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STEAM | September II 2014 - Ride the Lightning
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
- Status
Listen to your voice. Give me your other 970 so you can get another one.
someguyinahat
Member
Not sure if anyone will need this, but hey, maybe you will. Some impressions for Infected: The Twin Vaccine (Collector's Edition)
To preface these impressions, if I had to sum up the game in one word I'd say "inconsistent." You see something and you say "That's very well done, I really like how they did this" and then ten seconds later you're all "What the fuck were they thinking?" It did a lot of things right, and a lot wrong. But let me break it down for you.
The story: You play a disease specialist called to the town of Oxford - the game thanks the town of Oxford Nova Scotia so let's assume it's there - where a virus has killed 150 people. The "patient zeroes" were two twin girls, but one of the twins was the only known survivor and believed immune. So your job, doctor, is to find this girl and deal with her overprotective (and badass) father. Why you and not a cop? I dunno. But hey, at least this time it's not ghosts, zombies or ancient civilizations with ties to aliens. So it's got that going for it, which is nice. The story is RIFE with anachronisms and inconsistencies. You're a doctor in 2012 but you still have a rotary phone. An entomology student's room contains a book on "etymology, the study of insects." How did not one person pick up on that error? And spelling errors and misused phrases aplenty. "Chop one up" for lack of editing!
The gameplay: Infected is a modern hidden object game, which means it's part point-and-click adventure and part finding stuff on cluttered screens. Not sure whether to include this in graphics or here, but I'll do it here: resolution options don't exist. Your choices are windowed or fullscreen, with a widescreen checkbox. And if you click the widescreen checkbox, you're gonna have a bad time. Doing so means the cursor doesn't line up with the inventory. To pick up something in your inventory you have to aim your cursor up and closer to the center of the screen...almost as if you weren't playing in widescreen! For a cursor to be off in a hidden object game is really nerve-wracking. So just stick with the default, it still looks good. Speaking of which...
The graphics: For a small game like this, the graphics are super great. Characters are green-screened or partly digitized real actors. So it's not totally FMV (like you'll see in HOGs such as Escape from Ravenhearst) and it's not totally drawn. For the most part it works, but just don't focus on looking too closely at the homeless guy. He's got a serious case of Uncanny Valley. *Jibblie jibblie* Environments are similarly taken out of stills from small towns in Eastern Canada and digitized. There are a few FMV cutscenes of stock footage used to great effect. So they really shined here.
Dialogue, voices and music: Again, really good. The game starts with a cutscene: a newsreel describing the backstory. The on-the-scene reporter does a great job with this halting cadence, sounds a bit nervous, you'd think he was an actual reporter they called up to do voice acting. There's not a lot of stupid "lost in translation" phrasing that makes you wonder who speaks like that; it's mostly realistic dialogue. The best part is the bonus chapter, told from the point of view of the badass father, where the on-screen instructions use his farmboy nuances: "I reckon"s aplenty. Music was also quite nice in this. Okay, you're asking, this sounds like a cool game. Why did you call it inconsistent?
The puzzles: Ughhhh. Just plain bizarre and illogical most of the time. At every turn, you're asking "Why? How? Why do I need to break a window with THAT when there's debris everywhere? That's not how it works! That's not how any of this works!" Okay, listen, I get that adventure games sometimes require leaps in logic. But this is like throwing logic out the window. I hate using spoilers as examples but there's really no other way.
A dripping pipe has left a section of a wall wet and weakened. Okay, I figure, maybe I have to scrape the wet paint off with my paint scraper and reveal what's there. Nope. Use a hammer and chisel to break into the wall? Nope. Okay, wh...going through all my inventory...oh. I was supposed to shoot a CROSSBOW through the weakened wall, so that it breaks a tile in the room behind it and reveals a gem. Who in their right mind would think of that?
The hidden object sections fare little better: you have to find 12 items but a lot of them are chained so you can only find four at first, then interact with items one after another to find them all - like a mini point-and-click adventure on one screen. In my opinion, that's a step backwards in game design. Your mileage on that may vary.
The verdict: I wanted to go to bat for this one. It's got a good story, great graphics, great voice acting, good music, and it's about average length for a hidden object game (took me 3.5 hours for the main game plus bonus chapter.) But the gameplay elements are so illogical and "only in a videogame" that it almost feels like a game deconstructed into its base elements. I'm having a hard time deciding whether to recommend it or not. So let's put it this way: if you've never played a hidden object game before, or are new to point-and-clicks, don't get this one. If you're an old hand at them, you might want to check it out for the story and be able to follow its gamey logic. Still shaking my head at how it could get things so right and so wrong at the same time.
To preface these impressions, if I had to sum up the game in one word I'd say "inconsistent." You see something and you say "That's very well done, I really like how they did this" and then ten seconds later you're all "What the fuck were they thinking?" It did a lot of things right, and a lot wrong. But let me break it down for you.
The story: You play a disease specialist called to the town of Oxford - the game thanks the town of Oxford Nova Scotia so let's assume it's there - where a virus has killed 150 people. The "patient zeroes" were two twin girls, but one of the twins was the only known survivor and believed immune. So your job, doctor, is to find this girl and deal with her overprotective (and badass) father. Why you and not a cop? I dunno. But hey, at least this time it's not ghosts, zombies or ancient civilizations with ties to aliens. So it's got that going for it, which is nice. The story is RIFE with anachronisms and inconsistencies. You're a doctor in 2012 but you still have a rotary phone. An entomology student's room contains a book on "etymology, the study of insects." How did not one person pick up on that error? And spelling errors and misused phrases aplenty. "Chop one up" for lack of editing!
The gameplay: Infected is a modern hidden object game, which means it's part point-and-click adventure and part finding stuff on cluttered screens. Not sure whether to include this in graphics or here, but I'll do it here: resolution options don't exist. Your choices are windowed or fullscreen, with a widescreen checkbox. And if you click the widescreen checkbox, you're gonna have a bad time. Doing so means the cursor doesn't line up with the inventory. To pick up something in your inventory you have to aim your cursor up and closer to the center of the screen...almost as if you weren't playing in widescreen! For a cursor to be off in a hidden object game is really nerve-wracking. So just stick with the default, it still looks good. Speaking of which...
The graphics: For a small game like this, the graphics are super great. Characters are green-screened or partly digitized real actors. So it's not totally FMV (like you'll see in HOGs such as Escape from Ravenhearst) and it's not totally drawn. For the most part it works, but just don't focus on looking too closely at the homeless guy. He's got a serious case of Uncanny Valley. *Jibblie jibblie* Environments are similarly taken out of stills from small towns in Eastern Canada and digitized. There are a few FMV cutscenes of stock footage used to great effect. So they really shined here.
Dialogue, voices and music: Again, really good. The game starts with a cutscene: a newsreel describing the backstory. The on-the-scene reporter does a great job with this halting cadence, sounds a bit nervous, you'd think he was an actual reporter they called up to do voice acting. There's not a lot of stupid "lost in translation" phrasing that makes you wonder who speaks like that; it's mostly realistic dialogue. The best part is the bonus chapter, told from the point of view of the badass father, where the on-screen instructions use his farmboy nuances: "I reckon"s aplenty. Music was also quite nice in this. Okay, you're asking, this sounds like a cool game. Why did you call it inconsistent?
The puzzles: Ughhhh. Just plain bizarre and illogical most of the time. At every turn, you're asking "Why? How? Why do I need to break a window with THAT when there's debris everywhere? That's not how it works! That's not how any of this works!" Okay, listen, I get that adventure games sometimes require leaps in logic. But this is like throwing logic out the window. I hate using spoilers as examples but there's really no other way.
A dripping pipe has left a section of a wall wet and weakened. Okay, I figure, maybe I have to scrape the wet paint off with my paint scraper and reveal what's there. Nope. Use a hammer and chisel to break into the wall? Nope. Okay, wh...going through all my inventory...oh. I was supposed to shoot a CROSSBOW through the weakened wall, so that it breaks a tile in the room behind it and reveals a gem. Who in their right mind would think of that?
The hidden object sections fare little better: you have to find 12 items but a lot of them are chained so you can only find four at first, then interact with items one after another to find them all - like a mini point-and-click adventure on one screen. In my opinion, that's a step backwards in game design. Your mileage on that may vary.
The verdict: I wanted to go to bat for this one. It's got a good story, great graphics, great voice acting, good music, and it's about average length for a hidden object game (took me 3.5 hours for the main game plus bonus chapter.) But the gameplay elements are so illogical and "only in a videogame" that it almost feels like a game deconstructed into its base elements. I'm having a hard time deciding whether to recommend it or not. So let's put it this way: if you've never played a hidden object game before, or are new to point-and-clicks, don't get this one. If you're an old hand at them, you might want to check it out for the story and be able to follow its gamey logic. Still shaking my head at how it could get things so right and so wrong at the same time.
CrunchyFrog
Member
Played a couple rounds with one of the Screen Cheat devs. You mofos NEED to play this game once it comes out on the 21st. It surprised me too how well the experience still worked even online, the netcode is excellent (that or I didn't/was unable to notice with everyone being invisible and all). They just added a murder mystery mode which has you finding a specific weapon to kill a specific player only indicted by what color section they're currently in. It's a great changeup in gameplay and with the possibility of shooting the wrong targets when everyone bunches together and playing isolated games of cat and mouse it all gets chaotic and awesome really quickly. My only real complaint is that there's no way to really make this game with more than four players, but I may as well be yelling at the clouds for making it rain.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Someone did post this earlier in here right?
http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/1/6882275/free-steam-game-scam
Seems relevant to this thread.
http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/1/6882275/free-steam-game-scam
Seems relevant to this thread.
dont encourage it!
I know that feel bro.gif
Just fucking terrified to have ubi throw me a JaseC and deleting my save.
Well, that doesn't mean that the whole online sp is not a pathetic debacle, but eh...
NingenJanai
Member
Morning guys
STEAM | October 2014 - September forever
STEAM | October 2014 - September forever
ModBot said:Instructions for participants:
I am giving away 2 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 (NingenJanai, 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:
- If you are a lurker you are not eligible for this giveaway. You need five or more posts in either the current Steam thread or the previous one to be eligible
Circuits --MB-F1E53B942015AF31- Taken by iosefe
Ascension To The Throne --MB-5F8DB2DC0E1C6846- Taken by Catshade
Atraveller
Banned
STEAM | October 2014 - Rules of Korra
NightmareTrigger
Banned
Actually, Rules of Nature still works, don't it?
That feel when you've met one of the head guys who works on MSE a few months ago and got his card.
It's not a collector's item because it doesn't actually do anything -- like the Greenlight fee*, it doesn't count as a game, and Steam Mobile left beta yonks ago. I just want it because it's a "game" I don't have.
* It was a game initially but was changed to a config app a few months ago. At no point was it actually a +1, though.
I'll just say that MSN is lightweight and I trust it a fair bit but I have picked up some "non mal ware threats" that malwarebytes could find that MSE missed. I like having multiple sets of eyes I guess.
Gaming front, I finally could sink some hours into mordor. Have yet to really have my own nemesis story to tell but seems like I'm at a point where I need to hunt some chiefs so that should change too. I did die to some ghuls and a random orc got promoted for it ><
Gaming front, I finally could sink some hours into mordor. Have yet to really have my own nemesis story to tell but seems like I'm at a point where I need to hunt some chiefs so that should change too. I did die to some ghuls and a random orc got promoted for it ><
soon...
Image works - just needs coffee.
Blu Ray and game come out on same day. Am excite.
yes. yes it does
Does anyone else have a problem with the same orc coming back to life over and over and over again? I've only been playing for about two hours, and I've killed Mogg the Wicked 5 times in a row now, and I can't cut off his head and kill him permanently because he's immune to everything except stealth kills. I've barely gotten anything interesting done because every time I try that stupid bastard pops back up.
I've had a few orcs come back to life on me a few times, but not quite that persistent.
You could try advancing time while he is dead and maybe another orc captain will rise up to take his place.
electroflame
Member
I actually had a orc I beheaded come back (granted, it was only once but it was a pretty funny bug).
Eventually he should stay dead, you just seem to have some bad luck. You could try to lure him to a Graug (spelling? The big troll/golem things) and see if it'll take him down for good.
The Dear Leader
Banned
The only way I've been able to permanently put down a Orc was when I cut off his head, you can also try the unlock for interrogate where you pop their heads after you get intel.
What's the point of that article? They admit that they didn't bother verifying the key requests at all; case closed right there. They done fucked up.
brb, starting my own Youtube channel.
To spread some awareness to indie devs? It isn't just him fucking up, but many that are doing it since he did an expriement and got many keys from other devs.
Also shines a bit of a light on how scummy some of these key reseller sites possibly are.
I've been wishing for them to provide Blu Ray Digital films. Really sick of old-school disc switching whenever I'm in the mood to watch - streaming is of poorer quality, especially the sound. Not happening but whatevs.
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
well, the pc and android 11 bundle ended up not being very interesting to me, just got the 1 dollar tier. thomas was alone better be worth it once i eventually play it haha
seemed experimental enough.
seemed experimental enough.
Syphon Filter
Member
use itunes.
said it before but it will most likely only be limited to very few countries. I really wouldn't want to watch movies or listen to music on steam client anyways. id rather use iTunes/ hulu/ netflix/ Spotify/ Google Play or other services that are dedicated in this field. not to mention how buggy/ slow the current steam client is.
Nabs
Member
Any idea on how to watch videos I have on the computer using big picture mode? I would love to watch videos and select them from a list. I have to leave and use VLC at the moment
XBMC? Set it up and run it through Steam.
Im here?
Dude, that is not how the game's supposed to be played. You're supposed to put on your striped shirt and hat and wait for him to find you. >.>
MarcoZombieCannon
Member
Welcome back. I don't come around here as often as I used to, so I'm sorry if you've reared your head before now and I missed it.
Yeah, assuming Valve's intention is to expand the store's media offerings, the selection is either going to be very limited so as to ensure global availability or decidedly region-specific.
Thanks! I did post on the 26 but I'm not posting much around here lately.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
Do those people really need to be taught common sense? You don't give away your work for free to just anyone who asks. I know they're desperate for publicity but not even spending 30 seconds to hit up YouTube and look at the guy's channel is pure laziness, and now the guy feels stupid about it and is looking for someone else to blame for that blunder. Meh.
What makes it even more 'meh' is that sending promo copies to pretty much anyone who shows interest is common practice not just in games, but in all entertainment. Getting movie screeners and promo albums is just as easy, and getting free games from bigger publishers is easy too. This guy has just had his first few experiences in the gaming industry, discovered a "shocking" commonplace practice that's been around for 30 years and he doesn't quite understand that getting the word out there is generally referred to as "the cost of doing business". Meh.
Humble Bundle debuts curated storefronts with Yogscast partnership
Why i have feeling this won't end so well?
Why i have feeling this won't end so well?
PetriP-TNT
Member
NeoGAF debuts it's own vidya game store, curated by my ass.
I'm not a fan of Yogscast, and certainly not a fan of the way they've conducted themselves lately, but in this case there isn't too much here that can go wrong. Mostly because they aren't actually doing anything other than telling their fanboys what to buy. I'm sure they'll recommend some garbage, but that's no different than any other celebrity endorsement deal.
we all know about your POP-gaf addiction
Not like I hide it.
Thus I thought to myself: when in doubt go fishing (haven't bought Sega Bass Fishing yet, though) or cut some wood. What's said - done, installed Jack Lumber and went all violent on wood. And here is the thing. What's with controls in this game?
edited: I just understood that volvo could have released Bayo2 if they wanted, steam exclusive too. Imagine that!
edit2:
(><) kinda want
edited: I just understood that volvo could have released Bayo2 if they wanted, steam exclusive too. Imagine that!
edit2:
(><) kinda want
http://www.overclock.net/t/999232/a-quick-guide-on-how-to-increase-font-size-in-steam-chats To change the notification window text size, search the same file for Label until you see this:
Code:
Label
{
textcolor="Label"
selectedtextcolor="Text"
bgcolor="none"
font-family=basefont
font-size=14
font-weight=400
}And change the font-size value accordingly. E.g.:
Default (14):
Modified (16):
Note that this will also increase the font size of other text elements that use the Label class.
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