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!

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.

It’s funny to see how the last twenty or so years in gaming went – PC games spawned new PC games such as FPS and RTS games, and introduced multiplayer gaming. I remember the days of 3DFX, Voodoo cards, and OpenGL. Since then, consoles have really grown up. FPS gaming and multiplayer on consoles have pretty much caught up to PC games, albeit the lack of certain extras among many of them such as free content updates, dedicated servers, etc. RTS games and 4X strategy games are still in their infancy on the consoles, and I can’t really see them taking off too much due to the fact that while the lack of a mouse for a FPS game is not nearly as bad as a lack of a mouse in a RTS/4X game where you’re just navigating around a map. Still, games like Halo Wars and Civilization Revolution are trying. I’ve yet to see a true console MMORPG yet on the 360 outside of Final Fantasy XI (ugh), so maybe we have a ways to go before that starts happening.

In any case, it looks like the PC gaming scene has changed drastically, forming silos around specific companies and their storefronts. Whereas the 360 has the Live Marketplace and the PS3 has the PSN store, there is no real unifying Windows store. Microsoft finally released a Windows Live Gaming store this past week, but it’s far too late and the Windows “Live Gaming” scene is practically dead anyway. I’m appreciating what each of these major PC companies are doing to not only keep PC gaming alive, but to really set themselves up to be the saviors of PC gaming.

The first and most prominent company to keep things going is Valve. If you’ve played Half-Life, Counter-Strike, etc. then you’re probably someone that  can’t dislike the company. Nowadays PC gamers have Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 to play, and while Valve has not quite delivered what they promised in their support for the Left 4 Dead franchise, Team Fortress 2 just continues to ridiculously grow. You can pick up Team Fortress 2 for only a couple dollars these days on the PC, and yet the developers keep adding more and more content. I played through Team Fortress 2 on the Xbox 360, and that was just a barebones version. On the PC, new updates come out all the time, with new weapons and customizable gear for each class, maps, hundreds of new Achievements, and all sorts of gameplay/balance changes. With the newest update, Valve is giving players the ability to customize their hats and weapons for their equipment slots, bringing this FPS game more and more into the realm of MMORPG. It’s fantastic and if you’re a Team Fortress 2 PC gamer, this is a game that just keeps on giving. Kudos to Valve, as Team Fortress 2 on the PC really demonstrates the difference between a PC FPS and a console FPS.

The other company that has been keeping PC gaming relevent for as long as I can remember is Blizzard. People still play Starcraft, Diablo II, and Warcraft III today, and excitement continues to build for the future releases of Starcraft II and Diablo III. While I’ve mentally moved on past World of Warcraft, the newest patch and the upcoming expansion are really making me reconsider jumping back into the game, as the most recently released patch adds full-on matchmaking for dungeons, which means you can easily find a pickup group through an easy to use in-game interface rather than going to town and shouting “LF1M healer”. The upcoming expansion has the developers revisiting the core gameplay world and changing many aspects of that rather than adding in a new continent like Lich King did. In a sense, it is going to bring the WoW population back to the core world, which has been a ghost town since the Expansions. Perhaps when the Cataclysm expansion hits, I may have to check WoW out again.

Stardock is a company that isn’t as strong as Valve or Blizzard but still has PC gaming relevance. In fact, outside of Blizzard, Stardock may be among the last major PC gaming companies that has not started making console games. I’m playing through Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate now, and while it’s not exactly a new game, it’s one of the best 4X strategy games I’ve ever played and I can’t imagine seeing a game of this depth and strategy on a console. The competition that Stardock’s Impulse store gives to Valve’s Steam storefront is a boon for us gamers, as it not only makes the two storefronts compete for our gaming dollars, but each store continues to introduce new features that make you feel more like part of its community. While I didn’t feel that Sins of a Solar Empire had as much depth as Galactic Civilizations II, Stardock continues to work on expansions to this game, to the pleasure of its many fans.

Another company that seems to support the PC gaming scene surprisingly is EA. Of course, the entire Sims franchise has been a huge moneymaker for EA, so they can’t be that against PC gaming. I have the new Command & Conquer 4 Beta installed on my PC, perhaps the last of the franchise that will be coming out in March. Also in March is Battlefield Bad Company 2, a PC FPS game that will support servers – something that the Modern Warfare 2 PC version took away. Let’s also not forget about Dragon Age: Origins, the new RPG game that supposedly plays a lot better on the PC than either of the console versions. So as much as anyone may dislike EA, we can see that the company is still keeping the PC hardcore gaming thriving with their string of varied PC titles: a RTS game, a FPS game, and an RPG game.

Finally, this past week I’ve written about a couple different DotA games, and aTOM boomb has shared his impressions on a couple as well. In any case, I feel like the DotA genre will continue to grow like the Tower Defense genre did. Both genres originated as custom mods in Blizzard’s RTS games, and they will most likely do quite well for PC gaming. I would be interested in seeing a FPS + DotA combination game on the 360, but that may be a few years out.

In any case, while I do tend to spend more time on the 360 than the PC for my gaming, the PC gaming scene is far from dead and I have not only these major companies to thank, but all of the others that still recognize PC gaming and continue to provide us with solid titles that not only play best on the PC, but make use of the PC’s strengths as a gaming platform as well. 2010 looks to still be a big year with PC gaming, as Starcraft II has to come out…right?!

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…