Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


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

:siren: Welcome to the Summer Sale 2017 Thread. :siren: This year this thread exists in order to gather all the discussion ignited by games being on sale ANYWHERE. Origin counts too.



Steam is dropped from the title because nowadays it's only relevant as far as setting the time frame of the Summer Sale Season that all the other game distribution services follow but the deals themselves aren't remarkable.

Combine that with the new Steam policy change that doesn't allow you to gift to regions cheaper than 10% than your own and we're in the meh territory.

But hey you can take your money elsewhere!



You can still join the #steamgoons IRC channel to talk with goons about it though!.

:siren: Anyway, sites with deals on Steam (and non-Steam) games: :siren:
  • Steam heh, a classic. Sale starts tomorrow 22.06.
  • Humble Bundle always remember to check their regular and weekly bundles while you're there.
  • 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.
  • Bundle Stars also has a store. They have some good deals on often obscure titles that aren't a highlight anywhere else.
  • Indie Gala has a store. It sucks. But hey, sometimes it doesn't!
  • Amazon Digital Games - there used to be deals here. RIP Amazon Tony.

:siren: Non-Steam sites: :siren:
  • Origin sports sports sports also get Titanfall 2.
  • GOG old and new games with no DRM from CDPR.
  • Uplay games from Ubisoft. Note that they strictly sell Uplay-only codes that won't work on Steam.
  • Blizzard Store formerly known as Battle.net. Strictly Blizzard games.
  • PSN Store Playstation games.

:siren: Recommendations: :siren: there are goons that do write-ups on various games:


http://gaben.tv/

Palpek fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Jun 23, 2017

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


I updated the OP with links to goon write-ups/recommendations.

I also went through the links again and deleted a couple of stores: it turns out that Groupees gave up on game bundles for the time being and Gamefly doesn't sell games at all and is a game streaming service now, what.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


super sweet best pal posted:

Can't wait to see what lackluster event Steam is doing this year. They phone it in more and more with each successive sale.
It was already datamined:

https://twitter.com/SteamDB/status/877505316920987648

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


I would totally get Far Cry Primal but Horizon Zero Dawn already scratched that itch hard lately and there's no way Primal holds up in comparison.

If Mass Effect: Andromeda drops I'd get it just to make a Write-up but I doubt it drops low enough.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Imo they hosed up Mafia 3 as badly as Mafia 2 but in different ways. It's like they noted the criticizm that there was nothing to do in the previous game outside of the main missions so they developed the side content and...forgot to create the main missions. Fuckng hell man. I still enjoyed the game as much as I enjoyed Mafia 2 but there was a lot of groaning at the screen.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


drat, I'm traveling and forgot that my Steam guard is on the phone I left at home. I have failed you Gabe :negative:.

Ok ok, I'm coming back in 5 days so the sale will be still on, thank god there are no dailies, phew.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


More people should buy Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments which is the greatest detective game ever made and lets you freely accuse suspects and then choose if you want to go the official route or something more ambiguous. It's an amazing game when it comes to player choice and gathering evidence.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Dr. Angela Ziegler posted:

That's interesting because Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper was a loving atrocity, and I assumed they were from the same developer who's put out like 8 Sherlock games in the same series.

Anyone know anything about Narcosis? If VR existing means games will be made for that gimmicky poo poo instead of for normal well-adjusted, cool, smart and above-average-height gamers like the rest of us, then VR can die in a fire.
Crimes and Punishments is from a completely different era. It's truly innovative and fantastically pulled off.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


People who liked Stanley Parable and Beginner's Guide should give Jazzpunk a try. It's hilarious.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Deformed Church posted:

Have any good Diablo style ARPGs come out that I might have missed over the past ~six months? Or should I just reinstlal path of exile and hope it doesn't take too much offense to my lovely lovely internet?
Play Victor Vran.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Titanfall 2 is as good as Doom but doesn't overstay its welcome.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Fallout 4 or Mass Effect:Andromeda *he asked himself trying to figure out which pile of poo poo smells less* mmm, decisions decisions.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


I'm finally back at home and can actually buy some games on sale now. I'll probably grab like half a dozen Pinball FX tables that I missed.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Oh yeah, I forgot to thank Nekoxid for Owlboy. I heard good things about it and I'll definitely play it! You're the best!

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


http://i.imgur.com/Lalu0I2.mp4

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


So how does SOMA's atmosphere compare to Alien: Isolation or Prey (I know that gameplay is completely different)? Some people swear it's one of the best games they've ever played but others...not really. Any opinions on it?

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Dungeon Warfare owns hard but I enjoyed it more as a mobile game honestly.

Also don't get NMS, just don't.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter - worth getting? How does it compare to Crimes and Punishments?

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Anyway, I ended up getting The Silver Case, SOMA and Tyranny.

I've been playing The Silver Case for the past 2 hours and here's my reaction so far:

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Fortuitous Bumble posted:

I saw some discussion about ARPGs earlier in this thread, so: a long time ago I played Torchlight and had a lot of fun just setting the difficulty to maximum and slowly killing my way to the bottom of the dungeon while finding nice loot. Are there any other ARPGs with this style? The only other ones I tried since were Diablo 3 and Path of the Exile but they both made you slog through really easy difficulties for too long to hold my interest.
There's Victor Vran and Grim Dawn. They all follow a similar progression path though where the beginning is pretty easy. Maybe Victor Vran could hold your interest more thanks to having action-oriented controls though like in Gauntlet or Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


I forgot about this but somebody posted an interesting article on hidden gems on Steam:

http://www.nition.co/2017/06/finding-hidden-gems-on-steam/

It's a method where games with relatively low ammount of reviews but high ammount of positive ones are listed. There's still a lot of crap there but also some really good games. The article has links to various lists with working links taking you directly to the Steam store.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


monster on a stick posted:

I see a bunch of hidden object games in the list, which tend to be usually non-offensive time wasters that are great to gift to mom.
Well, it did lead me to discover Hidden Folks: http://store.steampowered.com/app/435400/Hidden_Folks/

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


I don't think I'm a huge fan of The Silver Case so far. I mean, it's a neat insane serial killer story with some memorable characters but there's so little substance to the gameplay. You basically click through a 15-minute conversation where you have no dialogue choices and then comes a 5 minute gameplay section where padding is the main design concept and then back to 20-minute conversation.

I'll see through this for the story because I like how it's structured but this is one of the few games that I've played that I would strongly recommend people to just watch a let's play of (and poo poo, I think Deadly Premonition offers something with its gameplay) because you lose absolutely nothing.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


StrixNebulosa posted:

The Silver Case is 90% visual novel, so, uh, yeah.
Visual novels still have interactivity to them or dialogue choices at least and here it's pretty bare even for the genre.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Ace Attorney for example. Even when the choices lead to the same outcomes it feels like you're...interacting with things, I have no problems with things being linear if you're actually doing stuff. But ok, I'll live with this as an example of old-school genre design.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Rinkles posted:

Isn't The Silver Case like the Desert Bus of visual novels? With a bunch of intentional tedium?

Or was that another Suda game?
The gameplay sections definitely feel like this. The very first playable area has you go to the 2nd floor of a building only for you to discover a door closed with a code - the key to the code is on the 1st floor so you go back to get it and then come back to the closed door (yeah, they really only send you back to waste time).

That's not all though - you then learn that the encryption idea is to jump forward 1 alphabet letter for the first letter of the password, 2 letters for the second, 3 letters for the third and so on. Then the game has you 'solve' a few doors using that. There's no puzzle here, just this tedium of repeating the same encryption pattern over and over.

At the point when one of the passwords was HEYHEYHEYHEYHEY but it's rejected because the serial killer changed it - it became obvious that the dev is just loving with you for the hell of it. Go press some buttons, this is gameplay, you're welcome. It's like that section in The Stanley Parable with pressing the button '8' but unironic.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Blattdorf posted:

Which is why they gave you an autosolver for this version of The Silver Case, but it just makes the interactive aspects that much more pointless.
Yeah, I figured that out at the third puzzle or so (haven't noticed it earlier) but as you say it makes the gameplay parts just click-click-click and on to the next long uninteractive section.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Mystic Stylez posted:

I know this is highly subjective, but recommend me games with awesome soundtracks. I don't care which genre or category, as long as the game itself is at least decent.

Some random examples: Fallout 1/2, Deus Ex, Hotline Miami 1/2, Brigador, Shatter, Bastion, VVVVVV, STALKER series.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7TRdx2tbUFI

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Jerusalem posted:

Quick question, is Watch_Dogs worth playing? And is the season pass just a collection of the rest of the DLC combined? Making the "Complete Package" deal a bit of a ripoff since it's the season pass AND all the DLC included at a higher total price than just getting the season pass by itself?
Watch_Dogs 1 is bad, don't buy it. Creepy protagonist (in a bad weird way) that they expect you to relate to, dumb story, luckluster combat, super bad driving, boring city. The only things the game has going for it are the hacking mechanics that let you clear enemy locations without even stepping into them and spying on npc's phones gets some funny results. Both things get old pretty quickly though. Apparently the sequel turns things around but I haven't played it.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


I should actually get Watch_Dogs 2 since it's on sale and I heard good things about it so thanks for mentioning the series. I felt like the first one had potential but just squandered it not knowing what it wanted to do - copy the gta recipe or do something more original. So it ended up being this weird annoying gta knock-off that didn't do anything particularly well.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


So how's Guts and Glory aka Happy Wheels 3D? It looks like it's pretty tight for a sandbox from some youtube videos.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Dark_Swordmaster posted:

How much enjoyment did you get out of Happy Wheels?
A fair bit.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


I bought Watch_Dogs 2 and the season pass, gonna watch some dogs tonight.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


Yeah, it won't be out for a year or maybe more so purchase away.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


markgreyam posted:

The Watch Dogs 2 DLC looks garbage but then I don't have the season pass so I can't say for certain. 95% of it looks like cosmetics anyway in a game where you're playing single player the majority of the time and people are only seeing your clothing in co-op not in hacking MP because you deliberately look like a random civvy during those things. It's seems like a better idea would be to see next sale if you're still interested enough and then just get the gameplay relevant ones or the SP if it's cheaper to do so.
Season Pass DLC includes just the gameplay relevant DLCs and maybe 2 cosmetic ones, the rest is all paid for separately.

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


sebmojo posted:

park a car under a tree and when you come back it's covered in leaves
Woah

SelenicMartian posted:

Does WD2 feature any technobabble, hacker jargon and the like?
Almost exclusively. It's great, I'm really enjoying these hacker millennials so far (we need followers to make our computing power higher!).

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Palpek
Dec 27, 2008


Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.


DaveKap posted:

From what I understand as a person who is sorta on the periphery of the industry (it's a long story) the biggest problem is that marketing and PR (at large companies) are typically business departments that merely pretend to understand what it is video game hobbyists actually want but probably actually understand what mainstream video game buyers want. They rely on focus groups, owned IP, and science to pump out media that is supposed to guarantee sales to the broadest market possible which, oddly, doesn't include you or me. It's entirely possible that they purposely showed off an underwhelming Doom because they knew reviewers were going to be caught off guard which would boost their scores due to (a thing I've talked about somewhere else before) expectation-based reviewing.

In other words, what you and I consider bad marketing may have actually been better than what you and I consider good marketing; we just wouldn't know because we 1: Aren't the mainstream and 2: Aren't sociology majors.
I don't agree. The "genius" Bethesda marketing division didn't lately successfully sell 2 games with their brilliant misleading sales tactics. They sold 1 game and utterly failed to sell the 2nd. They simply badly marketed 2 great games where one ended up reviewing and selling well only because it represented a famous brand and lived up to its legacy while the second game ended up selling poorly because it referred to the ultimately wrong, weak and forgotten brand (Prey), didn't use the actually strong brand the legacy which it represented (System Shock) and offered experience too niche for the target broad market it was marketted for. Doom was successful despite the marketing's failures because everybody knows Doom and the game was good enough to live up to it. Prey didn't have that luck.

Palpek fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Jul 7, 2017

  • Locked thread