Games I've Been Playing

It's the end of the month again so I it's yet again time for me to do another one of these. I'll start off with a little Fallout: New Vegas. I've had this game for ages I bought it months ago in a Steam sale of some sort, but never got round to playing it, as with far too many games I own. Over the past couple of weeks or so, I've been working my way through it, and have just made it up to the Strip. I still have a way to go to finish off the game but it's definitely on it's way to the finish line and finally get off the backlog list. Next couple of games I picked up recently due to Steam realising I actually had money left in my account. They only got me for £15 this time but I got 3 decent games out of it though. Mirrors Edge, Serious Sam 2 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I got Serious Sam 2 to finish off my collection of Serious Sam games on Steam. Which is a little ironic as it was the first Serious Sam game I played. The story I don't really care for, but I prefer the weapons and gameplay in this game than other Serious Sam games. Next we have Mirrors Edge, it's a cool little game and I'm glad I got it. I've put a couple hours into it already and got up to Ropeburn, the first boss, though I am stuck at this part so have left the game alone for a while, this also is more than likely due to me playing a lot of Deus Ex which I picked up for a tenner. It was an absolute steal at that price. I am loving this game I think I'm about half way through now, maybe a bit further. The more augments I get as I progress the better the game gets. The augment that allows me to safely float to the ground no matter how high I drop from is by far the coolest one I've got so far. It's just the little animation and sound it makes, it is awesome.

On the multi-player side of things I haven't been playing that much this month until this past week. I've been getting back in to Nuclear Dawn which has had a couple major patches recently which included a new map and     some new items for certain classes such as the ammo kits for Engineer and hypospray for the medic, both of which are a great addition to the game, the ammo kit is especially helpful in the early portion of the map as it gives you the chance to keep your team mates supplied while the commander plays catch up. I've also been playing some Super Monday Night Combat got into the beta a few weeks ago. It has had a GUI update recently which does look a lot better than it's previous version. It's a great game. I'm really good with Assault, Karl, Support and Combat Girl, however I do need to practice with other classes, I'm currently working on getting Cheston up to scratch at the moment, he's a Gorilla with a tommy gun how can you not love it.

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.

Gamestop Apologise

Recently Gamestop have been in the news due to the fact they were taking out coupons for a streamed version of Deus Ex on Onlive, which seem to have got a little more publicity than they would have with the coupons alone. Shortly after this they pulled the game and stopped selling it all together. Now they have officially apologised and are offering a free $50 GameStop gift card and a Buy 2 Get 1 Free pre-owned purchase. All you need to do is take in the apologetic email and your store receipt to your nearest GameStop and they will give you your bribe. I kinda wished I ordered the game from GameStop to get these free coupons actually. It's good to see them at least attempting to make up for there shady business.

GameStop takes out Deus Ex coupons from Retail Copies

Retail PC copies of the new Deus Ex game apparently along side having a physical disc of the game also got a coupon for the game to use at Onlive (a service I haven't used but do think is a hell of an idea, cloud gaming, even if you have a shitty computer you can still play the latest games so long as you have a decent internet connection).

Apparently the higher ups at Game Stop have been telling employees to remove the added version of the game. Whether this is happening at every Game Stop we don't know, we don't know why they are doing this as of yet, hopefully we'll get an update on the situation soon enough. It does seem a strange move though, I think it may just be a bit of a dick move hoping they will get more people downloading from Impulse (gamestops DD service), while Impulse and Onlive aren't exactly the same thing they are quite similar and I would say on the same level, no where near up to Steam level but still do okay for themselves. That's pure speculation though though is quite possible as Game Stop have been known to do shady things in the past. Neither Onlive or Square Enix (who made a deal from the coupons to be there) have made a comment on the matter. It all seems a bit shady to me to be honest.

There has been user comments on articles about this defending GameStop saying it's okay they are just reducing competition. Or that it's a low move by Onlive to have coupons for there service selling at game stop. To these type of comments, I say bullshit. Yes removing the vouchers would be reducing competition, does that make it okay? Hell no it doesn't, especially when they remove it, rewrap the code and still sell it as new and don't mention the voucher has been removed. If the game has been opened between Square Enix shipping them off and me buying the game, it's is technically used, maybe not the disc. But the customer should be the first person to open it, whether or not this is illegal, I don't know but it is a dick move by them. As for the Onlive shouldn't be  promoting there system through someone elses. Again bullshit, the fact of the matter is there is a voucher in every PC retail copy so they are not trying to have a go at GameStop and Impulse they are merely doing what companies do and trying to widen there customer market.  GameStop is in the wrong here, if you disagree frankly you are wrong. Onlive did nothing wrong except promoting there company. They made a deal with a games developer. These things happen and they always will. By the logic of stopping competition they shouldn't sell the likes of Battlefield 3 as it needs Origin, making the need to buy from Gamestop or download from impulse unnecessary, we can't have any competition trying to better themselves now can we. Anyway I'm going to end my rant here.

Deus Ex primed for PC.

The new Deus Ex game is due to be released to us in the not to distant future, I am looking forward to this aswell, I very much doubt it will be a day 1 purchase but it's on the list none the less. This is just about how they are actually making the PC version an actual PC version and not just some console port like alot of developers do. We will be getting be seeing full DX11 compatibility along with support for AMD's Eyefinity (which is use of multiple monitors) and also 3DHD, if you happen to be rich enough to own a 3D monitor or tv already. Looks like PC gaming is finally coming back around and getting a bit more loving attention that it truely deserves as it has been sat in the shadows for awhile now. I guess both main consoles are getting a little dated so the logical step would to turn back to PCs with there ever evolving tech.