playing games on a PC, misc. chatter, Steam names, etc...

Has anybody tried out Tank Universal yet? http://www.tankuniversal.com/
Basically the tank part of tron it looks like. I guess it's out for real in a couple of days? Wish it had multiplayer...

It would be cool to have more "steam friends," where I do most of my PC gaming, I guess. If anybody wants to add me, my steam tag is jefflev13

You've bought a lot of stuff off Steam! I'll friend you once I get my stuff going... if that ever happens, or if I join in for another free TF2 weekend.

TF2 is free again this weekend... though I'll be out of town and away from my computer (which is probably a good thing). All the new stuff they added to the game today seems pretty awesome, but now it has so much content it's a bit overwhelming with all the different modes and everything going on all of a sudden

i bought something called someone-or-others-big-bucks-shooting on steam. but it's rubbish.

i'm guessing with the imminent release of gta4 on pc, that new games are probably becoming way too heavy for my pc spec to handle.

There are a lot of awful games on steam - I guess they don't really say no to anybody. A little quality control probably wouldn't hurt. Though there are also more good games on there than there's time for.

Ste - I do think there's actually a trend away from making the new games super demanding. Sure there are a few titles, the upcoming Crysis and Far Cry 2 look hefty, but the more interesting stuff are these games most computers should be able to handle, like Left4Dead (still using the source engine) and the promising looking, low spec Battlefield Heroes.

I am playing through deus ex for the first time; so great and so many ideas

recommend me some other games I should play; I'm on a macbook (windows under boot camp)

ooooh, this PC gaming is amazing!! finally a chance to play all those games I never had a PC powerful enough to play

system shock 2 is something ELSE

http://www.machinarium.com/

I am GEEKING OUT on this stuff

fallout, fallout 2, system shock 2, deus ex

christmas at cozen's

Dude. After you're done with the Fallouts - Planescape Torment.

The late 90s were a golden age for PC gaming, I think.

next on the list are: x-com and thief

any other recs?

Anybody else get into the GOG early access beta?
http://www.gog.com

I just got my key and the set-up seems pretty nice. I haven't bought anything yet, but when I have the time I'd like to check out at least the Fallouts, MDK 2, and Descents (since I never played any of 'em yet). Any othger recommendations?

If you don't know what this site is, it's basically a steam like set-up for selling older PC games that have been updated to run on XP/Vista, at great, inexpensive prices (like six bucks for most titles) and with no DRM.

yeah, I got it

two-for-one on fallout and fallout 2? yes please!!

I'm in, too. Gotta love how it looks so far - explicitly catering to that late 90's nostalgic PC gamer who played or wanted to play all those Interplay games, and yet the site has a weirdly smooth Apple-like appearance (also catering to me) and the prices are very good (yay, me). I still have my Fallout 1/2 CDs, so I haven't decided what to get yet - perhaps Freepace 1/2, and that Jagged Alliance 2 expansion. I remember Messiah being really buggy back in the day, but it was pretty well-executed in most other ways. Hope this site does well and expands.

Like cozen, I just got XP running on a pretty spec MacBook Pro. Will it be able to run new things well? What should I get. Currently all I have on it is... Quake II.

If it's got an Nvidia card, it should be able to handle pretty much anything recent. Look at Steam and GameTap (Psychonauts free!), there's decent stuff out there.

Oh shit, Multiwinia just got released. Must find more time!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/1530/

Anybody else planning to pick this one up?

Steam weekend deal : Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Manhunt, Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Midnight Club 2, Wild Metal
all for $29.99 ($34.99 in europe)
thats a whole lot of game!

Damn, if I had a steady job right now I'd love to get that - I never played San Andreas, and always wanted to play Manhunt and Max Payne 2, even though I heard they were pretty mediocre.

You could get San Andreas for 9.99 and skip lunch (don't have to but the whole pack)...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/12120/

San Andreas is my favourite game of all time. I almost don't want to play it again, because I'm afraid looking at it with 2008 eyes will sully all my beautiful memories.

Gravitron 2 just added to the store today. It looks interesting. For only five bucks, I'll probably pick it up when I have a little more time...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/21300/

I finally picked up San Andreas for $10 at Best Buy a few days ago. Of course, Steam decides to do a $10 sale on Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines! Very tempting...

Anyone used direct2drive? I prefer it over steam. Simpler to use.

Does D2D have the download and install anywhere for an unlimited number of times and auto-patching Steam has? I haven't actually used it myself, but was thinking about it when Bionic Commando came out. I could see how not having to load that Steam client would be nice, though.

Yes, I've d/l'ed Bioshock from D2D 3 or 4 times. No auto-patching though AFAIK.

Starscape and Mr. Robot are now available on Steam for http://store.steampowered.com/news/1952/0. That's less than half of what you'd pay getting them from Moonpod directly. Mr. Robot's okay, but Starscape's a really nice little title, a souped-up Sinistar with some RPG elements from Star Control II in building your shipbase, the ship fighting, and resource gathering.

Whoops! Wish I had that "edit post" function...

they cost a URL?

most accurate life sim ever. for real (c/o PTG) (protest)

Did anyone ever get to play that Tank Universal game?

I bought it, but I still haven't played it! Shameful, I know. Will get around to it soon.

Right now I'm playing Half-Life :)

looks like Steam in europe is switching over to local currency, no more taking advantage of weak dollar. boo.

Aquaria is now up on steam...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24420/

I tried out the demo a while ago (a year ago?) and thought it was pretty neat. Very relaxing / very nice music / a little confusing. Will probably pick up the full game before the end of the year (it's on discount).

http://store.steampowered.com/holidaysale/

Big ass sale on Steam. Portal is $5, TF2 is $10, etc.

woah - some GREAT deals on there...

$2.49 for Trials 2 is the one I highly recommend (I paid $20.00, I think, pre-steam version). A pretty amazing / extremely challenging game, but also very addictive. It's basically a puzzle game on motorcycle - check it out.

The sale is nuts - check out the full list of discounts here. Bioshock for $5! And I just picked up TF2 earlier this month during one of the weekend sales. Steam is just insanely tempting all the time.

Is the full Trials 2 significantly different from the flash game? I thought that was okay but not super different from most flash physics sims.

woah - I'd never seen the flash version of Trials before! It is sort of just like that, in concept, but the graphics in Trial 2 are fully realized, semi-3d, up to 1080p and there are tons more tracks + leaderboards, and you can play it with a joystick, which I think makes it just a tiny bit easier / more natural to control. But damn, it's such a hard, frustrating game (trying out the flash version brought it all back). I still have tons of levels in there I haven't beat - makes me want to go back to it.

From the sale I just picked up Brothers in Arms RtH30, the original Far Cry, Indigo Prophecy and Aquaria all for less than the cost of one new game. Pretty nice! May get a few more things too before the sale ends on the 2nd, though fuck, I'm swamped in games now.

Oh man, I just noticed you can get both Railroad Tycoon II and III for like $7. I loved those games, and my discs for RRT2 had a flaw that wouldn't play any of the music.

Any other recommendations? Sale ends today.

I really wish trials 2 would come to xbla; that games look great

Full X-Com pack for $5 - sale ends today. Wondering if it's worth it just not to have to futz around with DOSbox and the like when I break out UFO Defense every couple of years, but then despite including XCOMUTIL you still have to do some patches (like putting the old screams back in). Sorry in advance if none of you know what I'm talking about, but it's aggravating over the years to figure out ways to get it to work through fan patches again (I even own the Windows Gold/Collector's Edition CD).

Left 4 Dead is $25 this weekend. Pretty good to coincide with the free DLC announcment, fair price, too. I'd probably jump on this sale if I hadn't just bought Retro Game Challenge. I'm still playing TF2 regularly, anyway...

You know, I keep meaning to ask this, though I'm not sure it really deserves an answer: who are like half the people in the Steam ILG group, anyway?

matteus is the only one I don't recognise. maybe it's you! rest are all ilxors, qaopspace is stet i think. i'm the delmot.

So anyway, Plants v. Zombies. Does this game get hard, ever? Am on to stage four and I think I've let two a grand total of two zombies through, pretty much by accident. I have 2000+ sun power left at the end of every game.

oh i see there's some chat about it on the what's hot 2009 thread. gotta lunch now though!

qaopspace is me not stet

oh you crazy guys with your similar names!

I recognized you, Jeff and JimD, but as for the rest of the names, I never see them posting here... maybe brilliam or kittyautomatic seem vaguely familiar? I guess what I'm getting at is that it seems like a lot of those people don't post on ILX anymore, since the group was created almost two years ago.

kittyauto = g-kit. onimo's still on ile, not sure about afarrell.

Brilliam is Will M. (still posts here a lot).

fuck, i can't seem to post! if this MAKES IT THROUGH THE INTERNET ETHER:

i am brilliam. i still post sometimes.

matteus = matt d. who is a full-time lurker and occasional poster.

i should join this

all right i guess i should join probably... sorry in advance for completely messing up the group play numbers!

(also, somebody should put a pic up)

hello i am kittyautomatic.
i am posting here to secure my position as member of ILG steam group for another year. plz 2 renew my membership.
i still read ILG a fair bit, and still enjoy it. i occasionally read ILE, but even now my infrequent ILE visits often end with my wanting to rip my eyes out and stamp on them.

much love x

I'm Merzbau on Steam, though I'm not online that much.

I post here on and off, I'm only ever on Steam for CS and CS:S pwnage and occasional reruns of HL1/2.

Blueberry Garden (I hope this is as good as it looks)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/29160/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOcSUDVsdu4

hey nhex were you the nhex on tf2 last night?

yep, that was me. man those Toy Fort maps are weird

I'm looking forward to the day when there's a sale on Crayon Physics - I really want that game, but not for $20.00

Magic Pen is sort of but not quite the same, and it's free.

http://magic.pen.fizzlebot.com/

crayon physics worth $20 imo! i spent a couple of evenings completely in lobe with the sound, the puzzles, the feel... more than I can say for most other stuff I bought at that price and even some stuff I bought for more (and since then he tripled the content, which I have yet to revisit)

I've been spoiled by steam weekend deals / holiday sales :(

Hey, lower prices are great and I'm all for them. There's always plenty of games out there to buy, Steam sales are great at highlighting this stuff. It's true though, inevitably there will be a sale on the game, or a general indie sale, or year-end sales that knock everything down. Might as well take advantage of it before digital distribution has enough power to keep all game prices artificially high!

Anyone playing Zeno Clash? I hadn't even heard of it until I saw the review in Edge, but they gave it 8/10 and it sounds pretty cool - a melee-based first person shooter (first person puncher?) where you get to have fist fights with elephants!

£15 on steam, think I might give it a go.

What's up with retail games requiring Steam activation? This makes it impossible to play used games.

You've answered your own question there.

Stardock is trying something new with their GOO DRM, you should be able to sell your license electronically, transfer games to another account and/or sell them legally. It also supposedly won't be tied to a specific online retailer (you can activate your game with any GOO online store). Kind of hoping it catches on so Steam eventually adopts it.

Zeno Clash is on sale this weekend for $10. I'd probably get it but... waiting for that SF IV package in a couple weeks.

Zeno Clash is on sale this weekend for $10

Sold! Although I've no idea when I'll actually get around to playing it.

aw have i missed it? i'd have given that a go.

thinkin' of dipping my toe back into the strategy/god game waters with Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery in the US, loooooooolllz). Although at $40-odd it would be less of a dip and more of a plunge.

had a look at zeno clash. meh. didn't like the style, and punching not nearly as much fun as shooting (although i didn't get as far as any elephants).

Yeah, I'm chugging though it, it's a nice experiment but it just doesn't work all that well. Also doesn't help that it throws a few major and pretty hard fights at you, before tutorial dude comes back about an hour in, and teaches you a few more techniques which are actually really important and helpful.

Anyone here registered and used Games for Windows Live? I'm curious to how it works. If you create a Gamertag, does it tie itself to your PC game CD keys (DRM-style, like say Steam, cd key is locked into that one account) or is it merely used for online access and tracking achievements and such? Also, can you easily change your tag/name, or have multiple tags on a single live account?

I hear you actually have to pay $10 if you want to change your tag?

And Yet It Moves is a very enjoyable, but short, puzzle platformer. Can't recommend it enough. About to play World Of Goo now, hope it's as good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXrkGFXi8g

anyone tried the l4d fanmade campaigns yet? they seem kind of clunky to install.

there's one called 'resident evil RPD' but no one was playing it

not feeling world of goo

haha

"The absolute, autonomous, freewheeling, grassroots, nonaligned, nonpartisan, sovereign, unconstrained, uncontrolled, unregimented games pack"

vs

"The autarchical, self-governing, self-reliant, self-ruling, self-sufficient games pack"

somebody broke out the thesaurus this weekend

This week's ILG Steam Group Stats!

Team Fortress 2
76.5 hrs

Plants vs. Zombies
17.8 hrs

Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009
16.8 hrs

Ha, I reckon about 50% of that PvZ time was racked up by my gf playing under my steam login.

Just got Trials 2 following the hype on the HD thread

Trials 2 Second Edition
6.9 hrs

^serious amount of time and I'm still rubbish :(

This is some crazy pricing for a dodgy train sim
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24010

$50.00 US for the base game is bad enough, but if you were to buy the DLC and expansion packs (that have all come out in the less than 3 months since the game was released) you would have spent $158.93 US. That's pspGO crazy!

so is this droplitz thing any good? i saw someone wz playing it earlier

I have been playing it a fair bit, easily worth the 200 American penny price it is at now. Dunno if I'd buy it at 10 but a great time waster at 2.

eh i don't really want any puzzle game that isn't great, you know?

today i keep getting kicked out off / voted off left 4 dead games :(

Droplitz isn't worth buying as far as I can tell, but I enjoyed the 10 minutes I spent with its trial version.

Huh, didn't notice as part of the Steam site mini-redesign (they changed the header style on your friends/games list) there's a little section if you logged in that shows your friend's combined game hours, the way it does for groups. Neato!

thomp - that's why I never played much left4dead - that's what ruined it for me :(

Ended up buying the 360 version so I could play with friends, but by then they'd all moved on to the next game :(

Does Steam have any decent cheap RPGs?

The original KOTOR just got released on Steam for $10. Not cheap right now ($20), but Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines was my first Steam purchase and it's been sitting on my HD unplayed for a year...

Besides the Fallouts which are obvious classics, what's good in the GOG promo here (which ends in a little over 2 days)?

http://www.gog.com/en/page/1year_promo/

Basically I guess I'm asking: what's worth $3? I'm leaning towards Messiah, though I remember that to be both really cool and really buggy when it was released.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto is popular. I bought it with the Earthworm Jim pack but I haven't played it yet.

Avoid Stonekeep. Freespace 2 is available as freeware.

what was bad about stonekeep? i had it as part of at least one best-rpgs-ever collection but it never ran :(

kieron gillen on rock paper shotgun reps for sacrifice an awful lot, i think

i never liked messiah or the awfully-named 'giants: citizen kabuto'. i actually wrote 'awfully naked' at first which was kind of an apt typo

mdk + mdk 2 are worth a look at that price; mdk 2 is a bit like a good giants, actually

i believe 'hostile waters: anteus rising' is the game warren ellis worked on? the comic book author, not the musician. if i had a pc nearby that wasn't an asus eee i would probably be buying that one out of curiousity. that and 'jagged alliance 2', which i keep hearing things about. tho i think you were one of the people repping for it on this board in which case i would imagine you have played it already

I got Stonekeep with the Interplay RPG collection and never got very far in it. I believe it's all repetitive dungeon fighting in a maze.

b-b-b-but that sounds great!!

Haha i'm actually kind of with you on that one, but not enough to buy. I do remember Stonekeep at the time having a really awful reputation for bugginess, worse than even Messiah.

I actually own MDK, original box and all (and probably have MDK2 on the Dreamcast somewhere) and was always terrible at it, so I'll pass on those. JA2 I have repped for, love it. In fact the first purchases I got off GOG last year during the beta were Fallout Tactics and JA2: Unfinished Business (both still unplayed, of course).

Definitely strikes me that most of the 2000 and later releases are RTS titles trying to cash in on the success of Starcraft, Total Annihilation, and C&C, but I've never really been that into the genre.

Also hell you might as well buy Hostile Waters now, like Steam you can redownload the games at any time, and it's DRM-free to boot. And you never know, it might even run on your EEE!

Just a reminder that the GOG sale ends today. And also for some reason SF IV is still at $20 on Steam, if you wanted to get it before that offer dries up. And... huh!

LEGO Batman
9.9 hrs

i have now added hostile waters and ja2 to my ever-increasing list of pc games i own and am not about to be getting around to

also, that website was natwest protection enabled which annoys me - you enter your card details and it asks you for your special natwest credit card password, which i forget every time - when i fail to enter the password you get taken to another screen, which asks for your card details, at which point you enter a new password. who can point out the flaw in this credit card protection strategy?

Caved in at literally the last minute and picked up Messiah and Descent: Freespace + Expansion.

what's happening to mafia2? after the crushing disappointment of godfather i'm crossing all fingers for it to be as great as the first

also is heavy rain ever likely to appear on the pc?

doubt it, since the team seems pretty dedicated to making it PS3-centered/exclusive. you'd think they would get out an 360 port before a PC port for profitability, but I guess you never know...

I need to stop visiting CheapAssGamer. Many many tempting $5 bargains at Direct2Drive for the next month for their anniversary: http://www.direct2drive.com/d2dturns5

Might pick up Saints Row 2 for multiplayer with a friend, also I heard you can register the key with Steam too.

get stalker!

I heard the D2D version has some problems with the fan patches/mods, unfortunately. I'm sure it'll go on sale on Steam again at some point, though.

Besides, I'm probably getting FO3 in a month or so and it'll probably be too late to go back to it...

oh, nhexpaws

I already posted this in an existing Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines thread, but then realize it's in ILE where it will probably be ignored.

I know there are some fan patches out there - the main ones seem to be the "True" patch and the Patches Scrolls one (which is still getting updates!). Mainly I just want to play the game as bug free as possible without extra stuff added by modders, but I understand both patches can do this? Anyone have an idea which way I should go, starting the game completely fresh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyCs7A1v-yc

Point and click puzzle/adventure Machinarium is coming out in mid-October, but the demo is up now. I really loved the demo - definitely worth checking out.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/40709

p.s. trailer above is spoilery :(

nice demo. will buy.

on another note, god i hate Direct2Drive, their website can burn in hell. all i want to do is give them my money!

yeah I couldn't get Opera to work with it at all. Firefox worked.

figuring out how to find the registration code after you install a game is a joy, too

i've been in and out of contact with their tech support for over a week... by the point when they told me to check if my versions of java, flash and ACTIVEX were up to date i just said, fuck this, fuck your "server error"

for people in the UK - EA have a sale on at the moment, games are £4.99 and with the coupon code "VoucherCodes.com25%" on checkout they become £3.74 each! games include Mass Effect, Dead Space, Mirrors Edge, Red Alert 3, C&C 3, Burnout Paradise.

oh, link http://eastore.ea.com/store/eaemea/cat/offers/categoryID.14365500

ok if you add Mercenaries 2, Dead Space and Mirror's Edge to your cart the cost is ... £0.00! wonder how long till they fix it?

Tried that and it's fixed. If you apply the discount code it takes it down to £11.23 then if you try to close the window without buying anything a pop-up offers you another 10% off your cart to stop you leaving.

I've already got Mirror's Edge on 360. My old man's hands aren't up to the task.

Does anyone know if EA have one of those liberal pay-now-download-whenever policies? I will happily pay £3 now for Mirror's Edge & Dead Space if I can download and play them when I am not using an Eee PC ~

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/09/oct/starguard.jpg

^ dead space on the eee

Just tried out the Machinarium demo on Mac. Pretty cool stuff.

Apparently D&D Online is now free (no signup, no fees, free client, the lot). Anyone played/playing that?

Even though the Windows port is somewhat terrible, I have to say Saints Row 2 is a lot of fun! I like their design approach in a lot of ways. For instance, how they just assume you're not going to delve the story right away, plop you down in the middle of the city after the first two missions far from the main base and expect that you're going walk around and try out the crazy activities (which are indicated as clear markers, though unlabeled, on your map from the beginning) and explore the city. Also, I have to admit, the blatantly sociopathic nature of it (even GTA tries to have good characters and some semblance of criminal morality) is entertaining as well.

Lotta good stuff on the Steam sales going on this weekend - I just finally picked up the original L4D for $7.50.

Playing Torchlight now. Awesome.

wd my macbook run battlefield 2 under boot camp? the complete pack is £3.75 (!!!) right now

What's your video card?

I think it's crappy integrated gma 950

this is why I am a console exclusive

ah, i see. yeah i don't think that'll be happening, sorry dude

Honestly, I don't feel like that game holds up - every time I put BF2 in, all I can find is frustrating, disorganized choas. I feel like it's far too late to start playing online. Playing with bots is more fun!

anybody have any experience with the PC port of GTA4?

machinarium is fucking wonderful

totally waiting for a good price drop on that

yes, it's good but short

what is up with every game taking 12+ GB of space nowadays </seinfeld>

anyone want a free key for MOH: airborne?

naw?

virtually everything on gog.com is on sale for 2 weeks

is anyone up for getting into Solium Infernum?

What is it?

nhex - Machinarium is now half off http://store.steampowered.com/app/40709/
holiday sale is live - some crazy deals http://store.steampowered.com/

aaah goddamn you steam you're killing me, you're killing me!!!!!

STALKER for $2 today btw, i should probably get that

seriously there's been a crazy amount of pc sales in the last couple weeks - wish i had more money to waste

wd love to play stalker; maybe some day that rumoured 360 port will resurface

steam has last crusade, fate of atlantis, loom and the dig for $2.49 total. if i didn't already own them all...

indigo prophecy for $3.39!

audiosurf and braid for $2.50!

STALKER for $2 is definitely worth checking out. The atmosphere in that game is really unique and awesome. The game is really hard though & filled with obscure type shit you have to figure out if you want to make any kind of progress. Also it's tough on some systems. I've played the first four or five hours maybe three times, but never seem to make it past there before getting kind of frustrated and moving on / even though I sort of love the game. I always mean to go back to it someday. At $2 it's worth it even if you only play for the first hour just to get a feel for it.

OK, I'm definitely in for STALKER. I might get in on the Machinarium sale directly from the developer, since it includes Samarost 2 and the soundtracks - but most importantly because I can get the Mac version.

Any thoughts on Rome: Total War, the Ben There, Dan That pack, or Outrun 2006? (all $2.50)

http://i28.tinypic.com/symgrc.jpg

Outrun is a classic, in a way, but it's very much an arcade game w/o tons of depths to explore. There are some problems with this PC version too (that may not be a problem for everybody). First, the online servers no longer exist, so you can't play the game online. Second, the game has no rumble - so depending on what kind of control scheme you're using, that's kind of a bummer (with a wheel it just feels really floaty, for instance). $2.50 is a fine price for a slightly gimped game, but I don't think many would find more than a couple of hours enjoyment to be had there.

If you're in the mood for a more robust racing experience, TOCA Race Driver 3 offers a ton of content (not sure if online still works in that game either though - I've never tried). At $7.49 you get a lot for your money. Trails 2 at $5 is also something people might want to grab (tons of tracks, all different from the newer xbox360 version, and slightly more challenging physics).

I bought Rome: Total War during last year's sale, and think I played one game - ha. It seemed pretty great - tons of depth and stuff to learn and do and figure out - but much like Civ 4, I feel like I don't have the time and focus to play these sorts of games :(

What's in the "Ben There, Dan That" pack, I don't see it?

There's a few games in this deal that are tempting me, but I still have games I bought during last year's sale that I haven't even played or barely played, so I'm resisting pretty good so far...

http://store.steampowered.com/app/37400/

Ben There, Dan That! is actually a freeware release that I enjoyed. Lots of lame-yet-appealing references to old adventure games. The pack includes the commercial sequel, Time Gentlemen, Please! Wondering if anyone here played that and if it's worth paying money for. It probably is, I'm guessing.

tempted to buy stalker even though my computer can't run it.

£1.39 in the uk so I bought it myself even though my computer can't run it

I'd spend more than tht on a coffee w/out blinking so tevs

it might actually run anyway, if I can find some space for it in my bootcamp partition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjKxJ6r40Kg

wow machinarium, stalker, indigo prophecy, that's like a whos who of my favourite games of the decade. one day i'll get round to starting that thread about why STALKER is the greatest game of all time. but really everyone should buy it at that price, even if your pc won't cope with it, it's worth having for the day you upgrade

yeah, that's the beauty of steam - all that stuff's shelvable for future computers (assuming Valve themselves don't collapse)

i am so tempted to gift Indigo to some folks, but i think they might as also hate me for it

btw, the dudes behind Immortal Defense are doing what the World of Goo guys did and pulling a "pay what you want" sale.

http://studioeres.com/games/content/immortal-defense-pay-what-you-want-sale

wasn't somebody here repping that game? i'll probably give the demo a spin, but i have yet to play the tower defense game that really sucks me in (never bought Plants vs. Zombies either)

mirror's edge is $5, looks interesting - will probably have to get a 360 controller tho

oooh KOTOR is $5. will it be better than TIE FIGHTER?? stay tuned

okay this is pretty zzzz so far. not a good casual gaming choice. shoulda gone with mirrors edge

No, it's not good casual gaming at all. It is one of the best games ever made tho, so stick with it.

Seriously, it's awesome. Has your standard Bioware/Black Isle initial tutorial level ramp-ups, but eventually gets into proper gear.

heh the last time I rolled dice was in some IRC channel 10 years ago :/ tbh I find the whole range of available options to be mind-numbing, I spazzed out for like half an hour during the initial stat point distribution. looked at some of the available guides online and was overwhelmed by all the info. :\

ok I finally sorted out that you can use wasd to walk around and also got my head around the battling/leveling - pretty fun so far, not really feeling the story (a little too much this NPC needs this! this NPC needs that! go do this! go do that!) but I can easily see devoting the next month or so to beating it

but I am still on retardis so maybe the story'll get better once I get off the planet

i am reverenddollars on steam

New Steam UI beta is pretty.

Hey, bunch of random, interesting games just came out or are on sale through Steam/D2D. Anyone got any opinions on Zombie Driver, Dark Void Zero, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, or Beat Hazard?

The weekend deal for Codemasters arcade racer pack is pretty amazing...

Dirt for $2.50!!!
Grid for $6.24 - I used to hate this game, but have recently come around to it - bought it for $25.00 a few weeks ago ):
Toca 3 for $2.49 (online still works too)
Dirt 2 for $9.99

Shame I missed yr message Nhex, Not sure how cheap Zombie Driver was but when it was on sale at xmas I picked it up and definitely got my $2 or $5 or whatever's worth out of it. Great dumb fun for a short amt of time.

5 games, DRM free, Windows Mac or Linux, pay what you want http://www.wolfire.com/humble

World of Goo
Aquaria
Gish
Lugaru HD
Penumbra Overture

note that the charities are EFF and penny arcade's wankathon

After much struggle, I finished building my new PC last night. Still fooling around and trying stuff out. Did a stress test in CS:S with everything maxed 1600 x 900 (next I need a better monitor) and am pretty pleased with the results... 281.94 fps average! Mission accomplished...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4588080210_df80ac22c0_o.png

got Steam up on my Mac, d/l'ing Torchlight for Mac now!

I has a Steam now too!

Portal is free for MAC/PC until May 24th
Mac store... http://store.steampowered.com/browse/mac/

Does that mean you can keep playing it for free after the 24th?

Downloading Portal first - free is my ideal price point. Actually, $10 for Torchlight is also going to happen.

Overall Steam is a must for PC gamers. All the deals that they frequently have are ideal for gamers on a budget. Torchlight is an amazing game it' even worth the full price!

I haven't played any games on my computer except for Civ in years and years; Deus X and Fallout 2 were the last, I think. Really excited about this whole Steam thing.

hoping against hope that Civ IV will get SteamPlay

should've been obvious but i'm still shocked that the new Steam UI looks even nicer on Mac

hoping against hope that Civ IV will get SteamPlay

Euler, according to the store it has it
http://store.steampowered.com/app/3900/

ok i'm in

holy shit you're right
!!!!!

installing civ 4 is going to have to wait until i submit my thesis

hmm though, in my client Civ IV isn't showing up as available to d/l, so maybe it's forthcoming?

i suspect that there's still limitations on the current client, since TF2 is mysteriously missing from my games list (and all my other PC-only games and Valve games still show up)

my steam name is ezsnappin if anyone wants to be friends.

civ 4 is there in mine?

i'm mac btw

the ILG Steam group is here, btw...
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ILG

just joined.

I joined too

from the looks of it you can buy civ 4 + all expansions + colonization (which sadly sucks) for 39.99. I own 3 of the 4 on pc and am debating getting all 4 for mac.

they were on sale for $7.50 total a few weeks ago

(maybe it was $10.)

yeah $40 is bullshit. bump this thread if they go one sale between now and the end of time tho.

any other games besides portal/tf2 and civ4 worth getting?

I am this close to deleting my windows 7 partition

ha ha, nice try steam, trying to get me to buy bejeweled 2.

I never expected Civ 4 to be one of the Steam Play ones (because of the different publishers for the Mac version - long delayed, happens to so many AAA Windows ports), now am kicking myself a little for not nabbing that sale a few weeks ago.

Civ 4 appears in my library but I can't d/l it yet.

haha last night Torchlight dl crapped out after 10 minutes, hung for the next 40 at 68%; this morning the whole thing dl'ed in about a minute.

nhex - stop kicking yourself...

However, it turns out that this functionality, referred to as Steam Play, doesn't always extend to all of one's past Steam PC purchases--if you bought a game on Steam PC before it was eligible, you may have to buy again if you want it on Steam Mac.

Thus far, only two of the fifty-plus offerings--Civilization IV: The Complete Edition and Fairway Solitaire--require existing Steam PC owners to rebuy them on Steam Mac if they were bought before "being eligible for Steam Play support (May 12th, 2010)."

Reversed?
http://store.steampowered.com/news/3827/

hmm... in that case resume kicking (actually I don't like Civ, but I guess that's another story).

I'm now able to d/l Civ IV in Steam Mac---it's kinda huge so obv. I can't test it yet...pure excitement however

This week's Mac additions on Steam (on sale):

Killing Floor
Altitude (Free weekend)
Madballs in Babo: Invasion

Also:
Sam & Max Season 2
Windowsill
Hearts of Iron III
Chains
Caster
Simplz Zoo
Eschalon Book I

what's up w/all-stars throwing up duds this year, first tremé now alpha protocol :_(

I worked on this game (a fact of which I am not proud). I'm not here to defend it; I agree with all these reviews.

First, a comment for the guy at Cheesecake Factory - Most devs eat in the office most days, if they do go out they tend to grab something at the food court and head back. I know the execs take long lunches, but they often use them for informal meetings as well. Most of the programmers and designers very rarely ate outside the office during the time I was on this project.

There was a ton of work put into this game. The problem is that is was a ton of undirected work, or work on things that were just stupid. The Executive Producer for the game, Chris Parker (also an owner of the company), seemed to think he was the world's greatest designer ever, and created all these absolutely shitty systems and wouldn't listen to any of the real designers or devs about things that just didn't work. And you can't exactly argue with one of the owners of the company when he doesn't want to listen. He basically took over the game and dictated exactly how everything would work (or not work, as the case may be). The other producers realized this early on and just gave up, leaving Parker to micromanage all the designers and programmers directly.

Sega also was a factor, because they kept changing the design requirements (yes they had heavy influence there), which never gave the producers and designers time to actually decide on one set of features to make and polish. The blame is still mostly Obsidian's because the execution was absolutely terrible, and it was obvious 2 years ago that this game should have been scrapped. Instead, though, they focused on adding still more features and never fixed the ones they already had. That is a recipe for tons of bugs and no polish... as is obvious.

This game was just an absolute failure of production, and it's no wonder that so many of the developers left the company, even after the 40% staff layoffs. I am still happy about some of Obsidian's other current projects, New Vegas included, because they are going pretty well. Their big unannounced project is looking great and is already much better than AP ever was, and that may end up being the game that everyone was looking for with AP.

Sega should have canceled AP instead of Aliens...

I've just downloaded Steam on Windows, didn't seem to work on Mac OSX (running a dual boot on a MacBook Pro). I don't seem to have any time to play games (apart from procrastination browser games) these days, but in the event I do (and once HL2Ep3 comes out it's on) my Steam name is RTotaleXVIII

my steam name is im dying squirtle

Anyone interested in getting Monday Night Combat? As usual the TF2 tie-ins make it that much more enticing...

I'm on Steam now. same name as my email addr, in the ILG group.

this game looks like it owns an awful lot: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-26-frozen-synapse-review

How is it? Interested, but I'll likely wait until the summer sale.

definitely worth $10 if you can find someone to split it with and gift you the other copy. it's basically electric football but with shooting; I'm just playing the campaign mode now until I get the fundamentals down but it seems like something that will be a bunch of fun to play with other folks.

Yeah my pal and I bought it in the alpha or beta or whatever and it was pretty good, the addition of shit other than just an online play mode is greeaaaaatly appreciated tho

Convinced a friend to split it, will get around to it soon!

thank fuck Steam exists otherwise i'd have have to sit around watching a game install off a disc in 2 minutes

Anyone want some Steam coupons? I have two 50% off Valve, one 50% Codemasters, one 33% Bethesda (which will work for Skyrim), and 50% GTA: Vice City.

I'll take the Bethesda one. Steamtag is jay dee ess aye ell emm oh enn

Oh yeah, these coupons all expire on the 1st... I've got a bunch if anyone wants them:

50% off Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword
25% off Atari
50% off Nail'd
50% off Spacechem
50% off Shadowgrounds
And a crap load of x% off Valve products

https://www.facebook.com/OnLive?v=app_100442513383559

Valve developing a console? W.T.F.

According to sources, the company has been working on a hardware spec and associated software which would make up the backbone of a "Steam Box." The actual devices may be made by a variety of partners, and the software would be readily available to any company that wants to get in the game.

Apparently meetings were held during CES to demo a hand-built version of the device to potential partners. We're told that the basic specs of the Steam Box include a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU. The devices will be able to run any standard PC titles, and will also allow for rival gaming services (like EA's Origin) to be loaded up.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/2/2840932/exclusive-valve-steam-box-gaming-console

eh, i feel like this idea's been tried and announced so many times by so many different companies but nobody has really pulled it off (or even really proven it's a good concept, market-wise)

I sincerely hope they make a console. I'll never own a PC and Mac gaming is still a pretty sad (and expensive) place.

it's not nearly as bad as it used to be, with Steam and Mac App Store in the last year or so helping a lot. plus, many indies now seem to be figuring that's a good idea to build cross-platform, showing up on steam and indie bundles. that said, i did eventually cave and get an xbox last year

My steam games better transfer to that thing.

aaaaaaaargh pc gaming is starting to try my patience.

Why can't all games just recognise my fucking joysticks like they used to in the good old days. Can't get any of my joysticks to be recognised by any of my emulators. pc gaming sucks.

Because games now are set to only auto-recognize 360 controllers. There's at least two translator programs that will map any gamepad input, and I successfully used both on stuff like SR3 or Arkham

cheers, will hunt something down. Yeah everything seems to be looking for the analogue stick which my pads don't have and I don't want to use my xbox controller on old 8 bit games.

this does the trick for me:
http://code.google.com/p/x360ce/

superb. thanks

or maybe not. just don't understand how that works, doesn't want to save my settings either.

is there any other app i can try?

when i try assigning any of my dpad controls to the 'stick' up, down, left, or right. it doesn't register them.

Humble Indie Bundle V http://www.humblebundle.com/
Amnesia
Psychonauts
Limbo
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery
Bastion (pay over the average price)

best one yet?

Nice! Is Amnesia good?

This is where I curse under my breath a bit because I bought all of those games except Superbrothers in the Steam xmas sale and still haven't played them yet

anyone played Superbrothers? any good?

sweet! purchase made.

Superbrothers isn't fun to play imo but very cool to look at. Great art style and music.

What's everyone buyin' in the steam sale?

Today I scooped up Anno 2070, the Portal bundle and Legend of Grimrock. Idk when/if I will ever play these games, but, but.

There's some chat here:
merry xmas (GOG/Steam direct download weekly specials)

I did buy Grimrock in the end and it runs perfectly happily at medium settings. So far it's a little... sedate, but given that I don't think my nerves or my speed with the controls would stand for any more action, I guess that's ok

...by which I mean I suspect it will soon/eventually get a lot less sedate and I will be floundering trying to click on things with my crappy laptop mousepad and failing to work out how to cast spells - dunno if I'm being stupid, if it's going to be explained in-game later, or if there's just a manual I haven't read - while monsters rain fire down on me or sth

I'll move over to t'other thread :)

bought
Trine 2
the Serious Sam RPG

will probably buy (but wait to see all the daily sales first)
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Lost Horizon
Legend of Fae

Death Rally is out (again) for PC today. I do like these top-down racers, but I didn't like what little I played of the iOS version, mainly because I couldn't get used to the (shit) virtual controls. Since the PC version has controller support, it should be pretty good?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/108700/

i liked the iOS version, just wished there was more of a story mode or something

JCL, did you play Bang Bang Racing? I thought it was pretty decent.

I sort of regret not buying it during the steam sale. I tried the demo and thought it was fun (on 360), but the lack of online multiplayer has held me back so far from dropping the cash. I'll probably get it during the christmas sale though (I'm sure it'll be cheaper)...

Steam's Big Picture display mode for TVs is live (well, in beta) now. The interface is really slick and pleasant to use, and I've found I can set it up with about $15 worth of cable (a ten-foot HDMI mini-to-HDMI cable and a ten-foot USB extension for my Xbox controller) so I'm going to give it a shot over the weekend.

Yeah, I've been looking forward to this and it's turned out a lot nicer and a lot more functional than I'd expected. Long hdmi tends to be flaky though, I thnk it's more likely I'll end up just building a new small quiet living room machine (although small + quiet + powerful is still really hard to pull off - I'm kind of hoping that the fact this mode exists now will be enough to convince Dell or someone to make something along those lines, and save me the trouble of speccing one up).

hmmm i have an unused Quad Q6600 PC that could be hooked up to my tv, would just need to buy a decent graphics card for it. If this thing works as promised then maybe i don't need to buy a nextgen console? its certainly a tempting idea.

I've turned my quad-core PC into a HTPC. I popped in about £150 of new fans and a fan controller and it's silent as a mouse - certainhly quitere than a PS3 or an xbox. I've got a satellite screen sitting next to "my chair", so I can stream footie on the big screen and read ILF on the little screen. With a wireless mouse+keyboard it's kinda all I need. Will certainly not be needing a next-gen console (although probably will need a new graphics card at some point, which means new fans - hurumph)

Tips for quiet fans? £150 is waaaay more than I've ever spent, but I've never got it to sound any quieter than a hoover.

On closer inspection it turns out I spent a lot more than £150, but on reflection I probably overdid it

The two items that made the biggest difference to me were a quiet graphics card fan (graphics cards are small = fan has to go quicker = fans are loud. The hoover in your PC is probably the graphics card) and a fan controller so the the fans only come on when needed. Those will set you back around £70 and will make the biggest difference imo.

http://www.quietpc.com/kaze-server - fan controller
http://www.quietpc.com/gel-icy-vision - graphics cards

I also splurged out on a monster cpu cooler as well, which mostly cools the CPU passively and only flicks on when you're doing something intensive. Whether or not it would be overkill for you, you'll have to decide.

http://www.quietpc.com/nh-d14

The QuietPC website is great btw. Good range, informative website, and cheaper than Amazon on the odd item I compared.

thanks for that, website looks very useful. just need some £££ now!

Quiet PC are a great supplier, I buy a lot of stuff from them. The Noctua fans particularly are great - 6 in my desktop PC at the moment. The case is lined with soundproofing acoustic foam, and something else I installed was an HDD silencer http://www.quietpc.com/smartdrive-classic, which quietens an already quiet HDD down to practically inaudible unless I put my ear against the case.

FTL is out. Looks neat. Roguelike starship fun.

currently $9. If I get half the playtime out of this that I did from Hack, Slash, Loot, It'll be worth it.

http://www.ftlgame.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4imWvoqxmc

comes on Mac & Linux, too.

I wonder how long before Star Command hits.

man this game is brutal

but is it good?

i feel kinda bad saying this, but though this looks cool something about it tells me it's gonna be in an indie bundle

Big Picture update: it works, sort of, but it's a pain in the ass. Since I can't force Steam (or anything else) to launch only on my secondary monitor (my TV), and since I don't want to make the TV my primary, the best way I've found to work this is annoyingly complicated: I keep the primary/secondary setup, switch to duplicate displays when I'm ready to play something, switch the sound from speakers to HDMI, and set the game's resolution as necessary. For some games (including, surprisingly, Bastion, originally an XBLA title) they don't actually support low enough resolutions for my 720p TV.

my guess is that the 720p has a natural output at a resolution like 1388x768, i think few 720p TVs actually render at 720p

Yeah, mine is 1360x738 or something weird like that. The problem is Bastion doesn't have anything within that range- the lowest available resolution just gets me a blank screen.

How about fixing the resoltion in the steam launcher...

https://www.wsgf.org/dr/bastion/en

Thanks, I'll give that a try!

Hmm, guess I'll wait and see how this pans out before I jump in and build a new box:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/valve-hardware-jeri-ellsworth/

holy shit, Jet Set Radio is out steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/205950/

Also, Torchlight 2 out

there is something crazy that it got a PC port over ten years later. but also great because i can wait until it's on a steam sale and feel less guilty about rebuying it then

still waiting for the TL2 mac port

This really is fantastic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZE7kGax7Ds

Who the hell knows when it will be finished, though; this is actually shorter than the last alpha release that came out a year or so ago.

looks nice

Anybody for Hotline Miami?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OJ51PG0swE

waiting for Mac port, but yes, i'm pretty interested. Cactus! it's been getting good notes from all over the place, especially compared to Retro City Rampage, whose response has been more lukewarm

Death Rally is having a free weekend on Steam - available from now until Sunday @ 1 PM PST.

Are any of you playing Planetside 2?

Upgraded much of the desktop today.

Man, I need a cheaper hobby, like narcotics.

Kingfish - specs?

How to date a post to very late 2012, here we go:

I5 - 3570k
8gig ddr3 1600
MSi z77 something mobo, does not have a eide port meaning I gotta dig up an ext hdd enclosure to pull old data off old drives
120gb Samsung ssd. Damn but Win 7 loads in less than 60 seconds.

Also, bought a Radeon hd 7870 earlier in the week.

Far Cry 3 runs nicely on it, like it should.

summation of the fuss over Steam game War Z, interesting to see how Valve plays this
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/12/19/allegations-of-false-advertising-hound-the-war-z-release-on-steam/

aaaaaaaand Valve have pulled it from sale

From time to time a mistake can be made and one was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build. Those who purchase the game and wish to continue playing it via Steam may do so. Those who purchased the title via Steam and are unhappy with what they received may seek a refund by creating a ticket at our support site here.

http://www.capcom-unity.com/mega_man

Mega Man X Street Fighter is available for free download today

Elder Scrolls Bundle, one Steam code for £20.61 - Oblivion GOTY, Morrowind GOTY, Skyrim, Hearthfire and Dawnguard

Speaking of Steam, Gaben and other Valve guys are interviewed in 2-parter ep of Nerdist out today.

I now have 8 free copies of DOTA2 clogging up my steam gift box (it'll be free to play once it launches properly anyway but at the moment early access is £22ish so I guess this is a good deal?). Chuck me your steam name if you want one of them.

Simcity closed beta went live this weekend. Check your email for a code if you signed up for it.

FUCK STEAM aaargh fucking idiot fuckety bastard fuckers!

It's attempting to download the world's most massive update on my 2kb/s Nigerian connection. Cannot delay the update. Cannot play any Steam games inc single player. Update will complete in about a week. They haven't even done us the courtesy of saying what's *in* the fucking update. I'll take up any offers of a lift back to 1998.

i think it's the linux update. I feel your pain.

This probably belongs in the deal thread but the current Groupees/Be Mine bundle is up
http://groupees.com/bma

I mention this mostly because The Cat Lady looks like a possible so-bad-its-good throwback to '90s PC FMV adventure games

From the first hour or so in, indie Escherian puzzler Antichamber does seem to live up to the hype.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT2VlffrSMg

Has anyone here played Actual Sunlight?
http://www.actualsunlight.com/
It's pretty harrowing. I can tell you from experience that its first-person perspective of suicidal depression is completely on point.

RPS coverage if you'd rather read about it than play it, for which I can't really blame you. (Or you can read it after you've played it, the whole game is about 20 minutes.)
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/11/thoughts-on-actual-sunlight/

I guess I should do the responsible thing and say this game just may have some triggering effects, it's that raw

Played this tonight. By halfway through I was bored and it was repetitive and miserable and I just wanted it to hurry up and end. Which was pretty woah in itself.

this looks really cool. Patrick Klepek posted about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCg8J2NrSrE

John Carpenter Soundtrack....the game!

haha, well put sir

i am interested in this game Monaco http://www.pocketwatchgames.com/Monaco/

has anyone played this? does anyone have 'opinions'?

thank you http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110904041806/messaging/images/2/2d/Emoticon_owl.png

Playing Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, b/c I never really played a DR game before. Some of it I like a lot, some of it is hilariously japanese.

probably won't do anything about this for quite a while, but i'm thinking about doing a HTPC thing for pushing media/playing games on a TV

long-time mac user, but mac minis seem underpowered for the task, and they're still lagging on the games front (though that seems to be changing rapidly).

is it possible to get/build something reasonably powerful for not that much money? i'm sure there are billions of articles/tutorials on this sort of thing, but i figured i'd ask ilx first

currently just stringing an HDMI cable from my imac over to my (borrowed) flatscreen. this is fine for watching movies and stuff, but it seems a little janky, and my new place will probably place my computer well away from wherever the tv ends up

or should i just dual-boot windows, play games on my imac, and get something more economical for movies/streams on the tv?

A cheap roku box should be fine for streaming. Most flatscreens have USB ports that you can just plug in for movies or file watching.

yeah I was thinking that playing Civ 5 on my tv would be badass but I don't know what the setup ought to be, or there's some good reason not to do it. it's just more comfortable & sociable to game on the tv; then the fam or wife or whoever can watch instead of me isolating myself

"YAY, DADDY IS PLAYING CIV 5"

you have no idea

they loved watching me play pocket planes, wtf

you played PP on your TV?

Wondering whether to buy my Dad Railworks Train Simulator 2013 for Father's Day or whether it's cruel to lead a loved one to the top of a downward spiral of spending £20 a time on endless DLC packs, some of which then get rereleased with minor cosmetic improvements and bugfixes as "version 2" for you to spend £20 on again

(or maybe he just wouldn't be that interested at all, as even the steam train packs drive you past modern scenery and through modern concrete slabs of stations rather than the late steam era he'd probably prefer)

I don't thnk that's quite the case, you can choose to run old trains on contemporary lines, but old lines exist too, some of the journeys in there are on tracks which don't even exist any more and the trackside stuff/stations etc are all as they would've been at the time. Might just be a question of matching your engine dlc with your journey dlc.

Either way, yeah, got it for my dad a couple of years ago and it was a big hit.

oh ok, that's good to know (both posts!) - I found a DLC pack for approximately the area he grew up in which had a steam train option but looked like all-modern tracks, but I'll hunt around for some old lines in different areas. thanks!

I've been here in Paris, TX, since thursday, and started playing Portal 2 again, since it works pretty well on the laptop. Finally beat it yesterday, and damn, what a game.

Dudes! Deadly Premonition is on Steam Greenlight! Vote for this shit!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=160687506

looks bizarre. I voted.

yup

It made it! Along with BROFORCE and Divekick, nice. (Kind of shocked they even had to go through Greenlight)

whoah BROFORCE looks ridic

i forget which thread we talked about it in but you can play the alpha in browser
http://www.freelives.net/BROFORCE/BROFORCE_WEB.html

awesome thank you

Gave FTL another try (honestly more for the Steam cards which I promptly put up on the market). I don't fully know why this game straight up angers me compared to say, Binding of Isaac or Spelunky. Ah well, at least I'll get a ~$0.75 microrebate out of it.

somebody please explain "steam cards" to me so i don't have to google it?

You get Steam Trading Cards for a given game by playing (or idling) aka drops. These cards can be

a) "crafted" together which destroys the cards and gives you a "badge" for your profile, custom emoticons and backgrounds for your Steam profile and raises your "Steam XP" > "Steam level"
b) sold on the Steam marketplace for $0.xx cents. you can also sell the emoticons, etc.

once you get all your drops you're eligible for a random Booster Pack in your inventory, which has 3 cards. the higher your Steam level the greater your booster chances

each microtransaction here gives Valve and the developer a cut, so it's a almost a weird form of DLC, except you can get small amounts of money back from it / cover the cost of buying games. in beta, some people were buying indie games just for the card support and breaking even or profiting

"foil" cards are rare and allow you to craft Foil badges. these cards usually go for triple the regular card rates or more, some go for several dollars. i've seen some emoticons go for high prices. yes emoticons, i shit you not. this is all a big extension basically of the TF2/DOTA2 marketplace that was already there

to be clear, these badges don't really do anything. Valve are a bunch of sick geniuses. but, it does give me a decent reason to attack the backlog and give extra support to certain developers without actually paying for worthless DLC

shadowrun: returns looks cool, like it's going to get a lot of community mod support

has anyone played monaco yet?

I liked this take on the trading cards thing and the endowed progress effect - http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-17-the-psychology-behind-steam-trading-cards

thanks, i didn't know any of that. interesting gambit by steam; it's working huh?

yup. though this is kind of sad and funny:

http://www.gamesradar.com/toll-steam-trading-cards-take-indies/

i understand it's disheartening to make more money off the cards than the game, but welcome to 2013 and the world of all self-publishing fields (music, comics etc.) Also the investment to do that art - hell, i've heard several games are already getting it for free from their fans! - is pretty minimal compared to the return. they get paid on the game, they get paid on the cards/emoticons/wallpaper AND they get more word of mouth as the games show on player profiles and activity lists

Unrelated, but is anyone else in the Skullgirls PC beta?

Playing a good amount of Rogue Legacy, as it's kinda soothing to play cycles thru for a bit with a controller, up some stats, then set it down and wander off for a while.

that seems like a game i'd really enjoy playing. i can't wait for the mac version to be released

very tempted for shadowrun. anyone confirm if its any good?

waiting for ios

Oh man I've totally got sucked into this trading card thing. I'm just farming and selling, pretty quickly realised that collecting and badge-making is mostly pointless. But it's free money, I just leave 4 or 5 minimised games in the background as I work and by the end of the day I've got another bunch of cards to flip on the marketplace. It's hardly going to make me rich but I'm up to just under £7 profit now, which goes a long way in a steam sale. Plus I already paid for a copy of Portal 2 (one of the levelling drops gave me a 90% off voucher, which brought the price down to £1.50).

So I'm profiting, Steam profit, the devs profit - who's losing out here, where's this magic money coming from? it can only be the bozos who are spending real cash on emoticons and wallpapers, right?

Anyway I've got a bunch of money off vouchers which I'm not going to use, guess it might be worth starting a separate thread for this kind of thing if anyone else wants to get into it but for now let me know if anyone wants 75% off Droid Assault, 50% off Triple Town, 90% off Serious Sam 2, 50% off Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army, 75% off Faerie Solitaire, 50% off Duke Nukem 3D Megaton Edition, or 10% of Toki Tori 2+.

So I'm profiting, Steam profit, the devs profit - who's losing out here, where's this magic money coming from? it can only be the bozos who are spending real cash on emoticons and wallpapers, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq9r50EYJh0

Shadowrun is worth it. Primary campaign is okay, more stuff is coming.

rogue legacy is a bit of fun.

both sound good, will probably get them in the xmas sale

http://www.gonehomegame.com/

This game looks pretty neat.

i was just thinking about getting that

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-15-xbox-coms-pc-marketplace-is-shutting-down

Microsoft will be removing the option to purchase PC games over Xbox.com on 22nd August, when an Xbox 360 update will remove the much derided Microsoft Points in lieu of using various local currencies.

sigh

Can someone recommend a basic freeware golf game for PC? I've spent like hours trying to find one.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/dampgnat/wonderputt

?

I'm having nostalgia for some offline 18-hole simulation I was addicted to in the mid '90s and can't seem to find anything like it. I'm liking Wonderputt though, thanks.

http://www.myabandonware.com/browse/theme/golf-q/

ty!

That browser EA Tiger Woods game was pretty good iirc

We encourage you to spend your Microsoft Points balance prior to this change

does this only apply to games for windows stuff? or am i supposed to spend all my xbox microsoft points too

is this a good thread to talk about Papers, Please?

because holy fuck

woah that sounds fascinating. is it actually good then?

I played for several hours last night and only barely managed to stop to eat dinner. It's tedious in the most amazing way. Incredibly thoughtful and effective design.

sold

Watched yogscasters play that few weeks ago, yeah the design and production of it looks flawless and very effective.

If anyone wants them, I have spare Steam codes for Dear Esther and Intrusion 2- just send me a quick email. Also a few Steam & Origin codes for big titles from the current Humble EA Bundle, but I'll wait until the sale's over to give those out since this time all payments are going directly to charity...

Papers, Please just told me I received ending #9 of 20.

Fffffffffff

Anyone played Going Home, then?

I played just now, I am dead from feelings, rip

is that a recommend?

Yeah.

I mean basically it is super-linear IF with HD textures and a voice-over. BUT it's also powerfully affecting and remarkable.

enticing

it may just have hit my specific emotional buttons, though, so ymmv I guess

Dude in charge of the company is a former Idle Thumb who moved up here to Portland.

Also pulled his game from PAX due to the PA LGBT-related idiocy

I've heard enough glowing sentiments about this game from sources I trust that I'll probably buy it

Ya me too. First I need to finish a game of Zelda I started in 2007.

papers, please is pretty engrossing, to the point that i got a headache from staring at the screen during my first playthru. it's basically a brain exercise game with a bit of compelling narrative.

How is it compared to Cart Life? They seemed really similar to me at a glance.

have not played that but similarity seems superficial, and only on the narrative decision making end. the bulk of PP gameplay is against the clock complex memory/spot the difference game

Expeditions: Conquistador looks cool (50% off on GOG atm) as does Sir, You Are Being Hunted. I love that the hot indie gaming trends are niche RPGs + open world procedurally generated games. My faves!

Sir, You Are Being Hunted

Oh, this got finished, huh? Neat. The Kickstarter trailer was A+++ but the tiers were a bit expensive and survival horror is not a genre I particularly care for so I didn't kick in. Still interested to try it.

Meanwhile I funded another Britisher indie game on Kickstarter finishing at the same time and that is nowhere near finished so maybe I backed the wrong horse. (Or maybe if I ever looked at the betas I get sent links to every so often and had some opinions it would be finished already, or something.)

so apparently rogue legacy just keeps getting new game+'s and getting harder. i'm on +3 now.

bought the paradox humble bundle in the weekly sale then lost my weekend to Crusader Kings 2. Never enjoyed my attempts at Europa Universalis, but love this.

I would like to see a 'Random Game' button on the steam store

make it an achievement/badge to buy based on that and i bet they sell a gazillion

Trails In The Sky First Chapter & Second Chapter are getting releases on Steam!
XSeed are publishing and the guy who brought over Recettear is localizing Second Chapter - First Chapter coming in winter, Second next summer
Recettear has sold 300,000 on Steam and sales of the Ys games are supposed to be good, maybe Japanese developers are finally "getting" Steam?

Notable that these are PC to PSP ports that are pretty old. Still, a good thing overall. Ys sales probably increased once they were willing to pull the trigger on the big Steam sales.

Recettear is somewhat unique, I think, it got a lot of indie/PC blog press, and was included in a ridiculously low priced $5 bundle including 5 games which gave it even more exposure, crucially, a few months after its release. It never dropped that low again afterwards but continues to be featured in Steam sales. Also of course, it's a very good localization and fun game.

oh, looks like they are doing a PSN version of Second Chapter for PSP & presumably playable on Vita. that's odd, can't be a very big market for that, maybe its easy to port the (hefty) dialog to the PSP version?

SteamOS
http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamOS/

but no hardware ?_?

another announcement in 2 days time apparently

i imagine they have an apple app on the way, maybe a partnership with ouya or more likely LG or Sanyo. seems like a smart move not to get into the hardware business

This is a big move for Valve. Seems likely to define the company's strategy more than any of the games they've made. (And has probably been defining their strategy for the last couple years.)

I have spare steam keys for 2 games everyone probably already has - Limbo, and Faster Than Light. I've offered them up on G+ and FB, but no takers, so figured I'd see if anyone on ILG wants one?

the long rumoured Steam Machines announced, "we are working with multiple partners to bring a variety of Steam gaming machines to market during 2014"
http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamMachines/

And you can get one for free if you jump through numerous hoops and then gabe smiles on you.

to be fair if you've been using Big Picture anyway they're exceptionally wide hoops

they should call it the GabeCube.
another announcement on Friday, official controller maybe?

need 2 more friends pls add :)

Controller strongly hinted at by one of the FAQs from today's announcement and the teaser icon.

if steam library after console release is as robust as ps4/xbone maybe that'll just be my pick for next gen console.

need 2 more friends pls add :)

Added. Add me if y'all like:
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198038960414

Most interesting of the three announcements by far - http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamController/

i thought they "didn't want to get into the hardware game"

i'll have to reserve real judgment for the thing to be in my hands, but as a concept i'm not super impressed by the dual trackpads

Seems like it will be pricey too. Most games i play, a good d-pad is the most important thing, so two track pads aren't really exciting...

Who knows how it'll work out, but with their own (linux based?) operating system, vague hardware hardware announcements, and a weird looking controller, it does seem like Valve has maybe lost the plot a little bit...

Most games i play, a good d-pad is the most important thing, so two track pads aren't really exciting...

^ this

what a weird move, have no idea how this will play out
Xbone is now the only console controller without any touchpad part

I don't think Valve has lost the plot. I think they are going to eat the Xbone's lunch. They are making a big play here in the hotly-contested "own the living room" space. SteamOS could become the Android of the set-top box, with Valve taking 30% plus of every transaction from a user base way more willing to pay premium prices than Android users. I guarantee you SteamOS will have a Netflix app.

As for that controller, you can already play PC games with controllers if they support them. Valve think they have something interesting here that will expand the range of couch-based gameplay. If anything, the controller is the most gaming-focused of these announcements. The rest is strategy.

http://tommyrefenes.tumblr.com/post/62476523677/my-time-with-the-steam-controller

Although all he tells us really is "pad works as pad, just about", when the real question is whether it works as a keyboard/mouse replacement.

good post

The screenshot in the hero image on the controller page is Civ 5 so they probably are confident. xp

http://cdn3.store.steampowered.com/public/images/promo/livingroom/rljKewyz3M/prototypes.jpg

looks too small

http://store.steampowered.com/app/242680

Nuclear Throne looks fun

that looks super cool. i'll play it the moment it's out on the mac

does look good, but waiting a bit (mac or gtfo)

haha xp

papers, please is pretty engrossing, to the point that i got a headache from staring at the screen during my first playthru. it's basically a brain exercise game with a bit of compelling narrative.
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, August 21, 2013 11:41 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah just picked this up on sale from gog, quickly found myself totally immersed. caught myself looking back and forth at the person in booth while checking their documents, nodding, raising eyebrows etc

great game; grim tho

i also purchased it, just two nights ago. i'm early on (maybe 6-7 days in) but i'm assuming my entire family is going to die because of my poor work.

also got it - i played it a bunch last night (made it up to day 20 or so) but it does get awfully monotonous. i guess that's part of the point?

like i felt like i got a lot of insight into borders + security + economic cross-sections, but i'm not sure any of those things are conducive to a fun-to-play video game

long live the queen reminds me a lot of princess maker (nb i haven't played it yet - just from the screenshots)

saw that too, kind of interested

http://www.gog.com/news/bonus_more_mac_games_on_gogcom

!!!

JAGGED ALLIANCE 2
I HAVE NO MOUTH…
FALLOUT TACTICS

i wonder what they did for some of those - wine? JA2 and tactics didn't have DOS releases. i'll have to see what they did with Tactics, i own that on gog

dayZ sounds a lot like the STALKER games, is it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DayZ_(video_game)

http://www.gog.com/news/bonus_more_mac_games_on_gogcom

!!!
--Mordy <img src="/s.png">

paranautical activity is pretty fantastic, like old school doom fps + roguelike elements (stores/procedurally generated dungeons/permadeath)

here's a review from last May: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/03/brief-impressions-paranautical-activity/

tomb raider now on mac

the new one?

yeah! not discounted tho. i wonder if ppl who bought it for pc during the sales now have it for mac too.

yup, it's Steamplay, pretty nice. i caved and got it during Black Friday for Xbox though. did they transfer the new HD stuff to the PC version?

They haven't upgraded the PC version, but some aspects of that version were better to begin with and still are.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-tomb-raider-definitive-edition-next-gen-face-off

any recommendations for a good place to buy a gaming pc from in the uk? got about £500-1000 to spend. mighty sick of my current pc blue-screening when playing games set anything above spectrum-style graphic quality. have pcs gone more expensive or cheaper with the whole tablet thing over the past few years?

or failing that, what's a good spec to keep me going for the next 3-4 years? is 8gb ram necessary? what OS? im currently using vista and v wary re all the horror stories about windows 7 & 8 but is vista going to be obsolete soon?

by most accounts 7 was fine, 8 works but people are annoyed with the UI changes. in terms of stability/usability they're nowhere near the disaster that Vista was on release. i would just go with 8 if I were you

surprising info in that link, jim!

I used http://www.ukgamingcomputers.co.uk for my last PC a few months ago. Good customer service and decent prices. Build quality seems solid and nothing has gone wrong with it so far. You'll get a fairly good spec within your budget.

brilliant thanks onimo (and nhex). i'll compare those prices with ebuyer as they seem ok too. going to go for windows 7 as i've heard some people complain some games don't work with 8.

now for the arduous task of transferring everything over and hoping basic programs (excel, photoshop, soundforge, etc) are compatible. absolutely cannot wait to play games like dayz and metro last light at full quality without bluescreening every 30 minutes.

You are a brave man for wading back into the pc upgrade waters. Godspeed.

yeah, every time i need a new computer i try to psyche myself into getting a new pc and end up with a new mac (nb that until i was 21 i used pcs exclusively + proficiently!!). thank god for all this mac compatibility now. esp w/ all the amazing indie games coming out now! unfortunately means i'll have to wait a while for dayz - tho metro works very well on my macbook pro - or figure out how to get it running on parallels.

planning to get this: http://www.ebuyer.com/614249-zoostorm-gaming-desktop-pc-7873-0601
does that seem like a good spec for the price? going to order in next 15 mins so it arrives tomorrow

...why
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/steammusic#announcements/detail/1498873168009439000

that seems like a great feature!

Amazon has some really good deals on parts today

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=gbsl_tit_l-1_4142_1deeb9b0?ie=UTF8&node=565132&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_t=701&pf_rd_s=left-new-1&pf_rd_r=1Y4QBN2GSAXEK59QWKRE&pf_rd_i=20&pf_rd_p=1671394142

jazzpunk out!

Seriously, play Jazzpunk!

question: what CHAIR do you use to play games on? and do you love it?

desperately seeking the perfect pc game-playing chair, geared around keyboard & mouse. something comfy that leans back and has a foot rest. does anything like this exist???

i use this

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0f0Ui6OkRrY/TP8AebSEg7I/AAAAAAAAACs/VslA0aU-sC8/s1600/UGC_Ext_8bit_CMYK%255B2%255D.jpg

do u really? that's pretty epic

i wish

hop in the ol' game throne and fire up papers please

every time there's a terrorist attack in the game the chair vibrates

lol

yeah im after something similar that doesnt cost a zillion pounds. like a snazzy office chair-slash-lazyboy thing. don't even know if these things exist in the uk

the chair i actually have for my pc is p much the opposite of what you want. after having something like a standard office/executive chair i realized that my requirements for a computer chair are basically that it have armrests and no moving parts.

who is the dude, used to post to ilg a lot i guess not anymore, but he has a pretty amazing gaming set up and posted photos one time. was he a jeff something?

oh he started this thread. lol at me

Jeff's still around.

hey jeff

he's "around" but hiding

i get it, having your real name up on the internets leads to bad things

Having recently purchased a 75cm balance ball thanks to too much airline mileage, I'm finding using that as a seat works quite well, and hopefully will help my back.

ive gone for this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360780343850?var=630177739385&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

wondering if to start an ilg 'show us yr gaming chair' thread

dunno how you sit on that and use a keyboard and mouse but it looks comfy

i've decided i'm going to be one of these people
http://thinkspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Steelcase-Walkstation.jpg

gona get something like this, but worried it might not be long enough. could just end up using a big mirror. willing to go the extra mile in search of dayz-playing comfort (and to avoid developing a hunch)

http://kico-laptrays.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/556a2bbebe32a61514b5dec2154ed835/P/a/Pac-Man-Eating-Lap-Tray.jpg

I looked at this

http://www.mass365.com/c/58/p/595/2013-new-modern-luxury-relax-pu-office-computer-chair-with-ottoman

more upright but still looks like it would be good esp for gamepad games. I think anything requiring mouse and key/b will still end up with me hunched over with my spine in a knot.

i imagine if you want a comfy PC chair, you're going to need a swing out desk attachment for the kb/mouse

looks good that one, similar to the one im getting but without massagey bits and half the price. not even fussed about massage, might be an interesting bonus (plus way of convincing gf it's a good investment for everyone). really hoping a large lap tray + small mouse & mini keyboard will be enough to set me on the long lazy road to uncurling my spine

ppl have spent a long time thinking about how to accomplish comfy laid back k/b&mouse gaming

http://www.tested.com/tech/pcs/456792-living-room-pc-part-2-keyboard-and-mouse-problem/

Couchmaster!

http://www.nerdytec.com/COUCHMASTER/COUCHMASTER-Pro.html

http://www.nerdytec.com/images/product_images/popup_images/couchmaster_sofa_woman.jpg

lol

update: recliner chair v good. not tried out massage/heat stuff, not all that interested. spine beginning long hard journey to vertical.

currently playing might & magic X. very good times imo. hard tho - i did choose the harder difficulty setting but it is not fucking around. feel like this will get me in fighting trim for dark souls 2.

As mentioned in P&C, Humble Bundle 11 is out.
Guacamelee!
Dust: An Elysian Tail
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
The Swapper
BTA games: The Swapper, Monaco

Of course, I bought four of these games without playing them last year. You can thank me for my imprudence that led to this turn of events.

i got kingdoms of amular: the reckoning at some point. it looks like shit and the writing is for 5 year olds. i guess the "combat" is supposed to be the highlight, if you are big into button mashing. yuck.

this looks pretty cool - and available for mac!

https://indiegamestand.com/store/788/1849/

i don't know when this happened, but my brother just tipped me off that planescape torment is now available for the mac on gog

someone doesn't have the mac thread bookmarked!

I bought a bunch of PS3 controllers mainly so I could play TOWERFALL with friends on my Mac

http://i.imgur.com/AUWDWUN.gif

so worth it

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2014/06/06/time-everyone-experience-pigeon-loving-hatoful-boyfriend/

Spintires is back!

I played the original non-steam mini game back then, the dirt physics was incredible. Haven't tried this full version yet but looks like a ton of cool new features and trucks.

Might have to wait for a deal though, £20 a bit out of my range right now

my email tells me that "Sunless Sea is now available on Steam!" - plz to emil.y playing it and telling me how it is?

i may have to get it myself asap. based on the screenshots alone it looks amazing

Sokobond, a chemistry-based puzzle game:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/290260

Sims 2 & all expansions for free until July 31st - on the downside you have to install Origin :p

thanks

plugged it in, realized i got Sims 3 in that EA Humble Bundle way back when lol

ngl the entire sims 2 collection for free has me childishly excited. i never got beyond the "nightlife" expansion back in the day, so all this shit with pets and vacations and seasons is brand-new to me.

normally i hate watching Let's Plays, but there's no way in hell i'm going to actually put on a pair of headphones and play 5 Nights At Freddy's.

Lots of Shovel Knight lately

I'll admit to watching lets plays of star craft 2 because all I cared about was the cutscenes and the story.

thats maybe the nerdiest thing I've every typed.

I had a period a month back or so where I really got hardcore into Rogue Legacy. One of those games I thought was pretty decent, played for a few hours, dropped it for six months and forgot about it. Came back and tore into it like a wild animal.

I got a somewhat decent graphics card recently, an R7 260x. Any suggestions for impressive looking games that aren't shooters or real-time strategy?

Witcher 2?

Steam just put up "Recycle: Garbage Truck Simulator", which further goes to prove how german gamedevs(and euro sim-freaks) are effing weird.

Apparently game was released broken, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Rx6Sa2kWU

my sisters and I finally worked up the courage to play Five Nights at Freddy's. the goal is to survive from 12 AM to 6 AM each night without getting murdered by grinning animatronics, and we made it to Night 3, 5 AM before Freddy himself jumped out of FUCKING NOWHERE and killed us. it's definitely best played in a group because the gameplay can be repetitive/bordering on tedious, but the tension and dread it evokes in the group just keeps ramping up until it's almost unbearable. "god i've checked the hallway outside this room 50 times and nothing's out there, i guess i'll check again HOLY FUCK A MURDEROUS GRINNING CHICKEN SHUT THE DOOR."

kinda tempted to pull the trigger on the Binding of Isaac remake, but i just know it's gonna get humble bundled within a few months...

is spacebase df-9 as cool as it looks?

I can't find it above and nearly joined the "I Love Glock" group - what is the name of the ILX steam group?

If it's "ILX Steam Group" I quit now.

smock weed
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ILGweed420

no, i don't know who decided that; 'twas before my time