As someone that is a big fan of gaming in all of these categories, I’ll be presenting the best shooter games, games with the best gameplay, and the most addictive games of this year. See if you can guess the winners before the jump!

Best Shooter of 2010

MAG
BioShock 2
Halo: Reach [winner]
Medal of Honor
Vanquish
Call of Duty: Black Ops

MAG was the first major shooter released this year as a PS3 exclusive, and came from Zipper Interactive, the team behind the Sony exclusive franchise: Socom. The primary unique differentiator between MAG and other FPS games is its 256 player matches. While traditional multiplayer shooter games are 4 on 4 to 8 on 8, 128 on 128 completely blows it out of the water. Unfortunately, the sheer scope of the game highly encourages team play and objectives – something that gamers seem to have a hard time grasping these days. Combine that with the fact that once you pick one of the three factions in the game and you’re stuck with them for the rest of your MAG career and we can see why MAG didn’t quite live up to its hype. But, if this does sound interesting for you as a PS3 gamer, consider checking it out.

Shortly after MAG was released, BioShock 2 made its way to the masses. I was a huge fan of BioShock 1, picking it as my Game of the Year in 2007 over Call of Duty 4. It was basically a perfect game with a fitting end. Yet, most likely because the statistics showed far more people having played BioShock than the number of sales, Take 2 decided to put together a sequel with multiplayer in the hopes that more people would hold on to their copies of the game. Unfortunately, while the core BioShock 2 campaign is enjoyable and brings more BioShock gameplay for those that couldn’t get enough of the first, its multiplayer and even its relevance aren’t quite good. If you want more BioShock, definitely give BioShock 2 a look since it’s only $20 now and is a lengthy adventure. But is it necessary? Definitely not.

Halo games traditionally launch in the Fall and mark the beginning of the holiday season. Halo: Reach was no exception, and unlike Halo: ODST last year, Halo: Reach delivers the most engrossing experience for a Halo game to date: a campaign, Firefight, and multiplayer. While its campaign is a bit weaker than previous iterations of the game, as a whole – Halo: Reach is the pinnacle of the Halo series to date. Of course, the game is not an overhaul as much as it is a refinement of the series, so for those that never enjoyed Halo or have gotten sick of traditional Halo gameplay – you may want to avoid this one. But even with me as a Halo “non-fan”, I can appreciate the amount of effort Bungie put into their last Halo game – and the game rightfully deserves the place of Best Shooter of the year.

Medal of Honor is EA’s reboot of the franchise, and while it isn’t quite good enough for cmfl3x or I to have picked it up just yet, it can be enjoyable for the right type of shooter fan. First off – the game’s campaign is decent and seems to be getting praise. It’s the multiplayer that seems to really alienate the shooter user base. First off, keep in mind that the Medal of Honor multiplayer is not by the same team that did the campaign – it’s by DICE, the team behind the Battlefield and Battlefield: Bad Company games. DICE was riding high off of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and its strong team-based gameplay, but they decided to make Medal of Honor’s multiplayer a hybrid of Battlefield and Call of Duty style mechanics. This worked out to displease strong fans of both Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare 2, but for some the combination was actually quite enjoyable.

It’s very rare for a non-Western shooter to be good, but it seems like many gamers besides me love Vanquish. Vanquish is a unique shooter that straps the player into a jetpack-like device, allowing you to slide, dodge, and slow down time as you run and gun your way through the game. The gameplay never seemed that amazing to me, and combined with its short 5 hour length was enough for me to hold off on buying it for now. But, critics and fans seem to really dig it – so here’s a game that I didn’t really think was too hot but I’ll probably check it out when I can get it cheaper.

The final, and biggest shooter of the year comes out last: Call of Duty: Black Ops. In this four year since the Call of Duty series rose to prominent fame, we have another Call of Duty game that does do nearly everything right to satisfy the shooter fan: an interesting and engaging campaign, co-op through an infinite zombie mode, and a more balanced and refined multiplayer experience. The biggest negatives going for it though are that it’s the 4th Call of Duty game in as many years in a row, and it doesn’t quite deliver as an overall package compared to last year’s Modern Warfare 2. But for those that still can’t get enough Call of Duty, Black Ops delivers and is only slightly bested by Halo: Reach this year in the shooter category.

Best Gameplay of 2010

Bayonetta
Super Street Fighter IV
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]
Civilization V

As a hardcore gamer, gameplay is the most important feature a game can provide for me. Each of these games I am about to describe are simply at the pinnacle of gameplay for their respective genres through a proper combination of input, feedback, challenge, skill, and enjoyment. For a game to even be considered on this list, it follows a very important requirement: easy to learn, hard to master.

Bayonetta is the pinnacle of action/adventure gameplay design, and something that I hope Western developers will eventually get to understand. The feel of combo-ing several enemies in a room, watching your rating go up, performing finishing moves with over-the-top theatrics, slowing down time as you dodge attacks and counter opponents into oblivion all require a certain amount of skill to pull off. You can’t just hit one button over and over again like Western action/adventure games, and one thing that Japanese action/adventure gameplay design has over Western action/adventure gameplay design is that you personally feel like the badass, not the weapon you are holding. For games like Bayonetta – the weapon is irrelevant as you could be wielding a toothpick and still kick butt. Bayonetta can be so daunting, but when you get it, you don’t wish for the game to ever end.

The Street Fighter games have come long way. Even with the move towards more complicated gameplay elements in games like Street Fighter III and Capcom vs. SNK, Street Fighter IV (and Super Street Fighter IV as a result) brings the gameplay back to its roots. The gameplay is not overwhelming enough that it turns away less hardcore fighting game fans, yet is not underwhelming or imbalanced enough to drive away the more hardcore fighting game fans. In short, it may very well be the fighting game with the most perfect gameplay design – making it sit right here among this year’s nominees. Of course, it’s a bit cheating to consider Super Street Fighter IV as a game of this year, as it is more an expansion to last year’s Street Fighter IV so it gets some points deducted when considered for the winner of this category. But, with the amount of content put into the game, it is worth every penny.

So far on this list, we have a nominee that is the pinnacle of action/adventure gameplay design, and another that is the pinnacle of fighting gameplay design. It should be of no surprise to anyone then to see Starcraft II weighing in as the pinnacle of real time strategy gameplay design, and winning the category altogether. Starcraft I was released over 10 years ago, was perfectly designed, and became a sport in Korea with several TV channels dedicated to the game. What other game has people clicking everyone as fast and as much as they can in order to raise their average APM (actions per minute) in order to become better Starcraft players? Starcraft II’s gameplay had a lot to live up to and did not disappoint. Starcraft II has taken gameplay from Starcraft 1, added in innovative new units, buildings, and gameplay elements, all while still preserving the Starcraft look, feel, and balance. Like Street Fighter, Starcraft II is played very competitively, but can be enjoyed on so many levels. Starcraft II is the most entertaining game released this year to simply spectate – I can watch replays of matches for entire days and not miss a beat. It’s this level of gameplay that makes it worthy of winning the Best Gameplay award of the year.

While the gameplay of Super Street Fighter IV and Starcraft II have elevated both games to international competition, Civilization V makes the list of nominees for Best Gameplay purely due to how well it plays for a turn-based strategy game. Every new Civilization game is met with great fervor and acclaim for good reason: they are remarkably designed. Save for the arguably iffy AI, Civilization V introduces several new gameplay elements to the series such as the switch to hexagonal grids allowing for six sides of attack, and the removal of the ability to stack units on the same tile. These major gameplay changes combined with the Civilization polish have strategists learning the game all over again and enjoying every minute of it.

Most Addictive of 2010

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]
Halo: Reach
Civilization V
Call of Duty: Black Ops
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

What a surprise: Starcraft II wins another category on this year’s 2010 list. This time around, cmfl3x and I both easily voted for Starcraft II as this year’s most addicting game. (I think I’ve logged over 200 hours into the game myself.) There are a combination of features in Starcraft II that make it so addicting. The first off is that its gameplay is just so well designed that you want to keep playing it. The beginning to the end of a game of Starcraft II is so much fun to play that you’re ready to play another one right behind it. On top of this, Blizzard has set up matchmaking and leagues for levels of play, enabling all players to get competitively matched with players of their own skill level – making each game quite thrilling and interesting. The final “nail” on the coffin that can suck you in for Starcraft 2 are the Achievements and Portrait unlocks. Starcraft II has a huge Achievement point system just like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, drawing players in to do various things in both the single player and multiplayer game to increase their Achievement score. Then there’s the portrait unlocks that you also get for completing various challenges in the game online and offline, as well as wins in particularly multiplayer modes. Just the gameplay would have been enough for the game to be considered among this year’s most addictive, but everything else just brings it to the top.

I speak from firsthand experience when I say that Halo: Reach is addictive. After all, I’m not even a Halo fan but I just kept playing it. The reason? Challenges. Halo: Reach’s tiny addition of Daily and Weekly Challenges and a revised leveling system that takes into account cP gained from all modes of play as well as Challenges completed had me like a dog jumping through hoops to acquire those delicious Challenge bonus cP. The Challenge system opened up the game for me, persuading me to try new modes or things I would generally skip over otherwise. But yes – I will admit that without the new cP leveling system and Daily/Weekly Challenges, I would have stopped playing the game much sooner than I did.

A Civilization game being nominated in an “addictive” category is about as surprising as a McDonald’s serving french fries. Unlike the other games in this category, Civilization V is one game where if you are not watching the time, you could miss out on sleep entirely. It’s not hard to see why a game that allows you to build up and empire and rule the world can be considered addicting. The biggest problem about the game is the whole “one more turn” desire. When do you stop playing? After you sit for several minutes analyzing the current landscape to make a move but quit so that you don’t get to see what happens as a result of the move you planned to make? Or how about after you’ve made a move, and then you see all of the other nations responding to your move. Do you quit then without getting to react? How can you quit this game at all?!

While Call of Duty: Black Ops is not as addictive as last year’s Modern Warfare 2, it still follows the new Call of Duty formula of playing online, earning points for killing opponents or completing challenges, and then leveling up to unlock new items and gear. The concept of playing an enjoyable game to unlock more stuff is always going keep people addicted, and Call of Duty: Black Ops has enough of this going on to land itself in this year’s nominee list. Unfortunately, it may be among the least addictive games in the Call of Duty series, either due to features lacking compared to last year’s Modern Warfare 2 or the fact that the series itself is just getting stale. I liked leveling up to unlock stuff 4 years ago – but why am I doing this again for the fourth year in a row?

One game that cmfl3x and I did not want to mention on this list but I feel like the list would not be kosher without it is the new World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. I almost don’t want to consider the World of Warcraft game and its expansions in the gaming category, as the franchise is more like a drug than a game in how addicting it can become. Of course, many ex-World of Warcraft fans thought the original core game was fantastic and that these subsequent expansions have never been able to restore the glory of the primary game, but I don’t see how Cataclysm won’t be enough to hook in current World of Warcraft addicts. It’s hard to evaluate this game as it’s just throwing more content for the World of Warcraft player – who would already be addicted to the game should this expansion have never come out. Regardless, I highly recommend avoiding this expansion and the entire game if you want to actually see daylight and have some real world responsibilities but for those in the hole, might as well enjoy more content!

For long time readers of Leveling Down, you probably remember months ago when my battle.net account got hacked and some Chinese gold farmer got access to my battle.net account, changed the password, activated my Wrath of the Lich King expansion trial, logged in with my character, and sold all of my items. I was able to work with Blizzard to get all of digital loot back, and changed my battle.net email account and password to be safe. A commenter on this site mentioned that his account got hacked because he fell for a fake Blizzard email as well. After receiving a genuine looking Cataclysm email from Blizzard, I was still concerned whether it was a fake one in some form or another, so I decided to follow Blizzard’s recommended approach for safeguarding my account – I bought the Blizzard Authenticator.

The Blizzard Authenticator comes “adorned” with World of Warcraft on it, but can be used for Starcraft 2 as well.

What is the Blizzard Authenticator?
For those of you that work in IT like I do, you are probably familiar with using VPN to work from home – often times, in order to do this, you are given a key fob that generates a 6-digit number every couple minutes, and you must use that number along with your password to log into the VPN. With the key fob, a keylogger would still not be able to access your account since the 6 digit number changes every couple of minutes and therefore would not be usable again.

Blizzard’s authenticator is the same thing as the traditional RSA key fob. By ordering one from Blizzard and associating it with your account, you now have to type in your password and the 6-digit number that is generated on the Blizzard authenticator whenever you log onto the Battle.net website, World of Warcraft, or Starcraft 2 While the Authenticator has World of Warcraft written on it, it works for anything post World of Warcraft – this means the new battle.net website as well as Starcraft 2.

The Battle.net website login screen

After logging into the Battle.net website, you still have to enter the 6-digit number generated by the Authenticator.

Price & Shipping
The Blizzard Authenticator is available in two formats: a physical key fob that you have to buy or an app that you can download for free and install to your smartphone such as the iPhone or an Android-based phone. As a non-smartphone owner, I bought the physical device, which retails for $6.50 at the Blizzard store.

Shipping for the device is also free, so we’re talking a total price of $6.50 for it to be delivered to your door. Unfortunately, it takes a very long time – probably about at least 2 weeks before you finally get it.

Final Thoughts
This entry isn’t exactly a thorough review. I received it, am using it today, and have no issues with it. Its cost was quite affordable since shipping is free for it, and I highly recommend it to any of you that want to take extra security measures to safeguard your Battle.net account. The one drawback is that you will need physically need access to this keyfob when you want to log in – that means you may have to actually put it on a keychain or something if you expect to access anything Battle.net related anywhere outside your home computer.

Keep in mind that generally your World of Warcraft account is the primary target for hackers, since that account has the potential to actually make some money. I doubt anyone would want to hack into your Battle.net account if it was just a Starcraft 2 game, but since I basically entered the CD-Key for every Blizzard game I owned into my Battle.net account management, I didn’t like the idea that if someone hacked into my account, they would have access to all of my Blizzard CD-Keys. Of course, I’m not sure how much I would play Diablo II or Starcraft 1 these days, but hey, it helps me sleep at night. For World of Warcraft players, this is definitely something you should pick up though, since World of Warcraft is serious business.

I would have liked to see more designs (not everyone is a World of Warcraft player these days, Blizzard!) as well as perhaps a bit speedier shipping time. Realizing that you need protection and having to wait two weeks before you get it is kind of long….

Final Grade: A-

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.

Why Would Blizzard Do This?
The overt reason why Blizzard has decided to force our real names to be present when posting on their official forums is to get rid of all the negative posts, flames, trolls, spam, etc. – all the junk that is on the official forums now. They claim that by forcing posters to have their real names displayed next to what they post, they will be more careful about what they say. I can see that as a legitimate reason, but did they really think about all the negative aspects that come with it?

Then there’s another, more sinister underlying reason that several people suspect: Blizzard wants a piece of the goldmine that is social networking. Can they somehow turn their fans into more revenue? Well, here’s the problem….

Battle.net Is Not Facebook
Facebook users do go by their real names and anything they want to share about themselves, but we have to keep in mind one thing: Facebook is not a forum. It’s not a place where people just post and chat all day. While Facebook users can chat with each other, it’s all through a certain level of privacy controls. Users can decide how much they want the public and even their friends to see.

Unlike Facebook, our real names cannot be “turned off” and hidden from the public if we wish to participate in Blizzard’s forums. The moment you make a post, it’s there for the entire world to find if they decide to search for your name. It’s crazy, but even Facebook has more privacy than this new direction that Blizzard’s RealID thing is going. To be honest, I wouldn’t be complaining as hard if the Blizzard official forums forced us to use real names but the forums were only accessible by those that log into the forum with their accounts. This would at least cut out all the searchbots and at least keep the “real named” community behind Blizzard’s closed doors.

What’s the Big Deal?
The big deal with our names being associated with the forums against our will is basically if Facebook did not have privacy settings, and anyone could access our page: stalkers, pedophiles, enemies, harassers, etc. While just our name may not be as telling as what someone can find on a Facebook profile, if your name is unique, female, ethnic, etc., you have just opened yourself up to being harassed by sexists, racists, etc., if the perpetrator were so inclined.

Think if your name was Samantha, Laura, etc. How much do gamers go crazy now when they hear a female voice in their game? Horny adolescent teens can go through great lengths to become quite troublesome to women, and I can’t imagine any female gamer wanting the world to know the gaming world to know that they are female. This post here sums it up pretty nicely from a female gamer.

Then there’s the whole negative stigma behind being a gamer anyway. While this is our passion, potential employers and potential girlfriends we are dating are not going to be thrilled if they do a search for us online and see us writing paragraphs about some video game. That incriminating evidence you have right there could cost you a job or a girlfriend!

The main point behind all of this is that many people like to have their real life and gaming life separate. One is a fantasy world that we are meant to engage in just to have fun, while the other one is obviously far more important and consequential. Why Blizzard thinks it is necessary to merge the two worlds together against our own desire is deplorable.

One Example of How the Fans Have Been Fighting Back
To show its support behind this new ridiculous change, a Blizzard Community Manager decided to share his first and last name – since all Blizzard staff will also no longer be behind nicknames. It backfired in the guy’s face as someone was able to find his address, phone, age, family members, and his facebook info. His family has since stopped answering the phone and he’s deleted his Facebook account.

I think the dude just took one for the team that is Blizzard, as he became the primary target for all of the Blizzard fans that wanted to show their disdain for this decision. But honestly, maybe once all of Blizzard staff decide to share their info…the hatemail will be distributed equally among them or something. In any case, this brings me to my final point…

Is Blizzard Truly Behind This Terrible Decision?
Blizzard has worked so hard to become a development studio that is adored by its fans – after all, how many game development studios do we know have their own annual expos or games played as practically a national sport in Korea? With Activision’s acquisition of Blizzard and Bobby Kotick’s desire to monetize everything he can, could he be behind this?

One forum post, caught by Team Liquid, mentions:

“the Blizzard leads have been told in no uncertain terms that the non-gameplay-related direction of the game is working to a different blueprint now. GC and company are free to play with shiny new talent trees all they like, for example, but for the first time the decisions regarding Battle.net implementation, Real ID, and plans for the general acquisition of new players for the business are no longer in Blizzard’s own hands, and that’s not going down too well.“

If this is true, then at least I can feel a little better at ease knowing that even the Blizzard folks are not supporting this idea – but rather, it’s being pushed from corporate (i.e. Activision) – who doesn’t necessarily care for the gamers, just the money. Unfortunately, Blizzard does have to answer to Activision now, and as we saw how Activision treated Infinity Ward, we may see if there ends up being some sort of exodus from Blizzard as well at some point if Activision continues to tighten its firm chokehold on its star development studios.

Now What?
The “good news” is that at this point in time, our names would only be displayed if we were to post on Blizzard’s official gaming forums in either Starcraft 2 or World of Warcraft. Our real names won’t be displayed in-game (although the issue of friends of friends on our buddy list seeing our names is a slippery slope), so we can play Starcraft 2 without worrying about giving up our personal identity. We just can’t talk about it on the forums unless we want our names to be found online. While not a heavy poster, I did post once in a while on Blizzard’s forums (especially on my realm’s forum, when I played World of Warcraft) – but I guess this announcement simply means no more posting. It could be worse, and that’s what I’m afraid of. The last thing I want to see is our real names being used during matchmaking so someone can harass me in real life after a match.

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.

With so many amazing games to play this month, I’ve definitely gone into gaming overload. I thought it was bad last month…this month is even worse, because now I’m getting hit with monster gaming titles that each really deserve their own several months to play. One thing that this deluge of excellent gaming titles has made me realize is that I don’t know if I should even be buying anything else this year. I think Alan Wake and Lost Planet 2 come out this month and maybe even some other major titles. But seriously – who has time? Look at what’s already on my plate (and don’t even get me started on my dust-collecting PS3 and my backlog for that system).

Starcraft 2 (beta)
July 27, 2010 was recently announced as the game’s release date, but it’s still a long while away. I haven’t played the game much as of late. Part of the reason is because of the number of other games I’m juggling with, but the other part of the reason is that I’m already starting to feel comfortable with the game. I think my main reason to play the beta was to learn the new mechanics of the game and just get comfortable with it. I remember prior to Warcraft III’s release my buddies and I played the beta practically every night back in college. Then when retail hit, it was easy to shoot to the top of the ladder since we had so much more experience than others. I did have a more competitive mindset back then. Today, with Starcraft II, I don’t imagine seeing myself really playing the game 1v1 too much when the retail releases nor do I plan to shoot up the ladder, so I’m not putting too many hours in now. I’m more interested in playing 2v2 at this point in the beta, so hopefully I get some of those in before the beta ends. I would have loved to see 3v3 or 4v4, but I guess it makes sense that Blizzard wants 1v1 & 2v2 to be tested first and foremost, since that’s probably where most of the imbalance issues can be more prominent. This game is going on the backburner for me unless I can schedule 2v2s with some of you.

Halo: Reach (beta)
I spent some brief time with this game on Monday, and some more time last night. After playing the game last night some more, I have to admit that my positive initial impressions I had on Monday were reduced a bit after last night. I like the whole class system, and the matchmaking system is excellent – queueing up to join your friends for the next match is thumbs up, and the party manager dropping out and taking everyone with him also is quite convenient. But as I played the game more last night, the gameplay is still very much Halo, and the whole 7-8 shots with your magnum or carbine rifle to kill someone is just too long for me. On top of that, grenade spamming is out of control. The damage on them is so high, and everyone starting with 2 grenades is probably not a good design decision. One grenade should be it! In any case, it seems like Halo: Reach has made some improvements over Halo 3, so Halo 3 fans will probably love this game. I’ll probably end up playing this game since everyone will be playing it when it releases, but it’s not a game I foresee myself playing solo online when no one else is on. The beta also ends in less than two weeks, and I’ll be out of the country on vacation by then so this is probably the only time I have to play the beta. I’m glad to have checked it out, but also glad to not have to worry about it anymore.

Modern Warfare 2
With all of the other games to play this month, Modern Warfare 2 has definitely moved to my backburner. For me a backburner is basically a game that I’m not going to really consider playing on my own, but will take out when other friends want to play it. I’m not even really ready to give up playing Modern Warfare 2 yet, but I just need to find time to play everything else on my plate. But, in those times when I do break out Modern Warfare 2, it feels good to be playing it again. I still love the game so if any of you still want to play it, just ask!

Super Street Fighter IV
It’s pretty neat that I can actually feel myself improving. Practicing my block strings and being more aggressive about throwing has allowed me to hold my own against characters that I am familiar with. With a combination of block strings and throws, my offensive game has actually gotten pretty decent. I seem to fight a lot of Dudleys and Juris when I play online so I’m getting good training against them and learning how they fight. With Starcraft 2 and Modern Warfare 2 on the backburner and my time with Halo: Reach coming to a close, Super Street Fighter IV is my primary online game for the moment. There’s so many improvements I need to make, but I see the steps I need to take so I’m not frustrated or anything yet. Now that my blockstrings and throwing are at a decent level, I’m going to need to work on my anti-air game, mastery of focus attacks, and better use of Ultra Combos to bring my game to the next rank…B? It’s a long road but I’m enjoying it. I just hope I don’t fall out of practice when I go on vacation.

Mass Effect 2
If you’ve noticed, all of the other games I’ve mentioned so far for May are all competitive games I’m playing. I need some sort of solo game that I can just play to not pump my adrenaline every gaming session. Mass Effect 2 is that game. And what a great choice for a “single player” sanctuary away from all of the competitiveness of the other games. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first Mass Effect, but I think Mass Effect 2 is phenomenal. It’s what I wanted the first game to be, minus the planet surveying. I actually fall asleep during those parts and whenever I see unknown planets, I dread having to go survey them. But other than that, everything else about the game has me drawn in. Of course, it’s not the easiest going since I’m playing on Insanity difficulty from the get-go, but with a level 60 imported Shepherd from the first game, I’m doing ok. I sort of wish I wasn’t a Soldier class though, as I’m having to rely on Miranda all the time to use Warp and Overload since all of the enemies have shields or armor. Insanity is making me fall back upon my old MMORPG days, as I plant my teammates somewhere, run forward, find an enemy, and pull him back to my teammates to get the kill. Even on bosses, I have to come up with “cheap ways” to take them out. Those robots with Armor and Shield on Insanity difficulty take me several minutes to destroy, since I need to blow through those two layers using Miranda’s skills. Thumbs up though on this game. Excellent stuff and well recommended.

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.

Battle.net Redesign
The entire battle.net interface has changed. I was actually lost and still trying to figure out what is what when I logged in, but here are some of the things I noticed.

1. Login and accounts
Remember back in the older battle.net game days where you just created accounts and logged in with them on Starcraft and Warcraft III? If you got sick of an account name you could just create a new one, etc. or simply play with different accounts and logins. Now, everything tied to a particular login email. You can create several Starcraft II accounts under this email, and it is not unlike the World of Warcraft system where you login and then you pick which character you want to play as.

With the email address being the unique identifier for each battle.net user, we are now able to pick any names we want for our accounts, which is kind of cool. The only negative to this is that you must choose a secondary name so as to differentiate you from someone else that may also be using the same nickname. On the battle.net forums almost every user has the format of nickname.2ndnickname. Kind of strange, but it’s an interesting way of handling it and not exactly a bad approach. I’m thinking that hypothetically, if you aren’t playing in a match against someone with the same nickname as you, only your nickname is displayed and not your second nickname.

2. Friends list
The friends list is interesting as well. It allows you to add people that you can designate as either real life friends or just gaming friends. Real life friends are added through email address and see your full name and all your game character names whereas a gaming friend just allows the person to just see the status of whatever game character they added you on. This is pretty neat because I used to play Warcraft 3 with friends who would have several different account names and I would often have a tough time figuring out if they were online or not.

3. Other things
Looks like Microphone support also seems to be built into battle.net, as there’s a button for it so you can toggle it on and off. There are also Achievements that can be displayed prominently in your profile, as well as profile pics that you can unlock and use. It’s basically like Xbox live! I also think I read somewhere that there will be cross-game mssaging, so you can message friends playing other Blizzard games too.

4. Regions?
One thing I am wondering about is how the regions will work. Back in the Starcraft & Warcraft III days, you had to choose whether you logged into the East, West, EU, or Asia regions. There isn’t any of that in Starcraft II it seems. My concern with this is that there are rumblings that you would only get to play with players in your own region, and you would not be allowed to enter other regions. With one of my buddies on the West Coast and me on the East, does this mean we’ll never get to play together? I guess it remains to be seen.

What the Beta Contains
The 1.7 gig beta contains the ability to play 1v1, 2v2, 1v1AI on very easy, and 2v2AI on very easy. There’s only one AI difficulty setting, and it’s no challenge at all so you would only really play it to get accustomed to your units and stuff. There are about a dozen unique 1v1 and 2v2 maps to choose from, as well as “novice” variations of those. I would have loved the ability to play 3v3 or 4v4, but maybe Blizzard will open that up later in the beta. After all, they recently stated that the 3v3 & 4v4 gametypes were more suitable for newer players, and eventually as players put in more hours, they would move towards less players per team. Ultimately, they would be competiting 1v1 when they reached the “end game” of Starcraft II multiplayer.

The Beta is also still undergoing radical adjustments and balance changes through patches, as well as offline time. Just last night many players (including myself) were having trouble installing the latest update, and even after we finally got it installed, battle.net was offline. So, while it’s cool to have access to the beta to see the units and stuff, how effective they are now may not be what they ultimately end up in retail.

Trying the Races with the very easy AI
I’ve only been able to play a total of three games so far, and all of them against the AI just so I can see all the different races. Here’s how it went down and what I thought of each race.

My first Starcraft 2 game ever was a Terran vs AI Terran (on very easy of course). Things were off to a normal start when I had built some supply depots, a barracks, an engineering bay, and factory. Marines and siege tanks were what I started building, as they were what I knew from the first game. What’s interesting about the Terran in Starcraft 2 is that each of the unit producing buildings (barracks, factory, and starport) now have two possible attachments each. The barracks, for example, has one attachment that allows you to create higher level barracks infantry units, while the other attachment allows you to pump out two marines at once. You can only choose one attachment per building, and just because you have an attachment on one building to allow it to produce more advanced units doesn’t mean the other building can produce as well. With Terran, I had a tough time figuring out what to do, and what all the new infantry units were about. I was actually a bit overwhelmed and worried that if I ended up playing a real opponent, I would get demolished. I thought to myself, “Hmm, maybe this game isn’t as awesome as I thought it would be.” I believe the returning units I tried out were the marine and siege tank. I believe there’s battlecruisers too, but I didn’t go up that tree. I’m sad though that there aren’t medics anymore as the stimpack + medic was good stuff.

The next day, I tried Protoss in 2v2 with an AI partner against 2 AI. All were on the brain-dead very easy difficulty, but I was fine with it since I just wanted to check the Protoss out. In stark contrast to the Terran, I was very comfortable playing the Protoss. The buildings and everything were nearly identical to the first game. Here I was warping in Pylons, Gateways, a Cybernetics Core, Templar Archives, Starport, etc. I wasn’t overwhelmed with the units like I was with Terran, as I happily pumped out Zealots and a few of the new ranged units that replaced the Dragoons. Photon cannons were the same as before, and I was playing on Lost Temple, so everything was familiar enough to me that I was able to enjoy my time. I was even able to create a Carrier and a new Protoss unit called the Colossus, who was pretty cool. There was this new interesting upgrade that you could research as well. I forgot the name, but what happens is when you upgrade it, you can warp in your Gateway units to any pylon on the map. With the Protoss, the Zealots, Templars, Dark Templars, Observers, and Carriers make a return. While I miss the Dragoons, I’m more than happy with the returning units for the Protoss and am interested in learning the new units.

Finally, I was able to get in a quick 1v1AI round as Zerg. My wife was already going to bed, so I wasn’t able to go as far down into the Zerg upgrades as I wanted since I hurried through the match. Unlike the Protoss, the Zerg buildings were changed enough that I had to really try to figure out what new units and what buildings did what. The basics were still good to go – spawn larvae into drones and build hatcheries, but it looks like the Hydralisk was moved to the Tier 2 Lair level, while Tier 1 gets a couple new units that I hadn’t really tried out. I ended up massing zerglings and hydralisks like old times and rushed the AI before hopping into bed last night. I didn’t get to try out zerg as much as I’d like, so I will check them out again this weekend.

But my initial impressions after such limited playtime with the three races is that I’m finding Protoss the easiest to pickup and learn. Whether the Terran or Zerg are more difficult is still up in the air.

Parting Thoughts for 1st round of Beta Impressions
What’s pretty neat is that Starcraft 2 keeps a lot of what the original game had, but also manages to add a lot of new and different stuff as well. This is actually both good and bad, because I’m pretty used to how Starcraft played as well as its hotkeys, so to start playing the sequel and now seeing new units mixed in with the old units and old buildings almost has me lost. In a way, perhaps being so used to the original Starcraft can potentially be a negative, since I may end up wanting to fall back on massing zerglings and hydralisks like the good old days and stay close minded in terms of actually learning what this new game is all about.

My impressions from playing the beta are still positive for the game, but to be honest, they aren’t as high as I expected them to be prior to playing the beta. Part of the reason why I’m not falling over myself to play the beta every waking hour is because I’ve come to the realization that the game is hardcore and I don’t know if I have what it takes to be competitive. That’s not to say that the game isn’t excellent – it is. I don’t see how a Starcraft fan wouldn’t enjoy this sequel. But the question I am now asking myself is if I’m still as big of a Starcraft fan as I was 12 years ago, pre-Warcraft III and pre-Call of Duty.

Modern Warfare 2 can still be quite enjoyable if you’re not that good, but I can’t see Starcraft 2 being the same way. It’s a cut-throat game where your only goal is to build an army to crush your opponent. In a way, I miss Warcraft III’s hero leveling and creeping. At least that gave the game a little bit of a RPGish feel and forced you to spend time doing other stuff besides killing your opponent. I think part of me is starting to feel a little old and worried that I won’t be able to hold a candle to the kids these days when I play the game. Of course, these may all be doubts and concerns I have as I go through the learning process of how to play this game. Maybe in a couple weeks when I’ve learned it I may think it’s the best game ever. Stay tuned!

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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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.

You can access the entire bracket here:

March Madness – Video Game Style

Now, a couple of notes on how the games were chosen:

1. Video Games were split up into 4 Regions: The Hollywood Region (games with good stories – mainly RPGs), The M16 Region (shooters – any perspective), The Sun-Tzu Region (strategy games), and The Hodj Podj Region (miscellaneous games).

2. Games must have been sold for retail; thus Warcraft III is an option, but Defense of the Ancients (a mod), is not.

3. Games were seeded mostly according to critical acclaim. For recent games, I used metacritic, and for older games I did my best to guesstimate where they would fall. Probably not the best metric, but the best I could come up with for now.

4. I didn’t choose multiple games from any series, so you won’t see both Halo 2 and 3 in the field.

That’s it! I’ll be pitting these games against each other over the next few weeks, but be warned, I’ll mostly be arbitrarily choosing my favorites (but comments on why you feel a game should beat another will definitely have potential to sway my opinion). If there is a large outcry, maybe we could set up a poll, but you’ll have to let us know if you want that to happen – or we could do that next year.

Anyway, onto this year’s field! And remember, be sure to suggest games you think I’ve left out – there are 4 more spots to fill!

The Hollywood Region – Great Storylines

Matchups:
(1) BioShock vs. (8) TBD
(4) God of War vs. (5) Portal
(3) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic vs. (6) Beyond Good and Evil
(2) Metal Gear Solid vs. (7) Final Fantasy IV

(1) BioShock [360/PS3], metacritic = 96 – Although the story fizzled out at the end, Bioshock definitely has a story that sticks with you, and a plot twist that really gets in your head.

(2) Metal Gear Solid [PS1/GC], metacritic = 94 – Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece, this game helped to change video game storytelling and really put the scene into the cut scene. Narrowly edged out Metal Gear Solid 3, which is personally my favorite story.

(3) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [Xbox/PC], metacritic = 94 – Every Star Wars fanboy’s dream, this game also featured some excellent plot twists and introduced Bioware as a story-telling developer to be reckoned with.

(4) God of War [PS2], metacritic = 94 – Even though I’m not a huge fan of the gameplay, God of War has an amazing storyline. Kratos seeking his revenge on the Gods is one of the best premises for a videogame, and his backstory makes it even more rewarding.

(5) Portal [360/PS3/PC], metacritic = 90 – This “add-on” in the Orange Box has one of the most cleverly told narratives in a video game to date. It’s not a story, per se, but the way Valve sets the mood and brings the game to its amusing conclusion is worthy of…cake.

(6) Beyond Good and Evil [Xbox/PS2/GC], ,etacritic = 87 – This game was a huge hit with the gaming community, but never had good sales. The characters and innovative story are what make this game, but unfortunately, nobody ever played it.

(7) Final Fantasy IV [SNES, GBA, DS], metacritic = 85 – This game is underseeded since the metacritic score comes from the DS version. My favorite Final Fantasy story ever. Final Fantasy VI’s Kefka was memorable, but this was the first Final Fantasy game where I actually cared about the characters and what happened to them. STONE!

(8) TBD

The M16 Region – Shooters

Matchups:
(1) Metroid Prime vs. (8) TBD
(4) Halo 3 vs. (5) Modern Warfare 2
(3) Goldeneye vs. (6) Doom 2
(2) Uncharted 2 vs. (7) Gears of War 2

(1) Metroid Prime [GC/Wii], metacritic = 97 – That Metroid Prime is the #1 seed in this region seems like an upset in itself, but the numbers don’t lie. Metroid Prime kept the feel of the classic games while switching to a first person perspective and remains my favorite Gamecube game to this day.

(2) Uncharted 2 [PS3], metacritic = 96 – This game could probably have made it into the Hollywood Region as well, but here it is matched up with Gears of War 2, the other 3rd person shooter in this bracket. I think this one might be a walk.

(3) Goldeneye [N64] metacritic = 96 – There is a reason why people keep requesting that Goldeneye be re-released: it is one of the best games ever, period. Sure, FPS games have taken huge leaps since then, but Goldeneye helped pave the way, especially on consoles. Fitting that it be up against the other old school FPS game, Doom 2.

(4) Halo 3 [360], metacritic = 94 – Why is Halo 3 #4 and Modern Warfare 2 #5? Simply put, Halo 3 has probably had more traffic over the course of Xbox Live’s history. Of course, it had a pretty big head start, but the fact that a million kids are still playing it as I type this gives it the slight edge.

(5) Modern Warfare 2 [360/PS3/PC], metacritic = 94 – What is there to write? The most complete multiplayer FPS game to date. It will battle it out with Halo 3, just like it does on the servers.

(6) Doom 2 [PC], metacritic = N/A – Back when you needed to use a modem to connect with other players, Doom 2 set the bar for first person shooters. It had no story whatsoever, but nobody cared – the secret tricks and traps, the deathmatch games, and the co-op deathmatch games were never forgotten by old school gamers.

(7) Gears of War 2 [360], metacritic = 93 – Gears of War 2 is here so I don’t get flamed by Xbox fans. It’s a great game, and probably could make the bracket solely on account of the assault rifle chainsaw alone.

The Sun-Tzu Region – Strategy Games

Matchups:
(1) Civilization IV vs. (8) TBD
(4) Warcraft III vs. (5) Dune 2
(3) Starcraft vs. (6) Halo Wars
(2) Advance Wars: Dual Strike vs. (7) Final Fantasy Tactics A2

(1) Civilization IV [PC], metacritic = 94 – One more turn. Players have been saying that to themselves for over a decade now with the Civ games, which task you with conquering the world in multiple different ways. This game features addictive gameplay that strategy gamers can’t get enough of.

(2) Advance Wars: Dual Strike [DS], metacritic = 90 – I’m shocked that this game is the 2 seed in this region, but that’s metacritic for you. An excellent turn based strategy game, it introduced battles on both screens (air on top, ground on bottom), which made for some pretty unique gameplay.

(3) Starcraft [PC/Mac], metacritic = 88 – 88? Seriously? Maybe game reviewers were just tougher back then. Starcraft is THE real time strategy game. It was so big it spawned super competitive, televised tournament circuits in Korea. It introduced the term actions per second. The landscape of video gaming was never the same again.

(4) Warcraft III [PC/Mac], Metacritic = 88 – Warcraft III, another Blizzard masterpiece, introduced hero units and greater micromanagement into real time strategy games. It also spawned the immensely popular Defense of the Ancients mod.

(5) Dune 2 [PC], metacritic = N/A – Dune 2 was the game that put RTS games on the map, both for gamers at large and for me personally. It can’t stand up to these heavyweights, but I thought it at least deserved some recognition. Watch out for sandworms.

(6) Halo Wars [360], metacritic = 82 – This is mainly here so certain readers of the site don’t lambaste me. In its defense, it is the best console RTS out there, hands down. All units!

(7) Final Fantasy Tactics A2 [DS], metacritic = 80 – The Final Fantasy Tactics games are an excellent series with very deep, strategic gameplay. You could literally spend 100 hours playing this game and not run out of things to do. Almost infinite bang for your buck!

The Hodj Podj Region – Other Games

Note: This is probably the most random region, I just tried to represent other genres as best as possible.

Matchups:
(1) Super Mario 64 vs. (8) TBD
(4) Warioware Inc., Mega Microgame$ vs. (5) NHL 94
(3) World of Warcraft vs. (6) Secret of Monkey Island
(2) Street Fighter IV vs. (7) Animal Crossing

(1) Super Mario 64 [N64],mMetacritic = 94 – Like Metroid Prime, Super Mario 64 took a beloved game and put a whole new twist on it. Unlike Metroid Prime, SM64 launched the 3-D era. Plus you could unlock Yoshi, which was awesome…

(2) Street Fighter IV [360/PS3/PC], metacritic = 94 – Street Fighter IV completely reinvigorated the entire fighting game genre, no small feat considering people had considered fighting games all but dead.

(3) World of Warcraft [PC/Mac],mMetacritic = 93 – Just like Starcraft, WoW is the pinnacle of its genre, the MMORPG. I think more hours have been sunk into WoW than it took to build America.

(4) Warioware Inc., Mega Microgame$ [GBA], metacritic = N/A – This was the first minigame collection I can remember that only gave you 5 seconds per minigame. A ridiculous premise, ridiculous games including picking a nose, and a ridiculous amount of fun.

(5) NHL 94 [SNES, Genesis], metacritic = N/A – My favorite sports game ever, and one of the last games before sports games got super complicated. I’m sure people would rather see some Maddens here but…oh well.

(6) Secret of Monkey Island [PC/360], metacritic = 88 – The token representative of the adventure game genre, this game featured great humor and great puzzles, a killer combination. I’ll never forget what to do with a rubber chicken attached to a pulley.

(7) Animal Crossing [GC, DS, Wii], metacritic = 87 – There are a multitude of games that task you with the mundane parts of our daily lives, but Animal Crossing was one of the first I found really memorable. How fun is it to catch fish and leave them in your friends’ mailboxes!?

Parting Thoughts
And that’s the almost complete Video Game Bracket! Post in the comments games you think I missed out and that I should include as the 8 seeds, or tell me I’m power crazy for even doing this! I’ll be watching 12 hours straight of basketball…

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?

1. People Actually Buy These Things?
The first thing that crossed my mind was, “Whoa – Target stocks WoW game cards?” It was quickly followed by, “Whoa – someone is actually buying one?” Who buys these anyway? Don’t you need a credit card to activate the account? I realized though that sure enough, maybe kids too young to have credit cards do fund their WoW game-time using cash. That’s what the kid did: he handed a tightly crumpled up $50 bill to the cashier to fund his WoW timecard and a pack of gum he grabbed from the candy section of the checkout.

I was a kid once. Where did he get a $50 bill at that age? I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a job. Suffice to say, the kid didn’t look like the straight A student type either. This made me wonder if that $50 bill was being used towards the best purchase in his life at the moment. Did he skip out on meals to save up to play the game two months longer? Was he not buying school books instead? Who knows.

2. Do I Say Something?
I’ve been through the World of Warcraft. That game took up a couple years of my life and it is probably the most addicting game I’ve ever played. For those who have never played it, the reason why it is so addicting for me is because of the ridiculously strong social element involved. You meet other players in the game, become friends, start a guild together, and depend on each other every night to run dungeons since you can’t solo them alone. The dungeons award treasures that you can wear and walk around in the world and be admired by newer players (being fawned over as a celebrity, even in a game world, never gets old). In short, there is a ton of positive reinforcement to playing the game and therefore it becomes very difficult to quit.

Fortunately for me, I had already graduated college then, had a nice job on Wall Street, and was able to simply go to work, come home, eat dinner, and play the game every night. I didn’t have much else of a care in the world, and so my non-work life revolved around World of Warcraft. Guildmates became my primary form of social interaction and we would stay up late into the night having fun – perhaps too much fun. But, I had no other real-life responsibilities at the time, so it was ok. Eventually I grew out of it (once I realized how much of a time sink it was and the fact that I wanted to get married).

However, for kids in school, or even college, I honestly think that playing World of Warcraft is a very bad idea. When I was working at my job, I didn’t have homework every night. I didn’t have to socialize at school and make friends. For kids to juggle World of Warcraft with going to school, I don’t think they will end up OK. Sure, there may be a select few that can engage in World of Warcraft and still go on to become super successful, but if I had kids, I wouldn’t let them play World of Warcraft. That’s just a bet I’m not willing to take. I believe that their focus will no longer be on school but on the game, and they’ll spend many of their hours thinking about how to get further in the game rather than how to get further in life. And if they’re having a tough time at school, World of Warcraft is a perfect escape for them to run away from their problems instead of dealing with them head on.

All of these thoughts were going through my mind as I saw the kid in front of me buying the game card. It’s not really my problem if a kid wants to buy something with his own money. Not like I’m his father, his teacher, or anyone of any authority over him. But it just made me sad to see the kid buying the card. In the end, I couldn’t say anything and watched the kid walk out the door with a 60 day extension on what I felt could potentially be harming his life. That led me to my final thought.

3. Should Blizzard Even Be Selling These?
In order to play World of Warcraft, I believe you have to activate the account with a credit card. Most players are old enough to have a credit card that gets billed every month if you are an active WoW player. But Blizzard was “smart” enough to release these pre-paid game cards for players that wanted to play but didn’t have credit cards to keep their accounts active.

That makes me really think though: what gamers don’t have credit cards? Kids. They’re not old enough to have credit cards, and sure, we can blame the parents for allowing their kids to play World of Warcraft, but it would have been a lot easier if these World of Warcraft game cards didn’t exist. That way, kids won’t be trying to find some dubious way to make money to get their next month’s WoW fix. If you want to play the game, you better be mature enough to have a credit card or know someone with a credit card that is willing to pay for you. Why don’t we let kids gamble in casinos? Why don’t we let them smoke? Drink alcohol? All of these things we believe kids won’t be mature enough to make a good decision on, and while World of Warcraft is a game, I also think it’s almost something more than that.

World of Warcraft is a dangerous game to play, and while I can’t necessarily blame Blizzard for these pre-paid game cards, I just wish they thought about the implications to allowing kids to play (and get addicted) to World of Warcraft. Maybe as a business, Activision/Blizzard’s bottom line is obviously most important, but for me as an aging gamer, I do care about our generation’s future – particularly gamers, since I still am one myself. The best I can say is for any of you readers considering playing World of Warcraft, really think about what you’re getting yourself into before you start!

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…

Luckily, as the account was still my email address, I was able to reset the password and log back into my account. When I logged in, the first thing I noticed was that the person who “hijacked” my account started the World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King 10 day trial. I am basically speechless that someone would do that. Does this mean that they’ve already logged in as one of my characters? Ugh.

I called up Blizzard’s customer support (and waited for 45 minutes) before actually getting through to someone. Once I did, she was able to verify that someone did get into my account, and that the person was in China. Wha? How did some Chinese gold farmer get into my account? And did they take all my moneys? How did they do that? I’m slightly concerned that this gold farmer was able to gain access to my WoW characters, but because I don’t play it much anymore it’s not as big of a deal. What bothers me is that on my battle.net account, all of my Blizzard games are registered there with their CD keys. I guess he now has CD keys to my copies of Starcraft and its expansion, Diablo II and its expansion, and Warcraft III and its expansion. Grr. At least this was before I bought Starcraft II, because that would be a problem if my Starcraft II key was compromised.

What did I do next? I ended up downloading all of the updates just to load WoW to see if the hacker did any damage (and hopefully kick them out as well once I logged in). All of this was over an hour after the password change request, and by the time I logged in, the damage was done. My main and basically all my alts were naked. Anything that wasn’t soulbound was sold and my inventory and bank accounts were practically empty. What was odd was that on my main, I had almost 1000 gold. I wondered if I really had that much when I quit playing, and if not, did that mean I took control of my account before the hacker was able to transfer the money elsewhere? I did notice a couple letters in my mailbox that consisted of something like 50 g each for the sale of Pristine Black Pearls or something at the Auction House, so it looks like the hacker put some of my stuff up for sale.

Fortunately, I think Blizzard deals with this all the time, so I was able to petition a GM and inform them that my account was hacked and all of my gear and items were basically sold. I actually thought about it for a little while if I wanted to get the GM to restore all my characters, because now I at least had nearly 1000 gold on my main. Maybe that was compensation enough? In any case, I ended up doing it because I felt that having no gear at all at that level would be too difficult if I were to want to play again.

Hours later, I got emails informing me that my characters had been restored. I logged into my main and apparently, if your characters were hacked and you lost all your gear, you get letters with gear attached to them. I think I got maybe 7-8 letters with 12 attachments each. It was pretty crazy to keep opening more and more epics. I also noticed that I had over 700 gold once my main character was restored. So what happened to all the money? Was the extra 250 gold on my hacked main a result of just all my epics being sold at a vendor? I was also surprised that the hacker had gone onto my level 2 alt that I used to store all my snowballs. Apparently they were all sold, because my alt got maybe something like 400-500 snowballs back in the mail from the GM!

In any case, looks like everything is restored, and I have changed the email and password to my Blizzard account. I still ask myself how the hackers did it though. How did they find my account? I doubt I have a keylogger installed on my machine and I have firewalls, spyware scanners, etc. I never fall for these stupid phishing scams, and I haven’t even played WoW or visited a WoW website in months. Did they just brute force guess my passwords?! And how did they get my email? I’ve never been successfully hax0red before, so this is all a little startling to me. I’ve since proceeded to try to change my passwords for every login of importance, but even then, it’s quite a harrowing task and now I need to actually implement a system for managing all of my accounts and passwords. So for those of you that are reading, I recommend you update your passwords from time to time – those Chinese gold farmers must be expanding to hacking now to try to meet their weekly gold quotas!