Confessions of a Steam Sale Junkie

Jeff and Aaron offer insights about themselves and what Steam has become in light of the recent Steam Summer Sale.

So, we're in the wake of yet another Summer Steam Sale, and people were getting all excited about picking up games on the cheap that they'd been meaning to get for a while. For the first time ever, I found myself not really participating in it. I got all of one game, and couldn't be bothered to go back and see what else was been on offer.

Talking with several of my friends, their stories have been the same. In years past, they gorged themselves on all sorts of different titles, going along with the running gag about Steam sales where "You can even play the games after you buy them!" And play them we did, but seldom to completion, or even to the halfway mark. Often it was a few hours of futzing around before heading off to play one of the other games we'd grabbed and tossed into our ever more bulging libraries.

Preview: Evolve (Multiplatform)

When Turtle Rock Studios put out Left4Dead, they not only made shooters interesting again, they redefined the “zombie apocalypse” scenario in a delightfully demented fashion.  It wasn't just about blowing away zombies, it was about working with your buddies to make it to safety. Now, Turtle Rock is giving the sci-fi “bug hunt” scenario a similar shot in the arm with Evolve.

Preview: Blood Bowl II (PC)

There is nothing at all whimsical about Games Workshop's Warhammer setting.  Humor, if it exists, is bitter and fleeting.  Blood, thunder, and death are the three great constants which every being lives under every day.  Entertainment must be cheap to obtain and easy to consume.

Fortunately, there is one thing that makes all the pain and suffering worth it: watching other people experience it on the playing fields of the Blood Bowl League.  For all the senseless violence and constant warfare between Humans and Elves, Orcs and Dwarves, Chaos and Order, it's nice to know that some purpose can be found in two teams lining up to throw around a spiky ball and beating the living hell out of each other for points.

Preview: Mordheim: City of the Damned (PC)

When most people think of Warhammer, they think of the massive armies, the giant tables, and the punishing costs to their wallets in terms of figures and paint.  But Games Workshop has explored other avenues for their grim fantasy setting in the past, and one of them has been a cult classic: Mordheim.  Instead of grand strategy, it's more tactical, more intimate, and combined with role-playing game elements incredibly more personal.  Rogue Factor has taken this little known game and translated it to the PC, and it looks phenomenal.

Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (360)

Movie-tie in games should almost be treated as a separate entity since the quality level on them seems to naturally start off with a handicap. For every Goldeneye, we get an ET… with many more movie tie-in games being destined for the garbage dump than any Hall of Fame.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is no Goldeneye, and mercifully not an ET either.

Preview: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

I want to know precisely what sort of raw meat the developers at CD Projekt RED are being fed on a daily basis, because whatever it is, it's giving them some absolutely fantastic powers which are being used to create what looks to be the must-have action RPG for next year.  I didn't think it was possible, but this thing looks better now that it did a year ago on what was disclaimed as an alpha stage project.  For the press demo at E3 2014, CD Projekt RED took us through a new adventure, likely part of the main quest line.

Review: How to Train your Dragon 2 (Xbox 360)

We all know that licensed movie games tend to be bad on our gaming systems, and yet somebody keeps buying them (otherwise, somebody would stop making them). Sadly, nothing has changed this time as How to Train your Dragon 2 has come out on multiple platforms to coincide with the release of the movie.

Over the years, publishers have reduced costs over the years by eliminating printed manuals and including training missions or modes in games at the beginning to get players used to the controls. This game is no different, although because the word "training" is in the title I'm afraid the entire game feels like a training mission.