playing games on a PC, misc. chatter, Steam names, etc...

You've bought a lot of stuff off Steam! I'll friend you once I get my stuff going... if that ever happens, or if I join in for another free TF2 weekend.

TF2 is free again this weekend... though I'll be out of town and away from my computer (which is probably a good thing). All the new stuff they added to the game today seems pretty awesome, but now it has so much content it's a bit overwhelming with all the different modes and everything going on all of a sudden

i bought something called someone-or-others-big-bucks-shooting on steam. but it's rubbish.

i'm guessing with the imminent release of gta4 on pc, that new games are probably becoming way too heavy for my pc spec to handle.

There are a lot of awful games on steam - I guess they don't really say no to anybody. A little quality control probably wouldn't hurt. Though there are also more good games on there than there's time for.

Ste - I do think there's actually a trend away from making the new games super demanding. Sure there are a few titles, the upcoming Crysis and Far Cry 2 look hefty, but the more interesting stuff are these games most computers should be able to handle, like Left4Dead (still using the source engine) and the promising looking, low spec Battlefield Heroes.

I am playing through deus ex for the first time; so great and so many ideas

recommend me some other games I should play; I'm on a macbook (windows under boot camp)

ooooh, this PC gaming is amazing!! finally a chance to play all those games I never had a PC powerful enough to play

system shock 2 is something ELSE

http://www.machinarium.com/

I am GEEKING OUT on this stuff

fallout, fallout 2, system shock 2, deus ex

christmas at cozen's

Dude. After you're done with the Fallouts - Planescape Torment.

The late 90s were a golden age for PC gaming, I think.

next on the list are: x-com and thief

any other recs?

Anybody else get into the GOG early access beta?
http://www.gog.com

I just got my key and the set-up seems pretty nice. I haven't bought anything yet, but when I have the time I'd like to check out at least the Fallouts, MDK 2, and Descents (since I never played any of 'em yet). Any othger recommendations?

If you don't know what this site is, it's basically a steam like set-up for selling older PC games that have been updated to run on XP/Vista, at great, inexpensive prices (like six bucks for most titles) and with no DRM.

yeah, I got it

two-for-one on fallout and fallout 2? yes please!!

I'm in, too. Gotta love how it looks so far - explicitly catering to that late 90's nostalgic PC gamer who played or wanted to play all those Interplay games, and yet the site has a weirdly smooth Apple-like appearance (also catering to me) and the prices are very good (yay, me). I still have my Fallout 1/2 CDs, so I haven't decided what to get yet - perhaps Freepace 1/2, and that Jagged Alliance 2 expansion. I remember Messiah being really buggy back in the day, but it was pretty well-executed in most other ways. Hope this site does well and expands.

Like cozen, I just got XP running on a pretty spec MacBook Pro. Will it be able to run new things well? What should I get. Currently all I have on it is... Quake II.

If it's got an Nvidia card, it should be able to handle pretty much anything recent. Look at Steam and GameTap (Psychonauts free!), there's decent stuff out there.

Oh shit, Multiwinia just got released. Must find more time!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/1530/

Anybody else planning to pick this one up?

Steam weekend deal : Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Manhunt, Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Midnight Club 2, Wild Metal
all for $29.99 ($34.99 in europe)
thats a whole lot of game!

Damn, if I had a steady job right now I'd love to get that - I never played San Andreas, and always wanted to play Manhunt and Max Payne 2, even though I heard they were pretty mediocre.

You could get San Andreas for 9.99 and skip lunch (don't have to but the whole pack)...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/12120/

San Andreas is my favourite game of all time. I almost don't want to play it again, because I'm afraid looking at it with 2008 eyes will sully all my beautiful memories.

Gravitron 2 just added to the store today. It looks interesting. For only five bucks, I'll probably pick it up when I have a little more time...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/21300/

I finally picked up San Andreas for $10 at Best Buy a few days ago. Of course, Steam decides to do a $10 sale on Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines! Very tempting...

Anyone used direct2drive? I prefer it over steam. Simpler to use.

Does D2D have the download and install anywhere for an unlimited number of times and auto-patching Steam has? I haven't actually used it myself, but was thinking about it when Bionic Commando came out. I could see how not having to load that Steam client would be nice, though.

Yes, I've d/l'ed Bioshock from D2D 3 or 4 times. No auto-patching though AFAIK.

Starscape and Mr. Robot are now available on Steam for http://store.steampowered.com/news/1952/0. That's less than half of what you'd pay getting them from Moonpod directly. Mr. Robot's okay, but Starscape's a really nice little title, a souped-up Sinistar with some RPG elements from Star Control II in building your shipbase, the ship fighting, and resource gathering.

Whoops! Wish I had that "edit post" function...

they cost a URL?

most accurate life sim ever. for real (c/o PTG) (protest)

Did anyone ever get to play that Tank Universal game?

I bought it, but I still haven't played it! Shameful, I know. Will get around to it soon.

Right now I'm playing Half-Life :)

looks like Steam in europe is switching over to local currency, no more taking advantage of weak dollar. boo.

Aquaria is now up on steam...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24420/

I tried out the demo a while ago (a year ago?) and thought it was pretty neat. Very relaxing / very nice music / a little confusing. Will probably pick up the full game before the end of the year (it's on discount).

http://store.steampowered.com/holidaysale/

Big ass sale on Steam. Portal is $5, TF2 is $10, etc.

woah - some GREAT deals on there...

$2.49 for Trials 2 is the one I highly recommend (I paid $20.00, I think, pre-steam version). A pretty amazing / extremely challenging game, but also very addictive. It's basically a puzzle game on motorcycle - check it out.

The sale is nuts - check out the full list of discounts here. Bioshock for $5! And I just picked up TF2 earlier this month during one of the weekend sales. Steam is just insanely tempting all the time.

Is the full Trials 2 significantly different from the flash game? I thought that was okay but not super different from most flash physics sims.

woah - I'd never seen the flash version of Trials before! It is sort of just like that, in concept, but the graphics in Trial 2 are fully realized, semi-3d, up to 1080p and there are tons more tracks + leaderboards, and you can play it with a joystick, which I think makes it just a tiny bit easier / more natural to control. But damn, it's such a hard, frustrating game (trying out the flash version brought it all back). I still have tons of levels in there I haven't beat - makes me want to go back to it.

From the sale I just picked up Brothers in Arms RtH30, the original Far Cry, Indigo Prophecy and Aquaria all for less than the cost of one new game. Pretty nice! May get a few more things too before the sale ends on the 2nd, though fuck, I'm swamped in games now.

Oh man, I just noticed you can get both Railroad Tycoon II and III for like $7. I loved those games, and my discs for RRT2 had a flaw that wouldn't play any of the music.

Any other recommendations? Sale ends today.

I really wish trials 2 would come to xbla; that games look great

Full X-Com pack for $5 - sale ends today. Wondering if it's worth it just not to have to futz around with DOSbox and the like when I break out UFO Defense every couple of years, but then despite including XCOMUTIL you still have to do some patches (like putting the old screams back in). Sorry in advance if none of you know what I'm talking about, but it's aggravating over the years to figure out ways to get it to work through fan patches again (I even own the Windows Gold/Collector's Edition CD).

Left 4 Dead is $25 this weekend. Pretty good to coincide with the free DLC announcment, fair price, too. I'd probably jump on this sale if I hadn't just bought Retro Game Challenge. I'm still playing TF2 regularly, anyway...

You know, I keep meaning to ask this, though I'm not sure it really deserves an answer: who are like half the people in the Steam ILG group, anyway?

matteus is the only one I don't recognise. maybe it's you! rest are all ilxors, qaopspace is stet i think. i'm the delmot.

So anyway, Plants v. Zombies. Does this game get hard, ever? Am on to stage four and I think I've let two a grand total of two zombies through, pretty much by accident. I have 2000+ sun power left at the end of every game.

oh i see there's some chat about it on the what's hot 2009 thread. gotta lunch now though!

qaopspace is me not stet

oh you crazy guys with your similar names!

I recognized you, Jeff and JimD, but as for the rest of the names, I never see them posting here... maybe brilliam or kittyautomatic seem vaguely familiar? I guess what I'm getting at is that it seems like a lot of those people don't post on ILX anymore, since the group was created almost two years ago.

kittyauto = g-kit. onimo's still on ile, not sure about afarrell.

Steamboy is finally here

Introducing Steam Deck: powerful, portable PC gaming starting at $399. Designed by Valve, powered by Steam. Shipping December 2021.

Learn more at https://t.co/ZOTx3KUCVK and reserve yours tomorrow. #SteamDeck pic.twitter.com/jcgbaKfT9c

— Steam (@Steam) July 15, 2021

haha, L4, L5, R4, and R5

looks like the kind of button i would accidentally press one trillion times

https://i.imgur.com/jiLPDj6.png

it also seems like something that would be really useful for games like guitar hero. which is sad, because i can imagine some little kid absolutely mastering guitar hero on the steam controller, doing these crazy metal riffs down all five of the Ls and all five of the Rs like a lil van halen. but then picking up a guitar and being like "scrrkrkoonk. fllooom."

oh they do have SD card slots, makes the cheapest one more usable
looks like it's running on Steam's Linux OS, how is Linux game support these days?
they way the dpad and ABXY buttons seem to be trying to escape off the edge is pretty lol

i was starting to get myself psyched up to buy this, because most of my gaming is done on steam these days anyway, and i'd love to be able to play PC games as well as mac. but the $399 price point is for the lowest storage model (64 GB), which isn't even large enough to cover a lot of AAA games, let alone multiple.

Three storage options
There is no in-game difference in frame rates or graphics quality between the three models.

$399 64GB
64GB eMMC internal storage
Carrying case

$529 256GB
256GB NVMe SSD internal storage
Faster storage
Carrying case
Exclusive Steam Community profile bundle

$649 512GB
512GB NVMe SSD internal storage
Fastest storage
Premium anti-glare etched glass
Exclusive carrying case
Exclusive Steam Community profile bundle
Exclusive virtual keyboard theme

oops xp

oh they do have SD card slots, makes the cheapest one more usable

nice! ok, thinking about getting re-psyched for this

major "cups too close to the edge of the table" vibes from those buttons

wait apparently you can wipe the Steam OS and install windows on this?
my dream of a portable PS2/GC emulation beast may be closer than I thought

(which I will spend hours and hours dicking around to make the perfect library of games run perfectly, then put it aside to gather dust lol)

heh, yes.

oh interesting. i thought Windows games were relying on the Proton layer. hmm...
i think the $399 version is a tough sell with only 64GB. yes you can put in SD cards, but I imagine the performance would be much worse vs. the SSD.
if i got one i'd get the top tier... though at that point it might be tempted to get a laptop instead? not sure
(not to mention Switch OLED pre-orders opened today...)

this... seems good? as long as it's not just streaming from your real computer. if it's really a powerful gaming pc, i'm interested.

there's a patent troll suing any controller maker that puts buttons on the back. wonder if they paid that company off.

something doesn't sit right for me, same feeling i got about the steam controller (which i bought anyway, and yeah big fat dud)

64gig seems small, could probably get about 3 of my AAA steam games on that (not RDR or GTA at all though).

People seem excited for it though, what am I missing? What's the big deal, doesn't seem great at all to me.

its a handheld that plays the zillions of games you already have on your steam account. don't think playing AAAs is the main appeal here so much as having access to every indie and mid-budget and retro game under the sun

for me the biggest appeal is being able to play some PC-only games that i've been wanting to try for a long time.

there's a zillion adventure games and VNs that aren't on switch and its always a bummer having to play stuff like that at your pc when its such a natural fit for handhelds. i'm not gonna get one of these but that'd be the reason for it if i did

sounds like the opening of reservations has been the usual Valve clusterfuck, to no one's surprise

Surviving Mars currently free on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/464920/Surviving_Mars/

Thanks for the heads up, will check it out

thanks!

nioh 1 currently free on epic game store

Surviving Mars currently free on Steam

Is it region-specific? I see that it's 75% off.

it was only free for a very short period

What's with the daily dozens of Steam updates lately, been happening for a couple of weeks now where every morning loads of games require tiny updates?

maybe developers prepping games for Deck compatibility?

Here's a name-your-price pumpkin-carving sim from the dev of A Short Hike

https://adamgryu.itch.io/pumpkin-carver

What's the latest word on the Deck? Is it still buggy and hit-or-miss with what games it'll be able to play

I've heard that it has a noisy fan and it's as buggy as a normal PC. I think most games work on it. I just reserved one.

pretty great Capcom PC bundle, $20 for Monster Hunter World, all the DMCs including 5, SF4 & 5, Dragon's Dogma etc
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/capcom-summer-2022-bundle

I got a Deck the other day so messing around with that, it's buggy but fun

curious about your impressions of it, once you settle in with it for a bit

the Steam Deck, that is

first impressions are it feels good in the hand, not that heavy considering the size and nicely balanced
buttons & sticks are ok, not a fan of the trackpads so far but then I doubt I'll use them that much
inside the walled Steam garden it works well, but using the desktop mode (for setting up emulators, patches, mods etc) is a massive pain in the arse. I'm not a linux person and my god I never will be if it's always like this
haven't noticed much fan noise but then I haven't really pushed it yet

Sounds like a good bundle though I'm not sure how much of it already own. Will give most of the money to ACLU/Trevor Project

Should we just start a Deck thread?

https://kotaku.com/steam-deck-boot-cyberpunk-fallout-dragonball-z-gamecube-1849644839/slides/18

I got GOG and Epic working on Steam Deck by using an app called Heroic. Strange that you can add it to the steam library through the desktop steam app but not when you're in the Deck UI. Still haven't tried the yuzu switch emulator because the installation sounds like a chore -- and also I have a switch that can't be hacked so I'd need to download everything.

Whoa, Control Deluxe is $10 on Steam!

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/turkiye-syria-earthquake-relief-bundle

No great headliner, but 100% to charity always welcome.

I bought it despite not wanting any of the bigger games.

Neat that it has games made in Turkey.

Oh this looks like a promising site, i.e. recommended settings for different games on the Deck: https://steamdeckhq.com/game-reviews/signalis/

Thank you! I just got mine in the mail today (feels extra special getting one in Australia). Website looks like a godsend.

Yeah that site can be handy but worth bearing in mind that for a lot of (maybe most) users, optimal settings mean “looks good and plays well and has good battery life”. But for me battery life isn’t a concern, I’m mostly playing while plugged in anyway, so the community recommended settings tend to put more constraints on performance/visuals than I want them to.

Just installed windows onto my steam deck, now have access to all my gamepass games. This is so much better than I had heard. My impression was Windows was a big compromise, but I think that was just the early days of the deck. Right now, it’s flawless and I much prefer it to the stock steam OS. This has to be my favourite console ever owned

Did you do the unregistered Windows 10 thing, where it doesn't allow the desktop to be personalized but otherwise it's complete? I am tempted.

I did unregistered windows 11, but yeah same thing. If you have games only accessible via windows I highly recommend. I did the gamepass for like $30 a year via upgrading for goal for 3 years so it felt tough not being able to access that. So great now

really good Namco bundle - Tekken 7, Katamari, Code Vein, Tales of Vesperia, God Eater 3, .hack, Pacman Museum
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/bandai-namco-fights-frights-and-fantasy

Good one. If you’ve got a partner who’s not big into games, the other multiplayer bundle is a great one for casual local playing. My wife and I are loving rounds and Boomerang-fu atm