Speaking of Trine, I’m amazed at how a side-scrolling puzzle game can make my video card overheat. Something about the excessive use of bloom lighting on the higher settings makes my 9800 weep.
I played Trine through, and honestly I’m not sure I think it’s worth the $5. It’s an interesting concept, but after the first hour of play, there weren’t that many innovations. Plus the storyline is even more cliched than normal.
I dunno. As a puzzle game it’s all right, but it didn’t really grab me.
I was looking for Crusader Kings at Gamer’s Gate and noticed they have Civ III complete for $5. Then I browsed horror survival and something called Fort Zombie was $3-- looked a little lame, and one called Penumbra: Overture for $10 that looked more interesting.
The steam weekend deal is Mount & Blade for $5.
Left Hand of Dorkness, here’s an open source homage to XCOM. I haven’t played it but I think it’s worth a look.
Mount and Blade is one of my favourite games of last year.
So I guess this whole deeply discounted digital distribution thing is a big hit, because they’re really pumping out the deals. It makes sense… I probably would’ve only spent maybe $100 on games over the holiday season if I was paying full price, but throw a bunch of irresistable deals and I spent considerably more. Since the cost of selling these games is only some bandwidth, it’s not like they run the risk of losing their profit margin if they sell them cheap. And with physical/logistical costs aside, you’re better off if everyone buys 10 games from you at $10 each than if they buy 2 at $40.
So anyway, in addition to the deals I mentioned in the previous post, the THQ complete pack is half off for $50 again. I bought it back when they did this during the black friday sale and the Company of Heroes games alone have already made it worthwhile for me, and there are a bunch of games in addition to that. There are also a few packs of budget games available for half off. I’m not familiar with any of them.
Edit: Quantz is also on sale for $3. I bought it a while back but haven’t gotten around to playing it.
The midweek madness on Steam is a pretty good deal. Shadowgrounds (which I had never heard of until today) is 75% off, making the base game and the expansion only $5.
I’ve just got through the free demo and am definitely buying it. It’s like the classic games Crimsonland and SmashTV, only a survival horror game instead of a 100% top-down shooter.
Yeah, I went ahead and grabbed it. I don’t need much convincing to spend $5 on a game. I played the demo for 10 minutes and it seemed like it might be fun - especially since it has a coop mode.
Edit: Oh, I guess coop is local/same machine only, not internet. Boo.
Gog.com has one of the best drivin’ and shootin’ games ever coming out Thursday. No DRM. Works beautifully with XP or 7.
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/interstate_’76_arsenal
Mmmm. “Never get out of the car.”
The mid-week deal on steam is Wings of Prey for 50% off ($25). It’s a ww2 flight sim, no idea how good it is. Serious Sam HD is also on sale for 50% off ($7.50), and Hammerfight is 50% off ($5). It looks like one of those quirky indie games that might be interesting.
There’s also a new steam client beta that you can opt into, details here.
Apparently, I should have bought Wings of Prey from my iPhone on the road, because it damned sure isn’t 50% off any more.
-Joe
That’s weird, usually the mid-weeks deals last through midnight thursday night.
Yeah, saw a friend of mine playing the Wings of Prey demo tonight and asked him how it was. At the same time I checked the sales and poof! It was gone. I could have sworn it said on sale until midnight tonight (Valve time, which is West Coast I believe).
In any case, Wings of Prey has some draconian DRM (three-machine install) that I only found out about after looking at the info page so I would have passed on it anyway. I was still surprised to see the sale over though.
Direct2Drive is having a sale on some strategy games through the march 4th. And this week Bionic Commando Rearmed (side scroller) for $7.50.
How is the D2D software, by the way? I’m trying to keep all my games in one place on steam, but D2D has some good deals sometimes.
On Steam, the King Arthur the Role Playing Game pack (game plus dlc) is $28.80 and the Spellforce franchise is 75% off.
I’ve got an old joystick that I haven’t used for a while. Still, while it’s old, it still works fine.
I found the WoP (heh) controls to be a bitch. The controls weren’t sensitive enough…until I moved the joystick far enough, at which point what should have been a gentle bank turned into a full-fledged roll.
No thanks.
-Joe
Various mid-week sales on steam. There’s an Indie Games Pack with 7 indie games for $10 (or any individually for $2). I don’t know if any of them are any good, but at less than $2 a piece I’ll probably grab it and if any of them are good it’s worth it. Virtua Tennis 2009 is $7.50, Football Manager 2010 is $20.
The Hitman and Deus Ex games are on sale this week for $5 each, or all of them for $17. There’s a hitman pack for $8 and a Deus Ex pack for $11, but the Deus Ex pack at $12 is actually $2 more than just buying both games.
If you’ve never played Deus Ex, it’s worth a try (not so much the sequel) as one of the all time greats. I’ve never played the Hitman games, but the premise is interesting and for $8 I’ll probably grab the series.
Today only on steam you can get Batman: Arkham Asylum and Just Cause bundled for $22.
SenorBeef, I just wanted to say thanks for keeping this running. Even if I’m not buying, it’s interesting to see what’s out there and what games they’re trying to move. Curses to you for making me spend money though. 