DOWNLOADABLE CRAP: MY TOP 5 DLC PICKS

My ass has a combover.

Downloadable content has had an interesting journey over the past couple of years.  It's taken for granted now; games are expected to have DLC.  Just a game alone isn't good enough for today's consumer!   But while add-ons and expansion packs have been around on PC for a long time, the ability to download and add on new material for a console game is actually fairly new.  It has been pretty much exclusive to the 7th generation of gaming.   Some companies have tried everything they could think of to get those couple extra dollars out of your wallet, while others genuinely added to and refined the experience.

NEW FEATURES AND AN ATTEMPT AT A SCHEDULE

So, welcome to the end of February.  So far, the Game-A-Week posts seem to be doing well, but I notice that I've made a habit out of only posting that throughout the week.  I want to post more, offer more content. Frankly, I'm still kinda balancing this blog, the Youtube channel, and the Twitter, and realizing just how much work is involved here.   But I want to keep putting out things for people to read and enjoy, so I'm introducing a few new features and some modicum of a schedule.  

Feedback is not just encouraged, it's practically begged for here.   Let's take a look!  

GAME-A-WEEK - SYSTEM SHOCK 2

Okay so, I kind of cheated.  This one is NOT on the List Of Unplayed Games like the GAW reviews are supposed to be.  However I have been dying to play this game for years, and it's finally been released in a playable build on GOG.com, so I couldn't resist. 

THE CRANKY OLD GAMER GETS CRANKY

I made a new video.  It's probably going to piss some people off.  I'm okay with that.

Enjoy!

LIVETWEETING THE BIG SONY ANNOUNCEMENT

Hey kids!   Uncle Cranky here.   In case you haven't heard, Sony has been hyping up a BIG press release for Feb 20th.   Well hey what a coincidence!  That's today!  General consensus is that this will be the official reveal of the Playstation 4.  Sony obviously hasn't confirmed this, but they've stayed quiet with a silent, implied wink-and-nod.* 

So if you follow my site, here's what is going to happen.   I'm gonna find me a stream of the video.   I know our friends over at Attack Initiative will be hosting a stream, or you can find a portal of your choice. Once you've found a stream, and I've found a stream, I will be hosting a livetweet of my thoughts as the conference goes on.   So if you HAVEN'T followed me on twitter, now is the time to do so!

https://twitter.com/CrankyOldGamerX

The big conference begins at 6pm EST!   See you there!




*- Of course, this COULD be like the Nintendo press conference a couple of years ago, when people thought they were going to announce the Wii U, and instead they revealed a couple of games no one cared about.   But we don't think so.

GAME-A-WEEK - DEAD ISLAND: THE RYDER WHITE DLC

I deliberately skipped Dead Island's "Bloodbath Arena" DLC, because I loathe arena gameplay.  But when the Ryder White DLC came out for Dead Island, giving players a chance to view the game's events through the villain's eyes, my interest was piqued.  I never found White to be very compelling or threatening as the sort of power-mad military antagonist, but I hoped maybe this would shine some light on his character, and give me an excuse to drop back into the zombie-plagued island of Banoi.

And yes, I realize last week I said I'm sick to death of zombies, and yet am doing two zombie games in a row.  Suck it.

GAME-A-WEEK - CONTAINMENT: THE ZOMBIE PUZZLER

Zombies.   Puzzle games.  If I had to pick the two genres least likely to mesh together, I think those might be it.  I've never played Tetris and thought about the undead horde.  Bejeweled never made me think the green gems might eat my brains.   However, apparently someone at Bootsnake Games thought it could be done, and set out to make it a reality.  So, do these genres band together for survival, or does this game need a headshot to put it down?   This week, I sat down to find out.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE - DANCE OFF!

As I stated in my Game-A-Week review, the animations for the dancers in The Asylum, the goth club featured in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlust, were fairly accurate.  The girls danced like a lot of actual goth girls in real goth clubs.   Except for one guy...

So I had to throw this video together.

GAME-A-WEEK - VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE - BLOODLINES

I'm not just cranky.  I'm also old and, as you may have deduced, I'm a gamer.  But what you may not know is that it hasn't always been just video games.  All through high school and into my early 20s, I was an avid pen-and-paper gamer.  I did some D&D here, a little Shadowrun there, even experimented with GURPS and Palladium games.

My heart, however, belonged to White Wolf.  Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Mage: the Ascension, and occasionally even Changeling: The Dreaming.  These were my gaming bread and butter.  My purple Crown Royal bag overfloweth with 10-sided dice.  With all of the hours spent poring over sourcebooks and character sheets, I always wondered, how would our adventures in the World Of Darkness translate to a PC game?