The Groginati Sales Thread

[Jarhead0331]

Meanwhile, Way of the Samurai 4 is available DRM-free at GoG this weekend 40% off -- about $21 for the base game plus all DLC. Bought it!

I was looking forward to this one, but it looks terrible. Please let us know if it is anything worth looking at.

[Asid]

Cheap!!!

https://www.indiegala.com/insurgency

[JasonPratt]

Meanwhile, Way of the Samurai 4 is available DRM-free at GoG this weekend 40% off -- about $21 for the base game plus all DLC. Bought it!

I was looking forward to this one, but it looks terrible. Please let us know if it is anything worth looking at.

Different parts look better than others. Someone has said that the gfx are PS2 era, and that's almost accurate, except for being high-def (720 up to 1080). So if you think in terms of a PS2 game updated to high-def, you won't be far short.

I'm okay with it. Gameplay takes some actual skill to learn the finesses involved. The combat model is... interesting. There are umpty sword, spear, bare-hand, and other styles -- more sword styles than the others, maybe as many as all the others put together. It's the kind of game that unlocks options as you play. It's deeper than it first appears. Also a bit clunky, but things smooth out once you figure out the speed at which the game expects you to fight the various styles.

It is very much not really a serious game, but you probably knew that already -- the leader of the British Marine shore force, for guarding the ambassador (who is apparently a young teen girl), has the last name Megamelons. Which is almost appropriate, though admittedly it's hard to tell with her combat armor. I suspect there are plot options which involve confirming how appropriate the name is. ;)

[JasonPratt]

Also, it's a sporadically buggy port, as you may have read on the Steam forums -- launching the game the first time will almost certainly crash it, but a second launch works fine. I managed to crash the game unexpectedly attempting an obscure menu operation that I may or may not even ever find again.

Fortunately, I had saved the game already.

Unfortunately, that had been five minutes ago.

Fortunately, I hadn't done a whole lot in that five minutes, so I won't have to reconstruct much.

Unfortunately, the save game points semi-randomly wander around set areas. And are photographers. Who will flirt with you. Despite being men.  ::)

[Beowulf]

I think it hasn't been mentioned as of yet - there is Stardock sale going on at greenmangaming, you can grab GalCiv III for -50% an apply their "voucher" for furter -23% discount:
http://www.greenmangaming.com/stardock-titles/?tap_a=1964-996bbb&tap_s=2681-3a6e75

[Nefaro]

I think it hasn't been mentioned as of yet - there is Stardock sale going on at greenmangaming, you can grab GalCiv III for -50% an apply their "voucher" for furter -23% discount:
http://www.greenmangaming.com/stardock-titles/?tap_a=1964-996bbb&tap_s=2681-3a6e75

Came out to $19.25 for me. 

Below the magic $20 mark, so I jumped. 

[Shelldrake]

I think it hasn't been mentioned as of yet - there is Stardock sale going on at greenmangaming, you can grab GalCiv III for -50% an apply their "voucher" for furter -23% discount:
http://www.greenmangaming.com/stardock-titles/?tap_a=1964-996bbb&tap_s=2681-3a6e75

Came out to $19.25 for me. 

Below the magic $20 mark, so I jumped.

I am very interested to hear your impressions. I really liked GalCiv 2 but have held off on picking up 3.

[kludger]

I think it hasn't been mentioned as of yet - there is Stardock sale going on at greenmangaming, you can grab GalCiv III for -50% an apply their "voucher" for furter -23% discount:
http://www.greenmangaming.com/stardock-titles/?tap_a=1964-996bbb&tap_s=2681-3a6e75

Thanks, good deal, have been waiting to see if they keep polishing it, but at this price it's worth a try now.

[Nefaro]

I think it hasn't been mentioned as of yet - there is Stardock sale going on at greenmangaming, you can grab GalCiv III for -50% an apply their "voucher" for furter -23% discount:
http://www.greenmangaming.com/stardock-titles/?tap_a=1964-996bbb&tap_s=2681-3a6e75

Came out to $19.25 for me. 

Below the magic $20 mark, so I jumped.

I am very interested to hear your impressions. I really liked GalCiv 2 but have held off on picking up 3.

I'd give you some impressions, but GalCiv3 has some serious performance issues for me right now.   

The three times I tried to start the game, it bogged down to near freezing just on the loading screen.  If I let it run a long time, it will eventually get to the menu, but still have long regular freezes.

Evidently been fairly common lately, judging by forum posts.  Saw one mention a severe runaway memory leak effect, with CPU bogging down and freezing.  Very likely the same thing I'm seeing.  PC was still acting funky after ALT+F4'ing the PoS and had to restart to clear it every time.  Gave up after a few. 

I'm not sure if everyone's experiencing it, or how long it takes before it strikes (some say on save game load, some after so many turns, others at intro screen or just get black screen on starting) but I've seen no quick fixes for it.  The Stardock people are just spamming the, "use this analyzer tool and send us a ticket" reply.  :-\

Thought about trying it on a different computer but I'm done dicking with it for the moment.  Be aware there has been a series of these freezes with it before purchasing.  You may or may not be Murphy'd.

[Rayfer]

Ageod's "To End All Wars" is on sale on Steam for $24.79. How does their engine work with WW1...?

[bobarossa]

Ageod's "To End All Wars" is on sale on Steam for $24.79. How does their engine work with WW1...?

Lousy when I tried it.  It might work better on eastern front but stunk on western.  "Marching to sound of guns" ruins the front line.  Also, there is no physical way to duplicate the August '14 drive on Paris in this game system.  I don't think you can reach it in 3 turns even if there are no enemy units in front of you.  But I'm not sure I've tried the latest patch due to too many games in queue.

[sandman2575]

Ageod's "To End All Wars" is on sale on Steam for $24.79. How does their engine work with WW1...?

That's very tempting -- will probably have to pick it up at that price.

I think MengJiao commented recently that he doesn't think the AGEOD engine handles WW1 well, nor Am. Civil War for that matter. I remember a lot of complaints with TEAW early on that the 'march to the sound of the guns' mechanic was making a hash out of actual trench warfare -- I think they've made improvements, though.

What's striking about TEAW is that it's "World War One La Grande Guerre" adapted to the AGEOD engine. Same map, some identical mechanics (for ex. picking a grand strategy in the run up to war -- "Schlieffen Plan," "Plan XIX" etc.).  I suspect this was part of what caused "World War One: Centennial Edition" to meet with legal challenge (I assume leveled by AGEOD).

Anyway, I've been waiting to see this on discount -- at $25 I'm going to have to pull the trigger --

EDIT -- I see Bobarossa addresses some of the bad points re: March to the Sound of the Drums -- seems that hasn't been resolved then --

[Nefaro]

I thought they addressed the "March" trigger to return the reinforcing units to their original location, after release.. ?

I'm sure there will still be issues with the west front trench warfare situation.  The AGE engine was really meant to run wars without long solid fronts.  Just a few limited armies marching about, worrying about supply lines and having to make tough decisions on where to go because everything can't be covered.  Like 18th century and earlier.  Earlier the better, even.  Another reason the classical period in AJE fits so well IMO.

[Rayfer]

I see it also on sale on the Matrix site for the same price.

[bobarossa]

Sandman, I don't think I've played the latest patch so it may have been dealt with.  I mostly played ACW2 since my first try at TEAW.