The Steam Thread

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

It's such an odd game and it works beautifully.

Sounds like there have been legit improvements over the free version. I should totally be in for $10.

[Grover]

Picked up Hammerwatch, a fun little pixelated D2 type game with far less skills to worry about, but tons of hack n slash fun. If anyone picks it up and wants to co-op let me know on Steam (Grover). Can play up to four players and there's four classes to choose from. Bam.

[PilotMan]

I've got an Awesomnaughts coupon for 66% off if anyone wants it. That would make the game about $3.33

[MizzouRah]

Gone Home Review - IGN

Interesting concept.. anyone play this yet? More of just an exploration game than anything...

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Gone Home Review - IGN

Interesting concept.. anyone play this yet? More of just an exploration game than anything...

Played it last night and thought it was fantastic. If you're hoping for anything other than story telling though exploration you'll be disappointed though.

Here's another review from Anthony Burch of Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin' and Borderlands 2.

Why I Like Gone Home | HAWP

[frnk55]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Played it last night and thought it was fantastic. If you're hoping for anything other than story telling though exploration you'll be disappointed though.

Here's another review from Anthony Burch of Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin' and Borderlands 2.

Why I Like Gone Home | HAWP

Great, yet another game I'll probably buy but not play.
I picked up Two World 2 for 5 bucks yesterday. Should be interesting.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Played it last night and thought it was fantastic. If you're hoping for anything other than story telling though exploration you'll be disappointed though.

Here's another review from Anthony Burch of Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin' and Borderlands 2.

Why I Like Gone Home | HAWP

Yeah.. sounds like something I would like.

[MizzouRah]

Armada 2526 Gold has been a fantastic game.. very mild 4x game with not much micromanagement.. has eaten up many hours this weekend.

[mckerney]

Looks like Valve decided to up the rate of releases from Greenlight and gave the go ahead to 100 titles today.

Steam Community :: Group Announcements :: Greenlight

[Thomkal]

Don't have a link for you, but in celebration of the 1st year anniversary of the Greenlight program, they are offering 50 Greenlight games on sale, up to 75% off through Sept 2.

[mckerney]

Kentucky Route Zero at half of is a great deal.

[MizzouRah]

Eador. Masters of the broken world has taken my whole day today... and it's just Day 1 of my vacation.

They had a major patch on 7/23 to fix most of what I've read were issues.

$10 on Steam and I just played the heck out of it... kind of a M&M and King's bounty flair to it with some 4x to spice it up.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Eador. Masters of the broken world has taken my whole day today... and it's just Day 1 of my vacation.

They had a major patch on 7/23 to fix most of what I've read were issues.

$10 on Steam and I just played the heck out of it... kind of a M&M and King's bounty flair to it with some 4x to spice it up.

Thanks for the update. I bought it, played it a bit, but failed to get into it. It was over taken by "Fallen Enchantress", which I got right around the same time and won out in that particular 4x fantasy duel.

I may have to re-visit it at some point.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Eador. Masters of the broken world has taken my whole day today... and it's just Day 1 of my vacation.

They had a major patch on 7/23 to fix most of what I've read were issues.

$10 on Steam and I just played the heck out of it... kind of a M&M and King's bounty flair to it with some 4x to spice it up.

Groupees

Eador is available in the current groupees bundle, $5 gets you steam keys for both eador games plus several other games.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Groupees

Eador is available in the current groupees bundle, $5 gets you steam keys for both eador games plus several other games.

I saw that.. I just prefer the easy of clicking on my Steam account and purchasing.

Great deal though!

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Thanks for the update. I bought it, played it a bit, but failed to get into it. It was over taken by "Fallen Enchantress", which I got right around the same time and won out in that particular 4x fantasy duel.

I may have to re-visit it at some point.

I've played FE:LH quite a bit too.

I've been waiting on Eador since it was released with so many bugs.. they have patched it quite a bit, over 200 fixes I believe.

So far, it's engrossing and I love the combat. It's beautiful to boot.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Thanks for the update. I bought it, played it a bit, but failed to get into it. It was over taken by "Fallen Enchantress", which I got right around the same time and won out in that particular 4x fantasy duel.

I may have to re-visit it at some point.

This is me as well.

[Grover]

Picked up Bleed for $2.99 awesomely difficult platformer. Tons of fun.

Also got Papers, Please for $7.99. More fun in a different kind of way.

[Izulde]

Beyond dickpunch frustrating when you can't get a game to work through Steam despite trying every single damned solution you can find via Google search. It's like WTF did I even bother getting it?

[Icy]

Miasmata in the greenlight offer seems like a good survival game, any of you played it?

[britrock88]

Oh, crap, that wraps up soon, doesn't it?

[britrock88]

I did a brief look-over of what's on offer, and Anodyne, Fly'N, Incredipede, and Miasmata stuck out to me.

Edit: Just going to grab Fly'N now. Anodyne didn't hold up on second look. Ky Route 0 and Miasmata are wishlisted--would like to wait for more acts of Ky0, and Miasmata sounds as though it might be updated.

[mckerney]

News - Steam Announces Family Sharing

Steam Announces Family Sharing
Press Releases - Valve 16:22
Coming Soon: Players who share computers can also share their Steam games

September 11, 2013 – Steam Family Sharing, a new service feature that allows close friends and family members to share their libraries of Steam games, is coming to Steam, a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC, Mac, and Linux games and software. The feature will become available next week, in limited beta on Steam.

Steam Family Sharing is designed for close friends and family members to play one another's Steam games while each earning their own Steam achievements and storing their own saves and application data to the Steam cloud. It's all enabled by authorizing a shared computer.

“Our customers have expressed a desire to share their digital games among friends and family members, just as current retail games, books, DVDs, and other physical media can be shared,” explained Anna Sweet of Valve. “Family Sharing was created in direct response to these user requests.”

Once a device is authorized, the lender's library of Steam games becomes available for others on the machine to access, download, and play. Though simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, the lender may always access and play his games at any time. If he decides to start playing when a friend is borrowing one of his games, the friend will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.

For more information about Steam Family Sharing and the beta program, please visit store.steampowered.com/sharing

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by mckerney

News - Steam Announces Family Sharing

Steam Announces Family Sharing
Press Releases - Valve 16:22
Coming Soon: Players who share computers can also share their Steam games

September 11, 2013 – Steam Family Sharing, a new service feature that allows close friends and family members to share their libraries of Steam games, is coming to Steam, a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC, Mac, and Linux games and software. The feature will become available next week, in limited beta on Steam.

Steam Family Sharing is designed for close friends and family members to play one another's Steam games while each earning their own Steam achievements and storing their own saves and application data to the Steam cloud. It's all enabled by authorizing a shared computer.

“Our customers have expressed a desire to share their digital games among friends and family members, just as current retail games, books, DVDs, and other physical media can be shared,” explained Anna Sweet of Valve. “Family Sharing was created in direct response to these user requests.”

Once a device is authorized, the lender's library of Steam games becomes available for others on the machine to access, download, and play. Though simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, the lender may always access and play his games at any time. If he decides to start playing when a friend is borrowing one of his games, the friend will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.

For more information about Steam Family Sharing and the beta program, please visit store.steampowered.com/sharing

wow impressive

[spleen1015]

My Steam library just increased by 100 fold.

[PilotMan]

Damn my kids are going to be excited about this.

[mckerney]

Some of the important info from the family sharing page



I want to try this! How can I join the Family Sharing Beta?
To express interest in beta participation, join the Family Sharing Group on the Steam community. The Family Sharing beta will begin in mid-September, when a thousand Steam accounts from this group will be granted access to share their Steam libraries. You’ll know you’ve been selected when you receive an email from Steam inviting you to try out the new feature.

Is there a limit to the number of devices I can authorize to share my Library?
Yes. A Steam account may authorize Family Sharing on up to 10 devices at a given time.

Can I share specific games, or do I have to share my whole library?
Libraries are shared and borrowed in their entirety.

Can all Steam games be shared with friends and family?
No, due to technical limitations, some Steam games may be unavailable for sharing. For example, titles that require an additional third-party key, account, or subscription in order to play cannot be shared between accounts.

Can a friend and I share a library and both play at the same time?
No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

[bhlloy]

Steam just gets it better than anybody else out there. This just leads to more people playing more games and presumably more sales because only one person on the account can be playing the game at one time. If I get hooked on a game but I can only play it when you aren't and you are playing it a lot, damn right in going to buy my own copy

[jeff061]

I'm wondering what the catch is, are game publishers really ok with this? They should be, doesn't mean they are. Wouldn't be surprised if they can opt-out.

[cartman]

BUT HOW CAN I STILL SELL MY USED GAMES AT GAMESTOP???

Oh, wait...

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by jeff061

I'm wondering what the catch is, are game publishers really ok with this? They should be, doesn't mean they are. Wouldn't be surprised if they can opt-out.

Sounds like there's a definite opt out based on the penultimate question above. They can't really say "or uptight publishers who think we are giving their product away for free and want to squeeze every last dime out of you" but I imagine they probably fall into that category

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by cartman

BUT HOW CAN I STILL SELL MY USED GAMES AT GAMESTOP???

Oh, wait...

haha.. my first thought as well...

[DaddyTorgo]

This is going to be huge for effectively "demo-ing" games that don't offer demos between friends.

[bhlloy]

Yup and that will lead to more sales. Very smart by steam and you've got to figure most developers will recognize that as well

[Draft Dodger]

well don't tell anyone, but I already share my library with my family

[jaygr]

It is just a shame that if your family member or friend is using your library, you can't play. So even if they are playing a different game then you want to play you are still out of luck. Not the end of the world, but something to be aware of.

[SackAttack]

Interesting thing with Steam Family Sharing - and I wonder if this would have pertained to the Xbox One sharing also - if *anybody* is playing one game in a library, it freezes the rest of it out.

So if one person has 300 games in the library, but is playing, say, Civ V? None of the authorized computers from friends/family can play anything else he owns.

It's a really neat idea, but since it's basically only available to friends/family if the primary account holder isn't playing, I wonder how practical it'll ultimately be.

[JetsIn06]

Anyone want FTL? Have an extra key. PM me.

Edit: Claimed

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by jaygr

It is just a shame that if your family member or friend is using your library, you can't play. So even if they are playing a different game then you want to play you are still out of luck. Not the end of the world, but something to be aware of.

Exactly. I'd love this for home - 3 networked PCs, each with their own Steam account. This would be gold if it allowed simultaneous access, I could buy games once and have them available on all 3 PCs. But family sharing is unlikely to help us really at all, we have too many instances of more than 1 computer playing at once.

They really mean this for sharing on a single computer, so that multiple PC accounts can have their own saves / achievements, the device sharing bit sounds like just part of their normal "allow access to an account from multiple PCs non-simultaneously" feature that comes with Steam by default.

That part is useful, but multiple family members with their own PCs can't REALLY share with this approach.

[MizzouRah]

Why am I a sucker for space game Alpha's?

Just purchased Starpoint Gemini 2.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Exactly. I'd love this for home - 3 networked PCs, each with their own Steam account. This would be gold if it allowed simultaneous access, I could buy games once and have them available on all 3 PCs. But family sharing is unlikely to help us really at all, we have too many instances of more than 1 computer playing at once.

They really mean this for sharing on a single computer, so that multiple PC accounts can have their own saves / achievements, the device sharing bit sounds like just part of their normal "allow access to an account from multiple PCs non-simultaneously" feature that comes with Steam by default.

That part is useful, but multiple family members with their own PCs can't REALLY share with this approach.

yeah, I don't see how this is any different than how we do it now, where I share my login with my kids and if one of us is using Steam the other has to log off. none of us care about achievements so not sure why I'd care about this.

[cuervo72]

Mmm, I have a steam account and we now have a second one set up for my son. It would have been useful if, say, I was on my account playing CK2 and he wanted to get on his account to play Civ V, Terraria, or whatever (though in both of those cases we ended up buying multiple copies for MP, but pick some other game. Oh - Sims 3. There.)

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

Anyone want FTL? Have an extra key. PM me.

Best left for someone who doesn't buy the current Humble Bundle. (I haven't decided yet.)

[mckerney]

The Steam Universe is Expanding in 2014

So it looks like Valve might be teasing some Steam Box stuff again.

[mckerney]

SteamOS

Steam is coming to a new operating system
As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the
environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself.
SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen.
It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines.

[Bobble]

I see Knights of Pen and Paper is today's Cheap Thrill or whatever it's called. Opinions?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by mckerney

SteamOS

Wonder if they've figured out video / monitor driver issues...

[mckerney]

After having a chance to read up on SteamOS, Valve says that there will be AAA games coming out that work natively on SteamOS while any Windows/Mac game can be streamed from another computer through a local network. Wonder how many devs they will be able to get to add SteamOS support to their older games.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Bobble

I see Knights of Pen and Paper is today's Cheap Thrill or whatever it's called. Opinions?

Loved the premise, played it about 20 minutes. I don't know if that's just because I'm pretty much over the turn-based JRPG type battle system or what.

[Lonnie]

Re: Knights of Pen and Paper
I bought it on Android. I play it occasionally, but it's pretty much an assemble a team and take on monsters/mobs. You have a hand in picking which enemy you will fight and how many of them. However, each class is limited to about 4 skills and one you find a winning combination then you stick with it. So it gets pretty redundant after a while. Worth $3, yeah, I still play it on air plane rides.

Re: SteamOS
When DirectX came out I thought the best solution to gaming on PCs was to create a dedicated OS. It took a while, but it looks like it might finally happen.