Massive Steam Christmas Sale

[General Zod]

In the same vein as the Black Friday thread, it seems that Steam's got a rather massive gaming sale going on that I just found out about. http://store.steampowered.com/

Some highlights include Grand Theft Auto 4 for $7.50, Mirror's Edge for $4.99 and a number of collector packs half off. Apparently they'll be adding more massively discounted games as the days go on.

[2000AD]

Saves me having to start a thread, looking for some feedback on some of the games in the sale I'm considering:

Silent Hunter 3 or Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the pacific
- Not played any SH games before but have several friends who love them. Are they easy to get into or is it for serious sims people mainly? And is SH4 worth the extra £5 over SH3?

Tropico 3
- Looks like a good laugh but mixed reviews, any opinions here?

Hearts of Iron 3
- Like Silent Hunter heard lots of good things, but is it for serious simulation people only or can it be fairly fun? Is it hyper-realism style, for example comparing Operation Flashpoint to Battlefield 2? I like a bit of realism, but hyper realism like OFP is annoying for me.

[Bounty]

- Not played any SH games before but have several friends who love them. Are they easy to get into or is it for serious sims people mainly? And is SH4 worth the extra £5 over SH3?

They're sim games. You get realism options to tinker with but in the end they are trying to accurately simulate being stuck in a tin can for hours listening for boats you then kill with maths. The most exciting screen has a virtual pencil and eraser. So yeah.

That said, SH4 graphics >>> SH3 graphics.

[Thanas]

But GWX blows SH4 right out of the water. Seriously, SH3 + GWX = best sub game so far.

[weemadando]

I buckled and picked up a bunch of indie games.

And also Sniper Elite for 2. Which is a fucking awesome stealth/sniper game. If you haven't played it, then $2 is definitely worth price of admission. Good sniper mechanics, decent stealth, and a bunch of stuff that I've never seen in a game before like the ability to manually set tripwires for booby traps and other nasty tricks, AI that isn't retarded and a fairly cool plot that has you trying to shut down the Russian version of Overcast/Paperclip during the dying days of WW2.

And I think I'm at the point where I'll never buy a full price game on Steam again and just wait for these fucking sales.

[Zixinus]

Oh, how I wish I still had 20$ worth on my bank account (that I use strictly for purchasing online).

Hell, there are some stuff that interest me. Action Indie pack looks fun. Hell, there are collections all over the place.

[Stark]

I buckled and picked up a bunch of indie games.

And also Sniper Elite for 2. Which is a fucking awesome stealth/sniper game. If you haven't played it, then $2 is definitely worth price of admission. Good sniper mechanics, decent stealth, and a bunch of stuff that I've never seen in a game before like the ability to manually set tripwires for booby traps and other nasty tricks, AI that isn't retarded and a fairly cool plot that has you trying to shut down the Russian version of Overcast/Paperclip during the dying days of WW2.

Someone never played Infiltration? LOL.

Tropico 3 is a pretty cool game if you like that management style. It has a not-fail interface and a nice set of missions to ease you into the game.

[GuppyShark]

This sale just made me irritated.

Champions Online $10 (when I paid full retail a few months backnd regretted it a week later)
A bunch of other recent titles I paid full price for going for stuff all.

And all the games I'd like to buy are still too high.

[Commander 598]

But GWX blows SH4 right out of the water. Seriously, SH3 + GWX = best sub game so far.

Does it do anything about having to manually tell your crew to go to bed every fifteen minutes?

[CaptHawkeye]

But GWX blows SH4 right out of the water. Seriously, SH3 + GWX = best sub game so far.

Still waiting for my battleship sim though.

[Commander 598]

Don't know why it hasn't been done yet, everybody would love to get behind the wheel of a BS. And would give you a perfectly good excuse to show off the fancy above water graphics they're stuffing into SH5.

[Stark]

Surface combat would be killer, but aside from that WW1 game there's almost nothing out there.

BTW Hawx, that game STILL has a horrid UI and broken director AI. If only it let you go to the director platform yourself!

[CaptHawkeye]

Jutland is like a bad relationship. It was great until it ended, then you look back on it and realize it was never that good in the first place.

I'm talking Silent Hunter-In a Battleship usually. I'm still waiting for someone to just make a game where I could do something as trivial as range shell splashes.

[Stark]

But you've seen the forums for games like that; the 'simulationist' crowd don't want anything that 'ruins the game' by making it playable. It's a shame; changing what the SH rooms look like and giving you a BB would be pretty easy if the enemy ships weren't really simplified compared to yours. That Jutland had actual per-pixel armour and damage is still cool.

[Archaic`]

Bah, wouldn't you know it. The things I'd really like which I know are on there aren't available for Australians, and they're 75% off. ;_;

[General Zod]

Bah, wouldn't you know it. The things I'd really like which I know are on there aren't available for Australians, and they're 75% off. ;_;

They'll be marking down new stuff until the 3rd, so I'd advise to keep checking back.

[Edward Yee]

Quick question: for a game that I want to apply mods/addons to, should I still go with Steam or should I get the retail disc instead?

The Steam upside is that it sounds easier to backup (i.e. buy Modern Warfare 2 through them, and the game can be divided into three neat archives that can be transferred over by external), but on the other hand, if I get ArmA 2 down the line, I'm going to want to apply the ACE2 mod.

[Lord Revan]

btw a quick question, how does Steam exactly work (do you download the full game?) and is there any difference with that and a retail bought game?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Quick question

You can mod Steam versions of games.

quick question

You get the full game on your account. It acts as a sort of DRM, albeit non-intrusive: Your account can only be logged in one place at once, so it makes it difficult to run more than one copy of the same game at the same time. You can install it wherever you want however many times you want, though. I frequently have Steam games downloaded to both my PC and my laptop; that way I have them with me whenever I'm traveling with no need for physical discs.

Occasionally there are small differences between Steam and retail copies, but they are always fully compatible with each other. Steam games work with the Steam interface, Steam achievements, etc; it is a sort of Xbox Live for PC without the suckitude of Games for Windows.

[Mr Bean]

Occasionally there are small differences between Steam and retail copies, but they are always fully compatible with each other. Steam games work with the Steam interface, Steam achievements, etc; it is a sort of Xbox Live for PC without the suckitude of Games for Windows.

There is an exception. Company of Heroes for Steam is pretty much just Steam over Company of Hero's intrusive DRM. As one of the first third party games they made some serious missteps so for example every time patch day hits you can't play the game because they won't let Steam run the patch services. This is not true of their standalone add ons and their later games. Two others of the "first" third party steam games have this issue. But nothing lately. For example I did not even know Dragon Age had DRM except for logging in so painless was it when I bought everything and it popup a little with all my various codes I had to enter into Bioware's site. And like Gaius I've got most of my games installed on my machine. It's gotten to the point of ease of use were I prefer Steam versions over retail copies.

[Lord Revan]

ok what the hell is a DRM?

[Mr Bean]

ok what the hell is a DRM?

Digital Rights Management
In the olden days before the Internet it meant before you could play the game you had to find your instruction booklet and turn to whatever page the game asked for and put in the first word on the page. (IE 1988-1995)
In the 90's it took the form of either requiring you to keep the disk in the drive at all times and entering in a CD key of the jewel case the CD came in.
Later on in addition to that code you might have to connect to the internet to verify your code or in one or two extreme examples the CD key you got would be your key to get online and then they would send you your real CD key so you could install the game and play it.

Current DRM consists of connecting to the internet with the CD key to install the game and then register it. Once registered it goes onto your game profile(I'm using dragon age as an example) a profile which will have a user name and password you set up. Then with your game installed you have to log in each time you play it. If you sell your CD it's a coaster to anyone else because the keys are all one use and you can't transfer them. Or rather 99% of company's don't let you "de-register" a game.

*Edit
Steam has it's own DRM and it's the least intrusive by far. For example when I just installed Saints Row 2, or Unreal 3 at no time did I enter a code, sign up for an account or anything. I just bought it off Steam, hit install. Waited for everything to download and update, and starting playing. At worse say in the Farcry 2 game or Call of Duty games I have to type in my CD-Key which steam pops up in a helpful little window because when they make the Steam version they put a break in there to make sure whenever the CD key enter comes up, Steam itself pops up a window to the side so you can type your code in.

[Commander 598]

GTA4 on Steam however apparently requires all of Rockstar's shitty DRM in addition to Steam. (This, in addition to how poorly it runs, is probably why it's down to $7 now)

[Mr Bean]

GTA4 on Steam however apparently requires all of Rockstar's shitty DRM in addition to Steam. (This, in addition to how poorly it runs, is probably why it's down to $7 now)

GTA IV is another example. Yay for Rockstar Social club. However to be honest considering Steam's invisible DRM, if you put a box copy up against a Steam copy you would not notice any serious difference in performance or intrusion because Social club is that fucking useless.

[CaptHawkeye]

But you've seen the forums for games like that; the 'simulationist' crowd don't want anything that 'ruins the game' by making it playable. It's a shame; changing what the SH rooms look like and giving you a BB would be pretty easy if the enemy ships weren't really simplified compared to yours. That Jutland had actual per-pixel armour and damage is still cool.

Man, Jutland's damage model was like, the only really good thing about the game. Now you're making me want to play it again.

Don't worry though, 5 minutes after trying to tell the whole Grand Fleet to do something as simple as make a left turn will make me hate it again.

Man I dream of sailing around the ocean in USS Maryland inadvertantly discovering Nishimura's force at Surigao. Yet no one will answer the call of this game. It's really sad too because even guys like Eidos have made an engine that supports detailed ships models rendered from very far away. (Battlestations) Even though they restrict combat to spitting distance.

Then Ubisoft has guys who do great interiors and UI design. But are totally clueless with making a reliable, bug minimized engine that doesn't shit itself and die the moment more than 1 ship pops up on screen.

Then the Jutland guys.....well they make the damage models all well and good. Too bad their UI design is so bad it will make you doubt your own humanity.

Too bad these guys don't all know each other.