The STEAM Sales and Releases Thread - WINTER SALE 2024

[Mangoose]

Eh just remove from inventory if you're going to be using it to test your hardware. You'll probably get bored halfway through (if not, the aliens will suck you dry). Not worth $20.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It's bearable, sort of. The only difficulty worth playing is Delta, the hardest one, which removes crosshairs and makes the enemies speak Korean.

le fuck? What the hell is that supposed to do? I'll keep the 20$ then, doesn't sound good.

 

[DefJam101]

Well they are Korean, so...

 

[Lyric Suite]

Well they are Korean, so...

Yeah but why do they speak Korean only at the highest difficulty setting.

 

[DefJam101]

Shitty game design?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Well they are Korean, so...

Yeah but why do they speak Korean only at the highest difficulty setting.

They shout out orders to each other. Stuff like "check the bushes" etc.
You won't understand them when they speak korean, unless you know the language as well.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Just snarfed up Beat Hazard, Borderlands with Knoxx, and Empire at War gold today. Already pirated and beat Borderlands once but I had $13 worth of fun out of it. And Empire at War kinda sounds like it'll be bad but for $5 I'll take a chance.

And I guess I won't toast Necrovision yet but I dunno when I'll sit through the beginning to get to better bits.

 

[DefJam101]

Use melee a lot. Ranged combat is really terrible and ineffective for the first half of Necrovision, so bum rushing people with the bayonet is usually a better (and faster) strategy than playing popamole cover.

Actually, melee is always quite good, especially later on where you can charge up explosive fireballs and swarms of flesheating spirits with melee combos. The only parts where melee doesn't work are the flying segments and the "you vs. 1000" Serious Sam intervals.

 

[xrm1]

The only reason to get Crysis is Mechwarrior Living Legends.

 

[kazgar]

Looking at getting hl2 today, but was holding off for a orange box special instead. There's only 2 or so day left, decisions decisions.

(never played hl2)

will grab sw: empire at war though.

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

Has anyone played Empire at War? Is it worth 5 bucks?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Has anyone played Empire at War? Is it worth 5 bucks?

Yes. Does it come with the expansion? If so, then double yes.

It's pretty much a typical Westwood RTS, and it has Fucking Awesome space battles, even if the land assaults are a little lacklustre.

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

Has anyone played Empire at War? Is it worth 5 bucks?

Yes. Does it come with the expansion? If so, then double yes.

It's pretty much a typical Westwood RTS, and it has Fucking Awesome space battles, even if the land assaults are a little lacklustre.

Indeed, it is the Gold Pack. Picked it up.

 

[The Ticktockman]

Mount & Blade on sale for $10. Is it worth it, or should I hold out for Warband being on sale? Other than multiplayer, is there anything Warband has that the original M&B doesn't?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Mount & Blade on sale for $10. Is it worth it, or should I hold out for Warband being on sale? Other than multiplayer, is there anything Warband has that the original M&B doesn't?

Warband is already on sale ($15), just not a daily deal. Wait until tomorrow since that's the final day of the sale. If Warband doesn't show up, then just spend the $5 extra for it.
It has improved graphics (BLOOM) and basically took the good bits from the Native Expansion mod for the original and made them official and improved them. Un-modded Warband is significantly better than un-modded M&B, un-modded Warband VS modded M&B is closer but I'd still give the edge to Warband since, presumably, it will get some good mods in the future.

 

[Zeus]

Okay so we all know to avoid buying anything until the last day of the sale--unless it's a daily deal--to get the best prince. (And we know to grab those daily deals as soon as humanly possible, before they yank them offline, a la Gothic II.)

But. What about games that have quietly been really cheap all along, and tomorrow's the last chance to get them?

I've got my eyes on Overlord ($1.60), Space Rangers 2 pack ($6.50, I think?), that Introversion Complete Pack (Defcon, Darwinia, etc.) for $5, Star Wolves ($3.24). Indigo Prophecy [Fahrenheit] is *still* $3.36, and that's still worth it to play the opening chapter. Flotilla is $5, I picked that one up already for $2.50 and it was worth it. Not as good as SAIS, but still fun. Ghost Master is $1 (it looks like Haunting Starring Polterguy on Genesis--anyone remember it?) Clive Barker's Jericho just got called out by Roger Ebert again, so you know it's got to be good, and at $1.69 it's coke-priced. And the Meridian4 Complete Pack is, like, $20, which itself breaks my, "I don't pay for digital games over $5 rule," but it works out to $1/game. So. Nice.

Any good adventure and strategy games quietly on sale? I don't really keep up on those genres anymore, although I really like 'em.

P.S. I can't believe they're asking $10 for Mount & Blade when Warband's been $15 all week. I've seen it go for less on Impulse, for crying out loud. What a rip. It should be $2.50 so the last few people who haven't tried it pick it up, then go pay full price for Warband later. That's how you do bidnith.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/42890/ Sword of the Stars complete for $15. Lovely 4X game. Turn based campaign map and real time battles.

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/2520/ King's Bounty Gold edition $10

http://store.steampowered.com/app/7850/ Cryostasis $3.25

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/2567/ Broken Sword pack $3.40 No idea if they're any good but that's some cheap adventuring there

http://store.steampowered.com/app/6200/ Ghost Master $1. Unique game where you wrangle ghosts and have to scare people, kind of a puzzle game on some trickier maps

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/552/ Shadowgrounds pack $5. SHOOT 'EM UPS

http://store.steampowered.com/app/18500/ Defense Grid $5. Best tower defense game I've ever played. If you've never tried tower defense games before I'd recommend trying it

 

[Darth Roxor]

I've got my eyes on Overlord ($1.60)

For that price, I'd say it's worth it. Overlord is pretty fun and light-hearted, even if the minion AI can make you hit the wall in rage and the controls are clunky later on, but I had fun with it, nevertheless. It makes a good use of the 'It's good to be bad' trope, especially since you can kick around all these fucking annoying hobbits and dwarves and shit for once

Ghost Master is $1 (it looks like Haunting Starring Polterguy on Genesis--anyone remember it?)

Ghost Master is cool, and the last levels are more than just 'scare the hell out of people' - they're very much puzzles (hard at that too, it takes a while to figure out the optimal ghosts to take and what to do with them).

And again, 'it's good to be bad'. Seeing folks run batshit insane from your ghosts is fun.

Clive Barker's Jericho

Jericho is a mixed bag, but I liked it overall. It has some really, REALLY frustrating difficulty, mainly because the enemies are almost all tough as fuck, while your guns are mostly useless, the ending is such a disappointing trainwreck that it made me cringe and there are some QTEs here and there, but there are some neat things like every squad member being 'special' (for example, you can use the sniper woman to fire 'guided' bullets that you control in first person and can headshoot 3-4 people in a row), the setting is awesome, and the 'going through time' shtick is well done, and the whole gory... EVERYTHING is cool. Enemies are also pretty well done - especially undead templars with their armour nitted into their flesh, swords replacing hands, most of the skin gone from them, awesome stuff. Which reminds me, I should play it again.

 

[Zeus]

Shadowgrounds Survivor for cheap? Nice! I've been wanting to play it ever since people used it to mock Space Siege.

Jericho is a mixed bag, but I liked it overall. It has some really, REALLY frustrating difficulty, mainly because the enemies are almost all tough as fuck, while your guns are mostly useless, the ending is such a disappointing trainwreck that it made me cringe and there are some QTEs here and there, but there are some neat things like every squad member being 'special' (for example, you can use the sniper woman to fire 'guided' bullets that you control in first person and can headshoot 3-4 people in a row), the setting is awesome, and the 'going through time' shtick is well done, and the whole gory... EVERYTHING is cool. Enemies are also pretty well done - especially undead templars with their armour nitted into their flesh, swords replacing hands, most of the skin gone from them, awesome stuff. Which reminds me, I should play it again.

Yeah, I remember a Zero Punctuation listing a lot of problems. I don't really mind, I go into comedy and horror games expecting less than perfect gameplay in exchange for more of an emotional response than your average fine tuned action game. (I'll never understand reviewers who pick up a Simpsons or b-horror game and expect things like perfect control and really good battle systems, totally ignoring perfectly executed scares or one-liners.)

And that being said, I just picked it up. I wish Clive Barker would do more horror movies again, but until he does, I can make due with his horror games.

 

[Joghurt]

I bought HL2 today for 2$ just because I didn't have it. And I've been playing HL2 Deathmatch and I can't stop playing. It kinda brings back memories of playing HL1 Deathmatch with my friends 10 years ago.

Are there any servers with people playing HL1 Deathmatch left? Kinda wanna play that again after 10 years. Just for the sake of nostalgia.

 

[The Ticktockman]

More general sales:

Ben there, Dan that AND Time Gentlemen, Please! for $2.50

I've heard they're good adventure games with some good and crude humor, but I haven't played them myself. Any comments from people who have played them?

Also, is Flatout 2 any good?

Oh, and thanks for the info on M&B. Since Warband seems to have some serious improvements, I'll wait until tomorrow and purchase it (whether it goes cheaper or not).

One more thing, is the Introversion bundle worth it? Darwinia, Multiwinia, Uplink, and DEFCON for $5.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Introversion bundle is worth it, though their games are unusual enough you may or may not like all of them. Darwinia is a weird mix of puzzle/strategy/action shooter in an 80's-esque virtual world which feels a bit like Tron.
Multiwinia I haven't gotten around to playing yet but it's supposedly almost straight RTS, though handled differently.
Uplink is kind of a hacker cyberpunk adventure game played entirely from a computer terminal so it's mostly text based, really kinda neat.
Defcon is a WW3 real time strategy game where everyone launches their nukes and nukes the shit out of everyone else. You lose points depending on how many millions of your citizens are killed and gain points depending on how many millions you manage to kill. Very simple and deliberate but also neat.

 

[Berekän]

More general sales:

Ben there, Dan that AND Time Gentlemen, Please! for $2.50

I've heard they're good adventure games with some good and crude humor, but I haven't played them myself. Any comments from people who have played them?

If it hasn't changed, you're just paying for the second game, the first one is free!!

Go here and grab it. If you like it take the second game without a doubt. It has lots of humor, some jokes are kinda reminiscent of LucasArts golden era.

 

[yaster]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/7850/ Cryostasis $3.25

Ohhh, what a fucking disappointment. It's €5.24. I was so going to throw some scraps at some devs for some trying at making some new things with fps, even if it's fail but this... this! €5.24! WHADAFUCK! I can't bear this shit, this is too much! They showed me no respect, tried to take money directly from my pocket! Stupid americafags. They might have got some money, but not, now it's too late. Too fuckin' bad, their choice...

 

[xrm1]

Any good adventure and strategy games quietly on sale? I don't really keep up on those genres anymore, although I really like 'em.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/7830/ Men of War 3.25 euro, takes a bit getting into but it is a great WW2 RTS, russian answer to CoH with more depth and fine grained control.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/11480/ Soldiers: Heroes of WW2 by the same company as MoW, worth a look too.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/1610 Space Empires 4-5 6.79 Pack, although one is probably enough and SE 4 is like 3 euro.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/40400/ AI War Fleet Command, unique space RTS well worth the 3 euro.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/2930/ Birth of America, oldish AEGOD wargame but it's dirt cheap.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/33520/ Tropico 1

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/95/ Disciples II Gold

As for adventures there's Ceville, http://store.steampowered.com/app/23440/
Lots of other stuff like Runaway series, Nikopol, Broken Sword 2+3, Jack Keane is sort of cheap too but these games aren't really that amazing.