Outlast: Go buy some depends. A Review.

Sesame Street Fighter

I saw this and thought I was suffering from a really vivid dream. 

You can play Sesame Street Fighter at this link.

Twitch Plays Pokemon

I discovered one of the crazier/glorious things that the internet has come up with recently while browsing reddit. A user created an IRC script that translates user input from the chatroom into key presses inside a Gameboy emulator running pokemon. This was then broadcasted on twitch.tv. This glorious idea is Twitch Plays Pokemon.

The story of what has happened so far can be found on this wiki posted on reddit. It really has become this great experiment in social gaming. Go check it out.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist PC Review

I'm going to be very forthcoming with this one: Personally, Splinter Cell has always taken a backseat to Metal Gear Solid. I've never been extremely fond of the series and the last Splinter Cell game played was Double Agent, which came out in 2006. That being said, I needed to fill the gaping stealth action hole that MGS has left in my gaming life and decided to give Blacklist I spin. I was pleasantly surprised.

I picked up Splinter Cell Blacklist on the UbiStore and downloaded it through the UPlay client. I won't get into detail right now about my feelings regarding UPlay, but basically it feels like a low rent version of Origin. I would've preferred this game as a Steamworks title, but Ubisoft is persistent about making us use UPlay to play its games.

Straight out of the gates, I realized this wasn't the same Sam Fisher that I controlled back in 2006. This Sam Fisher is a brutal killing machine, only being held back by my own qualms about killing every hostile NPC in site. The gameplay has changed dramatically, allowing you to choose your own playstyle and rewarding you as such. Want to sneak around and choke the crap out of every enemy soldier? You can do that. Want to climb over them and just reach the objective without alerting anyone? You can do that. You want to turn this game into Splinter Cell/Gears of War? You can definitely do that too. The cover shooter mechanics that have been woven into Blacklist have really changed the formula for me in a good way. Now when I alert enemies, I don't always have to go running to the next dark corner or ceiling pipe. I can hunker down and blast away with an automatic shotgun or non-suppressed MP5. The game rewards different playstyles with points that are converted into currency. The currency allows you to purchase weapons, suit upgrades, gadgets, and other items that you can tailor to your playstyle. It actually feels quite Hitman-esque, with certain upgrades and playstyles reminding me of a watered down version of Hitman Blood Money, which is actually a good thing.

The graphics on the PC version are great. Blacklist employs the Unreal engine, which when done without the giant hulking soldier bodies actually looks quite realistic. The engine rendered cutscenes are also quite a nice, with the closeups of the characters revealing an insane amount of detail. Stuble has never looked this nice.

The story is a pretty decent Tom Clancy yarn. I enjoyed it quite a bit and it ties into the previous installments quite nicely (from what I remember). There are also fun side missions that range from stealth infiltration to a horde mode type of wave survival, which I actually found to be quite fun.

If you have a stealth action itch that you need to scratch, you should definitely give Splinter Cell Blacklist I try. Oh and I haven't figured out how to do the wall splits maneuver yet, maybe they took it out of the game.

Revisiting Skyrim

The last time I touched Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was back when it was released in 2011. It was one of my favorite games when I played it. It was this beautiful, gigantic, buggy open world extravaganza. After dumping dozens of hours into it, I closed the book on that story and went on other games, forgetting about all the wondrous adventures that Tamriel still had in store for me.
So when the 2013 Steam autumn sale rolled around with all of the Skyrim DLC on sale, I decided to delve back into Skyrim. I also discovered that in my time away Skyrim on Steam now included Steam Workshop mods, which really made the game more interesting to play. I'm now 20 hours back into Skyrim and I'm loving it. Especially when you can install crazy mods like this one:

XCOM: Enemy Within First Impressions

Today I also got started on XCOM: Enemy Within. XCOM EW is the expansion to one of my favorite strategy titles XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Rather than being a separate story expansion, Enemy Within actually incorporates into the main game and radically changes the style and shape of XCOM play. The main additions to XCOM EW are the new unit classes. So far I've created a "mec trooper". Basically a person inside a mech suit. It is as awesome as it sounds.

That's Betty. They cut off her arms and legs and filled her vag with motor oil.

So far I'm enjoying XCOM Enemy Within. While I find it to be quite entertaining and challenging (I just rage quit, which is why I found the time to write this blog post), Enemy Within isn't going to change your mind if you weren't a fan of Enemy Unknown. With that being said, here are some screen shots I snapped whilst playing today.

Say whaaa?

My sniper, Maximum Foreskin.

If you were a fan of XCOM Enemy Unknown, I'd definitely recommend you go pick up Enemy Within right now. It's a 7gb download via Steam, so you better get at it.

Battlefield 4 Emblem Maker: I've seen enough wieners already

New to Battlefield 4 (and something that CoD players will recognize) is the emblem maker. You can now make customized emblems that show up on your profile, player stats, enemy kill cam (you see the emblem of your killer during the killcam now) and even vehicles. The web based emblem maker program is decent, allowing you to pick from predetermined shapes and figures to create your own customized emblem. It's a little too basic in my opinion, as it took me forever to make identical sized shapes (I tried to make eyes). However, I've seen some pretty awesome emblems in my short time playing through Battlefield 4.

PSA: EA/DICE mods will make you take down any offensive emblems, stop with the veiny wieners already.

Battlefield 4: A Rough But Glorious Start

It's day 3 of Battlefield 4 time and I'm happy to report that so far the game is everything I've hoped for and more. I just got my PC version in the mail and I'm not going to lie, I tore that shit open within seconds of pulling it out of my mailbox.

 Although numerous users have voiced their complaints about the PC version crashing, I've had minimal problems so far and the few that I've had could probably be attributed to over zealous private server owners and the initial waves of new users stressing EA/Dice servers. 

I did get one of these messages this morning, but I also got a lot of those during my time with BF3.

I'll be bringing an in-depth review shortly, once the reported rubber-banding issues and game crashes have leveled on. Until then, I'll see you on the battlefield.

Bioshock Infinite for PC - $9.99 via Amazon

You can grab Bioshock infinite for PC for the low low price of $9.99 via Amazon.com. 
I absolutely loved Bioshock Infinite and will have to say that you should definitely pick it up for 10 bones if you can. I kind of got mine for free when I purchased my 7870 Tahiti LE but I would have definitely spent the full $60 on it if I hadn't received a complimentary copy from AMD Never Settle.

Go pick it up here.

Capcom 30th Anniversary Sale

In case you missed the Steam promotion over the weekend, Gamefly is having a digital sale on all of their Capcom titles for PC, including Resident Evil 6 for $9.99 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record for $7.49. I had a blast with both of those games and can definitely suggest that you purchase the arguably superior PC ports. You can check out those deals here.

Retro City Rampage for Steam Anniversary Sale - $3.76

Another indie game that I would definitely recommend to all retro-style gaming fans out there is Retro City Rampage. To sum it up in one sentence - 8 Bit GTA+Every retro game parody.

Check out the trailer:

You can pick it up right now on their site for the lovely price of $3.76.

Battlefield 4 Beta - Week 1 Highlights

 Killed by some SaggyBalls

I've created a short highlight reel of my favorite moments from the Battlefield 4 Beta. There's a lot of dying from C4 mishaps. Enjoy.

Battlefield 4 Beta - Going solid snake on a fool

I encountered a little glitch in the knife animation and I accidentally Solid Snake'd this guy.

Battlefield 4 Beta - The hype is real

The Battlefield 4 Beta has been live for a day, and I will say that it has successfully increased the hype for me tenfold. With that said, here's my first attempt at basejumping off of the C deployment point.

EA Origin Crazy Sale at Gamefly

Right now at Gamefly you can pickup a bunch of EA games for Origin for up to 75% off.
Some of the notable titles include Crysis 3 for $7.49 and the Command and Conquer Ultimate Collection for $9.99.
Use coupon code GFDSEP20 for an additional 20% off.

Check it out here.

Edit:

You can get it for $7.99 at Gamestop.com right now

2 for $15 Bethesda PC Games right now

Right now you can pick up 2 games from Bethesda, 2K, or ID for $15. I would highly recommend Dishonored and Fallout New Vegas but the overall selection is pretty decent.
Check it out and Get Loaded

I Didn't Like Dark Souls At All

Though Metacritic may not agree with me, I'm going to come right out and say it. I absolutely despised Dark Souls. It was too damn hard and frustrating. I didn't find it rewarding at all and I rage quit more times playing that damn game than anything else in my entire life. I found absolutely no joy in that game. I didn't understand why in the beginning of the game they would let me stumble into an area at with level 99 skeletons who would absolutely demolish my anus on sight. I didn't understand why they would give absolutely no direction or indicating on how to defeat some wandering ghosts who are just waiting for me at the story progression chokepoint. I hate having to google solutions to small, seemingly inconsequential battles. I hate having to google any kind of gameplay tip.
Maybe I'm not a glutton for punishment. Maybe I've been spoiled over the years with games like Fable, Devil May Cry, and even Ninja Gaiden. Hell, I loved the Ninja Gaiden for the original XBOX and I found it to actually be challenging and rewarding. Dark Souls, on the other hand, was just this tedious, twitch reflex requiring nightmare for me. I felt like I should have been hopped up on Vivanse just to keep up with the level of planning and dexterity that this game required. I really hated this game.

 This meme sums it up nicely.

Now, the question really is, am I just another lazy gamer?  Am I just a whiner? Am I part of the coddled Call of Duty generation? Did the checkpoint systems of Halo and Grand Theft Auto lower the challenge level bar for me permanently? I would have to say no. I played and beat Contra on the NES without cheating. I played through Ninja Gaiden without a strategy guide and finished the "special world" in Super Mario World. I have no problem with a fun challenge. Dark Souls to me, is not fun at all. I really tried hard to like it. I owned it on the PS3 and sold it after a few weeks to prevent myself from cracking the box by chucking it at my wall. I own the Prepare to Die edition on Steam which I gave another go before right clicking it and pressing "delete local content". I really can't like this game at all. I'm just not into masochism. With that said, I'm going to go back to taking more GTA V selfies tonight.

A Revolution is Coming: SteamOS

Valve has just announced its new operating system: SteamOS.

At this moment, only a few details regarding the release have been announced on the Steam site, however some interesting points to note are:

• In home streaming: stream games from your windows/mac box to your steam os machine
• integrated media services (music, netflix, etc)
• family sharing (yes, the same kind of sharing that they implemented in the last steam release)
• optimized "graphics processing", your games *may* look better on Steam OS.

That's all we've got right now but we will post more as information becomes available.

Bioshock Infinite for $14.99

Today on greenmangaming.com you can pick up Bioshock Infinite for $14.99.

Grab it here and use promo GMG25-J4B0D-FLH8M to get it for $14.99

Open the register and give me all your selfies

He didn't want me to tag him on this selfie so I asked him to put all the money in a plastic bag instead.