Leveling Down

A few months ago, the 2009 fall/holiday lineup looked something like this: Splinter Cell: Conviction, BioShock 2, Guitar Hero 5, Halo 3: ODST, Forza 3, Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, Ghost Recon 4, Heavy Rain, Brutal Legend, Red Steel 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Bayonetta, Dark Void, etc. etc. etc. On top of all that, optimistic gamers were hopeful that Starcraft 2’s first installment would hit before Christmas as well. Alas, it was not meant to be. In what can only be described as an epidemic, title after title has been delayed until 2010 and beyond.

Whether it’s the economy, publishers wanting to avoid the glut of games at the holidays, or both, for some reason everyone has been pushing back their release dates. Frankly, that’s just fine with me. Last year’s holiday was a complete overload and overkill, there were so many amazing games out that I had to push some games like Mirror’s Edge back four months. Other games, like Dead Space, I never ended up getting around to finish. I was worried that I’d have to pick and choose a lot again this fall, but luckily a lot of those decisions have been made for me. Now I can concentrate on 2 or 3 games (or just Modern Warfare 2) without feeling like I’m missing out.

So, for the record:

Games I’m definitely getting: Halo 3: ODST, Modern Warfare 2, Beatles Rock Band (no more plastic tho), Tales of Monkey Island (when the complete season is done), Uncharted 2 (woops, I don’t have a PS3 but I’d get it if I did)

Games I want but aren’t must have: Left 4 Dead 2, Guitar Hero 5, Brutal Legend

Games I’m interested in: Borderlands, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario and Luigi DS

Games I’m sad to see get pushed back: Starcraft 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Heavy Rain (again, PS3 only), Bioshock 2

Hopefully, all the games that got pushed back will be better off for it. Ultimately, I think these delays are probably good for games, more spread out releases means less gems getting lost in the shuffle. I’ll just have to learn some patience in the mean time.

P.S. – If you’re interested, 1up has compiled a list of the notable delays. Also if I’ve forgotten anything please point it out!

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.

Like espion4ge, I’ve found my way back to Liberty City as well

Mirror’s Edge
I have put a lot of hours into the game, slowly working through the story but I’ve also started working through the time trial mode. I came within 0.90 seconds of a three star time on “Cranes Two” on my fourth or fifth try, which was pretty exhilarating. Unfortunately, I spent the next hour and a half trying to shave that 0.90 seconds off. My thumb started hurting and I had to give up. I managed not to destroy my controller though, so it wasn’t a total loss.

Halo Wars
A week off of playing and I’ve gotten pretty rusty. I guess that means I’m old. I still need to finish the game in legendary and find all the black boxes, so hopefully I’ll be able to get to that soon. I still need to get back to Dead Space though but jet lag has put that on the backburner.

Left 4 Dead: Survival Mode
I played this with a few friends, and I enjoyed it a lot. I really enjoyed it but I’m not sure how into it my friends were. Basically it’s like fighting a bunch of finales and standoffs, which I actually really enjoy. I also think it’s fun to have goals you are trying to beat, surviving for a certain amount of time in this instance. Hopefully people will be willing to put a few more hours into this with me!

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
I’ve finished about 40% of the game so far, and the difficulty level is really starting to ramp up. I get the feeling the platform is going to start becoming Ninja Gaidenesque, i.e. I’m going to need to start memorizing where enemies are going to spawn and stuff. I think I’ll need to better understand how the puzzling elements power me up in the platformer pretty soon.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)
A friend lent this to me and I started playing it as a change of pace to Henry Hatsworth. It’s pretty cool, Liberty City looks pretty much the same except it’s a top down view. I think I even drove by Roman’s taxi hub. The dialogue is horrible – I don’t know if they are making fun of bad Chinese Engrish or what but it leaves a lot to be desired. I hear the story is pretty much a throwaway though, so we’ll see if the gameplay holds up.

Two of EA’s new IPs at once – very different, but both very enjoyable

Dead Space & Mirror’s Edge
I’m putting these titles together because I’m in a bit of a “try out EA’s new IPs” phase and I’m playing both games at once. I basically play Dead Space during the day and Mirror’s Edge at night. Right now, I’m really digging both games. Dead Space feels a lot like Bioshock in that there is obviously a huge backstory and you learn a lot of it through audio logs. I still think Rapture trumps the Ishimura in terms of an actual setting, but both games do a good job of setting up a creepy setting. Just like Bioshock though, I’m getting used to the scares in Dead Space so soon I’ll be able to play it whenever, ha.

I’m having a lot of fun with Mirror’s Edge as well. After I finished the first few chapters, I went back to 3-star one of the time trials. I definitely envision myself trying to get the 50-star rating for time trials, I enjoy punishing myself by replaying the same thing over and over again until I master it. The story seems like it’s going to be generic and short, but really I’m most excited about the time trials. As an added bonus, the music and art style are a real treat.

Halo Wars
This game is still taking up a lot of time for me. I STILL haven’t finished the single player achievements because I’ve been playing too much multiplayer. Now that my team’s skill levels are higher, we are batting about .500, win one lose one win one lose one. I’m interested if they really do a balance update, since I still feel that in general Covenant is at a bit of a disadvantage in the late game (although I plan on trying the Scarab + 5 engineers business!). Definitely gotten my money’s worth out of this title.

Rhythm Heaven (DS)
I blew through this game on the plane and am pretty much done with it although there is still a little fun to be had. Being out of town means I’m DS only right now, and between this game and Hatsworth I have my hands full (pun intended!). Once my hand got tired I wrote up a short review for Rhythm Heaven, so look for that later this week.

Flower (PS3)
I’m staying with a friend who owns a PS3 and I told him to go and download Flower back when it came out. He ended up hating it, so when I got here I finished the last 4 levels for him. The game is pretty fun, outside of one level it’s pretty relaxing and it looks beautiful in 1080p. I can see how this game isn’t for everyone, but for me it seems like a nice change of pace. If I owned a PS3 I probably would put a lot of time into this game unlocking all the trophies, some of them are pretty hard. Anyway, now that I’ve played it, I still recommend it!

Other Random Playstation 3 Miscellany
We’ve actually been playing a lot of games, so I also tried out the Rock Band 2 drums, which really are quite an upgrade, watched some NBA 2k9 (which scrolls realtime sports scores on the bottom, awesome), and played some Street Fighter. I must say the PS3 thumbstick was much easier to use for Street Fighter, it made me play a bit above my usual level. The PS3 really is a great system, but some of the menu things/friends list are a real turnoff for me just because I’m so used to the Xbox. I asked my friend how to drop back to the dash and he looked at me like I was taking crazy pills. But if it ever drops in price (significantly) maybe I’ll pick one up. I really want to play Fat Princess! (It seems like the type of game that would have worked better with the 360 community, but whatever).

Mirror’s Edge recently got a price drop to $29.99 on all consoles, but Amazon has gone even further and put the 360 and PC versions on sale for $19.98 today only. Sadly, the PS3 version isn’t on sale which doesn’t make much sense.

If you haven’t played it yet, I highly recommend the game at this price. I enjoyed it a lot and will buy the sequel if it comes out. Check out my review here.

Video Games Deal of the Day [Amazon.com]

Look at all those used games for sale!

When I was about 10 years old, I wandered into a little store called Funco Land. I distinctly remember it being next to a Bradlees and asking my mother to take me in because I saw all these TVs inside through the windows. They had something I had never seen before, a “used games” section, with prices that were lower than new games! I had been an introduced to a whole new side of retail in the gaming industry.

Of course, Funco Land turned into GameStop, and GameStop eventually merged with EB Games, and now we seemingly have a GameStop or EB on every street corner selling used games. Is the used game market good for the industry as a whole, or is it the seedy underbelly of the video games industry? espion4ge and I decided to tackle this huge topic for a discussion that got so big we needed to split it up into three parts. We also know that people have a lot of opinions when it comes to GameStop and used games in general, so we’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

In Part 1, espion4ge and I talk about our own used game habits and whether we think used games are beneficial or harmful to consumers.

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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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In Mirror’s Edge, sometimes you have to just take a leap of faith and hope you land on that next building rooftop…

Mirror’s Edge was a game that sort of flew under the radar for me but when it got closer to launch I got more excited. Nowadays it seems like I’m simply playing one shooter after another, so I came to realize that I would appreciate something different. Mirror’s Edge was the breath of fresh air that I needed.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the epic storyline and length of BioShock nor an addictive multiplayer component like Call of Duty. What it does have though is pretty much what will determine whether you will enjoy this game or not: Time trials.

That’s where I think Mirror’s Edge is at its most fun since you’re actively trying to beat your best times and figuring out new methods to getting past a certain obstacle quickly. If you enjoy playing racing games and practicing courses over and over again trying to shave precious seconds off your lap time, then Mirror’s Edge should have you under a similar thrill but this time in the role of a first person game.

Good
- innovative new “parkour” style gameplay that plays intuitively
- accurate physics engine that takes into account player momentum, how much camera should shake, etc.
- interesting and aesthetically pleasing color design throughout the levels

Bad
- short campaign
- not a very captivating storyline
- combat needs a little bit of work

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