Panic at the Disco.....er, I mean Steam Sale!

If you've been blithely enjoying your holidays or residing under a dark, dark rock then you probably haven't heard about the recent *possible* data breach on Steam.  Don't panic!  It may not be as bad as it seems (or it might, but chances are we'll never really know).

Here are some basic facts that I've gathered in my own personal panic as I firmly believed that my Steam library was about to be decimated by strangers:

1.) On Christmas day around noon-ish PDT some users reported that when clicking on items on the store or community pages that Steam was re-directing them to the account details page of other random users. They were able to do this through the Steam dekstop/mobile clients as well as through browsers.  According to Steam the issue lasted for less than an hour.

2.) There's a chance that information such as your Steam wallet funds, e-mail address, partial phone number (last 4 digits), address, and last 2 digits of your credit card number (or PayPal info, but I don't use PayPal) were visible.

3.) I have read conflicting reports about what people were actually able to do on the random account details page.  Some people reported that when they tried to click on something on the random pages that they were simply re-directed to another random account detail page.  Others reported that they were actually able to change information (like phone numbers) on the account page.  Steam has reported that there hasn't been any unauthorized account actions.

4.) Steam is saying that they weren't hacked or DDoS'd and all the shenanigans were caused by a "caching issue."  It's probably North Korea...trying to steal our hot winter gaming deals.

Frustratingly, information from Valve/Steam has been trickling out.  The timing of this whole event has been horrid--right in the middle of a major holiday, right in the middle of a huge sale event, and right in the middle of people enjoying their vacations.  I only learned of it from browsing my Facebook newsfeed and seeing a panic-y article from Kotaku.  Hopefully after the holidays are over we will hear more.  Steam isn't known for their stellar customer service and any discussions related to the "event" in the Steam community were quickly quashed by moderators.  Some people were trying to spend gift cards or were in the middle of purchasing something when the problems started.  I hope those people don't lose their funds and are able to recover anything they might have lost in the fiasco.

I suppose the moral of this whole situation is that extra security goes a long way.  Although I initially was worried about the possibility of anything untoward happening to my Steam account (or personal info!), I felt reassured by the fact that I have enabled two factor authentication.  I would highly encourage others to do the same thing.  You don't need a Smartphone and can have authentication codes sent via e-mail.  It's another step to take when logging in, but in situations like this it is well worth the very minor added step.

Just to be safe I would keep an eye on my credit card/PayPal transactions.  There still isn't much information about the scope of the issue and how many accounts were actually exposed.

UPDATE 12/30/15:
Valve finally released an official statement about what happened.  It's not glaring on the front page of Steam, but it's reassuring that they finally spoke up (read it here).  34,000 accounts might have been exposed.  That seems like a relatively small number when compared to the 125 million estimated Steam accounts.  I haven't had many problems with Steam before or after this issue, but some users have complained about difficulties with many different aspects of the service during the holiday sale.  I'm still going to be watching my credit card statements like a hawk.

Happy Holidays!

The holiday season is here and it's time to throw the ol' Yule Log on the fire and enjoy some relaxing game time.  As for me, I'm doing a lot of reflecting about some of the games I'm currently playing and some that I've played in the recent past.  Yup, I couldn't even cobble together thoughts about one game since I've been jumping back and forth between several games.


The Winter Steam Sale
That magical time of year where oodles of great games go on sale has finally arrived...but on a much less flashy scale.  Steam sales of times past have been huge events filled with strange mini-games, flash sales, and pressure to buy games that we know we'll never play (just admit it!).  Why the changes?  There was always something exciting about Steam sales.  The addition of all the goofy little competitions and mini-games made them feel like a real event.  I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the change.  Part of me wants to celebrate the move away from using gimmicky psychological tricks (like the countdown timers) to pressure people to buy games.  On the other hand, there's this whole other part of me that liked the excitement of getting what felt like a great deal.  So far I haven't bought anything and haven't really felt pressured to buy anything.  I still explore my discovery queue every day to get my three free trading cards but this sale just feels a lot different...much more low-key.

Diablo III--Season 4
I'm not a hardcore Diablo player but I really appreciate the fact that when I do decide to play that there is always something new or interesting.  About a week ago I looked into the new (but almost over) season of Diablo III.  After months of not playing I found a reason to renew my adventures and level a new seasonal hero.  I enjoyed the fact that there were goals associated with your advancement through the season that ended with the reward of a portrait frame and pet (I'm such a nerd for pets--seriously, if there's a pet involved I will accomplish those goals).  The goals were highly obtainable, even for someone like me who started very late in the season.  I also noticed some minor changes to how some things worked--there's a whole new zone available in Adventure Mode that features a unique crafting item, Kanai's Cube.  The cube allows players to do several very useful things like extracting special powers from legendary items and allowing them to be placed on your current gear or using accumulated crafting materials to turn rare items into legendary items.  The cube is a creative way to address many of the items that become useless as players advance through adventure mode.

Kanai's Cube features several unique recipes.

It really feels like nephalem rifts have become a lot less important and bounties are more of the focus.  Kanai's Cube requires special legendary crafting materials that are found in the horadric caches that are rewarded upon completion of a string of bounties.  These crafting items are also required to craft the many legendary items available to the blacksmith.  I also noticed that the horadric caches seem to drop a lot of blacksmithing and jewelcrafting plans.  This is a nice change and allows set pieces and individual legendaries to become much more accessible.

Even though Diablo III threatens to give me a raging case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome I still find myself clicking away.  I've always been a fan of Blizzard games and I am impressed with the way that they have kept a 2-3 year old game fresh.  Season 4 ends on December 30th and Season 5, which starts on January 15th, promises a new zone and other enjoyable features.

Santa has had enough.

Viscera Cleanup Detail:  Santa's Rampage
Seasonal twists on games always make me laugh.  The space janitorial sim Viscera Cleanup Detail features a not-so-jolly holiday map that requires players to cleanup after Santa has had some sort of mental breakdown.  The resultant gore includes a number of slain elves and some unfortunate reindeer.  The level is strewn with presents, toy guns, TNT, molotov cocktails, and clear evidence that Santa had been drinking off the stresses of delivering presents to all the children on Earth.  Although the map is relatively small it's an entertaining seasonal distraction.

The Witcher 3:  Making you feel bad for horrible characters.
My personal game of the year pick would be The Witcher 3:  Wild Hunt.  I was captivated almost every minute I played and found the story options refreshing from your rote good/bad choices.  The world of The Witcher 3 is very rarely black or white and is more frequently a really dark shade of grey.  I found this most noticeable in the many characters who populate the game.  The Bloody Baron is the best example of this dynamic.  The guy is a lousy drunkard who beats his pregnant wife until she miscarries.  He leads a band of soldiers with questionable ethics who are looting the war-torn countryside bare...but he also has a giving heart and takes care of Ciri when she shows up wounded at his castle.  You really want to hate the guy but he's just so....human.  He's not perfect and that's what makes him a great character.

The most recent DLC features another character, Olgierd von Everec, who is very similar to the Baron.  Olgierd seems like an alright guy--the leader of a pack of bandits, but with some morals--very Robin Hood-esque.  It's only as you progress through the story that you realize there's much more to his story.  Eventually you learn that he's made a deal with the veritable devil (Gaunter O' Dimm, the man of glass) in an effort to restore his family's wealth and name.  The story leads you through the tragic tale of his beautiful wife who died from a broken heart.  But, like the Baron, he's just a man who made a lot of bad choices.

Here's wishing everyone out there a happy holiday season.  I hope it finds you spending time with loved ones...and maybe some light gaming :)

Space Janitoring--It's a Hard Knock Life

I've had moments in my professional life where I've just wanted to pull a Kevin Spacey ala American Beauty.  If you're unfamiliar with the classic 90's film you should definitely give it a Netflix (or one of the other streaming services).  In the movie Spacey's character is having a bit of a midlife crisis--his wife is cheating on him, his daughter hates him, and he's miserable.  Part of that misery comes from his job, which he hates, and which he gets fired/quits early in the film.  After quitting from his job he decides that rather than getting another professional job that he was happiest as a teenager working at a local fast food joint.  It's laughable seeing Spacey as this former professional working the drive-thru window.  The plot in the movie is much deeper and complex than just Spacey's midlife crisis, but doesn't everyone have thoughts about how much easier life would be if our jobs were simpler?  As a teacher I sometimes look at the janitors and think about how much stress they have in their job.  I'm sure that I'm oversimplifying their job--I very much appreciate what they do and I'm sure it's a tough job.  Thanks to the magic of video games and their seemingly random topics we can all experience the joys of janitorial duty.  Viscera Cleanup Detail gives everyone the chance to truly delve into the janitorial arts.  It turns out that being a space janitor is not as easy as it seems.

In Viscera Cleanup Detail you play as a randomly generated janitor who is tasked with the cleanup after some sort of particularly nasty sci-fi encounter.  It could be an alien attack on a science facility, an underwater research station besieged by sea monsters, or a mine overthrown by deadly enemies lurking in the jungle.  Each level has the same objective--clean up the resultant gore and rid the area of any traces that the event ever happened.  At the end of the level you receive a score based on how thoroughly you cleaned the level.  This sounds very simple but each level could take many hours to completely clean.

Your janitor character comes equipped with some basic gear--a mop to cleanup those troublesome blood pools (human or alien) and a "sniffer" that helps you detect the cleanliness of an area and find any areas that you may have missed.  The controls are very simple and act similarly to switching weapons in an FPS--you hit 2 and switch to your mop and then hit 1 to switch back to your hands.  Each level contains three machines that are vital to the task at hand--the incinerator, the "what-a-load" bin dispenser, and a bucket dispenser.  You will establish a close relationship with all three of these items.

Each scenario requires your janitor to pick up and destroy all items tied to the crisis at hand.  You will pick up shell casings, garbage, body parts, entire bodies, used buckets, and anything else that is just laying around.  All un-needed items must be tossed into the incinerator and destroyed.  The best strategy is to grab a bin from the dispenser and pile in as many items as you can.  This can be quite humorous as you load up your bin with dismembered arms, legs, and various other...chunks.  Being physics-based means that you will constantly struggle to keep your bins from overflowing and causing even more of a mess.  During the time that you are picking up items you also have to be mindful of the fluid puddles on the ground--every time you walk through a puddle of blood you will track more blood over the floor which will require more mopping.  Once you've picked up the many items scattered around the level you are ready to move onto mopping.  Mopping requires you to fetch buckets of water from the bucket dispenser.  As you mop up an area your mop becomes dirty and you must dip it into the bucket to clean it.  The water in the bucket also gradually becomes dirty and requires you dispose of it (and the bucket) in the incinerator.  Similar to the bins the buckets are also physics based...bump into a bucket filled with dirty water and you will have a new puddle to clean up.

If you pay close enough attention and read the datapads scattered around the various levels you can piece together the story of each location.  If you want to raise your score at the end of a level you can take flash-drive like ID's to the "clock" and write up a report about how each person died.  When there can be ten or more bodies on a level...well, it's a lot.  There are tons of small details that you must catch in order to raise your final score--did you repair all the bullet holes on the walls?  Did you dispose of every shell casing, piece of garbage, or chunk of flesh on the level?  Did you mop up every footprint?  Did you stack all the crates and barrels in their designated zones?  Certain levels also require you to do something a little extra--planting seeds to re-grow some very destructive plants or re-arming malfunctioning turrets.  This little chunk of variety keeps each scenario fresh even though you are basically performing the same tasks.

There's something oddly soothing about Viscera Cleanup Detail.  The hours spent virtually cleaning fly by and that final vision of a completely clean area gives you a sense of pride.  If you're looking for a strange indie game to help you relax, this is the one.  No shooting, no yelling, no stress....just hours of sweet mopping action.

.1%

With my exhausting (and only somewhat exciting) adventure in Fallout 4 completed I decided it was time to check out Legacy of the Void.  The final chapter in Blizzard's episodic Starcraft II journey came out at the exact same time as Fallout 4 so I had to make the call on which one to check out first.  I was a little hesitant about delving into the Starcraft adventure as the Protoss.  After playing a very fast, frenetic, Heart of the Swarm I wasn't sure that I could handle the seemingly slower dynamics.  To build excitement for Legacy of the Void, Blizzard released a mini-campaign featuring some additional backstory.  In a few short missions players were able to follow Zeratul as he investigated the dark god Amon and attempted to warn others about the dangers of this entity.  It appeared that it would take all the major races working together to take down this seemingly invincible form of evil.

Before I get into the details behind the main storyline I need to explain my play of Starcraft II.  I've always enjoyed the story-based aspects of  Starcraft.  I don't play it for the more competitive aspects so I can only comment on the campaign.  I'm sure that I'm missing out on a unique part of Starcraft by only playing the campaign, but I've never been into the whole e-sports thing.  One new feature that was added in Legacy of the Void is co-op missions that allow you to partner up with a friend and take on A.I. opponents.  Each person gets to pick a unique leader that represents one of the three Starcraft races.  There are a number of leaders and each has their own set of special abilities.  It sounds fun and I'm hoping to check it out soon.

Legacy of the Void features Protoss characters.

Possible campaign spoilers for Legacy of the Void ahead!  Read with caution!

The campaign in Legacy of the Void follows the Protoss as they struggle against the powers of the dark god Amon.  Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm each contained small pieces of the story leading up to Legacy of the Void.  In Wings of Liberty, Zeratul appeals to James Raynor and directs him to the memories he has stored in an artifact.  This prophecy hints at the end of life in the entire galaxy.  There isn't as much focus on the prophecy in Heart of the Swarm but it always seems to be lurking in the background.  The story in Legacy starts off with Zeratul and his attempts to warn the Protoss about the dangers of Amon.  Amon's powers include the ability to possess anyone and in particular the members of the Protoss who are joined psionically through their telepathic connection known as the "Kala."  In an early conflict and key part of the story it is revealed that the only way the Protoss can free themselves from the dangers of possession by Amon is to sever their psionic connection.  By doing this they will lose the link that allows them to share emotions, feelings, and the unique connection that is the hallmark of the Protoss.  A new leader emerges in the form of Artanis, a Protoss templar hailing from the conquered world of Aiur.  Artanis realizes that the only way the Protoss can emerge victorious against Amon is if they re-unite their shattered culture and fight together.  I felt like there was a great deal more Starcraft lore in this episode than in the others.  I learned a lot about the Protoss and the fact that their race is divided into distinct factions.  Each faction has it's own history and unique background that is thoroughly explored throughout the campaign.

When it comes to the unique abilities and units of the Protoss there are many to choose from.  The ability to turn your main ground troop training structures into warp gates is one of my favorite.  Once you've converted these structures you can warp troops into any pylon powered area.  Each warp gate allows you to warp in a specific number of troops before entering a cooldown period.  By building multiple warp gates you can have a sizable backlog of ground troopers that can quickly be warped in to supplement a defensive force or to bulk up your offense.  I undoubtedly relied too much on the ability to quickly warp in troops as I found the build time for most of the Protoss flying and siege-type units to be very long.  This is unfortunate because I think the Protoss offer some of the most powerful siege and flying units in the form of carrier ships and the colossi.

Like in the other episodes you also gain access to your own ship, the Spear of Adun, which grants you the abilities to assign special abilities to your troops or, through completing bonus objectives, other powerful abilities.  Assigning "solarite" allows you to choose (and swap) from special abilities ranging from the ability to instantly call down a pylon, to unleash a devastating attack, to call down a powerful robotic ally to fight on your side for 30 seconds, to harvest Vespene gas automatically, or freeze time.  These abilities are controlled by the amount of energy stored by your ship and must be used strategically.  If you didn't feel like taking any of these special abilities you could also assign solarite towards giving you special boosts like an early supply bonus giving you the ability to avoid having to build pylons early on or towards bonus shield regeneration rate.  I appreciated the ability to swap out talents/abilities in both Heart of the Swarm and Legacy as well as the ability to use any excess bonus objective items (unlike in Wings of Liberty where you were stuck with whatever bonuses you picked and were rewarded with cash for any excess items).

The special abilities that you can assign to your troops felt particularly unique and powerful in Legacy of the Void.  As the story saw Artanis uniting the disparate factions of the Protoss it also saw those factions granting special abilities to particular units.  Your basic ground unit, the templar, could choose from the ability to wield a two-handed axe and perform an AoE whirlwind attack or a special charging attack that allows them to phase through allies and to briefly stun enemies.  The dark templars had the special abilities that I enjoyed the most.  The ability to remain permanently cloaked makes them valuable in conflicts where there aren't many detectors.  One factional talent allows your dark templars to disable structures (very useful in disabling detecting structures) automatically.  I enjoyed the fact that the talents tied in so closely with the concept of unity and that each faction had it's own unique contribution.  My favorite of the bunch was the ability to transform sentries (traditionally used to shield your troops) into mobile pylons allowing you to easily warp in troops to any position.

The campaign itself contained the usual variety of differing missions--attack/defend, troop movement, massive defense, and a few notable unique missions.  One thing I noticed about the Protoss missions was that there were many that required you to attack multiple targets--multiple power nodes, crystals, or other objects.  One mission took place on a platform (meaning lots of air units) with very limited resources spread across the map.  The platform that contained your base could be moved along a sliding pathway and closer to other locations that also contained a meager collection of minerals and vespene gas.  This particular mission required you to scout ahead and clear areas in order to move your base platform to the locations with resources.  Ground troops were a moot point and amassing a huge group of carrier ships was the best (and slowest) strategy.  The missions that I struggled the most with were the defense missions against an overwhelming force.  The Protoss have a range of very useful defensive structures in the form of photon cannons, shield batteries, and the Khaydarian Monoliths (a slow, but very powerful defensive structure).

I expected much more unity between the three major races to be part of the story in Legacy of the Void.  The story does see Artanis working with the Terrans and the Zerg to accomplish specific goals but didn't end in the epic final battle with all the races uniting as one.  Instead the story focused on unity in Protoss society and saw Artanis bringing together many fragmented factions.  The final mission takes on the traditional massive defense against a timer aspect.  You, and your newly united Protoss friends, must hold off until the Xel'Naga artifact charges (sound familiar?).  This requires you to build up both a mobile defensive group as well as focusing on building up a massive defense around your base to protect the keystone.  I was moderately successful the first time and made it to a little over 93% before the keystone was destroyed and I failed the mission.  The second time I made it to 98%.  The third time I made it to 99.9%......that last .1% is brutal!  It took me four tries before I finished the final mission (actually that's pretty good for me--that last mission is always brutal).

Legacy of the Void is a great finale for the Starcraft II series.  It felt shorter than both Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm but the story was interesting even if the Protoss characters aren't as memorable as James Raynor or Kerrigan.  I enjoyed the fact that the series followed the tradition of telling the story from the perspectives of each major race.  Getting to play as each race keeps the game fresh even though you are generally doing the same thing.  The cutscenes felt slightly less epic in Legacy--that's my one complaint.

After the credits rolled it was revealed that there was an epilogue.  The epilogue is a short series of missions that really draws together the three major Starcraft factions in an all out battle to eliminate Amon once and for all.  I don't want to spoil it but once you finish it you really are left with the feeling that the future of the series is questionable.

I really enjoyed Starcraft II.  That's high praise coming from someone who really doesn't play RTS.  I found the campaign to be compelling and the gameplay to be challenging enough to be entertaining.  That Blizzard....they know how to make a game!

The Hype Crits you for $59.99

I've mentioned several times that I'm a sucker for hype.  Snazzy game commercials have me reaching into my wallet despite my rational senses telling me to hold off.  I've fallen victim to the latest round of uber-hype courtesy of Fallout 4.  In my brain I knew that I've felt very ambivalent about the previous games in the series.  One cute retro themed commercial featuring our hero the vault dweller and his/her canine companion, Dogmeat, completely overruled any sense of restraint.  After playing A LOT (150+ hours) of Fallout 4, I'm kicking myself.  Even though I haven't completely finished the game this is me summarizing my thoughts about it (and really wishing it was over).  Possible spoilers ahead! Read with caution if you haven't completed the main storyline!

Fallout 4's strength is in it's massive open world.  Don't expect much depth.

Fallout 4 really looked to have some new unique features that would differentiate it from the earlier games.  The one that excited me the most was the settlement building feature.  Building your own unique structures...yes, please!  In reality settlements turned out to be more of a hassle than anything.  Sure, you could spend the time to scavenge materials, build structures, and then decorate those structures to your heart's content.  But what was the point?  Your settlers could care less about your coordinating cat pictures and the fact that they are sleeping on a bed and not on a crummy sleeping bag.  Does having all those settlements even really matter?  What's the point of making my people happy besides seeing a higher number on the happiness meter (and getting one achievement)?  Getting called away to defend a settlement from some sort of attack became more of an annoyance than anything.  This also includes any kidnapping or destroying quests that accompanied other settlements.  In talking to some fellow players (mostly high school students) their attitude toward settlements consistently was "Screw settlements!"  I was particularly irritated at the fact that sometimes, despite helping to defend a settlement, that the mission would not update correctly and as a result I would receive a failure message and have to repair everything in that specific settlement.  With more development the settlement system could have more depth and meaning.  What if each settlement could produce...something?  What if you could actually lose a settlement if you failed to defend it?  WHAT IF SETTLEMENTS MEANT SOMETHING!?!!  /exasperated hand motions.  Part of my frustration also comes from the fact that most of the settlement related processes are so poorly explained.

One of my other big frustrations came from the fact that there were so few meaningful quest lines and the fact that actually finding quests is difficult.  If you don't stumble on the right trigger to start a quest chances are you'll lose it in the massive expanses of the wasteland.  Diamond City is one place that exemplifies this frustration for me.  I did a few quests in Diamond City but generally didn't spend any time there.  This is sort of a bummer because the concept of a city inside Fenway Park is phenomenal.  I kept waiting for more quests to pull me into Diamond City....but they never came.  I am intrigued by the location called the "Home Plate."  It looked to be a home-like location that you could unlock in Diamond City.  Thanks to the poor quest locating mechanics I have no idea how (I could Google it...).  Some of the quest lines I did find were actually entertaining.  I particularly enjoyed getting to portray the fictional comic book character "The Silver Shroud."  The dialogue in that particular chain is hilarious as you have the option of your character staying in-character as the Shroud.  This is literally the only quest chain that stands out to me....yeah, out of an entire 150+ hours of play.  Even the main storyline isn't really that interesting.  It's so un-interesting that I've put much of it off until the very end of my playthrough (which was a mistake).

As I've progressed through the main storyline I'm also finding the factional systems and choices that seemed important early on have actually turned out to be meaningless.  Your choices break down into "help the Institute" or "destroy the Institute."  Helping the Minutemen, the Railroad, or the Brotherhood of Steel turns out to be another part of the game that is pointless (I am guessing that if you choose to attack the Institute that your chosen faction will give you the option of a specific series of attack-y quests).  The complete meaninglessness of the faction system became apparent in a quest to find some escaped synths at Bunker Hill.  It turned out that both the Railroad and Brotherhood of Steel were vying for the escapees and that there was a raging battle over the same synths you were attempting to return to the Institute.  What I expected to be a pitched battle turned out to be nothing more than my character running, completely unhindered, through the middle of a firefight to then disable the said synths.  After I had reset the synths the battle stopped and I ran back out...right by the very Railroad members who I had previously helped.  This could have been the perfect point for some very pitched dialogue about your character's true intentions.  Are you really ditching the Railroad/BoS to help the Institute?  I pictured Desdemona and Glory giving me the what-for and questioning my motives in helping the Institute.  Instead, I just ran awkwardly past a bunch of mannequin-like Railroad members who did nothing.  Another total missed opportunity for something so much better!

Honestly, I've reached the point now where I just want to finish Fallout 4 and be done with it.  When I think of the previous games I've come to the realization that I've felt this way about every game in the series.  I would classify Fallout 4 as an average game.  I've played games that were much better and also much worse.  Fallout 4 excels in it's portrayal of a wide open world torn apart by nuclear destruction.  If you enjoy wandering aimlessly for hours and shooting lots of assorted bad guys you'll probably like Fallout 4.  If you're looking for a compelling story filled with interesting characters and moral quandaries....save yourself $59.99 and look for something different.  I fell for the hype and wish I would've waited for a Steam sale.

I've got Starcraft II:  Legacy of the Void on deck for when I finally get through the chore of finishing Fallout 4.  I cringe when I see people make claims of Fallout 4--Game of the Year!  Seriously?  You would place Fallout 4 over a masterpiece like The Witcher 3?  When I finished The Witcher 3 I immediately started another playthrough (even after having played for almost 150 hours).  A great game makes you want more.  I've never been left wanting more from the Fallout games.