Bargain Thread 2012 Edition

mashakos · 2012-12-16T11:06:50.000Z

TurinTur:

Agreed, you should see screens and videos of Pop2 before buying it. It was a classic in his time, but decades have passed.

Populous the Beginning holds up pretty well for a game from '98, if there’s an offer on it I’d recommend going for that over the original 16-bti titles.
EDIT: Turns out there is a deal for Populous The Beginning on GoG! Tempted…

GOG.com

Populous™: The Beginning

Populous: The Beginning, a 3D reimagination of the classic game series that make you feel like an allmighty diety--available on GOG.com for only $5.99

LockerK · 2012-12-16T11:07:10.000Z

malkav11:

Steam’s daily deal is Defender’s Quest, an indie tower defense/RPG that has earned some pretty glowing praise around the internet, including from Rock Paper Shotgun. It’s 66% off aka ~$5. People who picked it up before Steam added it are theoretically going to get Steam keys someday, but I haven’t yet and I’m a sucker, so that was low enough to double dip. I can always gift the extra key to someone else if I get it, I suppose.

Did you check your spam folder? They sent me a Steam key a while back, but Gmail flagged it as spam.

Murbella · 2012-12-16T11:56:32.000Z

malkav11:

Steam’s daily deal is Defender’s Quest, an indie tower defense/RPG that has earned some pretty glowing praise around the internet, including from Rock Paper Shotgun. It’s 66% off aka ~$5. People who picked it up before Steam added it are theoretically going to get Steam keys someday, but I haven’t yet and I’m a sucker, so that was low enough to double dip. I can always gift the extra key to someone else if I get it, I suppose.

I like tower defense games and i like rpgs, so i went to watch this trailer on steam. Then i bought the game. will have to try it out later as it looks good.

malkav11 · 2012-12-16T12:38:42.000Z

Locker K:

Did you check your spam folder? They sent me a Steam key a while back, but Gmail flagged it as spam.

Yes, and there wasn’t anything there. So if it did get spam flagged it’s been eaten already. It’s kinda moot now.

Universal_Leader · 2012-12-16T12:39:36.000Z

Jab:

Chronicles of Riddick is part of the GoG sale today. I’m tempted to get it, as I think every other retailer has the version with DRM in it.

http://www.gog.com/promo/scandinavian_games

Get it, it’s an incredible game.

unbongwah · 2012-12-16T14:28:54.000Z

malkav11:

Steam’s daily deal is Defender’s Quest, an indie tower defense/RPG that has earned some pretty glowing praise around the internet, including from Rock Paper Shotgun. It’s 66% off aka ~$5.

I’ve only spent a couple of hours with it, but so far I like it. It mostly plays like a conventional tower defense game, except your “towers” are NPCs of various unit types (archers, barbarians, wizards, etc.) who gain XP and can be equipped with new gear between missions. It costs money to recruit new party members (and each person you recruit costs more than the one before) and mana pts to summon them during combat; so you’re resource-constrained on how large your team can grow and whether you focus on few powerful “towers” or several weak ones or some combo thereof. The graphics have a retro-console vibe to them and the whole thing is pretty tongue-in-cheek.

Murbella · 2012-12-16T14:38:05.000Z

unbongwah:

I’ve only spent a couple of hours with it, but so far I like it. It mostly plays like a conventional tower defense game, except your “towers” are NPCs of various unit types (archers, barbarians, wizards, etc.) who gain XP and can be equipped with new gear between missions. It costs money to recruit new party members (and each person you recruit costs more than the one before) and mana pts to summon them during combat; so you’re resource-constrained on how large your team can grow and whether you focus on few powerful “towers” or several weak ones or some combo thereof. The graphics have a retro-console vibe to them and the whole thing is pretty tongue-in-cheek.

This is my experience a well. Really like it. I wish it was possible to expand the game window without making it actually full screen though.

Story/writing is pretty well done as well. A particular ice mage has (in my opinion) great dialog.

Them: “Don’t gossip about anyone who might slit your throat at night.”
Player: “I’m not terribly familiar with that saing… who… um…who says that?”
them: “people whose throats haven’t been slit, presumably. ‘Cause the ones that have don’t have all that much to say. It’s more like, ‘Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.’ And then you say, ‘was that advice?’ I don’t know. can you speak up?’”

amandachen · 2012-12-16T14:46:30.000Z

Luckily you can skip the awful dialogue. And so I did.

My mistake with Defender’s Quest was to put off doing the levels in extreme mode. Extreme mode for the early levels has some useful rewards, so maybe do them as soon as you can.

Murbella · 2012-12-16T14:49:12.000Z

I thought it was funny personally, but yes, you need to go back and do each level on the harder difficulties or else you will likely have severe difficulties later even on normal missions.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-12-16T16:52:10.000Z

Brian Rubin:

So GOG has all three Thief games on their daily sale today, and I’ve a bit of a conundrum. I’ve triple dipped on the games. I’ve got vanilla Thief 1, Thief 2 and Thief 3 all on separate disks. Then I’ve got a DVD with all of them (except it also has Thief 1 Gold). I’ve got a Steam copy of the trilogy, and yet…

For some reason, I really want to get them on GOG, thereby quadruple dipping. Some weird part of my brain will feel “comforted” if I have them there as well, apparently. What the hell is wrong with me?

That’s a little messed up. I can’t understand wanting to own multiple copies of the same game. Am I misreading your post? I can understand wanting a digital copy of them, but you already have that (Steam). No idea! Good luck with your crazy!

Rock8man · 2012-12-16T17:04:16.000Z

I can totally understand it. Games bought on GoG are put on their own little wooden shelf where the game boxes sit, all lined up the way you want. Which self-respecting collector wouldn’t want to add some of their favorite games onto that shelf?

Luckily mashakos’ PC Gaming on the Couch thread gives me hope that one day I have all my digital libraries unified in one place on a grand unified virtual bookshelf.

Crater · 2012-12-16T18:19:51.000Z

Kildar:

Endless Space Emperor Edition for $8.74.

Worth it?

I burnt out on it pretty quickly. I would suggest skipping it, and hugging your copy of MOO instead.

pizzaddict · 2012-12-16T18:50:03.000Z

I disagree. Endless Space is a fun game and MOO is outdated now.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-12-16T18:54:00.000Z

pizzaddict:

I disagree. Endless Space is a fun game and MOO is outdated now.

Two things.

If he meant MOO, you might be right. If he meant MOO2 … no. I will also add this - Starbase Orion is freaking awesome, so if you have an iOS device (it might be Android, too, not sure) I recommend it.
Have you ever said your screen name out loud and as a single word before?

sangkancil99 · 2012-12-16T19:14:54.000Z

BleedTheFreak:

Have you ever said your screen name out loud and as a single word before?

Ha ha I see what you’re doing there.

pizzaddict · 2012-12-16T19:17:50.000Z

I played a s-ton of MOO2 in the 90’s. I tried playing it about a year ago and just couldn’t do it. The graphics, the interface, all too outdated. Sure it’s a great game, but it has lost a little something for me.
Yeah I know, I heard it quite a bit from the little kids when I used to play COD online.

Rock8man · 2012-12-16T21:20:10.000Z

pizzaddict:

I played a s-ton of MOO2 in the 90’s. I tried playing it about a year ago and just couldn’t do it. The graphics, the interface, all too outdated. Sure it’s a great game, but it has lost a little something for me.

This is the first time I’ve encountered someone who thinks MOO2 is too outdated. I personally missed MOO2 when it came out. And I’m usually one who thinks “Oh well, I missed the boat, I can’t go back to low resolution graphics and horrible interfaces anymore”. That’s what I thought when I tried X-Com a few years ago, that’s what I thought when I tried Master of Magic. That’s what I thought when I tried one of the Ultima games about a decade ago (I forget which).

But when I tried MOO2 in the mid 2000s for the first time… I was blown away. The graphics were still good because it was nice 2D art. The interface was good because you had concise planetary summary screens that only got unwieldy in the very late game stages, and you’ve got a game design that still stands out as one the best. One of my favorite things about the game is that any time I didn’t know what something did in the interface or on any image in any screen in the game, I would just right click on it, and the game would tell me what it was for. That’s something that games don’t do anymore. I had a tougher time with Civ IV’s information-overloaded interface than I did with MOO2’s. And I think it holds up better than any 4x game I’ve played since.

mashakos · 2012-12-16T21:26:58.000Z

Rock8man:

I can totally understand it. Games bought on GoG are put on their own little wooden shelf where the game boxes sit, all lined up the way you want. Which self-respecting collector wouldn’t want to add some of their favorite games onto that shelf?

Luckily mashakos’ PC Gaming on the Couch thread gives me hope that one day I have all my digital libraries unified in one place on a grand unified virtual bookshelf.

the main reason I set up my system the way I did was precisely to stop rebuying games on Steam I already purchased at retail because it’s “more convenient” lol

pizzaddict · 2012-12-16T21:30:55.000Z

Rock8man:

This is the first time I’ve encountered someone who thinks MOO2 is too outdated. I personally missed MOO2 when it came out. And I’m usually one who thinks “Oh well, I missed the boat, I can’t go back to low resolution graphics and horrible interfaces anymore”. That’s what I thought when I tried X-Com a few years ago, that’s what I thought when I tried Master of Magic. That’s what I thought when I tried one of the Ultima games about a decade ago (I forget which).

But when I tried MOO2 in the mid 2000s for the first time… I was blown away. The graphics were still good because it was nice 2D art. The interface was good because you had concise planetary summary screens that only got unwieldy in the very late game stages, and you’ve got a game design that still stands out as one the best. One of my favorite things about the game is that any time I didn’t know what something did in the interface or on any image in any screen in the game, I would just right click on it, and the game would tell me what it was for. That’s something that games don’t do anymore. I had a tougher time with Civ IV’s information-overloaded interface than I did with MOO2’s. And I think it holds up better than any 4x game I’ve played since.

Maybe I just need to give it another try. I was excited to play it again before, but after about an hour I was done with it.

Gendal · 2012-12-16T21:44:59.000Z

pizzaddict:

I played a s-ton of MOO2 in the 90’s. I tried playing it about a year ago and just couldn’t do it. The graphics, the interface, all too outdated. Sure it’s a great game, but it has lost a little something for me.

Maybe because you already played the crap out of it? It’s funny you picked Moo2 because its the one game I would have picked to counter your argument. I didn’t play it till the late 2000’s like Mr. Rocket and I fell in love with it. Can’t say the same for a half dozen other titles I bought from GOG.