6/24-7/4: Christmas in June/July (complete pack sales and one day sale)

[Draegan]

Hi xcom.  I would love to buy Street Fighter but uhhh.. I'm on a PC.

[Morfiend]

Nothing interests me today or yesterday. Phew.

My standing list so far.

DoW2 Gold edition including Chaos Rising. (I gifted the base game to a friend, so we could play together, since I already had it)
Gothic Pack (G2 and G3).
Chronicles of Riddick.
Bioshock 2.

I'm still contemplating the Guild Wars Trilogy pack.

[Sky]

I would love to buy Street Fighter but uhhh.. I'm on a PC.

Huh?

Arma2, why can't you be cheaper? Numen looks interesting but I get the feeling it will be cheaper once I'd be able to get around to playing it.

[Trippy]

Presumably he doesn't have an arcade stick or game pad for his PC.

[Sky]

Oh, that makes sense. Should get a gamepad at least.

[koro]

There's a nice PS3 fight pad that MadCatz (I think) makes that my girlfriend got alongside Super Street Fighter IV, and it works perfectly on a PC. It's pretty good for emulation and such as well. Just don't play it with console ports that need two analog sticks.

[dusematic]

Holy shit that is some BS. I'm definitely reopening my ticket. Did you have to argue at all over that?

I'm going to ask for some clarity, since it's pretty poorly worded. However, "buy new shit and we'll refund your old shit" seems like a pretty lazy policy.  It's not like I played a game and just didn't like it.  A defective PC port seems like one of those situations where you should be able to get your money back.  

Of course, I was likely to spend the money anyhow.  So, I may just run with this.

My ticket:

I would like to request a refund for this purchase.

The game does not run well on my system that meets all requirements. The first level is nearly played in slow motion as I'd estimate that the FPS is in the single digits. The subsequent level plays at a decent speed with some noticeable slowdowns, but accessing menus will start taxing my system heavily leading to a full lock up. Often just playing will lead to a lock up after 5-10 minutes.

This is not a functioning PC port and I would consider it to be a defective product. I would very much like to get my money back, as I shouldn't have to pay for something that simply does not work as promised.

While I agree with your argument, it's worth noting that there are no brick and mortar stores which I know of that would grant you a refund for a game that doesn't run well/at all on your machine unless due to a physical defect with the disk.  Let me know what they say, I'm guessing just a "sorry, but our policy..." spiel. 

[Teleku]

Yeah, I think its actually nice they are refunding you in Steam Credits more or less.  All stores I know stopped allowing returns for that reason, or at best will give you in store credit to buy something else.

Having said that, you didn't just buy a copy of a game you could burn to a disk and bring back, and all they need to do is just flip a switch (well, and the cost in time and money to refund your card).

[Rasix]

My system more than met the requirements.  My system could not play the game at all.  Pretty clear cut for me.  The product is defective.  Defective shit should be returnable if acted on in a prompt time frame.  

Return policies as a whole for software are retarded, but I suppose they're in place to prevent abuse.  There's been at least 2 console games I've wanted to return in the past month, one due to a key feature not working at all and the other being a piece of Madden worthy "get it out this year" shovelware full of obvious bugs and half implemented systems.  Makes you really appreciate how flexible other product areas are (especially baby/toddler stuff) about returns.  As is, I'll probably just wait for a Gamestop deal and turn those two fun yet defective pieces of software into something else that probably only got token QA.

The last game I pirated was due to not believing that my min spec system could handle it.  It couldn't.  Surprise, surprise. (Later upgraded and bought the game).

Heh, buy software at a brick & mortar store.  They provide nothing anymore but a box I have to throw away.   Best Buy's policy has changed to "same thing only if there was a defective disk" or some such.

edit: And don't think I'm not grateful for this.  I think their solution is workable.  And yah, like Teleku said, they can easily insure that I cannot play this game anymore.

[Segoris]

My complaint was that the product (Metro 2033) wouldn't load unless I had uninstalled and reinstalled multiple drivers (physx and directx) that came packaged with the game each time I wanted to play it, and that it was defective. I was linked to their policy stating they don't issue any refunds. They then followed up with asking tech support questions and offering to help get it running. I thanked them for offering to assist in solving an issue, informed them of how poor of a decision that was that they sell a shoddy product that even has a number of threads and complaints on their own forums, and don't offer refunds when their product doesn't work as it should without having to perform such tasks every time I wished to load up the game.

So there are some differences here (your's started but doesn't run well, mine didn't start without a kick in the ass but ran fine once it got started), though I think both products are defective in their own right.

[Segoris]

The product is defective.  Defective shit should be returnable if acted on in a prompt time frame.  

Agreed, I forgot to note that I had sent off that email within 48 hours of purchase.

[bhodi]

And today, Osmos and the Space Rangers Pack. I'm passing on ArmA2. $20 is too much, especially with an expansion coming out soon that renders multiplayer unplayable/obsolete.

[Lantyssa]

I'm still contemplating the Guild Wars Trilogy pack.

Do eet! /fangirl

My system more than met the requirements.  My system could not play the game at all.  Pretty clear cut for me.  The product is defective.  Defective shit should be returnable if acted on in a prompt time frame. 

You gave them too much information.  You should have left it at "This game does not work on my system, please give me a refund."

[Draegan]

Presumably he doesn't have an arcade stick or game pad for his PC.

Yes.  I've been toying with the idea of getting a pad and the game for the PS3.  I'd rather play this on my big screen.


Also, which Xcom out of the pack should I play first?

[Segoris]

Go in order, IMO it's the only way to do it with xcom 

[Kageru]

Be aware that the Steam version of JA2 Gold is broken somehow (as in "will not work at all" broken) and it's up to Valve to fix it on their end.

Thanks for the warning, and I do see some unhappy people in the steam forum. In practice though it patched after download and appears to run on both my vista/64 desktop and win7 netbook. Which makes me pretty damn happy because JA2 and a netbook means I'm pretty much boredom immune when travelling.

Indeed the netbook as a retro-gaming machine shows some promise... It can't run anything remotely modern, 3D or high res (go go intel graphics chips) but there's some old classics that should live happily there. And the steam sale is an excellent time to pick some up cheap. Next target is an old RPG... and maybe one of the turn based X-com games too.

[eldaec]

Also, which Xcom out of the pack should I play first?

Play original Xcom first. Play Terror from the Deep second, then stop, because seriously, there are no other xcom games.

[Kail]

Go in order, IMO it's the only way to do it with xcom 

I tried that when I got the pack a few months ago, never got past the first game.  That shit is hard.  If you don't know what you're doing when your feet hit the ground, you're completely fucked.  What to research, how much to spend, how to set up your base.  And if you fuck it up, you'll be fending off giant waves of superaliens every five minutes with nothing in your research list but some shitty weapons and some backstory entries.  And you can't just shrug and reload your last save to fix it, your game is fundamentally fucked, you may as well start over from square one.

God damn, this sale is destroying my wallet.  I have no idea where I'm going to find time to play this stuff.  Is there a time I'm going to look at my game library and go "Earthworm Jim 2, that's what I want to play right now, hell yeah"?

[Kageru]

So it looks like Xcom:apocalypse was the last of the isometric / tactical games before they tried spinning it off into more action oriented formats?

Also looks like the point at which "so ugly my eyes bleed" and "the netbook can run it" meet. Pretty sure I've played it long ago but while I don't remember breaking floppies in disgust I don't remember how much fun it was.

[tgr]

So it looks like Xcom:apocalypse was the last of the isometric / tactical games before they tried spinning it off into more action oriented formats?

Also looks like the point at which "so ugly my eyes bleed" and "the netbook can run it" meet. Pretty sure I've played it long ago but while I don't remember breaking floppies in disgust I don't remember how much fun it was.

http://www.ufo2extraterrestrials.com/

As for the steam sale, it's been fairly mean for my wallet. Literally tons of old games I'd completely forgotten about, but wouldn't mind playing through, and tons of new games I'd never even heard of.

[Malakili]

Literally tons

Thats impressive, especially considering steam doesn't even have physical copies of games.

[AutomaticZen]

So it looks like Xcom:apocalypse was the last of the isometric / tactical games before they tried spinning it off into more action oriented formats?

Also looks like the point at which "so ugly my eyes bleed" and "the netbook can run it" meet. Pretty sure I've played it long ago but while I don't remember breaking floppies in disgust I don't remember how much fun it was.

http://www.ufo2extraterrestrials.com/

As for the steam sale, it's been fairly mean for my wallet. Literally tons of old games I'd completely forgotten about, but wouldn't mind playing through, and tons of new games I'd never even heard of.

Was the first UFO always 50% during the sale?

[tgr]

I haven't actually bought that specific UFO game, I bought the XCOM pack (this one), but I'll make sure to scoop that one up as well. I see I forgot to mention that that URL was given to me by a friend of mine, who said it was more or less like the good old XCOM of olde. I've no real idea how it plays, but I'll live with it possibly being a duff if it's still 10 euro when I get home later today.

[Paelos]

I loaded up Gothic 3 without playing any of the previous games or reading anything about the controls. I figured, I've played a lot of games, I'll figure it out.

I get dumped immediately into a large battle of orcs with a huge window across my screen telling me how to pick up a sword. I proceed to do this and it tells me how to attack and parry. I dispatch 3 orcs by spamming attacks over and over. "Really?" I think, "This is too easy, I haven't even worried about a defensive parry. Let's try that." I let the orc try to hit me while getting ready to parry. The parry fails, and the orc knocks me on my ass. Two other orcs gang rape me unconcious. I try to get up several times only continuing to be corpse camped by the computer for about 6 minutes until my friends can kill enough of the orcs to let me stand.

I then went out into the wilderness to try fighting something else, got poisoned by a giant wasp. After it was dead I think, "Surely, it won't let my health tick all the way down and kill me." Then, I died.

So that went well.  

[jakonovski]

There is something refreshing about a game that actually tries to kill you, instead of just losing in an entertaining fashion.

[Sky]

Gothic is not Elder Scrolls. You can, and often will, stumble into places You Should Not Be. You should be playing Gothic 2 anyway :) If you stick with 3, find and install the fan patch. Follow the old pre-Elder Scrolls mantra of Save Early, Save Often. Learn to parry. The fighting system is funky but I like it once you learn the quirks. Don't be afraid to high-tail it out of there. Once you learn some of the 'oh shit' monsters (at least as a lowbie), you can usually get out after they see you....but I have had a few times where I got into some badness that I couldn't shake and keystone kops ensued back to town.

[dusematic]

Is Gothic really a good game?  Looks like a generic low budget shitpile.

[Rasix]

Is Gothic really a good game?  Looks like a generic low budget shitpile.

Eurowank RPG.  Witcher was a good one of those, but nothing said here makes Gothic sound good.  It sounds interesting.. just not good.

[jakonovski]

Eurowank RPG.  Witcher was a good one of those, but nothing said here makes Gothic sound good.  It sounds interesting.. just not good.

It's the grand German rpg tradition. Pretty much the only rpgs worth playing these days too (yeah yeah Bioware).

[Malakili]

New games up, is Red Faction Guerrilla worth 5 bucks?

[Segoris]

Updated. Any insight on The Void, Shatter, or Red Orchestra?

As for Red Faction Guerrilla, I bought it on a previous sale or got it in a package or some crap and haven't had time to play much, but the little I did play it seemed like a decent fps/action game. I'd risk $5 for it based on what little I did play as it could surely make for a nice game for a rainy day at the very least.

[caladein]

New games up, is Red Faction Guerrilla worth 5 bucks?

I'd say so, especially if you like open world games.  I eventually got tired of it in the same way I get tired of all open world-type games, but even if you don't like them playing around with the destructible environment is well worth the $5.

It does have GFWL, so that's going to annoy you once you try and get it running.

[Malakili]

New games up, is Red Faction Guerrilla worth 5 bucks?

I'd say so, especially if you like open world games.  I eventually got tired of it in the same way I get tired of all open world-type games, but even if you don't like them playing around with the destructible environment is well worth the $5.

It does have GFWL, so that's going to annoy you once you try and get it running.

Sounds good.  Picked it up.

[Paelos]

Is Gothic really a good game?  Looks like a generic low budget shitpile.

Gothic 3 apparently came out at the same time as Elder Scrolls, but graphically you wouldn't know it. The models, facial motions, and animations are much more advanced in the Elder Scrolls stuff. Also, Oblivion did a better job of "Here's where to go," almost to the point of stupidity. In that regard, I liked Gothic more because I have to work a little to find things, which is where the explorer part of me wants to play. Putting a big arrow on top of shit sucks the world aspect of the game out of it for me.

Gothic is a little clunkier I'd say. The play value is still good, and you have unlimited inventory which is a plus and minus. I feel like if it's not bolted down, I'm grabbing it. I'm running the latest community patch 1.74, which fixed the bugs, and stopped crashes. However, the game will fucking kill you and not think twice.

[HaemishM]

Red Orchestra?

Any input on this one? I read that it's supposed to be super-realistic, but is it any fun, and will I enjoy it more than say a Battlefield 2?