Jun 26 2020
0

Steam Summer Sale 2020 Features Thousands of Discounted Games

Posted by | News, PC | No Comments

PC gaming fans, your moment has arrived. The annual Steam Summer sale has kicked off this week, featuring thousands of discounted games from now through July 9.

Highlighted deals include Borderlands 3 ($29.99, 50% off), Terraria ($4.99, 50% off), Planet Coaster ($11.24, 75% off), Titanfall 2 ($9.89, 67% off), Half-life Alyx ($44.99, 25% off), and Doom Eternal ($29.99, 50% off). If you purchase at least $30 worth of games, you’ll also receive an additional $5 discount at checkout.

This year you can earn points by spending money during the sale, and spend those points on profile frames, backgrounds, and chat stickers. For every $1 spend, you earn 100 points. This must apply retroactively in some way, as I logged into Steam to find over 7,000 points before spending any money.

Points can be spent to customize your Steam profile page with fancy colored frames and animated avatars and backgrounds. If you use Steam chat, you can purchase a plethora of emoticons and animated stickers to annoy your friends with. Many stickers are characters from well-known games like Geralt from The Witcher, Headcrabs from Half-life, and various heroes from Dota 2. For 5,000 points you can purchase a special golden profile that includes a themed frame and animated background, though it only lasts for 30 days.

Anyone can grab a bunch of free animated stickers by logging into the Steam sale very few hours and claiming them from the points shop page.

The Steam Summer Sale ends June 9.

Jun 23 2020
0

Marvel’s Avengers Coming to Next Gen Consoles

Posted by | News, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | No Comments

Square Enix confirmed today that Marvel’s Avengers will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox One X this Holiday season. The highly anticipated action game is first releasing for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Stadia on September 4.

For gamers who plan on picking up a next-gen console but don’t want to wait on Marvel’s Avengers, you’ll be able to upgrade to the next-gen version for free. The only catch is the upgrade must be from PlayStation 4 to 5 or from Xbox One to Xbox One X. The upgraded versions will also feature cross-gen play, so PS5 users can play with PS4 friends, and likewise with the Xbox One X.

On next-gen consoles players will enjoy faster load times thanks to the solid state drive, as well as improved texturing, ray tracing, 3D audio, and increased resolution and overall graphical fidelity. Players will be able to choose between enhanced graphics mode or high framerate mode.

Square Enix is hosting a Marvel’s Avengers War Table stream tomorrow, June 24, at 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern at the official Avengers website. The stream will showcase new gameplay content, including co-op.

Marvel’s Avengers will release on September 4 on current hardware, and later this Holiday season on PlayStation 5 and Xbox One X. It is currently pending a rating from the ESRB.

Jun 18 2020
0

Humble Fight for Racial Justice Bundle Includes Over 50 Games and eBooks

Posted by | News, PC | No Comments

The game industry has responded with dozens of messages of support and cries for equality following the now global Black Lives Matter protests over racial justice.

This week Humble is offering a Fight for Racial Justice bundle, including over 50 games and ebooks worth over $1,200, for $30.

The bundle features an incredible collection of games spread across every genre, including BioShock Remastered, Neo Cab, This War of Mine, FTL, Spelunky, Kerbal Space Program, Hyper Light Drifter, Jackbox Party Pack 4, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and NBA 2K20.

Purchasing the games provides a Steam key on PC. A few of the games are also available in DRM-free versions. Comics are available in CBZ, PDF, and ePub file formats, while books are in PDF, MOBI and ePub, and work on PC, e-readers, tablets, and phones.

The included digital comics and ebooks focus on products by black creators and on promoting racial equality, such as Twelve Years a Slave, Decolonizing Wealth, and Baclk women in Science: A Black History Book for Kids. Also, somewhat randomly, the Starfinder tabletop RPG Core Rulebook.

Similar to Humble’s COVID-19 bundle, every game and ebook is featured in a single tier at $30, though you can choose to pay more. One hundred percent of the proceeds goes to the following charities: the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Race Forward, and The Bail Project.

The Humble Fight for Racial Justice Bundle ends June 22.

Jun 16 2020
0

Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition Features Demos and Livestreams

Posted by | News, PC | No Comments

The Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition kicks off today. Running throughout the week and ending June 22, the digital event features free demos of new and upcoming games, as well as promoted livestreams and developer interviews.

An event schedule is available for upcoming indie developer livestream events, including Cyanide & Happiness, The Iron Oath, Breakpoint, Oddria, Hellcard, and Nine Noir Lives, which appears to star a cat detective. If you haven’t yet heard of any of these games, now is a great chance to check them out.

Demos of upcoming games you may have heard of include Grounded, Obsidian’s co-op Honey I Shrunk the Kids co-op survival adventure, Desperados 3 (which just released today), the stealth tactics game from the makers of Shadow Tactics, Destroy All Humans!, a remake of the campy action shooter, Solasta: Crown of the Magister, a tactical RPG that uses the D&D rules, and Everspace 2, an open world space sim adventure.

Both the steam web page and client seem to be buckling under the weight of this event. Pages are slow to load (if they load at all) and at one point my client froze and crashed. Thankfully we’ve got a full week to enjoy this bevy of demos and entertainment.

The Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition lasts through June 22.