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STEAM announcements & updates 2012 Thread 2 - Bad Rats Daily Deal for next 6 months

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Razek

Banned
So I finally got around to setting up and playing GTA4 since the steam sale.

I have always wanted to make the tweaks in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drp9o4E7G7U

Holy man I haven't laughed so hard playing a game since this tweak. Cars flying everywhere, people screaming and on fire, and explosions every two seconds. I just can't stop laughing. Purchase vindicated.
 

Nabs

Member
Do we know if The Amazing Spider-Man is going to be a Steamworks title?

Nearly all Acti games will support Steamworks this year.

http://community.herohq.com/communi.../blog/2012/07/03/developer-questions-answered

Will the PC version be the same as consoles? (free roam and such)

[Louis Hallée] Yes! Also, since modern PCs have a lot more options in how to build them in terms of video cards, etc., you can expect better visual effects and visual quality to match these new cards. We will also fully support Steam and have Steam achievements.
 

Kelegacy

XBOX - RECORD ME LOVING DOWN MY WOMAN GOOD
Wondering if the Hexen/Heretic pack and Quake packs work well in Steam on Windows 7. Like, can I just start up the older games and start playing without frigging around to get them to work? I was going to pull the trigger but then starting wondering if it was worth the hassle.
 
Wondering if the Hexen/Heretic pack and Quake packs work well in Steam on Windows 7. Like, can I just start up the older games and start playing without frigging around to get them to work? I was going to pull the trigger but then starting wondering if it was worth the hassle.

They use dosbox and work great right away. If you want to worry about resolution and whatnot look into zdoom. It's relatively straight forward and only takes a couple of minutes to set up.

I guess configuring the controls might take a minute, but it's no biggie. Just spent an hour or so playing some heretic in zdoom and it's amazing still.
 

Crub

Member
I dont understand how gmg trade ins work. Do you trade in a cdkey?

Not all games bought on GMG can be traded in. I think those that that can uses a specific GMG DRM.

Nearly all Acti games will support Steamworks this year.

http://community.herohq.com/communi.../blog/2012/07/03/developer-questions-answered

Will the PC version be the same as consoles? (free roam and such)

[Louis Hallée] Yes! Also, since modern PCs have a lot more options in how to build them in terms of video cards, etc., you can expect better visual effects and visual quality to match these new cards. We will also fully support Steam and have Steam achievements.

Strange how the game is releasing in a few days without being available for pre-order on Steam nor any other digital platforms. Is it possible the game will only be available as retail, even if it's Steamworks?
 

Kelegacy

XBOX - RECORD ME LOVING DOWN MY WOMAN GOOD
They use dosbox and work great right away. If you want to worry about resolution and whatnot look into zdoom. It's relatively straight forward and only takes a couple of minutes to set up.

I guess configuring the controls might take a minute, but it's no biggie. Just spent an hour or so playing some heretic in zdoom and it's amazing still.

Great, thanks for your help. Just wanted to make sure something like DosBox was attached from the outset (I can set it up but am too lazy these days). I know there are some games that can give you a surprise when you buy from Steam and find out they don't work well So just wanted to make double sure.

Will pick up the Hexen/Heretic collection and probably the Quake one as well. Will wait for BFG for Doom, though I do want to finally play through 3. WHen it came out my PC was lackluster and it ran hitchy. I have waited this long, might as well wait a bit longer.
 

mojiimbo

Member
If you're in the U.S. GameInformer/GameStop is raffling off 10,000 copies of Darksiders 1 for PC. The catch is you have to sign up for a free GI.com account and install the GameStop/Impulse client to retrieve your Steam key. It seems like the odds are pretty good as I signed up 2 days ago and won today and I've read others say the same. You can enter once a day to increase your odds too.

http://www.gameinformer.com/p/darksidersii.aspx
 

mannerbot

Member
If you're in the U.S. GameInformer/GameStop is raffling off 10,000 copies of Darksiders 1 for PC. The catch is you have to sign up for a free GI.com account and install the GameStop/Impulse client to retrieve your Steam key. It seems like the odds are pretty good as I signed up 2 days ago and won today and I've read others say the same. You can enter once a day to increase your odds too.

http://www.gameinformer.com/p/darksidersii.aspx

Thanks for the heads-up.
 

Joe Molotov

Member
If this is a real Steam support response the wording from the support person is kind of funny, like they're threatening the person who asked the question:

http://i.imgur.com/YM7Hq.png

I'm kind of sad about the no-refund-if-your-account-is-deactivated policy, but it's in the license agreement or whatnot.

Too bad, I wish I could just go "Ehhhh, I'm going to decline, just deactivate my account and give me all my money back."
 

gdt

Member
Just finished Braid:

Wow.

Obviously I'm super late on this, but wow wow wow wow wow. Great puzzles, with a truly surprising story that I'll be thinking about for a long time. The ending, when it dawns on you, is amazing.

Edit: Man, the whole thing is going through my head again and again. Extremely moving and powerful game.
 
might be a dumb question, but here goes:

is the Mac version of Borderlands (from the mac App Store) compatible with windows users for co op?
 

DTKT

Member
Its hilarious people expect a refund on years of purchases they've used because of that change. Fucking stupidly hilarious.

Well, if you are really thinking about, it's kind of scary that you never really owned any of the games.

Steam would have the law on their side if they wanted to get up and leave the business. They would not have to give Steam users one cent.

Of course, it doesn't mean that they will ever do that. And really, with a private company like Valve, the risks are quite low.
 

ngt

Member
Just finished Braid:

Wow.

Obviously I'm super late on this, but wow wow wow wow wow. Great puzzles, with a truly surprising story that I'll be thinking about for a long time. The ending, when it dawns on you, is amazing.

Edit: Man, the whole thing is going through my head again and again. Extremely moving and powerful game.

There is an alternate ending too!
 

1-D_FTW

Member
Well, if you are really thinking about, it's kind of scary that you never really owned any of the games.

Steam would have the law on their side if they wanted to get up and leave the business. They would not have to give Steam users one cent.

Of course, it doesn't mean that they will ever do that. And really, with a private company like Valve, the risks are quite low.

Clearly you're not one of these guys who's claiming Steam is more evil than anyone else. But this is precisely why I disliked Steam until the major sales started. Steam is far and away the best DD platform in existence, but there's a reason I rarely buy games Day 1. To me these games aren't worth a whole lot. You don't own them (technically). You can't resell them. Steam is my favorite thing to happen this gen, but I certainly think Steam Sale prices are what these games should be priced at. And even then, just for the heck of it, I keep all the titles I don't hate on my hard drive. Just in case.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Its hilarious people expect a refund on years of purchases they've used because of that change. Fucking stupidly hilarious.
No, because they're licenses, not purchases. Your phrasing is incorrect as far as I am aware.

You have had a license for years. The thing is, at any point the license rules can be changed. You are unable to use lawsuits (at least class action ones) to try to dispute a change in the rules, if I understand correctly, and your options will never be anything but "agree to any change that is added or lose several hundred dollars worth of licenses".

Compare this to say, a console game or CDROM PC game of yore. Do console games and CDROM PC games come with the old software license phrasing that just says it's a license to use the software? My guess is that this is/was standard, yet with console and old PC CDROM games, you -probably- do not have a constant threat of "agree with new demands that can be changed at any time, or lose access to your entire collection of games".

The reason people are presumably OK with this is that Valve in general has not seemed to have super evil intentions. If they stick with that, then it's OK, but it does seem a little scary. To take it to a silly extreme, wouldn't it now be legal for Valve, if they decided their bandwidth costs were too high, to change the license agreement and say "everyone must now pay us $30 per month or decline the license agreement, losing access to all games without refunds"? I see literally nothing legally stopping them from doing that, even though it's obviously ultra unlikely.
 
If you're in the U.S. GameInformer/GameStop is raffling off 10,000 copies of Darksiders 1 for PC. The catch is you have to sign up for a free GI.com account and install the GameStop/Impulse client to retrieve your Steam key. It seems like the odds are pretty good as I signed up 2 days ago and won today and I've read others say the same. You can enter once a day to increase your odds too.

http://www.gameinformer.com/p/darksidersii.aspx

I already won this and gifted the extra copy to my brother.
 

HoosTrax

Member
There is an alternate ending too!
Hmm...is there? I mean it's been a few years since I last played Braid, but I'm not sure there was another ending. Unless you mean the
backwards rewind thing where Tim turns out to be a creepy ass atom bomb inventing princess-stalker
 
So I was wondering - I'm sure Valve has statistics on it somewhere (and they might even respond if I emailed them!), but what would be the most bought, but least played/installed game on Steam? And the reverse - least sales, but most amount of hours from users?

Any guesses?
 

froliq

Member
Maybe Ricochet, if that qualifies.

No idea what else. I think the majority of the people that buy stuff actually play it.
 

HoosTrax

Member
So I was wondering - I'm sure Valve has statistics on it somewhere (and they might even respond if I emailed them!), but what would be the most bought, but least played/installed game on Steam? And the reverse - least sales, but most amount of hours from users?

Any guesses?
Aka most a) overhyped game and b) most addictive niche game?

I want to say the answer to a) is either Mount and Blade, Arma II, or X3. Because people tend to hype those games like crazy, but once people actually try them, they find that they're either janky as hell and/or have a ridiculously steep learning curve. (I'm looking at all of the people on my friends list who own MnB Warband but have less than 1 hour played in it)

I'm not sure about b). I want to say the answer might be one of the JRPG imports that have a dedicated audience that's willing to spend dozens of hours playing them to 100% the achievements.


Edit: Speaking of Section 8. Can someone explain to me the differences between Section 8 / Tribes / Planetside / Unreal Tournament Onslaught Mode? They all look pretty much the same to me, but I'm sure there're major gameplay differences beyond the aesthetics.
 

Joe Molotov

Member
No, because they're licenses, not purchases. Your phrasing is incorrect as far as I am aware.

You have had a license for years. The thing is, at any point the license rules can be changed. You are unable to use lawsuits (at least class action ones) to try to dispute a change in the rules, if I understand correctly, and your options will never be anything but "agree to any change that is added or lose several hundred dollars worth of licenses".

Compare this to say, a console game or CDROM PC game of yore. Do console games and CDROM PC games come with the old software license phrasing that just says it's a license to use the software? My guess is that this is/was standard, yet with console and old PC CDROM games, you -probably- do not have a constant threat of "agree with new demands that can be changed at any time, or lose access to your entire collection of games".

The reason people are presumably OK with this is that Valve in general has not seemed to have super evil intentions. If they stick with that, then it's OK, but it does seem a little scary. To take it to a silly extreme, wouldn't it now be legal for Valve, if they decided their bandwidth costs were too high, to change the license agreement and say "everyone must now pay us $30 per month or decline the license agreement, losing access to all games without refunds"? I see literally nothing legally stopping them from doing that, even though it's obviously ultra unlikely.

Yeah, but none of this is really new, though. Valve has changed the SSA before (although it's been a long time, I think 2007/2008), and we know that you don't really "own" your games. But despite what the SSA says, there actually is legal recourse if Valve were to suddenly say "Pay us $100 or you can't play your games anymore, lol!" Courts can find in favor of consumers if a company changes their TOS in a way that's unfair, even if the consumer agreed to it (because they had no choice).

Note: I'm not defending this decision as being customer friendly or anything because it isn't, this is definitely something they put in to help themselves. But this change in itself doesn't really signify anything yet.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Yeah, but none of this is really new, though. Valve has changed the SSA before (although it's been a long time, I think 2007/2008), and we know that you don't really "own" your games. But despite what the SSA says, there actually is legal recourse if Valve were to suddenly say "Pay us $100 or you can't play your games anymore, lol!" Courts can find in favor of consumers if a company changes their TOS in a way that's unfair, even if the consumer agreed to it (because they had no choice).

Note: I'm not defending this decision as being customer friendly or anything because it isn't, this is definitely something they put in to help themselves. But this change in itself doesn't really signify anything yet.
That's quite a few years, but I did not realize they changed it that long ago. And yes I know that we don't own the games, per the license agreement, but as far as I am aware most people viewed that as something Valve would never need/threaten to use, etc.

This just seems a little more noteworthy than stuff in the past few years, in my opinion, because of the combination of

A) Popup for everyone saying hey, do you agree with this, and
B) Lawsuits will get you nothing, now, and
C) I'm customer support guy, and I can delete all your games without giving you a refund. Shall I go ahead with that? (threatening to use said license agreement)

The customer support person should have added a "trololol" at the end of his message for a little extra insult.
 

morningbus

Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
I'd like to see that.
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