Leveling Down

What’s this old school looking game I’ve been playing? Hit the jump to find out! (Don’t worry, there’s an English version)

For some reason I have been doing a lot of random stuff lately in my gaming life. I don’t know if it’s because it’s nice out and causing me to hunker down and play marathon sessions less or what, but recently I haven’t stayed too focused on one game and am just kind of going wherever my Xbox takes me. This has led to some fun gaming experiences so I figured I’d share with everyone, plus there is some stuff that I think others might like to check out as well!

More »

Bailout, one of the 3 new maps in Modern Warfare 2′s Stimulus Map Pack

I wasn’t originally planning on buying the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map Pack, but peer pressure dictated otherwise. The last few days consisted of map pack veterans humiliating me as I braved the gauntlet that is the Stimulus playlist. $15 dollars and 5 hours later, I think I’ve played enough to put down my impressions about the five “new” maps. Are they worth stimulating Activision’s bottom line?

More »

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is getting a lot support from fans, but it’s debatable if it’s even better than its predecessor.

I finished Battlefield: Bad Company 2′s campaign this past weekend, and have spent a decent number of hours in the multiplayer that I can give a pretty thorough final “review” on my time with the Xbox 360 version of the game. In short, if you enjoyed the first Battlefield: Bad Company game, the second one pretty much continues more of the first, although I’m not sure if it’s necessarily better. I’m not one of the people that was really blown away by this game like I was with Modern Warfare 1 or 2, and regret to say that I’ll probably be putting this game back on the shelf without even spending a considerable amount of time in the multiplayer. Read on for my thoughts why.

More »

Trying to get through Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Dante’s Inferno, and Mass Effect 2 before the end of the month is shaping up to be a bit ambitious…

I’m bad. My backlog continues to balloon even though I thought I solved this problem before. Now with the entire PS3 exclusive library (pretty large, actually) going to be a part of my backlog later this month, I have to seriously figure out what I’m going to do. Apparently I can’t stop myself from buying games that go on sale, so the next best thing I can do is to try to make an estimate of what I will be playing over the course of the next month and come up with some realistic goals to give myself some sort of control. Read on for what I am forecasting my gaming time to be within the month of April…

More »

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 continues the wisecracks and camaraderie of the first

I started playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 last week and have since put a few hours into both the single player and the multiplayer. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills or something when I think the game isn’t THAT good nor is it as good as its predecessor. I’m more in line with Bloosoda’s impressions that he shared earlier: it’s ok, but it’s no Modern Warfare 2. Yet I’m reading articles, reviews, and forum threads with people really loving it and all that. Maybe part of it is due to PC gamers giving it more love, but as a 360 gamer, I keep wanting to shut this game off and go back to Modern Warfare 2. What am I missing?

More »

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!

More »

One nuance I’ve learned on my way to Prestiging is that the Pave Low Killstreak is broken

This past weekend, I finally hit my first Prestige in Modern Warfare 2 after a little over 60 hours of game time. I’ve had an on and off again relationship with the game, and unfortunately for Final Fantasy XIII these past couple of weeks, my interest for Modern Warfare 2 was on so most of my gaming time was spent there. You know you’re playing too much Modern Warfare 2 when you’re driving and you see a really small plane in the sky and your first instinct is to try to grab your Stinger because you suspect it’s an enemy UAV. Then you realize that this is real life and not only is that small plane a commuter plane, but that you don’t even have a rocket launcher.

Read on for some new tips I’ve learned from getting to that first Prestige and what’s next for me.
More »

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!

More »

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.

More »

Been seeing this dude on my 360 dashboard for several days now…

After about a month or so of R&R away from Modern Warfare 2, I jumped back into the game this past weekend and haven’t stopped playing it since. I had been playing Bayonetta, Brutal Legend, Band Hero, BioShock 2 (that’s a lot of B’s!), and GTA IV: The Lost and the Damned. After spending some time with BioShock 2′s multiplayer, it sort of jolted me back into wanting to play Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer. After all, why play BioShock 2′s multiplayer when I could be playing something else far superior? Here is a recount of me getting back into the game, consisting of my thoughts on how it feels to be back, and whether I have what it takes to keep up with the “kids” these days…

More »