Can anyone confirm this? Do I have a prayer of running these old games on a 64b Vista system?
I don’t know if this is always true, plenty of games have release dates listed in 1997, 1999, 2001, etc. which were well before Steam existed (or at least was a distribution platform). Maybe just for newer games that get released on Steam? Still, I’ve never really noticed any major discrepancies, but I admit I haven’t looked.
For today’s games, “The Void” looks kind of interesting – any thoughts? Also, is Left 4 Dead worth getting if I already have Left 4 Dead 2? Every once in a while I hear people talking about how the first one is still better, so I’m not sure. For cheap, I guess I could just try it, but then I don’t like to be wasteful (of my money or the time it takes to download).
Did anyone else pick up GTA IV? I’m looking forward to finally giving it a go. I guess it doesn’t use the regular Steam multiplayer client, so does the Steam “Join Game” button work when you click on a player’s name (from, say, the SDMB Steam group)?
I bought GTA IV … before it went on sale. The selling point for me is the video editor that isn’t in the console version – which is hella-fun, if you’re into that sort of thing. I’m just waiting for The Ballad of Gay Tony to hit the sale rack now.
UFO Defense and TFTD both ran on my Win7 x64 system. No major bugs or anything. It was more or less as I remembered it from the 90s. Not sure if they did it by detaching the computation from the clock speed or by artificially limiting the CPU time devoted to the process, but it worked.
As for L4d or L4d2… I prefer the 2nd. The first was ok, but became very predictable in versus because of the limited combination of special infected. I much prefer l4d2
New sales for today:
Red Faction Guerilla $5
Red Orchestra $2.50
The Void $5
Left 4 Dead $6.80
Torchlight $5
Mass Effect 2 $24
The Guild 2 + Pirates of the European Seas expansion $6.25
Shatter $2.50
Flatout: Ultimate Carnage $2
Red Orchestra is very good if you like hardcore shooters.
Torchlight is a polished action RPG that you’ll easily get $5 out of, although it doesn’t have a ton of depth.
Flatout 2 was a fun arcade demolition racer and Ultimate Carnage is basically the same thing I think. Definitely worth $2.
I don’t think I’ve seen games with release dates that predate steam. That’s one of my few complaints about steam - it should be “released XXXX, added to steam YYYY” otherwise you might at first mistake a decade old game for one that was released 6 months ago.
L4D2 is better than the first one in pretty much every way, except the characters where everyone likes L4D1 better. The campaigns for the first game are good too and worth trying.
You’ll probably go back to playing L4D2, but you can probably get $7 of entertainment out of L4D1.
A game has to support steamworks to support inviting/joining other people in multiplayer sessions (also achievements, stats, etc) and I’m reasonably sure GTA 4 doesn’t.
You probably won’t see it during this sale, because the 2 episode bundle was on sale early on already.
Torchlight is a great deal at $5. I’ve been having a good time with it when I need a break from WoW. It’s pretty and fun, if shallow.
Yeah I’m going to emphasize my recommendation for Flatout: Ultimate Carnage. At $2 it’s an absolute steal. Even if you don’t like racing games you might like the game - it’s not a finesse racing game, it’s a glorious platform of vehicular mayhem that happens to have some races. You gain turbo by wrecking everything - smash other people’s cars, knocking over everything in sight, blowing stuff up. It even has a demolition derby mode with no racing - just 8 cars in a parking lot or an arena or what have you. It also has vehicle-based minigames but I’m not a huge fan of those.
Watch the trailer and tell me that’s not worth $2. And I will punch you in the face!
Unless you absolutely hate anything that involves cars, grab it. We will undoubtedly have SDMB multiplayer games.
Thanks for all the info. I went to do some looking, and I think the release date thing might be because it appears to show different dates in different places. For example:
Epic, Inc. game list: Steam Search.
The list shows Unreal Gold “Released: Mar 17, 2008.” But if you actually click the title, it then shows “Release Date: Apr 30, 1998,” which is the release date I was thinking of. Steam was announced in 2002, so that’s well before. The page for Civ III also shows “Release Date: Oct 30, 2001.” So it appears the list shows one date, and the info page shows the actual release date. That is a bit confusing.
I bought Left for Dead 2 on sale. I played a few hours of the first game and loved it, and have been enjoying the sequel as well. I’d love to play with you guys. When do you guys get together? PM the details. Thanks! 
We typically get together around 7-8PM eastern although we get together at other random times. A few times a week. Join the SDMB group and friends list me and I’ll invite you to our games.
Oh man, Red Faction: Guerilla is a really fun game. Definitely worth the $5… now I’m pissed that I paid something like 30 bucks for that game! (but I resold it when I was done so I recouped some of that)
Yeah I got about 7 SDMBers now to give flatout: ultimate carnage a try, so we’ll definitely have some multiplayer games. Grab it for $2 and join us.
I picked that one up after opting not to on the last sale. My brother told me to get it and watched a bit when I was over there. The environments might not be the prettiest (it’s Mars), but there is something visceral about smashing them with a hammer.
And I haven’t even started games I bought since the last sale. Steam is sneaky.
With flatout: UC, I either convinced or gifted pretty much everyone on my friends list, so we should get some SDMB multiplayer games started soon. If you get the game and you’re not already on my friends list, add me (senorbeef) and I’ll invite you when we play.
Since we’re gonna have at least 12+ SDMB players for Flatout: UC I spun it off into its own thread.
Yeah, alright, I bought FlatOut. I had decided against it since I just bought Burnout: Paradise the other day (which I really like), but I guess for 2 bucks and large(ish) group of Doper players I can’t go wrong 
Between this and all the other games I’ve bought (especially GTA IV), I’ve probably downloaded over 30 gigs of stuff this week. I’m sure AT&T is lovin’ me… :rolleyes: Hope I don’t get my first “by the way, unlimited isn’t really unlimited” letter
Current sale:
Titan’s Quest Gold for $5 – will probably get this one (decided yesterday against Left 4 Dead). Seem to recall hearing good stuff about it.
GTA: San Andreas for $3.74: nah. Don’t think GTA is up my alley. I don’t like sandbox games, and I don’t like playing the bad guy.
X3: Gold for $10.19. Haven’t heard much about this one.
Madballs in Babo for $2: same.
Bioshock for $5: if I didn’t already own this I’d get it in a heartbeat. Anyone who doesn’t have Bioshock, pay attention!
Thief: Deadly Shadows for $3: Played it a long time ago and enjoyed it up until a level where you have to find some guy with a key or map plans in a massive underground complex, and I managed somehow to sap him without ever getting the key and could never find where I’d stashed the body. Will not be playing again, but it’s apretty fun one.
Misadventures of PB Winterbottom for $2.50: never heard of it.
Tropico 3 for $7.49: meh.
Star Wars Galaxies for $5: From what I’ve heard, if you’re not getting paid a good salary to play this game, there’s no reason to play it.
Dragon Age stuff for 40% off: tempting, but I’ve played the original, and haven’t really had a hankering for the supplement.
They only send out those letters usually to like the top half-percent of internet users in an area, and 30gb is nowhere near enough to qualify you for that. Usually they’re watching uploads more then downloads too.
Anyway, new sales today:
Bioshock $5
Titan Quest Gold $5
Thief: Deadly Shadows $3
GTA: San Andreas $3.74
Star Wars Galaxies: Complete Online Adventures $5
Tropico 3 special steam edition $7.50
40% off all dragon age games (plain DAO for $24, deluxe editions and expansions and bundles there too)
X3 Gold $10.19
Madballs in Babo: Invasion $2
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom $2.50
Bioshock is obviously worth $5.
Dragon Age games are all great and now is a good time to buy if you’ve been waiting.
GTA: San Andreas is actually a good computer game IIRC, it was ported well unlike GTA 3 (which looks as crappy as you’d expect because of that “let’s blur everything” console style) and GTA 4 (inexplicable bloated pig).
Titan Quest Gold is something you’ll definitely get $5 worth out of if you like action RPGs.
From what I heard about San Andreas, it’s fine up until the part where you have to fly the VTOL plane. The PC controls are very poorly optimized at that point, requiring you to have three hands. Even though I have it on PS2 it’s tempting.
Left Hand, you don’t play the bad guy. You play the least bad guy in a world of villains (Black and Gray Morality.
Still contemplating Titan Quest. Tropico seems alright but it’s one of those things like the Civilization series which I might enjoy but don’t really have the time for.
Oh didn’t see Winterbottom. I think there’s a demo. It’s got kind of a Gorey/Silent movie aesthetic. It’s a puzzle game kind of like Braid. You have eat pie, not bring it.