TrumanBurbank
Member
IMO they should announce it a week before. It'll stall sales on Steam for a week but atleast it'll build hype and people will start saving etc.
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STEAM announcements & updates 2012 Thread 2 - Bad Rats Daily Deal for next 6 months
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
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The #1 rule of Valve is like, don't tell customers much ahead of time. Take E3 this year for example. In general they seem like a quiet company to me.
BPM being the exception:
Number of days between the announcement of Half-Life 2 and its release: 575
Number of days between the announcement of Big Picture Mode and today: 482
Come on, Valve, you can do it! You're this close!
Joe Molotov
Member
That's why they don't announce things in advance. If they announced that the Summer Sale was going to start June 25th, then it would be October 14th before it started.
Announcing it would also completely kill sales in the run up to the sale starting.
Why by 'X' now if the sale starts in 5 days?
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
What is Big Picture mode anyway?
Big Picture Mode.
It's basically Steam for a TV screen. Controller support for navigation and menu and bigger text size.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
DUFFMCWALIN
Member
It almost has to be this coming Monday. Come on Binary Domain 10 or cheaper!
IblisGinjo
Member
Penny arcade 3, Spec Ops and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier are releasing this week. Wouldn't it be after these when nothing else is releasing?
jaundicejuice
Member
So there is a slight amount of intrigue present in Civ V: Gods & Kings. Part of the problem is you have to have spies in an opposing Civ's city to potentially discover the A.I.'s plans to attack you or another Civ. On Prince you tend to eclipse the other Civs in research fairly quickly and are better off having spies in your own cities performing counter-espionage until you can create the buildings and/or wonders that cut down on espionage in your empire. Once you have those buildings/wonders are constructed you're better off installing your spies in city-states to rig elections. You can provide city-states with gold or complete their various quests to gain influence but if the other Civs fear you enough and comply with your demand to not spy on you, they'll simply install their own spies in city states to rig elections. If or when you do stumble across a bit of intrigue you can choose share it with another Civ (by clicking an icon on the right side of your screen) to curry some slight bit of favour. I wish espionage and intrigue were a little more fully developed and you could even do things like provide false intelligence to mislead other Civs into fighting each other.
While Espionage feels kind of superfluous in Prince, it seems like it will become integral to winning in the higher difficulties when the A.I. starts getting all sorts of ridiculous advantages in research. Then you'll need to constantly be spying on the other Civs to steal their tech.
It's still hard to gauge whether or not shared religion has an actual impact on how other Civs treat you. I ended up spreading my brand of Confucianism to half the world, almost all of the cities states and half the empires in the game but I also had to ramp up militarily in order to fend off three neighbouring Civs and their religious emissaries. The strength of your standing army is stil lwhat dictates whether the A.I. is hostile or friendly to you.
Just completed a game with Carthage on Prince, won a diplomatic victory and one thing that really stands out after two play-throughs, the new Civs really seemed geared towards using specific policy tracks. The Celts are great using Piety, provided your cities are near forests. You can really speed your way through founding a pantheon, then religion and spreading that religion to neighbouring city-states and Civs as the Celts. The Carthaginians lend themselves well to the Freedom and Commerce policy tracks. In Freedom you get a happiness bonus you can from having cities in your empire connected via a trade network. The Carthaginians get a free harbour in every city once you research that particular branch. Given this, you'll want to have as many coastal cities as possible and will thus likely want to focus on the Commerce policy track for the production bonuses you gain from coastal cities.
I played through the game with all of the Civs available in base vanilla and also purchased all of the DLC Civs. While all of Vanilla/DLC Civs lend themselves well to playing certain ways, to researching specific techs and towards specific victory conditions none felt as geared towards using specific policy tracks as Gods & Kings new Civs.
While Espionage feels kind of superfluous in Prince, it seems like it will become integral to winning in the higher difficulties when the A.I. starts getting all sorts of ridiculous advantages in research. Then you'll need to constantly be spying on the other Civs to steal their tech.
It's still hard to gauge whether or not shared religion has an actual impact on how other Civs treat you. I ended up spreading my brand of Confucianism to half the world, almost all of the cities states and half the empires in the game but I also had to ramp up militarily in order to fend off three neighbouring Civs and their religious emissaries. The strength of your standing army is stil lwhat dictates whether the A.I. is hostile or friendly to you.
Just completed a game with Carthage on Prince, won a diplomatic victory and one thing that really stands out after two play-throughs, the new Civs really seemed geared towards using specific policy tracks. The Celts are great using Piety, provided your cities are near forests. You can really speed your way through founding a pantheon, then religion and spreading that religion to neighbouring city-states and Civs as the Celts. The Carthaginians lend themselves well to the Freedom and Commerce policy tracks. In Freedom you get a happiness bonus you can from having cities in your empire connected via a trade network. The Carthaginians get a free harbour in every city once you research that particular branch. Given this, you'll want to have as many coastal cities as possible and will thus likely want to focus on the Commerce policy track for the production bonuses you gain from coastal cities.
I played through the game with all of the Civs available in base vanilla and also purchased all of the DLC Civs. While all of Vanilla/DLC Civs lend themselves well to playing certain ways, to researching specific techs and towards specific victory conditions none felt as geared towards using specific policy tracks as Gods & Kings new Civs.
Jables Swan
Member
I'm guessing it'll start Thursday/Friday our time ready for the weekend leading into 4th July.
No way man, really? When was bpmannounced?
Ah right, my biggest surprise was the small difference between Announcement - BPM and what I thought was Announcement - HL2EP3 but then I saw it was HL2
toddhunter
Member
No week after that is FF7PC =)
Everyone should do this.
I don't want a game to be announced only for me to wait a year or more to play it. 1 month before is plenty. Although I guess you gotta get some hype going.
toddhunter
Member
I agree, how hard is it to generate hype anyway? It takes like a day for something to spread around the web, get dissected and become boring. Especially things like slow character reveals in fighting games. We are not going to forget who else is in it.
Ah right, my biggest surprise was the small difference between Announcement - BPM and what I thought was Announcement - HL2EP3 but then I saw it was HL2
Haha, BPM overtaking Episode Three (2223 days and counting) would be quite the feat. At this point, I suspect BPM will launch alongside Steam Linux.
Glass Rebel
Member
I think if NISA wants to be on Steam they need to get Neptunia on PC.
You know, for science.
You know, for science.
Alex
Member
This is literally the very last thing I would want NISA to move around. :lol
If they have Cladun x2 in the wings, they need to get that shit out, stat. I really enjoyed the original and never really got around to sinking a lot of time into the sequel.
jaundicejuice
Member
I almost feel like I'm playing Starcraft 2, only instead of walling up my ramp with barracks and supply depots it's works and military units walling off other Civs religious emissaries. I don't know if it's behaviour tied to difficulty but so far they won't try and convert cities from adjacent ocean tiles even though that's a possible action.
I love Civ in general and had high hopes for this expansion. So far everything I read about it might as well just say meh meh meh. Especially considering its cost.
Speaking of cost I still don't understand why it's cheaper for me to buy physical discs than it is digital. Almost every Steamworks game I own, I bought as a physical disc because it cost less. Same with Civ 5 and its expansion, I preordered the expansion from GAME and it cost me a little bit over a tenner (was £12.99 but I applied my remaining reward points to it).
Glass Rebel
Member
I'm just kidding (or am I?). If Cladun catches on I think we'll see some 2D/PSP games first before they move on to the bigger stuff, if at all.
Would love if they add 'Category Collapsible Tables' in grid view. I honestly love the grid view, but I use my categories quite extensively so there is almost no point in using the grid view.
On that topic, another nice addition would be a pop out view of the details page when using grid view. That it reverts back to the category view, kinda makes its even less useful.
On that topic, another nice addition would be a pop out view of the details page when using grid view. That it reverts back to the category view, kinda makes its even less useful.
Hotel Giant 2 is the new Daily ($1.69; -66%).
The expansion feels very half baked to me. Religion is mostly superfluous and not well implemented into the core mechanics, while the spy system is too cumbersome for how shallow its impact on the game is. Civ V continues to mildly disappointing.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
So what's everyone's opinion on HG2?
Glass Rebel
Member
Steam had a good run. That EA guy was right, it really is like MySpace.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
To be fair, Hotel Giant 1 is actually pretty decent from what I recall in my XP days.
Bugger Half-Life 3, I want the ability to beautify my Community page with gaudy crap!
Perfectly fine. I prefer using kb&m even in third-person shooters due to the increased precision.
Edit: Well, kb&m being preferred unless the developer has insisted on mouse acceleration; however, fortunately, such is not the case with Alan Wake.
It's hard to tell for sure with such spotty data but retail still accounts for a significant cut of PC sales. Retailers flip out when a launch day digital release costs less than MSRP (even though a digital release is significantly cheaper for everyone involved) so they threaten to pull their stock. It's a dying business model trying to stay relevant.
It's even crazier in the book publishing industry. Take a look at the prices of ebooks versus hardcover/paperbacks. It's all over the place.
JetBlackPanda
Member
Glass Rebel
Member
A 360 controller is still a great investment for many games like Assassin's Creed, Darksiders, Batman etc.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
What sort of game is Darksiders anyway? I'm turned off by the Warcrast-esque horribleness in character design.
JetBlackPanda
Member
god of war X Zelda
Glass Rebel
Member
It's kind of a Zelda/God of War hybrid. DS1 at least does neither as good as its inspirations but it's still a very good game if you can look past War's design.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
I loathe the aesthetics of GoW tho, so I guess this is a no.
RibbedHero
Member
This seems to only apply for those of us in the UK. On the continent the disparity doesn't exist as much, and I believe it doesn't exist in the US either.
It doesn't look anything like god of war, it just kind of plays like it in the combat. It's probably a little more complex though.
I H8 Memes
Member
Even when it controls badly with kbam I will always choose it over a controller.
And here is Batmann AA with kbam. So much better than a controller. I know AC controlls better with kbam and I wouldnt be surprised if Darksiders does as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4fsm2g362o
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Darksiders is what God of War would be if it was really good and worth playing.
There isn't really any precision present in Alan Wake. The guns pretty much hit anything within the inner circle of the flashlight beam which is pretty large by aiming standards.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Anything is complex vs. GoW lol
Hmm... I guess off to youtube videos I go!
EDIT: Hmm nah, pass. I'll keep the 5 bucks credit.
I still can't get over the Warcraft-ish design.
Definitely more that than Zelda. People expecting puzzles and light action like Zelda are not going to get what they expect. It's a hardcore action game that just so happens to have a similar world approach as 3D Zeldas.
Glass Rebel
Member
Way too janky, this isn't Quake, son!
Controllers allow for a more relaxed playstyle IMO and stuff like The Last Remnant or Devil May Cry is downright unplayable on KBAM for me.
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