I was just checking out the weekend buys at impulsedriven.net and it looks like The Witcher is on sale for the low price of $10 this weekend. If you enjoy role-playing games and you haven't played it yet, you should run not walk to the Impulse site, and get it now. It's a terrific game at a great price. Here's hoping CD Projekt makes The Witcher 2 at least as good as this one!

  Recently, I completed the single-player story mode in Saints Row 2 and I have to say, while many criticized the marketing by THQ comparing it to Grand Theft Auto IV , I had a lot more fun with this game than I have with any GTA game I've played before. In fairness, I haven't played the latest iteration in that series, but if it's very similar to the others, and I can't believe it isn't, then I'll stand by my statement. Of course, the Saints Row series, like several other games, ...

I'm a fan of classic computer role-playing games and I can get into some of the so-called "action" RPGs. On two separate occasions, I've dug out my copy of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion in an effort to see what all the hype is about with the profoundly accoladed title. Each time I've gotten, frankly, bored with roaming around without seeming to have anything to do. My last effort, this past weekend, saw my Argonian avatar travelling from Chorrol to Skingrad, which took a lot of real-world time (...

Bitsdujour.com will be offering Rainlendar 2 Pro at a discounted price of $6.95 on Monday, June 22. Also, the site will be selling registrations for WinStep Xtreme for $19.95 on Thursday, June 25. Just wanted to give folks who may not have tried these apps a heads-up!    

Valve added Morrowind, Oblivion, and Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth to its lineup on Steam this week (Tuesday). The price point for the Oblivion Deluxe pack (which includes the Shivering Isles explansion, the Knights of the Nine plug-in, and the official DLC) was $24.99 with a 20% discount for the first week of availability, for a net price of $19.99. Today, the regular price was increased on this item by $10 and the sale price is now $27.99. Valve also adjusted (i.e., raised) the pr...

I've read a lot of negative reviews of the Red Alert 3 download-only expansion and the new Watchmen game released to coincide roughly with the new film version. While some of the points raised by reviewers in critiquing these products are valid, I disagree with the overall evaluations. Here are my thoughts: First, let me say that I belong in the camp of Command and Conquer followers who enjoyed Red Alert 3 and generally found it to be a fun and worthy follow-up to RA2 . Altho...

What opinions do people have about Direct2Drive? How does it compare to Impulse and Steam?

I realize this is old, but I'm wondering whether people have read this article and what their opinions are on it.

For any who may be interested, the Premier Edition of Red Alert 3 is now selling on Amazon for $29. This is a substantial markdown from when I got mine at full price last year.  

I was looking at Vue Easel 6 by e-on software, and then I saw that they discontinued it in favor of their new versions including the relatively-inexpensive Pioneer 7. These are both designed for people like me who are beginners and don't have a lot of artistic talent, per se. I was considering a purchase of Pioneer when it comes out of beta; at $50, it's not an unreasonably large amount of money for a hobbyist. However, I noticed as I was playing with the beta that you have to buy an extra plug-...

My wife got me a copy of Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir for Christmas, so I've been playing for about a week now. Judging from the response on the official boards ( http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/ ), people either love or hate this expansion. I'll try to give some of my insights into why this is the case by examining some of the new features in turn. First and foremost, SoZ has a functional overland map of the sort that hasn't been seen in a major RPG release since the SSI ...

I have a feeling I know how most of the regulars feel about this, but as I haven't seen any other posts on the topic, I'd like to see what people do think. (I expect that, for the most part, it will go like this: Me and people like me are too politically-correct, which is why we can't appreciate most of Rush Limbaugh's humor. We need to grow a sense of humor and get over ourselves, et cetera.) Visit the link if you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, but the gist of it is this: as a Ch...

I finished Mass Effect last night. Rather than posting a conventional review, I decided to list my likes and dislikes. First, though, a bit of background is in order for the uninitiated (i.e., people who've never heard of ME ). Mass Effect is the latest role-playing game (released for the XBOX360 and later the PC) from Bioware, creators of the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, among others, although it has much more in common, from a gameplay perspective, with Bioware's more rec...

I was in GameStop the other day and I saw a retail copy of the new Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion, Storm of Zehir. It apparently comes in a DVD case. When I got my copy of the Premier Edition of Red Alert 3, it came in a package slightly larger than a standard DVD case made of metal. Publishers: what gives?!?! I have a copy of the Collector's Edition of Neverwinter Nights at home and it's easily the largest thing on the bookcase it sits on. Ditto for my Age of Empires III CE, my Age of Mythol...

I am getting a new computer soon that is preloaded with Vista Home Premium 64-bit and I remember reading several threads that discussed certain components of ODNT being incompatible with the 64-bit version of Vista. Can someone list the incompatible products for me so I know what to expect? Thanks.