Steam Sales

[FlowerChild]

Grey Goo, a recent release RTS of the 90s style is both free to play for the weekend and 60% off to purchase if you like it. I'm going to be trying it at some point for sure

Ooooo...was eyeing that but didn't realize it was a free weekend. Will have to check it out :)

[Wafflewaffle]

Grey Goo, a recent release RTS of the 90s style is both free to play for the weekend and 60% off to purchase if you like it. I'm going to be trying it at some point for sure

Was replaying the original DoW series for the kick of it, when this showed up. Man, its pretty good. Definitly buying it once the the free trial runs out. Unless the promotion goes out the same time, then I'll wait for end of the year deals. But i recommend it.

[DaveYanakov]

I didn't wait for the trial to end. It has depth to it an plenty of modern day quality of life improvements over the 90s, but it doesn't thrive on micromanagement like every single RTS I've played in the last 10 years.

That's always bugged the crap out of me. The name of the genre is Real Time Strategy, not Tactics. If I have one gripe with this title it is with the optimization. I've got a new video card and processor that has been eating the past years releases for breakfast but this one I had to turn down below medium to get it to run smoothly.

[FlowerChild]

I didn't wait for the trial to end. It has depth to it an plenty of modern day quality of life improvements over the 90s, but it doesn't thrive on micromanagement like every single RTS I've played in the last 10 years.

Meh, I dunno man. I played enough during the free weekend to get maybe 5 or 6 missions into the campaign (through the initial alien ones, then a couple of human faction ones), and I can't say it really hooked me.

I'm not a fan of the modern style of clicks-per-minute/useless-defenses-rush-rush-rush RTS either, so this game was potentially right up my alley. However, at the same time I didn't really feel that this game evolves the genre either, and found the interface to be annoyingly clunky at times. I find the UI starts really getting in the way once you hit the human campaign, as the power conduits make you feel like you're constantly wrestling with them, and rebinding to WASD for camera scroll (which I hate playing without) becomes an exercise in frustration where I could never seem to completely eliminate the hotkey conflicts it would create (thought I had, then the human turrets would jam the scroll on 's' when selected with apparently no way for me to correct that).

I find the campaign gets a little weird at a certain point as well, as while this game isn't supposed to be a rush fest, a few missions in timed objectives seem to become the norm which largely turns it into one anyways.

I also find the terrain system is EXTREMELY heavy handed. I'm all for bonuses/penalties for firing up and down slopes, and into vegetation, but man, preventing units firing back *entirely* if they're on the losing end of those situations is really a bit much.

Anyways, it's cool and all, and I suspect I would have played it some more in the future if the trial hadn't run out on me, but at the same time I knowingly shut the game down fully aware that I could have kept playing it, but wouldn't be able to restart it because the trial was over. In many ways I felt like I had already had my fill after just a few hours, and the price tag still feels too steep for what the game is, even with the current sale.

Oh, and boy did this game ever remind me how much I hate cut-scenes. It gave my escape key quite the work out in skipping them :)

[DaveYanakov]

Maybe it's just the fact I haven't played an RTS that wasn't built around clicks per minute that the inability to fire uphill wasn't out of the ordinary to me. I feel like I'm getting my moneys worth but it does screw over keyboard camera movement something fierce.

[MoRmEnGiL]

Oh, and boy did this game ever remind me how much I hate cut-scenes. It gave my escape key quite the work out in skipping them :)

Young morm would rage on about how engrossing they can be and how they pull you in etc. But then again, blizzard was the only one who could pull off interesting cutscenes in rts games in a way that made you look forward to the next one..

Now it's no secret that I am not a big fan of rts games. In fact I have a personal vendetta of sorts against them, holding them responsible for the complete disappearance of turn based strategy games in the late 90ies.

That said, I have played quite a lot of rts games, and Grey Goo just had no character. It's solid but bland for me, and I don't have time for bland but competent games..

[Wafflewaffle]

Shame Fc didnt get to play as the goo. They are by far the most interesting of the races, but then again really underdeveloped. Its the potential that got me hooked and playing through most of the campaing during the weekend i can unfortunetly say it plays like a big generic RTS demo.

There is a lot to like in it, the keybinging is really good, the ideas behing the each race are pretty unique 2/3 of them have very singlebase mentality reminiscent from Dark colony, the overall tech trees and progression is really rush-aversive that makes for better macro and long term gameplay, epic units are really fun too. But there is a lot to dislike about it too. Lack of unit variety and rock-paper-scissors combat is a real problem. The diferences between races are never truly explored or exploitable and every multiplayer match ends in turtling behind imovable walls, chasing after missing mother goo or impossibly long mirror matches that have no end cuz resourses are renewable. The idea that things can run out in the map (something that AoE players know very well) puts you in a timetable that just does not exist in Grey Goo. Lets not even talk about the storytelling that basicaly commits every single sin of shallowness and uncreativity ever.

Story spoilers ahead!

Spoiler

Show

The fucking goo speaks and is actually a good guy as well... WTF!

But after all this things, im still buying it as soon as it gets a similar discount later this year. I really want a good RTS, no one is making one, so at least i want to support the ones that are trying, even if it doesnt deserve a full retail price.

[FlowerChild]

The idea that things can run out in the map (something that AoE players know very well) puts you in a timetable that just does not exist in Grey Goo.

You never much got into the Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander style of games did you? :)

The thing is, getting players out into the map, and giving them more of a sense of urgency is really the design motivation that separated the old 90's style RTS from the modern ones. I think there are pros and cons to each approach, but if their objective was to make a less rush-centric old-school RTS, I can certainly understand why they opted for renewable resources.

I did think the resource system occupied an interesting middle-ground where yes, the resources come back with time, but once you tap them out, it takes quite a long time for them to recover. I'm not sure if I've ever seen that before in an RTS.

[Wafflewaffle]

You never much got into the Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander style of games did you? :)

Nope, but i do have SupCom on my library, maybe i should revisit it now that im done with DoW. What bugs me in this style of resource gathering is that it only really benefits the goo, while it moves around the map slithering away forever. That sounds cool but its really frustrating to play against. Becouse you cant safe guard all the resource pools, you cant really starve the goo out, and the resulting attrition war becomes tiresome when you dont see any real progress.

[jorgebonafe]

the resources come back with time, but once you tap them out, it takes quite a long time for them to recover. I'm not sure if I've ever seen that before in an RTS.

I didn't play Goo, but what you are describing is how ores behaved in Red Alert, isn't it? They would very slowly recover with time after you depleted them.

[Stormweaver]

I picked up Hacknet on the midweek madness sale for a fiver. It's a hacking simulator that has you searching through a simulated network of computers for information, passwords and programs that allow you to progress through the story. All in all, it was pretty good. Great soundtrack, Great visuals, and while the core gameplay is pretty simple it adds new challenges on a fairly regular basis and at 8~ hours it doesn't outstay it's welcome. The story is decent, and the couple of times story elements interfere with the gameplay create some pretty great moments imo.

Apparently the game is a bit deeper than I experienced - simulated computers are all running an actual OS and so on - But I was happy leaving it where I did.

tl:dr text-based puzzle-hacking-simulator thingy is currently cheap and I liked it.

[kazerima]

If I remember correctly, good old Dune II used to have exploding spice pockets start appearing on the map when the match started going on too long... you could ram an infantry into it to get a little more spice for yourself or try to lure an enemy unit into detonating it for you.

[CrimsonStorm]

Cities: Skylines is on sale on the Humble Store (Steam Key) for $15. That's 50% off.

[FlowerChild]

Free weekend + sale on Space Engineers. I'm still "meh" on this game overall given the disturbing lack of gameplay, but it's hard to beat free if you've wanted to try it out :)

[DaveYanakov]

So they're doing a new format this time around. Everything that will be on sale is on sale for the same percentage all week long. No more daily rotations or flash sales. They may have something up their sleeves for the end of the week but right now it's all front loaded.

[FlowerChild]

So they're doing a new format this time around. Everything that will be on sale is on sale for the same percentage all week long. No more daily rotations or flash sales. They may have something up their sleeves for the end of the week but right now it's all front loaded.

Oh wow. Total information overload.

[Stormweaver]

I think 67% is the deepest discount Elite: Dangerous has gotten so far.

I'm going to have to look it up again - I remember the last time I was thinking of getting it I didn't feel there was enough game in there to keep my painfully short attention span.

[Katalliaan]

I wouldn't recommend getting Elite just yet - from what I understand, anyone who buys before they release their planetary landing DLC will have to pay an extra $60 or so to get the full game.

[DaveYanakov]

So they're doing a new format this time around. Everything that will be on sale is on sale for the same percentage all week long. No more daily rotations or flash sales. They may have something up their sleeves for the end of the week but right now it's all front loaded.

Oh wow. Total information overload.

Gifts aside, I'm probably going to skip this one entirely. I finally picked up GTA Online alongside my new PC bits and it turned out to be the best racing title I've played in years so it's sucking all of my gaming time.

[FlowerChild]

Gifts aside, I'm probably going to skip this one entirely. I finally picked up GTA Online alongside my new PC bits and it turned out to be the best racing title I've played in years so it's sucking all of my gaming time.

Yeah, going through my own wishlist and looking at what was on sale (which was like two thirds of the titles or so), I said a whole lot of "meh". Some good sales, but nothing so exceptional that it was an immediate must buy.

I think the most tempting was Farm Simulator 2015 and I'm not certain I'm into getting into another low-energy/high-time-investment management game like that right now. I think Eurotruck was about as far down that rabbit hole of addiction that I want to descend into ;)

[MaxAstro]

I doubt there is anyone here who doesn't already own it, but Terraria is 66% off right now.

EDIT: Since I've been eyeballing Elite:Dangerous for a while, I decided to look over the negative reviews to see if any of them will talk me out of buying it. Stumbled across this in one review:

"...The biggest problem, however, is that the devs seem to have a grand vision of what they want their game to look like, and are willing to pursue that wholeheartedly at the expense of the players..."

~buys~

[myrkana]

for anyone who is like me and doesn't yet have dragon age: origins, it's on sale for like 7.50 for the whole thing, dlc and all :3

also Civ 5 and all it's DLC are 12.50 down from 50$

[Caevin]

It's not the most impressive sale, but a new title is on sale for $15.99 of it's $19.99 price tag. Thea: The Awakening.
I've got 30 hours on it so far, and it satisfies all my cravings. A 4X-styled medieval (Norwegian folklore-inspired actually) survival/adventure game. Managing your settlers is fun, and I decided to set the difficulty settings to max and have been getting destroyed every game, I love having an impossible difficulty!

[Sarudak]

Picked up Sunless Sea at 40% off and I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

[murillokb]

I just got the Civilization V Complete Edition which includes the game and all the DLCs for 10 Euros and I'm still shocked.

The game and the two biggest DLCs costs 7,50 euros each!

If someone still doesn't have the game, now is a good time to buy it!