Steam Holiday Sale

[Azazel]

Mafia 2 down to $12 already makes me worry its terrible.

I understand that it's quite good but completely lacks any replay value. Also, $20 for Aussies. I'd have bought it for $12 (anyone want to gift it?), but the extra makes me want to hold out for the eventual 360 version for $30 on disc which I can then resell/lend/etc.

Said "fuckit" and bought it with all the DLC. Ironically, given the other discussion, but it's supposed to have a great story. Hopefully it's not a shitty console port (which is why I buy more of the AAAs on 360 these days)...

[5150]

So is there 1 more batch of games for sale after this or is that the lot?

[Trippy]

The ones later today will probably be repeats from earlier.

[Vaiti]

I stupidly bought Medal of Honor at 20€ thinking it would be more BF:BC2 type fun. It's horrible.
I've never regretted a purchase more.

[bhodi]

At least youtube a game before you buy :(

[Vaiti]

I did, from the YouTube videos I saw and a couple comments I got the impression it was like a mix of CoD:MW2 and BF:BC2. However the actual game is just...just bad. Alot of invisible walls. Consolitis of a staggering degree. Everything feels very rough and jagged, game modes feel flaky.  It literally takes 5+ minutes just to exit the game at times. As you are only allowed to get to the menu screen while actively spawned in game. And there is one game mode that makes you spectate your alive teammates util they win or all die, and you aren't allowed to exit from there short of an alt+f4 

[Sky]

The Medal of Honor franchise is all about invisible walls. Surprise!

I refuse to buy one after MoH:AA set the bar for several things I Hate Bout Shooters.

[Comstar]

Well after hearing everyone rave about the Witcher:EE editon...I just tried the tutorial. Oh god, its bad. Horrible RPG. Does it get better or is the left-click-who-knows-if-you-can-hit-anything improve?

[NiX]

Well after hearing everyone rave about the Witcher:EE editon...I just tried the tutorial. Oh god, its bad. Horrible RPG. Does it get better or is the left-click-who-knows-if-you-can-hit-anything improve?

It improves. Once you get more attacks/stances, the combat makes more sense and becomes about catching the right timing in fights.

GTA4. Did the performance improve enough to make it a worthwhile purchase?

[Sky]

Runs great on my ancient computer. Might need a tweak guide, I found the settings to make it like the 360 version and tweaked up from there.

Loving the Mafia 2, but I was a big fan of the original, too. Kind of funny playing this one as a WW2 vet, because I played the original alongside BF1942 and it felt like being a WW2 vet going into crime back home.

[Hoax]

Well after hearing everyone rave about the Witcher:EE editon...I just tried the tutorial. Oh god, its bad. Horrible RPG. Does it get better or is the left-click-who-knows-if-you-can-hit-anything improve?

Its really well done but I believe all of the raving has come with the caveat that the combat isn't the greatest. Then again RPG combat is never the greatest and the story and other systems are quite rewarding. I've been loving it myself.

I'm still curious to what people thought about Zeno Clash but I think I'm going to pass on it either way. I will be picking up Grotesque Tactics which was on my list after I went through all the games because it sounded like it could be fun but now its also on the top sellers lists so there must be some good word of mouth going somewhere.

[Cadaverine]

I grabbed Grotesque Tactics the other night, along with Recettear.  I've only played to the first town so far, but it strikes me as a watered down Disgaea that's trying to hard to be funny.   Not a lot of depth to it, either.  At least not that I can see.  Still, for only $7, I'll get my moneys worth out of it.

[Lucas]

Blah, I hoped for another chance at Fallout:NV, but I guess I'm done for this year:

- Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition
- Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum
- Mount & Blade: Warband
- Machinarium

[Kageru]

-I can't buy the shittier African version of Just Cause 2 minus the best part (hook + parachute) when I missed Just Cause 2 earlier in the sale (its one of the only games along with Darksiders I wish I had bought).

While I'm really enjoying Just Cause 2 there are a couple of things I miss from my memories of Farcry 2. It had better weapon variety, a more gritty tone and story and didn't feel so much like I'm a super-hero. I think it was also a bit more challenging, great scenery and had a bit more variety in environment from being able to enter some buildings and a smaller scale to the bases, but that might be rose tinted glasses. Though I'm not tempted to complete it again, too much time spent killing re-spawning roadblocks.

I bought the hitman bundle... is the very first one worth playing? The graphics aren't too bad so far they make it impossible, but it's close.

[eldaec]

Well after hearing everyone rave about the Witcher:EE editon...I just tried the tutorial. Oh god, its bad. Horrible RPG. Does it get better or is the left-click-who-knows-if-you-can-hit-anything improve?

The combat remains shit.

The story and character development gets much better,

[Azazel]

-I can't buy the shittier African version of Just Cause 2 minus the best part (hook + parachute) when I missed Just Cause 2 earlier in the sale (its one of the only games along with Darksiders I wish I had bought).

While I'm really enjoying Just Cause 2 there are a couple of things I miss from my memories of Farcry 2. It had better weapon variety, a more gritty tone and story and didn't feel so much like I'm a super-hero. I think it was also a bit more challenging, great scenery and had a bit more variety in environment from being able to enter some buildings and a smaller scale to the bases, but that might be rose tinted glasses. Though I'm not tempted to complete it again, too much time spent killing re-spawning roadblocks.

I bought the hitman bundle... is the very first one worth playing? The graphics aren't too bad so far they make it impossible, but it's close.

Just Cause and Far Cry 2 have very little in common, aside from large 3rd-world/open world/natural settings. FC2 is FPS and JC2 is 3PS...

I was tossing up on Hitman as well. Just not sure on that one...

[Hoax]

I grabbed Grotesque Tactics the other night

Warning to anyone still on the fence about things, its insanely insanely ghetto. The camera alone is reason to not play but what really was getting me was the text boxes. The gameplay itself is fine but it feels like a SP version of the really jank f2p MMO's out there.

[5150]

Blah, I hoped for another chance at Fallout:NV, but I guess I'm done for this year:

Certainly in the UK the retail price has dropped to around £10 already (and it registers via Steam anyway)

Cheapassgamer should tell you the cheapest source.

[Ingmar]

Well after hearing everyone rave about the Witcher:EE editon...I just tried the tutorial. Oh god, its bad. Horrible RPG. Does it get better or is the left-click-who-knows-if-you-can-hit-anything improve?

The combat remains terrible through the whole game basically, but you do get slightly more advanced clicking to do.

I would sum it up as:

Combat: 
Plot:  overall with some moments of  occasionally
Setting: 
Dialogue/Characters: there is no symbol for wacky translation from the original Polish

It was juuuust good enough for me to finish it, but it took me a long time. If it wasn't such a great setting I'd probably not have stuck it out.

[Mrbloodworth]

Oh I already bought it, to many good things said about it, to sheep, and we were in negations with them about some stuff, so I had to :). Was just hoping for some good multiplayer coop. I don't play many games solo.

AH HA!

http://www.c-rpg.net/

LIES!

[tgr]

Consolitis

And to think I was being bitched at for using that word a year ago. What a difference a bit of time makes.

I think anno 1404 was on sale during christmas, and I was sorely tempted until I saw that it still has the activations, whereas the physical disc version has that shit patched out. What the christ?

[Nebu]

Went to play Deus Ex yesterday on Steam and got a "This game is currently unavailable" message. 

What the fuck? 

So... I pay for games, but I can't play them when I want to?  This is all kinds of screwed up.  I think I'm going back to hard copies. 

[Paelos]

That happens, just reload Steam and try again.

[Nebu]

That happens, just reload Steam and try again.

Tried that several times.  Ugh. 

Thanks for the tip.  I do appreciate it.

[Kail]

Do you have the game installed, or not yet?  Sometimes the actual game .exe doesn't check with Steam (usually with older games, so maybe Deus Ex) and you can just go to the directory it's installed in and run the game without even being logged in.

[cironian]

Hmm, 55 Euros for all that? http://store.steampowered.com/sub/6941/

Guess this year I'll conquer shit until my eyes bleed...

[Paelos]

That happens, just reload Steam and try again.

Tried that several times.  Ugh. 

Thanks for the tip.  I do appreciate it.

Don't know what to tell you. That, or waiting an hour usually fixed it every time it's happened to me.

[Bunk]

Grabbed Mafia 2 and Just Cause 2 over the weekend. Never played the first version of either.

Just Cause may require an amazing ignorance of physics to enjoy, but so far it's a lot of fun.

[eldaec]

That happens, just reload Steam and try again.

Tried that several times.  Ugh. 

Thanks for the tip.  I do appreciate it.

Don't know what to tell you. That, or waiting an hour usually fixed it every time it's happened to me.

Search for the error message on the steam forums. There is a dumb file somewhere you can delete to dislodge this.

[bhodi]

Help my games aren't downloading/they're downloading slowly/I'm having multiplayer issues with some games/some other problem relating to steam?

First port of call is to close down Steam fully, go to your Steam directory (by default C:/Program Files/Steam) and delete clientregistry.blob and then restart steam. If this doesn't help and you're having an issue with a non Valve game right clicking on it, selecting properties, then Local Files and clicking "Verify integrity of game cache" normally helps too.

[Sky]

Steam isn't showing my achievements anymore. It is still tracking them, and I see a few dates on the tracker, but it's all jacked up.

Got a form email, basically, "Yeah, we know. Sucks to be you."

Bunk: just pretend you're Arnold Schwarzenegger bitten by a radioactive spider, without the ghey spandex.

[rk47]

It's called 'Just don't buy and suppress the sale number until they get the hint'

I put up with steam because it's a nice network of pals with integrated store n gift system plus matchmaking. Ubisoft's? Holding my save game hostage. Internet Dictatorship, etc etc. Fuck'em to hell.

[tgr]

It's called 'Just don't buy and suppress the sale number until they get the hint'

I put up with steam because it's a nice network of pals with integrated store n gift system plus matchmaking. Ubisoft's? Holding my save game hostage. Internet Dictatorship, etc etc. Fuck'em to hell.

I've been basically doing this, but I sometimes start to wonder if it's even worth it, because there are so many I've talked to who just go "I never notice it anyways, I don't care"

At least ubisoft's apparently removing the "you must be online at all times during play" bit and going back to being online only when you start the game, so while not sufficient for my tastes, at least it's getting less intrusive.

It still doesn't fully explain games which I see on steam and impulse etc, with DRM in them, yet the physical box has a patch to remove it. I'll never understand the way publishers think.

[Paelos]

If you downloaded the game, you're a dirty pirate.

What, they paid for it? I'm not sure I believe that. They could be lying. Double the DRM!

What? We have a confirmed payment from them? Ok, back to regular DRM then.

[Morfiend]

It still doesn't fully explain games which I see on steam and impulse etc, with DRM in them, yet the physical box has a patch to remove it. I'll never understand the way publishers think.

I despise Steam games with extra DRM on them. So stupid. I actually refuse to buy games with extra DRM. Like umm, that EuroRPG we talked about a few pages back.