But What Does it Mean? SteamOS

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Last week, Valve has told us they would be making 3 announcements which would mark an expansion to their universe. Rescently, the first such announcement came forward in the form of revealing SteamOS, a new Linux distribution built around the Steam platform. They will be releasing it and forever keeping it free to download for everyone. Now I can already hear a lot of gamers laughing at the concept that Valve is backing Linux and a few predicting their doom, but they might want to stop and think about that. It could and would never replace Windows overnight, but Valve is doing some things right here and leveraging their own weight in the PC world in a way that could well lead to trouble for MS.

Earthbound (WiiU) Review

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Welcome to yet another RPG most people missed when it came out. For many it slipped under the radar. For me, I only saw it in a "Sears Christmas catalog” where it included pictures of the wrong game’s screenshots. Suffice it to say that along side not having any real interest in RPGs to begin with a the time, there was no way in hell I was going to play this game when it first came out for the SNES. However, having heard stories about how good it is, finding out it would be rereleased for the WiiU made this one of the games I got the console for. So was it worth it? Well… yes, but it wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be. Let’s have a closer look.

Today, A Legend is Lost

Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who considers video games in any means a hobby has seen the end of one of the most important faces in the industry. This morning, Hiroshi Yamauchi has passed away at the age of 85. Most of you are probably wondering who the hell this person is, but you all know the effect of his life. You know because you play games at home, and they have had almost 30 years here in the states (over 30 in Japan) to evolve since just about dying with Atari’s dominance.

This is the man who decided to push Nintendo away from selling cards and to entering the electronic entertainment industry, who would lead them to enter the US console market and single handedly save the console industry in the US, and who would ultimately personally pick one of the most influential minds in game development, Shigeru Miyamoto. Suffice it to say, his impact is not overstateable.

I’m not asking you to feel sad or mourn or anything of the sort, but it would be a disservice to not mention the passing of the single most important human being in the history of video games and the path it would take by being the one who would restart it all. If you have any interest in the history of it all, it’s worth your time to read about this man, and as long as you enjoy it, there is a respect to send his way.

Thank you.

Source: Gamasutra

For Better or Worse, Atlus has a Buyer

The drama is finally over. As of right now, Sega’s parent company Sega Sammy Holdings has bought Index Corp., and everything that goes with it. Atlus is now in their hands. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about this. While I think Sega as a name fits well with a lot of the games Atlus makes in studio, I’m also a little disappointed, and Sega can directly be responsible for that.

From the “God I Hope this is a Troll, But Im not so Sure” Files

Wow… just wow… For those of you who want a dose of stupid this morning, I have a good one for you. This morning I was just cruising the GT forums really just to get some casual entertainment while I woke up and stumbled on a topic that made me kinda chuckle in the PC section:

Now, you know I clicked this. After all, I remember how badly GTA IV was ported and I figured this would be some wise-ass telling Rockstar not to bother because they didn’t want more shitty games. So, again, looking for a light chuckle, I clicked. And found myself face to face with a youtube video about how someone made a petition on change.org to prevent it…. and already had 8000 signatures. As per the link, he isn’t making this shit up. Someone actually put this up.

Get Your God Damned Social Crusades OUT of Our Gaming!

Seriously, this one has been brewing for a while, and if the title sounds angry, well it should. This is a problem. It is a problem with society as a whole. Maybe it’s because things like the internet have made it possible to both find bigger groups of like-minded people and spread ideas faster, but it seems like everywhere you turn, someone has to push whatever in their minds is an extreme social injustice, obsessed to the point where everything they do has to reflect this core belief. They are obnoxious about it, dismissive of anyone who disagrees, and insulting to anyone who simply doesn’t think it belongs there. And now, this has come to gaming. God help us.