Free Stuff Friday - Dungeon Siege
We've been hearing much buzz about a certain hack-and-slash RPG that's pretty good (and that even I had to nab when it dropped to $5 last week), but it's no Dungeon Siege.
That's right, I said it. Dungeon Siege did it first and it did it better.
And it just so happens we stumbled across an extra copy on one of our holiday shopping outings. So if you want to take the Torchlight challenge, sign up here for your chance to win the original Dungeon Siege for PC.
I quickly lost count of how many nights I barely slept back in 2002. (It's like it was another decade!) All I knew was that I had to explore every inch of Ehb, collect more party members to manage, and loot, loot, loot. Managing my inventory and deciding what to sell was more than half the battle. And the lack of load screens made it hard to find a place to quit for the night (or, more often than not, morning). It even has multiplayer co-op, if you're into that.
Here's how to enter:
If you've thought that Left 4 Dead was too much of a newfangled zombie co-op shooter, now there's a free NES-style 8-bit tribute. Pixel Force: Left 4 Dead by Eric Ruth Games features all of the Valve original's campaigns with your four familiar characters to choose from, two levels of difficulty and both single-player and 2-player co-op. 
You may not know this, but I'm not like other gamers. I mean, not a lot of gamers. Sure, there are others out there like me. You might even know one. But we're still a minority, which means we're still overlooked. 
This year's CES had some gaming news, though many of the announcements were short on details (proving that E3 is still where the real news breaks):
We've grappled with the best way to give away the fluffy PopCap Chuzzles we're now swimming in. First we thought Instant Win! Then maybe a Twitter giveaway! Then we thought we might do a combination (tweet and post!) 
In a Nutshell: Basic sandbox game with a main quest line, side mission opportunities and the chance to wreak general havoc if you are so inclined. You play an assassin in training running around Italy in the 1400s (the game bounces around years). Your primary weapons are blade-based (knives, swords, throwing knives, etc.) or big heavy hammers. You will not be sniping or going rogue with a sub-machine gun in this one. You also won't be seeing well in some areas, as light sources are kept strictly period (windows and torches on the wall). You will defy gravity on a regular basis, climbing and leaping across rooftops and reaching the tallest buildings in multiple-bounds.
I very nearly passed this game up. For one thing, card battle games are a hard sell for me. I did briefly enjoy the Harry Potter trading card game from Wizards of the Coast back in the day, and it was the simplified gameplay and familiar characters that roped me in.
In a Nutshell: The Rock Band "pretend music" rhythm game experience, ported to a more family-friendly format filled with those familiar interlocking bricks. Unlike past Lego-branded console outings, this isn't a smash-'em-up puzzle adventure. You do still collect studs to spend on costumes, characters, and instruments - including a rad octopus mike, dinosaur drum set and lightning bolt guitar (to name a few). And the scenes that introduce challenges are pure Traveller's Tales silliness (bring down a building with the power of rock?), right down to their trademark Lego character reactions throughout.
Considering BioShock 2's release is only a few weeks out (Feb. 9), the pre-order bonuses seem relatively tame for such an A-list title:
In a Nutshell: A cel-shaded "role-playing shooter" with a post-apocalyptic sci-fi slant. The opening credit sequence (accompanied by the excellent "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" by Cage the Elephant) introduces you to your four playable characters, each with a unique unlockable special skill. There's Mordecai (Hunter), whose pet bird Bloodwing rips apart foes; Lilith (Siren), who can temporarily walk through another dimension and damage enemies as she phase shifts; Roland (Soldier), who tosses out a turret gun that delivers cover, hurt and eventually healing and ammo; and Brick as himself (a tank of a man with Hulk-smash skills).
The Save Game: The game offers a local respawn point whenever you pass a Nu-U station, though it doesn't technically save your game as far as we can tell. When you're done playing, you should quit to the main menu to ensure your actual mission progress is saved. When you quit and come back, any enemies you defeated will likely have returned (heck, newcomers appear in places you've cleared while you're playing if you're gone for more than a couple minutes!) though any checkmarks you've made toward completing missions are preserved.
We've been playing a Roland/Lilith combo that has worked out surprising well, other than our vastly different gaming styles. Gamewatcher is a hang-back and snipe kinda guy, whereas me... well, let's just say patience is not my virtue. But I'm learning. Because the most critical thing you can do in this co-op game is heal your teammate, assuming you can get to him/her before they respawn. (You pay for the Nu-U each time, and it gets EXPENSIVE.) Duck and cover, recharge your shields, and holla for help, kids!
This week, we have something for fans of the Americanized version of The Office series. 