OddballGreg - The Steam Holiday Sale 2014

A wonderfully non-descriptive and poorly chosen screenshot of the Steam Store. Because terrible screenshots are what I'm all about.

Does your wallet suffer from excess weight? Do you suffer from having time on your hands? Well, provided you have a steam account, you're probably about to be cured of both those afflictions. Let's talk about the Steam Holiday Sale.

Every year, the wonderful, massive games distribution platform that is Steam has a year end holiday sale in which they successfully alleviate the wallets of the world through both quantity and quality of sales. There are truly few services that can entice you to buy things that you may never use, but Steam does that... well. (Not that I'm complaining.)

The statistic as pointed out in this Gamespot article from April this year based on a study by Ars Technica, is that 37% of all Steam games purchased are never played. Which is absurd considering that even at their cheapest, some games are worth a cheap meal at a fast food restaurant. (At least here in South Africa.) Nonetheless, these sales allow people who are somewhat more concious about their spending habits, such as myself, to get games that they want at extremely cut rates.

For example, as of about an hour or two ago from the posting of this article, Payday 2 went on sale at 75% off from it's price, with a 4 pack at the same 75% discount, which equates to a ridiculous saving in total, and an effective buy 3 get 1 free deal. Naturally, JovialJman, myself and our friends being the Payday fanatics that we are, immediately jumped upon this fantastic deal for a fantastic game.

Of course, among others, games such as all the Saints Row's, The Elder Scrolls Skyrim, Portal 2 and many other fantastic titles have all seen fantastic discounts for the holiday, including daily deals like Payday 2's in which they are further discounted by ridiculous amounts. Essentially, the Steam Holiday Sale is a frugal persons dream happiest dream.

Word of forewarning, If I suddenly drop off the internet for a while, I'm probably playing games more than I should be. In any case, that's all I have to say on the matter, so if you would like to get good games on the cheap, make sure to head over to Steam and check out the great deals and let me know what you find, down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Happy Holidays my friends.

OddballGreg - Aavak...?

Image nicked from the only place that provides even a vague explanation of who Aavak is. Specifically: https://www.youtube.com/user/Aavak/about

Do you feel the need to listen to an Welsh (Bohemian?) man with an oddly classy accent and voice play games and tell you about interesting things while he does so? If so, then like myself, you're probably going to start watching Aavak's video's... a little more than you probably should.

In a completely unexpected turn of events, I have yet another YouTuber that I simply cannot stop watching. Those of you who've been reading this blog for a fair length of time are probably aware of my preference for YouTube Commentators that don't spend their time screaming, making ridiculous noises, and preferably have something meaningful or witty to say. (I'm not saying the screaming isn't funny... but it does get a little old eventually. At least for myself.)

Naturally, I found Aavak by complete and utter accident, and promptly spent the past 4 or 5 days watching his videos between doing whatever else it is I do these days. Why? Because his voice is entrancing or something I guess. Seriously, check out the video below and tell me it's not the kind of voice you'd happily listen to.

Jokes aside, Aavak is a genuinely entertaining YouTuber who is, from what I gather, still relatively new to game, (excuse the pun), with only 36 000 subscribers. (At the time of writing, and including myself.) He, like some of the other YouTubers I enjoy watching like Scott Manley and Quill18, has a habit of making witty remarks about the various occurrences with good humor, while also trying to teach his viewers something as he goes along. (Or at least avoid having meaningless segments in his videos.) One of my favorite moments in his video's came from the above From The Depths series where he discussed the origins of the "Cwn Awnnwn" as he explained his choice of name for a ship.

Basically, he doesn't scream, he talks about interesting things, plays interesting and thoughtful games, and has a voice that simply makes you want to listen to him, even when he stutters or says the same thing again without realizing it. He's also Welsh... I think. Perhaps as a matter of his relative newness to the internet, there is nothing describing who he is or what he does as far I've seen so far. (Odds are something of the sort will crop up eventually.) Either way, he's either Welsh, or Bohemian as his YouTube banner dictates. Unless that's just a clever ploy to throw off anyone trying to figure out his true Welsh identity. In which case, bravo you wily dog you.

In any case, I highly suggest you check out his channel here, watch a few of his videos and just enjoy a genuinely enjoyable personality as he plays some games and talks about stuff. (I probably am as you're reading this. Especially if there's a new Cataclysm video out. That game is AWESOME.)

Do you agree that Aavak is actually a really fun guy to watch? Or maybe you have someone else you think I should check out and give a mention for. If so, do be sure to let me know down in the comments below, or via Facebook/Twitter. We here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. And of course, if you enjoy finding out about awesome stuff on the web and world then do please be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left to get all the latest posts as they're published. Also, do be sure to share posts you enjoyed with your friends as it helps us out a great deal. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Happy Holidays my friends.