Video Game Deals Catch-All

Haven't played any of the Burnout games. Not really a big fan of racing games in general, but I was looking at lists of best games ever on the 360 a year or so ago, and I seem to recall one of the Burnout series was on the list, had planned to check it out but never got around to it. Was it Paradise, or one of the others? (ie. is one of those games considered to be pretty great, and better than the rest?)

Unfortunate to hear that about Battlefield 3. Haven't played any from that series either but was looking forward to getting a taste from this game.

Definitely plan to play Thomas, I've heard very good things.

random elusive wrote:

Haven't played any of the Burnout games. Not really a big fan of racing games in general, but I was looking at lists of best games ever on the 360 a year or so ago, and I seem to recall one of the Burnout series was on the list, had planned to check it out but never got around to it. Was it Paradise, or one of the others? (ie. is one of those games considered to be pretty great, and better than the rest?)

Unfortunate to hear that about Battlefield 3. Haven't played any from that series either but was looking forward to getting a taste from this game.

Definitely plan to play Thomas, I've heard very good things.

Battlefield is great. But, you need to level up to unlock stuff, so, unless the matchmaking is good and it matches you with low level players, you'll feel outgunned and outclassed. If the matchmaking works correctly though, Battlefield is an awesome multiplayer experience.

Balthezor wrote:

Care to elaborate why BF 3 MP is useless without Premium? Don't think I'm willing to dish out more money for it.

There are quite a few people playing the normal maps, so I'd not say that. Although premium is frequently $15 now, so if you like regular maps, it's really worth it.

PWAlessi wrote:

Battlefield is great. But, you need to level up to unlock stuff, so, unless the matchmaking is good and it matches you with low level players, you'll feel outgunned and outclassed. If the matchmaking works correctly though, Battlefield is an awesome multiplayer experience.

BF has a pretty decent learning curve, and there are some things that you want to unlock. However, the best guns in most of the classes are the starter guns, so you're far from helpless. (M16, M4, M27, etc)

random elusive wrote:

Haven't played any of the Burnout games. Not really a big fan of racing games in general, but I was looking at lists of best games ever on the 360 a year or so ago, and I seem to recall one of the Burnout series was on the list, had planned to check it out but never got around to it. Was it Paradise, or one of the others? (ie. is one of those games considered to be pretty great, and better than the rest?)

Burnout Paradise is the best Burnout game on 360 (the only other was the previous Burnout Revenge), and one of the best racing games of this generation. It draws together hallmark elements of previous Burnouts into one ambitious and beautiful open world. Interest in racing games is not a prerequisite for enjoying Burnout—it has cars sure, but it's more about breakneck action.

FWIW, the Ultimate edition is also an insane deal. The final version of Paradise is in everything but its core a very different beast from the Paradise that was originally released. Not that you'd be able to tell, but you're getting a game that already set a precedent, plus over a year's worth of extras (unfortunately not the Big Surf Island expansion though, which was never released on PC).

MannishBoy wrote:
Balthezor wrote:

Care to elaborate why BF 3 MP is useless without Premium? Don't think I'm willing to dish out more money for it.

There are quite a few people playing the normal maps, so I'd not say that. Although premium is frequently $15 now, so if you like regular maps, it's really worth it.

PWAlessi wrote:

Battlefield is great. But, you need to level up to unlock stuff, so, unless the matchmaking is good and it matches you with low level players, you'll feel outgunned and outclassed. If the matchmaking works correctly though, Battlefield is an awesome multiplayer experience.

BF has a pretty decent learning curve, and there are some things that you want to unlock. However, the best guns in most of the classes are the starter guns, so you're far from helpless. (M16, M4, M27, etc)

When I gave up on BF3 it was a bit after premium went live and it was really tough to find decent servers that were only using the default or even first expansion maps. Part of it was so many servers were modified to have 500 or 1000 tickets (Random Elusive, tickets in Battlefield are allocated lives you have per team each round) and would take more than 30 minutes each round. At the time, I couldn't manage to get time for such long rounds and didn't want to even if I could. So basically, there was a terrible server finding meta-game that just ruined it for me. I'm pretty sure there's was other stuff, but it all stemmed from the server settings everyone used that I didn't like.

Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 HD is $10 on Xbox this week. Can I solicit some (dis)enablement, for Snake Eater in particular?

I'd love another stealth game, and haven't had much experience with MGS games. I tried MGS2 back in the day, but I wasn't hot on the floating exclamation marks (Garrett ain't got no time for that), and then checked out at the first boss battle since boss battles are stupid, on top of being totally at odds with stealth proper. So maybe MGS isn't for me, I thought.

But I've heard much better things about MGS3 (Idle Thumbs readers will remember Chris Remo talking about it last week), and stealthing around a Cold War Soviet forest sounds really interesting—if it's proper stealth. Then I check the Wikipedia page and read something like...

[...] The Fury, a disfigured former cosmonaut armed with a flamethrower and a jetpack; The Pain, who can control hornets to both defend himself and attack his enemies; and The Sorrow, the spirit of a deceased medium.

...and think that is the dumbest sh*t I've ever heard. And it seems to portend boss battles.

So is there something there I'll discover and enjoy? Or is it better not to spend my time?

Gravey wrote:

Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 HD is $10 on Xbox this week. Can I solicit some (dis)enablement, for Snake Eater in particular?

I'd love another stealth game, and haven't had much experience with MGS games. I tried MGS2 back in the day, but I wasn't hot on the floating exclamation marks (Garrett ain't got no time for that), and then checked out at the first boss battle since boss battles are stupid, on top of being totally at odds with stealth proper. So maybe MGS isn't for me, I thought.

But I've heard much better things about MGS3 (Idle Thumbs readers will remember Chris Remo talking about it last week), and stealthing around a Cold War Soviet forest sounds really interesting—if it's proper stealth. Then I check the Wikipedia page and read something like...

[...] The Fury, a disfigured former cosmonaut armed with a flamethrower and a jetpack; The Pain, who can control hornets to both defend himself and attack his enemies; and The Sorrow, the spirit of a deceased medium.

...and think that is the dumbest sh*t I've ever heard. And it seems to portend boss battles.

So is there something there I'll discover and enjoy? Or is it better not to spend my time?

MGS3 is probable one of the best in the series. That being said rather insane boss fights are a hallmark of the metal gear series and this is no different. Although you'd probable like the boss fight against the end (probable the best in the game). Metal gear always had a few certain things: Really hammy dramatic dialogue, crazy weird boss fights, and a card board box.

Archangel wrote:
random elusive wrote:

Humble Bundle just recently came across my radar. Wow!

It's safe to say that you should buy just about every Humble Bundle for the foreseeable future. It's arguably one of the best values in gaming.

List of Game Bundles I know of:
Humble Bundle (+Weekly)
Indie Royale
Bundle Stars
Indie Gala

Non-Game Bundles:
Game Music Bundle
Story Bundle (Currently featuring Dr. Who books)

Has anyone posted about August's XBLA Gold free games? Dead Rising 2, and Case 0

Gravey wrote:

Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 HD is $10 on Xbox this week. Can I solicit some (dis)enablement, for Snake Eater in particular?

I'd love another stealth game, and haven't had much experience with MGS games. I tried MGS2 back in the day, but I wasn't hot on the floating exclamation marks (Garrett ain't got no time for that), and then checked out at the first boss battle since boss battles are stupid, on top of being totally at odds with stealth proper. So maybe MGS isn't for me, I thought.

But I've heard much better things about MGS3 (Idle Thumbs readers will remember Chris Remo talking about it last week), and stealthing around a Cold War Soviet forest sounds really interesting—if it's proper stealth. Then I check the Wikipedia page and read something like...

[...] The Fury, a disfigured former cosmonaut armed with a flamethrower and a jetpack; The Pain, who can control hornets to both defend himself and attack his enemies; and The Sorrow, the spirit of a deceased medium.

...and think that is the dumbest sh*t I've ever heard. And it seems to portend boss battles.

So is there something there I'll discover and enjoy? Or is it better not to spend my time?

It sounds like you just won't like MGS. If you do give 3 a shot, you should really watch a few youtube videos to see what's possible once you get used to the controls. The game doesn't do a good job of explaining things and you'll miss out of what makes the game part fun if you never get exposed to those bits. CQC is particularly bizarre until you understand it.

While you can play stealth in these games, there is so much fun in the CQC and grenades that I'd say it's more like Batman. You use stealth to confuse the enemy enough to then go and kick butt. Lots of face smashes, choking, and tranquilizers to the head.

Eldon_of_Azure wrote:

Bundle Stars

Whoa. That's like 10 Steam games. And I don't own a single one.

$5.04 minimum... hm...

That's crazy!

Looks like a few of those games dip down into the 50s ratings on metacritic... hm... maybe they'd be fun to play, just maybe not tie myself to finishing them?

Sheesh...

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Gold Edition
Men of War: Condemned Heroes
AirBuccaneers
Numen: Contest of Heroes
Tower Wars
Dogfight 1942
Chaser
Really Big Sky
Genesis Rising
Pid

No wonder some of you people have 500+ Steam games.

Eldon_of_Azure wrote:
Archangel wrote:
random elusive wrote:

Humble Bundle just recently came across my radar. Wow!

It's safe to say that you should buy just about every Humble Bundle for the foreseeable future. It's arguably one of the best values in gaming.

List of Game Bundles I know of:
Humble Bundle (+Weekly)
Indie Royale
Bundle Stars
Indie Gala

Non-Game Bundles:
Game Music Bundle
Story Bundle (Currently featuring Dr. Who books)

Don't forget the new build a bundle at groupees http://groupees.com/bamm

Balthezor wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:
random elusive wrote:

For someone who's played all or most of them, which would you say is the best game in each bundle?

Not Battlefield 3. The single player is kinda a pain, and MP is useless without premium.

Burnout Paradise is an awesome open world racer as long as you don't bring baggage of expecting it to be like the previous Burnout games. Paradise was my first Burnout and I loved it. Play with a 360 pad.

Thomas Was Alone is awesome in it's simplicity. Don't let the minimalist graphics throw you. It is worth every second.

Care to elaborate why BF 3 MP is useless without Premium? Don't think I'm willing to dish out more money for it.

My mate was in a similar situation, not wanting to put money into the Premium pack at this stage. We all played BF3 pretty relentlessly on 360, but have since pretty much fully migrated to PC gaming for that kinda thing. My advice to him was, if he was planning to get BF4 on PC, then he should use the base of BF3, both single player and multiplayer, to get use to the change to mouse&keyboard and away from controller.

Played a little co-op campaign last night, which was fun in itself, even if it is a bit short.

MannishBoy wrote:

BF has a pretty decent learning curve, and there are some things that you want to unlock. However, the best guns in most of the classes are the starter guns, so you're far from helpless. (M16, M4, M27, etc)

Sure, the guns are fine. Just don't dare get into a vehicle. You don't want to find yourself fighting a plane that has air-air missiles and flares and whatnot when you only have guns. Same with choppers and tanks.

PWAlessi wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

BF has a pretty decent learning curve, and there are some things that you want to unlock. However, the best guns in most of the classes are the starter guns, so you're far from helpless. (M16, M4, M27, etc)

Sure, the guns are fine. Just don't dare get into a vehicle. You don't want to find yourself fighting a plane that has air-air missiles and flares and whatnot when you only have guns. Same with choppers and tanks.

Vehicle combat is awesome once you get the hang of it. Sometimes I play and my tank can take out a few others before becoming disabled. Other times, I can't even get down the road without being ambushed and blown up.

PRG013 wrote:
PWAlessi wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

BF has a pretty decent learning curve, and there are some things that you want to unlock. However, the best guns in most of the classes are the starter guns, so you're far from helpless. (M16, M4, M27, etc)

Sure, the guns are fine. Just don't dare get into a vehicle. You don't want to find yourself fighting a plane that has air-air missiles and flares and whatnot when you only have guns. Same with choppers and tanks.

Vehicle combat is awesome once you get the hang of it. Sometimes I play and my tank can take out a few others before becoming disabled. Other times, I can't even get down the road without being ambushed and blown up.

All jets have flares by default. They patched that early on. But that said, I've never learned jets.

With some of the bugs that have happened on various releases, I've gotten to the point where I'm kind of used to a naked tank.

(There were bugs awhile back where if you switched game modes, it would wipe your defaults and you'd be back to no unlocks if you got into a tank, at least until you went and selected them again)

I assume with the Bundle that there will be some new players on the battlefield right now, so it's probably as good a time to get in as any post release. And it's a really good MP game if you learn it.

PRG013 wrote:
PWAlessi wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

BF has a pretty decent learning curve, and there are some things that you want to unlock. However, the best guns in most of the classes are the starter guns, so you're far from helpless. (M16, M4, M27, etc)

Sure, the guns are fine. Just don't dare get into a vehicle. You don't want to find yourself fighting a plane that has air-air missiles and flares and whatnot when you only have guns. Same with choppers and tanks.

Vehicle combat is awesome once you get the hang of it. Sometimes I play and my tank can take out a few others before becoming disabled. Other times, I can't even get down the road without being ambushed and blown up.

I actually think BF3 did the best job that I have seen of the balancing act between rewarding long time players and still making it easy to get into.

JillSammich wrote:

Has anyone posted about August's XBLA Gold free games? Dead Rising 2, and Case 0

I don't think people have been posting those, but in case you or others aren't aware, they are giving games away twice a month so be sure to check back on the first and fifteenth through the end of the year.

It's your chance to get up.

Kamakazi010654 wrote:
PRG013 wrote:
PWAlessi wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

BF has a pretty decent learning curve, and there are some things that you want to unlock. However, the best guns in most of the classes are the starter guns, so you're far from helpless. (M16, M4, M27, etc)

Sure, the guns are fine. Just don't dare get into a vehicle. You don't want to find yourself fighting a plane that has air-air missiles and flares and whatnot when you only have guns. Same with choppers and tanks.

Vehicle combat is awesome once you get the hang of it. Sometimes I play and my tank can take out a few others before becoming disabled. Other times, I can't even get down the road without being ambushed and blown up.

I actually think BF3 did the best job that I have seen of the balancing act between rewarding long time players and still making it easy to get into.

I agree. You're still gonna die, but you're gonna die in any competitive mp game. Throw down some ammo or healing near your squad and you'll unlock stuff pretty quick. Same is true of being a passenger in a tank or helo.

Jets, however, are a completely different thing. You'll have to teach yourself that.

But, really, for the price of that bundle just get the game and find out yourself.

For those getting into BF3 and want all the expansions (5 of them, which include a 20 maps, a bunch of guns, etc), Premium is $15 today. That's half off.

Also, ME3 for $6. There are other games for that price, but they're already in the Humble deal.

MannishBoy wrote:

For those getting into BF3 and want all the expansions (5 of them, which include a 20 maps, a bunch of guns, etc), Premium is $15 today. That's half off.

Also, ME3 for $6. There are other games for that price, but they're already in the Humble deal.

Thanks for that note! Looks like Assassin's Creed 3 is going for 14 bucks. Which seems like a really good deal

fleabagmatt wrote:

This is the best.

Also, I thought they were just doing it once a month (two games) till the end of the year, but I guess I misunderstood.

maverickz wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

For those getting into BF3 and want all the expansions (5 of them, which include a 20 maps, a bunch of guns, etc), Premium is $15 today. That's half off.

Also, ME3 for $6. There are other games for that price, but they're already in the Humble deal.

Thanks for that note! Looks like Assassin's Creed 3 is going for 14 bucks. Which seems like a really good deal

Maaan, the Premium expansion is £20 here ($31), and that's WITH the 50% off. Regional pricing blows.

Strangely, the Premium Edition, as in the full game, is only £18 The ME3 and AC3 prices look about the same discout though.

Not that it bothers me, as I already have the BF3 Premium, but for thos who jumped on the EA bundle recently.

Thanks for the replies on MGS3. Discretion is the better part of value, so I'll save myself the ten bucks.

Can Origin please give me a sale on the stupid Bioware points? Pretty please?

I got sidetracked on my ME3 playthrough, and never went back to it. Now with all the DLC, I'd like to pick up a few and finish the game at some point.

JillSammich wrote:

Also, I thought they were just doing it once a month (two games) till the end of the year, but I guess I misunderstood.

Nah, they are giving away a game every two weeks. First half of the month they had Crackdown. Not sure why, but they actually have a twofer right now with the Dead Rising games.

fleabagmatt wrote:
JillSammich wrote:

Also, I thought they were just doing it once a month (two games) till the end of the year, but I guess I misunderstood.

Nah, they are giving away a game every two weeks. First half of the month they had Crackdown. Not sure why, but they actually have a twofer right now with the Dead Rising games.

Yep, it's every two weeks, giving away games you can probably get for about five bucks at Gamestop. DEALS!

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
fleabagmatt wrote:
JillSammich wrote:

Also, I thought they were just doing it once a month (two games) till the end of the year, but I guess I misunderstood.

Nah, they are giving away a game every two weeks. First half of the month they had Crackdown. Not sure why, but they actually have a twofer right now with the Dead Rising games.

Yep, it's every two weeks, giving away games you can probably get for about five bucks at Gamestop. DEALS!

That you've already played and traded away months ago.

Then, when you decide to pick it up anyway, because what the hell it's free, they won't let you because you changed you're email, and deleted the old ones like 3 months ago, but you still have to wait 30 more days because SECURITY / HACKERS MIGHT GET YOU 8-|