Steam Winter Sale 2018 Buy-All

LastSurprise wrote:

SoulSet (a mystery visual novel game -- thanks, Eleima, for the recommendation!

Yay!!! You're in for something else.

N/M, read that wrong lol. Nothing to see here.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Anyone care to enable on:

Hitman 2

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/LhHJzlV.gif)

I dont care about that game, but that was a pretty effective attempt at enabling.

Aaron D. wrote:
Carlbear95 wrote:

Anyone care to enable on:

Hitman 2

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/LhHJzlV.gif)

That...is weird ! Is it supposed to be a remote control briefcase?

Nope, it's the dev embracing the wackiness of the Hitman universe.

Carlbear95 wrote:

Anyone care to enable on:

Hitman 2

I picked up How to Survive 2 for under $3 thanks to some card sales.

So on a scale from 1 to Dwarf Fortress, how difficult is it for a noob to get into Distant Worlds: Universe?

At -75% it's def in impulse territory. And I do enjoy learning complex systems as found in Paradox grand-strat titles, RimWorld, etc.

The DW:U in-game UI looks kinda daunting, as though it doesn't help you much unless you already know what all the fiddly bits do ahead of time.

Aaron D. wrote:

So on a scale from 1 to Dwarf Fortress, how difficult is it for a noob to get into Distant Worlds: Universe?

At -75% it's def in impulse territory. And I do enjoy learning complex systems as found in Paradox grand-strat titles, RimWorld, etc.

The DW:U in-game UI looks kinda daunting, as though it doesn't help you much unless you already know what all the fiddly bits do ahead of time.

There's definitely a learning curve, and if you're running higher than 1080, it doesn't scale well.

But, it has a great manual and fun tutorials, and when it clicks, it's amazing. What worked for me was automating everything except one ship, then pretended I was a captain. Then I'd open the game up more to myself as I went, eventually becoming an admiral/spymaster. You can truly manage as much or as little as you want.

Distant Worlds isn't nearly has hard to learn as it looks. It's not always straight forward, especially the private sector economy - but it isn't crazy difficult. That said I only thought it was OK. One could probably spend a great deal of time with it trying to learn all the ins and outs and get more out of it. My main issue was once my empire got largish I got alerts all the time about getting attacked here or there. I could have automated some of that but I'm not a big on automating.

Some people say to learn it control just one thing, but I think a better way is to set the automation to ask or recommend, or confirm decisions (not sure what it is called), then you can see all the different aspects to the game.

Edit: Brian beat me to the punch. See, and he takes the opposite approach with the automation

I didn't find the tutorials too helpful. Actually, scratch that. The interface is such a mess that's it IS actually useful to know the 10 different screens you can use to do the same thing. That said, the game didn't stick with me until I followed along with a youtube playthrough/tutorial, though at this point I don't remember which it was. I can narrow it down to either being by DasTactic or Larry Monte.

My opinion of the game has actually cooled a bit since I last played it. While playing it, the possibility space seemed massive -- like anything could happen within the game. But pretty much nothing ever did. This is a grand strategy game more in the vein of something Paradox might put out rather than a typical 4x, but it has none of the character or emergent narrative that the pdx games do. Instead, you get a pretty complex simulation of empires expanding and contracting and maybe some minimal interaction. That's neat, and definitely worth whatever it's on sale for now, but I'm not sure it's much of a game.

Distant Worlds also has lots of mods. So you can play as the borg or kirk era trek or some crazy someone made up.

Many thanks to Greg "doubtingthomas396" for Devil Daggers!

And a big thanks to PWAlessi for Blackguards!

I noticed that Sims 4 is $4.99 on Amazon.

Great price for a great game.

Huge thank you to Kehama for Vampyr! I can't promise that many necks will be bitten in your own, because I'm not sure on which side of the morality choices I'll fall.

Eleima wrote:

Huge thank you to Kehama for Vampyr! I can't promise that many necks will be bitten in your own, because I'm not sure on which side of the morality choices I'll fall. :)

I went full Cullen in my run, and it seemed to work out OK.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:
Eleima wrote:

Huge thank you to Kehama for Vampyr! I can't promise that many necks will be bitten in your own, because I'm not sure on which side of the morality choices I'll fall. :)

I went full Cullen in my run, and it seemed to work out OK.

For who?

Aristophan wrote:
doubtingthomas396 wrote:
Eleima wrote:

Huge thank you to Kehama for Vampyr! I can't promise that many necks will be bitten in your own, because I'm not sure on which side of the morality choices I'll fall. :)

I went full Cullen in my run, and it seemed to work out OK.

For who?

Stephanie Meyer...? And the Shades of Grey (I feel like I’m getting that title wrong) author, I suppose

$20 - Prey: Digital Deluxe
$23 - Assassin's Creed Origins - Deluxe
$7 - Kingdoms and Castles
$8.80 - Borderlands 2: GOTY
$12.75 - Unavowed
$4 - Age of Empires 2
$8.70 Endless Space 2: Supremacy DLC
$10 - Into the Breach
$5 - Punch Club

Total spent: ~$99.25
Value: ~$232.96
Saved: ~$133.70....if by "saved" you mean saved most of these to sit in the pile forever...

Just a quick reminder that the Steam Winter Sale ends tomorrow (January 3rd) at 10am PST.

As has been the case the last few years I didn't buy much this steam sale. I was considering picking up Obra Dinn and Into the Breach, but to me those are the type of games I'd rather have DRM from humble bundle. I did however buy two games, Vanquish and Dragon's Dogma, two former console exclusives that I always wanted to check out.

I'm going to give the sale one more browse, but I think my damage is done. It was a successful sale, and I'm grateful to have been in a position to give more than I got. Here's my tally:

For me:

Sunset Overdrive
Book of Demons (for some reason I had a coupon that stacked with the sale)
Tempest 4000
Graceful Explosion Machine

For others

DEADBOLT
Bulb Boy
Blood and Bacon
The Infectious Madness of Dr. Dekker
Redshirt
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Space Run
Serious Sam 3 BFE
Graceful Explosion Machine (three times)
Don't Open the Doors
Life is Strange 2
Superflight (twice)
SOASE:R - Outlaw Sectors
Car Mechanic Simulator 2015
Devil Daggers
Bleed
Goat Simulator

I also received some generous gifts from some people that I'd like to thank again:

Nimble Writer from Bonus Eruptus
Cat's Yarn from Zoso1701
Retro/Grade from Catphoenix
Spaceguard 80, also from Catphoenix

Thanks Everyone! See you in the Spring Sale!

I still love the Winter Steam Sale, but I've basically eliminated impulse purchases these fast few go-rounds. If the game is on my wish list and it's < $20, I pick it up.

For this year's sale, I grabbed Endless Space 2 and Northgard. Came close to pulling the trigger on Frostpunk, but figured the two previously mentioned games (plus Subnautica which I picked up for free on the Epic Games Store) should last me until the Summer Sale.

LAST MINUTE ENABLING TIME

The Red Strings Club! A game where you play a bartender that's all about dialogue and extracting info? YES PLEASE IT'S $5! Skip the mocha!

If you liked FTL, Into the Breach is even better!

Unavowed is what you get when you throw Constantine, the X-Files, and Monkey Island in a blender and it's actually delicious. Everyone who has played it said it's one of the best point and click games in years.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

Graceful Explosion Machine

Graceful Explosion Machine is opening up for Imagine Dragons at Bonnaroo this year.

+1 on Red Strings Club And Unavowed
<3 adventure games

Used to really enjoy daily sales etc but it's now just another sale.

Picked up 3 yesterday for under a tenner, still good value:

Tales of Symphonia
The Turing Test
Orwell

Alright. Spent a little more than I wanted but still happy with what I got.

The Surge DLC
Korean horror : The Coma and Detention
Indie Castlevania: Timespinner
Resonance of Fate: stack scopes onto scopes.
Fresh Body
Niffelheim
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Graceful Explosion Machine