode
Gears of War 2 introduced a popular mode that other games such as Halo and Call of Duty had for players: a co-op survival mode where you and up to three other friends took on waves of increasingly difficult enemies while holding out for as long as you can. The interesting thing about this Horde Mode from Gears of War 2 is that the developers noticed that gamers would play the Gears of War 2 Horde Mode by trying to set up a base and fortifying it with enemy shields and whatever else they could find. In Gears of War 3, Epic decided to just go nuts with Horde Mode and add in base-building into the game.

Horde Mode has evolved in Gears of War 3 – for the better. It’s now even more enjoyable than the previous game’s Horde Mode, since each player earns money for killing enemies, and the money can be used to buy weapons, ammo, and base enhancements. You can spend your money to buy walls, turrets, decoys, etc. Players can pool their money together to buy advanced equipment as well. I haven’t had a chance to play this mode with friends yet, but from what I’ve played so far – it’s a lot of fun. The mode really feels like a cross between a shooter and tower defense, as there’s a great balance of action, strategy, and teamwork.

Gears of War 3′s Horde Mode introduces currency and the building of defensive structures

Beast Mode
On top of  the perfect Campaign mode, the more newbie friendly Versus modes, and the much improved Horde mode is a completely new mode to Gears of War: Beast Mode. In Beast Mode, players actually play as the enemy units in the game so it’s basically Horde Mode in reverse. The enemy AI are humans that put up fortifications, while the players spend money to play as one of many different enemy units that try to break through these fortifications and kill the humans in a minimal amount of time. For anyone that has wanted to play as units like a Ticker, Kantus, or Berserker, this mode is for them.

I personally feel like Beast Mode is interesting but the weakest of the four primary modes in this game. It can be fun but because you’re playing as the enemy units, the skills you gain within this mode aren’t as translatable to any of the other three main modes in Gears of War 3. Plus, it’s relatively short in comparison to the other modes. However, it’s a great diversion nonetheless for those that want something different in the game.

Gears of War 3 brings the trilogy to an epic end, but hopefully the series continues…

Final Thoughts
I initially played through the Gears of War 3 campaign on Casual and Normal difficulties, but after I beat the game, I enjoyed it so much I wanted more. I’m now replaying through the game on Insane, and replaying it through on Arcade mode to see how high of a score I can get for each level. I thought I would just play Versus for a few rounds and skip it altogether. Instead, I’m watching strategy videos, reading guides, practicing against bots – all to get better at the multiplayer. As much as I wanted to play this game as my new “casual gamer” self, every aspect of Gears of War 3 has been executed so flawlessly that it has pulled out my old hardcore gamer shadow and hooked itself onto this game. Gears of War 3 is not only the best Gears of War game, but one of  the best 360 games I’ve ever played.

Gears of War 3 is all that is on my mind right now, and all I want to play. Gears 3 is the first game in a while that I think about when I’m at work. I want to play this game with others – any of the four modes: Campaign, Versus, Horde, and Beast. They’re all exceptionally well done, enjoyable, and support multiple players. How can a game give you so much goodness in one box? I actually grow a little concerned now since Modern Warfare 3 is coming out in less than a month. What will happen if Gears 3 still hasn’t let me go at that point? I guess I’ll hold off on pre-ordering Modern Warfare 3 for now since I’ve finally fallen for Gears of War…

Final Grade: A

After finally making replaying through the campaigns of Gears of War 1 and 2, I am now able to start Gears of War 3. Talk about some waiting time eh? I might have to think twice about replaying Modern Warfare 1 and 2 before jumping into Modern Warfare 3. Regardless, now that I’ve got a chance to put some hours into the Gears 3 campaign & multiplayer, I do have some thoughts to share on it.

Campaign – Bigger and Better
Replaying through the Gears 1 and Gears 2 campaigns on Casual difficulty may have been the most fun I had with both games, as it took fewer shots to bring down enemies and I was able to actually use the Lancer rifle to kill so that was nice. It was so nice that I decided to stick with Casual difficulty for my Gears of War 3 campaign. At this point in my life, I just want to play games with as much enjoyment and little frustration as possible, so I’m thinking easiest difficulty may now be the way to go. As I currently play through the third Act, I feel like Epic was really influenced by other popular games, since I see nods to games like Halo, Left 4 Dead, and Resident Evil. I couldn’t be happier.

So far, I’ve completed the first two of the five Acts, and I really like the direction that Gears of War 3 takes compared to the first two campaigns. It feels a lot more epic – bosses are huge and entertaining, the level design is interesting and different (no longer underground and in abandoned derelict homes like the first two games), and the game seems better refined. One thing I love about the game now is that there are 4 players throughout the campaign since the game has 4-player co-op support. But as I play with the AI, it just feels like a big party as we’re all tearing through enemies. And the thing is, my AI controlled teammates in the campaign are no slouch! I’m competing with them for kills since they aren’t letting me have many! Real AI teammates that help kill is a welcome change in Gears 3 – something that I don’t really see too often in other video games. There are new characters mixed in with the old ones, so it’s really cool to see something like 8+ Gears running around and fighting together in the storyline.

Another major thing I noticed that is different is the weapon system. For the most part I’m happier with it. My favorite weapon now is the Hammerburst, which is an assault rifle that now has iron sights, so you can aim through it like you’re playing with a red dot sight – it certainly helps Call of Duty fans such as myself. One of the most drastic changes I noticed was the limited ammo for various weapons. It seems like Epic wanted to encourage the Lancer rifle more, because while the Hammerburst only has something like 140 rounds, the Lancer rifle has 400+ (but still a little less than the 550 rounds it used to have in the previous games). I’m not a big fan of the Longshot being “promoted” to Boomshot and Flamethrower status. In Gears 3, when you pick up a Longshot, the sniper rifle since the first game, you no longer get ammo for it from ammo crates. This is kind of annoying since the Longshot has always been my secondary weapon throughout the first two campaigns, but it looks like Epic wants the shotgun to be my secondary.

Multiplayer – 3rd Time’s a Charm?
I only got to play a little bit of the multiplayer for Gears 3, and it was only offline against bots, but I enjoyed it a lot this time around. Starting with the Hammerburst and its iron sights, having the ability to tag enemies for my teammates, and the multiplayer being easy to get into all contribute to me wanting to play more. I enjoyed my time playing with bots but I will next have to see how human opponents actually play. I actually liked the simplicity and straightforwardness of Gears 3′s multiplayer. I tried my hand at the Battlefield 3 demo, and it was a lot more difficult to get into and honestly didn’t seem as enjoyable to me. Gears of War 3 is tight and action-packed in comparison.

The Meta Layer – Awesome
What I love most about Gears of War 3 so far is the entire Halo Reach style meta layer of experience points and unlocks across all modes of play. Whether you’re playing the campaign, multiplayer, Horde Mode, Beast Mode, against bots, against humans, with bots, with humans co-op – whatever…you get experience points. As you play more of anything, you level up, get new unlocks and the game just seems much more huge this time around. It really adds a lot to the game and basically encourages you to just play whatever you want to play in Gears 3 instead of just focusing on the multiplayer as in previous games.

Parting Thoughts
I’m digging Gears 3 a lot. While I was relatively “meh” about the first two games, the 3rd game is knocking my socks off and it seems like a huge improvement over the previous games. I haven’t even gotten to playing co-op, Horde Mode, Beast Mode, or Multiplayer against human opponents yet, and I’m already really enjoying what I’ve played so far. And this is all coming from someone that had to force himself to get through the Gears of War 1 and 2 campaigns when they first came out! I’ll be definitely putting in some time into Gears 3 over the next several weeks, and I doubt anything I see as I continue to play the game will make me less positive about the game. It rocks!

I’ve been super busy with work and life recently. I don’t think I’ve played a video game for five days straight or something! In the interim, I’ve been thinking about what games I’m anticipating for the fall season. Shockingly, I’m coming up zeroes! For every game I think of, I think of a bunch of reasons why I’m not excited. What’s wrong with me!?

Gears of War and Modern Warfare 3
The first games that came to mind when I was thinking about what was coming up this fall were the big sequels: Gears and MW3. I’m definitely excited about both franchises – the conclusion to the war with the Locust! The conclusion of the insane global conflict that makes absolutely no sense! Bromances! Chainsaws! Night vision goggles! Russians! The battle for AM3RICA!

I guess when it comes down to it, I know these will be solid games, but I also doubt they are going to wow me. I’ll definitely buy them and enjoy them – but I’d rather look forward to some new franchises. Or franchises that I’ve never experienced, like:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I never played Oblivion, but I hear it’s one of the best games ever. Supposedly, since I enjoyed Fallout 3 I will love Oblivion. I figured it’s probably too late for that though, but I am interested in Skyrim. The cool thing is, I have absolutely no idea what Elder Scrolls is about except that it’s an open world RPG. I’m excited to try a new franchise, although I do have some misgivings about investing another 100 hours of my life in a Bethesda RPG. Will I even be able to play the game to the end? Why not play something I know I’ll be into, like:

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
I’m definitely excited about this game because Uncharted is such a strong series. But even this franchise feels a little stale to me – the enemies are bullet magnets and sometimes the games feel too long. I also don’t like Elena Still, I really enjoy the Uncharted games and this will probably be the only PS3 game I’ll be picking up this fall. I am a little concerned about the title though – it doesn’t sound like the end of a trilogy. Are they going to keep milking this until it’s no fun anymore?

Are there any non-sequels worth looking forward to?
I guess my biggest problem with this fall, which I spoke about in my anticipated games earlier this year, is that everything I’m interested in is a sequel. There are a bunch of other sequels coming out: Arkham City, Zelda, ANOTHER Assassin’s Creed! It’s crazy. Maybe I’m just not in touch with games enough anymore, but I’m a little scared with the current situation. Am I only excited about sequels because I’ve become that kind of gamer? Am I…casual!?!?!? I guess we’ll find out. While I’m waiting for these games to come out, I’ll be playing through Deus Ex and maybe revisiting the Modern Warfares. If I ever find time to play!

After 3 days of voting, the first round of Leveling Down’s Video Game March Madness 2010 is over! There were some close matchups, some blowouts, and of course, some surprises. As a reminder for those of you who may feel that some of these games were unfairly seeded, we seeded all the games based on Metacritic scores. It’s all their fault!

Anyway, thanks to everyone for voting! The first 32 have now been cut down to the Sweet 16. After the jump, check out who I voted for, my thoughts on the results, and a preliminary look at the Sweet 16 matchups.

Tiebreaker note: I decided that casting a tiebreaking vote was too arbitrary and I felt uncomfortable with the power! So for tie polls, I tallied up the registered commenters who voted as the tiebreaker. It seemed like the fairest thing to do, so make sure you’re logged in to make your vote count the most!

Hollywood Region – Round 1 Results

(1) Bioshock raptures (8) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time [81-19]
This was an easy one, and the only 1 seed that won in a blowout. I voted along with the general consensus, Bioshock has a very engaging story coupled with an even more amazing setting, the unforgettable underwater city of Rapture. The Sands of Time features an epic Middle Eastern adventure/romance story, one that’s good enough for the real Hollywood to make a movie about (Jake Gyllenhaal stars), but it just wasn’t enough.

(4) God of War assassinates (5) Portal [56-44]
This result made me sad. God of War is an excellent game, featuring a great revenge story pitting Kratos against the gods who wronged him. But Portal, PORTAL, has one of the slickest and best told narratives I’ve experienced in a video game. Perhaps part of it was the fact that I didn’t even think the game had a narrative when I started it. In the end, the subtleties of Portal weren’t enough to defeat the sheer strength of Kratos’ story. Too bad, but I have a feeling God of War isn’t finished yet.

(3) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic force chokes (6) Beyond Good and Evil [75-25]
Beyond Good and Evil is another small title whose narrative was surprisingly excellent. Unfortunately, it’s not a story that many gamers are acquainted with, because it’s old and also because very few people bought it. It made the field of 32 though on account of its powerful storyline. Who doesn’t like taking down evil empires? Of course, millions of people have fallen in love with Star Wars, and thus Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic took this matchup in a walk (I voted for it as well). Not only is the game based on the Star Wars license, but it features a great story with an awesome plot twist. The force is strong with this one.

(2) Metal Gear Solid sneaks past (7) Final Fantasy IV [50-50, tiebreak]
This was one of the toughest decisions for me, as it was for the readers as well. We had to end up going with a tiebreaker, registered commenters, and MGS prevailed. I ended up choosing MGS as well, but I could have gone either way – both these games have amazing storylines. Final Fantasy IV was the first game I remember having to face the deaths of characters I knew and loved, and I still consider it my favorite Final Fantasy ever. Metal Gear Solid introduced me to Solid Snake, one of my favorite video game protagonists ever. Hideo Kojima’s musings on the nature of war, friendship, and love made for a story that I never forgot. It’s a shame that one of these games’ tournament runs had to end so soon. Stupid Metacritic!

M16 Region – First Round Results

(8) Resident Evil 4 headshots Metroid Prime [63-37]
The M16 region features our first 8-1 upset, with Resident Evil 4 destroying Metroid Prime. I voted for Metroid Prime, just because I loved what Prime did to bring the franchise into a first person perspective. Unfortunately, Metroid Prime is a victim of Metacritic overseeding, but hey it makes things exciting! Resident Evil 4 is probably the best game from the last generation of consoles, so this is probably an upset in name only.

(4) Halo 3 energy swords (5) Modern Warfare 2 [52-48]
I expected this matchup to be close, and it did not disappoint. Even though I voted for Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3 is a worthy winner in this matchup. There is a lot of debate about which game takes more skill, but what’s not up for debate is the steel grip these two franchise have on the gaming community. This week, Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3 placed 1 and 2 on Xbox Live respectively. Think of that, Halo 3 was released almost 3 years ago! This was an amazing matchup, and it was fun to see it come down to the wire. Like MGS and FFIV, it’s sad to see one of these games go, but thems the breaks.

(3) Goldeneye exercises its license to kill on (6) Doom II [86-14]
This matchup of two classics was a tough choice for me, but I went with Doom II in the end. I spent many nights using my modem to dial up my friends and play deathmatch. Then again, I spent many nights playing Goldeneye with my friends using the Solitaire control scheme. Both these games paved the way for first person shooters – Doom II for the genre in general, and Goldeneye for consoles. How I long for the good ole days.

(2) Uncharted 2 crashes (7) Gears of War 2′s train [71-29]
Uncharted 2 is one of the most cinematic shooters out there, and its strong gunplay coupled with an amazing storyline literally blew Gears of War 2 away. Gears of War 2 is a great game in its own right, but it’s probably hurt by its machismo. At least Marcus and Dom will be able to keep each other warm at night.

Sun-Tzu Region – Round 1 Results

(1) Civilization IV wins a cultural victory over (8) Command and Conquer [53-47]
Sid Meier is so famous that he can put his name in front of his games, and Sid Meier’s Civilization IV was no exception. Civilization is the most famous turn-based global conquest game out there and that earned my vote. Command and Conquer was one of the best RTS games out there, until Starcraft came along. In the end, having your creator’s name in the title equals a win. Civ IV gets one more turn in the next round.

(4) Warcraft III hero assassinates (5) Dune II [82-18]
This was an interesting matchup, new vs. old, modern vs. classic. Dune II was the first RTS game I ever played, and probably the game that put the genre on the map. Warcraft III is the last RTS that Blizzard released (though Starcraft 2 is coming soon!), and it kind of reinvented the genre with its use of heroes. I don’t think many people even know what Dune II is, so this wasn’t really a fair fight, and I ended up picking Warcraft III in this matchup. But Dune II should just be proud for being here!

(3) Starcraft zerg rushes (6) Halo Wars [61-39]
Halo Wars is the best console RTS in the business, and is probably a model that all future console RTSes should follow. There is a loyal fanbase for Halo Wars, which probably resulted in this matchup being closer than expected. In the end, though, Starcraft is a classic and the benchmark by which all real time strategy games are measured. The game is criminally underseeded, and I still can’t believe Metacritic only has it at 88. I expect great things from Starcraft in the rest of this tournament!

(7) Final Fantasy Tactics defeats (2) Advance Wars: Dual Strike [72-28]
Not everyone knows this, but the Nintendo DS has tons of amazing turn based strategy games, and Advance Wars: Dual Strike is probably the best of the lot. I loved it, but the fact of the matter is that Final Fantasy Tactics is probably the most beloved tactical role playing game out there. That turned this one into a rout.

Hodj Podj Region – Round 1 Results

(8) Rock Band 2 rocks (1) Super Mario 64 [52-48]
Super Mario 64 is one of my favorite games of all time, and it is the game that really ushered in the 3-D gaming generation. Unfortunately, the broad appeal of Rock Band 2 proved too much for this classic. Really, this is my fault, because I meant to put Rock Band 2 (or some music game) in the field but forgot at the last minute. For the record, Rock Band 2 probably would have been the 2 seed in this bracket. But now I’ll never find out how much people liked Super Mario 64! (Not that much I guess).

(5) NHL 94′ one times (4) Warioware Inc.: Mega Microgame$ [68-32]
This one wasn’t even close, which is kind of indicative of the fact that not many people play portable games. Even I couldn’t bring myself to vote for the lone Game Boy Advance game in the field. NHL 94′s addictive gameplay and multiplayer factor make it the superior product. If you haven’t played a Warioware game before though, check it out – it puts the mini into minigames.

(3) World of Warcraft completes (6) The Secret of Monkey Island quest [68-32]
11+ million people can’t be wrong. World of Warcraft is the most addictive MMORPG out there – it offers great gameplay, the ability to play with your friends, and even an interesting storyline. The Secret of Monkey Island, one in a long line of great adventure games, just can’t stand up to that. Sure, Guybrush Threepwood is funny, but if that pirate ever ran into a death knight he’d be toast.

(2) Street Fighter IV KOs (7) Animal Crossing [91-9]
I thought this one was going to be unanimous. How did I put Animal Crossing in there over Rock Band? Mario Kart? Ugh. Anyway, Animal Crossing was there to represent for “sim” type games, and Street Fighter to represent fighting games, but really, this matchup should never have happened. How could I forget Kart!?! I’ll never forgive myself…until next year.

Sweet 16 Quick Look

Hollywood Region
(1) Bioshock vs. (4) God of War – an interesting matchup pitting two strong stories with incredibly different gameplay backing them

(2) Metal Gear Solid vs. (3) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Light sabers vs. Solid Snake.

M16 Region
(4) Halo 3 vs. (8) Resident Evil 4 – Can Resident Evil pull off another upset, or is the Bungie juggernaut just too strong?

(2) Uncharted 2 vs. (3) Goldeneye – PS3 vs. N64. It doesn’t seem fair, but will nostalgia play a strong factor?

Sun-Tzu Region
(1) Civilization IV vs. (4) Warcraft III – Turn based vs. real time strategy, should be interesting.

(3) Starcraft vs. (7) Final Fantasy Tactics – After surviving a first round scare, can Starcraft show its true power against Tactics?

Hodj Podj Region
(5) NHL 94′ vs. (8) Rock Band 2 – What has bigger appeal, sports games or music games?

(2) Street Fighter IV vs. (3) World of Warcraft – Can Capcom’s finest stand up against Blizzard’s juggernaut?

Polls open tomorrow – happy voting!

Leveling Down’s 2010 Videogame Tourney Has Officially Started! The rounds will take place over the next couple of weeks, and will be heavily decided by you, our Leveling Down readers.

Voting for Round 1, which consists of all 32 games in the tourney, will close on Wednesday March 24, 2010 at 6PM EST. On Thursday, cmfl3x will announce the 16 games that will move onto Round 2 and we will open Round 2 voting Friday morning and end it Monday at 6PM EST.  Hit the jump to read more about our first tourney and to cast your votes!

Thanks to all of you that participated in voting for that 8th seed in each bracket. Unfortunately, 3 of those 4 8 seed votes were all ties: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Assassin’s Creed II for the Hollywood bracket, Resident Evil 4 and Counter-Strike for the M16 bracket, and Rock Band 2 and Shadow of the Colossus for the Hodj Podj bracket.

This weekend, cmfl3x and I discussed what to do with ties (in both the 8th seed voting and in the actual tourney itself). We originally considered allowing both games that tied to move forward into the next round, so instead of two games for that next matchup, it would be three: the winner of one half of that matchup and both games that tied from the other matchup. Ultimately, we decided against it because to see three games in a matchup may skew the voting too much (anyone remember Ross Perot?).

Thus, for ties, cmfl3x and I will use some sort of criteria to decide who moves onto the next round. With this being our first videogame tourney and all, this may not be the best approach, but we’re learning as we go. I’ve decided to use the metacritic game averages to determine which game in a tie move forward. Unfortunately for Assassin’s Creed II and Shadow of the Colossus, their competitors ranked 1 point higher on the average review score. Heartbreaking – just like when I nearly cried as Michigan State sunk that three pointer at the buzzer to send the Maryland Terps home yesterday afternoon but we had to narrow it down to one winner each round.

Having said that, let’s get on to the voting for Round 1:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Please feel free to share your thoughts!

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.

You can access the entire bracket here:

March Madness – Video Game Style

Now, a couple of notes on how the games were chosen:

1. Video Games were split up into 4 Regions: The Hollywood Region (games with good stories – mainly RPGs), The M16 Region (shooters – any perspective), The Sun-Tzu Region (strategy games), and The Hodj Podj Region (miscellaneous games).

2. Games must have been sold for retail; thus Warcraft III is an option, but Defense of the Ancients (a mod), is not.

3. Games were seeded mostly according to critical acclaim. For recent games, I used metacritic, and for older games I did my best to guesstimate where they would fall. Probably not the best metric, but the best I could come up with for now.

4. I didn’t choose multiple games from any series, so you won’t see both Halo 2 and 3 in the field.

That’s it! I’ll be pitting these games against each other over the next few weeks, but be warned, I’ll mostly be arbitrarily choosing my favorites (but comments on why you feel a game should beat another will definitely have potential to sway my opinion). If there is a large outcry, maybe we could set up a poll, but you’ll have to let us know if you want that to happen – or we could do that next year.

Anyway, onto this year’s field! And remember, be sure to suggest games you think I’ve left out – there are 4 more spots to fill!

The Hollywood Region – Great Storylines

Matchups:
(1) BioShock vs. (8) TBD
(4) God of War vs. (5) Portal
(3) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic vs. (6) Beyond Good and Evil
(2) Metal Gear Solid vs. (7) Final Fantasy IV

(1) BioShock [360/PS3], metacritic = 96 – Although the story fizzled out at the end, Bioshock definitely has a story that sticks with you, and a plot twist that really gets in your head.

(2) Metal Gear Solid [PS1/GC], metacritic = 94 – Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece, this game helped to change video game storytelling and really put the scene into the cut scene. Narrowly edged out Metal Gear Solid 3, which is personally my favorite story.

(3) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [Xbox/PC], metacritic = 94 – Every Star Wars fanboy’s dream, this game also featured some excellent plot twists and introduced Bioware as a story-telling developer to be reckoned with.

(4) God of War [PS2], metacritic = 94 – Even though I’m not a huge fan of the gameplay, God of War has an amazing storyline. Kratos seeking his revenge on the Gods is one of the best premises for a videogame, and his backstory makes it even more rewarding.

(5) Portal [360/PS3/PC], metacritic = 90 – This “add-on” in the Orange Box has one of the most cleverly told narratives in a video game to date. It’s not a story, per se, but the way Valve sets the mood and brings the game to its amusing conclusion is worthy of…cake.

(6) Beyond Good and Evil [Xbox/PS2/GC], ,etacritic = 87 – This game was a huge hit with the gaming community, but never had good sales. The characters and innovative story are what make this game, but unfortunately, nobody ever played it.

(7) Final Fantasy IV [SNES, GBA, DS], metacritic = 85 – This game is underseeded since the metacritic score comes from the DS version. My favorite Final Fantasy story ever. Final Fantasy VI’s Kefka was memorable, but this was the first Final Fantasy game where I actually cared about the characters and what happened to them. STONE!

(8) TBD

The M16 Region – Shooters

Matchups:
(1) Metroid Prime vs. (8) TBD
(4) Halo 3 vs. (5) Modern Warfare 2
(3) Goldeneye vs. (6) Doom 2
(2) Uncharted 2 vs. (7) Gears of War 2

(1) Metroid Prime [GC/Wii], metacritic = 97 – That Metroid Prime is the #1 seed in this region seems like an upset in itself, but the numbers don’t lie. Metroid Prime kept the feel of the classic games while switching to a first person perspective and remains my favorite Gamecube game to this day.

(2) Uncharted 2 [PS3], metacritic = 96 – This game could probably have made it into the Hollywood Region as well, but here it is matched up with Gears of War 2, the other 3rd person shooter in this bracket. I think this one might be a walk.

(3) Goldeneye [N64] metacritic = 96 – There is a reason why people keep requesting that Goldeneye be re-released: it is one of the best games ever, period. Sure, FPS games have taken huge leaps since then, but Goldeneye helped pave the way, especially on consoles. Fitting that it be up against the other old school FPS game, Doom 2.

(4) Halo 3 [360], metacritic = 94 – Why is Halo 3 #4 and Modern Warfare 2 #5? Simply put, Halo 3 has probably had more traffic over the course of Xbox Live’s history. Of course, it had a pretty big head start, but the fact that a million kids are still playing it as I type this gives it the slight edge.

(5) Modern Warfare 2 [360/PS3/PC], metacritic = 94 – What is there to write? The most complete multiplayer FPS game to date. It will battle it out with Halo 3, just like it does on the servers.

(6) Doom 2 [PC], metacritic = N/A – Back when you needed to use a modem to connect with other players, Doom 2 set the bar for first person shooters. It had no story whatsoever, but nobody cared – the secret tricks and traps, the deathmatch games, and the co-op deathmatch games were never forgotten by old school gamers.

(7) Gears of War 2 [360], metacritic = 93 – Gears of War 2 is here so I don’t get flamed by Xbox fans. It’s a great game, and probably could make the bracket solely on account of the assault rifle chainsaw alone.

The Sun-Tzu Region – Strategy Games

Matchups:
(1) Civilization IV vs. (8) TBD
(4) Warcraft III vs. (5) Dune 2
(3) Starcraft vs. (6) Halo Wars
(2) Advance Wars: Dual Strike vs. (7) Final Fantasy Tactics A2

(1) Civilization IV [PC], metacritic = 94 – One more turn. Players have been saying that to themselves for over a decade now with the Civ games, which task you with conquering the world in multiple different ways. This game features addictive gameplay that strategy gamers can’t get enough of.

(2) Advance Wars: Dual Strike [DS], metacritic = 90 – I’m shocked that this game is the 2 seed in this region, but that’s metacritic for you. An excellent turn based strategy game, it introduced battles on both screens (air on top, ground on bottom), which made for some pretty unique gameplay.

(3) Starcraft [PC/Mac], metacritic = 88 – 88? Seriously? Maybe game reviewers were just tougher back then. Starcraft is THE real time strategy game. It was so big it spawned super competitive, televised tournament circuits in Korea. It introduced the term actions per second. The landscape of video gaming was never the same again.

(4) Warcraft III [PC/Mac], Metacritic = 88 – Warcraft III, another Blizzard masterpiece, introduced hero units and greater micromanagement into real time strategy games. It also spawned the immensely popular Defense of the Ancients mod.

(5) Dune 2 [PC], metacritic = N/A – Dune 2 was the game that put RTS games on the map, both for gamers at large and for me personally. It can’t stand up to these heavyweights, but I thought it at least deserved some recognition. Watch out for sandworms.

(6) Halo Wars [360], metacritic = 82 – This is mainly here so certain readers of the site don’t lambaste me. In its defense, it is the best console RTS out there, hands down. All units!

(7) Final Fantasy Tactics A2 [DS], metacritic = 80 – The Final Fantasy Tactics games are an excellent series with very deep, strategic gameplay. You could literally spend 100 hours playing this game and not run out of things to do. Almost infinite bang for your buck!

The Hodj Podj Region – Other Games

Note: This is probably the most random region, I just tried to represent other genres as best as possible.

Matchups:
(1) Super Mario 64 vs. (8) TBD
(4) Warioware Inc., Mega Microgame$ vs. (5) NHL 94
(3) World of Warcraft vs. (6) Secret of Monkey Island
(2) Street Fighter IV vs. (7) Animal Crossing

(1) Super Mario 64 [N64],mMetacritic = 94 – Like Metroid Prime, Super Mario 64 took a beloved game and put a whole new twist on it. Unlike Metroid Prime, SM64 launched the 3-D era. Plus you could unlock Yoshi, which was awesome…

(2) Street Fighter IV [360/PS3/PC], metacritic = 94 – Street Fighter IV completely reinvigorated the entire fighting game genre, no small feat considering people had considered fighting games all but dead.

(3) World of Warcraft [PC/Mac],mMetacritic = 93 – Just like Starcraft, WoW is the pinnacle of its genre, the MMORPG. I think more hours have been sunk into WoW than it took to build America.

(4) Warioware Inc., Mega Microgame$ [GBA], metacritic = N/A – This was the first minigame collection I can remember that only gave you 5 seconds per minigame. A ridiculous premise, ridiculous games including picking a nose, and a ridiculous amount of fun.

(5) NHL 94 [SNES, Genesis], metacritic = N/A – My favorite sports game ever, and one of the last games before sports games got super complicated. I’m sure people would rather see some Maddens here but…oh well.

(6) Secret of Monkey Island [PC/360], metacritic = 88 – The token representative of the adventure game genre, this game featured great humor and great puzzles, a killer combination. I’ll never forget what to do with a rubber chicken attached to a pulley.

(7) Animal Crossing [GC, DS, Wii], metacritic = 87 – There are a multitude of games that task you with the mundane parts of our daily lives, but Animal Crossing was one of the first I found really memorable. How fun is it to catch fish and leave them in your friends’ mailboxes!?

Parting Thoughts
And that’s the almost complete Video Game Bracket! Post in the comments games you think I missed out and that I should include as the 8 seeds, or tell me I’m power crazy for even doing this! I’ll be watching 12 hours straight of basketball…

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.

There seem to be four ranges in FPS games:
1. up close (usually shotgun or melee)
2. short-range (low accuracy/high output weapon like SMG)
3. middle-range (sight weapon such as an assault rifle)
4. long-range (scoped sniper rifle)

I tend to fall into the “middle-range” category. I don’t like being close to my enemies, so I prefer maps in Call of Duty 4 like Overgrown where I can actually use the red-dot sight on my assault rifle. I’m ok with the long-range sniper rifle also, but I’m not a huge fan since you need a lot of patience for that (and often times, many maps aren’t suited for it since camping and sniping is generally frowned upon). Then there’s the up-close and short range, which I basically lump together since it’s all about running and gunning with melee, a shotgun, or an SMG.

The short range game tends to depend more on your own movements to engage an enemy, while the further back you go relies more on your position for an advantage. Sniping requires you to find an ideal position where you wouldn’t have to move at all, while the medium range allows for a little flexibility. I guess that’s why I like the middle range, and why Call of Duty 4 works so well for me – it handles the medium range game just as effectively as the other ranges. The medium range weapons are just as powerful as the other weapons, and combined with a tactical advantage, I’m able to play in my element in Call of Duty 4.

In contrast to that, the middle range game in Gears of War and Halo don’t seem to be fairly balanced; they require many shots from the middle range game to do damage, while if you were up close or sniping, they’d basically be instant kills. Halo 3 is not as bad as Gears of War, where most of the time online is basically a shotgun/chainsaw fest (ever try killing someone with a Lancer from midrange?). Halo 3′s Battle Rifle does make the midrange game viable for people that are really good at it. I read strategies about it and pros are talking about mastery of the Battle Rifle – if you can score 3 headshots with it, then the opponent is dead. 3? To the head? Am I sniping or what? If I were to use the sniper rifle, just 1 headshot would be a kill. Who is going to let me get off with 3 head shots? I’m most likely never going to get that good so I’d probably resort to my only tactic in Halo 3 online that produced results: running at the opponent while emptying the assault rifle until I could get close enough melee kill. While it works, it’s just not a FPS gameplay style that I enjoy.

I had to suffer through Call of Duty: World at War as well. While Call of Duty: World at War maintained the same combat system that worked effectively in Call of Duty 4 (only a few shots to kill an opponent), its biggest drawback (besides the stupid vehicles), was that the technology for good medium range weapons in WW2 were just not invented in that time period. It would take me until Level 45 or so to unlock the Germans’ StG-44, the only automatic rifle in the game. Prior to that, I had to suffer online at a severe disadvantage through all sorts of silly semi-automatic rifles that had like 6 rounds. I ended up spending more time reloading than firing the rifles, compared with opponents packing SMGs and machine guns with triple or quadruple the clip sizes. I got demolished as a medium-range player in that game. It wasn’t until I was able to unlock the StG-44 that I finally got the ability to fight back.

I’m just thankful that Modern Warfare 2 releases tomorrow, and I’ll have a new game to play where I can enjoy my medium range preference to its fullest potential again. M16? Ak47? Carbine? G3? G36c? My gosh it feels good to be coming home. Am I overreacting? Or are there any other medium range shooter fans out there that also feel my annoyances?

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.