[Steam]-y Thread 30: Throwing titles out the window!

[Cristo Meyers]

Okay, so I bought Tropico 4 on sale. No DLC's though...
For future knowledge, which ones are worth getting?

Modern Times is pretty much the only one I would put any money down for. All of the others are pretty much item packs.

--

It's nice to have Steam sales finally working for me for once. Usually the discounts on the games I want just aren't really enough for me to want to move on them. This time I've cleared my wishlist and I'll likely do it again. Though that does mean the backlog that I've been trying my damnedest to trim down has grown by leaps and bounds: The Walking Dead, Sins of a Solar Empire, Spec Ops: the Line, Recettear, Lone Survivor, Home...list goes on.

Though I did find out that playing the final four episodes of The Walking Dead after watching Les Miserables puts a whole new definition on the term "emotional wringer..."

[Silverraptor]

So, for anyone who has portal 2 currently installed, I just made my first test chamber in the editor. I made it simple as I played around and tested it for a while. Anyone who wants to try it out, please do so as I make more test chambers.

[Gaelbert]

Does Day of Defeat still have a decently active community? I've been looking for an FPS that'll run on my sub-par laptop.

[Triscuitable]

Does Day of Defeat still have a decently active community? I've been looking for an FPS that'll run on my sub-par laptop.

You might want to try a game like Blacklight: Retribution or Counterstrike: Global Offensive. Both are fantastic games that don't demand a very good PC. Kick down the resolution a notch, lower the shaders, and you should be in the clear.

[Kurgan]

Oh! It looks like we are near the end of the thread. Does this mean we will get to see our Hot Heavy on Medic Action soon?

[Gaelbert]

You might want to try a game like Blacklight: Retribution or Counterstrike: Global Offensive. Both are fantastic games that don't demand a very good PC. Kick down the resolution a notch, lower the shaders, and you should be in the clear.

I own Counterstrike GO, it runs a little choppy on my computer. Haven't tried out Blacklight, I'm not sure how their payment system runs and whether it's worth putting up with.

[Triscuitable]

I own Counterstrike GO, it runs a little choppy on my computer. Haven't tried out Blacklight, I'm not sure how their payment system runs and whether it's worth putting up with.

I played for several months without dropping a dime. When the Extraction Pack went on sale ($20 down from $40, contains two pretty solid weapons, a piece of equipment, and a "hero" character with a special loadout and model), I dropped the $20 to get it. Before that, I was kicking plenty of ass prior for zero dollars, and zero cents.

The only big difference between paying and not paying is that paying can get you access to any piece of equipment immediately while not paying means you'll grind. I never found that to be a problem though, because renting stuff and buying premade weapons (so you don't have to customize them with your own parts) could be done easily. You get 200GP free every day (Facebook promo through the site), so you can rent a new premade each day. GP rewards after a match average around 150-400, depending on how you and your team did.

It's a lot of fun. Not very demanding, and very pretty anyways. Turning off shadows on a high resolution takes me from 25FPS to 60FPS (refresh rate cap), so I never have an issue there.

EDIT: A small discussion on Blacklight began on page 4.

[Thufir]

Does Day of Defeat still have a decently active community? I've been looking for an FPS that'll run on my sub-par laptop.

But don't you already have TF2? What more do you need?

[Avilan the Grey]

Modern Times is pretty much the only one I would put any money down for. All of the others are pretty much item packs.

I know. I got it last night.

It's a fun game... I love the humor in it. I just can't decide if I want to be a communist dictator that milks capitalist tourists for everything they got, or if I want to be a capitalist dictator that gives free food and free housing to my citizens...

[Gaelbert]

But don't you already have TF2? What more do you need?

Something to take a break with when I get frustrated with TF2. Normally I just go caber demo with the sticky jumper, or play some MGE, or play some dodgeball, but every once in a while I want to try something else for about 15 minutes.

[Cristo Meyers]

I know. I got it last night.

It's a fun game... I love the humor in it. I just can't decide if I want to be a communist dictator that milks capitalist tourists for everything they got, or if I want to be a capitalist dictator that gives free food and free housing to my citizens...

Whichever way is more effective at keeping the plebs...er...much loved citizens in line and away from your swiss bank account.

I was never really good at the oppression part, myself. I just did what I had to to keep them from rioting while I siphoned money away to my personal retirement fund.

[Triscuitable]

If you bought anything on Amazon during their sale, you got $5 credit for "Editors Choice 2012" games. I got Hotline Miami and Spec Ops: The Line for $2.50 each.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Well, friend got me Torchlight 2 as a gift on Steam. Surprisingly enough, it even works through WINE. The Linux distro of Steam still has only Linux-written games available. While some of them are quite entertaining, it just doesn't have the breadth of titles yet. I'm sure that will change as it matures, of course.

Quite frankly, Torchlight II is what I feel is the proper successor to Diablo II. Since it was made by most of the same crew, I can't say that I'm surprised by it. Specifically, it has the following features:

* Offline single player mode. Because not everyone likes having a lag-spike kill their hardcore character off in a single-player game

* LAN support, because sometimes you just want to play with your close friends over LAN without dealing with lagspike-o-doom

* Multiplayer support, because sometimes you want to play with your buddies halfway around the world. Funny how Torchlight II doesn't have a problem using your characters either single or multiplayer, which Blizzard said was sooooo hard for D3

* No RMAH. I'm sure they will eventually come out with DLC and micro-transactions, but RMAH needs to die in a fire.

I played around a bit with D3, trial version suddenly appeared on my blizzard account with no explanation, and I won't be purchasing it. Lagspikes were responsible for every single character death I encountered, and they were frequent enough that it made the game not enjoyable, regardless of the shiny graphics or intuitive features.

Oh yea, being able to send your pet back to sell your vendor fodder is awesome. Shortcuts for using potions lets you use the 1-0 for other skills. You've got the ability to hit tab to quick-swap between two 'primary' skills, and it remembers which skills you have on quick=-swap with which weapon configuration, so when you hit w it brings up the relevant skills. For a class like the Engineer, this is a lifesaver, swapping between axe and sword with shield bash to tank bosses, and a polearm with PBAE stuns to cute wide swaths through minions.

The only thing I would have to say I was disappointed about was the skill respec only replacing your previous three choices instead of all of them. However, the fact that many of your skills 'grow' with you means that one skill point in every skill isn't going to kill you.

In short, I feel that it is entirely superior to D3... at a third of the price. Well, a sixth, actually... apparently my buddy picked it up on a half-off sale and picked up four copies for $30 bucks. Which is half of what you'd pay for D3, so... umm... one-eighth of the cost?

I'd recommend this game for anyone who enjoyed D1 and D2. It blends the steampunkish and cartoony graphics of WoW with simple and intuitive controls which feel like a natural progression from D2.

[enderlord99]

Oh yea, being able to send your pet back to sell your vendor fodder is awesome.

Sounds familiar.

[Forbiddenwar]

Well, friend got me Torchlight 2 as a gift on Steam. Surprisingly enough, it even works through WINE. The Linux distro of Steam still has only Linux-written games available. While some of them are quite entertaining, it just doesn't have the breadth of titles yet. I'm sure that will change as it matures, of course.

Quite frankly, Torchlight II is what I feel is the proper successor to Diablo II. Since it was made by most of the same crew, I can't say that I'm surprised by it. Specifically, it has the following features:

* Offline single player mode. Because not everyone likes having a lag-spike kill their hardcore character off in a single-player game


Oh yea, being able to send your pet back to sell your vendor fodder is awesome.

In short, I feel that it is entirely superior to D3... at a third of the price. Well, a sixth, actually... apparently my buddy picked it up on a half-off sale and picked up four copies for $30 bucks. Which is half of what you'd pay for D3, so... umm... one-eighth of the cost?

I'd recommend this game for anyone who enjoyed D1 and D2. It blends the steampunkish and cartoony graphics of WoW with simple and intuitive controls which feel like a natural progression from D2.

So, absolutely no difference to torchlight 1 then.

[factotum]

Sounds familiar.

Well, it would, considering both that game and the Torchlight series had the same designer...

[Welf]

does anyone have a few naughty winter crates left he doesn't need? I want to open a few?

never mind, I traded them myself. And I got myself a nice strange Makerele.


And then I got crazy, and bought another 6 naughty keys, and 6 naughty crates in the market. I opened them in the last 2 minutes before the crates disappear. I was kind of curious if I would got another strange. Well, I didn't.

I got an festive strange Huntsman and an unusual.

[enderlord99]

Well, it would, considering both that game and the Torchlight series had the same designer...

I know. I was merely pointing out that it's not exactly a new concept.

[Cristo Meyers]

I know. I got it last night.

It's a fun game... I love the humor in it. I just can't decide if I want to be a communist dictator that milks capitalist tourists for everything they got, or if I want to be a capitalist dictator that gives free food and free housing to my citizens...

Modern Times is pretty much the only one I would put any money down for. All of the others are pretty much item packs.

Just feeling the need to amend myself here: since everything Tropico 4 is currently around 80% off, I can actually say I would put money down for the non-Modern Times DLCs as they are currently 1$US each.

Anything beyond that, though, I wouldn't bother.

--

I really, really wish Retro City Rampage would go on Daily or Flash sale (again, I'm told...stupid work). I'm on a roll right now picking off my wishlist a game at a time and I'd hate for it to end...

[Grif]

So, absolutely no difference to torchlight 1 then.

Considering TL1 had no MP and TL2 allows MP...

[Forbiddenwar]

something doesn't seem right with my math. Backpack value: in refined 1385. If I were turn it entirely into keys, thats something like 400 keys? and then sell them on the marketplace for $2 each, thats $800? Is that right? if so then spending the last year collecting here and there seemed to have paid off. I wonder if I should quit and cash out, especially since I haven't played tf2 in a long time.
Perhaps I should cash out before everyone quits playing and no one want hats anymore. Or before TF3 comes out.

The MvM pay to play system really killed my interest in the game. I can't find any normal maps fun servers anymore, my favorites looks like an abandoned graveyard.

[Avilan the Grey]

Just feeling the need to amend myself here: since everything Tropico 4 is currently around 80% off, I can actually say I would put money down for the non-Modern Times DLCs as they are currently 1$US each.

Anything beyond that, though, I wouldn't bother.

I have completely blown my budget for computer games for this month. I need to save up everything I have because of Sim City and Dragonborn coming soon.

Thank you anyway

OT: Quick question: I have not played Diablo 3 for months, but in my experience not even the first two weeks had that many lag spikes, I surely never died by one. Has it gone that much worse?

[DemonicAngel]

Is "I Am Alive" good? is it worth it?

[Cristo Meyers]

Is "I Am Alive" good? is it worth it?

It's on sale for what, 5$US now?

That's a tough one. There are some parts that are pretty cool, but some that really, really aren't. The exploration is good, the story is okay (but not bad), but the combat can be a chore because running isn't an option.

The game isn't horrible, but it's really not very good either. I'd say pass.

[Trixie]

So, um, in case anyone had Winter Crates that will expire as soon as you enter TF2, mind giving me a few before you do so? Wanted to save a few for my collection

[DemonicAngel]

Thanks Cristo, I'll indeed pass after hearing a few other reviews.

By the way, I'm omri4443 on Steam. I have Magicka if anyone want sto play during the weekends when I'm home.

[Maxios]

Crap...as soon as L4D2 becomes $5, I have no money from buying other stuff during the sale .

[Silverraptor]

Crap...as soon as L4D2 becomes $5, I have no money from buying other stuff during the sale .

Do you want a copy?

[Maxios]

Yeah, I do.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

OT: Quick question: I have not played Diablo 3 for months, but in my experience not even the first two weeks had that many lag spikes, I surely never died by one. Has it gone that much worse?

Not everyone has a multi-gig pipe for internet access. Some of us limp along on basic 300 KB/s DSL, because it is all we can afford. So the amount of lag-spikes I have may be greater than the average user. Still, it is significant enough that it is the final nail in the coffin for me ever wanting to buy the game.