A Matter of Opinion: The Declining Relevance of Traditional Reviews

Over the summer, some pretty dramatic changes came to Steam. While plenty of them instantly plunged me into Curmudgeonly Old Man Who Hates Change mode, there was one thing that I really liked. For the longest time, it was possible to sort games in a given category by review score, whereby games would be listed in ascending or descending order by their Metacritic score. With the Steam update, this was changed so that user reviews were used instead.

Feature: The Year in Review - 2013

As the year comes to a close, looking back at everything that happened, I'm slackjawed.  I'm having a hard time thinking of a more momentous year in gaming.  It has been just such a wild ride, I’m torn between relief at having made it through in one piece and anxiety that all of this is mere prelude for an even more incredible year.  So, without further ado and in no particular order, the highlights of 2013 (at least as far as I go):

LucasArts Shuts Down
This isn’t like the closures of 38 Studios or Troika.  This is akin to Pontiac or Oldsmobile going away.  For years, LucasArts was the premier game development studio.  Despite being started by George Lucas and kept as an adjunct of Lucasfilm, LucasArts made a lot of original games that had nothing to do with Star Wars, even after Lucas’ decade long moratorium expired.  But with the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney, LucasArts became expendable and was quickly shut down despite having two new Star Wars games in the pipe.  In related news, Disney inked an agreement with EA to produce new Star Wars games for the next decade.  The shadow of the Dark Side has fallen over us.

Steam OS Announced

Valve is getting into operating systems with its Linux-based Steam OS.  Interesting times ahead!

The Weekly Checkpoint 18

It's the end of the week, and with that it's time for another news round-up.  This week we discuss Gabe Newell and Rob Pardo's concerns regarding Windows 8, Yoichi Wada confirming that Final Fantasy XIII Versus is still in production, and Nintendo's latest batch of financials.

The Weekly Checkpoint 13

It's time for another weekly news round-up.  This go around we look at 72 hours of limited access in Diablo III, the 3DS XL, the Microsoft Surface, Valve and Adult Swim teaming up, and Phantasy Star Online 2.

News: Dota 2 Going Free to Play

In a not all that surprising move, Valve has confirmed that their entry into the world of MOBA games will be going free to play.  Anyone will be able to download and play Dota 2, however there will be an in-game store attached to it where players can buy items that will allow them to make aesthetic changes to their heroes.  Interestingly, Valve has opted not to charge money to unlock heroes in the game, instead making them free to everyone from the get go, unlike other titles in the genre.  All-in-all it looks like the company is doing as much as they can to avoid the game being pay to win, and going for a purely optional aesthetic route for making money from the player base.