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STEAM | July 2014-3 – Let Off Some STEAM Bennett

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Kiru

Kiru

Member
Khronico said:
Well I'm stumped Dunder. I added 'MB-' to the line of code, made sure all the letters were uppercase, removed symbols, shortened it to match the normal modbot codes, I even google searched the code AND the user who won Euro Truck.

This might actually be more fun than actually winning the game.
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You need to hang out on steamgifts. If you are used to the puzzles for hidden giveaways there, then deciphering this would be a cakewalk.
 
F

Freedom = $1.05

Banned
For everyone enjoying this 2d platformer boom between Shovel Knight and Freedom Planet: I hope you played Hell Yeah.

That game is basically an HD genesis game and boy did i fucking enjoy it. I know some folks got it for peanuts during the Sega Humble Bundle a while back. Well, give it a chance, wont you?
 
A

ashecitism

Member
Exuro said:
I don't think they're going to announce anything officially until its finalized. Also I remember some gifs a while back and one of them had the controller blurred out so I'm guessing that was the newer analog stick version.
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They did announce the previous revision.
 
D

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Freedom = $1.05 said:
For everyone enjoying this 2d platformer boom between Shovel Knight and Freedom Planet: I hope you played Hell Yeah.

That game is basically an HD genesis game and boy did i fucking enjoy it. I know some folks got it for peanuts during the Sega Humble Bundle a while back. Well, give it a chance, wont you?
Click to expand...

You bet I have, I even played an hour of Hell Yeah! before it released while at PAX as one of the people who made the game just watched me played and I and him swapped questions and conversation. Was a very nice dude and I liked the game.
 
D

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
For anyone interested in the Murdered: Soul Suspect for $12 over at GMG, here were my impressions of the game.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is detective-ghost story told through the interactive-medium of gaming. Murdered is kind of like a combination between a TellTale game, LA Noire, and Alan Wake... But honestly the game is more often than not more like an interactive movie, and I think it's with these expectations that you best experience Murdered.

Murdered: Soul Suspect tells the tale of a man named Ronan, who at the game's start experiences his own death. He is pushed out of the window by a notorious murderer, who is known as the Bell Killer, who then commences to shoot him seven times in the chest. Ronan grew-up as a criminal in Salem, but changed his ways late in life to become a detective, partially for the woman he loved, Julia. However, he was torn apart a few months earlier, when Julia's life was taken at the hands of a street mugger. At death's door, Ronan discovers he is a spirit to this world, trapped here until he can move on from something that's keeping him bounded here. He finds out that he can be with Julia again in the world beyond our own if he can resolve whatever is keeping him here, so he goes out to try and solve the case of his own murder.

Gameplay is rather simplistic in Murdered. You will spend most of your time exploring around, using your ghost powers, and looking for items and clues in the environment. As a ghost, you can freely pass through human-world objects, which essentially makes clipping a gameplay mechanic, but you might be surprised how natural it ends up feeling and due to some good visual cues and sounds it ends up not looking or feeling weird, and makes sense with everything else built up with the game. The only objects you can't pass through are ghost-world objects (relics from the past which are present in the ghost world, and tell-able they're ghost world as they glow with a blue aura), and into or out of buildings freely (ghosts can only enter or exit buildings through open doors or windows). Other powers at your disposal include the ability to possess people, to either read their minds or influence their thoughts, to poltergeist and make objects (mostly machinery) act up, to teleport around by choice, and a few other underutilized but still interesting powers.

The game splits-up between 'stages' (bigger interior areas usually), and a Salem hub-world. The stages I thought generally got better as the game went on, and Salem was a joy to explore... At first. The problem is that not much really happens in Salem, it stays the same mostly for the whole game so you can literally almost do everything in it the first time you enter the hub-area (with only a few things you can only do once you gain the teleportation power).

As you explore, there's a variety of content to immerse yourself in the world. There's a lot of side areas and areas off the beaten path. You can approach living people to listen in to conversations they're having with each other, made more amusing you can then possess them and see what they're REALLY thinking. You can approach ghosts, and either talk to them briefly, question them about something they're up too, and very occasionally help them via a side-quest to move onto from this world to the next. However, there are literally only about 3-4 side-quest in the game, and there is obvious content and characters that were left around for more side-quests, but were left-out as cut content. Things like items you can observe for no real reason, characters it looks like you would be able to help but then they cut you short from actually helping them.

And then there's the collectibles. This game kind of goes overboard with it's collectibles, but they're pretty enjoyable and expand a lot on the plot, the lore, Salem's history, character background's, additional cinematics, and my personal favorite, ghost stories. Extended from this, the investigation scenes usually have you looking for and going about collecting clues, and then putting together the clues that matter to a particular solution or outcome. These typically were rather simple, and sometimes felt more like sort of mindless collecting to get to the point. However, other times they actually felt kind of rewarding. None were really 'puzzles' I would say, but were a mixed bag.

The only other real gameplay mechanic is demons, which are rather underutilized. I didn't find them offensive, and I'll admit there was a few times when their screeches or them detecting me legitimately startled and scared me. However, there's only one type of demon in the game, you only face a few of them in the game, and their encounters are often brief and they're easy enough to deal with (you sneak up behind them to execute them, otherwise they spot you and chase you down, where you hide in things until they lose interest).

But then this is a game I'd argue isn't really about winning or losing, it's an interactive film essentially, and on that account it pulls some things off really well.

Firstly, the audio design is fantastic in this game. The voice acting for the main characters are all well-done and performed, and even most minor characters are rather well-voiced (though you'll find a few reoccurring VAs). The ghost stories you can get via collectibles deserve particular praise, as the acting done here really adds a lot to the story, and honestly are really well-done.

But it's not just the voice acting. The music is very good too, with some good creepy vibes, emotional melodies, and songs to go well to the mystery. The ambiance of sounds in the environment also add a lot, with a lot of attention to detail to help bring the locations alive. And even the game sounds, for solving cases, getting clues, etc., are all satisfying and fitting.

The story is quite good, especially if you like detective-ghost stories, ala' The Frighteners, Sixth Sense, or the like. While the writing can be a bit hammy at times, they do have some believable dialogue between characters, the story has interesting developments as it goes on, and there are some rather well-done plot twists throughout.

CIneamtics deserve special mention. The cinematography is really well-done, with fantastic angles, focus, artistic direction, and were a joy to watch.

And the characters are well-realized, trope-ish, but manage to be developed and become more than their tropes and have rather realistic relationships with each other. They have fights and don't agree, but come together (sometimes reluctantly), and there are a few heart-warming moments and real development with each other as it goes on.

Graphically it looks good for the sort of niche budget title it is. Some nice attention to detail in environments, some good art direction, and some of the models are rather well poly'd. There's some visual quality dips in certain areas, textures... But not a bad looking game at all.

Generally, I would label this as a game for gamers who like story, exploring, and world-building above all else. Gameplay really takes a step-down to the game's other elements, and it will definitely strike with its niche. But its lack of action, focus on making what is usually the 'extra' parts of games the main part, and just the general styling and minimal gameplay make it lack that mainstream appeal. I'd also say it isn't worth its $50 pricetag, but felt it was worth it for the $15-25 range.

I'd say if the game interests you, it is worth experiencing... Just maybe not at full price. It is different than your typical budgeted game in this day and age, and is sure to find a cult audience. In some aspects, it's a bit disappointing or under-cooked, but as a whole, this may be one of the best realized classic-styled ghost stories to appear in the gaming medium for years. Like the Fedora or not, Ronan is the perfect tour guide into a very different look at ghosts, Salem, and games with a budget.
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J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Knurek said:
Speaking of good platformers, UnEpic is out of Early Access.

Never forget the OG JaseC
32691ab977b86e13b55f7c97a8f4b3a0aaa7ae02_medium.jpg
:
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It's nice to know that Xel is still buying games. *salute*

Edit: Oh, I confused Unepic with Unrest. :(

Dr Dogg said:
I guess there really is a little JaseC in all of us.
Click to expand...

Stage five: Acceptance.

Stumpokapow said:
Also I found out about this from JaseC on the Steam forums hahaha.
Click to expand...

Once in a blue moon I remember that SPUF is a thing. ;) See also: Steam Gifts.
 
O

Ozium

Member
CIxxqrC.png


A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

ModBot said:
Instructions for participants:
I am giving away 7 Steam keys. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line. In the body, copy and paste the entire line from the message below that corresponds to the game you want. (if you include more than one game, you will be blocked from entering). Confused? Watch this GIF tutorial or ask for help.

ModBot Basics:
- I really appreciate thank you messages, but please send them to me (Ozium, not ModBot!) via PM instead of in thread.
- Do not trade keys you win off-site to enrich yourself. Don't try to claim games you have no interest in collecting or playing. Don't claim games to give them to friends off-site.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two.

Rules for this Giveaway:
- This is a free for all! You can enter for multiple games on the list below. Send an individual PM for each game you'd like to win.
- This giveaway is a raffle. The winners will be selected by random draw 3 hours after the draw was created. Any games not claimed after that point will be given away first come first serve.



Love -- MB-763EACEE1353A13D - Taken by Sendou. 5 entrants total.
Imperial Glory -- MB-68CF88181C7EA3CC - Taken by shackdaddy836. 1 entrants total.
FATE -- MB-B123FB4062325D6C - Taken by Scipius. 8 entrants total.
Praetorians -- MB-FCD156B5E27ECB3D - Taken by RazorbackDB. 3 entrants total.
Rush for Glory -- MB-88F9B5A114BF2878 - Taken by danhese007. 1 entrants total.
Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory -- MB-FCA5C3DE9C2C8C38 - Taken by swx. 2 entrants total.
Montas -- MB-8E2EDE69B47C0CF7 - Taken by Chairmanchuck. 3 entrants total.


t1406332272z1.png
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N

Nzyme32

Member
ashecitism said:
So are Valve going to confirm the new controller design or not? People are already taking it as fact, but if it's end up being a dumped mockup, there's going to be confusion again.
Click to expand...

I don't think they really care about that. They'll probably wait till dev days to show off a revision or talk about it when it's final or just leave stuff around for people to find and discuss
 
V

vikingvessel

Member
JaseC said:
OOTPB14 is, as far as Steam itself is concerned, only partially available, so there's that!
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Would you happen to know if the Mac Game Store is the only option for might & magic x legacy digital deluxe edition with a Steam Key? I was barely paying attention when the end of support was announced and didn't notice the DDE purchase option being removed from the Steam store. I apologize for straying off topic.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
vikingvessel said:
Would you happen to know if the Mac Game Store is the only option for might & magic x legacy digital deluxe edition with a Steam Key? I was barely paying attention when the end of support was announced and didn't notice the DDE purchase option being removed from the Steam store. I apologize for straying off topic.
Click to expand...

To the best of my knowledge, yes. From what I've gleaned since Amazon set an example with AC3, Ubi isn't wholly against the idea of supplying Steam keys, but one has to be very persistent. As a point of fact, Amazon and MGS are literally the only two stores I'm aware of that stock, to a slight extent, Steam keys for Uplay titles.
 
S

salazar547

Member
Freedom = $1.05 said:
For everyone enjoying this 2d platformer boom between Shovel Knight and Freedom Planet: I hope you played Hell Yeah.

That game is basically an HD genesis game and boy did i fucking enjoy it. I know some folks got it for peanuts during the Sega Humble Bundle a while back. Well, give it a chance, wont you?
Click to expand...
i guess i will add the game to my wishlist then , thanks :)
 
S

Sendou

Member
So I managed to finish Detective Case and Clown Bot in: Murder in the Hotel Lisbon so I thought I'd write down some impressions. I was surprised that I managed to beat it in one day. Looking at the achievements I got you might think that I didn't really give the game time but that's not the case. The remaining achievements are about collectables and hidden things. I just couldn't be bothered to go after them when I didn't find any handy guides and I felt I had explored the game world pretty thoroughly while I was still missing a bunch of stuff. There was also a few achievements tied to a certain minigame I wasn't a huge fan of. More about that later.

Once again thanks for developers for giving chances to win this game at the Steam thread. Really cool way to promote your new game and I'm sure people appreciate it! Before the actual review I'd like to state that I won my copy of the game from one contest the developer held in this thread.



detectivecasepwo0y.png


Here's the Steam review.

Like the name reveals Detective Case and Clown Boat in: Murder in the Hotel Lisbon is about Detective Case and his sidekick solving the mystery of the murder in Hotel Lisbon's Room 302. In addition to this main goal the game features three sidequests where you have clients with different requests. The store page states that the game is "inspired by the classic point and click adventures from the 80’s and 90’s" and in the essence that is correct. The items you need to pick up are made so clear for the player that missing one seems unlikely. In addition don't expect to actually use those items outside of very tightly scripted interrogations. I'm the kind of gamer that prefers adventure games where player isn't left guessing too much when it comes to "what items goes where". That's why I didn't personally mind the way the game used items.

The gameplay itself is pretty straightforward. You read some story and get pretty explicitly told where to go. Then you go to that place to listen some more story and again get clearly pointed to the next place. The amount of handholding is something I disliked. There's a fine balance you must find here. You can't have the player wander aimlessly but then again if you leave nothing for the player to find out for themselves then that isn't much fun either. At a point it just starts feeling like I'm reading a book. Walking from dialogue to dialogue. In a way this reminds me of Telltale's recent games.

Between these dialogue scenes the player has to question suspects to reveal facts they are hiding. These scenes left a bit sour taste in my mouth as well. You get to choose one from three questions which you then have to combine with an item. Choose the wrong combination? You have to start the questioning event from the beginning. That is unless the game decides to give you another chance but that happening seems rather random. The thing is that usually the game is very blunt about how it leads the player to right tracks. You don't actually solve mysteries in this game. The three questions reveal exactly what the game wants you to be thinking. Attaching the right item to that is child's play just by reading the context of the question. Usually the actual item is mentioned in the question. The most common structure for these three questions seem to be one serious one and two obvious jokes. Naturally it's not hard at all to get the right answer here. Then there's the other kind of group of questions to choose from where there's three almost exactly the same questions and it feels like you don't even have the tools to know what the right one is. This leads to some very unfortunate trial and error gameplay. On top of all this if you used the wrong interrogator (you can choose between Case and the Bot) to question the characters then you have to start from the beginning even if you get all questions and items right. This is a very baffling design decision that does the game no good.

All of this is a shame because interrogation sections could have acted as refreshing pallet cleaners between the usual gameplay but all they manage to do is feel like chores. Not all of them are horrible or anything like that but they do nothing to help the overall image of the game. Even at the best it feels like they unnecessarily underestimate the skill level of players. It would have been fun to actually piece together what went down from the evidence you are given but nothing like that is found in the game.

I'm a fan of the overall presentation of the game. The store page states the game "runs at a native resolution of 256x192, the same resolution used by the old ZX Spectrum 48k and most recently by the Nintendo DS" and it works very well even if it sounds a little weird. Seeing how many pixel graphics indie games get put out every day it's becoming harder and harder to find out the standout specimens. This game absolutely is one. Basically they have nailed everything you can think about when it comes to presentation. Animations are charming and they really set the game apart. Locations are distinctive and while there aren't many of them you still can see that each of them was skillfully crafted. Only towards the end of the game when you visit certain locations for the tenth time or so you start feeling exhausted. In the end the game could have done with an extra location or two.

Music never got old either. There isn't too many tracks but they just fit the game so well. I'm not an expert enough to give specifics about genres so let me just say the game features some types of music you rarely hear in video games. That just fills me with joy. Both music and the overall presentations support each other creating something truly special.

These games are very much about the story. If the story is good you are more willing to accept other shortcomings of the title. Sadly the story in this game never quite comes together. Like I explained before the game painstakingly makes sure you don't miss even the smallest detail. You aren't left wondering about anything. When the credits roll in I said to myself "that's it?" because the whole solution just feels so unfilling. It's the kind of extremely obvious answer to the question "who did it?" that you just wish for a twist to happen and make it different. That twist never comes. It's not like there aren't any twists at all. It's just that the twist is completely separate from everything else and for the lack of a better word: random. The game never takes itself too seriously but even considering this I would have hoped for a more satisfying story.

There's an extensive topic in the Steam forums detailing some of the issues the game has with the text and translation. Answering to that the dev explained that they simply had no money to hire a professional writer and judging from credits the translator did the work for free. This is the reality when making indie games and I have to say the problems the game has with the text never bothered me too much. They're just very noticeable. I'm not a native English speaker either but there typos all around even I can see. I tried to start writing them down but they are just too numerous. Besides typos there were some weird stuff that got lost in the translation I guess. Especially the use of curse words in a place or two had me do a double take. I know firsthand how translating from your native language to English can be a painful progress. It's just that the game really could have used someone experienced in English on board to help get all those nuances and jokes right the game heavily leans on. I hope the game does well enough for the developers to hire a professional writer for their future games. The developers have seemed to be pretty responsive so I'm sure most of the typos will get ironed out in future updates. I also had the game crash on me one time.

In addition to the main game there is a minigame called "Stand Up Clown". I have to give credit where it's due: the whole idea behind a robot telling stand up is just so funny and it does translate to the game to an extent. The basic mechanic with the minigame is to find the suitable ending for the joke from three choices. Get enough jokes right you can gather combos which in turn lets you gather even more points from catching flowers the audience throws at you. On the contrary if you don't get a joke right you lose your combo and have to avoid all kinds of random garbage thrown on the stage. As a game I found it lacking. First of all it also heavily realies on trial & error gameplay. I don't know how much of this was me not being a native English speaker but I just didn't get some (or even most of) the jokes. Puns and other wordplays are just harder to get when you don't speak the language fluently. In addition once you starts gathering combo you are left with less and less time to read the choices. That goes to a point where I had troubles reading and processing the choices. As a result you end up guessing a lot and only then learning from your mistakes. There isn't many jokes so the best result in this minigame is achieved from learning the jokes by heart. From the little I played this doesn't seem like a hard task at all. In addition to the trial and error nature it just isn't that fun of a game to play. It's a good distraction for a quarter of an hour or so but after that it becomes tedious. Achievements tempting you to do better aren't helping either. It's just not a score attack kind of a game at all. It lacks all of the attributes of a good score attack game. Maybe I'm being too hard on the little game but I truly think it should have been featured in the main game with the score attack nature tuned down.

It's hard to recommend Detective Case and Clown Bot in: Murder in the Hotel Lisbon for the asking price. With some of the really unfortunate problems bringing the overall package down it also doesn't have that much content and at the end of the road it's hard to feel satisfied with the story. Then again it doesn't overstay its welcome so I think it is definitely a good purchase and play when you can get it for cheaper. It certainly manages to set itself apart from other games which is something not even some of the best games of our time manage to do. That alone is an admirable accomplishment and I think we can expect something good from Nerd Monkeys in the future. I should also mention the developers have promised to bring "2 new episodes being written by 2 famous writters" as a free DLC. I'm excited to see how they are.

9e2ced03ae99c070e0b47832f46971f3073144ba.jpg
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Some beautiful trading card art with the characters of the game featured.

EDIT: Fuck that I wrote too big of a review. It doesn't fit to Steam reviews :mad: What now.

EDIT2: Had to cut the review to fit it to Steam reviews. Too bad they don't support longer reviews.
 
A

aku:jiki

Member
derExperte said:
Carnage Racing is so bad I quit after five minutes via Alt+F4. Couldn't take one more second.
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I did pretty much exactly that with Ace Combat.

I was going to say that someone should post about doing the same with Ace of Spades, but then I realized that no one's going to even give that five minutes.
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
I need a list of games that are commonly available via bundles or likely to be given away on ModBot, but not currently sold on Steam. Trying to help fix the last remaining game art / hot lookup hiccups.

What I need is a list in the following format:
Out of the Park Baseball 14, 263840
Transcripted, 215450
Prey, 3970
Wheelman, 21920

Any others you can think of?
 
Kiru

Kiru

Member
Stumpokapow said:
I need a list of games that are commonly available via bundles or likely to be given away on ModBot, but not currently sold on Steam. Trying to help fix the last remaining game art / hot lookup hiccups.

What I need is a list in the following format:
Out of the Park Baseball 14, 263840
Transcripted, 215450
Prey, 3970
Wheelman, 21920

Any others you can think of?
Click to expand...
Clive Barker's Jericho
Call of Juarez
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Member
Stumpokapow said:
I need a list of games that are commonly available via bundles or likely to be given away on ModBot, but not currently sold on Steam. Trying to help fix the last remaining game art / hot lookup hiccups.

What I need is a list in the following format:
Out of the Park Baseball 14, 263840
Transcripted, 215450
Prey, 3970
Wheelman, 21920

Any others you can think of?
Click to expand...

When someone is seriously giving away wheelman on here. Dino Crisis will have finally hit steam. Unless I just missed one hell if a announcement.
 
D

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Stumpokapow said:
I need a list of games that are commonly available via bundles or likely to be given away on ModBot, but not currently sold on Steam. Trying to help fix the last remaining game art / hot lookup hiccups.

What I need is a list in the following format:
Out of the Park Baseball 14, 263840
Transcripted, 215450
Prey, 3970
Wheelman, 21920

Any others you can think of?
Click to expand...


Cryostasis, 7850
Clive Barker's Jericho, 11420
Shellshock 2: Blood Trails, 8160
Mafia, 40990

Off the top.
 
C

Caerith

Member
freshVeggie said:
I guessed something like that being the case. But how did you find out which system is being used?
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Random guessing mostly. One of them looked like hex so I found a site that converts hex to ascii. That site also had base64 to ascii conversion so I tried the others until I saw a fit.
 
V

vikingvessel

Member
JaseC said:
To the best of my knowledge, yes. From what I've gleaned since Amazon set an example with AC3, Ubi isn't wholly against the idea of supplying Steam keys, but one has to be very persistent. As a point of fact, Amazon and MGS are literally the only two stores I'm aware of that stock, to a slight extent, Steam keys for Uplay titles.
Click to expand...

As always, thanks a bunch for the prompt reply. Heading over to MGS to get while the gettin's good.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Stumpokapow said:
I need a list of games that are commonly available via bundles or likely to be given away on ModBot, but not currently sold on Steam. Trying to help fix the last remaining game art / hot lookup hiccups.

What I need is a list in the following format:
Out of the Park Baseball 14, 263840
Transcripted, 215450
Prey, 3970
Wheelman, 21920

Any others you can think of?
Click to expand...

I'm not at home so I can't go digging, but The Scourge Project comes to mind (it was belatedly added to the Outbreak subs, which has been bundled).

Oh, and The Golden Compass was included in the Humble Sega Licensed Bundle earlier in the year. ;)
 
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