toastyToast
Member
Yeah.
Mafia II and Dead Island seem to be the only non-Russian keys that are IP locked. I didn't need to use a VPN for SR3
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STEAM announcements & updates 2012 Thread - Summer sales usually last week of June
- Thread starter MRORANGE
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Yeah.
Mafia II and Dead Island seem to be the only non-Russian keys that are IP locked. I didn't need to use a VPN for SR3
Woody Invincible
Banned
On ebay, there is a guy selling Dead Island keys for $6.79. I bought it yesterday and activated it no problem. It came up as Dead Island(eastern europe) on the activation screen. Just a heads up to those interested.
Actually, you might want to be careful with that. Dead Island was one of three games last year that had a mass breakout of stolen game keys.
I think in SR3's case only Germans were affected. It's censored for Germany (Steam only sells a 'low violence' version, too), so THQ likely had to make sure no Germans get a key for uncensored versions of the game.
People, it is ridiculous how quickly you get used to a new toy.
Two days ago I sat in front of my 30 inch screen for the first time and was overwhelmed by the awesomeness of being 2 feet away from a 2560x1600 panel.
Now I'm already thinking that it's really not that big* and I'm kinda longing for a 40 inch quad HD panel...
Two days ago I sat in front of my 30 inch screen for the first time and was overwhelmed by the awesomeness of being 2 feet away from a 2560x1600 panel.
Now I'm already thinking that it's really not that big* and I'm kinda longing for a 40 inch quad HD panel...
*I'm sitting closer than one screen-width, which gives a much bigger image than the last row in IMAX digital theaters
iNvid02
Member
yup moved from a 24" to 30" a while ago and you get used to it very quickly.
i hate working on smaller displays now though, im not on them long enough to get accustomed to them so im always craving for the extra space
one thing is for sure, anytime i purchase a new screen - whether its a TV or monitor, i'll
make damned sure i get the best one i can afford and not half ass it. the 3008wfp has been pretty amazing.
Woody Invincible
Banned
Guy has a solid 100% rating. For less than $7, I'll take my chances.
CornBurrito
Member
I bought Bioshock on Steam. I just remembered reading something about it being a shitty PC port. Is there anything in particular I should expect? Or are there any mods that fix the problems?
iNvid02
Member
i played it yesterday, its alright.
just setup all the video/sound settings you want before switching to controller mode because that hides the video options for some reason.
not very demanding for my rig, added lots of extra AA and it performed well.
You'll find your upper limit eventually. I'm using a 42" HDTV at the moment and next TV change I think I'll drop that down to 37" for daily use and PC gaming.
Supplemented by a 1080p projector!
I think steamcalculator and howmuchofmylifedidiwasteonsteam should be banned from the thread, once a month someone posts their result and then everyone else has to post their results as well and we get three pages of nothing. Same goes with posting pictures of all your games, etc.
In other news, the first game I'm tackling from the Steam sale is Psychonauts. If you bought this game during the sale, you should really play it. It's fantastic. Looks great at 1080p, perfect gamepad support using the patch on the Steam forums. It's not Tim Schaeffers funniest work, but the worlds are so imaginative, well realized, and varied. It's a real blast.
Irrational Games.
No, seriously though, why would it do that?
General Steam question that I had during the Christmas sale: Has anyone else had and solved the problem where one (or more) of your games tries to do the VC redist install every single time you launch it? I had it with Flight Control HD, and I didn't remember that problem the last time I had the game installed. Reinstalling and reverifying didn't help, and even if I deleted the VC redist folder, it still popped up the window briefly to TRY to do the preinstall. I just wondered if there was a simple fix for it.
Indeed. While I won't be moving to a 1440p/1600p display any time soon (I value performance too much), I couldn't ever go back to a regular sized TN panel after having moved to a 32" HDTV.
TheThunder
Member
Aside from Dead Island and Mafia II any other games that are region locked when you buy them from somewhere other than steam even though they have steam support ?
(Just making a note for myself for future references)
(Just making a note for myself for future references)
EternalGamer
Banned
No the daily deals ALSO sometimes have ridiculious prices. And now there are coupons that stack on top of them.
Welcome to Steam.
Joe Molotov
Member
King Arthur II is available for pre-order.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24480/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24480/
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
BioShock 1 has very limited config options (Edit: Apparently this is only the case if it detects you playing with a controller? WTF?). BioShock 2 has GFWL and iffy controller support IIRC.
Has for a while now. Mostly for unknown and smaller games, as far as I remember, but deals can still be really good. There are also deals every weekend, with bigger games and free weekends for multiplayer titles.
anachronous_one
Prologue Type S Alpha
Don't forget the midweek deals.
Russian versions I think are all region locked, because they are a lot cheaper in comparison. Modern Warfare 3 costs about 29USD right now, for instance.
Thank you, sir.
Had Steam since CS 1.6 but only really started noticing the deals now. Exciting stuff.
Not going to lie, that would be lovely. They add nothing to a discussion. I know it sounds grumpy, but enough times has there been a ton of new posts, nothing of value.
Anyway, on a lighter note, glad you're getting around to Psychonauts! Have fun!
Yep I can see those numbers being broken, with Dota 2 and CS:GO releasing and live streams through Steam.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Just 100%'d Psychonauts. To be very brief, this is a breathtaking game. It's an excellent platformer, it incorporates a fairly significant number of vignette stories which all-told build a deep and interesting universe, it's got great characters, it's hilarious, and it's got some of the most varied and crazy level design of any game I've ever played.
The story is this:
You play as Raz(putin), a teenage kid who ran away from the circus to attend a summer camp for psychic kids. He dreams of joining the Psychonauts, an international organization of secret psychic agents. At first, Raz takes classes at the summer camp and hangs out with fellow cadets in his downtime between them, but things quickly evolve as an evil force begins snatching the brains of other cadets. Every level of the premise is original to games, which is something that struck me immediately.
Levels take place when Raz enters the brains of various people, including himself. Inside, he finds a reflection of the person's psyche, complete with figments of their imagination, emotional baggage, their worst fears, and their mental censors. One of my favourite levels takes place inside the brain of a timid and anxious descendant of Napoleon as he plays a tile-based war-game against the real Napoleon. The level transitions from Raz being in the room with the two to Raz being the size of a playing piece on the board game to a tiny Raz running around the board and taking care of business.
A few of my favourite things about Psychonauts:
- The summer camp itself does a really great job of establishing a "home base" that's fun to explore and play around in between missions. The characters are all hilarious, each kid fits into the mold of a real kid I remember from my summer camp days. I particularly like Lili, Raz's soon-to-be girlfriend and Dogan, the dim-witted and goofy side-kick.
- There are tons of great collectibles. The game has more collection elements than most platformers, but never veers off into the absurdity of later Rare games. New abilities allow you to access to new areas of levels you've been to to collect more loot. This is more limited than a Metroidvania, but still rewarding.
- Really, really deep world building. There's a seemingly endless supply of voice acting quips, scenes with characters, billboards to read.
- Great platforming with generous enough controls that you rarely feel frustrated.
- The Clarvoyance psychic ability you gain allows you to view the world through another character's eyes. This is used a few times for puzzles, but it's more fun to just use it on everyone you meet and see how they all see Raz differently. Your girlfriend sees you as a hero, your mentor sees you as a pint-sized version of himself, a fat woman sees you as a floating steak, a mean and evil critic sees you as one and a half stars, a woman you save sees you as Jesus, complete with halo. Just awesome.
- The final level,
is known to be one of the toughest and most vertical difficulty curve leaps in gaming. Personally, I found it challenging but fair. It was also hilarious. I really appreciate it. A recent patch on the Steam version made this level easier, but I looked at the changes and they don't really involve making the traversal itself easier, rather making it so that certain mistakes don't cost you lives.
Psychonauts was Double Fine's first game, and so there are some signs to show that a few corners were cut. This is a pity, because the game is a masterpiece. A few brief issues: The back half of the game's core narrative is paced a little weird. The individual levels are still great, but the progress in terms of the plot is weird. I think they must have plotted out the levels themselves before stringing them together into the main story.
level is pretty poorly executed. The core idea is great, and the script is funny, but there are periods of long shrill dialogue and the level's main mechanic isn't as nice as it could be. Finally, there's no way to continue after finishing the game. The game auto-saves before the point of no return so you can go back and mop up stuff, but there's no way to just explore the world after you finish the game, which is a pity. I'd like to be able to beat the game, go back to the summer camp, and just chill out, revisiting worlds at my leisure and without having to worry about aggressive late-game enemies. The game does not end on a cliffhanger, but does set up a sequel which will presumably never occur. I don't think this is all that unfortunate, the summer camp frame story really enhances the game and I think any sequel would be missing that and so be hurt for it. All of the game's main issues are resolved and the sequel setup just involves a totally unrelated crisis occurring right at the end of the ending which could serve as the basis for a second game.
This shouldn't be seen as me being negative, the game would be a high 9 for me, one of the very best games I've played in the last 5-6 years. Rather I intend for those beefs to be more of a retrospective analysis of the ways that more time to polish up could have made it an even more perfect experience. I have similar beefs about the pacing and flow of most of my favourite games.
The game looks very clean despite some aged-looking textures and skyboxes. FMVs were unfortunately rendered in fairly poorly compressed SD, so they will look out of place. The game runs very well on my computer but I experienced one odd texture glitch.
Finishing the game took me about 11 hours, and mopping up all the collectible stuff took me another 2.5-3. The game has Steam achievements and controller support (although in-game prompts use keyboard icons, not controller icons--this may be fixable with a mod, I just dealt with it). I posted a modest collection of 15 screenshots, some of which contain minor spoilers about levels. Most of the game's style and humour only comes through in motion with the benefit of the writing, so even if you find my screenshots boring, please give the game a try.
A+
The story is this:
You play as Raz(putin), a teenage kid who ran away from the circus to attend a summer camp for psychic kids. He dreams of joining the Psychonauts, an international organization of secret psychic agents. At first, Raz takes classes at the summer camp and hangs out with fellow cadets in his downtime between them, but things quickly evolve as an evil force begins snatching the brains of other cadets. Every level of the premise is original to games, which is something that struck me immediately.
Levels take place when Raz enters the brains of various people, including himself. Inside, he finds a reflection of the person's psyche, complete with figments of their imagination, emotional baggage, their worst fears, and their mental censors. One of my favourite levels takes place inside the brain of a timid and anxious descendant of Napoleon as he plays a tile-based war-game against the real Napoleon. The level transitions from Raz being in the room with the two to Raz being the size of a playing piece on the board game to a tiny Raz running around the board and taking care of business.
A few of my favourite things about Psychonauts:
- The summer camp itself does a really great job of establishing a "home base" that's fun to explore and play around in between missions. The characters are all hilarious, each kid fits into the mold of a real kid I remember from my summer camp days. I particularly like Lili, Raz's soon-to-be girlfriend and Dogan, the dim-witted and goofy side-kick.
- There are tons of great collectibles. The game has more collection elements than most platformers, but never veers off into the absurdity of later Rare games. New abilities allow you to access to new areas of levels you've been to to collect more loot. This is more limited than a Metroidvania, but still rewarding.
- Really, really deep world building. There's a seemingly endless supply of voice acting quips, scenes with characters, billboards to read.
- Great platforming with generous enough controls that you rarely feel frustrated.
- The Clarvoyance psychic ability you gain allows you to view the world through another character's eyes. This is used a few times for puzzles, but it's more fun to just use it on everyone you meet and see how they all see Raz differently. Your girlfriend sees you as a hero, your mentor sees you as a pint-sized version of himself, a fat woman sees you as a floating steak, a mean and evil critic sees you as one and a half stars, a woman you save sees you as Jesus, complete with halo. Just awesome.
- The final level,
Meat Circus
Psychonauts was Double Fine's first game, and so there are some signs to show that a few corners were cut. This is a pity, because the game is a masterpiece. A few brief issues: The back half of the game's core narrative is paced a little weird. The individual levels are still great, but the progress in terms of the plot is weird. I think they must have plotted out the levels themselves before stringing them together into the main story.
The Theatre / Critic
This shouldn't be seen as me being negative, the game would be a high 9 for me, one of the very best games I've played in the last 5-6 years. Rather I intend for those beefs to be more of a retrospective analysis of the ways that more time to polish up could have made it an even more perfect experience. I have similar beefs about the pacing and flow of most of my favourite games.
The game looks very clean despite some aged-looking textures and skyboxes. FMVs were unfortunately rendered in fairly poorly compressed SD, so they will look out of place. The game runs very well on my computer but I experienced one odd texture glitch.
Finishing the game took me about 11 hours, and mopping up all the collectible stuff took me another 2.5-3. The game has Steam achievements and controller support (although in-game prompts use keyboard icons, not controller icons--this may be fixable with a mod, I just dealt with it). I posted a modest collection of 15 screenshots, some of which contain minor spoilers about levels. Most of the game's style and humour only comes through in motion with the benefit of the writing, so even if you find my screenshots boring, please give the game a try.
A+
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Weird...
I already have Saints Row 3 but in my wishlist it's still there =/
I already have Saints Row 3 but in my wishlist it's still there =/
Steam does not remove Titles added through retail keys from your wishlist automatically.
Damn you. Now I want to own this again, though steam this time. I had this on Xbox years ago. Nice screens there.
Clever Pun
Member
I played through this when it originally came out, so I didn't feel the need to 100% it this time, but I had an absolute blast replaying it after picking it up during the Christmas sale. Based on your review I found the platforming to be a little more frustrating than you did, but it's still an absolutely fantastic game that holds up amazingly well. Anyone who hasn't played it, especially those who just picked it up, really needs to move this game up in their backlog.
PAM is also the Midweek deal at 75% off.
Yes, best purchase for me, this sale!!! GREAT GAME!!!
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
The main reasons why I didn't find the platforming frustrating:
1) By the time the game demands any precision, you have the high jump and the float, so you typically have enough margin of error that if you make a bad jump and you realize it's a bad jump right away, you can save yourself.
2) Checkpointing when you fall into bottomless pits is generous. Also, if you fall from the top of the stage to the bottom of the stage and THEN jump into a bottomless pit, you will respawn at/near the top.
3) You have solid directional control in-air, so cases where you aren't quite aimed right on jump can be righted mid-air.
4) You have an edge grab that activates pretty generously
5) Very few jumps require a running start or momentum so typically once you're in the air, you can clear the jump.
The one platforming mechanic that I found didn't quite work were trampolines / bouncy awnings. They get gimped if you're on your levitate ball, and they feel pretty flimsy in general. Their placements in levels feel really artificial and could generally be replicated with just replacing them with solid ledges and letting the player do a levitate jump from them.
man you should've seen dat ass in the pictures thread... post got edited though. still have it on my hdd
"Not available in your region" (Germany)
Whut? Do you sacrifice children at the end of a round, or what?
YianGaruga
Banned
I was just wondering the same. Kind of a weird title to have region restrictions.
morningbus
Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
Just going to get this disappointment out of the way for one of you: a game you bought during the winter sale will be cheaper as a daily deal within the month of January.
I have visited the mystics. I have foretold your future.
I have visited the mystics. I have foretold your future.
The German branch of Konami is even listed among the publishers. There's a DS and a PSP version on Amazon.de, too. Hmmm... My guess: They didn't bother localizing the PC version and have hence decided to not publish it at all?
TheThunder
Member
I feel like the only SOB who didn't "get" Psychonauts. I tried it twice but didn't enjoy it and eventually deleted it, although the farthest I've gone is finishing the tutorial which isn't much.
I'll get back to it but this time gonna use motionjoy or whatever it's called and play with a dualshock instead of KB/M to see if it improves it.
I'll get back to it but this time gonna use motionjoy or whatever it's called and play with a dualshock instead of KB/M to see if it improves it.
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