By RPS on July 24th, 2009 at 8:15 pm.
Welcome all, to the blog post that will add to the pile of games you bought for cheap, and still haven’t got time to play. Yes, it’s the weekly whiff of all things bargainous, as tracked down by the sale-snout of the splendid LewieP, chief bloodhound of the Savygamer kennels. Go visit his site, it’s packed with more ways to spend save money.
Men Of War. MEN OF WAR. Men Of War is cheap on Steam, £6.25 or $7.50 or €7. The RPS team love this multi-faceted strategy from the Eastern Front, and this is cheap. (And I’m going to butt in at this point and say, just buy it, please – Jim.)
Space/Kings Quest Collection – £7.49/€7.49/$14.99
I remember playing the demo of one of the Kings Quest games (possibly 2 or 3) over and over again on the Amiga. It was an adventure game, I washed up on a beach, and there was a prices, a ribbon, a tree and a bird. I had fun toying with the player character. I would make him walk into the water, and then he would die. Fun times. A friend of mine grew up on the Space Quest games, and he swears by them. Is he a nostalgia blinded fool, or are they good?
Dawn of War II – £14.95 or $24.95
Actually a better deal to get it retail in the UK, and you can stick the serial into Steam and it will get added to your Steam account. It’s the video game version of those little toy soldiers you can buy from Games Workshop that you have to paint yourself. Alec had these words to say about it. Demo here and RPS coverage here.
Aces of The Galaxy – £7.49/€7.49/$7.49
Loved the demo of this on the 360, but didn’t even know it existed on the PC till just now. It’s a bit like a modern take on Starwings. In fact, it is a lot like a modern take on Starwings. Good enough concept for me. Check out the demo here. Activision are really on form when it comes to regional gouging, in just one week they have managed to say that £7.49 = €7.49 = $7.49, £7.49 = €14.99 = $14.99 and £7.49 = €7.49 = $14.99. Bravo.
Children of the Nile: Complete – £7.87/€9.15/$12.95
Also available as part of the similarly discounted Tilted Mill Complete bundle, this includes Children of the Nile and the Alexandria expansion. I don’t know much about these Egyptian strategy/sims, but they certainly sound neat, and I love me a bit of Egyptian history. How are they anyone? Demo here.
Deal of the week
Paradox games 50% off
You can get them in Steam, Impulse and GamerGate flavour, so take your pick. Prices are roughly the same across all three, but there is some variation, although GamersGate has the biggest selection. Obvious highlights for me include Mount & Blade, Sword of the Stars, Elven Legacy and King’s Bounty: The Legend, but there is tonnes of great games to be had for cheap. RPS coverage on their games here.
Also of note:
50% off THQ games at D2D UK/USA
Some racing games or something at GOG
You might want to take a look at this if you use Steam a lot too.
If that lot’s not enough for you, do check out SavyGamer.co.uk for constantly-updated bargains across all formats.
24/07/2009 at 20:16 Vinraith says:
Does MoW on Steam support the dynamic campaign mod?
24/07/2009 at 20:17 Jim Rossignol says:
Yes.
24/07/2009 at 20:26 runcrash says:
Do those Sierra Adventures have the same copy protection where you have to look up words in the manual or are they newer versions?
24/07/2009 at 20:29 Xercies says:
Hmm Aces of The galaxy sounds very interesting. I do like a bit of space shoot em up.
24/07/2009 at 20:34 Fat Zombie says:
NEIN! I will not buy Men of War! It does not run on my PC! So There!
24/07/2009 at 20:39 MrBejeebus says:
Unlucky Fat Zomb :(
I might buy MoW again, just to have it on steam, I hate D2D….
Decide my fate!
24/07/2009 at 20:43 FhnuZoag says:
Dammit, RPS, stop showing me these good deals! I have a pile of games on my hard drive that I’m yet to play, and pretty soon I’m going to be pretty much buried in them!
24/07/2009 at 20:45 jonfitt says:
Beware that the Sierra collections are the original games just bundled with DosBox. Your Vista and 64-bit OS mileage may vary.
24/07/2009 at 20:56 abhishek says:
Men of War seemed like an automatic purchase for me after hearing so many good things about it on this blog. However, on the steam store page for the game, it specifically mentions that Vista 64 is not supported. This is a problem for me. I’ve been reading around a bit and it seems that most people managed to run it on a 64bit OS, but i’d appreciate it if the RPS readers could chime in as well. Trying to get the maximum amount of feedback on the issue.
24/07/2009 at 20:59 Bob Bobson says:
I love reading RPS when something really tugs at your enthusiasm (which seems to be most weeks) but I don’t always go out and spend my hard earned on something like MoW just cause you love it. But £6 – count me in!
24/07/2009 at 20:59 toni says:
what, steam is expensive ? and has a discriminating price schema on europe ? NO WAY ! THIS IS NEWS !
24/07/2009 at 21:00 Railick says:
If you buy Men of War beware it will slaughter you if you’ve never played it’s ilk before, however the way it is set up is so good that the learning curve is more like a very short cliff. at first it is very steep but once you get far enough it levels off into a nice steady rise :) Also the Losing is Fun motto from Dwarf Fortress is applied well to this game.
24/07/2009 at 21:08 jonfitt says:
Oi-oi! Careful where you tug at your enthusiasm: you could get into trouble.
24/07/2009 at 21:11 Kirilax says:
Steam just told me that Terran Conflict is 50% off this weekend.
24/07/2009 at 21:16 Heliocentric says:
Does Men of War evenly crisp my toast on both sides without burning the crust?
24/07/2009 at 21:27 Dan Milburn says:
abhishek: I just bought it from Steam without having looked at the thing about Vista 64. It’s working fine for me so far.
24/07/2009 at 21:27 PaulMorel says:
Buy King’s Bounty.
That is all.
24/07/2009 at 21:28 leederkrenon says:
men of war at that price is silly. BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT FOOLS BUY IT!
24/07/2009 at 21:37 juv3nal says:
ooh King’s Bounty for cheap. Might have to buckle down and get it.
24/07/2009 at 21:43 Dominic White says:
Personally, I can’t reccomend Aces of The Galaxy. I got it back when it launched on the 360, and while fun for a while, it really doesn’t have any of the subtlety or detail of Starfox.
Don’t say it’s just nostalgia – I’ve got Starfox on the Wii, and replay it every now adn then. It’s still great to this day, mainly due to the variety of enemies, levels and bosses. Aces of The Galaxy sadly devolves into an exercise in mashing the fire buttons as fast as you can, which is sad, as there’s potential for a lot of depth in the genre.
24/07/2009 at 21:49 Mortiphago says:
abhishek: I’ve seen it run on Windows7 flawlessy, so I guess it should run on Vista64 also
24/07/2009 at 21:50 Collic says:
About the x64 bit regarding Men of War. I have XP x64 (also not officially supported) by the game. And it runs perfectly.
I would look on that as this is a small dev so can’t afford to test/ support x64, not that it does’nt work. It does. So buy it !
24/07/2009 at 21:51 jonfitt says:
I’m looking forward to Men of War. Lovely, lovely, sales.
What’s the current best price for Demigod? I want to pick that up, but am waiting for a good price drop as I’m feeling cheap.
24/07/2009 at 21:51 Collic says:
EDIT : In the unlikely event you run into problems, just don’t tell them you have an x64 OS :)
24/07/2009 at 21:52 AW says:
Have to agree with FhnuZoag, when the bargain bucket was on hiatus for a few weeks while LewisP was somewhere wandering blighty, I was just itching for deals. Now I’m thinking I’m going to have to go to a marriage counselor.
Plus Steam is like crack.
24/07/2009 at 21:53 user@example.com says:
I’m buying Men of War. I have no idea why – I just got the urge to buy Ground Control (with the expansion, which I hadn’t played) from GOG, so it’s not like I’ll be able to play MoW for ages…
*shakes fist at LewieP*
24/07/2009 at 21:56 M_the_C says:
As Kirilax mentioned X3: Terran Conflict is only £11.49 on Steam, which is a little less than retail. But you can also get the X3\X3:TC bundle for £14.99. Still not quite sure about this, I am not buying any game with activation limits, but they have said they will remove the protection at some point so I could just hold onto it.
Also wanted to give a little recommendation for Children of the Nile. The price isn’t that cheap but it’s a good game, if you like a more laid back pace. All the people have little lives that they live and it can be fun just watching them go about their daily lives.
Oh and finally, it’s not a deal but a Tropico bundle has recently been released. Works out best from Impulse and Steam at £9.99.
24/07/2009 at 22:12 Dominic White says:
Terran Conflict is basically X3, upgraded with a new (and SO much better) UI and combined with XTended, the fan-made expansion that the developers liked so much, they bought it and hired its creators. Aside from the really naff singleplayer campaign of the original X3, there’s no reason to own it if you have TC.
24/07/2009 at 22:14 We Fly Spitfires - MMORPG Blog says:
I heard Dawn of War is very good. I’d also recommend Sins of a Solar Empire on Impulse for anyone who hasn’t played it. It’s a truly awesome game.
24/07/2009 at 22:15 Wirbelwind says:
Dawn of War 2 is great, grab it – I say.
24/07/2009 at 22:18 Vinraith says:
The original Dawn of War was great, Dawn of War 2 is… not. For anyone interested, I’d highly recommend the demo, it talked me right out of a purchase.
And as to Sins of a Solar Empire, quite possible the most overrated, over-hyped mediocre RTS of this century so far, I STRONGLY recommend the demo before making a purchase.
24/07/2009 at 22:18 Psychopomp says:
I bought Men of War about three months ago.
I still have yet to play past the fifth mission in the campaign, and I’m terrified of going online, but it’s absolutely lovely.
24/07/2009 at 22:24 Psychopomp says:
I also love Dawn of War 2, but it pales in comparison to Men of War.
Both of them aren’t for everyone. Men of War is balls hard, and Dawn of War’s single player can get a bit repetitive on the lower difficulties, and multiplayer is dreadful without a good team.
They’re both very much micro level games, with macro being almost non-existant, which I like. Dawn of War 2 is like Men of War’s prettier, sci-fi cousin, whereas Men of War is the worn, battle hardened man with a funny accent, and some really, really great war stories to tell.
That damn left-click still throws me off in Men of War, though.
24/07/2009 at 22:30 Hoernchen says:
Space quest ? Burlesque mode !
24/07/2009 at 22:30 SwiftRanger says:
DoW II is awesome, singleplayer becomes boring after the first 20 campaign days or so but it’s fresh enough and easily beats the linear campaign of the original and the multiracial template campaigns of DC and SS (WA still is the most memorable DoW experience though, can’t beat the General). Multiplayer/skirmish is another game almost, a better one even, despite Live troubles sometimes.
24/07/2009 at 22:50 Smike says:
Anyone know anything about Knights of Honor? Is it worth the the $7.50 on Steam?
24/07/2009 at 22:52 Vinraith says:
@Smike
I humbly suggest that Crusader Kings with the Deus Vult expansion is the better option for that time period. It’s also got a couple of nice mods.
24/07/2009 at 23:00 fuggles says:
Dawn of War 2 seems to have settled at a permanent £10 on play.com.
Is it a reflection of a games’ quality that it is budget price so quickly? Well, no, because it’s still not worth that in my book.
24/07/2009 at 23:02 l1ddl3monkey says:
Got me some cheap Penumbra as I like scaring myself to death, originality and doing puzzley type things and this appears to fit all three of those bills…
24/07/2009 at 23:04 Jad says:
I’ve heard your calls to purchase Men of War before, and I’m temped by the low low price this time, but the comments on its difficulty have turned me off somewhat.
Its not that I dislike RTSes, its just that I’m truly awful at them. Multi-tasking under a time limit is definitely not a strong suit of mine — I tend to hyper-focus on a couple of units to the detriment of my army and economy as a whole.
So I take it that MoW does not have any kind of InsultinglyEasyMode? Can you pause it and still give orders, making it pseudo-turn based? Can you succeed by focusing only on a couple of units?
(a note: I expect the answers to the above questions to be “No”, and I’m fine with that. It just means that MoW is a good game, just one that is Not For Me.)
24/07/2009 at 23:06 Railick says:
@Vinraith Dawn of War II is my all time favorite RTS game ever from the start of time forward to this current day (and I’ve played literally every RTS ever released as I’m an RTS nut) It has the best story and game play I’ve ever had. The ending was fantastic and I’m hoping to God there is an expansion soon. I loved Dawn of War as well and got all the expansions for that, they are two totally diffrent games though (and I like that) it also like the difference between Warhammer 40k and Warhammer 40k Epic.
I’m not commenting on multiplayer, only single player.
24/07/2009 at 23:11 Dominic White says:
Some of you may have missed it, but Dawn of War 2 was recently notable for having the entire multiplayer game (which is really a seperate game altogether from singleplayer – they share art assets and not much else) reworked, because Relic weren’t happy with how it turned out.
As of the ‘There Is Only War’ megapatch, it’s a far better multiplayer game, and much more Warhammery-feeling, especially in a heated 3v3 match, where the first half of the match will be infantry slugging it out in inconclusive skirmishes, until one side has the resources and nerve to try a push with armor.
24/07/2009 at 23:12 jonfitt says:
DoW2 is great. The SP campaign was really good, and the MP is a blast. I’m waiting for the new mega update to drop before I go back to it and really get into the MP.
I can’t wait for the inevitable expansions with new campaigns.
24/07/2009 at 23:13 jonfitt says:
@Dominic White
I watched the gameplay videos of the megapatch and it looked really good. I’m just waiting for it to go final before I invest time in learning the changes. Any idea when they say that’ll be?
24/07/2009 at 23:14 DMJ says:
I obey, masters.
24/07/2009 at 23:17 jalf says:
Eh, I’m not too hooked on the new patch. I understand what they’re trying to do, and the basic idea is good. But in practice, it’s just turned the game into an even more pronounced slippery slope, where once you’re in the lead, you’ve got all the advantages and virtually nothing can stop you from winning. I’ve really gotten annoyed with the MP lately. It’s far too competitive and punishing, and just not much *fun*. It suffered a bit from this even at launch (when compared to the first game), but the big patch definitely emphasized it further.
But like jonfitt said, definitely looking forward to new campaigns in expansions.
24/07/2009 at 23:17 Railick says:
@Jad YES! For the most part you CAN win some of the missions by focusing on 1 dude if you really want to, at least on the missions where you’re assaulting. That is the way I’ve always played it, control one take or one guy at a time and take out the enemy as slowly as possible. OF course the defence missions that isn’t going to work (I always lose those for the same exact reason you mention, I’m focused on 1 guy at a time while the enemy is destroying the flank I didn’t even know I had) But in that respect even if you do lose a couple of times you can get the hang of it very quickly. The AI is smart enough for your soliders that if you put them in the right place at the right time they will defend themselves very well. (in my opinion)
And there are tons of little hero moments where you sneak one guy out of the battle line and use him to destroy a tank that is mauling your forces suddenly turning the tide of battle.
24/07/2009 at 23:18 Vinraith says:
@Railick
To each their own. Single player was my only concern as well, and I found it terribly uninvolving and dull.
Regardless, though, surely we can agree that anyone interested is always well served to try the demo first. If it’s their type of game it’ll be no hindrance, and if it’s not it’ll save them some cash.
24/07/2009 at 23:19 Heliocentric says:
Just get the game band box your soldiers and send them off to get massacred, just like a real soviet general.
I too own this game on D2D, and regret the store choice. £6 quid might just be a call to buy the game twice, at least i can set up lan games with my 2 keys?
Eh, i’m gonna go and investigate the mod compatibility with steam, its kinda critical.
24/07/2009 at 23:19 MrBejeebus says:
got my friend to buy MoW, yay now im not alone!
is kings bounty any good?
24/07/2009 at 23:19 jonfitt says:
DoW2 Ork expansion announced: Men of WAAAGH!
24/07/2009 at 23:21 Heliocentric says:
Kings bounty plays alot like early campaign missions of heroes of might and magic. Especially homam5.
It also has a demo you lazy bastard.
24/07/2009 at 23:22 Vinraith says:
What I really wish is that someone would do with the 40K license what Cyanide did with the Blood Bowl license: make a pure PC translation of the board game.
Give that a strong AI and a large set of army lists and I’d buy it in a heartbeat and play nothing else for months.
24/07/2009 at 23:22 RogB says:
Jad: it has an easy mode, but even that takes the p… most of the time. Ive got it, it looks lovely, but i cannot get more than a couple of missions into any campaign as its SO BLOODY HARD that its put me right off so I only played it for a few days. I just dont have the time these days to be constantly replaying stuff and getting nowhere.
(in a 180 degree about turn of self hypocrisy, I am currently ploughing hours into DCS Black shark on ultra realistic mode. hows that for punishing… ) But at least DCS:BS is about self betterment and practice. MoW just seem to HATE you for being weak.
24/07/2009 at 23:24 jonfitt says:
Oooh DCS:BS. I want to get that at some point. Are there any good deals for it?
24/07/2009 at 23:24 Andrew Dunn says:
Jad: Men of War focuses heavily on using Direct Control of a single unit (usually a tank or other vehicle) to influence the course of battles, even in the largest clashes (which can have thousands of casualties on each side).
24/07/2009 at 23:26 Wirbelwind says:
Fuck yes General Sturnn.
@JohnFitt – probably early next week, that’s my guess. Nothing confirmed except we ‘shouldn’t be pessimistic’ and ‘soon’.
24/07/2009 at 23:27 Railick says:
Vinraith I would suggest you pirate the game or something and try playing past the first few single player missions the game gets MARKEDLY better after that point (Once you get your full array of squads and start to customize them it gets VERY addictive) Also the use of squad tactics, moving through the levels trying to get the best time/kill while not losing anyone is something I really enjoyed allowing me to play the same level over and over with diffrent bosses without getting bored. I’m on my second play through the campaign now and I have to disagree that the game is uninvolving OR dull. I can certainly see how you might think that if you’ve only played the first few levels though (When you only have one or two squads and you’ve not really faced a real challenge yet)
The story is also very intersting and through-out the game the background of the Blood Ravens is made deeper by the items you find (which have flavor text when they’re relics and you find a lot of relics) and the dialog between characters.
I normally wouldn’t tell someone to pirate a game but I just think if you played more of the campaign than what would be in the demo you’d be convinced to buy the game ;) So I disagree in THIS case that the demo is a good example of what the real game is like, where as with Sins of a Solar Empire the demo is more than enough to tell if you’ll like it or not.
I’m not saying you’re wrong Vinraith, I just want to bring you over to my side and see you enjoy the game like I did. I may be biased however as I LOVE Warhammer 40k’s setting and characters and this game totally brings it out way better than Dawn of War I did to the point where the units make inside references to the Lore of the boardgame even when you’re moving them about in multiplayer. For example sometimes the Orks say “A kommado whe like snuck his own head off boss!” which is funny to me for some reason :P And the eldar will say “The screaming banshee temple dedicates itself to your cause!” Which if you know anything about the Eldar you’d know each temple is lead by an exarch and serves the Craftworld individually. They also mention the Exiles and other junk. I also love that each unit type has its own response to each type of enemy unit for example the space marines will say “Orks. . . ” in disgust or “eldar scum” If it’s eldar and sometimes they even respond in unique ways depending on which exact unit they are fighting for example they’ll say “Tynarid Lictor, watch your back!!” And THIs is in multiplayer so it is totally unscripted.
24/07/2009 at 23:28 Diomedes says:
Dow 2 £9.99 play.com
http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/5380006/Warhammer-40000-Dawn-Of-War-II/Product.html
24/07/2009 at 23:30 RogB says:
@jonfitt, its less about good deals, more about actually finding the thing. I eventually opted for GAME (yuck), as it was 25 quid (same as amazon), but i had some ‘loyalty’ (yuck *2) points to blow so it ened up being 17 quid.
It is lovely though, the game mode is surprisingly accessible too, turns it into a consoley type game for big shooty fun at first. then you turn real mode on and spend several hours flailing around and crashing in novel ways as you cant even hover it properly..
24/07/2009 at 23:40 Vinraith says:
@Railick
When it gets down to the $5-$10 price point on sale I may pick it up just on the strength of the license, at which point I’d be able to see. I’m not a big CoH fan, and it felt like a very limited version of that game. It’s also not helpful that Space Marines are among my least favorite 40K armies (to play AS that is, I quite enjoy stomping them flat).
Anyway, I haven’t written it off, but I do think people are wise to approach it with a little caution since it’s such a radically different game than the original.
24/07/2009 at 23:42 Railick says:
@Jonfitt & RogB – I have DCS Blackshark as well and the week after I purchased it my 2 year old daughter used my joystick to hammer a nail into the floor or something and totally destroyed it O.o So now until I get some extra money (read tax return season) I can’t play it. I suffered from a bug that made the auto-start up just stop working and couldn’t get the thing to fly for some reason, it just wouldn’t gain ground. I really would like to learn how to fly it but until I get a new joystick set up I’m grounded :P That having been said I did fly a Blackshark in Arm -A for a while before my joystick was destroyed and had a lot more fun doing that even though it is very unrealistic.
P.S. My daughter has also destroyed 9 of my game CDs and my expensive gamer head set with mic (by destroying the USB connection some how) and she hidden the rest of my games God knows where. I love kids ^_^
24/07/2009 at 23:46 jonfitt says:
@RogB
It’s been ages since I played a modern setting combat flight sim (Falcon 4 was probably the last), and I really had good fun mastering Apache/Hind back in the day. Combine that with the TrackIR support in DCS and I really want to play it, but know I don’t have the time right now.
24/07/2009 at 23:48 jonfitt says:
@Railick perhaps a padlocked trunk with all your games in might be in order!
24/07/2009 at 23:52 RobF says:
Have they put in alternate controller support for Aces yet or is it still munged to the mouse by prats?
24/07/2009 at 23:54 Railick says:
I’d really like a chance to play as the Imperial Guard if they give an expansion. They HAVE them in the game (As one of the planets is a forge world/hive world and it controlled by imperial guard) And at some points you even fight along side them and they’re pretty well rendered :)
My favorite moment is when one of your captains gets injured, then you find a cure for the poison killing him and he gets to come back as a F@#@# dreadnaught right in the middle of a battle, you’ll have to play to see what happens ^_^ Also you can call down Drop pods in the midst of battle on top of enemies heads and missing units will come out of them and join the correct squad.
I do like DoW’s expansions approach to a template campaign on map. I know a lot of people complained but I realy liked the Kronus campaign and literally beat it with each race just to see what happened. (Tau are my favorite race with Eldar as a close second and Orks third)
If any game I’ve ever purchased was worth 50 dollars it would be DOW 2 I’ve NEVER gotten the same amount of satisfaction from a game as I have from this one.
24/07/2009 at 23:57 Oak says:
Though it’s not technically on sale, the new Tropico pack M_the_C mentioned is definitely worth your money. They were wonderful games and I’m really glad they’re available again.
24/07/2009 at 23:58 Blather Blob says:
I’ve been putting off getting Men Of War during sales until I finish Faces Of War, but I might just bite this time. I’m also tempted by the DRM-free And Yet It Moves on D2D for half-off. $5 seems about right for the game.
If you don’t care about/don’t want the Steam wrapping around the space quest games, it looks like the collection is cheaper at GoGamer than even Steam’s sale price. King’s Quest is cheaper at Steam though. Looks like GoGamer have Mirror’s Edge for $6 again this weekend, probably because they all sold out last Friday and didn’t get more stock in until Monday when the sale was over.
25/07/2009 at 00:02 Railick says:
I’m still waiting for someone to a new Go computer game that is in 3d and simulates the sounds ect of Go AND ontop of that can teach you how to play Go starting from Kyu 25 up through early Dan levels. If they had a game like this and put it on the Wii and allowed you to point with the controller, pick up the stones and place them on the board AND allowed online play with a ranked community based on wins versus losses I might actaully buy a Wii :P
25/07/2009 at 00:08 Vinraith says:
@Railick
Yeah, I adore metamap campaigns in RTS games. Then again I’m a sucker for turn based strategy games, so providing RTS battles with strategic context is a higher priority for me than providing them with narrative context.
25/07/2009 at 00:14 Railick says:
Vinraith – You may not know this but in Dawn of War 2 you get to choose which mission you will take next by a meta map. You can capture structures in the game (Com Centers, Factories, and Statues of the Emperor) which have long lasting effects on the game. For example if you capture a com center you can all in artillery fire twice in the following missions on that planet, If you capture more you get more. Also for every one you have you get a special piece of info on the mission say, the main enemies weakness or what kind of enemies you’ll be fighting. The game tracks the Tyranid Infestation on all three planets and actaully DRAWS the Hive Fleet based on how well you’re doing. So if you’re totally sucking the hive fleet will be devouring all three planets, but if you do well you’ll only see it in the bottom right hand corner streaming from off screen.
There are several main objectives going at any one time as well as attack and defend objectives that have time limits in days (each day you can deploy once with the ability to earn 2 extra bonus deployments if you do well, owning factories allows you to get a bonus towards extra deployment and also allows you to deploy turrets durning missions) So you really have to think about what you’re doing and make tactical choices. On top of this the rewards for each mission vary so you have to take that into mind when doing them. If you want a certain piece of war gear for a certain character you may want to do one mission while allowing another one to expire (this gets really heavy towards the end when you’re getting Relic wargear and Terminator armor ect) So this game has Rts battles with strategic context AND has tons of narrative content to go along with it. (might I also add that doing certain side missions reveals things about the blood ravens and character’s past that you would not get if you didn’t do it)
25/07/2009 at 00:15 Railick says:
On and you have to travel between planets and when you do it shows a cut scene of your battle barge going through a warp tunnel ^_^
25/07/2009 at 00:16 Carra says:
Bought Men of War in a weekend deal for €15 a month or two ago and now they’re basically giving it away! Everyone who hasn’t played it should give it a try, you’ll probably love it.
Finished the german campaign and half the Russian campaign. I should go back and play the rest of the game… if only Anno 1404 wasn’t so much fun.
25/07/2009 at 00:18 Heliocentric says:
Warp travel is not to be taken lightly cut scene! Ship go missing for millennia and arrive with the still warm and freshly desecrated corpses of those who left that thousand years ago.
Warp is serious business!
25/07/2009 at 00:24 Railick says:
@Heliocentric – dunno if you’ve played the game but Gabrielle Angelos is coming with the Blood Angels fleet to save you and the Hive Mind makes THEIR warp travel much more dangerous (killing astropaths with physic attacks ect)
25/07/2009 at 00:28 Heliocentric says:
The nids haven’t wiped out the the imperials because the nids know better than to stand too near to the eye of terror. S’all i’m saying.
25/07/2009 at 00:40 Railick says:
Wonder what would happen if the Hive Mind were to be curropted by the Warp and Chaos Gods, becoming a new Chaos God in and of itself. Combine the Nid ability to evolve based on bio-matter and DNA harvested with the random mutations of the Warp creatures and you have a totally unstoppable force.
25/07/2009 at 00:48 Heliocentric says:
They really are opposites, mash them together and you’d just ruin them.
Nids are nature at its peak, chaos is the corruption of life by sentience. Hive minds don’t get angry, scheming, seduced or fear death. If the nids really stretched out the chaos gods might well find themselves short of thoughts and feelings to feed off.
25/07/2009 at 01:16 Vinraith says:
@Railick
You’ve made your case, man, you can stop now. :)
I’ll give it a look when it hits a “little to no risk” kind of price point. I promise!
25/07/2009 at 01:58 postmanX3 says:
Bought Penumbra during the Paradox sale!
And thoroughly freaked out. On the other hand, it inspired me to read Call of Cthulhu, so I suppose more than just blind fear came of it.
25/07/2009 at 01:58 bansama says:
Well it appears that Valve still haven’t fixed this error:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/10140/?cc=au
So if you know someone in a suitable region, get ‘em to gift it to you. The game isn’t all that bad either, especialy at that price.
25/07/2009 at 01:59 Dave says:
Gah, I bought Saints Row 2 a couple weeks ago at Target for something like $35. And got carded.
25/07/2009 at 02:36 Collic says:
@ jad (and any one else worried by MoW’s difficulty) the SP missions can be a bit tough but completing them is very rewarding.
Also, if you can get a freind or two on board they’re even more fun with co-op ( and often a lot more forgiving).
All i can say is ask yourself how many games have challenged you recently?
Damnit, it’s a good thing, and precious few games seem able to manage that these days.
25/07/2009 at 02:39 Blather Bob says:
Speaking of Saint’s Row 2 (which is one of the D2D 50% off THQ games), I’m pretty sure it’s a game you can (and in fact have to) type the key into Steam and have it added to your Steam account, even if you buy it from D2D. At least that’s the case with the boxed copies.
25/07/2009 at 02:59 Serenegoose says:
is men of war like the first blitzkrieg? because I never really bought it because I was worried it was going to be too much like heroes of world war 2, and I’d spend most of my time sucking fuel out of barrels to put in my one tank, rather than holding defensive lines with a reasonable yet small force, or conducting combined arms assaults on villages.
25/07/2009 at 03:10 Vinraith says:
I have a recollection that there was something wrong with the PC port of Saints Row 2, does anyone here own the game? Have the problems with the port been fixed through patching?
25/07/2009 at 03:27 bansama says:
No the problems have not been fixed and there will apparently, be no further patches. Which makes the game fairly unplayable when trying to drive vehicles (unless you like 2 fps).
25/07/2009 at 03:29 Vinraith says:
Thanks bansama, that’s a pass then.
25/07/2009 at 03:37 Blather Bob says:
I have a GTX 260, 4GB of RAM, and a core 2 quad. SR2 has laggyness on max settings, but I don’t have to turn stuff down very much to make it smooth. I think the fact that my games are on a RAID0 partition might be why I don’t get the streaming problems when driving at high speeds that so many complain about. It’s still ridiculous that it should have any problems at all, since it isn’t that complex (graphically or otherwise). But it is fun, and it does have coop.
25/07/2009 at 03:37 Dodomaster says:
@Serenegoose
It’s more of a combo, most missions you have lots of units under you control, but you can still have the micromanaging of showwII. (and most vehicles have enough fuel this time around)
btw, I like showwII more then men of war, because of the small squads.
25/07/2009 at 03:39 mejobloggs says:
Kinda keen on MoW cause everyone raves about it so much, but… How heavy on micromanagement is it? I tried Company of Heroes but I just couldnt keep up with having to manage all the troops
25/07/2009 at 03:44 Collic says:
@serengoose
I’ve never played any if the previous titles, but none of the men of war missions play out like that.
Theres a good mix between all out assault missions ( with you controlling a whole flank in a larger battle), stealth missions ( plays a lot like the old commandos games- often a team of four- very fun in co -op) , and defend missions; you holding a defensive line (s) as wave after wave of men come at you, zap brannigan style.
25/07/2009 at 03:49 Scandalon says:
What, no more love for SpaceQuest? I only played the first 3 (starting with 3, then 1 and 2), and I know nostalgia is calling, but I thought they were ace…when I was 12-15 at least. $15…tempting. But I know I’ll never finish them…
25/07/2009 at 04:04 somnolentsurfer says:
Ick. This could be a bad weekend for my bank ballance. Very much tempted by both Men of War and Kings Bounty after all the hype they’ve had on RPS. But there’s also those Sierra adventures that I never played as a young’un ’cause I was a LucasArts boy. Hmm…
Has anyone tried the Steam releases of the Space/Kings Quest games? Can you give any assesment of whether they work on Vista (either 32 or 64)? And do they actually only come as one download, like the store suggests, or will they run seperatly from Steam? Like, will my gameplay stats show “King’s Quest Collection” or “Quest for the Crown”? And is it really sad that that matters to me?
25/07/2009 at 04:36 malkav11 says:
I’m really torn about the Paradox sale. It’s both internally developed titles and ones they’ve just published. And I already own the ones they just published that I have any interest in. But some of their internal titles are quite temptingly priced….I just have had no luck getting into the ones I own. (Europa Universalis II, Hearts of Iron) So I’m dubious about spending more money on their stuff.
25/07/2009 at 04:40 D says:
Smike says: Anyone know anything about Knights of Honor? Is it worth the the $7.50 on Steam?
One of my personal favorites, when applied with one of the two big mods for it. Not a perfect game by any count; I have always only autoresolved combat, for the RTS part is bollocks.
But the strategy is great fun, building castles and cities is rewarding and tough, and it contains the single best design of spys this type of game can have.
25/07/2009 at 04:49 Stromko says:
Personally I wouldn’t recommend King’s Bounty, though now that it’s on a 50% off deal it may be somewhat more worth its price.
For a Heroes of Might & Magic clone, it’s pretty good, has some good new twists and such .. but it’s grindtastic. Whole lot of zooming all over the map finding battles you can win and slowly leveling up so you can take on the tougher fights, and so on and so forth, until you’re strong enough to defeat some massive roadblock and get to a new area or complete a quest. And that’s just in the first chapter, which is as far as I got, I hear the ending chapters go /really/ downhill.
Obviously for someone out there it’s a fantastic game and was worth its original price, the editors here love it, but it’s not for everyone.
25/07/2009 at 06:18 Wedge says:
I actively loathe all RTS games, yet I still want to try out that silly mens of wars game for that price…
25/07/2009 at 08:43 MrBejeebus says:
wow bansama, thats crazy…
i was in the beta for DoW 2 with a ton of my friends cos we all wanted to get it, it put us all off, we liked DoW 1, not the streamlined-to-ridiculousness approach of DoW 2
25/07/2009 at 09:52 MemorialHall says:
I want to second Knights of Honor. It’s similar to the total war games with a much better, very addictive strategic game and much worse tactical one. As D mentioned, just autoresolve combat. The rest is worth it.
25/07/2009 at 10:40 RogB says:
@jonfitt & Railick
since this is a bargains thread I should share some savey type info. If you are at all interested in TrackIR but put off by the extortionate price (£150?), have a look at free-track.net.
Its a free system that works in a similar fashion to TrackIR but uses a normal USB webcam and a homebrew LED style array on your head. I made mine with an unused PS2 Eyetoy, some photographice film negatives, 3 IR LEDS, a cap, and 2 AA batteries. cost for things i didnt already have = about £5!!!!! bargain! even with a budget (supported) webcam thrown in it shouldnt cost more than 15 quid, but some wiring assembly is required.
and it can interface with trackir supported games (even Black shark – with a ‘fix’ since they’ve started encrypting trackir support now)
plus if you are after a joystick, i bought the thrustmaster t-flight hotas X for 33 quid on amazon, and its PS3 compatible too. Seems to be a lot of ‘stick for a low price.
25/07/2009 at 10:42 CaseytheBrash says:
Anyone on this side of the pond (The Colonies) up for some Men of War multi?
25/07/2009 at 11:00 Owen says:
Well under recommended specs but have been considering buying this for some time, so will do so now (especially as Jim’s insisting again!).
Just d/l the demo on steam to make sure it runs ok and so far so good, although I suspect with a AMD XP3000+ 1GB 7800GS it may struggle on the larger levels.
Just out of interest can anyone tell me whether the demo level(s?) are a good performance indicator of the full game? ie. they’re not tiny levels compared to the main game?
25/07/2009 at 12:34 Rei Onryou says:
MoW is a definite. Not 100% sure about Mount and Blade. Is it linked into Steam in any way, as I’m pretty sure it’s still cheaper to get via retail.
25/07/2009 at 13:18 EyeMessiah says:
Men of war runs fine on Vista 64 for me.
25/07/2009 at 14:02 D says:
@Rei Mount&Blade is a cult classic, if you haven’t played it you should. It has no multiplayer so I wouldn’t think theres any advantage to the steam version.
25/07/2009 at 14:06 Owen says:
Ok so it actually runs a treat and is utterly brilliant. I remember now that I did actually download the demo when Jim posted about it back-a-when. However the file was corrupt. Doh.
Incidentally for anyone interested it runs great on my spec posted a couple of comments up.
Finally the only area I wasn’t happy with was the lack of save, but I noticed Jim answered this question in the RPS demo thread, and you can indeed save at any time.
Buying right now :D
25/07/2009 at 14:09 cccp says:
Thanks for this. Just picked up EU3 complete for £12.59 which is a fantastic price (even though i already had the original).
Also noticed that Tropico reloaded is on GamersGate for £14.99 but unfortunately I can only fit 24 hours in a day ;)
25/07/2009 at 16:14 Lukasz says:
10c for 3d ultra golf is the best deal of this week…
people buy it and gift it to others from less fortunate countries.
Gifted two games myself
a person from GOG gifted 11
heh. wonder what will be company’s reaction?
25/07/2009 at 16:19 LewieP says:
could someone gift me tne cheap golf thing?
25/07/2009 at 16:23 Lukasz says:
sure lewiep. email?
25/07/2009 at 16:42 Scott R says:
Sword of the Stars Ultimate for $15? Yes please!
25/07/2009 at 17:22 Blather Bob says:
@Lukasz: Looks like he has an address listed about half-way down http://savygamer.co.uk, on the right-hand side. Terribly kind of you to support the man who gets the lot of us such great deals!
25/07/2009 at 17:30 Lukasz says:
yeah… not anymore tough. Game is back to original, proper price of ten bucks. so i did not send the game to lewiep.
25/07/2009 at 18:50 Crispy says:
Picked up the Penumbra pack. I’m surprised you didn’t name it in the ‘Deal of the Week’ selection.
25/07/2009 at 19:03 Blather Bob says:
@Lukasz: Oh well, tough luck.
@Crispy: It is the deal of the week, being part of the paradox 50% off sale. It probably didn’t get called out specifically because it had an even better sale on steam one month ago, when it was LewieP’s deal of the week.
Does anyone else find it hard to buy a game on sale when you know it had been on sale for less earlier?
25/07/2009 at 19:13 SwiftRanger says:
Anyone know anything about Knights of Honor? Is it worth the the $7.50 on Steam?
Definitely worth it, it’s not as complex as a true Paradox game (like Crusader Kings idd) and the tactical parts aren’t as good as those of the Total War series but its campaign is very, very charming and offers something really fresh with the Knights and their classes. It also has some mods and the best medieval music you can find in these kind of games. Simply put, it’ll make you cheer.
25/07/2009 at 19:34 LewieP says:
Cheers anyway Lucasz
25/07/2009 at 19:46 Lukasz says:
I didn’t realize who you were LewieP. next time ;)
25/07/2009 at 20:16 Lucas says:
The Demigod demo is coming soon so there may well be a sale when it hits. It’s been $35 at retail online (Newegg and Amazon) since release, and I got it for $20 on Impulse when they did the 50% discount codes for existing players. This game has legs, and it keeps getting better. Go Stardock & GPG!
Strong recommendations for Men of War, Dawn of War 2, King’s Bounty, and Children of the Nile. Tropico remains one of the greatest. I still have yet to really dig into Mount & Blade.
25/07/2009 at 20:43 Erlam says:
For anyone considering Dawn of War 2 – know that the ‘matchmaking’ is the worst of any game I’ve ever played. I decided to take an average of 10 games and see what it did. i only managed to get 8 in, as I couldn’t connect to a single friend on my friendslist to join them.
Game 1: rank 3(me), rank 1, rank 1 vs. rank 13, rank 36, rank 23.
Game 2: rank 3(me), rank 7, rank 1 vs. rank 56(!!!), rank 35, rank 39.
Game 3: rank 1(me – on my Orc), rank 11, rank 2 vs. rank 25, rank 31, rank 17.
And so on. The closest was 3, 11, 5, vs. 17, 25, 35.
Seriously, unless you have friends who you’re somehow able to connect to for 3v3, I’d definitely play the demo first. In fact, avoid it if you don’t have a tonne of friends who play it.
(I should also mention, the friends I couldn’t connect to that day I’ve played frequently with – the inability to connect is random).
25/07/2009 at 21:23 abhishek says:
Well I eventually picked up Men of War after almost everyone reassured me that it would work on a 64 bit OS. In retrospect, it was probably a foregone conclusion that I would have bought it. Such is the effect of this website pimping the game up and down over the past few months. Next on the to-get list is King’s Bounty, which I have previously seen at a lower price than the current 50% discount going around presently, so I’ll wait for an even better deal to come on Steam. I like that these weekend deals have increased my patience when it comes to waiting for a game… instead of buying them impulsively which is what I used to do a few months ago. On the other hand, my credit card bill is steadily increasing from games which I purchase just because they’re on sale… So I wonder if I come out ahead on the whole deal =)
25/07/2009 at 22:41 Crispy says:
@Erlam:
It’s true that the matchmaking in DoW2 is horrendous. I would recommend playing ‘Public’ so you can create your own lobby and invite/vet the other players or at least even the teams by liberal kicking of unhelpful types. You can also try out compstomps with other players where you just play with human teammates against AI players.
As for playing with friends, you need to join their lobby before the game starts, as it’s not drop-in/drop-out (I don’t know any RTS that is drop-in/drop-out for that matter).
For beginners to the game the following helps a lot:
- Until you get used to the game, it’s best to always retreat a squad when it reaches 50%, as squad members tend to start dying after that. Retreating and reinforcing is cheaper than buying a new squad.
- You take far reduced ranged damage but increased melee damage when retreating. Your retreat speed increases over time to maximum. There are some units that can chase down retreating squads and finish them off so against melee specialists retreat earlier if you don’t have the upper hand.
- Vehicles and walkers are generally pants unless you manage them at all times. They are fun to use but anti-armour can take them out quickly. Shift+click can queue up a sequence of waypoints which helps with vehicle micro.
- Use the hotkeys for your unit selection (1-10). Get used to reassigning your units to the same hotkeys as they spawn. You can double-tap a unit hotkey to switch the camera to their location.
- Click on the minimap to move the camera around quickly.
- Try to stay in the ‘channel’ your HQ is positioned in. I.e. don’t send your forces south if you start at the northernmost HQ.
- There’s a lot of rock-paper-scissors between different unit damage types and armour types. Try watching some of the replays here to get a feel for things: http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index.php?showforum=2911
- Failing that take a gander at the new revamped DoW2 Codex: http://dow2.info/
25/07/2009 at 22:45 Crispy says:
P.S. Penumbra is a gem. I haven’t pooed myself like this while playing a game in ages. I’m only about 15 mins in and I’m scared to go any further. Genuinely draining and ‘proper’ horror (not peek-a-boo frights).
26/07/2009 at 00:15 Crispy says:
“farther”
(sorry but I couldn’t let that one go)
26/07/2009 at 00:42 GrammarNazi says:
Either of those are proper usage.
26/07/2009 at 01:30 Matzerath says:
Not buying Men of War! No! I don’t care if it’s ten cents with a happy ending! Well OK, maybe.
26/07/2009 at 01:40 Ashurbanipal says:
Crispy and Grammarnazi,
Quoting my copy of Usage and Abusage: “A rough distinction is this: farther, farthest are applied to distance and nothing else; further, furthest, either to distance or to addition (‘a further question’).
Because we’re not talking real world distances here, we’re speaking of intangible distances. Further should be used.
26/07/2009 at 03:36 ChampionHyena says:
It’s so cute to watch people try and argue that Dawn of War II and Sins of a Solar Empire are bad games. Seriously. Adorable.
Meanwhile, since it dropped to the price of a high-end sub sandwich, I decided it was about time to get in on Men of War. I’d been hesitant, since it a.) comes from a developer I have never ever ever ever ever ever heard of, b.) is saddled with a narcoleptically boring name, and c.) has been getting middling reviews here and there. Then again, Jim Rossignol says jump, and…
I haven’t been playing for long, but I’m definitely not regretting my purchase. Caveat emptor, those of you for whom seven bucks is a strain on your wallet: the control scheme is wonktacular, the voice acting is nothing short of an embarrassment, and it is HARD. Hard hard hard. And I’m not typically THAT bad at RTSeseseses. Playing on Easy mode, no less. There’s a difficulty curve to it, certainly. But so what? It’s a blast. It reminds me of Relic’s lovechildren in a few different ways, especially in how vehicles take damage, how units find cover, et cetera. Mechanically, there’s nothing wrong with the game, and direct unit control is the most fun I’ve had in a LONG time, especially when I can get a hold of some armor.
I’ve been trying out that dynamic campaign generator, too. It seems very well put together, and once you get the serpentine installation out of the way, it’s really simple to use. It seems to–no matter what–always confine me to a mere three units. Maybe it’s just my suckiness at the game talking, but that doesn’t quite seem adequate when I’m charging squads of infantry, being flanked by halftracks, and having Howitzers rain explodey doom on me all the while. Anyone familiar with the DCG: am I doing something wrong?
26/07/2009 at 03:40 ChampionHyena says:
Addendum: Possess some random schmuck, find an airfield, and try stealing a plane. Glorious. It’s like Grand Theft Eindhoven.
26/07/2009 at 08:53 bansama says:
Serious Sam 2 is currently 50% off on GamersGate, for those in the UK, that means a rather nice price of £4.49. In contrast, the US 50% off price is $14.95 =/
26/07/2009 at 10:10 Crispy says:
Champion, from what I’ve seen so far MoW bears more than a passing resemblance to the Microsoft’s Close Combat series, which provide some of the best wargaming ever (+ the ability to play an entire versus campaign against another friend). If it comes anywhere near that experience it is going to be an awesome game indeed (plus my friend’s already recommended it highly and talked me through a lot of the features, so it’s been on my watchlist for a few weeks).
26/07/2009 at 10:13 Azazel says:
£2.99 for Freedom Force on Steam sounds suspiciously like something I might purchase.
26/07/2009 at 10:29 JB says:
I folded within hours of MoW coming down to that price. I’m so weak. Played the demo some time ago and fell in love with the game, but couldn’t afford to shell out full price. Now I just need my best mate to finally replace his laptop with a half-decent machine so we can play co-op…
26/07/2009 at 12:06 TooNu says:
I have been waiting for a mention of a cheap Blood Bowl for the PC for weeks…….DAMN THEIR PRICETAG TO HELL!!
26/07/2009 at 14:12 UK_John says:
The ‘Clearout’ of PC games is getting quicker and deeper. Fallout 3 is already £14.95 in UK stores and it’s only been out 9 months.
While I understand all the quotes about ‘great bargains’,have a thought for the publishers that are doing this to eek out a little more money from disappointing PC sales.
I just hope it’s not a ‘Closing Down’ sale…..
26/07/2009 at 16:29 LactoseTheIntolerant says:
*Sighs and casts a weary glance at the massive pile o’ games teetering in the corner of his room, both virtual and physical, and buys Men of War, EU: Rome, Elven Legacy, King’s Bounty and Crusader Kings*.
Curse you, LewieP!
26/07/2009 at 18:16 Vinraith says:
@bansama
Yeah, for once the US seems to be on the bad side of the price disparity. It does not feel good. :(
26/07/2009 at 19:42 Erlam says:
“As for playing with friends, you need to join their lobby before the game starts, as it’s not drop-in/drop-out (I don’t know any RTS that is drop-in/drop-out for that matter).”
That’s what I was trying to do. None of the people on my friendslist (6 at the time) could connect to eachothers games.
The game itself is pretty fun I agree, but the matchmaking and joining of friends games, which is done through GFWL and fails due to it, is frustrating and makes the game irritating to play. And I wont remove blame from Relic, because they chose to use it, and it’s utterly garbage.
27/07/2009 at 07:32 apa says:
Finally DoW2 was cheap enough for me, the play.com deal :) But how can the digital download shops justify asking for more money for a license (which will probably stop working if they close the service) than for a physical product?!
27/07/2009 at 10:44 oceanclub says:
“While I understand all the quotes about ‘great bargains’,have a thought for the publishers that are doing this to eek out a little more money from disappointing PC sales.”
On the other hand, I’ve seen a lot of recent console games for cheaper than the equivalent PC price. For example, Mirror’s Edge on XBox 360 has been available in stores here for around a tenner for a while, but even online was more than that (I waited to get it in the D2D sale).
Where online sales of PC games are concerned, given that the publisher does not have to give a cut to the console manufacturer and all the middle men, even at low prices, it’s possible they get more money per sale.
Obviously hard data on this would be good to have *glowers at Valve*
P.
27/07/2009 at 11:20 bookwormat says:
“how can the digital download shops justify asking for more money for a license than for a physical product”
First, retail sales are just license sales as well. The license you buy on steam is just (much) more limited of course (subscription).
Second, DoW2 is always sold as a Steam license. Even if you buy the box, you will end up with a game on steam.
Third, prices for products depend on consumer demand more than on distribution or production cost. If consumers are willing to pay more for a steam license, than that justifies the price just fine.
27/07/2009 at 21:30 Blather Blob says:
I see Braid is $10 ($5 off) on D2D for the rest of this week (including this upcoming weekend). Same as the Impulse weekend sale a week ago.
The D2D version is listed as DRM-free which means that you just get a link to a regular setup.exe with no online activation or anything, but you probably will still have to wait for a D2D-specific patch if/when the promised editor comes out.
27/07/2009 at 23:11 Zerimski says:
Good god I suck at MoW.