Thank Goodness

It's finally over.

Few things excite and scare me as much as the Summer and Winter Steam Sales. It was a relief to power up my laptop this morning and see that the old gray format was back. I made a solemn oath to my wife Aubrey that I might go a little crazy during the sale but that I wouldn't buy any more games until Christmas (WoW Pandas excepted). Also, I would plan a fancy date. She thought this was a pretty good deal.

To preface, some of these are premium purchases for free to play or other games that try to nickle and dime you. I figured if I was going to try them out, I might as well do it while I can get some cheap bonuses.

So, I present to you the list of games that I got this past week:

Portal 2 - $11.50 for two copies plus a copy of the original Portal. Gotta do that co-op!

Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb expansion - $0.75. I've already talked about how I like BoI. Expansion for less thank a buck? Yes, please!

Dragon Age 2 - $6. Six dollars. Seriously. I've been dancing around getting this game for a really long time but was kind of waiting around for the right deal. DONE. Also, this was through Impulse since EA pulled it from Steam. That's right, EA, I still bought this from a third party.

Stacking - $3.75. This is a game about Russian nesting dolls that was featured in Game Developer Magazine before it game out. Never really wanted to drop $15 for something I'd never heard of outside a magazine...and I didn't have to!

Trine 2 - $3.75. I've written about Trine as well. This is one of the games I had my eye on specifically for this sale. Looks even better than the first and still a lot of fun. Haven't had a chance to try out the co-op yet.

Dungeon Defenders - $3.75. I've seen a lot of hype for this game so I figured I ought to pick it up while it was cheap. I might should have done for the complete set. But whatever. Let me know if you want to play!

Age of Empires Online - $3.50 for bonus swags. I played a ton of the first AoE back in the day. Seems like a cool direction of an RTS.

Tribes: Ascend - $10. I missed the flash sale where this was only $5, but it was still totally worth it. This is a fun shooter. I shouldn't have waited so long to try it out.

Lord of the Rings Online - $25 for two promotional deals, one of Steam and one on Impulse. Okay, sue me this doesn't sound very cheap. A friend of mine is really into this game and while it is free to play, they really, really try to get money out of you in game. Anyway, he assured me these were good deals when I asked, so I figured what the heck? An MMO for $25 and no subscription isn't bad at all.

Fallout New Vegas w/ all the DLC - $10. I haven't played any of the games in this series, so this seemed like it was a great place to start.

Torchlight - $3.75. Lots of people were talking about this one while they were waiting for Diablo 3 to come out. Now that I've already been kind of tired of D3 for a while now, I thought I might try out a different take.

Bioshock & Bioshock 2 - $10. I probably could have skipped this one, but it's one of those games that I never really got around to that people talk about a lot. I'm so glad I got it though! I got a little way into the first Bioshock and it's creepy and awesome! Worth it.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell "Elite Echelon Edition" (What a name!) - $12.50. This consists of four Splinter Cell games: the original, Chaos Theory, Double Agent, and Conviction. I was pretty into the first two when they came out, so this seemed like a great way to get back into the series. Plus I'm pretty sure Aubrey will like them because you spend so much time sneaking up on and ganking people.

Last, but not least, Plants Vs. Zombies - $2.50. We got this for my Mother-in-Law. She freaking loves it. 

So there you have it, 19 games and one expansion for $106.75. Yeesh, that's more than I thought I had spent. Still, they were awesome deals and that really should last me for quite some time. The worst part is I had just decided to stick with one race in Starcraft 2 and get out of Silver league. So much for that. I've got a date to plan.

What you get?

P.S. Impulse is still doing a big sale on RPGs including Mass Effect 3 until the beginning of August. Might want to check that out.

P.P.S. The normal cost for all those games would be $346.

The Verdict: Reckoning

Last time I talked about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, but mostly about the hype I heard about leading up to the the release and my buying/installing experience. (Yes, I do now have Steam, Impluse, and Origin on my laptop. And yes, Origin does have pop-ups. And yes, I do hate it.)

Anyway, Reckoning. It's awesome. There world is huge, there's a ton to do, and lots of weapons to master. The leveling/skill/class system is intuitive and fun. There's some serious Elder Scrolls vibe going on in the story and quest direction, but the combat is indeed much more exciting. I think the closest game I've played with similar combat is Devil May Cry. Just with less demons and a lot more obese bears, unfriendly elves, and boggarts (but not like the ones in Harry Potter, these ones are kind of charming).  

If you like fantasy games, RPGs, or opportunities to be extremely violent without too much blood, you need to pick this game up. Also, when I said "extremely violent" back there, I was referring to the finishing moves in "Reckoning Mode" wherein you pretty much obliterate a bad guy with excessive force. Sometimes these are in slow motion and very awesome. I've stopped to yell and point at the screen with excitement more than once because of these. But like I said, not much blood. I guess that could please or disappoint, but I'm kind of glad. 

That big shiny thing is about to be plunged bloodlessly into that guy.

There's not really much else I can think of to say. You should buy this game. It's awesome. Also, be prepared to get a TON of crap if you went out of your way to do the demo and get as much pre-order swag like I did. I'd actually recommend the demo first because it sets you up with a sweet weapon and a nice armor set. The fate-touched weapons pack and the armor sets from Gamestop were almost immediately replaceable (the compass thing and the twist of fate card are legit though). 

My one immediate complaint about this game is the weird durability stat on gear. I know a lot of games do this, but in Reckoning it doesn't really seem to serve a purpose. Also, if you have a rare or unique weapon or armor the repair costs will be disproportionately HUGE. However, you can avoid paying up by just using a repair kit (which you can buy for a fraction of the cost, usually from a vendor close to the repair guy), so it's not the end of the world. Also, so many weapons drop as you adventure that you probably won't use a particular weapon that long unless it's for sentimental attachment. That all said, why go through the effort to create such an unreasonable pricing scheme and yet make it so easily avoidable? It seems almost like a money sink for noobs who aren't paying attention. What's the point? Patch that out!

In conclusion, I give Reckoning 5 fate cards out of 5 for a fresh, immersive, RPG experience where killing the bad guys is a whole lot more fun than usual. Below is some footage of Reckoning kills. 

The Overly-Long Title Reckoning is at Hand! [Updated! x 2]

If you're into videogames then you've probably heard some buzz about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning which comes out tomorrow. I've seen some adds, read a gripe that it was too long, and heard an interview* with the studio founder (and baseball hall of famer), Curt Shilling. These caused me to check out the demo, which sold me completely.

The easiest way to describe Reckoning is by saying that it's a lot like Skyrim, but less bleak and with much, much more interesting combat. Granted, it will take a lot to top the feeling I got the first time a dragon swept over the roofs of a small village and landed in front of me, queuing up that awesome music, but I'm more than willing to give it a chance. 

Being that the game isn't out yet, when I bought it earlier today it technically qualified as a "Pre-Order." Since I don't usually buy games at full price, this is the first time I've been in the position to choose between the various pre-order swag offers that have become so popular. At first I was just going to get the game off Steam, but all it came with was some  items for Team Fortress 2, which I don't really play. I had heard on a podcast that there were some bigger offers out there, so I Googled it and found this to really be the case. 

There were individual offers from Origin, Walmart, and BestBuy, plus even more stuff if you bought from Gamestop or Amazon. Nothing for Steam. Normally I dont think this would have bothered me so much, but the in-game items do look cool! In the end, I decided I would go with a digital copy from Gamestop because it gave the most (and most interesting) stuff. Turns out Gamestop also has a Steam ripoff called Impluse. So at this very moment I'm downloading Reckoning on Impulse. With some luck, maybe I'll be able to play it at midnight eastern time, meaning I can sneak in a few minutes at 10pm. 

I don't trust Gamestop for crap, so I made sure my login info was unique and didn't save my credit card number. We'll see how it goes having another platform just for one game. Hopefully I don't regret it. 

*That link takes you to the podcast page, which has a various options for listening. The interview is the last 28 minutes of the cast, starting at the 67 minute mark. 

*****UPDATE!*****
So, I got the game all downloaded and installed and what pops up? A prompt to download and install Origin, that's what! I guess I knew this would happen one day, but it made me wonder what would have happened if I had bought it on Steam. I'm never really heard of buying a game on Steam and then needing to install Origin. Anyway, I appear to be partway through installing the game again in Origin. I really hope I'm doing this right.... More updates to follow.

*****UPDATE! x 2*****
The game is installed and ready to go! I'm pretty sure I've got two copies installed, but I think I'll be able to erase one of them after an initial activation or something. However, in good news, Origin or whatever tells me that I can fire the game up Monday, February 6th 2012  at 22:00. Woot.