Its a beautiful, albeit cold, day today (-15f this morning). There is a lot going on lately so lets get to those updates.

Alienware Alpha:

I recently picked up the Alienware Alpha. You might remember it as  Alienware’s Steam machine from CES 2014. These are small form factor PCs that are made to be connected to your TV like a  regular old console. Well since Valve is still screwing around with its OS and controller, Alienware jumped the gun and released its hardware without Steam OS. The unit now comes with windows 8.1, along with a custom, controller friendly UI that basically takes you right into Steam’s “Big Picture Mode”. The package also includes a wireless XBOX 360 controller and USB dongle.

Ever since the announcement of the many Steam machines, there have been a lot of questions about who this PC/console hybrid’s target audience is. Let me tell you, the audience is me. And people like me. I like to try all of the games. Well most of them anyways, and that can get expensive. With the limited time I have with being a dad, husband, employee and student, I will usually only stick with a game if it really grabs me right away. With Steam’s massive catalog and weekly sales, you can get many games, very cheap. Last year I bought The Witcher 2 for $3. You cant beat that.

I bought the base model, which is $500, and while the specs on it may not blow anyone’s mind, it can handily keep up with the PS4 and Xbone. Not only that, but you can easily upgrade all the components with the only slightly painful exception being the custom GeForce GPU. That being said, at this time it is perfect for what I want it for: A plethora of indie and early access titles and basically all the pc games you can’t get outside of that ecosystem. And it works like a charm. If I can spend a few bucks a week on a game that holds my attention for a weekend, it’s a few bucks well spent. Especially for someone like me who like to check out all the latest and greatest, but can only commit to one or two at a time.

“new” Nintendo 3Ds:

So I’m just going to throw this out there. The 3Ds is my favorite current console. I have sunk more hours into more games on that little thing than probably all of my other systems combined. Handheld consoles are an essential tool in any gaming parents arsenal. Usually on weekends or evenings there are times when my kids want to watch whatever dumb show it is they watch, and I’m stuck there with nothing to do (To be fair, my kids do happen to watch some pretty great things most of the time, but there are a few stinkers in there). But with a handheld system, I can turn it on and I’m right where I left off. The pick up and play aspect of a handheld device is perfect for my lifestyle. 15 minutes to spare equals 15 minutes of hunting monsters.

So obviously I bought myself the new 3Ds. The added analog nub and improved 3D are enough of a reason for me, but its also faster with a better processor and there will eventually be games that can only run on the new system. I’m sure that will not confuse anyone :). So, I’ve been starting to dig into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate and my nephew will be picking up his copy today, so I see some co-op monster slaying in the future.

So. Many. Games.

Seriously. There are so many games either out, or coming out, that I don’t know what to do with myself. It’s times like these that cause reality to set in that I will never play some of the games  I want to.

Final Thoughts:

I don’t know about you, but a 5-6 hour game is super appealing to me if its a good 5-6 hours. The Order 1886 is still intriguing to me regardless of the mixed reviews. Its a game I would love to sit with my kids and play, but alas, it is very gory by all accounts, so I guess I will be skipping that one for now.

Anyways. Enjoy your weekend. Hopefully it’s fun and full of doing what you love to do.