By Lewie Procter on April 16th, 2011 at 7:32 am.
Those prices just keep dropping. Digital games are getting cheaper by the week, and the bargain bucket has got the highlights of this weekend’s offerings sloshing around inside it right now, waiting for you to take a sip. As always, if you’re still thirsty for more cheap interactive entertainment software, SavyGamer.co.uk has got the best deals on games on all platforms for you every day. Read on for this weeks best value downloads.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River – £23.99/€39.99/$39.99
Fantastic preorder price if this is your sort of thing, except for Euro folk getting a bit of a rough deal. GetGames used to let you pick which currency you wanted to pay in, but they revamped their currency system, and it looks like that is no longer the case. Sir Quinns had a go on this in March, and said:
Red River might not appease anybody upset with the direction Codemasters are taking Flashpoint, but it certainly seems like a much more competent product, ready and able to tap into some of the ennui surrounding Call of Duty. When this game lands at the end of April, I’ll be very keen to take a closer look.
Alone in the Dark 1, 2 & 3 – £3.66/€4.15/$5.99
I played one of the Alone in the Dark games, on the Sega Saturn. I thought it was a bit rubbish. Not sure what else to say here, historians among you might find these of interest, but I think these are possibly a bit past their best now. Stop me if I’m wrong, any ardent AitDers out there? Would these games be palatable to a modern audience? At least they’re not trying to pass that rubbish newer one off as a good old game.
Max Payne 1 + 2 – £2.49/€2.49/$3.74
Activate your bullet-time and snap this deal up quick to avoid missing it, it’s not available for much longer (less than 24 hours). The PR choo choo train has geared up for the upcoming threequal again recently, with moody Max looking like he’s got a bit of a headache. Also on sale for a limited time, for the same price, is Bully: Scholarship Edition, and when these deals expire, they’ll be replaced by another 24 hour Rockstar sale. Then another on Sunday, you lucky things.
Just Cause 2 – £4.99/€4.99/$7.49
Registers on Steam.
It has been discounted to this price a few times before, but for a fiver you are getting a huge amount of game for your money. That’s roughly £2.49 per grappling hook, which is astonishing value in today’s market. Twas an RPS game of 2010, with Jim and John saying “the huge scope for rocketing around the island with various vehicles means you are immediately more inclined to amuse yourself with vehicular devastation than you are in any GTA clone” and “Nothing will top finding that hot-air balloon, or falling for so very, very long as a helicopter madly span out of control below me.”
Deal of the week
The Humble Frozenbyte Bundle – Whatever you want
The third Humble Indie Bundle, this time centred around Finish developer Frozenbyte. Your choose-your-own-donation gets you Trine, Shadowgrounds and Shadowgrounds: Survivor, all of which can be activated on Steam, OnLive and Desura, are PC/Mac/Linux compatible, and come with OSTs. You also get to play around with Jack Claw, a cancelled prototype game (Windows only, with source code), and work in progress Splot, which will unlock when it’s finished. Excellent value, this lot would cost at least a fiver when on sale normally, and that seems like a fair donation to me.
Also of note:
Rise of Prussia – £2.96 (and roughly the same price in other currencies). Apply coupon “SURVEY2010″.
All things Gratuitous Space Battles 50% off.
Commandos sale
D2D’s 10% off preorders is a bit naff when they have had 20% off everything multiple times recently.
Free Wallpapers at Games for Windows.
You can find cheap games of all sorts on SavyGamer.co.uk.
“Free Wallpapers at Games for Windows.”
SHUT. DOWN. EVERYTHING.
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FREE WALLPAPERS!
Why hasn’t anyone at RPS posted about this? Horrible.
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This is not a console site
This is a consoling sight.
PC gaming is not dead.
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PC gaming is dead; long live PC gaming!
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How did you resist the overwhelming tempation to write “I shit you not” after the free wallpapers comment?
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Boycotting if it needs GFWL.
(and why the hell didn’t I buy magicka on mid-week steam sale)
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Temple to tei: magicka is available from gamers gate at that price.
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I’m still not sure about RR. Are there any vehicles, different guns?
Or is it all limited to 4 classes and different scenarios?
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There are a number of deals over on GoG.com too, now, related to Sierra titles.
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Specifically, 30% off the following:
King’s Quest 1-3, 4-6, 7-8.
Space Quest 1-3, 4-6
Police Quest 1-4
Police Quest SWAT 1-2
http://www.gog.com/en/promo/activision_quests
In particular, I would recommend Space Quest (1-5, I’m not a fan of SQ6).
There’s also a Space Quest 2: Vohaul’s Revenge VGA remake underway over at Infamous Adventures – http://www.infamous-adventures.com/home/index.php?page=sq2
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Oh god. King’s Quest. I remember playing a collector’s edition of the first 6 games as a kid, and actually putting forth a lot of effort into beating them without the accompanying walkthrough for them, before realizing that if the games were so terrible as to be unbeatable without aimless trial and error or the walkthrough they weren’t worth it. So much wasted time on those terrible, TERRIBLE games. For someone who made a living off making them, Jane Jenson sure did a lot to kill adventure games.
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@Maktaka:
I have to completely disagree.
I played the first King’s Quest when I was six years old, and grew up with them. I love the challenge of the puzzles (even if some are bizarrely difficult), and I never minded the deaths (and there is a lot of dying in Sierra adventures).
Sierra did nothing to kill adventure games, they were the ones who helped start and grow the graphical adventure game genre.
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Killing and birthing are not mutually exclusive.
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Hold up, Jane Jenson only worked on KQ6. They were mostly the games of Roberta Williams.
Are the SWAT games worthwhile, anyone?
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You can certainly argue that KQ7 and KQ8 killed something. But slagging off 1-6 is pure blasphemy.
Back in the day, you didn’t have many games. You *wanted* some ridiculously hard ones that took you a while to complete. And while I’m sure you can pick some poorly-designed puzzles in the KQ series, for the most part they just require exploration and thought and a bit of cultural awareness.
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@Deano:
Regarding the SWAT games, they’re a mixed bag. The first game was an FMV game where you learn about proper procedure, practice some simple point-and-click shooting, and go out on missions where you spend most of your time either clicking on the edge of the screen to move to the next scene or figuring out how to use the communicator. It does model basic sniper training really well, though, if you’re interested in that.
The second game is more X-COMy (squad-based RPG w/ isometric perspective), where you control two SWAT team on various missions. Interestingly, you can play a terrorist campaign as well as a SWAT campaign – the only PQ game to try that. I’d really recommend this one, though it would behoove you to read the manual, as the game is finicky about you following procedure.
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On the contrary, Jane Jensen has made some of the best Sierra titles (Gabriel Knight, anyone?). Roberta Williams, not so much.
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For anyone who hadn’t grabbed the Witcher yet, you might want to keep an eye for this on gog:
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut, the highly acclaimed RPG by CD Projekt RED, will come to GOG’s storefront with tons of exclusive free goodies on May 10th for a regular price of $9.99–but we’re offering a special discount in commemoration of The Witcher 2 coming to GOG.com. The game will be available at a 50% discount from May 10 until May 24, and will cost only $4.99!
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Oh nice….
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I would still suggest the first Alone in the Dark is a good game.
Sure, the interface is clunky, and the character graphics are low poly and low res… but the Lovecraftian plot is still rather good, the puzzles are not overly difficult (although dying is rather easy, the combat is hard). You can save anywhere, and you should save often (in different save slots!).
It even has full voice acting! Might not sound much now, but back in the day that was quite special.
My memories of the other two are much dimmer, having only played the second a couple of times and the third once, but I recall the second being similar in many ways to the first, and the third being a bit odd by comparison (I was never fond of the Wild West theme).
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Yup, the first was the best. Two wasn’t bad but got a bit too shooty, can’t say I ever played 3.
Wouldn’t think they’d have aged worse than any other adventure game to be honest.
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The main problem with Alone in the Dark was that there were one or two dead ends. Oh yeah, and those GODDAMNED SPIDERS, mainly because it was impossible to kill them.
Anyway, it still holds up surprisingly well. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s better than most of the ‘modern’ survival horror games we’ve been peddled recently. It’s easily one of my favourite horror games, second only to Amnesia and the Penumbra series.
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I love the 5th screenshot it has on GoG for it, the one that says “The End” at the bottom. If that scene really happens at the end of the game then I feel obliged to play it.
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3 was kinda weird, as I recall it was pretty open at the start or something.
1 used to scare me as a child. Goddamn scary pirates.
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Does Bully deserve the “oh yeah, there was this other game by rockstar, wasn’t there?” status it seems to share with rockstar table tennis or is it simply an oft overlooked gem? Would someone in the know like to provide a short description of the gameplay?
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GTA in a school, basically. With QTE’s for lessons, which is fairly irritating. It’s not awful, but then it’s not exactly brilliant either so probably the “other” game moniker is indeed well deserved.
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I’m still mad The Warriors never made it to PC. The XBox1 version doesn’t even have backwards compatibility with the 360. That game is a fucking genius work of art and seeing it fade into obscurity through inaccessibility is a fucking crime.
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I quite enjoyed bully, but you need a controller to play it. Also I never got round to finishing it…
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Controller is quite fine with me. My mouse is a POS HID, so using the ol’ Wireless 360 is preferred.
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bought it in the sale at christmas and had great fun with it, it really is just GTA but set in school. well worth the money
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stahlwerk:
Do note, I never finished Bully, and it’s been a fair while since I played it. But here’s my take.
Compared to the GTA series Bully feels more focused on the plot. This, I suspect, is because of two reasons. Firstly, you’re in school, and you have classes (minigames), and you there’s a curfew each night. Classes aren’t mandatory ( I can’t recall if you can skip sleeping), but this does give the game a lot of structure you sort of have to spend time going around.
Secondly, lacking cars to drive, the moving from place A to place B isn’t as engaging part of gameplay. You do get a skateboard, for example, but I think you aren’t as distracted by trying to do cool stuff while on your way somewhere. That’s not to say there aren’t any distraction. There’s a lot to do, all sorts of pranks and silly stuff. But where as in GTA games I often, while on my way to a mission, saw something cool and just had to try driving of/into a cliff, in Bully that never really happened.
The missions themselves are rather similiarly structured. Someone either tells you to go somewhere and get or destroy something or save/whack someone. More focus on fistfights, naturally. There’s a niceish variety of weapons/items to use, like firecrackers, eggs or itching powder.
In conclusion, Bully is more focused an open world title than other Rockstar games. It is a good game, but I wouldn’t recommend it without hesitation. I wasn’t entirely convinced by it’s bizarro take on school world, and I often felt I was trying to hump through hoops (be it going to class or avoiding guards or gangs) to get what I wanted done, instead of just doing it. It all results in a more structured experience, which does detract from the open world experience. If you felt GTAs were too meandering and aimless, I’m sure Bully would be an improvement. On my part, I had more fun goofing around in GTA III-IV than playing Bully.
Oh, some people have apparently had a lot of tech issues with the PC version. My experience was good. Besides the horrible console UI.
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Definitely an overlooked gem. In my subjective rankings it’s well above GTA3 and San Andreas, and only marginally below 4 and Vice City.
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Bully is great. As a game it’s sort of a mad mix between School Daze and GTA, as a world/story it’s an even madder mix of Grease, 80s Nerdsploitation films and the Bash Street Kids. Solid, cheery fun that doesn’t outstay its welcome.
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@dethtoll
Warriors forever, bro. An excellent brawler, with a pretty great story and perfect atmosphere. It’s a game based on a movie that, dare I say it, actually makes the movie better for having played it. It’s a miracle of a game.
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*makes a note to look out an xbox and a copy of the Warriors*
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Think of it as being promoted from “also of note”, not demoted to a passing mention.
Didn’t Rockstar recently say that they a making a game that is a spiritual sequel to the (fantastic) Warriors?
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You need to do certain things at certain times of day. If it’s not the right time of day, you have to sit around waiting, and if it is the right time of day, you have to rush around getting it done before the period ends.
To me, the time system sucked all the fun and exploration out of the open-world genre.
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I enjoyed Bully tremendously (on console, at release), and it’s the main reason I’m excited for L.A. Noire. Rockstar really shines when they’re not doing GTA games, since they seem to have forgotten what makes those fun. Bully also deserves every award ever given for original video game soundtracks.
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@LewieP I believe it was planned at one stage but canned. There was an article about it sometime this week (that I now of course can’t find).
Edit: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/297658/news/rockstars-secret-xbox-360-game-unmasked/
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Bully is the best GTA game I’ve played (technically it’s not one, I know, but it’s close enough) and the only one I’ve ever finished. It’s amazing. But I played and beat it on PS2, and I’ve heard the PC port was terrible.
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I replayed AITD 1 not too long ago, in parallel with a couple of friends. I think our consensus was that it held up surprisingly well.
Of course, you may want to have a walkthrough nearby to help you past some of the weirder puzzles, but it’s definitely worth playing though.
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***BEWARE PURCHASING JUST CAUSE 2 FROM GET GAMES***
They are not supplying valid JC2 keycodes, the keycode does not contain the correct format for JC2 and unsurprisingly does not work in Steam. This sale should only be partaken in if you feel like having to deal with their support and gambling that they’ll get you a valid key eventually.
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I don’t doubt that you’ve had trouble, but it’s possible that yours is an isolated case, as mine at least worked fine.
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I ordered without having read your warning first and my key is working Just Fine Too.
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Unfortunately, my product key isn’t working as well. Hopefully they’ll get back to me soonish, as I am in the USA (West coast).
Edit: It seems my key is 4 digits, and not the 5 it’s supposed to be. I’m actually quite bummed about this, as I have been waiting for this game to go on sale again ever since I installed Windows 7.
Still, if everything works out, I’ll be playing it by tomorrow at a very nice price. Plus, the past Steam sales are keeping me company. But JC2 is the game I’ve been really wanting to play ever since its debut.
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I have a Gratuitous Space Battles Collection including the first three DLC on steam, but i loved it so much i definitely want the galactic conquest thingy. Can i buy galactic conquest at Gamers Gate and plug it in to steam?
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it shouldn’t matter where you buy any of the GSB stuff, as long as you install it all to the exact same place. If you sdcrew it up, you can always re-run the installer until you get it right, so you can’t lose :D
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Great to hear this, bought all the DLC from Gamersgate to go with my Steam copy and it’s worked perfectly :)
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Using the coupon code – 6399EB21FB4378D7282AC9FE6BF16452 – on D2D adds an additional 15% off to the price of any game. This stacks with all existing discounts, including the 10% off pre-orders where they explicitly mention that it won’t.
This brings the price of pre-orders down to 76.5% of full price, which is a discount of 23.5% and is pretty decent.
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Coupon has expired, apparently.
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That’s because abhishek tried to slip you a referral coupon. They’re only good for one person, only for the first purchase, and only if the order total is $30 or more.
If you really want one of those, click here for mine.
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This coupon:
SBP-ATH-8M6
Should give 20% off Back to the Future at the Telltale store, if you’re interested.
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Actually, just putting Back to the Future into your cart is enough – the coupon is auto-applied.
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God, I laughed my ass off when I saw the top 2 contributors for the humble bundle.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50996/what%20now%2C%20garry.png – for posterity.
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LOL!
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I like that it is the knockoff Garry Numan. I wonder if someone claiming to be the real Numan will show up.
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Thanks for Just Cause 2 RPS. LOVE YOUUU.
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Just couple of months ago I was buying games (left and right) from these new UK-based sites like GetGamesGo and GreenManGaming but today, I’m back to buying nothing from them. Silly silly euro-pricing. D2D.uk still grants us a possibility for fairly priced games but I’m afraid they will pull the plug eventually too. Gamersgate offers the freedom of choice too but that’s about it.
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Yeah, I just took a look at the GetGamesGo front page prices and they seem to be really weird about the conversions.
Commandos Complete is 3.74, whether in £, € or $.
Shogun 2 on the other hand is listed as £24(~€27), $40(~€27) or €45 for people actually paying in that currency. Bizarre
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Alone in the dark 1 is an awesome game, but the primitive graphics (that were so cool back in the day) do take away a lot of the fear factor.
Also, that price isn’t a sale or special offer, as far as i know. So there shouldn’t be any need to rush to buy it.
PS/ They DO have the newer crap AitD on gog – but not the even newer crap AitD.
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Also, Steam’s selling The Potato Sack and a Portal 2 pre-order for £51.21 until whenever they decide to release Portal 2.
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/7852/
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Also, Beamdog’s got some nice sales on the Men of War series, including the recently released Assault Squad.
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How are beamdog? Do they use any download application etc? And more importantly, Assault Squad ties to steam right? :P
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Beamdog is a launch to play client like steam, but some games launch without it. But personally I’d steer clear, to many horror stories about nasty drm with no warning and it blue screens my xp pc.
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They have their own client, with varying levels of access control. Some games require the client to launch. Some may not. Can’t find the thread, but I believe one of the Beamdog guys said this depended on what the publisher/developer requested. When you buy a game the client downloads it to a fixed directory on the computer. Once downloaded you can run immediately without additional installation.
You can’t seem to put icons to the desktop for downloaded games. If you have one of the games that won’t launch without the client, you can’t make your own shortcut. Launching the game won’t automatically launch the client. You just get an error, in my experience.
I’d bought Mount & Blade: Warband and was frustrated that I couldn’t launch from desktop. I don’t want to have to load each of my DD clients and tab between them to view my entire library. With M&B, at least, I was able to download the demo from the developer’s website and activate it with my cd key. So now I can bypass the Beamdog client.
Would I buy again from Beamdog? Yes, perhaps, if the price was reeeeeally right, the game was a must have, and especially if there was a work-around as for M&B.
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I brought Precursors from Beamdog and thought they were OK, I’d use them again. Though that’s a game that doesn’t need the download client to launch the game, the DRM is the publisher’s own with a one-time on-line activation after install. I haven’t had a problem with their download client on XP, it’s minimal and didn’t get in the way, though I haven’t used it other than for that one download.
Don’t know how many of their games are like that though. Agree with @icupnimpn2 that I might think twice if it was a game that I cant play without the client, unless it was really cheap.
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Not sure there is any place that information is really published, either, so you may not know until you buy. Or you have to learn bits and pieces from other players. Would be great if they told you up-front like gamersgate.
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Yeah if your DRM method is going to vary from game to game then you need to tell people what it is before they buy.
Are you listening Beamdog?
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The guys behind it seem like nice enough chaps. I only bought Precursors there as well and I like the fact that a little while after that sale they started offering a community patch for the game -optional of course.
No idea what their stance on DRM is though.
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I did the thing that calculates how much your Steam collection is worth, and safe to say I won’t be buying new games for a long while
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Got a link? I’d love/hate to see how much my collection is worth :P
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http://www.steamcalculator.com
It’s a bit suspect, though, since it doesn’t take into account any bundle prices or sale prices.
For example, I’d bought King’s Bounty: The Legend, Armored Princess, and Crossworlds together for one low, low price of $8.75. Steamcalculator adds them as $14.99 + $24.99 + $19.99!
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last time I checked, my (basically free) copy of HL2:Lost Coast was worth $80. so that calculator thingie is not too reliable. still… so many games. O_O (quoth he and bought Bully the next instant. damn you, deals.)
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US only, from Amazon:
Physical bundle of Black Mirror II & III, for $20.
Ten bucks each is a good deal if you like point-n-click adventures.
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Lewie, the advantage of the 10% discount at D2D is that it’s not based on a code – so it can be used with other codes. All of the 20% discounts you mention were code-based and therefore couldn’t be stacked.
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I still have my original Max Payne discs somewhere, but £2.49 for both? Gorra gorra.
EDIT: Just noticed the competition to win all Rockstar games on Steam if you buy from the sale and noticed how few games I would actually be getting if I won. Oh well!
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If you missed Painkiller Black Edition in GOG’s sale last week, DotEmu have it this week for €3.49, DRM free.
Along with a bunch of other JoWood stuff (Aquanox 1 & 2, Aura 1 & 2, Gothic II Gold, Darkfall 1 & 2, Spellforce Gold, Chaser, Neighbours from Hell)
DotEmu JoWood sale
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Rise of Prussia and Hegemony (both on Impulse) are well worth it.
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The first Alone in the Dark was brilliant. A great Lovecraftian atmosphere with some excellent music and well-realized “this-just-doesn’t-feel-right-ness”. None of the sequels have done anything praiseworthy, and many have been downright terrible (and let’s not mention that Ewe Boll movie).
The final “boss fight”-for lack of a better term-is still one of the most memorable pieces of my videogaming youth.
Even if you never touch 2 or 3, the GOG collection is worth getting just to experience the first game.
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Wishing to relive my wasted youth with the Max Payne collection on Steam, but Rockstar games are apparently unavailable in China. Would anyone know how to counter this so I can once more watch the sun go down with practiced bravado?
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I believe you can be gifted region restricted games across continents without problem. Or you could use a VPN like Hotspot Shield to get around it. Not sure the latter’s something Valve (or the Chinese government) want people doing though, so tread lightly :-)
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Sorry for the late reply Terry, the weekend turned out to be a long one.
Aye, I’ve some friends here you use hotspot shield but they’ve all said it’s not worth it. Aside from living in perpetual fear of reprisal from the government, it apparently slowed their connection to a crawl.
Thanks for trying to help. Probably a good thing I didn’t get them though. My workload and backed up catalog of unplayed games means I likely just saved myself a couple of quid :)
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I’ve thought about it, and checked wikipedia, and it was the second Alone in the Dark I played.
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Aitd 1 is really what matters, and it’s appropriate to treat the rest of the “trilogy” as afterthoughts. One of the alltime greats. Of course, technology has moved forward.
Aitd 2 is by far the worst, with the mystifying way in which it put the clunky gunplay at the forefront, and the jolly piratey christmas atmosphere. Supposedly the inforgrames execs started interfering, causing the original’s lead developer to walk away and leaving this mess as a result. It had a couple of decent ideas but nothing still worth noting.
Aitd 3 was a more decent little game but still nothing like the first. And cowboys aren’t scary, either.
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No mention of the Splinter Cell weekend deal on Steam from anyone?
The pack includes Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory, Double Agent and Conviction for £19.58. I suppose whether it is a good deal all rides on whether Conviction was any good, which kind of passed me by. Anyone actually played it?
Splinter Cell the first and Chaos Theory are both great games, though a bit pricey if you were just buying the pack for them.
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magicka complete pack is 50% off on gamersgate for the next day and a bit.
how is that then, can you just jump into an online game or do people have to be on your friend list?
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You can jump into whatever non-password protected game you want.
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I enjoyed conviction.
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Rise of Prussia is pretty awesome if you’re into turn based war games.
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OnLive is running an “achievement weekend,” with 30% discounts + rewards for in-game activities on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Homefront, Luxor 2, Red Faction Guerrilla, and Remington Super Slam Hunting Africa.
Adventure Shop’s recently redesigned site has new specials – 50% off 80 Days, Paradise, Pizza Morgana, The Abbey, and The Westerner (both the original and the Fenimore Fillmore’s Revenge sequel) until April 28th.
D2D casual channel has all Aveyond titles at 50% off.
PopCap has an Easter sale going, but most of the titles are cheaper elsewhere.
EA has “select sports games” at 50% off. Be wary of anything with 09 in the title: EA likes to shut down servers for older games.
Finally, D2D’s “30 Days of Deal$” promo uploaded new images. Using state-of-the-art cyber-sleuthing technology pioneered by Lewie (a.k.a. changing the date in the image’s URL), I was able to discover the daily deals for the rest of the month:
April 16: 75% off Aliens vs Predator
April 17: 25% off Dead Space 2
April 18: 50% off The Sims 3
April 19: 50% off Magicka
April 20: 75% off Empire Total War
April 21: 25% off Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
April 22: 40% off Civilization 5
April 23: 50% off Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam
April 24: 50% off Bulletstorm
April 25: 75% off Amnesia
April 26: 50% off DC Universe Online
April 27: 50% off Test Drive Unlimited 2
April 28: 75% off Napoleon Total War
April 29: 40% off RIFT (the discount is listed as a flat $30)
April 30: 50% off Two Worlds 2
(I have a blog – dddeals.blogspot.com – where I post discounts on digitally distributed PC games as I find them.)
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So another site decided to rip off euro customers. Wonder when d2d will force non-uk-ppl to the d2d euro page. Sad times.
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