By Lewie Procter on May 28th, 2011 at 11:45 am.
I’m in a bit of a hurry this morning, I’ve got to jump onto a train into Manchester shortly because I am heading to the RPS Social Club meet. If you’re in the area, why don’t you come join us? The details are confusingly spread over two posts here and here. As such, I’m a little briefer than usual. Don’t worry, normal service will resume by next weekend, assuming I’ve recovered from the no doubt epic hangover I’ll be having after tonight. SavyGamer‘s still a web site with lots of games that cost less than they normally cost listed on it. Here’s the deals:
DotEmu Promo on GOG
A selection of older games which (typically for GOG weekend promotions) I’ve not played any of. You know, one of these days I’m going to have played all the games GOG have on promotion, and it’s going to be glorious. I’ll be able to tell you all about them rather than relying on my RPS colleagues having played them. Today is not that day though, so here’s Alec telling you why why Gobliins 2 made him.
Precursors – £9.98/€14.98/$14.98
Jim endorsed ambitious spacey adventure game. This is Wot he thought:
All this adds up to a rich, incoherent game that needs lashings of work before it even comes close to the production values of most games released by big publishers today. That hardly matters, because the scope and energy of the game diminish most of what those publishers are trying to do with those games and the experiences they provide. As I Alt-tabbed in and out of Precursors to chat to people online, I found myself checking in with a friend who had just completed Call Of Duty 4 for the first time. His weary sadness at the rigid scripting and predictable militarist point ‘n’ shoot of the game was made to seem ludicrous as I reported alien worlds, weapons that need to be fed, and just the general layers of weird shit that I had uncovered. At one point I said this: “I just found a bunch of people worshipping what seems to be a floating Rubik’s Cube in the middle of the desert!” What was that about? I still haven’t gone back to find out. But I could. There’s no going back to have a poke around for the CoD4 player, because the game just doesn’t work like that. And there are no floating Rubik’s Cubes in that desert, anyway. Precursors’ space imperials might be no more imaginative than Call Of Duty soldiermen, but they live in a far more surprising neighbourhood.
See how I quoted more from Jim’s WIT that I usually would, to give the illusion of me having done more words than I actually have. Sneaky hey?
Company of Heroes: Gold – £3.75/$7.49
North America/UK only for this one I’m afraid. Sorry folks in mainland Europe, I suggest you take it up with Gamefly, Direct2Drive’s new owner. The Gold edition of CoH includes the original game and the Opposing Fronts expansion, although is missing men of valour. That Kieron fella reveiwed the first one for Eurogamer, and Mr Meer tackled the expansion.
Star Trek Online [Digital Deluxe Edition], PC – £2.37/€2.75/$3.75
Alec documented the opening of his voyage into deep space here, and this is what he had to say about flying the space ships:
The space combat I’m not so sure about – the controls feel a bit off, imprecise and unresponsive. I’m surprised there isn’t a click-to-move-to-target thing on the ships, as that would seem to have more in common with Star Trek navigation as we know it. Clearly, it’s more hands-on this way, but I’m not convinced a city-sized spaceship from the far future should handle like a broken kite. Maybe I’ll get used to it, but right now it feels like an uncomfortable halfway house between, say, Eve and Freelancer. It’s a jolly nice change from running around pressing number keys, at least. And I can’t pretend I wasn’t thrilled that the name I gave my ship – the U.S.S. Pripyat – appeared on its hull.
More RPS coverage this way.
Deal of the week
50% off Arcen games
A bunch of you moaned at me for only including Arcen’s games in the “Also of note” section last week. I’d never want to miss an opportunity to bow to popular demand, and since they’re now on sale on Steam (and for a bit cheaper than the last sale, at least in the UK), I thought I’d promote them to deal of the week. If you’re after AI War and all the expansions, you can save even more by getting them in the Alien Bundle. RPS coverages of AI War here and Tidalis here.
Also of note:
Medieval 2: Total War – £2.49/€2.87/$3.75
Age of Fear: The Undead King x2 – £9.46/€10.92/$14.99
Hearts of Iron III Mega Pack – £8.99/similar prices in other countries. Apply coupon “SURVEY2010″.
Elven Legacy Collection – £1.81/€2.09/$2.99
75% off all Brother in Arms games.
Dirt 3 – £23.99/$34.99/€34.99
33% of all Ubisoft games, but don’t buy these until tomorrow (Valve Time), just in case any of the ones you want are the last daily special. Highlights include:
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory – £6.02/€6.69/$6.69
Zeit² – £4.68/€6.69/$6.69
Bloody Good Time – £2.67/€3.34/$3.34
For more cheap games throughout the week, get yourselves over to SavyGamer.co.uk.
28/05/2011 at 11:48 Rinox says:
I assume many of those newer Ubisoft titles still include the DRM? If so, even a really nice daily offer on Silent Hunter V won’t pull me in. :-(
28/05/2011 at 11:56 Wilson says:
Mmm, I was tempted by Settlers 7, but am not going near that DRM. One day I might be able to buy it…
28/05/2011 at 11:58 Jumwa says:
I’ve passed on Ubisoft sales for the same reason.
It also helps I’ve never played an Ubisoft game I’ve actually enjoyed, across any platform. To be fair I haven’t played a ton of them, but I found the ones I did play to all be amazingly awkward to control, so much so I was completely turned off on most of them very early in. From Beyond Good & Evil to Splinter Cell on up to Assassins Creed.
Perhaps I’ve grown too curmudgeonly.
28/05/2011 at 12:02 Lewie Procter says:
Perhaps it’s just my tastes, but Ubisoft games (that I’ve played) have taken a nosedive in quality since ~2006.
28/05/2011 at 12:05 Moonroach says:
Good call on the DRM, wallet returned to pocket.
Edit : IL-2 doesn’t have non-Steam DRM does it?
28/05/2011 at 13:10 Archonsod says:
AFAIK Settlers 7 is the only one that still has the always on DRM, although one would think this would be less of an issue with the Steam version in the first place.
Can’t say I’ve had any issues with it, and the game is most definitely worth the asking price.
28/05/2011 at 13:24 nofing says:
If you’re not sure about the DRM, just go to this site http://steamdrm.flibitijibibo.com/the-big-drm-list/
This guy has made a very nice list of most/all games on steam, which have additional DRM.
And yes, Ubisoft has still the worst DRM.
Zeit², which is also published by Ubisoft and is a Steam exclusive game, has Solidshield with a 3 machine limit…wtf?
28/05/2011 at 14:01 malkav11 says:
All of Ubi’s recent titles still have unnecessary, potentially crippling DRM. They did scale back to merely unacceptable levels on Assassin’s Creed 2, Brotherhood, and I think Splinter Cell: Conviction, however. They have not altered the DRM on things like Settlers or Silent Hunter V.
28/05/2011 at 15:01 bill says:
@nofing. Thanks for that list. Turns out Chaos Theory has no evil drm now.. i’ve been avoiding it in all the previous steam sales as it was unclear whether it did or now.
28/05/2011 at 15:41 Jimbo says:
Ubi have made some of my favourite games in recent years. Shame about the PC DRM though.
28/05/2011 at 15:46 kyrieee says:
The Rainbow Six Vegas games are a blast if you haven’t played them
28/05/2011 at 15:47 Diziet Sma says:
@nofing that’s a really good list. Thanks for posting it, it’s quite enlightening.
28/05/2011 at 16:02 Zelius says:
What is the big deal with additional DRM on Steam anyway? What is so bad about it? I’m not trying to troll here, I’m genuinely curious.
28/05/2011 at 16:09 Ignorant Texan says:
Zelius -
If you’ve ever had to do a reformat and clean install because a DRM scheme has broken pretty much everything(my one experience with SecuROM still causes me nightmares), it matters a great deal.
28/05/2011 at 16:10 JohnH says:
@Archonsod Steam got an offline mode. Ubisoft always online DRM doesn’t.
28/05/2011 at 16:19 nofing says:
You’re welcome! I have a look at this list prior to every purchase on steam, just to be sure.
If you have any questions or want to know more, this is the steam forums thread, where all the DRM stuff is discussed http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1537801
@Zelius Well, it depends. Some of the additional DRM won’t really affect you, but there is DRM, which for example limits your activations, which means you can only install a game on a certain amount of computers.
For example: Crysis has a 5 machine limit, after you’ve used those, you can’t install this game anymore and EA reps have clearly stated, that they won’t grant you any further activations.
There is the DRM, like TAGES and Solidshield, which are a real pain to remove from your PC, once you’ve installed any game, which uses it.
And not to forget about the recent removal of SecuROM from the Witcher 2 retail, which is supposedly improving performance by up to 30%.
28/05/2011 at 17:14 icupnimpn2 says:
@Lewie
Of course Ubi games have taken a nosedive in quality since 2006. Aside from DRM, the best way to discourage widespread piracy is to make a steaming turd!
28/05/2011 at 20:51 worbat says:
Steam actually removed splintercell from the steam store along with all of UBIs stupid DRM games.
So in theory if they are back the DRM is gone. I know its true for SCC. Don’t quote me on the others though.
29/05/2011 at 03:42 Zelius says:
@Ignorant Texan
Ah, I see. I didn’t realise that stuff could still cripple one’s computer.
@nofing
Thanks for the explanation. Guess I’ll be using that list from now on.
28/05/2011 at 12:03 chrism says:
Vic Davis is finally back and it looks like special offers on Solium Infernum soon, maybe next week. $14.99 per game if you buy 4 or more per order. Anyone want to group buy?
28/05/2011 at 16:39 Epsz says:
I may be interested, would have to talk with a ferw friends before I can tell you for sure
28/05/2011 at 21:49 qrter says:
Ooh, preorders for Six Gun Saga are beginning!
28/05/2011 at 23:58 Bullwinkle says:
Purchased instantly.
29/05/2011 at 15:42 iLag says:
I may be interested as well. Should we take this to the forums when the time comes? May be easier to organize there (and maybe find a few more potential buyers).
28/05/2011 at 12:13 tanith says:
Hey, I told gamersgate that I wanted to be reminded when the price on Precursors drops and they didn’t do it! >:(
Thank you very much, Lewie!
Raptor from GOG.com is really awesome, though. If you’re a sucker for side-scrollers/topdown shooters like me you’re probably gonna love it.
28/05/2011 at 13:12 Archonsod says:
I got the email. Despite the fact I already bought it weeks ago.
28/05/2011 at 12:18 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
I started Bloody Good Time last week at prime time to see if anyone was online but no, all servers were empty.
Right now I see 14 people.
28/05/2011 at 12:31 DeepSleeper says:
Grabbed STO just to sit on it and wait until I’m ready to do the 30 day trial. Been meaning to try that, and I hear they’re revamping the combat soon.
28/05/2011 at 12:46 nidzumi says:
As much as I hate the Ubisoft DRM, it causes Splinter Cell to freeze while finding the connection constantly, I’ll pick up Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood if it’s cheap on Steam sales. Probably too new though.
28/05/2011 at 12:54 NR says:
If you don’t mind a boxed copy, you can get Brotherhood from Zavvi for £12.85:
http://www.zavvi.com/games/platforms/pc/assassin-s-creed-brotherhood/10173900.html
28/05/2011 at 12:57 Iokanaan says:
@nidzumi: aren’t there any hacked files to bypass this?
28/05/2011 at 14:44 nidzumi says:
That’s not bad actually, although I might wait until you can get it on Steam for that kind of price.
I’m sure there is a fix for it, I haven’t looked into it that much. There’s always a way around DRM, which kind of renders it pointless.
28/05/2011 at 15:45 The Great Wayne says:
- “There’s always a way around DRM, which kind of renders it pointless.”
Yes, there is and yes, it does.
29/05/2011 at 10:20 Wilson says:
Mmm, I can understand and somewhat endorse DRM very early in a game’s life (e.g. release and maybe a few weeks in) but it should always be planned to be taken out later, because as you say it just becomes ineffective. I wouldn’t mind irritating DRM so much if I knew it was just temporary.
29/05/2011 at 18:31 Phil says:
AC1 is half the Steam sale price on amazon.co.uk btw. Oh, and Zavvi have bumped the price of Brotherhood back up again.
28/05/2011 at 12:56 mod the world says:
2,75 € is a fantastic price for Star Trek online! Trekkies join me!
28/05/2011 at 13:19 Giaddon says:
Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy is the daily deal at Impulse: $5 for an excellent, cross-dressing, astrology-themed mystalike.
http://impulsedriven.com/nostradamus
28/05/2011 at 13:34 Bhazor says:
Elven Legacy Complete for <£2 is just a ridiculous bargain and I can't recommend it enough. It's worth remembering that even if you've bought the original every single one of the three expansion packs includes a full length campaign and a dozen new units.
BeamDog is also a pretty nice client. Much smaller, sleeker and less intrusive than most clients which is probably why they don't have any big name publishers attached to them yet.
Edit: Also on BeamDog
King Arthur : The Role Playing game $6
Majesty 2 $9
Mount and Blade Warband $9
28/05/2011 at 14:13 d32 says:
+1 On Elven Legacy.
Great value, full game, plus addons. I was a bit hesitant to install yet another game client, but this one is quite light-weight (and is able to create shortcuts on desktop). Launching the game takes some time though, so I’m not sure what’s happening in the background in the meantime.
28/05/2011 at 14:27 jaheira says:
Thirded. That’s an insane bargain for anyone who likes turn based malarkies/shenanigans.
28/05/2011 at 17:47 Faldrath says:
Mm, tempted by that, and Warband, but still a bit reluctant to install another game client – would like to hear more opinions on Beamdog if possible.
28/05/2011 at 18:45 Spider Jerusalem says:
Yeah, Beamdog is perfectly unannoying. I used it for a Precursors sale a while ago, haven’t had an issue with it. They also take Paypal, which is my usual blockade with non-Steam distro platforms.
28/05/2011 at 22:56 suibhne says:
Fyi, they’re already out of keys for the Elven Legacy bundle.
29/05/2011 at 10:59 Eclipse says:
agreed Beamdog is quite awesome! And they usually publish community made patches as free packs for the games, for example you don’t need to patch Precursors manually, just download their pack
28/05/2011 at 13:51 TrouserDemon says:
It’s Tales Of Valour, not Men of Valour.
28/05/2011 at 13:57 The Hammer says:
Which just highlights how nonsensical most of these names are.
Publishers should just call all their games War of War and be done with it.
(or think up names for games that don’t include “of” in the middle)
28/05/2011 at 13:58 Bhazor says:
I’d totally play a game called Fight of Violence.
28/05/2011 at 14:23 Jim Rossignol says:
I think that’s one reason why there are so many sequels, even when the sequel has NOTHING to do with the original. You get a name, you stick with it.
28/05/2011 at 14:25 Dominic White says:
@Bhazor
Like so?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_Fight
28/05/2011 at 14:31 The Hammer says:
Yeah, Jim. I found that with Far Cry 2, and, I guess, the new Medal of Honour reboot.
They really are just names as properties.
28/05/2011 at 15:01 Foosnark says:
I’d buy “Of of Of.”
28/05/2011 at 15:52 ThinkAndGrowWitcher says:
I’d like to pre-order a copy of a Footwear-retail simulator called “First Person Shoe’er” (as an alternative to the already acclaimed Sole Reaver series).
29/05/2011 at 01:29 Lewie Procter says:
Violence Fight is probably my favourite best worst game ever.
It is so terrible.
it is set in the 50s, but the New York skyline is that of the late 80s when the game was made, so has the twin towers on it.
In the single player, it is best of three rounds, but they messed it up. If you win the first round, then draw the second round it is game over. If you win the first round, and lose the second round, you fight a third round to decide.
The text story at the start is utterly priceless.
It’s on the Xbox/PS2 taito legends 2 compilation. Must play. Ideally with alcohol.
28/05/2011 at 14:01 Bhazor says:
No love for Robinson’s Requiem (in the GoG deal)?
For shame. That’s the best dying from hypothermia with no legs sim ever made.
28/05/2011 at 20:41 Giaddon says:
I’ve never heard of this before but based on your comment alone I just purchased it. Thanks, maybe!
28/05/2011 at 21:12 Bhazor says:
It’s a game all about being stranded on a hostile planet, eating poisonous plants, over dosing on morphine getting your eyes pecked out by birds, murdering your crazed crew mates for their food and slowly dying from exposure on barren rocks after being forced to hack off your gangrenous limbs. Your quest ends, with you eating cyanide washed down with filthy water.
Dying, alone and unmourned on a planet with no name.
But fun!
28/05/2011 at 21:37 Giaddon says:
OK, so I’ve played for about 10 mins. After a personal address from the dopiest president ever I’m facedumped on planet shitstorm. I wander for a bit and find a fellow human who seems nice, until he turns into a green-drooling wolf-monster and attacks me. I punch him to death.
Now I’m looking for a way to make the controls better. I look forward to checking it out more, though!
28/05/2011 at 14:14 d32 says:
Anyone tried Age of Fear? It seems to be a little amateurish in the presentation terms (both game and the webpage) but from the demo, gameplay seems very solid.
28/05/2011 at 14:21 Jim Rossignol says:
It’s in the RPS “To Play” queue, but we’re a bit backed up at the moment.
28/05/2011 at 16:19 phenom_x8 says:
Gamers gate offering 70% discount for selected war games including BFBC 2 for less than $8 . Gonna get it ASAP!
Check it here http://www.gamersgate.com/all?q=memorialday&sort_by=relevans&price_range=&filter=&list_type=thumbs&aff=ggnews
28/05/2011 at 16:40 Vinraith says:
OK, someone help me out here. White Gold and Precursors appear to be made (or at least published) by the same people, they seem to be similar sorts of games, is one the sequel to the other? Are they related in some way? What’s going on there?
I also note, unfortunately, that Precursors appears to have Starforce…
28/05/2011 at 16:55 Unaco says:
White Gold, afaik, is a terrestrially set, jungle based game, similar to Boiling Point in setting. Precursors is set in space and on alien worlds.
28/05/2011 at 17:19 Giaddon says:
No story link between them. Precursors is pretty great, actually, at least once you put in the raw manual labor to get the audio and patches in there. And on easy difficulty.
28/05/2011 at 20:00 Teddy Leach says:
You… Thought that Precursors may be linked to White Gold?
28/05/2011 at 20:08 Vinraith says:
@Teddy
I’m sure I’d appreciate how silly that idea was if I’d ever heard of either of them before today.
28/05/2011 at 22:17 GeneralAdmission says:
Would’ve picked up Precursors at the last 50% sale were it not for that word ‘Starforce’ in the product description.
First vendor to put this game on sale sans internet transmitted disease gets my money.
29/05/2011 at 07:40 malkav11 says:
Same developers, same engine, very similar basic gameplay. White Gold is essentially an indirect sequel to Boiling Point (which was Xenus in Russia, and White Gold is Xenus II – not plot related though to the best of my knowledge). Precursors takes the basic gameplay philosophy and transplants it into space, laden with oddities.
29/05/2011 at 17:44 Vinraith says:
@malkav11
That’s exactly what I wanted to know, thank you!
28/05/2011 at 16:59 Unaco says:
Anyone confirm what the deal with Steam and buying redundant games in packs? Have some shekels, was going to pick up the 2 AI War expansions I haven’t picked up yet, but then I noticed the complete pack. Was thinking, if I bought that, could I gift the Base game + Zenith Remnant, and keep Children of Neinzul + Light of the Spire for myself?
I know Steam never used to let you do this, but I thought they had possibly started. I know they allowed it recently with 1 game at least (Portal 2, for those that won the complete pack in the ARG, if they had pre-ordered Portal 2, they could gift away 1 copy).
Edit. Never mind. Got a link from Steam themselves, saying that Extra Copies are only ever given for specific packages (i.e. if you own HL2 and buy the Orange Box or Valve Complete pack, you get a copy of HL2 to gift, or if you own L4D and buy the L4D+L4D2 bundle or similar).
28/05/2011 at 17:02 Vinraith says:
Steam only allows that sort of thing in exceptional cases (virtually always specifically with Valve games), you won’t be getting any extra giftable copies with your AI War pack. You’d be better served, actually, to buy the bundle direct from Arcen instead. They’d give you a full set of keys, so the ones you didn’t need could be gifted to others, and the keys you needed would register on Steam (and Impulse, and unlock the demo) like all Arcen keys.
28/05/2011 at 21:28 doctorfrog says:
Agreed. Buy straight from Arcen, and you can just use the serials they send you to activate the game and expansions on any steam account. Each separate piece of the pack will unlock that part of it, so you can divvie it out as you see fit.
28/05/2011 at 17:27 Daiv says:
Selling Company of Heroes right now is a painful move for someone who really, really enjoyed Company of Heroes Online, which vanished in beta.
28/05/2011 at 19:08 Droniac says:
Well they did release a massive multiplayer update to Company of Heroes, including 6 new maps, about 4 days ago. So it sort of makes sense for them to promote that.
Besides, at least regular Company of Heroes isn’t limited to extremely low quality graphics like Company of Heroes Online was. And afaik. the original game’s multiplayer remained more popular even when the CoH-O beta was live. For good reason, because CoH-O was too locked-in for my taste with the various player classes and strict advancement paths that rigidly determined your unit selections.
28/05/2011 at 18:13 Giaddon says:
‘sassin’s Creed day at steam, including 33% off Brotherhood
28/05/2011 at 18:17 Faldrath says:
And the daily deal is Samorost 2 for 2 dollars.
28/05/2011 at 18:46 DSDan says:
Ohh, excited. Say, is it worth getting the Deluxe version of Brotherhood?
28/05/2011 at 19:17 Fwiffo says:
Only if you really like the series lore or have 3 quid to spare.
28/05/2011 at 19:24 The Hammer says:
Snapped 1 & 2 up! If I like them, I’ll definitely get Brotherhood later on in the year, when it’s bound to be cheaper!
EDIT: Uh, cheaper than it normally is, sans Ubisoft sale, anyway.
28/05/2011 at 19:38 DSDan says:
@Fwiffo
Thanks. I guess I can’t complain about a few “quid” for some extra fun considering what I spent on food today.
@The Hammer
AC 1 and 2 are quite different. I thought 1 was ok but repetitive, but 2 became one of my personal favorites. So if you don’t end up liking 1, give 2 a chance regardless.
28/05/2011 at 19:54 DSDan says:
Hmm, I decided to get the Standard version–I’d rather have another delicious meal.
28/05/2011 at 19:59 The Hammer says:
@DSDan: Yeah, I heard that the sequel is better, but I enjoy the setting of the Crusades more than Renaissance Italy!
Ahhh, I remember when AC was first announced. Good times.
28/05/2011 at 20:36 Giaddon says:
AC1 is one of my favorite games ever. It’s an assassination game about the targets, rather than the assassin. The world is huge, gorgeous, and atmospheric. The movement system is crazy fun. The present/past dynamic is handled much better than in the subsequent 2 games.
People say the game is repetitive, but it’s not any more repetitive than any other game, and a lot less repetitive than, say, any given shooter.
28/05/2011 at 23:15 Kaira- says:
@Giaddon
“AC1 is one of my favorite games ever. It’s an assassination game about the targets, rather than the assassin.”
I actually felt the opposite, especially lacking in the assassinations, though it may have been because I was expecting more of Hitman in medieval times than parkour-assassin-game.
28/05/2011 at 23:20 DSDan says:
AC1 is to Saboteur, as AC2 is to Grand Theft Auto?
28/05/2011 at 23:48 Giaddon says:
Yeah, there are only 9 assassinations, but their characters were pretty well established, while I felt Altair, other than his prick->decent guy change, was a cipher. I loved each post-assassination “conversation” with the target, even though it made absolutely no realistic sense that you could stop to talk to a dead guy for a couple minutes right after killing him, surrounded by his guards.
The Hitman connection is interesting. I’d love to have a Hitman game were you could talk to the mark (and other characters), learn a bit, keep your social cover. I’d need to know the guy was trash though, I couldn’t kill good guy after chatting with him :(
28/05/2011 at 18:45 MythArcana says:
Ubisoft out, Arcen in! Get your AI Wars and Tidalis for a song! Highly recommended!
28/05/2011 at 19:07 xavdeman says:
Star Trek Online Digital Deluxe Edition seems to be €10,99 here. :( http://store.steampowered.com/app/901222/
28/05/2011 at 19:10 Droniac says:
Yup, I think it must have been a one-day sale or something. The promotion for 2.75 euro was still up this morning.
28/05/2011 at 19:22 xavdeman says:
:( Don’t feel like paying 11 bucks now that I know the >real< worth is 2,75!
28/05/2011 at 19:43 Moonracer says:
Downloading Precursors right now. I kind of enjoyed Boiling Point and there seems to be a lot more fan support (including several fan patches in the game forum).
28/05/2011 at 20:43 xavdeman says:
I’m still having nightmares from the atrocious English translation of White Gold: War in Paradise. Medical doctors were baffled that I was bleeding from my ears when I was brought to the OR.
28/05/2011 at 21:07 geldonyetich says:
I bought precursors at full $30 price. It’s definitely an interesting game, but so kludgey that I can only recommend it at this half-price. Perhaps the most jarring part of it is that the sounds have a tendency to malfunction – suddenly, your guns stop making reloading or firing noises, for example. In a game that is predominantly a first-person shooter, losing audio queues can sabotage your gameplay.
If you’re looking to restore a lot of the lost audio functionality, there are fan-provided patches that include a great deal of the omitted Russian dialogue and also includes a significant amount of sound effects that were apparently cut out of haste to localize. I’m not sure about the legality of distributing Deep Shadows’ omitted content, so I won’t link it directly, but if you look for “precursors unofficial patch” you should be able to find it.
On an note related only in that they’re both sci-fi games from the same general part of the world, I’ll probably snatch up Starpoint Gemini when it hits the half-price mark.
I like the idea of the open-ended exploration and ship upgrading, but I was rather turned off when I discovered in the demo that all the weapons on multiple hardpoints on your capital ship fire off in one sloppy alpha-strike of destruction when you push the same fire button. Way to cheapen the fact there’s multiple weapon types, Little Green Men. Perhaps I’d have felt differently if they actually included a much-needed tutorial mission in the demo, as I had the lingering feeling that I (a fellow who has been playing games for nearly three decades) was unable to grok exactly how to play it.
28/05/2011 at 21:47 dsi1 says:
btw MechWarrior: Living Legends version 0.5.0 released yesterday, new gamemode (Solaris Arena/Free For All) complete with voice overs from the original Solaris Arena announcer! (not to mention new mech variants and various bug fixes and optimizations)
28/05/2011 at 21:59 Thants says:
So, we’ve all just forgotten how good Call of Duty 4 is then? Even the article here about it was very positive.
28/05/2011 at 22:04 geldonyetich says:
Something can be good, but still have poor longevity due to static, predictable content, which is what he’s staying here.
Precursors… well, it’s open-ended, whereas Call Of Duty is linear scenario-based, and it has some weird alien stuff to it to recover… but aside from that, I’d say the content is still static and limited (it’s just spread over a lot more ground) and you’ll run out of unique weapons fairly quickly.
28/05/2011 at 23:05 suibhne says:
I replayed CoD4 SP fairly recently, so I have some perspective on that. I enjoyed the game quite a bit when I first played it, right after release, but I more recently found the game to be just…somewhat tolerable. I think part of CoD4′s initial impact was that it represented the pinnacle of a particular genre, with a combination of tone and gameplay that were fairly new, but MW2, BLOPS, even MoH and others have now taken that same genre, ratcheted it up to even more ludicrous, idiotic heights (if you want to call them that…), and really done it all to death. Going back to CoD4 now, generic features that were mildly frustrating at the time have now become major irritants, as I’ve had to put up with them in every single game following CoD4.
Basically, CoD4 doesn’t age well. But it’s an interesting case, because that isn’t merely due to its own gameplay; it’s also connected to the gameplay conventions it bequeathed to later titles, and how those conventions have continued to be used.
29/05/2011 at 03:26 The Hammer says:
Yeah, I played the first few levels again a week or two ago, and two things struck me.
The first is that the section in the car is still amazing.
The second is that the meat of the game is horribly scripted and so very transparent. I could not get immersed at all.
This is despite me absolutely loving the whole thing the first time through.
28/05/2011 at 22:19 Manley Pointer says:
Kinda off-topic, but: how long has that ad for Dark Souls been running on RPS? I’m looking forward to it, but it’s not a PC game, right? I guess anything would be preferable to the terrible copy in the Mythos ad.
If RPS is acknowledging that most of their readership buy console games also, does that mean you’ll start writing about them?
28/05/2011 at 22:45 Ryz says:
Ads are handled by Eurogamer. As you probably know, they’re a console focused site.
The ads have nothing to do with the content of RPS, let alone any “acknowledgement” about what other platforms their readership buy games for. Assuming that most of the readership also buy console games would be a mistake, too. As would assuming they don’t, there’s just no way to know.
I wouldn’t expect console coverage to be coming though.
29/05/2011 at 01:23 Ic4ruz says:
Hopefully not RPS and PCGamer are the only sites I know that ACTUALLY cover PC games (Bigdownload went away a month ago).
If someone want console news then all the other gaming sites got that covered.
29/05/2011 at 02:02 Manley Pointer says:
@Ryz: Well, the last sentence of my comment was stupid, but as for the rest: advertisers do tailor their ads to what they think readers are buying. I don’t think Eurogamer is simply running ads for console games on RPS by accident — they’ve probably done some market research that tells them RPS readers often buy console games as well as PC ones. I doubt their “handling” of RPS advertising amounts to indiscriminately running the same ads that run on their console-focused site over here. Just struck me as odd to see an ad for a console-only game on a PC-only games blog.
29/05/2011 at 03:19 svge says:
God I hate the Mythos Ads
“Nice to meat you”
“Give ‘em a roasting”
“No noobing in here”
Makes me want to ragequit RPS.
29/05/2011 at 01:25 anduin1 says:
I picked up star trek for 3.75, Im currently playing Rift but Ill activate when Im bored of that. Cant go wrong with 1 month free to see how bad/good it is. I find myself waiting for MMOs to drop in price lately cause I just find its too hit and miss finding a new one that youll enjoy and not regretting plunking down $50. Last week I picked up Rift on Greenmangaming.com for $25 while the Steam sale was $34.
29/05/2011 at 08:49 destroy.all.monsters says:
STO was no longer on sale when I checked this past afternoon. Still, I don’t know that it’s worth it for even 3.75.
Space combat – kinda fun. Ground – boring click fest. Hates my wifi connection. Whereas WoT has fairly minimal problems with it.
Definitely not fun when gaming outta the house.
Also Faces of War on sale at Gamersgate for those that heart the Men of War/SHOWW2/Best Way thing.
29/05/2011 at 11:01 SpinalJack says:
Hi Lewie,
I saw you in Manchester XD
(Short Chinese guy in the orange shirt)
It was a good meet except that bit with the football but what can you do
29/05/2011 at 11:43 Droopy The Dog says:
Social goers represent!
Thanks Lewie for the good meet, I’m the guy who’s phone you rescued, so double thanks. ;)
29/05/2011 at 16:26 banski83 says:
Heh, the meetup was a good laugh. Awesome game of L4D2, well played to whoever was the guy sat to the left of me that managed to finish off Masked_Dave, BadPixel et al with smashing cars into their faces. Good Tanking. :)
Need to do it again. Just a shame it coincided with the footie, tbh. But still a good laugh.
30/05/2011 at 00:12 CMaster says:
Yeah, the football was a pain?
What time did everyone else leave? I decided to give it a rest a bit after 9, not long after Killing Floor…
29/05/2011 at 18:54 gnodab says:
Hey, there’s a Tom Clancy Sale on Steam right now.
I always meant to some of those games but now I have no idea which one…
There so many to choose from ;)
I think I’m gonna get one of the Rainbow Six games, cause I loved SWAT. Maybe Splinter Cell, I guess it’s the closest I’m gonna get to MGS without getting a console, am I right?
I’d be thankful for any suggestions.
29/05/2011 at 20:35 Tycow says:
Raven Shield without hesitation. I think it’s on Steam as Rainbow Six 3: Gold Edition. :D
29/05/2011 at 20:46 Fumarole says:
You definitely can’t go wrong with either Raven Shield or Chaos Theory, they’re a steal at those prices.
29/05/2011 at 20:56 Vinraith says:
Rainbow Six 3 Gold (which is Raven Shield and expansion) and Ghost Recon 1 and its expansions (Desert Siege and Island Thunder) are the last great Tom Clancy squad tactical shooters, and are all well worth playing. Everything after that trended more and more towards typical FPS, but those are still genuine military sims.
I can’t speak to the Splinter Cells from experience, but everyone always seems to say that Chaos Theory is the best of the lot.
29/05/2011 at 23:09 Lewie Procter says:
Chaos Theory is the best of the lot.
30/05/2011 at 19:05 gnodab says:
many thanks
03/06/2011 at 01:30 les says:
Age of Fear: The Undead King promotion continues:
50% OFF PRICE on BeamDog for this weekend
– or –
25% OFF PRICE and 2-for-1 (buy one, get one free) until 6th June
from developer page:
http://www.age-of-fear.net
Enjoy!
Les