By Kieron Gillen on December 27th, 2008 at 9:07 am.
And a quick one from me too. While we really will be digging into the whole UK/US/EU pricing thing in the new year, that can wait until after Steam’s new year sale. Basically, it’s up to 75% savings off a mass of games. It’s on until January 2nd, so I suspect I’ll go through picking out the best bargains before then, but the first thing which sprang to my eye was Trials 2 – one of our 12 Christmas games – available for a mere two dollars fifty – or a quid fifty in the UK.
Honestly, at that price it becomes worthwhile just for the comic possibilites of engineering bone-breaking collisions with your rider. Go get!
EDIT: And until we do it, Savygamer runs down their fave bargains.
27/12/2008 at 09:25 markcocjin says:
I wonder how much will Left 4 Dead’s price drop six months from now?
27/12/2008 at 09:30 qrter says:
The first thing I got myself was Beyond Good and Evil for €3,74. Lovely.
27/12/2008 at 09:53 Schtee says:
id superpack quite tempting…but I’ve bought about half of them before at some point :(
27/12/2008 at 09:59 pkt-zer0 says:
Honestly, I’d prefer if the prices were sorted out before the sale ends, so it seems less …dodgy. The sort of discount where a 45$ game goes on sale by having “was 60$ previously” written above its price tag.
Of course, the situation is by far not that dire, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Anyhow, the bargains I’d consider notable, aside from the obvious awesome Trials 2 (BUY IT NOW):
- Opposing Force and Blue Shift are 1€ each.
- Portal goes for 3.75€.
- Team Fortress 2 is halved again, for 10$/10€. (You folks have no excuse for leaving the RPS server only half-full at best, now. Or maybe I’m just checking it out at the wrong time of day)
- Bioshock for 5$/€ – if you don’t mind the “dumbed down for the console ‘tards” aspect, now’s the time to get it, if you’ve not done so already.
- I-Fluid is going for 5$/€, too. More indies, yay.
27/12/2008 at 10:13 Five says:
Some of these prices are crazy good.
A very merry xmas from Steam :D
27/12/2008 at 10:15 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ qrter: Indeed, it’s worth pointing out to anyone who wasn’t aware that seemingly all Ubisoft games on Steam are now available worldwide.
27/12/2008 at 10:28 Fede says:
UK Valve Complete Pack – 39.74 Pounds
EU Valve Complete Pack – 67,49 Euro
UK price in EU – 41,3296 Euro
Result: disappointing
27/12/2008 at 10:37 Five says:
With the id Superpack for €35 and the complete Dawn of War for €15 Steam has just about everything I want. If only it sold Gal Civ 2.
27/12/2008 at 11:18 Alex says:
Left4Dead: Was €44.99, now €37.49.
Or £26.99 == €28.24 on Amazon.
27/12/2008 at 11:47 RLacey says:
Grabbed Bejewelled, Puzzle Quest, Trials 2, Geometry Wars and World of Goo. Yay!
27/12/2008 at 11:53 TelefonHonda says:
I got DEFCON, Heavy Weapon Deluxe, Trackmania United Forever, Trials 2 SE and Unreal Tournament 3 for 47,50€. Hooray Steam!
27/12/2008 at 11:57 Lukasz says:
i am getting Beyond good and evil and bioshock. Wanted to get Culp Inata but frankly speaking., when will I ever play that game?
I have simply too many games and not enough time at the moment. and GOG has some nice deals also.
27/12/2008 at 12:47 Saflo says:
I am absolutely silly with video games at the moment and this did not help things. Enjoy the new wing on your house, Mr. Newell.
27/12/2008 at 13:30 roryok says:
@Alex
Much as I’d love to avail of amazon’s value, they’ve stopped shipping games to ireland, as have play.com.
It’s a pain because L4D retails for €55 in shops here, or €37 on steam EU or €28 in amazon/play etc
If anyone knows another site that will ship to ireland I’d love to hear about it. In the mean time steam is the only way.
27/12/2008 at 13:32 LewieP says:
Cheers for the link Kieron.
I would also like to add, there is no point in getting The Orange Box on Steam, even with this sale it is cheaper to just get the boxed version:
The Orange Box, PC – £14.99 delivered
27/12/2008 at 13:32 roryok says:
oh and by the way, BioShock = €4.99!!!! Anyone who hasn’t yet played it now has no excuse.
27/12/2008 at 13:58 Po0py says:
Stayed up till 3am last night playing Trails 2. Really addictive game. It’s a trial and error game and some of the jumps can be insanely hard but it has that: “I’ll have one more go at it and then I’ll go to bed.” aspect. Two hrs later…
If you don’t bite for £1.50 then your quite silly young fella indeed.
Might also grab Multiwinia+Darwinia for £4.50. Seems like a good bargain.
27/12/2008 at 14:22 Pags says:
Same as qrter, first thing I grabbed was Beyond Good & Evil for £3.50 (or something similar) as I’ve lost my disc. Will probably end up buying Trials 2 later today.
27/12/2008 at 14:29 lobsterjohnson says:
The number of games in my steam account has made a change in my attitude regarding a missing steam feature:
Custom folders.
Before they might’ve been a convenience, now they are a necessity.
27/12/2008 at 14:46 Rei Onryou says:
Trials 2, Heavy Weapon Deluxe and Bejewelled Deluxe are now mine for £3.50. I feel dumb for going buying crazy after the currency conversions the other week, since I could’ve saved even more if I knew there’d be a sale.
I was considering Geometry Wars and PuzzleQuest, but neither of those were more than a few pennies of saving. Right now, I’m trying to convince my Dad to get the Valve pack for £40.
Thanks again Valve!
27/12/2008 at 14:48 michaelfeb16 says:
I’ve gotta agree on your custom folders statement. I am absolutely sick of how long and messy my list has become…and that was before buying eight games today.
27/12/2008 at 14:57 Calabi says:
Some of the levels in Trials 2 are complete barstewards. “I’ve gotta get up that 87 degree incline?, whilst jumping? you must be mad” I think I did manage to do it after about 699 or so tries.
Mount and Blade is only half price too.
27/12/2008 at 15:11 egg says:
Well, I just got myself Trials 2 and Beyond Good and Evil. Hooray!
I just played Trials 2 demo and was actually pleased with it. I don’t know jack about Beyond Good and Evil, but it only costs $ 7.49 and everyone seems to just love the game so I will give it a try. :)
27/12/2008 at 15:12 mpk says:
Doom and Doom II for £1.98 just made my Christmas even bettererer :)
27/12/2008 at 15:22 Nahkatakkimies says:
AudioSurf 4,99€
Beyond Good and Evil 3,74€
Multiwinia + Darwinia 7,49€
Unreal Tournament 3 9,99€
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3 Gold 3,74€
Total 29,95€
Too bad I just bought Bioshock for 14 euros.
27/12/2008 at 15:23 nakke says:
It’s still fun to see the GBP being valued at around 1EUR=0.6GBP or so, when in reality it’s 0.96. Though since amazon ships games to Finland, I guess I shouldn’t whine and just buy everything from there isntead. I fully support this Steam sale, though! Will probably get WoG (SORRY FOR NOT BUYING IT EARLIER D:), GRAW 2 and Bejeweled. Maybe something else too.
27/12/2008 at 15:33 Mogs says:
I’m not spending a damn penny on anything in these dark times. Credit crunch!
27/12/2008 at 15:34 google bot says:
Check some of the pakage prices. X3 combo with terran conflict and reunion is $26 while just terran conflict is $30
27/12/2008 at 16:02 PJ says:
yea, Doom 3 + expansion > id everything pack
27/12/2008 at 16:12 I don't understand this comment system says:
For those in the US, here is a rather awesome forum post listing every title on sale, categorized by the amount off.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8751717#post8751717
Also, the href tag behavior seems glitched or at least it doesn’t work as advertised.
27/12/2008 at 16:15 Lacobus says:
Valve complete pack for forty quid!!! I’ve bought nearly all these games at some point or other but that includes left4dead which I aint got yet so it’s totally worth the extra £20 to have all these games steamified for later use.
Thanks Kieron!
27/12/2008 at 16:26 A-Scale says:
40 dollars is EXACTLY what I said I’d pay for Fallout. It’s time to pay the piper. Also some friends will be well pissed about l4d dropping to 38 dollars. They just bought it a couple of days ago for 50. Win some you lose some.
27/12/2008 at 16:32 RichP says:
Anyone who doesn’t buy Mount&Blade for $15 hates PC gaming, punches nuns and children for fun, and is an all-around rat bastard.
(Or just doesn’t like medieval RPGs ;) )
27/12/2008 at 16:42 Sam says:
Hrm. I might actually have to buy Bioshock now, then – for less than a fiver I can put up with potential SecuRom iffyness in Wine.
27/12/2008 at 16:43 qrter says:
Or just has no money left. AT ALL.
Although I won’t deny my inherent rat bastardness and dreaming of punching nuns (strictly for fun) daily.
27/12/2008 at 16:58 M_the_C says:
A good sale. Many with only a small discount, but some real gems.
I got Bioshock, excellent price, and they’ve dropped the DRM.
I also got Space Trader (my support a minor developer purchase), not great but pretty good for £2.99, and Darkstar One for the same price. (Not quite sure why I got that one.)
27/12/2008 at 17:12 Larington says:
Don’t know when I’m going to play them, as I’m working on an assignment at the moment* but I ended up having a quick browse and poor-chased Beyond Good & Evil (Even though I already have a boxed copy somewhere in good nick), I also picked up Tomb Raider: Underworld as I’ve heard good things about its level design and Mount & Blade, hmm, ought to go see if theres a discount on Strong Bad Season 1 now that I think about it.
Went looking for Red Alert 3 but had forgot EA is still being anti-UK on Steam.
EDIT: And now I have Strong Bad Season 1… Won’t be short of games to play in the summer/when I feel like it.
*Except when looking here, facebook, etc. Damned Procrastination.
27/12/2008 at 17:14 Dean says:
Telltale Complete pack for £34.19 – that’s all of Strongbad, both Seasons of Sam and Max, the two episodes of Bone and some poker game.
27/12/2008 at 17:14 MetalCircus says:
I got me some L4D for 20 quid – i’m happy!
27/12/2008 at 17:20 Sander Bos says:
So did anyone buy ‘beyond good and evil’ to play it for the first time? I just did and am incredibly underwhelmed. The game does not appear to have aged well or something, I just played it for 5 minutes and have no plans to start it up again (terrible graphics (also with technical problems), right into two scenes of action without context in which I appear to have no job but hit the mouse button).
Also a shame that Ubisoft’s Europoean catalog does not include Earned in Blood or Assasin’s Creed….
Only buy Trials 2 if you don’t mind being frustrated a lot (it is great actually, Kickstart 2 is back, but I still have no real clue how I am supposed to go up a long steep ramp, I bet the next game will be called ‘Trials 3: More trial and error’).
Oh yeah, and if you have never played a a brothers in arms game Road to Hill 30 is highly recommended if you want to play a FPS with dated graphics and unique controls (it was my second favorite game of last year (picked it up only then)).
27/12/2008 at 17:20 IdleHands says:
Hm I expected someone to crack the “Ah the prices have finally been sorted on steam” joke, guess I’m the only one who thinks of such sad unfunny jokes, that’s cool with me :D
What’s not cool with me is browsing the entire Steam catalogue to find the best bargins. I already neglect enough games from November I can’t buy more! Although I did make a list;
Audiosurf – I heard about this much much too late
Warhammer dawn of war – Never played but heard it’s good
ID Super pack – I know I’d never play these games, but that’s a lot of gaming history for £19
Beyond Good and Evil
27/12/2008 at 17:31 roryok says:
If I buy it, can I still punch nuns and children for fun?
Yours Etc
Rat B. Astard
27/12/2008 at 17:33 MetalCircus says:
Sander Bos are you insane? RTH30 and EiB are average at best. Mind you, I majorly enjoyed Hells Highway.
27/12/2008 at 17:35 qrter says:
Yes, me.
I know what you mean, but keep playing on a bit, it gets better quickly (and more varied).
I wasn’t having any graphics problems until I hit the water, which seems to be a performance black hole (switching to ‘low quality’ water helps, though).
27/12/2008 at 17:42 egg says:
So did anyone buy ‘beyond good and evil’ to play it for the first time?
I did. Is it that bad? I have been busy with Trials 2 and Darwinia, so I am yet to launch the game.
And now I think I am also buying Audiosurf. Damn!
27/12/2008 at 17:47 MarvintheParanoidAndroid says:
I’m joining the massive crowds of people who got Beyond Good & Evil, and I imagine I’ll get Trials 2 before the sale ends. Also picked up the Civilization IV complete pack, and bought Left 4 Dead for a European internets-friend – £20 here, but it’d have cost him the equivalent of about £30, I think. Also this way he gets the uncensored version, L4D without the blood and guts just wouldn’t be worth it :(
27/12/2008 at 17:52 Katsumoto says:
IL-2 for seven quid? SOLD! Been wanting to play this for years on end!
27/12/2008 at 18:02 Scandalon says:
Do watch out though, some of the prices are silly… It actually costs a $1 less to buy the entire id SuperPack than it does to just get the Doom pack.
Similarly, getting the TF2+gmod pack right now actually costs MORE than if you bought the currently discounted TF2 and gmod separately.
27/12/2008 at 18:16 Pags says:
I know that the culture of gaming nowadays is instant gratification, but stick with it for a bit and you shall be rewarded. It’s a lovely game.
Okay, so far I have bought IL-2, Trials 2 and I’m trying to get my brother to get the Valve Complete Pack so we can play some 3-player L4D co-op.
I was tempted to buy M&B again despite already having bought it (for around the same price, might I add, as I was a very early adopter) purely for the convenience of Steam. But then realised that was stupid. Still, it’s funny how a simple price drop exponentially increases your willingness to buy something.
27/12/2008 at 18:22 Andy says:
I’ve been trying out Beyond Good and Evil, its mostly enjoyable so far but seems to break once i get outside with my hovercraft into the sea (break as in 1fps, no buttons do anything). A quick google shows that many people had this problem so I don’t know what to do really.
27/12/2008 at 18:55 Nimic says:
Bit off-topic, but the principal “what the hell is Steam doing with the prices?” thread (slight paraphrase) on the Steam forums is closing in on 160 pages and 230,000 views.
27/12/2008 at 19:36 A-Scale says:
Also, WoG is now 15 dollars US. That’s my price. I’ll take it.
27/12/2008 at 20:03 Simon Jones says:
The water in BGE broke a couple of years ago with an nvidia driver update, alas. Although I tried it a few months ago on my 8800gt and it seemed ok – maybe it’s raw muscle cut through the fps-killing glitch?
Anyway stick with it – it gets good once the charm really kicks in.
27/12/2008 at 20:57 PaulMorel says:
I have no idea how anyone can like this game. I like a lot of videogames, and I play games in nearly every genre, but there is no part of me that gets enjoyment from this game. To me, it’s pretty much like hitting your head against the wall over and over again.
I loved the Mount & Blade tip that I got from this blog, but some times you guys like the strangest stuff (see Space Giraffe).
27/12/2008 at 21:02 PaulMorel says:
Agreed. Fallout 3 and M&B are the saviors of a season where I am (apparently) the only person who thinks that L4D is mediocre.
27/12/2008 at 21:07 Larington says:
I must confess, BGE does kind of drop you in the water with the intention of watching you sink or swim, but as the first hour plugs on and the gaps in your knowledge of the story are filled in, your rating of the game will likely rise as you play it.
I’m somewhat surprised that Nvidea have broken the water rendering if whats been mentioned above is accurate. Though, that said I do remember having problems with the water rendering when I first played the game a few years back but had presumed that was partly leading up to the card burning out prior to me replacing it with the same make & version but with an extra cooling component bolted on top of the card.
27/12/2008 at 21:13 Larington says:
I can add my name to the list of folks who weren’t overwhelmed by L4D… Its enjoyable enough, but definately a game for groups of friends who are able to get together, because online play with randoms is often somewhat less succesful in my experience, such that I’ve drifted away from online play.
Also I find that the director can not be merely difficult but occasionally relentless in trying to wear you down on higher difficulty levels, sometimes to excess (In my humble opinion).
27/12/2008 at 21:23 Krupo says:
“Saflo says:
I am absolutely silly with video games at the moment and this did not help things. Enjoy the new wing on your house, Mr. Newell.”
+1
Also, downloading the Trials II demo now… I can’t justify buying yet another game (Fallout 3 is also downloading now… thank you sale!) unless the demo rocks me. I have so many bloody titles to start/finish, including STALKER… thank you last sale.
27/12/2008 at 21:40 Krupo says:
Oh, and here’s one for the RPS crowd:
Bookworm!
27/12/2008 at 22:17 Krupo says:
OMG, just played through the Trials 2 demo – SOLD!!!
I heard someone downstairs call up, “hey, go and help that poor bastard stuck in the snow – he’s been revving his engine for half an hour now.”
Um, did you see the car, I ask?
No.
Um, does it sounds like this?
[Krupo revs motorbike engine]
“Yes”
That’s my new game.
Nice.
27/12/2008 at 23:03 mashakos says:
If you have an old videocard (pre Geforce 8800GTX) or a low end card you’re out of luck. A card with lots of ram + lots of shaders (above 100) will render the water at a smooth 60fps.
So if you don’t have a high end card set the water to low.
27/12/2008 at 23:04 Paul B says:
Bought Civ IV Complete Pack then noticed it was £5 cheaper on Amazon – doh. Oh well, at least I can download it anywhere, anytime, on any computer I might own in the future :)
27/12/2008 at 23:13 Still annoyed says:
The only thing I bought was Alien Shooter: Vengeance, at 2.49 Euro. Because I’m STILL ANGRY!
27/12/2008 at 23:41 Kua says:
That’s an interesting point. I must say I’ve noticed this rather nasty trait in myself of late. Probably doesn’t help that PC games are so cheap. So if one doesn’t satisfy I quickly jump to another one.
Then again with EvE (to take an example) I was quite happy to persevere through the dull times because there was clearly a lot of wonderful depth and incredible experiences to be had (and there was) and I enjoyed the learning process as a result. In fact I would argue that EvE is pretty noob friendly because its those early experiences, as new things are revealed to you that provide the most lasting memories, I think. Sounds good anyway. Also the last couple of days I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get to grips with the Fall From Heaven II mod for Civ 4*, for similar reasons. And they help you on your way with wonderful artwork and a lot of good backstory and writing (imo).
There’s quite a few games that have come highly recommended and I can see the appeal immediately but it hasn’t sucked me in. I mean how many hours do you give it before you realise this really isn’t a game your going to enjoy? Impossible to answer I know :p .
Actually I’m all for instant appeal, for noob friendly experiences. I think its a sign of good design. That’s not to say BG&E isn’t noob friendly but after a couple hours it hadn’t really grabbed me. I just noticed the person you responded to only gave it five minutes. What the hammocks!?!
I’m not sure how easy it is to follow the flow of this comment (probably because it doesn’t have one), but who knows, may be it’ll spark off some interesting debate!! Or may be it won’t…
*And on the subject of FFH2, the creator, Kael, has been patching the mod like everyday since release (he’s on ‘i’ now which is nine [I had to count that out on my fingers] patches since release on the fifteenth), responding to bugs players pick up. He’s truly a god amongst modders. And its clear that an awful lot of love has gone into this creation. That is to say go play it :p .
28/12/2008 at 00:40 Paul Moloney says:
I’m on holiday in Malaysia, and Steam seems to do an IP check, not allowing me to buy using my Irish address/card. Do you guys know is there a way around this?
P.
28/12/2008 at 01:13 Heliocentric says:
Just got hinterland trials 2 and multiwinia. Three different sides of gaming. I also got the unreal pack so i didn’t get indie aids*. I’m eyeing up clear sky but i’m not sure given having not finished the first stalker yet and bad reviews. A few other titles are tempting but i have too much to play anyway but i’m thinking i’ll grab fallout 1&2 over gog. Just to own them disc free and grab the mdk and freespace packs because i never owned those titles.
*Always use protection.
28/12/2008 at 01:52 Jon says:
There is some kind of bug in the water rendering of Beyond Good and Evil. You are going to have to set the water to ‘low’ unless you have an absolute monster of a video card.
Also if you want to play it with an 360 controller you can find an xpadder setup here.
28/12/2008 at 03:03 Advice Dog says:
@Paul Moloney
You could have a trusted friend at home set up a proxy for you to use. Trusted is the key word though if you’re routing credit card and account details via them.
28/12/2008 at 03:10 Youatemycheeto says:
Hey guys, has anyone ever played any of the Silent Hunter games? I’ve been looking at them for a while but I’ve never gotten around to picking them up. Not that they are so cheap (and they don’t have Starforce anymore), I was thinking of buying them.
Any thoughts?
28/12/2008 at 07:46 Cunningbeef says:
I’m not sure if it’s been written up here, but you (that is to say everyone) should definitely get Alien Shooter : Vengeance if you haven’t already. It’s Russian isometric super-gory craziness, and it’s fantastic and an absolute steal at the given price.
28/12/2008 at 09:21 Heliocentric says:
Serious? Does it even hold a candle to shadowgrounds, specifically the sequel survivor? And even then, sg sits in the shadow of alien swarm. So yes, alienshooter is awesome, but how awesome?
28/12/2008 at 10:32 Dinger says:
Silent Hunter III is a good game. The crew skill/roster system is half-baked and doesn’t really work. The procedural mission/ship generation system means that, once you learn the parameters, you won’t have much in the line of surprises. The ship’s interior is nice, but you can’t walk from station to station, and fully appreciate its claustrophobic nature.
That said, it’s totally sweet; realism patches have plugged many of the defects, and it’s well worth playing. At least in Europe, it’s not available on steam until mid-January.
28/12/2008 at 10:58 Sander Bos says:
Hi,
5 minutes and give up guy here. Thanks for your reactions, I will try it again at some point.
But as I think I hear from a lot of other people, there are so many hardly games I bought on my system that I have hardly played, that indeed the first moments are very important.
And to clarify a bit my first few moments with BG&E:
– I mentioned technical issues: I first have to spend 10 minutes (so I spent 15 minutes on the game….) fiddling with the settings to turn off fastflip and triple buffering.
– And then the main characters eyes are still inches, sometimes, feet away from her eyes about 1/6th of the time (so a lot). If somebody knows what setting I have to change that please let me know. Also, the game’s dialog overlays (like the one telling me what button to click) flicker a lot, I would probably have to also fix that first if I were to play for over an our.
But it’s like miss eyes nowhere near her face does not realize she has to compete with me finishing World of Goo….
– Then I do actually want to play this game for a bit, because I have chosen the Dutch language and am actually pleasantly surprised by the voice actors qualities, but….:
– The gameplay in the first few minutes is friggin Dragon’s Lair (this is from memory):
– Scene 1: Your avatar appears in some unintroduced scene. There is someone captured who I don’t know, and asks to be freed from some things. Why would I free this person, perhaps the creatures have captured him her for good reason, perhaps he she is a murderer and the creatures are the friendly police. Not to worry, the game instructs to click the mouse button repeatedly. End scene.
– Scene 2: I am captured in some spiky contraption. Wait, I fell into a trap, I don’t remember that? Some third character (this is not the person I just saved right, where did he she go anyway) asks to help him her. Okay, how do I get out. The game helpfully instructs me again to click and hold the mouse button to build up energy, flickering the dialog to try to induce a seizure. Okay, makes sense I will build up energy and break up the spikes. Instead, when I release the mouse button she jumps and some pokemon energy animation kicks in… End scene. I mean end game.
At least in Space Ace mr Ace had his eyes at the right location all the time, of course there the game did not tell you what button to hit….
But as I said, I will probably pick it up again at some time. But I also still have to finish Prey and really start playing San Andreas…
28/12/2008 at 11:59 stenchy says:
Bought Trials 2, played for four hours straight. Definitely worth it.
28/12/2008 at 12:16 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ Sander Bros: It sounds like, on top of all the other issues you’ve got, the cut-scenes aren’t triggering. BG&E should start off like this, which I’d say provides sufficient context for your actions. Given the amount of problems you’re having it doesn’t sound like it’s worth persevering with the game unless you find a fix, which is a shame. Still, if you found the aesthetics of Jade’s special attack to be irksome then it probably wasn’t the game for you anyway.
28/12/2008 at 12:28 Pags says:
Yeah Sander, it would appear the game has way too many issues to bother dealing with – without cutscenes the game loses a significant chunk of it’s appeal – unless there’s some kind of fix. A shame, really.
28/12/2008 at 16:31 Saflo says:
Forgive my blasphemy, but BG&E also came out for all the last-generation consoles, plays well on them, and should be cheaply available. For the poor souls having performance trouble, I mean.
28/12/2008 at 16:34 Saflo says:
Not that kind of performance trouble. Get your mind out of the gutter.
28/12/2008 at 17:31 SuperNashwan says:
Might pick up Trials 2, but L4D only slightly more expensive than buying a boxed copy at launch? Thanks Valve-chiefs. Thiefs.
28/12/2008 at 17:51 aoanla says:
Yeah, I didn’t get L4D in the sales precisely because the price was awful.
Ironically, Trials 2 doesn’t work in Wine, and Everyday Shooter seems to have entered some unplayable state (even deleting local content and reinstalling not fixing it) (and people seem to be having horrible issues with BG&E), so I’m actually playing through Doom 3 at the moment, which was rather lower on my list of “games I’ve not played before to get in the sale”…
29/12/2008 at 00:36 Dean says:
Safecracker is only £2.24.
It’s an adventure/puzzle game in the 7th Guest mould. It’s really short, I finished it in around 4 hours, no way was it worth the £20. The puzzles aren’t particularly original, the plot was nearly non-existent but… For just over £2 there’s some nice puzzles and it’s polished and simple to get to grips with. I actually really enjoyed it.
29/12/2008 at 01:14 Kua says:
Its funny how a drastic price difference can utterly change one’s outlook on a game :) .
29/12/2008 at 01:24 qrter says:
You can first download the demo through Steam, see if it runs on your particular machine. The demo’s the beginning of the game.
29/12/2008 at 01:52 Kua says:
I don’t know if this is the same problem everybody’s having but iirc multi core processors had/have trouble running BG&E smoothly for which there is a fix. I’ll try dig it out if anyone’s interested, but I’m pretty sure it was stickied on the games official forums.
29/12/2008 at 04:00 James says:
Is that the same issue Deus Ex has with multicore? The solution for that was to bind the processor affinity to one core IIRC. Not that I know how to do that in Linux. aoanla: L4D doesn’t really work under Wine (10fps when swamped by zombies) which is why I didn’t buy it, I’ve filed a bug for Trials 2 (apparently it works fine in Cedega using their software shader). Everyday shooter is working fine for me though
29/12/2008 at 04:37 SenatorPalpatine says:
Yay sales! I got World of Goo, Bioshock, Darwinia + Multiwinia, and Trials 2 all for just $30.
29/12/2008 at 04:50 Xyzzy says:
Wheeee, I love this sale. Bought Trackmania United now, going to buy Bioshock, Trials 2, and the two Half-Life 1 expansions next.
29/12/2008 at 09:10 ILR says:
I don’t know if this is the same problem everybody’s having but iirc multi core processors had/have trouble running BG&E smoothly for which there is a fix. I’ll try dig it out if anyone’s interested, but I’m pretty sure it was stickied on the games official forums.
Confirmed. When I was playing Beyond Good&Evil last spring, disabling dualcore fixed 90% of all glitches, including but not limited to: unstable game speed, audio/video sync problems, flickering, etc. The easiest way to do this in WinXP is probably to alt+tab to desktop when you have the game running, click bge.exe with the right mouse button in Task Manager, select Set Affinity, and uncheck everything but one CPU. Next time when you start the game, the single-core affinity should be set automatically.
So there might be an official/unofficial fix, but most of the problems could be fixable by just a few clicks of the mouse. Some other gamebreaking bugs (such as a certain triangle key missing) might require different patching, though.
Also, being underwhelmed by BG&E seems about right to me. The internet-buzz is a bit overblown compared to the actual game that has A LOT of charming aspects to it but doesn’t really pull the whole mess together that well. And the beginning is atrocious.
Getting back on topic for a while, that Gumboy offering on Steam seems particularly enticing.
29/12/2008 at 10:00 Joseph says:
I hate being broke.
I can’t even afford Trials 2!
Anyone kind want to gift it to me? :<
Steam username = emdeehay
Worth a shot :O (I have AUD$1.67 in my bank account.)
29/12/2008 at 11:40 Tei says:
@Lukasz: I did. I have buy Culpa Innata. Somewhat disapointed because is in english, subtitles only work on videos. So I have no idea what the character say on the game. Playing a click adventure blindi not fun. Also… is not a real 3d game, it has some 3D, and maybe is 3D, but It feels like painted decorations. Also, my suspension of belief is broken here with the story. I have read really crazy sci-fi, but something on this game make me suspicious a religious end. FYI: Theres only two resolutions: low and high. I guest is a old game, or maybe a cheap game, a normal game would have a real 3d engine.
Also, the character move slow on the screen.
29/12/2008 at 12:06 Joseph says:
Oh I’m guessing you also need an email address for gifting – it’s joe_sintal@hotmail.com … can pay back after I get money in my account … might be a while though … but I’ll definitely do it … thanks :)
29/12/2008 at 12:10 Joseph says:
A kind person is helping me out – my wish fulfilled – thank you very much Confidence Interval!
Merry Xmas and happy new year :)
29/12/2008 at 14:06 Stella Q says:
I bit on the Prince of Persia pack for $50…never played any of them and 4 games is pretty good for that price.
And I finally bought Psychonauts too…perhaps I shouldn’t have gotten 5 platformers at the same time…
29/12/2008 at 14:47 Mathieu says:
Penguins Arena is available for 6,49€ only! Come on!
[url=http://store.steampowered.com/app/11280/]http://store.steampowered.com/app/11280/[/url]
29/12/2008 at 16:24 Kua says:
Nice work Joseph. Anyone know whether its possible to change the controls in Trials 2?
29/12/2008 at 17:08 aoanla says:
@James: oh, it’s who who filed that bug? You might notice that I’m the person who confirmed it ;)
And, yes, I suspected that L4D would be iffy in Wine, being DX9 only. In a couple of months, though, who knows? (Bioshock annoys me more, frankly, given that it’s been out for ages and still barely manages to get past the first level…)
29/12/2008 at 18:07 A-Scale says:
Use a joystick. The game was very entertaining, but nearly unplayable with a mouse/keyboard.
29/12/2008 at 20:22 RichP says:
Ha, Valve pulled UT3, UT2k4, and the Unreal Deal pack from Steam because they ran out of CD keys! They’re working with Epic to get some more before the sale’s over.
29/12/2008 at 21:12 Man Raised By Puffins says:
@ ILR: Indeed, like most initially overlooked titles, the cult following does tend to overrate BG&E somewhat. Still, it’s a lovely little game though.
@ A-Scale: Can’t say I found a joypad necessary really. Been through Psychonauts almost twice without any problems using a keyboard and mouse. Well, apart from the meat circus but that was down to despicable level design rather than control issues.
29/12/2008 at 21:41 aoanla says:
@Man Raised By Puffins: I dunno, I gave up on Psychonauts due to not having a joystick and finding mouse+keys control to be far too clunky.
(Apropos other things: looks like I’m not buying the Unreal Deal pack then ;) Although, it was low on my list…)
30/12/2008 at 15:11 Sagan says:
Valve Complete Pack costs 81 euro in Germany. That’s an insolence, considering it only costs 40 pounds in Britain. My brother just bought Left 4 Dead, Portal and Team Fortress 2 for just over 40€. He could have gotten the Valve Complete Pack for the same amount in Britain…
Oh well there is no real reason to complain. Those three games for 40 euro is still a great deal.
30/12/2008 at 19:40 RichP says:
FYI: The Rome Total War Complete pack is once again available for a cool $8.99 (at least in North America)
Evidently, they ran out of R:TW keys during the first day of the sale :O
Hopefully the Unreal Deal pack will return shortly.
30/12/2008 at 20:42 Blather Blob says:
Trials 2 is a steal at $2.50, though this is coming from someone who thought XMoto was somewhat entertaining (but I don’t think I can go back to XMoto after playing Trials 2). Another nice thing is that the game’s .exe doesn’t actually require Steam.
I also got Space Trader MM, which is looking like it will be fairly amusing, in a small sort of way. It also works just fine without Steam, which is always nice. In fact, they don’t mention it anywhere in the game or readme (which I think is just a mistake on their part), but Space Trader is based on the GPLed Quake 3 engine, and they have the GPLed source code of the game (minus the datafiles, of course) on their website.
I also picked up WOG (I pre-ordered it for my brother earlier this year, but now is the perfect time to get a copy for myself), which is completely charming. The Steam version doesn’t seem to support 1920×1200 properly, at least on my computer, although the patch from their website fixes that and also removes Steam as a happy side-effect.
And then I played the demo of Gravitron 2, which forced me to immediately buy it, even though it isn’t really on sale. The patch from their website also removes Steam and also adds another whole set of levels.
As to psychonauts, I played it last year, and I didn’t have trouble with the mouse and keyboard so much as the tendency to have jumping puzzles involving judging distances into the monitor, which doesn’t really work on a 2D display. The meat circus especially was full of those sorts of jumps, non-stop. But it was worth putting up with just to see what the developers had come up with on the next puzzle, cutscene, or level.
30/12/2008 at 23:24 RichP says:
Sure enough: the Unreal Deal is back. $20 will get you every Unreal Game, including UT3.
02/01/2009 at 19:35 Paul Emil says:
Huh. I tried to get L4D and Fallout 3 in the sale, but my brother’s credit card wouldn’t work due to a problem with the address verification (No credit card of my own) >:( . I ended up going to Game, standing in a bloody awful queue, and still couldn’t get FO3. I got L4D though. Happy times!