Smiley's Life

EA Week has reached Day Five, and with it, three games have been discounted:

• Mirror’s Edge is 75% off, meaning this beautiful game will cost you only 5 measly bucks. I personally recommend this game and consider it to be one of the most fun, beautiful and innovative games EA have to offer.
• Dead Space is 50% off. I’ve heard Dead Space is a great, survival-horror game and for $15 it may just be worth it. I’m considering it myself.
• Spore and all of its expansions (Creepy & Cute Parts Pack and Galactic Adventures) are 33% off. I liked Spore, and I was considering repurchasing it on Steam to have a SecuROM-less copy, but at $26.79 I don’t think it’s worth it. The discount is too low, not to mention the fact Spore’s current (pre-sale) $39.99 price tag is too high considering its reviews and content.

I highly recommend you to pick up Mirror’s Edge. At $5, it’s a steal.

This week, there are various discounts on EA games on Steam. Each day, a different game or game series goes on sale. The first game series is Crysis, making Crysis and Crysis: Warhead available for 50% off.

Apparently, Valve already uploaded the banners for the next days, so we can know the (awesome) lineup of discounted games for EA Week:

Tuesday is “Military Day”, and judging by the background, we can tell Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is going to be on sale.

Wednesday is “Command & Conquer Day”, so obviously, Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight will be on sale with, most probably, the other Command & Conquer games.

Thursday is “Racing Day”, so I assume Need for Speed games would be on sale and maybe even Burnout Paradise.

Friday is “Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space & Spore” day! You can guess what will be on sale. If Dead Space is discounted enough I may get it. If EA magically lower Spore’s price to $5 or under, I may repurchase it for Steam. (Got it on disc with a SecuROM license from release day.)

Saturday is “Mass Effect Day”, and judging by the name and background image it’s very likely EA will discount Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2! The former may even be discounted to $5, like in Steam’s last holiday sale. I hope it will, I missed the last Mass Effect sale and from what I heard it’s a great game. Now, if Mass Effect 2 was also discounted for, say, 75%… That would be a lovely surprise.

And last, but not least, Sunday is “Dragon Age Day”! Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Awakening will most probably be on sale.

Even though I’m not an Xbox 360 gamer, but actually a PC/PS3 gamer, I just love the 360’s controllers. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but that’s the case. I like to play a lot of games with a joystick, specifically Psychonauts, Trine, Overlord: Raising Hell, FLOCK!, Braid, GTA IV and Mirror’s Edge. Mirror’s Edge is the only FPS I like to play with a joystick, mostly because you don’t need the high precision you get with a computer mouse, and because it feels better to play it with a controller.

First of all: they’re very, very comfortable. I like how the first joystick is placed on the top-left part, rather than at the bottom-left part like in Sony’s controllers. Sony’s “buttons-here-joysticks-there” approach doesn’t work these days. Every game has joystick control, and in most cases it’s mandatory, or just so bad with the D-Pad. You hear that, Sony? Improve your controllers! They’re lacking. It’s so much more comfortable to use the 360 controller, because of that, and other reasons.

Another reason is the controller’s overall design. Not only does it look better, but it also feels better in your hands, better than any generic controller, or at least Sony’s, in my opinion.

A third reason is controller rumble and pressure-sensitive triggers, which most generic PC controllers don’t have. Having pressure sensitivity is a great thing, like in GTA IV: pressing the trigger just a bit enters free-aim mode, and holding it stronger enters auto-aim mode. This makes toggling or having a button for each seem bad and primitive, huh?

The last reason is the best one. I love these controllers because they introduce a new, well-needed standard for PC games: controller support and auto-configuration. Every time I enter a game that supports these controllers and switch mine on, it automatically configures the buttons and changes every key indication on-screen appropriately.

Like with Mirror’s Edge. I open the game, turn on my controller, and… BAM!

BAM!

BA—Oh, right.

What do you think of Microsoft’s controllers?