Like I needed to waste more time playing my Steam games, thanks a lot Steam. :)

Steam Trading Cards leave beta on Wednesday, ahead of event "everyone can be excited about" | News | PC Gamer

The trading cards system is a great way to add a little money to your Steam wallet with the summer sale around the corner.

Got an email notice that "Endless Space" is on sale for like 10 bucks. I've been eyeing it for some time. Anyone got a review of teh game or any comments on it at all?



space, not universe!

Do you mean Endless Space?

Yes yes I did, had a flashback to an old sci fi novel I 've read a dozen times.

It's a 4x game, so of course I have it. I played it for about 30 hours. It's ok. It does the basics well - research, diplomacy, expansion, etc. The interface is good and all the mechanics are there. It even has some leaders to provide bonuses either on your ships or in your systems. It added some random events and has a few wonders. As I said, the foundation is there and it's a passable 4x space game. The AI is barely competent, but it is competent.

So why don't I love it? You don't control combat directly. In fact, you pretty much sit there and watch it. To me, that's a big downside and more than a little boring. What's worse is that the game tends to not have a lot of soul. That's hard to put your finger on, but it feels much like a spreadsheet at times.

You could do worse at $10. It doesn't have the AI of Gal Civ 2, but it's probably just about as good - both games suffer from a lack of personality. But don't expect to have it become your go-to 4x game for long because you'll probably grow bored sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the review!!

Carrying on with the 4X theme, StarDrive is on a daily sale now. 50% off.

I know that when it was released the general review was that it was released unfinished, but does anybody know if it ever got patched to a playable state?

Maybe I've just missed this but can someone please define what a "4x" game is? I feel so out of the loop with the lingo around here =)

4x means: "explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate".

It's been a part of the computer game and geek lexicon for about 20 years now. It refers to games like "Master of Orion" and even Civ. Your geek cred is currently under review.

Magic Eight Ball says: Try Again Later

Don't feel bad, first time I recall hearing it as well.

I've heard the term 4x before, but always assumed it referred specifically to space games, since that's the only context I can recall hearing it. Didn't know Civ, etc. applied to it.

I didnt wait long enough for your warning, unfortunately. It might be buggy, but it's certainly pretty.

Anyone played Infestation? Looks cool, but then I read on the forums about hackers on some of the servers spoiling the experience.

I want a good Zombie game since I got into The Walking Dead, but thinking I will be waiting until the release of Dead State to get it.

State of Decay is coming to Steam at some point down the line if you want a zombie survival game.

Thanks for saving me 15 bucks :)

May check out State of Decay on the Xbox, reviews generally pretty good it seems.

It's not bad at all, but I'd personally still call it more potential than payoff right now.

A lot of your reaction probably depends upon how forgiving of things like zombies glitching through doors, getting stuck in walls, etc. you are. If that stuff doesn't bother you then it's kinda like Dead Island combat but with a constant need to manage resources ... and no respawning of dead characters; i.e. if somebody dies they're gone for good.

Note: I haven't played since the patch was released a couple of days ago, supposedly that will fix a lot of the graphic issues ... but my son just told me that they're still getting stuck in walls & whatnot.

Played the trial and pulled the trigger, I can overlook the glitches and it seems to have some replayabilty, so what the heck. Definitely see some room to expand with DLC. It will keep me busy until Dead State in December.

Shadowrun is looking pretty spiffy.

Where is Blackadar?

Horizon - new 4x game just unlocked (alpha) I'm always interested in new 4x games. :)

Damn it, Todd.

Yup.

There are a few videos.. looks pretty decent, no major crashes that I've seen reported yet.

I'm getting closer to pulling that trigger.... :D

I haven't even bothered with this one. Supposedly what's in the game functions. but essentially it's a big empty universe and nowhere close to feature complete. I won't even think about buying this one until next year.

Some games you can play as an alpha and still enjoy (Kerbal Space Program, I'm looking at you). 4X games, however, depend on features, AI and overall balance for their gameplay aspects. As such, it's usually not worth playing a 4x game before general release.

That one is already preordered. Looks awesome.

was hoping to have the editor by now (I'm going to need it for an event at GenCon, where we have four hours to build a module)

+2546

For me, the fun of buying a 4x game in Alpha is I get to learn the game much better and get to give feedback on what I'd like to see changed/added.

As long as it's not a Legends of PegaCRAP.

Looks like I'm finally going to get my money back on that one after many emails to Steam support. :)

Final Fantasy VII has made its way onto Steam after being in the registry for years.

That is about time

I'm tempted. I've never played any FF games and I do like turn based games. Is there anything that stands out that is different about this game?
Is it just level up and upgrade weapons and armor like a typical RPG?

Well...shit, no Steam sale this week. Why do they have to do the fucking sale every time I'm on vacation?

Combat system is fantastic and it's probably the apex of the storytelling aspect of the FF series. So many games after it tried to model what they did with that game.

Remember though, it's a 17 year old console game... It doesn't hold up as well as others. I always thoughy the story was quite unecessarily bloated.

FF6 > FF7 imho.

I'm in this line. VII was fantastic, but VI was the best of the lot.

I want to say VII was the first 3D RPG, was it not?

FFT was the best of all, but of the numbered ones, 6 kicks the crap out of 7. I didn't like 7 all that much TBH.

Possibly, though it might depend on if you would consider a game that wasn't fully 3D for that title. The characters are in 3D but all of the environments and backgrounds are 2D.

I've already put in about 4 hours into FF7 today

Great gameplay, good music, and one hell of a trendsetter. Iconic but wholly unlikable characters and, whoa, that plot looks even worse now than at the time. If you can get past that, it's one hell of a game.

SI

Well sure, if you're going to go ahead and compare them to games other than the newer Final Fantasy games.

yeah I played it through once and that's probably good enough for me. wouldn't mind seeing FFXII ported to the PC though

I really like good video game music and it did quite well on that front so I may play through it again once more for atmosphere. But I've played through FF4 a half dozen times, CT a few, and FF6 a couple. Every time I think about FF7, the fact that I don't want to save the world for that bunch of characters is enough to say "there are other games out there I want to play".

Heck, even when I play cross-world games like Kingdom Hearts or Dissidia, I'm reminded how much that part of the game just blows. Hell, at least in FF8, most of the other character besides Squall are likable even if the plot ended at the end of disc 2 and it was a 4 disc game.

SI

I remember thinking that the steampunk setting midgar was awesome. Once you get to the world map, it nosedives. And apart from the one memorable scene, the game just dragged... :(

And I aggree that FFT was better than the numbered ones.

FF 12 really restored my faith in the series that I'd lost since 7.

The only thing I loved about 7 was the Chocobo Racing.

I love Tactics, but I feel it doesn't even belong in the discussion - it's a wholly different game.

So, I felt like an RPG all this week. I picked up Geneforge and tried it ,it seemed up my ally. Put about five hours into it and juuuuuust wasn;t feeling
it.

Then i loaded up Eschalon Book 1 and began it and put about 3 hours into it. Still wasnt feeling it that much.

So fine, its time to commit. I bought some games at the Steam sale in teh winter expeting o play them sooner or later, and it was time. Time for Skyrim, which everyone tells me is unbelievable.

Put three hours into it, and was shaking my head, "really?" Then I saw that FF7 was released yesterday, and I've already dropped 8 hours into it. *This* is what I wanted.

Thanks Squaresoft!

Just got TPKd and that's my sign that its likely bed time for m after a day of fun, work and FF7

Preordered.. :)

Summer sale should be starting Thursday the 11th at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific.

My Steam wallet is ready after selling some TF2 and Dota 2 items on the marketplace.

After my recent gog.com splurge, not sure what's left. I might grab Dishonored, maybe some of Crusader Kings 2 DLC I don't have and, very likely, some other games.

I am weak when it comes to these things. So very, very weak...

This year I'm going in with a plan. I'll just wishlist everything I want. That'll make sure I get a notification every time something goes on sale. I'll be able to avoid splurging (I just have to keep telling myself that).

I'll probably buy Arkham City if it goes on sale, I never did buy it. I can't think of anything else I want at all, can't wait to see how many games I splurge on because the sale is so good this time around! Hopefully not too many, I do have enough completely unplayed games in my library after all. :D

A Brave New World sale would be lovely. :D

It just ended. It was 10% off.

Got it on GreenManGaming for a bit over $20 on preorder.

Nothing jumps out at me on the initial batch of stuff on sale.

Hotline Miami is a steal at $2.49.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a pretty good FPS that did the Wild West setting really well and has a campaign that's about 6 or 7 hours long plus has an arcade mode.

I really like Don't Starve and have heard good things about Antichamber though haven't gotten to it yet. TotalBiscuit has a WTF is video that should give you a good idea if you'd like it or not.

Store has been crashing on me all day, have games i want to buy but can't. Not so great Valve.

Can someone explain what exactly you do in dont starve. I can't exactly tell

Endless Space Gold on sale for 11.89

This.

Yeah.

I kep wanting to buy Endless Space but then I remember someone saying that the combat is done with like...cards and I'm like "eh....no thanks."

I've been playing FF7 for a few days now and damn it if I am not sucked in like I was 15 years ago. This game has aged really well and except for a few awkward keyboard configurations, it has been ported to the PC really well. (Attack left is insert and attack right is C??) The victory music never gets old. Classic game!

Picked up bioshock infinite, tomb raider and some rage dlc.

I played the shit out of the pc version back when it came out, beating it multiple times, getting all the ultra weapons and summon spells, killing it at chocobo racing.

I really want to buy it again, but I played it so much I wonder how much nostalgia alone would carry me.

Bastion for $2.24 is even more of one.

You try not to starve.

It has the same resource gathering and crafting mechanics of a MineCraft or Terraria, but instead of being sandbox for building it has permadeath and is focused on survival. You need to make sure you don't get killed by monsters at night, starve, freeze to death or go insane.

Direct quote from my roommate:

"It's like Portal without the narrative. It's really good."

Which makes my brain hurt, because the narrative was such a huge part of Portal...but then again the gameplay was pretty phenomenal. Having watched him play a little bit of it, it was intriguing, but not enough to get me to buy it.

Another game I highly recommend checking out during the Summer Sale.

Thomas Was Alone - $2.49: A wonderful puzzle platformer about jumping and friendship that managed to make me tear up over a bunch of colored blocks.

Cities XL Platinum loops tempting and i haven't played a decent city builder for ages, have you guys played it?

Just bought don't starve, i'm curious about it and it's not that i can find a lot of Mac games that is a plus when i don't want to restart in bootcamp to play more complex games.

FM 2013 is currently $9.99 in a flash sale. Good until noon Central.

And vanilla Civ V is $7.49.

It's soulless. You can make some pretty cities, but there's no real challenge and there's a bug in the engine that requires you to restart the game every 45 minutes once the city is a reasonable size. It might be worth $5, but I'd stay clear and drop the 5-spot on something like Dawn of Discovery. It may not be a pure city builder, but it's close and a damn sight more entertaining than Cities XL (even with the Ubi-fail DRM).

33% off for $20.09 with Civ V flash sale.

Got it for about that on preorder from GreenManGaming.

They're typically my go to site for preorders, can frequently find games $20 off or more there.

Everyone remember the rules of Steam Sales!!!

If there's a game you want, you only buy it when it's on a flash sale, a daily sale or the last day of the Steam sale.

Yup!

Well, that was a quick forty bucks, Steam.

Haven't played any of the Saints Row games, so I picked up The Third for $4.99.

Little Inferno is strangely addictive.

Wish I'd have known you wanted that, I could have given you a code for free.

So far, I bought the "Tiny Tina" DLC for BL2, the new "Endless Space" DLC and "Football Manager 2013."

Why 2009? Isn't 2013 on sale for 9.99??

http://store.steampowered.com/app/20...snr=1_7_15__13

That's what I meant. 2013.

Aaah okay. I was like :confused:

I wonder if I should pickup a copy of FM 13 for $9.99 for my dad and try to get him playing it...

I have been playing "do not starve" for 2 hours already today, simple but deep at same time, so far really fun game that makes you to keep playing and playing non stop. My surviving record so far is just 6 days.

Once you die, you start again from zero, no matter how much did you advance, but i think that is one of the strongest points f the game, you really want to survive, but even if you die, you start to plan how to do it better this time.

Eh, if I got it for free, odds are I wouldn't ever play it. But since I have $5 worth of skin in the game, I'll at least check it out. :D

Is Surgeon Simulator 2013 worth a $3.39 look?

Well...Call of Juarez, XCOM Enforcer, The Walking Dead, and Far Cry 3 (on the Flash Sale) and I'm in for $50.

I'm trying to figure out how to tell my wife that spending $50 on video games today was actually a really good deal, since I specifically held off on XCOM, TWD and (especially) FC3 all this time waiting for the Summer Sale pricing.

So...it's like I actually *made* us money with what I saved over retail, right?

http://jayisgames.com/games/surgeon-simulator-2013/

Was hoping for an XCom deal-75% off for about the next 6 hours-$9.99

Yep - trying to get on there to pick up XCom - and Just Cause 2 and for that matter (although that's one of those I think would play better on my TV given the screen size) and Walking Dead. Although maybe I should do Walking Dead on my iPad?

The Walking Dead for $6.24? Wow.

I just bought the "400 Days" DLC for $5. That was only about an hour and half worth of game play and I still found it very worthwhile.

For some reason I am tempted to buy GTA IV for $4.99. I have never played any GTA game, so I am curious, but I doubt I will ever play it.

It's probably a better joke than it is a game but I thought out was good for a few hours of fun.

Should I buy 400 Days and play it before the main story, or play after, or what?

To be honest, I really don't think it matters all that much. Any references (there may be one, maybe?) to the main story are pretty obscure and don't reveal much of anything. It's all different characters. That said, it's meant to be played after, so I would play it after.