The STEAM Sales and Releases Thread

[Astral Rag]

Caved in and bought the Long Dark despite my rather severe Unity 3D phobia and dislike for most survival games. I read some good things about it on here and apparently they just improved the story mode a great deal too.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

My purchases from the sale so far:





Viscera Cleanup Detail Ultimate OCD Simulator got an unexpected update:

 

[ortucis]

Caved in and bought the Long Dark despite my rather severe Unity 3D phobia and dislike for most survival games. I read some good things about it on here and apparently they just improved the story mode a great deal too.

So I see first few videos of Let's Plays of every game to see if it's worth buying or not, and Long Dark is pretty linear with an illusion of open world (reminds me of RAGE's design). Every patch and location has everything you need to survive with a bit of random item spawn.

Unless I am wrong and it's all randomly generated, even the world. I couldn't tell when I saw. But also, the game is episodic, which is a big NO from me. You never know when the developer will go bankrupt, leaving you hanging (Telltales).

 

[Dexter]

Played Two Point Hospital, Tropico 5 and Jurassic World Evolution (got it during this Sale) recently. Now the Recommendation engine thinks I have Full Autism and recommends me nothing but Train Simulators, obscure Builders, Tycoons and "Management" games as if I never played anything else in my 12 years on Steam, including Farmville-esque "F2P" stuff. When is Valve going to fix their Recommendation Algorithm to actually include more than the last 2 games someone's played and consider things like Playtime and positive or negative feedback?

 

[Metro]

So I see first few videos of Let's Plays of every game to see if it's worth buying or not, and Long Dark is pretty linear with an illusion of open world (reminds me of RAGE's design). Every patch and location has everything you need to survive with a bit of random item spawn.

Unless I am wrong and it's all randomly generated, even the world. I couldn't tell when I saw. But also, the game is episodic, which is a big NO from me. You never know when the developer will go bankrupt, leaving you hanging (Telltales).

The Long Dark's story/campaign mode is trash but playing survival mode is great. It's very simplistic yet extremely challenging on the highest setting. There's also the ability to tweak settings to increase difficulty in certain areas.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Caved in and bought the Long Dark despite my rather severe Unity 3D phobia and dislike for most survival games. I read some good things about it on here and apparently they just improved the story mode a great deal too.

The Long Dark is fantastic. I haven't looked at the story mode after the overhaul (Wasn't worth playing before it) but sandbox is a lot of fun. A lot of it rides on your ability to give yourself goals and how much enjoyment you get from virtual hoarding since outside of the hardest difficulty it's pretty easy to get situated and "Safe" if you're going for the simplest goal of lasting as long as possible. I have the most fun playing one difficulty down from the max (Makes animals really aggressive and reduces item spawns so finding good clothing/tools takes a smidge of effort but it isn't the end of the world right from the start) and making safehouses in various locations. I'll make the longish trek to a new area, decide on a home, then start using it to stash my shit as I stock up on food/water. Then once I'm feeling pretty comfortable I'll plan my next move, load up on the essentials, then go on a long trek to a new area and repeat.

I'm rambling but it's one of the few survival games I actually enjoy, possibly because the "Survival" part is so crucial. You don't trivialize food and water as easily as 90% of them, even though like I said it's still fairly easy to get comfortably sustainable.

 

[ortucis]

So I see first few videos of Let's Plays of every game to see if it's worth buying or not, and Long Dark is pretty linear with an illusion of open world (reminds me of RAGE's design). Every patch and location has everything you need to survive with a bit of random item spawn.

Unless I am wrong and it's all randomly generated, even the world. I couldn't tell when I saw. But also, the game is episodic, which is a big NO from me. You never know when the developer will go bankrupt, leaving you hanging (Telltales).

The Long Dark's story/campaign mode is trash but playing survival mode is great. It's very simplistic yet extremely challenging on the highest setting. There's also the ability to tweak settings to increase difficulty in certain areas.

Eh to be honest, having seen the gameplay, I just don't find the world interesting. For survival games, the world should be more exciting, along with the threat faced. And Wolves and cold isn't my idea of "exciting threat" personally.

Oh well, here are some more games from my wishlist you guys might wanna look into (some not discounted though):

 

[ortucis]

More (only 5 link limit per post wtf?):

 

[Modron]

You could just link the url instead of embedding or even better a bullet point list of names and link/embed the bigger discounts or stuff you look forward to the most of the bunch.

 

[ortucis]

You could just link the url instead of embedding or even better a bullet point list of names and link/embed the bigger discounts or stuff you look forward to the most of the bunch.

Nah that's too much work and I'm lazy. Here, take these two:

 

[Sykar]

I'll just link the 'regulars', games that you should own on Steam already because they're (IMO) woefully underpriced considering their true value:


Primordia is part of the "Dark Bundle" that Vorark linked to above, so add that to the list.

Thanks, I bought Onkytt for me and my Swedish wife, seems like a very cute game. From the first 5 minutes we saw it will be fun to play together, me as the ignorant German and my wife knowing a lot about Swedish folklore.

 

[hello friend]

Oh well, here are some more games from my wishlist you guys might wanna look into (some not discounted though):

Did they ever add some kind of turn based or autopause option? The fast timescale and consequent constant hitting of the spacebar was what ruined the game for me.

 

[Solid Snail]

Bought only the Alone in the Dark Trilogy+Alone in The Dark The new Nightmare during this sale.

 

[Bocian]

Overhauled Europa Universalis 2, comes with the biggest mod made for it, AGCEEP. Still as enjoyable as it was years ago.

 

[Astral Rag]

Bought The Great Art Race for 1€

 

[Great Deceiver]

Elminage: Gothic is 90% off. This is one of the best somewhat recent blobbers, perhaps the very best. Although it is by a Japanese developer (Starfish), they have a lot of Wizardry experience (they developed the Wizardry Gaiden games, which were excellent) and the Wapaneseness is pretty minimal in this one. In my region the price is less than a dollar, so no excuse not to buy it.

 

[LESS T_T]

Titan Outpost, an isometric RPG set on Saturn's moon Titan. Codex has a subforum btw:

It is the year 2077. Humanity is in the midst of an energy crisis and the future of civilisation is in peril.

Your mission is a last-ditch effort at satiating your species’ ever-growing thirst for fuel. With unmitigated growth, environmental change was inevitable. Earth’s equator is slowly becoming a lifeless desert. Endless fields of solar arrays gave us some breathing room, but collective efforts at temperature regulation only compounded our energy problems. We colonized the moon in 2060 and the demand for energy only grew larger.

In crisis, people united. Europe, West-Russia, The United States, Japan and most South American countries united to form the International Autonomous Space Association. You work this supranational organisation.

A cold war has arisen between your employers and the economically powerful Chinese, who are working on colonising Mars and also have a presence in the Saturnian system. On frosty Titan, this war will literally be very cold indeed.

Harvest the moon’s abundant hydrocarbon resources and uncover its mysteries. Explore the orange moon, visit lakes of methane and establish a mining operation. The extremely cold climate will be your biggest enemy. Or will it?

Magical Diary: Wolf Hall, the long-waited(?) next chapter in Hanako Games' mix of visual novel and dungeon crawler:

STORY:
Eldest son and heir of an old European noble wizard family, you have been raised in wealth and privilege. Now you want the chance for a fresh start. That was why you chose to become an exchange student in the distant land of Vermont, in the United States of America. There, you will attend Iris Academy, a school of pentachromatic magic, and study alongside other wizards and witches. Perhaps then you can meet people who like you for yourself.

As a student wizard, you will learn new spells, face puzzles and monsters in the school dungeons, join clubs, run for class office, fight duels, investigate ghosts, outwit demons, and try to find a date for the May Day Ball. But keeping secrets isn't always easy. Trust the wrong person, and you could lose your honor, your life, or even your soul...

FEATURES:

• Customisable male protagonist
  
• Stat-raising gameplay
  
• Dungeon-crawling with puzzles
  
• Multiple solutions
  
• Both male and female romance options
  
• 5 Main Character routes
  
• Over 200,000 words
  
• 75+ spells to learn

 

[mastroego]

Elminage: Gothic is 90% off. This is one of the best somewhat recent blobbers, perhaps the very best. Although it is by a Japanese developer (Starfish), they have a lot of Wizardry experience (they developed the Wizardry Gaiden games, which were excellent) and the Wapaneseness is pretty minimal in this one. In my region the price is less than a dollar, so no excuse not to buy it.

Too bad those screenshots hurt one's eyes, though.

 

[ortucis]

Elminage: Gothic is 90% off. This is one of the best somewhat recent blobbers, perhaps the very best. Although it is by a Japanese developer (Starfish), they have a lot of Wizardry experience (they developed the Wizardry Gaiden games, which were excellent) and the Wapaneseness is pretty minimal in this one. In my region the price is less than a dollar, so no excuse not to buy it.

Too bad those screenshots hurt one's eyes, though.

The game is terrible as well. Typical shit Japanese UI with fuck-ton of pointless pages after pages of things that can be put onto one screen. Even creating a party in the beginning is a pain. Game throws you into the world and you're supposed to create a party in the tavern. There is no gold displayed on-screen so you just assume you have the money to hire 5 people on a journey with you (200 gold each). Then when actually selecting them, you'll have to guess what "PD" class is (it's Paladin) and how it's important. Only way to find out is to select members, goto the dungeon and be told that a specific skill like "identify" items requires a fucking Paladin on team (apparently three spell casters on my team are useless for that).

Oh and the spell casters run out of mana after a fight or two. Then they are useless and can only defend or you get ready to backtrack half-way through the fucking dungeon to that one water fountain thing to replenish them. Good luck doing that cause there is no dungeon map available (not unless you are lvl 20 I think) and every fucking place looks the same. Every door, every wall, it's a maze.

Then there are people you meet when you're in the dungeon. Some tell you they are there to heal adventurers.. but they don't heal you no matter which button you press. But everytime you walk there, the dialog is triggered anyway. Some people you meet ask you to disable a trap, only thief can do it, luckily you have one on your team but nope, the game tells them you can't since there is no normal way to interact with them.

Another Japanese garbage game with shit UI, cliched world and awful combat (enjoy attacking same slime monsters a thousand times in one dungeon.. oh wait, now they are pink and you still can't tell what their fucking HP is).

I refunded this turd. Don't bother buying it. This game is as bad as "Stranger of Sword City", with dungeon visuals worse than the last Wizardry game.

 

[Gunnar]

Elminage: Gothic is 90% off. This is one of the best somewhat recent blobbers, perhaps the very best. Although it is by a Japanese developer (Starfish), they have a lot of Wizardry experience (they developed the Wizardry Gaiden games, which were excellent) and the Wapaneseness is pretty minimal in this one. In my region the price is less than a dollar, so no excuse not to buy it.

Too bad those screenshots hurt one's eyes, though.

Elminage sucks! Stranger sucks!

Is there a modern Wizardry like that I should be playing instead?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Is there a modern Wizardry like that I should be playing instead?

Grimoire?

 

[Gunnar]

Is there a modern Wizardry like that I should be playing instead?

Grimoire?

But I'm already playing Grimoire.

 

[ortucis]

Is there a modern Wizardry like that I should be playing instead?

Eh I play blobbers occasionally, can't say for sure. There are a lot of them on Steam these days. But every time I try a Japanese one, I end up regretting it. I'd stay away from Japanese blobbers (though I haven't played all to recommend doing that).

Only other recent one I intend to buy soon is StarCrawlers, looks fun.

 

[Viata]

Manual, motherfuckers, do you even read it:

Spoiler

It came with the game, so you have no excuse to not read it. I fear that even if Cleve releases the manual, people are still going to complain because they don't read it.
Also, find me a fucking Paladin Class here:

Spoiler

 

[Gunnar]

Is there a modern Wizardry like that I should be playing instead?

Eh I play blobbers occasionally, can't say for sure. There are a lot of them on Steam these days. But every time I try a Japanese one, I end up regretting it. I'd stay away from Japanese blobbers (though I haven't played all to recommend doing that).

Only other recent one I intend to buy soon is StarCrawlers, looks fun.

I have StarCrawlers, but I only played for a little while and didn't like it that much. I shelved it to give it more time for patches. Elminage is definitely better than Starcrawlers though. All the stuff you said about it is true, and it's a mindfuck for beginners, but I havent played a better Wizardry like blobber. Other than Grimoire, of course.