Holiday Sale Survival Guide

I have no idea where this originated, but it's hilariously accurate.

It's not officially Christmas until I've been saddled with feelings of shame and guilt after adding a dozen games to my already gigantic backlog. Amazon, Valve - why must you tempt me so?

If you're at all concerned about being able to afford food in January, you might want to take a look at the following tips.

1. Use resources like /r/GameDeals and IsThereAnyDeal.com to find the best deals.

While Steam might be the "Granddaddy of Them All" when it comes to offering games at stupid prices during the holidays, there's a lot of other stuff going on elsewhere on the Internet. Sites like Amazon and Green Man Gaming have been offering deals on par with - and occasionally better than - those of Valve's service. Plus, with Origin and Uplay on the prowl, it's increasingly common (albeit somewhat annoying) to find games that simply aren't offered on Steam.

Bottom line - it pays to look around, and using some kind of deal aggregator makes everything super easy. Sites like the aforementioned IsThereAnyDeal.com and Cheapshark.com can also give you an idea of the pricing trends for a given game and whether or not it's been cheaper in the past.

Battle.net World Championship

Quick heads up - the Battle.net World Championship kicks off tomorrow in Shanghai, China, featuring both World of Warcraft Arena and Starcraft II competitions. The event will feature a "free, six-channel HD broadcast" via the BWC website.

I'm kinda looking forward to watching this thing; other than the last GSL finals, I feel like I haven't watched a major SC2 tournament in a year. The festivities kick off tomorrow night and run from 9pm-ish Friday until 8am-ish Sunday morning. Check out the full schedule for more details.

Backlog Review: Homefront

Like Call of Duty, but less entertaining and with more Koreans.

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Homefront
THQ, Kaos Studios, Digital Extremes
March 15th, 2011

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Since its release in early 2011, Homefront has been known as "that mediocre shooter with the really short campaign." Hearing this over and over again made me a sad panda.

The game originally piqued my interest after I saw the trailer depicting a "future history" (albeit an unlikely one) that served as a backdrop for the title. Given that this was early 2011, with Call of Duty becoming stale (and alienating PC gamers) and Battlefield 3 not yet having seen the light of day, I was ready for something new and exciting to come along. Homefront was supposed to be that breath of fresh air.

My Take on the "Decline" of Starcraft II

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

What's the deal with Starcraft II lately?

League of Legends is the most popular game in the world. Korean SC2 team Slayers is disbanding and three of their players are switching to LoL. Event prize money is stagnant and stream viewer numbers are down. The game's popularity is even dwindling in South Korea, a Starcraft hotbed for more than 10 years; SC2 isn't even among the top 10 games played in the country's "PC bang" LAN centers.

Is SC2 on the way out, or are these just growing pains?

New Releases: Week of October 22nd

Here's a look at what's new this week.

This week is sort of an unofficial beginning to the holiday release season. We'll see another AAA title (most of them sequels) just about every week from now until Christmas. Need For Speed, Medal of Honor, Assassin's Creed, Hitman, Far Cry - they're all on the way.

Better fasten your seatbelts, 'cuz it's going to be a wild ride from here on out.

Skip to:

• Windows 8
• Medal of Honor: Warfighter
• Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
• Other Noteworthy Releases

MechWarrior Online: Closed Beta First Impressions

Who doesn't love gigantic vehicles and explosions?

The first MechWarrior game was released for DOS on 1989. Set 1000 years in the future, the game allowed players to bring the ruckus via BattleMechs, gigantic walking robot vehicles armed to the teeth with advanced weaponry.

The latest addition to the long-running series is MechWarrior Online, a free-to-play title in development by Piranha Games. I scored an invite to the closed beta a couple of weeks ago, installed the game, and managed to completely avoid playing it for several days. I finally got around to logging some play time earlier this week, and thus far it's definitely not terrible.

The MechWarrior Online launcher window.

Weekend Gaming Deal Roundup (Updated)

So. Many. Deals. At this rate I'm not sure what I'll have left to buy when the Steam Holiday Sale rolls around.

• GreenManGaming: Horror Deals - Up to 75% off + additional 20% code
  

  GMG has a bunch of "scary, scarier, and scariest" games on sale just in time for Halloween. Alan Wake, F.E.A.R. 3, Metro 2033, Darksiders II and more are being offered at 50-75% off, and promo code GMG20-FXYD1-7WHP1 chops another 20% off the top.

• Steam: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut, PAYDAY: The Heist, Sleeping Dogs Weekend Deals
  
  • PAYDAY is free to play this weekend and the game is on sale for 75% off. It's fun with friends, but we ultimately stopped playing after 3 or 4 days.
  • I haven't played The Witcher (I've heard it's pretty polarizing - love it or hate it), but 5 bucks is pretty cheap.
  • Sleeping Dogs is once again on sale this weekend, this time at $25. As I've said in the past, I have a feeling this one is going to be in the bargain bin in December; one glance at my backlog tells me that I can wait it out.
• GamersGate: Assassin's Weekend: Assassin's Creed games 50-83% off
  

  There are some great deals to be found here if you're a fan of the Assassin's Creed series. I picked up AC: Brotherhood and AC: Revelations for a total of $16.97. Checking price history on IsThereAnyDeal.com tells me that these are pretty much the lowest prices that we've seen for both games.

Thinking back, I'm pretty sure I paid a total of $22 for all four Assassin's Creed games. Patting myself on the back for that one.

Update: Amazon also has Sleeping Dogs for $25, but promo code SQRLUVOC can be applied for an extra 25% off. Total price is $18.74 (plus tax if Amazon hates you).

This Week in PC Gaming: October 15th

Here's a look at some of this week's PC releases.

The third week of October looks pretty quiet, being mainly comprised of re-releases, new-to-PC console re-releases, and indie titles. Think of it as the calm before the storm: from here on out we've got a major AAA title releasing just about every week until Christmas.

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Rocksmith
Ubisoft
Full release*
Tuesday, October 16th | $49.99 / $79.99
http://rocksmith.ubi.com/rocksmith/en-us/home/index.aspx

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At first glance Rocksmith looks like another Guitar Hero clone, but you'd be wrong for assuming so. Ubisoft's take on the genre lets you use an actual guitar, meaning the game is part entertainment and part teaching tool. I can see this being a lot more useful and fun than pushing colored buttons on a plastic peripheral.

Rocksmith has been out for a year on the X360 and PS3, and we're only now seeing a PC release. Both Gamespot and IGN gave the game an 8.0 out of 10, and in both cases the "user scores" at each site (as well as on Metacritic) were higher than the scores given by critics.

One caveat: Rocksmith will be available on Steam for $50, but that doesn't include any of the peripherals required to hook your guitar up to your PC. Amazon's listing includes the game and the 1/4"-to-USB cable for $80. Obviously you'll need a guitar as well, meaning this could be an expensive investment. Better hit up Craigslist.

One Great Deal and One Huge Mess (Updated)

Oh EA, what are we going to do with you?

I was browsing /r/GameDeals late Friday night/early Saturday morning and came across a post about an Origin promo code. Things started out innocently enough: EA was sending out surveys and rewarding those who participated with $20 promo codes usable on Origin.

It didn't take long for some enterprising individuals to figure out that the promo code could be used twice, once via the Origin client and once via the website. Don't worry, it gets better (or worse, depending on your perspective). Whoever set this thing up must have been in a hurry to get out of the office on Friday, because the promo code could be used an unlimited number of times on a couple dozen games. By adding games to the cart one at a time and applying the promo code to each individual game, people could basically walk out with a sack of games for free.

As much fun as it would have been to load up a cart with everything I was missing à la the Nickelodeon Super Toy Run, I only added Sim City 4 to my account. It's hard to imagine EA just letting this one slide, but then again it'll be hard to distinguish between people who may have innocently snagged 2 or 3 games and those who were deliberately trying to game the system.

Update: EA has supposedly said that they will honor all "purchases" from this event, so download away.

Weekend Deal Roundup

We've reached the end of yet another week, and once again this weekend's sale lineup doesn't disappoint.

• Steam: Focus Home Interactive Weekend and Sanctum Free Weekend
  

  The Focus event looks to have some decent titles, but nothing that really screams "buy me now" as far as I can tell: Blood Bowl, Game of Thrones, Cities XL, Sherlock Holmes, etc. Likewise, Sanctum looks interesting (and it's only $2.49), but I feel like it'd find a place near the end of my game queue.

• GameFly: Select Racing Games 50-75% Off
  

  This sale offers titles from some pretty popular franchises, including Dirt 3, Driver SF, and some Need For Speed games. I'd highly recommend picking up Dirt 3 and Driver SF at the very least. I'm not a huge fan of the newer NFS games (basically everything after NFS Carbon, not including Shift 2), but these prices are low enough to be tempting if you haven't played them. Blur has always looked interesting, but the online community looks like it's pretty small. Then again, it's only 5 bucks.

• GamersGate: EA Week
  

  GamersGate's EA Week continues with different franchises being featured daily. Today the Mass Effect series is available for 60-75% off. 12 bucks for ME3 is a pretty solid deal.

More deals after the jump.

Gordon Freeman Makes Me Nauseous

Black Mesa, Half-Life 2, and Motion Sickness

The first couple of times I tried to play Black Mesa I ended up quitting about 45 minutes into my session. It's not because of a dislike for the game; from what I've seen, the recently-released mod is a fun and relatively faithful remake of the original Half-Life. My main issue with Black Mesa is the fact that I start feeling queasy and need to stop playing after 45 minutes to an hour of gameplay.

MLB 2K12: Date Fix Coming, but No Patch

2K has been anything but "Perfect" with MLB 2K12.

My post regarding the MLB 2K12 freezing issue has been seeing a lot of traffic lately. Thankfully there's an easy workaround for this gamebreaking bug, but the utter lack of support from 2K Sports surrounding this game has been pretty depressing. It's clear that they completely cut the cord after release knowing that this would be the last MLB 2K game in the series.

This Week in PC Gaming: October 8th

Here's a look at some of this week's PC releases.


Dishonored
Bethesda, Arkane Studios
Full release
Tuesday, October 9th | $59.99
http://www.dishonored.com/

From the website: "You are the once-trusted bodyguard of the Empress. Framed for her murder and driven by revenge, you must become an infamous assassin, known only by the disturbing mask that has become your calling card."

Dishonored is a first-person action/stealth hybrid set in the bleak, industrial city of Dunwall. The player seeks to uncover the truth behind his betrayal by carrying out several assassination missions. That sounds kind of Assassin's Creed-ish on the surface, but you can approach each mission from multiple angles. Apparently it's possible to complete the game without killing anyone, so it seems like there could be a lot of replay value here. In addition, Dishonored's gameplay includes supernatural elements that range from teleportation to possession of other people and animals.

Even though the game releases tomorrow, there are a bunch of reviews floating around already (Joystiq, Polygon). Looks pretty solid.

If you're balking at the idea of paying $60 for this one, don't worry. According to reddit, GreenManGaming's 25% off code works for pre-orders of Dishonored, and it should continue to work through Friday. Pick up the game here, and apply promo code GMG25-EVFWS-4Z4ZN to bring the price down to $45.

More Amazon Deals - Batman, FEAR

I'm sitting here browsing the 'nets while watching the Steelers and Eagles play an embarrassingly terrible first half of football. While this game isn't very interesting, Amazon has a couple of Digital Deals of the Week that definitely deserve some attention.

Both the Batman Arkham Action Pack (which includes Arkham Asylum GOTY and Arkham City vanilla) and the F.E.A.R Ultimate Pack (all three titles plus some DLC for the first) are available for $10. If you haven't used it yet, promo code OCTOFUN1 can be applied for an additional 25% off, bringing each pack to $7.50 before tax.

I've skipped Batman deals several times in the past because of the size of my Steam backlog, but this particular deal is way too good to pass up. Both Arkham games have a score of 91/100 on Metacritic; nabbing two critically-acclaimed games (released in the last 3 years) for less than 8 bucks is pretty amazing in my book.

The F.E.A.R. deal doesn't look quite as appealing to me, but there's a lot of content there for the money. I remember the first game being fun and pretty original when it was released in 2005, but I haven't played either of the more recent additions to the series. The general consensus seems to be that the series has gotten worse with each game - the original FEAR has an 88/100 on Metacritic, while the two sequels have scores of 79 and 74.

While the deals should stick around for several days, the promo code might expire as soon as tonight. If you're interested, you can pick up the deals here.

Holiday Weekend Deals

Monday October 8th is both Columbus Day in the US and Thanksgiving in Canada. Sounds like a good excuse to slash prices on a bunch of stuff.

• Steam Deals
  
  
  • THQ Weekend
    

    It's not a holiday without space marines, street gangs, and Russians. Metro 2033 is on sale for 5 bucks until 10am PDT Saturday - this game has been in the bargain bin for a while now and I highly recommend picking it up if you haven't already. I wouldn't be surprised to see Saints Row: The Third and either the Warhammer series, Darksiders, or Homefront as the daily deals Saturday and Sunday.

  • Vessel for $4.99
    

    Vessel looks like an interesting physics-based side-scrolling puzzler. Gameplay centers around liquids with unique properties. Seeing screenshots of the guy with a water tank on his back brings back memories of Super Mario Sunshine.

MLB 2K12 Freezing? Here's the Workaround. (Updated with Batch File)

Read on if you're stuck on MLB 2K12's title screen.

* This post has been updated. Click here to skip to the new stuff. *
* Update #2: Click here to check out another workaround. *

2K Sports makes me a little sad.

This is likely the end of the line for the MLB 2K series since Take-Two's agreement with MLBPA expires this year. Post-release support for MLB 2K12 has been pretty awful, with the PC version left completely untouched and consoles last seeing a patch in June. This year's title isn't terrible, but the game isn't without its bugs and shortcomings.

Battlefield 3, Mod Tools, and Permabans

The "color correction fix" and subsequent unauthorized modding tools for Battlefield 3 that were released by a community member last week have been causing quite a stir lately. A PC Gamer article posted yesterday referenced a tweet (that looks to have been deleted) by a DICE designer saying "I wouldn’t use those hacks if you don’t want a permanent ban on your account. FYI warning."

As shown in the video above, the color correction mod strips out the "color gradient filter" that puts a desaturated blueish tint on everything. While DICE may have taken things a little too far in the "bleak and dreary" direction, I think the mod overcompensates a bit too much. Still, it's an interesting fix.

Game Deals (via reddit)

I found a couple of deals browsing /r/gamedeals earlier tonight that are worth sharing.

• Amazon: 25% off non-preorder, non-new release games with promo code OCTOFUN1 (reddit link)

  I guess Amazon wants us to have fun this October, and 25% off sounds pretty good to me. This code supposedly stacks with current sales, meaning you can use it to pick up Sleeping Dogs for $22.50 or this combo pack (featuring Mirror's Edge, Bulletstorm, Burnout Paradise, Mercenaries 2, and The Saboteur) for $7.50. No word on how long the code is good for, so act quickly.

• Toys 'R Us: Clearance games for $9.98 (reddit link)

  Looks like Toys 'R Us is making room for their holiday inventory by reducing a bunch of popular games to clearance prices. The reddit user who posted the deal stated that most deals were in-store only (SWTOR, Sims 3, MW3, SC2, Diablo 3), but Arkham City, Rage, and AC Revelations are all available online for less than 10 bucks. Almost all of these are well worth your hard-earned $10 - maybe even MW3, which I reviewed earlier today.

In addition, there was a link to a forum post at Cheap Ass Gamer by an Amazon employee. Apparently this weekend and throughout next week we'll see game deals on the FEAR and Batman franchises in addition to Vessel and Battlefield 3. No word on whether the above promo code will work during the sale - $10 for both Batman games is pretty amazing, but $7.50 would be even better.

Freebie Review: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Call of Duty. I've got a complicated relationship with this one.

My first introduction to the series was Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007 (I like to pretend Call of Duty 3 for the Wii never happened). CoD 4 was and still is one of the best multiplayer FPS games I've ever played. Gunplay was tight, maps were balanced and not overly-complex, and it was pretty damn fun to play. Given that it's right up there on the all-time list of highest-rated PC games on Metacritic, it's clear that I'm not alone in this opinion.

Unfortunately, CoD 4 was when the Call of Duty franchise peaked. I enjoyed Treyarch's World at War, but it didn't have the same draw of CoD 4 - though it did have zombies. Modern Warfare 2 pulled the plug on dedicated servers and brought an end to Infinity Ward as we knew it. 2010's Black Ops did a pretty decent job of saving face but ultimately fell a bit short.

That brings us to Modern Warfare 3, originally released last fall. Last Thursday, Steam announced a 50% off sale coupled with a free play weekend; I took advantage of the offer to reacquaint myself with the series.

This Week in PC Gaming: October 1st

Here's a look at some of this week's PC releases.

The first week of October looks a little uneventful in comparison to what we've seen recently. September ended with a bang with Borderlands 2, Torchlight II, and Mists of Pandaria being released during the last fortnight, three highly-anticipated titles that bring a ton of content to the table. While the end of October promises to be exciting as the pre-holiday release season starts to ramp up, your wallet might be able to take it easy during the next couple of weeks.

Some of this week's releases include warriors, wrathful rabbits, and an RTS compilation. We'll also get to play with wizards and magic, either as sorcerers in a dungeon crawler or as the Wizards and Magic of the NBA.

War of the Roses
Paradox Interactive, FatShark
Full release
Tuesday, October 2nd | $29.99
http://www.waroftherosesthegame.com/

War of the Roses is a third-person action game set in 15th century England. More specifically, the game takes place during - you guessed it - the War of the Roses, a real-life struggle for the throne of England which took place from 1455 to 1485. You'll get to participate in 64-player online battles as an armor-clad warrior on the front lines.

The guys behind War of the Roses apparently want to emphasize the fact that player skill is the driving force behind success in the game. Case in point, the trailer below ends with the narrator saying "Skill rules the battle." Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, clarifying text appears below the game's logo stating that "Skill is Not an Unlock."

I've seen this game pop up a few times but I honestly haven't heard all that much about it. Judging by the trailer, some of the animations look a little stiff and clunky. I might skip this one unless the reviews are glowing or the price is right. There's actually another medieval combat game coming this month, so it might be worth waiting a couple of weeks before making a decision one way or another.