merry xmas (GOG/Steam direct download weekly specials)

Heard mixed things... Looks like another Cortex Command - cool 2D engine, no real game there?

Steam has a Summer Camp sale up

Borderlands $7.50
Oblivion $6.80

It begins baby!

Recettear $5!

was $5 with 4 other games last xmas

Yeah I know, that's when I got it, but they kinda realized later that was a mistake

hope they have another package deal on the King's Bounty games - this time I think I'll be smart and actually get them. definitely pulling the trigger on the Dreamfall/Longest Journey bundle though.

ha, same - been waiting for Dreamfall to go on sale for years!

gotta rec one of my favorite little indies, Starscape, for $2.50
http://store.steampowered.com/app/20700/

Starscape is fun, thanks! Like a more arcadey Space Rangers 2 without the painful grinding to make enough cash to keep the ship running (err, at least, so far, but then I'm only an hour in - but even if not, it's been worth £2 already).

More steam craziness today. Just Cause 2 for £3.49, or GTA 1, 2, 3, Vice City & San Andreas in a £4.99 bundle.

shit i'm there

less than an hour left to pick up Spacechem for $5

Magicka's a fun little game - def. worth the $3 they're asking right now imo. Might pick up more of the DLC.
Super Meat Boy is of course, infuriating as hell, but when I start playing I get really addicted - damn masocore!
PvZ and HL2 are obvious gets if you don't already have them (pretty unlikely right)

Any other under the radar recommendations? I liked Fortix, which is a cheap, cheesy little Qix clone (regular price - $0.99), will probably pick up the sequel by the end of the sale. I heard good things about Spectromancer, which was co-created by the Magic: The Gathering guy, but the screenshots look pretty underwhelming tbh.

Sale's been a little disappointing for me so far, mostly because I got a lot of the good stuff in the last three big sales. Like yesterday, I already own the crazy deals:

Torchlight - $3!
Defense Grid - $2.50, All DLC also on sale for $1 (but you can also get it for free w/3 camp tickets)
DA2 and Assassin's Creed franchise are also on sale, but the prices are just OK imo, not low enough for an impulse buy
Tempted to get Tropico, but I'm not sure I'd ever get around to it. It is really unique/better than most city sims?

I loved Tropico 3 mostly because I loved the tone and the sense of humor, but I wouldn't say that it's a well-made or deep game. But it's definitely enjoyable.

fallout new vegas & two exp packs are USD $20.97 right now.

This is how you get me to pay for games.

FO3:GOTY is something like $20-23 right now, too.

Also, tropico 3 is great and totally worth the less than $30. I bought both games new and enjoyed them, but I've loved Tropico since the very 1st. (2nd one was a bit off, tho)

Frozen Synapse (half price on steam) got 9/10 in the latest Edge.

Batshit ipad/iphone sale with EA, Gameloft, Konami and Capcom marking stuff down

Didn't we have a Frozen Synapse thread? Either way, definitely worth that price, especially when you consider it includes the friend copy.

Also I'd say Trine worth the $2, Bionic Commando Rearmed is great and def. worth the $5.

Gonna pass on New Vegas because I doubt I'll be able to get to it until Christmas anyway, by which point it'll be on sale with all three DLCs. Surprised it's already dropped so hard - even the console versions are only $10 this weekend at Best Buy. My guess is because the GOTY version with the DLC is coming sooner rather than later. Still, current deal with 2 DLCs is nothing to scoff at.

Currently wondering if I should bite on Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword, Bully and Alpha Protocol.

I didn't even notice that! Who wants my extra copy?

(xp)

little mushroom I'd love it!

I picked up a few games this weekend. Trine (love it), Braid, the Rockstar pack thing for $25 or whatever, and my friend gave me the friend copy of Frozen Synapse which looks pretty cool as well.

Yesterday was probably the best day of the sale, but I had just about everything (Batman, Killing Floor, L4D, King's Bounty, Far Cry). Jamestown is getting a lot of good hype in certain corners, but I can wait until Thanksgiving/Christmas.

Today I'm probably gonna for the Lara Croft: Guardian of Light DLC and try to get in on a 4-pack of Sanctum, heard decent things about that one. Thinking about Counter-Strike: Source for the hell of it.

Definitely recommend Lara Croft, Audiosurf for $1.49 is nice, the Capcom sales are a joke ($15 for vanilla SF4? really?).

yeah i bought lara croft, was just waiting for this kind of discount.

I still have my bonus copy of Frozen Synapse for someone. calstars never replied.

i for one would happily take it off your hands.

Frozen Synapse awwwesome btw

All three seasons of Sam & Max are like $12.fiddy

yeah i'm in on that

thanks for SYNAPSE
i'm gettin' terraria for no reason now

Trying to decide between Sam + Max 3-series pack for £8.74 or Telltale Games complete pack for £30 (don't know USian prices, sorry). Sam and Max is the main draw for me; I'd like to play the new Monkey Islands, but the one I've played so far was missing a certain something from the original.

Good timing since I was just kicking myself for missing Telltale Games' own June sale. Had been planning to buy a bunch of stuff but got put off by postage prices, since there was no download-only option on the new Sam and Max.

The Sam and Max is a steal, but I guess it depends how much adventuring you think you'll be able to get through in the next 6 months (when the Telltale stuff will inevitably be up for sale again) - there's a lot of good stuff in the pack, like both Puzzle Agents (including the new one!). I haven't played them, but I assume Back to the Future and Strongbad are good too.

Another Humble Bundle: Crayon Physics Deluxe, Cogs, VVVVV, Hammerfight, And Yet It Moves. All can be activated on Steam.

http://www.humblebundle.com

here's the missing V: V

Already have two of them, but what the hell, i was kinda curious about Cogs and Hammerfight

VVVVV is pretty excellent, btw

picked up humble indie block 3. available on mac and 'pay what you want' is always the right price.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is $5 on Steam this weekend

http://store.steampowered.com/app/2600/

cheapest its ever been, highly recommended if you think you can stomach the dated graphics and bugs (definitely get a hold of the fan patch)

the graphics aren't that dated actually, it's got the creepo HL2 face tech

EA is having their own sale with a lot of games priced at $5. No idea how their DRM system works.

http://store.origin.com/store/ea/html/pbpage.summersale

Vampire Masquerades requires a dedicated graphics card

Hammerfight is pretty fun btw - pretty silly and absurdly hard at times (like fighting with the controls hard). Cogs is OK. Crayon Physics not really worth it, but in fairness it seems aimed at kids.

read that as Hammerfist almost there

The humblebundle 3 now also includes everything that was in the humblebundle 2. And Steel Storm. And free Mincraft until August 14th. It's a ridiculously good deal, basically.

4-day Quakecon sale at Steam begins today. I think I want to get FO3:GOTY for $22.50. FONV is only $15, too.

The Call of Cthulhu FPS is only 7.50, but I have to check if I even have that or not.

Actually, Steam sales are like perusing the greatest used book sale you've ever seen. We're now at the point where the cost of media is so low you can easily purchase more than its physically possible to ever play.

Does entertainment value change with the cost-per-hour-of-fun ratio plummets? how does a game's fun content change with price changes? I know that I personally will get really pissed off at a game that costs too much for the actual value I perceive getting from it, but how about the other way? Does a super-low cost affect the worthwhile enjoyment you get, or just lower the probability of annoyance experienced during play?

I think we've talked about this on the iphone games thread; if you get a shitloada games for a fiver or a single one for pennies, are you as annoyed when one or two titles are shit?

How much does cost-based expectancy play into enjoyment and/or annoyance?

Has a pretty major effect I think. Mainly in that I've got a lot more tolerance of difficulty spikes in games I've shelled out £40 for. Whereas those that were £3 each on steam, well, if I get stuck I'll happily just switch off and never play again without really feeling I've wasted anything. But I'm no doubt missing out on lots of potential fun as a result.

Lowers the annoyance immensely! It's like, if this game sucks, who cares, I paid less than a cup of coffee. It doesn't make a bad game better, though.

Speaking of the topic tho - didn't realize Bastion is coming to PC, and next week! Nice. Was thinking about getting it on Xbox, but now I'll wait for an inevitable sale on Steam (or XBL)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/107100/