Steam Holiday Sale Preview?

[Xercies]

C&C Red Alert 3 I think was pretty decent but some say C&C 3 is a bit better. I don't know I kind of put them both at the same, but C&C 3 gets the vote for me since its part of the Kane storyline and I'm all about Kane. Don't pick 4, that one is terrible.

[Heliocentric]

Is the Deus Ex dlc worth buying?
Edit: as a guide a should say I've not played much but I am genuinely having fun on the hardest difficulty with mixed lethal/non lethal stealth and action.

[The JG Man]

The creators of Super Meat Boy are fucking sadistic.
They have an easier Christmas achievement to use, why did they go with the almost impossible one?

You beat me to it. They have to be trolling at this point, no questions asked. That achievement took me in the region of 4-6 hours to complete and I give that wide a window because I honestly cannot remember when I started because it was just that damn hard. My advice; if you're not a Golden God, don't even attempt it, it's not at all worth it. (Also, I only got a damn coal for having it done. Grrr.)

That being said, Super Meat Boy is a superb game and you should all buy it.

[Flint]

Is the Deus Ex dlc worth buying?
Edit: as a guide a should say I've not played much but I am genuinely having fun on the hardest difficulty with mixed lethal/non lethal stealth and action.
Not played the DLC yet myself, but from what I've seen it played and heard about it The Missing Link seems like a really good and nicely lengthy addition to the game, and the £3 pricetag is definitely more sane than the normal £9. The item additions are alright but a bit overpowered and the Tong mission is worth the price if you're a hardcore fan of the first game and want to see more references to it; the mission itself is short and simple.

[piggydiggy]

For Shogun 2, is any of the DLC worth getting?

[Starry Vere]

Is Civ V worth it or it is too dumbed-down? I also read that the AI is terrible. I like the accessibility and relatively modest learning curve of the Civ games, but if there's not much under the hood then I'll stop playing. For point of reference, I always stare longingly at most of the Paradox games, drawn in by the promise of some real depth, but when I try to actually play them I find them impenetrable. Dominions 3 though I think is amazing, if anyone around here has played that.

[allanschnorr]

Still no L.A. Noire. How many days are left?

Deus Ex HR looks nice, but now that the hype has worn off, is it such a good game? There was a thread on this forums recently where everybody agreed the game was average. And they had some solid points too. I could never get into the first one (found it too difficult). But maybe I'm missing out, what do you say?

Also bought Puzzle Agent 2, I think it's underrated.

I bought the game a few days ago and I loved it. I couldn't bring myself to play anything else until I finished it and the Missing Link. The base game last for around 20 hours and Missing Link for about 6, so that's a lot of playtime for your money.

[The JG Man]

Also, I recommend Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. It's a fantastic game...s. Great voice acting, good stealthy/shooty action and generally rather fun!

[alms]

For those wondering about Universe Sandbox, I found this link to the demo buried in an old thread.

http://universesandbox.com/download/

Going to try it now.

[Roufuss]

Also, I recommend Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. It's a fantastic game...s. Great voice acting, good stealthy/shooty action and generally rather fun!

Its got some nasty DRM though, so buyer beware.

"Notice: After activating the game for a third time TAGES will start a 30-day timer. After 30 days you will get that activation back up to 3 total activations."

[pmh]

Its got some nasty DRM though, so buyer beware.

"Notice: After activating the game for a third time TAGES will start a 30-day timer. After 30 days you will get that activation back up to 3 total activations."

Yup, Tages is the reason I didn't bother with Dark Athena. I still have my PC copy of the original (which has a Securom disk check IIRC).

[scorpionbruno]

Are the daily deals back on the finale sale day ? Because I was on holiday and missed a couple of great deals such as SPAZ and SOLAR2.

[Roufuss]

Are the daily deals back on the finale sale day ? Because I was on holiday and missed a couple of great deals such as SPAZ and SOLAR2.

Usually its only a "best of" on the last day, the top 12 most popular deals -- I highly doubt Solar 2 or even SPAZ will make the list.

[scorpionbruno]

Damn :-( .

[Roufuss]

If it makes you feel any better, SPAZ is absolutely worth $5 if it doesn't go back to $2.50.

[scorpionbruno]

Always looking for the best price :-) .

[Roufuss]

I know JG will get a kick out of this one.

According to Team Meat's twitter, they fully intended for the Christmas achievement in Super Meat Boy to be the easier of the two and that it was an error on Valve's part that the harder one is the Christmas achievement.

Apparently though, after emailing Steam (as Team Meat put it,) to fix it, Valve told them they liked the harder achievement much better and decided to keep it as the achievement instead of reverting it to the one Team Meat wanted.

Team Meat then commented on how "it was the most unlocked holiday achievement for the day"... I'm assuming Steam / Valve told them this? I hope they realize how must people are unlocking it and this doesn't prompt them to go even crazier in the future.

[TheDreamlord]

Are the daily deals back on the finale sale day ? Because I was on holiday and missed a couple of great deals such as SPAZ and SOLAR2.

Yeah, I am in the same spot, I missed Hard Reset, Alice Madness Returns and Renegade Ops. Hope one or two turn up on the final day. When is the final day anyway? Tonight at 6 (UK time)?

[Colonel J]

Are the daily deals back on the finale sale day ? Because I was on holiday and missed a couple of great deals such as SPAZ and SOLAR2.

SPAZ is currently £1.73 (http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DD-SPAZ/space-pirates-and-zombies) for UK at Gamersgate. I'm not sure if this registers on Steam though (if you're bothered about the holiday achievement), my copy from GMG doesn't.

[Colonel J]

Yeah, I am in the same spot, I missed Hard Reset, Alice Madness Returns and Renegade Ops. Hope one or two turn up on the final day. When is the final day anyway? Tonight at 6 (UK time)?

If it does come back on the final day then I'd be up for sharing a 4 pack of Renegade Ops if there are others interested. Or even a 4 pack at £14.99. Slightly annoying that the Coldstrike DLC isn't discounted though.

[The JG Man]

"it was the most unlocked holiday achievement for the day"

Good lord. That seems...unnatural​.

[scorpionbruno]

Interested in Renegade Ops . SPAZ @ gamersgate appears not to be able to register on steam .

[Roufuss]

Good lord. That seems...unnatural​.

There is a program that allows you to unlock Steam achievements immediately. Super Meat Boy was part of Humble Indie Bundle 4, that was abused by many, many people to get free presents; its not a stretch to think that a lot of those people would just use the achievement unlocker to unlock the achievement and get their present. Since its on a bogus account, they don't care if they get caught.

So yea, definitely unnatural ;)

To make it worse, the people that are getting it legit are reporting errors on the Steam forums, where they've done all five levels but the game stopped recording the time, thus not giving them the achievement. I couldn't imagine spending the hours necessary to do that just to get screwed out of it.

[The JG Man]

Well I spent 2 hours getting through it only to crash the first time I reached Bandage Girl in the third level. Needless to say, I was rather chuffed I had dinner immediately to look forward to...but that is disappointing. SMB is one of those games where cheating really doesn't benefit you in some way. It's not like cheating in a Total War game to give you more money, so you can play in a different way. Cheating in SMB is cheating yourself out of raw gameplay and it doesn't make a blind bit of sense.

[Ice-Fyre]

Is tonight the last day of new sales, with tomorrow being the best of? I'm hoping Magicka comes up as I've kept £5 back all sale for that lol

[Roufuss]

Is tonight the last day of new sales, with tomorrow being the best of? I'm hoping Magicka comes up as I've kept £5 back all sale for that lol

Going by past sales, yes. Today (or tonight for you all across the pond) is the last day of new, fresh sales while tomorrow should be a repeat day.

Sunday will still have new achievements; there are 12 games left if you count Gundemonium Collection as one package and they will only use one game, plus the Steam Guard achievement.

If I had to guess at today's sales, we'll probably see:

Anno series and / or Might and Magic series (Ubisoft said the 31st would have some exciting sales... I can't think of any other big franchises they have left.)

Magicka (still a winter achievement for it)

Bit.Trip Series (still winter achievements for both games)

Poker Night at the Inventory (still winter achievement plus small discount to begin with)

Counter-Strike Source (ditto)

But yea, we will definitely see Magicka today.

[TheDreamlord]

If it does come back on the final day then I'd be up for sharing a 4 pack of Renegade Ops if there are others interested. Or even a 4 pack at £14.99. Slightly annoying that the Coldstrike DLC isn't discounted though.

Yeah I am up for it, lets see if there is a repeat of the Renegade Ops tonight and we can chat afterwards.

[Marar Patrunjica]

Good lord. That seems...unnatural​.

Tell me about it, I spent 5 hours last night trying to get that one (and I'm a Golden God), gave up after trying for about 40 minutes to get past the 2nd "hook" jump on the last level (see here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZx0gqrt1pY&t=1m48s)) everytime I jumped I would be insta-killed by the spikes. The most unlocked achievement for the day, good one -.-'

[Oshada]

I used a no damage trainer, I expect many people did that. I did it out of spite though!

[Vandelay]

I hope those that cheated get their prizes removed. When there is a chance to win something as massive as every single game on Steam, it doesn't seem at all fair that a cheater will probably win.

Gave up on the Super Meat Boy achievment. It took me well over half an hour just to do one level and the others looked a lot harder. The achievement of completing one of the levels seems much more reasonable and is still an acomplishment.

[Oshada]

To clarify, I did do the first level properly. That was when I thought that Valve would change the achievement to 'A Kid's Xmas' as per Team Meat's tweets earlier in the day. Doing them all is completely ludicrous, that video of the guy doing Level 5 made me rage.

[pmh]

To clarify, I did do the first level properly. That was when I thought that Valve would change the achievement to 'A Kid's Xmas' as per Team Meat's tweets earlier in the day. Doing them all is completely ludicrous, that video of the guy doing Level 5 made me rage.

Level 3 was the easy one, then level 4. 1 and 2 gave me plenty of grief, and I share your rage at Level 5.


I hope those that cheated get their prizes removed. When there is a chance to win something as massive as every single game on Steam, it doesn't seem at all fair that a cheater will probably win.

Gave up on the Super Meat Boy achievment. It took me well over half an hour just to do one level and the others looked a lot harder. The achievement of completing one of the levels seems much more reasonable and is still an acomplishment.

While I disagree on principle (and this sort of scenario is why I don't like achievements in the first place), the effect of a single piece of coal on the chances of winning is so miniscule as to be a rounding error (assuming they got coal instead of a coupon or game).

[Vandelay]

While I disagree on principle (and this sort of scenario is why I don't like achievements in the first place), the effect of a single piece of coal on the chances of winning is so miniscule as to be a rounding error (assuming they got coal instead of a coupon or game).

Why would you disagree on principle? You wouldn't expect the chance to win a prize in any other contest if you were caught cheating, even if it did improve your chances only by a minuscule amount. Those that won by underhand means should have their prize taken away (no account ban of course; I don't even condone that kind of thing when people are caught cheating in multiplayer games.)

If this really is the most achieved achievment for the day, there must be a lot of cheating going on.

[pmh]

Why would you disagree on principle? You wouldn't expect the chance to win a prize in any other contest if you were caught cheating, even if it did improve your chances only by a minuscule amount. Those that won by underhand means should have their prize taken away (no account ban of course; I don't even condone that kind of thing when people are caught cheating in multiplayer games.)

If this really is the most achieved achievment for the day, there must be a lot of cheating going on.

I disagree because I think people should be able to play their single player games however they want to. Incidentally, I don't think there should be any actual value in said achievements aside from some sort of vague bragging rights. It leads to perverse incentives (esp in multiplayer) for players to game the system in any way possible.

As an aside, there's plenty of "cheating" going on with the other achievements as well (e.g. starting a TF2 listen server with bots and just killing them repeatedly until they drop presents). They just don't get any attention because they're all relatively easy in the first place. I'd rather Valve drop the value on the achievements altogether than start trying to police them.

[thegooseking]

I hope those that cheated get their prizes removed. When there is a chance to win something as massive as every single game on Steam, it doesn't seem at all fair that a cheater will probably win.

Gave up on the Super Meat Boy achievment. It took me well over half an hour just to do one level and the others looked a lot harder. The achievement of completing one of the levels seems much more reasonable and is still an acomplishment.

Considering it's perfectly legitimate (if not very practical, given that it involves snail-mail over Christmas and New Year) to just mail Valve and tell them you want the prize for the achievement and they'll give it to you due to their "no purchase necessary" clause, I don't quite see your point.

[pmh]

Considering it's perfectly legitimate (if not very practical, given that it involves snail-mail over Christmas and New Year) to just mail Valve and tell them you want the prize for the achievement and they'll give it to you due to their "no purchase necessary" clause, I don't quite see your point.

It's only really impractical because I think the cost of postage beats out the expected value of the prize. If it's coal (75% chance), you can't use it to craft and is worth practically nothing. Assuming the average game gift is valued at $20 (which is probably high), and that I did the math correctly, you'd need to have about 6% of the gifts be games to break even on postage.

[alms]

According to Team Meat's twitter (...)
"it was the most unlocked holiday achievement for the day"

I'll trust him on this, he's been doing it for quite some time ;)

[vinraith]

Considering it's perfectly legitimate (if not very practical, given that it involves snail-mail over Christmas and New Year) to just mail Valve and tell them you want the prize for the achievement and they'll give it to you due to their "no purchase necessary" clause, I don't quite see your point.

Exactly. This isn't a competition, it's a lottery, and it's amazing how hard you can get people to work for an utterly meaningless lottery ticket.

[The JG Man]

So aside from this SMB debacle, does anyone else find it amusing that on the repeat day, you're likely to have Sonic Generations up there with the rest?

[Roufuss]

I'll trust him on this, he's been doing it for quite some time ;)

I just found out about this joke today, and I nearly choked on my soda at this comment. Well played.


So aside from this SMB debacle, does anyone else find it amusing that on the repeat day, you're likely to have Sonic Generations up there with the rest?

Not at all. It was a well designed game and deserves to be recognized for being a return to greatness (well, after Sonic Colors, but most people don't realize it exists or have played it.)

[thegooseking]

It's only really impractical because I think the cost of postage beats out the expected value of the prize. If it's coal (75% chance), you can't use it to craft and is worth practically nothing. Assuming the average game gift is valued at $20 (which is probably high), and that I did the math correctly, you'd need to have about 6% of the gifts be games to break even on postage.

Speaking of service charges, I'm bloody glad my ISP doesn't employ usage-based billing. Given how much I've downloaded in this sale, I would almost certainly have hit my cap, and it's very possible that subsequent games would cost more to download than they do to buy.

[Vandelay]

I disagree because I think people should be able to play their single player games however they want to. Incidentally, I don't think there should be any actual value in said achievements aside from some sort of vague bragging rights. It leads to perverse incentives (esp in multiplayer) for players to game the system in any way possible.

Ah, fair enough. And I suppose if you can just write to Valve for your prize (really?) then cheating doesn't seem quite so important. Does seem a bit unfair though.

Picked up Sonic Generations and must say it is a lot of fun. It doesn't come as much as surprise to me that it has done well. It certainly deserves it.

[Roufuss]

Looks like we're getting some Heroes of Might and Magic deal today -- V dropped to 75% off, Clash of Heroes dropped to 50% and VI dropped to a weird 17% off.

ETA: Now its 50% off at $24.99, so its going to be a daily.

Saw the sale page early, the rest of the deals are L.A Noire at $12.50, Dead Island at $19.99, Counter Strike at $4.99 and other random stuff like Rochard, Hoard, Grid and Hitman.

[Vandelay]

Finally, Dead Island is on sale, which was pretty much the only game going into this sale that I really wanted (except Sonic Generations.)

Has anyone played the DLC? It sounds a bit rubbish, even for the reduced price.

[Ice-Fyre]

Wooo Magicka up! And Hitman! :D

Grid worth getting? Been wanting a racing game...

[Roufuss]

Has anyone played the DLC? It sounds a bit rubbish, even for the reduced price.

If arenas are your thing, its ok. You're not missing anything by not getting it though. I played through the entire game without it and I never once felt like something was stripped out or missing.

And to Ice-Fyre, GRID is a steal at $3.74, but the multiplayer servers have been shut down if you care about that sort of thing.

[TheDreamlord]

I was hoping Rochard would be 75% off. Not sure if I want it for 50% off, maybe it will be part of the next Humble Bundle.

[The JG Man]

So I just crafted 7 coal and got...

...a game...called...

Half Life! Yeah!

I'm not sure if that's good or bad, to be honest. On the one hand, I've never played HL1, but on the other, I'm not entirely sure if I want to.

Anyhow, glad to hear the like for Sonic Generations. There was thoughts that its poor marketing for the PC version was due to potential piracy decreasing console sales (...) but considering how well it's done, this should hopefully send a clear message to Sega.

Today's games recommendations by moi:
Hitman: Bloody Money. I suck at the game, but it's crazy good fun, especially considering the amount of silliness you can do in it. If this doesn't sell it, I was shown this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wok3XScRMo&feature=channel_video_title) clip from a Let's Play. That should sell it for you.
Magicka. Well...it's Magicka. By now, you probably know if you want it or not and it's a good fun game.

[Roufuss]

Half Life is great, you should absolutely play it unless you just hate first person shooters or something.

For myself, I'm finally picking up HoMM VI... been waiting all sale for it.

Disappointed that Anno 2070 didn't get a sale, but them's the breaks.

[ComradePenguin]

And to Ice-Fyre, GRID is a steal at $3.74, but the multiplayer servers have been shut down if you care about that sort of thing.

I'd second that. The single player campaign is long and varied with usually a range of different types of race to advance up the ladder. The sponsors are also a nice touch.

Has anyone tried running LA Noire on a low spec machine? Want to play it with my other half but I'm a bit worried that a bootcamped macbook with a GT335m (I think) might not be meaty enough for Rockstars' approach to PC conversions.

[Heliocentric]

Grid is ace even without its awesome multiplayer, game ranger supports the mp though.

Only £1.49 for my favourite murder simulation Hitman: Blood Money is quite frankly illegal.

I'm tempted by Noire and Rochard

[hariseldon]

Recommending Blood Money and Grid. Both awesome.

[Heliocentric]

So is Noire just "guess what the developers have planned" in the style of point and click adventure games?

I don't trust mainstream reviews of rockstar games at all anymore, so any verdicts here?

[sopabuena]

Here's an interesting review of L.A. Noire: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6625747/la-noire

[scorpionbruno]

Grid is a must buy !!!! Just install gameranger and enjoy some online racing , contact me trough Steam if you're up for a race .

[thegooseking]

So is Noire just "guess what the developers have planned" in the style of point and click adventure games?

I don't trust mainstream reviews of rockstar games at all anymore, so any verdicts here?

I heard an interesting view that L.A. Noire is a great game for non-gamers, because the writing is fantastic, and obviously that facial animation is great for people who are more comfortable with movies, while people who are more familiar with games can see the flaws a lot more readily, like how the interrogation sequences aren't based on any Sherlock-Holmes-like induction, nor are they really based on being able to read those wonderful facial expressions; it really boils down to a guessing game... or how L.A., despite being open, does feel a lot more like a 'set' than a world.

In today's daily special, it costs about the same as a movie, and if you treat it as such, it's great. It's not much of a game game, though.

[Vandelay]

I heard an interesting view that L.A. Noire is a great game for non-gamers, because the writing is fantastic, and obviously that facial animation is great for people who are more comfortable with movies, while people who are more familiar with games can see the flaws a lot more readily, like how the interrogation sequences aren't based on any Sherlock-Holmes-like induction, nor are they really based on being able to read those wonderful facial expressions; it really boils down to a guessing game... or how L.A., despite being open, does feel a lot more like a 'set' than a world.

In today's daily special, it costs about the same as a movie, and if you treat it as such, it's great. It's not much of a game game, though.

I was under the impression the story was a bit bollocks too, but maybe that is incorrect.

Another recommendation for Blood Money. Truly one of the greatest games ever made (with the opera level being one of the greatest levels ever made.) I'm already prepared for the bitter disappointment that Hitman: Subtitle will likely be, but if they can even capture half the essence of Blood Money it could be worth it.

[Roufuss]

I was under the impression the story was a bit bollocks too, but maybe that is incorrect.


To me, it depends.

I played through it when it came out originally on the Xbox 360 and the story does some weird things; characters get promoted and the game assumes you already know this somehow, as everyone treats it as normal. There are obvious gaps in the story, where characters reference past things that you have no idea what they mean.

Then, the DLC came out, and it was very clear that the DLC was ripped straight out of the game for the purpose of being DLC. One DLC mission, if I remember correctly, shows you where an ex partner has gotten promoted. One DLC is the mission that past character's reference on a car ride. Everything starts to make a lot more sense and is more clear.

The PC version comes with all this DLC, and the DLC fits neatly into the story, as it just adds the extra cases in during regular gameplay -- you won't even know it *is* DLC unless I came out and gave you a list -- so nobody here will have this problem of certain story sequences just not making sense.

[Ice-Fyre]

Is AaaaaA!!! for the Awesome, just the first game but with extra levels? Wanna be sure before I buy lol

[Roufuss]

Is AaaaaA!!! for the Awesome, just the first game but with extra levels? Wanna be sure before I buy lol

Its all the levels from the original plus 43 new ones.

From the Steam page:

"The new game brings you 82 remastered levels from the original and 43 brand new ones that are twice as fast!"

[Roufuss]

Sorry again for the double post, but I felt this warranted its own post.

Valve has run out of third party coupons and games, so crafting coal / earning achievements earns you Valve games and coupons ONLY.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2428973

Its also noted on the Gift Pile page as well too.

[Ice-Fyre]

Its all the levels from the original plus 43 new ones.
From the Steam page:
"The new game brings you 82 remastered levels from the original and 43 brand new ones that are twice as fast!"

Just wanted to be sure lol

Thanks

[Althea]

Sorry again for the double post, but I felt this warranted its own post.

Valve has run out of third party coupons and games, so crafting coal / earning achievements earns you Valve games and coupons ONLY.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2428973

Its also noted on the Gift Pile page as well too.
You've
Got
To
Be
Kidding
Me.