Rock, Paper, Shotgun

By Lewie Procter on May 26th, 2012 at 12:17 pm.

Is it sunny where you are today? It’s a gorgeous day here at Savy Towers, with a bright blue sky and beaming hot sun. What better weather could there be to stay inside and play some cheap computer games. None, says I. None whatsoever. If you’re in the mood for buying some new slices of digital fun, here’s your handy weekly guide to the very best offers available this weekend. I’m off to find some cider and sit in the sun, but you can find my regular gaming bargain hunting exploits chronicled over here, if you like.

Sonic Generations – £4.78/€5.98/$7.49
Registers on Steam, and you’ll need to enter a US billing address to be able to buy it.
Adam seemed to like this, but obviously that’s because he’s a wrong ‘un. This is Sega’s attempt to make a game that straddles both the classic 16 bit Sonic play style and those newer 3D games that people seem to keep buying. Sadly Generations utterly fails to reproduce the classic Mega Drive games in anything other than a purely superficial manner. The presentation, level structure, art style and most importantly controls are all not quite right. I wonder why Sega absolutely refuse to make a game with the same physics and controls as the original games. If you’ve enjoyed any other Sonic games since 1994, you’ll probably enjoy this one too, but it ain’t for me. No sir.

Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed: Shift & Need for Speed: Shift 2: Unleashed – £9.57/€11.98/$14.99
These should all (optionally) registers on Origin, and you’ll need to enter a US billing address to be able to buy it. Get this pack for all four games, or they’re available for £3.19/€3.99/$4.99 a pop individually. Here’s EA’s staple of racing games from the last few years. Personally, I’d give Hot Pursuit a miss, but the rest are all great if you’re into that sort of thing. Burnout Paradise is all about fun driving around a big city smashing into anything that can be smashed into, the Shift games are fairly technical (for my mind) racing sims with a fabulous in cockpit view, and Hot Pursuit has cutscenes that tell you to press a button to skip, but then it doesn’t skip when you press the appropriate button. Here’s all the relevant RPS coverage: Burnout Paradise, Hot Pursuit, Shift & Shift 2.

Civilization V – £4.99/€7.49/$7.49
Or stump up £7.49/€9.99/$12.49 to get the Goatee edition.
Here’s wot Alec thought of the most recent Meier ‘em up:

Civ V’s reliably done what every Civ game has ever done (with the possible exception of III): eat my time as unashamedly as a dog in a pork pie factory. I laugh a little when I look back at my complaints a few paragraphs up. I say those things because they must be noted, but it’s not like they ever put me off playing. It’s not like they stop me from being profoundly glad and satisfied that there’s another Civilization icon winking cheekily at me from the desktop. I want it to be better, I want it to be bolder, I want it to address and improve the very foundations of Civilization, but it’s sure as hell going to sit on my hard drive for months anyway. Yeah, this’ll ultimately be remembered as one of the filler tracks on Civ’s best-of LP, one of the ones you never quite felt had real heart, real soul – but it’s a tune I’m more than happy to hum.

More here.

1893: A World’s Fair Mystery, Ben There, Dan That!, Time Gentlemen, Please!, Gemini Rue & The Sea Will Claim Everything – Pay what you want
Ben There, Dan That!, Time Gentlemen, Please! & Gemini Rue optionally register on Steam & Desura.
Here’s the latest indie bundle to launch, the Bundle In A Box. Confusingly, it’s not in a box, but instead on a website. I suppose you could put your PC inside a cardboard box for the duration of the transaction. It’s all adventure games here, featuring RPS favourites Gemini Rue & Ben There, Dan That. Beat the average price (currently £3.75/€4.70/$5.88) and also get The Shivah & Metal Dead.

Deal of the week
Because We May sale.
So many games. How many? Too many to list. This is a massive sale coordinated by the Goo King, Ron Carmel. As a celebration of developer freedom with regards to pricing, Ron and a cavalcade of developers across the globe have slashed their prices. For our purposes, there’s loads of games on Steam and loads of games sold direct by the developers taking part, but there’s also a couple of mobile and console games included too. My personal top picks: The Binding of Isaac, Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death, Waves, Introversion Complete Pack, Bagfull Of Wrong, Scoregasm and Dino Run SE.

Also of note:
Football Manager 2012 – £4.78/€5.98/$7.49
SEGA 48-Game Mega Arcade Pack – £6.38/€7.98/$9.99
Mirror’s Edge – £3.18/€3.99/$4.99

For more cheap games pumped directly into your web browser of choice, have a pootle over to SavyGamer.co.uk.