If you are a gamer, last week was probably pretty torturous for you. The eagerly anticipated Diablo III hit the shelves about a decade after its predecessor, but most gamers couldn’t play the game due to crappy DRM and sloppy Blizzard infrastructure. While Blizzard continues to firefight with infrastructure upgrades and hotfixes, Ron Carmel of World of Goo fame has strewn together a neat little package that should cheer you up.

In an initiative called “Because We May”, several indie game developers have come together to offer their games at deep discounts (typically 50% or more). Unlike most other similar promotions, “Because We May” is as platform agnostic as you can get. It features games for Windows, Windows Phone, Mac, iOS, and Android. The promotion will last til June 1, and is meant to celebrate online stores that gives developers the freedom to determine pricing.

Games on offer include World of Goo, Osmos, Super Meat Boy, Beat Trip Runner, Penny Arcade, Dungeon Defenders, Zen Bound 2, Fieldrunners, Riptide, and dozens of other stellar indie titles. Head over to becausewemay.com to check out all the games on offer.

Sennheiser has finally launched the internationally acclaimed and popular Xbox gaming headsets in India. These first ever headsets from Sennheiser specifically designed for Xbox have been honored with the 2012 Red Dot Design award. The Sennheiser gaming headsets – X320 and X2 – assist gamers in not just great audio experience but also communicating effectively with teammates or opponents. The headsets include features specifically developed for Xbox gaming and are backed by a worldwide warranty of two years.

Sennheiser X320

Priced at INR 7,990, the Sennheiser X320 has an outstanding open-acoustic design with their patented CircleFlex ear cups and is very comfortable when worn for hours of gaming as you indulge in a mission in Call of Duty. The amplified stereo sound boosts the Xbox 360’s audio experience while the pro-noise cancelling microphone ensures that only the gamer’s voice is heard. The headset comes with an interesting feature that allows gamers to mute the microphone by raising just the boom eliminating the need for buttons.

Sennheiser X2

If you are looking for an economical option, the Sennheiser X2 is priced at INR 1,790. The headset offers a great gaming experience and is very lightweight, although durable. The audio experience is uncompromised with precise speakers and noise cancelling microphones for an easy and effective communication with teammates or opponents.

We all remember that game in our childhood which stole our hearts and made us wait 12 years for its next iteration. That game which, despite its few flaws, we would play for hours and hours, again and again because it was simply the most legendary RPG of its time. Yes I’m talking about Diablo II, what else? After over a decade of waiting, lovers of RPG can now lay their hands on Diablo III, which is poised to become THE most epic game ever once players have a chance to lay their hands on it.
Barely a day after the massive worldwide launch, people are disappointed. People are upset. Blizzard’s servers are unable to handle the load of users logging on to authenticate the game, resulting in a massive outrage all over the Internet. Diablo III requires an “always-on” connection even in single player mode, irking those who have an internet connection with a download cap, those who are often on the move and thus do not have a qualifying internet connection (Blizzard requires a “Broadband Internet connection”, specified in their requirements) and those (like me) who want to play in offline or single player mode and want nothing to do with Auction House or multiplayer mode.

Why is it wrong?

What is upsetting is the fact that Blizzard has confirmed that there will be no offline play in future either. There will be no segregation of single player and multiplayer modes like there was in Diablo II. But the thing really upsetting me is that other companies are now slowly and steadily moving toward this trend.
There were numerous reasons for Blizzard to require an “always online” connection. Primarily, Blizzard wanted to safeguard the economy of the D3 world by preventing abuse of the system through which users could cheat and sell items privately, or hack and create duplicate items; basically, what goes on in WoW. They also wanted users to have internet connections so Blizzard can check for pirated games.

What this has resulted in is that the major gameplay mechanics are shifted server side. Enemy /map generation. Character creation and saving. Majorly, it will all happen online and will be saved on Blizzard’s servers. While this will help in using the same character that you have put so much work into, in both the single and multiplayer modes, and also reduce to quite an extent the abuse of the economy of Diablo III and help Blizzard earn a few more monies, it will also require you to sit in a place with at least 3G Internet if you want to play the game without many lags. This is a bad move for those who spend majority of their time traveling and want some monster killing on-the-go.

Another bad move by Blizzard was not ensuring proper load handling capabilities for their servers, especially on launch day. While I agree that things like these happen, this was a really bad move on their part, especially when people are paying $60 for a game they have waited for for 12 years. And Blizzard is, since a few years now, known for making bad moves. Case in point — No official LAN mode for Starcraft?! That IMO is quite idiotic.

Words with Friends is one of the best game available on Facebook app store which is very similar to the traditional Scrabble game. Words with Friends allows users to play the game with multiple friends online. I have been playing this game for a while and love it. The game also has apps for both iOS and Android allowing you to play the game on the go as well.

Considering that the game is played online there is a lot of chances for people to look up the dictionary to find words and score high points. So how do you score high points in Words with Friends? Well there are several ways to do it and I’ll list a few of them here.

The first option to find words out of the alphabets on your board in Words With Friends is Word Solver. This website provides you options to solve Scrabble words using various dictionaries including; Scrabble Tournament Word List, English Scrabble Dictionary, Words with Friends Dictionary and French Scrabble Dictionary among others.

All you have to do is enter the words on your board in the textbox provided and click on the "Find words!" button and it will automatically display the words you can create using your board. Another similar alternative for finding words is Lexical Word Finder.

The above websites can be used to create words from alphabets on your board. However, what if you want to add to already existing words created on the table? Well, there is a cheat for that too.

More Words is a excellent website which would help  you in many ways with solving words in "Words for Friends" and Scrabble in general. It is basically a word search engine which provides you with definitions, anagrams and more. More Words also provides users with an option to create words by adding letters to it and also search for larger words containing a particular word and words starting with or ending with your search.

So if you are looking to cheat in Scrabble or Words with Friends online, look no farther than More Words since it can provide you with the best help you can do with.

While there are many more websites that can help you with finding words for your Scrabble or Words with Friends game. I think the above mentioned websites should be more than sufficient.

P.S. I didn’t want to be a spoilsport and take the fun out of the game. However, considering that players can play at their own pace and have the internet to look up words this isn’t technically cheating or is it?

According to a huge scoop from Phoronix, Steam might just come to Linux. That’s right, Valve’s insanely popular video game digital distribution platform will finally see the light of day on /etc/Steam (Linux users please note that I am a newbie and as such am just throwing around filesystem names to appear “cool”)

For those that have doubted the exclusive Phoronix claims for quite a while now that the Steam client and Source Engine are in fact being ported to Linux, the doubts can be nearly laid to rest. Even I began to wonder how long it would take before the clients for their popular games would be publicly released under Linux. However, after confirming the information perhaps a bit too soon, their level of Linux interest is much more clear after spending a day at their offices.

After years of denying Steam on Linux it seems that Gabe Newell has finally let slip the codes of Linux into the fiery pit of an Internet guy. Michael Larabel, the founder of Linux focused website Phoronix had been personally contacted by Newell and subsequently he flew down to Valve’s headquarters and has apparently seen the build in person. How awesome is that? He also says that he will be posting the Linux screenies soon on his twitter feed. Soon, he says. Soon. Which translates to “not soon enough!”

#valve does have Linux games coming plus other very positive Linux plans… I’ll briefly post some screenshots and such tonight.

— Michael Larabel (@michaellarabel) April 25, 2012

Since the announcement, a barrage of followers and users have pretty much taken down the site where he promised a video will soon be uploaded.

welcome to all the new followers…. in a few hours when the load is back under control, I’ll post the brief #Linux video on @phoronix

— Michael Larabel (@michaellarabel) April 25, 2012

Excellent news? You bet. It is thoroughly welcome after Desura’s Linux-specific game search as well as Steam’s own SteamPlay Mac support. Cannot wait for the video!

For a decade or more, some in the gaming industry have been predicting the death of the console. In fact, there are those who believed that the Xbox 360 or PS3 would never have come to market. They argue that PCs are much more powerful, upgradable, and robust than consoles, and that game developers have much more flexibility on that platform.

Unfortunately for these futurists, their predictions have failed to come true. This is at least in part due to the fact that console gaming has historically appealed to the masses; a family can invest in a gaming console for a $300 price point and use it for 4-5 years before replacing it with the next generation. Gaming-worthy PCs cost 5 times as much and have to be upgraded just as frequently.

Yet, there’s a new trend that may really strike a serious blow to not only console gaming, but PC gaming. Like so many other services, gaming is now moving to the cloud.

Cloud gaming: OnLive
OnLive is the first such service of its kind, but it’s certainly not going to be the last. The basic premise of OnLive is this: you should be able to play the games you want to play anywhere, anytime you have an Internet connection. If you want to play a game on your TV, great. If you’d rather play it on your PC, that’s fine, too. You can even play it on your tablet, in some cases.

How this obsoletes consoles
Cloud-based gaming services don’t require constant hardware upgrades. Because the heavy lifting is done on the service provider’s equipment, all you really need is a reliable broadband connection to get a high-quality gaming experience. Buying games via a cloud service means never having to upgrade to the next generation of console, and not having to purchase multiple consoles. Sure, you need a game system like the OnLive system to play on a TV, but these systems come much cheaper – and don’t require you to upgrade.

Technical limitations
There are, of course, limitations to the cloud gaming proposition, at least right now. There are a very limited number of titles ported to the cloud gaming format. In addition, while it sounds like it would be cool to play certain games on a tablet, most games simply aren’t built for a touch-screen implementation.

For cloud-based gaming to really catch on, it will have to receive support from multiple development studios. If there should be another generation of consoles released, it will be a hard fought battle to get the consumer to move away from their trusted format to a cloud service.

In the same way that Netflix has, for many people, replaced the DVD player, so too cloud gaming could one day replace the console experience. Even in the PC realm, users may find that they’re more likely to use a cloud-based version of a game rather than the PC port, simply because they’ve already purchased it for the cloud.

Whether cloud gaming will be the nail in console gaming’s coffin is yet to be seen, but one thing is clear: if done right, there’s a heck of a lot of potential in this technology.

==== About the Author ====
Eric Greenwood is a technophile whose interests have lead him to study all things cloud from software as a service to the online storage movement. Get more tips and advice on the blog Online Storage!

The quad-core driven PS Vita certainly packs a punch as far as hardware is concerned. However, mighty specs are not all that it has in its favor. The American and European versions of the Vita will come with a set of six augmented reality cards that can be used for a fun and unique gaming experience.

These cards can be laid out on any surface to dynamically create objects within compatible AR games. Earlier today, Sony Santa Monica Sr. Manager Dave Thach demonstrated one of the AR minigames – Table Football (Pocket Soccer in the US), in action. As you can see in the video below, each of these cards can be spread out on any flat surface to create everything from the football field to goal posts and stands. The game itself is simplistic, but is smart enough to adapt itself to the field created by you. Aspects such as velocity of the ball automatically change based on the size of the field. The Vita also remembers where your cards are, so you can simply move your Vita for zooming and panning.

The Vita will launch in North America on February 22.

Steam is rocking the PC gaming community with its spectacular holiday sale. However, mobile gaming aficionados need not feel left out. Gameloft is planning to kick off the new year with a massive discount on its Android games. All games, with the exception of the recently released Modern Combat 3, will be available for 99 cents on the Android Market for one week.

December is turning out to be a good month for Android users as Google gave away scores of popular apps for 10 cents, Getjar offered hundred hot apps for free, and EA heavily discounted some of its popular titles. Gameloft’s portfolio includes everything from racing blockbusters like the Asphalt series and action games like Nova and Backstab to sports games like NFL and Let’s Golf. Typically Gameloft games can cost up to seven bucks; however, beginning tomorrow, all paid Gameloft games will be available for just $0.99. The sale will last till January 5. Modern Combat 3, which is exempt from the sale, will also be available for 99 cents at some point during the week. Recombu has confirmed that this sale isn’t US only, and all the games will be available in the UK for 69p.

The Xbox 360 is still selling like hot cakes, but rumors surrounding the next-gen Xbox console are coming in thick and fast. The media has even come up with a tacky name for the Xbox 360 successor – “Xbox 720″! With conflicting rumors and absolutely no concrete information, it’s nigh impossible to figure out exactly what Microsoft has in store for us. However, one thing that is almost certain is that the next-gen Xbox won’t show up before 2013. The 360, along with its Kinect peripherals, are simply selling too well for Microsoft to consider a successor. As Digital Foundry rightly argues, Microsoft will essentially be cutting its profits if it releases a new console in 2012. A next-gen console demands state of the art production facilities and often has to be subsidized during the initial years.

Nevertheless, whenever the Xbox successor shows up, it will probably come in two flavors. Digital Foundry believes that Microsoft will release a stripped down version of the next-gen Xbox that will essentially act as a set-top box and support casual arcade and Kinect games. The lower-end device will help Microsoft in tackling the challenge posed by WiiU. The second full-powered system will be targeted at hardcore gamers and compete with Sony’s PlayStation 4. It will feature an optical drive, a hard disk and backward compatibility with 360 games to entice the audience that doesn’t mind paying a premium.

I honestly did not know what I was getting into with Bastion, an indie game that came with a bucketload of recommendations and a folder full of evocative screenshots. I knew it was a highly recommended game, it was an Xbox Live Arcade downloadable title and that it was a hack-n-slash role playing game (RPG).

Nobody warned me about the haunting storyline and the beautiful soundtrack. Even if they did, I was too busy staring at the gorgeous screenshots to notice.

Bastion is, as mentioned before, an action RPG in which you play as the Kid a young silver-haired fellow who is as silent throughout the game as Gordon Freeman is in Half Life. The Kid wakes up at the end of a world-ending Calamity and seeks out the Bastion where he was told to go in times like these. There he finds out much and more about the Calamity and what he must do to repair the damage. However, the subtext of memory, remembrance and nostalgia is at times so subtle that it is invisible and at others, too jarring to be of any use. It is thus a good idea to re-play the game to understand a good chunk of the plot properly.

The Kid’s story is told by a kindly old narrator as you plod through the game. Each and every action of the kid is narrated dynamically by the narrator and the story itself is furthered by the narrator’s words. The world literally falls into place as the Kid progresses through the story, so much so that if you play this game without turning up the sound you are missing out.

The music of the game complements the storyline and its redolently striking art style. In a world that has been shaken by an unknown Calamity every level is a shadow of its former self, yet as the Kid plods through the worlds, Bastion‘s music touches upon that level’s former beauty and shakes poignant chords in the player’s heart. In one level, I was completely mesmerized by a melancholy song to the extent that I stopped playing for a few minutes just to listen to that song. The tune lingered throughout my playthrough from that point onwards and I am sure it will stay in my mind much longer.

The gameplay is quite similar to other hack-n-slash games, with a variety of weapons to unlock. You can select your loadout (the weapon that you will use with the left click, the right click and a special weapon as well) before starting a mission, or sometimes during the mission itself. The levels themselves vary in difficulty and it is essential that you get used to a set of weapons and upgrade them as you play the game.

The game is a treasure-trove for the 100%-ers (gamers who wish to do everything and find everything in a game) since there is way too much to do. You can finish a level in your own time, or go to a training level to earn trinkets and upgrade materials. There are achievements to unlock and level-hardening idols to worship. There is a lot to do in this game and it does not get boring too fast (however it does since after a point, it’s just mindless clicking. I still maintain that Diablo II mastered the art of keeping one entertained through hours of mouseclicks).

I heartily recommend Bastion to any fan of action RPGs or indie games. It’s a surprisingly well-made game that will keep you entertained enough for at least two playthroughs, while the soundtrack will haunt your ears for a longer time.