Steam #17 - PC gaming, sales, discussion, etc.

[mouser]

Was about to buy Pillars of Eternity before realizing they're giving it away free to all Amazon Prime / Twitch Prime members. A new game for free every day leading up to Amazon Prime Day. The PoE offer expires tonight.

If you have Amazon Prime and haven't linked it to Twitch yet I'd highly recommend doing so for the freebies.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Was about to buy Pillars of Eternity before realizing they're giving it away free to all Amazon Prime / Twitch Prime members. A new game for free every day leading up to Amazon Prime Day. The PoE offer expires tonight.

If you have Amazon Prime and haven't linked it to Twitch yet I'd highly recommend doing so for the freebies.

Thanks for the heads up.

I claimed Pillars and Battle Chef Brigade. BCB actually looks pretty cool IMO.

 

[flyingkiwi]

One downside to giant AAA game files is if you have to reinstall for troubleshooting, you're gonna be waiting a while.

 

[Bocephus86]

Spent $80-something this sale, mostly bargain hunting on FPS and survival/exploration stuff.

Far Cry 1, 2, 3
Left 4 Dead 1, 2
Mass Effect 1, 2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 1, 2, 3
Don't Starve
Oceanhorn
Miasmata
Empyrion Galactic Survival
The Long Dark
Rise of the Tomb Raider

That ought to keep me busy for a while.

Damn, I made it through just grabbing 2 Total War games I've been waiting on for a while (Attilia & Warhammer 2; i have WH1, was waiting for a sale to grab this for ME) but some of those have been on my list for a while, and I just looked up the Mass Effect package after seeing your post...

I think I'll be adding to my sale list.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Well, I almost resisted.

I broke down and bought MGSV.....


But that's it dammit!

 

[Matias Maccete]

I grabbed Prey for $15, really digging it so far. I didn't realize that it was the same Devs(Arkane) as the dishonored series, otherwise I would've bought it much sooner. My latest escapade has been to repair a turret, carry it around until I spot an enemy, deploy it, and lure the enemy to it.

I'll probably get Death of the outsider during the Christmas sale. I know it's on sale now, but I probably won't need another game until then.

I love the style of games they make. Here's your goal, here's an obstacle, now however the hell you want to accomplish your goal, do it.

 

[Aladyyn]

I got quite a lot of stuff this sale:
The Long Dark
Dark Souls 2, 3
Dragon's Dogma
La-Mulana
Grim Dawn
FM2018
DOOM
Age of Empires 2
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Crypt of the NecroDancer

and a bunch of stuff for a buck or so

 

[Osprey]

I grabbed Prey for $15, really digging it so far. I didn't realize that it was the same Devs(Arkane) as the dishonored series, otherwise I would've bought it much sooner. My latest escapade has been to repair a turret, carry it around until I spot an enemy, deploy it, and lure the enemy to it.

I'll probably get Death of the outsider during the Christmas sale. I know it's on sale now, but I probably won't need another game until then.

I love the style of games they make. Here's your goal, here's an obstacle, now however the hell you want to accomplish your goal, do it.

You might be interested in one of their earliest games, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, from about 10 years ago. It's a relatively linear RPG, but you're able to kill the enemies in lots of different, very satisfying ways. Frankie Spankie reviewed it recently:

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic - 8/10

Dark Messiah is a relatively short & linear action-RPG made by Arkane Studios (the devs that later went on to make Dishonored.) It definitely shows, you can tell it has a similar feel if Dishonored wasn't a stealth game but instead an action game. It's almost like a physics playground. There were lots of secrets and you actually feel like you can get places you shouldn't by climbing ledges and using a rope arrow to climb up. I felt like when I was exploring some areas that the game wasn't designed for me to go there and then I'd find a chest with some nice items. Killing enemies is so much fun in this game! There's quite a bit of variety to different ways to kill people including kicking enemies off ledges or into spike walls which was probably my favorite. There are tons of opportunities for environmental kills and they're so satisfying, especially cutting a rope to let a big stone on a chain swing down and take out anyone standing underneath, or breaking a support to a storage area containing a bunch of barrels that will roll down and kill enemies in the way.

It is rather old so the graphics might deter you from playing. Gameplay wise though, it has aged incredibly well. It doesn't feel overwhelming to learn but also feels more in depth than other popular games these days. There isn't much enemy variety but there is plenty of different ways to kill them so I didn't really care.

Overall, I've heard a lot of good things about this game over the past decade and have left it on my backlog for a long time. I finally gave it a chance and I'm glad I did. I understand the praise it received and I'd definitely say it deserves it. The game is rather cheap even at its full current price but if you see it go on sale and want a fun game that focusing on gameplay, give this one a go.

 

[Matias Maccete]

You might be interested in one of their earliest games, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, from about 10 years ago. It's a relatively linear RPG, but you're able to kill the enemies in lots of different, very satisfying ways. Frankie Spankie reviewed it recently:

Thanks, it's been recommended to me before but for a different reason, so between this and my love of kick buttons in video games it sounds like a must play for me haha.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I have a key for Acceleration of SUGURI 2.

If anyone wants it, send me a PM.

 

[Saskatoon]

Spent like $25.

Steep
Papers, Please
Saints Row 4
Black Desert Online

I thought about getting Prey and Slay the Spire but decided against it.

I got Slay the Spire and am very happy with my decision!

 

[SeidoN]

I got Slay the Spire and am very happy with my decision!

STS is awesome. havent played in a little while but its super fun

 

[Commander Clueless]

I don't know if anyone was into the old Sierra games like I was back in the day, but the legendary Corey and Lori Cole released a new game on Steam called Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption.

I backed it, so I already had a copy.

I'm only part way in thanks to being waist deep in Persona 4 right now, but so far it seems like a modern RPG/point-and-click hybrid. However, some of the point-and-click mechanics have been replaced by dialogue tree options.

A bit rough around the edges, but thus far I am enjoying it. It certainly has their traditional dad joke style of wit.

 

[Commander Clueless]

A few more interesting "free" games for those of you with Amazon/Twitch Prime coming up:

Tacoma (July 12-18)
The Bridge (July 13-26)
Brutal Legend (July 14-27)
The Red Strings Club (July 15-21)
Tyranny (July 16-18)
Broken Age (July 17-31)
The Framed Collection (July 18-31)
Serial Cleaner (July 18-31)

I'm personally pretty interesting in Red Strings and Tyranny. Also picked up Observer.

Just piling more games on the ol' backlog

 

[Frankie Spankie]

So after a disastrous start to The Culling 2, they're shutting it down, making the original Culling go F2P and reverting it to the day 1 version. The original Culling before they ruined it was probably my favorite BR game of all time. I'm super excited for it, can't wait to play it again. Hopefully they don't f*** it up again but I'm not holding on high hopes for it.

 

[542365]

So after a disastrous start to The Culling 2, they're shutting it down, making the original Culling go F2P and reverting it to the day 1 version. The original Culling before they ruined it was probably my favorite BR game of all time. I'm super excited for it, can't wait to play it again. Hopefully they don't **** it up again but I'm not holding on high hopes for it.

Feels like a publicity stunt honestly. They release an absolutely horrific game that anybody with two working eyes could tell was going to fail, and then immediately turn around and rerelease the original as F2P. There’s no way they thought that game was going to be successful. The stunt worked too as I now know what the Culling is because their awful sequel was bashed so thoroughly online.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I don't know if it's so much a publicity stunt. They're reverting to day 1 version of the original Culling, essentially throwing out everything they've done as a studio in the past 2+ years. And it was pretty popular in the first month or so before they ruined it. Average of 4k+ players, peak of 12,622 in the first month of release:

The Culling - Steam Charts

I don't know if it'll ever reach those numbers again but I can definitely see it hovering around 1,500-2,000 concurrent users on average. A lot of big streamers who were playing it at first already said they're willing to play it again. It was just a ton of fun and would still be a welcome change to the typical, generic feeling BR that everyone else is making.

 

[SniperHF]

My thought would be that sure maybe they messed up further development of the game/series; but really if your game is moderate hit and then tails off bit that's not really all that unusual. In fact it's probably more usual than what some of the other bigger BR games do. Not every game is going to be successful as a long tail game as a service type thing.

For a mid sized game that is both part of a trend (meaning other games are likely to lure their players) and was not a *massive* hit to start halving your playerbase every month till it tapers off seems pretty normal to me.

They should make a new IP instead, the last one went as far as it could go and didn't obviously justify a sequel in the first place.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I was playing in the first week of release and kept going until they ruined it. It's still unique with no other games like it anyway. It's the only melee combat focused BR game and they made some significant changes that made people hate it. There were tons of people all over the places asking the devs to revert the patches and the time stamps will match up for when the number drop significantly on steamcharts.

Even just look at the 7 day chart. The game still hasn't been reverted yet to day 1 version and in the past 7 days, it went from a 32 player high to a 121 player high with the shitty current version of the game. There are lots of people who are still waiting for it to be reverted back before playing the game again, myself included.

Maybe the last one was as far as it could go but it's at least being presented in that state again since it only got considerably worse. I still think it can hold a steady 1500+ playerbase. Like I said, quite a few big streamers said they'll still play it again, people like playing what streamers play, and it's going F2P. The original Culling was great before they ruined the combat, it'll get a following again.

 

[God King Fudge]

Picked up Moonlighter on sale yesterday. Really cool but flawed game so far.

It's part dungeon crawler rogue lite (you don't lose any overall progress when you die. Just anything you've collected so far in your current run and you can immediately re-run the dungeon) and part shop simulator. You go in and dive a dungeon and fight enemies for loot, then sell the loot (price set by you) to get gold. There's a pricing system in play where you use the reactions of the people in your shop to determine whether or not your item is priced too low, just right or too high. Gold is used to purchase shop upgrades, buy new services for your town, etc.

The controls feel really stiff, especially in battle, which really keeps this from being a home run for me.

Definitely a cool game, though.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Not really Steam related but since we talk about general PC stuff in here too:

EA's Origin Access Premier goes live on Monday 30th July

Could be a cheap option if you're looking to play some EA games. Just don't forget to turn your subscription off when you're done.

 

[542365]

Not really Steam related but since we talk about general PC stuff in here too:

EA's Origin Access Premier goes live on Monday 30th July

Could be a cheap option if you're looking to play some EA games. Just don't forget to turn your subscription off when you're done.

That’s actually pretty tempting. $100 for Madden, Battlefield, Anthem and FIFA. That’s not bad. $15 a month isn’t a very good deal. You’d only save money if you were planning on buying 4 EA games at launch every year.

 

[Commander Clueless]

That’s actually pretty tempting. $100 for Madden, Battlefield, Anthem and FIFA. That’s not bad. $15 a month isn’t a very good deal. You’d only save money if you were planning on buying 4 EA games at launch every year.

Personally, I'd use it the same way I currently use the normal Origin Access or Game Pass - if there's something you want to play, you subscribe for a month or two and then cancel.

That way, if you can play your fill in a short time, it's cheaper than buying full price.


But yes, if you intend to play something like Battlefield for the entire year, it may not make sense any longer. Specific use case, at least IMO.


In theory, you could also subscribe for a month, play the game you want, and if you decide it's something you want to play for a long time you could purchase it with the 10% discount. Maybe?

 

[542365]

I went ahead and bought Origin Premier. Only thing that really appeals to me right now is Madden. I have that downloading already and can play it on the 1st(The Hall of Fame edition too, which I don't know what that means, but I assume it's Ultimate Team stuff that doesn't appeal to me). Looking forward to the newest FIFA, Anthem, and Battlefield 5. Seems like a pretty reasonable price for all of these games, especially if you get the special edition of each. Madden HoF Edition is $80 by itself so it feels like EA might actually have something useful here.

 

[Papa Francouz]

Has anyone here played XCOM 2: War of the Chosen? I’m looking at picking it up while it’s on sale, but I haven’t made it through XCOM 2 original yet. I did really like the first XCOM, though, if that counts for anything.