The STEAM Sales and Releases Thread

[Multi-headed Cow]

The bots in Payday are roughly comparable to the bots in Left 4 Dead. They automatically follow you and revive you/the other bots and kill enemies, but won't complete objectives or carry objectives. It's slightly more annoying in Payday since there are a few objectives that benefit from having multiple people carrying things (For example, two cans of thermite burn a hole through the floor faster than one) than in L4D though. Enemy AI is pretty dumb, it slightly attempts to use cover/roll out of fire but you'll be mowing through them easily. The "Boss infected" don't have as fancy of AI as in L4D, but they're typically not as specialized either.

Still, at $5 assuming you got any enjoyment out of L4D singleplayer, Payday's probably worth it. Not to mention if you were so inclined you could probably scrape together bros from the Codex group to get together and do some crimes.

 

[Bruticis]

I believe it's just a matter of replacing the country code to 'US' -- easier done in the web based store versus the client. Played about an hour of SS2 so far. I can understand why people regard it as being worse than than FE and SE (smaller levels, lots of cutscenes, lower difficulty, less enemies, lot of vehicle stuff) but I'm still having decent fun with it. Only complaint is the FOV which isn't surprising since the game was only designed for Xbox.

Question: Anyone know how the bots are in Payday? I'm still considering it but will probably pass assuming the bot AI is terrible and the game is only fun in multiplayer.

Not sure how the bots are but you could always join us in the Codex Diversity Squad. We've been playing payday again since the Amazon sale. Bonus is seeing Skyway rage when things start to go wrong (in game).

EDIT: speaking of CDS, the group needs more kwans. Help me fight the good fight and beat down the third worlders.

 

[Metro]

I might, although I usually don't have much time for multiplayer stuff.

 

[Bruticis]

I might, although I usually don't have much time for multiplayer stuff.

I don't do a lot of multiplayer, IMO single player > multiplayer but it's fun in spurts. I mainly just hang out in chat while at work and educate the 3rd worlders.

 

[sea]

I picked up The Baconing earlier today, played for about 3-4 hours. I haven't played the other DeathSpank games so I can't judge it in relation to those (both in terms of quality of gameplay and the humour, though it seems very similar), but I will say that it's got a really cool and sharp look, plus hilarious writing. Ron Gilbert is an extremely funny guy and it really comes through, although to be honest it's maybe a little too unbridled stupid/crazy at times. The best parts remind me of all the ridiculous stuff in the Monkey Island games, which is great, but it also lacks the context and restraint that gave all that craziness meaning. Here it feels like the game was kind of just designed on spur-of-the-moment ideas, like "hey, it'd be cool if we had an Irish casino level full of leprechauns." Yeah, it's funny, but there's no real logic or consistency to anything in the game. I wonder if Tim Schafer or someone else kept Gilbert in line during their collaborations, because it seems like he's the kind of guy that might need a voice of reason to keep him in check.

Unfortunately the gameplay itself is more of a mixed bag. The item progression sucks (armour is linear upgrades, weapons have variety but are mostly linear improvements too), there's no way to dodge in combat so it's all about potion-chugging (at least they are useful), and enemies bum-rush you constantly which makes grenades and ranged weapons mostly useless compared to button-mashing. There are some light adventure game traits from time to time (seems to be a Hothead thing, and it works well when they attempt it), but there isn't a lot of side content and the majority of quests are just "fetch the funny-sounding objects", "kill the funny-looking enemies" or something in between. At least it's pretty damn hard - I have died more times in this game than in probably the last five I've played combined - but I wouldn't say it's necessarily fair, skill-testing difficulty, just "you die a lot" difficulty.

Anyway, whatever. Not the best game ever but not the worst, and probably worth playing if you want to have a laugh. However even next to other simple hack and slash games it can't really stand up on its game mechanics, so you probably have to enjoy the humour to get through it.

 

[HanoverF]

Payday is good fun, Can get a couple maps done in 30 minutes. Problem is there are only 6 maps and the online community is dwindling, but there should be three codex bros to run with.

 

[Metro]

I picked up The Baconing earlier today, played for about 3-4 hours. I haven't played the other DeathSpank games so I can't judge it in relation to those (both in terms of quality of gameplay and the humour, though it seems very similar), but I will say that it's got a really cool and sharp look, plus hilarious writing. Ron Gilbert is an extremely funny guy and it really comes through, although to be honest it's maybe a little too unbridled stupid/crazy at times. The best parts remind me of all the ridiculous stuff in the Monkey Island games, which is great, but it also lacks the context and restraint that gave all that craziness meaning. Here it feels like the game was kind of just designed on spur-of-the-moment ideas, like "hey, it'd be cool if we had an Irish casino level full of leprechauns." Yeah, it's funny, but there's no real logic or consistency to anything in the game. I wonder if Tim Schafer or someone else kept Gilbert in line during their collaborations, because it seems like he's the kind of guy that might need a voice of reason to keep him in check.

Actually Ron Gilbert left Hothead after the second Deathspank and didn't have anything to do with The Baconing as far as I'm aware. I played it for a couple of hours and it's not bad... but how the heck do you use the power attack when your meter is full? For whatever reason I never saw a pop up tutorial explaining that and it's not in the bindings menu.

 

[sea]

Really? No Ron Gilbert? I guess Hothead must have done a pretty good job keeping the spirit then, because it feels exactly like something he'd make. Hopefully they aren't just reusing old ideas and stuff, if that's the case... but again, haven't played the first two so it's hard to judge.

Oh, and power attacks happen automatically. They only work for certain weapons, though (highlighted in purple as JUSTICE!!1 weapons).

 

[Metro]

Well, that's kind of dumb. Is it just the purple ones or is it anyone with those chevrons on it? If not, what the heck do those things mean? Can you upgrade a weapon? Probably not since you find an upgrade every five minutes.

 

[sea]

Possibly? They have glowing purple backgrounds on their icons, in any case. They're meant more for special-use situations, and it makes a bit more sense when playing with a gamepad because you can assign any item to the 8 face buttons. The game does not intend you to use one or two weapons all the time.

 

[Metro]

Oh lawdy.

 

[Metro]

Well I figured out those chevrons just increase with the combos -- I guess you get an actual score at the end and you get more points for increased combo numbers. Overall I think the game's okay (which is reassuring considering it's the worst of the three) but the combat is awkward. I don't think using a gamepad would improve things much as I really don't see the point in hitting mobs with six different weapons. Granted I'm playing on normal because I heard this one was a bit harder so maybe enemies have more health on difficult and insane... as of now most of them seem to die within one, maybe two hits. Overall I think itemization is poorly done, even for a casual download title. It's like it's just there for parody sake which... maybe is the point of it but it would be nice to have some semi-meaningful tradeoffs. Cash seems utterly pointless as all you can buy with it are more grenades, bolts, and potions and there is no shortage of those to be collected from drops/barrels (especially when you're capped at a fairly low amount of how many you can carry at once). The character upgrade is also simplistic as it just consists of 'do X more damage,' 'run Y times faster,' 'do Z amount of reflect,' etc.

Short version: Game could have benefited from better combat mechanics that emphasized combos and meaningful itemization. Nothing complicated but as it is those two elements are just sort of there without actually doing anything.

 

[Gragt]

Looks like Monday Night Combat was so successful that Uber decided to make a sequel, one that is free-to-play and features microtransactions. It's currently in a not-so-closed beta but I got 4 invites for those who do not want to go through the hassle of registering and awaiting an answer.

 

[Metro]

Guild 2 on a daily sale including all of its iterations. I'm hearing the 'Renaissance' edition is the way to go despite the fact it's sort of a fan made mod. Anyone have any experience with the game?

 

[Captain Shrek]

Great. Another game I will potentially never play bought.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Skyway seemed to enjoy the Guild 2, but he also never played the original, so I dunno. Kinda tempted even though I heard the sequel was a bit dumbed down popamole since you drive your guy around town.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Hm.. I would really like some opinion on Guild 2 please. Anyone here played it?

 

[Konjad]

Yeah. It's terrible.

 

[Metro]

Yeah. It's terrible.

 

[Konjad]

Well, it's The Sims in medieval times, except you control just one character and can walk around town instead of being stuck in your house only.

 

[Metro]

This game seems to have a point/challenge to it, though, where Sims is just a virtual life LARP.

 

[Angthoron]

It's a pretty cool game, though controls and mechanics take a while to get used to. Can be somewhat buggy, too.

 

[Elwro]

I was a paid tester. If I wasn't paid I wouldn't get past the UI; after you do it, the game is sometimes genuinely fun as a "simulation"; slowly gaining control of a city might give you some pleasure. Some great options there, e.g. during trials (I think, I played this a few years ago). But the UI is atrocious really.

 

[Eyeball]

I just saw Guild 2 Gold for 5 quid and was like OMGOMGOMG!

...then I remembered it's actually pretty terrible and that Guild 1 was way, way better and far more like an actual GAME as opposed to a medieval life sim. Get Guild 1 instead.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Eh, coughed up $5 for the whole shebang. I liked Guild 1 pretty well, and Guild 2 seems relatively unique enough that I'm interested in giving it a whirl. And even if I hate it five bucks isn't too bad.

STEAM GETS ME AGAIN
Also lol, Guild 2 complete is current best seller by revenue on Steam. Apparently lots of people out there waiting for dirt cheap price before picking it up.