f13.net

Let's see if Arkham Asylum goes on sale  :grin:

Also, even though it doesn't actually appear to be on sale, I'll shout out to Orcs Must Die.  Quick and dirty high quality fun if you just need to burn some time.

How is risen compared to skyrim?

How is risen compared to skyrim?

How is risen compared to skyrim?

DRM'ed.

Okay, maybe people will notice stuff IN CAPS

Okay, maybe people will notice stuff IN CAPS

My brain filters stickies out for some reason.

Also:  :oh_i_see: on the drm fascists. You're not going to play Risen on 3 computers. You're going to play it once and then uninstall it. Stop being bitches. And if it's good enough that you do want to install it so many times that the DRM actually becomes an issue and for some reason can't make a simple phone call to reset your activations, you can get it on the next steam sale. You could buy it four times over for what you'd pay for Skyrim, even at this lame sale price.

not some sandy nonsense that doesn't stand up to the remotest of criticisms.

Holy crap. Orcs must die is fucking AWESOME! How did I miss this?!

BUY THIS GAME.

It's kind of a fps-tower defense hybrid with a lot of comedy and graphics similar to twilight. It's similar in mechanics/gameplay to Sanctum except that it doesn't suck, isn't absurdly hard and there is more to it than 'learn how to shoot while moving backwards'.

Debating DNF.

Don't.

Not sure if want. Which twilight are we talking about here?

Haha duke nukem forever in bargain bin already. What were they thinking buying all those expensive TV ads?

Oh cool. I've been waiting for a chance to pick up the New Vegas DLC nice and cheap.

... does fallout:NV include all the content from fallout 3? I thought it was an expansion but maybe I'm thinking too much in MMO terms.

New sale day!  Deus Ex HR for $25

Passing on Deus Ex until the holiday where it'll probably be cheaper.

I am amused by how quickly RAGE hit half-price. That thing only came out a few weeks ago. It must have been a smashing success! Like DNF.

Is Witcher worth 2.50?  I hear good things about the series but I've pretty much had it with Bioware style RPGs, which is how I categorize this.  Is it worth an impulse buy?

It is, and it's not a bio ware style rpg

Anyone tried that Polynomial game that's on sale today?  Audiosurf at $10 was well worth it to me, by comparison.

Though I loathe RAGE and believe it impossible to heap too much scorn on it,  I don't know that the "sale price = crap" argument is really a valid appraisal these days (after all, Deus Ex 3 was just on sale yesterday).  It's less about "people will only pay more money for high quality product" and more "we already got the money from the people who are willing to pay full price" kind of thing.  How many times on this board have we heard people say they'd wait for a Steam sale even on decent, just because they know it'll be the same game for less in December?  This isn't like shopping at EBGames where you have to buy it at launch or there's a solid chance you'll never see it again, and all the discount games are the ones nobody wanted and they couldn't sell.  This is publishers trying to ensure that everyone who wants to buy their product gets a chance to give them money.

I remember hearing that you don't get to build your own decks in that MtG game.  For me, that's half the fun of playing a card game, but maybe it's still worth it for that price because it does seem pretty cheap.

Last day.  MtG: DotP on sale for $4, MW2 for $15, and Fable 3 for$25 are a few highlights.

I picked up Payday and Limbo.

MW2 on special for ~ 44$ US, least the others are sane prices... though fable is so hard to take seriously as a franchise.



So is it The Agency (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msUYEa6LoF4&feature=related) engine and a couple of MP levels like I suspect?

Hm.  Dead Island worth getting at half off?

Huh, I expected them to top off the Autumn sale with a Cyber Monday sale. No such luck. Guess I'm holding on to my wallet until the Christmas sale.

Blood bowl 8$ today I think I'll check it out

You can't really check out Blood Bowl, you spend hours and hours and hours learning all the rules and details, or you just try a few games and get crushed horribly having no idea what you're doing or what just happened.  :oh_i_see:

I ran through the tutorial last night and have no fucking clue what the fuck is going on.

Guess today is Blood Bowl rules day.

Is Brink worth 6.25 for the game plus all DLC?

I think so, but I was one of those oddballs that actually thought it was pretty decent even at launch.  Still, for 6.25 you can hardly go wrong in my opinion.  If you are going to buy it at all, definitely spend the extra 1.25 for the DLC, the two new maps added are worth it.

Between Skyrim, Minecraft and the impending TOR, it was really easy to ignore the low level of temptation of this sale.

You can chop wood IN THE GAME!  :drill:

Brink would be a decent mod, but the idea they sold it as a full-price game is hilarious. It also impresses me as the game with the ugliest characters I've ever seen and a bunch of cosmetic (and upgrade) unlocks that don't excite. Plus two crashes, lots of lag and some pretty average shooter action.

I'll be done with it long before the weekend is over.

I played Brink last night. It was decent, the leveling system seemed a bit overwhelming at first and there are certainly some interesting strategies to it. Something about it just seemed... off. Not sure what. It was fun, and if I didn't have a thousand other things to play I might buy it for $7, but it just doesn't stack up to other games I have that I want to play more right now. The character models bugged me a bit - the style of them more than anything. The parkour stuff I didn't like all that much. It reminds me too much of platformers and I hate platformers.

I don't see that much potential for depth in the mechanics of the game. It's actually reasonably simplistic from what I can see. Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike and Killing Floor are competitive or superior.

Orc's Must Die and its DLC is on sale again.  $3.74 for base game, and $0.62 and $0.99 for the DLC.  If you didn't get it in previous sales, I strongly advise to get it now.

Borderlands is on a -0% special today on Australian steam. /confused.

Even at $10.00, I wasn't enjoying myself and left it unplayed after 15 mins. Kinda regret buying it.

I've been staring hard at Bastion all day.  Will I actually get around to playing it?  Doubtful.  But I've heard such good things...

Motion Joy gave me conflicts and generally acted janky when I tinkered with the PS3 hookup.  I also found myself inadvertently turning on the PS3 in the other room while using it on PC.  With the $28.99 wired 360 controller, I literally plugged the USB in and it worked.  It has for every game I've played so far, too.  Pretty cheap to not have to deal with jank.

The Force Unleashed 1 and 2 are on sale for $4.99 each today.

The Force Unleashed 1 and 2 are on sale for $4.99 each today.

Eh, I doubt I will spend more than $20.  Seems like every time stuff goes majorly on sale, my first thought is "I already have enough stuff that I'll never play".   Hell, even I woke up tomorrow as the last person on earth, I'd have enough in my backlog to last me until September.

I think I asked this last year and got a negative, but in case they've changed it: is there any way to delay sending these after buying them?  I'm looking to get Portal 2 as a christmas present for someone, but I don't want them to get it a week early.

How can I deliver the gift at a later date?
If you are interested in purchasing a subscription for someone as a gift but do not want it delivered until a later date, please purchase the game as a gift sent to your own email address.  As long as you do not redeem it, you will have a guest pass for this subscription on your account that can be resent at anytime.

And they crashed the page.

EDIT: Day 1 - FAIL!

Also, Skyrim not on sale yet. Neither is Total War Shogan. These are the games I want.

I think I asked this last year and got a negative, but in case they've changed it: is there any way to delay sending these after buying them?  I'm looking to get Portal 2 as a christmas present for someone, but I don't want them to get it a week early.

Shogun was $10 this weekend.

I have a feeling, in an hour and 15 minutes, we may see the Christmas sales start.

Bah, stuck on the first one I try.  Getting around to trying Orcs Must Die at last, played the Hallway level (first level right?) normal difficulty, don't place any traps and just use my bow to beat it.  But no achievement.  Am I reading it wrong?

*edit* on my 3rd try when I actually used the arrow traps I got it, dunno.  :uhrr:

arrow traps, the gauntlets, and acid bombs all are good for this. 

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is still $50, what a joke!

I think the coupons only "start" on 2nd Jan - when this Christmas sale promotion ends.

I'm assuming they're only valid for the full price, too.  I got a "50% off Valve product" one, while Valve games were 75% off that day, which combined would let me get Half-Life 2 (normally $10.00) for something like $1.25.

Once this sale thing is over, we should have some sort of coupon swap thread.  I am never gonna use that thing.

Yeah didnt notice the after Jan 2 part.  But on the plus side, you can use coupons on sale items unless otherwise noted on the coupon.

What about Grotesque Tactics 1/2?  

neither bloodbowl opponent online.

So not having bought any of the Mount and Blade games before, should I bother with anything but Mount & Blade: Warband?

What about Grotesque Tactics 1/2? 

Nope.

They're crap.

Swords & Soldiers is... ok.

So not having bought any of the Mount and Blade games before, should I bother with anything but Mount & Blade: Warband?

Nope. Down for some PvP sometime? :p

Hmm, just noticed that Guardians of Graxia game, which is 75% off for this sale.  Looks somewhat tempting.  How is it Schild?  Looks like its up your ally, and Steam says you own it.

Space Marine for 50% is tempting, but I really wish they had knocked it down to under $20.  Not sure if anything else is grabbing me today.


Oooo. Fun achievement today - Nuke Santa in Defcon   

Not a blessed thing I care about on today's sale, at least not at the prices given. Amazon is offering Football Manager 2012 for download @ $19.99 today which is my threshhold for the game, even though I'd like it on Steam.

This sale has been pretty weak so far.  I'd buy NWN2, but I'd never actually get around to playing it.  I hope Deus Ex HR goes on sale at some point, but there's really not a lot for me to pick up at this point.

Bioware didn't make NWN 2.

Plus, I thought the NWN 1 expansions were pretty solid.  The base game was god awful, however.

This probably makes me a bad gamer, but even at $5 a piece, I can't bring myself to actually pull the trigger and buy Mass Effect 1 and 2.  I know they're totally different games than NWN and NWN2 and people keep singing their praises, but I just can't bring myself to trust Bioware after NWN and NWN 2 (both of which are fucking garbage).

Tl;dr: There are no western RPGs between Planescape: Torment and Skyrim that MUST be played.

Tl;dr: There are no western RPGs between Planescape: Torment and Skyrim that MUST be played.

Tl;dr: There are no western RPGs between Planescape: Torment and Skyrim that MUST be played.

I'm trying to figure out why this sale seems so crappy compared to other iterations.  

Also:  If you're considering Cave Story (and you should for retro NES gaming goodness), buy it from the humble bundle.  For $5.50 (or more, it's for charity!) you get Cave Story and about 8 other indie games.  As long as you give more than $1.00 you'll also get keys to unlock all the games on Steam.

Only thing even slightly interesting is the EYE: Divine Cybermancy. It's dirt cheap but the meta reviews aren't great. Any opinions?

Why isn't the Space Marine DLC on sasle? Fuckers.

So what's catching my eye today is Dirt3 and Saint's Row The Third. Opinions on either, both?

New sales day. "From Dust" for $8  :why_so_serious:  From all the moaning and bitching I heard about that game post release (bugs, DRM grief) I'd say the price is about right, eh?

I really like SR3 -- I played it a lot when I first got it. Work and other shinies have suspend my play but I will finish the storyline at some point. If you are on the fence, though, you might want to wait till it drops further in price.

I really like SR3 -- I played it a lot when I first got it. Work and other shinies have suspend my play but I will finish the storyline at some point. If you are on the fence, though, you might want to wait till it drops further in price.

Deus Ex HR is $9.99 on amazon right now for download. 
http://www.amazon.com/Deus-Ex-Revolution-Standard-Download/dp/B005HRZ29K/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1324595979&sr=8-4

According to the steam knowledgebase it should activate there too.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-wusf-3601

Poking around Amazon's download service, there's some pretty nice deals there to be had.  Deux Ex is 75% off today ($9.99), Shogun is $7.49, and Medieval Total War 2 is only $1.49.

Amazon has Deus Ex: HR for $10, and a sale off a bunch of sony games as well.

Just in case you all didn't notice, I think Amazon has Deus Ex: HR for somewhere between $9.99 and $10.00.

I'm seeing diminishing returns on the sales too. Part of that is because I've already acquired most of the games being offered over past sales. Part of it is because I'm a little more cautious about only buying what I'll play, after buying lots of games I hardly touched from previous sales. Part of it is legitimately that the sale prices just aren't that great this year. Arkham City for $25 is the best deal I've seen so far. In a lot of cases, the sale prices during this steam sale are higher than the price we've already seen these games for on Steam or elsewhere. I was sort of interested in finally picking up JC2 on the first day of the sale, but we've seen the game for less than $5 on steam before iirc (and it's $2.50 on Amazon right now). I've only bought two games so far (Torchlight since I lost my old Runic Games product key and Renegade Ops) and one DLC (Dredmor) for about $10 total, whereas in previous years I'd have spent at least $40 by now.

Still, Steam sale gives me a reason to replay some of the older games I've already bought as part of the event. I'm having fun revisting games and remembering why I liked some of them so much, or seeing all the changes that have been made since the last time I played. Half the fun of the steam sale is the event surrounding it.

tl;dr - I'm buying a lot less with each subsequent steam sale, but I'm still greatly enjoying them. That said, I'm still hoping to see Skyrim on sale for 25%+ off.

Hah, you're nuts!  :awesome_for_real: Skyrim is good but aside from the the Dark Brotherhood line the writing is pretty dull.  I'm sure it's a matter of taste but IMO it's not half the game ME1, ME2 or DA:O are.  I do agree that it's way better than most horrible JRPGs though.

FWIW, I also agree with Ruvaldt on Skyrim. If it goes on sale, I'll pick it up, but I don't think it's showing any need to do so at this stage, so I won't expect it before midyear. Plenty of other stuff to play between now and then, though....

For anyone tempted by Saints Row the Third - Greenman Gaming has a Steam Key for cheaper than the Steam sale.
Use voucher code FIFTY-SAINT-XMASS to get 50% off of our price listed! You can pick up the game for just $19.99 / £13.29 / €17.49! Voucher expires: 1000 GMT 26th December 2011.
(just found this or would have posted it earlier...)

Skyrim is on sale for $40.19, 33% off.  Buy it.  Buy it now.

That's because you're not chasing the dragon yet.  You're just lucky the first hit is not free.

Just found it up eight posts from yours?

Renegade Ops is kind of amazing. Looks and plays way better than it has any right to...

IMO Hordes was the only one that was really worth anything as a single-player game. Bioware fanboy says: NWN is probably my least favorite Bioware game other than Jade Empire, but it is close. Didn't like JE because of the gameplay, didn't like NWN because the story/characterization stuff is really half-assed by their standards (until Hordes.)

But only if you live in the US. If you're in Australia or Canadia or such, tough shit!

I'm not sure where to ask this so I'll throw it here since it's Steam related: will a European Steam code be redeemable and work in the US? I got a copy of Deus Ex for Xmas but I know it's not an American version since it has a PEGI rating instead of an ESRB, and I don't want to open it up and try it since opened PC games are rarely returnable.

To pointlessly whine a bit, their format for the sale this year kinda bugs me.  No titles anywhere on the store page, just a bunch of pictures which I don't recognize because I don't own the games yet.  Today' sale: games about a guy with a gun, stuff blowing up in space (I think), the moon (maybe?), another guy with a gun, another guy with a gun, a guy with a dagger, a guy with a robot suit, Bastion, Sonic, a girl with a sword, a car, and Worms.  BUY NOW.

In less whiny news, RF: Armageddon is on the block today.  Worth it for $8?  It's the only RF game I don't have, and I wouldn't mind closing out the series, though the only one I really enjoyed was Guerilla.

Have to start a new game for the Bastion Achievement? What?

I bought Rock of Ages. The game is really silly and fun!

There's a reason not to buy them, Skyrim.

I think I might just be done with CRPGs.

Has anyone tried crafting Coal into something?
If so, is it just a random re-draw, like you've completed another objective?
Or is there more control, turning Coal into a more specific thing from the pile?

I am not going to look at steam for a while. They have taken my money, and I now have way to many games ill never get around to playing. They can't make me look any more.

Can they?

My experience with Dead Space on the PC makes me not want Dead Space 2 on the PC.

I somewhat get this sediment, but I think DS2 does improve a bit in the areas I thought were lacking in the first.

Out of curiosity, I purchased Sequence; also, at long last, Assassin's Creed 1 (gotta start somewhere :P).

I somewhat get this sediment, but I think DS2 does improve a bit in the areas I thought were lacking in the first.

What's your beef with DS1, if I may ask?

Are you settling for only okay gameplay?

Screw the Bunch or Heroes achievement, cripes that's difficult.  If a group of people want to hit me up and do it at 4 I'm sure we could take it, but as solo finding random dudes online I've only gotten close once.

So is DA2 worth the $5.99?  Heard mostly negative stuff about it...

So is DA2 worth the $5.99?  Heard mostly negative stuff about it...

So is DA2 worth the $5.99?  Heard mostly negative stuff about it...

I went ahead and snagged Medieval Total war for like $2.50.  I've heard very good things about Shogun, but I'm not particularly interested in feudal Japan, so I'm torn. 

If it was only $6 and on Steam I probably would of gotten it already.  Just not sure since I need to get it through Amazon/Origins/whatever.   :oh_i_see:

I think I have a problem.

The two outcomes for the game are that you will either be angry or bored. You can determine whether you want to pay $6 for that.

The sequel to a game that Bioware spent over half a decade developing, Dragon Age 2 was developed in significantly less time. Like, barely over a year. Not much of that time was spent on pesky timesinks like "designing maps," "designing combat encounters," "balancing the combat," or "creating a remotely coherent storyline", as Bioware focused on what really mattered: writing a harem of psychologically broken dipshits who will gladly fuck you no matter how much they hate you. This last part was something Bioware actually used to publicize the game.

Following release, Bioware decided that anyone who didn't like this obvious masterpiece was a 4chan troll and started banning people en masse from the Bioware forums, and subsequently their EA Accounts. You read that right, criticizing this trainwreck amounted to a lifetime ban from any future EA games. Their solution to remedy this problem was to lock the Dragon Age 2 forum so that anyone without Dragon Age 2 linked to their Bioware social network account was unable to post. That policy persists to this day.

Name: Jennifer Brandes Hepler
Title: Managing Editor -- Dragon Age
Company: Bioware Corporation

Q: If you could tell developers of games to make sure to put one thing in games to appeal to a broader audience which includes women, what would that one thing be?

A: A fast-forward button. Games almost always include a way to "button through" dialogue without paying attention, because they understand that some players don't enjoy listening to dialogue and they don't want to stop their fun. Yet they persist in practically coming into your living room and forcing you to play through the combats even if you're a player who only enjoys the dialogue. In a game with sufficient story to be interesting without the fighting, there is no reason on earth that you can't have a little button at the corner of the screen that you can click to skip to the end of the fighting.

EDIT: Oh my god there's more of it:

Companies have a lot of objections, such as how to calculate loot and experience points for a player who doesn't actually play the combats, but these could be easily addressed by simply figuring out an average or minimum amount of experience for every fight and awarding that.

The biggest objection is usually that skipping the fight scenes would make the game so much shorter, but to me, that's the biggest perk. If you're a woman, especially a mother, with dinner to prepare, kids' homework to help with, and a lot of other demands on your time, you don't need a game to be 100 hours long to hold your interest -- especially if those 100 hours are primarily doing things you don't enjoy. A fast forward button would give all players -- not just women -- the same options that we have with books or DVDs -- to skim past the parts we don't like and savor the ones we do. Over and over, women complain that they don't like violence, or they don't enjoy difficult and vertigo-inducing gameplay, yet this simple feature hasn't been tried on any game I know of.

Granted, many games would have very little left if you removed the combat, but for a game like Deus Ex or Bioware's RPGs, you could take out every shred of combat and still have an entertainment experience that rivals anything you'd see in the theater or on TV.

...

Q: What is your least favorite thing about working in the industry?

A: Playing the games. This is probably a terrible thing to admit, but it has definitely been the single most difficult thing for me. I came into the job out of a love of writing, not a love of playing games... I'm really terrible at so many things which most games use incessantly -- I have awful hand-eye coordination, I don't like tactics, I don't like fighting, I don't like keeping track of inventory, and I can't read a game map to save my life.

Because you can't make it as a novelist, screenwriter, or even a comic book writer so you're left with nothing but the medium with the lowest standards imaginable.

Good/popular games don't price drop like the brick of misery that is DA2.

And yeah, that giant wall of text, bhodi, is one of the writers. I am not at all surprised a writer is sort of a tard when it comes to actual game design. It would be like being surprised that game designers will maul a story in the name of gameplay.

Goddamit, I thought I could get through this sale without buying anything (besides the copy of BB I bought for a friend), but DE:HR for $17 will break me.

It was 10 on amazon earlier this week.

How intrusive is all that Rockstar Social Club bullshit?

Apart from being the most accurate and innovative truck driving simulation game ever produced, Rig’n’Roll immerses players in an exciting story with an unexpected finale, making new allies and battling treacherous foes as they discover a conspiracy that will test their skills to the limit.

I managed to get one free game that most people don't own. Problem is, there's a reason for that. (http://store.steampowered.com/app/46370/)


 :uhrr:

Hey, I agree it's the worst of the series. The series of two games

So we can agree that DA2 is the worst game Bioware has ever made, save for maybe NWN which was mostly a game editor with a campaign tacked on?  :awesome_for_real:

That's roughly akin to bitching about Wall-E being the worst Pixar movie.

So we can agree that DA2 is the worst game Bioware has ever made, save for maybe NWN which was mostly a game editor with a campaign tacked on?  :awesome_for_real:

What about the MDK games, or Shattered Steel, or Sonic Chronicles?

I liked Wall.E, and I thought NWN was better than DA:O. I'm probably biased because I'm a big D&D fan and the familiar system was fun, while DA:O's felt like a mess.

If you want to try a game that is just as well put together as Skyrim,

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/85916/mal_almost_had_something_to_say.gif)

Free to a good home:

• -25% Valve Coupon
• -50% Valve Coupon
• -25% Konami Coupon
• -50% Capsized Coupon
• -50% Homefront Coupon
• Portal 2
• Darksiders

Sent, lemme know if there's a problem.

Did I miss something?

How the hell did you guys end up with so many coupons / gifts?

The only thing i ended up with was a single copy of Day of Defeat: Source.

I've been a sucker for the Steam sales for years now and really enjoy indy games.
I think I ended up getting around 57 of the objectives for this event.

But does that mean you converted all your coal into random payouts? I thought you had to keep the coal if you wanted to get entry ballots for the draw.