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STEAM announcements & updates 2012 Thread - Summer sales usually last week of June
- Thread starter MRORANGE
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1st is just a regular game sold on steam. The second two are the same. They mean that you can buy it somewhere else/retail for cheaper, input the cdkey, and get the steam version (you have to anyway). They usually have steam cheevos, cloud saves, etc etc.
A Steam game is one you buy on Steam. If a game can be activated on Steam it means you can put in your CD key and have a copy on your account that you can download, update, etc. as if you bought it on Steam. If a game uses Steamworks it requires Steam. It uses their framework for achievements, updates, etc. and no matter where you buy it, you need Steam to use it.
BertleTheTurtle
Member
Joe Molotov
Member
All retail Steamworks games activate on Steam, but Steamworks also implies that it uses other Steam features like VAC, Steam achievements, Steam cloud, etc (it doesn't have to use all of them). Almost all (if not all) games that activate on Steam are Steamworks now, but some games were released before Steam released Steamworks (like The Last Remnant) so they don't have any unique Steam features.
Then you have games that are just "on Steam"; games that you can buy on Steam and play, but they don't have any Steam features and retail copies don't register on Steam.
Games usually have to be Steamworks supported before they're allowed to have cloud saving. Not always though.
The Elite
BOSS
Taken. Thanks.
Quote to reveal my invite code, if I did it right.
I see nothing.
Ah that might explain my confusion, TLR is 80% of my pc gaming time right now haha. and the other isn't steam at all ( GW1) so haven't encountered any of that stuff yet
Joe Molotov
Member
Yeah, you just have to go to the store page and check under Game Details and see whether it supports Steam Cloud.
A game that is hosted on Steam servers. This may or may not have some sort of Steam integration, may or may not have GFWL/SecuROM/other DRM on top, may or may not be completely DRM-free, not even requiring Steam to run, etc. It may not even be sold on the Steam store.
A title that gives you a key which you can input into Steam to add to your library. This may or may not be mandatory: lots of indie games, when bought direct from the developer, will give you DRM-free versions in addition to a Steam key.
Steamworks is a suite of features: matchmaking, server browser, leaderboards, achievements, cloud saves etc. Developers may or may not use Steamworks at all, and if they do use Steamworks they may or may not support particular features. Obviously to use Steamworks you need to have the game associated with a Steam account, but it is possible through runtime DLL loading to make a game that's Steamworks when run through Steam and DRM-free when the exe is run directly.
Examples.
Deus Ex 1: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, DRM-free (IIRC), no Steamworks support
Deus Ex HR: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, mandatory activation on Steam, Steam DRM, some Steamworks support
Witcher 2: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, Steam DRM, only Steam version has Steamworks support, retail versions are DRM-free and don't support Steamworks (I think the version sold in Russia has mandatory Steam activation and supports Steamworks, though)
Legend of Grimrock: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, optional activation on Steam if bought direct from the developer, Steamworks support on Steam version
Batman: Arkham City: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, retail version doesn't activate on Steam, Steam version has both Steamworks achievements and GFWL achievements (lol)
Scoregasm: hosted on Steam servers, could not be bought via Steam store for quite a while after it was first Steam-activatable, custom (non-Steamworks) leaderboards.
Basically, it depends on what the developer wants.
I think I'm going to have to agree with the GOG CEO if many people consider -33% off on Kingdoms of Amalur a bad deal, the game is only 2 months old! labeling it Midweek Madness in this context is a bit silly but that's only a name.
I'm sure plenty of people that enjoyed the game and paid full price thought it was worth it, given how many hours of gameplay are in it. People that weren't convinced back then now can do so again at -33% but expecting more after just 2 months seems like the exact thing that GOG talked about in the interview when it comes to devaluing games.
I will agree that perhaps the game's initial price was too high but for the discount I would say even -20% would be fine for a game this new. They don't want people that bought it on release to feel ripped off. The problem here is $59.99 for a digital PC title, theres no reason a publisher should earn 4 times more from a Steam sale than a boxed console copy.
Glass Rebel
Member
i bought Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning during its first week of release for around $48 (Gamefly gave me a 20% off anything coupon to try and make up for the shitty transition of Direct2Drive games).
anyway ...i put over 70 hours into that game before i started to feel a little burnt out on it. i had a good time with it and felt it was worth the cash i paid.
was a tad on the easy side tho. that was my main complaint. maybe if i played through it on 'hard' instead of 'normal' it would have been better in that department.
anyway ...i put over 70 hours into that game before i started to feel a little burnt out on it. i had a good time with it and felt it was worth the cash i paid.
was a tad on the easy side tho. that was my main complaint. maybe if i played through it on 'hard' instead of 'normal' it would have been better in that department.
Heh, I didn't catch it obviously, I thought it was an extension on Steam sales getting worse so let's logically blame GOG for calling out more extreme Steam sales.
As if Valve would listen to them, ok I get it
Rawket Lawnchair
Member
Thankfully the Puppygames dev showed some mercy and returned the first game we bought, to all of us we exploided the BIRTHDAYBOY code. I was pissed when I saw that Titan Attacks was removed from my library (I already had ROTT), but there it is again.
So the Steam webpage now defaults to a mobile view on my iphone, I'm not a fan at all!
I liked refreshing the page each day and looking at the daily/midweek/weekend deals.
Now it seems I need to click on the specials tab, and then look through the list of 10% off and other % off discounts to try and spot the daily/midweek deal... seems like a complete pain in the arse unless somebody can tell me an easier way to see them.
Otherwise I'll have to look at it through another browser with desktop mode.
I liked refreshing the page each day and looking at the daily/midweek/weekend deals.
Now it seems I need to click on the specials tab, and then look through the list of 10% off and other % off discounts to try and spot the daily/midweek deal... seems like a complete pain in the arse unless somebody can tell me an easier way to see them.
Otherwise I'll have to look at it through another browser with desktop mode.
faceless007
Member
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
the thought did not even cross my mind, to be honest.
100% my opinion of the game. But there's some honest fun to be had with it. 8 hours in and I need to purposely change my weapons to freshen up the combat a little bit because it's already starting to wear on me. I managed to get it at a good price (14£ - uk PC disc) but that would be the maximum price I would recommend it judging for what I played until now. Maybe it starts to pick up from here...
You're better off installing virtually any F2P MMO. It's basically the same experience.
Steam keeps all shortcuts on a file named "shortcuts.vdf", that sits on the 'Steam\userdata\<userid>\config' folder.
Recently, I lost mine as well. That file had 0 bytes. HOWEVER, for some reason I'm not aware of, Steam placed a copy of it on 'Steam\config'. I just copied that version over to 'Steam\userdata\<userid>\config' and my non-steam shortcuts were back after a Steam restart.
now, from time to time, I just backup that file on 'Steam\userdata\<userid>\config'
I don't really remember if it happened exactly like that or if it's the other way around. Anyway, check both folders and, if you're lucky, a valid copy of your 'shortcuts.vdf' will be in one of these folders. Just copy it over to the other folder and restart.
I first read about it on this thread, so maybe they can explain better than I can: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2546782
Maybe Valve should just save that file on the cloud....
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
For a tenner I'd bite on Amalur. It sounds fun but flawed judging from Giant Bomb coverage of it.
Summer sale!
Summer sale!
Its a big problem for me. Meaning, I don't even remember games I buy if they're not in my Steam Library. Thats not good!
Yeah, it's a fundamentally solid game with tons of content, but I did not connect with the world or the plot and characters at all. Generic is the best way to describe it, I struggled to find anything unique or compelling about it. I had some fun with it, but after about 25-30 hours, I lost interest in chasing the carrot on a stick and there was nothing motivating me to return to it. The combat, loot, character building and all that are solid, but the kingdom of Amalur is about as exciting as a lukewarm bowl of oatmeal. It's worth playing if you like the genre, but I think it's best as a time killing stopgap between more interesting games. $40 is a bit much for that.
Goro Majima
Kitty Genovese Member
The best complaint I've heard about Kingdoms of Amalur is that the whole point of the game is that you're someone without a fixed destiny so you're free to do whatever and change whatever.
Except there's nothing dynamic about the game at all so what's the point?
Except there's nothing dynamic about the game at all so what's the point?
I H8 Memes
Member
jaundicejuice
Member
The demo for Amalur isn't bad--weird FOV, draw distance issues aside--but yeah it's about as rote and boilerplate as a fantasy themed game could get. I think the combat would be it's main selling point, for me. They made playing as a rogue and mage as satisfying to play as in a really action-y combat system. It kinda felt like Amalur is what Fable wanted to be, combat-wise anyways. I just don't know if that would hold my interest for however long the game is.
I really should try to beat The Witcher 2, especially since that it has received all of that additional content.
I really should try to beat The Witcher 2, especially since that it has received all of that additional content.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
Warlock: Master of Arcane Beta keys at IGN Prime:
http://login.ign.com/prime/promos/warlock/
Shameless beg: if anyone's not interested in the key I'd accept it
http://login.ign.com/prime/promos/warlock/
Shameless beg: if anyone's not interested in the key I'd accept it
TheChewyWaffles
Member
Is steam down? Can't connect to my account.
Ravensmash
Member
Was just going to ask this - I'm logged in but the Store doesn't seem to work.
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
I can't believe they accidently released Super Monday Night Combat. Pretty awesome they're just letting it go though.
Sutton Dagger
Member
Just make sure it's not region locked. Rage is £5.09 ($8.12) at http://www.gamefly.co.uk/Download-Rage-UK/5002025/ but the codes don't work outside UK.
It's the cheapest it's been AFAIK (aside from the UK keys). It's also the Anarchy Edition, so you'll get the DLC when you activate it on Steam. I don't think there's any other way of obtaining the DLC, except for pre-orders.
If you use the code EDNOTE10 you'll have to pay $9.19 only.
Sutton Dagger
Member
Alex
Member
I'm on an i5 2400 with 8gigs of ram and a Radeon 6870. I'm on Catalyst 12.1. I know there's a newer driver that came out one or two weeks ago but still, I'm not on super old drivers.
It's clearly not a performance issue strictly speaking. It's not like the game isn't running smoothly, it's more like the game doesn't run at all. It's not even remotly close to be playable right now.
Maybe he took "9800 Pro 4 life!" too seriously back in the day.
9800 Pro was the shit back in the days! lol
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