The STEAM Sales and Releases Thread

[Azalin]

Weekend deals, Trine 2 $7.50 and Gotham City Impostors $7.50. Gotham looked slightly fun, but it uses GFWL and like all low budget multiplayer FPS has 0 players.

Trine 2 looks ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL AND I WANT IT BUT I AM FIGHTING MY STEAM DEMONS BECAUSE IT SURELY WILL BE IN AN INDIE BUNDLE AT SOME POINT. BUT WELP THE STEAM DEMONS ARE WINNING. PROBABLY GONNA BUY. That's the problem with those indie bundles. I was perfectly content buying games on Steam when they hit prices I want and wasn't too bothered if they got cheaper, but when cheaper means $7.50 or less than a dollar I get twitchy again.

Come on MHC you now you want it,who knows how long it will be until they put it in a bundle,on the other hand you can buy it now,it's only a few clicks away.
Ask yourself what would Jesus Gaben want you to do?

 

[Kitako]

Trine 2 has a fair price anyway, just got it. Really loved the 1.
You can't turn down the demons, MHC

 

[sgc_meltdown]

When you buy from the humble bundle, gaben gets none of the money

think about it

plus you've controlled yourself from buying it on launch it's time for your reward

http://i.imgur.com/sYay0.jpg

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Lookit him. Lookit that Gaben. I love you Gaben. Gaben love Cow? Cow love Gaben. *Wink* *Kisses*

WELP just bought Trine 2 and Might and Magic Clash of Heroes. Had a 66% off coupon for it which took it down to $5 which seems alright since it seems like an ok puzzle game. Since the coupon expires on the 1st there's still slight a chance Gaben to smite me but FAITH IS MY SHIELD.

 

[Morgoth]

For some reason I just can't get into those sidescrollers. No matter how well they're made, they usually bore the fuck out of me quickly.

 

[20 Eyes]

When you buy from the humble bundle, gaben gets none of the money

think about it

plus you've controlled yourself from buying it on launch it's time for your reward

http://i.imgur.com/sYay0.jpg

 

[sgc_meltdown]

 

[Metro]

A couple interesting titles added to the Steam registry recently:



And this touch pad game looks like it got ported:

 

[Metro]

So the creator of Faerie Solitaire is selling an Infinity Bundle where for $27 you get Faerie Solitaire and every subsequent game he develops in the future (currently Faerie Solitaire 2, FaeSaga, and Faerie Alchemy or something). But... here's the good news: If you bought Faerie Solitaire from him on any platform and at any time in the past prior to April 1st, you can follow these instructions to get a complimentary Infinity Bundle key which will also come with Steam keys should the games be released on Steam.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Cool beans, sent 'em a message. No idea if I'll be eligible since I picked up Faerie Solitaire in 2010 in an indie bundle on Steam. So instead of having a receipt of "Faerie Solitaire" I have a receipt for "Indie Fantasy Pack". Worth a shot though.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

picked up Faerie Solitaire in 2010

so have you played it

have you

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Why yes. Yes I have! For 81 minutes! In January 2011! Probably should've played more since it seemed decent, but eh.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Unless you really want specific titles, why would anyone buy an indie game on Steam when it can be eventually gotten for nothing in an indie bundle?

 

[Metro]

Well, uh... he bought in a bundle. As for me I bought it in 2010 before the bundle-mania got in full swing.

 

[sea]

I grabbed Bulletstorm the other day and played through it. I have some thoughts on it. I wrote a thing on it: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EricSchwarz/20120401/167734/Bulletstorm_When_Presentation_Isnt_Enough.php Consider this my non-recommendation of the game.

(totally not a shameless plug)

 

[Humanity has risen!]

It shows that all the good People Can Fly employees have left. I'm not sure how good Hard Reset and Necrovision are (made by ex-PCF people). Bulletstorm is an underwhelming generic consolized shooter.

My kingdom for another Painkiller with exactly the same gameplay, only slightly better graphics and the same great level design.

Just talking about it makes me want to play it again, and I never play games again.

 

[Metro]

It's crap console fodder. Would have been okay as a $20 indie score-chaser... but I suppose since you got it for $5 it's pretty much devolved to that now. I still passed on it because it's apparently no more than five or so hours and -- as noted -- rife with cut scenes.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I really enjoyed Necrovision, but it seems to divide people. I mostly agreed with Darth Roxor's review:

Stuff like Serious Sam, Painkiller and Doom is being mentioned in this thread, but actually, I'd say that none of the comparisons is valid, since Necrovision's focus is not entirely on shooting - you'll be killing stuff in melee as often (if not even more often) than in range, which is somehow refreshing.​

Levels are varied nicely, you start in WW1 trenches, then go through german-occupied old citadels, later on you're put into some weird ancient dungeons/temples (although one level here was suffering from SERIOUS copypasta) and end up in hell, and the art design looks pretty too. There are twelve levels, each taking ~45 minutes to complete. If you want more, there's also a 'challenge mode', in which new levels unlock after finishing the single player missions, and they involve shootemups like 'blow up 100 zombies with the grenade launcher'.​

Difficulty is well-adjusted too, when you get bumrushed by large numbers of shitty enemies you'll be in quite a bit of trouble, and 'uber enemies' (that spawn rarely and of which there are 2-3 kinds) soak up a lot of damage and pack a punch. There's not that much of a big number of enemy types, but the gameplay doesn't suffer from that really, because they all do what they should do - zombies shamble to you and try to rip your innards out, ZE GERMANZ either sit tight and try to snipe you with rifles/submachineguns or charge you with bayonets, some are heavily armoured with fulltime machine guns and they act like 'tanks' (regular tanks also appear from time to time), fast zombies chase you and try to rip your innards out, etc.​

What I also liked was how the gameplay turns a 180 degrees somewhere around the middle. In the first part you run around trenches shooping ZE GERMANZ and some occasional zombies with normal weaponry, while in the second part you are put inside vast, ancient underground compounds where you battle vampires, lotsa barbed-wire-covered zombies, spiders in gasmasks and other supernatural stuff. The normal weapons also get changed for the 'shadow hand' (which is FUCKING AWESOME) - it's a wolverine type spiked gauntlet with three different firing modes and regular slashing - and 'vampire weaponry' which is basically, an smg, a shotgun, a grenade launcher and a flamethrower wielded in one hand so you can use them at the same time as the gauntlet. You can also resurrect fallen enemies to do your bidding, but that's pretty useless. Later on, you can also pilot a dragon (although that level is kind of boring in the long run), and a generic mech with a chaingun in one hand and a rocket launcher in the other (of course with unlimited ammo).​

Moreover, the game rewards creativity with its special attacks and comboes. Each of these does a lot more damage than regular attacks and loads up your level of adrenaline (which fuels the gauntlet's special attacks, and allows bullet time if activated), and there's really a lot of them. For example, ONLY with the regular rifle you can do as follows: stab twice with the bayonet for a 'doublestab' special attack, stab in the head for an 'impalement' instakill, stab and shoot, charge + punch + shoot, shoot + kick, and probably more that I've forgotten about, and there are many other weapons, each with unique comboes, which really adds a lot of variety to the killing.​

The "BLAHBLAHBLAH" factor is also very low. If you couldn't give a flying crap about any actual 'story', you should be satisfied, as there are maybe... 4-5 places where you have to wait and listen to people yapping about demons, destiny and all kinds of stuff like that, while other spoken parts are being done when you are running around and shooping and there are cancellable 'slideshows' after each mission that give you additional insight into the story.​

Definitely recommended.​

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Painkiller
same great level design

No, NO! I'm with Skyway on this one, even though I like Painkiller. Being locked in an arena and fighting until you're released to move to the next arena isn't that great. The look of the levels and arenas was usually well done, but for gameplay impact they didn't change much. Although with Painkillers enemies it wouldn't have worked that well in Doom-style levels, it relies on throwing waves at you.

Also hurray! Got an email back with an infinity bundle key. to Metro for mentioning this and for Subsoap for doing it in the first place. Not entirely sure what the plan is since they were giving away some 100k copies of the game and now are giving away copies of all their future games for life, but what the hell.

 

[Reject_666_6]

I thought Bulletstorm was pretty fun, actually. Despite all the Gears of War corruption, it had fun gunplay, not as much emphasis on melee as Necrovision (melee in FPS is meh, save for Dark Messiah), much more varied enemies and sometimes the jokes were so over the top I chuckled. Flaws are still there, but there's a gem underneath it all.

 

[Grunker]

Painkiller is fucking terrible. I get ticks anytime people who are otherwise bros ( sea ) defend it with arguments like level-design or uniqueness. You shot monsters with below-Duke-Nukem-but-above-Doom creativity level guns in huge waves while trapped in very small areas moving from one to the next. There was a good variety of enemies. I get 100% that some people like that. But it's not by any means intelligent design... I mean, that's kindda the point, isn't it? Something like Painkiller should be so breathtakingly easy to make yet shooter-developers insist on adding all sorts of crap to that extremely simple formula, fucking up their shit in the process.

 

[sea]

Painkiller is fucking terrible. I get ticks anytime people who are otherwise bros ( sea ) defend it with arguments like level-design or uniqueness. You shot monsters with below-Duke-Nukem-but-above-Doom creativity level guns in huge waves while trapped in very small areas moving from one to the next. There was a good variety of enemies. I get 100% that some people like that. But it's not by any means intelligent design... I mean, that's kindda the point, isn't it? Something like Painkiller should be so breathtakingly easy to make yet shooter-developers insist on adding all sorts of crap to that extremely simple formula, fucking up their shit in the process.

I think Painkiller had pretty good level design overall, actually. Lots of levels were semi-non-linear, had multiple floors and large areas where enemies would attack from above and below, it had environmental hazards that could be turned against enemies, and just about every stage felt pretty unique. There are definitely some low points in the game, it's true, but I think the balance and variety overall are way better than what we get in modern shooters and even at the time it was still pretty good. Plus, rather than having situations designed around X or Y weapon (i.e. "here is the shotgun part, here's the sniper rifle part"), it simply created spaces where all weapons were equally effective.

Encounter design wasn't too bad as well. Sometimes it was cheap - enemies spawning behind you and stuff - but for the most part the game did a good job of throwing different enemies with different AI behaviours at you, and using them in tandem with one another. Yeah, you're probably right in that the formula grew stale, but honestly I think that has more to do with the lack of interesting narrative, not enough secrets to find, etc.

Consider this:

Three-level room with tunnels on each level leading to other areas, some dead ends, others not. Enemies carrying explosives rush you as you enter, pinning you but spaced enough so you can take them out without damage if you're quick enough. During this onslaught (for lack of a better term), you are also under attack by melee enemies, who burst from under the ground and attack when you're distracted. At the midpoint, a ranged mini-boss enemy spawns, who can cause problems if you haven't cleared everyone else out yet. Once that's done, you have to deal with hordes of melee attackers who run in, some with shields which can block gunfire.

At the best of times, you're always on your toes and dealing with existing threats while being introduced new ones. The game always gives you a lot to juggle but never too much. While I definitely agree that the game is inconsistent in quality, there are a lot of really good parts like this that keep it interesting.

 

[Grunker]

Lots of levels were semi-non-linear, had multiple floors and large areas where enemies would attack from above and below, it had environmental hazards that could be turned against enemies, and just about every stage felt pretty unique.

This isn't sophisticated (i.e. great design). It just seems that way because the style was abandoned for whatever reason. Duke Nukem's level design is great, it's a whole other league compared to the "let's do some new random shit for this level!" of Painkiller. Painkiller was basically very small (compared to other shooters) environments with whatever crazy ideas the designers had. But nevertheless it was extremely simple, not like the huge sprawling, complex levels of other open shooters. The "problem" (for both Duke-fans and Painkiller fans) is that the focus of the industry is entirely elsewhere (what is our "gimmick" (skillshots), we need regen, let's not confuse the player, etc.).

So my point is: Painkiller's not that hard to copy. It's just that the design-paradigms in effect today prevent it from happening.

Non-linearity in level design isn't necessarily complex, by the way. In some earlier games you can see it must have been fairly easy to make. I think "let's not confuse the player" and "let's provide a cinematic experience" is the real retardation at fault for the endless stream of corridors.

Encounter design wasn't too bad as well.

Come on mate. Most areas were just spawn-points that spewed forth a set number of enemies. Sometimes you could even find those points and just mow down enemies while they spawned (until enemies from other points showed up of course).

enemies with different AI behaviours at you

Though very simple variations.

and using them in tandem with one another.

If that's your way of saying throwing them at you 10 at a time then we concur

My point is, there are very few shooters that I like (Duke Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein 3D, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Deus Ex), which is a personal preference, so it's not that I'm saying Painkiller is necessarily crap for everyone. But I detest calling it a haven for great design. I'm nauseated when people like Yahtzee speak of it in those terms. The entire point of "why u no do like Painkiller" is that modern shooters have much more complexity to them yet are ultimately way, way less fun to play because all that complexity is used for bullshit. I mean, speaking in crafting-terms I'm sure the linear-as-fuck corridors of MW are actually harder to make than Painkiller's small arenas. It's just a waste of breath.

That, and the graphic-level height makes it so you can't have the wacky fuckton of variety Painkiller and Duke Nukem had in their levels.

 

[Angthoron]

I grabbed Bulletstorm the other day and played through it. I have some thoughts on it. I wrote a thing on it: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/EricSchwarz/20120401/167734/Bulletstorm_When_Presentation_Isnt_Enough.php Consider this my non-recommendation of the game.

(totally not a shameless plug)

Hm, I bought Bulletstorm because I wanted a stupid, loud, over-the-top gorefest. Did I get what I wanted? Ayup. Also, I've no idea about pattern recognition bit that you're mentioning, I'm sure that must be the case but I just carried a set of guns I enjoyed the most and used them whenever I liked to rather than whenever I probably should. The intro is certainly too long though, I thought I was going to shoot shit in this game.

As for character/setting development, once out of the intro, the Bulletstorm team does it way fucking better than BioWare in any of their recent (last decade level of recent) games. This is exactly the sort of thing that's missing in their games - battlefield banter, human (though retarded) behaviour under stress/fire, characters being fleshed out and developed - fuck, this game is what, 8 hours, 10? It has more char development in it than the entire Mass Effect series and what's best is that you actually see it happen on screen rather than in-between the games.

Not a perfect game by any standards at all, but very enjoyable if you go for it from the angle I apparently went for it.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Waiting for Max Payne sale when part 3 comes out.