Once a year, something horrible happens. A cash-draining monstrosity we at Tap-Repeatedly refer to as the Steam Holiday Sale. $60 games for $0.99. Whole bundles – five and six games – for $4.99. And every year we queue up, faces hidden in shame, to buy games we already own, buy games we never intend to play, buy games we don’t even want. And why? Because! We. Just. Can’t. Stop. Ourselves.
Shame on me. I finally succumbed to purchasing my first Team Fortress 2 item several weeks ago. I justified the transaction by wanting to pad out my Steam wallet with £10 so I could buy A.I. War, while still having enough change left to get my grubby mitts on a vanity item of my choosing. Having sunk hundreds of hours into TF2, absorbing its free content like a sponge in water, I told myself it’s …
Two Mothers Of All Patches came out in the last day – Stardock Systems has released a monstrous 1.1 patch for its bomb Elemental: War of Magic, and Firaxis unleashed an update they’re actually calling The HUGE Patch to Civilization V, tweaking nearly every aspect of game AI. As the patch notes, linked above, indicate, neither of these are little bitty fixes. They are huge tracts of patch. Elemental 1.1 apparently ups the game from …
Time magazine has named Remedy’s horror shooter Alan Wake 2010’s Game of the Year. Our own Mat C also thought highly of it, as the above review indicates. Time talked about the game’s inherent maturity and complex storyline, even using the word “Hitchcockian” at one point: Lots of video-game covers have a bold M on their lower left corner, but none have felt as mature as Alan Wake does… Its mix of meta-awareness and Hitchcockian …
Behold! Well Played 2.0, a college textbook on video game theory, has been published by Carnegie-Mellon’s imprint, Etc Press. You can and should buy a digital or book-shaped copy here. Why? Because it includes a chapter by me, about me. Not about me. About STALKER. Because that’s a more interesting subject than me. Seriously, me would bore you to tears. And so might this STALKER article. But buy the book and read it all. Published …
Can you feel it? The crazy train is rolling into town again. And not a crazy Steam powered train either, no, one fuelled by Wolfire. Yes it’s the return of the Humble Indie Bundle: five sweet indie games each compatible with Windows, OSX and Linux, DRM free, individually giftable and all going for whatever price you like. Choo choo indeed. The best bit is that your payment can be split any way you like between …
Well kids, it’s mid way through December, which means you’re soon going to be seeing a lot of the following three things in particular: 1.) Father Christmas, and/or adults pretending to be Father Christmas 2.) Drunk relatives 3.) Game Of The Year lists So what is 2010’s Game of the Year? More to the point, who cares? I’m calling this one right now; Fighters Uncaged has got this years award in the bag. What’s more …
It’s difficult to know where to even begin when covering World of Warcraft’s latest expansion set. The game is already so vast as a result of its unprecedented success that to add further content becomes a daunting prospect for anyone wanting to jump in… (warning – may contain spoilers)
So, SSX is back! Sort of. As one of my personal favorite franchises on the PlayStation 2, sitting alongside TimeSplitters as an early example of what Sony’s new machine could offer back in 2000, it’s long awaited return should be big news. But 10 years is a long time and much can change over the course of a decade. Just how much can things change, exactly? It would seem quite abit. That most beloved arcade …
Our own Davo posted on the forums with this little bit of news: it seems Bethesda has, at long last, revealed the next Elder Scrolls game. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim involves… well, I’m betting it involves old scrolls and the province of Skyrim, at least. And judging from the Max von Sydow-narrated trailer, it might involve dragons too. See below!
I was playing through Aliens vs. Predator the other night when I saw my good friend and gaming insider Matt Sakey (a.k.a. Steerpike) on Steam. Ah, Steam. You allow me to intrude on my friends at my whim. I sent Sakey a one-sentence review of Metro 2033: “I’m punishing Metro 2033 for being a stupid, stupid game. STOOPID.” To his credit, Matt did not immediately log off and instead responded: “Is that stoopid as in …
Every year around the holidays I post a message about Child’s Play, the charity founded by Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Child’s Play collects toys and monetary donations for distribution to children’s hospitals all over the world – getting games, books, and toys into the hands of sick kids to help make their time in such places a little more like home. The charity is important and special regardless, but this year, for …
As those who tap the forums already know, I had LASIK a couple of weeks ago. It’s kind of an amazing procedure. Totally painless, though you do feel… something, something unpleasant, but “pain” is the wrong word. It’s more like you’re aware of being sharply uncomfortable for a few seconds. Admittedly the smell of your own burning eye flesh is disconcerting, but it doesn’t hurt.
For the next eight hours after surgery, though, your eyeballs feel like they’re being rolled in a slurry of sand and lemon juice. A great, noble, self-sacrificing friend of mine took me to the surgery, then took me home, then narrated a game of Civilization V to me (I’d been told not to open my eyes) while I fidgeted and growled and pawed at my liberally running eyes as they lay protected beneath the silly plastic shields they’d made me wear.
1UP and others report that the PS3 and PSP will soon get Neo Geo Station, a downloadable emulator for that venerable platform.
I gotta stroll down Memory Lane for a moment here.
In a move sure to chap the ass of former South Australia Attorney General Michael Atkinson, the Aussie federal cabinet has approved the adoption of an R18+ classification for games down under, effectively eliminating the tacit ban on any games deemed unsuitable for an R15+ – formerly the highest rating. This still has to be approved by Australian states and territories, and presumably adopted by Parliament as well, but it’s a step in the right …