Steam is expanding

It would seem Steam are making a push for the living room, which I'm taking as hints at the 'Steambox', Valves take on a console. Anyways on the Steam website we are told that "The Steam Universe is Expanding in 2014" and it goes on to mention about their 'Big Picture' feature in Steam optimizing controller and TV use.

Along with this we have a count down timer, which is sat at around 70 hours at the moment. It also has 2 more imaged next to the first timer with nothing around them currently. So I am going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess that the guys at Valve have 3 big announcements over the next coming months/year. The first of which we will find out about in just under 3 days.

As I mentioned before this is bound to be news about Valves console and their push for the living room. Hopefully if I am right about this, they will be the ones to push what Microsoft should have done with the Xbox and GFWL and encourage cross platform gaming. I prefer playing on my PC a lot of my friends prefer to play on console. This has generally stopped us playing together as I don't have consoles and they don't have PCs. The different platform should be irrelevant, I would quite happily wait a few extra months for developers to integrate this feature in to their games, if anything this could quite easily extend the life span of games due to there being more players rather than having the fan base of a game split up over at least 3 different platforms. It is the way forward. I get that different platforms have their exclusives as incentive to buy said console. But more and more games are becoming available on multiple platforms, in these cases cross platform gaming would be idle.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to see what Valve and Steam do, considering we haven't heard too much from them as of late.

Steam is a big boy now.

It would seem that Steam has hit it's 10th birthday today. Which apparently means I missed out on the first 3 years of it's life missing all those big moments like it's first steps, it's first word and the fact that it was a little bit shit when it first came out and everyone hated it.

Back then was a simpler time for gaming, you bought a game put a serial key in during installation and boom you can play your game. But Valve obviously saw the potential of the future of online gaming and took a left turn while everyone else was going right. This is also why I am so lenient with the likes of Origin and the fact everyone rips on it. It's still early days for EA and their digital download system, yes it's not the greatest, but since it started it has improved and will continue to improve of the years, just as Steam did. Other wise it will end up as another GFWL, I don't see that happening though, as EA do seem to actually be working on it.

Hopefully we will see the guys at Valve continue to improve Steam for the next 10 years and we will see some bugs fixed, new features and other improvements I can't think of. I was going to put a corny line in to finish this about the cake and lies but I decided against it. Instead have a picture of portal cake.

State of PC Digital Download

There has been a couple things I've read related to this matter as of late. The first being Microsoft seemingly giving up on Games for Windows live and shutting down the service on July 1st 2014. While a lot of people will see this as a good thing considering there a quite number of folk who can't stand Microsofts GFWL platform, which I do understand as it isn't exactly the greatest out there. However I am one of the few(many? I haven't looked into figures) that still plays games on said platform, with the likes of Batman, Red Faction Guerilla, GTA 4 to name a few. All of these games I really enjoy and often go back to playing them on a some what regular (okay not that regular but they all get return visits over time), they also require you to sign into Microsofts service to play and save your game. My worry is how many developers will come around to patch out GFWL once it's gone? Will I still be able to play these games in a years time? Who is to say? Hopefully we will hear from them and whether they are going to sort this out.

I while I agree GFWL is a pain in the ass at times, Microsoft shouldn't have just bailed on PC gamers. It did have so much potential done right, under the right management and team it could have easily rivaled Steam, Origin (yes Origin it's a valid platform it just had a crappy launch like Steam did but that's a rant for another day) and other online distributors. They could have started cross platform gaming, pulled in gamers with Xbox exclusives such as Halo and Gears of War. But alas we got cock all, even though they are more than capable of making something decent (ie the Xbox interface). Why could they not have done something similar only on PC. Whether this is them MS scrapping the disaster of windows live and starting over from scratch or just giving up completely, only time will tell.

Next we have some news about Origin. They have recently set up a returns policy you can find here. This is quite a big step in Digital Download systems as usually when you buy something online you are kind of stuck with it. However under EAs new rules you can return game downloads for full refunds with 24 hours of the first time you launch the game, within seven days from when you purchase it, or within the first seven days after the games release if you pre ordered. No other DD platform has implemented such a clause in their ToS. EA definitely gained some kudos with this move. Granted it still has a while to gain the influence that Steam has but it's just a baby in comparison, however if EA keep pulling moves like this out the bag I'm sure they will catch up.

The Summer Bundle

I think I missed the last Indie Royale bundle but we have another one on the go now. This bundle is a fairly big one as well which will include 9 games and also some music if you pay over $8. As usual it has a minimum price which sits at about £3.60 at the moment. The games included are:

• Harvest: Massive Encounter (available on Steam, Desura and as a drm free download for windows, mac and linux)
• The Journey Down: Chapter One (available on Desura and as a drm free download for windows, mac and linux)
• Serious Sam 2 (available on Steam)
• Gundemonium Recollection (available on Steam, Desura and as a drm free download for windows)
• GundeadliGne (available on Steam, Desura and as a drm free download for windows)
• Hitogata Happa (available on Steam, Desura and as a drm free download for windows)
• Acceleration Of Suguri X-Edition (available on Desura and as a drm free download for windows)
• Dino Run SE (available on Desura and as a drm free download for windows, mac and linux)
• AirMech (available on Steam, Desura and as a drm free download for windows)

The bundle expires in just over 9 days 13 hours from me writing this so by my math it will end on Tuesday 10th July at 11 pm GMT or BST I can't remember which I'm in atm, it's definitely Tuesday night though I'm pretty sure it's british summer time now anyway. I am going to be getting this for Harvest: Massive Encounter as I have wanted it since last time I saw it on sale on Steam, Serious Sam 2 is also an extremely good reason to get this bundle aswell, I already have this so may just be giving my copy away.

Also check out Unfair Reviews video review (below) and also Backlog Journeys review of the bundle for more detail on each game.

The future of Origin

I came across an interview with head of Origin, David Demartini on Games Industry about what the future holds for EAs digital distribution service, it's an interesting read. They want Origin to be 'the hub' for gamers and goes on to talk about cross platform though it does sound like they want to be something like Raptr which allows you to see acheivements, game collections, what you've been playing etc and rank you against friends. We seen cross platform gaming done, quite successfully may I add, with Valve and Portal 2 between PC and PS3. Hopefully this is a sign of things, I have been wanting this to happen since GFWL started (which I am still hoping will happen but I'm not holding my breath), cross platform gaming could and should have happened back then but alas Microsoft never followed through with what could have brought Xbox and PC gamers closer together, but I'm not going to get in to that rant now. EA are definitely big enough to fund this sort project, so maybe in the not to distant future we will see EA dabbling in cross platform games. I'm sure if one company sets the ground work for something like this others will follow suite. It needs to be done.

He also discusses Steam, talking about Valves raping of wallets... I mean sales and discounts and how Origin won't be going down this road. Saying how it cheapens your intellectual property. While I can see where he's coming from on the matter, I disagree with the fact it cheapens your ip, the fact of the matter is due to the fact that you are buying from a digital distributor the games shouldn't be the same price as they are if you are buying a hard copy. You have no case, instruction books or discs to make therefore no manufactor costs only those of for the upkeep of servers. I don't see how you can justify £40 for a downloadable copy of a game when it you pay the exact same amount for everything that comes with a hard copy. Then there is also the fact that we are in a recession and everyone can't afford to buy every single title that comes out at 40 quid a pop. Which is why I am yet to buy a single new AAA title this year. Purely because I can't afford to, along with the fact that if I wait a couple months it will be half the price, which points to his earlier comment about cheapening ips, but this is how businesses work. You set a price, if it doesn't sell well enough, you cut the price to increase sales, which is exactly what Valve do with Steam. Not every sale they do is ridiculously discounted they generally range from 10% and upwards, if we take the lowest discount thats only 3-4 quid off a new game. Then there is the fact these sales can rejuvinise games vastly increasing their popularity and even extending the life span of games.

Anyway I have rambled on enough for now, I am interested to see what Origin do in the future, I've never really used it so can't comment on how good or bad I think it is, however they are the new kids on the block and have to prove themselves and it would seem they are attempting to do that as it has had multiple updates during it's first year and looks like they are going to continue to do so.

Humble Bundle V

The latest Humble Bundle has a total of 5 games (4 if you don't meet the minimum which is just under $8 at the time of writing this), all of which are redeemable through Steam. The games included are:

• Limbo
• Psychonauts
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
• Bastion

All of these games are well known indie titles these days and definitely worth a buy if you haven't played them already (I can't say personally for Superbrothers as I haven't played that yet but I have heard good things about it). Bastion is the game you get if you beat the minimum and I would highly suggest doing so as it is an awesome little game.

Also this Humble Bundle is the highest grossing bundle they have done so far according to Indie Game Magazine beating it's previous record of $2,417,659 made during the Humble Bundle IV with 11 days still to go before this current bundle expires. Along with the games mentioned above you also get the soundtrack for each game included with your purchase of the bundle. Also check out Unfair Reviews 'Should I Buy?' video of the bundle for a little more info on each game.

The Graduation Bundle

So it is Indie Royale time once again. This bundle includes a total of 6 games and a music bonus if you pay over $7, you'll get Cheap Dinosaurs' acclaimed self-titled chiptune-rock album (which you can stream for free via the link above), though the minimum for just the games sits at about £3. The games included are:

• The Void
• Dead Pixels
• The Ship
• 1,000 Amps
• LaserCat
• AirMech

All of the games except Dead Pixels (an Indie Royale exclusive PC debut and LaserCat are available on Steam, and all but The Ship (which includes 2 extra giftable Steam keys) are available on Desura. Check out UnfairReviews if you want to know a little more about each game, each video is one a couple minutes long and worth checking out.

The All Charity Lightning Pack

Indie Royale have yet another bundle on the go and the profits from this one will go entirely to charity. What ever you pay is split between Amnesty International, EFF, Action Aid and Unicef. You can split your payment on Humble Bundle and Indie Gala between charity, developers, and the bundle company, only it is split between the 4 charities mentioned above instead. The games included in this bundle are:

• Osmos
• B.U.T.T.O.N
• The Shivah
• Blueberry Garden

All of these games are available as DRM free versions, or redeemable on Steam (except The Shivah) and Desura. The Minimum for the 4 games above is £2.63 as of writing this, however if you pay over $7 (about £4.30ish) you also get 3 bonus albums:

• Virt
• 6955
• Disasterpeace

So as per usual I will be buying this bundle as I do with damn near every bundle after I get paid on Friday. You have about 99 hours left to get in on this bundle so by my math it should end about 7pm GMT this Sunday. For a review of the bundle check out The Backlog Journey and also the YouTube video below, he covers all indie bundles so give him a subscribe if you want reviews of future bundles.

Indie Gala IV

I'm a little late writing about this bundle as it went live a few days ago, can't remember exactly when but Indie Gala have a nice little bundle of 9 games (7 of which are available as Steam downloads) so long as you pay over the minimum which at the time of me writing this is $5.19 (£3.20). So paying even the minimum it works out at about 35p a game, how can you go wrong with that. The games included in this bundle are:

• Steel Storm: Burning Retribution
• A.R.E.S.: Extinction Agenda
• Alien Shooter
• Disciples II: Gallean's Return
• Altitude
• Really Big Sky
• Alien Shooter 2
• Wake
• Lunnye Devitsy

This bundle has just over 11 days left until it ends, so if my maths is correct it should be ending midnight GMT on Tuesday 15th of May. As I am currently skint at this moment in time that will give me plenty of time to find a few quid for this. Also If you want a review of all the games involved check out The Backlog Journey, he seems to cover just about every indie bundle in existence.

The May Hurray Bundle

Would you believe it? We have yet another Indie Royale bundle on the go. This one is obviously for the May Day holiday given the bundles name. This bundle includes the following 5 games:

• Dungeon Defenders
• Containment: The Zombie Puzzler
• Data Jammers: FastForward
• Brainpipe - A Plunge to Unhumanity
• Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space

All of these games are available on Desura, and all but Weird Worlds is available as a Steam download. I would personally get this bundle purely for Dungeon Defenders, it's a multiplayer coop tower defence game, I have only played the demo but I have heard many good things from people who have played the game, this game has been on my list for a while so what's a better time to get it than during a sale like this. Anyway as with every Indie Royale bundle you can pay what you want so long as you meet the minimum which stands at just over £3 at the point of me writing this and the offer ends in just over 6 days time which is handy because I'm skint until Tuesday and I reckon I will be picking this one up. Also check out The Backlog Journey, there is a write up of all the games included in this bundle.

EA Indie Bundle?

Yes, thats right I used EA and indie in the same sentence. But according to Indie Game Magazine an EA Indie Bundle has been registered on Steam. Now I have always classed indie games and developers are those that are independent of publishers so by definition EA can not technically have an Indie Bundle as every game in here they are in fact publisher to and not developer. None the less they are apparently getting in on some indie game action as it seems to be quite the growing trend at the moment.

This bundle will consist of the following 6 games:

• Shank
• Shank 2
• Deathspank
• Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue
• Warp
• Gatling Gears

This bundle will cost you £14.38 saving you just over £30 if you were to buy these games at their usual price. You can also buy the games in this bundle individually if you happen to have some of the games in question already at a 50% discount of the usual price. This offer is running until the 9th of May and I would suggest if anything get Deathspank for cheap out of this. The other games I haven't played so I can't really say how good or bad they are, but Deathspank and it's sequels are awesome.

Shoot Many Robots - First Thoughts

A friend of mine suggested this game to me a while back and I am kinda glad he did, it's a fun little game. Shoot Many Robots is a side scrolling shooter and as you might have guessed by the name of the game the primary aim of the game is to shoot many robots (10,000 of them if you want the Shoot Many Robots achievement). There are many different types of robots starting with choppers which are small little robots with chainsaws attached to them which are normally found in large hordes, then we have Hummers which are annoying little flying robots that shoot rockets, then as levels progress you get bigger and harder robots in your path such as the hot rod, which is pretty much a gattling gun and can hurt quite a bit if you get the way of its barrage of gun fire and a number of others that I won't go into but you can read about here if you are interested.

The game is both single and multiplayer. The multiplayer is however just a coop version of the story mode. While playing by your self is quite fun and fairly challenging, but this game seems to me like one of those games that should be played with some buddies while having a couple of beers, it's fun, fast paced and quite chaotic. Perfect for those nights of drunken gaming.

Shoot Many Robots also has a leveling and weapon unlock system, which seem to becoming more and more of a trend with shooters these days which I'm not the greatest fan of, but I'll not get in to that rant right now. To get to the max level (50) doesn't take all that long, so long as you join in coop games on Hard or Insane difficulty, I went from level 1 to 45 in a matter of a couple hours, unlocking guns and gear on the other hand can take a fair while longer as they seem to just drop randomly in game (I believe it's when you kill the harder robots, but don't quote me on that) which you then have to buy at the store with nuts and bolts you pick up during your robot killing adventure, so getting everything would take awhile.

Overall it is a cool and fun little game definitely worth the £8 I spent on it on Steam (it is also available on XBLA and PSN and I would suggest it to others who are in the need of a distraction until that next big game they are wanting comes along.

The Spring Bundle

It's Indie Royale time and once again you can pay whatever you want for this little bundle of indieness so long as you meet the minimum which tends to stick around the £3 mark, give or take. This bundle includes the 6 following games:

• Unstoppable Gorg
• Depths of Peril
• Tobe's Vertical Adventure
• Inferno+
• Slydris
• Ballistic

All of these games are available on Desura to download, if you want Steam versions of the games you can get them for the first 3 in the list but the rest are currently not available on your favourite digital download service. But at a couple quid for 6 games you can't complain at all.

The April Fools Bundle

It's that time once again and the Indie Royale team are at it again this bundle as you may have guessed by the title is the April Fools Bundle. This bundle includes the following games:

• Defense Grid: The Awakening
• Hack, Slash, Loot
• Alien Zombie Megadeath
• Explodemon
• Astro Tripper

Just like all the other bundles before it all these games are available as DRM free downloads, though you can redeem all of them through Desura, and all but Explodemon are available on Steam according to the Indie Royale site but doing a quick search in the steam store I couldn't find Hack, Slash, Loot. As usual I will once again be giving a few quid to get me some indie bundle goodness.

St Patricks Indie Bundle

So St Paddys Day is nearly upon us and not only do we get to celebrate the drunkenness of the Irish we also have another Indie Royale bundle on the go. This one is available now and we have just under 5 days left to get this bundle of goodness. The games included in this one are:

• Hard Reset
• Jolly Rover
• Vertex Dispenser
• DLC Quest
• Lair of the Evildoer
  
  The first three games are available on Steam, the last two however are not, they are available on Desura though. The minimum at the moment is round about £3, but as always it is subject to change. I would highly suggest getting this if anything purely for Hard Reset, it is a great little game I picked it up in a Steam sale a while back and love it. The other games would just be a bonus but as I said before Hard Reset is awesome and is a hell of a bargain if you pick it up for the minimum.

Payday: The Heist Free Weekend

The Overkill guys are having a free Payday: The Heist weekend allowing you to play the game in full for free (who would have guessed) until Sunday at 1PM PST. This game is a 4 person co-op game where you have to pull off heists such as Bank Jobs, Diamond heists and escort missions. It is a awesome little game, which I haven't played for a couple months now, but I bought it on release and played so much of this. If you can get three of your buddies to play along with it is definitely a much better experience than playing with either bots or randoms on the internet. Along with it being a free weekend to try out the game, it is also available to buy at the discounted price of £7.49 or £22.49 for a four pack of the game, 50% of the usual price. I would definitely suggest picking this up, or at least give it a play over the weekend. This has also reminded me that I still have a draft write up of my thoughts of the game to finish off for this game I started a few months ago, I get distracted and forget about stuff, so I will get that done in the near-ish future (hopefully).

Steam Weekend Deals

This weekend you can pick up some pretty cool games for a fraction of the price as Deus Ex: Human Revolution and every single Serious Sam game are discounted at 66% off their full price. I have most of the Serious Sam games except Serious Sam 2 which I will be getting to finish off the collection, which is ironic as it was the first Serious Sam game I actually played. As for Deus Ex I played the start of it awhile back possibly on Playstation at a mates, I really can't remember. Seems pretty cool and I was a fan of the original as well. So for £10.19 I can't exactly say no. If you don't have any of these games now is the time.

Free Weekend for Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer on Steam

Not sure whether you want to buy the latest Call of Duty game? Here is your chance to give the multiplayer a shot. This weekend you will be able to play Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer completely free. You can start pre loading there game now in preparation here which I am doing now. While I'm not the greatest fan of the series, I tend to play a few hours whenever one of these weekends pops up as I did with Black Ops a few months back. I'm not going to buy the game, but it will at least give me a little perspective on it. There are plenty of people on each side of the fence, some love, some hate it. I like to sit on the fence and watch them fight it out. Just thought I'd mention it in case any one was interested really. I may do first thoughts on the game after the weekend has finished as well.

Killing Floor Steam Sale

Killing Floor is a pretty cool little co-op survival game and it happens to be on sale on Steam for the low, low price of £2.24 which is 85% off the usual cost. You can also buy the DLC along with the game for the slightly more expensive (and I use that term loosely) price of £3.21. The DLC is just different character skins it doesn't actually add anything to the game except you can have your guy looking different. I refuse to any DLC of that nature as that kind of stuff should just be unlockable in the game but I'm not going to get in to that rant right now.

Anyway if you haven't played the game, what a new game to waste some time or hell if you have have 3 quid spare laying about I would suggest picking it up. It's great fun especially if you play with some buddies and organise your strategy to survive, you will need one especially on the harder difficulties. You will easily get your moneys worth out of this game. I realise that's not saying much as it's £3 but my point is it's a decent game and worth the buy.

A message from Gabe Newell

If you read the news section of Steam or follow Valve on Facebook, you may have already come across this. It's an update from Gabe about the database hack a few months back and this is what he said:

"Dear Steam Users and Steam Forum Users:

We continue our investigation of last year's intrusion with the help of outside security experts. In my last note about this, I described how intruders had accessed our Steam database but we found no evidence that the intruders took information from that database. That is still the case.

Recently we learned that it is probable that the intruders obtained a copy of a backup file with information about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. This backup file contained user names, email addresses, encrypted billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. It did not include Steam passwords.

We do not have any evidence that the encrypted credit card numbers or billing addresses have been compromised. However as I said in November it's a good idea to watch your credit card activity and statements. And of course keeping Steam Guard on is a good idea as well.

We are still investigating and working with law enforcement authorities. Some state laws require a more formal notice of this incident so some of you will get that notice, but we wanted to update everyone with this new information now.

Gabe"