Remember the days when you had shelf after shelf of new games. Well, for some of us we’re still there, but as the gaming industry moves toward many more full game digital downloads, will we miss the cases and shelf art, or welcome the extra space in our gaming rooms?
It’s true, Gamers really like to show off their goods. Whether it’s their ultimate high score on the arcade cabinet at the comic shop, their gamerscore, or their wall scrolls and toys paying homage to their favorite characters, it’s all a form of showing off. But, are those green Xbox 360 cases, and Blu-ray style slick PS3 cases really so important to our collection?
Many would answer that yes, these cases, case art, and even booklets (that many don’t even look at anymore) are part of the gaming experience. My sister and I actually love our booklets, going through all the little tricks and quirky background stories that developers drop in them because they too know many don’t bother with them.
Others look to save space, especially as online co-op becomes more necessary. Several couples I know that co-op will use their separate Xboxes or PS3’s to play games online in the same house, either because it’s necessary with a lack of local co-op, or because they like their own screens. Then, they have multiple copies of a game on their shelves, taking up twice the space they normally would.
These friends cherish the digital download, storing their extra games on their hard drives instead of the bookshelf. Now when I visit, the extra shelf space is used to display some phenomenal toys instead of simple cases.
As we can easily argue, the digital download isn’t for everyone, but we need to know how the co-op community stands for the digital distribution. Is it a plus in your life, having all your games in one place on a hard drive, ready to be played at your leisure? Or, is something lost from our bookshelves and gaming experience by not having a hard copy available to us.
You decide.
New in Download and DLC:
Though it is a full title game, I feel the need to mention the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. This release is unique in the download realm because Blizzard, the developers of many wonderful games including Diablo, added the ability to download the full title in advance from their Battle.net website. This gave gamers the ability to play the game right at midnight, and I’m hoping to see other developers take a page from this book in the future.
In other more arcade downloadable news, Slam Bolt Scrappers will be exclusively on the PSN next year. The title debuted at PAX East as an Xbox independent title, but has been picked up with exclusive rights on the PSN. This means, no more indie game channel for them, but we can apparently play some co-op with this move to the PSN.
Finally, Transformers: War for Cybertron will have a new DLC pack with new characters, and a few new multiplayer maps. I’m excited to see the previously "exclusive to pre-order" characters available in this pack, as well as a few new maps to play Escalation mode. It sounds like the DLC is exclusive to PS3 and Xbox 360 owners of the game, but if PC is included at a later date we’ll keep you posted.
Free for You:
Valve has released a fun little freebie game on Steam called Alien Swarm. The game plays like an Alien version of Smash TV, and it’s completely free to play co-op. This full game comes recommended by staff members, and we should have a review of the co-op up soon.