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Steam Summer Sale 2013 Thread #3 - Many questions answered in the OP's FAQ

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antitrop

Member
Ubisoft is a complete joke.

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Did I miss the flash or daily on Rogue Legacy or something? I'm starting to lose hope of that ever happening.

Same for Kentucky Route Zero. Those are basically the last two games I'm waiting to grab.

Still hasn't been a daily or flash for Rogue Legacy, it's only been -20% this past week. Maybe this weekend?
 

Vodh

Junior Member

Grief.exe

Member
Thinking about buying Rayman and/or Bully. Don't have much time to think it through as it's late.

Quick thoughts?

Stump's write up on Bully

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=39647329&postcount=151

My thoughts on Bully:

... Bully diverged, for the better, from R*'s usual fare. The scope being reduced helped a lot. Across all the GTA games, the only area that's ever felt remotely as well realized as Bully's city was the few blocks immediately surrounding CJ's cul-de-sac in GTA SA. Everything in Bully is by definition a landmark, because there's so few things in the city that everything that's there plays a purpose to the overall shape, size, and aesthetic of the city. Just about the only game this generation that's been quite so well crafted has been Deadly Premonition.

I like that the game combined a sort of Ivy League New England Prep sensibility (even the carnival and the cobblestone streets in the old city part remind me of small college towns) with a sort of Lost Boys-esque rough-around-the-edges lower-middle-class street fighting feel. It worked really well. I can't think of any games this generation that made such a clear visual impression on me. I also loved how the final area that opened up in-game, the power plant / trailer park / main city did a nice job of portraying the sort of blue collar / industrial district you'd commonly see in a GTA, but recast in a way that's appropriate for Bully's overall tone.

The passage of seasons, of course, was spectacular. I hope that it inspired Mafia II, which later used a time jump and season change to wonderful effect. I think everyone can agree the Hallowe'en mission was very well realized. I liked that most missions were pretty low stakes. They really did feel like the kind of thing knucklehead teenagers would do to kill time.

I liked the daytime cycle. It reminded me favourably of Skool Daze (which I think was the first and only pre-Bully game set in a school!). I liked having to constantly decide if I would try to do my schoolwork or use my time to press forward. I wish they had introduced more arduous time limits, to be honest. This also contributes to the strong location design--when you're constantly returning to Bullworth Academy, you get a feel for the spatial orientation and you begin to identify with it as "home base". Really great. A hub without being a hub. Again, CJ's house is the first comparison that springs to mind, but I'm also reminded of Legend of Mana and Bastion.

The school minigames themselves were not very enjoyable. I hope they won't get the wrong impression and remove them in any sequel. It's difficult to come up with a minigame that's accessible enough to be learned immediately, easy enough to make that it doesn't require tons of development resources better spent on regular content, but fun enough to make people want to play it. BioShock had a crummy minigame. Deus Ex had a crummy minigame. It's a hard nut to crack. I hope they crack it.

The game looks great, even though it's last generation, owing to the bright colours and clean, simple designs.

The music, of course, is spectacular. The use of bass is unparalleled in gaming and gave the whole game a really cool feel. I also like that Shawn Lee managed to convey a sort of Dennis the Menace / mischievous feel. Just in general it was a perfect match to the game. Skateboarding around while jamming to the soundtrack just felt really good. It felt really fun just to be a part of the world.

The only two beefs I have with the game are the observatory fight and the final mission, both of which I felt got a little bit too cartoony and maybe tried to raise the stakes too much in order to create a "setpiece". It smells of committee-driven design. I mean, they were fun and everything, but I guess I liked how generally believable the rest of the game felt.

It's my favourite R* game (GTA2 is the only one that comes close) and definitely in my top 25-30 or so of all time. Really, really wonderful game.
 
Just a quick stop in this thread before returning to it but I must say that Super Hexagon is far better than I expected it to be (but it's also far, far more difficult than I was expecting). The music suits the game and is decent (I admittedly don't listen to music so perhaps others with a more attuned ear will disagree) while the art style is beautifully simple and clean making good use of bright, vibrant colours and simple shapes. It is the gameplay, as simple as the art style, where this game soars. Addictive, fast paced, tense, filled with frantically made strategic decision, and all managed by two simple buttons, left and right. Strategic decisions may seem a bit ridiculous to some considering all you do is decide to go clockwise or anticlockwise around your shape but they couldn't be more mistaken as simple things such as 'which way is the shortest way to the gap' become mind-bendingly difficult as the pace of the onslaught drastically increases as every second ticks away and you become required to navigate a labyrinth of solid colour blocks at breakneck speeds. The simple goal of the game, in which you merely move in a circle around a changing shape to avoid blocks that extend to the length of the side, shrinking as they become close to the shape (I have explained this poorly. Basically, each corner of the inner shape is extended to the edge of the screen. If it's for a pentagon for example, there are five sides. This means one block fills one fifth of the screen at a time, that side, getting smaller as it reaches the centre. Really, just watch a video; my explanation is quite poor I feel) assists the immense difficulty (both due to the speed and how disorientating the constant movement of the background/shape and you can be), in which you can very easily lose in the first then seconds, in making a thoroughly addictive game (and thankfully restarting can be done at the touch of a button following death with a near instantaneous load so you aren't bogged down by failure). Will it get old? Time will tell, but the core gameplay is fun enough that I can easily see it lasting many hours.

I wasn't expecting it to be so enjoyable.

EDIT: Also, as far as I'm aware this is available on iOS too, right? I can barely comprehend how difficult it must be with touch controls unless the implementation was/is very well done.
 

Casimir

Unconfirmed Member
I don't think anyone has been saying it was something directed at them personally, only that it ignores basic common sense and logic and bottoms the market out. I have been watching the prices of numerous cards/emoticons and seen someone come in and list it at 50-500% below the current going price while people are actively buying at that price. It makes no sense, people are stupid.

People don't care about maximizing profits. They have a product that cost them nothing so any quick profit is acceptable.
 
*Super Hexagon impressions*
I wasn't expecting it to be so enjoyable.

I've got this on my wishlist, but I'm wondering how it compares to the iOS version. Does anybody know? I'll probably bite on the last day of sales (can't really say no for a buck), but I'd like to know :)

oh btw I'm a big fan of VVVVVV and I know it's made by the same dude, Terry Cavanagh, so people should check that out too!
 

Karu

Member
I've got this on my wishlist, but I'm wondering how it compares to the iOS version. Does anybody know? I'll probably bite on the last day of sales (can't really say no for a buck), but I'd like to know :)
This was my concern. I mean, it screams mobile game and I can't imagine it as enjoyable on a PC.
 

antitrop

Member
Let's not be unfair to Valve just because they aren't in any rush to make a sequel to one of the most boring shooters I've ever played.
I don't know who you're trying to convince, I'm not a fan of Half-Life 2. Half-Life 1 is a top 15 game, though.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
Why isn't Inversion a bigger thing on GAF while everyone loves (for example) Binary Domain? Sure, the beginning isn't all that great but the game gets craaaaazyyyy. Not going to spoil anything but the last third is just one amazing sequence after another. And damn are some of the weapons brutal, everyone's screaming and losing limbs around me. Glad I finally picked it up. Only problem is that it crashes to desktop from time to time.
Yeah, Inversion was pretty solid. I like how the environment reacts to weapon fire. It adds impact to the gunplay.
 
Hope you have as much fun with this as I have!

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This was my concern. I mean, it screams mobile game and I can't imagine it as enjoyable on a PC.

The core gameplay is enjoyable regardless of device (although yes, it is the type of game you put on for a quick go; it being addictive enough that that 'quick go' becomes a collection of quick goes). The art style is simple enough that it holds up regardless of where you're viewing it (but it was clearly designed to run well and avoid the pitfalls of its original platform by focusing on the art style and ignoring excess graphical effects). The main advantage to iOS that I can see is that I imagine you gain increased accuracy with the controls. At the same time, the disadvantage comes from the same place, with the touch controls I would imagine you're blocking some of the screen (not really a problem on an iPad though) which could also pose problematic (as you don't want to be covering the tiny space you have to zip through). It all depends on how the controls are implemented of course but I would be surprised if the advantage and disadvantage is different to that. I'm sure somebody will have played both and can give a better judgement though. EDIT: You can use a controller though. Maybe that would be the best method. EDIT 2: Turns out LT and RT are the preferred navigational buttons with a controller so maybe not.
 

Prophane33

Member
Absolutely nothing for me today which is good, because the casino didn't give me my winnings directly onto my Steam wallet :p Maybe one of the flash deals will tickle my fancy.
 

Zia

Member
The core gameplay is enjoyable regardless of device (although yes, it is the type of game you put on for a quick go; it being addictive enough that that 'quick go' becomes a collection of quick goes). The art style is simple enough that it holds up regardless of where you're viewing it (but it was clearly designed to run well and avoid the pitfalls of its original platform by focusing on the art style and ignoring excess graphical effects). The main advantage to iOS that I can see is that I imagine you gain increased accuracy with the controls. At the same time, the disadvantage comes from the same place, with the touch controls I would imagine you're blocking some of the screen (not really a problem on an iPad though) which could also pose problematic (as you don't want to be covering the tiny space you have to zip through). It all depends on how the controls are implemented of course but I would be surprised if the advantage and disadvantage is different to that. I'm sure somebody will have played both and can give a better judgement though. EDIT: You can use a controller though. Maybe that would be the best method.

Controller is probably the worst input method, actually. I prefer the iOS version, but I think the PC version is a fine alternative and unlike the phone version the leader boards haven't been hacked to bits.
 
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