I’m leaning towards Company of Heroes (+Opposing Fronts) and, for a buck fiddy, I can’t believe I could go wrong with Audiosurf.
It’s ugly but the gameplay is very good nevertheless. It’s made straight for computer though and isn’t really comparable to MtG games in that way. The single-player campaign is interesting and the fights are varied with different victory conditions and enemies that have a flaw and a special ability to compensate. I had fun playing it for 28 hours, so if you don’t mind the crude graphics and low production values it’s very much worth the few bucks IMO.
One thing, though – you have almost no control over your deck, and rarely in some gimmick fights you can see right from the start that the selection of cards you’ve gotten for that fight is crap and you’ll lose. It was minor irritant for me though since it’s not really a deck-building game like MtG, but if controlling your deck is a major point in playing a computer card game you might be disappointed.
The Quake collection is only $7.49, that is a good deal for an old school game. I bought up the doom games on the cheap around winter and never regretted it. Reminiscing about killing demons when I was younger always makes me happy.
Audiosurf is dumb. I thought it would intensify the experience of music, but it just detracts from it by forcing you to multitask and focus on the game instead of the music. Meh. Worth exploring for under $2, but not enjoyable.
I played it for a couple hours without realizing where the time went. It was fun but different strokes and all that. Needless to say, I got my $1.50 enjoyment out of it.
Play on Mono if you want to just enjoy the music. No one will think less of you.
I purchased Sanctum and I can confirm: if you like tower defense and FPS, the game is a really fun fusion of the two. Absolutely worth picking up for the price.
Started King’s Bounty, and am enjoying it so far. Except that I really miss the castle-building part of HOMM.
Friday’s deals:
Mafia franchise, Mafia $2.50, Mafia 2 $7.50, DLC 75% off
Splinter Cell franchise 66% off, or a pack for the last 4 games + a dlc for $18
Amnesia: The Dark Descent $5 (75%)
The Last Remanent $10 (75%)
Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga $20 (50%)
Dirt 3 $33.50 (33%)
Empire and Napolean Total War with all DLC $10
Fallout 3 GOTY (all dlc) $10
Worms Reloaded $5 or 4 pack for $17
Red Faction Armageddon $33.50 (33%)
Universe Sandbox $5 (50%)
Mass Effect Franchise 66% off - both games $7 each, I think (page isn’t displaying correctly atm)
Activities for Universe Sandbox, Worms Reloaded, Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time, 1…2…3…4… KICK IT, Galcon Fusion, Winter Fusion, Dawn of War 2: Retribution, DOD: Source, and 2 freebies: build a wishlist of 10 items, and post a video.
I’ve been waiting for the worms game to hit $5, so I’m going to pick that up. The 4 pack is oddly priced - every other 4 pack has a buy 3 get 1 free pricing structure, but in this case you only save $3 rather than 5. Probably not even worth organizing a group buy in that case. But grab it, it’s $5 and we can have SDMB games.
Dirt 3 is a lot of fun and we have SDMB games.
Been waiting for F3 GOTY to drop below $15 and it finally did.
I haven’t played through Amnesia yet (I generally don’t like scary stuff) but if you like horror games a lot of people think this is the best ever.
Empire/Napolean Total War pack is huge value - you get two full games and all their DLC for $10. If there’s enough people with it and interest, we can try some SDMB games with 3v3 type battles, might be interesting.
A lot of good games here. Unfortunately I own most of them 
Can anybody give an opinion on Napoleon: Total War? Empire was infuriatingly bad in my opinion, but I’ve heard tell that most of the problems were fixed for Napoleon… the problem is, it’s actually the kiss-ass reviews of Empire (that ignored nonexistent AI, piles of bugs, and some awful design) that made me give up on professional game reviews, so I don’t trust any of the reviews of Napoleon or Shogun II either. However, a Total War game done properly is essentially my favourite type of game…
So, is N:TW actually any good, and is the campaign play decent (i.e. not mission-based and buggy like the Road to Independence campaign in Empire)? And is it fun even for those of us with an aversion to short megalomaniacal Corsicans, who prefer to smash Bonaparte instead of only playing as him?
I was hoping for a better Divinity II deal; at $20 I don’t think I’ll pull the trigger. (Speaking of which, I really don’t care for shooter/rpgs, so the nice deals on Fallout & Mass Effect don’t do anything for me).
Amnesia is fantastic. Seriously - there is no good reason whatsoever not to buy it for five dollars. Unless you don’t have five dollars. In which case, screw it, PM me and I’ll gift you the game. It’s that great.
The Mass Effect series is fantastic as well - buy it! Unless you hate Bioware, which seems kind of like hating puppies or happiness, but hey. People are weird.
I actually liked Empire, bugs and all, and played it to death. By the time Napoleon came along, though, I had burned out and I haven’t played much of the latter game. It does fix many of Empire’s problems. (And Shogun II fixes even more of them.)
You can play Napoleon in two ways. The first in which you follow in Napoleon’s footsteps from the First Italian campaign, Egypt, etc, all the way to the Hundred Days and Waterloo; each of these is really a mini-campaign with a set objective. The second is the classic Total War grand campaign; you can play as Napoleon and conquer Europe or you can play as one of the other powers and defeat Napoleon as well maintaining your own empire.
There are also the historical battles, including Austerlitz and Waterloo. And you can set up your own battles as well. So I guess that’s four ways to play Napoleon.
I’d certainly join in a multiplayer battle of Empire or Napoleon, if that ever gets going.
Damn, nothing worthwhile today except Worms. But I’ve bought at least one game a day this week, so skipping a day isn’t too big a loss.
Amnesia is certainly neat, but I don’t like playing horror games. Perversely, I enjoy watching other people play them, and there’s plenty of fun Let’s Play Amnesia series out there.
Mafia 2 is worth $7.50 for those who like that sort of thing.
Count me in among the Mass Effect fans - I already have both, but maybe I’ll send them to my husband as a gift.
I picked up the DLC I was still missing for Napoleon. I already have all the DLC for Empire. It was almost cheaper to just buy the Empire+Napoleon pack again. Almost.
I enjoyed Empire greatly. While it was buggy for a little while after release (like most games these days), it’s very stable now. Napoleon is a good refinement of the play style; pretty much all units seem deadlier. I like the Empire grand campaign (and to a lesser extent the one for Napoleon) because I often find myself sitting back in my chair, tenting my fingers, and considering which of a dozen different goals to prioritize.
The Mass Effect games are excellent.
Yeah, if I didn’t already have them I’d definitely get Empire/Napoleon…if the combo is on sale I’d certainly recommend it (plus some of the unit DLC’s). I agree with the Mass Effect recommendation too.
At this point I’m trying NOT to buy anything else. The only other thing I really was hoping for is a large sale on Dragon Age II, since I don’t have that one (yet). But I bought like 8 games in this sale and I’ll be hard pressed to play them all (I started a campaign for Hero’s V which has been fun so far).
-XT
Oh, and I also endorse Fallout 3.
If you also like New Vegas I think there is another DLC coming out this month and one next month as well.
-XT