By RPS on July 11th, 2009 at 2:50 pm.
You know that money you don’t have? You should spend it. On some sort of oversized-hat with flashing lights and propellers, ideally. Anything that’s left should go on one of the below videogames, kindly selected for us as always by that pioneer of price-grabbing, Savygamer‘s LewieP. Oh – additionally, goodly reader Judd dropped us a line noting that the controversially expensive Blood Bowl can be had by Americanly types for a reasonable $28 – boxed edition, and only valid for the next 65 hours.. That’s better, eh?
GRID – £7.49/€9.99/$14.99
I’ve revealed in previous bargain buckets that I don’t really like racing games, in general. There are some exceptions, but GRID is not one of them. I tell you what though, the demo gave me the impression that it is stylish as hell. The general presentation, in particular the HUD are pretty slick, and the idea of introducing the Sands of Time into a racing game is crazy enough that it just could work. Alec and Jim know what they are talking about far more than me here, and demo here.
BrainPipe – £8.79/€10.79/$11.99
You know how in films, particularly from the 80s and early 90s, whenever you see a character playing a fictitious game, it always involves flying along a path with brightly coloured lights, doing stuff (see here, 5:30 onwards). Well, BrainPipe is a bit like that. If that doesn’t get your attention, it also won this year’s Excellence In Audio award at the IGF, deservedly so. It has a creepy as hell menu, and the whole game has a bit of a Jeff Minter vibe to it, and is probably a good game to get massively stoned to. Demo here.
Titan Quest: Gold Edition – £8.99/€9.99/$9.99
A Diablo clone in an ancient mythological setting, this pack includes the original game and the ‘Immortal Throne’ expansion. Sadly developer Iron Lore (also behind Dawn of War: Soulstorm) shut down in 2008, but that doesn’t stop their game from being fun! The game supports up to 6 players at the same time, and I bet if you go and make a thread in the RPS forums you can find some folk to go questing with. Demo here.
Peggle – 50% off
Peggle Peggle Peggle! It’s Peggle! The painfully/gloriously addictive game about firing a ball at pegs. If you’ve not even given any of the version of Peggle a try yet, you are running the risk of being a narrow-minded ‘takes games too seriously’ PC gamer. Best remedy that now. Peggle, Peggle Nights, and the pack containing both are now half price, and there is also the recently released Peggle WOW edition as a free download. PopCap give you your first hit for free, knowing full well that you will be back for more. Giddy RPS coverage here. Demo here. Peggle!
Deal of the Week
LucasArts games – Cheap!
I have a theory. I think LucasArts have put their games on Steam with an ulterior motive. I reckon that they wanted to conduct some market research on their old titles, to see which ones to revive, and it was more cost effective (and indeed profitable) to just stick them all up on Steam for cheap, and then just track the sales data. Whatever the reason, it’s great that a bunch of classics are being offered for cheap. Of the current selection, I’d say The Dig is definitely worth checking out. The prequel to Boom Blox, it’s a pretty kickass sci-fi pointy clicky adventure. It also costs next to nothing, which is a nice bonus.
Also of note:
20% off TopWare games at GOG
If that lot’s not enough for you, do check out SavyGamer.co.uk for constantly-updated bargains across all formats.
11/07/2009 at 15:13 abhishek says:
Decent deals this week for sure. I picked up GRID after hearing so much about it over the past year or so.
Also worth noting is that the remake of The Secret of Monkey Island will be releasing this Wednesday on Steam for 9.99$. And while it’s not strictly a Lucasarts game, the episodic Tales of Monkey Island by Telltale Games released this past week and the first episode was quite fabulous.
11/07/2009 at 15:13 Marty Dodge says:
Oh I though Grid was bloody awful… its predecessor Dirt was far more fun. Grid was just to twitchy for my tastes, the controls on it were bloody awful.
11/07/2009 at 15:13 Po0py says:
I recommend checking out the demo of Grid before you jump in and buy. It’s the handling of the cars that put you off a little at first. Very, very different from other games. Camera moves about behind the car a lot and in a very stylized way, which can be disconcerting. Maybe there is a way you can lock to a rigid camera position in the options but I’ve not dug deep enough yet. Having recently been playing Toca 3, I can see the similarities of what they were triying to do with this. This is very much an arcadey version of Toca but there is nothing sim-like about it. I suppose it takes a little getting used to before you can get your money’s worth. Looks pretty too.
11/07/2009 at 15:14 James G says:
Just brought Fate of Atlantis before seeing this, pleasantly surprised at that price. Might pick up Loom as well because although I’ve played it I picked it up from an Abandonware site, its also a beautiful adventure and it would be great if Lucas Arts did something similar. (Resurrect Forge perhaps?)
11/07/2009 at 15:17 ArtyArt says:
A small boatload of remarks:
1) wait, what? Europeans actually pay LESS for Grid than Americans? For some reason that makes me very happy.
2) LucasArts’ games appearing on Steam makes me sorry for the good folks at gog.com. Somehow I get the feeling that this is a rather hard blow for GOG. Unless they’ll get their LucasArts catalogue as well.
3) Impulse now has the whole Meridian4 catalogue reduced as well, which is interesting for two reasons. First, they have a lot more games on Impulse than on Steam, and even more important Europeans (sans GreatBritanians) pay in $, not in €… which makes some of these games much more attractive. Picked up Space Trader for 3,60 € [reduced Impulse price] instead of 4,99 € [reduced Steam price]. Sadly, I regretted that. But that’s another story.
11/07/2009 at 15:18 Heliocentric says:
Grid is awesome from a non racing game guy. The ai will shunt you and each other and have awesome pile ups that you can cause too. Playing it with digital controls is massively limiting though, a wheel or a analogue pad are pretty much a must.
11/07/2009 at 15:19 Alec Meer says:
Grid’s a great time. Anyone who moans about the handling is a perma-frowning grey-man.
11/07/2009 at 15:22 Heliocentric says:
@marty
digital controls eh?
@poopy
The grid external camera is kinda pants, but i’m a driver perspective kinda guy.
11/07/2009 at 15:29 MrBejeebus says:
MUSTN’T..BUY..MORE..GAMES….
I prefer to play racing games on console, just for the controller and because i want the best framerate
Why did you have to bring my attention the the Titan Quest bundle..I borrowed it off a friend for a few weeks once and got addicted, I’m saving for a new pc damnit i can’t buy more games.
Oh and I realised I shouldnt buy games I’ve owned previously which I loved before but when I play them again I find them boring, this is particularly true of RPG’s.
11/07/2009 at 15:37 Monchberter says:
GRID demands that a sizable chunk of your TF2 clan plays 12 man 20 lap destruction derbies to death while your poor server sits half empty.
It’s just that addictive and such good fun. I have no bones with the controls as they are infinitely adaptable.
Note for the moaners; put the fixed driver view on and try that for some relatively shiney puke inducing sim-alike-ness
11/07/2009 at 15:38 Xercies says:
Hmm I’m waiting until all the Lucas Arts games go into one nicely priced bundle. I could be waiting awhile though…
11/07/2009 at 15:42 Dracko says:
Both Loom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade are prime examples of how you can make a seemingly restrictive, overly linear genre like adventure games come onto their own as feeling like genuine worlds to explore and interact with all thanks to solid design. Last Crusade is an adventure in the purest sense of the word, with danger and exploration at every turn, and Loom does so much with so little, it’s a damn shame it didn’t turn into a larger series.
Point being, these two games are essential in the development of the genre as well as its potential, and I urge you to experience them as quickly as possible.
11/07/2009 at 15:45 Bob says:
You can get Sam & Max Season One for £4.93 at TheHut
http://www.find-games.co.uk/pc/B000QRI4KU.htm
11/07/2009 at 15:52 PC Monster says:
I don’t like Peggle. There. I’ve said it.
11/07/2009 at 15:52 Dracko says:
You monster!
11/07/2009 at 15:56 MasterBoo says:
I still don’t understand why RPS is not covering Trine in anyway. It has been out for more than a week now, and I’m surprised that with all the love RPG has been giving to it, there is nothing on it.
Mad about the high price?
11/07/2009 at 15:57 Smee says:
Isn’t that game in Hackers supposed to be Wipeout?
11/07/2009 at 16:02 Heliocentric says:
I’d be all over trine like poop on a toilet brush if it was £10.
11/07/2009 at 16:04 Alec Meer says:
“I still don’t understand why RPS is not covering Trine in anyway.”
Because this is essentially an unpaid job. We can only do what we can, when we can – it’s sadly impossible to be anything like completist here until it turns around bill-paying money. We’ll hopefully get to Trine eventually though.
11/07/2009 at 16:04 Weylund says:
@MasterBoo: Didn’t we get an article about it just a couple days ago? It is highly priced. I loved the demo, but then I loved the demo of Arma 2, which will likely provide me hundreds more hours of gameplay for less than $20 more.
Now I just have to scratch around and find $50 to spend…
11/07/2009 at 16:08 Carra says:
Republic commando is well worth the €9. And I’ll try out the Indie & the fate of atlantis game for €4.
I do wonder how much they’ll ask for the monkey island remake, hopefully not much.
11/07/2009 at 16:13 Po0py says:
Grid controls are not bad. Just different from any other racing game. It takes a little while to get used to it and before you know it your winning races. It’s also a very bumpy crashy game. Thats why it’s kind of frustrating at first because your not really in tune with the controls and end up crashing into barriers and what-not. Also they AI seem very agressive, which doesn’t help matters when you are just getting started.
11/07/2009 at 16:15 Andy says:
@Smee: I always throught it was WipeOut as well.
I bought Grid a while ago, after editing a file to turn off the motion sickness inducing (in a guy that doesn’t suffer from motion sickness) motion blur and crap Post Processing effects I found it to be quite an enjoyable racing game.
I do agree about the camera being crap though, I don’t get why alot of prominant car games (I’m looking at you GTA4) have this horrible loose camera that lags behind a on a sharp turn, effectively making you have to do a Luke Skywalker and hope their isn’t a big truck speeding down your way.
11/07/2009 at 16:21 Andresito says:
Aztaka is 20% off on Gamersgate and the game is pretty good so far.
11/07/2009 at 16:30 rocketman71 says:
The Dig a prequel to Boom Blox?. WTF?. The Dig has nothing to do with BB other than it was based on an script by Spielberg!
11/07/2009 at 16:32 Dracko says:
The Dig would have benefited from changing its mediocre sci-fi ending to blowing stuff up with charged bricks, come to think of it.
11/07/2009 at 16:35 LewieP says:
that was the joke, you win one internets.
11/07/2009 at 16:37 Bob says:
Trine isn’t that over priced, its only £17.99 at Gamestation
http://www.gamestation.co.uk/PC/Action/~r416774/
How much do you lot want to pay for NEW games lol
11/07/2009 at 16:38 Dracko says:
How long is it supposed to be anyway? £20 doesn’t seem that unreasonable for a recently released title anyway.
11/07/2009 at 16:42 bansama says:
I’d actually advise not picking up Trine at the moment as the latest patch has basically broken the game. If you spend any XP, it won’t save information connected to what you spent it on, thus when you next run the game, you’ll have no upgrades but, you will have lost all that XP. And as the XP won’t then be available to be picked up when you replay the level, it’s gone for good on that save.
It’s also worth noting that Impulse have a huge 50% off sale on Meridian4 titles right now, included a large number of games that were not in Steam’s Meridian4 sale last week.
11/07/2009 at 16:44 abhishek says:
Carra : Like I mentioned in the first post, the remake of The Secret of Monkey Island has been priced at $9.99.
11/07/2009 at 16:51 Howard says:
GRiD is an awful game. Anyone who likes it is gigglingly inept at real racers.
The Ying to your Yang, Alec. Frowny Grey-man out… =)
11/07/2009 at 16:54 Alec Meer says:
I don’t dispute for one second that I’m gigglingly inept at real racers. Braking is too much effort.
11/07/2009 at 17:02 rocketman71 says:
@LewieP: thanks, but I want no stinkin’ internets due to bad and totally senseless jokes
11/07/2009 at 17:04 Heliocentric says:
Howard, i like both, but sims don’t have time rewind, post spoiler warning: they should.
Having made a mistake and having to replay an the race isn’t fun, its work. Some people like work in their game, indeed i do sometimes, but not all the time. By having the rewind you can be more aggressive and race like you’d like to rather than how you should.
11/07/2009 at 17:22 Srejv says:
Got The Dig off steam. Totally worth it. :]
11/07/2009 at 17:34 GreenIzBezt says:
Is Blood Bowl @ $27.90 still overpriced?
11/07/2009 at 17:34 eyemessiah says:
AIIEEIEI MY EYES – HACKERS!!!!!
11/07/2009 at 17:36 Dominic White says:
Saying you don’t like Grid because you don’t like arcadey racers is all well and fine. Saying it’s a bad game because it’s an arcadey racer is like saying that Serious Sam is bad because it’s not Rainbow Six – an immeasurably thick statement that reveals a crushing inability to think outside your own head.
Seriously, it’s a great game at what it does. It doesn’t try to be the next Forza Motorsport – it just tries to be a spectacular, dramatic game about driving really fast and occasionally smashing cars into little pieces.
11/07/2009 at 17:36 Tetracell says:
To anyone who has Grid, is there a decent online community for the game?
11/07/2009 at 17:39 Dominic White says:
Last time I checked (a couple of weeks back) there were plenty of online games going via the in-game browser. It should still be chugging along nicely now.
11/07/2009 at 17:40 Tetracell says:
That’s awesome. Thanks, Dominic.
11/07/2009 at 17:42 Krondonian says:
Trine can be had for £15 from here: (http://shop.gameplay.co.uk/webstore/productpage.asp?ProductCode=RM03713) if anyone is interested.
11/07/2009 at 17:48 hydra9 says:
Red Faction: Guerilla – £17.99 at Play.com. That’s getting my money.
11/07/2009 at 18:07 AcidBurn says:
True story. I predicted Angelina Jolie would make it big after seeing that movie. That is all.
11/07/2009 at 18:09 PureUncut says:
It’s cheapest to buy peggle individually from the popcap site but the complete pack is cheaper on steam. Oh the mysteries of digital distribution.
11/07/2009 at 18:17 Trite says:
GRID is an awesome driving game and TQ+TQ:IT is an even more awesome ARPG. I absolutely loved TQ – maybe it didn’t do some things as well as Diablo (replayability, randomness, balancing), but the themes of the areas were superb and the graphics as well. I’m still sad for the closure of IL. :(
11/07/2009 at 18:19 iainl says:
“The grid external camera is kinda pants, but i’m a driver perspective kinda guy.”
A fair comment. But then, with the game having comfortably the best internal camera I’ve ever met in a game, I can’t say it’s a large concern.
11/07/2009 at 18:30 Him says:
Comedic coincidence: I picked up a copy of Titan Quest (sans expansion) for 97p at PC World today. Sometimes I do love that place.
11/07/2009 at 18:42 Dominic White says:
@Him – PC world are a strange store. Sometimes they’ll have stuff selling for £40 that you could get £5 anywhere else, but now and then they’ll decide they actually want to sell something, and flip to the other side and sell something ridiculously cheap.
I remember scoring the Heroes of Might & Magic collectors box (this huge foot-square container with HOMM1-5 with EVERY expansion included, along with hardback artbook, tarot cards, T-shirt) there for only £30.
What made this all the funnier is that right by it was HOMM5 by itself for £15, and its second expansion for £20.
11/07/2009 at 18:51 JimmyJames says:
I’ve never heard of GoGamer – I thought Blood Bowl wasn’t being released in the US until September. I wouldn’t be questioning this if it wasn’t for the whole mess with the keys from other sites, but just want to make sure before I drop $30 on it. Very tempting – thanks in advance.
11/07/2009 at 18:52 JimmyJames says:
Picked up Dig from Steam – awesome so far. I really miss these LucasArts games. Here’s hoping for Full Throttle being re-released soon.
11/07/2009 at 19:23 jackflash says:
Yeah Dig is a classic. That one really takes me back.
11/07/2009 at 20:11 HeyMon says:
I’ve been a GoGamer customer for several years. The 48 hour Madness sales they have are some of the best bargains available before these digital distribution weekend sales started popping up. Their dirt cheap shipping price is exactly that and arrives very quickly.
They used to give out random goodies (Gogamer slinkies, CD cases, mousepad, etc.) as well but sadly stopped these past couple of years.
The (I) by the title means this is the import/international version. 99% of the time it’s identical to the North American version and since this game was developed and published offshore anyways it’s a non-issue. Plus, you’re getting an actual physical box copy and not just some pilfered CD-key.
11/07/2009 at 20:36 Heliocentric says:
Maybe lewie p is busy but there is some misinformation on his site, it claims you can get the 3 red faction games cheaper in boxes than digitally. Whereas gamersgate.com(not co.uk) is actually cheaper (25 rather than the sum 30, but if you just want the new one retail does win). I am actually excited for this title, am i right to be?
11/07/2009 at 21:18 A says:
Direct2drive has Oblivion GOTY Deluxe for half price : http://www.direct2drive.com/3/8203/product/Buy-The-Elder-Scrolls-4:-Oblivion-Deluxe-Game-of-the-Year-Edition-Download
11/07/2009 at 21:24 Dominic White says:
@Heliocentric – so long as they don’t flub the PC port (the porting itself is outsourced to a third-party studio, but apparently they’re not actually changing any part of the game) you have every reason to be excited about RF:G. It’s a ton of fun.
I do have some gripes – once you’ve cleared out an area, it’s just there on the map, able for you to go back to but otherwise devoid of enemies and buildings (as you’ve likely levelled them all). While it is impressive that every tiny bit of structural damage is persistent, and if you put a hole in the wall of a house, it’ll still be there ten hours later, I would kill for a ‘reset’ button which lets me play around with all the endgame weapons and enemies, but with a restocked world.
That only really applies after you’ve beaten it, though, and getting there is a ton of fun.
11/07/2009 at 22:03 LewieP says:
I’ll update that blogpost tomorrow morning, hangover be damned. RFG is pretty kickass.
11/07/2009 at 23:08 Cycle says:
Brainpipe is actually a dollar cheaper from the developers website. Plus then you don’t have to deal with Steam for those who don’t like that. If you happened to be on their mailing list (like me), you got a further 4.something% off too!
All their other games are on sale, too.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/
12/07/2009 at 00:01 Po0py says:
Grid is growing on me. Alot. Been playing it quite a bit today and I’m now starting to win some major races. One of the main drawbacks at first is that it is frustratingly hard to win anything but you get used to the handling after a while and realise that you can make some strategic use of the rewind feature to correct some mistakes on the last lap and sneak past into first place. The game can be brutal, but brutal in all the right ways. I like this.
£7.50 well spent, I reckon.
12/07/2009 at 00:04 Paul Moloney says:
Just a warning that the Direct2Drive version of Oblivion is not compatible with OBSE, and perhaps other mods.
(D2D’s mod unfriendliness is the main reason I’ve never bought anything from them.)
P.
12/07/2009 at 00:09 Blather Blob says:
@JimmyJames: GoGamer are totally reliable. On the other hand, if the issues with the other sites end with the developers banning keys that are outside their expected regions, the GoGamer import copies would presumably be as caught up in that as any of the others.
Also, the dirt cheap shipping is a little longer for me than HeyMon — about a week, usually, sometimes a little longer. Also be warned that it’s USPS, so if you live in an area they don’t deliver to you’ll have to be a bit creative to slip your PO Box number past GoGamer’s “no P.O. Boxes” checker.
But everything I’ve ever bought from them over the last decade or so has been fine. Sometimes if you order a whole load of things at a time some of them will have been stripped of their boxes to fit in the shipping box, but nowadays it’s always cheapest (shipping-wise) to purchase two games at a time anyway.
12/07/2009 at 00:17 Elusive Pastry says:
Oh awesome, thanks for the heads up RPS! I’ve been drooling for Bloodbowl for a while now, but resigned myself to waiting until Sept. when the price goes down. I snagged myself a copy just in time; GoGamer is out of stock!
12/07/2009 at 00:26 Krondonian says:
Another one: World of Goo is availiable in a box from Amazon.co.uk for £10, with free shipping. It’s eluded me for too long, that one. No longer!
12/07/2009 at 01:05 Alex says:
I bought the titan Quest pack the last time it was on sale and had a good time with it. I never managed to beat Typhon, because my Wanderer as such a wimp. The game does allow you to respend your skill points, but I didn’t realize how badly I’d upgraded him until I’d taken the one-way trip to Olympus. :(
And if anyone’s still on the fence about picking up The Dig, just take a look at this clip on Youtube.
12/07/2009 at 01:07 undead dolphin hacker says:
GoGamer is out of stock re: Bloodbowl. lolololololol
12/07/2009 at 01:17 Him says:
@ Dominic White – I’ve got the very same HOMM box sat on my shelf right now, although I paid £27 thanks to the wonders of staff discount.
*shameface*
However, Mass Effect only set me back £15! Plus it was ace!
*gladface!*
12/07/2009 at 01:19 Serenegoose says:
About grid. Is it worth getting a pad for it, or is the keyboard workable? How easy is it? I don’t want a game that’s too easy. About the rewinding time feature: does the game rely on it? What I mean is, if you’re playing a racing game, and you come second, it’s usually not the end of the world. Does grid -demand- you come first in every race, or can you play it without the rewind time mechanic and take the not-first-places without getting GAME OVER.
I’m looking at buying it, especially at that price, but I tend to just buy PS2 racing games (I like the pad) so I’m ignorant.
12/07/2009 at 01:39 Nafe says:
You don’t need to come first, but if you’re totally OCD about such things as I am, you’ll end up using it all the time :). I haven’t tried with a keyboard but I wouldn’t think it’s the most suitable control method. Also, it’s accessible without being too easy – the Le Mans 24 hour race (not actually 24h) can be quite a challenge. You’ve gotta keep up the pace constantly when you’re ahead, you’ve always got cars ready to overtake.
I think it’s worth it at the price, and it’s very stylish and nice to look at. Plus the intro song by UNKLE/Queens of the Stone Age is Aces McWin™
12/07/2009 at 01:45 malkav11 says:
I’m glad I committed to that copy of Blood Bowl around 3 AM. I had a feeling they were going to run out.
I will insist to my dying day that the non-random areas of Titan Quest are a big reason that game is -better- than Diablo II. The randomization really hurt that game for me. (I still enjoyed it, but Titan Quest easily leapfrogged it.)
12/07/2009 at 03:38 Dr.Gash says:
Indy: Fate of Atlantis is, in my opinion, the finest example of an adventure game ever to be released. So nyah!
12/07/2009 at 03:47 Dracko says:
Then you should play The Secret of Monkey Island.
Or Last Crusade.
12/07/2009 at 06:49 Wooly says:
GRID demo is corrupted for me… =(
12/07/2009 at 07:04 DarkNoghri says:
Can anyone verify that Steam’s version of GRID multiplayer works with the retail version? I’ve never dealt with such things before.
12/07/2009 at 07:40 A says:
@Paul Moloney : Thanks for the warning, I don’t really know direct2drive, never bought from them, and I was hesitating.
12/07/2009 at 07:58 Lighthouse says:
@ ArtyArt
2) LucasArts’ games appearing on Steam makes me sorry for the good folks at gog.com. Somehow I get the feeling that this is a rather hard blow for GOG. Unless they’ll get their LucasArts catalogue as well.
You are so right. I haven’t purchased a single game from GOG, yet I have had an account since they started, because either they don’t have the games I would want to get … i.e. Planescape Torment, Lucas Arts adventures etc, but mainly the biggest reason is that their pricing is off.
When Steam can sell something like the Orange Box or similar for $10 and many games are heavily discounted 50-75%, GOG’s regular 20-25% off does not entice me. We are talking about OLD games here – some are worth the price of $10 sure, but many are so old and have been on the abandonware scene for so long I can’t understand how they can price some of those games for $10.
Then the other issue is they have their lower tier pricing set at $6 – which in my opinion should be $5. Either way it comes down to this for me personally – games I might otherwise pick up I don’t bother because either the discount isn’t pulling enough or I just don’t agree with the games set price.
Now while this is somewhat subjective – if you look at Steam selling far newer games at the same price as many of the relics on GOG – unless it’s a big name title – GOG just can’t get my money.
Steam getting LucasArts adventures is a huge blow for them – I have even less reason to frequent the site now.
That said they still have the odd good/hard to get title, which I will probably pick up sometime in the future – but only on a discount.
12/07/2009 at 08:38 Andresito says:
@Lighthouse
If you’re saying that games like Giants, Sacrifice, Fallout 1 and 2 or Duke Nukem aren’t worth 6$ you’re way wrong.
12/07/2009 at 08:47 ArtyArt says:
@Lighthouse
My thoughts exactly. Games like Tex Murphy – The Pandora Directive from 1994 are priced 9.99$… what the hell? Furthermore I had the feeling that sooner or later they should drop the first G from their name, since some of their games are not so “good” but rather just “old games” (Iron Storm? I mean, seriously, that game is crap and nobody even liked it when it was released.) Their recent announcement (with Empire Earth and Master of Magic) lets me wish that I’m wrong and that one day we’ll see maybe Master of Orion there…
all in all I consider gog.com to be a brilliant idea and a thing worth supporting, but there is a certain danger that it won’t work out and we’ll get our classics from Steam anyway.
12/07/2009 at 09:03 ArtyArt says:
Oh yes, and those Interplay classics are well worth their money, of course. Bought them from gog although I already own the boxed versions, just to support the classics.
But apart from that… Neighbours From Hell, Iron Storm, MegaRace 3? The complete Jagged Alliance series for a total of 40$? There’s something wrong there.
12/07/2009 at 09:28 Matzerath says:
The thing with GoG is that they kinda sorta boasted that they had the magical ability to update old games so they would work without a hitch on XP and Vista — and they did do some magic with the initial offerings, particularly Fallout 1, removing some horrible black-out glitches that plagued the game previously. Since then, unfortunately, they have proven to be as hamstrung as Steam or anyone else with old games — their Beyond Good and Evil is as prone to problems as the Steam one, and their Evil Genius has the same strange patch as the Steam version. It seems to me that their initial pitch was that they could make these old games work flawlessly again, but of course that’s something even the original developers seem incapable of doing (I’m watching you, LucasArts!!!)
12/07/2009 at 10:13 Lighthouse says:
@Andresito
If you’re saying that games like Giants, Sacrifice, Fallout 1 and 2 or Duke Nukem aren’t worth 6$ you’re way wrong.
Not all of course – those are the exceptions I mentioned – but one could look at it the other way take Heroes of Might and Magic 1 for $9.99 – a game that is so old and has been abandonware for so long, suddenly has a $10 price tag.
Ground Control if I recall correctly was released as freeware a while back, now you need to pay for it?
It’s things like this that annoys me about GOG – I don’t hate them it’s just that there is almost always something that puts me off getting games there.
The Fallout games would be instant purchases – if I didn’t have all on disk already :)
If the remake of Monkey Island 1 is released as speculated at $9.99 on Steam – that would just be another nail into their coffin. Here a remake of a game featuring new graphics, voice overs etc. would be priced at the same price as many really old games.
Still if people buy who can blame them.
12/07/2009 at 10:18 GreatUncleBaal says:
GoG gave me my Cannon Fodder back – I forgive them anything else, frankly.
I immediately got Fate of Atlantis, The Dig, and Loom off Steam when they came out, and I think they still hold up well today (although of course I have no idea what they would be like for someone who hadn’t played them before, with all that’s happened in game design since their original release).
12/07/2009 at 10:23 Heliocentric says:
GoG don’t seen to care they are not competitive, but they are drm free, so i guess they do have an edge, if i want to play retro games on a laptop i can transport the installer on a usb drive. Without it being piracy gog are the only option with no net access on the target machine.
12/07/2009 at 11:59 little grilly says:
i don’t get this ‘dig is good’ talk. i just played the first hour and deleted it from my computer – the characters and dialogue are terrible.
12/07/2009 at 12:42 Toby says:
Grid is fantastic, and no-one has yet mentioned that you can turn off all the driver assists and it becomes a completely different, much more challenging game. You have to play it with a 360 pad or wheel or whatever though, as you need to use the accelerator/brake in increments or its completely uncontrollable.
12/07/2009 at 13:17 DarkFenix says:
Damn you RPS, this will make four games I’ve bought after seeing it in your bargain bucket posts. Leave my wallet alone!
12/07/2009 at 13:31 Ginger Yellow says:
I’m with Little Grilly, more or less. I couldn’t understand what the fuss was about The Dig, and I love LucasArts adventures. Then again, maybe it gets better after the poijnt at which I gave up on it.
12/07/2009 at 13:44 Nafe says:
Regarding GOG prices: any time someone has a similar discussion regarding Steam prices it’s pointed out that the publisher sets the prices. Isn’t it likely that the same is true of GOG? I agree, some of the games are overpriced, but I doubt that’s GOGs doing.
12/07/2009 at 14:44 untot. says:
Anyone else excited about that new daily deal initiative from GamersGate? They had some nice games for 50% off, including Prince of Persia, Europa Universalis III Complete, etc. Today’s deal is Company of Heroes Complete. Still not very cheap with 30 €, but better than paying that alone for Tales of Valor.
12/07/2009 at 17:25 Dracko says:
If you can’t get into The Dig‘s first half, then the second will just offend you even more.
And seriously, play Last Crusade.
12/07/2009 at 17:40 Vinraith says:
@untot
Yeah, it’s pretty fantastic. Gamersgate sales are a large part of the reason I have a giant pile of game I haven’t even had time to touch yet, and this daily deal business is only going to exacerbate the problem.
12/07/2009 at 18:04 malkav11 says:
What frustrates me about Gamersgate deals is that they don’t have a reliable way to check what, exactly, the deals are at the moment. They just kind of randomly load deal links here and there and are by no means necessarily displaying all of them on the front page at any given moment. That and the way they express their deals just as “X 50% off”. Since I don’t know what they were originally charging, I have no idea if 50% off is a crazy deal or if the game’s still, I dunno, $35 because it was ludicrously expensive to begin with.
12/07/2009 at 19:33 untot. says:
Yeah, the layout of their site and random presentation of the deals is bad.
But I don’t know what you mean with the original price. On the product page is a crossed list price under the actual price. Besides the fact that counting back from 50 % off is not a very difficult mathematical problem. ;) … Or I misunderstood you.
And if a deal is really good, you only know when you compare it to other sites.
13/07/2009 at 03:56 Anthony Damiani says:
So, I bought Titan’s Quest on Saturday. It’s now Sunday night, and I’m still trying to get it to download and install. Remind me to think twice before listening to any reccomendation for Gamer’s Gate again. Their bandwidth is just unacceptable.
13/07/2009 at 06:49 untot. says:
Hmmh. Perhaps some temporary problem? Or they have regional servers which differ in quality. When I downloaded my games some weeks ago, I got 1,8 MB per second, max of my line.
13/07/2009 at 21:08 MrSexyMan says:
Blood Bowl back in stock at GoGamer for those who missed out. Hurry! Hurry! RUN!
13/07/2009 at 22:10 Natus says:
Sixteen hours to download half of Medieval Total War Gold from Gamersgate on a cable modem. It will probably take 2-3 days, all told.
But a Gamersgate employee told me that the game files are “really, really huge”, so that must be it.
13/07/2009 at 22:20 Vinraith says:
@Natus
What actual download speed are you getting? I’ve never had a problem like that on GamersGate before. Most of their servers are overseas so if you’re an American it will be slower than, say, Steam, but I’ve never had a download that was less than 100 kB/s from them.
14/07/2009 at 02:25 Natus says:
@Vinraith
I’m an American and it fluctuates constantly from 35-100 kB/s, but I’m appalled that it will take me three days top download this game. It feels like I’m using a dial-up connection.
I’ll stick with Steam and Impulse from now on; never had this issue with them.
14/07/2009 at 02:30 Vinraith says:
@Natus
Really? I’ve had whole weekends where Steam wouldn’t download at all. Impulse has the fastest download system of the bunch, no question, but I really prefer not to be beholden to a client and I’ve never had the problem you’re describing. Make sure you archive the downloaded files, then at least you’ll never have this problem again.
27/07/2009 at 17:52 KilgoreTrout XL says:
Just picked up Titan Quest, it is dangerously addictive, don’t buy it.
Jesus this game is frigging awesome, but WTB BIGGER FONT. Ok, that’s all.