The Steam Summer Sale started on Thursday last week. Some years I don’t see much that I want, either because the selection isn’t that great or I’m not in a gaming mood, but this year no matter how hard I tried to avert my eyes from the screen I could not avoid the sweet, sweet siren song of cheap games. So many games.
What I have bought so far
The Witcher 2 – I’ve been looking for an RPG to sink my teeth into*, and a number of guildies recommended this. It looks dark and gritty in the preview videos, which I like. A few reviewers complain about the kludgy controls, but I’m sure it’s manageable. However, in retrospect I’m a little disappointed that I bought this. I’m sure it will be a fine game, but it’s too new to have a dramatic price discount. I usually have a rule that I won’t spend more than $15 on a game during a Steam sale, and I should have stuck to it.
* I already had Mass Effect 2, which I’ve started twice now and only gotten maybe a third of the way through. For some reason, I just can’t get into it. I mean, I love my Shephard (her name is January), I like Garrus, I like space adventure, and I know that ME2 is considered one of Bioware’s greatest games, but man.. I just never feel inspired to sit down and play it. Maybe there’s something wrong with me.
KOTOR – The classic! I bought this in part because SW:TOR is around the corner, but mostly because it has a great reputation. KOTOR is pretty old by this point, but I know it was a seminal gaming experience for a number of people. I bought it for $2.49, which is about the same as the cup of coffee I get every day before work. Now that’s value!
Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 – I bought Half-Life 2 for $3.50 last year during the summer sale. I have yet to play it, although I did watch someone play through it back in the day so I’m not a complete luddite. However, I will not let a little thing like never playing the original stop me from buying cheap expansion packs! This year I picked up Episodes One and Two for a grand total of $4. One day I might even play them. I know they will be good.
Dragon Age: Origins – Ultimate Edition – Finally, a game I have played! In fact, I played it when it first came out. On disc. So yes, I paid $10 to own a digital, Steam-friendly version of DA:O. Don’t judge me! (This set also comes with the expansion and all the DLCs, so it was actually a heck of a deal.) You probably have played this game already, but if you haven’t and you like dense RPGs it is hellaciously good.
What I have not bought so far
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood and Fallout: New Vegas – Ohhh, how I have stared longingly at both of these games on their respective sale days, but I have already bought more games than I will ever, ever play and I am saving the rest of my piggy bank for what I hope will be a great deal on Civilization V.
What I played this weekend
There are so many new games in my Steam library, not to mention the ones I bought in previous sales and Humble Bundle indie games that I have never played. Plus I had a lot of free time this weekend! So what did I end up playing? Team Fortress 2. Which.. I’ve owned for a million years and is free now anyway. Sigh.
(Seriously, y’all, the TF2 servers are packed full of new players who are just begging to be air blasted off a cliff by a pyro wearing a road cone as a hat. Some things are greater than us all!)
So in short: Damn you, Steam and Valve, for putting games on sale for so cheap that I cannot help but buy them, and for making games so good that I cannot stop playing them.
So I can’t really post the image directly here because it will ruin the gag, but you should follow this link: Amnesia is a pretty scary game. (Safe for work!)
E3, arguably the most prestigious trade show in the game industry, kicks off next week and I see they’ve already started the marketing hyperbole and hype:
Oh, wait, that’s Skyrim. That’s not hype, that’s the thing that will control my life this winter.
Work is being really pushy about me doing work and not just reading news sites all day, so I have but one quick thing to share with you all. On the upside, it’s about Diablo 3! (My love affair with World of Warcraft ended abruptly earlier this year, but Blizzard can still woo me back with some sweet, sweet click-smashing.)
This is a brand new video that was leaked early by some Korean news site about followers in D3. And don’t forget that the beta is supposed to start in Q3, so make sure your Battle.net account beta options are set!
Hey, aren’t there supposed to be posts here?!
A non-spoilery screenie from Portal 2!
(For decades my way of playing scary games is to have someone come over and play it while I watch and occasionally shout, “Ahhhh it’s BEHIND YOU.” It’s my own personal Let’s Play.)
Once Portal 2 launched, last night at about 9:30PST… well… you know. And now I am afraid to even look at the internet for fear of being spoiled about the single-player campaign plot. (I am about halfway through Chapter Three, for what it’s worth.) And as I don’t want to spoil others, let me just say this: the puzzles are great fun, if not awesomely challenging so far, the graphics are amazing, the things you encounter are amazing. The atmosphere is
And to people who are complaining about the ARG (I hear the Steam Community Forums are full of them right now, but again I’m too afraid to go look): you have no sense of fun. The players got an intricate game launch, a mini-game within games, and early unlocking. Indie development houses got great promotion. Serious gamers got a Golden Potato and a bunch of prizes. No one lost anything, and everyone gained something. Stop complaining.
Anyway, I will be back in a day or two when I finish the game and can rejoin the internet, and in the meantime I will be haphazardly saving my screenshots here if anyone is interested. Good luck out there!
I have two two two exciting game alerts today!
ALERT THE FIRST
When does Portal 2 launch? April 19? Not so fast!
The Valve ARG kicked into high gear this week, and even company co-founder Gabe Newell got into the swing of things when he emailed a number of cryptic images to well known news websites such as Kotaku and the Escapist. (Clever marketing, guys!) The ARG fanatics worked their magic on the images and… the results are very curious.
Some people think it means that Portal 2 will launch early (so get your pre-order in now!), and there’s Half-Life 3 speculation flying around as well. Mind you, HL3 evangelists think that everything means the Third Coming is nigh, but either way it should be exciting to see what happens tomorrow morning at 9am!
ALERT THE SECOND
one of the Humble Bundle games
All of the games will play on both Mac and PC, all are free of DRM, and Steam provides a code to hook the three active games into your account.
You’re basically crazy if you don’t get this deal. That’s right. I said it.
One week! Just seven more days and then society will grind to a halt as everyone spends some time thinking with Portals. I’ve been preparing by sizing up all my friends and deciding who would be a good coop companion and who will make me feel bad for being too smart. That might seem harsh, but it’s just efficient. I’m sure GLaDOS would agree.
Anyway, behold the first seven minutes of Portal 2 coop gameplay! I haven’t actually watched this video because I don’t want any spoilers, but I won’t tell anyone if you do. You monster.
Cat: Hey, man, I’m so hungry I just have to eat.
Lister: Rimmer’s Dad’s died.
Cat: Well, I’d prefer chicken.
Emergency. There’s an emergency going on. It’s still going on.
Okay, it’s not an emergency, but it is big news: Red Dwarf is coming back for another round! Not only will we get six new episodes, making up the show’s tenth season, but all the actors will be back, the writers will be back, and (from what I can tell) obnoxious late-series Kochanski will NOT be back. Everybody wins!
While I’m here, thanks to the internet the RD fan in your life can have his very own Mr. Flibble. I just hope he doesn’t get cross…
"That's no moon!"
On April 1st, amongst all the pranking, Valve quietly released the Potato Sack deal on Steam. Another in the distributor’s kickass indie bundles, this one offers 13 games including Audiosurf, Amnesia: The Dark Decent, and Super Meat Boy for $37 (75% of the games’ regular prices). As if that wasn’t enough, buyers also get a TF2 “potato hat”. It’s a great deal, and lots of gamers — myself included — snatched it up.
But as people began to play the games in their Sack bundle, they noticed something odd. Namely… potatoes. Everywhere. Some of the games have potato levels. Some have a giant potato in the background where there wasn’t one before. And, um, who is Super Potato Boy?
It turns out that Valve is set on maintaining their postion as the coolest developers/distributors ever, and infused the Potato Sack with elements of an Alternate Reality Game (or ARG), probably for the impending release of Portal 2. (Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Portal 2!) There is, of course, a wiki where folks are documenting their Sack discoveries and trying to figure out what it all means.
I have loved ARGs ever since The Beast in 2001, and it’s nice to see Valve carrying on this fine tradition.
Those sly dogs at Trion have been bringing out MMO features way ahead of the public’s expectations. We’re just finishing up the first month of the game, and there are already authenticators, an in-game video capture that will upload itself to your YouTube account, and world events. And as of this morning… a free weekend!
All current RIFT subscribers received five codes for folks to play as free trials this weekend. Judging from the people I’ve talked to they’re going fast, too. Fortunately, Prolixity has some of these codes, all for you!
NOTE: ONLY ONE CODE LEFT!
Just email heyyouguys@prolixity.org* and let me know you want a code!
* You won’t get spammed or whatever. Seriously — I’m far too lazy to bother.
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