Tag Archives: honest ed’s

Today is January 17th. Yesterday was the first time I picked up my Xbox controller and played a game on a ‘video game console’ since Dec 27th. So that’s 20 days of Xbox neglect.

What happened that day? My gaming world, as I knew it, CHANGED!

A while back I posted an article asking the question, “Did I miss PC gaming?” The answer to that? No. Because I’m ALL. CAUGHT. UP!

The timing of my new tower purchase couldn’t have been more perfect. Sure, boxing day sales are going on in the city, but that’s not the sale I was interested in.

STEAM’s HOLIDAY SALE!

If you’d been following my twitter during that period, you would have been hearing me singing the praises of Steam, in just how it makes so much more sense than Xbox live (or PSN for the matter).

Hundreds of big budget and indie games right at your fingertips, the ability to buy and gift games to others, and discounted 4 packs for co-op games.

All this coming to me at once with the ridiculousness of Steam’s Holiday sale?

HO-LE-CRAP.

I was buying titles for fractions of the price. Just about everything I could want was under 5 bucks. Heck, most of my purchases were under $3.

Overall I must have spent around 50 big ones. That’s even cheep for a brand new console title. And what did I get for a cool 50? 29 games!

TWENTY-NINE, full quality and enjoyable titles for 50 bucks (technically it was 33 games, but I gifted away 3 of my Dungeon Defenders, and a copy of Left 4 Dead)

Even if we divided that number cold and said each game was about 5 or 6 bucks, that’s still phenomenal. I purchased titles like Star Wars: Empires at War, Jamestown, Serious Sam HD, Rock of Ages, Puzzle Agent, The Binding of Isaac, Zombie Drive, and more.

On top of this? Friends were gifting me games. I got both Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, Bastion and Super Meat Boy. What more could a meat boy want?

Now money aside, the other great thing is the RANGE of games I had access to now. Racing games and first person shooters are fairly typical console affair, but now I’m playing puzzle games like the Chu Chu Rocket-gone-cubism RUSH, and the truly bizarre 1st person falling simulator AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity; titles I would never have played on XBLA (don’t even know if they’re available there to be honest).

And Jamestown? I don’t even like the ‘space shooter’ genre, but man, 4 players? Mouse/keyboard/game pad options, all on one screen? DONE!

Alright, so that’s a bunch of pros for Steam. I guess you wanna hear some cons?

Well, ‘NONE AT ALL’ is what I would love to say, but there are things to consider. Firstly, bandwidth.

In the first week of my new month of Internet, I’d already used up my 60gb limit (thanks Rogers… dicks). Downloading these titles with their fancy graphics and plentiful sound files isn’t a small task.

Secondly, productivity.

I’ve always maintained computers were for work first and fun second. That was mainly because computers were never the ultimate ‘fun’ solution to me, what with the N64 in the other room ready for another round of Smash Bros.

But now… the computer has out-funned my game system. The hell? How am I ever going to get any work done when at any second, a buddy’s icon can pop up and ask “Dungeon Defenders?” (which is a REALLY addictive co-op game, I gotta say).

Finally, something in Steam’s own loss.

Having the sale as my first experience of purchasing PC games online, I can never go back to full priced titles. It’s like when I found out Honest Ed’s in Toronto was selling Jones Soda for $1.

WHY would I EVER pay $1.49 (or more) again at any other convince store?

… well, when Boarderlands 2 comes out in a 4-pack, we’ll see what I do. Gotta buckle somewhere, right?

Anyway, my closing comment: if you wanna gift me anything on Steam, just look for “Shaggy Shan”, I’m pretty sure I’ll be happy to take anything you got. ‘Cause I wanna play, EVERYTHING