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

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.

Brilliam is Will M. (still posts here a lot).

fuck, i can't seem to post! if this MAKES IT THROUGH THE INTERNET ETHER:

i am brilliam. i still post sometimes.

matteus = matt d. who is a full-time lurker and occasional poster.

i should join this

all right i guess i should join probably... sorry in advance for completely messing up the group play numbers!

(also, somebody should put a pic up)

hello i am kittyautomatic.
i am posting here to secure my position as member of ILG steam group for another year. plz 2 renew my membership.
i still read ILG a fair bit, and still enjoy it. i occasionally read ILE, but even now my infrequent ILE visits often end with my wanting to rip my eyes out and stamp on them.

much love x

I'm Merzbau on Steam, though I'm not online that much.

I post here on and off, I'm only ever on Steam for CS and CS:S pwnage and occasional reruns of HL1/2.

Blueberry Garden (I hope this is as good as it looks)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/29160/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOcSUDVsdu4

hey nhex were you the nhex on tf2 last night?

yep, that was me. man those Toy Fort maps are weird

I'm looking forward to the day when there's a sale on Crayon Physics - I really want that game, but not for $20.00

Magic Pen is sort of but not quite the same, and it's free.

http://magic.pen.fizzlebot.com/

crayon physics worth $20 imo! i spent a couple of evenings completely in lobe with the sound, the puzzles, the feel... more than I can say for most other stuff I bought at that price and even some stuff I bought for more (and since then he tripled the content, which I have yet to revisit)

I've been spoiled by steam weekend deals / holiday sales :(

Hey, lower prices are great and I'm all for them. There's always plenty of games out there to buy, Steam sales are great at highlighting this stuff. It's true though, inevitably there will be a sale on the game, or a general indie sale, or year-end sales that knock everything down. Might as well take advantage of it before digital distribution has enough power to keep all game prices artificially high!

Anyone playing Zeno Clash? I hadn't even heard of it until I saw the review in Edge, but they gave it 8/10 and it sounds pretty cool - a melee-based first person shooter (first person puncher?) where you get to have fist fights with elephants!

£15 on steam, think I might give it a go.

What's up with retail games requiring Steam activation? This makes it impossible to play used games.

You've answered your own question there.

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