R.U.S.E.

I decided to give R.U.S.E. a try because I wanted to mix things up a bit, and an RTS that tries to do something different seemed like the perfect way to fill that niche, though from here on out I'll refer to it as Ruse, because that's far less of a pain to type. As a personal aside, I generally don't go for RTS games because I play them far too slowly to succeed, preferring to build up a strong army over time, rather than quickly strike out with a few units in many different groups, yet found that Ruse worked very well, and played quite quickly, meaning that I didn't find myself spending a couple of hours on each level, like I might with other games. However, like all the games I review, I'm just covering the single player portion of the game, and while the mechanics and things will carry over, similar to an ESRB warning, online results may vary.

Ruse is set during World War II. The campaign follows the career of one promotion minded destined to be General by the name of Joe Sheridan. Though initially a low ranking officer in Africa, his tactical genius is quickly discovered when he meets a British intel officer by the name of Andrew Campbell. Unfortunately, Sheridan is not a patient man, and has a pretty high opinion of his abilities, so much so that he chafes at the thought of taking a subordinate role to other tactician Generals. Eventually, your superior has a fall from grace, where it also becomes apparent that someone has been leaking the Allies' military strategy to a very capable German officer, which sets the stage for this whole head to head dynamic when Sheridan is promoted, as the two have a history that spans the course of the war. The story gets wrapped up pretty nicely at the end of the war in Europe when you find out just who the leak is, and what his motivations are, though given the few characters in the game, it's pretty obvious who is bad news by about the third cut scene.

To drive home the "You're a Commanding Officer" point, the battlefield is actually a 3D map on a table, in a tactical room in some bunker (which you can see when you crane your neck), and units are represented with tokens.

The campaign does start during the earlier years of the war, and covers locations like North Africa, Italy, France, and of course Germany, over a total of 23 missions. Not only do your enemies and the environments change, ranging from the deserts of Africa to the beautiful countryside of Holland, where you're pitted against the remnants of Italian forces that refuse to surrender or veteran German soldiers, but you'll also discover that the devs attempted to match the evolution of war technology with the correct period. For example, as the war progresses, the Americans, who you predominately have control of, supersede Lee tanks with Shermans, B17 bombers are introduced, and some of the odder units of war, like the Calliope, make their way onto the battlefield. It may seems small, but it's a great way of making the war feel like this dynamic thing, as well as an attempt at being somewhat historical, but that goes away when people start talking about nukes way before the first one had been used.

What you're probably more interested in is the actual gameplay. I'll give Ruse credit for trying out a few new things that I haven't seen before. The first is the game's good rock-paper-scissors system for deterring the relative strengths and weaknesses of various units, and the way that the terrain or scouting units drastically change that balance. Units can be broken down into the following categories: Infantry, Armor, Anti-Armor, Artillery, Anti-Air, and Aircraft. Here things are basically how you would expect, with Infantry being vulnerable to the more powerful armor, but not ineffective against non-combat units like Anti-Armor or Anti-Air, Armor being strong against everything but Aircraft and Anti-Armor, and Aircraft superiority challenged only by other aircraft or strong Anti-Air units.

Units, when you don't have a direct bead on them via recon or another unit's line of sight, are shown as chips on the map, with a distinction between heavy and light units. This acts as a sort of fog of war system.

That, however, would make things far too simple, so you can utilize terrain and a few other mechanics to really alter the flow of battle. Infantry are weak when exposed out in the open, but while concealed in a woods or hidden in a city, though not actually inside a building as you could do in Company of Heroes, they gain an incredible combat bonus through the use of surprise attacks. This can be utilized against any land based unit, but what it does is make Infantry extremely potent against Armor, with the ability to destroy tanks in a volley or two, which, when added to the existing strengths against all other land based units makes Infantry some of your best units. Additionally, any other unit that can enter the woods gains this same combat bonus, such as certain lighter forms of Anti-Armor or Anti-Air, allowing relatively few units to hold off a much stronger force.

There are a couple of ways you can counter this however. You can't just barge into those areas with a tank, as they either cannot enter those areas, or in the case of a city, are so vulnerable that it wouldn't be wise. If you know roughly where a unit is, as you do get a brief glimpse of the enemy when your units are attacked, you might try some of the artillery units that are capable of firing on unseen targets and then just hope for the best. Eventually you would destroy the cover, but that would really take too long. So instead, you'll want to use one of the recon units. These come in a couple of flavors. For the Americans you initially have the Willis jeep, which can latter be replaced with the armed and armored Greyhound, both of which can head off road into the woods, and the recon air unit. All recon units have an incredibly large sight area, and can detect hidden units, allowing Armor, fighter-bombers, and all your other units to safely target those guys. Additionally, some units require recon to target an enemy at all, such as the fighter-bombers.

Recon has a large sight area, as denoted by the outer white circle. It is impacted by obstacles, and can become far less effective if used poorly. Additionally, this Greyhound has an attack range, which is the inner blue circle.

You'll have to develop your own strategies for dealing with things, but throughout the campaign I found that it was generally a great strategy to stack a few Anti-Armor and Anti-Aircraft units under the cover of a forest, with those units protected with a Greyhound for it's recon ability and a few Infantry units for extra protection. If I could, some of the long range artillery or a few fighter-bombers would be kept near by, just in case my enemy ever got the bright idea to try and scout my position and then take me out with some long range units.

Generally, the unit mechanics are all pretty cool. Many can be upgraded during the later parts of the game, by expending some of your cash resources to unlock new units, such as replacing Infantry with the elite Rangers, or the aforementioned Lee tanks with Shermans, though this only applies to new units and not existing ones. Other units can be unlocked, though they don't replace any previous unit, such as fighter-bombers or the Long Tom artillery, which seems like it's capable of hitting anything on the map with very little movement. This makes for a much simpler system for acquiring new or upgraded units than some other games take, since you don't have to build an armory, research two armor upgrades, and then build a research facility, and research new missiles, and then upgrade your factory to build the next unit.

The downside to upgrading is the initial cost, both in terms of resources and time lost, but generally the trade off is worth it, such as when you unlock the B17 bombers, which are also capable of air-to-air defense, rather than being sitting ducks for enemy fighters.

You do still need to construct some buildings though. Units are all produced at their respective bases, such as Barracks or Airfields for Infantry and Aircraft, respectively. You can also set up Anti-Air, Anti-Armor, or Machine Gun Nests, all as buildable structures. While most games require you to build some sort of worker unit that then goes out and spends lots of time constructing a building, Ruse follows an entirely different route. Instead, once you decide where to construct a building, a truck leaves your Headquarters, your main base, and travels along the roads to that point. Once there, your building is erected in about 2 seconds. It doesn't matter if its a unit construction building, a defensive building, or a supply depot that generates the resources you'll need in this game, all build nearly instantly. The down side is any building en route is extremely vulnerable, as are the supply trucks that bring resources back from supply depots to your HQ, so you'll want to make sure an area is well protected enough that you don't risk wasting resources. If you happen to get close enough to a truck en route with an Infantry unit, you might want to pass on actually destroying it, and instead use your Infantry to capture the completed building, which grants you full control over it, though it does destroy that unit in the process. Just be careful, because your enemy can do the same thing to you.

Some well placed lighter units can hold a choke point against much tougher enemies using the woods for cover, as you can tell from all the smoldering tank shells.

While the way Ruse handles buildings, unit production, low build times, and many other aspects of the game are very nice, what really makes the game unique are the ruses. A ruse is a trick you can use to either grant yourself more information about your enemy, confound your enemy, or alter the way units behave. They are as follows: Decryption let's you know your enemy's movement plan, such that when a unit under the effects of Decryption is ordered to move to a new location, you'll see an arrow that represents the destination, allowing you to prepare. Spy reveals all the units in the area that aren't hidden in woods, letting you know what they actually are, rather than just the blank markers they are normally denoted by. Radio Silence hides your units from the enemy, making them invisible unless there is a line of sight detection. Camouflage Net does the same thing, but for buildings, and you're advised to use that when there are incoming bombers or artillery. Decoy Building creates a false base, and if an enemy Infantry unit attempts to capture it, that unit will die. Decoy Offensive launches a fake attack on an area of the map, though these false units are easily destroyed, and it will alert the commander that those are decoy units. Reverse Intel changes the map markers for light and heavy units, such that it will look like there are only a few Infantry approaching, until you realize they are all tanks. Blitz increases the movement speed of all units in the area, including your en route buildings and supply trucks. Terror is a propaganda campaign that increases the likelihood the enemy units will flee in battle, called being routed, which occurs normally when health is very low and results in loss of unit control and low movement speed. Fanaticism counters this and orders your units to fight to the death. Your ability to use ruses recharges automatically over time, and you can only have two active per sector, a subdivision of the map, at any one time, so you'll have to choose wisely, though the proper use of a ruse can change the course of a battle.

You'll know what the sector boundaries are when you attempt to use a ruse, or you zoom way out.

Generally, Ruse is a pretty good game. The game is quickly paced, but that works well because you don't put tons of time into doing research or waiting five minutes for a single unit to build. The rock-paper-scissors system is well balanced,  though if your enemy has a formation of Anti-Air, Anti-Armor, a recon, and a few tanks around for good measure, well, that can be a tough nut to crack. Despite of all that, I do have a few criticisms, though some of the portions of the game I disliked the most, such as the minimalist HUD being so much so that it doesn't display the hotkeys to build units, or that units are automatically deselected after being given an order, which can be problematic if, say, you realize that your units are walking into an ambush, and since they move at different speeds, it becomes an issue to reselect all of them, are all issues that can be addressed by fully exploring the options menu, something I discovered only as I went to double check something before posting this review. So, close call on looking like the idiot I am there, and I may have even helped someone else out. That leaves the biggest complaint at "Ubisoft," including having to log into their Uplay service to play the game, though at least this one doesn't launch the Uplay client first from Steam, and then allow you to launch the actual game, like Assassin's Creed 2 does. Also, I would have liked to see the ability to capture certain Anti-Armor or Anti-Air units, like Company of Heroes did, since you can already capture buildings, but I suppose that's just wishful thinking. Basically, if you have an issue with things being a little too different from most RTS interfaces, check options.

I put a really good amount of time into this game, as it took me 22 hours to get through the campaign, which includes time to get all the secondary objectives, and quite a few failures later in the game. That is pretty short when compared to how I usually fare in an RTS (for example, I'm playing Supreme Commander right now, and after 3 hours I'm still in the second mission), but the pace of the game was good, and when combined with things like the only having to manage one resource, quick unit deployment, and so on, I'd suggest this as a nice introduction to the RTS genre because it is so easy to play, unlike some games that require hours to build your ultimate weapons. You can expect missions where you have to hold out for a certain amount of time, others where you must complete an objective within a timeline, ones where you are granted only a few units and no ability to make more. The story is nothing to write home about, though it does seem like there would be a second game that would take place in the Pacific based on some closing lines, though Japan was added as a playable nation in a DLC. If you've got the desire, I'd say Ruse is a game worth picking up when it's in the $5 or so range, maybe even up to $10. As for the quality of the experience itself, I'd say that, give how easy it is to get into it and start playing, Ruse is very good, rating a 8 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 8/10

Suggested Price $5-10

Torchlight 2

Oh Torchlight 2, how I wish I had never picked you up. No sooner had 2013 begun, and I resolved to be more prompt in my reviews, than did I dive into your embrace, leveling an Engineer well beyond that which was required to simply beat the game once, my usual point for finishing any digital experience, instead opting to play over and over again, all in a search for higher levels, new gear, unlocking even more powerful abilities, and yes, I am ashamed to admit, complete achievements. What cruel temptations you offer, to prey on a man's child like desire for big shiny spells, endlessly smashing enemies, and ever better loot. Easily overcoming my feeble objections, you stole nearly a month from my life, and while I might feign protest, we both know I wouldn't trade our short embrace for anything else...

Alright, so I think now is a good time to stop with this explanation of why I haven't posted a review in a bit, because I fear if I go much longer I'll end up with a poorly written romance novel. Maybe title it 50 levels of Ember?

Actually, I'm currently 74. And an Engineer. Yeah, I don't know how that would work.

Torchlight 2 is an Action RPG. That is a subset of games that includes other titles such as Diablo or Titan's Quest. It's the type of game where you start a hero, level him or her by slaughtering ludicrous amounts of evil minions, dump points into increasing individual stats and unlocking abilities, and generally engage in a nearly endless quest for ever better gear. In sort, it's the type of game that can suck all the free time out of your life.

If you've never played this type of game before, it's pretty simple, and Torchlight 2 doesn't deviate from the basics too much. Each time you level up you gain five attribute points and one skill points. The attribute points you'll use to increase your four base stats: strength, dexterity, focus, and vitality. Each stat does a couple of things for you, and, depending on what role you want to take on with you character, you could end up with an entirely different point distribution than another player. For example, strength will increase the damage you do with your  weapon, as well as the amount of damage you'll inflict when you land a critical strike. That sounds great, but you might want to mix that in with some dexterity, which increases the chance you'll actually perform a critical strike, increases your dodge, and reduces the penalty for fumbling an attack. Focus ups your mana and magic damage, as well as increasing your odds of striking with two single handed weapons at the same time. Vitality increases your health, armor, and block. Not only do these attributes impact things like your damage or damage avoidance, but items usually require a certain point allocation, or character level, to equip.

Outlanders are a ranged class, and much of their gear requires a lot of dexterity to use.

That other thing you gain when you level up is a skill point, which you use to unlock a special skill. In Torchlight, each character class has three different skill groups. I say groups because each skill is independent in terms of how you go about unlocking it, whereas other games utilize a skill tree with prerequisites, though in many cases certain skills will prove more beneficial when coupled with others, like an Engineer's passive skill that increases fire damage, and an active skill that deals fire damage to enemies. There are seven different skills and three passive skills per group, each of which you can put fifteen points into. Active skills also have special thresholds, such that when you put 5, 10, or 15 points into that skill, you gain some sort of bonus, like increasing the active range of a stun. While that makes it very attractive to max out every skill, that just isn't possible, since you'll end up with 132 total points, with 100 coming from leveling up and another 32 coming from fame, a mechanic Torchlight utilizes that rewards you for killing special named monsters called champions. Furthermore, skills have level requirements, both to acquire the option to invest in a skill initially, and to progress beyond a certain number of points in that skill. For example, my level 74 Engineer cannot have any more points in his Sledgebot summon ability until level 78, despite already having 11/15 points invested, thereby preventing you from maxing out any skill too early. Just be careful with how you spend your skill points - you can reverse your last three points, but after that, it's permanent, unless you feel like enabling cheats or using some other methods that could get you labeled a cheater when you go online.

Besides the whole leveling portion of these games, where you take your character and truly make it unique, there is the issue of just what character you decide to play. Torchlight 2 features 4 different classes, which puts it a bit lower than Diablo 2 with 7, but still more than either the original Diablo or Torchlight, with 3 each. You get to choose from Berserker, Embermage, Outlander, or Engineer. Personally, I went with the Engineer, because they seem to be a bit more of a jack-of-all-trades character, with a skill group focusing on two handed melee, two handed ranged and summons, and a tank centric skill group. The Outlander is really a ranged class, but has skills that could be grouped by various types of damage, such as poison or shadow, summons, crowd control abilities, or options to just increase your basic weapon damage. The Embermage is pretty much what you'd expect, with skills falling into either fire, ice, or electric, and typical attributes, like snares in the ice group. The Berserker is more of a melee dps than a warrior, and seems apt to using two claw weapons. Basically, there are still plenty of choices when it comes to all the different ways you can approach the game.

You can customize your character too. In this case, I made a female Embermage who is shooting fireballs out of her hands. Also, skill group things.

The last hallmark of these types of games is the grind. In essence, they are nothing more than endless kill fests where you occasionally take on some larger than life boss with the hopes they will drop a new piece of loot of the really cool rarity colored name, which usually needs to be indentified by someone special or through the use of an item, which you then hope you can actually use. It is, if you step back and look at it, the epitome of a time sink where no new content is ever really provided, as the devs instead rely on some fundamental nature to ever improve your character, running endless "Nightmare Mode Final Boss Runs" all with the hope of getting that next set piece. If you've ever made it to the end game of an MMO, this is exactly the same thing, except you can do it without the hassle of finding 20-40 other people to set up a raid for some dragon's lair, though Torchlight 2 does bring online multiplayer to the series.

Torchlight 2 addresses the issue of grinding in some interesting ways, though not all are ones I'd agree with. The first is the fairly typical idea of simply replaying through the game once you beat it, in this case starting a New Game +. When initially playing the game you'll top out somewhere around level 50, so a NG+ is a nice way to increase your level another 30+ times by going over the content again, and since all the maps change when you do that, utilizing brand new layouts just as would be the case as if two different people where playing, it keeps things a little fresher, and the ability to redo quests for even better rewards is nice, though it is a departure from simply upping the difficulty level like I remember doing in Diablo, and in fact you cannot change your difficulty setting beyond what you initially selected. I've also heard, but not dared to experience, that you can go through multiple iterations of NG+, as once when I was researching what pieces of gear I needed to flesh out a set I heard mention of someone on NG5+. The downside is that a NG+ character cannot play with a non-NG+, eliminating people running lower levels through the game. By far a better method for keeping this fresh is through the use of the mapworks, a section of the game you unlock upon beating it initially. Here you can purchase various maps with themes reminiscent of some portion of the game - ice cave, dragon lair, dark tower - that come with special bonuses and penalties. For example, you may purchase a map to access some engineering platforms over a pit of lava (such as those found in Act 3 of the game), which are filled with spiders and goblins (from Act 1), embellished with changes such as increased player damage, better odds to find rare items, or drastically more powerful enemies. Personally, this is my preferred method from leveling up later in the game, but that's because I like bonuses that make it easier to kill enemies or find better loot.

I don't know what Haunt is, but I don't like the idea of my enemies having a 100% chance to cast it.

Gear is also a huge portion of these types of games, and Torchlight 2 doesn't go in too drastic a direction with it, though it does make some changes over its predecessor. As already stated, gear generally requires a certain stat point allocation, or sometimes just a high enough level. Some gear is limited to a specific class. It's not uncommon to find a very good piece that is a part of a set, so you'll want to look for the matching pieces, either by trading with people you know via the online mode, which does allow you to take the same character you play by yourself online, through the use of a special set vendor that you can uncover if you're very lucky, or by increasing your magic find with special bonuses or using a good mapworks map. Then comes gear improvement, which again is nothing major for the genre. One method is through the use of gems and sockets, with gems of all rarities, levels, and effects. The other is enchantments, which is much different than what I recall from the first game, which allowed you to endlessly add enchantments for greater cost, and with a greater risk that the enchanter would wipe the slate clean (I had a lot of <10% failure chance enchants fail, so maybe that change is a good thing). Instead, there are various enchanters in the game, with things like different focuses, such as one that offer poison or fire related enchantments or another that gives additional luck or gold find, different limits on the number of enchantments they can add, and of course all the good ones have a random chance of appearing somewhere out in the world, so you can't just expect to always have access to the guy that can put four enchants on your items.

Up to this point, if you've ever played an ARPG before, you probably haven't seen anything that's too drastically different from something else you've experienced, except for maybe my mention of the mapworks or the way enchantments work. I'd say generally that Torchlight doesn't go in a brave new direction, but it certainly adds some nice features. One is the way you can handle inventory in this game. First, every item takes up a single space, so there is no need to try and sort things around the huge 3x2 mace you have in your inventory, like you needed to in Diablo 2. Furthermore, when it comes to your stash, which is your personal bank, you'll find that there are two places you can store things in town. The first is your personal stash. The second is a shared stash, which allows you to transfer items with ease between any of your characters, though there is a difference between regular and hardcore mode characters, since this game also has that. Further making item management easy is the pet, which returns from Torchlight. Every character gets a pet, which comes with a whole system where you can feed him fish you find by fishing to alter his behavior, or equip him with items to increase damage, and besides acting as a secondary damage source you can also transfer items out of your pack, into your pet's, and then dispatch your pet to town to sell all that garbage, which in itself is one of the greatest features ever implemented in an ARPG, since, you know, making gold by selling stuff is good, and constantly warping back to town is not. Additionally, both you and your pet have four spell slots, which allow you to learn spells that range from passive ones that increase your damage or experience gain, to summons that bring in blood zombies that scale with your level or skeleton archers, to more direct spells like self or group heals. I found a group heal on my pet to be a nice addition, which, when combine with my Engineer's heal bot pretty much always kept me alive. The last special thing about Torchlight 2 is the charge function, which is a bar on the bottom center of your screen that fills as you do damage. The result is different for each class, such as the Engineer that has five individual charges that alter what a skill does or increases the damage produced, or the Embermage's which only activates when full and allows a period of time where spells are cast without using any mana and deal extra damage.

I do like the Berseker's charge ability, which builds up to deal massive damage in the form of critical hits.

Where Torchlight 2 really exceeds though is that it's just plain fun. I had a good time leveling up, playing through the story and experiencing the variety of beautiful environments the game had to offer, even if the story itself was nothing special. While I almost exclusively played an Engineer, I did dabble with the Outlander, and felt that it, as would be all the other classes, would be a good experience. Things like large flashy spells, a variety of enemies from giant mushroom things to skeleton torsos that crawl after you, a world that's full of secrets, and a graphics system that, while cartoony, works perfectly with just how seriously the game doesn't take itself, all made the game more enjoyable than your typical dreary adventure game. Also, the soundtrack is great, which I'm listening too as I write this, since it was/is available for free.

As you explore, you might find special phase beasts, which, when killed, open a portal to a special zone that will provide an opportunity to gain riches. Unfortunately, this one includes the Crab King, who fears hot butter. I like this game's humor.

Currently, I've logged 52 hours in Torchlight 2, though I was sitting at about 24 on my Engineer when I beat the game the first time. The rest of that is playing other characters, trying out some online, doing a bit of NG+, and running the mapworks while looking for better gear, because, you know, I really want that one epic item that completes my otherwise 2/3 set. There are issues I take with the game, most notably the inability to fully respec your talents, but I'm sure that's something that will quickly be added to the game once the mod tools are released (there is actually an achievement for playing with 10 mods active at once). Still, I would highly recommend this game, both to those who have a long tradition of playing ARPGs, and those who have never tried one before. To motivate you along, I'll point out that the game does have a free demo. As far as cost, I managed to get it for $7.50 in a trade deal when I picked up a 4 pack, while the best price it's been individually is $10. Normally it's $20, and that's probably about right for this type of game, but I can see getting it at $15 and not feeling like I ripped anyone off for the great experience I ended up getting out of it - 9 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 9/10

Suggested Price: $15+

Steam Encore Sale 1 - 5

So it turns out I was a bit off in thinking that today would be the last day in 2012-13 Steam Holiday Sale. I figured, since the sale went from the 20th - 5th, that the last sale would begin on the 5th, just as had happened during the Autumn sale. Apparently I was wrong. But, there was an announcement yesterday that there would be an encore sale of the best sellers. A total of 24 games or franchises return today, offering a repeat of some of the best deals we've seen. Still, it does pay to look around, because there are a few titles that are currently less on other websites. Since everything has already been on sale, I'm just going to give the full list, prices, lower prices elsewhere if available, and point out if I've reviewed the game or not, rather than attempt to write something up for each individual game. And for reference, any time I talk about greenmangaming.com (GMG) current coupon, that would be this code, which grants you 20% off: GMG20-PJFEW-Y16HK


Borderlands Franchise - The original's GOTY edition is $7.49. Borderlands 2 is $29.99, but that 50% discount does not impact it's DLCs. If you really want those DLCs, I suggest heading over to GMG and using that code.

Saints Row III -  The Full Package edition, which is the complete version, is just $7.49.

Dark Souls - $19.99 on Steam, but still cheaper on Amazon at $17.99. If you purchased a game from Amazon prior to the 1st, you might have a code for $5 off an editor's choice purchase, which Dark Souls is.

Dead Island - The GOTY edition is $6.79.

Chivalry Medieval Warefare - $12.49.

Hitman Franchise -  Hitman: Absolution is $24.99 for the base edition, or $29.99 for the Professional Edition. There are also several pieces of DLC available, such as the Suit and Gun collection for $2.99. You can also get the Hitman Collection, which covers three other titles in the series, for just $6,24.

The Witcher Franchise - Recently reviewed the first game, which is a steal at $2.49. I expect much from the sequel, which is $7.49.

Natural Selection 2 - $9.99.

The Walking Dead - $12.49. Same price on Amazon, but it is also an editor's choice, so the whole $5 off rule applies there as well.

Football Manager 2013 - $19.99.

Portal Franchise - Reviewed Portal 2. The games are available seperately for $2.49 for Portal and $4.99 for Portal 2, or combined for $6.24.

Counter Strike - Global Offensive is $7.49. The other three CS titles are also on sale seperately, and you can acquire CS: Source, CS, and CS: Condition Zero for $4.99, $2.49 and $2.49, respectively. There is also a complete back with all four games for $9.99.

ARMA II - $14.99.

Anno 2070 - $19.99 for the base game, or $21.99 for the Deluxe Edition. You can also get the Anno 2070 pack, which includes all DLCs, for $39.99.

Darksiders Franchise -  The original entry is $4.99, which I have reviewed. That game is also included with the Franchise Pack, which is $13.59, and includes everything from II for less than you could buy the stand alone game.

XCOM - $33.49 on Steam. However, Amazon has it right now for $24.99. Only one of two DLCs are on sale on Steam. I would recommend purchasing the other of GMG using that code.

The Sims 3 - Everything Sims 3 is 66% off. The base game is $10.19. There is one other package that includes a single expansion for $16.99. Otherwise you can purchase the 15 expansions for a total of $155.45.

THQ Collection - Three titles reviewed here: Space Marine, Darksiders, and Red Faction Armageddon. The package is $24.99. While this includes an incredible number of THQ games, it is missing a few, such as a single Company of Heroes game or Red Faction: Guerrilla. There are also questions if the version of Darksiders and Saints Row it includes have all the DLCs or not. The price of the item included in the bundle is the same as the complete packs for each of those, but I am uncertain. Still, it's advisable to pick this one up for all the other titles alone, particularly given THQ's financial situation.

Civilization Franchise - Civ 5 GOTY is $12.49. The base version is available for $7.49, while the upgrade to the GOTY is another $5.00. The Gods and Kings expansion for Civ 5 is $7.49. Civ 4 Complete is $7.49. Civ 3 Complete is $1.24.

Elder Scrolls Franchise - Skyrim is $29.99, while it's two DLCs, Dawnguard and Hearthfire, are $9.99 and $2.49, respectively. Oblivion is $4.99, and Morrowind is $4.99. Both of those last two are GOTY editions.

Torchlight Franchise - The original is $3.74, while the recently released sequel is $9.99.

Batman Franchise - Arkham Asylum is $4.99, while Arkham City is $7.49. Both are GOTY editions.

Dishonored - $29.99. It's DLC is not discounted. Try GMG.

Ace of Spades - $4.99.


That...is a lot of games on sale. Additionally, all six titles that came up on sale yesterday remain on sale. That also wraps things up until we get some kind of summer sale in June or July. I'll do regular reviews between here and there, and hopefully plenty of them, so stick around. But before you go...

Now that the sale is done, what are your thoughts? Personally, I found that I wasn't nearly as involved in this sale as past ones, where generally there has been some kind of contest to win a fraction of your wishlist, or even every game on Steam. In hindsight, I think the best sale of 2012 would have been the Summer sale, and while the short flash sales and community choice sales meant I had to frequently check back, I feel it offered generally better deals, as well as including far more publisher packs, which were sorely missing from this sale. Furthermore, I found that many of the big ticket items were less, sometimes significantly so, elsewhere. GMG and and Amazon both got some of my busniess this go round, and if I had been on top of things and known about the errors over at GamersGate, such as a four pack of Borderlands 2 for $10 or that Bethesda pack for only a few dollars, I would have jumped on those as well.

In the end, I still got a decent selection of games this time, consisting of the following: Splinter Cell Conviction DLC, Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers, Saint's Row III complete, Spec Ops: The Line, FTL: Faster Than Light, Thirty Flights of Loving, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, XCOM, Trine 2 DLC, Hotline Miami, Torchlight II, Magicka DLC, The Longest Journey + Dreamfall, The Walking Dead, Dwarfs!?, Zombie Driver HD, Dead Island GOTY, SpaceChem DLC, and Deadlight.

That's not too bad of a list, but just a fraction of what I bought last year. The last five were actually trades from purchasing a 4 pack of Torchlight 2, while Spec Ops, Hotline Miami, and The Walking Dead all came off of Amazon. The largest purchase in that group, XCOM, was actually made over at GMG. Actually, when reflecting on it all, I'd say I didn't do too bad, financially, and that this spending spree was so small it won't come back to bite me in the butt.

This brings me back to the point where I'm curious to know your thoughts about this sale? Good sale? Or bad? Were there games you wanted on sale, or did you have to go elsewhere? Did my pointing out where better deals were help? I know I didn't find every single deal that was better somewhere else, but still, did you find it useful that I could generally point out other places to go? Then, purchasing aside, what did you get?

Finally, some non-sale topics. Currently I'm within closing distance of Frozen Synapse, Splice, RUSE, and even Torchlight 2 (for review purposes), so I'd expect those to be the next written reviews. I'd still like to go back and do a video review for several games, specifically: Hard Reset, Bastion, Space Marine, AAAAA - for the Awesome, Quantum Conundrum, Amnesia, The Witcher, Spec Ops: The Line, and maybe even FTL: Faster Than Light. So keep an eye out for those too. After that...I'm really not sure, but I've got plenty of games I haven't played before, and this is where your suggestions come in handy. Maybe it's time to play RAGE and find out just why it went down to less than 10% of list price within a year. Or maybe play something like Deadlight or XCOM with the knowledge that they will most likely be featured during the summer sale, that way I can avoid sounding like an incompetent fool when I'm listing whats on sale. Seriously, if you've got something you'd really like to see me cover, you can always check out my profile to get ideas, though I'd rather play something I haven't, if there is a game you'd really like to know about, I'll do it.

Other than that, I'd just like to say thanks for sticking with me so far, it's good having people around and commenting, and that I hope to see you all in the future.

Steam Holiday Sale 1 - 4

So tomorrow is the last day of the sale. I'm curious what we'll see. Traditionally the last day has been reserved for the top sellers, but that was before the introduction of things like flash sales and the community choice, which allow the same game to come up 3 or more times during the course of the sale. Maybe it'll be all new titles. Anything in particular you're hoping for tomorrow?

Main Sale

Forge - Forge is one of a number of recently greenlit games that have received special attention during this sale. It's a hybrid MMO and FPS set in a fantasy universe. Personally, I've sworn off anything that has a hint of MMO in it, but at least this one isn't a subscription, and it claims it's not pay to win either. $9.99 today.

Trine Franchise - I've only played the first Trine, which I got way back in '09 for the full price of $20. It was worth it. A platformer with three classes, each with their own special abilities, that you can switch on demand to solve the puzzle at hand. Personally, I always liked the The if for her grappling hook and bow and arrow, but the Wizard's ability to summon in objects like platforms or blocks to build bridges across gaps was welcome too. Definitely a unique title, one you should certainly get for the $8.74 it takes to pick up the entire franchise.

Sleeping Dogs - Tried the demo of this one out not too long ago, and I'm pretty sure I missed a great deal on it on GMG. Still, I'm not entirely sure about this game. It has that GTA type feel to it, combined with highly destructible environments and martial arts. In one event I was raiding a warehouse that belonged to a rival gang. Therein, I was involved with a bit of hand to hand combat, where I kicked a guy towards a wall...directly into a power junction box. The hand to hand and movement portions of the game felt fine, but the gunplay was a little clunky. Personally, I'm waiting for some kind of complete edition around the same $16.99 it is today, because I don't want to sort through the 31 pieces of DLC (that cost $24.15 when you total them all up individually) to figure out what I want and what is just useless. If you are set on this, I might advise getting the Dragon Master Pack, since that includes 5 DLCs for about half of what it would be to get them individually.

Amnesia - Reviewed! Great game. First person survival horror game. Nasty enemies. No weapons. You must work your way through the castle while hiding in the dark, solving puzzles, and trying not to get slashed up, or go insane. I highly recommend this game, especially since it's only $4.99. Man, I wish I already had a video review of this one to link.

Rage - Bought this game this time last year for $15. Now it's a third of that, which puts it at less than 10% of the original price. Unfortunately I haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but it always looked like it's a blend of Fallout 3 and Borderlands. What's worth noting is that you might want to pick up the recently released DLC, which besides from being a year late, adds the ability to go back to your game once you finish the final quest. I guess the base game just locks you out once you get to that point, a la Fallout 3 before a DLC enabled you to go back as well. Sadly, that DLC isn't marked down, and it'll cost you the same $4.99 the base game does.

Crysis - The original Crysis and Warhead are both $4.99 each. If you want to go for the much decried Crysis 2, well that's $9.99. Or you could get a big bundle of all of them for $17.49.


Flash Sales:
Left 4 Dead Franchise - $7.49
Symphony - $3.39
Ace of Spades - $4.99
Bioshock Collection - $9.99
Babel Rising - $4.99
Evochron Mercenary - $6.24

Community Choice:
Max Payne 3 - $14.99 (discount doesn't apply to DLCs)

Steam Holiday Sale 1 - 3

Unforunately Green Man Gaming has finished with their awesome 30% off coupon that made many of the sales on Steam look like junk. GamersGate still is doing daily deals, though they seem to match Steam prices on some items, like War of the Roses, and just drop the ball on others, like Tropico 4, which they have in a complete bundle for $28, as opposed to the $20 or so it is on Steam. Then of course you could always check out Amazon, which continues to have some great deals today, such as Spec Ops: The Line for $7.50, XCOM for $25, or Dark Souls for $18. Sometimes it pays to look around.


Main Sale:

Tropico 4 - This was a flash sale just yesterday for the same price. In case you missed it, you now have plenty of time to pick it up for $5.99. There are several DLCs pieces as well, so you may want to get all of those for an additional $13.93, though the nice 80% off doesn't apply to every DLC. Unforunately there is no Kalypso pack this sale, as there usually has been.

Civilization Franchise - Reviewed Civ 5. Couple different items here. The Civ 5 GOTY edition is $12.49. The base game is $7.49, but what you'd really be looking at is the $5 upgrade to the GOTY edition if you already owned the game and didn't have any of those DLC packs. The expansion for Civ 5, which isn't included in the GOTY, is $7.49, just in case you missed it when you could get it for $3.50 on GMG. Then there is the Civ IV pack for $14.99, and it should tell you something that it's more for IV than the GOTY V. Oh, and don't forget about Civ III for $2.49.

Football Manager 2013 - $19.99.

I Am Alive - While I'm personally interested in this game, I've heard enough bad things about it, such as controls, poor port, short, etc, that I'm not sure if I should get it at the $5.09 it is now, or just wait until its 75% off in a future sale. In short, WTB demos.

Bastion - Reviewed. At $3.74, that is a heck of a deal for a great RPG. I highly recommend it for that price.

Thief Franchise - Really a collection of the classic stealth game. Each of these three games is $2.49, while the full pack is $6.74. Just remember to hide your bodies.


Flash Sales:
Dead Island - Eternally on sale for $6.79
Overlord Complete Back - $4.99
AVSEQ - $1.24
Age of Empires III Complete - Returns for $9.99
Blood Bowl - Two games return for $14.99 or $4.99
Fallen Enchantress - $19.99


Community Choice
Serious Sam 3 - $5.99. Discount impacts the Complete Pack as well.

Steam Holiday Sale 1 - 2

So it's the second of a new year. How many of you have already broken your resolutions?


Main Sale:

Magicka - Reviewed (written and video, base game only). Magicka is a great action RPG game. At first glance it might look just like most other games in that genre, such as Diablo, Torchlight, or Titan's Quest. While it shares that perspective, and many of the mechanics, what makes Magicka unique is the way you cast spells. Choose any combination of 8 different elements, with up to five at one time, while following rules about things that cancel each other out, and then unleash those powerful spells on enemies. Special spells, called magicks, have even greater effects, like allowing you to teleport, or summoning a group of zombies to fight for you. Really a fun game to play, and to learn all those RPG idiosyncrasies, but it can be a little touch and go at times if you're playing by yourself. While the game is only $2.49, I would highly recommend the Collection for $8.74, since it includes a ton of this game's DLC packs,  including major content in the form of new campaigns.

Tomb Raider Series - Tomb Raider has been on sale many times before on Steam. What makes this time special is the addition of games 1 through 6, which were just rereleased on Steam in November. You can get each of these nine games for $2.49, or opt for the full pack of the classic Action Adventure game for $14.99

Painkiller - I've always heard of Painkiller described more as a competition FPS, where it's about doing well and getting high scores, in a not too dissimilar way from Hard Reset. There are several different games and packs on sale today. The complete pack is $19.99, though it seems to lack much of the content associated with Hell and Damnation. The Hell and Damnation pack is $14.99. There is an upgrade pack for that same game for $5.00, which upgrades your game to the collector's eddition, and would add all that content you're missing from the complete pack. And finally you can get Hell and Damanation for $9.99 by itself, or Resurrection for $2.49.

Dark Souls - It's $19.99 on Steam. Don't buy it. Go over to Amazon and get it for $17.99 instead. And if you bought any other game off of Amazon prior to the start of this year, you just might have a $5 off coupon for any of their Editor's Choice games, of which Dark Souls is one. I'm actually thinking about doing that, just to see what all the rage is all about.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic - Classic RPGs on sale here, either the original or II. Both of them are a very nice $2.49.

Sniper Elite Franchise - I picked this up during the last sale, but haven't gotten around to playing anything more than the demo yet. It's a WWII shooter that you play as a stealth game, creeping around to get to the best position to, say, ambush a convoy by shooting some explosive charges you had hidden on cars. Really has a lot of potential, though don't expect multiplayer to work for the first game anymore, because Gamespy has started shutting down it's service for certain titles. The Franchise pack is $13.74, which includes game 1 and 2, as well as a single DLC for 2. Oddly enough, it is actually cheaper to buy the franchise pack than it would be to just get the second game and that single DLC, so do that. You may also want to pick up two additional DLCs that were not included in the pack.


Flash Sales:
Tropic 4 - $5.99
L.A. Noire - $4.99
Miasmata - $7.49
Metro 2033 - $4.99
Mass Effect Collection - $9.99 (Only includes Mass Effect 1 and 2, doesn't include any of the DLCs afaik)
The Longest Journey - $6.24.


Community Choice:
Skyrim - $29.79, DLCs are discounted, but not to the same 50% off.

Steam Holiday Sale 1 - 1

Welcome everyone to a new year!  I'm going to pause for a second here and just reflect on 2012. It wasn't too bad of a year if I do say myself. My first review was way back in January of '12, and I'd say I've come a long way since. During the year I managed 42 unique reviews, though only 8 video reviews. Still, for a single guy doing all this, I'd say that's pretty good. Since I did a mad rush of reviews later yesterday, adding in four more more before the close of the year, I am completely caught up on reviews, so I'll have to play more games. Actually, that's not completely true. I stopped doing video reviews in there at some point, but have several games I'd still like to cover. Maybe that's what I'll do, focus on getting those video reviews out over the next couple of weeks, while rebuilding a bit of a buffer. So if there is a game you'd really like me to review, particularly if it's one you can find in this list, let me know, because now would be the time to ask.


Main Sale:

Transformers Franchise - I swear this was just on sale, though that might have been just a flash sale, or even a main sale during Autumn. Either way, there are five items here" Fall of Cybertron is $29.99, and War for Cybertron, as well as three DLCs for the aformentioned Fall are all $4.99.

War of The Roses - This one has come around on sale a bit recently, and today you can find it for it's usual $14.99.

Awesomenauts - Another game that seems to be on sale pretty often. I believe $3.39 is it's usual sale price.

Total War Franchise - Another series that comes up during these sales. There are several ways to go about buying this. One would be the Grand Master Collection for $41.24. Or, if you just want the base games rather than the more complete pack, there is the Master Collection for $22.49. Then there are a ton of individual titles on sale, and some of them, such as Shogun 2, come with their own complete pack. Basically, if you're interested in this one, you'll have to do a bit of research to figure out what fits you best.

Max Payne Franchise - Now this is the kind of discount I like to see, and really a perfect example of why it pays to wait a few months before getting a new title. The first two Max Payne games can be purchased in a bundle for $3.74. The latest game, which just came out at the end of May, is 75% off it's list price, at a very nice $14.99. Though, if you want to get all the DLCs, you'll want to get the Rockstar Pass, because it's the cheaper way to go at $7.49.

Torchlight - Two great titles here, though I have only played the original. Still, the series is a fun RPG that's not too dissimilar from the original Diablo, where you just work your way down through caves and whatnot. There are all kinds of interesting mechanics, such as companion pets that can help attack, or act as inventory space, or even run back to the store and sell all of that stuff for you. The game is bright, as opposed to the gothic like look people seem to prefer in Diablo, and has plenty of special effects for "oohs" and "awwws." I paid full price for the original, but today it's only $3.74. Or, if you want the second game, you can get that for $9.99. Pretty much the winners out of today's deals, and I found that I picked up a 4 pack myself..


Flash Sales:
Anna - $3.39
Ridge Racer Unbounded - $11.89
Prototype Franchise - $4.99 for 1, $19.99 for 2, and $4.99 for some DLC for 2
Crysis Collection - $17.49 for Crysis, 2, and Warhead.
Towns - $7.49
Rage - $4.99

Comunity Choice:
Dead Island GOTY - $6.79