Today only, download Grand Theft Auto IV for just $7.49--its lowest price ever.
(Credit: Valve)Well, here we are at the end of "100 Days of Deals"--what a long, cheap trip it's been. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. The Cheapskate will be back in the saddle come Monday, posting new deals every weekday. You can't get rid of me just because the holidays are over! :)
Since we're heading into a long weekend, today's deal is all about fun: Valve is having a huge sale on PC games. You'll need the Steam downloader to take advantage of it, but check out some of these fairly spectacular offers:
- Today only, Grand Theft Auto IV is on sale for $7.49. The game earned a 9.0 score from GameSpot and is universally acclaimed as one of last year's best games.
- Also today only, you can grab S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl for $1.99. This first-person sci-fi shooter scored an 8.5 on GameSpot, making it a no-brainer for fans of the genre. I'm buying it!
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game is on sale for $6.79. I was tempted to grab this when it was $9.95 at Direct2Drive (it's back up to its usual $19.95), but I'm glad I waited.
- A puzzle game like no other, World of Goo is on sale for $4.99. I picked this up a while back during the developer's name-your-price promotion. Trust me, it's five bucks very well spent.
That's just a sampling of what's on sale at Steam right now. If you've been a good gamer this year, now's the time to reward yourself and stock up on some dirt-cheap fun.
By the way, if you're in need of a last-minute gift (and didn't find anything you liked in my roundup of gifts you can print), Steam offers a gift option: You buy the game, the recipient gets an e-mail with download instructions. Easy-peasy.
Thanks to reader gwailo247 for bringing the Steam stuff to my attention! I also want to thank all of you for giving me a little of your time each day. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Have a safe and happy holiday, and I'll see you back here on Monday.
The game Torchlight even includes a "Netbook Mode" in the settings.
(Credit: Runic Games)Like just about everyone else on the planet, you broke down and purchased a Netbook. After all, these low-cost, low-power laptops are great for tossing in your bag for a trip, working at the coffee shop, or just taking to class.
You knew all along that these systems were not made for gaming, and obviously you planned to spend all your time doing Netbook-like things such as Web surfing and working on office docs. Still, somewhere along the way, the thought crept in--maybe I can find some games that'll run on an Intel Atom processor and integrated graphics...
In the name of science, we loaded up a wide variety of games and asked friends and associates what games they had successfully played, all to help us compile this list of Netbook-friendly titles. They range from free to around $20; some are re-released PC classics, some are Web-based casual games, and a few are even from that fast-growing social-gaming genre found on Facebook (such as FarmVille).
Browse through the slideshow below to see our current favorites (and links to where you can download or play them). Bookmark this page for periodic updates as we find new games, or suggest your own Netbook favorites in the comments section below. Most of these will run on any Netbook with Windows 7 or XP, 1GB of RAM, and an Intel Atom N270 or 280 processor. A handful are recommended only for Netbooks with Nvidia's Ion graphics.
Note: If you dig into your old dusty CD and DVD binders, there's no doubt you can find a ton of great classic PC games to try (we just found our original discs for both Grim Fandango and System Shock 2), but since your Netbook doesn't have an internal optical drive, we're restricting this list to games one can download from legit online sources, such as Steam or GOG.com.
> Need more? Follow me at twitter.com/danackerman.
> See our Holiday laptop picks in the CNET Holiday Tech Guide.
> Get a Netbook primer in our Netbook Quick Guide.
The British Steam Car spouts off as it gets ready to make a run at a 103-year-old land speed record.
(Credit: The British Steam Car Challenge)The Stanley Steamer may have finally been dethroned.
After holding onto its land speed record for 103 years, the homegrown Stanley automobile from the early days of motoring has been overtaken by a late-model import. The British Steam Car team said Tuesday that, earlier in the day, in the two runs required to be considered for the record, the Steam Car averaged 139.843 mph over a measured mile.
Charles Burnett III behind the wheel of the Steam Car.
(Credit: The British Steam Car Challenge)Tuesday's achievement still awaits official confirmation from the certifying agency, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile.
The steam-powered mark to beat was 127 mph, set in 1906 by Fred Marriott, driving that Stanley Steamer at Daytona Beach, Fla. (According to the FIA, the overall World Land Speed Record is 763 mph, a supersonic speed reached in 1997 by a jet-powered car, the ThrustSSC.)
The British Steam Car, a project 10 years in the making, is no jet, but it does have its share of modern trappings, including carbon-fiber construction. The 3-ton, 25-foot-long vehicle has 12 boilers, and its steam gets superheated to 400 degrees Celsius before being injected into the turbine.
In each of its runs, the Steam Car, driven by Charles Burnett III, actually traveled more than 6 miles on a dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. On either side of the measured mile, it requires a 2.5-mile stretch for acceleration and deceleration. In going for the record, the vehicle had to make the second run within an hour of the first--the steam team says it made the turnaround Tuesday in 52 minutes.
The vehicle's peak speed in the first run was 136.103 mph, and in the second, 151.085 mph.
In this day and age, it's hard to imagine that there might be an automotive speed record left that's only slightly north of 100 miles per hour. Heck, I've been passed by Audis on the autobahn that seemed to be going twice that fast.
But then, we've grown accustomed to cars with internal combustion engines. The record in question, which could finally fall this month after standing for more than a century, is held by a Stanley Steamer. In 1906, a gent named Fred Marriott drove a cigar-shaped steamer at Daytona Beach, Fla., to the then amazing speed of 127 mph.
Now along comes a 21st-century contender called the British Steam Car, which looks about as much like a Stanley-built vehicle as an F-16 looks like a Sopwith Camel. Looking for a catchier point of reference, the car's backers have taken to calling the 3-ton contraption, in at least one press release, "the fastest kettle in the world."
It's been a long road already this year to get the Brit-mobile ready for a record run, now set for sometime between August 18-22 after a postponement or two and some technical and logistical challenges. But just today, the steam team proudly proclaimed that in test runs on the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, their vehicle had--unofficially--bested the record, hitting a not-street-legal 131 mph.
Will they be cooking with, um, gas later this month when officials of the record-vetting Federation Internationale de l'Automobile join them in the desert? We'll know soon enough.
Grim Fandango's suave hero, Manuel "Manny" Calavera.
It used to be that playing classic, out-of-print PC games required you to find shady download sites or old dusty retail boxes on eBay, then hope that your ancient Windows 3.1 game would work under XP or Vista.
One of the most welcome recent developments in gaming is the relatively sudden availability of a huge back catalog of classic games, across multiple platforms.
Like classic films finally being released on DVD, you can now play great (and not-so-great) games from the '80s and '90s via the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii, as well as on your PC via download platforms such as Steam, GameTap, and Good Old Games (which is especially notable for offering DRM-free versions of classic games for $5-10).
Recent examples include LucasArts' The Secret of Monkey Island (available on Xbox Live and the iPhone), and the classic Fallout and Tex Murphy games on GOG.com.
While the future of PC gaming may be in question, many of our fondest video game memories are not of console games played on a living room TV, but of classic PC adventure games -- a genre virtually ignored today.
Sadly, many of our favorites are not yet available on any of these retro gaming platforms, so we present for you, in handy gallery form, our list of five classic adventure games that need to be re-released as digital downloads, pronto. Disagree with our choices? Let us know what classic games (adventure of otherwise) deserve a second chance in the comments section below.
[Note: We fully admit to not playing any of these games since their original release, so our fond memories may be more nostalgia than reality.]
> Need more? Follow me at twitter.com/danackerman.
> Laptops, games, and more--every week on the Digital City video podcast.
(Credit:
Steam)
Update: Left 4 Dead is currently discounted on Steam's website at 40% off (from $39.99 to $23.99), but just for this weekend only.
If you haven't tried playing Left 4 Dead yet because of the price, or aren't sure about the game in general, that's OK. Valve has decided to let you try it out for free.
At 5:01 p.m. PDT Thursday, you'll be able to download and play the game for free via Steam for a whole 24 hours. Better still, to get your full 24-hour allotment of play time Steam allows you to preload it to your account right now.
This isn't a free-forever offer, nor is there going to be a discount available afterward (as with what happened with UT3 in March). Alas, the game will be locked again the following night, but at least it will give you a chance to play and decide for yourself. Obviously, Valve is hoping you'll love it and send some cash their way to keep playing.
Meet the British Steam Car, which looks a bit like the love child of the Batmobile and an F-15 fighter jet. The goal for this sleek, modern-day automotive design is to break the 127 mph land speed record set by a Stanley Steamer in 1906.
The vehicle, which uses superheated steam as its driving force, this week passed a milestone with a run of better than 80 mph on a test track in England. Next month, the British Steam Car will be shipped from England to the U.S. The goal is to make the record attempt in a dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base in California--depending on the weather.
Find out more about how the Steam Car works in the gallery above, and watch it take a steamy spin in the video.
(Credit:
Valve)
If you enjoy (legally) downloading PC game content over the Internet, then you're most likely familiar with Valve Software's Steam, a platform for the delivery and management of PC games.
On Tuesday, Valve announced an upgrade to "Steamworks," a suite of publishing and development tools available to, well, publishers and developers for free.
The first of the new notable features include Custom Executable Generation (CEG) technology. According to Valve, CEG makes unique copies of games for each user, allowing them to access the application on multiple machines without install limits and without having to install root kits on their PC. Players that like to play from multiple locations (home, a friend's house, and definitely not work) should find this news heartening.
Another new feature is the in-game downloadable content (DLC) and matchmaking system. Developers can now deliver new content from inside the game itself. Users can now make new content purchases and immediately experience the new content in the same same game session. Without necessitating a restart.
The new "Steamworks" matchmaking system utilizes the same lobby system used in Left 4 Dead.
These new additions are good news especially for smaller developers that need this kind of regular support from Valve, when using Steam as a distribution system.
Much more information can be found in Valve's "Steamworks" brochure.
Also, check out the Games for Windows - LIVE announcement made by Microsoft today to see if you can pick out the similarities.
(Credit:
Steam)
Have any plans for the weekend? Yeah, I'm talking to you. If not, here's a suggestion: how's about some online Capture-the-Flag action (or Deathmatch action, whatever floats your boat) on Unreal Tournament III Black. Oh, and it's free. OK, so it's for the PC only and doesn't apply to the PlayStation 3, but it's still a pretty cool deal and it's something to do.
Whether or not you have the game, it's all good. The free weekend includes the game, the Titan Pack expansion, and the 2.0 patch. Now, all you have to do is sign up for a Steam account, which is also free, and you are good to go.
After the entire weekend hullabaloo dies down, Unreal Tournament III Black will be available on Steam at a 40 percent discount, costing around 12 bucks, and will remain so, right up until March 15.
In the meantime, go frag some people online tonight. Go ahead. Frag the hell outta them. (There are more than a few screenshots of the game below.)
We're kickin' it old school with some technology that might not be so modern, but you can't deny that this stuff is cool!
Listen now:
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EPISODE 113 |
Datamancer Ergo keyboard takes steampunk in an oddly comfortable direction
Teac LP-R500: The 20th century CD-LP-cassette geek re-education box
Retro plasma HDTV looks like an ancient TV set
Hand Crank Locomotives Are A Child's Dream Toy
Your MacBook is too classy to be wrapped in neoprene
NES-inspired Nike sneakers take us back to ‘85
$2,500 titanium tricycle seems reasonable
It’s About time (retro edition!)
Alarm clock lets you wake up a winner
Pink Watch
Calling all lady DJs--do we have a turntable for you
Hello Kitty Watch
Hello Kitty’s birthday! (Thanks, Dr. Karl)
FUG
Nintendo garter belt--sexy fun gaming times
Kill Me (I will kill someone edition)
The Keyboard for Blondes makes my blood boil
Kill Me (this will probably kill someone edition)
Burning hair remover lets your hygiene play with fire
