STEAM Announcements & Updates 2014 IV - For me it was Tuesday

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I'm thinking the Steam OPs might have too much info. Splitting it into two posts might help a bit. The first one could be short and sweet. You could include game reviews from the previous thread, the top releases of the last (or current) month, and biggest Steam news. The second one could be closer to what we have now. *shrug*
 
Man I'm totally going to be in lurker status more often if this thread moves to monthly status. Although I guess that was the case already with the threads burning out in size in like a month anyways. I guess I need to post some game impressions more often, so without further ado:

Orcs Must Die 2: Surprisingly enjoyable for a game where I spent 95% of the time running backwards and shooting mindlessly. I feel like this game should have annoyed me more due to the fact that it's not really a good game to maze in (due to expensive blocks and lots of explosive sappers) and I'm usually a bit fan of routing. So I think once I realized that the game required me to be a bit more active with my hero and just to control a few chokepoints I started to have more fun. The big appeal here was that the toolbox of trinkets / traps / guardians was both extensive and visceral. Lots of cool different ways to watch orcs get chewed up and the respec option was nice for trying different layouts.

Dust: An Elysian Tale: A feel super bad knowing that this was a labor of love of a fellow GAFfer, but it was just an ok game for me. Animation was beautiful no doubt, and it was incredibly impressive that this was basically a one man show creating. My issue was more with combat evolution and balance. My moveset (aside from some traversal abilities like slide and double jump) seemed pretty set from very early on in the game, really the only big upgrade / variation seem to be from Fidgit abilities. Combine that with a pretty low number of enemy types including many that seemed to pretty much just be meat with one melee attack and the combat never really evolved very much to me. I felt like I was doing pretty similar stuff to mobs of enemies all game long without any really incentive to mix things up or any new progression of moves.
 
Stallion Free said:
Omg the Arkham Origins Cold Cold Heart dlc achievements leaked on Steam. I can barely contain the hype looking at what this is gonna contain.
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Ooooh. Is there a release date on that?! I have the season pass, so I should be all set!

PixyJunket said:
HALF MINUTE HERO TWO.

HALF MINUTE HERO TWO.

HALF MINUTE HERO TWO.

HALF MINUTE HERO TWO.

HALF MINUTE HERO TWO.

HALF MINUTE HERO TWO.
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I think someone broke him...

Cheddahz said:
Ahh alright, that makes more sense


I'm quite excited for it. Hopefully I'll get around to it whenever it comes out
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Apparently not as excited as the poster you quoted...

TheFightingFish said:
Man I'm totally going to be in lurker status more often if this thread moves to monthly status. Although I guess that was the case already with the threads burning out in size in like a month anyways. I guess I need to post some game impressions more often, so without further ado:

Orcs Must Die 2: Surprisingly enjoyable for a game where I spent 95% of the time running backwards and shooting mindlessly. I feel like this game should have annoyed me more due to the fact that it's not really a good game to maze in (due to expensive blocks and lots of explosive sappers) and I'm usually a bit fan of routing. So I think once I realized that the game required me to be a bit more active with my hero and just to control a few chokepoints I started to have more fun. The big appeal here was that the toolbox of trinkets / traps / guardians was both extensive and visceral. Lots of cool different ways to watch orcs get chewed up and the respec option was nice for trying different layouts.

Dust: An Elysian Tale: A feel super bad knowing that this was a labor of love of a fellow GAFfer, but it was just an ok game for me. Animation was beautiful no doubt, and it was incredibly impressive that this was basically a one man show creating. My issue was more with combat evolution and balance. My moveset (aside from some traversal abilities like slide and double jump) seemed pretty set from very early on in the game, really the only big upgrade / variation seem to be from Fidgit abilities. Combine that with a pretty low number of enemy types including many that seemed to pretty much just be meat with one melee attack and the combat never really evolved very much to me. I felt like I was doing pretty similar stuff to mobs of enemies all game long without any really incentive to mix things up or any new progression of moves.
Click to expand...

I'm going to get myself into trouble here, but...

With any game with variation of moveset, a lot of the responsibility for being creative and using the advanced systems or being stylish falls upon the user.
This is why people say you can beat the God of War games using mostly [ ], [ ], /\.
This is why I beat Bayonetta on hard using the [ ] x 5 combo and witch time.
Unless the game forces you to use a particular moveset to do something to a particular enemy type (and this can be done well and not so well... a bad example being games that color code enemies and force you to use only that moveset on them (DmC, Strider); a good example being something where you need to use a particular move to open an enemy up but are then free to deal with them as you see fit (sort of like the Arkham games -- those also encourage variety with the variation multiplier)).

This is not saying you're wrong... just and observation I've made lately when it comes to some games with action type combat.
 
Let's not pretend that JaseC's post count isn't slightly inflated by responding to every Saorise N'Shine joke made in the thread.
 
MRORANGE said:
iksTYZD7pZ7yO.png
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DAT KERNING between A and M is creeping me out. :'(

Lots of love for your work nonetheless! :)
 
MRORANGE said:
Changes for new Announcements & Updates 2014 April Thread​
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All looks good. Some suggestions:

* Scrap the upcoming releases section. I mean go for it if you are keen, but I think there will be too many games and it is easy enough to just go to the steam store. I'd put that work instead into the recommended games.
* I'd leave the trusted key sites section, it used to come up a lot, now it doesn't so much, so maybe it is working?
* Agree with removing the who posted list.
* I'd vote against highlighting giveaways. As nice as that is, I don't think it would necessarily improve the thread.

As for modbot, I suggested before a tagging system where people could use the title (which nobody does) to mark something as "news, discount, review" or similar like "Discount - 20% off Goat Simulator at Gamefly". Then modbot could either post a periodic digest or provide a service to respond to a PM.

Oreoleo said:
Maybe it's just a byproduct of the community getting larger and it's not as much of a problem as I'm imagining. I remember a year or two ago when you only had to go back a page to find out what the current daily is.
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The difference is modbot giveaways.​
 
TheFightingFish said:
Orcs Must Die 2: Surprisingly enjoyable for a game where I spent 95% of the time running backwards and shooting mindlessly. I feel like this game should have annoyed me more due to the fact that it's not really a good game to maze in (due to expensive blocks and lots of explosive sappers) and I'm usually a bit fan of routing. So I think once I realized that the game required me to be a bit more active with my hero and just to control a few chokepoints I started to have more fun. The big appeal here was that the toolbox of trinkets / traps / guardians was both extensive and visceral. Lots of cool different ways to watch orcs get chewed up and the respec option was nice for trying different layouts.
Click to expand...

Nice mini reviews, Fish, thanks. OMD2 is always near the top of my backlog pile, but I think I've avoided it due to some feedback about its balance being skewed toward co-op play (making it trickier than its predecessor). How did you find the difficulty curve, assuming you played solo?
 
This is getting ridiculous. What is going on with Steam. Give us something Valve. Atleast tell us your preparing for a new update or something.
 
corrosivefrost said:
I'm going to get myself into trouble here, but...

With any game with variation of moveset, a lot of the responsibility for being creative and using the advanced systems or being stylish falls upon the user.
This is why people say you can beat the God of War games using mostly [ ], [ ], /\.
This is why I beat Bayonetta on hard using the [ ] x 5 combo and witch time.
Unless the game forces you to use a particular moveset to do something to a particular enemy type (and this can be done well and not so well... a bad example being games that color code enemies and force you to use only that moveset on them (DmC, Strider); a good example being something where you need to use a particular move to open an enemy up but are then free to deal with them as you see fit (sort of like the Arkham games -- those also encourage variety with the variation multiplier)).

This is not saying you're wrong... just and observation I've made lately when it comes to some games with action type combat.
Click to expand...

Get yourself in trouble? I certainly would hope not, I enjoy opinions :).

So I agree that many action games can be beat with very simple tactics, and that some of them really have to be unlocked by the user to fully enjoy. But Dust did not feel that way to me. The big part here being that my palette of combo and attack options felt very cramped and limited. This might just be my perception, but I just don't see anywhere near the complexity and options of GoW or Bayo in it. It did give rewards for longer combos, but as far as I can tell it didn't punish repetition like DMC does, so it didn't really encourage me to mix it up. With something like Bayo you can play it simple, but expert play really can unlock levels of depth above that. And I just don't feel that Dust has that same level of expert depth to it.
 
oipic said:
Nice mini reviews, Fish, thanks. OMD2 is always near the top of my backlog pile, but I think I've avoided it due to some feedback about its balance being skewed toward co-op play (making it trickier than its predecessor). How did you find the difficulty curve, assuming you played solo?
Click to expand...

I'd heard the same thing before. But I honestly didn't find it that hard solo. I nailed pretty much everything up to the mid-late game with no troubles. Then a few of the final missions made me stop and retry a few times to beat, which is about what I would want from a TD game. The key here (for me) was that you have a respec option and to not spread out your skulls which buy the upgrades around with to many different traps. On the later levels go ahead and respec for each level. It's pretty quick to do and then just fully upgrade the traps you plan on using for that level.
 
Is it a coincidence that when Steam comes back online I have a new coupon waiting for me in my inventory? Anybody else?

30% off Explodemon
 
Oreoleo said:
Is it a coincidence that when Steam comes back online I have a new coupon waiting for me in my inventory? Anybody else?

30% off Explodemon
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I had that earlier when I logged in.
Had you been logged in for more than 24 hours?
Well, 20 or whatever the time since the latest downtime was =p
 
Every time I lose connection to Steam (often lately) I have to manually open my friends list and click sign in. Like, hours and hours go by with me offline on my friends list, but able to play my games before I notice it and it's getting pretty annoying.
 
TheFightingFish said:
Get yourself in trouble? I certainly would hope not, I enjoy opinions :).

So I agree that many action games can be beat with very simple tactics, and that some of them really have to be unlocked by the user to fully enjoy. But Dust did not feel that way to me. The big part here being that my palette of combo and attack options felt very cramped and limited. This might just be my perception, but I just don't see anywhere near the complexity and options of GoW or Bayo in it. It did give rewards for longer combos, but as far as I can tell it didn't punish repetition like DMC does, so it didn't really encourage me to mix it up. With something like Bayo you can play it simple, but expert play really can unlock levels of depth above that. And I just don't feel that Dust has that same level of expert depth to it.
Click to expand...

This is very true -- I think most 2D games with action type combat suffer from more simplistic combo strings and lack of variation -- it's kind of a curse of the genre, I guess. The Dishwasher games probably do it best, but it's been so long since I've played them I can't recall if that's accurate or not.

That said, there was talk that Ska was porting Vampire Smile to PC... and it's nowhere to be seen. :(
 
Nabs said:
I'm thinking the Steam OPs might have too much info. Splitting it into two posts might help a bit. The first one could be short and sweet. You could include game reviews from the previous thread, the top releases of the last (or current) month, and biggest Steam news. The second one could be closer to what we have now. *shrug*
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's getting long in the tooth, I really want it to be one part, but I can see where information might be broken down into two 2 posts. I;; probably have too anyways with user recommendations hitting the post limit count.

Copons said:
DAT KERNING between A and M is creeping me out. :'(

Lots of love for your work nonetheless! :)
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HoosTrax said:
Can't unsee...
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Feel free to recommend me some fonts, but these were the settings I used in PS:

AyXnwNs.png





toddhunter said:
All looks good. Some suggestions:

* Scrap the upcoming releases section. I mean go for it if you are keen, but I think there will be too many games and it is easy enough to just go to the steam store. I'd put that work instead into the recommended games.
* I'd leave the trusted key sites section, it used to come up a lot, now it doesn't so much, so maybe it is working?
* Agree with removing the who posted list.
* I'd vote against highlighting giveaways. As nice as that is, I don't think it would necessarily improve the thread.

As for modbot, I suggested before a tagging system where people could use the title (which nobody does) to mark something as "news, discount, review" or similar like "Discount - 20% off Goat Simulator at Gamefly". Then modbot could either post a periodic digest or provide a service to respond to a PM.


Tagging system like SteveWinwood seems good.
The difference is modbot giveaways.
Click to expand...





Feedback has been fantastic so far, keep posting stuff and I'll try and reply back if I can.
I wish I could do a poll on some of the ideas and if to scrap parts or not of the OT.
 
MRORANGE said:
Feedback has been fantastic so far, keep posting stuff and I'll try and reply back if I can.
I wish I could do a poll on some of the ideas and if to scrap parts or not of the OT.
Click to expand...

This would probably be too hard to manage, but what about a section for Greenlight, such as notable games on Greenlight or recently greenlit?
 
wilflare said:
I hope the trailer is all that it takes from Dead Island... (not the launch bugs and stuff...)
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After watching some GDC video I think it's going to be pretty hard to tell the difference between hilarious physics bugs and Goat Sim gameplay. It's awesome.
 
crimsonheadGCN said:
Someone downloaded 15MB from Antarctica. Huh? http://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/
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jshackles said:
This game is 38MB, so they're probably only half way done downloading it. :)

EDIT: Kinda beaten
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Sajjaja said:
To prevent overheating, servers are being migrated to Antarctica. Probably some minor testing with downloading.
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Guys...... it's HL3.

FDK6tP0.jpg
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FiveElementNinja said:
This would probably be too hard to manage, but what about a section for Greenlight, such as notable games on Greenlight or recently greenlit?
Click to expand...

Too hard to manage in the long run, plus there's a greenlight thread (which I failed to update :lol)

If anyone wants to make a new Greenlight thread that is up to date, feel free.
 
animlboogy said:
I've been playing PS1 games lately. 3DS eShop was down, Steam is down every other time I load up the app, fuck it, time to play Silent Hill and King's Field!

The Team Silent games really should be on Steam.

That piano puzzle in Silent Hill is so great. I should probably dig through the adventure games in my Steam library and see if I've missed some gold in there.
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I would imagine Konami is getting to that, with their fervor to bring games over lately.
 
Pakkidis said:
This is getting ridiculous. What is going on with Steam. Give us something Valve. Atleast tell us your preparing for a new update or something.
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It's because of Goat Simulator's inevitable release. Valve's gearing up servers in order to stand the workload when every single Steam user decides to simultaneously download the Game of the Forever.
 
Playing hexcells plus when tired isn't the smartest thing I've ever done.

Just stared at a puzzle for like an hour, just couldn't see the solution.
 
NIN90 said:
http://abload.de/img/capturenws63.png[/I MG]

I been playing the game for 3 weeks now but thanks for letting me know I guess.[/QUOTE]

Got a popup, looks like the German version is out. Yay.

And I got not only one measly Explodemon coupon. Oh no. Three. Bask in my glory.
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