By Lewie Procter on March 17th, 2012 at 3:46 pm.
So there was no Bargain Bucket last week. Sorry about that, I hope you didn’t all go crazy and buy a bunch of games at full price. I was busy being at GDC, and I forgot to organise my minions into taking over. I’m back now though, so get ready for a selection of wonderfully reduced electronic entertainment software that I’m about to thrust in your direction. You can also find more cheap games than you will ever need to buy over at SavyGamer.co.uk. Here’s the bargain bucket:
MDK2 HD – £4.73/€5.68/$7.49
Prettied up remake of Bioware’s odd little action game, stitched together by Overhaul Games. Here’s what comrade Smee thought of this:
MDK 2 has more style and personality than most games can dream of. It’s funny. It’s frequently frustrating. It’s more often exciting and breathless to play, and taking on the gigantic action puzzles and boss fights are rewarding battles to best. Most of all it’s a game confident in what it wants to do: have a laugh. Sure it’s sloppy around the edges, but it never really stops being a giggle. It’s a lighthearted sci fi comic book dream, and this HD re-release is a good a reason as any to return to its unique charms. It finally looks like the pulpy comic book it always wanted to be. Go on, have a go. You might just end up having some fun.
More here.
It’s only available via Beamdog, so I doubt you’ll see it cheaper any time soon.
Duke Nukem 3D – £1.89/€2.27/$2.99
Part of GOG’s apogee promo, here’s a game with such advanced technology that it was capable of having levels that weren’t just one long horrible turgid corridor, it let you carry more than two guns at once, and despite being more than 15 years old doesn’t look like complete ass. Imagine what a sequel with today’s technology could be like.
DLC Quest, Hard Reset, Jolly Rover, Lair Of The Evildoer, Vertex Dispenser & Vertex Vortex Remix Cortex – £2.99/€3.60/$4.74
Personally, I think this is the strongest Indie Royale yet. For not very much money at all you get a very well put together first person shooter, an arty puzzle curiosity & bonus remixed version, a point & click adventure much in the tone and style of the classics, and a pair of XBLIGs making their PC debut. I’d say that there’s something for everyone here.
Disclaimer: I work for Indie Royale/IndieGames.com.
Alice: Madness Returns – £4.49/similar prices in other currencies
Alec wasn’t totally in love with this, as is evidenced by these words that he wrote:
What began as a delight ended as a chore. Tightened down to 6 or 8 hours Alice would have stayed a convincing wonderland, but it’s hard not to suspect that someone just wanted to make the best or even just get their money’s worth out of all that remarkable art. Less curiouser and curiouser, more like averager and averager.
But maybe you can see past some it’s shortcoming when it doesn’t cost very much.
Deal of the week
Batman: Arkham City – £12.49
Possibly UK only. The price is displaying as full price on the page, but it gets reduced in your basket.
The best Batman game yet. Again. Here’s wot Adam thought of Rocksteady’s Arkham Asylum follow up.
The most exciting thing about Arkham City, beyond the sheer joy of actually playing, is that it’s not just more of the same. It’s more of everything else as well, which can be detrimental. But despite perhaps sounding overly critical of some aspects, I wouldn’t hesitate to say it’s one of the best games I’ve played this year. There is an enormous amount to do and now that I’m finished, I feel free to do it, no longer constrained by the fate of Gotham I can solve all those side stories. And even though I have a redwood-like backlog, I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
Also of note:
Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition – £12.49
Dead Space 2 – £4.99
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box – £2.49
Syndicate – £17.49
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – £17.49
Rochard – £3.99/€4.99/$4.99
Please click on this link to my website and find lots more cheap games.
17/03/2012 at 15:48 Delusibeta says:
Syndicate evidently bombed hard: it’s already nearly half price.
17/03/2012 at 15:50 Lewie Procter says:
It can’t have helped that it’s utterly rubbish.
18/03/2012 at 07:56 Antsy says:
Utterly rubbish? It may not be an amazing game, and it’s definately not a Syndicate game if you wanted something that played like the originals, but it’s not utterly rubbish. It’s an ok shooter and sold under a different name it would have recieved a much warmer reception. If you don’t care about it replicating the originals it’s much easier to recommend at a low price.
18/03/2012 at 08:05 Doesn'tmeananything says:
It’s a completely linear shooter, riddled with cutscenes and QTEs. It has terrible combat mechanics and, therefore, brain-dead gameplay. Plus, of course, inane plot and dialogue. If anything, ‘utterly rubbish’ is too mild a description for it.
18/03/2012 at 08:05 Lewie Procter says:
I’ve not played the original Syndicate games, and so don’t have any attachment to the name.
The new Syndicate game is still utterly rubbish.
18/03/2012 at 08:41 Antsy says:
I probably should have said “I don’t think it’s utterly rubbish”. I’ve played much worse games and spent far more money on games that were genuinely bad enough for me to get annoyed by. It’s an uninspired FPS but for 17 quid I quite happily shot up some guys and then moved on.
18/03/2012 at 11:41 RegisteredUser says:
Syndicate is everything that is wrong with gaming.
Shoddy controls, recharging everything, 2 guns, checkpointing and button mashing to open what should be a 1-press-go door/hatch.
And when you end a game with a quicktime event you can’t expect anything but hate from me.
And they did the opposite of what people petitioned to get out of Deus Ex: everything is framed and telling you “THIS IS A TOASTER!”. The chip is not an excuse to make you feel like a retard.
Button mashing is NOT a skill or challenge. Its a reduction of the gamer to a mashing monkey.
18/03/2012 at 19:14 DrGonzo says:
Street Fighter looks like nothing more than button mashing to the untrained eye. But it’s really not.
18/03/2012 at 11:45 Antsy says:
Daley Thompson Decathlon must be a crime against humanity.
17/03/2012 at 15:58 JFS says:
Whew. It came out not even a month ago. Double-whew.
17/03/2012 at 16:06 pkdawson says:
Half price three weeks after release. Is that faster than DNF?
17/03/2012 at 17:12 malkav11 says:
Not as fast as LA Noire, which hit 75% off less than a month after PC release. (Which is both a shame, because it’s an excellent game, and awesome, because I wasn’t going to rebuy the proper version of the game at full price after having been suckered into getting it initially on PS3, but $12 I could handle.)
18/03/2012 at 19:16 DrGonzo says:
Now LA Noire I would describe as ‘utterly rubbish’. But then it would take me an essay to explain why. So I will just say, almost the entirety of it.
18/03/2012 at 23:28 TheGameSquid says:
Agreed DrGonzo. I hated it tops to bottom. So much money was wasted on what’e barely a game. Ugh.
19/03/2012 at 01:09 malkav11 says:
And I will just say that I thoroughly disagree. But then, I’m pretty sure we’ve already established that you and I have very different tastes in games, DrGonzo.
17/03/2012 at 17:03 Persus-9 says:
I don’t know that you can read too much into one source offering a heavy discount. I remember buying Fallout 3 for £14.99 about a month after release and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a flop.
17/03/2012 at 18:25 Bhazor says:
I got Shogun 2 and Bioshock 1at half price from Asda (the Wallmart of England) less than 6 weeks after release.
17/03/2012 at 17:10 malkav11 says:
Only in the UK. In the US it’s still $60.
Almost everything except that, Kingdoms of Amalur, Mass Effect 3, Ultima Online, and some Sims stuff are at 50% off, though, provided you can navigate Origin’s utterly terrible store interface.
17/03/2012 at 15:52 Joseph says:
bf3 and all dlc is half off too!
I finally bought it today and was pleasantly amazed with how good it is.
17/03/2012 at 16:44 lorddon says:
I made the mistake of picking it up as well. My homework has suffered greatly for my insolence. (I’m not even running the latest and greatest hardware and it’s still gorgeous, even with settings turned down, and runs fantastically well)
17/03/2012 at 15:54 KDR_11k says:
I wouldn’t call Vertex Dispenser artsy but it seems very computer sciency (you know, those games that take some aspect of maths or CS and use it as a core idea to build a game around). Oh and it’s meant to be more of an action/RTS game, not a puzzle.
17/03/2012 at 15:57 LTK says:
Also of note: Steam has added a “Show DLC” checkbox to its New Releases list which is unchecked by default. Now you can browse the newest games without having to flinch at every bit of Sims 3 DLC in the list!
17/03/2012 at 16:04 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
Yes, and thank god.
17/03/2012 at 15:58 Dominic White says:
Anyone who gets Duke 3d needs to get EDuke32 (the modern engine upgrade) and the high-res pack.
http://eduke32.com/ + http://hrp.duke4.net/
It’s a pretty major technological and graphical upgrade. Good stuff. Also, DukePlus is a highly recommended mod, bringing general gameplay enhancements of all sorts.
http://fissile.duke4.net/fissile_dukeplus.html
Personally, one of my favorite mods is War Of Attrition, which creates a new campaign, randomly picked from a list of 100+ levels, and lets you persistently level your character and weaponry as you go, but introduces new enemy variants with each level completed.
http://fissile.duke4.net/fissile_attrition.html
There’s a lot of really impressive Duke mods out there.
17/03/2012 at 16:02 Juan Carlo says:
Can you buy steamworks games from origin? Like Saints Row 3, for example?
17/03/2012 at 16:12 Kaira- says:
If they sell them, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t. You’ll have to register them to Steam in any case.
17/03/2012 at 17:44 Memph says:
I wondered on this as KoA really had me tempted at that price. Turns out though the Steam version is another publisher altogether, so it’s unlikely an Origin bought version will register to Steam.
I deemed it not worth the risk anyhoo, losing out on cloud saves and achievements.
18/03/2012 at 01:51 Fatbubba says:
Indeed, the only version that uses Steam for KoA is the Steam version itself. Any other source will not get you a Steam version.
17/03/2012 at 16:05 Xocrates says:
Impulse informs me that Alice is available in North America and UK only. Boo!
Batman however, isn’t UK only, it’s on sale for 24.99€
EDIT: Batman is on sale for cheaper than that on Impulse.
17/03/2012 at 16:14 misterT0AST says:
instead of “Savygamer” I find this website much easier to navigate.
It also has a nice region filter.
http://isthereanydeal.com/#/filter:today
17/03/2012 at 16:47 Kuschelwampe says:
I always used http://www.deals4downloads.com.
There’s a weekend deal roundup too.
17/03/2012 at 16:48 Donkeyfumbler says:
Not really a fan of sites that just put all the games on sale on various sites in a big list and then give you very basic filters (and still list Amazon US even when you change the region to UK – doh). I do get RSS feeds from various sites, but Savygamer is always at the top because I know that the deals were picked out by an actual person rather than some bot, and therefore there likely to be, y’know, actually decent deals.
17/03/2012 at 18:22 Mac says:
Why has my comment regarding savygamer not posting deals from greenmangaming been deleted?
17/03/2012 at 18:41 Sarlix says:
Mac: Because there is an RPS conspiracy with regards to GMG. All comments shall be purged and sympathisers forced to buy unreasonably priced games!
18/03/2012 at 19:18 DrGonzo says:
The biggest conspiracy comes from SavyGamer being a bit poor really yet they still use it.
18/03/2012 at 23:54 alundra says:
It’s not only GMG, it never mentions GetGames or Amazon. Most of the time you will get better deals by hunting them on your own.
19/03/2012 at 10:19 ThinkAndGrowWitcher says:
Mine’s been unceremoniously sucked into the conspiracy vent too.
Still, there must be something more to this hole-filled bucket than I’m seeing for RPS to continue commissioning them from this one particular source, right?
Mustn’t there?…Surely?…
Nope.
18/03/2012 at 23:37 misterT0AST says:
I prefer to see ALL of the deals, and then choosing myself, you prefer someone else choosing what’s best for you.
To each his own.
17/03/2012 at 17:02 wcanyon says:
I’d like to put my site in here too: http://shopafu.com/dotd. It has an Alert service as well. No region picking right now. My price checks run a lot more often than most of these sites. It’s still in beta — I’m not promoting it until I know it’s working correctly.
17/03/2012 at 16:27 Phinor says:
Rocksteady has been working on the disappearing save files issue for Arkham City for months and months. We were finally promised a fix this week and come Friday, “oops, another issue, new ETA unknown”. The game’s been unplayable for five months (unless you are lucky and your save files don’t disappear). Pretty weird actually that gaming sites have not picked this up yet because it’s affecting a lot of people and Rocksteady have yet to deliver a fix.
Just a word of warning. You might or might not face this problem if you happen to buy&play the game. Other than all your progression suddenly vanishing for no reason, it’s a great game.
17/03/2012 at 16:31 Lewie Procter says:
I’ve heard a couple of people talking about this recently. News to me. I had problems with the game in DX11 mode, but they got sorted for me with the first patch, and then I had no subsequent problems.
17/03/2012 at 16:52 Vandelay says:
DX11 mode still runs like a dog for me after the patch. This is on a Radeon 6950 with 2GB of RAM, so certainly not a shabby card. I also have an issue with having my Logitech mouse software open whilst running the game causing massive framerate hitches when moving the mouse. It is completely unplayable, unless I close the software.
Besides that, it is an excellent game.
18/03/2012 at 19:20 DrGonzo says:
Same here, in DX11 the only difference seems to be nicer looking DoF. But every time the camera angle changes the game stutters rather badly. Switch to DX9 and it runs pretty well and looks almost the same.
Still quite disappointed with the performance overall, get a bit of slowdown in the city itself. Yet the games graphics are very, very basic. Very nice art style that makes up for it, and nice textures, but the city is just a series of boxes, shouldn’t be performing worse than BF3.
18/03/2012 at 21:44 arboreal says:
Bought it from Origin yesterday and can’t even get the game to start. My pc is well above the recommended specs.
Searched the tubes and found that this is not an uncommon problem.
It was my first ever purchase from Origin and most likely my last.
17/03/2012 at 16:33 tossrStu says:
Is Crusader Kings worth getting now that CK2 has come along? Because Gamersgate are doing it for £2.24 for the base game, and £3.74 for the game and the Deus Vult expansion.
17/03/2012 at 16:46 jaronimoe says:
I got it. I’m too cheap to pay full price for the sequel and the original has earned its own share of high praise.
Already pimped it with the following update and mod:
link
link
but haven’t gotten around to actually play it yet.
There’s also a Game of Thrones mod that looks highly interesting:
link
Regardless, at this price you can’t really do anything wrong.
17/03/2012 at 16:48 MuscleHorse says:
It’s aged pretty badly. The interface/graphics are an eyesore, frankly, and the sequel improves upon it tenfold. Save your £2.24 towards the new game.
17/03/2012 at 17:06 Dextro says:
While I personally loved the original game + expansion I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone now that the sequel is out. The game had amazing ideas but it was clearly made during the spare time of the developer(s) and as such you get plenty of crashes.
18/03/2012 at 22:00 phlebas says:
It’s also available (including the expansion) free with the current issue of PC Gamer.
17/03/2012 at 16:37 Henke says:
Just posting to big up ROCHARD! Played through it recently and had a real good time. The gameplay is somewhere between Trine and Shadow Complex, and it’s well worth a fiver. :)
17/03/2012 at 17:03 InternetBatman says:
I didn’t like Rochard that much. It has high production values and a fun little gravity mechanic, but the atmosphere is so damn annoying. The main character is just a terrible country stereotype. The dialog is grating, and it drags on a bit too long. The effeminate guards are annoying. The ending is just plain terrible.
It’s a capable platformer that never spikes difficulty and has two fun mechanics, but just play it with the sound off.
Also, Shadow Complex is pretty much invisible to me since it never came out on PC. But if it wasn’t, the book it’s based on is absolutely terrible.
17/03/2012 at 21:10 MondSemmel says:
I mostly agree about Rochard. The game seemed to have so much potential in the beginning, but it never really expanded on it. Imagine a game with Braid’s starting world mechanics – they were interesting and new, but you had no interest in playing with them forever. Braid’s strength was changing these mechanics in interesting ways in each of the worlds: Variations on a theme. Rochard really doesn’t do that well enough.
Also, the ending is a horrible mix of nonsense, conspiracy theories, creation myths, and more nonsense. Also, it’s a cliffhanger.
(Interestingly, Faerie Solitaire, which had unexpectedly solid gameplay but absolutely rubbish story and voice-acting, was very similar in the very end. Is that just a rubbish narrative technique from episodic TV series or some-such?)
17/03/2012 at 20:20 JB says:
Rochard is great. That is all.
17/03/2012 at 20:42 Syra says:
Yeah but my steam says it is still full price. I definitely would have gone for it on sale…
18/03/2012 at 03:55 Thermal Ions says:
It was a daily deal only – now over.
17/03/2012 at 17:08 Bfox says:
Really tempted by “MDK2 HD” but what kind of DRM surrounds it? Will I need to install a new storefront like Steam on my PC that’ll need to be started up everytime I want to play?
(Also tempted by “Anachronox” on Gog, really hope they have patched it all up, last time I tried to play it wouldn’t stop fatally crashing over and over at a particular scene with no remedy in sight)
17/03/2012 at 18:19 caddyB says:
GoG versions are fixed and able to run on most windows7 64bit systems rather well. Of course, there might be some issues so you might want to check the forums. There are usually solutions and so on.
17/03/2012 at 18:35 Sarlix says:
Hmm, the new Bargain Bucket image reminds me of something…
All your bargains are belong to us?
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/4523/squidsvscats.png
17/03/2012 at 18:43 kzrkp says:
Anno 2070 sale on steam is disappointing. I want this game, but not the DRM or supporting Ubisoft. :[
17/03/2012 at 20:09 MattM says:
Yeah I said I wouldn’t buy games with one time installation drm, but I gave that up after a while. I am still holding out against always online DRM.
17/03/2012 at 19:29 MajorManiac says:
Lewie I love your description of Duke Nukem 3D. If only someone could remake these old classics with modern technology, and what must be a decade or more of industry maturity….oh :)
17/03/2012 at 20:38 Oak says:
Railworks is 80% off on Steam today! Choo choooooooo!
18/03/2012 at 09:05 Llewyn says:
Sadly not for the 160% off that it was originally marked for. All my friends (real and imaginary) would have been getting copies at that price.
17/03/2012 at 21:16 Drayk says:
I just tried Hard reset for 40 minutes and I am having a blast with it’s battle system. I love the way the weapons feel and the old school flow of battle. It’s quite beautiful too even if the invisible walls are a bit annoying.
17/03/2012 at 23:31 Devenger says:
I am also finding it joyous. In particular, the railgun and shotgun make a delightfully satisfying combo. It’s certainly a game that knows how to make your shots feel like they mean something.
18/03/2012 at 00:38 Alexander Norris says:
Of note to people who enjoy it, the Extended Edition stuff will apparently be free to those who already own the game: http://www.dsogaming.com/news/hard-reset-enhanced-editions-extra-content-is-coming-to-steam-for-free/
18/03/2012 at 11:27 Flint says:
It’s an enjoyable game, but I also find it somewhat flawed in many ways. For example, in converse to you IMO the weapons feel flat and weak. There’s generally some design annoyances (boring enemies and highly uninteresting visually), and I personally find the lack of quicksave a major minus. But at the same time, it manages to be quite enjoyable despite its flaws and the action feels wonderfully involved due to having to actually move, react and use your full arsenal to survive.
17/03/2012 at 22:03 linzhanz says:
http://15.cc/3zal8
17/03/2012 at 23:22 Sarlix says:
Do not click the link for it is spam.
Spam with a magnitude of 3.3 on the Spam-O-Graph™
18/03/2012 at 00:26 KaL_YoshiKa says:
It bears to mention that the legendary Rise of the Triad is also on special in the Apogee Shooters set.
18/03/2012 at 01:05 kastanok says:
Yesssss… *Rubs hands together, evily*
18/03/2012 at 00:33 jamesgecko says:
No mention of Dungeon Defenders 50% sale on Steam for the weekend? It’s not the best deal ever, but you are getting a pretty absurd amount of game for your money.
The DLC is also on sale, although only the ones that add new or alternate version of classes are worth getting. The Lost Eternia Shards DLC is supposed to be the best, but, but it’s both endgame content and not on sale. If you must pick it up, get the Complete pack.
18/03/2012 at 08:13 enobayram says:
You made me click on an Origin link RPS! I’m cross with you. Every origin link should be accompanied with a warning sign saying “Horrible website of a terribly evil company ahead!”
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18/03/2012 at 15:46 DrWatson says:
20% off Mass Effect 3 at GMG right now: http://www.greenmangaming.com/promo/masseffect3
18/03/2012 at 17:16 linzhanaa says:
http://redir.is/aSc