Digitally Distributed PC games ON SALE Thread

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Rockstar games are on sale for like 60-80% off this weekend, so if you missed out on GTAIV or Max Payne 3 you can get either for $7, or the each entire series (minus GTAV) for $10.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Bioshock Infinite - $9.89 on Steam. I haven't played it, should I jump?

Also, the Dragon Age games are like $5.
 
I'm a chronic lurker but I really love this community. Aaz, Walter, and others have given me so much insight concerning the minute details of Berserk that I've missed. Aaz, you've got an incredible mind. Having said that, I had to login just to say that I'm shocked you had fun with infinite. I honestly felt like the game was mocking me and actively insulting my intelligence. I was extremely disappointed in infinite. No judgements here just genuine surprise!
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
buttonmasher said:
Aaz, you've got an incredible mind. Having said that, I had to login just to say that I'm shocked you had fun with infinite. I honestly felt like the game was mocking me and actively insulting my intelligence. I was extremely disappointed in infinite. No judgements here just genuine surprise!

Well, thanks I guess, and welcome! It's hard to give you an answer here because you didn't specify what you felt was bad. That being said, I did almost add to my previous post the line "despite the game not being as smart as it thinks it is". Do I think Bioshock Infinite's story had problems and could have been better? Sure. Actively insulting my intelligence though, I wouldn't go that far. And aside from the story, I thought the world and the characters had a certain charm to them. I liked the duo formed by Booker and Elizabeth. It's not the game of the decade, but I did have fun with it, and I even bought the DLCs and all.

Now I'm curious though: what was so disappointing about it to you? Maybe it's a question of the (different) expectations we placed in it?
 
You hit the nail on the head. The narrative is not half as smart as it believes itself to be and bites off way more than it can chew. For example, there's the obvious dealings with race and genetic superiority, nothing new to Bioshock as it is a main theme for the first game. In the original Bioshock your enemies were often splicers who had modified themselves to such an extent that they had gone mad via isolation, greed, addiction, and paranoia. The only way to "level up" in the game is to modify yourself and become ever more like the poor bastards you are mowing down. The player knows they have to make progress, but there's a bit of anxiety about where the story is going. You begin to realize that perhaps you aren't so different from the crazies lining up to kill you. That's a bit of passive story telling that made the game special. In Infinite, the player is presented with situations such as, "Press B if racist, Press A if not."

The game tries to deal with the unionization of labor, the whitewashing of history, the idea of free will, nationalism, and several other lofty themes. The problem is that the game is just a run of the mill corridor shooter. You run into a new area, kill all the baddies, take their chocolates, rinse and repeat. Your enemies never pick up the super human powers that are freely scattered around the world. So the game wants you to contemplate these heavy themes, which are incredibly over-simplified (the laughable and insulting part), while you mass murder regular, human guards. But its ok to kill them because they are probably racist, sexist, homophobic, nationalist assholes.

The relationship between Booker and Elizabeth is a great mechanic to move the story forward. Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s presence is enough to break the immersion. She is invincible and ignored by enemies, never in any real danger that the game doesn’t force on you, and she constantly throws you items to help you out during fights. This game will make you feel like a bullet sponge. While her help is appreciated, it does make you feel silly to be taking cover while she’s running about as though she’s on a scavenger hunt.

I've always enjoyed multiplayer FPS but the the single player campaigns usually bore me to tears. Bioshock was really interesting for me and had me hooked. Going into Infinite I was expecting something special but it was a dumbed down experience, seemingly written by a Freshman philosophy major. It’s just a harmless little game and I mean it no harm. I'm not mad at it. I just had to reply because I found it to be so underwhelming and undeserving of all its accolades. Infinite wants you to believe it has something important to say but this is simply not the case. This game's narrative literally broke my immersion more times than I can count and that's why I say its a bad game. I can forgive mechanics and an underwhelming story but this game seemed like it was actively working against my enjoyment of it. Too harsh? Maybe, but I don't want any more games like this one.
 
Griffith said:
Bioshock Infinite - $9.89 on Steam. I haven't played it, should I jump?

Let me save you 10 or 15 hours; don't do it. I played it twice and I couldn't convince myself that it was a good game. Too many flaws in the story and the game mechanics didn't feel very polished either, combat just felt like it was a chore. There are better ways to spend 10$.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
buttonmasher said:
The relationship between Booker and Elizabeth is a great mechanic to move the story forward. Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s presence is enough to break the immersion. She is invincible and ignored by enemies, never in any real danger that the game doesn’t force on you, and she constantly throws you items to help you out during fights. This game will make you feel like a bullet sponge. While her help is appreciated, it does make you feel silly to be taking cover while she’s running about as though she’s on a scavenger hunt.

Sure, but that's kinda the norm in video games. Alyx from HL2 was invincible too, and she did shoot at enemies, unlike Elizabeth. Yet she's widely regarded as one of the best NPC companions ever created. And what of the Little Sisters, invincible in the original Bioshock? You've just got to suspend your disbelief here. Otherwise, if you start hanging on details like that I think it becomes very difficult to enjoy any video game at all.
Besides, for at least a large part of the game, your enemies are attempting to "rescue" Elizabeth from you and it makes sense that they wouldn't shoot her.

buttonmasher said:
I've always enjoyed multiplayer FPS but the the single player campaigns usually bore me to tears. Bioshock was really interesting for me and had me hooked. Going into Infinite I was expecting something special but it was a dumbed down experience, seemingly written by a Freshman philosophy major. It’s just a harmless little game and I mean it no harm. I'm not mad at it. I just had to reply because I found it to be so underwhelming and undeserving of all its accolades. Infinite wants you to believe it has something important to say but this is simply not the case. This game's narrative literally broke my immersion more times than I can count and that's why I say its a bad game. I can forgive mechanics and an underwhelming story but this game seemed like it was actively working against my enjoyment of it. Too harsh? Maybe, but I don't want any more games like this one.

I think you're too harsh on Infinite while simultaneously being too generous with the original Bioshock. Granted, I think it has less problems (which is at least in part because its plot uses less complicated concepts), but its main strength is really just its atmosphere. If you put that aside, Ryan's world is as much a parody as is Comstock's, and both games are "corridor shooters". Not perfect, certainly, but I enjoyed them.

The one thing I'd definitely agree on is that Infinite's enemies are less memorable than Bioshock's. Splicers had character, and listening to them talking to themselves in the dark was an experience in and of itself, even though it wore thin relatively quickly. And of course Little Sisters and Big Daddies were amazing as well. Infinite failed to replicate that, and that's one of its biggest failings to me.
 

Walter

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I really didn't like the original Bioshock. And while I didn't love Infinite, I did enjoy my time with it. Particularly, I thought it was a gorgeous world, and I thought Elizabeth was an interesting character. Though I didn't feel like they fully exploited their opportunities to develop her, she's one of the most interesting companions that I can think of.

The Game of the Year accolades I think do more disservice to the game by setting it on on a pedastal that it can't match up to. It's just not the WORLD SHATTERING game some people were expecting. But it's still a pretty fun ride for people interested in scifi shoot-em-ups.
 
For me, the design from the first 2 games can't be matched. I miss the big daddies /little sisters etc. Columbia doesn't have the same creepy atmosphere. its too bright , too colourful. The first game felt more like you were exploring , Infinite to me was more of a shoot em up. I enjoyed it - Elizabeth is a fun NPC to have alongside you.
Its just that the story telling doesn't really deliver it this time.
 

Walter

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Dark Souls is $5 today. I will buy it for one person if they commit to seriously playing it. Just quote my post here and friend Walterbennet on Steam and I will gift it later tonight.
 
Walter said:
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... Will I ever actually play Diablo 3 again, even with the expansion? I dunno... But I'm tempted.

After both auction houses were abolished, the end game and the loot system were completely reworked. You can actually find a lot of great loot including legendary and set items with unique abilities. My favorite is this amulet that produces 2 high damage clones of myself after I stun an enemy. Instead of grinding the same Act and skipping through the same cutscenes, you switch from story to adventure mode to complete bounties across the world, and grind bosses in rifts and greater rifts. Also, the difficulty system has been reworked. It's something you adjust that increases the hp/damage of the monsters and the experience, gold, and loot you get. So you don't have to play the same levels 3 times to get to the max level. You can easily reach the max level of after 1 playthough of acts 1-5 and jump straight to the end game adventure mode.

After your character reaches level 70, you can start grinding for paragon levels. Paragon levels are account wide and let you customize your characters strength/vitality/movement speed/resistance/critical hit chance/etc. I think the maximum paragon level is 1000, I'm currently at paragon level 72. So you have the option of giving a massive stat boost to any new character you create.

Also, Act V is also the act where the writers finally figured out that having the main villain saying "HAHAHA YOU SHALL NEVER STOP ME" every time you knock out their defenses actually makes that character less threatening, not more threatening.

But I usually don't listen to the story anyway. I usually put the game on mute and play a podcast or livestream in the background.

One small edition that I really liked was mystic transmogrification. You can customize the look of your character's armor and weapons and each legendary and set item you find unlocks a new look.

More on the new difficulty system and end game here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/game/guide/gameplay/game-difficulty
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/game/guide/gameplay/adventure-mode
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Yeah, Diablo III is a lot better than it was, but I still eventually lost interest just for lack of time (plus, to it's credit, I know if I go back just to fool around for "a minute" I'll get addicted again and then divorced and it won't be good). My dad on the other hand is still grinding away with complete best in slot gear for several classes and a Paragon level in the multi-hundreds. Apparently Torment VI is nothing now. Dude's probably going on 1,000 hours in game, if he hasn't passed it yet. You just can't compete with a retiree at this shit!


More on topic, if they're ever having a Fallout sale on Steam give me a head's up because I'd love to complete my collection on there. I've played 1-3 and New Vegas, but only have the latter on Steam, and I think my GoG versions are some shitty censored Euro editions where you can't kill kids, FUCK that! #GamerGate! :troll: I'd also like to try Tactics since I never did; weird, since I've even played the shitty Fallout 3 Van Buren Beta. BTW, how are people liking Wasteland 2?
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
BTW, how are people liking Wasteland 2?

From what I've read, "the real Fallout 3" would probably be the fan's take on it, although it's not revolutionizing the genre. Downsides are it hasn't got the best visuals, and it's a bit buggy.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
how are people liking Wasteland 2?

Based on the few impressions I've read, if it were more my style of game, I'd already own it. Everything I've read about the actual game (technical issues aside), it's pretty fucking fantastic. Delivers on the promise of revisiting that genre with modern sensibilities.

In other news for this thread, Tomb Raider (the new, Uncharted-esque one) is on sale this week on Steam for $4. http://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/203160/
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Steam Halloween sale is on through the beginning of November. Oh, and Bioshock Infinite is on sale for $7.49, but for $12 you can get the Bioshock triple pack with 1, 2, and Infinite (that one ends Halloween). I will be doing the latter.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
Steam Halloween sale is on through the beginning of November. Oh, and Bioshock Infinite is on sale for $7.49, but for $12 you can get the Bioshock triple pack with 1, 2, and Infinite (that one ends Halloween). I will be doing the latter.

Is it really started? Nothing special loads for me when I check the page. Though indeed, the above games are on sale. It's just not a BLOWOUT like their sales normally are. Nothing on my wishlist is on sale :judo:
 
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