The Groginati Sales Thread

[Gusington]

That Relic deal is silly and it makes me feel bad about myself.

[Staggerwing]

So you bought it as well?

[Gusington]

No I already have almost everything in there...that I bought at full price at release  :'(

[JasonPratt]

It's silly and kind-of schizophrenic. If the information is listed correctly, the Bundle provides the first game and expansion of Dow1, but not its arguably best official version (Dark Crusade) nor its most complete version (Soulstorm) recently being made more complete by the Ultimate Apocalypse mod. So unless you're buying them for the story missions (which are admittedly pretty fun) there isn't much point.

Whereas, the DoW2 games are ALL ABOUT the ongoing story -- yet the extension to the Bundle is missing a crucial chapter in the expansion to DoW2-1 (or however we're supposed to call the first DoW2 game).

Perhaps this is some effect of the Steam versions of some of those games not having their multiplayer servers ported correctly yet?

[Gusington]

^The thing I noticed first was the absence of Soulstorm.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Soulstorm is great for the full 1080p with extra races in skirmish. The campaign mode is bizarre. When you have to refight a map you have won, you lose everything. No base. In all the others you keep your advancement.

[ComradeP]

Regarding Gorky17: I bought/finished it on a sale a few months ago.

In my opinion, it's an excellent game if you want sort of a light version of X-Com's tactical gameplay meets RPG, with some horror added to the mix.

I didn't experience any bugs and maybe a couple crashes with Windows 8.1 on my PC from around 2010. I don't know what "the bug in the second last fight" refers to. There's a boss near the end that can only be hit after it attacks you, which might make you quit if you don't know about it.

There isn't really much choice in the game, and the final battle is rather lame. There were some spiritual sequels, but nothing too good.

What the game does have, is enjoyable tactical gameplay. You're not very likely to lose if you know what you're doing, but if you treat it like a casual but entertaining experience, it's certainly worth it.

You can use a variety of firearms and projectile weapons, mostly with limited ammunition. Each time you use a weapon, you gain invisible weapon XP that will eventually improve your level for that weapon. There are also melee weapons, and you want to level up your skill for those too as it saves you a lot of ammo over time. There's a good chance you'll run out of ammo if you use only firearms, particularly if you don't explore the maps, and you don't want to start some of the more difficult battles with just some pistol rounds. Even using melee often, I tended to have just a handful of automatic rifle rounds per character until late in the game.

Your team/party consists mostly of the guys you start with, but from time to time another NPC will tag along as a partymember for a while. At one point, you can "choose" between which NPC you want to have in your party by not going to a certain area, but that's really all the choice there is regarding party members. That's not really a problem in my opinion, as you can essentially customize their "class" by giving them specific weapons.

The game can eventually become rather easy because there are numerous weapons that can stun/freeze your opponent and even bosses can be stunned. IIRC, there are darts, tasers and a sort of liquid nitrogen thrower that you can use to stun your enemies. Many of the enemies in the later stages are immune to 1 or 2 of the weapons, but not all 3.

If you use a weapon on a certain enemy and it is immune or vulnerable to that weapon/damage type, the game will store that information and show it whenever the enemy appears and you move your mouse over to it. The stun weapons aside from darts all have a range of 1 hex and unlimited ammo, but a cooldown. Later in the game, you will find 2 or 3 of most of them, which makes it possible to keep an enemy stun-locked.

You move around in a game world without active enemies. At various spots, you'll get dropped into a tactical combat sequence where enemies or bosses will appear. Each boss is introduced through a short video sequence. You're basically thrown into various tactical puzzles that you have to "solve". The battles themselves use the usual turn-based IGOUGO system. Either you, an ally you don't control or the enemy moves first and then everybody else moves.

The battlefield is divided up into squares, and there are numerous weapons that make use of that by hitting a line, square or rectangular area or a certain number of blocks. The flamethrower, for example, hits targets one square in front of you and then a horizontal line of three blocks as seen from the character (like the Tetris block with three squares and a square on top in the middle).

Exploring your surroundings is important, you'll find crates and some parts of the environment which you can interact with if you have a certain item or weapon. If you don't explore, you will miss out on some good weapons. You'll also encounter fewer enemies, so you'll also miss out on weapon experience. Some of the enemies can be challenging, particularly the ones that hit really hard or have an area of effect attack.

Whenever your characters gain a level, they can spend some points on some attributes. I'd suggest spending all points on critical hit chance until that's maxed out. The hit chance is generally good enough and I believe it gets better as weapon proficiency increases anyway. You'll rarely miss.

According to Steam, my playtime was 11 hours to finish the game, but that seems too low. I'd say it was closer to 15 or so. I guess either my internet connection dropped a few times, or the game crashed a few times and I don't recall it.

For a sci-fi/horror-themed tactical/RPG experience on the side that's enjoyable and won't take you too long to actually finish, it's certainly worth it at the discount price.

[BanzaiCat]

GOG is having a sale on some interesting titles...

F/A-18E Super Hornet (http://www.gog.com/game/f_a_18e_super_hornet), 3.99 (normally 9.99)
Shattered Steel (http://www.gog.com/game/shattered_steel, kind of a 'Mech sim), 2.39 (normally 5.99)
Subwar 2050 Complete (http://www.gog.com/game/subwar_2050_complete), 2.39 (normally 5.99)
Battle Chess Special Edition (http://www.gog.com/game/battle_chess_special_edition), 2.39 (normally 5.99)
Kingpin: Life of Crime (http://www.gog.com/game/kingpin_life_of_crime), 3.99 (normally 9.99)
Freespace 2 (http://www.gog.com/game/freespace_2), 3.99 (normally 9.99)

I think all the Descents are on sale too, three different bits for 2.39 to 3.99 I think.

[Arctic Blast]

It's silly and kind-of schizophrenic. If the information is listed correctly, the Bundle provides the first game and expansion of Dow1, but not its arguably best official version (Dark Crusade) nor its most complete version (Soulstorm) recently being made more complete by the Ultimate Apocalypse mod. So unless you're buying them for the story missions (which are admittedly pretty fun) there isn't much point.

Whereas, the DoW2 games are ALL ABOUT the ongoing story -- yet the extension to the Bundle is missing a crucial chapter in the expansion to DoW2-1 (or however we're supposed to call the first DoW2 game).

Perhaps this is some effect of the Steam versions of some of those games not having their multiplayer servers ported correctly yet?

It probably has a lot more to do with publishers wanting people to buy the 'missing' content.  :)

[JasonPratt]

^^ Your cynicism realism disturbs me.  ;)

[Arctic Blast]

Anyone interested in the upcoming Batman : Arkham Knight probably wants to go save 40% on the preorder over at Green Man Gaming.

[donkey_roxor]

75% off Wargame: European Escalation, Airland Battle, and/or Red Dragon on Steam. Expires in ~48 hours.

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/45320/

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Gamersgate started their summer sale today. 
It's a pretty massive list with some good deals in there.

[Martok]

Gamersgate started their summer sale today. 
It's a pretty massive list with some good deals in there.

Saw that.  For once, I'm honestly glad I'm broke right now.  ::) 

[Greybriar]

Amazon has started its Summer Sale on Digital Games. (U.S. only, sorry.)