My PC Temperature is Rising!

How I hate this nasty hot summer weather... But at least all of this deadly heat brings about crazy deals and discounts for digital games courtesy of my favorite direct download distributors, Steam and Direct2Drive. "The Steam Summer Camp Sale" has begun today and different game deals will be offered per day until the 10th of next month while Direct2Drive's Summer Sale starts tomorrow and will feature 31 days of deals. The Steam offerings are definitely a lot more attractive because by buying and playing the games that are on offer, you earn tickets for the grand prize drawing where 100 lucky gamers - that is right, one bloody hundred - will receive the top 10 games on their Steam wish list! You get one free ticket by just joining Steam's official community group for the promotion! If you are still not doing your Personal Computer gaming using Steam, well, you must be crazy. My poor wallet is trembling right now: Things are going to get a bit rough for the little guy!

The "summer camp" concept is so very endearing.

Mafia II Giveaway Winner!

Apparently, not a lot of people want to win a free Personal Computer game. It's an old game so I shouldn't have expected too much. I know that a lot of misinformed people just don't like Steam but anyway, I have decided to cut the deadline short because I don't think I will receive any more comment submissions - both the qualified and non-qualified ones - for the giveaway that I posted up a couple of days ago. I just want to reward the winner with the ability to appreciate this game earlier than expected. Congratulations to...

I will be sending you the Steam activation code using the email address you have provided. I hope you will have fun playing the game on your second play-through with the benefits of the improved PC visuals. For the other two participants who placed comments on the giveaway article, thanks for trying.

Switching Stance

Okay, so I always thought it was funny for me to obscure and censor the face of my X-Box LIVE avatar whenever I have him in a screenshot. Well, if you have always wondered how he really looks like, now you are fully invited to drool over the handsome bugger:

It's a little too warm to wear the kimono right now.

I have decided to open myself up a bit, thus the reason why my gamer profiles for the three major gaming services are now being displayed underneath my profile on the right hand side of the blog. What prompted this? Well, my spouse thought that I needed to be a bit more personal in my approach to my writing here. I thought I already did that but who knows, maybe good things may come from all of this.

Mafia II Giveaway!

I have an extra activation code for the Personal Computer version of Mafia II by 2K Czech and I am giving it away to one lucky reader! Bear in mind that you must have a Steam account to activate the game but if you still don't have a Steam account (better admit yourself to the closest psychiatric ward), it is free and it is a breeze to install. Just click here to sign up for it. Only those who register themselves as a "Follower" are qualified for the game giveaway but just simply occupying the "Other Gamers" space to the right hand side of the website will not be enough. You must communicate your interest by commenting on this article. The deadline for comment submissions is 10:00pm PST on the 4th of July next week. Please make sure to include your email address in the comment if it is not already available on your blogger profile. The winner will be selected randomly on 07/05/2011 and there will be an announcement for it on that day. Good luck!

Note: 06/30/2011, 10:36am - I have decided to end the giveaway early. No new submissions will be accepted for the drawing. Click here to view the nail-biting, thrilling result.

Warning: Kissing up to (or just kissing) me will not increase your chances of winning.

Celebrate First Amendment with Steam!

Today marks a victory celebration for the video game industry with the Supreme Court ruling against the ridiculously conceived California law that would penalize retailers for selling "violent" games to children - the retailers do not sell games that are rated "M for Mature Audiences" directly to kids in the first place - and cause a lot of complications in terms of video game distributions. Steam has decided to flaunt the result of this on its store page as you can see below. Click here if you are interested in reading the complete official document in regards to this ruling. For those who still think that "violent" video games should be censored, well I will politely say that you do not understand the system that has been established by the Entertainment Software Rating Board and paranoid parents, you do know that you have the power to directly control of your kids right? If you don't well, that's a different problem than video games is it not?

FTW indeed!