Black Friday Gaming Deals 2013

Video Game Deals

Amazon.com video game deals (limited quantity, new deals cycling on all day/weekend)
Some of my personal picks:
EVE Online The Second Decade collector's edition (price reduced starting at 4:10p PST today)
Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm (price reduced starting at 8:10p PST today)
For those of you with Skylander-obsessed kids: buy 2, get 1 free Skylanders SWAP force characters

Steam Autumn Sale
General Steam sale rules:
1. Don't buy a game until the last day of the sale unless it is on a daily sale
2. Flash sales are often repeated
3. Don't hesitate to buy a daily deal as the available keys can run out
4. The best deals are usually repeated the last day of the sale

Board Game Deals

Amazon.com still has their buy one, get one half off deal for board games.  See my previous post on the sales and my recommendations.

Target also has buy one, get one half off on their board games (slightly different selection than Amazon).

Cool Stuff Inc is running some good deals on board, card, and miniature games.\

Miniature Market started their sale yesterday and had some really great deals (like Netrunner data packs for $7), but it appears a ton of their stock is sold out already.

More than a one-day story

First, see this post on Reddit.
Next, read the news story.
Last, when you are playing Starcraft 2 tonight, remember this guy and his friend who will now be playing alone.

matdevdug, your friend is more than a one-day story.

It’s not Battle.net, it’s me

I was less than thrilled to hear about the new Battle.net. I commented on other blogs that this new Battle.net was five years too late. I don’t want every new game to launch with its own developer tie-in service. I want simplicity; consolidation. For me that was Steam. Sadly, Blizzard has shown no move towards Valve’s digital distribution platform and as Blizzard has always been a heavy box sales driven company, it’s a pipe dream. I don’t like the idea of Blizzard’s new toy, but it’s me that’s at fault, not the new Battle.net.

I can’t accept that I have to maintain an EA, Steam, Games for Windows Live, NCSoft, SOE Station, Galanet, Gamespy, Rockstar, Battle.net, and God knows what else account. Whatever happened to launching a game.exe, typing in a display name, and hitting play? Where the hell is the OpenID or Facebook Connect of PC games? Even my cherished Steam platform is becoming a hindrance as the majority of games I play do not integrate with my Steam login for multiplayer or friends tracking, meaning for the majority of games I own via Steam I am logging in twice to play (thank God for the invention of the auto login features).

Battle.net will be successful and heralded as an industry standard. It is a Blizzard product after all. However, I don’t like the trend of every publisher/developer having their own separate platform trying to lock me into or out of their games. Hopefully my complaint has been noted and quickly dismissed somewhere within this crazy landscape of what we call PC gaming.

The New Battle.net

With the "eye in the sky" opinion out the way, lets get to the new Battle.net.  Ars Technica has a preview. It appears to have the usual Blizzard polish and is probably ready to go live now, but I suspect we won't see it until Starcraft 2 hits the shelves.

Nothing from the article is groundbreaking. The new Battle.net features streamlined matchmaking for Blizzard games with integrated social networking. It is what most expected and the Blizzard polish will seal the deal.

Conclude

I almost kind of wish it was opened to more than just Blizzard games, but as a long time Steam (and Steamworks) observer, I understand that even giving access away to a digital platform for free doesn't mean any of the larger developers will pay it any attention.  After all, that would be crazy. They can just make their own flavor!

Looking Back on 2009, Heartless' Predictions Reviewed

Its that magical time of year where I get to review my predictions for the previous year. Read my original predictions post here.  My commentary is after the jump:

Predictions for 2009

1. The economy will not "collapse", but it isn't going to get better until the governments of the world leave it to the free market to correct itself.

2. The weak economy will encourage smaller, fiscally responsible game development projects. This will lead to a bunch of interesting stuff coming out in the MMO space, whether technically massively multiplayer or not is yet to be seen.

3. Even with number 2, subscription based MMOs will still be king of the revenue stream at the end of 2009. Thank World of Warcraft for giving MMO developers false hope everywhere.

4. World of Warcraft will not get a new expansion, but something will be announced. It will focus more on new hero classes, the Alliance vs Horde conflict, and high end raiding.

5. WAR will still be around by the end of 2009, but who remains around to develop it may be drastically different.

6. More MMOs will close their doors. The true sign of doom will be when SOE starts closing down some of its B-team living painfully on Station Pass.

7. Speaking of SOE. The doom and gloom continues as SOE continues to push RMT practices on its non-RMT games.

8. An MMO project will come out of left field this year and surprise us all. Scott Jennings may or may not be involved, but he’ll blog about it regardless.

9. The world will end if Diablo III and Starcraft II are both launched in 2009.

Starcraft 2 Must Be Perfect

Blizzard's big announcement was not the shocker everyone had anticipated. It was simply Starcraft 2, as predicted just about everywhere. Starcraft 2 will be an RTS; not an MMO.

I will start this out by saying I was wrong. I didn't make any big prediction posts. Everyone else took care of the predictions just fine, but I did open my mouth in a few places and bet against the odds on favorites. Knowing Blizzard and their un-innovative history, Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3 were very probable. Blizzard does not step outside of familiarity. Factor in that this event was held in Korea and you could of easily bet money on Starcraft 2.

So, I was wrong, and the streets of Korea did not erupt into a fiery cataclysmic pool of rioters. However, I don't really believe any of the hardcore Korean Starcraft fauthful are won over by this announcement. To please them, and the majority of Starcraft faithful, Starcraft 2 will need to be perfect. Perfect is not something that exists in the gaming market, and Starcraft 2 won't be the first.

Don't get me wrong. Starcraft 2 will sell well and knowing Blizzard's approach to game design, Starcraft 2 will be a solid, polished, and complete game. However, it will not be a giant leap in RTS gaming. There is already so much that Starcraft 2 has to deliver, that there is literally no wiggle room. Blizzard has to get it right, or face a very, very angry Starcraft community.

On the other hand, World of Warcraft wasn't a giant leap forward for MMORPGs, but it is now the king of the MMO jungle. Can this happen with Starcraft 2? With the same "easy to learn, hard to master" approach, it could be possible. Sadly, Starcraft 2 comes with strikes against it.

First, it is in a Sci-fi setting. Sci-fi has never been as popular as swords and sorcery fantasy.

Secondly, the original Starcraft is still extremely popular. How many of the current diehards will be willing to move to the new game? How many gaming leagues and professional Starcraft players will be willing to move? How will the fans of these leagues feel about the new game?

Finally, the original Starcraft developers are no longer with the company. Blizzard has a great group of developers, but how good are they compared to the fathers of Starcraft? Starcraft has existed for a long time, and benefited from tons of updates, in order to become the game it is today. Starcraft 2 has to come out of the box nearly perfect or we'll just be back playing the original.

In conclusion, Starcraft 2 must be perfect. Good luck Blizzard, you'll need it.