EA Hell Freezes Over and Other Stuff

Well, if you haven't heard by now you better get your ass over to Steam and take a look: verily Hell hath frozen over and Valve has announced that several more top-tier Electronic Arts titles will be coming to Steam. Among these games are the MMORPG Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, the much-maligned Spore and the upcoming titles Red Alert 3 and Mirror's Edge (to which I fist-stabbed the air and was like "YES!"). Some EA titles like Mass Effect and Crysis have already been available on Steam for some time now.

The real question which I think is on everyone's mind right now is will the Steam version of Spore have the infamous SecuROM included in it? So far, there is no mention of it on the sales page, however that isn't necessarily indicative of the reality.

Both the Crysis and Crysis Warhead Steam versions have SecuROM. Grand Theft Auto IV has it. There are probably more, but I can't be assed right now to look them up. In the past Bioshock had it, but now doesn't. I'm not sure if the Steam version of Mass Effect ever had it, but it doesn't now at least. And the Steam version of Fallout 3 has never had it.

So I expect that the status of SecuR(ootkit)OM on Steam's Spore will be confirmed in short order. Owing that my newish computer is already infected with the SecuROM virus (Neverwinter Nights 2 - thanks a whole lot Atari, you bastards) I am tempted to try it out and see if I can find it in the download. But probably not, I have a bunch to do and not all of it involves the following:

Vanguard is, right now as I type this, giving away a free month-and-a-half of playtime to former subscribers. That is right - from December 17 until January 31 the accounts of former subscribers have been re-activated. I was never really able to get into Vanguard, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for it owing to the sheer scope and ambition of the world. So a free month should be enough to install the 17-gigabyte behemoth on my hard drive.

Tabula Rasa has the rank stench of death hovering about it, but technically it is still alive and I have still have a couple free codes to give out. Why not join CJ McFee, Voyd and me and get yourself a free code so you too can emerge from Foreas with the aroma of a morgue clinging to you?

Can you believe I still have yet to get WotLK? I know, I thought WoW was all addictive and stuff. But here I am, barely able to fathom myself logging back into that crack-fest. But you know I will eventually. And now that Blizzard has introduced paid gender changes, I no longer have to live as a GIRL.

And finally for today, Steam's weekend special: Stalker: Shadows of Chernobyl for $4.99. Yes, you read that right, it isn't a typo - Stalker SoC for only $4.99. So if you don't already have this classic you better fire up Steam and get it!