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STEAM | December 2014 - Read OP for winter sale questions

KiDdYoNe

Member
Guys, recently i was playing a lot of Isaac: Rebirth and it's only 462 (or so) gems to create a booster. It's just a little price or when you play more the price of the booster becomes less?
 

madjoki

Member
Guys, recently i was playing a lot of Isaac: Rebirth and it's only 462 (or so) gems to create a booster. It's just a little price or when you play more the price of the booster becomes less?

It depends on number of cards on set. (Seems like Valve wants each set to be more or less equally valuable.)
 

derExperte

Member
If you actually looked at my posts, you would know that I asked about the summer sale

I was giving you the benefit of the doubt as that makes it even worse. ;( Just google when the last summer sales started, the dates have been very different in 13 and 14. No chance anyone in the world knows, probably not even Valve.
 
Thanks once again to jshackles' big giveaway (seriously, gaffers, what's your aversion to these games that I could pick it up the next day?) here are some impressions for Nightmares from the Deep 2: the Siren's Call.

The story: Holy hell! They finally gave the protagonist a full name! You play museum curator and now author Sarah Black, finishing up an exhibition on Captain Remington and Davy Jones, when some guy in a rainslicker and feature-covering hat presents you with a package. After opening it with an artifact you got in the last adventure, you get attacked by fish-people and knocked out, rainslicker guy essentially kidnaps you (with good intentions, of course) reveals himself as a fish-person himself, and pleads with you to help his girlfriend Calliope. "That's not just a mermaid, that's a siren!" you proclaim helpfully, not only taking it completely in stride that mermaids exist, but having some sort of knowledge to detect the difference by sight. Anyway, she quickly gets kidnapped, and your job is to save the siren and stop the curse that turned everyone in town to fish-people. They called it the "fish curse." And of course return home to your still-nameless daughter. The story has a lot more silly/bullshit elements than the first one.

My absolute favourite part of the story is the blind tavern owner, who detects you as a stranger by smell. Then when you give him some rum, because the tavern owner doesn't have any more, he reminisces, then gives you a photo, saying he has no use for it anymore. That's right, the blind guy NO LONGER has a use for a PHOTO. I even let slide the fact they said the town basically stopped time in the 18th century, and photographs weren't invented until around the 1830s.

The puzzles: Mostly the same as the first game. They added a new type of hidden object puzzle which is like a mini deconstructed point and click adventure. Find several objects and then use them in the scene to activate stuff and find more objects until you get your prize. It's fine but for the fact it was way too easy to accidentally leave the scene. I accidentally hit "back" three times in a row in one case. But thankfully, unlike Abyss, this one doesn't contain any truly bad puzzles. Once again, you're able to skip certain scenes and play mahjong, but I didn't. I'll probably go back and do that for the achievements.

The graphics: Artifex Mundi still has really good graphics, and the cutscenes were at a decent enough resolution that watching them didn't look like watching an upscaled postage stamp. But like all casual games, don't expect to tweak the graphics in the options or get 4K or anything.

The length: It took me about 4 1/2 hours to complete the game and bonus chapter, but part of that was because of some padding: there were various "secret" optional things to collect. One of said collectibles was a group of parrots that blink in and out of existence. So if, like me, you do things quickly, you might miss them because you can finish a screen and not have it be there the whole time. Just before endgame I had to go back and wait around in each room for a while just to make sure a parrot didn't appear. I seriously hope they scrap this idea going forward. That aside, it's still a decent length for this genre.

The verdict: Not as good as the first one, not as good as Abyss, but still a good game. I definitely don't recommend playing this game unless you played the first one. And if you played the first one and liked it, you'll probably like this too. Don't forget, "casual" doesn't have to be a four-letter word. I enjoyed these games unashamedly. No ragrets.
 

The_Monk

Member
Morning everyone, happy Sunday!

I've been looking at some streams for curiosity sake of "This War of Mine" and the game looks really interesting. Anyone already invested some meaty hours into it? I'm curious but I'm not sure if this is a game for me, it might be too harsh? I played a bit of Don't Starve as well but after 8-9 hours I stopped playing. Then I started all over on the console version but I also didn't went far. Is the idea of surviving/searching for supplies similar? I know they are different games and the theme in here looks more interesting. Is it survive as long as you can and if you die you start all over?
 
Morning everyone, happy Sunday!

I've been looking at some streams for curiosity sake of "This War of Mine" and the game looks really interesting. Anyone already invested some meaty hours into it? I'm curious but I'm not sure if this is a game for me, it might be too harsh? I played a bit of Don't Starve as well but after 8-9 hours I stopped playing. Then I started all over on the console version but I also didn't went far. Is the idea of surviving/searching for supplies similar? I know they are different games and the theme in here looks more interesting. Is it survive as long as you can and if you die you start all over?
I think you'd have a hard time with the game, you need to do depicable things in the game, you are too nice for that kind of stuff.
Happy Sunday to you too :)
 

Ruruja

Member
I think you'd have a hard time with the game, you need to do depicable things in the game, you are too nice for that kind of stuff.
Happy Sunday to you too :)

Well he plays Age of Empires 2, so he's not afraid to slaughter civilisations if they don't convert to Buddhism.
 

derExperte

Member
Don't forget, "casual" doesn't have to be a four-letter word. I enjoyed these games unashamedly. No ragrets.

Me too, good to see I'm not the only Hidden Objects-fan. I usually get sick of the game I'm playing before the end and go 'never again, done with this'. But then I see another pop up....

Have you already played Grim Legends? It's the best made imo with the most varied puzzles.
 

Maniac

Banned
I was giving you the benefit of the doubt as that makes it even worse. Just google when the last summer sales started and you would've noticed that the dates have very different in 13 and 14. No chance anyone in the world knows, probably not even Valve.

Cheddahz is now a peasant... Thus he doesn't deserve an answer, no matter how daft the question.

And it was like, super daft. For shame, Cheddar.
 
Me too, good to see I'm not the only Hidden Objects-fan. I usually get sick of the game I'm playing before the end and go 'never again, done with this'. But then I see another pop up....

Have you already played Grim Legends? It's the best made imo with the most varied puzzles.

No, not yet, but considering it's made by the same devs as the ones I've just been playing, and they'd have had an extra year and a half of experience, I'll be looking into it.
 

kami_sama

Member
Hello, good friends!
Last time I checked out the steam thread, it was still in gaming.
Time flies past.

And to studying I go!

Also, The Talos Principle looks cool as fuck, any impressions?
 

The_Monk

Member
I think you'd have a hard time with the game, you need to do depicable things in the game, you are too nice for that kind of stuff.
Happy Sunday to you too :)

Oh now I'm more curious! I saw someone streaming and they had someone asking for food and he said no and then he kept following him saying something like "Please, I don't like to beg but I'm so hungry, you seem like a nice person" and I was like, oh come on man! ;_;

I also saw someone stabbing people "just to be safe" while scavenging.

Well he plays Age of Empires 2, so he's not afraid to slaughter civilisations if they don't convert to Buddhism.

Lol Ruruja! :D I'm no Buddhist. But in Age of Empires 2 one way to win some missions can be done without the need of killing innocent people. Mostly villagers who are poor and are working for a dictator. I convert them and put them working for me. They have more rest and women work on farms while men seek stone and gold. Lumber is 50-50.

I'm on my long way to rescue 1000 villagers in order to avoid more pointless kills. already went a bit past 500:

7REz96Dl.png


Cheddahz is now a peasant...

How is this... still a thing?

We don't call fellowe SteamGAFers that. Even if they lost their way.

Experte spitting words of wisdom. We can all have fun no matter our platform of choice. "Peasants" and "Master Race" need to go. It's pointless.
 

Tizoc

Member
Here are 3 of my 5 Steam GotY contenders, thought I'd share my initial write-up for now as I ponder what my 5th game would be (hopefully it'll be Styx, Shadowgate, Mordor or Wolfenstein)

Freedom Planet
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Freedom Planet is a 2D Platformer with visuals inspired games on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. I had gotten interested in this game after reading up about it in the Sonic Community Threads, and as someone who liked Rocket Knight Adventures and the original Sonic Trilogy, I just had to get this game.
You play as one of 3 characters, each with their own unique playstyle and moves, progressing through 12 beautifully drawn 16-bit stages, each stage with its own theme reflecting Sonic 3 and Knuckles (not the stages themselves, but rather the variety and how each stage stands out from its predecessor and successor.
Suffice it to say that this game has a great soundtrack, and like many games of the era, the boss battle theme(s) are quite memorable, one even having an upbeat tempo that just gets you hyper to battle those powerful bosses.
If I had any negatives to say about the game, then it’d be that the stages feel really damn long first time you play them. Each stage would take 10 minutes to complete first time around, but at least the game manages to keep a good fast pace and offers various paths that allow you to complete stages. I would’ve preferred if each stage was divided into 2 acts, as my initial playthrough had me plough through the game one stage a day.
At the end of each stage is a boss, and in some stages there are mid bosses. Bosses in this game can be quite a challenge as you must learn their patterns and time your movement to avoid taking damage, lots of mess ups and you may end up having to restart a stage! It is also one of the few games I’ve played this year where I really enjoyed the boss fights, with the other being Ys: Oath in Felghana.
I personally enjoy playing as Lilac more as she reminds me of Sonic and Rocket Knight and I like her moveset. I did try Carol and Milla, but they didn’t sit right with me, but kudos to the devs for offering variety to the way you can play this game!
I also like to give this game the honor of having a great villain with a neat novelty to his final battle; where normally the final boss would ‘go into their next/final form’, Brevon, starts battling you in his power armor for 2 rounds, before battling you without it; and he hits HARD SON! 1 hit from that sword of his and bye bye 80% of your health!
It would be safe to say that this game is to the Genesis/MD, what Shovel Knight is to the NES, and I recommend getting this if you’re a fan of 2D platformers or the Genesis/MD in general.
As a final note, the game has a good story IMO, but you can play in classic mode to play without the cutscenes.
 
Killer is Dead

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There were many games I played on PS3 that I wished would get a PC release just to fix their technical and performance issues. This is one them, yet I managed to overlook its performance setbacks and voted it as my GotY 2013.
Killer is Dead is an action game from Grasshopper Manufacture, where you play as Mondo Zappa, who one day, wakes up to find a mechanical arm strapped on him, and is recruited to an execution agency that specializes in eliminating monsters. The game will have you go through various levels each with their own unique design and setting, from a normal house that suddenly transforms into a crazy dollhouse, to fighting enemies and giant eyeballs in a mansion on the moon, to stopping an enraged sentient train turned eldritch abomination in Russia.
You know, typical monster slaying stuff.
The game’s combat is really simple; Your main weapon is the beloved sword Gekkou, and as you can keep attacking enemies without being interrupted or taking damage, a gauge fills up which increases the damage from your sword and its speed. Mondo can also break an enemy’s guard or stun them with a punch from his mechanical arm that can also increase the gauge.
In addition Mondo’s mechanical arm functions as a gun which he can use to dispatch enemies with. By playing Gigolo missions you will unlock additional forms for your mechanical arm to transform into such as a drill or a charge cannon.
Mondo can also block and dodge attacks, a properly timed dodge will allow you to counter an enemy by dashing to them and unleashing a fast barrage of sword slashes while game time freezes around you and the enemy you’re countering.
As you progress through the game your health & Blood (equivalent of MP) can increase from items dropped by defeated enemies or found in breakable objects. You can also earn points that can be used to unlock more abilities. Furthermore, completing missions earns you cash which you can use to buy items, mainly for gigolo stages, but there are other items that can be used in-game.
The game’s structure involves completing missions, with the first 2 serving as tutorial modes, and mission 3 being the intro stage of sorts. You can access missions from a ‘world map’ hub allowing you to replay the stages/missions you completed on harder or easier difficulties.
In addition to the main missions, you can unlock special/bonus missions that have specific objectives in order to earn cash and points to learn upgrades.
My main attraction to the game is that it’s by Suda51 whose past games I’ve really enjoyed due to their simple concepts and gameplay, and especially the crazy stories and events that occur in the games (did I mention that one of the stages/missions is a mansion on the moon?). I was ecstatic to learn that the game was releasing on Steam, and applying the simple 60 FPS fix among a few others has really made experiencing this game much better.

Gunhound EX
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Originally released on PSP, this game was released earlier this year courtesy of Playism Games.
In this 2D action game, you pilot a mech with a machine gun as you progress through stages defeating enemies with a confrontation with bosses and mid-stage bosses. Although a short game, it manages to offer as much variety as it can with its stages, from battling in a landslide from a mountain or infiltrating a high tech base with various traps.
Your primary means of combat is a machine gun that reloads when its ammo runs, thankfully this only takes 1 second, but it helps to time your shots so you get the most damage on an enemy before reloading.
In addition you have a melee weapon you can use to damage enemies if you’re close to them. An option in the game will make this melee attack pop up automatically if you’re within range. Metal Slug anyone?
Finally there’s also another type of ranged weapon equipped on your Gunhound which can deal big damage, but its ammo will take some time to reload after firing.
As stated previously, each stage ends with a boss fight, and I’ve found the boss battles well designed for the most part, as they involve learning patterns and dodging/avoiding their attacks.
If there’s one gripe I have with the gameplay, it’d have to be in any anti-gravity sections, worse is that one or 2 such sections are boss fights! To be fair, the game does offer you a simple method by which to have your gun firing at the boss, but maneuvering around a certain boss was a pain in the ass.
Although you have a lifebar, you cannot recover health, however, you can get rid of your initial coating to reveal the interior armor plating on your mech. Doing so gives you increased movement speed and fully recharges your health, making it useful for critical situations.
Graphics-wise the game is very pixelated despite the in-game smoothing option, and I would’ve liked for it to be cleaner when playing full screen. Non the less the 2D graphics and overall presentation is really good and very colorful.
While a short game, it does have unlockables, earned by gaining points from playing through the game. If you manage to beat the game without dying or using a continue you earn the most points and they go to unlocking extra equipment.
These additional equipment can replace your initial weapons from the Extras menu, and include a flamethrower as well as a shield that’ll replace the melee weapon allowing you to block certain attacks.
All in all, if you’re a fan of Run n’ Gun style games like Contra or Metal Slug, you should def. give this game a chance. It also has the benefit of having a good simple story with a good female protag, and despite being a short game, benefits from replay ability cuz what’s not fun about piloting a mech and blowing stuff up in the name of justice?
 

Maniac

Banned
Oh now I'm more curious! I saw someone streaming and they had someone asking for food and he said no and then he kept following him saying something like "Please, I don't like to beg but I'm so hungry, you seem like a nice person" and I was like, oh come on man! ;_;

I also saw someone stabbing people "just to be safe" while scavenging.



Lol Ruruja! :D I'm no Buddhist. But in Age of Empires 2 one way to win some missions can be done without the need of killing innocent people. Mostly villagers who are poor and are working for a dictator. I convert them and put them working for me. They have more rest and women work on farms while men seek stone and gold. Lumber is 50-50.

I'm on my long way to rescue 1000 villagers in order to avoid more pointless kills. already went a bit past 500:

How is this... still a thing?

Experte spitting words of wisdom. We can all have fun no matter our platform of choice. "Peasants" and "Master Race" need to go. It's pointless.

It was just a joke really ,_,

Anyway, This War of Mine really does look great... I'll buy it come winter sale, even if it's only 20% off. Same goes for Banished and Age of Empires HD. I need to get hold of games that I'll actually play for once!
 
im really liking 20XX , a roguelike megaman x is a good idea , the gameplay is good too , is in early access atm so maybe wait until the game is completed before buying it
 
Thinking of buying Legend of Grimrock, but it does look a bit repetitive. Are there more environments than those brick wall hallways?

It's basically nothing but brick wall hallways. The texture changes each level. I did not finish the game but had fun for hours before finding it too repetitive. I'd still recommend it cheap, and I am looking forward to a sale on Grimrock 2. The environments in the sequel look much better.
 

yuraya

Member
I don't really care much about profile badges n stuff. But the Sang-Froid badge is pretty damn cool. Recommend to craft it if you can. The badge is kinda expensive tho (60+ cents)

Its called Wolf Badge @ Lvl 1

Sang-Froid_-_Tales_of_Werewolves_Badge_1.png
 

The_Monk

Member
It was just a joke really ,_,

Anyway, This War of Mine really does look great... I'll buy it come winter sale, even if it's only 20% off. Same goes for Banished and Age of Empires HD. I need to get hold of games that I'll actually play for once!

;)

I put more than 70 hours in Age of Empires II HD and I still need to finish the main Stories. I always take my time with the missions and some of them take me 4 hours to finish but that's because I play in no hurry at all. As for Banished I heard it can be quite a challenge later on so it might not be for me.

Regarding This War of Mine I got some days ago a mail from indiegala stating that they were offering the game if you purchased at least $30 in their site I believe. That was when the game caught my attention.
 

Vuze

Member
Just got this message when trying to redeem a key:
8152d96771.png


VPN it is, I guess? No idea what the game is, got the key as a left-over.
 

Varg

Banned
Welp, there goes any sort of care I had in finishing The Evil Within. Haven't encountered a single issue with the game up until now, and its one of the worst kinds. I load up my chapter 11 save and they have me glitched out falling through the fucking world. I have to reload a previous save everytime now and hopefully get a chance to attempt the entire chapter again.. Ill try again in a month when I give a fuck again. Until then Fuck you tango/Bethesda.
 

Nzyme32

Member
Well I sold all my gems last night for 48p per each 1000, leaving me with £9.60 and profit of £7.26. I think I'm staying the hell away from all things gem related now
 

Arthea

Member
I have this timezone confusion atm, when this round of biding ends exactly, it starts tomorrow or today? and at what time, maybe someone can make countdown, pretty please?

edited: also valve did it again... I can't win, unless I stop sleeping and I'm not willing to go that far
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
I have this timezone confusion atm, when this round of biding ends exactly, it starts tomorrow or today? and at what time, maybe someone can make countdown, pretty please?

edited: also valve did it again... I can't win, unless I stop sleeping and I'm not willing to go that far

The times you see on the auction page are local.
 

Nzyme32

Member
I have this timezone confusion atm, when this round of biding ends exactly, it starts tomorrow or today? and at what time, maybe someone can make countdown, pretty please?

edited: also valve did it again... I can't win, unless I stop sleeping and I'm not willing to go that far

This round of bidding ends:
t1418658300z0.png


And then every 45mins till some point on the 18th probably before the holiday sale starts at 6pm gmt I'd guess
 

Tizoc

Member
Shmup fans may want to take note of this Dreamcast game that just got put up on Steam
The Dreamcast SHMUP, Redux: Dark Matters, that was released earlier this year is finally hitting Steam. There's a discount for early purchasers. Brings it down to $9.74


It will remain on sale til the 19th being the 2nd day of the Winter Seal.
 
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