Bargain Thread 2012 Edition

Murbella · 2012-12-11T06:11:40.000Z

tgb123:

Dead Island lost me in one of the first quests, when you have to go back to the lifeguard shack for some maguffin or another. After minutes of dialogue with the people holed up in the starting location about how dangerous it is, yada yada, the A.I. never even closes the door after you leave.

Once I saw something so blatently stupid, I uninstalled and never looked back.

Radiant AI. Stuff like this is super common in any but the most scripted games. In oblivion for example, the world is ending, oblivion gates are opening 10 feet from town but everything goes on like normal and people walk the streets without a care in the world.

While it does suspend belief somewhat, this is the current level of technology and why i prefer faking it to attempting to make it, because faking it appears more real.

Pogue Mahone:

I disagree, Murbella. The joy of a good open-world rpg, like Skyrim or New Vegas, is to some degree in the variety of options open to you, and the fun of discovery, whether that’s a new location or faction or spell or what have you. Dead Island is non-stop zombie killing and that wears out its welcome fast. And coming from a guy who loves zombies, I think that says something. You’ll do an incredible amount of backtracking doing Fed Ex quests for people who will reward you with a Rickety Pistol of Lightning, if you’re lucky. You’ll engage in no meaningful conversation. You just find zombies who are capable of taking incredible amounts of damage while your weapons steadily degrade. It’s not my idea of a good time, unlike Skyrim and New Vegas.

You see this same exact stuff in nearly every open world rpg.

Meaningful dialog? New vegas is an outlier as far as open world rpgs go. Even being very generous, Bethesda isn’t exactly known for its writing or (with EXTREMELY few exceptions) quest design.

divedivedive · 2012-12-11T06:39:25.000Z

Murbella, we’ve got a fundamental difference of opinion here. Dead Island is a grind. Bethesda games are not.

DeepT · 2012-12-11T06:47:53.000Z

The first area, the resort, in Dead Island was fun. It all goes down-hill from there. My friend who LOVES zombie games was sick of the game half-way though. We just wanted to finish the game and be done with it, but it kept going on and on.

I would have to vote to not buy Dead Island unless you are very bored and need something to fill empty time in you life.

sangkancil99 · 2012-12-11T06:57:37.000Z

scuse me guys but why is the bargain thread morphing into a dead island thread? i mean i check this here thread for bargains, obssesively. a few outlier post is ok but if it goes on for mote than 2 pages, well its time to call the sheriff.

Murbella · 2012-12-11T06:57:37.000Z

Pogue Mahone:

Murbella, we’ve got a fundamental difference of opinion here. Dead Island is a grind. Bethesda games are not.

Yes, this is easily realized. What is harder to understand is what you base this opinion on. I could see if you felt both games were a grind, as that would make sense. Just thinking one is a grind, less so.

LockerK · 2012-12-11T07:29:09.000Z

Couple of Facebook deals today:

https://www.facebook.com/Deathrally/app_245405195585499 90% off Steam coupon for Death Rally, making it $1. Currently not working for those who own a Remedy game due to conflict with the loyalty discount, but they have contacted Valve to fix it.

http://on.fb.me/UzzHfU Free Steam key for Metro 2033. Most should have this from the Humble Bundle.

Stridergg · 2012-12-11T07:34:53.000Z

Rock8man:

Pogue had successfully warned me off! Now the rest of you are confusing me! To be fair, the one defining characteristic of an MMO, to me, is the rote, almost non-existent combat gameplay. You select an enemy, and select auto attack, and every once in a while press a button to do a special ability. Or if you’re a healer, you keep an eye on the tank and heal, or of you’re a nuker, you use offensive abilities without drawing the enemy from the tank. I’ve done it, it’s rote and its boring, and I can’t stand it. Everything good that they might add on top of that hollow lair of unsatisfying combat gameplay is usually meaningless, which is why I’ve stayed far away from Guild Wars 2. It sounds like they’ve added a lot of cool stuff on top of the usual MMO combat gameplay, but that just makes me even more determined to only enjoy it from afar through the Qt3 games podcasts maybe.

Hehe, I just wanted to mention that not only Dead Island’s combat is far from what you are describing, Guild Wars 2’s combat doesn’t work like that either.

Looks like you are missing on some good games due to misinformed prejudice. :)

divedivedive · 2012-12-11T08:48:35.000Z

Murbella:

Yes, this is easily realized. What is harder to understand is what you base this opinion on. I could see if you felt both games were a grind, as that would make sense. Just thinking one is a grind, less so.

All right look, the thread cops are breathing down my neck – and you’ll never take me alive, you hear me you bastards? – so I’ll make this my last word on the matter. You cannot even compare Dead Island with Behesda games for grind, they’re not even in the same league. For instance, I started a New Vegas game with the intention of avoiding combat entirely, sneaking or talking my way out of confrontations. And this is an entirely viable option, up to and including the final battle. Not easy, mind you, but doable. You could never do that in Dead Island. You see a zombie, you’re going to have to kill it. And it’s going to have 50 friends nearby and they’re going to come running. Yes, Dead Island has a pretty cool combat system and it was fun for the first few hours. But that’s all there is, beat down zombies, find some dude locked in a bathroom, accept his quest to find 6 bottles of vodka so he can ride out the apocalypse, get your loot, repeat. If that’s your thing, more power to you. For me, no thanks.

TurinTur · 2012-12-11T08:58:44.000Z

Dead Island is more an action game (with rpg like structure). Fallout New Vegas is a RPG (and it isn’t from Bethesda!).

Because DI is an action game, of course there is more repetition. It’s killing lots of zombies, basically. But that’s saying that Doom and Call of Duty and Battlefield are a “grind”. They aren’t, if you like action games. Grind is “repetitive with bland and boring gameplay”, i.e.: kill 40 bears for a quest giver in a MMO doing click click lick in each of them. And then repeat again 100 times. Action games have fun gameplay, so it can’t be considered a grind.

scharmers · 2012-12-11T09:10:17.000Z

You could never do that in Dead Island. You see a zombie, you’re going to have to kill it.

Because rolling a speech or science check is totally applicable in a action game about beating the crap out of an island full of zombies.

eyeroll.gif

I can dig not liking Dead Island – I like it, so who gives a shit – but not liking it because the game play doesn’t compare to F:NV is a little specious. Apples and other fruit, etc.

divedivedive · 2012-12-11T09:12:40.000Z

You’re familiar with the concept of context, I assume, scharmers. There were previous posts that might provide a little of that.

Stridergg · 2012-12-11T10:49:21.000Z

Hehe, are we going to compare all games to Skyrim now? The same shit is going on in the Far Cry 3 thread. Go figure. :)

I’ll start. Peggle is such a grind, Skyrim is so much better. :)

hardcorebabbler · 2012-12-11T11:42:44.000Z

Stridergg:

Hehe, I just wanted to mention that not only Dead Island’s combat is far from what you are describing, Guild Wars 2’s combat doesn’t work like that either.

Looks like you are missing on some good games due to misinformed prejudice. :)

Just going to chime in and agree with this. Guild Wars 2’s combat is considerably different compared to the usual MMO combat. WoW’s combat bored me to tears for the reasons you (Rock8man) were describing, Guild Wars 2’s was much better.

Oh, and since this IS the Bargain Thread, it’s worth noting you can apparently get Metro 2033 for free. I haven’t tried it myself since it’s one of legions in my Steam backlog, but from what I’ve heard it’s worth a meaningless “like” on facebook.

Edit: Oops, well beaten to the punch. Thought I checked!

Fenris99 · 2012-12-11T11:47:36.000Z

Velvet Assassin on Steam for $1.25.

Anyone?

Fenris99 · 2012-12-11T11:54:10.000Z

Locker K:

http://on.fb.me/UzzHfU Free Steam key for Metro 2033. Most should have this from the Humble Bundle.

Ugh it wants way too much personal information. Pass.

Giaddon · 2012-12-11T11:57:38.000Z

Fenris99:

Velvet Assassin on Steam for $1.25.

Anyone?

Very slow pattern-based stealth game with great art direction. Lots of time spent waiting for guard conversations to finish. Checkpoint saving. Has some good moments. Mediocrity overall.

prolix · 2012-12-11T11:59:53.000Z

Rock8man:

Can I just ask how you found this deal Brad?

I saw it on wootalyzer, which is handy for other deals as well.

krushnine · 2012-12-11T12:00:42.000Z

Fenris99:

Ugh it wants way too much personal information. Pass.

Invest a few mins into making a fake Facebook/Twitter/etc account. Otherwise you miss out on lots of good freebies and discounts.

Fenris99 · 2012-12-11T12:04:38.000Z

krushnine:

Invest a few mins into making a fake Facebook/Twitter/etc account.

Yeah I guess I should do that one of these days…

stusser · 2012-12-11T12:20:25.000Z

Yeah, I have fake accounts everywhere myself. Worth the trouble.