Comments on: The RPS Bargain Bucket: A Hit, Man

By: Zombiemaster81

Zombiemaster81 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:31:35 +0000

I´ve played the Total War games since the orgininal Shogun, and even though its developed nicely since then, im gonna give “Empire” a miss.
The real find here, was for me, “Cellblock Squadrons” which is ace- ignore the 3/5 Rating on impulse, its a *lot* of fun. The graphics are a bit basic (it came out in 2005) , but the shitloads of explosions and laser fire from the 100+ ships, makes it look beutifull still. Gameplay is polished, and the music is usually great for a change. Theres zero bad voice acting, only a nicely spoken athmospheric intro with a few still shots, and then a lot of text- but this time Less- is definetly More! No more cheesy ass americans blabbering thank you.
Its quite arcadey, and it only takes you about 10-15 mins to get used to the controls, which are spot on.
Youre basically forced to launch every time from the prison facility, which warps around to various alien fleets, along with up to 100 wingmen, destroy the aliens, and youre then forced to return. Theres a few upgrades, some interesting background story, and what really made me laugh is that they started you off, with the player “owing 500 million” to society, and then as you complete missions they reward you with increasing amounts of debt reduction, in the hope that you might reach 0, and win your freedom.
Quite addictive! thumbs up!

By: abhishek

abhishek — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:29:30 +0000

Indeed. It’s more than a little embarrassing how many games I have on my Steam account that are untouched. I need a little more self control to avoid jumping on fabulous weekend deals that I might not touch for the next year.

By: Heliocentric

Heliocentric — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:07:44 +0000

The Silent Amateur

http://silentamateur.wordpress.com/

Playing Hitman:BM the “wrong” way, it remains excellent.

By: Mad Doc MacRae

Mad Doc MacRae — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:48:17 +0000

@Okami – for starters, campaign AI is much better in the first two TW’s than the predecessors. Part of the problem is that CA’s eyes are too big for their programmers. But Rome and M2 (and from what I’ve read from actual TW players, ETW) have broken AIs.

The Total War games were originally about providing excellent tactical battles with a simple but not-too-shallow campaign backdrop to give the battles context. Shogun exemplified this, and M1 improved on it with increasing depth in the campaign (and without sacrificing AI or functionality to do so). Rome was a mess at the start (stupid AI, tactical battles were just run over everything with cavalry, particularly ahistoric even for Rome). Several patches, an expansion or two, and complete reconstructive surgery by the modding community you have an ok game (but one I never found compelling anyway). M2 was more of the same, though the tactical battles were better (but the campaign worse!).

If CA had kept to the old campaign style, perhaps they wouldn’t be facing a revolt in their fanbase.

(But you probably found the tutorial campaign too hard so this won’t mean much to you)

By: sinister agent

sinister agent — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:43:42 +0000

I always liked the concept of RR more than the execution, which was just too fiddly to control be fun. Deus I never got the chance to play. I reckon they’d benefit from a remake just from an accessibility angle.

By: Alexander Norris

Alexander Norris — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:40:59 +0000

The Robinson’s Requiem equivalent of idkfa gives you an undetected 100% haemorrhage rate on all your internal organs.

This is how hardcore a game it is.

By: KindredPhantom

KindredPhantom — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:58:54 +0000

abhishek said:
I skipped the weekend deals this time around. Hitman Blood Money for 5$ is tempting, but then I realized I’d just add it to my Steam list and not actually get around to playing it anytime soon. So, I can live without it.
I did pre-order L4D2 though, so a bit of money spent there. Can’t wait for the demo, and news of the last 2 campaigns that has just come out got me even more excited.

I'm glad to see i'm not the only one who buys games off steam and then never plays them. The amount of games i have bought of steam but not got around to playing could be considered criminal.

Also, i got Sins of a Solar Empire for free from a polish gaming site/magazine though i did hear they have since been revoked due to abuse of the offer from non-polish and non-readers but i haven't checked.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:44:04 +0000

Oh, and while the Ishar games are definitely RPGs – and rather lovely, considering their age, Robinson’s Requiem and Deus are more…survival simulations. Both sets of games are by all accounts bastard hard, especially the latter two, which delight in inflicting diseases and such on you at every turn.

This is another case of “I wish I’d known they were going to do that” for me – I bought all the Tex Murphy games, the Ishar compilation, and some other stuff a couple weeks back with my one-shot ECA coupon, but then they put a greater discount on the Tex Murphy games last week and threw in a couple extra games with Ishar this week. Next week I bet they discount Realms of Arkania, or maybe Earth 2140/2150… :P

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:36:20 +0000

This has been kind of a disappointing weekend for deals for me. Great price on Empire – but I picked it up at that price last time they had a sale on it. Great price on World in Conflict, but I already own the Gold edition. Great price on Hitman…but I already own Hitman 2 and Blood Money on discs, and while I’d cheerfully pay $10 to get them on Steam if I were also getting Contracts out of it, the first Hitman isn’t really worth my bothering. And then there are killer prices on EA games that I actually want, but I live in the US and can’t get them.

By: abhishek

abhishek — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:33:17 +0000

I skipped the weekend deals this time around. Hitman Blood Money for 5$ is tempting, but then I realized I’d just add it to my Steam list and not actually get around to playing it anytime soon. So, I can live without it.
I did pre-order L4D2 though, so a bit of money spent there. Can’t wait for the demo, and news of the last 2 campaigns that has just come out got me even more excited.

By: Andrew Dunn

Andrew Dunn — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:15:39 +0000

Hitman: Blood Money for that price is a steal.

I’m also a long-time Total War player and I fucking love Empire to bits. Especially now that the AI has been given about forty thousand shots in the arm with the latest patches.

By: klumhru

klumhru — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:00:39 +0000

I’m sorry I sounded somewhat pretentious laying down the law of R/M2 supremacy. Obviously only my own opinion is mine to offer. Okami voiced my thoughts on the subject quite succinctly.