The best way to play Rocksmith

Rocksmith - a great game for learning guitar or learning some songs and jamming along with for experienced players.  After getting fed up with lag I found out the best way to play the game.  It will take a little investment but will provide lag free gameplay.  You will need a guitar signal splitter and a guitar amp or processor (such as a Line6 POD or a Fractal Axe-FX)

Cranking on the Backlog: Assassin's Creed II

Now that releases for the Assassin's Creed series have seemingly become a yearly thing by Ubisoft, I felt the need to jump in the series now before I get too far behind.  Friends told me it was acceptable to watch cut-scenes and read up on the plot from the first Assassin's Creed and jump right into the second one which they all agreed was much better.  I did just that.

Deadly Premonition: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

After having read some positive things about Deadly Premonition in some reddit comments, I filed it away in my brain as a game I might check out some day.  I didn't know much about it, other than some people seemed to think it was unique, and worth playing in spite of its flaws.  Then a few weeks ago, I spotted a used copy at Gamestop, and decided to bite.  As I put the case on the counter, the clerk asked me if I had played the game before.  When I said I hadn't, he gave me a friendly warning which went something like this:

Cranking on the Backlog: Dead Space 2

The first Dead Space was eye opening and nerve shattering.  I didn't follow it upon release and it completely went under my radar up until my local Hollywood Video store went out of business and started selling all its games.  I picked it up for right around $3 and it's quite possibly the best $3 I've ever spent.

Cranking on the Backlog: Mickey Mousecapade and Strider

When you have over a thousand video games it's stupid to not play them.  My girlfriend would argue that having over a thousand video games to begin with is stupid and she's probably right.  Nevertheless, I recently went on an old school NES Capcom binge and proceeded to knock Mickey Mousecapade and Strider off the bucket list.

Cranking On The Backlog: Batman Arkham City

Batman Arkham Asylum was one of my all-time favorites.  It was dark and gritty like the Chris Nolan feature film adaptations, it included a lot of my favorite Batman villains like Killer Croc and the Scarecrow, and it consumed me for hours.

Final score: Playstation 4, XBOX 1

While most hardcore gamers, gaming journalists, and entertainment enthusiasts were busy watching the E3 pressers yesterday evening, I promised my girlfriend I would watch a few episodes of the new Arrested Development with her and thought I would catch up on all the news in the morning. 

Custom Retropie Console Attempt; Part 1

A post on Reddit, my second favorite website to this one, inspired me to try my hand at the Retropie Project.  The project has gained popularity for its do-it-yourself appeal that has encouraged many retro gamers to build their own emulation consoles from scratch.  Really, all you need is this tutorial and some spare time to make it all work.  Skills in electronics are helpful but not required.  A little research on your own time can go a long way with this project and results are bound to be good... supposedly.

Games based on movies: Back to the Future

Most games based on movies are notoriously bad due to a whole list of reasons that covers everything from inception and development to marketing and release.  The poor quality can usually be attributed to the game being released with a short development cycle so it can be marketed alongside the film and people will throw their wallets at it by association.  But it's no a surprise that even in 1989 after the movie Back to the Future  had been on VHS for over three years that the game based on a Spielberg and Zemeckis masterpiece was trash.

Death That Matters: Part 3 - Death of the Player

This post contains heavy Walking Dead spoilers!  In parts 1 and 2 of this series, I talked about some examples of death in video games that make a lasting impact on the player.  Particularly, deaths which are a result of the player's actions (Part 1), and deaths of friendly characters (Part 2).  In this last post of the series, I'll discuss the death of the player's character, and how it can be more than just a punishment for failing.

Magic: The Recent Addiction

I avoided Magic: The Gathering for the longest time.  The people who I had seen play it either in my old high school cafeteria at the lunch table or in the dark corners of a rundown gaming store had always kind of creeped me out.  That's not to say some of them still don't but now that I have recently been introduced to the game I can't believe I didn't fall in love with it sooner.  The game has encouraged me to overlook the creepiness of some of its players and embrace the "magic" of the game.  To quench my undying urge to play, I downloaded a couple of digital versions to get my fix and teach me the ropes.

Should big publishers jump on the crowd-funding bandwagon?

With the success indie developers are finding through crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter, could companies like EA and Activision be tempted to work the model into their own businesses?  If so, how would it work, and would gamers be receptive to the idea?

Who is buying strategy guides?

Whether published by Brady Games, Prima, or another company, strategy guides are always enticing.  The covers mimic the games they offer strategies for and flipping through the colorful illustrations and pages incite the imagination for what's to come in a particular gaming title.  It's hard to walk past the guide stand in a store without looking over and contemplating giving one a try or even just buying it because it looks cool.  As a kid, I always wanted the strategy guides to the games I owned but thanks to their hefty pricetags on-top of an already pricey game my parents probably bent over backward for to afford, the answer was almost always "no".

"Sorry, guys.  Mom said no.  Maybe if $9.95 wasn't the same as $200 in 1992 we could have a future together."

Why are all the characters on the cover straining so hard? Perhaps it's best we don't know.

Now that I'm an able gamer who rarely becomes stumped during a game as I did as a child, I am still somewhat drawn to strategy guides.  I even have the steady income to afford a few but I still always pass.

The only extra thing it would offer is the fulfillment of completing a game 100% if that was my goal.  Typically, my goal is to beat the main quest or storyline and whatever I happen to do along the way is just part of the fun.  I don't feel the need to completely explore the game and find all it's secrets and complete all it's quests to feel that I have mastered it.  Simply chewing on the amount of fun I want at the pace I want justifies leaving out a few things unnecessary to the plot.  Speaking of exploration, by strictly following a strategy guide walk-through, exploration becomes search and seizure.

There's really only three ways to utilize strategy guides, right?  You can actively go through the guide as you play through the first time using all the hints in the guide and subsequently ruining all sense of personal accomplishment you would have had doing it all on your own.  Secondly, you can actively go through the guide after you've already beaten the game to find things you've missed.  Rarely, after putting 10,20,30, or 40 hours into a game and beating it am I willing to entertain the prospect of going back and doing it over again, much less more thoroughly.  I doubt I would even consider it years later after the game has had time to fade in my mind.  Thirdly, you can use the guide only if you become stumped but then you've spent a good amount of money on a book that basically replaces a free Google search.

So why are strategy guides so popular?  Well I guess some players really DO want to master the games without putting forth the cerebral effort to do it themselves.  Aside from that, before the internet was widespread the guides were very helpful for very difficult games.  The original Tomb Raider comes to mind.  I played this game when I was young, 11 or 12, and had much trouble with the puzzles and just the general difficulty of the game.  I had borrowed a tattered Tomb Raider strategy guide from a cousin and was able to get myself through more difficult parts of the levels.  My parents couldn't afford strategy guides, much less internet for me to browse for answers.  That's to say the answers were even online then, who knows?  But now with widespread internet, the guides are still all over shelves.   So again, why are they so popular?

Strategy guides weren't new to the Playstation or N64 generation either; They go much further back.  Jeff Rovin's "How to Win at Nintendo Games" books were super popular in the late eighties and early 90's.  I was able to find three of the books at a used book store recently and thumbed through them.  The games back then didn't lend themselves to needing a lengthy amount of strategy so each game highlighted in the books only gets a few pages.  If you're into the classics, these books are actually fairly helpful.  Many NES games were extremely cryptic and though the NES itself only had a 4 button controller plus D-pad, many of the games still proved unfathomably difficult.  The little tips and tricks found in those books and other magazines from back in the day were a big help for some gamers.  I remember using Game Genie's and cheat codes to advance levels on classic games.  Games today have gotten away from the clear dissected level format but there still are some cheats available if that's what you're into.

Today's games don't really need the kind of instruction NES games did.  Tutorials, in-game help menus, and autosave points do such a good job to guide players through games and save their progress, that today's games can be seen as too easy.  I'm happy with the default difficulty levels of most games but a few console generations ago, difficulty heavily depended on the game.  Today, not all players are as patient as they once were and if having to search more than five minutes for a clue becomes a hassle then the game gets neglected or a Google search is on the way. Noobs.

Who is buying strategy guides today and why?  It's a decently sized market, someone has to be buying them up and for good reason. 

For what it's worth, they make great collectors items.  I've snagged a few used ones and as a nostalgia junky, I love them.  As a gamer I can do without them.  What about you?

Image sources (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)

Death That Matters: Part 2

In Part 1 of 'Death That Matters', I discussed death caused by the player, and how some games try to make pulling the trigger feel like the grave, powerful and irreversible act it is.  In this part, I'll be looking at the deaths of characters friendly to the player, and how these moments can illicit an emotional reaction in the player.

Death That Matters: Part 1

Death in video games is rarely the heart-crushing affair it is in real life.  In fact, it's usually the name of the game.  We waste a thousand terrorists in Call of Duty, and we don't - nor are we expected to - give a second thought to the widows and orphans we leave in our wake.  And that's okay.  These games aren't meant to make us ponder death and its consequences.  But some games do venture into this territory, and I think it's a very worthwhile endeavor.

The Main Quest vs Side Quest Dilemma

The main quest vs side quest dilemma is something that I've encountered while playing games like Mass Effect and The Elder Scrolls.  The dilemma arises because of the level of immersion and freedom these games offer, but it can tear away at that sense of immersion which the developers worked so hard to create.  Is it a necessary evil, or are there ways to get around it?

Free Play - Slender Space

Free Play - a quick look at games you can play right now for free.

Ever since the indie game Slender: The Eight Pages went viral, it's hard to walk 10 steps without bumping into a Slender clone.  And I admit that when I first saw the screenshot above for Slender Space, I almost rolled my eyes.  But when I saw that the game was playable in my web browser (thanks to the Unity engine) I figured I'd give it a shot.  Below you'll find a video of 10 minutes of gameplay.

Nostalgia Trip: Zombies Ate My Neighbors

I owned quite a few games as a kid but that didn't keep me from renting games almost every weekend of the summer.  One Genesis game I almost always returned with a dreadful late fee was Zombies Ate My Neighbors. The concept of the game was so fresh for its time and even today, despite the onslaught of zombie related titles flooding the markets, the concept is still unique and interesting:  Run around a map full of horrifying legendary monsters and save your neighbors one at a time before they die.

You start out as one of two teenagers, Zeke or Julie, armed with simply a water pistol.  You can collect various household weaponry along the way including pop-sickles, soda cans, dinnerware, and a fire extinguisher to subdue your enemies.  Other weapons include a grenade launcher and a crucifix and there are even potions which allow you to briefly morph into a vicious monster when consumed.  This game has it all.

And as the fan art depiction above shows, the enemies are variable too.  Think of anything scary in the early 90's and it's probably in the game.  Chucky-esque dolls that walk around with tomahawks, chainsaw wielders wearing hockey masks, dopplegangers, blobs, and of course zombies.  Werewolves, Frankensteins, aliens, sea-monsters, and vampires all make an appearance at some point.

The most charming part of the game to me is the level nomenclature and the oozy way it appears on screen before each level starts.  Each level has its own title and theme, for example Level 4 is Chainsaw Hedgemaze Mayhem where the player must quickly navigate a hedgemaze to rescue neighbors while the horrifying chainsaw men cut through the hedges and come right at you.  Level 18, Squidmen of the Deep requires the player to swim through parts of a lagoon while dodging ferocious seamonsters or squidmen.

The game even features a few memorable bosses along the way.  I haven't beaten the game but memorable bosses I've encountered include Level 8's Titanic Toddler where a giant baby reminiscent of 1992's blockbuster Honey, I Blew Up The Kid stomps around and squirts milk on you.  You have to take down the toddler in order to rescue your neighbors in the level.  Others include the giant worms of Level 20's Invasion of the Snakeoids which I wasn't able to beat until later in life.

The terrible two's have never been so dreadful.

The game has password saves so if you lose out you can always get back to roughly where you left off and continue the never ending fun.  If you like retro games and own either a Genesis or Super Nintendo, I can't recommend this one enough.  It takes me back to the time when helping your neighbor went a long way and dodging hordes of undead was a fresh idea.

Images source:  (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)

Budget Gamer Alert - Gamefly Sale

Gamefly is having a weekend sale (ends Monday night) on some popular adventure games.  The sale includes The Walking Dead (which I scored a 10/10) for only $9.99, a FREE download of Psychonauts for members, and several other games including Brutal Legend and Jurassic Park.

Are you a bad enough dude for Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon?

 It would seem that Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was NOT just an elaborate April Fools prank.  Some screenshots made their way online over at NeoGAF.  I think this 80's style sci-fi game (DLC maybe?) might be just the right amount of ridiculous to end up being awesome.  Screenshots after the jump.

Cranking on the backlog: Halo: Combat Evolved

You're probably wondering if I'm mistakenly referring to the wrong Halo or if maybe the cave I used to live in recently collapsed.  Neither are true.  This is in fact the correct Halo I'm referring to and my cave is fine, thank you.

When my high school friends were satisfying their Mountain Dew addictions and playing multiplayer Halo on their original XBox's, I was wasting hours of my life on my Playstation 2 albeit Halo-less.  Now that my stable income has encouraged me to waste all of my money on collecting video games I didn't own growing up, I now have an original XBox (2 actually, for no real reason) and consequently the original Halo release that arguably led to what gaming is today as well as over diagnosed ADHD.

When Halo: Combat Evolved was at its prime, I actually did go over to friends' houses and play the multiplayer mode of the game but never got a chance to try out the campaign.  The only campaign I've completed up til now in the Halo series has been Halo Reach so I figured I might as well catch-up on the story and the experience like many true gamers have.

So far the experience has been less fun and more of a chore.  The graphics hold up okay but the gameplay feels so repetitive.  At least in Halo Reach you got to fly around on spaceships some and complete a variety of missions throughout the campaign.  I feel that most of the time I've spent in original Halo has been running down the same set of dark hallways over and over again looking for checkpoints.  I'm actually amazed at how little the enemies have evolved over the course of the series but not veering far from the original formula is how Bungie made Halo so successful I suppose.

Currently I'm at a part in the game where the Flood enemies are attacking me from every direction and due to my shoddy checkpoint save position, I'm left with nothing but a shotgun, a few shells, and a pocket full of prayers to escape from the library.  It's at least a change from traversing the same Unggoy and Sangheili infested corridors over and over.

At this point I just can't wait to finish the game and move on to Halo 2 which I'm hoping adds some spicy variety in the gameplay.  Maybe it will, maybe it won't.  Either way, I feel it is my duty as a gamer and now game blogger to experience these major titles.

Image sources: (1), (2), (3), and (4)

Game Journal 2013 - Walking Dead

The third game I completed this year was Telltale Game's The Walking Dead.  This is one of those games where I tried the demo when it first came out, and it seemed okay, but it didn't really grab me.  However, when the game started winning Game of the Year awards like a doped up Lance Armstrong, I figured I should give it another look, and I am glad I did.

The outdated sports game made to last

Very few sports games hold up to the test of time.  As a video game collector this becomes very evident as I have doubles of every John Madden football game since 1994 and I can't get rid of a single one.  Every sports game depreciates up to 60% of their value after the first year and gradually continues to depreciate over time until they slowly become a burden on society and clog up sections of Goodwill and used game stores.  For a new version of a sports game, usually all that takes place is a roster tweak and some mode tweak that ultimately either really sucks or has no effect on the game.  It's a vicious cycle of the consumer catching the shaft and some people like me just can't seem to resist it.

Sports games are my guilty pleasure.  I violate the stereotype that gamers who play sports games are typically casual gamers.  I'm a hardcore gamer and I also love the occasional sports game if it's done right.  In college, I fell into the EA trap of buying updated versions of their games yearly for a while only to be disappointed and left without $60 to buy more Ramen with.  Three years ago when 2K Sports promised that NBA 2K11 would be revolutionary, I wasn't overly eager to believe the hype.

But Holy Shit.

I've had this game for three years and I've been playing it for three years.  2K12 and 2K13 are undoubtedly better upgrades but I wouldn't know because I can't put this one down long enough to find out.  The My Player mode is like an RPG for sports.  An RPG for SPORTS.  It's fantastic.  It made me rejoice when I found out that EA will no longer have exclusive licenses to make sports games (I believe for college football but maybe NFL.. maybe neither.. maybe both... I don't remember).  If 2K Sports gets on the bandwagon, we as sports games fans might be in for a treat!

This game looks so good.  I've fooled many of my friends into believing they're watching a game on television when I'm playing.  And before this, I wasn't even big on basketball games; I'm more of a football guy.  But this game is so fun and full of replayability.  I played through a full 82 game NBA season in My Player mode and missed the playoffs by one game.  Without hesitation I moved onto the next season and fully intend to play through all 82 and bring home the championship.  I'm sickened by how long this will take but also can't wait to do it.

The AI is very good.  When in My Player mode you can rely on your teammates to make the right decision most of the time.  Sometimes a player will become a ball-hog and instead of passing it right away, they might take a shot that you wouldn't approve of but that's the beauty of it.  Players like that exist on teams and you have to deal with it; however, your team can build team chemistry that lessens the likelihood that a player will neglect passing around the rock.  You shape your own image via press conferences and shape your own character by your performances and play style.

You can also play as Michael Jordan and do Michael Jordan-y things as Michael Jordan did.  There are a few challenges you can take on to see if you have what it takes to match Jordan's most memorable performances.

My key complaint is the passing.  To pass simply the passing button and the directional stick never seems to go where you want it to.  Unless there is only one player in a direction, I would advise using selective passing which might slow you down a bit but it's better than throwing a dud pass that gets intercepted clear across the court where you didn't want it to go.  I've punched the hell out of my arm rest after letting a pass fly right into the hands of a defender who was no where near my wide open teammate. 

This game holds up and it's getting in the way of my backlog but I'm okay with that.  When the Grizzlies finally win the championship this season with My Player at the helm then maybe I'll take an early retirement.  We'll see.

image source in order:  amazon.com, operationsports.com, wired.com, thatgamerhub.com

BioWare Effect

I love Skyrim.  No, that's not a typo.  Stick with me here.  Skyrim and the other recent Elder Scrolls games are my all time favorite games.  I love just about everything about them.  I have played Skyrim for more hours than I'd like to admit.  But there is one aspect of the game that is really lacking: companionship.  Think of some epic tales of adventure.  Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Toy Story, etc.  What do they all have in common?  A group of characters each with their own motivations, their own personality, their own history, all working together in different ways to achieve the same goal.  How boring would it be if Luke just tried to take on the Empire by himself?  Or if Toy Story was only about Woody?  In this sense, it's strange that you are so alone in The Elder Scrolls.

Slim City, A reboot on the wrong foot and other puns

I swore I wouldn't do it.  "I will NOT get this game!" I repeated.  I kept saying over and over again that EA is evil, they ruin my favorite franchises (see Mass Effect), they gouge me for money constantly with failed promises (see any EA sports release in last five years), and they've burned me before (see Sim City Societies), and they're evil (see Satan). "I'm not going to get it.  I'm boycotting EA forever! I'm only going to buy their games used from now on." I repeatedly spewed to my co-author Brian.

But I made a promise to an old friend many months ago when I was still naive in believing the new Sim City would meet the hype.  I promised that I would buy it and we could co-op a region and trade and do mayor stuff together.  I was willing to break this promise and save my $60 but decided a free game from EA might sway me enough.  I convinced myself that accepting their free game offer on Origin would allow me to gouge them back a little bit, so I checked the retail prices on each of the free offerings and downloaded the most expensive one, Dead Space 3 (going for about $40) at the time and took my Sim City with it.

Am I disappointed in the game?  Yes.  The maps are small, the cities are isolated, it's a bit too easy, and the multiplayer aspect is a bunch of smoke and mirrors.  The simulations aren't always logical, the sims themselves aren't simulated people but more like simulated marbles, and the overall AI is terrible.

The multiplayer component is lacking in several areas.  Exchanges like gifting can lag for up to twenty minutes in my experience and the game sometimes assumes you're sharing goods and services that you had no idea you were sharing.  It's still cool to see a friend build a city alongside you.  Maybe Maxis and EA can improve upon that in future patches, updates, or DLC.

Have I still logged over 20 hours in less than a week?  Yes.  It's fricking gorgeous.  The tilt-shift makes it look like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.  You can see distant cities your friends are making in your region, the buildings can be modified for your city's needs, and there are a couple distinct city types you can build.

While the game has been previewed, reviewed, previewed again, and then rereviewed into the ground, it's safe to say I'm not hitting on anything new at this point.  But I will say, if you go into the new SimCity experience expecting SimCity 4 with better graphics and curvy roads then you will be disappointed.  This is still a city building simulation but it's improvements lie more in aesthetics than actual big city simulation.  I guess it can be more accurately described as a neighborhood simulation but building massive cities was never my goal in Sim City anyway.  Simply building something believable and real is my ultimate desire and I can still do that with this release.

Game Journal 2013 - Spec Ops

My second game completed in 2013 was Spec Ops: The Line.  I had played the demo for the game when it first came out, and while it seemed like a decent game, it also seemed like it was just going to be a third-person CoD clone.  I passed on the game, and didn't give it a second thought until I saw some people talking about it on Reddit.  I inquired about the game, and was told the story line was straight messed up, and that I needed to play it.  I was also informed that the game was on sale for 75% off on Amazon, so how could I say no at this point?

Game Journal 2013 - Far Cry 3

I have this problem as a gamer.  A problem that I think I share with many other gamers.  I have a habit of buying a game, playing it for a short time, and never finishing it.  Sometimes it's because I hit a difficulty wall that turns me off of the game.  Sometimes something new and shiny comes along that pulls my attention away.  Sometimes I buy 12 new games during a Steam sale, and by the time I beat one of them, some new game has come out that makes me forget about the other 11.  For whatever reason, I seem to end up with a pile of games which I have only partially played, or haven't even touched.  So I decided that 2013 was going to be the year that I actually started finishing my games.

Cranking on the backlog: Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga

“Saga” is one of those words thrown around a lot in the video game community.  Defined as a long story of heroic achievement, I suppose most adventure games and RPG’s fit the bill.  Sagas, epic sagas, legends, legendary sagas, etc., the list goes on and on.  Every franchise wants their game’s backstory to become a saga, a tale of the ages; something that is still relevant long after the game becomes outdated.  Very few franchises can capture the essence of a saga in a single release and by putting the word in the title, Larian Studios, the makers of Divinity II, had a lot to live up to.

I believe they did.  

I’m at least 40 hours in and have no idea how close I am to finishing.  And that’s only forty hours into the game itself as I’ve no doubt logged many more hours more in dying because this ancient Xbox 360 game’s autosave feature hates me and everything I stand for.  The game autosaves in random locations and is not based on time or progress.  After playing more recent 360 titles, I’ve become so used to the game autosaving itself that I forgot saving from a menu was even a thing.  This game slowly reminded me after I managed to lose a few hours of my life from dying without saving for a while.  It’s a lesson I refuse to learn apparently as it just keeps happening.  If you’ve ever wanted to see a grown man rage-quit and cry himself to sleep, peek through my window while I’m grinding away at this game.

As America's favorite diabetic Wilford Brimley might say, "You save your Divinity, and you save it often!"

That aside, the game has its pluses.  You can wield a sword, bow, or cast magic and even turn into a dragon at times.  All of these things are way cool and fun to use in the game.  The armor looks pretty bad-A, you can customize your character to look pretty awesome, all of the NPC’s are somewhat unique, and the missions, even the side missions, rarely grow dull.

The frustrating parts of the game stem from the aforementioned basically non-existent autosave function and the occasional difficulty spikes that will have you kicking and screaming.  The controls for the game also take a bit of getting used to as each button on the controller face is an action.  You can assign actions to each of the four d-pad buttons and to each of the four action buttons.  You can only press them for a second when performing an activity as holding them in for longer than a second activates a menu that allows the player to assign actions to the button.  Because of this there are no build up attacks or attack variation, only quick button taps.  You can only strengthen attacks by leveling up your character, which isn't so bad and not hard to do.

This is my first attempt at a Divinity title as I never played the first installment but I do appreciate what they tried to accomplish.  The game has a charming sense of humor but stops short of taking it too far.  It has a deep lore and focused storyline while still nearly achieving an open world feel.  But as I said before, it’s a saga and sometimes feels too long and grueling.  I thought I had beaten the game twice already only to unlock more missions and a different section of the map.  If you’re into that kind of thing, this saga might be a nice one to travel back in time for if you can tolerate the early generation graphics and have something soft to punch repeatedly after you forget that the autosave feature is out to get you.  The game still goes for around $20 most places.

Image credit:  lisisoft.com

Pushing Up DayZs

I am one of those who have recently got swept up in the DayZ craze. Unfortunately for me, it was before the 40% off sale on Steam. But I don’t begrudge the extra $10 or so that I had to pay. Even though I got about 12 new games during the Steam Summer Sale, I’ve barely touched any of them because I’m so caught up in DayZ. I’ll attempt to put a finger on why.