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[Rhaknar]

In what fashion? Is it full of cutscenes? Or is it something mechanical, like not having access to equipment or skills and the developers didn't take that into account when designing encounters?

chapter 1? yes its purely mechanical. spoilers just in case.

Spoiler

Its a pure stealth part where you get 1-shot by the guy chasing you and you walk really slowly. Also, and after dying many times, I concluded that the game wants you to do it in a very specific, almost script like way, or he just always catches you, many times magically teleporting to you.

it feels like a completely different game than the rest of the game

it looked pretty tho, ill give it that. But then again the whole game looks pretty, theres some great art direction going on

Old-school or Resi 4, or both smashed together like it should be?

again, chapter 1, or the game in general? the game in general, at least to me, feels like RE4-2, with some Silent Hill trappings in the enemy design and reality bending vibe. Gameplay wise its all RE4 tho, with more stealth kills. But thats Chapter 2-onward, chapter 1 like I explained in the spoiler above, feels like a different game.

 

[MUnited83]

When Russia is all of a sudden 30%+ share of a game's sales region free when it's around 8% on the titles that are not region free, you can't expect everyone to just sit on their hands.

 

[Syphon Filter]

The end of an era :`(

Nothing lasts forever, but it's still sad.

What happened?

 

[Shadownet]

Actually, the store sub of MGSV was created before the region locking by default began. Of course, it's Konami, so it will come region locked anyway.

Legend of Korra has a 2 month sub so there is a chance of it being region free btw.

I'll be happy at this point if either Korra or MGS V is region free. *fingers crossed*

 

[JaseC]

What happened?

As of about a month ago, AllowCrossRegionTradingAndGifting is disabled by default.

 

[Altazor]

All Steam games are ARCTAG from now on by default. So no more cheap Russian games unless the developers turn off the ARCTAG.

So expect all the future releases like MGSV and Batman to be locked.

Edit: I meant "on"

This bit of news and this:

(not my pic, I don't live in Mexico)

have made me a VERY sad camper. Fucking horrible news.

 

[xBladeM6x]

I've finally gotten around to dicking around with Nvidia Inspector, and DSR on the 980, and in order to even hit my boost clock on most games, I have to render @ 1440p. All I can say is, wow. This is awesome.

Spoiler

Genuinely more excited about being able to effectively change games for the better with inspector, now that I know how to. Like giving AC:L HD proper vsync.

 

[Arthea]

Talking about region locking, what I find mostly shocking is that Valve took this position, which I think is wrong, backwards and removed from reality.
The world is getting smaller and smaller, it would be hard to find a family that all lives in one country or region, most likely, yet region locking is becoming a norm. That's insane. I mean taking ability to gift games from whole regions, why nobody is shocked by that? Only by losing cheaper games.
I also think that it doesn't help anybody, it don't increase revenues, don't magically make every overpriced for no reason region buy games day one and so on. Those are illusions. I understand that people have hard time distinguishing their imagined reality from real one, but if something looks wrong, feels wrong and does no good, it is in fact wrong!

 

[JaseC]

This bit of news and this:

(not my pic, I don't live in Mexico)

have made me a VERY sad camper. Fucking horrible news.

All of the recent currency switchovers have, thus far, generally been favourable. I'm curious as to how AUD will fare, but it would seem Valve has postponed the change due to the ongoing legal tiff with the ACCC.

 

[MUnited83]

So...

Piracy and region free buying/gifting are not remotely related, and no one is making that connection

Back on topic.

Publishers don't have the time/energy to get into the minutia of by territory sales data during the run up to a big launch unless something pops up that tells them they have to

When one of the primary topics of discussion during the launch week of a game is which Russian trader has the best price, and where in the BST thread a game can be found, you don't think people at devs and pubs notice?

And then when they do notice the discussion, you don't think they might have their numbers people check those geographic stats?

If it was only a few people doing it, then no big deal. Everyone's happy. But when this stuff gets to scale, and significant share shifting starts to happen...

The other option would be to raise the price in those regions to match Western Europe or North America pricing, which is even more unappealing than removing cross region trading.

If that was really the issue, publishers had the option to lock the games themselves. They are not locking the game themselves, they are being forced to by Valve.

And GAF ain't but a very minor percentage of games sold.

 

[CosmicQueso]

If that was really the issue, publishers had the option to lock the games themselves. They are not locking the game themselves, they are being forced to by Valve.

And GAF ain't but a very minor percentage of games sold.

Okay, believe what you want.

I know we have a lot of people on SteamGAF but yeah I don't think we make that big of an impact in the percentage of people who buy games from Russia.

GAF is the world's foremost enthusiast message board. You don't think people from pubs and devs see what's being talked about here and then look into things if certain conversations grow more and more prevalent? Really?

 

[Altazor]

All of the recent currency switchovers thus far have generally been favourable. I'm curious as to how AUD will fare, but it would seem Valve has postponed the change due to the ongoing legal tiff with the ACCC.

I can only hope the eventual currency switch to chilean peso is favourable. Game prices over here are horrible.

 

[Grief.exe]

Looks like December will be my catchup month. Doubt I will be able to finish Mordor, Evil Within, Korra, and FFXIII before Isaac comes out. Will have MGSV: GZ and Ace Attorney Trilogy that month too!

I've finally gotten around to dicking around with Nvidia Inspector, and DSR on the 980, and in order to even hit my boost clock on most games, I have to render @ 1440p. All I can say is, wow. This is awesome.

Spoiler

Genuinely more excited about being able to effectively change games for the better with inspector, now that I know how to. Like giving AC:L HD proper vsync.

Invidia Inspector is extremely useful, especially when you get past the initial learning curve. It's essentially required for SLI setups too, but it's always nice to force things like AF or cleaner AA when a game doesn't have the option, see: FFXIII.

Hopefully we will be able to force MFAA universally at one point.

 

[Shadownet]

If that was really the issue, publishers had the option to lock the games themselves. They are not locking the game themselves, they are being forced to by Valve.

And GAF ain't but a very minor percentage of games sold.

I know we have a lot of people on SteamGAF but yeah I don't think we make that big of an impact in the percentage of people who buy games from Russia.

 

[MUnited83]

One thing is certain, Valve and publishers will get much less revenue from me now. Games at 20/30$ on their release date are impulse buy territory. 60$ though? Good luck with that shit, I will wait a year and get them at 5$ anyways.

Okay, believe what you want.

I'd love for you to backup your claims with data. I have yet to see where your "30%" comes from. And if you really think the vast majority of steam users are on GAF buying from B/S/T sellers.... ermm, that's a bit weird. GAF is big, but it really ain't that big.

Hell, you even contractict yourself on your argument:

"Publishers don't have the time/energy to get into the minutia of by territory sales data during the run up to a big launch unless something pops up that tells them they have to"

"When one of the primary topics of discussion during the launch week of a game is which Russian trader has the best price, and where in the BST thread a game can be found, you don't think people at devs and pubs notice?"

So, which one is it? They do notice or do they not. Are the several million people on steam GAF users? Let me know.

 

[MayMay]

I'm playing The Evil Within locked to 30fps and with a controller, am I a peasant yet? (Its downsampled though lol)

 

[alr1ght]

Instructions for alr1ght:
Press the quote button to the left of this PM, select the quoted text, copy, and paste in the thread. You can remove these lines from the version you paste. Your giveaway will be automatically reposted on your behalf.

Instructions for participants:
I am giving away a Steam key. 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 containing the game you want to enter for. Confused? Watch this GIF tutorial or ask for help.

ModBot Basics:
- I really appreciate thank you messages, but please send them to me (alr1ght, 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 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.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown -- MB-FA9C10736CBA2047 - Taken by Jmanunknown. 11 entrants total.

.

 

[Phawx]

One thing is certain, Valve and publishers will get much less revenue from me now. Games at 20/30$ on their release date are impulse buy territory. 60$ though? Good luck with that shit, I will wait a year and get them at 5$ anyways.

$5 and the GotY version with all DLC

 

[Fox318]

You mean posting comics on gaf or in this thread is bannable move? If yes then i am sorry. Or this is just another Politics/Putin joke?

its a putin joke lol

 

[Grief.exe]

I have 8 hours in Enemy Unknown prior to this promotion and I immediately got my 80% off coupon for Enemy Within from Playfire sooo you might have to log in to your Playfire account first for it to synch up?

80% off Evil Within? Might have to look into this a bit more.

 

[Shadownet]

I'm playing The Evil Within locked to 30fps and with a controller, am I a peasant yet? (Its downsampled though lol)

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-evil-within-pc-offers-god-mode-infinite-ammo-a/1100-6422944/

Here you go bro, you can turn on console and unlock it to 60fps if you follow the instruction here. Btw I played with a controller too. It's much more enjoyable.

 

[MayMay]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-evil-within-pc-offers-god-mode-infinite-ammo-a/1100-6422944/

Here you go bro, you can turn on console and unlock it to 60fps if you follow the instruction here. Btw I played with a controller too. It's much more enjoyable.

Yeah -I know I can, but I decided against it because I cant keep solid 60 with my settings and resolution. So I'd rather have a rock solid locked framerate, than one that goes all over the place.

 

[Glass Rebel]

Do we know which regional currencies Valve is planning to introduce? Nintendo and Sony use CHF for Switzerland and the former uses some fucked up exchange rate.

 

[lashman]

One thing is certain, Valve and publishers will get much less revenue from me now. Games at 20/30$ on their release date are impulse buy territory. 60$ though? Good luck with that shit, I will wait a year and get them at 5$ anyways.

yeah - that's one of the things they don't seem to get - "day one" hype is real .... and for me personally - there's a much bigger chance of me pre-ordering a game if it's $20-30 ... not $60-70 ... just because they are limiting my options doesn't mean I'll suddenly start buying all games day one for $70 ... far from it .... the problem is - the longer away from release, the less I'm hyped to play the game .... so instead of me buying the game for $20-30 on day one ... after about a year I might as well wait another month or two (or more) and get it at 75% off - and by that time - they most definitely will drop the base price (unless they're activision, of course) so all-in-all I will just end up paying even less for the game than $20-30

 

[Fare Godmace]

Always-wait-for-a-5-bucks-sale-Steam-GAF welcomes with open arms any new members

---

Been playing a bit of Murdered: Soul Suspect (thanks again, Shadownet!). Just got to the graveyard. I'm enjoying it for what it is, but I can't feel to be a bit underwhelmed…

The pace is excruciatingly slow, and the story so far hasn't hooked me at all (although I hope some twists regarding the killer's identity and a bigger connection to the Witch Trials, even if I think I see them coming). Not a fan of the demon's exorcism QTE either, but that's because I'm stupid and I need a lot of time to properly press the right combination of WASD + mouse button

I was also expecting more from the investigations themselves. You always have find about 10 clues in every scene and try to connect a couple of them in chronological order in order to deduce what's happened or where should you go next. In theory this sounds kinda cool and in a way realistic, but I just feel I'm wasting too much time investigating straightforward stuff without any sense of accomplishment nor discovery.

Also, as a personal gripe, every NPC's face seems taken straight out from a modern Bioware game… I think it's the eyes and the weird facial animations, anyone else sees that? lol

Having said that, I'm still enjoying the game. I like collecting stuff, and some of the descriptions are nice (for example, Julia's memories). The spooky stories in each level are also cool, in a Boy Scout's night out kinda way. And having parts of the old Salem (in the spiritual world) clashing with the modern setting is also a good idea, visually at least.

I hope once I get closer to the game's end I'll start enjoying it more, but in any case I can't seriously get what was Square thinking with its price… I'd feel robbed if I paid full price for it

Spoiler

well, I got it for free, but you guys know what I mean

 

[madjoki]

80% off Evil Within? Might have to look into this a bit more.

Enemy Within, XCOM: Enemy Unknown expansion pack.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

Sine Mora is FUCKING AMAZING

 

[Miguel81]

80% off Evil Within? Might have to look into this a bit more.

That would have been great but it's just the expansion to XCOM.

 

[CosmicQueso]

Stuff

Not sure where the animosity is coming from. If I was pulling that number out of my rear, I'd already be banned for it.

You want to know why the region thing was happening, I tried to explain. You don't like that explanation for some reason. That's fine.

 

[Blak_Status]

One thing is certain, Valve and publishers will get much less revenue from me now. Games at 20/30$ on their release date are impulse buy territory. 60$ though? Good luck with that shit, I will wait a year and get them at 5$ anyways.

 

[JaseC]

Do we know which regional currencies Valve is planning to introduce? Nintendo and Sony use CHF for Switzerland and the former uses some fucked up exchange rate.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=118322627

 

[MUnited83]

Not sure where the animosity is coming from. If I was pulling that number out of my rear, I'd already be banned for it.

Then it shouldn't be a problem to post the source you have for those numbers.

You want to know why the region thing was happening, I tried to explain. .

The region locking this is not happening because of publishers. Publishers are not the ones putting the region locks now. Quite a few outright don't want or intended their game to be locked.

 

[Glass Rebel]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=118322627

Bless you. Looks like we're still safe for now.

 

[Milamber]

Can't wait for Autumn/Winter Sale. The amount of posts with terribly mispriced regional currencies will be glorious.

 

[madjoki]

One thing is certain, Valve and publishers will get much less revenue from me now. Games at 20/30$ on their release date are impulse buy territory. 60$ though? Good luck with that shit, I will wait a year and get them at 5$ anyways.

I expect Valve has monitored sales for existing games with locks and determined that's it's better to lock. Key sellers have started to also sell gifts which may have lead to this too (opening cheap gifts to larger audiences).

 

[jshackles]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=118322627

And to follow up on that somewhat, here are the "default" exchange rates I found:

So I compiled the currency tables for TF2 keys, to give everyone an idea of the exchange rates:

• usd = $2.19
• gbp = £1.29
• eur = 1,61€
• rub = 73,60 py6.
• brl = R$ 4,80
• jpy = ¥ 222.36
• nok = 13,41 kr
• idr = Rp 26504.12
• myr = RM7.06
• php = P96.76
• sgd = S$2.71
• thb = ฿70.72
• vnd = 46,950.28₫
• krw = ₩2,224.93
• try = 4,69 TL
• uah = 26,76₴
• mxn = Mex$ 28.61
• cad = CDN$ 2.36
• aud = AUD$ 2.34
• nzd = NZD$ 2.49

Of course this was almost 4 months ago so this could be outdated now.

 

[maneil99]

One thing is certain, Valve and publishers will get much less revenue from me now. Games at 20/30$ on their release date are impulse buy territory. 60$ though? Good luck with that shit, I will wait a year and get them at 5$ anyways.

This is why some devs don't bother with PC ports.

 

[MUnited83]

This is why some devs don't bother with PC ports.

Didn't knew they were forced to discount their game to 5$. They will get more money if they start to learn how to price games properly.

I either have a decent price come release date, or I pick it up when it's dirt cheap. With my huge backlog that's the way it is.

 

[Nzyme32]

Pretty surprised Alien Isolation can run on an old laptop with a GT525m pretty damn well. Well... except for the whole melting hand...

 

[electroflame]

This is why some devs don't bother with PC ports.

They shouldn't region-lock their games then. $30 is still better than $5, and it's better when the game is new to help get word-of-mouth going.

I really doubt that region-free games were putting a huge dent in the profits. I suspect that the vast majority of players didn't even know it was a thing.

EDIT: I meant this towards publishers with more niche titles that would complain about people waiting for a $5 deal.

 

[corrosivefrost]

Wow.

Guess my collection will stop growing at exponential rates and will be limited to the big sales or really good mid-week/weekend deals.

yeah - that's one of the things they don't seem to get - "day one" hype is real .... and for me personally - there's a much bigger chance of me pre-ordering a game if it's $20-30 ... not $60-70 ... just because they are limiting my options doesn't mean I'll suddenly start buying all games day one for $70 ... far from it .... the problem is - the longer away from release, the less I'm hyped to play the game .... so instead of me buying the game for $20-30 on day one ... after about a year I might as well wait another month or two (or more) and get it at 75% off - and by that time - they most definitely will drop the base price (unless they're activision, of course) so all-in-all I will just end up paying even less for the game than $20-30

Pretty much this.

I grabbed Sacred 3 and Risen 3, for example, because they were about $25 each.
Mordor, Witcher 3, Dead Rising, Ryse, etc.

All those games... I'd not own a single one if they weren't region free.

What publishers are getting, from me, with this new default tag is exactly what they're going to get from you and many others: I'll buy it when it's at some price <$15 unless the hype is unreal and I need to play it NOW (The Evil Within, for example).

 

[Arthea]

I expect Valve has monitored sales for existing games with locks and determined that's it's better to lock. Key sellers have started to also sell gifts which may have lead to this too (opening cheap gifts to larger audiences).

you know, it's 3 months we are now waiting for valve to tell us what's going on with greelight, also we wait days for support replies, not to mention we never get Valve to do anything that requires actually to do something fast, by fast I mean in matter of reasonable time frame. Yet they monitor sales? Of 80 mln userbase? with what? 5 people? c'mon that's too funny

 

[Shadownet]

Pretty surprised Alien Isolation can run on an old laptop with a GT525m pretty damn well. Well... except for the whole melting hand...

Don't put it on your lap or.. well you know.

 

[MUnited83]

They shouldn't region-lock their games then. $30 is still better than $5, and it's better when the game is new to help get word-of-mouth going.

The worse thing is that it's no longer them region locking the game, it's Valve, by default. They don't even ask if you want your game region locked. It will be region locked. Many publishers didn't even wanted their games to be locked at all (like the screensaver thingy, Pyrite Heart, etc,etc) yet they are.

 

[Rhaknar]

Wow.

Guess my collection will stop growing at exponential rates and will be limited to the big sales or really good mid-week/weekend deals.

so, back to business as usual about 1 year ago then

 

[MarcoZombieCannon]

Don't put it on your lap or.. well you know.

Eh, we don't need legs.

 

[derExperte]

you know, it's 3 months we are now waiting for valve to tell us what's going on with greelight, also we wait days for support replies, not to mention we never get Valve to do anything that requires actually to do something fast, by fast I mean in matter of reasonable time frame. Yet they monitor sales? Of 80 mln userbase? with what? 5 people? c'mon that's too funny

We know that they offer tools for that which spit out very detailed data that the devs can analyze.

Sine Mora is FUCKING AMAZING

How far are you? Because later levels, bosses and enemy waves are not amazing at all, it becomes kinda bullshitty. Still worth one playthrough for the presentation.

 

[Miguel81]

This is why some devs don't bother with PC ports.

Not everyone waits for $5 sales. Nowadays, a lot of the games without ports are Japanese, and that's for other reasons than just not making money.

 

[billmcdougal]

Sine Mora is FUCKING AMAZING

Agreed. Amazing visuals, fantastic gameplay, and furries!

 

[corrosivefrost]

so, back to business as usual about 1 year ago then

Pretty much.

Time to round out my collection with older stuff and put a dent in that backlog. :3