Steam’s Xmas Sale ’12 – Inevitable illogical investments

[Juan Carlo]

I replied yesterday, but the comment was auto-modded and never approved. Sorry about that.

The game requires no "Street Fighter" moves, no. Dark Souls works well with a gamepad out of the box; the problem is that the mouse control is genuinely awful out of the box. It's just a matter of mouse tracking vs. gamepad tracking.

However, you're not "gimping yourself" by using mouse/keyboard control, as Rauten suggested might be a possibility. With dsmfix, I find mouse/keyboard the superior mode of control (especially if you frequently use free-aim stuff like archery). There are two problems, tho. One, dsmfix might take a bit to install properly; it took me over an hour due to problems with phantom USB devices I had to find and disable. (For most people, this process seems to have been painless.) Two, the interface reflects XBox 360 controller buttons; it doesn't adjust to reflect your assigned keys. Both of those problems can be accommodated, but go in with the expectation that you might have to do a bit of troubleshooting to get everything working at the beginning.

The game is worth it, but be prepared for a little bit of initial agony (i.e., before all the agony you'll later encounter in-game :D ).

Thanks, I think I'll risk it. I usually have much more patience for bad interfaces than most people and the game looks interesting enough to put up with it.

[Heliocentric]

But the violence, man, the violence gets to me every now and then.

(not played hot line) The only game that really caught me like that was swat 4. And on occasion I'd spot a huddled mass of 'survivors' in the Blendo's Atom Zombie Smasher which I couldn't rescue... I spared them becoming monsters right? Oh, and the annual figures about starvation in Tropico.

It's a good thing, too much death and violence goes by with no fanfare.

[Clovis]

Has anyone else got a $5 off voucher thing from Amazon? It's for $5 off an EA title, but today only. You should get one if you bought any downloadable titles from Amazon this year. However, I couldn't actually find anything I really wanted.

[mrki]

(not played hot line) And on occasion I'd spot a huddled mass of 'survivors' in the Blendo's Atom Zombie Smasher which I couldn't rescue... I spared them becoming monsters right?

Or when the helicopter is full, but there's a few people left. I tell myself it's an act of mercy. :(

[Wheelz]

anyone have experience with Magic - The Gathering? looking at the deal, the 2012 gold pack (with all of the dlc) is only $5. Also, what's the difference between the 2012 and 2013 versions?

[NathanH]

anyone have experience with Magic - The Gathering? looking at the deal, the 2012 gold pack (with all of the dlc) is only $5. Also, what's the difference between the 2012 and 2013 versions?

They're very good games if you like Magic but you're not very serious about it, you get a bunch of pre-made decks with some extra cards to do customization (roughly, there are about 60 cards plus lands per deck). 2012 has less interesting decks and fewer cards per deck and there will be few people playing multiplayer. It does have the rather fun archenemy mode which is fun to play against the AI. Archenemy vs the AI is pretty much the only reason to get 2012 though, 2013 is superior in all other respect.

[hariseldon]

Overall quite a poor sale this year, very little to tempt me, other sales have proved far more tempting, which is unusual.

[The Pink Ninja]

Have a little money to spend, what are the best games on Steam for less than £10 right now?

Looking at Endless Space, what is it like?

[DaftPunk]

Haha hotline miami blood is like mario with blood guys,have can that shit get you its beyond me :D

[alms]

It's a good thing, too much death and violence goes by with no fanfare.

HLM violence is to me the videogame equivalent of Tarantino's violence. Some people can be affected by it, but it's not 'real' violence per se - it's that much over the top it becomes something else.

[fiddlesticks]

Have a little money to spend, what are the best games on Steam for less than £10 right now?

Any preference toward a particular genre? There's some great old-school RPGs on Steam, though some of them you might be better off purchasing from GoG. Or if you're interested in first-person-shooters, Valve's games are all 50% off at the moment. And that's not even going into the many available indie titles.

Steam itself also has a way to list all games which cost less than £10. This link should work.

[AlexClockwork]

As for CoD1 and CoD2: They are still games about blowing stuff up and being a super soldier, but they were a lot less "team" oriented. So you still did almost everything yourself. And no CoD has yet to match the awesome that was Captain Foley's wild ride in the first CoD. Just be warned that CoD1 has medkits and that both games are a lot more unforgiving.

OK, I think I'm going to buy the "War Chest" pack. It's expensive, but I haven't ever played UO or CoD2, so... Also, you made me remember that CoD1 was genuinely difficult on Hard while not being too frustrating. Wanna play it again. ^^

[DevinSmoth]

Endless Space is a really decent 4x game... I really like it and they keep updating it....I think it was worth me buying when I did... And I still want to put more time in it...

[Wheelz]

They're very good games if you like Magic but you're not very serious about it, you get a bunch of pre-made decks with some extra cards to do customization (roughly, there are about 60 cards plus lands per deck). 2012 has less interesting decks and fewer cards per deck and there will be few people playing multiplayer. It does have the rather fun archenemy mode which is fun to play against the AI. Archenemy vs the AI is pretty much the only reason to get 2012 though, 2013 is superior in all other respect.

thanks for the response! I've actually got no experience with Magic - The Gathering, but I (shamefully) enjoyed watching Yuh-Geeeeee-oooh? when I was younger, I also rather enjoyed playing the old Pokemon TCG vidja game, and from what I can tell the idea is roughly the same between them all.

I also have no real interest in the multiplayer (atleast not intially); so with all that in mind, is getting 2012 Gold edition for $5 better than getting just the 2013 base for $5?

[NathanH]

thanks for the response! I've actually got no experience with Magic - The Gathering, but I (shamefully) enjoyed watching Yuh-Geeeeee-oooh? when I was younger, I also rather enjoyed playing the old Pokemon TCG vidja game, and from what I can tell the idea is roughly the same between them all.

I also have no real interest in the multiplayer (atleast not intially); so with all that in mind, is getting 2012 Gold edition for $5 better than getting just the 2013 base for $5?

I'd get the 2013 base, the quality and variety of the decks are much better.

[rhettdb2005]

Endless Space is a really decent 4x game... I really like it and they keep updating it....I think it was worth me buying when I did... And I still want to put more time in it...

I agree, has been a very worthwhile purchase for me (I paid ~20 through preorder). I'd recommend it.

[neema_t]

HLM violence is to me the videogame equivalent of Tarantino's violence. Some people can be affected by it, but it's not 'real' violence per se - it's that much over the top it becomes something else.

I agree with this (possibly wo)man.

I'm having a hard time believing how poor these sales are. It kind of makes me glad I went mad and bought everything I could possibly ever want a year or two ago because now the same things are coming up again, and instead of being cheaper as you'd expect them to get over time they're now actually more expensive. Did a group of publishers stage a 'these huge sales have got to stop' intervention for Gaben or something?

[rhettdb2005]

Anyone have any thoughts on Towns? I know it's still in beta but am curious for fellow RPS readers thoughts.

[field_studies]

Anyone have any thoughts on Towns? I know it's still in beta but am curious for fellow RPS readers thoughts.

I was wondering the same thing. Last I checked the Steam game hub it was being bashed around quite a lot for its (perhaps understandable) beta quirks and glitches. Is it just unfinished (but regularly updated), or do the current problems speak to an underlying and perhaps permanent flaws in the game design?

[Heliocentric]

Anyone have any thoughts on Towns? I know it's still in beta but am curious for fellow RPS readers thoughts.

Not much game, rough around edges, fucking tree guardians!

Its very much what if minecraft was isometric and had you commanding a village rather than one guy in first person, once you figure out to make the people survive and get lots of personal rooms you have so much manpower jobs get done pretty much as you suggest them, but you constantly have to watch out for immigrants dying on the way to the safety of your walls, turning into ghosts and haunting your roads in an horrific feedback loop...

Its actually pretty compulsive, especially if you can enjoy the hamster cageness of people doing what you have made possible, maybe not in the order you'd like, but getting around to it eventually.

I like it, but I'll rage quit and delete my towns ^_^