The Steam Thread

[Thomkal]

Humble Bundle has a Resident Evil bundle up for sale:


https://www.humblebundle.com/games/r...sevilaug22_ann

[Thomkal]

Low Magic Age is on a flash sale for $3 for about the next 18 hours at Fanatical. It uses Wizard of the Coast Open Box rules. It's an open world game with random dungeons, quests/jobs from towns and cities, trade, and more. Combat is very tactical and challenging.



Low Magic Age | Fanatical

[Thomkal]

Gog.com has the game Stasis-a puzzly adventure game where you wake up from stasis on a seemingly abandoned spacecraft for free for about the next 70 hours

[Thomkal]

Some good news for people who liked/want to try Guild Wars 2 on Steam. Last I heard they had decided not to do it at the current time, but received an email that that game is now available there. From my long history of MMO's GW2 is the best free fantasy themed MMO out there. So certainly worth checking out if you like MMO's


Guild Wars 2 on Steam

[GrantDawg]

I played GW2 when it first came out. It was fine. I played to level cap, then lost interest when it got to the end-game grind. Much like SWTOR. It was fun leveling, but after that...

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[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

I played GW2 when it first came out. It was fine. I played to level cap, then lost interest when it got to the end-game grind. Much like SWTOR. It was fun leveling, but after that...

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For me it was just walking into a new zone for the first time and wander around to find quests for it. Just like how they did that.

[CrimsonFox]

you guys want to form an "adventure party"? squeeee

[Thomkal]

Not if you are playing a pig

[CrimsonFox]

There is a pig race in GW2? I am SOO gonna play a pig

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

There is a pig race in GW2? I am SOO gonna play a pig

Not a pig race but there is the Charr, a feline race, who (spoiler), happened to be one of the main enemies from the original guild wars. But I still think they are evil.


403 Forbidden

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Not a pig race but there is the Charr, a feline race, who (spoiler), happened to be one of the main enemies from the original guild wars. But I still think they are evil.


403 Forbidden

that's so wing commander

[PilotMan]

I might have to do some GW2 one day. Played the first one a ton.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

There is a pig race in GW2? I am SOO gonna play a pig

Kramer once saw a Pig Man

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

I might have to do some GW2 one day. Played the first one a ton.

I like GW2 more than the first-more options and story.


Speaking of story, the base game on Steam comes without any expansions, unless you buy them. One of the casualties of that from what I'm reading is that you won't have access to your character's Living Story. You get to choose from a couple when you start, then it progresses as you level, often culminating in big boss fights, then moving on to the next "chapter".


It's also a big download so make sure you have space and time to do it

[Thomkal]

Have to correct myself in part-personal story is still there-you'll get some questions in your character creation that helps guide them. Living Story is different.



If you've never played before, create a character, do the tutorial to get a feel for how the game works. That will throw you (I think) into the first starting zone for your race. There is a way to join your friends from there I think, but I will have to look it up to see how they do it these days.

[GrantDawg]

F1 Manager 2022 early access for pre-orders starts at 10 am this morning. Checking out some early videos, and I am afraid I'm going to be totally lost in this game.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

F1 Manager 2022 early access for pre-orders starts at 10 am this morning. Checking out some early videos, and I am afraid I'm going to be totally lost in this game.

How does it look compared to Motorsport Manager, from the previews you've seen?

I liked the management parts of MM, but some of those car adjustments were a bit much for me, since I don't know anything about it.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Mota

How does it look compared to Motorsport Manager, from the previews you've seen?

I liked the management parts of MM, but some of those car adjustments were a bit much for me, since I don't know anything about it.

It looks pretty much as deep. I can't tell how much help you have to guide you from what I have watched, but you do get down pretty deep into the parts and facilities stuff.

About to take it for a spin.

[Brian Swartz]

I know jack diddly squat about racing, but didn't have any problem with the car setup stuff after some practice in MM. It's not NASCAR Sim Racing or anything.

[Atocep]

My steam deck is ordered. Should be here next week.

[GrantDawg]

I will admit that I haven't watched any of this year's F1 (well, one race early on). I am trying to pick a team and was thinking of going upper mid tier, with either McMaren or Alpine. Then I noticed that the fourth ranked car performance is actually one of the lowest ranked teans: Alfa Romeo. Does that sound right? Did they come into this season with a hot car?

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[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Atocep

My steam deck is ordered. Should be here next week.

yay!

[GrantDawg]

Wow. The game looks incredible. There is a bunch of stuff going on and it is going to take a while to get a feel for the game. I did take Alfa Romero, because that does look like the best team if you don't want to jump into one of the top three. They have the fourth best car set-up, and Bottas is tied for the fourth best driving stats overall. I did immediately replace one of the engineers, and the chief designer because they were crap. They also in desperate need of better facilities, but that is going to be a slow go. They have one of the lowest starting budgets.

I ran through the first race, and it was tough. Bottas qualified in 5th, but Zhou only hit 16th. Zhou did quickly charge up the field, and fought with Ricciardo the entire race. He ended up edging him for 11th. Bottas ended up fighting with Hamilton the whole race. They changed positions every other lap it seemed. Neither could get away from each other, but they were by themselves in a space well ahead of the cars 7th place and on, but nowhere near the top 4. As you would expect, Hamilton pulled a rabbit foot out of his butt and finished ahead in 5th.
It took a good while to run the race. This will be a slow pace game unless you just sim through. I did see the thing that seems to be the number one criticism of the race day, there wasn't a single DNR. There was only one yellow, but plenty of lock-ups. They are probably going to need to increase part deterioration, and add some random mechanical failures. I have also heard that driver/staff progression may be too fast.

All in all, the game looks great. I think I will have a good bit of fun with it. I wish I could do a dynasty.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by Mota

How does it look compared to Motorsport Manager, from the previews you've seen?

I liked the management parts of MM, but some of those car adjustments were a bit much for me, since I don't know anything about it.

If you use the Fire Fantasy 22 mod they include "Perfect Setup". From the manual: "The Perfect Setup feature is included with this mod by default. Having this feature activated makes the game more of a challenge, as it removes the unfair pace advantage the player can have over the AI due to the setup minigame. This feature also prevents crashes, as it removes the need to save setups (too many saved setups can lead to game crashes). It will put your setup to 99-100% once you left the pits. No need for activation, it’s just there." So essentially the game with FF is more about making decisions about how to spend money -- what parts to upgrade; what drivers, mechanics, designers to hire, etc, without worrying about finding the right setup for each track. FF21 does NOT have the Perfect Setup, so gamers can still play the setup minigame if they want.

Unless F1 Manager is terrible I will probably get that game as well.

[Thomkal]

Dex, an action RPG set in an cyberpunk world is free to claim for the next 70 hours or so at GoG.com

[bhlloy]

Yeah, I didn't like F1 Manager as I thought I probably wouldn't. It is dry, and in it's current state just nothing much happens during the races. Minus those issues (which I'm hoping will be tweaked and aren't a result of the official license meaning they don't want bad things to happen) it seems like a beautiful, ultra realistic simulation of F1 but I'm just not sure I'm the target audience.

[Flasch186]

Compared to MM it feels sterile. No action in the races at all and a glisten that makes it feel out of touch.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Compared to MM it feels sterile. No action in the races at all and a glisten that makes it feel out of touch.

Yeah, not getting that at all. Just did a restart playing McLaren. In the Australian race, first I had Lando get hit by another driver in practice. I had to replace his wing and gear box. Then during the race, F-ing Riccardo slams into him knocking him out of the race and severely daming Riccardo's car. Needless to day, I rage quit.
There seems to be a lack of major incidents (of course the first one of the season happens to both my drivers), but there is great bit of racing happening in my play-throughs so far. I wonder if the day-1 patch won't adjust it even more. I think most of the criticism I see is from people not feeling like the drivers are obeying their commands fast enough, but from what I am seeing if you let the drivers race they do a good job.

I am trying to decide now if I want to continue this play, or restart with a different team. McLaren's car starts so bad in the beginning (3rd worse car), but I really like Lando.He was able to take that bad car to a top ten finish in both of the early races. Riccardo hasn't finished better than 12th. I think the car is the bigger handicap than the drivers, though. You can hire new drivers, but it is going to take forever to improve the car.

[GrantDawg]

I'm sorry. Probably over posting but I am having fun. Started again with Alpine this time. Had both drivers end in the points on the first race. Then got to see my first Red in the second when Bottas went ping pong into the walls and took out Hamilton as well. The end of the race had Alfonso fighting tooth and nail with Sainz for second place. Alfonso pulled ahead right at the beginning of the last lap, and was able to hold him off. Finally a podium!

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[BigDPW]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Yeah, not getting that at all. Just did a restart playing McLaren. In the Australian race, first I had Lando get hit by another driver in practice. I had to replace his wing and gear box. Then during the race, F-ing Riccardo slams into him knocking him out of the race and severely daming Riccardo's car. Needless to day, I rage quit.
There seems to be a lack of major incidents (of course the first one of the season happens to both my drivers), but there is great bit of racing happening in my play-throughs so far. I wonder if the day-1 patch won't adjust it even more. I think most of the criticism I see is from people not feeling like the drivers are obeying their commands fast enough, but from what I am seeing if you let the drivers race they do a good job.

I am trying to decide now if I want to continue this play, or restart with a different team. McLaren's car starts so bad in the beginning (3rd worse car), but I really like Lando.He was able to take that bad car to a top ten finish in both of the early races. Riccardo hasn't finished better than 12th. I think the car is the bigger handicap than the drivers, though. You can hire new drivers, but it is going to take forever to improve the car.

I too have enjoyed this game so far. I have had incidents in nearly every race and practice session so far even a safety car in one of my first 4 races.

I am racing as Haas. Needless to say my car is not very good and I only just got my first points finish. Typically I am battling with Alfa Romeo or McLaren for 11-14 positions. I will say that on some of the tracks I feel to maximize my teams finishes I have to micromanage the pace, fuel mix, and ERS settings to max on the straights and lesser settings on parts of the tracks that are difficult to pass on. This led to me nearly running the last race at Imola on 2X so I could change the setting for each sector of the track. That may simply be a product of me having really bad cars and having to min/max to get the best finish possible. Hopefully that isn't always the case because it will take forever to get through a season of 22 races on 2x speed during each race.

So far I am really enjoying this game and hope they keep improving it. I would like them to improve the overlay during the race to include more than one data point (tires, interval, tire wear, last pit) etc on the left side of the screen. Ideally it would have tire type, tire wear, and interval all on one screen rather than having to click through to see each.

[GrantDawg]

There have been two pretty big flaws that will require house rules until they get fixed. One is that tire compounds make to little difference. There is absolutely no reason to run softs as they give you next to no speed advantage. Running one stop races and always using hard-medium is a pretty big exploit.
The bigger exploit is in part building. If you make a custom adjustment on parts and move all the bars to the far right, it maxes out the part. I think the bars are supposed to just down as you move them but don't. Neither seem like something that will be that hard to fix.

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[Thomkal]

GoG.com with another free game with about 40 hours to go. It's Lovecraft's Untold Stories

[Thomkal]

Loop Hero is under $5 on Steam

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

There have been two pretty big flaws that will require house rules until they get fixed. One is that tire compounds make to little difference. There is absolutely no reason to run softs as they give you next to no speed advantage. Running one stop races and always using hard-medium is a pretty big exploit.
The bigger exploit is in part building. If you make a custom adjustment on parts and move all the bars to the far right, it maxes out the part. I think the bars are supposed to just down as you move them but don't. Neither seem like something that will be that hard to fix.

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I mean yea softs should be fast but should die so quick they aren't an option if they are aiming for realism. You never see softs outside of qualifying and a random team trying to steal fastest lap at the very end of the race if they can hit the pits and get out without losing a position. I mean I guess I shouldn't say never. You sometimes will see a team completely out of contention from the start go with softs, but I can't think of when I've seen that actually work out well for them. That's probably one area where MM has an advantage in not trying to simulate realism, they could make more tire compounds effective.

[Thomkal]

Gog.com has another free one for you, Immortal Redneck-with that name you know it has to be a classic. It's a FPS set in Ancient Egypt of all places. You are a redneck tourist who wakes up mummified in a pyramid. Doesn't that want to make you play immediately?


Also over on Steam, Conan Exiles is free to play this weekend, and Titanfall 2 is under $5 after a large discount.

[Edward64]

Not much on sale on my wishlist. I guess Steam isn't big on Labor Day

[PilotMan]

Humble just dropped a massive bundle. I'm sure we all already have them, but....

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/2k-megahits

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Humble just dropped a massive bundle. I'm sure we all already have them, but....

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/2k-megahits

about 2 years I would have been more into this, but not now. Thanks for the heads up though

[Thomkal]

Starting Oct 18, Sims 4 will become a free to play game on all(?) platforms.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Atocep

My steam deck is ordered. Should be here next week.

I keep getting emails from Steam about Steam Deck and compatibility. Is that something that someone who plays text sims would care about?

I'm not planning anything, but I was curious why FOF8 is deemed compatible and FOF7 is merely playable and if I should care. Perhaps it's my ground-breaking and innovative non-modal windows-across-the-world interface.

[Thomkal]

An interesting take on a city builder, the Wandering Village leaves Early Access today. A couple of my regular You Tube streamers have been playing it recently.


You are in a post-apocalyptic setting where you have a symbiotic relationship with a large dinosaur like creature. He allows you to build your city on its back in return for keeping him alive (and you)


Save 10% on The Wandering Village on Steam

[Thomkal]

Golf With Your Friends is free to play on Steam this weekend

[Thomkal]

Civ 6:Platinum Edition is also free to play on Steam this weekend

[Thomkal]

Dice Legacy at a good price $8

[Carman Bulldog]

Got my Steam Deck email. Now I need to decide in the next few days whether I really want/need one.

The problem is that I rarely play video/computer games anymore, which kind of makes it difficult to justify the purchase. But part of that may be the whole concept of sitting in front of a TV/computer. I'm thinking (wishfully?) that I'd play a lot more if I had the portability/versatility of the Steam Deck.

I grew up mostly a console player but some computer games as well (ie. Sierra, Lucas Arts, the early Sid Meier games, etc.). I haven't really played any AAA games since the PS3 era, such as Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire (apart from South Park Stick of Truth).

My preference of games includes sports management sims, point-and-click adventures, city & civ/empire builders, etc. I'm thinking I'd probably also finally get around to RDR2 and some of those other bigger games that I missed out on over the past 10 years or so.

My most played game by far over the past 6+ years has been Stardew Valley, and I also enjoy Fire Pro Wrestling. But I can go several months without playing them (or any other games for that matter), pick them up for a bit and get into it and then go months again before I pick them or any other game back up. Maybe it would be worth the price alone just to have portable versions of these though. I also own a lot of games on Steam that I haven't played, don't we all, that I theoretically might be around to.

Am I fooling myself into thinking that I'll actually play this thing or has anyone else that was previously a lapsed gamer increased their play time after getting a Steam Deck?

Edit: The other question is, do I simply wait for the next gen of hardware? I am just a beta-tester for the eventual Steam Deck 2.0 or do most feel that there are many years before that happens?

[tarcone]

Im curious to find out how good the Steam deck is, keep us updated,

I am waiting for more games to be on the platform. I own just a few that are available from my library.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

Got my Steam Deck email. Now I need to decide in the next few days whether I really want/need one.

The problem is that I rarely play video/computer games anymore, which kind of makes it difficult to justify the purchase. But part of that may be the whole concept of sitting in front of a TV/computer. I'm thinking (wishfully?) that I'd play a lot more if I had the portability/versatility of the Steam Deck.

I grew up mostly a console player but some computer games as well (ie. Sierra, Lucas Arts, the early Sid Meier games, etc.). I haven't really played any AAA games since the PS3 era, such as Red Dead Redemption and LA Noire (apart from South Park Stick of Truth).

My preference of games includes sports management sims, point-and-click adventures, city & civ/empire builders, etc. I'm thinking I'd probably also finally get around to RDR2 and some of those other bigger games that I missed out on over the past 10 years or so.

My most played game by far over the past 6+ years has been Stardew Valley, and I also enjoy Fire Pro Wrestling. But I can go several months without playing them (or any other games for that matter), pick them up for a bit and get into it and then go months again before I pick them or any other game back up. Maybe it would be worth the price alone just to have portable versions of these though. I also own a lot of games on Steam that I haven't played, don't we all, that I theoretically might be around to.

Am I fooling myself into thinking that I'll actually play this thing or has anyone else that was previously a lapsed gamer increased their play time after getting a Steam Deck?

Edit: The other question is, do I simply wait for the next gen of hardware? I am just a beta-tester for the eventual Steam Deck 2.0 or do most feel that there are many years before that happens?

I am a gamer that really doesn't play much anymore also... until I got my Deck. I've played a few different titles pretty heavily so far: a couple of the Lego games, NBA 2K22, Super Mega Baseball 3, and for the past couple months Dinkum. Not that a single game is worth getting an entire handheld for, but if you like Stardew Valley I expect you'll love Dinkum.


I've also messed around with EmuDeck, trying out some games I never got to experience on consoles I didn't have, like Persona 5 and one of the 3DS Zelda games. I didn't really play much of either (Persona 5 because I didn't care for it and Zelda because I got Dinkum shortly after) but it's a cool option that is pretty easy to set up.


Overall I really love the Deck and have zero regrets, despite the hefty purchase cost. It truly is the handheld I've always wanted.



One concern I might have for your scenario revolves around a few items on the list of games you enjoy. I think you'd have to get veeeery comfortable using the trackpad things to navigate around something like a point & click or sports sim, and the screen may be a tad small for all the text on those sims. I tried playing Old World on mine and while it played fine I really struggled to read the small text and ultimately put it aside. I don't think I've tried Civ on it to know how that plays, but I'm sure you could check out a video to get a sense.


As to your final question: I have no idea if I'm beta testing for a 2nd version or not, nor how far off that may be. But even if I am, I won't regret it. The original is a very well made device and doesn't feel like a first version of a product at all to me.

[Thomkal]

Iratus:Lord of the Dead is 90% off or $3 for a limited time at Fanatical

[Thomkal]

Midnight Ghost Hunt and PayDay2 free to play this weekend on Steam


Edit: Steam is also having a celebration/sale on Tactical/Strategy games this weekend

[Atocep]

Terra Invicta released into early access today. It's the first game from the creators of the Long War mod for XCom. It's kinda like CK3 in an XCom like setting. Incredibly deep, detailed, and ambitious.