Steam Holiday Sale

[HaemishM]

I keep looking at the Unreal pack for 14 bucks. I have all of them on disk except for Unreal 3 Black. Has anyone got an opinion on it?

UT3 isn't bad, just vaguely uninteresting when compared to other contemporary shooters.  If you like your man-shooters fast and without leveling, and you don't want go all old-school graphics with Nexuiz or Quake Live, UT3 is your game.

I got that UT pack last year. UT3 is a great engine, but the game itself has just always underwhelmed me. I can't pinpoint what it is. Maybe it's the lack of unlock/level grind that Battlefield and most of the modern FPS's have, or maybe it's the kind of generic sci-fi setting, or that some of the new weapons really don't do anything for me. I loved Onslaught on UT2K4, but I have rarely spent more than 1 or 2 game sessions at a time in UT3.

[Paelos]

Hmm, I think today may be the worst day of deals yet. 

Although if you didn't own Mount and Blade at this point, you have no excuses left.

[Ruvaldt]

If you're buying Mount & Blade save yourself $2 and buy Warband rather than the Complete Pack that the sale's main page links to.  Warband is essentially Mount & Blade+ so you'd be paying extra for a game that you'd have no real cause to play.

I am tempted by Crysis, but I am betting that I can get it for that price or better when the sequel is released in March, and I'm in no rush to play it now.  $5 sounds right for Sturmovik though and I can't remember the last time that went on sale.

[WayAbvPar]

Naturally I bought the Mount and Blade Complete 3 days ago for $20 

Just bought 3 more copies of Warband for gifts. $7.50 is a goddamned steal for that game.

[Riggswolfe]

I bought the King's Bounty Platinum edition. I'd heard good things about this game. I'm now going to have to move Steam to my main hard drive after installation finishes. Steam has eaten up way too much space on my D drive which is only 250 gig, most of which is used by Steam.

[pxib]

Global Agenda for $7.49 seems about the right price for me to give it a look.

[bhodi]

Global Agenda for $7.49 seems about the right price for me to give it a look.

It's not. Don't.

You can get a free month trial from their website.

[Segoris]

Another day, another round of not wanting anything in Steam's sales.


Tuesday Dec 28th

[Thrawn]

I may grab Sim City just to have it off disc.  Could go for a good fps to play but I haven't heard much good about Global Agenda or the other one....   

[Azazel]

Crysis potentially has potential. Though I have it on disc, so it'd just be a convenience purchase, and the 5-machine activation limit scares me and makes it a whole lot less convenient. I don't recall the original having that limit originally. What's EA's position on giving you more activations?

Not sure about M&B:W. I bought the first one ages ago, but I haven't found time to play it besides brief muck-abouts. Is the Multiplayer just your typical deathmatch modes as it says in the description? No co-op campaign type stuff?

Everything else of interest I already have.

[Teleku]

I may grab Sim City just to have it off disc.  Could go for a good fps to play but I haven't heard much good about Global Agenda or the other one....   

Is it actually fun?  I'm tempted since I haven't played a sim city game in well over a decade, and a modern version might be fun.

[Raging Turtle]

I've heard nothing but good things about Mount and Blade but I'm still not sure exactly what the game is.  FPS with a bow and blade?  Multiplayer?  Will it run well on an older system?

Also thinking about NWN2.  Hm...

[Malakili]

How is Colin McRae's DiRT 2?  Every so often I get the itch for a racing game and for 5 bucks it might be worth having in my library if its decent.

[Nightblade]

Natural Selection 2 is having a two for one sale. Preordering now gets you access to the beta.

http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/

[Ruvaldt]

I may grab Sim City just to have it off disc.  Could go for a good fps to play but I haven't heard much good about Global Agenda or the other one....   

Is it actually fun?  I'm tempted since I haven't played a sim city game in well over a decade, and a modern version might be fun.

It isn't really all that modern, unfortunately.  SimCity 4 was released close to 8 years ago, but it was the last one made by Maxis.  SimCity Societies was developed by Tilted Mill in '07, I think, but it was pretty awful, and CIties XL is even worse from what I've heard.

I loved SimCity 4, but haven't played it in years so I can't say whether or not it still holds up.

[Sjofn]

I've heard nothing but good things about Mount and Blade but I'm still not sure exactly what the game is.  FPS with a bow and blade?  Multiplayer?  Will it run well on an older system?

Also thinking about NWN2.  Hm...

It's a sandbox with horses and ... that's about all I can really tell from watching Ingmar play it. I am lead to believe if you ever secretly wanted to lead a band of dudes across the countryside, doing whatever the fuck you wanted, this is pretty much the game you want. The hoof beat sounds are really soothing, too.

[Ruvaldt]

I've heard nothing but good things about Mount and Blade but I'm still not sure exactly what the game is.  FPS with a bow and blade?  Multiplayer?  Will it run well on an older system?

It's a feudal simulator. 

There are third-person action elements as you command your army on various battlefields, but also strategic elements of loosely managing and commanding a military force that you build.  Role-playing elements are present for your own character as you build skills, and also certain principal actors who you hire to take part in your fighting force.  You also have to manage relationships with other lords, but that's pretty secondary as it ends up boiling down to who you've fought against and with in various large battles or sieges.

An older system would do fine.  You can actually scale how many soldiers are allowed on the field at one time if you find the game becoming too slow, but that probably won't be necessary.

[Thrawn]

I may grab Sim City just to have it off disc.  Could go for a good fps to play but I haven't heard much good about Global Agenda or the other one....   

Is it actually fun?  I'm tempted since I haven't played a sim city game in well over a decade, and a modern version might be fun.

It's...Sim City.  Pretty dated probably, but still the most recent one and I've heard Cities XL isn't very good.

[Kail]

UT3 isn't bad, just vaguely uninteresting when compared to other contemporary shooters.  If you like your man-shooters fast and without leveling, and you don't want go all old-school graphics with Nexuiz or Quake Live, UT3 is your game.

I got that UT pack last year. UT3 is a great engine, but the game itself has just always underwhelmed me. I can't pinpoint what it is. Maybe it's the lack of unlock/level grind that Battlefield and most of the modern FPS's have, or maybe it's the kind of generic sci-fi setting, or that some of the new weapons really don't do anything for me. I loved Onslaught on UT2K4, but I have rarely spent more than 1 or 2 game sessions at a time in UT3.

The UT franchise has had a kind of up-down format, IMO.  Original UT was pretty good (especially compared to Quake 3) but UT2K3 was crap (added nothing but better graphics, and removed Assault mode).  UT2K4 was pretty good, but UT3 was crap (added nothing but better graphics, and removed Assault mode).

Though single player UT3 has probably the most awesomely hilarious "storyline" I've ever seen.  

Malcom: Hey guys, it turns out that we're in a real war and stuff, but do to the march of technology, we have this weird device that makes you immortal until you lose a game of capture the flag.  Weird coincidence, I know.  But since I'm the world champion at capture the flag, they hired me to lead this war.
Main Character: RAGE AND FURY AND RAGE AND FURY
Malcom: There's some stuff you've got to blow up.  You can either cut off their reinforcements or assault them head on.  I'm not going to tell you which glowing dot on the map represents which choice, though, so just choose one at random.
Main Character: BLARGH VENGEANCE AND BLOOD
Necris: We're going to use these tentacle things to do something, I guess that's what we do?  I dunno, maybe it would have helped if we'd had some kind of backstory.
Main Character: WITCH I KILL YOU ALL DEATH MURDER DIE
Malcom: Okay, good job, you won the war, now you can stop
Main Character: NO WAY I WILL KILL A PLANET ROOOOOOAAAARGH
Cliffy B. : Aaaand, done.  This is the best story ever.  This is just the kind of epic, wagnerian tragedy that a match of capture the flag demands.

[Kageru]

I've never even heard of section 8... I considered buying global agenda, I sort of like that the studio has stuck with it, but the game-play just wasn't that fun.  And if I wanted a shooter there's nothing stopping me firing up BC2 or TF2 and getting my fix. Given they all tend to have anemic single player content I'm just not sure why I'd need more shooters (eg. Arma-II today).

[Nightblade]

I've never even heard of section 8... I considered buying global agenda, I sort of like that the studio has stuck with it, but the game-play just wasn't that fun.  And if I wanted a shooter there's nothing stopping me firing up BC2 or TF2 and getting my fix. Given they all tend to have anemic single player content I'm just not sure why I'd need more shooters (eg. Arma-II today).

Honestly, after playing the trial I'd be happier with the 7.50. I like the idea of having a pve component; but the gameplay (choppy and soupy aiming) and the gear mechanics drive me away.

[Ingmar]

Mount & Blade's closest comparison IMO is Sid Meier's Pirates! You move around the map in the same sort of way, help factions, run into the land equivalent of merchant ships, government ships, and pirates, etc. etc.

[Lantyssa]

Naturally I bought the Mount and Blade Complete 3 days ago for $20 

Why are you buying any game that isn't on massive sale right now?  If you still want it after the holiday sales end, get it then.

[Mrbloodworth]

Mount & Blade's closest comparison IMO is Sid Meier's Pirates! You move around the map in the same sort of way, help factions, run into the land equivalent of merchant ships, government ships, and pirates, etc. etc.

Whats multiplayer like? story Co-op or matches only?

[bhodi]

Mount & Blade's closest comparison IMO is Sid Meier's Pirates! You move around the map in the same sort of way, help factions, run into the land equivalent of merchant ships, government ships, and pirates, etc. etc.

Whats multiplayer like? story Co-op or matches only?

Matches only, but there's a coop mod (I haven't tried, but apparently is cool) http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,150827.0.html

[Mrbloodworth]

Wonderfull. Thanks!

EDIT: Not quite what I was hoping for.

[Ruvaldt]

There was a demo/trial ages ago before Mount & Blade received distribution through Paradox.  I think there is even a modern trial version of Warband.  One could always try that.

[Hoax]

Mount & Blade is a really good game.

There is a long thread to this effect somewhere that can expound on that idea.

[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.

[Hoax]

Links so people who see them 30min from now can feel bad that they missed buying M&B.

Here is the radicalthon of bravetart to give an idea of how dated it looks and how you start out.

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=16333.0

Its also been mentioned by many posters as a GOTY and/or best sword and board / mounted combat ever designed.

[bhodi]

I got crysis yesterday but looks like today is a wash. MAYBE Amnesia, I haven't decided yet. Already beat deadspace, and everyone already owns PvZ. And they took out MJ which is  

And, as someone noted $10 for the quake collection is too much from a pack who's newest game isn't even from this century. It's also missing quake 4.

[Paelos]

You could always buy Hearts of Iron III and unleash your inner neckbeard.

[bhodi]

It's an awful, buggy game. No thanks.

Edit: After watching this, I am buying swords and soldiers.

[HaemishM]

Today's sale is probably the worst yet. Not one damn thing I want.

[Morfiend]

Today's sale is probably the worst yet. Not one damn thing I want.

Agree. Nothing.