I Like Epic's Sale Better Than Steam's

Those who are uninformed and misguided, and maybe a smidgen stupid, hate the Epic Games Store. I personally enjoy the Epic Games Launcher thus far. The never ending free games, though most ended up being duplicates of my Steam and Twitch games, are reason enough to endear one to Epic's digital storefront. These games are mostly great titles too with a sprinkle of the ordinary thrown into the mix every so often. It's also great that Epic is offering a much larger cut of the profit to the developers/publishers from games sold compared to Steam. Everyone wants more money, you cannot blame them for signing a limited exclusivity deal with Epic. I am still baffled however that after all this time, improvements to the launcher have been incredibly slow. Does everyone who work at Epic only spend their every working hour collectively on Fortnite? I can't even customize my profile with an avatar, now that is just ridiculous in this day and age. Let's not talk about the lack of a shopping cart, it's pretty asinine.

The Epic Games launcher has more of my games than Origin and Uplay combined.

Epic is currently having an "Epic Mega Sale 2020" event that will last until June 11th and you know what? I am so in love with Epic right now. I know they did this same thing during their last sale event, but I wasn't sure if the "combo chain" (I will explain) was limited to just one title previously. You see, Epic is offering a $10 discount that can be used on eligible titles on the store priced $14.99 and above and by doing so during this promotion period, you then get another $10 discount and this can continue until... you emptied out your wallet? Has anything like this ever happened on Steam? Never. I had to grind tasks and pay money to earn measly cash discounts during the Steam sale events but no, not here. Since I have had my eyes on a number of games less than $20 with the sale discount that qualify for the $10 off, I am paying low, low prices to get these awesome games, like Journey to the Savage Planet, a game released early this year, that sees a price reduction from $29.99 to merely $7.99! This is quite generous. I quickly removed quite a number of games from my Steam wishlist today, hitting that "Played on Another Platform" ignore box to give Valve a message that hey, perhaps they need to be a bit more giving. Now please Epic, give us a shopping cart ASAP, as in roll it out in the next update?

Review: Grand Guilds

Grand Guilds (2020)

Developer: Drix Studios

Platform: Nintendo Switch, Personal Computer (Reviewed)

Induction Date: 03/20/2020

Let's just get it out of the way. Grand Guilds is a grand failure. It's a promising game that combines card battle mechanics on top of turn-based strategy role playing game with graphics that reminded me of the golden years of PlayStation 2 RPGs. It is unfortunate that I couldn't even complete this game because it's utterly broken in more ways than one. The harder I pushed myself through the game, the worse things got so I had no choice but to stop playing it.

These cool looking characters deserve a better game.

Review: Sigma Theory - Global Cold War

Sigma Theory: Global Cold War (2019)

Developer: Mi-Clos Studio, Goblinz Studio, FibreTigre

Platform: Personal Computer

Induction Date: 03/09/2020

Manipulating the world from a cozy little office.

We all crave power, whether we know it or not. The power to live a better life, the power to buy more games, the power to control the world? This need for power is the most compelling aspect of the game for me: you take the helm as a director of operations for a team of agents and scientists in a race against both the doomsday clock and the world to secure advanced humanity altering technologies extracted from a newly discovered scientific method called the "Sigma Theory". It's a rather epic setup and if you buy into that fantasy, the game is able to fulfill some of your expectations with its effective offerings before you realize how deceptively simple things really are.

Review: 3000th Duel

3000th Duel (2019)

Developer: NEOPOPCORN Corp.

Platforms: Personal Computer (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch

Induction Date: 02/21/2020

The title, 3000th Duel, may mislead one into counting the number of enemies that can be found along the journey to find its significance but perhaps it's an allusion to the number of attempts it will take for one to beat some of the game's tough bosses? What is certain is that this little 2D action role playing game borrows heavy inspirations from the ever popular "Souls" series - which means that it's a game that rewards persistence - and those who are looking for such diversions will not be disappointed despite some of the game's glaring flaws.

The amount of "karma" you need to level up will increase with every level.

GMG Santa Cracks Me Up

When it comes to official third party Steam key online retailers out there, Green Man Gaming is a frequent choice for me. They tend to offer deeper discounts on anything that Steam has to offer even during special sales events. All of these companies always have some kooky themes going on and this holiday season, GMG recruits the help of a really funky Santa as the event's mascot.

These poses. The curious hair color change will be a mystery for the ages.

Unconventional Santas are cool and this one is really something else. Judging from the far left picture alone, you know that this Santa had too much eggnog. I was laughing so hard as I was browsing all the cool deals happening on the website. Weird is good and this time, it's really strange but it works.