The STEAM Sales and Releases Thread - WINTER SALE 2024

[MetalCraze]

If you haven't played it yet - Guardians of Graxia is quite good. And it's a tabletop experience on your PC. Think MTG + plastic figures. Well worth $2.5 apart from the small amount of maps and new maps being added by retarded DLCs which you however can't remove from the inventory if you wish. Don't look at small size of playing fields - it does require tactics and is very challenging at times.

 

[Jaesun]

If you haven't played it yet - Guardians of Graxia is quite good. And it's a tabletop experience on your PC. Think MTG + plastic figures. Well worth $2.5 apart from the small amount of maps and new maps being added by retarded DLCs which you however can't remove from the inventory if you wish. Don't look at small size of playing fields - it does require tactics and is very challenging at times.

I decided to pic that up. Havent played it yet, but it reminded me a lot like the jRPG strategy game Culdcept (minus all the depra derp jap faggotry).

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Picked up the Hitman pack today, and Guardians of Graxia bundle since I heard good things about that and I like boardgame-esque strategy games.

Let me know how that goes if you get around to playing it anytime soon. I tried the demo to the Magic game on Steam but didn't really appeal to me (of course I've never played the actual card game version of it, either). The poking around I did on Graxia turned up a lot of negatives like four hours to complete a match, bugs, awkward game play, etc. If anything I'll probably just wait and see if it's ever crammed into a $5 indie bundle.

Will do, though I doubt I'll settle in to play it for a while. With all the games I'll be picking up it'll probably be set aside until some point down the road.

 

[Jaesun]

OK Guardians of Graxia was the best damn $3.24 I spent in 2010. Very fun game.

Now if I could stop losing in the tutorial.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Sale is finished, but Divinity 2: Draggy Knockers Sagging is half price now. Pity it comes with the SecuROM activations shit.

 

[Metro]

The developers said the publisher would eventually remove the SecuROM in time... of course I won't buy before that, at least not at only 50% off. I'll probably pick up Half Life but does anyone have an opinion on the Source version? Debating whether or not to get Source + Opposing Force (if they fix it's discount) versus the Anthology. I've heard Blue Shift isn't that good and I'd never play Team Fortress Classic.

 

[Jaesun]

Original Half Life is fine. And Blue Shift is ok.

 

[MetalCraze]

Sale is finished, but Divinity 2: Draggy Knockers Sagging is half price now. Pity it comes with the SecuROM activations shit.

I wanted to buy BBLE, now that it had a lower price tag, but then I saw that it has 5 activations limit bullshit too

OK Guardians of Graxia was the best damn $3.24 I spent in 2010. Very fun game.

Now if I could stop losing in the tutorial.

I never had any problems with the tutorial. It's latter battles that make you all "arrgghghghg"

 

[Metro]

Here's a link to where Larian says it will eventually be removed but who knows when that will happen. Anyway, my backlog is big enough so I can wait it out to see if it's cheaper during the summer sale or sometime in between.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

That's good news if they actually hold to it. Think I'll do the same, then.

 

[asper]

Zeno Clash for 3e. I always wanted to try that.

 

[mikaelis]

What about Mafiah 2? Is it such a turd, that you don't even mention it as a bargain for 4.99 quids?
I am thinking about getting it but not sure if it can run on my old laptop (weak C2D, 8600M GT)?

 

[MetalCraze]

It's shit. It isn't even worth torrenting.
Download a demo, multiply it by ten and you have your Mafia2.

 

[Mangoose]

Tell me about Swarm Arena, guys.

 

[Metro]

Tell me about Swarm Arena, guys.

I'm downloading the demo now to give it a try but, honestly, on first glance it looks like one of those titles I'd only get in an ancillary capacity in one of the $5 indie packs (assuming those things are popular enough to get repeated during the major sales).

Edit: Tried it for like 15 minutes, didn't impress me.

 

[Metro]

Found Hinterland looking for non-dailies I might want to grab before the sale is over. It's only $2.50 and looks like a fairly decent ARPG/city builder like a deeper version of Majesty or a little like Depths of Peril. Anyone ever play it or hear about it?

Here's the developer website.

 

[Angthoron]

Hinterland didn't impress me at all. Granted, I haven't tried that latest add-on, but I really doubt they've made it so different that it's a different game. The city builder part sucks, you have a certain amount of slots where you can build stuff, once those are filled, that's it, there's your town. Granted, there are a a fair few of those slots, but if we compare that to Majesty, Hinterlands already loses out on that.

The combat part is a bit less of a disappointment, but it's still rather repetitive. There weren't any active skills when I tried it, so it was basically "click click, loot loot/run away, run away".

You might want to demo it or something, and if you do buy it, don't expect it to be deeper than more or less anything.

 

[Metro]

Thanks for the info. Another one I'm thinking about is Armed and Dangerous -- mindless third person shooter with stylized graphics. Nothing great, but again, $2.50.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Yeah, Hinterland is a bit disappointing. I've still dumped some time into it since it's not entirely terrible if I feel like vegetating, but basically what Angthoron said.

And the orcs add-on adds fuck all.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Bought Episode one and two for 3,50. Seems like a good deal to shoot some stuff. Always wanted to try them.

 

[Hobo Elf]

My brother gifted me Divinity 2 an I must say it's quite good. Nothing like what I was expecting. Only the main quest has a quest compass, the only way to complete the side quests is by exploring the game world, which is very rewarding in this game. There is also some real C&C in the game.
Combat has been balanced around fun. I can't say much about melee since I play a Mage, but the usual problems that haunt me in these kind of games are not present. You do not run out of mana instantly all the fucking time, spell damage and mana cost seems to scale fairly well and mana regen isn't atrociously low. And every single skill that you can train up seems to be good for something; I don't think there is a single skill I wouldn't level up.
All in all it's one of the most fun action RPGs I've played in a long while. Gothic 2 probably being the last one that engaged me this much. The only argument I can think of against this game is the DRM, however as I said, the game was gifted to me so all I could do was accept it.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I caved when I realised it was actually still a one-day sale and bought DKS pirated it last week and have played an hour or two as a Battlemage-type, it seems fun enough to justify it and I like Larian.

 

[MetalCraze]

Yeah DKS is OK to make a single run through. It's nothing special but there is something that kept me playing, can't exactly put my finger on it.

Also it has an outstanding OST.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I like the combat, it's nothing extraordinary but it's fast-paced, flows well and is decently challenging. Going Battlemage lets you mix up your approaches and tactics to keep it interesting, as well, and there seems to be a good range of interesting quest design and varying solutions when you're not hacking and slashing. I'm a sucker for exploration, and it's showing promise in that regard (the hidden skill book atop the mountain in the tutorial town).
I'm enjoying the general tongue-in-cheek fantasy vibe as well, has a good retro tone to it, but we'll see if they manage to keep that up or succumb to taking their story too seriously when it gets going.

 

[MetalCraze]

There won't be more emphasis on main story than in the beginning.
And the focus on exploration will be there.

F.e. some quest required something from me to find without giving any tips or hints to where it may be. And then I found out that this item can be found in two ways. One of them is by exploration (I found it by finding a hidden kitchen-garden behind one of the houses on the hill) and the other one is by making one guy a favor (the owner of that house - but I've learned about that after finding an item). Yeah it's pretty old-school'ish that way.