Steam winter sale - post yer loot

[Nefaro]

Heh, I managed to put Ceres into my shopping cart, at 10 am CST on Christmas Day. And that was the last time Steam worked for me, for a while... 

Was gonna get the old Bowl Bound football manager sim but the Steam store ... she's dead Jim.

[Philippe]

re: Legends of Eisenwald

I bought it a long while back during some promotion or other.

It looked like it might grow into something a bit more like Darklands, but it didn't.

I ended up having a major tantrum about it, not helped by the developer's refusal to admit that there was anything less than historically appropriate about some of the graphics.

I've given it another go in the last month or so and decided that while it isn't the game of my dreams, it's not as bad as I thought at first.

I'm not in love with the combat system, but I'm not sure that it's significantly less realistic than what you'll find in something like Blackguards , Banner Saga, or Expeditions: Conquistador.  I've been playing Thea recently, and as much as I like that game, I think I much prefer Eisenwald's 'innovative' combat system to Thea's 'innovative' combat system (Thea uses a card game and, mercifully, an auto-resolution option).

The quality of the graphics is very good.  And I don't have a quarrel with the representation of the individual items that you can equip.  My problem is with the pseudo-renaissance armor in the main character screens of a game that is set in the early 15th century.

The writing runs the gamut from slightly less than ok to reasonably ok.  The writing in the introductory episode sometimes feels aimed at adolescents, but it gets better as the game progresses.

On the whole I'd say the game is probably worth picking up for less than $10.  I'm probably being too harsh, and you might find that you actually like it. 

I'm all in favor of supporting independent East European game developers because they can bring a refreshing perspective to their subject matter.  But I can do without the not-so-post-Soviet attitude towards constructive criticism.

[ComradeP]

I played Valkyria Chronicles for a while, but the tactics felt quite shallow. The only way to win many missions with the highest ranking is "run towards someone and shoot him in the face, load a save if you miss"

With elite characters (with greater movement ranges), it becomes boring fairly quickly.

It's certainly not X-COM.

[Arctic Blast]

Also, is the Steam store closed for Xmas or something? It's been down for a few hours now...

Its being overloaded by everyone redeeming their brand new activation codes they received for Christmas:)

Yikes...looks like it might be worse than that. Right now, even though I'm logged in as me, the client and webpage keep encouraging me to log in to my account. If I go to account details, I am now seeing details...for someone else's account, right down to associated email accounts for him AND that he has attached to his Paypal connected to Steam. From looking at Steam forums, this is happening to thousands of people right now. Got a financial account or card associated with Steam? I'd start watching it like a hawk, and probably change some passwords.

[Apocalypse 31]

Steam Community is down

First World Problems.

Also - I sold something on the community market that was worth $15, so now I have a $15 credit in my account. 

[Grim.Reaper]

Yikes, I see the same issue...I see someone elses account so can only imagine someone else can see mine....

[endfire79]

Does anyone have Star Wars: KOTOR 2 from Steam?  I'd like to get it at the sale price, but I remember buying KOTOR 1 a while back, and I had some issues with the game freezing quite a few times IIRC.  Just want to know if #2 had the same issue.

Cheers and Merry Christmas (making due with SWTOR MMORPG for now)
~DakDesertflame (Jedi Consular)

[Arctic Blast]

Steam Community is down

First World Problems.

Also - I sold something on the community market that was worth $15, so now I have a $15 credit in my account. 

Serious question : are you sure it was out of your account? Steam is completely fucked right now. Everyone is half logged in to other people's accounts. Hell, 5 minutes ago, everything was Chinese. Now I'm seeing account details for a dude with a $30 gift card on his account that I could totally spend if I wanted to right now. The entire system is screwed up.

[Apocalypse 31]

The email I received said it was something I had on the market, but I agree, there's a lot of funky stuff going on right now.

[Toonces]

Has anyone else been tempted by Legends of Eisenwald for $7.49?

Actually I was quite tempted but I did some digging and it sounds like the main campaign is linear, and not that long- maybe 10-20 hours.  I'm just not interested in a game like that at this time.  Unlike Darklands, which is randomly generated every new game and therefore has essentially infinite replayability.

If I'm wrong, somebody correct me, but I did quite a bit of review searching before ultimately deciding to pass.

[Nefaro]

Does anyone have Star Wars: KOTOR 2 from Steam?  I'd like to get it at the sale price, but I remember buying KOTOR 1 a while back, and I had some issues with the game freezing quite a few times IIRC.  Just want to know if #2 had the same issue.

Cheers and Merry Christmas (making due with SWTOR MMORPG for now)
~DakDesertflame (Jedi Consular)

Sorry I missed this earlier.

I also had the repeated KOTOR2 freezing issues.  For years & with different computers. 

But whatever they did in that recent patch must have fixed it.  I finally got past the points where my character had always stopped moving in the past. 

I can't guarantee it may not happen later in the game, but I've gone further than I ever had before without it doing that.

[DennisS]

Ok..just four titles so far..

1) Gem Craft..an excellent little tower defense game, on sale for just a couple of dollars. I am quite pleased with this purchase
2) Rebel Galaxy...a Freelancer/Wing Commander: Privateer clone, very good for what it does. Just starting out on this, also quite pleased with how open-ended this is.
3) Conquest of Elysium 4...a no brainer, been looking at this for weeks. I have had all the Dominions iterations for years. This will be on my hard drive forever.
4) Sid Meier's Colonization...had the first one, many years ago, and also had this one when it first came out. Great game, and needed just to re-acquire it.

With 21 dollars left..strongly considering ETS 2: Scandanivia, and Empire TV Tycoon.

[Arctic Blast]

Grabbed Star Wars Empire at War Gold (which I've never played) and Empire TV Tycoon.

[Huw the Poo]

1) Gem Craft..an excellent little tower defense game, on sale for just a couple of dollars. I am quite pleased with this purchase

I've wanted this for ages, it looks really good.  No Linux version though, sadly.

With 21 dollars left..strongly considering ETS 2: Scandanivia, and Empire TV Tycoon.

I heartily recommend Empire TV Tycoon.  It's a hidden gem with lots of soul.  Lots of lovely film references sprinkled throughout the gameplay, loads of decisions to make all the time, fluid gameplay, intuitive interface.  Actually it kind of reminds me of the Anno series, in that the flow of time is glacial but you somehow always have stuff to do, and you're constantly darting all over the building attending to this and that.

With a few hours logged now, literally my only complaint so far is the sound/music which is....not great.  But apart from that...really good game.

[Thjan]

Bought Commander: The Great War, Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm + Addon and Sunless Sea so far.

Considering: Pike & Shot Campaigns, Homeworld: Deserts of Karak and CMANO. Too many interesting games, not enough time to play :(

Added Pike & Shot Campaigns, some DLC for Graviteam Tactics (-85%!) and that's it for now I guess. CMANO is tempting at -50% but I think I have enough interesting wargames to get into the genre. Also the low resolution of the globe kinda annoys me. Besides, I am pretty sure I will not be able to resist Homeworld: Deserts of Karak when the release date gets closer. :D