Welcome to the October 2015 NeoGAF Steam thread! Your hot new source for Happy Birthday Anime Football reaction gifs.
Tales of Zestiria - jshackles
The 15th game in Namco's long-running
Tales series, and is being billed as a return to form and goes back to the series' roots that were established in Tales of Phantasia. The game features a vast open-world overworld, interactive dungeons, action-based combat system, great music, and tons of items and equipment that can be used to learn new moves and abilities. Also, the game is absolutely gorgeous.
The story this time around follows a young human named Sorey who was raised by the Seraphim and wants to become a Shepherd who can claim power over creatures known as Hellions and to defeat their mysterious evil leader to save humanity. While the plot might sound pretty generic, the overall story arc is filled with a huge cast of characters each with their own special abilities based on different types of elemental damage.
The good news for those that purchase directly on Steam is that if enough people pre-order, the Steam version of Zestiria includes a free copy of Tales of Symphonia which is considered by many to be one of the best games in the series. As of this writing, there are 3 weeks left before the game releases and we are only 47% towards this last pre-order "stretch goal". Fingers crossed!
The bad news for PC gamers is that the game is locked to 30fps. Namco has said that it's because so much is tied into the game's battle system logic, so unfortunately even Durante probably won't be able to save us. However, kudos to Namco for letting us know beforehand and for being transparent in revealing this. On the plus side, they've assured us that the game will render all the way up to 4k and offer low, medium, and high anti-aliasing, shadow, and texture options in addition to twice the draw distance as the Playstation 3 version of the game.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut - PARANO1A
Who doesn't love Diablo-style loot games? And you know what's even better than a great Diablo clone? Three of them, stapled together into a crispy treat. That's Van Helsing: Final Cut, which brings all of the games in the popular trilogy into a massive colossus of a thing, with dozens hours of entertainment. Taking the best bits of each game and merging them into a single experience, it's something new to those familiar, and crazy value to those that are new. With six unique classes, a unique companion mechanic, an end-game infinite adventure-style mode, and controller support for Comfy Couch (tm) goodness, it's a great pickup for loot fans. This will be the new benchmark for couch-driven loot gaming on the PC. Oh, and it's free to those that own the original trilogy. Can't beat that.
Transformers: Devastation - Tizoc
Platinum game+G1 Transformers. What more needs to be said?
Well to give it more context, TF Devastation is published by Activision but is developed by Platinum games. Impressions from those that got the Console version early refer to it as having inspirations or elements from both Bayonetta and Vanquish as far as combat goes. Visually it uses a cel shaded look to make the G1 designs look the best a video game can have them look.
Despite having a small cast of only 5 characters: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Sideswipe and Grimlock; this being a Platinum game means it'll offer lots of replayability and entertaining fights to more than merit it's $50 tag, along with it's rocking soundtrack.
If you need more Platinum action goodness in your life, don't skip out on this game, likewise if you're a Transformers fan. Besides how many Transformers games let you do a Shoryuken on Devestator as Optimus Prime, or smack Starscream's face with a Double Lariat from Bumblebee, or even do a FLASH KICK on Megatron as Grimlock?
Divinity: Original Sin: Enhanced Edition - milena87
SteamGAF's GOTY 2014 returns better than ever.
Everyone should be familiar with D:OS by now, but let's recap: you can create 2 heroes and have them bicker over every single thing that happens, you can recruit up to 2 other companions, there's the best turn-based combat in an RPG ever, good humor, an epic story and, possibly the most important thing, you can interact with almost every object you see.
This will inevitably lead to you stealing every single item in the first town, cunningly distracting the poor villagers while raiding their homes. It will take a few hours, but, once you'll finish selling the stolen goods back to those unsuspecting villagers, you won't need to worry about money anymore. I know, I know, this already sounds like a perfect game, so what could Larian possibly do to improve it?
Well, the biggest additions will be controller support and split-screen option of course. Larian also worked on the story, adding more characters, quests, locations, dialogue and apparently a completely new ending!
The gameplay was completely rebalanced and now promises to be even more engaging that before; they also added some new battle styles, like Dual Wielding and Grenades, and 2 new game modes, Explorer (for those who just want to enjoy the story and explore the world) and Honour (difficult fights, challenging puzzles and new monsters).
And this Enhanced Edition will also have a new user interface, better graphics and animations, improved sounds and visual effects. I remember they also talked about improving the crafting system, the only thing that didn't convince me in the vanilla game, but I haven't heard much about it since. Well, at the very least you can look forward to baking more pies and pizzas.
In short: play this. Especially if you like RPGs.
The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone - milena87
At least 10 more hours of The Witcher 3 goodness should be enough to convince most people to get this first expansion, but lets try to talk a bit more about it. The story in Hearts of Stone is not connected to the events told in the main game, so you can play this at any time, although the devs recommend to use a 30+ level Geralt. Our protagonist will be hired by the Man of Glass, aka the man that you encounter at the beginning of the main game in the tavern, during your search for Yennefer. In true Witcher fashion, you can complete this set of quests in different ways. The expansion will also add new side-quests, monster hunts, armor sets, a new romance and Runewords.
Runewords are a combination of different Glyphs that will grant special buffs, like increased resistence, or enhanced combat abilities. Apparently there will be a new NPC, a wizard named Ofirian, who will help Geralt researching these Runewords.
Oh, and you will also party with a ghost.
Paint it Back - Knurek
Picross* finally comes to Steam! What better way to test your quad-way 980 TI and i7-6700K system than the best puzzle game under the sun? Move over Hexcells, go home Lyne, the king is finally here.
While this is a mobile port, the dev re-coded it from scratch for PCs, adding keyboard, mouse and gamepad support, alongside some large puzzles that were not possible to do on a phone (40x30 puzzles, which can take more than an hour to solve). With 150 puzzles, like the all time classic "Satan Explaining to Bigfoot Why He Shouldve Gotten Baptized" or "Mugged While Tightrope Walking" you will have hours of guaranteed fun** with this game.
* ®© Nintendo, Kyoto, Japan, pleasedon'tsue
** fun guaranteed for human beings, body-snatching Venusian poison slugs and energy beings from dimension 8.
Final Fantasy V - jshackles
Final Fantasy V finally comes to the PC, but don't rejoice too quickly. While every
true fan of the series knows this is one of the best games the series has to offer, PC players have grown accustomed to their games running better than their console counterparts.
Final Fantasy V originally released in Japan in 1992 on the Super Famicom and was a massive success there. Despite this, Square didn't feel like the game would work well in the West. When the game finally came stateside it was bundled with Final Fantasy VI and was plagued by a terrible translation and slow loading times. It wasn't until 2006 that we got the GBA version of V which many people still consider to be the best. In 2013 the game released for iOS and Android, which is the version of the game this PC release is based on. The updated "HD" graphics were universally panned by critics, and the placement of the Amano artwork in-game was jarring. Staying true to form, Square didn't listen to any of the criticism while porting this game to PC.
Despite it's rocky beginnings outside of Japan, most people that played it agree that the game mechanics are absolutely solid. The "Job" system that originated in III is back but this time better than ever - characters earn experience points during battle that are used to level up their currently equipped job. While equipping a different job you can select an ability earned by leveling up a previous job. It sounds more complicated than it is in practice, but it essentially means you can have a healer that can attack barehanded like a monk, or a summoner that can use the steal command like a thief. The combinations are nearly endless and you're only limited by your imagination and willingness to grind levels. The end result is absolute jRPG bliss.
So why is the PC version getting shit on by gamers and the press? As I mentioned above - the graphics were lifted directly from the mobile game which were near universally hated. The problem gets worse when you display the game at 1080p or higher, as the lines between the graphics tiles are really noticeable and quite jarring. On top of that, the game is riddled with bugs - some game-breaking (which I have personally experienced). In every sense of the word, this port is lazy. If you can look past this (and hopefully not encounter any critical bugs) the game and gameplay itself is amazing. However despite my absolute love for this franchise and for this game in particular, I can't recommend this version to anyone in its current state.
Assault Android Cactus - iosefe
Developed by Witch Beam, a small 3-man team which includes Fellow Gaffer, Paz, Assault Android Cactus is just pure fun, evocative of old Dreamcast games. AAC is a twin-stick shooter crossed with bullet hell. like...SO MANY Bullets. you will die often until you learn the ropes.
Playable with up to 4 players locally, takes your Android and give the evil robots hell! choose from 4 Default androids and 5 unlockable ones. each of them unique in their weapons and how they work. Take your Android and Destroy Robots, and 5 bosses! Aim for the highest of high scores, and even do a Boss Rush
For co-op, you can even mix and match inputs. like 2 DS4's, a 360 pad, and a KB/M combo. all works seamlessly, showing relevant prompts for everything. Also include are EX Mode options. These are Modifiers for the game, like Small Head Mode, AI Partners, Isometric View Mode, and FPS mode. Also, FPS Mode turns the game into a splitscreen game. Legit.
Anyway, very fun, and definitely worth the $15 the devs are asking for.
Tango Fiesta - Ozium
Tango Fiesta, released out of Early Acess on September 24 is a top-down shooter starring your favorite action heroes of the 80s. The title features both local and online co-op play for up to 4 players, but you can always play solo.
Does it sound like Broforce? Kind of, but this is not a side scroller this is a top down action game. It's kind of like Broforce's top-down cousin. Featuring up to 6 selectable heroes and a ton of purchasable weapons. And like Broforce this title features the 80s Action staple of destructible environments.
Fight your way through five worlds with four levels, each randomly generating terrain and enemy placement every time you play. And of course each world ends with a boss fight fitting to its theme. Even though it is out of Early Access the devs have stated that they plan to add more features, including a new game + mode and workshop support. Also features Steam Trading Cards.
Anyone can write a recommendation for an upcoming game for next month, just
send a a PM of the game you want to write about and your thoughts on why it's good/why people should play it. Please make the sure recommendation is 60+ words at least and try and hand it a few days before the month ends so I can add it to the next thread.
I actually don't have any of the BF games on PC. I always played them on consoles.
