By Lewie Procter on August 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 pm.
Imagine a world where things cost less than they normally do. Go on, try. Unicorns prancing from floating platform to grinning mushroom, fairies casting spells of happiness over the children, and gaming at a more affordable price. There’s a man who brings you such a world – his name is LewieP of the SavyGamer nation. Below lie the secrets to such mystical joy.
Beyond Good and Evil – £4.24/€4.88/$6.99
Gorgeous action adventure stealthy photograph em up game, brought to you by Michel Ancel. BG&E is the ultimate racially ambiguous posterchild for “cult classics worth revisiting”. A range of factors meant that this was not the success it absolutely deserved to be when it first released, but thanks to the magic of the internet, if you missed it out first time round, you can remedy that right now with just a few clicks. It plays in a similar fashion to the Zelda games, and just oozes charm and style. The GOG version comes with the soundtrack too, but if you already have the game from elsewhere, the soundtrack is a free download here.
Prince of Persia: Sands of time – £4.24/€4.88/$6.99
Far better than the terrible, awful, 8 hour long QTE that was the 2008 franchise reboot, this one actually has a game in it. And what a game it is. Clever platforming, responsive controls, and story and combat that are absolutely good enough to not get in the way. You play a young Jake Gyllenhaal, who has the power to rewind time, in realtime, with the press of a button. It’s a mechanic that quite a few games ‘ripped off’, and a lot more could really benefit from doing so too (Mirror’s Edge is a perfect example). The puzzles are mostly interesting, and if my memory serves me well, it’s a very pretty game.
You can also get both of these Ubisoft games for £6.05/€6.97/$9.99 when bought together.
AI War: Fleet Command – £9.08/€10.46/$14.99
Kieron had a bunch of interesting words to say about this one on Monday, and conveniently it’s on special offer this weekend. Methinks there is a Stardock spy in our midst, someone initiate the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm. This looks like an ideal game for those of you who’s hunger for control is not satisfied by controlling mere hundreds of units in most RTSs. Demo here.
Droplitz – £1.59/€1.79/$1.99
This has been on the Bargain bucket before, at nearly double the price. No one seemed that bothered back then, so maybe now that it’s gone from being “Slightly more than a pint” to “Slightly less than a pint” it might be more within the impulse purchase range. It’s a fairly well reviewed puzzle game, published by Atlus, developed in Warwickshire. Looks like a modern update to Pipemania. Apparently the iPhone version is on special offer too.
Deal of the week
Anno 1701 Gold Edition – £12.49/€13.99/$14.99
This is the 2006 entry to the Anno series (although it is called different things in different places), and the prior entry to RPS favourite 1404. This one is (obviously) set in the 18th century. My only experience with the Anno series is the Wii version, which is a tonne of fun, but from the looks of things, the PC ones are much more grown up. You essentially have to successfully balance the running of settlement(s), and it’s more Sim City than Total War. This package comes with the Sunken Dragon expansion, which adds a bunch of ‘stuff’, so you’ll be getting plenty of game for you hard earned. Demo here.
Also of note:
Classic Interplay games now on steam
UK only Sega Sale
Another Meridian4 sale – UK/USA (this one seems to include Pathologic though, which I don’t think others have)
Space Rangers – £6.05/€6.97/$9.99
Hero’s Tale Enhanced Edition – £3.63/€4.18/$5.99
Kingdom Elemental: Tactics – £9.06/€10.43/$14.95
Zeno Clash – $7.50/£6.95 (activates on Steam)
Recently updated, Killing Floor – £13.49/€16.19/$17.99
If that lot’s not enough for you, do check out SavyGamer.co.uk for constantly-updated bargains across all formats.
22/08/2009 at 20:15 Mike says:
With Anno – I want to buy it, but I’m worried it’s going to make my head hurt. No-one’s ever really explained it to me. Is it a bit like Settlers? Is it for the kind of people who messed up a lot at Sim City? Is it a game you can just muck around in, or is it always maths and thinking?
22/08/2009 at 20:15 LewieP says:
Another bonus deal for this week:
Section 8, PC – £14.95 delivered
Add another 99p for EU shipping, or £2.35 for the rest of the world.
22/08/2009 at 20:17 Risingson says:
Anno seems like Colonization with a bit more of battles, as far as I’ve read.
22/08/2009 at 20:19 Clovis says:
Oh, wow, I’ve been corrupted. I looked at the steam store page for Droplitz, saw “includes 12 Steam achievements” and thought, “Oh cool, I’ll guess I’ll just buy it without trying a demo.” What? Since when did I care about earning Steam achievements? Thanks to GTAIV I now have a ::shudder:: gamerScore too. bleh.
22/08/2009 at 20:21 Vinraith says:
@Mike
On the easier settings you can muck around to your heart’s content, whereas on the higher settings it’s a real challenge, so it scales quite nicely to whatever you want. Gameplay-wise it’s a city builder, think Caesar 3 and Pharaoh, only you have to acquire some materials from other players or (more often) by constructing your own colonies on other islands and setting up trade routes. There’s a (very light, and on easy settings totally ignorable) combat element, but the bulk of the game is about building up a large, prosperous city in the new world.
1701 has a demo that gives you a good sense of the gameplay, if you want to try that before taking the plunge. Personally I love the game, and can’t imagine that any city-builder fan wouldn’t get their $15-worth and then some.
22/08/2009 at 20:27 Heliocentric says:
Pathologic D2D.com for $5 (~£3)
And the meridian4 pack from D2D.co.uk for £25.
Another meridian4 game you should all try is bus driver, its actually quite simy and serious. $6.
22/08/2009 at 20:28 hydra9 says:
I like that Meridian4 sale:
* Pathologic for £4.50
* Hard Truck: Apocalypse for £2.95
Shame I already have them :(
22/08/2009 at 20:29 Heliocentric says:
Question about Section8, no fee’s? I thought it was a wanna be mmo?
22/08/2009 at 20:30 hydra9 says:
@Helio:
Yes! Bus Driver! Relaxing, non-violent, amusing and with a great theme tune!
22/08/2009 at 20:33 LewieP says:
@Heliocentric
Don’t think there is a fee, it’s just a shooty game with lots of players. Played the demo on the 360, and wasn’t all that impressed, but then I generally don’t like multiplayer centric FPSs anyway.
22/08/2009 at 20:34 abhishek says:
Droplitz is at the price where you can just buy it without thinking… however, before adding it to my shopping cart I had a look at the Steam forums and it seems that there are quite a few issues with the game. Technical mostly, echoed by many people, and apparently still unfixed. I’m not sure there’s any point buying a broken game…
Any brave souls who have bought it already? Any feedback on the game?
22/08/2009 at 20:36 Heliocentric says:
Yeah, its my sons ultimate chill out game. I played it for a while to unlock junk for him and found a real lesson in driving in it and a very satisfying game. You lose points for changing lane without indicating. The real world would be safer if you had such a system.
Best of all is the prison transport mission where you are given cart blanche to ignore the law but get there fast, its only such a release because of how the game treats you up to that point.
22/08/2009 at 20:41 Howard says:
Interested in BG&E if they have it working on Vista (though I am skeptical) but the price you are quoting is not correct as it is still on sale for $9.99…
22/08/2009 at 20:42 Vinraith says:
@abhishek
I picked it up on the grounds that it was $2 and an Atlus game. I haven’t had any problems at all, what are the issues being discussed on the forum? I’m not very good at it yet, but it’s a clever little puzzle game that makes for a fun 10 minutes here and there.
22/08/2009 at 20:42 LewieP says:
@Howard
The $3 comes off when you add it to your basket I believe.
22/08/2009 at 20:43 Heliocentric says:
Discount is applied at checkout.
22/08/2009 at 20:44 Heliocentric says:
Fuck you Proctor and the sheep you rode in on. This is my town!
22/08/2009 at 20:54 CMaster says:
I’m not sure how great a deal it really is, but was intrigued to see Alpha Protocol is £25 to pre-order on Steam (same as Play) but also comes with free Space Siege…
22/08/2009 at 20:54 abhishek says:
Howard : BG&E is notorious in requiring quite a bit of work to get it running well on modern systems. This mainly involves playing around with a few settings and core affinity for a multicore cpu. It’s not a big deal, but yea, it does require work. The payoff, however, is SO totally worth it. If you haven’t played it yet, buy it now. It’s a gem of a game.
Vinraith : Some issues I read were related to crashing during startup, shutdown, inability to play fullscreen etc. The problems did seem to be common too.. In one thread, multiple people seemed to agree. I haven’t looked into it too closely, so I was hoping folks over here would share their experiences.
22/08/2009 at 20:56 darth_careful says:
Droplitz is OK. The main issue is that the scores needed to unlock the next level are waaaaaay to high. Music’s kinda nice though, if you don’t mind zoning out into a trance while you’re playing.
Take care with Anno. From Steam: “This product does not support Windows 95/98/ME, NT or Vista!”
22/08/2009 at 20:57 Heliocentric says:
@Cm if you really want space siege i’d advise whipping yourself. Its got all the release of self harm but its safer.
22/08/2009 at 20:57 darth_careful says:
Space Siege is truly awful.
22/08/2009 at 20:58 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
got Al Emmo for $4 since Manifesto Games went titsup and I have nowhere to download it from if the urge arises :D
Geeky? Maybe :D
22/08/2009 at 20:58 Howard says:
@LewieP
So it is. Damn. thought I’d found an excuse not to buy it… ><
22/08/2009 at 20:58 Skye Nathaniel says:
I really need to find a straightforward guide to BG&E’s issues; that wonderful game has been sitting on my Steam list unused for far too long.
On my PC (XP, 1680×1050, 9600GT), at least, Droplitz has no problems at all (and is extremely well worth that price).
22/08/2009 at 20:58 Vinraith says:
Space Siege is more fun that almost every review gave it credit for. It’s not high art by any stretch, nor is any particular aspect of it standout, but it’s a perfectly sound shooty action RPG.
22/08/2009 at 20:59 Dominic White says:
The iPhone version of Droplitz is 59p right now – that’s just a tad better than the PC version, no?
22/08/2009 at 20:59 Vinraith says:
@abhishek
Well, all I can tell you is I’ve had none of those problems personally.
22/08/2009 at 21:01 Archonsod says:
Space Siege isn’t a bad deal for free. You can just pretend it’s another Alien Shooter remake.
22/08/2009 at 21:02 Nero says:
Heh, nice description of Sands of Time. What a superb game that one is, only disappointment was a way way too easy last boss. I think I need to replay that game soon.
22/08/2009 at 21:11 Vinraith says:
Sands of Time was great. I wouldn’t know about the final boss battle, though. I never could make it past that damn bridge full of enemies near the top of the city.
22/08/2009 at 21:16 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
darth_careful:
what? I thought XP is based on the NT core…just like 2k
22/08/2009 at 21:29 radomaj says:
Howard: Dunno what the others’ experiences are but I bought BG&E during a Steam sale and it worked for me on Vista no problem.
22/08/2009 at 21:38 Duoae says:
Far better than the terrible, awful, 8 hour long QTE that was the 2008 franchise reboot
HISSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
Back foul fiend!
Seriously though, i liked both series but you can’t compare them any more than you can compare the original (or the original Prince of Persia 3D) to The Sands of Time trilogy. They just share the same themes. Personally i think they’re both great games and only Two Thrones really let the franchise down.
Personally i like the freshness that the Prince of Persia series has enjoyed over the years…. unlike pretty much every other gaming franchise they’re not afraid to radically switch things up.
22/08/2009 at 21:40 Howard says:
@radomaj
Good to know, cheers. Do you have an nVidia card out of interest?
22/08/2009 at 21:41 LewieP says:
I’ll happily rant about why POP 2008 was awful.
You guys wanna read a rant?
22/08/2009 at 21:43 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
LewiePL:
go for it!
22/08/2009 at 21:43 hydra9 says:
Yay! Rant! I haven’t played it, so I’m happy to hear all opinions :)
22/08/2009 at 21:44 Vinraith says:
@LewieP
Go for it. I’ve actually vacillated about PoP 2008 a number of times, so I’d actually be interested in a rant on the subject.
22/08/2009 at 21:49 Paul says:
Bought Pathologic…but it is going really slow from D2D so I will download it from rapidshare instead.
22/08/2009 at 21:51 Howard says:
@LewieP
LOL. Always up for a rant. It was kinda crap. Highly repetitive and utterly devoid of skill but I liked the dynamic between the 2 leads and their banter. Didn’t finish it mind which says a lot for it…
22/08/2009 at 22:05 eyemessiah says:
” I liked the dynamic between the 2 leads and their banter”
Sarcasm?
22/08/2009 at 22:09 Howard says:
@eyemessiah
No.
22/08/2009 at 22:14 Oak says:
A third recommendation for Bus Driver here. I picked it up off the sale last night out of curiosity and mild drunkenness and found it a surprisingly fun and charming little game with, as stated, delightful theme music.
So. Bus Driver, then. The game in which you drive a public bus and follow traffic regulations.
22/08/2009 at 22:29 CMaster says:
@Heliocentric – I’d heard it got bad reviews. Didn’t realise it was that painful mind.
@LewieP – is that a SMAC reference in the post?
22/08/2009 at 22:30 l1ddl3monkey says:
Thanks for the BGAE Soundtrack link. I imagine I’ll be singing Propaganda all week now.
22/08/2009 at 22:30 LewieP says:
To truly grasp why POP2008 is one of the biggest disappointments I’ve ever had with Ubisoft on the box, let’s go back to 2003.
Well, OK, I only got around to playing it a few years later, but Sands of Time was made in 2003.
Now, I wasn’t too young to have played the original Prince of Persia, but I was too young to be able to play them properly. I just died all the time, so when I think of Prince of Persia, Sands of time is my first proper memory.
Sands of time was a wonderful platformer. It was as hard as it was fair. The rewind mechanic genuinely removed a lot of the needless frustration that a lot of games with “jumping puzzles” have. Far from making the game easier, it simply encouraged the player to experiment more, which is exactly how it should be in games like this. The ramps, poles and other level geometry felt very naturally occurring, as if it was a real place with stuff placed in a way that just happened to create a subtle assault course.
The combat was fairly mindless, although it looked quite cool. Added little, but certainly didn’t take away too much either.
The puzzles were more often than not designed so you would have to actually think about how to get from A to B. You would look at the room, examine it, and come up with a solution through experimentation.
In a similar vein to ICO, there was no real upgrade system for solving puzzles, you didn’t need to find a certain weapon or tool to let you do something, everything you need to solve any of the puzzles you have with you from the start of the game. No blue keycard for the blue door.
However you look at it, Warrior Within was a misstep, the degree to which it offends you is probably largely determined by your tolerance of the bad metal soundtrack. The less said the better.
However, when it came time for The Two Thrones, they had actually learnt their lesson. Fun new things like the Dark Prince was a nice touch, the “stealth take down” thingies that let you do platforming instead of combat were a good idea well implemented, and definitely made you feel like a badass. Some good bosses and some bad bosses, and level design that wasn’t quite as tight as Sands of Time are the only major let downs.
Then, for the “next gen” Prince of Persia, Ubisoft decided to reinvent things. No doubt they looked at the “Generally favorable reviews”, and massive sales, that Assassin’s Creed got, and thought that they could pull the same trick off twice.
The new direction they took it in was to remove the requirement for the player to have any need to actually pay attention or think. They reduced a cerebral platformer down to “press some buttons when we tell you to, and get to look at some pretty pictures”.
In the Sands of Time trilogy, if you wanted to do a wall run, you had to line it up, and time it right. In this, you can make the decision to do a wall run mid air if you like. Just jump any old way near a wall, then push towards it, and the game will position you correctly on the wall, and you will end up exactly where the game knows you need to be.
In POP2008, the levels are just a bunch of platforming peices thrown together in a chain. You never have to think about how to get anywhere, since the game will tell you what direction to go. The most thinking you have to do is “which button does the game want me to press”. Essentially, the game is a long series of badly hidden quick time events.
The “Elika saves you” mechanic that replaced the sands of time is just worse in every way.
Firstly, because the player was in control. You pressed rewind, go back to where you need to be, and then jump straight back in. POP2008, however, replaces this mechanic with something much more passive. You don’t have to think about anything you do, because the game will save you, whereas in Sands of time, even though you could undo any mistakes, it was a mechanic that the player was in charge of.
Secondly, Elika saving you takes more time that the rewind did, and each time you have to watch that exact same animation, and hear the incredible annoying voice actor say something hilarious like “Gee, I’m never going to get used to that!”. I swear they got the guy from the Legend of Zelda cartoon to do his voice. I am baffled that they managed to make the prince even less likeable.
Thirdly, the only thing that the game could actually call a platforming challenge is collecting lightseeds. These are the collectable do dads that for some reason Ubisoft decided POP needed. Some are in positions where they are ‘hard’ to get. However, since Elika saves you whenever you fall, you can often glitch into getting the harder ones, because unlike the rewind mechanic, Elika saving you doesn’t actually undo anything. “Jump to certain death – Just get the lightseed – Die” is a viable strategy for a lot of lightseeds.
Instead of Sands of Time’s clever difficulty curve without introducing new abilities, POP2008 manages to have basically no difficulty curve despite having new abilities, which all boil down to “press the right button when you are on the right colour pad”. Unlocking new abilities feels unnecessary gamey, and lazy compared to Sands of Time.
The only thing I can say in it’s defence is that it did completely get rid of the bullshit filler combat that all the previous games had, but in their places was badly designed boss fights. The boss fights are all bad the first time round, and get worse with repetition. Oh yeah, the game makes you repeat all of the bosses, I have no idea how many times you have to repeat them all, but it is certainly too many.
It also looks pretty good, but whenever it goes to a cut scene, the character models all look weird, and facial animation is pretty bad.
It really just feels like the whole game is just the player pressing forwards, then some buttons when the game tells you to press buttons, then putting the controller down and looking at the pretty pictures when the game tells you too.
The worst part is, it’s a game series that didn’t really need reinvention, it just needed development. A few new ideas, and the same basic design philosophy of the previous games would have been glorious.
If you want a new game like the Sands of Time, you’ll be wanting Mirror’s Edge. But seriously, they best include a rewind in the sequel, since frustrating deaths was one of the biggest complaints I have heard about it.
End Rant.
22/08/2009 at 22:31 LewieP says:
@CMaster
Yep! <3
22/08/2009 at 22:40 Joe says:
Both Beyond Good and Evil and Price of Persia are mint. Excellent storytelling, production and design, such that only the flintiest of hearts would not enjoy them. “Props” to GoG for the deal.
22/08/2009 at 22:47 M_the_C says:
I agree with Heliocentric, Bus Driver is worth a look. Only played the demo myself, thought the asking price was too much but at £3.95 I think I’ll have to go for it. Changing lanes in a driving game has never been so much fun.
Been thinking about Sands of Time for a while too, might as well pick up BG&E, even though I have the retail version I have heard of difficulties with getting it to run on modern computers, plus the added benefit of an off-site backup.
22/08/2009 at 22:49 Skye Nathaniel says:
For anyone having problems with BG&E, you may wish to read this thread:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=682910
22/08/2009 at 22:49 invisiblejesus says:
Likely not a surprise to anyone, but just in case, Steam’s prices for the “Classic Interplay games” are higher than GOG’s, even on sale. Best to pick ‘em up there if you want them. Also, BG&E works fine for me on Vista; I have it on Steam, and the GOG versions of older games are supposed to have their compatibility issues fixed to boot. I’d go ahead and take a chance on it on GOG, it’s really good.
22/08/2009 at 22:55 Matt W says:
Brief counterpoint in defense of PoP2008: it is one of the most magical gaming experiences available in recent history. Don’t play it if you’re interested in challenges. Do play it if you’re interested in stunning visuals, excellent audio, beautifully flowing rhythmic gameplay and some of the best game dialogue of the last five years. It’s a game that’s asking to be experienced, not beaten.
22/08/2009 at 23:16 Dominic White says:
Yeah, I’m with Matt here. While I really liked Sands of Time, I can appreciate that the newest game was meant to be something different and distinct. While I love my hard games (cmon, I play bullet hell shmups – that’s about as hardcore as you can get – most people won’t even touch that genre because screenshots alone can scare them off), I can also appreciate games where you just enjoy the ride, explore a world and soak up the atmosphere.
Rez, Flower, etc etc – and now Prince of Persia 2008.
22/08/2009 at 23:21 Carra says:
Steams pricing boggles my mind. Fallout has been on gog.com for $5.99 for what, a year now? And they put it on steam for €8.99. That’s more then twice as expensive. WTF?
Not much deals for me this weekend. Already bought Beyond good & Evil in a previous bargain. Well worth the money, great game. Also bought Anno 1701 a while ago. It’s a city builder, best compared with the likes of Caesar. It’s low on military and you can get away without doing any combat.
22/08/2009 at 23:23 The_B says:
Just to point out, anyone from the UK with XP or lower wanting BG&E (and I’ve mentioned this a few times on RPS, but it’s never gone off this offer so worth mentioning again. It’s free except for £2.99 P&P from Savapoint, and my copy was from there so I can verify it’s legitimacy. I’ve just so far been unable to get it running on Vista.
Oh, and Sands of Time is on there too, same price (free except £2.99 P&P). And I think does work with Vista, but I’ve not personally tried.
22/08/2009 at 23:24 abhishek says:
It’s a nitpick but I found the dialogue delivery in POP2008 ridiculous. The prince was voiced with a very, very distinct American accent. Now while I don’t expect any sort of authenticity when it comes to choosing a voice actor for Prince of Persia, they could have at least found someone with a more neutral accent.
22/08/2009 at 23:37 Howard says:
@LewieP
I was with you until you compared Sands of Time, an excellent game, to Mirror’s Edge, I diabolical piece of malformed crap that wasn’t worth the DVD it was printed on. How you can possibly draw a correlation between a fluid, graceful platformer and a half-arsed FPS with “we saw a Parkour flick once” shambolic pile of pap I willnever know.
22/08/2009 at 23:45 ben says:
@abhishek : Droplitz had an issue on my computer, it was crashing on reaching the main menu. This happens in fact if you have a non-english version of Windows. If this issue is present, you have to switch language for Windows (as described by this guy, who found the fix : http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10587740&postcount=22 ).
In theory, he notified the devs, and they were supposed to release a patch, but so far, nothing.
Besides, Droplitz is a great game, I spent again the other day like 25 minutes non-stop on a session, it’s really a great game, addictive, and moreover for such ridiculous price. Seriously, buy it.
23/08/2009 at 00:10 Mal says:
Beyond Good and Evil is only $10 on gamersgate, and that’s the non-sale price. Of course, there’s DRM on gamersgate.
23/08/2009 at 00:15 LewieP says:
@Howard
Well, I can definitely see that Mirror’s Edge wasn’t for everyone. But it’s hard to deny that whether you like it as a whole or not, it has some utterly incredible moments. More than a few similarities to Sands of Time in my opinion too.
23/08/2009 at 00:29 Howard says:
@LewieP
I was psyched about Mirrors Edge like no other but I have not felt so let down by a game for utterly failing to achieve its goals since Deus Ex 2. It was just a consolified shambles end to end. With the addition of ridiculous enemy AI, constant gun battles and a million insta-death moments it lost any sense of fluidity and utterly failed to be enjoyable in any way for me.
But then, looking at who made it, I should not have been surprised.
23/08/2009 at 00:31 malkav11 says:
Man, Pathologic for $5 is really tempting, but unlike the one or two other purchases I’ve made from D2D, doesn’t immediately convert itself to Steam. (Indeed, it’s not even on Steam.) I really don’t want yet another (fifth, at this point) spot to go for my digital games.
Maybe GamersGate will put it on sale sometime.
23/08/2009 at 00:34 LewieP says:
What about that bit where you jumped from the crane to the other crane? I know you had a smile on your face then.
23/08/2009 at 00:54 Blather Blob says:
@Mike: I tried the demo, and The Settlers immediately came to mind, the ones from before they became RTSes. Place a building, add a road, watch guys cart stuff from one building to another. I don’t know how the combat works though — it wasn’t even covered in the tutorial, but there are buildings related to soldiers, so it must exist. Also there’s a boat involved, with trading and settling new islands. But it’s very much what The Settlers would have become in 2006 if it hadn’t become The Settlers 5.
23/08/2009 at 00:59 Vinraith says:
@Blather Blob
You need a lot more than one boat, trust me.
Combat is pretty basic RTS stuff. Grab pile of units, throw at other pile of units. The only relevant factor is who has more/better equipped guys, and that comes down to your economic ability to sustain a military (and in that way connects back to the core of the game, which is economic).
23/08/2009 at 01:49 Phinor says:
@LewieP
Thanks for the Section 8 deal tip. I surprisingly didn’t hate the demo (beta) but actually liked it quite a bit. There wasn’t enough love to immediately pay 50€ for it but ~16£ I will gladly pay just to see how the full version feels.
Now to find a cheap Diablo 2 with quick delivery.. damn Blizzcon and me losing my old Diablo 2 + expansion discs, keys and everything.
23/08/2009 at 01:57 KP says:
Does Anno have multiplayer?
23/08/2009 at 02:03 Vinraith says:
@KP
1701 does, 1404 doesn’t. I’ve never found city builders to make for very good multiplayer games, but maybe that’s just me.
23/08/2009 at 02:38 Berzee says:
Beyond Good and Evil, YES INDEED!
As with so many games, the final boss is stupid but not stupid enough to tarnish the genius. I remember the rooftop chase scene being one of my favorite moments in computery games.
I still believe there will be a BG&E2 ^_^
23/08/2009 at 03:00 destroy.all.monsters says:
For those of us that are Amerikanische schweinhundts AD 1701 Gold is cheaper on Amazon.
Published by Aspyr it should have no drm.
23/08/2009 at 03:27 jalf says:
About the dreaded “issues” with BG&E on modern systems, it’s probably worth pointing out that they essentially do not exist if you buy the game on GoG.
The retail version suffers from several annoying bugs, including crashes caused by the copy protection.
Steam removes the copy protection, so it should have one issue less than retail.
The GoG version actually *works*. They’ve developed the necessary hacks to get it working pretty reliably. (And of course, if you do encounter problems, they’re going to try fixing them. One of their main selling points is XP and Vista compatibility, after all)
So for those of you who have the game on Steam and can’t play it, honestly, I’d just fork over those couple of dollars to get it on GoG if I were you.
And to those who don’t have it, and wonder if they should buy it, yes. Buy it, but save yourself the headaches and buy it on GoG.
23/08/2009 at 03:27 Vinraith says:
@destroy.all.monsters
The boxed copy DOES have a disk check, but that’s all.
23/08/2009 at 04:15 destroy.all.monsters says:
@ Vinraith – thanks for the info.
Also – GoGamer has Men of War predecessor Faces of War for 4.90 and some Saturn-era Sega games – Virtua Cop 2 and Sega Rally for the same price.
23/08/2009 at 04:17 destroy.all.monsters says:
BTW FoW does have drm – Securom. Don’t know if the current no-disc hacks are up to the very latest version or not.
23/08/2009 at 05:12 Toby says:
aRRRRRRRRR
Sorry, but Mirrors Edge is utter glorious wonderment. I never understand the haters. The ‘insta-death moments’ – only one I can think of that were genuinely unfair, stupid air vent… I’ve finished the game around ten times, all stars on all TTs etc, so perhaps I’ve played it too much to be objective about the difficulty, but with my first playthrough the fluidity and elegance to it were startlingly self evident. If you haven’t played it, do so immediately. It is certainly a marmite game, but I love marmite and think people who dislike it are either wilfully ignorant (choosing to dislike it because people dislike commonly disliked things on principle) or because their tastebuds are malformed (more likely but a less cynically entertaining prospect). I feel much the same way about Mirrors Edge, if you replace ‘tastebuds’ with ‘brain’ or ‘genitals’.
Yep, if you don’t like Mirrors Edge you have a tiny penis. There.
23/08/2009 at 05:17 Toby says:
The cutscenes are shit though.
23/08/2009 at 05:29 Matzerath says:
No NO NO! You commenters almost made me buy a game about bus driving, you sneaky devils! Must … fight …. random praise!
23/08/2009 at 08:14 Heliocentric says:
Your loss.
23/08/2009 at 08:55 bill says:
It’s probably worth pointing out that the Interplay titles on steam are all cheaper and DRM free on GOG. (i think… were last time i checked). Plus you get some nice bonus materials.
It might also be worth pointing out that BG&E isn’t always 100% problem free even on GOG… they’ve ironed out a lot of the problems for most people, but certain combinations of new hardware/OS are still causing a few issues. (they’re doing their best though).
23/08/2009 at 08:59 bill says:
PS/ and i bought the GOG bundle anyway…
23/08/2009 at 09:19 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
Remember kids, Bus Driver goes good with an analog joystick or (in a worse case) a gamepad (set the first analog stick to gas/brake and the second to left/right). I finished the game with an analog joystick myself with many perfect miles.
23/08/2009 at 09:57 Heliocentric says:
It seems the only racing game to get both digital and analogue controls right at the same time is trackmania. Indeed, i spent a few years thinking i didn’t like racing games when the fact was, i don’t like that i can’t race worth a damn with digital controls.
23/08/2009 at 09:58 Heliocentric says:
I didn’t say that quite right.
What i mean is, i’ve rediscovered analogue controls and i’m better now. :)
23/08/2009 at 10:56 Howard says:
LewieP says:
“What about that bit where you jumped from the crane to the other crane? I know you had a smile on your face then.”
I can honestly say to you that I did not. I fought long and hard with that game, so determined was I to like it, but it beat me down. Its occasional moments, like the crane jump, that should have been glorious, allowing me to revel in my freedom, were nothing more than in-engine cut-scenes in which my control of Faith was, unbelievably, reduced even further.
At no time did Faith feel fluid and free-running, continuously mired as she was with unresponsive controls, tetchy contact zones (HOW many times did I fall of building while perfectly performing a jump? Countless), the most ridiculous inertia system I have ever seen, buggy scenery that would stop you dead for no reason and being continuously forced to used guns in a game that is absolutely not supposed to have them.
That game was a struggle from the the moment it began to the moment it ended less than 4 houtrs later, every second of which was spent wrestling with its made-for-joypad FPS controls, every second of which was spent staring in horror as it killed me once more even though I was doing exactly what I should and every second of which was spent cursing Ubisoft for ruining what should have been one of the most sublime gaming experiences ever.
I cannot stress how much I would have to urge those who do not own this game to keep it that way as any sales of it will make the devs think they did one single thing right and potentially persuade them to commit yet more atrocities in the name of M$ and bring out a sequel.
While I understand your anger at the last POP for rolling back all of the clever design of Sands of Time and replacing it with QTEs and soulless combat I cannot see how you do not hold Mirror’s Edge in even more contempt for utterly failing to do anything it promised it would
23/08/2009 at 11:04 CMaster says:
On the BG&E issue – I have only one problem with my boxed copy of BG&E, and it is easily soluble. I’ve also used this boxed copy on many systems.
Anyway, the issues I get is occasional frameskip and the sound falling out of synch with the action. This is remedied (rather oddly) by running BG&E Settings first, and pressing the play button there.
A question for those who have played the game though – I’ve collected all the pearls, all the animal photos etc etc. However there is one thing I’ve never managed to get – the final M-Disk. In the Akuda bar, there is a locked cabinet with an M-Disk and a couple of other bits in it. Anyone have any idea how you get into there?
23/08/2009 at 11:18 hydra9 says:
I loved Mirror’s Edge. My favourite game of the last year, probably. I even enjoyed the story(!)
23/08/2009 at 12:15 Dominic White says:
I think games are just getting more and more divisive, and people seem to be getting less and less capable of seeing things from anyone elses perspective. See the worryingly large number of folks who, even on RPS (arguably one of the more intelligent blogs out there) insist that their opinion is sacrosanct, and anyone who likes something they dislike is clearly wrong, stupid, lying or part of a massive media conspiracy.
23/08/2009 at 12:34 Krondonian says:
Howard, not sure why you were cursing Ubisoft? It’s made by DICE, published by EA…
23/08/2009 at 12:44 Howard says:
@Krondonian
That would be ‘cos I am a fool =D
Got me game publishers mixed up lol
23/08/2009 at 12:54 jalf says:
Last I checked, everyone in their BG&E support thread had got the game running. I think a few needed a bit of fiddling with the settings, but so far, everyone I’ve seen have been *able* to run the game properly, which is more than can be said for boxed or Steam. :p
23/08/2009 at 13:40 Toby says:
DOMINIC, HUGS!
Alternatively one could take the view that the chances are these impassioned pleas in the defence of ones maligned videogame favourite (or vitriolic attacks against a steaming pile of electro poo) are not made with the intention of genuinely plonking a dunce cap on anyone’s head but instead poking a little fun or simply cursing because, dammit, offensive language is fun.
I think it’s fair to maintain that others who do not share your opinion are, in your opinion, wrong, much in the same way you infer strongly that to criticise someone elses opinion is, in your opinion, wrong. What’s the difference exactly?
Hugs again!
23/08/2009 at 13:42 Toby says:
Also, Howard, I believe the crane section was not a cutscene and you could finish the entire game without using a gun once. Difficult, but doable!
Hugs!
23/08/2009 at 14:07 AndrewC says:
No, Dominic, games aren’t getting more divisive, it’s just that Howard doesn’t know how not to express opinions as facts, nor how hyperbole tends to decrease the force of one’s argument, nor that it is terribly important, if one is going to take the role of contrarian genius, to get the basic facts right.
Mirror’s Edge is a lovely game mired by some minor but quite spectacularly silly design decisions. I really liked it, though did not love it until I started my second run through and its racing-game mechanics became clear – as did how to avoid all the obscenely annoying bits.
23/08/2009 at 14:20 Toby says:
Yep I agree, the racing element is where the meat of it is, as most critics who liked it or loathed it noted. Once you’ve started on the time trials its hard to stop, at least I found it rather compulsive. One… more… millisecond..
Andrew what were the bad design decisions in your opinion?
23/08/2009 at 14:22 Toby says:
A genuine question, I accept the game is flawed. That said, its in my top five games, there’s simply nothing else like it.
23/08/2009 at 14:55 AndrewC says:
In specific: the story, which is rubbish, and the shooty bits, which felt terribly unfair and clumsy and, even now that i know how to deal with them, still feel like they get in the way of the flow of the levels.
But in general: the game does not teach the average player – including me – on the first runthrough enough about *how* it should be played. When faced with a shooty section my first reaction was ‘OK, i’ll treat it like shooter’, and great frustration was casued.
The game’s actual nature, and strengths, are hidden at first glance, because the game looks like a different sort of game. This is the nature of games when they try to do something, even a little something, differently. Gamers really need to be told *how* the game is different.
The strength of the game, for me, is that levels are, at their best, Guitar Hero song-levels – to be repeated and perfected until the perfectly judged movement between slow and fast sections creates a wonderful sense of rhythmic satisfaction.
Tom Francis has blathered on about the strengths and weaknesses a lot and very well: http://www.pentadact.com/index.php/tag/mirrors-edge
Pretty much i agree with him, coz he’s really smart.
Also Mr Meer did a Wot I Think on it, which was also dead smart, if you haven’t caught it yet.
Also finally that bit on the top of the subway car, which seems ripped straight from the commonly held most-frustrating-level-of-all-time – the races in Battletoads. Fuck you, top of the subway car.
23/08/2009 at 15:04 Howard says:
@AndrewC
Hate to brake it to you but if you think I was stating opinion as fact you need to learn to read more carefully. I clearly and deliberately began that above post of mine in a way that showed I was speaking of my opinion and my experiences with the game. I continuously spoke from first person denoting how my feeling of the game were shaped by the experience and while I did wrap up by saying that I would, and do, persuade anyone who has not bought to continue to not buy it, I never once said or intimated that those who disagreed with me were empirically wrong, just that I could not reconcile myself with their point of view
The problem with this board is not people “stating their opinion as fact” it is people deliberately and wilfully reading aggression and derision into the posts of others. Dominic and me are perfect example of this phenomenon. Over a month ago I made a comment saying that if he believed ARMA2 was perfectly playable and not littered with bugs that he was lying to himself, but he has since grasped onto this and brandishes the fact that he was called a liar!! (lawks!) at every available opportunity.
I was not angry when posting my thoughts on Mirror’s Edge, nor when I posted about ARMA and I am not angry now. Internet forums are no place for such base emotions and do not bring them here.
If you want to experience less aggression on a forum, stop reading opinions that oppose or disagree with yours as attacks and simply accept that they are opinions, to which we are all entitled.
23/08/2009 at 15:05 Howard says:
“Brake it to you”? lol. Thilly Thpellcheck…
23/08/2009 at 15:10 Howard says:
@Toby
Sorry, missed you post and I’ve just gone and repeated a lot of what you said. Spot on.
As to the “cut-scene” of the crane, I meant that it was a deliberately crafted section designed to elicit a specific response in order, as far as I was concerned, to wallpaper over the staggering flaws in everything else I had experienced thus far. It was a slow-mo, play the cutesy music section to lift me up and try and convince me to continue and for that I hated it.
23/08/2009 at 15:14 AndrewC says:
Then I strongly recommend you spend a breath or two considering how regular use of hypebolically aggressive words like ‘horror’, ‘contempt’ and ‘atrocities’ might make your sentences read to other people before you start blaming everyone else for how they interpret them.
Also how calling someone a liar might make someone think that you had called them a liar.
23/08/2009 at 15:22 Howard says:
@AndrewC Well fundamentally if the emotions or feelings summoned in my by a game are horror or contempt then oddly I will use them as descriptives. I am still, no matter how vitriolic *my personal views* are, not slating anyone else for theirs. Also the comment about “lying to yourself” was said in a particular context. Having spent over 24 hours trying to get ARMA2 to work, having listened to the other RPS-ites report exactly the same issues as me and having literally thousands of of other ARMA2 players turn up on BISs forum and also report the exact same issues, I was less than thrilled when Dom kept posting in the discussion that the faults we were reporting simply did not exist. Having tried to reason with him in every other way possible I was reduced to assuming that he was such an avid, dyed-in-the-wool fanatic for everything BIS did that he could no longer see the wood for the trees.
23/08/2009 at 15:44 sbs says:
sands of time gives me craphics glitches after alt-tabbing. SCANDALOUS
23/08/2009 at 16:02 AndrewC says:
So when you hyperbolically described Arma 2 as completely, irretrievably broken, Dom replied that he had enjoyed many hours without terminal bugs, and then you accused him of being a liar and a fanatic.
I’m afraid this is symptomatic of a failing many of us nerdy types suffer from – being without enough emotional perspective to see how our own behaviours impact upon the behaviours of others.
I will wish you the best, Howard, and leave you alone.
23/08/2009 at 16:17 Jim Rossignol says:
Calm gentlemen, I wouldn’t want to have to purge your comments.
23/08/2009 at 18:50 Howard says:
@Jim
Acknowledged though I have been calm throughout I assure you =D
@AndrewC
Actually all this is symptomatic of is classic passive aggressiveness. “I have tried to educate you in exactly how you are wrong but as you refuse to listen I will cease to talk to you any more, thus labelling you as a buffoon.”
Not exactly subtle, dude. =D
You began this discussion with a sidelong, snide blow aimed in my direction while addressing Dominic. I pointed out that I was entirely guiltless of the two things you accused me off, stating my opinion as fact and not having gotten “the basic facts right” (whatever you meant by that), but you refuse to see that even though you, in the same post, did exactly what you were lecturing me about (“Mirror’s Edge is a lovely game” – no opinion there, Andy, just good old, solid fact, right?).
The actual issue here is that you do not like what I say and, like many others here, you do not like me, isn’t that so? I, however, do not give a hoot. Unpopularity is absolutely no measure of how correct one is. When others on this board are happily wondering about stting their opinion as fact, as happened at least twice in this thread of posts alone, then yes, I will turn up and post my opinion in an atmept to give some counterpoint to the argument. If that offends you, then sorry; but it wont make me stop. In the meantime trying to grind me down with veiled insults or attempting to discredit me by putting words in my mouth (all to easy to do here given this style of commenting) is simply not going to work. I am nowhere near insecure enough to actually be put off by such tactics and as I find this board a relaxing and informative place to be (see? still happy =D ) I will absolutely continue to post here.
But as you say, I wish you well, AndrewC, and since you cannot seem to talk to me without trying to incite something, it is best if we leave each other alone =D
I am now off for a drink and to watch some appallingly bad television. Good evening to you all ;-)
23/08/2009 at 19:01 Matzerath says:
I lost interest in Mirror’s Edge when I saw the video of a modded 3rd person view and the main character looked like a hideous gangly mass of crappy animation. I know you’re NOT supposed to see that view, but knowing that that’s what it actually looks like ruined the magic completely.
23/08/2009 at 19:40 S says:
Droplitz is totally worth it, although it’s a bit too difficult to Zen out over the way I’d like to. I can’t imagine how you get the kind of scores you need to unlock some of these levels.
23/08/2009 at 20:53 hydra9 says:
@Matzerath:
That is a real shame.
23/08/2009 at 21:02 LewieP says:
For anyone on the fence, the £6.49 Mirror’s Edge is back in stock.
23/08/2009 at 21:41 Spinbag says:
Does Annyone played Space Rangers ?
Im realy wondering how that game feels like …
23/08/2009 at 22:29 Toby says:
Well mediated Lewie :P 6.50 is a sweet price for a marmite game. Fencers should indeed consider purchasing even if only to equip them with the gloves to spar in this terrifying face off.
24/08/2009 at 00:06 neems says:
I hate marmite.
However I love Mirror’s Edge.
More importantly, I heartily recommend Droplitz, but I am slightly annoyed that BG&E apparently does not allow for an inverted camera axis, which basically makes the game unplayable for me.
24/08/2009 at 00:24 Toby says:
You hate marmite but… you love Mirror’s Edge?
Cannot… reconcile… contradictions… *gak*
24/08/2009 at 00:26 Toby says:
I do not understand you, but I can help you. A solution for your freaky inversion problem:
http://snarfed.org/space/invert%20mouse%20in%20Beyond%20Good%20&%20Evil
24/08/2009 at 00:44 neems says:
Thanks for that Toby, all I need to do now is work out where I put the game. I’m sure it must be around here somewhere…
24/08/2009 at 00:44 Howard says:
@neems
I’m pretty certain you can invert the camera as I recall playing it back at release (until I hit the Nvidia bug and had to stop) and I cannot play without inverted camera
24/08/2009 at 00:45 neems says:
I think it inverted both the x and y axis, or something like that (as opposed to just inverting the Y axis). It was a definite problem I know that much.
24/08/2009 at 00:57 Howard says:
I’ve just reinstalled it after today’s hilarity and it definitely has inverted Y option. I still think, as my play through of the first level and the standard 15 deaths have reminded me, that it is bloody awful and an utter embarrassment to gaming, but hey! =D
24/08/2009 at 01:05 Howard says:
Except we weren’t talking about Mirror’s Edge were we? Oh ffs – time for bed, Howard….
24/08/2009 at 07:39 Kommissar Nicko says:
About that Hunter-Seeker Algorithm: you know, We Must Dissent.
24/08/2009 at 14:33 Wolfox says:
@Spinbag: I’ve only played the sequel (Space Rangers 2), and it’s somewhat similar to a Sid Meyers’ Pirates! in space, with a lot of cool features. This is a simplistic comparison (Space Rangers 2 is much deeper than that), but should give you a general idea.
Not sure about Space Rangers 1, though. Have you tried looking for reviews?
26/08/2009 at 09:38 Pinbag says:
wolfox thnx for the reaction on my post.
Im going to check around !!!