10
Dec
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!
Posts Tagged ‘World of Warcraft’
08
Oct
Is PC Gaming really dead with such strong titles like these?
cmfl3x’s article this week had me thinking more about computer gaming lately. Not so long ago, I felt that a lot of game companies decided that they wanted to move towards the console market due to the inherent piracy involved with computer gaming. Yet today, computer gaming is stronger than ever. I’d love to use the term PC gaming instead of computer gaming, but the truth of the matter is, companies like Valve and Blizzard have really been supporting Mac gaming.
The current gaming landscape on the computer is strong enough that I could take a vacation from both my 360 and PS3 and still be quite entertained. Hit the jump for what I consider the games that are keeping computer gaming still relevant in this supposed “console age”.
17
Sep
The Blizzard Authenticator can provide an extra layer of security to your Starcraft 2 login.
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.
09
Jul
How many times do we have to tell you Blizzard – Battle.net isn’t Facebook!
These last couple of days, Blizzard and Starcraft 2 have been in the gaming news in a big way. With Starcraft 2 less than a month away, Blizzard has seen fit to provide fans with good news and terrible news. The good news is, Blizzard has released “Phase 2″ of the beta test for Starcraft 2, so those of you that have been undergoing withdrawal from the Starcraft 2 Beta can get back in and play (add me – account name: espionage, character code: 315). I’ve played a couple games myself and it looks like the beta is certainly back with a lot more stuff going on such as new Achievements and the ability to play AI on all difficulty levels. The terrible news, however, is their announcement that any forum participation in the official Starcraft 2 (and soon to be World of Warcraft) forums will be posting with your RealID – your real first and last name. Terrible terrible news.
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30
Mar
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!
26
Mar
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!
18
Mar
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.
10
Mar
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?
08
Mar
The results of being hacked: losing all of your equipment yet having a nice amount of gold…
This past weekend, I received an email from Blizzard Entertainment informing me that my account password had changed. The email went on to state that if I had requested the change, to disregard the email. But if I did not request the change, then I would need to contact Blizzard immediately in case my account had been compromised. I did not request the password change, so I got a bit worried. I tried to log onto my account on the battle.net website, and surely enough, my password was no longer valid. Someone had actually somehow hacked into my battle.net account! This freaked me out. Read on to see what transpired…
18
Dec
World of Warcraft & Team Fortress 2 continue to give PC gamers updates
It’s interesting for me to see the “evolution” of the PC gaming landscape. Growing up on Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem, I’ve lived through the rise and decline of the PC gaming scene, from the introduction of first person shooters, real-time strategy games, online multiplayer, 4X strategy games, and now MMORPGs. If you’ve also grown up with fond memories of Doom & Quake, I highly recommend checking out the book, Masters of Doom. It’s a well-written book that chronicles how John Romero and John Carmack met, formed id Software, and completely shook up the gaming industry. Having said that, today’s entry will contain my more general thoughts on the PC gaming landscape, and why I’m still excited for its present and future.
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