Bargain Thread 2012 Edition

Greybriar · 2012-12-01T04:56:23.000Z

Newegg has the retail boxed copy of Fallout: New Vegas on sale for $3.99 with free shipping.

Mysterio · 2012-12-01T05:54:54.000Z

New GMG Code! 30% off, and it appears to be a one-use code:

GMG30-DEC01-ARFC9

Mysterio · 2012-12-01T05:55:40.000Z

What’s the verdict on Cargo Commander? It can be had for only $2.38 on GMG with the above code.

Warning · 2012-12-01T06:02:01.000Z

peterb:

I think he’s underselling the difficulty of Gothic 2. The difficulty isn’t so much “it’s hard to learn how to play” but “Seven hours into the game you may (read: will) discover that the character progression style you chose makes further progress completely impossible, so you should have played with a laptop next to you with the walkthrough open so you didn’t ‘do it wrong’.”

I find that to be strongly, intensely, and deeply Not Fun™.

My not-snarky-i’m-totally-serious suggestion is to skip Gothic 1 and 2 entirely and just install the Nehrim mod (http://nehrim.de) in Oblivion, which has the good aspects of Gothic without the need-the-walkthrough-open-in-another-window nature. IMHO.

Yep this was my experience in Gothic 2. I got to a point where the only monsters/quests left were going to kick my ass. I obviously did something wrong and painted myself into a corner. Which means the developers did something wrong.

Oddly, I finished Gothic 1 and loved it.

lordkosc · 2012-12-01T06:09:05.000Z

Mysterio:

What’s the verdict on Cargo Commander? It can be had for only $2.38 on GMG with the above code.

I enjoyed it for the 3 -4 hours I played, I want to go back and try and beat a few friends high scores. But I am low on time, and my AAA backlog is massive.

Mysterio · 2012-12-01T06:28:46.000Z

lordkosc:

I enjoyed it for the 3 -4 hours I played, I want to go back and try and beat a few friends high scores. But I am low on time, and my AAA backlog is massive.

I’m not sure if that feedback helped me decide, but thanks for it! :-D

Mr_Bismarck · 2012-12-01T09:41:10.000Z

Mysterio:

What’s the verdict on Cargo Commander? It can be had for only $2.38 on GMG with the above code.

When I first started playing I thought it was about $10 worth of fun for the $6 I paid for it. Then I noticed that as soon as I stopped playing I’d find myself thinking “you know what I should play? Cargo Commander.”

It’s a lot more fun if you have friends playing, because then you can go into their levels and put your name at the top of their house. Followed by copious trash talking, obviously.

Giaddon · 2012-12-01T09:45:02.000Z

Mysterio:

What’s the verdict on Cargo Commander? It can be had for only $2.38 on GMG with the above code.

It’s a fun little time waster, but I wouldn’t blow a single use 30% coupon on it.

Crater · 2012-12-01T10:37:06.000Z

Hmm, why doesn’t GMG have Far Cry 3? I just noticed I can’t even preorder from them.

lordkosc · 2012-12-01T10:42:49.000Z

Crater:

Hmm, why doesn’t GMG have Far Cry 3? I just noticed I can’t even preorder from them.

They don’t have a contract with Ubi for their games to be sold in NA.

much sadness… :(

Gorath · 2012-12-01T16:38:25.000Z

Warning:

Yep this was my experience in Gothic 2. I got to a point where the only monsters/quests left were going to kick my ass. I obviously did something wrong and painted myself into a corner. Which means the developers did something wrong.

Oddly, I finished Gothic 1 and loved it.

Unusual. Most people who enjoyed Gothic liked the very similar G2 too. Did you play G2 or G2 Gold?

I don’t think it’s so clear the developer did something wrong if you couldn’t finish the game. Back then RPGs still were harder than nowadays, and handholding was just starting.
Personally I prefer the option to lower the difficulty level at any time though.

peterb:

I think he’s underselling the difficulty of Gothic 2. The difficulty isn’t so much “it’s hard to learn how to play” but “Seven hours into the game you may (read: will) discover that the character progression style you chose makes further progress completely impossible, so you should have played with a laptop next to you with the walkthrough open so you didn’t ‘do it wrong’.”

I find that to be strongly, intensely, and deeply Not Fun™.

My not-snarky-i’m-totally-serious suggestion is to skip Gothic 1 and 2 entirely and just install the Nehrim mod (http://nehrim.de) in Oblivion, which has the good aspects of Gothic without the need-the-walkthrough-open-in-another-window nature. IMHO.

I started Gothic 3 but didn’t get far enough in to have an opinion about that one.

Nehrim … I heard a lot of good things about that.

Gothic 2 != Gothic 2 Gold. Your walkthrough should cover the latter.

The developers did indeed do something - or rather one thing ;) - wrong with the otherwise superb add-in. After G2 the community demanded a higher difficulty level, and unfortunately Piranha Bytes gave in. G2 vanilla was pretty hard but fair, while G2 Gold is very hard (read: very hard 9 years ago). I’m not sure if G2 vanilla is still sold. There was some mod which allowed to tone down the difficulty though.
If you decide to play it, I recommend the following (no spoilers):

Play a tank. Only get enough mana to use scrolls. There are certain reasons that a mage is much more difficult in the first 2/3rd.
Early on the main character fights like noob who doesn’t know how to hold a sword. That’s intentional, he has to spend learning points on lessons by specialized teachers.
If you survive 50% of the fights against one harmless animal in the beginning, everything is okay. Avoid groups, avoid people with better armour. Most enemies are as dangerous as they look. If you attack a guard who carries a plate armour and a long sword, it’s your own fault. Most critters and most humans warn before they attack.
Play slowly. Explore everything, save often and in a couple of different slots. Activate quicksave in the .ini if it isn’t already enabled - but don’t rely on it exclusively. One level more or less can make a significant difference.
Only learn stuff which makes you a better fighter. Don’t waste skills points!
Always carry at least a simple bow and a couple of arrows to shoot switches. Transformation scrolls are your friend, combat spell scrolls shouldn’t be sold. In a few places you’ll need all the firepower you can get.
Examine everything. Don’t hesitate to use the stuff you find. There’s much more than you need.

You have more flexibility in the first Gothic. All 3 careers are hard but fair. Adapt the same hints as above, stay focused, spend 80% of the skill points on career relevant stuff and you will do okay.

Murbella · 2012-12-01T20:58:31.000Z

Nehrim was like the elder scrolls but with a story, so yes, if you’re a fan of gothic, you will likely like it. It is amazing how much they improved on what was wrong with the base game.

I don’t know what Warning is talking about. I never got around to playing the expansion because it wasnt released in usa when i played it i think, but i did basically everything. The thing about gothic is it isn’t the elder scrolls. you can’t become grand arena champion of the realm or slay an Ancient Troll God at level 2. If you try, you will die.

I prefer this. I prefer the feeling of getting stronger and not being able to do everything right away to the feel of running a treadmill, knowing that everything revolves around me.

The mage type did have a slow start in gothic 2 though, but once you got up to mid level it was way stronger than the warrior from what i remember. I beat the game with a warrior, but got about half way through with a mage after that.

amandachen · 2012-12-02T01:17:36.000Z

Gamersgate has Sword of the Stars 1 and 2 on offer for five quid ($7.49). There’s a steam key for SotS 2 Enhanced Edition. http://www.gamersgate.com/DDB-SOTSC/sword-of-the-stars-complete-collection-bundle

I think Amazon.com is still carrying the Plentiful Paradox Package, which contains SotS 1 and 2 and more for $9.99 http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Interactive-41089dox-Package1-Plentiful/dp/B008G0ZDZI

rezaf · 2012-12-02T02:09:52.000Z

Gorath:

You have more flexibility in the first Gothic. All 3 careers are hard but fair. Adapt the same hints as above, stay focused, spend 80% of the skill points on career relevant stuff and you will do okay.

Those tips of yours are nice enough, but that was kinda the point peterb was making, and I totally agree. You basically have to stick to a certain plan for developing your character - a plan which the game doesn’t lay out for you, or you will find yourself in a situation where you are unable to continue. I vaguely remember that only Night of the Raven (the addon) added the skill point requirements or drastically increased them, but anyway, that’s the problem. Overall difficulty is relatively high, but not overwhelming for a very long time, and only then you realize your “build” is borked. And all you can do at that point is either start over or cheat.
This had nothing to do with the game-design mentality of ten years ago, it was just as horrible as it sounds back then as it’s today.

rezaf

Brad_Grenz · 2012-12-02T02:51:48.000Z

Impules (GameStop) has Torchlight II for $9.99 right now. Activates on Steam.

In theory Amazon is bringing back all those Sega download packs from Black Friday for the week, but the prices aren’t reflected online yet, 2 hours after they usually update. Still, you can keep an eye on the deal page here.

Included in the deals is the Total War bundle for $24, a bundle that includes Binary Domain, Condemned, Aliens vs Predator and Hell Yeah for $20 and a couple retro packs for Genesis or Dreamcast for $5. All will activate on Steam.

Madmarcus · 2012-12-02T11:45:46.000Z

Murbella:

I prefer this. I prefer the feeling of getting stronger and not being able to do everything right away to the feel of running a treadmill, knowing that everything revolves around me.

I had the opposite feeling. In Gothic 3 I spent 20 levels running around feeling like I wasn’t getting any stronger or better as a character. My timing skills had improved a little but I was still basically unable to fight more then one opponent (human, orc, goblin, animal - it didn’t matter). I had to put the game aside because the tedium of having to constantly pull one opponent out of groups was just too much.

Murbella · 2012-12-02T12:07:27.000Z

Madmarcus:

I had the opposite feeling. In Gothic 3 I spent 20 levels running around feeling like I wasn’t getting any stronger or better as a character. My timing skills had improved a little but I was still basically unable to fight more then one opponent (human, orc, goblin, animal - it didn’t matter). I had to put the game aside because the tedium of having to constantly pull one opponent out of groups was just too much.

Yes, because this is gothic 3 where it is more like Elder Scrolls.

I’m not a huge fan of Gothic 3. It had extremely flawed mechanics on release and was missing some of the attention to detail that made me like #2 so much. Supposedly much of the flawed mechanics have been corrected by fans by now, but i have too many games to play now that i don’t know when, or if, i will go back to check again.

driillSGT · 2012-12-03T06:17:45.000Z

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space

Just popped on https://indiegamestand.com/

It looks hella fun, anyone played it before that can comment?

Mysterio · 2012-12-03T06:22:18.000Z

driillSGT:

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space

Just popped on https://indiegamestand.com/

It looks hella fun, anyone played it before that can comment?

Thanks for asking, as I was just about to make a similar post! $1 gets the buyer a Steam and Desura code, but I, too, would like to read the opinions of those who’ve played it.

peterb · 2012-12-03T06:29:45.000Z

It’s a great little game. Think “NetHack in Space” but tuned so that a game takes no more than 15 minutes.