# Winter Holiday Digital Distribution Sales **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 19, 2015, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844 "2015-12-19T10:45:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/61 "2015-12-29T19:36:34Z")
I’ve played a bunch of ARK and stayed with a lot longer than I thought I would. Its hook is, of course, the dinosaurs but it uses them well. Besides being generally cool and integrated into the core of the game (almost anything you can do, a type of tame dino can do better) they provide a PvE dynamic that games like Rust are missing. You could potentially even play the game single player (it has a SP mode) and find new challenges for quite some time including several “dungeon” style caves to tackle. Progress is fairly rapid although most unofficial servers have increased rates for gathering resources and taming dinosaurs. The game is in development but it really is an active development with new stuff entering constantly. I think in the last two months at least four new critters have been introduced. There’s also a big revision to wild vs tamed dino balance coming in the next day or two (tamed dinos are very overpowered versus wild ones) so it’s a real state of development and not one of these early access things that sits idle in alpha/beta forever. Down sides are that, on the official servers, you pretty much need to get in with an established tribe to have any chance. Even if you’re not being hunted, people will kick over your little shanty and kill your tamed dino just for kicks – usually when you’re offline. Real estate is at a premium, prime resource locations get blocked off and “pillar spamming” is common where people place a bunch of pillars to prevent anyone else from building there. You can play on an unofficial server where things like offline raiding and pillar spamming are forbidden although it may be some trial and error to find a good match. There’s also a bunch of PvE servers although that may not be your thing. So, like most MMO PvP games, it’s really a question of how dedicated you want to be and how much you’ll care when some 24/7 player kicks dirt on your shoes. I personally play on a small population private server with some friends and we have fun but I don’t have the schedule to want to do the whole “hard core” thing. I’ve never played Stranded Deep but I have friends who have and it’s supposedly a decent experience but also a fairly short one. It’s not hard to get established and, once you do, there isn’t much reason to keep going. Catch some crabs, don’t step on a lionfish and live to see the next day. Unless it’s changed, there’s no real menace on the islands themselves, just in the shark infested water, so you get into a non-threatening routine pretty soon. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/62 "2015-12-29T19:55:46Z")
**SenorBeef** , I’ve been playing _7 Days to Die_ fairly regularly lately, currently in “Alpha 13” state. It has a very active development team. It is the typical post-apocalyptic zombie-fest, but: - crafting is pretty deep and diverse (there’s base-level crafting, then forge-crafting, and cooking) - they support multi- and local single-player modes - very configurable single-player modes (no zombies, raging zombies, various loot options) I was going to get _The Long Dark_, a realistic survival game, until I realized that I can just play 7DtD with zombies turned off and get a similar experience (albeit different setting). It still has a ways to go, but each release brings about significant improvements. I’ve definitely got my money’s worth out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/63 "2015-12-30T17:38:07Z")
I’m picking up Payday 1 and the DLC. For $2.50 it seems worth it. If it is a good game, I’m getting Payday 2. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/64 "2015-12-30T18:41:10Z")
It sounds as though [Far Cry](http://store.steampowered.com/sale/far-cry/) made a late showing to the Steam sale. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/65 "2015-12-30T21:34:14Z")
Alright, ended up purchasing the following: Steam: Far Cry 3 7.49 USD The Stanley Parable 2.99 USD Don’t Starve 3.74 USD Besiege 5.59 USD GMG: Fallout 4 - PC $48.00 Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™ Game of the Year … - PC $9.00 Cities: Skylines - PC $9.60 Time to actually build my PC this weekend so I can play them. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/66 "2015-12-30T22:20:22Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I haven’t pulled the trigger but I see the Mad Max open world game is only $20.99, normally $60. From what I’ve heard it’s “Open World Game: the Open World Game”. I didn’t buy it, but I would have if you weren’t stuck with just the one sidekick. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/67 "2016-01-01T00:06:56Z")
Origin’s winter sale is still going, I thought it was supposed to end a few days ago. I’m not sure when it’s supposed to end - maybe tonight. Anyway, I’m going to pimp Battlefield 4 premium again. A few of us played it last night and the game is in much more polished/optimized/fixed state than it was when we played at launch. Everything went smoothly and it was pretty fun. There’s also a ton of content now between all 4 expansions (which you get with premium edition) and the free maps they’ve been releasing. I definitely recommend it if you like shooters at all. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/68 "2016-01-01T00:44:16Z")
Origin’s sales are not as good compared to Steam. Origin doesn’t have as many \<$5 games for the cheap ass gamer such as myself. Also Payday is ok, but nothing special. I don’t think I’ll buy Payday 2. I was hoping it’d be more like Rainbow Six 3 but it really isn’t. It is a mix of too challenging and not challenging at all. The batman games are all on sale on Steam, going for about $5 each (and these are the GOTY editions, at least 2 of them are). However I already have Arkham Asylum GOTY and don’t play it, so I can’t justify buying Arkham City or Arkham Origins. I think I need to expand my horizons beyond FPS and action/fighting games. I think tower/trap defense games are among my favorite. Orcs must die and Defense Grid have both gotten their moneys worth. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/69 "2016-01-01T00:45:15Z")
I’ve been playing the hell out of Shadow of Mordor since I had vacation to burn before the end of the year. Great game, but it’s making me obsessed. I hate Gibmub the lucky shot possibly more that I have hated any computer game character ever :mad:. I will figure out a way to kill you, you invulnerable-to-everything, showing-up-in-the-middle-of-every-mision-while-I-am-in-a-fight-for-my-life-already bastard. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/70 "2016-01-01T00:57:17Z")
So far, I have: CONSORTIUM a bunch of Europa Universalis dlc, Mount and Blade: Viking Conquest Ori and the Blind Forest Witcher 3 Remember Me Shovel Knight Transister Undertale And finally Azure Striker Gunvolt. That last item is a bit awkward as it apparently triggers and virus alert, so I uninstalled it. Everything says it’s perfectly ok and this is a false positive, but it left me rather nervous. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2016, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/71 "2016-01-01T11:05:38Z")
I’ve only picked up Hero Siege thus far, for a whopping 89 cents. Fun game so far, nice and arcade-y, not too difficult. I would’ve bought more but I picked up a few during the Halloween sale still to play. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/72 "2016-01-03T05:05:20Z")
I made a thread about [tabletop simulator](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=779541), if anyone is interested in playing stuff with us. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/73 "2016-01-03T05:15:41Z")
Alright, so I’ve been craving a good turn based tactics game lately, preferably with RPG elements but not necesarily. I just played The Banner Saga which is good but short. I’m going to play through the new shadowrun games soon. I’m not quite sure what I want. Something like X-Com would be fine as well as RPGs with turn based combat. Are the Kings Bounty games any good? Any ideas? Are there any good pirate games like Sid Meier’s Pirates!? Not so much the simple/cheesy timing minigames, but the general sail around, upgrade your ships, visit ports, trade, fight, capture enemy ships sandbox type of thing. It wouldn’t necesarily have to be a pirate game - something with that sort of style would be good. I guess Elite: Dangerous might fit the bill, but I worry the gameplay is tedious. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/74 "2016-01-03T05:28:20Z")
Armoured Princess is really good. Nothing decent and Pirates!-like has come out in ages. Honestly, AC4: Black Flag is probably the best/closest thing, but that has a lot of extra baggage attached. I was looking at that Windward game for a while, but the buzz on it isn’t glowing and I try to avoid early access stuff out of principle. If you just want a grindy upgrade-quest, maybe Mount & Blade: Warband? Might be too far from what you’re looking for though. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/75 "2016-01-03T09:01:09Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Alright, so I’ve been craving a good turn based tactics game lately, preferably with RPG elements but not necesarily. I just played The Banner Saga which is good but short. I’m going to play through the new shadowrun games soon. I’m not quite sure what I want. Something like X-Com would be fine as well as RPGs with turn based combat. Are the Kings Bounty games any good? Any ideas? Fallen Enchantress or Warlock - Master of the Arcane. I got more play out of both of those than I did from King’s Bounty: Armored Princess (which I did play a fair bit of). The two I mentioned are closer to Civ than HoMM though. Age of Wonders is a good series, albeit one I haven’t played in years. I did not get much play from Endless Legend, another fantasy 4X. > [@](#): > > Are there any good pirate games like Sid Meier’s Pirates!? Not so much the simple/cheesy timing minigames, but the general sail around, upgrade your ships, visit ports, trade, fight, capture enemy ships sandbox type of thing. It wouldn’t necesarily have to be a pirate game - something with that sort of style would be good. I guess Elite: Dangerous might fit the bill, but I worry the gameplay is tedious. Rebel Galaxy might fit the bill. I added to my wishlist thinking it looked like Freelancer, a simple space-pilot adventure. ---
**Author:** ![Garula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Garula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garula)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/76 "2016-01-03T15:51:42Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Alright, so I’ve been craving a good turn based tactics game lately, preferably with RPG elements but not necesarily. I just played The Banner Saga which is good but short. I’m going to play through the new shadowrun games soon. I’m not quite sure what I want. Something like X-Com would be fine as well as RPGs with turn based combat. Are the Kings Bounty games any good? Any ideas? > > Are there any good pirate games like Sid Meier’s Pirates!? Not so much the simple/cheesy timing minigames, but the general sail around, upgrade your ships, visit ports, trade, fight, capture enemy ships sandbox type of thing. It wouldn’t necesarily have to be a pirate game - something with that sort of style would be good. I guess Elite: Dangerous might fit the bill, but I worry the gameplay is tedious. I would say that **XCOM** has the best tactical combat by a fair margin. The new **Shadowrun** games (particularly Dragonfall) are about the closest you can get, I think. There’s also **Xenonauts** if you want a much more old school flavored X-Com game. The **Kings Bounty** games are all pretty solid, but I’ve always had a hard time getting into them due to the constant need to replenish your army. If you end up liking those, you might want to take a look at the lesser known **Expeditions: Conquistador**. I’m not wild about it, but **Blackguards** has a similar style as well. For more straight up RPGs, **Wasteland 2** and **Divinity: Original Sin** have solid turn-based combat and **Pillars of Eternity** has a real time with pause system that’s pretty close. For older stuff, the **Silent Storm** games are pretty great. **Invisible Inc.** is also very well regarded, but is about turn based tactical stealth rather than combat. You could take a look at **Space Pirates and Zombies**. It’s very sandboxy, though can tend toward the grindy. **Mount and Blade** is actually probably closest in feel to what you’re looking for, though. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/77 "2016-01-03T16:51:00Z")
Yeah, I always describe Mount & Blade: Warband as a child of Sid Meier’s Pirates and Medieval: Total War. Cruise around with you band, beat up dudes, sell their stuff, recruit more dudes. Get into alliances and starting a kingdom if you want. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/78 "2016-01-03T20:12:03Z")
Yeah, Warband is actually a pretty good recommendation with a lot of the same elements, but I’m all done with M&B until the sequel comes out, I think. Steam sale ends tomorrow at 10am PST, so make your purchases now. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/79 "2016-01-03T22:23:25Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Yeah, I always describe Mount & Blade: Warband as a child of Sid Meier’s Pirates and Medieval: Total War. Cruise around with you band, beat up dudes, sell their stuff, recruit more dudes. Get into alliances and starting a kingdom if you want. Now there are a couple of pirate games (_Carribean!_ and its sequel) using the same engine. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844/80 "2016-01-03T23:21:14Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Are there any good pirate games like Sid Meier’s Pirates!? Not so much the simple/cheesy timing minigames, but the general sail around, upgrade your ships, visit ports, trade, fight, capture enemy ships sandbox type of thing. It wouldn’t necesarily have to be a pirate game - something with that sort of style would be good. I guess Elite: Dangerous might fit the bill, but I worry the gameplay is tedious. Sunless Sea is Pirates transplanted to Victorian steampunk/horror; the writing is terrific. I can’t 100 percent recommend the gameplay - there are a couple big drawbacks - for one thing, the sailing part of the game is very slow; for another, there are a lot of skill challenges where you just have to slowly grind your character’s various attributes up to succeed in them. In general, progression to see the ends of the stories takes a very long time. But the writing is terrific, and it does bear a lot of resemblance to Pirates. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winter-holiday-digital-distribution-sales/740844.md?page=5)