Great Steam Sales

[Hassat Hunter]

Did the same for me, it's working now though. Good discounts, but nothing that interests me today.
(Or maybe Amnesia. Worth a try for that price, right?)

Also got a -50% on Valve title coupon, anyone interested? Or did everyone get that?

[bobby 55]

I dunno, I'm not logged into Steam atm, I guess a fair percentage of people on Steam would have most of the Valve titles already. I think I have.

[gamer0004]

Get Amnesia. Even if you play it for no more than an hour, it's an experience that lasts I can assure you.

[m3rc1l3ss]

What happens every time you log into steam any time from now until january 1st...

http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/650

[Jaedar]

So far I've gotten a free copy of frozen synapse, and a free copy of HL:ep1 with all the deathmatch thingies.

Didn't get my free gift, only the ones from achievements

From todays deals, I reccommend Just cause 2, portal2, orcs must die, and metro 2033.

Some sweet deals in other words.

[Hassat Hunter]

Got a coal and -50% voucher on Valve titles. Just from the bonus, got none of the achievements.
Only interesting today seems to be psychonauts. Which is on sale, while not even listed in the main announcement on the store mainpage...

[Jaedar]

Got 3 coal today.

I would totally buy arkham city at 50% off if it wasn't for the triple DRM. Even as it is... I'm considering it.
STALKERs are on sale: Chernobyl and Pripyat are heartily recommended. Honor the fallen GDC by playing their games. NWN2 platinum is also on sale, worth picking up just for MotB. Seriously.

[Hassat Hunter]

Some pretty interesting titles today, sure.
And only 2 rewards, both non-game. I'm just not interested in the games they offer rewards for. Except psychonauts (bought yesterday) and mayhaps Jurassic Park. Hmmm...

[gamer0004]

Is Neverwinter Nights 2 any good? Is it a proper RPG or rather a hack & slash action RPG?
Oh and does anyone have any experience with the Sherlock Holmes franchise? Is it worth buying if one likes adventure games?

[Jonas]

Neverwinter Nights 2 is a proper RPG, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's good.

It's... all right. I'd give it 6 out of 10. It has some great ideas, like a pretty solid trial sequence that calls back to a lot of little things you've done throughout the preceding chapter, and about half way through you get your own castle that you can manage through a dedicated interface, which coughs up a few quests and serves as a nice place to keep your companions when they're not in your party. I seem to recall it has a rather good world map, too, connecting all its areas.

Unfortunately it's marred by its staunch determination to be as stereotypical as possible. I shit you not it's like they set out to create the ultimate archetypical Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Just as an example, you have 11 companions, and it almost fits with one companion per character class (IIRC it's missing a barbarian but has... two fighters, or something, other than that it fits) and each of those characters is pretty much their class and race personified - they are as stereotypical as it is possible to be. The plot itself isn't much better, you are the chosen one right from the start, your village is burned by the bad guys, and then you set out to save the world from an ancient evil. To say nothing of the ending, which is just fucking heinously disappointing.

But I mean... 6 out of 10, basically. Slightly above average, but decidedly mediocre.

On the other hand, it's first expansion, Mask of the Betrayer, is easily a 10 out of 10 and should be played at all costs.

[Hassat Hunter]

Got NWN2: Platinum and Jurassic Park today.

Saw some people (Jonas) got The Missing Link. I wait till it's a 75% off deal. I suspect it will be one day.
Got a reason to replay then (or just load up the nearest savegame )

[Jaedar]

It should be mentioned that the ancient evil is fairly well developed for what it is. I think the main problem with nwn2 is the really boring encounter design, its not quite da2 but some parts are close(ork caves).

[AEmer]

Nwn2 is horrid by comparison to DA:O, imo, and I'm not blind to DA:O's faults.

I was very excited for it, and I did enjoy it a lot at the time. Jonas, one of my other firends and I were ranting frantically about it as we were playing it. It felt deep and full of potential all the way through to the final sequences which you get to about 100 hours in, if you're me.

It's a long-ass game, around the same length as Dragon Age Origins, except it has many more useless bits.

Nearly all of the problems, however, are a direct concequence of being a proper RPG. There's 11 party members, you're limited to taking 4 with you on any one quest, and certain areas can only be traveled to if you include specific party members.

Sounds like fun? Recall how the inventory system of NWN works?

It isn't fun. You're playing inventory fitter before each of those specific quests, trying to get your guys a good loadout. The massive amounts of loot don't help either, and it's entirely horrific because of how relatively little impact it has immediately, but cut it all out and you're at a significant disadvantage.

What's criminally worse, but also happens to plague all the neverwinter nights, is that the combat system is entirely out of whack. The most amenable one is probably hordes of the underdark, but even that is horribly unbalanced. This is significantly worse in the mask of the betrayer expansion than in the original, so what the game gains in storyline, it almost loses by having combat that's reduced to overpowering victories or loses, with little to no actual tactics required either way.

This is, however, all part of being a proper D&D RPG, because that's what the system does, how it behaves, without a DM to tailor the scenarios.

[gamer0004]

Bought NWN2. Thanks for the feedback guys! @Jonas: I never played D&D so it probably won't bother me. Nor do stereotypes bother me, as long as it isn't presented as something which is supposed to be good or deep. If a storyline is just there as an excuse for action I'm fine with cliches. Case in point: Red Faction Guerilla.

[AEmer]

I would say that the story, and the transitions your player character goes through, as well as the massive amount of customization open to you, are the main attractions.

I doubt you'll regret giving it a shot...if the inventory management gets to you, just pop it to the lowest difficulty and you'll be able to effectively skip that part.