Leveling Down

If you want to tackle all of the missions in Burnout Paradise, you will have to drive to them.

I’m still in the middle of BioShock 2, so I’m going to kick this week’s gaming entries off with a gaming topic that I’ve been wrestling with for a while now: “open-world” sandbox gameplay design. It seems like it’s getting more and more popular these days, and while I may be in the minority for this, I don’t think I am a fan. Grand Theft Auto III made sandbox gameplay popular, and ever since then, we’ve seen several games in the last few years implement this “feature’ from Burnout to Halo. The addition of basically being forced to travel everywhere to actually start a mission certainly makes a game longer, but does it make a game more enjoyable?

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Bayonetta is my hardcore action gaming “comfort food.”

After completing Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned, I had some gaming time before Bioshock 2 would be delivered to my door. I didn’t want to get into anything too lengthy, so I figured diving right into The Ballad of Gay Tony would be an optimal choice since it would allow me to close the book completely on the GTAIV universe and move on. Unfortunately, after playing the first couple of missions, I realized that I needed a break from the GTAIV world. I needed a game with just better gameplay in general.

As I recently lay in bed one morning, I came to the realization that I had to go back to Bayonetta since it was the game that defined what good gameplay is in this generation. Those of you that have read my review of Bayonetta know how much I enjoyed the game. It’s most likely the best action-adventure game I may have ever played within the last several years. So when I was growing tired of the lack of enjoyable gameplay in the GTAIV universe, who did I come crawling back to so that I could remember how much fun playing games could be? Bayonetta of course. And Bayonetta greeted me with open arms.
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Unlike Niko, Johnny has a gang that he rolls with throughout his missions in The Lost and the Damned

Several of you are aware of my chagrin about having to play The Lost and the Damned during a time when Mass Effect 2 is out, but I made it through the expansion this past weekend and am ready to share my slightly subjective review on it. While this expansion was released on the 360 about a year ago, it was just recently announced that it would be released on the PS3 and the PC in the coming months so perhaps this is a good time to review it now that I’ve noticed that we are getting more PS3 owners (welcome!) here at Leveling Down.

NOTE: I am playing The Lost and the Damned off the retail disc, Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City, which does not require the original GTAIV disc to play. I will be getting through The Ballad of Gay Tony and reviewing that hopefully in the near future.
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Settling for playing GTA IV: The Lost and the Damned instead of Mass Effect 2 is just not good enough.

For the earlier part of this month I had been spending my time with Bayonetta, a newly released title that I truly enjoyed. But after I completed that and DJ Hero this past Tuesday, I discovered that night that it was apparently the Mass Effect 2 launch date. I had already made a conscious decision to skip buying Mass Effect 2 at launch, just because I had already gone through Bioware’s more RPG-oriented epic, Dragon Age: Origins, last month and my pre-ordered copy of BioShock 2 is releasing just around the corner. Plus, with the number of games I have sitting in my backlog, I realized that my gaming time might be better spent clearing through a backlogged title or two before BioShock 2’s release rolls around.

But why is this so difficult?
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GTA: Chinatown Wars marks the first (and possibly the last) time the mature franchise hits the family-friendly DS market.

Fresh off the great success of GTAIV, Rockstar released another Grand Theft Auto game this past March. GTA: Chinatown Wars was the first GTA offering ever to hit Nintendo’s family friendly DS, and analysts predicted that people would buy it in droves. Unfortunately for Nintendo and Rockstar, the analysts were wrong, though the game has received high praise, the fact of the matter is, nobody is buying it (only a little over 100,000 copies have sold in 2 months which is way below expectations).

I wasn’t planning on picking up a copy, but a friend of mine lent me his. I’ve put a few hours in the game so figured I’d write up a quick retail impressions.

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In Broken Sword, as in Penny Arcade Adventures, mimes = evil. Remember that.

We really are in the gaming doldrums right now. But hopefully with E3 coming up, we’ll start having some games to look forward to! Anyway, I’ve been playing a lot of this and that - I’m probably TOO diversified in my gaming right now. But hey, I’m having a blast! Apologies in advance for the crazy tone…I’m just in one of those moods.

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Some of the best games are also the simplest

Mirror’s Edge – Almost finished with this game, although the things I have left to do are the most challenging. I failed a speed run (an entire level under a certain amount of time) by being slow by 2.1 seconds. I then ran it back, and managed to pass by shaving 3.3 seconds off my time. 10:58.8 seconds was enough FTW! Anyway, if you are masochistic and enjoy punishing yourself by trying to shave milliseconds off of your times, you should really play Mirror’s Edge!

Peggle – To take a break from the intensity of Mirror’s Edge I downloaded Peggle on XBLA. I’ve heard a lot about this game but didn’t know too much about it, but figured at $10 I could afford to take the plunge. It’s tough to explain how the game works, but it’s easy to explain that it’s a lot of fun. It’s particularly rewarding every time you clear a stage. I kind of wish I got this for DS, because it’d probably be nicer to play on the go, but it’s a good game to relax with between intense sessions of bigger games.

Chinatown Wars (DS) – I’ve been playing about one mission per night. It’s not as engaging as I thought it would be, but it’s not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. I’ll probably save the majority of this game for my upcoming trip on Memorial Day.

In Survival mode, teamwork is more important than ever

Mirror’s Edge
I finished the story mode and am halfway through beating it again on hard difficulty. I’ve also been working my way through the speed runs and time trials. There are some sections in the game that can be pretty frustrating, but for the most part I thought it was a great experience. The single player campaign is a little short, but with all the other stuff you can do, I think Mirror’s Edge is a pretty comprehensive package, as long as you are up for a hefty challenge.

Halo Wars
Still playing multiplayer. I don’t know if I’ll ever make lieutenant if I keep randoming, at the same time, I think I would get bored of the multiplayer quickly if I played the same commander every time. It’s all about having fun!

Left 4 Dead: Survival Mode
Speaking of fun, survival mode is awesome. Some people complain that it takes more time to set up than it does to actually defend. I take care of that by spending absolutely no time setting up and just letting the dice roll. We’ve got a couple of bronze medals and were about a minute away from getting silver. Hopefully anyone who doesn’t have Left 4 Dead picked it up during the Steam sale this weekend.

Street Fighter IV
I just want to put this on here to point out that the championship update is stupid. Where is the lobby support!?

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)
The game is pretty good, it’s basically GTA light on the DS. I question some of the design choices, such as no mid mission checkpoints. I understand the game doesn’t want you to “cheat”, but this is a portable game and there should be a quicksave option a la Final Fantasy on Nintendo handhelds. I also don’t like games that use the stylus just because they can, you need to use the stylus to hotwire cars and it can get pretty awkward. My full impressions will be coming soon.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is the best Grand Theft Auto game yet and is an experience all gamers (who are old enough) should enjoy.

I finally got around to completing Grand Theft Auto IV, a year after it was initially released. As a testament to the game, even reviewing it now I have to say that it still holds up very well. My background on the Grand Theft Auto games is that I started with Grand Theft Auto III on the PS2, enjoyed it a lot, and bought both Vice City and San Andreas but did not enjoy either of those two as much as III. The funny thing is, I never finished any of those three games. While my fondness for the games got lower and lower after each iteration, I have to say that Grand Theft Auto IV won me back as a fan of the series, and I will explain why in my review.

Good
- excellent storyline
- a living, breathing, NYC world
- more conveniences than previous GTA games, like taxis

Bad
- poor competitive multiplayer design
- car handling is a bit too floaty
- lack of certain gameplay features & customization in previous GTA titles

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For anyone that still has yet to purchase this game, I guess maybe the wait was worth it? (If you’re on the fence, check out my review tomorrow.) Newegg has the Special Edition of the 360 game for the low price of $39.99.

The Special Edition includes:
- Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system with special packaging.
- Grand Theft Auto IV Art Book, featuring never-before-seen production artwork from Grand Theft Auto IV.
- Selected soundtrack CD from Grand Theft Auto IV, featuring new material from top artists, only available on this release.
- An exclusive Rockstar key chain for the safety deposit box keys.
- Completing the collection is a limited edition Rockstar duffel bag.

I own the Special Edition myself, and I’ll say it’s a nice package. While the artbook and soundtrack CD are pretty dinky, the lockbox and duffel bag are nice so I’d say it’s worth it at that price point…

Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition Xbox 360 Game ROCKSTAR [Newegg.com] via Cheap Ass Gamer