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Last Day of Steam Sales | you're officially broke: indie game / cheap game spotlight

I don't understand Blueberry Garden. I don't even know what I am supposed to do. How can it be 'short' . . . is there even an 'end' to it?
 

Oreoleo

Member
I've got an extra copy of Puzzle Agent ($3.34) to give out if someone wants to gift me something like Lume ($2.38) or The Maw ($2.99). PM me :)



speculawyer said:
I don't understand Blueberry Garden. I don't even know what I am supposed to do. How can it be 'short' . . . is there even an 'end' to it?

There is.
 

Carm

Member
Caerith said:
Excellent thread, definitely made some additions to my list from this.

Didn't see it in the OP, but it came highly recommended in the Steam Summer Sales thread:

Paradox Fantasy Pack - $7.99

header_586x192.jpg


http://store.steampowered.com/sub/8675/

I had forgotten all about watching that Quicklook awhile back till you or someone mentioned the pack in the other thread. More money slippin' out of the wallet.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
Rummy Bunnz said:
Thanks for the list. I own a lot of these games. Probably going to buy both Eschalon games.

Is Beat Hazard on this list? Because no one should buy Beat Hazard. The game is an eyesore. It's like they ripped some sprites from a mid 90's shareware shooter and laid them on top of a blindingly obnoxious MP3 visualizer. It's also another score attack game designed by people who don't seem to understand score attack games. If you wanna blow your eyes out buy Space Giraffe. If you wanna solid twin stick shooter buy Geometry Wars. Don't buy Beat Hazard.
No one with epilepsy should buy Beat Hazard. Anyone interested in a score attack arena shooter and a face melting visualizer rolled into one package should buy it hard.
 

Gustav

Banned
I will shamelessly self promote with Drakensang. It's 25 hours of solid classic party based RPG goodness. It's a steal for 10 bucks.

Anybody who was disappointed with Dragon Age II should try it out.
 

Corto

Member
Ok, here is my contribution to this thread of awesome:

Hegemony: Philip of Macedon

2vvw5tf.jpg


zyhl38.jpg


Real Time Strategy war game with the historical setting of the conquest of Greece by Philip of Macedon. Gorgeous tactical map as seen above. Sound mechanics and at a 75% rebate total price of $5 usd is just a steal!



Though it's not such a bargain as Hegemony (only 33%) this game is also a great game and it has a great price for the content that you'll get.

Titan Quest Gold

2ai57w5.jpg


Similar historical setting: Ancient Greece, The genre is another different beast though. An action RPG in the vein of the Diablo series. Beautiful graphics and the combat is enjoyable. The inventory is old-school though (tetris mini-game puzzle), so if you don't like that, this is not a game for you.

Final price after the rebate: 6,69€ (it seems that europe steam has the best deal on this according to steam prices, if anyone needs a friendly euro gaffer to gift the game in exchange for your hard gained dollars PM me)
 

Teknoman

Member
Damn it...now I want Machinarium. Not that its a bad thing, especially since the music is cool, its a world made of strange looking robots (which automatically makes it awesome), and the entire environment gives me a Neverhood vibe.
 

Mr_Zombie

Member
Rummy Bunnz said:
Is Beat Hazard on this list? Because no one should buy Beat Hazard. The game is an eyesore. It's like they ripped some sprites from a mid 90's shareware shooter and laid them on top of a blindingly obnoxious MP3 visualizer. It's also another score attack game designed by people who don't seem to understand score attack games. If you wanna blow your eyes out buy Space Giraffe. If you wanna solid twin stick shooter buy Geometry Wars. Don't buy Beat Hazard.
I disagree with you. While the original Beat Hazard is quite boring (it's a nice MP3 visualizer with a game attached to it, though ;)), the DLC really improves the gameplay and makes it much more enjoyable. Of course the game still depends on your mp3 library.
 
Just got the The Longest Journey/Dreamfall set. Was always interested in those games. Had bought the The Longest Journey years ago at Target but hadn't gotten to play it much and that was several computer builds ago and $6 for both games on steam is a steal.
 

PaulLFC

Member
PaulLFC said:
Is the Drakensang prequel good? It's not available in my region (UK) apparently. Only the original Drakensang game is available here.

Anyone have any advice? Is the original Drakensang still worth getting?
 

Doomrider

Member
Thanks to this thread, I just bought "Portal 2 - The Final Hours"!

Amazing job, by the way. Unfortunately, that will be my last purchase during this sale... Bloodlines and a few others will have to wait until the next one (I decided to buy Portal 2).
 

Carm

Member
Rummy Bunnz said:
n musical borefests and I probably own all of them thanks to all these bundles.

Is Beat Hazard on this list? Because no one should buy Beat Hazard. The game is an eyesore. It's like they ripped some sprites from a mid 90's shareware shooter and laid them on top of a blindingly obnoxious MP3 visualizer. It's also another score attack game designed by people who don't seem to understand score attack games. If you wanna blow your eyes out buy Space Giraffe. If you wanna solid twin stick shooter buy Geometry Wars. Don't buy Beat Hazard.

Zombie Driver is a better concept than it is a game, and it's still not as good a concept as Simple 2000 Zombie Vs Ambulance.

Do not buy any of those dejobaan games. I feel somewhat bad for being so negative in this post. Bitching comes easier than praising. I'm sure these games are all products of hardworking people. Many of them probably never made a game before. I'm sure they'll get better! But I have a very, very strong dislike for dejobaan's games, and I don't think I can go into detail without sounding like the biggest asshole in the world. That Katamari clone just offended me deeply, OK? And everything they've made since seems similarly sloppy and forced, though at least they're original shitty games rather than blatant ripoffs.

19764-mad.jpg
 

Saige

I must do better.
PaulLFC said:
Anyone have any advice? Is the original Drakensang still worth getting?
Never played the original but everything I heard says the prequel is an all-around better game that doesn’t require playing the original to get into.

I’ve played River of Time for about 10 hours before getting side-tracked with other games but it seems well worth the price if you can get someone to gift it to you.
 

Volcynika

Member
You know, sometimes I get annoyed that I'm on mandatory overtime at work. But threads like these give me a way to spend the extra money!
 
Already got the Longest Journey bundle.
I will wait to see what the final daily deals are before getting any more, and I still need to finish downloading The Last Remnant.
 
Cheers for posting this topic, I had a good trawl through the cheap games early on in the sale but it seems I missed a couple of gems (Chime and Dreamfall).

Last day of wallet pain until Christmas, hopefully these games all turn out as good as I hope they are:

dwbfhv.jpg
 

coopolon

Member
Rummy Bunnz said:
Do not buy Jolly Rover. I guess I got it in one of the indie Christmas sale bundles? I played it to earn a summer camp ticket because I am stupid. By the third puzzle the lead character is mouthing off about how stupidly nonsensical the puzzle solutions are, which is a very, very bad sign. "Sometimes I don't understand why I do the things I do!" It's like this. Except it's from 2010 or something. I'm not nuts about the new Telltale adventure games but they are many times better than Jolly Rover.

I could not disagree more. The non-sensical joke you are referring to was just a little wink at the audience about how stupid puzzles in point and clicks can be. The vast majority of the puzzles in the game are very intuitive and common sense (Puzzle Spoiler:
The only really unintuitive puzzle was voodoo backwards. I don't have any idea how anyone would ever think of that without consulting a faq/hints, and the vague hint was completely unhelpful
. There's some pixel hunting, but it lets you highlight everything you can interact with on the screen, therefore making pixel hunting not annoying anymore. The production values are through the roof, the developer includes some pretty insightful developer commentary after you've played through it once. There's a hint system where you can get a vague hint for free, then if you really can't figure it out you can get a pretty thorough hint right in game without ever having to go to a FAQ. There's a monetary system (you find coins just by exploring stuff in the world) that allows you to bypass about 50% of the puzzles if you're stuck on them. There are some really funny jokes in the game.

Is Beat Hazard on this list? Because no one should buy Beat Hazard. The game is an eyesore. It's like they ripped some sprites from a mid 90's shareware shooter and laid them on top of a blindingly obnoxious MP3 visualizer. It's also another score attack game designed by people who don't seem to understand score attack games. If you wanna blow your eyes out buy Space Giraffe. If you wanna solid twin stick shooter buy Geometry Wars. Don't buy Beat Hazard.
Fortunately there's a demo for people to decide for themselves. I personally think Beat Hazard is the game of the sale for me, I've already put in over 10 hours and will probably easily put in another 30. It's a great game I finish my nights off with just playing a few songs. I think the effects are amazing and turn up the visual intensity to 200% every time I play. And it's one of the cooler "your music drives the gameplay" moments when listening to a Kanye song or something and as it slows down everything on screen slows down, and you start a little anxious because you know the music is about hit a crescendo and the game is going to go crazy. And it's a lot of fun matching with people online and seeing what songs you have that they have as well. And it's a pretty slick dual stick shooter, although it does not have the content depth of some of the bigger entries in the genre.

PaulLFC said:
Anyone have any advice? Is the original Drakensang still worth getting?

The second one is undoubtedly better. If you're just looking for one party based WRPG then get the second one. But the first one is still a wonderful (albeit painfully generic) entry that is still a lot of fun to play and is graphically impressive as well.
 

Saige

I must do better.
Saige said:
Any opinions on the Penny Arcade games? I got about $2 more to spend and they seem alright.
So are these worth getting? Is the story complete or were more episodes planned?
 
Everyone should buy The Longest Journey.

Also, I know it's not really on huge discount but I was looking at getting one of the chessmaster games during the sale. Anyone have any experience with either of the two on steam? Grandmaster edition seemed like the better buy from what I could tell even though it was $2 more and a year older. Looking for something with good tutorials.
 
Great, great thread. Threads like these (along with the main one, of course) are necessary companions to the Steam sales, and you started a fine one, SS.

Limiting myself to $10/day, which is letting me pick up Aquaria, Machinarium, and Eversion. I also like how Steam lets me know what I've already bought; almost double-bought a number of games I got during previous sales :p
 

PaulLFC

Member
Saige said:
Never played the original but everything I heard says the prequel is an all-around better game that doesn’t require playing the original to get into.

I’ve played River of Time for about 10 hours before getting side-tracked with other games but it seems well worth the price if you can get someone to gift it to you.

Thanks :) I'll leave getting the original then I think.
 

Ledsen

Member
coopolon said:
I could not disagree more. The non-sensical joke you are referring to was just a little wink at the audience about how stupid puzzles in point and clicks can be. The vast majority of the puzzles in the game are very intuitive and common sense (Puzzle Spoiler:
The only really unintuitive puzzle was voodoo backwards. I don't have any idea how anyone would ever think of that without consulting a faq/hints, and the vague hint was completely unhelpful
. There's some pixel hunting, but it lets you highlight everything you can interact with on the screen, therefore making pixel hunting not annoying anymore. The production values are through the roof, the developer includes some pretty insightful developer commentary after you've played through it once. There's a hint system where you can get a vague hint for free, then if you really can't figure it out you can get a pretty thorough hint right in game without ever having to go to a FAQ. There's a monetary system (you find coins just by exploring stuff in the world) that allows you to bypass about 50% of the puzzles if you're stuck on them. There are some really funny jokes in the game.

Uh, you can buy your way past puzzles? I only had that option once in the game (
third time getting past the guard dog, he had a metal helmet on this time
), and I assumed I was supposed to do that. Also that puzzle you had in spoilers, I instantly figured it out the first time, but the second time... man, that was some obscure shit.
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
Saige said:
So are these worth getting? Is the story complete or were more episodes planned?
I don't think they closed the story since there were more episodes planned, could be wrong on that. I personally didn't care for the game...though it was slightly boring (PSN version).

Honestly though, $2 isn't much of a gamble. If you love PA humor then go for it I guess.
 

Gvaz

Banned
Azure Phoenix said:
Cheers for posting this topic, I had a good trawl through the cheap games early on in the sale but it seems I missed a couple of gems (Chime and Dreamfall).

Last day of wallet pain until Christmas, hopefully these games all turn out as good as I hope they are:

dwbfhv.jpg
Don't get chime, its got like 4 songs
 
I can't say no to Hitman: Blood Money for £1.49 - It was the first 360 game owned back in 2006 and I enjoyed it greatly. I'm sure it's aged like a battered crone, but I can't see that has become a bad game.

Since deciding to properly investigate PC gaming for the first time in many, many years (bar the occasional game) I have bought...

The Witcher 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Just Cause 2
Crysis 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Hitman: Blood Money

for a grand total of £59.03; that is something I could get used to...
 

Blizzard

Banned
Can you actually "win" the Blueberry Garden demo? I got drowned after exhausting all the items I could find when the water started rising rapidly. I couldn't figure out what the brown nuts did either.
 

iammeiam

Member
Saige said:
So are these worth getting? Is the story complete or were more episodes planned?

I bought both back when they came out on XBLA, so paid way more, and enjoyed them well enough. They're fairly entertaining, mechanically sound RPGs.

The story isn't complete in the games, but I think they did some webcomics to finish off the story when it was decided the games wouldn't continue.

I'd say worth it for $2 if you've got the money to spare and nothing else on your must-buy list.
 
EternalGamer said:
You may be offended, but most genres rip each other off all the time. If something is ripped off enough it becomes a genre. Katamari only has one clone, so we call that game a rip-off. But rip off or not, It's The Wonderful End of the World is a FUN game for people who like Katamari. It's got nice music, it controls well, and it's cheap.
Bullshit. I love Katamari. I did not love this. It's Katamari for people who complained about Katamari's controls being too unwieldy. For people who totally missed the point. There's no friction to TWEOTW. There's no joy in mastering the controls, because there's nothing to master. I also found it ugly and obnoxious. That smirking vector art girl is no King of the Cosmos, and a buncha swirling ping pong balls is no replacement for the Prince.

I have no problem with ripoffs. I am OK with creative thievery as long as it's done well. TWEOTW is not done well. It's garbage.

I really don't care for the whole 'levels generated from your MP3 library' gimmick. Space Invaders Infinity Gene is the only one I've played that was at least decent. I know a lot of people like these games, but it seems like the appeal mostly comes from the music rather than the gameplay. I can't get into that.

Aaron said:
Which version of Painkiller do I get if I only want to get one version of Painkiller?
Black Edition.
 
coopolon said:
I could not disagree more. The non-sensical joke you are referring to was just a little wink at the audience about how stupid puzzles in point and clicks can be. The vast majority of the puzzles in the game are very intuitive and common sense

Just because the developer is aware of how stupid the puzzle is doesn't make it any less stupid.

Would you say the solution to the "get the rum" puzzle was sensible? From a walkthrough:

"Check the bottles in the galley and see that they are all empty. Check the cook and see that he is embracing a bottle of rum.

Look around. Get dried fish and peppercorn from the sink area. Open the left cupboard and get crackers.

Window: Check the left window and see that the hinges are rusty. Use the oily scarf with window. Open the window.

Bird bait: Use the dried fish with hook hanging in front of window. See a bird try to get the fish.

The "chef" wakes up and closes the window. He spills rum on the floor.

Use peppercorn with the spilled rum on the floor. Then open the window to let the bird in."

Then the chef gets up again and trips on the peppercorn, knocking him out, allowing you to take the rum.

???
 

joesmokey

Member
Tried out the demo for Nimbus and loved it. Is $4.99 a good price for it? I know that sounds cheap, just wondering if it's dropped lower than that before.
 

Feep

Banned
Oh, wow. I come home and...

Whew. Thirty bucks GONE.

Also, if you have not played The Longest Journey and you don't buy this double pack, you are literally a horrible person.
 

Oreoleo

Member
joesmokey said:
Tried out the demo for Nimbus and loved it. Is $4.99 a good price for it? I know that sounds cheap, just wondering if it's dropped lower than that before.

According to this, this is the 4th time it's been $4.99 and it's never been lower.
 

plc268

Member
TheDrowningMan said:
I can't say no to Hitman: Blood Money for £1.49 - It was the first 360 game owned back in 2006 and I enjoyed it greatly. I'm sure it's aged like a battered crone, but I can't see that has become a bad game.
.

Blood Money actually holds up pretty well, it hasn't aged very much.
 
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