Microsoft came under heavy fire this week when footage of Killer Instinct kicking gamers out of the middle of the match due to DRM caused a major ruckus. The news almost completely overshadowed Valve's second Steam sale this season and the final Steam sale of the year. It also arrived just in time for Bohemia Interactive to roll out the official standalone alpha release of DayZ, which has been met with a lot of positive praise and critical feedback... it is an alpha after all. These stories and more in this December 21st, 2013 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.
Sunday
SteamOS Installation Walkthrough Guide A quick guide to help you get started with installing the SteamOS.
Payday 2 Charlie Santa DLC Is A Free Heist New DLC for Payday 2 arrives.
Rainbow Six Patriots Delayed Because It Wasn't Good Enough Ubisoft goes back to the drawing board to make the game better.
7 Days To Die Now Available On Steam Early Access After resolving the issue with the copyrighted material from the Killing Floor developers, the game is now finally on Steam's Early Access.
GTA 5 Nightride FM Gets An Unofficial Playlist Listen to some of your favorite synth tunes via an unofficial playlist for the AWOL Nightride FM station from GTA 5.
Firefly Online Launching in 2014 Whether or not this MMO can do what others have failed to do remains to be seen, but let's hope it gets it right.
Witness Dev: Microsoft Threatened To Ruin My Life indie dev Jonathan Blow brings out some harsh words for the Micro 'S'.
Wasteland 2 Beta Released On Steam Early Access inXile has finally managed to get their game launched on Steam's Early Access.
World of Tanks Beta Weekend Underway For Xbox 360 The beta for World of Tanks is currently underway for the Xbox 360, get in while the getting in is good.
Monday
Best Mods of The Year: Voting Underway Some of the best mods from 2013 are listed
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance Arriving Any Day For Steam that is.
Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z Gets Side-Scrolling Mode, Mighty No. 9 Costume Some awesome new content for the hack-and-slash ninja game has been announced.
Counter-Strike Global Offensive Add Two More Maps The name of both maps are Cobble and Overpass, giving gamers more urban playgrounds to mess around in.
Wii U Winning Next Gen Gaming It's even doing so above and beyond the PS4 and Xbox One.
Forza 5 Dev Defends Lack of Weather, Lack of Night Driving, Limited Content Well, that all really makes me want to buy the game, right?
Tuesday
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Freedom Cry Walkthrough Guide If you need a little help getting around in Freedom Cry the new walkthrough guide can help.
Walking Dead Season 2: Five Things You Need To Know Before Playing Find out some important information regarding the second season of TellTale's The Walking Dead before you hop back into the fray.
Pinball Arcade Rolls Onto PS4, Discounted For Loyal Fans A casual billiard room game arrives for the PS4 and gets a massive discount for those who love the game.
DayZ Standalone Now Available One of the most popular mods ever gets its standalone release. This is history in the making, folks
Former DICE Dev Claims DICE Isn't To Blame For Battlefield 4 Problems So who is to blame? Is it a company that has two words in the name that starts with an 'E' and the second word starts with an 'A'?
Xbox One Indie Games Start Rolling Out March, 2014 Microsoft will allow for indies to start rolling out their titles early into 2014.
Marc Ecko's Getting Up Adds Pressure To Steam The 2006 anti-authority adventure game makes its debut on Steam.
Just Cause 2 Multiplayer Released On Steam This is it folks, this is where the girded loins meet the loose loins and all chaos breaks free. Join in the free and watch your loins!
Minecraft PS3 Edition Launches Ahead of PS4, Vita Version One of the most popular games ever will arrive for the PS4 and the PS Vita in early 2014.
GTA 5 Online Capture Mode DLC Launching For PS3, Xbox 360 More tools and gadgets to enjoy the online MMO from Rockstar.
Walking Dead Season 2 Walkthrough Guide Find out what to do, where to go and how to do it in the newest walkthrough guide for the game.
Hearthstone Patch Nerfs Mages, Fixes Arena Some new updates makes the game slightly more accessible and a little less cheap... for mages.
Xbox One 24-Hour Check-In DRM Returns During Killer Instinct Tournament It's an isolated incident but it's a dozy.
Assassin's Creed 4 Interview: Olivier Deriviere Talks Freedom Cry All the good, the bad, the juicy and the sweet are discussed in this brief interview with the composer of the Freedom Cry DLC.
CastleStorm Invades Wii U Just in time for Christmas.
Star Wars Attack Squadrons Announced Disney finally pulls through... sort of. And only if you like free-to-play games.
Warhammer Online Shuts Down; Private Server Launches Even though the official servers are done and over with, some homemade servers are up and at them.
Final StreetPass: A Nintendo 3DS Short Story An endearing short story by Gaming Blend's Ryan Winslett.
Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition Avengers DLC Coming Soon Play as your favorite Avenger in the newest bit of DLC for Xbox 360.
Lawsuit Alleges EA Artificially Raised Their Stock This also states that this was done so using the hype generated from Battlefield 4.
Microsoft: There's No 24-Hour DRM Check-In On Xbox One Microsoft attempts to clear the air but things don't turn out so well.
GTA 5 Multiplayer Capture Mode Released On Xbox 360, PS3 Rockstar promised and Rockstar delivered.
Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors Announced For Wii U A new Dynasty Warriors-style game starring the cast of the Legend of Zelda has been announced.
Pokemon Bank App Comes With Free Celebi A new app allows users to store their Pokemon, amongst other features.
Dr. Luigi Coming to Wii U Dec 31st Nintendo continues to roll out new games for the Wii U, showing that they have good intentions and strong support for the console.
Thursday
DayZ Sells 172,500 Copies in 24 Hours Bohemia is basically rolling in cash at this point.
Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1 Review: I'm Worried Yes, and everyone else should be, too. Find out how Gaming Blend's Pete Haas rated the game.
Gameplay Impressions: Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z Thrills Then Spills Uh oh, Ryan gives his hands-on impressions of the latest fighting game from Namco Bandai.
Tournament Organizer Defends Xbox One, Says Killer Instinct Incident Wasn't DRM Related Part of that is true.
Xbox One Managemnt Has Been A Disaster, Says Indie Dev A very outspoken developer from Vlambeer lambastes Microsoft.
Record Agarest War Out Now On Android The titillating JRPG has arrived on iPhones.
DayZ Character Wipes Take Place With Latest Patch Sadly, more wipes are inbound as the game continues to stabilize and get new content during the alpha.
Steam Holiday Sale Launches The new hottest is all about Snow Globe Trading Cards.
Warner Bros Mobile Games Get Holiday Discounts Grab them while they're hot.
Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls Release Date Announced, Digital Expansion Collector Edition Detailed Blizzard announces additional details on the Reaper of Souls release date.
Friday
Mass Effect 4 Is Playable But Not By You Well that's probably the kind of thing that gets the tears rolling.
PS4 Hard Drive Can Hold 27 Games, 10 Apps By comparison, the PS4 offers more space at faster speeds than the Xbox One.
EA Executives Cashed Out $13.2 Million Stock Ahead of Battlefield 4's Buggy Release, States Lawsuit EA finally gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar and it's not looking good.
Home Console Market To Reach $46 Billion By 2018, According to Report New data shows that the console market is really blasting off... not unlike how it's always been.
Microsoft Addresses FGC Xbox One DRM Concerns Microsoft finally breaks their silence about the issue regarding Killer Instinct's DRM.
DayZ Standalone Alpha: Newbie Guide Gaming Blend's Pete Haas offers some helpful hints for playing DayZ.
Secret World Invites Krampus Over Holidays Expansion Funcom rolls out some brand new content for their MMO, The Secret World.
Fightback Launches For Free On iOS One of the few high quality games for Apple's iPhone makes its debut on the iTunes app store.
Saturday
Hearthstone Open Beta Delayed To 2014 Blizzard's MOBA title gets its open beta slightly delayed into the new year.
League of Legends Showdown Mode Launches A new mode arrives for the most popular online multiplayer battle arena game.
Dead Rising 3 Operation Broken Eagle Delayed Until 2014 Lots of stuff being moved into 2014... looks like it's going to be a big year for gaming.
Everquest Next Landmark Alpha Might Begin in Late January SOE is moving forward with their latest title with an alpha test next month.
New Star Trek Online Expansion Coming in Late 2014 STO is still alive and a new expansion is coming in late 2014.
Electronic Theatre Preview: Prominence Our buddies at Electronic Theatre have rolled out a preview of the upcoming Prominence.
That wraps up this edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap. You can check out a new video below of the Stryder doing its thing from Titanfall. Enjoy.
Babygirl's Director Explains Why Working With Intimacy Coordinators Is Like Working With Stuntmen
Harrison Ford Revealed The Project He's Felt The Most 'Comfortable' And 'Confident' Working On, And It Makes So Much Sense
The Story Behind Joe Pesci Accidentally Biting Macaulay Culkin While Filming Home Alone And Scaring Him
