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STEAM | May 2015 - Paid Mods? We hardly Nuuvem!

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chronomac

Member
I was thinking about getting it. Is the platforming part tough? Or is it something else?

It's not so much the platforming as it is changing colors to avoid the streams of bullets...while platforming. And that gets integrated into the boss fights. The last one took me 10 tries or so. You can tell that Guacamelee (which came out a few years later) got some inspiration from this game.

The game lasts around 6-8 hours, I'd say, and feels like the right length.
 

Pakkidis

Member
Enjoy.


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t1431542384z1.png
 

Poetic

Member
Would it be dumb to skip Witcher 1 & 2 to jump right into 3? I own 1/2, just never got around to it and the desire to now isn't there. I'm worried I'd get burnt out playing both and then 3. Hmmm.
 

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.
I think what the guy is saying (and I hear this a lot in various different ways) is that Valve's "discovery update" is kind of failing in a lot of different ways. The sort of stuff he's asking about is the kind of thing that update was originally intended to correct: personalized storefronts that adapt to your habits and preferences. Unfortunately, Valve flipped the switch on the store and it instantly started making more money so they decided to focus their efforts elsewhere.

I'm not sure if Enhanced Steam can really fix that, because there is a huge amount of work that needs to be done in this area and most of it can only be done by Valve.

I mean - you could replace the word "Indie" and it could be one of hundreds of emails I've received in the last few months. Please integrate a way to filter out _____ games.
 

rtcn63

Member
Fuck, you can buy a lot of McDonald's for $20.

Rule 1 of going to McD's- only frequent the value menu unless there's a deal active. (A few weeks ago, you could get two Big Macs or Quarter Pounders for $5)

Rule 2- get the coffee. Large hot or medium iced for $1 in most places.
 

Lomax

Member
I think what the guy is saying (and I hear this a lot in various different ways) is that Valve's "discovery update" is kind of failing in a lot of different ways. The sort of stuff he's asking about is the kind of thing that update was originally intended to correct: personalized storefronts that adapt to your habits and preferences. Unfortunately, Valve flipped the switch on the store and it instantly started making more money so they decided to focus their efforts elsewhere.

I'm not sure if Enhanced Steam can really fix that, because there is a huge amount of work that needs to be done in this area and most of it can only be done by Valve.

His request is obviously insane, but could you put in a feature that automatically "clicked" not interested based on keyword selection? I could see people finding that useful. I know lots of people here would probably filter out free2play games if they could.
 
Would it be dumb to skip Witcher 1 & 2 to jump right into 3? I own 1/2, just never got around to it and the desire to now isn't there. I'm worried I'd get burnt out playing both and then 3. Hmmm.
There's a good post on this page by corrosivefrost.

In short, try Witcher 1 out and know that the beginning can be a bit unfun but it gets better.
 

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.
His request is obviously insane, but could you put in a feature that automatically "clicked" not interested based on keyword selection? I could see people finding that useful. I know lots of people here would probably filter out free2play games if they could.

The real problem is that the things you mark as "not interested" only removes them from your discovery queue. There are literally dozens of other places these games will show up, such as search results (unless you're using Enhanced Steam and have these hidden), the homepage carousel, sales pages (TowerFall Ascension is indie, I assume that if someone weren't interested in indie games they wouldn't want to see the ad for it on the home page), tag pages, genre pages, top sellers and new releases lists on the homepage, "games like this" sections, specials list, etc etc etc.
 
100x better than TNO with some reservations.

Highlights:
+ No clunky intermission levels that just drag...
+ Levels and game overall are about the right length; it doesn't overstay its welcome.
+ Final boss is not nearly as poorly designed as the final boss of TNO
+ It's fun -- a lot of the weapons feel great... I don't recall what the new ones are, but I think overall the gunplay and story felt better.
+ Killing nahtzees with a pipe.
+ Challenge maps are kind of a cool idea
+ The twist is handled pretty well for being what it is. It makes the back half of gameplay change quite a bit in a rather interesting way.

Some of my few complaints:
- Forcing completion of the nightmare "classic" levels for achievements
- Tying achievements to challenge maps
Regardless of TNO's story segments being up for debate, The Old Blood was very inconsistent in its own pacing. I still enjoyed the experience (for the most part) and the devs kept the action brisk when they decided to go for it, but the entire second half highlights why they should never go back to the occult side of things or to throwing undead enemies in the mix, homage to Return to Castle Wolfenstein be damned. MachineGames dropped the ball on that as far as I'm concerned.

Opening mission with actual gameplay makes for a lousy first impression, jarring transitions with in-game to pre-rendered first-person cinematics, the final boss was the opposite extreme of TNO's by throwing common mooks at you to make the encounter "interesting" (a big no-no by default) while simultaneously being very easy to dispose of, zombies interrupt stealth and have no interesting patterns, the game shoved the ridiculously impractical sawed-off shotgun down your throat as the go-to tool against 'em, overall level design became much more narrow compared to the first half and so forth. It's also worth mentioning that this is the first FPS I've played where audio-wise the silenced pistol has more oomph than the sawed-off shotgun. Couldn't believe my ears they approved of this.

That said though: a lot of the other weapons were still satisfying to wield with the pipe in particular being oddly fun, the challenge rooms are a great addition and by the end of the day it's more proper Wolfenstein (read: none of that 2009 abomination) which is exactly what I wanted from the expansion. MachineGames still has a knack for writing and characterization as well, so I'm quite hopeful for the inevitable full-fledged sequel.
 

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
Port begging is one of those "depends on how pissed off a mod gets and whether he/she feels like being a giant dickbag asshole" things.

Someone might say "Vita would've been a great fit for this game." and get a time out while others may make a petition begging a publisher to port their games to a platform and have an entire thread dedicated to the much maligned "port begging" offense.

Yeah, seems fairly Touch-and-Go sometimes on if you're overstepping the line. As far as I've seen, it is often played by ear until people start complaining about it and then it's considered disruptive.

So long as the Grief.exe brigade can continue to revive dead console franchises onto PC, I fail to see the problem~

Absolutely worth your time.
I tried to explain this to Veggie over chat... but I'll do it here again for your benefit, since you haven't somehow ended up on my ignore list yet. ;)

First, it is known that I am a great advocate of games being played with a pad/controller. It is my preferred input method and I do not wish to try to figure out a comfortable way to sit in front of my 42" TV with a keyboard and mouse to play games.

Second, it is known that I love me some achievements. For me to spend time in a game where I cannot lose myself in achievement hunting is a rare, rare, rare occasion at this point in my gaming life. Go check my steam profile if you'd like the hard numbers (I'll save you the time; on Steam: 6,137 Achievements, 79 Perfect Games, 47% Avg. Game Completion Rate -- beyond Steam, I have 6623 trophies on PSN with 96 platinums. I have a gamerscore of 60,101 before I abandoned my x360 for all intents and purposes).

Now... take that into consideration when, late last year, not only did I play The Witcher from start to finish, but I also did so with a controller and without achievements. While I did not play all the EE extras, as I was "Witchered out" and knew I still had TW2 to play, I did spend a grand total of 38.1 hours.

Yes, the game starts out slow. Yes, the game is kind of janky. But like a lot of games, once you get the hang of the combat systems and figure out the way you like to play best, it's a great experience.

Again, you already own the game... how long have you played? How far did you get? If you tell me, I can better tell if the game should have become more enjoyable for you by then or not. But the recommendation I gave Veggie was "give it a few hours, play to this point, see if you enjoy it. If you're not really getting it after <spot> and you don't feel like playing, look up the story on YT or a wiki or something and move on to TW2".

Worth quoting for the new page for those in the "Should I Witcher 1/2 before 3" camp.
 

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.
The second problem with the discovery queue is that marking things as "not interested" has absolutely no bearing on how your discovery queue is crafted in the future. While other sites like Amazon and Netflix have this figured out in a sense, Valve's implementation is literally "Okay you got it chief, we won't show you this game again! Instead, we'll show you the GOTY version of the same game!".

I think people have expectations that Valve's system works like Netflix - if you mark a F2P MMO as "not interested" then it would eliminate or significantly reduce the number of F2P MMO games you're shown in the future.
 

lashman

Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
The second problem with the discovery queue is that marking things as "not interested" has absolutely no bearing on how your discovery queue is crafted in the future. While other sites like Amazon and Netflix have this figured out in a sense, Valve's implementation is literally "Okay you got it chief, we won't show you this game again! Instead, we'll show you the GOTY version of the same game!".

I think people have expectations that Valve's system works like Netflix - if you mark a F2P MMO as "not interested" then it would eliminate or significantly reduce the number of F2P MMO games you're shown in the future.

... especially the ones that aren't even available in your region ;)
 

Dr Dogg

Member
I'd pay $20 for a Big Rat Meal from McRattalds.

Anywho Freedom Cry is so much more 'better' in 21:9. Yes I just said better in air quotes as I can't quite put my finger on why and like bollocks am I saying cinematic. Sod it I'll make a video.
 
Regardless of TNO's story segments being up for debate, The Old Blood was very inconsistent in its own pacing. I still enjoyed the experience (for the most part) and the devs kept the action brisk when they decided to go for it, but the entire second half highlights why they should never go back to the occult side of things or to throwing undead enemies in the mix, homage to Return to Castle Wolfenstein be damned. MachineGames dropped the ball on that as far as I'm concerned.

Opening mission with actual gameplay makes for a lousy first impression, jarring transitions with in-game to pre-rendered first-person cinematics, the final boss was the opposite extreme of TNO's by throwing common mooks at you to make the encounter "interesting" (a big no-no by default) while simultaneously being very easy to dispose of, zombies interrupt stealth and have no interesting patterns, the game shoved the ridiculously impractical sawed-off shotgun down your throat as the go-to tool against 'em, overall level design became much more narrow compared to the first half and so forth. It's also worth mentioning that this is the first FPS I've played where audio-wise the silenced pistol has more oomph than the sawed-off shotgun. Couldn't believe my ears they approved of this.

That said though: a lot of the other weapons were still satisfying to wield with the pipe in particular being oddly fun, the challenge rooms are a great addition and by the end of the day it's more proper Wolfenstein (read: none of that 2009 abomination) which is exactly what I wanted from the expansion. MachineGames still has a knack for writing and characterization as well, so I'm quite hopeful for the inevitable full-fledged sequel.

I disagree with some of those parts...

Yeah, the prologue was a bit weird in pacing, but you get into action quick and can actually get a feel for the later acquired double barreled shotgun (albeit not the sawed-off version).

About the pacing in the second half and enemy types:
And stealthing some of the undead sections was absolutely fantastic in that you could stealth kill (with the silenced pistol) a generic nazi and have him turn. At this point, it would attack the nearest *thing* and not come directly to you. While the AI for the living nazis was a bit suspect in these cases, ignoring the undead nazi threat if you were in sight, it was still satisfying as all get out to pop a soldier having a converation, watch him turn, and then the living soldier is either distracted for you to kill first or dead.

And while the sawed off is a great tool against the undead nazis, should there be a small group, it was not the go to for me by any means. Headshots with any gun with accuracy or the automatic shotguns were better alternatives because they removed the 2 shots then reload limitation.

As far as the final boss, the design is done in a way I consider interesting as well. Anyone who read your post that I've quoted may now be aware of undead in the game (if they didn't already know.), but I'm going to put the next part in spoilers to protect it since we didn't discuss much specific to the final boss other than regular enemies showing up during the fight:

The cool thing about the final boss is that he's entirely aggro'ed by sound. That's it. Make no sounds, he won't attack you. So the encounter becomes a strategic endeavor to manage the living nazis in such a way to make the final boss concentrate on them, pop him in the mouth while his attention is elsewhere, then move out of the way because he attacks where the sound was made.

I realized he was sound focused pretty early on, but it took me a few tries to work out the kinks of managing the nazis (both living and dead) with the damage that you take on Uber. Once I did that, the encounter was rather enjoyable... especially compared to that stupid bullshit of "invincible boss until you run around the map and hope you can activate these switches and get a checkpoint".

The new weapons are pretty cool too... I like the bombenschauss and schockhammer a lot better than the automatic shotgun and ar marksman in TNO. Also, that kampfpistol is just ridiculous to begin with, but when you use it on the new enemies in the second half of the game... that's a really nice touch.

Yeah, seems fairly Touch-and-Go sometimes on if you're overstepping the line. As far as I've seen, it is often played by ear until people start complaining about it and then it's considered disruptive.

So long as the Grief.exe brigade can continue to revive dead console franchises onto PC, I fail to see the problem~



Worth quoting for the new page for those in the "Should I Witcher 1/2 before 3" camp.

Thanks for quoting me, I think. :3

Also, I have no problem with port begging unless it derails a thread and the whole announcement thread becomes "why isn't this on the platform I want," anger rants.
This is a discussion forum and as such, things should be discussed... sure, it's not on platform x -- but what if it's a small indie game such as Malebolgia or Dust or Cook, Serve, Delicious, or [add game developed by a GAFer here}? Those developers actively read GAF and aren't mega corporations -- if they see demand and stuff, you may help convince them to port the game to a new platform.
Hell, we all wonder or question from time to time why certain games never got ported here or there... I don't think it's the disruptive "worth of automatic ban" problem that some moderators look for. And I signed that SEGA petition and I'd do it again for other publishers who have catalogs I'd happily rebuy on PC or Vita or whatever platform seems to make the most sense for me.

Just wanted to make it clear that my statement was more about the moderation of "port begging" and not about Grief.exe or the "campaigns" to get more games on PC (or wherever).
 
I disagree with some of those parts...

Yeah, the prologue was a bit weird in pacing, but you get into action quick and can actually get a feel for the later acquired double barreled shotgun (albeit not the sawed-off version).

About the pacing in the second half and enemy types:
And stealthing some of the undead sections was absolutely fantastic in that you could stealth kill (with the silenced pistol) a generic nazi and have him turn. At this point, it would attack the nearest *thing* and not come directly to you. While the AI for the living nazis was a bit suspect in these cases, ignoring the undead nazi threat if you were in sight, it was still satisfying as all get out to pop a soldier having a converation, watch him turn, and then the living soldier is either distracted for you to kill first or dead.

And while the sawed off is a great tool against the undead nazis, should there be a small group, it was not the go to for me by any means. Headshots with any gun with accuracy or the automatic shotguns were better alternatives because they removed the 2 shots then reload limitation.

As far as the final boss, the design is done in a way I consider interesting as well. Anyone who read your post that I've quoted may now be aware of undead in the game (if they didn't already know.), but I'm going to put the next part in spoilers to protect it since we didn't discuss much specific to the final boss other than regular enemies showing up during the fight:

The cool thing about the final boss is that he's entirely aggro'ed by sound. That's it. Make no sounds, he won't attack you. So the encounter becomes a strategic endeavor to manage the living nazis in such a way to make the final boss concentrate on them, pop him in the mouth while his attention is elsewhere, then move out of the way because he attacks where the sound was made.

I realized he was sound focused pretty early on, but it took me a few tries to work out the kinks of managing the nazis (both living and dead) with the damage that you take on Uber. Once I did that, the encounter was rather enjoyable... especially compared to that stupid bullshit of "invincible boss until you run around the map and hope you can activate these switches and get a checkpoint".

The new weapons are pretty cool too... I like the bombenschauss and schockhammer a lot better than the automatic shotgun and ar marksman in TNO. Also, that kampfpistol is just ridiculous to begin with, but when you use it on the new enemies in the second half of the game... that's a really nice touch.

Yeah, the end boss was pretty interesting once I figured out what to do.
Also, I think that this one is a lot more balanced than TNO in Uber (with the exception of grenade spam, which is something that I'll never get used to)
 
Yeah, the end boss was pretty interesting once I figured out what to do.
Also, I think that this one is a lot more balanced than TNO in Uber (with the exception of grenade spam, which is something that I'll never get used to)

Hahaha, yeah, there were a few sections where the grenade spam was on the same level of W@W on Veteran, if you ever went through that. Fucking Treyarch. ;)
 

Lomax

Member
The second problem with the discovery queue is that marking things as "not interested" has absolutely no bearing on how your discovery queue is crafted in the future. While other sites like Amazon and Netflix have this figured out in a sense, Valve's implementation is literally "Okay you got it chief, we won't show you this game again! Instead, we'll show you the GOTY version of the same game!".

I think people have expectations that Valve's system works like Netflix - if you mark a F2P MMO as "not interested" then it would eliminate or significantly reduce the number of F2P MMO games you're shown in the future.

What's sad is that Netflix has more employees that do nothing but improve their queue and recommendation system than Valve has employees total.
 

Applesauce

Boom! Bitch-slapped!
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Hahaha, yeah, there were a few sections where the grenade spam was on the same level of W@W on Veteran, if you ever went through that. Fucking Treyarch. ;)

Yep, luckily Machine Games lets the player run around collecting armour and health pickups, so the grenade spam can be somewhat forgiven. World at War insists on throwing a thousand grenades at the player, yet you are forced to take cover and wait in most gunfights. Really weird design choice, I'd say.
 

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.
As for the discovery queue, it's mind-boggling that they haven't integrated it with the tag system yet.
Easy fucking fix, Valve, a day's work, if that much.

At this point, I'd probably be willing to take two week's vacation from my regular job so that I could volunteer at Valve to do stuff like that.
 

Turfster

Member
At this point, I'd probably be willing to take two week's vacation from my regular job so that I could volunteer at Valve to do stuff like that.

Yeah. They have part of the data anyway, since they store/derive recommended tags for you, so it would really be a matter of hours to fix this half-assed implementation.
 

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Since the discovery update increased the average revenue Valve probably doesn't think there's more imprevement needed or the people responsible for it moved on to other projects. Wonder how long it will take them to move on from VR.
 

Turfster

Member
Guys, need help.

When were the summer sales of the last two years, possibly three? JShack, I know you know dis.

2014 June 19th
2013 July 11th
2012 July 12th
2011 June 30th

Also.
GOG Support said:
Gifting of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt temporarily unavailable (fix in progress)

Due to a very large number of fraudulent transactions coming in, we have had to disable the gifting option for three items: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Expansion Pass, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Game + Expansion Pass.

We are working to clarify the problem and prevent further fraudulent transactions from being made.

We will make gifting possible once more as soon as this issue is resolved.
 
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