Another Humble Bundle Is Here, This Time With A Twist

Another Humble Bundle has appeared today.  If you are unfamiliar with what these bundles are, check out our article about the previous one here.  What makes this bundle different, you ask?  This time around, in addition to the usual DRM-free Windows, Mac, and Linux versions, you also get android versions of each game.  The games offered so far are as follows:

• Anomaly
• Osmos
• Edge
• World of Goo (if you donate more than the average)

The average donation at the time of this writing is $5.33, so getting these games for that price is a steal.  Also, if previous bundles are any indication, more games will be added as time goes on.  There are 2 weeks remaining to pick up this awesome bundle, so head over to humblebundle.com for details and to purchase.

New Game of Thrones: Season 2 Trailer Released

So yeah, I know by now this is old news, but I just havn't gotten around to posting it.  The new Game of Thrones: Season 2 trailer, entitled "Shadow" was released a couple of days ago.  I'll spare you the details so you can watch it for yourself, but if this season is half as good as Clash of Kings (that's the book this season is based on for those of you not cultured enough to know), it will be great TV when it starts on April 1st.

P.S. If I sounded like I was really angry at those who did not know that this show was based on an immensely popular series of books, good. That was my intention.

Valve Releases Money Pitt App A.K.A. Steam App

Screenshot from the Android version.

Our elite team of experts (Matt and I) recently received access to the closed beta for the new Steam app for iOS and Android. The app allows for users with Steam accounts to chat with friends, view profiles, and, most importantly, blow money in the store on the numerous sales wherever you are! 

From what I've noticed from fiddling around with it, the app seems to work pretty well. Chat from the phone to PC is fairly snappy while phone to phone can be a bit iffy at times. Another nice perk is that you won't be kicked if you're logged into the PC/Mac client at the same time. The fact that you can be logged into both at the same time leads me to believe that they may add the ability to que downloads from your phone. One of my favorites parts is the interface in general, which is intuitive and pleasant to look at.

If you want to be a part of the beta, simply download the app for your respective device and enter your user information. This will enter you for a chance to use the app early until it is released for the public at some point. There doesn't seem to be any real selection process so you should have a pretty good chance of receiving an email with the confirmation code. Get ready to make poor impulse decisions that you totally won't regret later!

Guild Wars 2 Open Beta Coming Soon

Saying that Guild Wars 2 is my most anticipated game of all time would be a massive understatement.  I have already decided to get the highest tier Collector's Edition regardless of what it contains and regardless of price.  I also do not plan on seeing another human being for a week or so after its release.  You can then understand my excitement at the news that today's blog post by developer Arenanet's founder Mike O'Brien contained.

The post on the Arenanet blog, while still kind of vague and short on details, did give a window when the next press-only closed beta (Hey, we are kinda press!  Why can't we join in?) and open beta will take place without giving concrete dates. The full quote from the post is below.

"We recently finished our first closed beta test, and we’re now ready to hold progressively larger events. In February we’ll invite select press to participate in beta testing, and in March and April we’ll aggressively ramp up the size of our beta test events so that many of you will have a chance to participate. And of course, this all leads to the release of Guild Wars 2 later this year."

For more on Guild Wars 2, keep it here at PnP.

Tera Gets A Release Date

Fantasy MMO Tera has finally gotten a US release date.  The action oriented online RPG from En Masse Entertainment will launch here in the US on May 1st of this year.  I find this date interesting because MMOs typically do not launch near each other, and this date is within a month of when another MMO, Funcom's A Secret World, is set to launch.  I also am guessing that Guild Wars 2 will be releasing sometime in this same quarter (optimistic speculation on my part), so it could be a busy spring and summer for MMO junkies like myself.

For those of you wondering what exactly Tera is, it is a fantasy MMO with your typical questing systems and archetypal classes.  The big draw here, aside from the awesome visuals, is the fast paced combat that resembles more of a hack'n'slash game or even a fighting game as opposed to regular MMO targeting based combat.  In fact, they just started taking applications for beta testers, so sign up here if you are interested.

xkcd Reaches 1000 Comics

Nerdtastic (and personal favorite) web-comic xkcd released its milestone 1000th comic today.  It consists a simple image of the number "1000" made of many of the stick figure characters that have appeared in the comic over the years.  In addition to the large number, two more figures appear on the bottom, with one joking that there are only 24 more until a round number milestone, as opposed to one being reached now.  This is a reference to the number 1024, which is represented in binary as 10000000000, and is one of the more common large round numbers in computing.

Anyway, congrats to xkcd creator and author Randall Munroe, and hopefully there are many more comics to come.

PnP Game of the Year Awards: Part Two

Yesterday we gave you part one of PnP's Game of the Year awards.  Today we continue with part 2, which contains our overall Game of the Year.

Note: There may or may not be spoilers discussed, so yeah, considered yourself warned.

Best Visuals

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Man, this game is pretty.

Polish developer CD Projekt's epic RPG sequel shows what can be accomplished when the full potential of modern powerful PC's are put to use.  From everything to the lush environments to the jaw-dropping lighting effects, as well as some the most detailed faces we have seen in a game, The Witcher 2 is something to behold, which is especially impressive considering it only uses DX9 and not DX11.  Of course with these crazy visuals come pretty high system requirements, but if your PC can handle it, you owe it to yourself to try it out, because the gameplay is not too shabby either.

Runner(s) Up: Battlefield 3, Trine 2, Rayman: Origins, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Best "Wait, that came out this year?" Game

Dead Space 2

Yup, this game came out in 2011.  Although it was released all the way back in January, Visceral Games' survival-horror sequel is still one of the better games to come out in a year that was crowded with AAA titles, and is probably the scariest to boot.

Runner(s) Up: LittleBigPlanet 2, Mortal Kombat, Magicka

Most Disappointing Game

Bulletstorm

I had high hopes for this game changing shooters for the better and getting the gaming industry out of the military shooter rut it is currently in.  Even after I played the demo I thought it could be a pretty solid, fun game.  It was once I got my hands on a final copy and the novelty of the killshots wore off that I realized that this game was just a jumble of repetitive encounters and bad dick jokes.  Although I did not care for this game all that much, it's a shame it most likely will not be getting a sequel, because the idea of an over-the-top score based shooter is still awesome, and I think with a second try People Can Fly could really nail it, especially if they expanded on the severely lacking co-op and multiplayer.

Runner(s) Up: Dragon Age 2, Homefront

"There Weren't Any Categories That This Game Won But I Really 

Enjoyed It So I'll Give It This Award" Award

Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception

While it didn't quite take me by surprise and floor me the same way Uncharted 2 did, Nathan Drake's 3rd adventure is just as solid as its predecessor and a ton of fun.  The multiplayer is vastly improved as well to go along with the always stellar single player experience, and the co-op is supposed to be very fun as well, although I have not played any of it.  As you can tell, I really liked this game, and I felt it needed some sort of recognition, even although it did not win any of our other awards.

Game of the Year 2011

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

What can I say about Skyrim that has not already been said countless times?  This is an easy choice for us here at Plug and Play, as it is the game that we put the most collective time into.  Bethesda has come as close as they can with today's technology to perfecting the type of RPG that they set out to make, and with the next wave of consoles on the horizon and PC's seemingly already ahead of those pieces of hardware, it is super exciting to see what they do with their next game.  For more about Skyrim, check out our full review and second opinions.

Runner(s) Up: Portal 2, Bastion

That does it for this year's PnP Game of the Year Awards!  Feel free to argue with us and even shoot us angry emails about how we left out your favorite games.  Also be on the lookout for our Gaming New Years Resolutions later in the week.  There is a lot of exciting content coming to Plug and Play in the coming year, and rumors have it some of that will be video content, so be on the lookout!