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STEAM | December 2014 - Read OP for winter sale questions

whats this now?

2 new difficulty levels, one easy, one hard, and they made some sweet ass new posters for each difficulty.

http://www.pcgamer.com/alien-isolation-update-adds-novice-and-nightmare-difficulty-levels/

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YnznOBGfjvEc.878x0.Z-Z96KYq.jpg
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
So much for Splunk I guess :(

GabeNewellTheseThingsTakeTime.gif

I've mentioned before, but Splunk is a great tool for monitoring servers, but has nothing to do (implicitly) with keeping them online.

A server infrastructure like Steam's should be architected from the ground up with the goal of 100% uptime. Sure you're going to get unexpected spikes in traffic that your servers won't be able to handle (thus causing downtime) which is where Splunk comes in. With Splunk you can easily analyze overarching trends across hundreds or even thousands of devices to fairly accurately predict when and where your heaviest network load will be. There is no conceivable reason why any company as large as Valve should have to schedule server downtime.

I currently work with a server environment that requires 100% uptime. If the servers go down completely, there is a very real chance that people could die. Sure, it poses a challenge when it comes to things like updating servers with the latest security patches, but it's not an impossible task. Everything has to be redundant - if something goes down, there needs to be a line of active standby equipment ready to take over. It's not exactly cheap, but it's definitely within Valve's budget.

The fact that they don't have an environment like this set up for Steam does not instill confidence. Sure, nobody is going to die if Steam goes down, but from a customer service standpoint, 100% availability is crucial. What if someone gets a Steam gift card for Chistmas and decide to redeem it on a Tuesday afternoon? Their first experience with Steam could be one that is so negative that they'll never return.

I don't know why the people that work at Valve don't get it. Maybe I never will.
 
After using a simple mod on Dragon Age Origins to change the look of morrigan and leliana I was thinking about modding skyrim. Is there a tool to install/uninstall the mods in an easy way?
 

Servizio

I don't really need a tag, but I figured I'd get one to make people jealous. Is it working?
I think my blood pressure spiked just reading the Nightmare description.
 

KenOD

a kinder, gentler sort of Scrooge
Tuesday is a fine day of the week for Steam to go down. You know Valve has trouble when it comes to the number 3.
Third day of the week
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Are there any "open world" time based racing games other than Crazy Taxi on Steam? Not open world with race courses like Burnout Paradise, but racing from point to point for score or as long as possible like Crazy Taxi and Harley Davidson & L.A. Riders.
I know the PS2 era Grand Theft Autos have it for taxis and ambulances, but I'm looking for something without any potential of shoot-outs, swearing, and gun fights since it's for my daughter.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Two new difficulties were just patched in today. Super hard and super easy.

weird, I thought the game was fine on normal, unless it adds a bunch of checkpoints or lets you save anyware?

the game's difficulty was the lack of checkpoints to me
 

Lain

Member
Managed to get the installation for the new Lara Croft game to start, but it stops at 99%, at which point it tries to download something fruitlessly, so i'm stuck there. Me playing the game is just not meant to be.
 
Are there any "open world" time based racing games other than Crazy Taxi on Steam? Not open world with race courses like Burnout Paradise, but racing from point to point for score or as long as possible like Crazy Taxi and Harley Davidson & L.A. Riders.
I know the PS2 era Grand Theft Autos have it for taxis and ambulances, but I'm looking for something without any potential of shoot-outs, swearing, and gun fights since it's for my daughter.

If only we could get Midtown Madness on Steam.
 

Teppic

Member
Are there any "open world" time based racing games other than Crazy Taxi on Steam? Not open world with race courses like Burnout Paradise, but racing from point to point for score or as long as possible like Crazy Taxi and Harley Davidson & L.A. Riders.
I know the PS2 era Grand Theft Autos have it for taxis and ambulances, but I'm looking for something without any potential of shoot-outs, swearing, and gun fights since it's for my daughter.
Was going to suggest Midtown Madness, but it's not there.
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
weird, I thought the game was fine on normal, unless it adds a bunch of checkpoints or lets you save anyware?

the game's difficulty was the lack of checkpoints to me
Well people really just wanted an enemy free mode and I guess this was the closest CA could get.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
It looks like the server downtime undid the fix they put in place for the search suggestions. sigh
 

Servizio

I don't really need a tag, but I figured I'd get one to make people jealous. Is it working?
After using a simple mod on Dragon Age Origins to change the look of morrigan and leliana I was thinking about modding skyrim. Is there a tool to install/uninstall the mods in an easy way?

There's several, including Steam workshop support, which is probably the easiest up to a point. That point being when you've installed multiple, conflicting, complicated mods. Like several combat rebalancers for example.

The one I'd recommend is the simply named Mod Organizer, since it keeps the mod files separate from your installation. This makes rolling back changes, or trouble shooting conflicts a lot easier.
 
It surely is somewhere. But Katawa Shoujo is not a blind fetish fest, its about girls that are different and learned to cope with it differently. It's a really good Visual Novel, if you don't have irrational hatred for the disabled like one of my friends or don't like VNs, you should give it a try.
What?
 
Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but MS Flight Simulator X is releasing on Steam next week. December 18th to be precise. Another big sale daily deal launch I suppose.

I'd love it if I could register the cd key from my physical copy of the game on Steam but there isn't a chance in hell that's happening.

edit - some text from the PCG article on the matter

The Steam edition of Flight Sim X will include more than 20 aircraft ranging from commercial jets to single-engine private planes, 24,000 airports, and over 80 missions including races, search and rescue, and test pilot scenarios. As promised, the multiplayer functionality has been updated—the original 2006 release relied on GameSpy—and it supports Windows 8.1.

Unfortunately, the terms of the licensing deal with Microsoft do not allow the studio to implement any graphical updates, so the Steam release will obviously look like a game that's rapidly approaching its tenth birthday. It will offer numerous bug fixes, however, as well as content from the "Deluxe edition" of the original game and the Acceleration Expansion Pack. Dovetail also said it will launch "a range of add-ons" for the Steam Edition in 2015.

What the hell kind of licensing deal is that?!
 

Vazra

irresponsible vagina leak
I'm so torn on pre-ordering DOA5. On the one hand, I have no fighting games on my Steam account, and I enjoyed playing DOA2 way back in the day. On the other, I will probably not play it much and I am annoyed by their pre-order tiers. On the third hand, I can get it cheaper now than I probably will be able to again for like a year >.>

Buy form the Russians and join #TeamLife
 
There's several, including Steam workshop support, which is probably the easiest up to a point. That point being when you've installed multiple, conflicting, complicated mods. Like several combat rebalancers for example.

The one I'd recommend is the simply named Mod Organizer, since it keeps the mod files separate from your installation. This makes rolling back changes, or trouble shooting conflicts a lot easier.
thanks
 

Ruruja

Member
Are there any "open world" time based racing games other than Crazy Taxi on Steam? Not open world with race courses like Burnout Paradise, but racing from point to point for score or as long as possible like Crazy Taxi and Harley Davidson & L.A. Riders.
I know the PS2 era Grand Theft Autos have it for taxis and ambulances, but I'm looking for something without any potential of shoot-outs, swearing, and gun fights since it's for my daughter.

Well I was going to recommend Die Hard Trilogy's "Die Hard: With a Vengeance" mode but I don't think it's very suitable for your daughter. There's also OutRun 2006 (not sure if you have that on Steam). Also I know you have Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed - that has time-based levels in career if I remember rightly.

After using a simple mod on Dragon Age Origins to change the look of morrigan and leliana I was thinking about modding skyrim. Is there a tool to install/uninstall the mods in an easy way?

I use Wrye Bash and it works fine.
 
Kind of off topic, but I just found out that there is a PS3 and 360 downloadable version of Chivalry for $15, totally forgot that they were working on a console version.
 

Adnor

Banned

Dungeonmans is no longer an Early Access game!

It's a fun, fast paced roguelike with a classless system. Like any roguelike it has permadeath, but it also has a way to save some progress, and that's upgrading your Dungeonmans Academy, which let your next character start with better stats or loot.

I'd say it plays more like ToME than something like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup or Nethack, but it's not as complex and it doesn't have as much content, but that shouldn't surprise anyone, those other roguelike have been having new content for years. But something Dungeonmans have better than those other roguelikes is how the combat feels, it's fast, bloody and the loot explodes from enemies, seriously, the bosses are like loot piñatas.

If you want to try a new roguelike that's not as crazy hard as the classics, I'd recommend it.
 

Servizio

I don't really need a tag, but I figured I'd get one to make people jealous. Is it working?
You should dix that travesty.

What is it? Can't watch :(

It's Skyrim mod shenanigans. Specifically bright pink orcs in bunny costumes dancing to jpop.

Steam servers seemed to have all gone down simultaneously, I'm guessing thats maintenance again.

It's kinda fun to watch them slowly come back on on steamstat.us.
 

Annubis

Member

Well... I can probably give a real life example of this.
My high school was pretty much the worst (as in ghetto + violence + poor).

Somehow people thought it would be a great idea to have 2 full classes of heavily mentally/physically challenged people in that very same school AND to have their common area be the same as the seniors'.

High school kids tend to develop hatred for things that are different and this was like tossing sheeps in the wolf kettle.

I'm not excluding myself here. It took some time for me to become more accepting again and I'm still far from being a saint towards handicapped people. I wouldn't say it's hatred I feel now, probably something more like fear yet with still a bit of disdain.

Also, I've seen THINGS back then that I don't think I can ever unsee... *shivers* let's just say that not all love is beautiful...
 
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