Steam X-mas Sale 2016: The 'Deal Most In Need Of A Hug' Award Goes To...

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Steam X-mas Sale 2016: The 'Deal Most In Need Of A Hug' Award Goes To...

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

((( My Steam ID in case you have suggestions:http://steamcommunity.com/id/Palpek/ )))

((( Use IsThereAnyDeal to track your Steam wishlist on all the sites everywhere forever. )))

:gaben:

Welcome to the Steam (and other distribution platforms) X-Mas Sale of 2016 Thread. The leaks tell us it should start in like 4 hours on December 22nd.

Pro-click: http://store.steampowered.com/ or better use http://gabegaming.com/.

:siren:

Join our #steamgoons IRC channel! :siren:

This year's metagame is Steam Awards. Bascially Valve found a way to make people come back to the sale every day without having daily deals. You'll get cards for that and everybody loves cards, right?

Goddamnit Zach, my coffee really did warn me about it!
_{(thanks to Zetsubou-san for the image)}

:gaben:

Other distribution services. Anyway, gently caress Steam Sale brother because there are better deals on:

Amazon.com used to have a fantastic Digital PC Downloads section with great deals (rip Tony), maybe it'll happen again?
Direct2Drive has a sale going right now.
Greenman Gaming sometimes just has the best deals and often offers a discount code that additionally shaves off 15-25% from the sale price.
Gamers Gate offers some cool daily deals but nothing too epic UNTIL they gently caress up the prices.
Humble Bundle has a store. Always remember to check their regular and weekly bundles while you're there.
Bundle Stars also has a store. They have some good deals on often obscure titles that aren't a highlight anywhere else.
Gamefly offers standard deals but then there's this ONE game that is absolutely cheaper than anywhere else.
Groupees always has 2-3 bundles going on at the same time. Better check them before you drop money on an obscure indie game.
Indie Gala has a store. It sucks. But hey, sometimes it doesn't!

Actually Steam sucks so much that I don't even need Steam keys:

Good Old Games - GOG owns.
Origin is a good platform for cool people. It even does sales now, wow. It offers EA's big popular games that are not available on Steam.
Ubisoft Store offers Ubisoft games. Buying from them doesn't grant you a Steam key. AC:Syndicate is good. Be sure to use the same Uplay account on Steam games that require it. Otherwise you'll end up with 2 stupid accounts that can't be merged.

Just kidding, I still love Steam! Rules of sale:

This sale will have no daily deals. The super important classic advice "not to buy games if it's not a daily deal" is actually dumb and bad now.
Put a set amount of money to your Steam wallet AND NO MORE*. For self-control, don't be an animal.
Consider buying games as gifts into your inventory instead of your library and only open them when you intend to play them OR
Get refunds - Remember not to play a game longer than 2 hours because that's the requirement but other than that you can safely try out a game and then give the trash back. Goons will try scaring you that Steam will put you on an FBI list and you will have to wait 2 hours for card drops and blah blah blah and hey, they might be right!
Organize 2 or 4 packs where possible my brother. It can often save you and your gamer brothers a good sum of cash.
There are usually tons of games discounted 75%+ that aren't mentioned on the main page. Go hunting.

Recommendations:

Steam write-ups: Freak Futanari's Anime Games, Jamfrost's Relatively Short Games, Justin_Brett's Tower Defense Games, Mokinokaro's Strategy Games, Quest For Glory II's 50 Indies of 2016 + 50 Other Indies, Too Shy Guy's Spooky/Roguelike/Platformer/Simulation/Quake Games, Xander77's Hidden Object Games, zedprime's Spreadsheet Games, Zaphiel's Obscure Indie Games
Here's my old old big list of cheap games written over the years of Steam Sales in the form of a handy google doc. Notice that it's outdated now so ask for newer games in this thread.
We have SA goon curators you can follow. Thumbs up, bro!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thILxw6wBJE

http://gaben.tv/

https://gaben.amigocraft.net/

Palpek fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Dec 24, 2016

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 13:51

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 03:45

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

While you will hear different opinions on which Dark Souls game absolutely ruined everything - know that the Dark Souls game that reportedly sucks is still better than most releases out there. They're all worth your time.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 14:48

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

IT'S ALIVE

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 19:01

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Doom 67% off, grab it.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 19:02

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

aaaaaand Steam crashed

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 19:03

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I knew Steam died when I went to see my wishlist and noticed that only like 5 games out of 67 were on sale :v:

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 19:06

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Big thanks to Xander77 for Blue Estate!

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 20:38

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

spudsbuckley posted:

I've bought a lot of games from sites that are linked to on it and i've never had any problems.

Bought stuff for Steam, PSN, XBL no problems, sort of trivializes Steam sales :/

It's a keysite. Which means that yes it's cheap and maybe you won't get robbed but the money almost never reaches the creators of the games you buy. Around here we see those sites as utter trash that we won't touch for this reason. You can do whatever you want personally but don't promote keysites on SA.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 23:40

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Ok, I'll also ask what should I maybe trim from this list. I added some notes:

Firewatch - I like good walking simulators
The Beginner's Guide - I enjoyed Stanley's Parable
Samorost 3 - I loved other Amanita games
The Witness - Braid was cool
That Dragon, Cancer - is this good as an actual game?
Grim Dawn - I'm a sucker for arpgs
Evil Within - I like a good horror game but I heard mixed things about this one
SOMA - how does it compare to Alien Isolation?
Hitman - I only heard good things about it
Owlboy - I know that the art is gorgeous but how does this actually play?
Far Cry Primal - is this game actually enjoyable or did Ubisoft make it too generic?

# ¿ Dec 23, 2016 21:38

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Ok, thanks for the answers guys.

Also what was the name of the game that was like Gunpoint? It released way later but featured similar gameplay?

# ¿ Dec 23, 2016 22:31

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Neutral Zone Trap posted:

How necessary are the Dishonored (1) DLCs? The base game is very affordable now but still don't like the DLC pricing.

You only need The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches - played in this order. They're amazing DLCs up there with New Vegas DLC's that add a lot to the experience - they're supposed to be played after you finish the main game though.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2016 22:34

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Leper Residue posted:

Deadbolt probably

Thanks, that's it!

# ¿ Dec 23, 2016 22:35

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I only have Doom from the 3 but while I loved it - you can probably get the most mileage from Hitman. It's both good and offers a variety of possible playthroughs.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2016 01:28

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Big thanks to Bumpy Johnson for Grim Dawn. Now I'll be finally able to see if it's better than Diablo 3 :getin:

# ¿ Dec 24, 2016 02:08

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

In a couple of hours I'll sit at the Christmas table so I'd like to wish you all Merry X-Mas with family/friends/games

# ¿ Dec 24, 2016 17:15

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Dr. Angela Ziegler posted:

Are you drinking egg nog or just a darn good cup of coffee?

Actually I'm drinking some mulled wine :tipshat:

# ¿ Dec 24, 2016 17:45

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Bog thanks to Blattdorf for Evil Within!

# ¿ Dec 25, 2016 01:35

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Dali Parton posted:

Picked up Alien Isolation because I saw Alien for the first time this year (which I mega enjoyed), and I really like suspense games. Heads are gonna roll in here if this game sucks.

It's really good. A little advice for it though: the game is about aggressive stealth so you need to move from cover to cover towards your goal. Only crouch when you can be seen, walk otherwise (the Xeno will hear you running). The game can be really tense to a point that you could just stay hidden in that locker forever waiting for the perfect opportunity but that's the worst thing you can do because Xeno's ai will be patrolling the place you don't move from more frequently.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2016 13:02

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

John Murdoch posted:

Cross-posting here for maximum eyeballs.

Re: Arkham Knight

The problem with the game's performance was always the inconsistency on various machines. If the game is performing well on your PC then it most likely will continue to perform well (outside of some FPS dips with lots of enemies+rain). It's that random setups that are for example way better than yours may end up having problems with the game which is why it's a gamble to buy this title.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2016 13:06

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Dying Light is definitely one of the best zombie games and open world games ever made. It's just incredibly fun to just gently caress around in that game and both movement and combat are fantastic.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2016 18:40

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Cream-of-Plenty posted:

Is it a fun "gently caress around" game like Just Cause is fun "gently caress around" game? Because I'm not a huge fan of Just Cause, but I have been trying to figure out if I should pick up Dying Light for a few months now.

It's mainly about coming up with methods of clearing out whole streets of zombies. At first you'll be running away from them but once you get more buff you'll be crafting an electrocuting machette and then looking for groups of zombies to try it out on or gethering grenades to see how many zombies you can tak out at once or finding a sweet spot with spiked barricades to multi-kick zombies onto.

Here's a guy performing a sliding tackle on a hazmat-suit zombie that carries an oxygen tank and when he then hits it with an electrifying club the tank goes off (and the game is insane enough to utilize physics for things like these):

Basically imagine a better melee combat system than Dark Messiah of Might and Magic + an extensive parkour system on par with Mirror's Edge + weapons crafting system straight out of Dead Rising + very detailed decapitation + a better grappling hook than in AC: Syndicate + an RPG skills and inventory system + a big open vertical city as your playground for all of that and you have Dying Light. That's not all there is to the game either though as it does lots of its own things like the day-night cycle that dramatically changes the gameplay, challenges, zombie nests etc. It's a really satisfying package.

The only thing that is not as good is the main plot. It's full of gaming cliches and takes itself way too seriously for how shallow it is but honestly that didn't really bother me here (it does bother me in many other games) because the gameplay was just too good and more than made up for the problems in that area.

Palpek fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Dec 26, 2016

# ¿ Dec 26, 2016 21:46

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I'd like to talk about another gem that flew under people's radar - Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRYu56EelKw&t=10s

Basically imagine an adventure game where you solve a string of murder mysteries but there's quite a lot of freedom in how you solve the cases:

-There are always 2-3 culprits with believable motivations that you can accuse.
-It's only up to you to find all the clues and get the full picture of the crime. If you only find enough to accuse one person (this requires making logical connections in a special deduction system) you can finish the case right then and there.
-Even when you decide whom to accuse you can choose what to do with the fact: choose the legal way or find a bit more 'unofficial' approach.
-Your final choices can be sometimes pretty tough to decide on as the game doesn't really give you the answer on a silver platter - there is one correct culprit but it's up to you to deduce it from the available evidence.
-After each case your 'morality rating' is adjusted according to your choices and you get letters from people connected with the crimes that give you little epilogues.
-There's some cool gameplay involved like deducing things from the suspects' appearance, doing chemistry analysis, looking up relevant info on found names and symbols etc. It's nice that these things are somewhat more involved than in other games, it feel like doing detective work.

The game also looks absolutely gorgeous and the puzzles are pretty varied. It's pretty much a perfect Sherlock Holmes game and hell, I'll say it - it's the best detective game ever made.

Palpek fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Dec 27, 2016

# ¿ Dec 27, 2016 21:12

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Antti posted:

How easy is it to go back and re-do a case if I realize I got the wrong person? While I like the challenge brought by the game not holding your hand through the proceedings, if I miss the right answer I will have to go back and fix it. I'm Sherlock Holmes!

You making a choice ends the case so it's the absolute last thing you do during a "level". Which means that there's nothing stopping you from making a savegame at that very moment and choosing again if you're not happy with the outcome. The game also only reveals the correct answer if you insist that it's shown to you so if you wanted you could stay unspoilered and never learn if your choices were right.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2016 21:24

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Antti posted:

Oh that is cool! So I could play through the whole game and then if I set my par at "get it right at least once" I can read up later if I want and then find out if I hit my par. I was afraid I'd get a big "WAH WAH" noise after a case if I made the wrong pick.

It turns out I remembered this wrong for some reason but it's actually implemented even better. Basically when you're done with your choice the game plays the final sequence and then asks you if you accept this outcome or do you want to try again? There's a spoiler option on the same screen as well that will show you if the chosen culprit was the right one and how many clues you got from the possible number of them. If you're not satisfied you'll be taken to the moment right before your final choice. So you can actually go through all the culprits at the final screen if you want or go look for the clues you missed or just accept your choice without looking.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2016 00:42

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

A reminder that there's a Mass Effect-style game set in ancient Greece that's like $2 now: Rise of the Argonauts.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2016 03:23

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Some of the stuff you describe sounds like glitches Downs Duck (guy not shooting right in front of you, needing more than 1 headshot to kill a human) and you're unlucky with them to a point that I'd let Steam analize the game cache for errors. I experienced maybe 2 glitches during my entire playthrough in comparison. Androids being immune to weapons is the entire point behind them - they're super hard to kill but extremely slow so the idea is to run from them. Overall enemy types in the game (humans/androids/xeno) have designated ways to fight them (until you get better toys later on).

However, there's some stuff that comes from properly understanding how the stealth system works in the game:
- shadows are irrelevant - don't expect to be unseen in them, the only thing that counts is the line of sight
- sound is extremely relevant - bump into a desk/locker too hard and the enemies will notice, make a noise when something falls on the floor and your cover is blown

This is probably what happened with the group of humans at the beginning - you either hid too slow and they saw you from afar before you ducked behind cover or you simply made some noise. It could still be a glitch of course, I'm not discounting that option.

Palpek fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Dec 29, 2016

# ¿ Dec 29, 2016 16:19

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I'm going to shill for another cool game to bet I played (and still play) - Sorcery and Sorcery 2. I haven't gotten 3 and 4 yet but those first two ones own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-6Fk-2rIvc&t=30s

-They're basically a digital version of a 'choose your own adventure' book.
-They have persistent inventory that is carried over to the sequels.
-They feature a cool spell system where you spell out words in order to cast them.
-The writing is good and there are tons of different routes you can take throughout the map.
-The second part features a system where you can finish it multiple times choosing different things each time (if you want to) while this fact being weaved into the story (you carry over your inventory too).
-There's also an interesting combat system where you can sense the enemies' attacks from how the fight is being described.
-I also like the illustration style in this game.

Overall it's a really chill enjoyable game where you can take all the time you want to make your decisions.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2016 00:35

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Party Boat posted:

Arkham Knight is downloading now, is there anything specific I should do within the refund time limit to see if it's going to run like poo poo on my machine, or is it usually apparent straight away?

Play lots of challenges in the Batmobile against waves of enemies while mixing it with doing on-foot missions and see if the FPS drops are unbearable to you.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2016 13:03

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

poo poo, my bank blocked my card because apparently something fishy was going on which is a good thing I guess. The bad thing is that the new one will come in the next 2 weeks, how will I empty my wallet now on irrational, bad, last-minute purchases?

# ¿ Dec 30, 2016 21:22

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Any hidden gem I could buy for 3,60 Euros I got from trading cards?

# ¿ Dec 31, 2016 14:06

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

According to the awards the best games on the entire Steam are GTA 5 and Eurotruck Simulator 2. Praise Gaben.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2016 19:26

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Dr. Angela Ziegler posted:

DOOM/Fallout/Skyrim Pinball

Over $10 for 3 tables that aren't even on sale isn't a good idea. I'm a big pinball fx fan but you should really just get the tables that are on sale, there are tons of them. If you already own all of them except the Bethesda one then...you really don't need those new tables like right now, play the old ones and get 3 great discounted games for that price.

I'd go for Ori, Icey and Elite Dangerous.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2017 13:30

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I've been playing Grim Dawn and it's really cool so far, it definitely has more of a Diablo 2 feel than a Titan Quest feel which is great.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2017 17:53

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Quest For Glory II posted:

Happy new year everyone! I have keys for some games I already have so have at them! Claim em or whatever and I'll PM you or something. (note: i'm not sure WHY i have these dupe keys? I dunno if Humble Bundle gave me dupe keys by accident or if I really did just buy a lot of bundles with overlapping games this past year, so hopefully the gift links work when you get them!)

The Beginner's Guide

Hey, I'd really like to play this one if it's still available.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2017 20:39

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Big thanks for The Beginner's Guide Quest For Glory II! You're very generous with those keys!

# ¿ Jan 1, 2017 20:55

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

OMG just 4 hours left.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2017 14:54

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 03:45

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Sale over! See you in the summer!

# ¿ Jan 2, 2017 21:51

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Steam X-mas Sale 2016: The 'Deal Most In Need Of A Hug' Award Goes To...