Steam Christmas Sale Dec 22 - Jan 4

strelok

Links234 wrote: »

There's an interesting conversation to be had about that, because as someone who loves a lot of anime, I look at some of the stuff that pops up on Steam and think... what? Anime can be incredible, but I rarely see anime styled games that resemble anything like the kind of thing I watch.

it probably exists around the same level. the kind of thing you watch is probably not even 1% of the total amount of anime produced, the unbelievably vast majority of which would make neighbours look like high culture

Monotype

Macker1 wrote: »

Is the game Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons any good ??

Yes, it's short. I think I had it done in less than 5 hours and I took my time and went back to get a few achievements. Very worthwhile for a playthrough.

I played through with a keyboard - controls are a little unusual - apparently a controller is easier.

murphyebass

Monotype wrote: »

Yes, it's short. I think I had it done in less than 5 hours and I took my time and went back to get a few achievements. Very worthwhile for a playthrough.

I played through with a keyboard - controls are a little unusual - apparently a controller is easier.

Short you say?

Isn't it funny as you get older that sometimes your delighted to see a games short as you might have a chance of competing it. .. No? Just me then.

Monotype

murphyebass wrote: »

Short you say?

Isn't it funny as you get older that sometimes your delighted to see a games short as you might have a chance of competing it. .. No? Just me then.

Nope, not just you. Which is one of the reasons why I actually got it!
I don't really have the time for games with excessive filler. Just give me all of the good core elements.

chrislad

Monotype wrote: »

Yes, it's short. I think I had it done in less than 5 hours and I took my time and went back to get a few achievements. Very worthwhile for a playthrough.

I played through with a keyboard - controls are a little unusual - apparently a controller is easier.

It does say in the description that a controller is required, so I'd imagine it's easier.

I've started it, but I got distracted. With nearly 19,000 reviews, and 95% positive, and only 1.49, it's worth a go.

Links234

strelok wrote: »

it probably exists around the same level. the kind of thing you watch is probably not even 1% of the total amount of anime produced, the unbelievably vast majority of which would make neighbours look like high culture

Certainly there's a high volume of absolute garbage, but there's still absolutely loads of quality, way too much for me to keep up with. From 2015 I hope to see The Perfect Insider, Empire of Corpses, Ajin and The Boy & The Beast ( which is the latest movie from Wolf Children director Mamoru Hosoda), still a drip in the ocean compared to the amount of anime produced I admit. But while I've no problems finding any great shows or movies, it doesn't seem to translate, there doesn't seem to be any anime inspired games in the vein of Psycho-Pass or Ergo Proxy or the like.

murphyebass wrote: »

Short you say?

Isn't it funny as you get older that sometimes your delighted to see a games short as you might have a chance of competing it. .. No? Just me then.

Definitely not just you, a good short-ish game can be terrific. I finished the first Portal in about 2 hours, but it remains one of the most memorable games I've played, same with the sequel. I finished Wolfenstein: The New Order in under 12, and it felt perfect, as did Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Some games just feel needlessly padded out, and I appreciate ones that are exactly as long as they need to be.

Monotype

chrislad wrote: »

It does say in the description that a controller is required, so I'd imagine it's easier.

I've started it, but I got distracted. With nearly 19,000 reviews, and 95% positive, and only 1.49, it's worth a go.

Yep but it's not required, despite what it says. It wouldn't be easier for me, since I don't have one! You get used to the controls after a little while. It's just the fact that you're controlling two characters at the same time, which is not that common in games.

First thing I do these days getting a new game is check the game length.

Kiith

Nope, Darkest Dungeon is not for me. In the 90 minutes I've played, i'm not sure I've ever gotten as frustrated with a game in my entire life. Seems like it's designed for people who enjoy putting themselves through utter hell. And it's not the difficulty, it's the randomness of it. Every single thing that can go wrong, does go wrong.

I love the art style, and it's probably a great game, just not for me.

Links234

I found that Darkest Dungeon, much like FTL, got far easier once you familiarized yourself with the different encounters and took lots of provisions, but like FTL, had a downright brutal learning curve. I freakin' adore Darkest Dungeon, but it definitely nails that "Oh **** **** **** everything's on fire we're all gonna die!" feeling. If that's not for you, that's cool.

Kiith

It's mad though, cause i absolutely adore FTL.

Darkest Dungeons just feels like it's designed to be more unfair though, and it's less about your decisions and more about the randomness of what happens. One the first mission, i had 3 fights in a row with 4 enemies, and must have missed or been dodged against about 15 times. Just got frustrating for me. Maybe i'll give it another go at some stage though, when i'm not already bummed about going back to work tomorrow :P

Links234

Buffs and debuffs are seriously important. Applying buffs to your party in the first round is a gamechanger, such as if your tank has a self-mark ability (Crusader's Bulwark of Faith or Man at Arms' Retribution), then taking out the enemy that does the most psychological damage as a priority. Everything in the game is about preparation, even in the first round of battle.

pablomakaveli

My total haul for the sale.

Metal Gear Solid Phantom Pain
Pillar of Eternity
Divinity Original Sin
After Dark DLC for Cities Skylines
Empire Tv Tycoon
Dream
The Silent Age
Deponia:The Complete Journey
The Fall
Viscera Cleanup Detail
Red Faction Guerilla
Door Kickers
Styx

Already finished Silent Age. Played a bit of After Dark and im also currently playing Phantom Painso hopefully most of these wont sit unplayed in my library for too long.

Quite glad i set a budget and mostly stuck to it (went over by 87p). Probably helps that i wasnt tempted to make impulse purchases on flash sales and Daily deals this time round.

Doge

Only spotted now that Euro Truck Simulator 2 is 80% off / €4 for the base game, and the Expansion backs are 66% off!

Just bought the Game with the North and East expasnion pack for €13.16

Would have been disappointed if I didnt spot it!

Links234

Satellite Reign was the only thing I bought for myself this sale, though I'm still kinda debating a last minute purchase of Sunless Sea.

jaxdasher

Links234 wrote: »

Satellite Reign was the only thing I bought for myself this sale, though I'm still kinda debating a last minute purchase of Sunless Sea.

DOooo IT. You got me on Hard West, its just fair.

Doge

Damn, I think I should have went for the ETS2 Deluxe Bundle instead.

Just spotted the Scania Truck Driving Simulator game, which comes with it, which is basically the ETS2 engine,
but is more about avoiding obstacles, driving mountain roads and testing your skill.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/258760/

It looks like a good way of training yourself properly to play ETS2.

It's €2.39 standalone atm.

Edit: Just requested a refund to my steam wallet for both games. Hopefully it will be done before the sale ends so I can purchase the deluxe version.

pablomakaveli

Links234 wrote: »

Satellite Reign was the only thing I bought for myself this sale, though I'm still kinda debating a last minute purchase of Sunless Sea.

I started playing it a few days ago and im enjoying it so far. Got about 4 hours played now and on my 3rd captain. Its a tough game so far. Managing fuel and supplies is hard and i havent ventured far out of home waters. The one time i did i died. The game has quite a slow pace to it as well. Takes long enough to reach places that arent too far from Fallen London.

Links234

I may do it, but got a while before the sale ends, so no rush.

Professional Griefer

I bought ETS2, first game ive gotten in a steam sale in a while. Tempted to get SW:KOTOR before it finishes and maybe something else but nothing is catching my eye

chrislad

Monotype wrote: »

Yep but it's not required, despite what it says. It wouldn't be easier for me, since I don't have one! You get used to the controls after a little while. It's just the fact that you're controlling two characters at the same time, which is not that common in games.

First thing I do these days getting a new game is check the game length.

I know! Tell me about it! I'm now basing what game I play next on howlongtobeat.com! I just finally finished Wolfenstein, so I'm going to move onto the sequel/prequel/DLC, in between Broforce, which also has a short enough campaign.

chrislad

Professional Griefer wrote: »

I bought ETS2, first game ive gotten in a steam sale in a while. Tempted to get SW:KOTOR before it finishes and maybe something else but nothing is catching my eye

KotOR 2 was updated recently too, to work with SteamWorks so its easily moddable to fix the story with the missing content. Not that I've played it yet..... :pac:

Skerries

I think the Steam version has some of the mods already installed

Vojera

pablomakaveli wrote: »

I started playing it a few days ago and im enjoying it so far. Got about 4 hours played now and on my 3rd captain. Its a tough game so far. Managing fuel and supplies is hard and i havent ventured far out of home waters. The one time i did i died. The game has quite a slow pace to it as well. Takes long enough to reach places that arent too far from Fallen London.

The first engine is soooooooooo slooooooooooooow. I had upgraded my captain to the most powerful engine and a relatively light ship before I retired as Fallen London's Most Venerated Adventurer and I was zooming around the place. Now that I've started again with a new ambition I'm finding progress painfully slow.

degrassinoel

Kiith wrote: »

Nope, Darkest Dungeon is not for me. In the 90 minutes I've played, i'm not sure I've ever gotten as frustrated with a game in my entire life. Seems like it's designed for people who enjoy putting themselves through utter hell. And it's not the difficulty, it's the randomness of it. Every single thing that can go wrong, does go wrong.

I love the art style, and it's probably a great game, just not for me.

I streamed a game of it recently where the tutorial mission killed my guys three times in a row.. you can have a a lot of bad luck in that game and it's hairpullingly brutal at times but when yo udo eventually make progress it's worth it

Dcully

Doge wrote: »

Damn, I think I should have went for the ETS2 Deluxe Bundle instead.

Just spotted the Scania Truck Driving Simulator game, which comes with it, which is basically the ETS2 engine,
but is more about avoiding obstacles, driving mountain roads and testing your skill.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/258760/

It looks like a good way of training yourself properly to play ETS2.

It's €2.39 standalone atm.

Edit: Just requested a refund to my steam wallet for both games. Hopefully it will be done before the sale ends so I can purchase the deluxe version.

Some bargain,great sim, really is one of those relaxing and therapeutic games.
Scandinavia DLC is the pick of the bunch,SCS really put in some work on it.
I hope you have a wheel to do it justice, not a 100% essential like racing sims but adds to the immersion tenfold.

Shiminay

Made a few late purchases.

Endless Legend collection - a 4X game in a fantasy world that seems to have very positive reviews. I play a lot of Civ V and whilst I'm far from bored with it, I was curious to have a look at something else.

Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends - I've never played any of the DW games and hanging out with Jim Sterling fans on Facebook has been a bad influence on me, so I've got a DW game. It's actually a lot of silly fun, I can see the appeal and I'll be indulging in a lot of this brand of silly.

A friend gave me a copy of Rust, it's the first one of those survival crafty types of games I've gotten, so I'm looking forward to giving it a look.

jaxdasher

Shiminay wrote: »

Made a few late purchases.

Endless Legend collection - a 4X game in a fantasy world that seems to have very positive reviews. I play a lot of Civ V and whilst I'm far from bored with it, I was curious to have a look at something else.

Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends - I've never played any of the DW games and hanging out with Jim Sterling fans on Facebook has been a bad influence on me, so I've got a DW game. It's actually a lot of silly fun, I can see the appeal and I'll be indulging in a lot of this brand of silly.

A friend gave me a copy of Rust, it's the first one of those survival crafty types of games I've gotten, so I'm looking forward to giving it a look.

Oh no another shattered is here. Act normal.... >.>

Doge

Dcully wrote: »

Some bargain,great sim, really is one of those relaxing and therapeutic games.
Scandinavia DLC is the pick of the bunch,SCS really put in some work on it.
I hope you have a wheel to do it justice, not a 100% essential like racing sims but adds to the immersion tenfold.

Have the oul G27 rigged up and ready to go!

Looking forward to playing Scania Truck Driving Simulator for the first time.

Dyr

Dcully wrote: »

Some bargain,great sim, really is one of those relaxing and therapeutic games.
Scandinavia DLC is the pick of the bunch,SCS really put in some work on it.
I hope you have a wheel to do it justice, not a 100% essential like racing sims but adds to the immersion tenfold.

Seconded, I used a flight yoke rather than a driving wheel and even that is'bnt doing it justice I reckon, bit too twitchy.

Dave_The_Sheep

degrassinoel wrote: »

I streamed a game of it recently where the tutorial mission killed my guys three times in a row.. you can have a a lot of bad luck in that game and it's hairpullingly brutal at times but when yo udo eventually make progress it's worth it

The recent update also made the game far harder in terms of stress management and too many attacks do a) stress damage, b) debuffs, or c) both.

I love it, but I'll admit I have been screaming blue f*cking murder at the screen at times - usually when the RNG ****s me. Then there are the times when I get greedy and I know I shouldn't go any further (just retreat, Dave, save what you have) but do and end up losing a few heroes. That's just my own fault.

Zillah

Grabbed CSGO on a whim. Haven't played CS since early Source days. This should be fun.

By fun a I mean a traumatising ordeal.

Hyzepher

Any reason for paying for the Alien Isolation Collection pack rather than the full game and the season pass?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/214490/

Nody

Hyzepher wrote: »

Any reason for paying for the Alien Isolation Collection pack rather than the full game and the season pass?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/214490/

From my understanding there's 1 pre sale DLC (The last survivor) you'll get that's not in the season pass. Also apparently all the season pass content is 5 survival maps so nothing really for single player campaign mode

Steam thread wrote:

imo the pre-order content has more value in them than the season pass does.

I mean lets face it, Survivor mode = Run from A to B in the quickest time possible
Last Survivor / Crew Expendable = Relive events from the first movie.

Yeahhhh.. LS/CE content is worth getting and the Season Pass is worth just leaving well alone if you're not interested in setting a virtual time on a virtual leaderboard.

Hyzepher

Nody wrote: »

From my understanding there's 1 pre sale DLC (The last survivor) you'll get that's not in the season pass. Also apparently all the season pass content is 5 survival maps so nothing really for single player campaign mode

So the Ai Collection pack seems overpriced compared to buying separately?

Links234

Quick word of advice, if you subscribe to the Humble Monthly bundle you get Alien Isolation immediately.

So essentially, you get the base game cheaper than in the Steam Sale, then in February you get 6 more games once the bundle unlocks.

TheGunns

Links234 wrote: »

Quick word of advice, if you subscribe to the Humble Monthly bundle you get Alien Isolation immediately.

So essentially, you get the base game cheaper than in the Steam Sale, then in February you get 6 more games once the bundle unlocks.

I've been wondering about this, do you know.if its 6 more games or 5 more with Alien? Got the January one and think I'll keep going for now so just curious more than anything.

Links234

TheGunns wrote: »

I've been wondering about this, do you know.if its 6 more games or 5 more with Alien? Got the January one and think I'll keep going for now so just curious more than anything.

I think it's Alien + 6 more, if you look at the graphic on the page, it shows Alien, and 6 grey boxes with question marks.

Links234

By the way, if anyone doesn't own Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, grab it now. Hands down one of the most wickedly fun games you could possibly play, and an incredible soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3472Q6kvg0

MiskyBoyy

I need the following cards: Zippys Demise, Twinkle, Sending a Message, Guess who's coming to town & Redemption.

I have 1 x The Black Ice Boys, 2 x Taff & 1 x You better not cry, as well as other random cards to trade for the above.

Rael

After careful consideration, I decided to get the following:

Ori and the Blind Forest
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Company of Heroes 2 - Ardennes Assault
Homeworld Remastered Collection
Star Wars: Empire at War Gold
Star Wars: X-Wing Bundle

Worked out at €66.09 for the lot & I've to get €39 refunded to my card for Christmas returns, so just over €27 to pay

Got a Thrustmaster Hotas X for my birthday last year when I heard the X-Wing series was being rereleased, but never got around to buying the games. Really happy with the bundle discount and getting them for €18.75.

Links234

Well, that's it. I didn't grab Sunless Sea in the end, I know it's a great game and that I'd love it, but I got so much more to be getting on with. But between getting gifted Hard West, buying Satellite Reign, and winning The Fall in the Steamgifts thread (Yay, first win!) it's been a pretty damn good sale and I got some serious quality games.

CastorTroy

Made it through unscathed. Unless count Resi Evil HD from uPlay, which I'll choose not to.

Wossack

dying light, soma and witcher 3

not too shabby

TheGunns

Links234 wrote: »

I think it's Alien + 6 more, if you look at the graphic on the page, it shows Alien, and 6 grey boxes with question marks.

Just as an FYI, I emailed Humble and was told it's Alien + 5 more. Still decent but would've preferred an extra game for subbing like last month.

Kirby

I bought the Long Dark. Thats it.

These sales dont hold a candle to the old ones. Thats not fatigue talking or the fact that we "already own them all". They just arent as good. It's that simple.

strelok

Kirby wrote: »

I bought the Long Dark. Thats it.

These sales dont hold a candle to the old ones. Thats not fatigue talking or the fact that we "already own them all". They just arent as good. It's that simple.

good

pc gamers can't just lurch from sale to sale only buying games when they're 50% off and then expect developers/publishers to give a **** about them when releasing or even designing games.

RobertFoster

TheGunns wrote: »

Just as an FYI, I emailed Humble and was told it's Alien + 5 more. Still decent but would've preferred an extra game for subbing like last month.

Their promo pic is a bit misleading then I thought there was going to be six more games because of it.

TheGunns

RobertFoster wrote: »

Their promo pic is a bit misleading then I thought there was going to be six more games because of it.

Agreed, my only hope is the support guy is wrong but I'd doubt it. Hopefully the other games are all decent.

Robert ninja

strelok wrote: »

good

pc gamers can't just lurch from sale to sale only buying games when they're 50% off and then expect developers/publishers to give a **** about them when releasing or even designing games.

That's rich in a time when there's more pre-order bonuses and season passes than ever. It's incredibly naive to think a publisher or developer's platform focus is because of sales. Just look at AAA open world malarkey... still sells like hotcakes full price day 1 or pre order. Sales come after to tap into the audience that wouldn't buy day 1 or only do so for certain games. Not everyone wants Fallout 4 and tbh I wouldn't buy it for 5 quid if you offered it to me.

But if Tekken 7 went on the steam store I'd buy it full price because I love that series and want to play it now. There's barely any other game I'd do that for. You're expecting too much from an individual consumer. Sales are the only reason people buy dozens and dozens of games. Off-sale or on console people tend to only buy a handful of games per season or year.

Monotype

Christmas 2015:

Kirby wrote: »

These sales dont hold a candle to the old ones. Thats not fatigue talking or the fact that we "already own them all". They just arent as good. It's that simple.

Summer 2015:

super_furry wrote: »

Not sure if it's just me but the sale just doesn't seem to have the same kind of impact this year as it has in the past.

Christmas 2014:

Cravez wrote: »

It wasn't a bad sale in general, but it was the worst Steam sale in a good while.

Christmas 2013:

SeantheMan wrote: »

Worst steam sale in memory.

Christmas 2011:

ionapaul wrote: »

have never bought so little! Mainly down to the fact I bought a good few in earlier sales and haven't had time to touch them yet;

Christmas 2010:

Canis Lupus wrote: »

Ah poor showing Steam.

Xmas day offerings were weak and I was holding out maybe for a gem seeing as today is Boxing Day but they're only doing items they already had up on other days....

Christmas 2009:

Thomas_S_Hunterson wrote: »

I'd question the value to be had now that they're meddling with euro pricing, but someone may find a bargain.

Christmas 2008:

321654 wrote: »

Why are games bought via steam even more expensive than online retailers who post you the physical copy of the game. Surely steams delivery method is much cheaper so they could sell at a lower price