Leveling Down

How many times do we have to tell you Blizzard – Battle.net isn’t Facebook!

These last couple of days, Blizzard and Starcraft 2 have been in the gaming news in a big way. With Starcraft 2 less than a month away, Blizzard has seen fit to provide fans with good news and terrible news. The good news is, Blizzard has released “Phase 2″ of the beta test for Starcraft 2, so those of you that have been undergoing withdrawal from the Starcraft 2 Beta can get back in and play (add me – account name: espionage, character code: 315). I’ve played a couple games myself and it looks like the beta is certainly back with a lot more stuff going on such as new Achievements and the ability to play AI on all difficulty levels. The terrible news, however, is their announcement that any forum participation in the official Starcraft 2 (and soon to be World of Warcraft) forums will be posting with your RealID – your real first and last name. Terrible terrible news.
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Is it even possible to play all of these significant games/betas this month?

Last month I posted a gaming schedule for April, and I think it worked out pretty well. I was able to make my way through Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Dante’s Inferno, and surprisingly, Army of Two: The 40th Day. A couple weeks ago, I posted a different entry discussing games that I wouldn’t mind paying a monthly fee for. But now that May is underway, I’ve realized that maybe being able to play all four games I was willing to pay monthly fees for at the same time is perhaps a bit too much – on top of Mass Effect 2, which carried over from last month. So, what the heck do I do in May?! Read on as I postulate my gaming schedule for the rest of the month.

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The Starcraft 2 Beta Battle.net Quick Match Screen

Seems like not all of you can play the Starcraft 2 beta so I will share my impressions on it. I’ve only put in maybe an hour or so thus far, but as a Blizzard fan and veteran Starcraft player, it was enough time to formulate something to write about. This will most likely not be the only beta impressions I will share since I think my impressions on the game will change as I continue to learn it.

Today’s entry will discuss the Battle.net redesign, what the Starcraft II beta contains, and my impressions of each race after playing only against AIs.
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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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Since I posted about Blizzard on Monday, here’s another Blizzard related entry that I have been pondering as of late. I was at Target with my wife this past weekend, and as we were waiting in line to check out, I noticed that the kid in front of me, who was probably an underclassman still in high school, was buying a 60 day pre-paid World of Warcraft card. These cards are $30, and allow the World of Warcraft account holder to play the game for two months (the monthly subscription is $15 a month to play). Three thoughts went through my mind as I saw this WoW card go down the cashier belt:

1. People actually buy these things?
2. Do I say something?
3. Should Blizzard even be selling these?

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The results of being hacked: losing all of your equipment yet having a nice amount of gold…

This past weekend, I received an email from Blizzard Entertainment informing me that my account password had changed. The email went on to state that if I had requested the change, to disregard the email. But if I did not request the change, then I would need to contact Blizzard immediately in case my account had been compromised. I did not request the password change, so I got a bit worried. I tried to log onto my account on the battle.net website, and surely enough, my password was no longer valid. Someone had actually somehow hacked into my battle.net account! This freaked me out. Read on to see what transpired…

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World of Warcraft & Team Fortress 2 continue to give PC gamers updates

It’s interesting for me to see the “evolution” of the PC gaming landscape. Growing up on Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem, I’ve lived through the rise and decline of the PC gaming scene, from the introduction of first person shooters, real-time strategy games, online multiplayer, 4X strategy games, and now MMORPGs. If you’ve also grown up with fond memories of Doom & Quake, I highly recommend checking out the book, Masters of Doom. It’s a well-written book that chronicles how John Romero and John Carmack met, formed id Software, and completely shook up the gaming industry. Having said that, today’s entry will contain my more general thoughts on the PC gaming landscape, and why I’m still excited for its present and future.
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This game seems kinda freaky, but I’ll man up!

Gaming took a backseat to a lot of wedding planning this week, but since I was on the road I ended up getting a bunch of portable gaming in. espion4ge beat me to Rhythm Heaven which is next on my DS list, so I won’t talk about it here. But yes, the theme of my gaming week would be variety. Onward!

Retro Game Challenge (DS)
I finished the last challenge in the last game only to find out there is ONE MORE retro game challenge: beat all 8 of the games. Considering the length of some of these games and the fact that one or two of them don’t “end” after finishing the first time, it’s going to be quite a difficult mountain to climb. I’m not sure if I have the patience or the dexterity to finish off this challenge, but I have a six hour plane ride next Friday so I guess I’ll find out!

Halo Wars
I planned on finishing the Legendary campaign and all the single player achievements but got too distracted playing the multiplayer. It’s so addicting! Now my team and I are coming up against a lot more experienced players and seeing all types of strategies that we don’t know how to deal with. I guess I need more practice…or maybe I’ve plateaued? Either way, it’s still a lot of fun. Again, if you’re on the fence, at least give Halo Wars a shot as a rental.

Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients (Mac)
I’m starting to really get into the game, even though I know I’m a few years too late. I got to play my first two matches against human players and it was even more fun than playing against the AI. I got a new mouse for $13 dollars off of a slickdeal and have been using DOTA to test it out. Good times all around.

Dead Space
Started this game. It’s pretty freaky but I think I can handle it. Got caught up in other stuff but I’ll play this whenever it’s light outside, heh.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS)
I played a lot of this game in the car, its gameplay is simple but addicting. It’s a bit awkward to switch between platforming controls and stylus controls for the puzzle element, but I’ve gotten used to cradling the stylus in my hand without using it. Still I wish there was some sort of stylus glove or something. Actually, there probably is…