NewNews - Steam Autumn Sale 2013

Official Site: http://store.steampowered.com/

Steam Autumn Sale is here!  And look at the selection for just the first day!  Left 4 Dead 2, Terraria, Rogue Legacy, Sleeping Dogs, The Walking Dead, and Skyrim are all highly notable games while Prison Architect has been working through early access with positive feedback from the community, Anti-Chamber has had many praises for its unique puzzle-solving mechanics, and Outlast for being one of the scariest games to come out recently.  And as usual, there will be a flash sale every 8 hours until the last day December 3rd.  With the sale started and Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I will probably be taking a break the next two days and so should all of you.  Have a safe and enjoyable Holiday and be careful for those going out for Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales.

VGCulture - Lil' Guardian Pyro

Official Site: http://www.sourcefilmmaker.com/saxxyawards/
Source: Youtube Channel Harry101UK

The Saxxy Award is a contest hosted by Valve to give people an opportunity to show their creative side to the world using the Source Film Maker Program to produce a short film.  I don't pay much attention to each year's Saxxy Award, but I came across one of the entries while reading NerfNow.  Lil' Guardian Pyro was winner of Best Overall video from the bunch and I could see why.  It had humor, a sense of drama, action that was also charming at the same time, and that tense moment at the end.  Congratulations to the winners!  Click on the top link to check out the other entries that got nominated!

NewNews - Amazon Black Friday Sale Week

Amazon: Black Friday Sale

Amazon is having flash sales for their games for this year's Black Friday Sale.  Sure you avoid the physical lines in retail stores, but you'll have to fight the internet speed and refresh rate to nab some of the offers as some are in high demand.  DmC: Devil May Cry might have gotten a lot of critical reviews from the community, but that didn't stop it from being in high demand as it sold out this morning in just a manner of minutes of the flash sale starting.  Check the day and time the sales start and start refreshing the page for that specific game and you'll see a "Flash Sale" button on the right of the page.  As long as you claim a copy before they're sold out, you're guaranteed to receive it as long as you buy it within 15 minutes of claiming it.  Keep in mind that Free Shipping is for a purchase of $35 or more instead of the usual $25.  I'm not certain if this is permanent or if it's just for the holidays, but remember this when checking out and looking for free shipping with the product.  Good luck and Happy Sales to you all!

NewNews - Xbox One Launch Games Line-Up

These are the games you can buy/install and start playing on your new Xbox One:

Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag
Battlefield 4
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Crimson Dragon
Dead Rising 3
FIFA 14
Fighter Within
Forza Motorsport 5
Just Dance 2014
Killer Instinct
Lego Marvel Super Heroes
LocoCycle
Madden NFL 25
NBA 2K14
NBA Live 2014
Need for Speed: Rivals
Powerstar Golf
Ryse: Son of Rome
Skylanders: Swap Force
Xbox Fitness
Zoo Tycoon
Zumba Fitness

Sad to say, but I think the Xbox One has a better launch line-up than the Playstation 4 does.  Despite the flack Microsoft had throughout the year of promoting their system, the Xbox One actually has more exclusive titles that interest me.  Crimson Dragon, Dead Rising 3, Killer Instinct, and Ryse: Son of Rome are among the exclusive titles that interest me.  Still, I don't plan to get an Xbox One and will be getting a PS4 much later.  With the Wii U, PS4 and now the Xbox One out, we can finally step into another generation of gaming.

GameLight - Tree of Savior (Project R1)

Source: Youtube Channel steparu

From what I understand, this fantastic looking game is by the same creator (not company) of Ragnarok Online.  Ragnarok Online (RO) actually still exists today and was just recently added to the Steam platform.  Many other games similar to RO has released in the past decade and even a sequel was made, but none of them had quite the same satisfaction, excitement and wonder that RO did.  The creator of RO wants to bring back those feelings in a new original MMORPG called Tree of Savior Online which features 80 classes.  With those 80 classes, a player can advance 10 times.  I'm not entirely certain yet, but it looks like the game isn't a point-n-click from the gameplay videos and looks similar to how the Ys series plays as a top-down hack-n-slash.  The game is said to have an intricate skill tree and attribute level system which opens up many different possibilities of playing.  Perhaps it's similar to Path of Exile where the character starts with a class but can extend out to many different playstyles.  Needless to say, I am extremely excited to see more of the game and hope that we get a Western/International version available for us to play one day.

Source:
-Steparu - Tree of Savior Online Preview

VGCulture - Filler - SSBM Final Destination

Sorry to leave you all with another filler, but it's a fitting follow up to yesterday's post.  Though a lot of fans of competitive Smash Bros. are excited about Project M, those who like to play casually are reminded how some people take the game a little too seriously and suck all the fun out of the game for them.  This little video, although facetious, does a good job of summing up what happens when you play with those who only want to play Smash Bros. seriously:
Source: Youtube Channel swordsman3003

So those worried that Project M just reinforces the competitive nature of the series, let me reassure you that anyone can still have fun with it.  Smash Bros. is like any other Fighting game where it provides a lot of depth in their game mechanics for further competitive play but will ultimately have distinguished skill levels among those who play it.  If you want to play more casually with items on and with special settings, do so.  There are definitely still people who play this casually, and Sakurai has already stated that he wants to produce a true party game that anyone could enjoy for the series.  I'm very excited to see how the next Smash Bros. turns out.

GameLight - Project M (SSB Brawl Mod)

Official Site: http://projectmgame.com/en/
Source: Youtube Channel Project M

Super Smash Bros. Melee is really popular.  It's actually super popular.  It's so highly regarded by fans of the series that play competitively that Melee tournaments are still held over Brawl.  Fans of the series wanted the fast, balanced and competitive play of Melee in Brawl but didn't get it.  Thus, a group of modders banded together to start Project Melee (Project M) which is a mod of Super Smash Bros. Brawl that bring in elements from Super Smash Bros. Melee into Brawl while having a major overhaul on the game's mechanics, character balances, custom stages, and bringing back older characters such as Mewtwo.

To many Smash Bros. fans, Melee is king of the series and people were really hoping to get more of that in Brawl.  Unfortunately, the game went in the opposite direction in hopes of making it more casual.  The goal of Smash Bros. was to be a fun party game that anyone could enjoy.  Through the strong community and fighting game enthusiast behind Super Smash Bros. Melee, the game became a much more competitive and serious game than what the developers had intended.  With slower gameplay, tripping, and such in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it was simply not viewed possible for competitive play.  Despite that, people tried and realized that the characters have vast advantages over others when played competitively.  Meta Knight never left the spot of the highest tier in the game since the game first came out and remains to be the top choice for competitive play.

With the team behind Project M, they wanted to break that balance barrier and create whole new possibilities with all the characters in the game so that there would be more variety in competitive play.  One great example is Sonic the Hedgehog.
Source: Youtube Channel Project M

I was very excited to hear Sonic being added to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but was very disappointed with how he played when I finally got the game.  I didn't mind that he deals very little damage due to this advantage in speed, but a lot of his attacks have charged up time, a long recovery delay, and a dive kick that can't be canceled that leaves him open or sends him straight down to his death.  Another problem is that he doesn't have many options for finishers.  His Back-Air has a long start-up and his forward-smash is very short ranged.  This makes both of them very situational and not very reliable.  What Project M wanted to do with Sonic was shorten charge up times, shorten recovery delays, give him more options for smashes, and possibly fix priority shots because every character in the game seriously has priority over all his attacks.

The mod has been created so that you don't need a hacked/cracked Wii to play it.  You just need a working Wii with Super Smash Bros. Brawl and an SD Card that doesn't exceed 2GB.  Still, I don't feel very confident about modding over my original game and hope that there will be alternatives such as being able to use the disc and mod files on PC instead.  But I understand that the team behind Project M wants to continue to support Nintendo and the those behind Brawl by preventing piracy, so that's commendable.

I've been playing Melee and Brawl again as I've missed the game very much and am very much excited for the new Super Smash Bros. that's in development at the moment.  I'm just hoping to be able to play Project M until the release of the Wii U and 3DS Super Smash Bros. comes out.  If you're done with Brawl and like what you see in Project M, click on the top link, go to Download and learn how to safely install the mod to your Nintendo Wii.  Project M Version 3.0 comes out on December 9th, 2013.