Games Played 07/21/2014 - 07/27/2014

- 07/21/2014 -

Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition - PlayStation 4

League of Legends - PC

Marvel Heroes 2015 - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/22/2014 -

Divinity: Original Sin - PC

Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition - PlayStation 4

Freedom Planet - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/23/2014 -

Audiosurf - PC

Divinity: Original Sin - PC

Freedom Planet - PC

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/24/2014 -

Crimzon Clover: World Ignition - PC

Divinity: Original Sin - PC

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/25/2014 -

Divinity: Original Sin - PC

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/26/2014 -

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft - PC

League of Legends - PC

Marvel Heroes 2015 - PC

Vertical Drop Heroes HD - PC

- 07/27/2014 -

Dota 2 - PC

League of Legends - PC

Vertical Drop Heroes HD - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

Screenshot of the Week:

Definitely not a hedgehog.

Freedom Planet (Personal Computer)

Let's Mystery Skin! July 2014 Edition

Mystery Skins have been made available again on League of Legends for a very limited time and I decided to get into the action tonight. I haven't been so lucky with these things as you can see by clicking here and here. I surely hope that I will get better, more prominent skins this time around. Here we go!

Hmm... Justicar Aatrox. Guess I am off to a good start!

Officer Caitlyn? I love her but I never had any interest in this skin. One more time!

Jackpot! Full Metal Rammus is pretty freaking awesome!

I was definitely luckier this time around because at least these are definitely some of the nicer alternate skins out there. How did you fair in your Mystery Skin adventures? Hope you got the skins you wanted. For those who haven't dabble into the Mystery Skin thing, you still have one more day to do it! Good luck!

Steam Music Is Here

Steam Music is now available with today's public beta client push and it basically turns your Steam client into a music organizer and music player. Sadly, it doesn't support WMA at this time so I can't access a lot of the music that I ripped into my hard drive from my CD collection. Which is a shame, because I definitely would just use Steam to play my music, but of course, not while I am playing my games. Still, I know a lot of players who love listening to additional music outside of the games that they play and this new implementation makes that a slightly easier process because the music option is in the Steam overlay.

It's a bit buggy but you can access your favorite songs directly from Steam!

Platinum Reward 2014: Faster & Cheaper

When I logged in to the Club Nintendo website tonight, I got a pop up telling me that the fiscal 2014 Platinum reward that I qualified for was finally available for me to claim. I was excited but I proceeded with caution. This program has been going downhill since the Wii U was released so I had a feeling that the selection was going to be disappointing. I was right:

To further save money, Nintendo no longer mails out physical rewards.

I picked EarthBound since I have never played that game before. It's a shame that I already own Game & Wario, the only big release being offered here. Nintendo, it's really time that you go multi-platform. If that action is just too shameful, at least start releasing your games on Steam on top of your own hardware line up. Stop being stubborn, and start making money the smart way. Oh well, at least now we can get the offered reward immediately but that's really not saying much.

A Very Greedy Soul

That Dark Souls II. Not only did From Software and Namco Bandai Games pull that dirty intentional delay tactic for the Personal Computer version, the game ended up being somewhat boring to me and I didn't even get too far into it. Today, I noticed that a "Season Pass" for the game had suddenly showed up on the Steam client's Top Seller list and it really caught me by surprise. Sure, the first Dark Souls did get an eventual expansion but apparently, there will be three upcoming additional contents for this game (purposely withheld from the original release to milk the game dry obviously and obnoxiously), the first of it being released tomorrow thus the sudden increase in sales. The whole "Season Pass" thing was not even announced during the launch window of the game, probably to ensure that people will not just wait for the eventual "Complete Edition" and I completely missed it when it was first listed on Steam in early June, a little over a month after release. This should teach me a lesson that no game is even worth $39.99 - my sweet spot for game price - if there is a potential that it will turn out to be an incomplete game. What a rip-off.

What's worse than supposed free-to-play games? Season Passes. This trend needs to die.

Games Played 07/14/2014 - 07/20/2014

- 07/14/2014 -

Hero Siege - PC

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/15/2014 -

Hero Siege - PC

League of Legends - PC

Shantae: Risky's Revenger - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/16/2014 -

Audiosurf - PC

Disciples III: Renaissance - PC

Hero Siege - PC

King's Bounty: Armored Princess - PC

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/17/2014 -

Aarklash: Legacy - PC

Fallout 3 - PC

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/18/2014 -

Divinity II: Developer's Cut - PC

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/19/2014 -

8BitBoy - PC

Diviniy: Dragon Commander - PC

Divinity II: Developer's Cut - PC

Fallout 3 - PC

League of Legends - PC

Muramasa Rebirth - Vita

Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed - Vita

- 07/20/2014 -

Divinity: Dragon Commander - PC

Divinity II: Developer's Cut - PC

League of Legends - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

Screenshot of the Week:

Reading other people's love letters is one of gaming life's little pleasures.

Divinity II: Developer's Cut (Personal Computer)

Panoramic Worthlessness

I don't use my PlayStation Vita that much so it shouldn't be a surprise that I just discovered today that it can take panoramic pictures. I was so thrilled about this and immediately took the 360 degrees view of my Game Room. I was very impressed at how easy easy it was to take the panoramic image because it was an automated process that requires one to point the Vita's camera around while the Vita finds the images it needed to complete the overall picture. Then, when it was all done, I was very, very disappointed with the result. The effect is definitely very convincing and there are even areas where I didn't noticed the transition between the combined images at all but the problem here is that everything is so low res, especially when you sized the image to fit the whole screen:

Click to maximize this image... If you dare!

This feature is a good distraction and something that can be fun to use but if the result is this whole blurry mess, I don't feel compelled to take my Vita with me when I know that I will be out taking pictures. A high definition still image/video recording are definitely way better than what can be accomplished here. 

EA: Not So Bad?

There are a lot of Electronic Arts haters out there, especially when Origin was first introduced but I am not one of them. As a matter of fact, I used to think that Origin was cool and the only reason why I am not a big fan of it anymore is because EA themselves don't show full support towards their own digital distribution platform - and yeah, I have tested the client recently and found that the issue with tracking non-Origin game time was still there. But you know, EA is trying to entice more people to adopt and use Origin, like introducing their "In the House" free game offerings where they give users permanent access to really, really old games. Several days ago, I received the following email from EA:

That's quite an upgrade.

This is pretty cool for me because I was only able to register a couple of the expansions that came out for The Sims 2 on Origin because not all of them are available there but now, I will have access to all of them in this "Ultimate Collection". This upgrade is even more valuable for those who never bought these expansions to begin with as long as they have added The Sims 2 to Origin. You see, EA can be pretty generous. Apparently, they feel very charitable when it comes to their old games. I wanted to make sure that EA made good on their upgrade promise before I posted this: I can confirm now that after waiting for several days, the game finally shows up in my Origin Game Library today:

Ever the more reason not to touch the unnecessary The Sims 4 until 5 years after its release.

Shantae on Steam?

I would never have guessed it but here we go again, another glorious game being released on Steam. This time it's Shantae: Risky's Revenge Director's Cut - a game that I always wanted to get on the Nintendo DS and a game that I would never touch on the iOS version because of poor controls. I feel so happy now that I have waited this long to get this game, as if my entire being knew that this ultimate version was coming! It looks like developer WayForward is very committed to Steam because this is no mere sloppy port as it is fully Steampowered (achievements, trading cards, etc.). Can you imagine them re-releasing their past games that are still missing from Steam? It's definitely possible. Support them by getting this game immediately! Bring on Contra 4!

Steam is always full of fun surprises. Best place to game, ever!

'Cuz I'm Easy like That

A game that immediately got my interest when I was looking at the new releases on Steam today thanks to its title was Crouching Pony Hidden Dragon by Le Cortex. Apparently, it's a run-and-gun RPG shooter of some sort, made originally last year in cartridge format for the Neo Geo system:

But where's the pony outfit?

It looked intriguing enough and normally, a game like this that seems fun yet I have no real idea about but I would like to play eventually would end up being added to my Steam Wishlist only to be revisited during a Steam Sale event yet as I was reading the description on the store page, I knew that I must support the developer thus I bought the game immediately:

Sold!

A video game studio that understands that the PC is "today's gamers platform"? No way! That kind of smart thinking tells me a lot about these guys and I had to back them up. I look forward to playing the game!

Games Played 07/07/2014 - 07/13/2014

- 07/07/2014 -

ALLTYNEX Second - PC

Driftmoon - PC

League of Legends - PC

Might & Magic X: Legacy - PC

Tomb Raider - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/08/2014 -

Tomb Raider - PC

The Wolf Among Us - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/09/2014 -

ALLTYNEX Second - PC

Ginga Force - X-Box 360

Rock Band 2 - X-Box 360

SingStar - PlayStation 3

Tomb Raider - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/10/2014 -

Divine Divinity - PC

League of Legends - PC

Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/11/2014 -

Beyond Divinity - PC

Divine Divinity - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/12/2014 -

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition - PC

- 07/13/2014 -

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition - PC

Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

Screenshot of the Week:

Fighting with all my might in the hope of making this a successful return to the game.

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition (Personal Computer)

Acceptable Gaming Fashion Accessory

Though I don't buy into physical extras bundled alongside games these days since my focus is primarily on digital gaming inductions, I still have plenty of those things from past acquisitions scattered around my Game Treasury. I was perusing those items yesterday, looking for those that are still unwrapped, untouched by my bare hands. One of my finds just happened to be this necklace thing from a Naruto fighting game on the Nintendo GameCube and I decided to put it on just for fun while giving it a reason to exist. I then showed it to the spouse and to my surprise, the spouse reacted positively to it and didn't even mind me wearing it when we went out later on in the evening.

Spouse-approved.

Apparently, as long as it doesn't look suspiciously like something out of a video game, the spouse is fine with it. The necklace does look pretty cool and unassuming and I have been looking for one to wear. There is also a plastic ring included with this thing but it looks so cheap so I'll just stick with the necklace.

You have to be really close to me to actually see the engraving.

Random Game Room Moment

You can do a lot of damage on Steam with just $50.

Random Game Room Moment

The spouse's new toy. My hun loves techs but not video games.

June 2014 Gaming Analysis

The results shown below are of course based on the combined data from the Daily Game Log which should provide a clear indication of a game's usage frequency. Bear in mind that even if a game is played twice or more during a particular day, it would still register as 1 in the Day Count column below. In a sense, "merits" are given based on how often a particular game can make me play it again throughout the entire period of the  month on a daily basis. A game that makes a gamer play it over and over again or at least spend a lot of time with it... Isn't that what we mostly want from a great game? I don't think it's really fair to count all the way down to the number of hours played since some games only require a short amount of time to properly serve their purposes.

OVERALL BREAKDOWN:

Total Games Played: 32

This Month's Inductees:

Total Inductions: 51

Thank you, Steam Summer Sale!

Early Access Getting Out of Control

As you may have suspected for a long time, I love Steam. I think it's the greatest thing that ever happened to video gaming. But of course, nothing is perfect. Steam may be the ultimate place to game but there are some things about it that do annoy me. Like how buggy the client gets sometimes and Valve's obsession with the whole "living room" thing goes beyond the unhealthy level. The other part of Steam that I don't particularly care about is the "Early Access" games. I know that I haven't touched on this subject in the past but after seeing this, I just have to address the situation immediately:

Beyond redemption.

In general, I think that selling "Early Access" games is bad. What you are basically doing is that you are paying the developers to pre-alpha/alpha/beta test their games. I understand that a number of these Early Access games do have projected release dates, like the example above, but the most damaging part about this is that paying money for an incomplete game will delay the full release of the game because hey, if the games is already selling like hot cakes at its current incomplete form, why bother finishing it quickly? A good example would be Audiosurf 2, in which I was guilty of enabling (oh how I regretted paying for the game even though it was on sale at the time), a game that has been in Early Access since October of last year. Now what got me going with Warmachine: Tactics is that ridiculous price: $64.99 and it even dares to call itself a Digital Deluxe Edition. What this is telling me is that not only do these developers have the balls to sell horribly incomplete games to us, but they also have enough bushy hair and old sweat on those saggy balls to overprice the access fee. Of course the main problem here is us gamers. As long as there are enough people out there with too much money to spend on these annoying Early Access games, they will keep producing more of them. Valve should have just mandated developers to produce demos for games being released on Steam - it may not be a profitable thing to do but a customer-friendly move in which they would allow their customers shorter wait time for some of these games to get fully released and also ensure that their customers don't have to pay to test out games.

LIVE Gold: Fake Glitter

I was on my X-Box 360 this evening to satisfy my Ginga Force cravings when I noticed that Microsoft is offering Gotham City Imposters as their featured free game for LIVE Gold members:

I guess they are not lying about offering "free" games.

I was pretty sure that the game was announced to be free to play a while back so I went to my Steam account and noticed that it was indeed free to play while it has a price tag of $14.99 on the X-Box LIVE store. Apparently it only went free to play on the Personal Computer via Steam. But if you are not already a Gold member, why would you pay a monthly subscription fee for something that is free to begin with (online multiplayer) only to receive a game that you can get on Steam for free where you don't have to pay anything to play it with others online. If I was a LIVE Gold member, I would be pretty upset with this poor free game offering. Surely there are plenty of other games they could offer the Gold members instead of a game that can be played for free somewhere else already?

Hmm... No subscription fees required.

Games Played 06/30/2014 - 07/06/2014

- 06/30/2014 -

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - PC
League of Legends - PC
Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/01/2014 -
The Dark Eye: Demonicon - PC
Dawngate - PC
League of Legends - PC
Strider - PlayStation 4
TowerFall Ascension - PlayStation 4
Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/02/2014 -
Blood Knights - PC
The Dark Eye: Demonicon - PC
Karaoke Revolution - PlayStation 2
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol - PlayStation 2
Karaoke Revolution Volume 2 - PlayStation 2
Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 - PlayStation 2
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures - PC
Rock Band 2 - X-Box 360
SingStar - PlayStation 3
Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/03/2014 -
Crimzon Clover: World Ignition - PC
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational - PlayStation 3
League of Legends - PC
Rock Band 2 - X-Box 360
Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/04/2014 -
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - PC
Infinity Blade II - iPad
The King of Fighter XIII Steam Edition - PC
League of Legends - PC
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition - PC
Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

- 07/05/2014 -
Guild Wars 2 - PC
League of Legends - PC
Might & Magic X: Legacy - PC

- 07/06/2014 -
Might & Magic X: Legacy - PC
Yourself!Fitness - X-Box

Screenshot of the Week:

A stance that should be implemented all around the globe.

Might & Magic X: Legacy (Personal Computer)