So Steam’s ‘Big Picture Mode’ is some really slick stuff. Had my PC out in the living area and have been quite satisfied with the results.

One of the things I have been most excited about is a rather small change in perspective, but has really made my living room setup feel complete. The latest update not only brings a less buggy ‘add non steam game’ functionality, you can now put banners on your non steam games so that they fit right in with your existing steam collection. I have even got DOSBOX games setup through steam.

There is a gigantic archive of banners at http://steambanners.booru.org/index.php

You can get banners for some really obscure classic games even. I have only had to make 1 banner myself, and I have added about 30 non-steam games to my collection.

Now, with my terrabyte hard drive already packed with 140 steam games, and many more non-steam games that are being added….. you can imagine the wow factor going on in my living room. A couple of clicks take me on a ride through the history of PC gaming.

@unmanneddrone The hell is this?! And how common is this?!

Edit: Looked them up and got a list of risks and whatnot involved. VPN and spoofing requirements, key bannings, stores selling stolen keys, etc. I’d have to get some kind of serious confirmation on that one.

@redswir1 Ahem…

Gregor could be heard coming from a mile away, that distinct thrum of a Lada engine whose loud burble syncopated with the screech of clawing gears and backfires. It was a cool Rostov eve, the sun reclaimed once more by the early arrival of a winter’s night. Red cupped his hands, puffing hot air and squeezing his fingers to fend off the encroaching threat of chill. Atop the approaching ratcheting noise of the Russian vehicle, Red heard the blast of horns from the Don harbour, as river traffic turned from ferries to night barges that plied produce down to Voronezh and the sea of Azov.

Gregor arrived, the dim beams of the headlights playing off the old walls and pipes of the abandoned industrial plant Red found himself waiting in. The Lada’s engine sputtered as Gregor turned the key, opening the door and raising two big burly hands.

“Priyatel! I thought I had wrong address. Now…” Gregor motioned to the back of the Lada, “What you need? I have. You tell me.” The thickset Russian clomped around the Lada and opened the door.
“It depends.”
“Depends? Let me make deal, Muzhyik.” Dragging a long wooden case from the rear of the Lada, Gregor gestured with a nod at the cargo. “Is prime. Dragunov, I throw in scope and box of bullets. This? Forget the 74, this is Motherland’s best.”
Red shook his head. “No man, no guns. Not that gun, anyway. I was hoping you could help me wi-.”
“Kubanskaya!” The Russian interrupted, sliding the box back into the rear of the car and elevating a bottle of vodka. “Is export quality, this I can say. Russian holy water, Priyatel, I baptise in this.”
“Man, no. Look, I’ve got a plane in an hour. I’m after one thing.”
The Russian grinned, eyes narrowing and pointing a stubby finger in the dim light.
“Ah ha, yes. I know. I know! You Americans.” Gregor shook his head and laughed. “You after dirty maga-”
“Borderlands, man.” Red interrupted, exasperated. “No rifles, no booze, no smut. Borderlands 2.”

The Russian froze, his stillness portraying fear if it hadn’t been for the lethargic wink Red caught in the moonlight and reflected illumination from the silent Lada’s headlamps.

“You want sequel? You want good price?” Gregor walked slowly around from behind the vehicle. He stepped up to the foreigner, to such a proximity that the bouquet of spirits, tobacco and cabbage took on a tangible, horrifying presence in Red’s mouth. Gregor squinted. “I give you good price, Tovarish. I give you fine price indeed.”

@bowlisimo Nope. According to hardware rumors, if you build a good enough PC right now you’ll already be outperforming the new consoles when they do swing around. Basically, why wait for next gen when you can be there right now?

For me the console will be just another box back there for first party games. It already is.

Once consoles swing back around again, will everyone be disconnecting their Steam boxes or will it be just another box back there? This whole development is interesting, regardless. Forget about the “one console future”, everything plugs into everything else (more or less) so it doesn’t really matter anymore. I plugged my PS3 into my monitor and routed the sound through my PC for god’s sake. You can get Starcraft from the comfy couch and Demon’s Souls from the computer chair if you wish it.

Speaking of Steam, there are 8 Sherlock Holmes games on it now. EIGHT! Any squaddies ever give one a try? @rampantbicycle?

I’ll just drop this here, but I don’t like the actor who plays Moriarty on the latest BBC Sherlock series. The show is great otherwise. EDIT: Only finished the first season though.

Jesus H. Christ. Steam is on the verge of basically becoming Facebook for PC gamers. Opt into the new Community beta and see what I’m talking about. Now I’m starting to understand why so many people I know waste all their time on that blue website.

So what about these upcoming Steam Community things? Looking a little Facebook-esque but I like the idea of the Squad Steam Group having basically it’s own discussion forum in-app.

Oh, and TF2 horde mode.

Mad Riders (PC, 360, PS3) – Review

Have Techland Nail’d the notion of Pure fun, or will the competition pass this cheap racer in a Blur?

Level Up Winners Give a Sneak Peek at Upcoming Indies

Indie darlings of the future or unworkable nonsense? Pete delves into the 2011 Level Up winners.

@bluesforbuddha @bowlisimo @impynickers I think GOG and Steam are almost alone in the business model built around thoughts like “We’ve accepted that DRM doesn’t work – if people want to pirate then they will pirate, so how do we convince them not to pirate? Build a service that’s better than piracy.”

Gabe recognizes that piracy is a problem with service, not tech, which is something that every damn media company needs to realize. GOG started out with piracy as their biggest competitor and has always been focused on how to beat it. They actually said that more people find out about their service through piracy than from anything else: they find a game on a torrent that came from this “GoodOldGames” place, are convinced to check it out, and end up preferring their service to The Pirate Bay or whatever.

It’s like how the dudes up there still don’t get why Netflix takes up more Internet traffic than TV piracy!

@bowlisimo – Thanks, homey.

Whoever said the Steam sale was a’comin, you were exactly right. Looks like it starts at 1300 today and continues through the holidays.

Looks like there’s going to be a big emphasis on Indie bundles this year, as CheapAssGamer has their list of bundles posted already.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7970333&postcount=1721

I’m actually pretty excited about this year’s sale, because I’ve finally got a machine that is powerful enough to run most of the stuff. Anyone hoping for anything in particular?

Speaking of Steam…

Anyone else getting the impression that this “Treasure Hunt” is Steam coping out of their huge Christmas sale?

It’s running until the 20th, and things aren’t looking good.

I don’t really need Alpha Protocol do I? I know it’ll just sit on my hard drive for forever, but it’s $7.50 now. God damnit Steam.

Can that wishlist include games that aren’t out yet?

I have Company of Heroes and S.T.A.L.K.E.R (the first one) installing over Steam as I work away the day. I’ll try to squeeze some game time in with each this weekend.

Speaking of Steam, has anyone noticed a change in your friend’s list? I seem to have lost some folks and all of my current friends are showing that we’ve only been friends since September of this year? Odd.

@angryjedi Nice work as always on the show. The music totally fit the theme of the show and the use of it was subtle and pleasing to the ear.

Finally, I’ve really been enjoying the 8-4 Play podcast. It’s refreshing to hear talk about the Japanese game dev world through the eyes of Americans working directly in it. Give it a listen.

On another odd note, was considering grabbing Dead Rising 2 yesterday and amazingly PC maybe the way to go. Its running for $59.99 CDN at GameStop if I add 13% HST that’s $67.79 CDN.

Steam has it up for $39.99 USD w/no taxes on Steam purchases that runs in at $41.06 CDN.

Almost $27 cheaper for the PC version, god I love Steam sometimes.

@bowlisimo Steam at least has a clause in its EULA stating that if they ever go out of business the DRM on all their games will unlock.

Folks, while you’re “ripping it up like Willy Mason”, this just popped up on the radar…and it certainly goes towards the AngryJedi DD Lifestyle argument! Check this business out! Please excuse the pic spam, but is this not one of the most gorgeous little Torchlight-meets-MNC you’ve seen in a while? Deathspank, Dungeon Defenders, we’re a bit spoiled for choice with the hack-and-slash titles, but adding Tower Defense to the mix?!

According to Scrawlfx.com (http://bit.ly/9wwyN7)…

“Trendy Entertainment’s announced a new action-RPG set to debut on PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE Arcade, and PC this fall. Dungeon Defenders utilizes the Unreal Engine 3 and brings up to four players together in a stylish watercolor setting.

“Dungeon Defenders turns the tower defense genre on its head and adds a degree of depth seldom seen in a digital title,” said Jeremy Stieglitz, development director of Trendy Entertainment. “There is meaty character leveling and customization, awesome loot drops and plenty of team-oriented defensive strategy to manage, but then you have this action-packed wave-based standoff that gets continually more intense. It’s as deep as it is instantly fun.”

Dungeon Defenders will allow up to four players to play together online or offline as one of four unique classes in fierce battles against waves of enemies across fifteen arenas. It aims to create a “seamless mix” of leveling, looting, and intense combat for “casual and core players alike”.

It’s out this fall.”

There’s an alleged pricetag of 10 bones lurking around, too. Under Siege, THIS, plus the aforementioned titles…oh, and Shank, plus the oldies like Fat Princess, Trine, Shadow Complex etc., the AngryJedi DD lifestyle choice is rapidly becoming something incredibly viable for console owners. These are glorious days, squaddies. Glorious days.

Just saw that a game called “Booster Trooper” is for sale on Steam. Looks like a pretty neat concept. A Deathmatch Platformer – http://store.steampowered.com/app/27920/

Seems like all I squawk about is money-saving deals, but Steam is having a QuakeCon sale this week. Today’s sale is 66% of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Or, you can get the whole id and Bethesda pack (which includes Fallout 3 GOTY) for $69.99.

Just a heads up.

@feen Mac Games Wednesday, you say?

As the owner of a brand new MacBook Pro, the thought of gaming on this powerhouse excites me greatly. However, the 108 games in their current library is….meh.

That being said, I think I’m going to hold off on getting that high-end graphics card for my desktop PC. The i7 processor, and whatever GPU is in this MBP makes Portal look like a wet dream. Plus, I can save myself $150. So that’ll be nice…

So…Valve.

How’s this “Mac Games Wednesday” thing working out for you so far?

@bowlisimo I never really got into Starcraft, but as an RTS, is there really that much narrative?

Also, in the vein of Squad Flashmobs, it looks like Lead and Gold is free-to-play this weekend, starting Friday. I’m pre-loading now to check it out.

Wow! If ever there was a nice and intelligent argument for motion controls, strategy gaming is it. R.U.S.E. is the reason I’m getting Move, and it sounds like Eugen Systems have really worked hard since the beta. You know, a *real* beta, rather than a glorified piece of marketing.

http://bit.ly/cCxAe0

If anyone cares to check it out, the devs have done a nice new vid and unveiled a free multiplayer Steam weekend for the 15th of July. Furthermore, if anyone is considering Move and has a penchant for strategy, perhaps R.U.S.E. is what you’re looking for. Cannot wait for September.

It looks gorgeous!

EDIT: This just in from Gamespot, it sounds awesome!

“Though Move support was added to R.U.S.E. long after development was under way, it has been tightly integrated into the game’s mechanics. The Move controller acts as a pointer, allowing you to highlight a group of troops, issue commands to them, or navigate menus in much the same way a mouse is used in PC real-time strategy games.

Gestures have also been implemented; a swift swipe to right of the screen brings up the menu where you can select your troops with the pointer or via the analogue stick on the navigation controller. Zooming also gets the gesture treatment, where pushing toward the screen zooms into the map, while pulling backward zooms out.

The light-up ball doesn’t get left out of the action either; it turns red when you’re hovering over enemy troops and green when selecting your own. Most commands can be performed using just the main controller, though Girard informed us that the navigation controller makes some commands easier to access, giving you quick shortcuts to the most frequently used ones.”

So I just played the demo of “Beat Hazard” and that game is a lot of fun. I’m going to go ahead and buy the full version because it’s only $2.50. Anyone else a fan?

Also, I’d love to get my hands on that square sig template (and maybe instructions if anyone is feeling generous).

I’m really thinking about biting on that Tropico 3 Steam Edition sale. Anyone familiar with, and could recommend buying, this game?

Oh and the Commandos Complete Collection is $3.75.

I don’t really know about it man. I tried a demo of the first Commandos and just couldn’t get past the first part. Technically the games should be right up my alley since they involve exactly the kind of cerebral stealth-oriented gameplay I crave, but I’m just not digging the isometric RTS-style interface.

If somebody made a game in the exact same spirit as Commandos but in full 3D with direct control of the characters I’d be all over it.

Hey guys, if you can run it, I honestly think ArmA II is well worth $20. Even if it largely looks and runs like an alpha build, we’re talking about a real combat sim that guarantees around 40 hours of singleplayer.

The most value in the game though are probably the Armory and Mission Editor modes.

Armory is kinda like a toy box – they just sit you in the multi-square-kilometer toy box and let you do whatever you want with every weapon, vehicle, or character model. It also includes special extra missions that go from doing special Apache stuff all the way down to playing as a goat running away from poachers.

The Mission Editor let’s players create their own campaign but you don’t have to have mod skills to use it. You create your own missions with in the existing sandbox and you can orchestrate whatever kinds of battles you want. If you check fansites for this game people have already created probably dozens of fan campaigns for ArmA II.

Left 4 Dead 2 is $10 today only. Guys, I think this is your cue.

@bowley Resident Evil 5 would be worth it if the DLC content was ever coming to PC. There are some pretty sweet mods for the game though.

FYI – 15 minutes until we find out what’s on sale next.

I’ll probably go ahead and bite Dark Void Zero too. I was gonna get the DSiWare version for the sake of control interface but…

Just noticed Indigo Prophecy was only $3.39. Since I know a chunk of you guys played Heavy Rain (I listened to the show, aren’t you proud?) if you haven’t picked this up, you really should. Ignore the last 20 minutes, and it’s a really solid game. I had this on the PS2 and was convinced I was the only person that had ever played it.

My biggest complaint about steam is a lack of demos. I realize that this probably isn’t Valve’s fault, but it would be nice to try something before I buy. If I have specs that are close to the required ones, I’d like to see if it’s at least playable. Overlord was a good example of this. I was able to get the demo, and realize that it looked like a 486 version of Mavis Beacon on my PC, so I saved myself $4.50.

The Witcher was what I really wanted, but can’t try it. Lame.

I may be out of luck on this one. My Graphics card sucks huge amounts of…things that suck a lot.

Anyone have any thoughts on the Overlord series? $4.50 for all of them is mighty tough to pass up if it’s any good.

Edit: Also, The Witcher? Thoughts?