The other day I was asked what I thought of Dragon Age by one of my buddies. I sat for a moment and finally admitted “I have it, but haven’t played...” Why would someone do that? I have a strange quirk where I don’t like starting games unless I have time to finish them. That quirk makes epic length games nearly impossible for me to start, or leave games like Fallout 3 untouched, or make Oblivion take about two years to finish.
It’s certainly not that I’m bored by these epic length games, and I love them with all of my being - why else would I buy them? It just becomes more of an issue as I get older to invest 60+ hours in one game. This is where my obsession with micro-epic games comes in - games like Deathspank with a lot of things to do, fulfilling my “epic game” itch without sinking so much valuable time into them.
There are a lot of games that fall into this category, and can help out a variety of people in need with the co-op capabilities held within. Here is a list of micro-epic games that are recommended to cover that desire to conquer worlds on a time-budget:
Castle Crashers (PSN/XBLA)
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (PSN/XBLA)
Madballs in...Babo: Invasion (XBLA/PC)
and of course:
Deathspank and Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue (XBLA/PSN)
It would be really interesting to hear everyone elses take on this issue. I mean, there are also epic length games with co-op - but it’s generally like Red Dead Redemption with a co-op mode, not full co-op. How do you feel about epic games (games that require over 30 hours to complete) versus games in the epic style put on a smaller scale?
New in Download and DLC:
It’s been a while! Sorry for disappearing for the long Holiday, but I hope everyone got every co-op game they wanted. In the new year we have a bit of news from CES2011 so far, and a few news bits on upcoming Download releases. Dungeon Defenders showed off at CES with a cross-platform demo. My fingers are crossed for a solid cross platform title in this one - plus Dungeon Defenders looks completely amazing.
The Dawn of War Expansion has announced a collectors edition and some downloadable options for the expansion on PC - Steam and THQ are the only way to get your hands on this expansion digitally. You could always buy it from a retailer, but who wants to do that?
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 has an official date of February 2nd to get your co-op platforming on. The article also has a load of screenshots that are bound to make some part of you tingle. I meant your (re)arms, duh.
For anyone who is frustrated with the world of DRM (Digital Rights Management), the industry leader in cock-blocking our games, Ubisoft is lightening up on their DRM requirements. It’ll be nice to play some PC games without having to log in to their server, huh?
Finally, our year-end awards for co-op games covered some downloadable titles. Alien Swarm and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light both made that list of favorites with their classy downloadable co-op action.
Free for You:
For this week I don't have anything necessarily free for you, but I thought I'd toss a shoutout to the website devoted to saving you money on all things: CheapAssGamer.com. CheapyD wants to make sure you save money on all things gaming, and deals offered throughout the land (and nations) appear on this site on a regular basis. Check it, or don't complain that you're broke.