I bit on XCOM, but I’ll be disappointed if I feel like it’s mostly a one-playthrough game.
They brought the deal back for this week for $10 this time in case anyone missed the $7.50 deal Friday.
Giaddon
3723
I got three back to back playthroughs out of it,and I’ll be back for more later. But it is limited.
Tyjenks
3724
While the XCom complaints are somewhat valid, I have found that playing the same maps once per play through is not really that tedious or repetitive. They are well set up and you can try different approaches to troop movement as well as different squad combinations. It some ways, it gives it a board game feel, but not in a bad way. With a board game, it never changes, but if well laid out, it plays fairly differently each time. I guess if seeing the same map twice in two 20-30 hour a piece playthroughs is too much, then XCom isn’t your thing. To me, the gameplay throughout is tightly constructed and FUN so the second or third time I am seeing a map after over 60 hours in total game time is not hampering my enjoyment whatsoever.
Even if you don’t see the exact same map more than a couple times in a single playthrough, most of the maps look the same and only have a very limited number of basic types (ie all of the warehouse maps look the same, all of the bridge maps look the same, etc). The ufo maps are the worst offender here.
You also can’t really change your tactics a huge deal in order to get a vastly different experience. Whether you start east of the entrance to that ufo or west of it makes little difference.
The max squad count is enough that you can’t really see a different play style by changing your squad either. This isn’t like some rpg where there are 10 vastly different classes you have to pick a few from. You will be using one, or more, of each class unless you want to purposefully hurt yourself. Even if you don’t, it doesn’t make a huge difference in play style if you decide to not take a sniper for example. All that means is you have less long range fire power.
Don’t get me wrong, the game is pretty fun and they did a pretty good job for making a sequel to an much beloved classic in this day and age of dumbing down, but i sincerely doubt the average player is going to play the game more than once.
How is the multiplayer in XCOM? I don’t usually ask that since I’m a single player guy, but it was brought up as a possibility from one of my old crew. Are the tactical battles pretty satisfying against human players?
Apologies if this has already been posted and I missed it, but: Amazon is currently offering a pre-order deal on Forge; get the 2-pack for $20 or the 4-pack for $30. Apparently buying it now gets you in on the beta, with the final release sometime later this year (or early next). Looks promising, but haven’t seen anything about it on Qt3 yet.
Frankly, probably the last thing I need is Yet Another Class-Based Online PvP Game I don’t have time to play; but I’m dumb enough to be willing to go in on a 4-pack if others are interested.
Murbella
3728
Thanks i got it this time!
It kind of annoys me though. I even downloaded some app for my phone that watches out for amazon lightning deals but i guess this is just a deal deal because it didnt notify me of it.
Looks like the only way i can find out about them is to watch this thread like a bargain hunting hawk.
Editer
3729
FYI, I disagree with Murbella. I’ve played XCom twice already and I just bought it on the PC (in addition the 360 copy I already had) so I could play it more frequently. So I think it depends on your play style and what you look for in a gaming experience.
Just by varying your squad classes/makeup, research priorities, and so on, your combat sequences can play out very differently.
So has anyone started looking at the Black Friday threads at CAG yet? Lots of tempting stuff there for me this year.
Some of the stuff I was interested in:
$8 Dead Island GOTY 360/PS3 at Best Buy
$10 for 1600 MS Points card ($20 worth of points) at Target
At Walmart:
$25: Need For Speed Most Wanted 360
$15: Forza Horizon 360 (Nice price, though I already own it, good price for gift giving though)
$15: Ratchet & Clank HD Collection PS3
$15: Max Payne 3 360
$10: L.A. Noire Complete 360/PS3
$10: Gran Turismo 5 XL edition PS3
Kadath
3731
I can’t get excited about disk based sales. Lemme know if there are any steam codes or console store deals…
stereoD
3732
PS3 might be different but don’t hold out for digital sales on 360. Prices are usually higher to start with and the sales are tame compared to discs, especially if you’re used to Steam/GMG/Amazon.
Yeah, the Xbox Games on Demand sales and PSN sales are never as good as the disc-based Black Friday/Christmas sales or the occasional Amazon daily deals on discs.
Hopefully that will change next generation.
Yeah, they’re just leaving money on the table. There’s no reason they shouldn’t basically give away ($1-2) DLC for 3+ year old games.
Murbella
3735
I’m no economics major, but my guess is that it is like with turn based strategy games.
(In my opinion) You basically have a limited audience at this point in a game’s life and if they’re going to buy the DLC, they’re going to buy it whether it is on sale for $5 or full price at $8. Thus getting the small number of sales for the higher price is better than getting the small, but VERY slightly larger, number of sales at a much lower price.
Unlike with full games, i don’t believe DLC is generally a game seller years past release. Someone who hasn’t bought Castlevania isn’t going to buy it because the DLC goes on sale for $2 off. Hell, even someone who owns it probably wouldn’t even know this happened due to how crappy PSN is and how it isn’t advertised anywhere externally.
What they should do is do more “game of the year” packages that include all of the dlc + the game at a discounted price. Now that would give them a second breath down the years as a i know many people, including myself, watch out for those.
malkav11
3736
If people, like me, were holding out for the PC release of Assassin’s Creed III, you might want to consider getting it from Gamersgate, especially if you secured the (apparently permanent) 15% discount from IGN. They’re offering 30% store credit cashback on either the standard or deluxe editions. If you have the IGN discount, that’s another 15% worth of store credit, and finally you get the standard 5% credit cashback on all purchases, for a total of 35-50% off depending. At the extreme, this is $25 store credit back on the standard edition or $40 on the Deluxe edition (which includes the season pass, bonus singleplayer missions, and some other stuff). I personally managed to parlay the cashback on the Deluxe Edition (with a smidgen of extra credit I had lying around) into a preorder of the standard edition of Far Cry 3. (The IGN discount knocked it down to $42.50).
Gamers’ Gate Have Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition (UK) for £9-98 UK (approx. $15 US by my calculation), which appears to be half the current price on Steam, GMG and Gamestop. Amazon UK have it for a similar price, but thst doesn’t include p&p.
http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/DD-DAOUEUK/dragon-age-origins-ultimate-edition-uk
Steam Autumn Sale should hit around Thanksgiving.
Last year it was Nov 23th until Nov 27th.
corkeh
3739
I got a couple coupons through that Autumn Seal thing that I won’t use. 50% off Alan Wake Complete (brings it down to $20) and 75% off Rochard (brings it down to $2.50).
Are you sure it was from steam? I thought international law prohibited them from giving out coupons for anything except Half-Life 2…
