Leveling Down

Another year is almost over. Time sure flies these days! Over the course of this past year, I feel like I’ve leveled down the most since the blog started in 2008. By the end of 2011, my gaming library has dwindled down to only a fraction of the games I owned at the beginning of the year (I only own 2 PS3 games now!), I’ve actually skipped the purchase of several notable titles I would have usually bought (Dead Island, Catherine, Dark Souls, etc.), and generally feel like I may not even be buying more than a handful of games going forward (perhaps only Diablo III and Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm next year).

For our last entries of 2011, cmfl3x and I decided on providing our thoughts on our game of the year for 2011 as well as any other reflections on the year. As you can see from above, my thinking is that I’ve leveled down a lot over this past year. But, I did enjoy some games this past year as well! Hit the jump for my favorite games of 2011.

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Nathan Drake is back

Longtime readers of this blog probably know by now that my plans get screwed up a lot. A LOT. I had planned to play Uncharted 3 for two days after release on Tuesday, but like a genius, I left it at work. So, unfortunately, I’ve only played through six chapters of the game – hit the jump for my impressions so far.

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Fall 2011 – is this the best you have to offer?

I’ve been super busy with work and life recently. I don’t think I’ve played a video game for five days straight or something! In the interim, I’ve been thinking about what games I’m anticipating for the fall season. Shockingly, I’m coming up zeroes! For every game I think of, I think of a bunch of reasons why I’m not excited. What’s wrong with me!?

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Uncharted tries to strike a balance between adventure game and shooter

Am I turning into an old curmudgeon? I feel like every game I pick up these days frustrates me and it is becoming a chore to finish them. After loving Uncharted 2 on the PS3, I figured I’d give the original a try. The third entry in the series is coming out soon, and although I expected Uncharted to not be as good, I figured it must still be fun to play. Right?

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Merry Christmas: From me, to me

I started flirting with the idea of getting a PS3 around the time espion4ge started his long journey to acquire one. In fact, I actually ordered one once but canceled the order before it shipped. When Amazon matched Walmart’s $100 gift card credit, I finally ended up pulling the trigger. I was going to do some Red Dead Redemption impressions, but since my mind is all Starcraft (again) and PS3 right now, I figured I’d write about the games I’m planning on playing for the PS3.

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Who would you rather play as in a video game?

The fall TV season is upon us, which leads to this equation: New TV Shows + Old TV Shows + Starcraft II + Halo: Reach + Fallout: New Vegas in 3 weeks = Mrs. cmfl3x is not a happy camper. One day, when I figure out how to maintain a better balance, I will write an article about that. Today is not that day.

Instead, what with all the rectangular screens I’m staring at these days, I started wondering what TV shows would work well as a video game. Really, there is only ONE game that I’d really want to see, but I added a few more for good measure. Check it out!

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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!

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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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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.

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Nathan Drake is a modern day Indiana Jones

There is a short list of games on the Playstation 3 that make me wish I had the console, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is at the top of it. So the first thing I did after borrowing this PS3 was to go out to Blockbuster to rent the game. Alas, my local Blockbuster didn’t have it, so I ended up driving 20 minutes (and waiting 20 minutes in line) to the closest store that had it in stock. After playing through the game, I can see why it was the Game of the Year 2009 for many media outlets. Uncharted 2 stands as a supreme example of why it sucks for consumers that the console wars exist.

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