Leveling Down

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…

Got some new stuff this past week, courtesy of Amazon’s sale: Resident Evil 4: Wii for $10, BiA: Hell’s Highway for $18, and The Last Remnant for $30. The Rock Throne drum stool wasn’t on sale, but with Amazon selling it for $30 I figured it was cheap enough to check out. I haven’t opened any of the games yet, but I’m pretty satisfied with the drum stool.

From what I read I thought it was easily collapsible to put away, but you have to unscrew certain parts like the seat itself and take it off to store. The legs fold down like closing an umbrella so it’s not so bad. I tried it out for the first time last night and I have no problems with it from a design/comfort standpoint. It’s quite nice and I feel it’s definitely worth the $30. The only issue I had was that my foot pedal work was pretty off. I’m used to sitting on my lower couch so I have a different angle to hit the foot pedal, and now that I’m seated much higher on the stool, my timing is completely off. I guess I have to relearn footwork on the drum stool now.

In game playing updates, I spent most of my time this week playing Call of Duty: World at War both online and offline. I’ve completed the single player campaign, so at this point all I have left to do in the game is get my first level of Prestige before I probably call it quits on the adversarial. The online is decent but not as fun to me as Call of Duty 4 was. It feels like hitting Prestige is going to take a lot of work, since I’ll have to deal with tanks, glitches, maps that are too large, too many weapons that aren’t fun to use, etc. I guess I’ll get there eventually but it feels more like work at this point. The zombie mode is turning out to be more fun than I thought though. I’ll get a review out on Call of Duty: World at War next week.

Having completed the single player of Call of Duty: World at War, I’ve devoted the rest of my gaming time this week between Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead. While Gears of War 2 has the bigger hype and player-base, I find myself now wanting to play Left 4 Dead whenever I’m playing Gears of War 2. I guess the combination of my appreciation for the simple, yet effective game design and mechanics of Left 4 Dead and my lack of enthusiasm for Gears of War’s combat system are making Gears 2 difficult to play through at the moment. I don’t know why, but I have a hard time enjoying the gameplay in the Gears of War series. I think it’s because I tend to dislike shooters where I need to empty a full clip into an opponent to even kill him. Halo 3 was the same way – I hated that I had to pretty much fire a whole round of my rifle and then melee the guy to kill him off. I’d much rather play with Rainbow Six/Call of Duty shooting mechanics where 1-2 shots will take down somebody. That way, I’m spending more of my time shooting than reloading. But I seem to be in the minority on this, as the Gears of War and Halo series are obviously quite popular so the kids must not have this same problem.

I am looking forward to tackling Horde mode with friends though. Of everything offered in Gears of War 2, that’s probably the single mode that I’m most interested in playing, especially since there’s Achievements tied to getting far in Horde mode and how much I enjoyed the Zombie mode in Call of Duty: World at War. In fact, I’m a little disappointed that there’s no Achievements in World at War related to getting far in the Zombie mode. At least there’s Leaderboards I guess.

I’ve also been playing Left 4 Dead, as is evident from my recent impressions I wrote up this week. The game certainly has its ups and downs: it’s not too fun to play by yourself with AI teammates or online with players that suck and don’t use microphones, but it’s quite an engaging experience if you manage to play with teammates that work together with mics on one of the harder difficulty settings. I guess that’s how the game is meant to be played and it works. The problem is obviously finding several other dependable and skilled players to play it with. I just need to wait until more of my friends get it at this point and see if we can stack up to Expert difficulty. For the time being, it looks like we’re going to transition to Gears of War 2 multiplayer next in hopes that Left 4 Dead drops in price.

Gears of War’s cover system in action

I finally spent the last few days completing all of the single player modes for Gears of War and can finally say I’m done with the game as I’ve completed every possible single player Achievement. I was bored of the game as I slowly made my way through on Casual difficulty for the last couple of months. However, after I beat the game on Casual difficulty recently, I immediately started a game on Insane difficulty and found myself enjoying the game a lot more. I enjoyed it enough to spend several hours beating it and now can say that the game wasn’t as bad as I initially felt. I guess it may have just been the easy level of difficulty in Casual that had me bored as I didn’t have any feeling of satisfaction going through the game.

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