Thanks for punishing the early adopters once again Valve! I kid of course, but I imagine those who bought Fallout 3 at $50 (when it first came out) are probably cringing at today’s $20 price, available under Steam’s Weekend Deal program.

What’s Fallout 3 you ask? Are you ok? It’s the best solo RPG to come out in recent memory, features a relatively massive gameplay world worth weeks of losing sleep over. Owners of the game will also enjoy free access to current or future downloadable content packs. Over five have been released or are about to be released, and they all represent additional gameplay and new ways to waste time.

Get Fallout 3 for only $20 at Steam. Today’s the last day this Weekend Deal lasts, so you’d better get going!

Big Download claims “the success of the new Star Trek movie has made many die hard Trek fans wonder what happened to the timeline of the previous TV shows and movies”. But practically all of them already knew the whole-alternate-universe-existing-on-a-different-quantum-frequency thing long before the movie came out. Making the Star Trek Online timeline below (courtesy Atari through BD) totally unnecessary:

Heck, I’m sure savvy fans have even figured out the dissolution of the Klingon-Fed alliance, given the messy inter-galactic politics started towards the end of Deep Space Nine and continued during Picard’s final days on-screen. But it’s always good for geeks to see the niggling details their favorite mythos fleshed out by a professional graphic designer, and the timeline’s definitely whetting my appetite for the upcoming online game. Definitely a Q’apla!

Here are some computers you can spend your money on: Tom’s Hardware recently concluded their May System Builder Marathon, a monthly feature that focuses on creating desktops at various price points following a certain theme. May’s SBM feature was particularly interesting, as it focused on creating portable gaming desktops perfect for LAN parties.

The Sugo SG01-BF. Courtesy SilverStone

Tom’s set out to create three different PCs, within budgets of $600, $1300, and $2500 respectively. Luckily—if you’re based in the US—you can buy the parts they used from NewEgg:

	~$600 PC	~$1,300 PC	~$2,500 PC
CPU	Intel Pentium E5200	Intel Core i7 920	Intel Core i7 920
CPU Cooler	Stock (What comes with the E2500)	XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler	Stock (What comes with the i7 920)
Motherboard	ASRock G41M-LE	DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6	DFI LANPARTY JR X58-T3H6
Memory	G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK DDR2-800 4.0 GB (2.0 GB x2)	G.Skill 10666CL7T-6GBPK DDR3-1333 6.0 GB (2 GB x3)	Mushkin 998679 DDR3-1600 6.0 GB (2.0 GB x3)
Graphics	XFX GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 GX260NADFF	Two BFG Tech GeForce GTX 260 BFGEGTX260896OCE	Two EVGA GeForce GTX 295 017-P3-1294-AR
Hard Drive	Seagate 7200.12 500GB	Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB	Two Western Digital RE3 500GB
Case	SILVERSTONE Sugo SG01-BF	SILVERSTONE TJ08-B	SILVERSTONE SG04B-H
Power Supply	OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W	PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W	CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W
Optical Drive	LITE-ON iHAP322-08 DVD Burner	LITE-ON iHAP422-08 DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe	LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray Burner/HD-DVD ROM
Total	$648	$1248.50	$2545

As the emphasis is on gaming performance and portability Tom’s made the wise choice to rely on the motherboards’ integrated sound cards and ethernet cards, instead of spending for dedicated ones. The total prices of each setup are current as of this writing, and are unfortunately subject to the vagaries of price fluctuations (which is why the $600 machine totals $648).

In any case, I totally recommend the ~$600 desktop, even at its slightly higher price. Aside from having the smallest profile (the PC’s shoebox-sized, meaning you’ll have more trouble carrying around your display and peripherals), Tom’s tests marked it as a clear efficiency winner, providing the most gaming performance for money spent.

Introducing the Sony PSP Go: Seems Sony realized that the UMD format was effectively dead; the latest planned incarnation of the Sony PSP only accepts media through Memory Stick Micro cards and wireless downloads (via the PlayStation Network). Bad news for current UMD and normal-sized Memory Stick users.

All Images Courtesy SCEA

Yet the focus on digital delivery means that Sony was reportedly thoughtful enough to equip the PSP Go with 16GB of onboard memory. The new slide-down form factor may be something new for longtime PSP users. That’s because controlling the portable console requires the hands to be closer together—and below the Go’s 3.8″ screen. Compare that to the thumbs-on-the-side configuration that has defined every PSP model until now. Read more

Part of Steam’s appeal must be its regular discounts and price drops. But with so many titles in the catalog, it can be easy to miss out on some of them.

Yet that should now be practically impossible, thanks to the efforts of Steam forum user sciss0rz, who’s taken it upon himself to update other forum members with information on—you guessed it—the latest discounts and price drops on Steam! The list (found here) also includes information on Steam game packs, compilations of multiple titles that are usually available at a lower total price (sciss0rz does not list packs that represent no savings).

Even more important however is region availability. Lots of Steam customers have complained about the inconsistent availability of games worldwide. Specific games aren’t available in certain regions and countries, and you can see who misses out on what.

Nevertheless, the “Price Reduction and Sales!” thread is a very useful resource that any Steam user should bookmark. Heck, I’d even suggest making it your browser homepage, if only not to miss out on any new promos cooked up by Valve’s sales team.

Up for this weekend: 50% off on Assassin’s Creed for the PC, and 10% off the Freedom Force: Freedom Pack, for a total of just under 17 dollars! The Assassin’s Creed promo lasts over the weekend, while the Freedom Pack goes back to regular price by the end of June 5.

Why would you get those games? Well, Assassin’s Creed is probably the best 3D platformer I’ve played in quite a while (finished it on the PS3 last year). For some reason, dealing fatal counters to attacking enemies seemed very therapeutic.

The original Freedom Force, on the other hand, is a great strategy game that features a campy yet compelling story, and very wonderful art direction. Personally, it’s also a chance to finally try out the expansion!

I’m starting to hate Valve. They perfectly understand that, after development work, the production costs of video games are practically zero. More so if distribution is done through a digital platform like Steam.

Of course, Valve has to pay for servers to keep Steam running smoothly (they should!). But you can bet they pay less for each copy’s distribution. And they can tempt me to pay through the nose for games, because with all their game packs and weekend promos, they end up selling copies for less than what the pirates do.

Since I (currently) pay a flat monthly fee for internet access, those are very good deals indeed. Until you realize that you’ve spent more on games before signing up for Valve!

I recently had to lug my desktop to a LAN party, and while I had lots of fun blasting zombies away with a couple of friends, it was honestly quite a hassle to move my relatively big box around—and I wasn’t even bringing around a display.

$600 Gaming PC, Courtesy Tom's Hardware

So props to Tom’s Hardware for their May System Builder’s Marathon. The highlight: a $600 microATX gaming PC that can fit in a gym bag, along with other peripherals like the mouse and keyboard. The specs:

Component	Model	Price (U.S Dollar)
CPU	Intel Pentium E5200 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor	$70
CPU Cooler	Intel Boxed Heatsink/Fan	$0
Motherboard	ASRock G41M-LE Micro ATX Intel Motherboard	$62
Ram	G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory	$41
Graphics	XFX GeForce GTX 260 GX260XADJF Video Card	$170
Hard Drives	Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 3.5″ SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive	$60
Sound	Integrated	$0
Network	Integrated	$0
Case	SILVERSTONE Sugo SG01-BF Black Computer Case	$70
Power	OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W Power Supply	$75
Optical	LITE-ON 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model iHAP222-06	$25
Total Price		$593

Surprisingly, if Tom’s is correct, the performance of this rig is comparable to my $1200 homebuilt FragBox.

If for some reason you haven’t played Team Fortress 2, today’s TF2-for-$10 promo leaves you with no excuses. That’s 50% off the regular price until the day ends, a promo coordinated with the addition of new features to the game. Sure, the Steam platform responsible for serving the game has some kinks that Valve really really really needs to work out, but no one can fault the software company’s games. But don’t take my word for it: TF2 is available to play for free until May 25.

Of course, you could’ve bought The Orange Box, a five-in-1 package featuring three Half-Life 2 games, and TF2, when it was $10. But I can assure you that even getting Team Fortress 2 all by its lonesome for $10 is still money well-spent. Besides, misery loves company; I thought I got a good deal when Valve was selling Left 4 Dead for $20. About a month or so later, the company discounts the game again—selling it for $10!

Over at Tom’s Hardware forums, user r_manic asks:

So, anyone like to share tips on how they take care of themselves during those marathon gaming sessions?

Lots of tips followed, and the tip on staying constantly hydrated was good. But user bildo123 shared what was probably the best damn healthy gaming tip ever:

Courtesy Wikipedia

Whenever something is loading/paused etc do some of those military pushups. The one where you stand up, crouch, kick your legs out and arms forward in a pushup manner, do a full pushup, kick in your legs, stand up, repeat. Or jumping jacks during times where you can be semi-AFK like above.

Anything that lets me shoot down hordes of zombies while giving me firm arms, abs, and pecs is definitely sound advice! Are there other exercises suitable for game loading times?

Yet another example of totally offbeat Japanese creativity:

English port please Nintendo. Not all of us have geeky Japanese-fluent otaku-wannabes who can decipher game menus. (Thanks CNET Asia)