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STEAM Announcements & Updates 2013 IV - Christmas in July is over, back to real life

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Sober

Member
Oh, looks like Splinter Cell: Blacklist finally showed up on Steam.

For anyone on the fence or going "b...b...but Conviction was a thing!" I'd like to direct you to my stupid infodump discuss Splinter Cell Blacklist thread where the OP should set you up with whether or not you might actual want it. There's no verdict however but it weighs in probably a bit closer to Chaos Theory than any of the previous games. Fucking 70$ for the DD though, gonna cave, aren't I?

But yeah UPlay is certain. But also, nvidia was working with the PC dev team so it probably won't be the shitty port the last game was and is chock full of dumb DX11 features I can finally turn on since I bought a new PC (For Rome 2, mmmkay).
 

Cth

Member
Any opinions on Weird Worlds? I hear the devs FTL were inspired by it so I've been wanting to check it out.

Won a copy earlier, but can't install it because Steam keeps hanging on the "Scanning for updates" thing.. gonna have to wait for my wife to stop using the laptop and try it on that machine.

Looks like a lot of fun.
 
Posts like this are why people prefer consoles.

As an expert analyst in the field of interactive entertainment pertaining to desktop/laptop computers I have gathered the required statistics that assert bullet points through conductive research of how Gabe Newell already rules the world.
 

eyeless

Member
Posts like this are why people prefer consoles.
it was a joke, no one earnestly says "as a pc gaming elitist i am required to inform you"

also posts on an internet forum are a weird thing to base your platform choice on (if these people you're referring to looked past offhand comments from internet dudes they might find a few reasons to play games on a pc)
You're getting a poorer experience sticking to a single platform.
i'm not, i own all current gen consoles, anything with a pc version however i buy on pc, which means i rarely buy console games
 

Blizzard

Banned
I was just basically blindsided by Shadowrun Returns. It appears to be a magic + cyberpunk RPG? Somehow I either forgot about it or managed to miss it. I would have liked a standalone soundtrack purchase option instead of the pure deluxe option, but I remember at least one developer saying Valve wouldn't let them do that so who knows.

At any rate, it looks neat and I hope it ends up being fun!
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
why? low specs?

Because it's not convenient for non-Steam people to gift me games on Steam (although this is starting to change with retailers selling Steam gift cards, but it's still difficult for a tech-illiterate geriatric to buy me a specific game); because I abuse trading promotions and pawn shops to get cheap retail games; because consoles still have better local multiplayer and are still more spouse-friendly; because XBLA in particular is even cheaper than Steam if you read GAF and get literally hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars of free Microsoft points over the run of the generation; because of RedBox, as limited as it is here.

But my specs are fine. 4850, Phenom II X3 720 at 3Ghz, 8GB of ram. My monitor is 1680x1050 so performance is pretty good. I'd consider buying new release games on PC if I bought new release games at all. As-is my system works pretty well for me. I spend peanuts and get hundreds of games. My average cost on Steam is around $2.50, my average cost on Xbox 360 is around $8.
 
I was just basically blindsided by Shadowrun Returns. It appears to be a magic + cyberpunk RPG? Somehow I either forgot about it or managed to miss it. I would have liked a standalone soundtrack purchase option instead of the pure deluxe option, but I remember at least one developer saying Valve wouldn't let them do that so who knows.

At any rate, it looks neat and I hope it ends up being fun!

The Shadowrun universe - magic is coming back into the world, and activating dormant genes in people (sometimes with horrible results, such as dormant Troll Genes) - is amazing.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Because it's not convenient for non-Steam people to gift me games on Steam (although this is starting to change with retailers selling Steam gift cards, but it's still difficult for a tech-illiterate geriatric to buy me a specific game); because I abuse trading promotions and pawn shops to get cheap retail games; because consoles still have better local multiplayer and are still more spouse-friendly; because XBLA in particular is even cheaper than Steam if you read GAF and get literally hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars of free Microsoft points over the run of the generation; because of RedBox, as limited as it is here.

But my specs are fine. 4850, Phenom II X3 720 at 3Ghz, 8GB of ram. My monitor is 1680x1050 so performance is pretty good. I'd consider buying new release games on PC if I bought new release games at all. As-is my system works pretty well for me. I spend peanuts and get hundreds of games. My average cost on Steam is around $2.50, my average cost on Xbox 360 is around $8.

I had that exact same build back in 2007 or 2008 I believe.

I unlocked the x3 to a quad. Should still be able to run games just fine.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
I had that exact same build back in 2007 or 2008 I believe.

I unlocked the x3 to a quad. Should still be able to run games just fine.

Yeah I built this early 2008 for about $800. Since then I've added one stick of RAM and 5 hard drives and a USB3 card. My onboard NIC died a while ago so I had to, seriously, buy a $20 NIC. Besides that no trouble. I ran W7 Ultimate on the public preview until that expired, then bought a license on a sketchy online store for $40 which got revoked after two years, then I got a friend's educational key. That's the sound of savings!

So few things successfully use multiple processor cores I'd be better off overclocking (even on stock cooling I could OC to 3.4 no problem) if I wanted to do anything with the proc but ultimately I haven't run into any performance challenges yet.

I was planning on upgrading this year, but looking like next year now; unfortunately when you wait this long, you need to upgrade everything. Mobo is USB2/DDR2 so that'd have to go (which also means replacing RAM), obviously the socket is useless now as well, PSU wouldn't handle a modern proc and video card, 4850 is already old as hell, case doesn't have accessible drivebays because in 2008 very few did. And obviously a 1680x1050 monitor is a bit out of date :p

As-is my performance is perfect in most things at native res on decent settings. Cryostasis ran like a pig. Crysis 1 I dropped the resolution on to keep settings decent. Metro didn't run great. Those are the only three games I can recall really running poorly. I'd be more likely to upgrade to improve video encoding performance, which I do a lot of, than to improve gaming.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Yeah I built this early 2008 for about $800. Since then I've added one stick of RAM and 5 hard drives and a USB3 card. My onboard NIC died a while ago so I had to, seriously, buy a $20 NIC. Besides that no trouble. I ran W7 Ultimate on the public preview until that expired, then bought a license on a sketchy online store for $40 which got revoked after two years, then I got a friend's educational key. That's the sound of savings!

So few things successfully use multiple processor cores I'd be better off overclocking (even on stock cooling I could OC to 3.4 no problem) if I wanted to do anything with the proc but ultimately I haven't run into any performance challenges yet.

I was planning on upgrading this year, but looking like next year now; unfortunately when you wait this long, you need to upgrade everything. Mobo is USB2/DDR2 so that'd have to go (which also means replacing RAM), obviously the socket is useless now as well, PSU wouldn't handle a modern proc and video card, 4850 is already old as hell, case doesn't have accessible drivebays because in 2008 very few did. And obviously a 1680x1050 monitor is a bit out of date :p

As-is my performance is perfect in most things at native res on decent settings. Cryostasis ran like a pig. Crysis 1 I dropped the resolution on to keep settings decent. Metro didn't run great. Those are the only three games I can recall really running poorly. I'd be more likely to upgrade to improve video encoding performance, which I do a lot of, than to improve gaming.

Grit your teeth and push throw to Skylake processors in 2015.

That is what I am planning on doing, but I will have a much easier time at it. I sold that build and picked up SLI 560 tis and 2500k.

The only thing that holds me back is my VRAM.
 

Blizzard

Banned
The Shadowrun universe - magic is coming back into the world, and activating dormant genes in people (sometimes with horrible results, such as dormant Troll Genes) - is amazing.
Neat. I read up on it a bit more and looked at the one review that's out, and it sounds pretty awesome. I like the price, preorder discount, and how there's apparently a pretty complex editor that people can use to make campaigns for Steam workshop.

Press embargo might be a bad sign sometimes, but I guess we'll find out soon enough. =P
 

Dingotech

Member
I was planning on upgrading this year, but looking like next year now; unfortunately when you wait this long, you need to upgrade everything. Mobo is USB2/DDR2 so that'd have to go (which also means replacing RAM), obviously the socket is useless now as well, PSU wouldn't handle a modern proc and video card, 4850 is already old as hell, case doesn't have accessible drivebays because in 2008 very few did. And obviously a 1680x1050 monitor is a bit out of date :p

This is exactly where I'm at with my PC, bought it in 2008 as well.
If I wanted to get some new specs then I'm most likely looking at a new build.

I might have to sooner rather than later because I keep getting BSOD, and I think it's my video card starting to play up.
 

Grief.exe

Member
This is exactly where I'm at with my PC, bought it in 2008 as well.
If I wanted to get some new specs then I'm most likely looking at a new build.

I might have to sooner rather than later because I keep getting BSOD, and I think it's my video card starting to play up.

When was the last time you did a reformat?

I find, a lot of times, its software issues.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
I was screwing around with friends and we ended up getting into the cards. Needless to say I added 10 bucks to my account and got the RE6 badge also sold 2 cards to.

Don't think I'm going to spend any more money on cards though. (Spent on RE6 just so I could have a badge now).
 

Dingotech

Member
When was the last time you did a reformat?

I find, a lot of times, its software issues.

Only like 6 months ago, I bought an SSD drive for my PC, only real upgrade that I've done to it since I built it.

I don't tend to keep much on the main drive either, only windows, save games, settings, and basic programs. Steam now has it's own HDD.

My PC is fairly dusty, despite me cleaning out my dust filters constantly, so it's probably partially to do with that. But my video card is a 4870X2, and it always did run pretty hot.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Only like 6 months ago, I bought an SSD drive for my PC, only real upgrade that I've done to it since I built it.

I don't tend to keep much on the main drive either, only windows, save games, settings, and basic programs. Steam now has it's own HDD.

My PC is fairly dusty, despite me cleaning out my dust filters constantly, so it's probably partially to do with that. But my video card is a 4870X2, and it always did run pretty hot.

Its worth a try before you go digging into hardware issues.
 

Dingotech

Member
Its worth a try before you go digging into hardware issues.

Yeah I'm not rushing to buy a new setup just from a few BSOD issues.

It's more I was already thinking it's getting towards the time for some upgrades and these issues just make me think about it more.

I've already started backing up my save games and browser settings etc, so if they keep occurring I will definitely look into a drive format before I splash out cash.
 

Salsa

Member
I barely pushed through AC2

AC2 is the best easily, didnt even liked brohood that much

You're not going to make it through 3's prologue if you abandoned Revelations.

probably, but i'll give it a fair chance at this point




also I just bought this:

360fx360f


for 20 cents

in my defense this is the second emoticon i've ever bought, and I dont feel so bad buying the useful ones

shut up
 

cicero

Member
You can't assume that anyway, really. Time tracking was only added in early 2009, so anything played before that wasn't counted. Some games don't track time correctly. Sometimes hours just randomly get lost. Sometimes it just isn't a good judge for other reasons; speaking personally, I have at least 5 extra hours on Toki Tori 1 because it was the first game I spent any time with on Steam and thought the game being paused and Shift+Tabbing to the overlay would pause the timer (somehow).

I mean it's a neat thing, I like checking my "friends played" for people who have put around as much time into a game as I have and seeing if they're ahead or behind me achievement-wise. And I can understand being annoyed at a friends list full of idlers. But it's probably not something you should put that much stock into.
yeah. I played tons of games before they started tracking time. I also have random games that drop hours I have played. The worst has to be CS:GO which now only shows me as having 30-40 hours played in my main game page window, when I have at least another 40-50 hours played besides that. I have invited people as friends based on the games they have put lots of time into. So I can understand to some degree the issue about skewed playtime numbers. But most of the time it is only 1-3 hours to get all the cards, so who really cares?
 
Anyone want some coupons? Got:

50% OFF Sniper Elite V2
50% OFF Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition
33% OFF Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition
25% OFF Dungeon Hearts
 

Salsa

Member
I remember I once "sold" revelations to jasec cause it was cheaper in my region or something and the next day he had like 70 hours logged

australian days
 

Donuts

Member
So i recently got Civ 5 Gold Edition from the steam sales. I started at 3am on a night i couldn't seem to sleep, 6 hours later and i'm late for work.
I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT
 
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