What do we have in store for you today? Best XBLA/PSN title, best music game, and best multiplayer game. Bet you’ll be surprised who wins that one!

Best XBLA/PSN Game of 2010

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
Limbo [winner]
Comic Jumper
Super Meat Boy
Joe Danger

I have a soft spot for small, downloadable titles. For one thing, they’re cheap. But more importantly, they offer small, compact experiences that often end up feeling more valuable. Finally, I really love downloadable titles because their smaller budgets allow developers to get more creative and risky in their design. I thought this year was not as exciting as years past, but there still were some great titles released.

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a puzzle platformer in the spirit of Braid. Like most downloadable titles, it has a great sense of style, it’s presentation as a silent film really sticks with the player. Like all puzzle platformers, the game has a great physics engine, and it’s based on a task anyone could love – gathering pies!

Like Misadventures, Limbo exhibits a strong sense of style and utilizes a black and white color scheme that is absolutely stunning. Limbo is a dark, kind of messed up game that will stick with you after the end. It’s a puzzle platformer as well, but is more timing and physics based. The result if you mess up a puzzle? A gruesome death. The game is fun, and the world created is amazing. Like most downloadable titles, the “story” takes a less is more approach – with great success.

Frankly, Comic Jumper was a bit of a disappointment after Twisted Pixel’s awesome game ‘Splosion Man. Comic Jumper is a good game, but mostly because of its funny dialogue and story. The gameplay ends up getting repetitive, but if you or someone you know likes a good laugh, Comic Jumper can fit the bill.

If you want to harken back to the good ol’ days of excruciatingly painful platformers, Super Meat Boy is the way to go. Each of the 200+ levels in the game only takes 15 seconds to finish – if you get everything right. In reality, you won’t finish every level, and some of them might take you an hour to complete. But if you get all the achievements in this game, you will feel AWESOME.

IGN has called Joe Danger the marriage of Excitebike and Trials HD. That is pretty high praise! It’s a motorcycle game where you perform various stunts – the premise is that you are an injured stuntman who needs to get back in the game by doing all your old stunts. The game is presented in a happy go lucky way that disguises how difficult it actually is. If you’re up for some stunt related challenges, Joe Danger is for you!

Best Music Game of 2010

Green Day: Rock Band

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

DJ Hero 2

Rock Band 3 [winner]
Dance Central (Xbox 360 Kinect)

If you’re not sick of music games yet, this was actually a pretty good year. Despite their financial troubles, Harmonix released another band specific game, Green Day: Rock Band. As a huge Green Day fan, I really enjoyed it. Basically, if you like Green Day, this is a no brainer.

Guitar Hero 378, better known as Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, is actually a very strong entry in the series. Guitar Hero has becoming more and more user friendly, having all songs unlocked from the start, allowing drop in/drop out, etc. The tracklist is pretty good, but make sure you check it out to determine whether the game is for you or not.

If you like more contemporary music, consider checking out DJ Hero 2. It’s tracklist is stellar, and the gameplay is pretty challenging. I’ve always been a fan of the DJ Hero series, and the sequel definitely makes a lot of improvements over the original. It’s too bad this game hasn’t made more traction amongst consumers, but it definitely fills a nice niche in the music genre.

The winner of this category, almost by default, is Rock Band 3. Harmonix has always been the main innovator in the music genre, and the ability to actually learn how to play an instrument is a big plus. Rock Band still is the gold standard for music games, and this year is no exception.

Dance Central wasn’t originally on the list, but I guess as a gift guide, it probably deserves to be on her. Kinect isn’t worth much in my eyes, but Dance Central has been enjoyed by a lot of people as a party game. Tycho at Penny Arcade said his wife even took his Kinect to a party. It’s basically a dance game, and it takes advantage of what Kinect does well – interpret gross motor movements. If you’re willing to shell out the $150 bucks for a Kinect, you could do worse than buying this as a gift.

Best Multiplayer Game of 2010

Halo: Reach
Super Street Fighter IV

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]

Bungie’s Microsoft swan song, Halo: Reach, might be the strongest entry in the series yet. The game even made a believer out of espion4ge. Reach takes the tried and true Halo formula with a few new twists, most notably the loadout system. Jetpacks and headshots are a pretty fun combination.

Super Street Fighter IV feels more like an expansion to the original than a brand new game, but with it’s new quarter matches and tournaments, it’s a bit more user friendly in the multiplayer experience. You probably already own this game if you are an avid fighting game fan, but still, the multiplayer is relatively lag free and it’s tough to find a better fighting game on the market right now. Plus, DeeJay. Not.

As this site has noted, Call of Duty: Black Ops, provides a more balanced and less crazy multiplayer experience than Modern Warfare. For people who felt MW2 was unbalanced, Black Ops provides a good alternative, plus there is the zombie mode for people who enjoy that sort of thing. It’s fun to play with friends, although you’ll unlock guns at a faster pace so it’s not as addictive leveling up wise. It’s Call of Duty, what else is there to be said?

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the first Assassin’s Creed game to feature multiplayer. Unlike other games that are trying to force some sort of generic multiplayer into their game, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood provides an innovative thinking man’s game. Instead of the running and gunning that we are used to seeing in various multiplayer shooters these days, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer is all about blending in with the computer crowd such that you can make your way to the player you are trying to assassinate without other players being able to tell you apart from the AI. It’s quite a fresh take, but whether a vibrant multiplayer community will be formed by gamers who have the patience these days to sit through slow methodical killing is yet to be seen.

Finally, the winner in this category is – you guessed it – Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. Was there any doubt? This is a game worth buying a new computer for. Addictive gameplay? Check. Achievements? Check. Continual support from Blizzard via patches? Check. Zerglings? Check. Banelings, banelings, banelings, ohhhh? CHECK PLUS. True story, someone asked me to play Starcraft 2 today, five months after the game released. I’m logging back in after I finish this post – that’s longevity.

Going into this year’s holiday gaming season, I am lacking enthusiasm. I don’t know if it’s because I’m busier now or if the current games this holiday season are just not as exciting as in the last couple of years. To be honest, most of the games I am about to call out I haven’t played yet, but based on buzz I am reading and demos I’ve played today’s entry will sort of be my knee-jerk reaction as to why I am not excited about what’s in store for the 2010 holiday season.

The problem is, we have so many sequels that are worse than their predecessors or sequels that don’t exactly blow their predecessors out of the water. This leads me to find practically all of them lacking in the excitement category that I have had in past holiday seasons. How many sequels are being released this holiday season? Let’s see!

The Force Unleashed 2
It seems like a lot of people were fans of the first Force Unleashed game, commenting about how cool the storyline was and all that. Unfortunately, I thought the gameplay was lackluster at best, as can be read in my review. If a game has a decent story but lacks gameplay – it might as well be a film or a TV show since it has no business being a game. With this second one, even critics are trashing The Force Unleashed II and calling it a simple cash grab so I’ll definitely be steering clear.

Medal of Honor
This big reboot to the franchise had the potential to be good, but instead fell on its face. I hear that the 6-hour campaign isn’t so bad, but people usually buy FPS games to play multiplayer. Sadly, that is where Medal of Honor doesn’t quite hold up so well. DICE, the developers behind Battlefield and Battlefield: Bad Company, were not the ones that developed the single player for Medal of Honor. But they were responsible for Medal of Honor’s multiplayer and so they implemented Call of Duty style gameplay in combination with Bad Company style gameplay. Medal of Honor multiplayer thus sits in this weird limbo between both major franchises, alienatinating fans of the two games it’s trying to merge. (I guess this game is maybe better than Medal of Honor’s true predecessor: Medal of Honor: Airborne, but I still consider it more of a sequel for Battlefield since the multiplayer was created by DICE.)

Fable III
Apparently, Fable III is a simpler version of Fable II, disappointing fans of the second one. On top of that [MINOR SPOILER AHEAD], the game has angered many players who have made it to the end because it screws them over without even giving them a chance to see it coming. Am I really excited to play this? I was, but maybe I should just go back and replay Fable II instead?

Fallout: New Vegas
Yeah, I’m putting New Vegas on the list of “lackluster” sequels even though I bought it, haven’t even played it yet, and of course I’ll probably end up enjoying it. I loved Fallout 3, yet I was never really too interested in picking up Fallout: New Vegas since there was barely any buzz about it. Is it really all that different from Fallout 3? It’s still marred by all sorts of technical issues that Fallout 3 contained (such as freezing, memory leaks, etc.), but this time around, it doesn’t have the gigantic leap from Fallout 2 to Fallout 3 to counterbalance it. I guess I won’t know until I give New Vegas a spin, but even now, it doesn’t really feel like a fresh sequel, since it’s more of the same. In this case for me, more of the same is good since I loved Fallout 3, but in terms of excitement? Not too much.

DJ Hero 2
cmfl3x picked this one up and seems to be really enjoying it, but from my point of view, I am not excited with it. Unlike the other sequels already mentioned on this list, DJ Hero 2 has been getting reviews that seem to indicate that it is a slightly better game than its predecessor. But does it really feel like a fresh sequel? A couple of new, yet non-revolutionary features and a new soundtrack are enough to call the game a sequel? Did the gameplay really change that much between the first and the second one such that a sequel needed to have been released just one year after the first? And what’s with the lack of compatibility between the soundtracks of the first and second game? I guess Activision wants to quickly make as much as it can off of DJ Hero before DJ’ing also goes the way of Guitar Hero.

Rock Band 3
Rock Band 3 is a game that got so many great reviews that I considered buying it. Unlike DJ Hero 2, Rock Band 3 really brings all sorts of new and innovative features over Rock Band 2. Rock Band 3 still has major problems going against it though, even if it’s nearly a flawless game. The first is that I still can’t help but feel tired about the entire music game genre. If I don’t feel like partaking in Rock Band 3′s major new features such as picking up the key-tar or learning to play with real musical instruments, is Rock Band 3 really that different from the second one? Some even complain that something like 20% of the songs on the Rock Band 3 soundtrack are already present in other music games too. I gave the demo a try this past weekend, and it honestly didn’t feel any different than its predecessors. I think the feature about Rock Band that I enjoy the most – being able to play drums on my favorite songs, doesn’t exactly require me to pick up Rock Band 3 to do so. Maybe that explains my lack of excitement for Rock Band 3.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
The verdict is still out on this one, as there is a lot of potential for good and bad. Good: currency system so players have their own choice as to what they want to unlock. Bad: Treyarch is the developer – enough said. Good: Zombie mode returns. Bad: Setting is not present day, so we may end up with antiquated or goofy stuff (i.e. ray gun). At the end of the day, Black Ops is another Call of Duty game in an “off year” since it’s not made by Infinity Ward. It should be a decent title, but I don’t think Modern Warfare 2 is even old yet by this point. Can both games co-exist?

Holiday 2010 vs Holiday 2009 & Holiday 2008
So what do we have in terms of new IPs to enjoy this holiday season?The 4-6 hour single player game Vanquish? Enslaved: Oddyssey to the West – a game with a fine storyline, but bland gameplay mechanics? Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – a Japanese franchise given the God of War gameplay makeover (not a compliment in my book) from a Western studio? Or how about Majin & the Forsaken Kingdom – a Japanese developed title that probably won’t even make a dent in the Western market due to its simplistic execution? I’ve played demos to nearly all of these titles, and none of them had my blood pumping.

Compare this year’s holiday season crop with the past couple holiday years. Last season we got to play some really strong sequels: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed II, and Left 4 Dead 2. There were also several new IPs that delivered: Brutal Legend, Borderlands, DJ Hero, and Dragon Age: Origins.

Back in 2008, we had some big sequels as well: Fable II, Far Cry 2, Saints Row 2, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, and arguably, Call of Duty: World at War. And again, the original IPs then were strong too, thanks to titles like Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, and Left 4 Dead.

It’s sad that this holiday season, I feel like I’ll just be playing the games to go through the motions, and won’t have the kind of excitement I used to have these last couple of years. Having said all this, I’ll probably end up getting all of this holiday season’s releases anyway – especially if Amazon and other retailers go with some crazy sales around Black Friday. Fable III may be worse than its predecessor, but if I can get it for $20, I guess that’s all right.

Last week I started the conversation about the types of games non-gamers (specifically, wives and girlfriends) could enjoy or at least tolerate. After laying out some general principles and looking at some broad areas of gaming, this week I’ll be narrowing my focus and talking about some specific genres that might appeal to non-gamers. I’ve organized the games from most appealing to least, in general. As always, your mileage may vary, and I’d love to hear others’ ideas as well!

Mario Party put party games onto the map

Party Games
Everybody loves a good party game. Since Mario Party on Nintendo 64 (I’m sure there are other examples from before then), party games have been drawing in non-gamers in droves. There’s something about the competition involved, the inherent fun involved, that keeps people coming back for more. It’s like playing a board game on your television, quite literally sometimes.

In the current generation, the party game has evolved. Now we have music games, where you can get an entire band together, and up to six people can party at once. We have dance games – not only the bestseller Just Dance on the Wii, but upcoming games for Microsoft’s Kinect and tons of more games in the pipeline. Then there are sports games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit or EA Active, which manage to sell game systems to non-gamers.

These party games are the only type of games I can consistently get Mrs. cmfl3x to play. Whether it’s Wii Sports, Rock Band, or the like, these are the ONLY type of games where I can ask Mrs. cmfl3x “Do you want to play?” without getting a drink thrown in my face.

Party Games for Non-gamers
Wii Sports series
Mario Party series
Rock Band series
Guitar Hero series
Dance Dance Revolution Series
Any Karaoke Game

Despite spending most of his time running around with a school aged boy, Professor Layton has found his way into the hearts of many non-gamers.

Casual/Puzzle Games
I lumped casual and puzzle games together because they often go hand in hand. Whether it’s Bejeweled, Sudoku, or brain teasers, puzzle type games generally appeal to the casual audience. The Nintendo DS has practically cornered the market on old people who are trying to keep their brains fresh.

One standout and potential gateway drug game for non-gamers is the Professor Layton series. It has extremely simple gameplay: you just walk around and solve a bunch of brain teasers to ultimately solve a crime. However, it’s super addicting, and it’s also a very low barrier of entry for non-gamers. It’s the type of game that could potentially get somebody addicted to games, no mean feat.

Another game that deserves it’s own paragraph is Peggle. I’m not sure why it’s so darn addicting, but the combination of cute graphics, random but NOT random gameplay, and attainable goals makes it a big hit with non-gamers. Mrs. cmfl3x actually sat down and played Peggle for an hour one day – that is a minor miracle in and of itself. So keep an eye out for puzzle/casual games, and maybe you can find something to enjoy with that non-gamer in your life. But be careful, if the game is on your DS, you might not get it back.

Puzzle/Casual Games for Non-gamers
Peggle Series
Professor Layton Series
Puzzle Quest
Brain Age Series
Big Brain Academy
Crossword Puzzle Games on DS (there are tons out there)

You can never go wrong with pirates. Y’arr!

Adventure Games
Finally, a genre of gaming that combines story elements, graphical elements, and puzzle elements all into one is the adventure series genre which is making a comeback of late. Adventure games are basically story and puzzle games: you progress a narrative by solving various environmentally based puzzles. Adventure games aren’t for everyone, but Mrs. cmfl3x actually prefers when I play these types of games for a couple of reasons.

First of all, the graphics aren’t as edgy in adventure based games. Secondly, the dialogue is generally pretty funny, and thirdly, the stories involved are generally pretty interesting. Whether it’s Monkey Island, Wallace and Grommit, or Sam and Max, adventure games all seem like something more suited for kids. This helps to dispel “video games are too violent” myths and also helps to propel “video games can aid critical thinking” arguments. You may not ever need to use a rubber chicken with a pulley attached to it in real life, but it’s that kind of out of the box thinking that will help you (and your children!) go far in life.

The nice thing about adventure games is that you can play them together with your non-gaming friends. Only one person needs to be actually controlling the character, but both of you can give input on how to solve the environmental puzzles. And when one person gets tired of failing, the controller can always exchange hands. Regular readers of this site know I am a huge fan of adventure games – it also doesn’t hurt that Mrs. cmfl3x has a soft spot for them as well.

Adventure Games for Non-gamers
Monkey Island series
Sam and Max series
Wallace and Grommit series
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure
Homestar Runner series
Phoenix Wright series
Heavy Rain (mature audiences only)

Final Thoughts
In the end, I think video games are generally pretty hit or miss with non-gamers. It all comes down to personal preference, whether you catch them in the right mood, etc. etc. Hopefully, this little guide can give you some ideas if you’re looking for something to play with that non-gamer in your life. Remember, though – nothing beats REAL quality time. Of course, if you can pull off spending some of that time with controllers in your hands…there’s no harm in that either!

If you’re short on time, here’s the gist of this review: if you like Green Day, then you’ll like Green Day: Rock Band. Despite the music genre getting a little over-saturated these days, Green Day: Rock Band is still a solid entry in Harmonix’s lineup that is sure to please fans of the band. The music game does show signs of old age though, and it’s just not as compelling as The Beatles were last year. Hit the jump to find out why.

Soundtrack – Having a Blast
There are very few albums that I consider worth listening to from start to finish without skipping any tracks (Weezer’s blue album, Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magick come to mind). Green Day Rock Band features two such albums: Dookie and American Idiot, which are what I consider to be Green Day’s best two albums and the strongest aspect of Green Day Rock Band. In addition you get a smattering of tracks from Green Day’s other albums, including the majority of 21st Century Breakdown (the other songs were featured as DLC in Rock Band 2 and are compatible with GD: RB).

American Idiot and Dookie warrant a purchase on their own. Dookie is a throwback to the time when punk went mainstream in America, and its fast strums and lyrics about um…creative time wasting recall a time when MTV still showed music videos. I’ll never forget the video for Longview – a classic. American Idiot, released 10 years later, shows a real evolution in Green Day’s music: it’s a rock ballad, one that you can now see on Broadway if I’m not mistaken. Crazily enough, if you listen to American Idiot in sequence, it tells the story of “Jesus of Suburbia”, the album’s protagonist and the name of my favorite song on the album. It is an amazing musical piece of work. These two albums plus the other tracks, which are all the ones you’d really want anyway, make up a solid library, provided you like Green Day of course. You can also export the songs to Rock Band 2 or 3.

Gameplay – The Static Age
There aren’t really any gameplay innovations in Green Day Rock Band. There are only three venues, which is a bit of a bummer, and the 40+ tracks are split into these three venues. They are broken up by sets, which you can play through in any order you like. One thing that really bugged me is that I couldn’t make a setlist – I had to play one song at a time. With load times and with added animations before the song starts, I felt it was a bit of a drag – I just wanted to get to the songs.

Difficulty wise, it’s definitely more challenging than the Beatles: it’s a lot of fast strumming. There are also some tricky chord progressions that are a lot of fun to play. That being said, I haven’t even been in the red at all on Expert difficulty for guitar, so it’s definitely doable. The bass lines are definitely a highlight in this game, as are the drum sections. Green Day features three extremely talented musicians, and the style of music changes throughout the game. The vocal parts are a lot of fun to sing along to and the game includes harmonies as well. Harmonix seems to have basically adopted an “ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality, and it serves them well.

Nitpicks – Give Me Novocaine
I don’t know, I love Green Day, but I think the music game genre is getting old. For this game, I found myself just trying to get through the songs, and so the aforementioned load times/animation sequences didn’t help that. Another thing that bugged me about the game was that my calibration was all off and I had to recalibrate my rig. I’m not sure if it’s because I got a new Jasper unit or what, but it’s frustrating, plus my guitar and drums don’t calibrate with exactly the same numbers.

I also think the setlist/venue thing is outdated in general. I don’t know if Guitar Hero’s “warrior of rock quest-line” business is going to help change things up, but the genre is screaming for something new. Another nitpick I have is the fact that this game came AFTER The Beatles Rock Band. It doesn’t make sense. I love Green Day, but they aren’t The Beatles, and although their music lends itself well to this type of game, I don’t think they are quite deserving of their own title.

Final Thoughts – Welcome to Paradise or Boulevard of Broken Dreams?
As I said in the intro, it comes down to this question: How much do you like Green Day? That will determine how much you like the game. It’s a solid music title, and there were definitely multiple tracks that I really rocked out to. The drums in particular are tons of fun. I’d say wait and pick it up when the game is cheaper (I got it for $45), or borrow a friend’s copy. Still, I could play Jesus of Suburbia all day and be happy – that song is awesome.

Final Score: B

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!

I went nuts last week on XBLA. I bought the entire Abbey Road album for the Beatles Rock Band and three other songs. I dunno if it’s worth it but those tracks are pretty good! I think I started when I convinced my wife to play Beatles Rock Band with me but it ended with me spending over 15 bucks. Then I bought Defense Grid: The Awakening, a tower defense game that came out over a year ago. But the downloadable item I spent the most time with? None other than the FREE FIFA 2010 World Cup demo.

I ended up playing something like 30+ matches in the demo over the course of the week. Let me point out a few things. First, each half is only 2 minutes long, so the games only take about 10 minutes. Secondly, I barely ever play sports games, so I started out having trouble even beating the computer on amateur. Finally, you only get to play one specific game in the demo: Spain vs. Italy. I chose Spain every time, meaning I played 30 matches as Spain vs. Italy! Not thrilling stuff, but somehow I managed to sink most of my time into that.

As for Defense Grid, it’s actually pretty fun and at least in the earlier levels I don’t feel hamstrung by the gamepad when trying to manage my towers. I like the sci-fi aspect of the game although it’s silly that the game seems to be trying to tell a story. I can see how it can get pretty challenging and am looking forward to taking it up.

The rest of my time has been spent playing Modern Warfare 2 (oh yeah, I spent $15 on THAT DLC too!). I am slowly but surely inching my way towards prestiging which is pretty exciting. I am also absolutely in love with the demolition mode, it is the kind of madness that is equal parts infuriating and exhilarating. Hopefully I will have a new icon by next week!

Last but not least, I wanted to share with you all a pretty cool (and free!) game called Synopsis Quest. It is a bunch of minigames that essentially make up a RPG. If you are familiar with standard JRPG conventions you should be able to solve most of the puzzles. None are really unfair, although some assume prior knowledge of some of the more famous JRPGs out there. Check it out, it’s a fun little game and it’s free!

Final Four Results

(3) Starcraft defeats (1) BioShock (50-50, tiebreak)
Starcraft isn’t as powerful as it used to be I guess. I thought this would be a walk, but BioShock continued to prove its popularity and this poll came down to a dead tie. Unfortunately for Andrew Ryan, registered users voted for Starcraft at a 2:1 ratio, so Starcraft took the matchup via tiebreaker. Even though Starcraft emerged from the RTS region, I think it should be noted that Starcraft had an excellent story in its own right, and I think could have stood toe to toe with (though probably not beaten) BioShock on that merit alone. Add in the gameplay, and Starcraft is a worthy participant in the championship game.

(8) Rock Band 2 defeats (3) Goldeneye (50-50, tiebreak)
Another tiebreaker, but this one went to Rock Band 2 in a 5:1 ratio of registered users voting. Rock Band 2 has been on quite a ride – I still can’t believe I forgot to include it in the original group. But hey, power of the people! It looks like people enjoy sitting on their couches with plastic instruments as opposed to sitting with N64 controllers in their hands. I was hoping to see a Starcraft/Goldeneye old school matchup in the finals, but it looks like it wasn’t meant to be.

Championship Analysis and Prediction

Starcraft: The Old School Favorite

Who it beat to get here:

Round 1: Halo Wars (61-39)
Sweet 16: Final Fantasy Tactics (58-42)
Elite 8: Civilization IV (55-45)
Final Four: Bioshock (50-50, tiebreak)

What does Starcraft have going for it? It’s only the defining real time strategy game. It defeated the best console RTS out there, the best tactical RPG out there, and the best turn based strategy game out there. Starcraft introduced 3 races and remains to this day one of the most balanced real time strategy games out there. Starcraft is my favorite for the championship and I’m pulling for it to win! How can you turn down Tassadar?

Rock Band 2: The Crowd Pleaser

Who it beat to get here:

Round 1: Super Mario 64 (52-48)
Sweet 16: NHL 94′ (71-29)
Elite 8: Street Fighter IV (58-42)
Final Four: Goldeneye (50-50, tiebreak)

Rock Band 2 is truly the people’s choice. Even non-gamers know what Rock Band 2 is, and I’m sure many have played it as well. It is the ultimate party game, especially for people who love music (and really who doesn’t?) Its enjoyable gameplay, party play, and of course, the ability to pretend you are a real rocker have propelled Rock Band 2 to the championship game. Will it be enough? Will millions of fans beat out millions of zerglings? It is up to you, the Leveling Down reader, to decide. VOTE!

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

With only a few games left in the running, cmfl3x and I have decided to combine the results discussion from Round 3 along with the starting the polling for Round 4.

Round 4 polls will close Monday, April 5th, at 6pm EST. cmfl3x will announce the two games moving into the Finals and open the voting on Tuesday. Hit the jump to see some commentary on the results and to vote for the Final Four…

Hollywood Region – Round 3 Results

(1) BioShock defeats (3) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [82-18]
I was actually surprised how much of a trouncing Star Wars got when it went up against BioShock, as it was able to squeak past Metal Gear Solid. Would Metal Gear Solid have also gotten destroyed by BioShock, the game that Leveling Down considers perhaps the best storyline in all of gaming? Talk about crazy. I voted for BioShock myself, as it was a gaming experience with a storyline and premise that still stands at the top today. The world of Rapture, its memorable characters, and the unforgettable plot twist helped BioShock easily make its way to the top in our Hollywood Region. I fell asleep a few times playing Knights of the Old Republic, but I did rebuy it on Steam recently and plan to make my way through it at some point because it does have its fair share of fans. I need to go back and see what I missed.

M16 Region – Round 3 Results

(3) GoldenEye 007 defeats (4) Halo 3 [58-42]
Is this an upset?! To me it was, even if GoldenEye ranked slightly higher than Halo 3 in the ratings. The score wasn’t that close – which means for us Leveling Down members, we are an older crowd that appreciated what GoldenEye did for shooters more so than what Halo 3 did. This is quite a shock for me, because we’re talking about a game that is two generations back that is going to make it into the Final Four. And unlike Starcraft, GoldenEye isn’t a game that quite stands the test of time (as eeyore has pointed out). Still, I voted for it, as I have never really loved Halo multiplayer, but I guess I’m not alone in this.

Sun-Tzu Region – Round 3 Results

(3) Starcraft defeats (1) Civilization IV [55-45]
Of the four matchups for the Elite 8, this was the only one that I was nearly certain Starcraft would win. Yet as I checked the polls over the last two days, the voting was pretty neck and neck. “Who are these people that are voting for Civilization IV?” I thought to myself. Well, in Civilization IV’s defense, its sequel is around the corner as well, so there are fans in both camps. It’s all about real time strategy versus turn based strategy. But, as the dust falls, we see that Leveling Down readers prefer a little more action mixed in with their strategy, and have gone the real-time route. Starcraft was almost defeated by Halo Wars in the first round, and almost defeated by Civilization IV in the third round, but in my head, it’s probably the #1 seed in this entire tourney.

(8) Rock Band 2 defeats (2) Street Fighter IV [58-42]
This is more of an upset in a technical way, as Rock Band 2 was not even among the initial list of games that cmfl3x considered for the Hodj Podj region. It went up against tough competition: Street Fighter IV is arguably the best Street Fighter game out there, and on top of that, Super Street Fighter IV releases this month. Still, there are many music game fans on our site, and the vote for Rock Band 2 is probably not so much a vote for the game as much as it is for the developer, Harmonix, and what they’ve done for music gaming. They brought Guitar Hero to us. They brought Rock Band to us. And while I personally feel they’ve kind of sold out, for anyone that enjoys musical gaming today, you still have to give Harmonix props.

espion4ge’s Forecast, West Region
Now it’s getting even tougher as we pit the champion of one region against another to see which game Leveling Down believes to be the better game. BioShock and its wonderful storyline goes up against Starcraft, the real-time strategy game that is treated like a sport in Korea with sponsors, “athletes”, and several television channels. With its near infinite replayability and sequel on the horizon, I would expect Starcraft to win by a longshot, but it didn’t have an easy victory against Civilization IV, and the majority of our readers are 360 owners so anything is possible!

espion4ge’s Forecast, East Region
What a strange East Region Finals matchup: GoldenEye against Rock Band 2 – I will dub this the couch multiplayer battle. Memories of us as kids playing GoldenEye on our couches with friends or playing plastic instruments with our friends – which one did we enjoy more? I’m actually having a tough time voting the winner of this one as well. GoldenEye and Rock Band 2 both surprised me with their respective Elite 8 victories, so this time we have two underdogs trying to move into the finals, where I have a feeling Starcraft will await. Can either of these two games defeat Starcraft? GoldenEye had a strong victory over Halo 3, while Rock Band 2 narrowly made it past Street Fighter IV. I actually have no idea which way this matchup will go. It’s too close to call! But either way, I will be happy for either game that moves onto the finals.

Now it’s up to you guys to decide:

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Voting for Round 3 is now open.

Polls will close this Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 6PM EST, so you will only have today and tomorrow to vote. I will post the winners for each of the four regions on Friday. These winners will move onto the Final Four next week as we get closer to the 2010 Finals. Hit the jump to cast your votes!

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After another furious round of voting, the Elite 8 is set! There were some pretty interesting Sweet 16 matchups, and a lot of the polls were closer than in the first round. At this point, 75% of the field has been eliminated, and we are 3 rounds away from finding out who is the winner of Leveling Down’s Video Game March Madness 2010! Hit the jump for a full recap, and feel free to express your utter outrage at the results in the comments!

Hollywood Region – Round 2 Results

(1) BioShock defeats (4) God of War [67-33]
This one was a real squeaker. I ended up voting for BioShock, but that’s a bit unfair since it’s the only game of the two I’ve played. And reading God of War’s story makes it sound really awesome. And I’m not sure if it’s BioShock’s story I love, or the setting. So maybe my vote was unfair. I also wonder if this is a referendum on Sony vs. Microsoft, since BioShock was an Xbox exclusive for a long while. Regardless, both these games are worthy titles, but in the end, it looks like Leveling Down users enjoy BioShock more, keeping the #1 seed alive.

(3) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic defeats (2) Metal Gear Solid [55-45]
KOTOR has an excellent story, but Metal Gear Solid is tops in my book. Both games feature shocking plot twists, humorous moments, and mysterious sword wielding characters. Both also feature a memorable cast of characters, friend and enemy alike. But one, only ONE of these games features a scientist peeing their pants: and that is why it is a winner. Except it’s not the winner. In a close upset, KOTOR edges out Metal Gear Solid.

cmfl3x’s Forecast, Hollywood Region
I thought this was going to be God of War vs. MGS, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. It looks like the Star Wars license is carrying KOTOR, but we’ll see if the deep setting of Rapture puts Bioshock on top. I think KOTOR is going to take it to the Final Four in a squeaker.

M16 Region – Round 2 Results

(4) Halo 3 defeats (8) Resident Evil 4 [68-32]
The first Cinderella seed falls. Resident Evil 4 was a huge leap forward for shooters, but the fact of the matter is, Halo DEFINED this generation’s console shooters, at least until COD4 came along. Coupled with the incredible love for Master Chief, it looks like RE4 just couldn’t hold up. I voted for Halo 3 as well, and am pretty excited for its upcoming Elite 8 matchup!

(3) Goldeneye defeats (2) Uncharted 2 [67-33]
These results surprised me. I agonized over this decision, I loved both games, but ultimately, the nostalgia factor won out and I voted for Goldeneye. One thing that hurts Uncharted 2 is the fact that its probably not thought of as a shooter first and foremost – the first thing I think of when I think of Uncharted 2 is that its an awesome cinematic experience. It may have even done better in the Hollywood Region. But for 2010, it looks like James Bond > Nathan Drake.

cmfl3x’s Forecast, M16 Region
This is a really cool matchup, the defining shooter of this generation vs. the defining shooter of the past. Master Chief vs. 007. Brute hammers vs. golden guns. Online play vs. your best friend’s living room. In the end, I think it’s been too long, and Goldeneye may end up losing out because of it. My heart wants Goldeneye to win, but my mind predicts Halo 3 will.

Sun-Tzu Region – Round 2 Results

(1) Civilization IV defeats (4) Warcraft III [61-39]
Warcraft III, even though I voted for it, sometimes has the misfortune of being considered the fantasy version of Starcraft. That’s really unfair, since War 3 is completely different and introduced some really new ideas into the RTS genre, but that’s the reality. Civilization, on the other hand, stands heads and shoulders above other world conquest games. So it’s no surprise that Civ 4 ended up finding better traction, and thus it moves on to play another day.

(3) Starcraft defeats (7) Final Fantasy Tactics [58-42]
“The winner of this matchup goes to the Final Four.” – Leveling Down user. A bold prediction, and one that I think will bear out. Starcraft is the best RTS game out there, and FFT is the best tactical RPG out there. It’s a shame these two had to meet so early, but really, Starcraft is a juggernaut that cannot be stopped. Who will ever forget: “2v2 Lost Temple!!! 2v2 Lost Temple!!! 2v2 Lost Temple!!! Gone.” Heck, who just did that yesterday?

cmfl3x’s Forecast, Sun-Tzu Region
Let’s look at the tale of the tape. Round 1, Starcraft defeats the best console RTS out there. Sweet 16, Starcraft defeats the best tactical RPG out there. Who does Starcraft face in the Elite 8? Only the best turn-based game out there. Can this 12 year old game continue its run? You bet it can. It won’t even be close.

Hodj Podj Region – Round 2 Results

(8) Rock Band 2 defeats (5) NHL 94′ [71-29]
It was nice to see NHL 94′ make it to the sweet 16, but the reality is it had an easy matchup. Rock Band 2 is one of the most popular party games out there, and even though I loved NHL 94′ multiplayer, I voted for Rock Band 2 because it is way more universal. This is the only 8-seed remaining in the tournament, but it will be up against its toughest test in the next round. Which leads me to…

(2) Street Fighter IV defeats (3) World of Warcraft [82-18]
Wow. Pun intended. I thought this one was going to be closer, but I guess we have more console players than PC players on this site. It’s really amazing how Street Fighter IV put fighting games back on the map, and its success in this tournament is indicative of that. Just in time for Super Street Fighter IV! Hello, T-Hawk!

cmfl3x’s Forecast, Hodj Podj Region
The Hodj Podj Region was the most random region, since it literally hosted a hodj podj of games. Now we have a fighting game and a music game remaining, and the winner gets to avoid a potential matchup with Starcraft in the Final Four. Either of these games has a chance to make it to the final round and maybe win this whole thing. My prediction? I think Street Fighter IV is gonna pull an upset against Rock Band 2, which would likely be the people’s choice.

Final Thoughts
So, what do you think of my predictions? Am I crazy? Let me know in the comments! All I know is that the Sweet 16 was a lot of fun, and I expect the Elite 8 to be no different. Anything is possibleeee!

Voting for Round 2 is now open.

The polls will close on Monday March 29th, 2010 at 6PM EST. cmfl3x will announce the 8 winners moving into Round 3. Hit the jump to cast your votes!

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