Prey was on sale over Steam this weekend. At five bucks, it was an impulse buy for me; my download is at 78% and counting. I've already posted my thoughts on the Prey demo. Looking forward to playing the rest of the game.
Steam has matured a lot over the past year. My biggest gripe with the system, mandatory patching, was remedied with the option to disable updates on a per-game basis. The catalog now includes games by id, Rockstar, Atari, Majesco, Epic, Sega, Eidos, and more. They have blockbusters like Bioshock and The Orange Box, and entire franchises like the Grand Theft Auto, Civilization, Call of Duty, Unreal, Doom, Half-Life, and Quake series (except Quake 4, for some reason). Throw in indie favorites like Darwinia and AudioSurf, community features that track game stats and award achievements for some games, a click-and-buy system, and seamless multiplayer for Valve's games, and you have one of the slickest PC gaming apps ever created. I hated Steam for a long time, but Valve has put in a huge amount of work to make it a viable and painless system for gamers. Oh, and did I mention the spec surveys?
Switching gears, the Tigers are in the Final Four for the first time in over 20 years. I would be prouder had I managed to graduate, but hey, I wore the blue for three years, I figure I have more cause than most people around here to be excited about it. I envy the kids in the band this year; all they managed to do when I had the Sousa strapped on was lose some NIT games. Whatever happens against UCLA, I'm happy for the school and the city, and I hope Rose stays in the Forum next year (grab him, Chris Wallace. Don't think, just do it).
Steam has matured a lot over the past year. My biggest gripe with the system, mandatory patching, was remedied with the option to disable updates on a per-game basis. The catalog now includes games by id, Rockstar, Atari, Majesco, Epic, Sega, Eidos, and more. They have blockbusters like Bioshock and The Orange Box, and entire franchises like the Grand Theft Auto, Civilization, Call of Duty, Unreal, Doom, Half-Life, and Quake series (except Quake 4, for some reason). Throw in indie favorites like Darwinia and AudioSurf, community features that track game stats and award achievements for some games, a click-and-buy system, and seamless multiplayer for Valve's games, and you have one of the slickest PC gaming apps ever created. I hated Steam for a long time, but Valve has put in a huge amount of work to make it a viable and painless system for gamers. Oh, and did I mention the spec surveys?
Switching gears, the Tigers are in the Final Four for the first time in over 20 years. I would be prouder had I managed to graduate, but hey, I wore the blue for three years, I figure I have more cause than most people around here to be excited about it. I envy the kids in the band this year; all they managed to do when I had the Sousa strapped on was lose some NIT games. Whatever happens against UCLA, I'm happy for the school and the city, and I hope Rose stays in the Forum next year (grab him, Chris Wallace. Don't think, just do it).
