I finished Torchlight Wednesday night. I thought it only fair to finish the review.
I said in my last post that I only got to level 28. I asked for NPC's, Bosses and levels that were different and interesting. Well on level 29, which was entirely a boss fight, I got my wish.
The Boss I had to fight was named Medea. It was a rather large cat-lady with a spear. I actually enjoyed this fight more than all the others. At certain percentages of her health, she would split into mirror images of herself. These mirror images were weak and only took a hit to destroy. Finding the real Medea was actually kind of fun. She didn't do this repeatedly to drag out the fight, nor did she only do it once to be forgotten. I considered this fight to be entertaining and it engaged me as a player.
After I defeated Medea, I entered the Black Palace on Level 30. This was really interesting. The art and architecture were really good. The vibrant colors stood out. The Palace has dark blocks for flooring, with cracks that have a pink glow that match the floating pink crystals. The stairs are webbed and there are great statues all over the place. When I entered the Black Palace I also ran into new NPC's. The Blood Disciples would charge me with a flash of light and a smack in the face. Dragonkin would march toward me and breathe fire when they got within range. The most dangerous among them were these annoying skeletons called Enslaved. While they weren't powerful they would swarm me in numbers and prevent me from moving. This caused me to take quite a bit of damage from the Dragonkin. In some areas of the Black Palace there would be chained Boss Fights.
One of my friends suggested I post a link to a video so they can see what I'm talking about. So here is a video. This is NOT me, just a video I found on YouTube.
Finally, after 28 levels I was having fun. It was good fun. I enjoyed it.
But on level 32 that wonderful surprise melted into grinding again. Please understand this is where the game needed some trimming. I enjoyed the first 2 levels, but I still had to go through 3 more, then the final boss. Five levels of repetition killed the joy. Technically, one of the levels in the Black Palace was a side quest. I didn't have to do that section. Since I like to complete all the side quests I can, I was compelled to go.
Well what about that final boss?
First of all, Ordrak looks like something Conan O'Brien whipped up from "If they mated" using Diablo and Mannoroth. If you don't know who Mannoroth is, he was a baddie from Warcraft 3. So Ordrak looked like a 4 legged Diablo.
Secondly, the final boss fight is cheap. I tried to handle the boss fight the way I thought the Development team wanted me to. He summons Dragonkin constantly. Not just a few, but about 10-15 of them. At the same time, you have those Enslaved I mentioned above charging you. I tried to use my maxed Lightning Skill on the DragonKin, but they were tougher to kill than the level above. I died several times in this fight. This was entirely due to my play style. See, I had only carried 40 health and mana potions into the fight. I was trying to use them sparingly. After watching some fight videos on YouTube, I see some people are chugging down potions like it's breathing.
In the end, I beat Ordrak. This opens up the ShadowVault for this character. The Shadowvault is a never ending randomly generated dungeon.
Since one can't technically finish Torchlight, I'll say this.
I'm done with Torchlight. I've experienced all it has to offer. I haven't downloaded a mod, and don't intend to, unless I'm super bored with the other games I have, or there's a mod that cuts out 2 out of every 5 levels of the campaign and adds some surprises.
In conclusion, even though I was surprised by the final levels, it turned into grinding. My final recommendation still stands.
"Try the Demo. If you like it, don’t pay full price. Wait for a $5 Steam sale."
Now, on to Trine and the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Beta, if it ever finishes patching.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Bargain Hunter Review #1: Torchlight
Thanks to the recent Steam Sale, I have a few games to play and review. The game I first chose to play is Torchlight. I want to say that I normally finish all games before writing a review. However, I am writing before I finish, because the gameplay in Torchlight is repetitive. I don’t foresee any changes in the way I play. Now some could say the last two sentences are a good summary of the review and they would be right. Read on, if you want to pay me the courtesy of reading what I have typed.
I’m not going to get into the Story. I am playing the game as an Alchemist on Normal difficulty. Here we go.
One thing I need the reader to understand is that there are Levels and Character Levels. When you see me talking about Levels, I am using the term as the game does. Simply, how far down in the dungeon I have traveled. I am only on level 28 or 29 of 35. Everything you do in the first 5-10 levels is the exact same things you will be doing in the lower levels. The only difference is that you will be more efficient at it. In the beginning, my gameplay experience was one of entertainment and enjoyment that transitioned into playing out of sheer determination. The transition into grinding occurred around levels 22-24. This is Torchlight’s biggest flaw. At this time I started to get bored with it. I didn’t want to play it anymore. I began dreading even starting the game. It was like being presented with a meal I didn’t want to eat because it tasted bad. Every time I hit “Play” in Steam, it was like I was pinching my nose in order to kill any taste sensation I had just to stomach the experience. Naturally, I started to look elsewhere and so I began playing Trine. Even though Trine is a different genre of game, I think it is superior in its quality and presentation. Once this was set in my mind, I began to judge Torchlight by the example that Trine has set. Some people may think of this as comparing an apple to a strawberry. I’m actually comparing an ok apple to a great strawberry covered with whipped cream. If you are a game designer it should be your goal to make sure you never lose the attention of your players.
Video
Visually Torchlight looks great. The stylistic cartoon look works. The colors are all rich and vibrant. Spell effects are great and explosions are nice.
Sound
Audibly, the sound effects are good. There’s nothing outstanding about the sound of lightning and the pistol I carry in my off hand. I’m not sure what I should be expecting in sound either. The sound effects are crisp, but there’s nothing that really stands out. This leads me to the soundtrack.
Many have compared Torchlight to Diablo. This is a fair comparison since the same people that made Torchlight, made Diablo. While some praise the game for this relation, I would consider it the biggest flaw. In another example of repetition, the musical style is the same as Diablo. The game has about 3 or 4 tracks of the same variation of the Tristram theme. If someone was simply listening to the game, one might think they were playing Diablo again. So not only does Torchlight repeat everything it tries to present as original, it also repeats Diablo. After playing this game, I have an image in my head that the Cube Farms of Runic Games looks like a Hall of Mirrors. This isn’t true by the way, their offices are actually nice.
Artificial Intelligence
The Artificial Intelligence in this game is very basic. Monsters simply run and cast at you. Some minions run away if you kill a fellow minion. But, they eventually come back. The one piece of Artificial Intelligence you will pay attention to is your pet. When you create a new character in Torchlight you can select a Cat or a Dog as a pet. This pet will melee attack enemies and has 2 spell slots where purchased spells can be put in. The pet will cast the spells at random and sometimes even when NPC’s aren’t around, as in the case of Heal and Silence. I was standing in the town and my pet kept casting Heal Self over and over. My cat ran out of mana just sitting in town. He was already at full health, why is he casting Heal Self? Another annoying bit is that the pet often gets stuck on some of the architecture of the dungeons. I’ll often be fighting a group and notice that things aren’t dying as fast as they should be. I’ll look for my pet and notice on the mini-map that he is two rooms back. You are probably wondering how you can lose your pet. During fights there are so many explosions and spells firing off that it becomes difficult to see exactly what is going on. Most of my fights involve me casting spells into a group, and the pet will go tank another group. I’ll toss some explosion spells over there to help it out and keep hitting stuff with chain lightning. The pet is so small he’s just easy to overlook in the mess. The pet, while a good tank and companion, often has path finding issues. It is very detracting from the game experience to have to go back and lead your pet through various obstacles as hard as a flight of stairs, to a simple overturned table or a pile of rocks.
Your Character
Character building is pretty generic. Every character has 4 stats, 3 Skill Trees and 4 Spell slots. The in-game Tooltips aren’t very specific or helpful when it comes to your stats. For Example, Dexterity increases the chance to hit and crit with a ranged weapon. It will even tell you how much, for example it says, “+9 to Critical Hit”. Is that 9/100 or 9/10? I don’t have a scale to compare this value with. Also, it is not presented how much Dexterity it takes to raise that value. Numbers don’t necessarily make a game for me, Trine has none for example. But, once a game starts displaying numbers it had better be ready to explain how they operate. Maybe, some of this explained in detail in the manual, but I sure don’t remember seeing it.
The Skills a character gains are spread into Tiers. Skillpoints are gained at a rate of 1 per character level and 1 per fame level. Fame is achieved by killing mini-bosses throughout the dungeons. The highest level Skills require a character level of 25. Since you can bank Skillpoints, I found myself saving up for the higher levels. Perhaps this lead to some of the repetition I suffered. If so, the skill trees need to be reworked to entice me to spend those points as I reached each tier. Some of the skills, while nice to have, did not particularly seem desirable or useful. It also seemed that I really only needed 2 of the 3 trees.
The 4 Spell slots might as well be 3 spell slots. This is a consequence of yet another repeated mechanic. Torchlight took the mechanic of using Town Portal and Identify Scrolls. The issue a player runs into is that you have limited bag space. Bag space is such a premium, it is much better to buy or loot a Spell of Town Portal and put it in one of your 4 slots than to take up a bag slot. Since Identify and Town Portal are used so often by characters, something desperately needs to change. From a Lore standpoint, if everyone uses these scrolls all the time, they should eventually know how to do it inherently. Simply put, the Identify system needs to just be scrapped. I hate to bring World of Warcraft into this, but the Identify mechanic doesn’t exist there. When you loot an item, if you meet the requirements, you should be able to use it. Before anyone argues about WoW being an MMO, Runic Games is about to begin showing us the Torchlight MMO. This leads to several questions, which I’ll go into later.
The pet you have following you around doubles your bag space. You have the option to send it to town to sell everything in your pets inventory. This is a convenience to keep the player moving forward. However, more often than not, you find yourself waiting for your pet to come back before proceeding. While the pet is away you can alt-tab out and take a break from the monotany.
Class Balance
Question: What is the difference between me casting a lightning bolt that jumps across 3 NPC’s and a Vanquisher that shoots a bow that shoots 3 NPC’s with a lightning attack? Answer: depending on the skill trees and equipment being used, there is no difference. Simply by being single-player, Torchlight hides the blurred lines the Classes share in Skills and gameplay. While you can specialize and try to play different styles, you inevitably wind up doing one of two things. You either stand at range and make funky lights and explosions, or stand in an NPC’s face and make funky lights and explosions. Here again, I can’t help but bring up Trine. You play three characters in Trine. Each one is distinct in their abilities. The Wizard can’t wield a sword and shield and melee effectively. The Knight can’t use a grappling hook, to swing around, probably all that armor and big gut. The Thief can’t create boxes or planks to solve jumpy puzzles. Class distinction actually matters and made Torchlight’s attempt at Class differentiation appear languid.
Improvements
How could Torchlight be better? Well I’m not a game designer, but I know what I like. I think the game could have been better by being shorter. This goes for the number of levels in the campaign, character levels, and a pruning of the skill trees. Some of the enemies have resistances, but not many with immunities. Now, I am playing on Normal, so I don’t know if the higher difficulties have immunities. I only bring this up because in some Fantasy worlds Mechanical beings are immune to all forms of magic. Since, I am playing a caster, this would have required me to change to using my weapons. Conversely, there should be a phased NPC immune to physical attacks and requires magic. They could even have a mechanical NPC that alternates in and out of phase, requiring both types of attack. Since Runic Games has a Hall of Mirrors for an office, how about a magic mirror that spawns an evil version of the player? Or how about a boss that takes over your character and you have to play as the Boss to defeat your own toon to get your character back. Those are some ideas I just now came up with and would have really kept my attention. Any little changeup to the gameplay would have been an improvement.
I have read that after finishing the game you unlock the infinite dungeon mode. Yay! My award for getting through the repetitive gameplay is more repetitive gameplay.
What are some of the questions we have about the Torchlight MMO? Will it still be action based? To be action based, there should be no cast timers with health and mana potions a-plenty. Cooldown timers are ok, but no Cast Timers. It is so easy to fall into the familiar combat stylings of WoW. Will there be the Trinity of Tank-Healer-DPS? I keep hoping some company will kill this forced bi-polar co-dependent relationship. Will it maintain the stylistic cartoon graphics? I hope so. Can Runic Games create an actual living environment to explore? Torchlight takes place in a small mining town and the mine it sits on top of. This is a much easier environment to design than a forest or a coastline. Will you still have a pet in the Torchlight MMO? Will your pet go back to town for you and sell items in the MMO?
I paid $5 for Torchlight on the Steam Sale. Did I get my money’s worth? Yes. Would I recommend someone else buy it for $5 on Steam? I am iffy on this. By trying the demo, you will get the same gameplay, but you would not have the option of playing the different classes to see which one fits your personality.
My recommendation is try the Demo. If you like it, don’t pay full price. Wait for a $5 Steam sale.
Torchlight on Steam
I’m not going to get into the Story. I am playing the game as an Alchemist on Normal difficulty. Here we go.
One thing I need the reader to understand is that there are Levels and Character Levels. When you see me talking about Levels, I am using the term as the game does. Simply, how far down in the dungeon I have traveled. I am only on level 28 or 29 of 35. Everything you do in the first 5-10 levels is the exact same things you will be doing in the lower levels. The only difference is that you will be more efficient at it. In the beginning, my gameplay experience was one of entertainment and enjoyment that transitioned into playing out of sheer determination. The transition into grinding occurred around levels 22-24. This is Torchlight’s biggest flaw. At this time I started to get bored with it. I didn’t want to play it anymore. I began dreading even starting the game. It was like being presented with a meal I didn’t want to eat because it tasted bad. Every time I hit “Play” in Steam, it was like I was pinching my nose in order to kill any taste sensation I had just to stomach the experience. Naturally, I started to look elsewhere and so I began playing Trine. Even though Trine is a different genre of game, I think it is superior in its quality and presentation. Once this was set in my mind, I began to judge Torchlight by the example that Trine has set. Some people may think of this as comparing an apple to a strawberry. I’m actually comparing an ok apple to a great strawberry covered with whipped cream. If you are a game designer it should be your goal to make sure you never lose the attention of your players.
Video
Visually Torchlight looks great. The stylistic cartoon look works. The colors are all rich and vibrant. Spell effects are great and explosions are nice.
Sound
Audibly, the sound effects are good. There’s nothing outstanding about the sound of lightning and the pistol I carry in my off hand. I’m not sure what I should be expecting in sound either. The sound effects are crisp, but there’s nothing that really stands out. This leads me to the soundtrack.
Many have compared Torchlight to Diablo. This is a fair comparison since the same people that made Torchlight, made Diablo. While some praise the game for this relation, I would consider it the biggest flaw. In another example of repetition, the musical style is the same as Diablo. The game has about 3 or 4 tracks of the same variation of the Tristram theme. If someone was simply listening to the game, one might think they were playing Diablo again. So not only does Torchlight repeat everything it tries to present as original, it also repeats Diablo. After playing this game, I have an image in my head that the Cube Farms of Runic Games looks like a Hall of Mirrors. This isn’t true by the way, their offices are actually nice.
Artificial Intelligence
The Artificial Intelligence in this game is very basic. Monsters simply run and cast at you. Some minions run away if you kill a fellow minion. But, they eventually come back. The one piece of Artificial Intelligence you will pay attention to is your pet. When you create a new character in Torchlight you can select a Cat or a Dog as a pet. This pet will melee attack enemies and has 2 spell slots where purchased spells can be put in. The pet will cast the spells at random and sometimes even when NPC’s aren’t around, as in the case of Heal and Silence. I was standing in the town and my pet kept casting Heal Self over and over. My cat ran out of mana just sitting in town. He was already at full health, why is he casting Heal Self? Another annoying bit is that the pet often gets stuck on some of the architecture of the dungeons. I’ll often be fighting a group and notice that things aren’t dying as fast as they should be. I’ll look for my pet and notice on the mini-map that he is two rooms back. You are probably wondering how you can lose your pet. During fights there are so many explosions and spells firing off that it becomes difficult to see exactly what is going on. Most of my fights involve me casting spells into a group, and the pet will go tank another group. I’ll toss some explosion spells over there to help it out and keep hitting stuff with chain lightning. The pet is so small he’s just easy to overlook in the mess. The pet, while a good tank and companion, often has path finding issues. It is very detracting from the game experience to have to go back and lead your pet through various obstacles as hard as a flight of stairs, to a simple overturned table or a pile of rocks.
Your Character
Character building is pretty generic. Every character has 4 stats, 3 Skill Trees and 4 Spell slots. The in-game Tooltips aren’t very specific or helpful when it comes to your stats. For Example, Dexterity increases the chance to hit and crit with a ranged weapon. It will even tell you how much, for example it says, “+9 to Critical Hit”. Is that 9/100 or 9/10? I don’t have a scale to compare this value with. Also, it is not presented how much Dexterity it takes to raise that value. Numbers don’t necessarily make a game for me, Trine has none for example. But, once a game starts displaying numbers it had better be ready to explain how they operate. Maybe, some of this explained in detail in the manual, but I sure don’t remember seeing it.
The Skills a character gains are spread into Tiers. Skillpoints are gained at a rate of 1 per character level and 1 per fame level. Fame is achieved by killing mini-bosses throughout the dungeons. The highest level Skills require a character level of 25. Since you can bank Skillpoints, I found myself saving up for the higher levels. Perhaps this lead to some of the repetition I suffered. If so, the skill trees need to be reworked to entice me to spend those points as I reached each tier. Some of the skills, while nice to have, did not particularly seem desirable or useful. It also seemed that I really only needed 2 of the 3 trees.
The 4 Spell slots might as well be 3 spell slots. This is a consequence of yet another repeated mechanic. Torchlight took the mechanic of using Town Portal and Identify Scrolls. The issue a player runs into is that you have limited bag space. Bag space is such a premium, it is much better to buy or loot a Spell of Town Portal and put it in one of your 4 slots than to take up a bag slot. Since Identify and Town Portal are used so often by characters, something desperately needs to change. From a Lore standpoint, if everyone uses these scrolls all the time, they should eventually know how to do it inherently. Simply put, the Identify system needs to just be scrapped. I hate to bring World of Warcraft into this, but the Identify mechanic doesn’t exist there. When you loot an item, if you meet the requirements, you should be able to use it. Before anyone argues about WoW being an MMO, Runic Games is about to begin showing us the Torchlight MMO. This leads to several questions, which I’ll go into later.
The pet you have following you around doubles your bag space. You have the option to send it to town to sell everything in your pets inventory. This is a convenience to keep the player moving forward. However, more often than not, you find yourself waiting for your pet to come back before proceeding. While the pet is away you can alt-tab out and take a break from the monotany.
Class Balance
Question: What is the difference between me casting a lightning bolt that jumps across 3 NPC’s and a Vanquisher that shoots a bow that shoots 3 NPC’s with a lightning attack? Answer: depending on the skill trees and equipment being used, there is no difference. Simply by being single-player, Torchlight hides the blurred lines the Classes share in Skills and gameplay. While you can specialize and try to play different styles, you inevitably wind up doing one of two things. You either stand at range and make funky lights and explosions, or stand in an NPC’s face and make funky lights and explosions. Here again, I can’t help but bring up Trine. You play three characters in Trine. Each one is distinct in their abilities. The Wizard can’t wield a sword and shield and melee effectively. The Knight can’t use a grappling hook, to swing around, probably all that armor and big gut. The Thief can’t create boxes or planks to solve jumpy puzzles. Class distinction actually matters and made Torchlight’s attempt at Class differentiation appear languid.
Improvements
How could Torchlight be better? Well I’m not a game designer, but I know what I like. I think the game could have been better by being shorter. This goes for the number of levels in the campaign, character levels, and a pruning of the skill trees. Some of the enemies have resistances, but not many with immunities. Now, I am playing on Normal, so I don’t know if the higher difficulties have immunities. I only bring this up because in some Fantasy worlds Mechanical beings are immune to all forms of magic. Since, I am playing a caster, this would have required me to change to using my weapons. Conversely, there should be a phased NPC immune to physical attacks and requires magic. They could even have a mechanical NPC that alternates in and out of phase, requiring both types of attack. Since Runic Games has a Hall of Mirrors for an office, how about a magic mirror that spawns an evil version of the player? Or how about a boss that takes over your character and you have to play as the Boss to defeat your own toon to get your character back. Those are some ideas I just now came up with and would have really kept my attention. Any little changeup to the gameplay would have been an improvement.
I have read that after finishing the game you unlock the infinite dungeon mode. Yay! My award for getting through the repetitive gameplay is more repetitive gameplay.
What are some of the questions we have about the Torchlight MMO? Will it still be action based? To be action based, there should be no cast timers with health and mana potions a-plenty. Cooldown timers are ok, but no Cast Timers. It is so easy to fall into the familiar combat stylings of WoW. Will there be the Trinity of Tank-Healer-DPS? I keep hoping some company will kill this forced bi-polar co-dependent relationship. Will it maintain the stylistic cartoon graphics? I hope so. Can Runic Games create an actual living environment to explore? Torchlight takes place in a small mining town and the mine it sits on top of. This is a much easier environment to design than a forest or a coastline. Will you still have a pet in the Torchlight MMO? Will your pet go back to town for you and sell items in the MMO?
I paid $5 for Torchlight on the Steam Sale. Did I get my money’s worth? Yes. Would I recommend someone else buy it for $5 on Steam? I am iffy on this. By trying the demo, you will get the same gameplay, but you would not have the option of playing the different classes to see which one fits your personality.
My recommendation is try the Demo. If you like it, don’t pay full price. Wait for a $5 Steam sale.
Torchlight on Steam
Friday, July 9, 2010
Blizzard says Woops
Blizzard recants
This is the first time I can remember Blizzard reversing a decision like this.
I did read an article that they implemented this due to a Korean Law.
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zeroday/2010/07/07/is-korean-law-driving-policy-at-blizzard/
My wife asked why they can't just implement that change in Korea. Working for a software company, I told her it should be easy. We change which labels clients use for the same field all the time in our DB.
I'm guessing some Junior Executive that doesn't know how the Internet, technology, or the culture works decided to try and save money from maintaining different code for the forums in different cultures.
This is the first time I can remember Blizzard reversing a decision like this.
I did read an article that they implemented this due to a Korean Law.
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zeroday/2010/07/07/is-korean-law-driving-policy-at-blizzard/
My wife asked why they can't just implement that change in Korea. Working for a software company, I told her it should be easy. We change which labels clients use for the same field all the time in our DB.
I'm guessing some Junior Executive that doesn't know how the Internet, technology, or the culture works decided to try and save money from maintaining different code for the forums in different cultures.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Blizzard's New Forum Policy
There is a thread on the WoW Europe Forums regarding their new forum Policy. Basically they are going to make sure everyone uses the RealID system. This will require people to post with their first and last names.
There are many discussions about this.
This is a moot point. Blizzard developers don't read the WoW forums. They go to Elitist Jerks
There is also a mistaken belief that jerks refuse to identify themselves. On the contrary, many of these flamers will be happy to tell you who they are. It is surprising that Blizzard doesn't know this, given their recent arrangement with Facebook. Elitist Jerks allows for nicknames. They are probably better at moderating their boards though. It's a more High Class version of the Blizzard forums. Even though that bar may not be high to begin with.
There are many discussions about this.
This is a moot point. Blizzard developers don't read the WoW forums. They go to Elitist Jerks
There is also a mistaken belief that jerks refuse to identify themselves. On the contrary, many of these flamers will be happy to tell you who they are. It is surprising that Blizzard doesn't know this, given their recent arrangement with Facebook. Elitist Jerks allows for nicknames. They are probably better at moderating their boards though. It's a more High Class version of the Blizzard forums. Even though that bar may not be high to begin with.
The Steam “Perils of Summer” Super Bargain Bin Sale
Steam had another awesome sale this last week. In the original design of Steam it was to be a multiplayer service. Thankfully, Valve has transformed it into much more. As much as I have enjoyed playing Team Fortress 2 multiplayer on Steam, my favorite feature of Steam is the Store. The most remarkable thing about the store is that Sales can happen at random. They have NO aggressive advertising. Instead they put the sales on their webpage and on the Steam Launcher. When gamers login they see the sales and start telling each other. News of the sale traveled at near the speed of light. If you are invested in racing, whether NASCAR or Formula1, find a consumer and put them in the driver seat and tell them there is a sale ahead. You will have a winner every time.
Now everything I want to talk about is for the gamer on a budget. This isn’t for people who intend buying up every bargain or pack. Even though some of the packs are great deals, I don't want to spend $70-$80 for a pack. I wanted to share some of my thinking on the sale. A few things you need to consider when looking at a Steam sale. For what purpose should you use the Steam sale? How should someone handle a Steam Sale? And most importantly, what did I get for the Summer Sale?
The number one thing you need to use the Steam Sale for is to get a bargain on a great game. That sounds obvious, but many people are buying Full Price games at 33-50% off, instead of setting a ceiling cap on what they are willing to pay, this goes into how you handle the Steam Sale. For example some games have been marked down from their $49.99 - $59.99 initial price to $39.99-$49.99. During the sale they are reduced 50% to $19.99-$24.99. This is not really a bargain. You want something that’s been doubly reduced. Set a cap on an individual game. For me this was $9.99. Now, some games were on sale for $10.16. While I can accept that price point, I wasn’t interested in any of those games.
You also probably need to define a great game. Find a game that you have finished and really enjoyed. Find reviews for the game which match your own, including play styles. Find other games the reviewer may have enjoyed and just write out a list of what they considered a great game. Seeing as how it's 2010, it was easy for me to find reviewers and bloggers with lists for "Best games of the decade". Set up a list of games you are looking for. Steam has Metacritic scores, if they have them, posted on each games section in the store. This is to help you find a game that has good reviews.
The second thing you need to do for any “sale” is to set a budget. For the Steam sale I set myself a budget of $20-$25. Why did I have a range? Some games have an odd price which you will see later.
Here is the list I made with the prices I was looking for with some reasons why.
“Dead Space” for $9.99
Supposedly it was listed for this price two weeks ago and I missed it, grr. The main reason I am interested in this game is that former members of Looking Glass studios worked on this.
“Crysis” for $9.99
They put Crysis on sale, but it was 14.99. That was over the individual cap that I had.
“Freedom Force Freedom Pack”
I have seen many people call this series some of the best games ever made. This was made by Irrational game who made System Shock and Bioshock. They have a good reputation.
“Torchlight” for $5
I tried the demo and didn’t think it was worth the original price they asked for. They had “Torchlight” for this price during the Christmas sale and I wish I had picked it up then.
“King’s Bounty”
Bill Harris over at Dubious Quality considers this one of the best games he has ever played.
So what did I wind up getting:
“Freedom Force” and “Freedom Force vs the Third Reich”: $5.61
These games went on sale two days after I picked it up and I lost out about $3. $5.61 is still a great price for these games.
“Torchlight”: $5
I have already spent 14 hours playing this game. I still haven’t finished the campaign. I already got my money’s worth out of this one.
“Trine”:$4
This was an opportunity purchase. I tried the demo and the only word I can use to describe this game is charming. This is game is full of quality. I can see why so many players love it. I plan to play it right after I finish “Torchlight”.
“Red Faction: Guerrilla”: $5
This was another opportunity purchase. I’ve seen some people, in particular Bill Harris mentioned above, call this one of the best games of 2009, or whatever year it came out. I really like it so far. Try to imagine if Borderlands met Grand Theft Auto. Borderlands drops you in a mission hub and the world around you is just dead. There is life, but it is mostly things you shoot. There aren’t many other people around. When you do interact with people you get a Mission Log thrust in your face with an “Accept” or “Cancel” option. On the other hand, “Red Faction: Guerrilla” gives you a purpose and engages the player actively. This is key for any game, but “Red Faction: Guerilla” does a better job of it than many other games I have played. The world around just seems alive with all the people walking and driving around, going about the business of mining and manufacturing. The production value is just better.
“King’s Bounty the Legend”: $3.24
The “King’s Bounty Gold Edition” had both the first and 2nd game in the series for $9.99. If I had purchased the pack, I would have spent $29.60, which would put me over budget. So I bought the first game and if I like it, I’ll get the 2nd game during another sale. If I don’t like it, I’ll save myself a few dollars.
So what was my total spent for the sale? $22.85
That’s about $3.81 cents, rounded up, per game. I think I made a lot of good choices while staying in my budget. I hope I spend a lot of time with each of these and can get some of them finished before the next sale.
Now everything I want to talk about is for the gamer on a budget. This isn’t for people who intend buying up every bargain or pack. Even though some of the packs are great deals, I don't want to spend $70-$80 for a pack. I wanted to share some of my thinking on the sale. A few things you need to consider when looking at a Steam sale. For what purpose should you use the Steam sale? How should someone handle a Steam Sale? And most importantly, what did I get for the Summer Sale?
The number one thing you need to use the Steam Sale for is to get a bargain on a great game. That sounds obvious, but many people are buying Full Price games at 33-50% off, instead of setting a ceiling cap on what they are willing to pay, this goes into how you handle the Steam Sale. For example some games have been marked down from their $49.99 - $59.99 initial price to $39.99-$49.99. During the sale they are reduced 50% to $19.99-$24.99. This is not really a bargain. You want something that’s been doubly reduced. Set a cap on an individual game. For me this was $9.99. Now, some games were on sale for $10.16. While I can accept that price point, I wasn’t interested in any of those games.
You also probably need to define a great game. Find a game that you have finished and really enjoyed. Find reviews for the game which match your own, including play styles. Find other games the reviewer may have enjoyed and just write out a list of what they considered a great game. Seeing as how it's 2010, it was easy for me to find reviewers and bloggers with lists for "Best games of the decade". Set up a list of games you are looking for. Steam has Metacritic scores, if they have them, posted on each games section in the store. This is to help you find a game that has good reviews.
The second thing you need to do for any “sale” is to set a budget. For the Steam sale I set myself a budget of $20-$25. Why did I have a range? Some games have an odd price which you will see later.
Here is the list I made with the prices I was looking for with some reasons why.
“Dead Space” for $9.99
Supposedly it was listed for this price two weeks ago and I missed it, grr. The main reason I am interested in this game is that former members of Looking Glass studios worked on this.
“Crysis” for $9.99
They put Crysis on sale, but it was 14.99. That was over the individual cap that I had.
“Freedom Force Freedom Pack”
I have seen many people call this series some of the best games ever made. This was made by Irrational game who made System Shock and Bioshock. They have a good reputation.
“Torchlight” for $5
I tried the demo and didn’t think it was worth the original price they asked for. They had “Torchlight” for this price during the Christmas sale and I wish I had picked it up then.
“King’s Bounty”
Bill Harris over at Dubious Quality considers this one of the best games he has ever played.
So what did I wind up getting:
“Freedom Force” and “Freedom Force vs the Third Reich”: $5.61
These games went on sale two days after I picked it up and I lost out about $3. $5.61 is still a great price for these games.
“Torchlight”: $5
I have already spent 14 hours playing this game. I still haven’t finished the campaign. I already got my money’s worth out of this one.
“Trine”:$4
This was an opportunity purchase. I tried the demo and the only word I can use to describe this game is charming. This is game is full of quality. I can see why so many players love it. I plan to play it right after I finish “Torchlight”.
“Red Faction: Guerrilla”: $5
This was another opportunity purchase. I’ve seen some people, in particular Bill Harris mentioned above, call this one of the best games of 2009, or whatever year it came out. I really like it so far. Try to imagine if Borderlands met Grand Theft Auto. Borderlands drops you in a mission hub and the world around you is just dead. There is life, but it is mostly things you shoot. There aren’t many other people around. When you do interact with people you get a Mission Log thrust in your face with an “Accept” or “Cancel” option. On the other hand, “Red Faction: Guerrilla” gives you a purpose and engages the player actively. This is key for any game, but “Red Faction: Guerilla” does a better job of it than many other games I have played. The world around just seems alive with all the people walking and driving around, going about the business of mining and manufacturing. The production value is just better.
“King’s Bounty the Legend”: $3.24
The “King’s Bounty Gold Edition” had both the first and 2nd game in the series for $9.99. If I had purchased the pack, I would have spent $29.60, which would put me over budget. So I bought the first game and if I like it, I’ll get the 2nd game during another sale. If I don’t like it, I’ll save myself a few dollars.
So what was my total spent for the sale? $22.85
That’s about $3.81 cents, rounded up, per game. I think I made a lot of good choices while staying in my budget. I hope I spend a lot of time with each of these and can get some of them finished before the next sale.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The Next Generation has finally arrived.
E3 2010 has shown us something exciting. It has shown us that finally after 6 years of the World of Warcraft era of MMO's, the Next Generation has finally arrived. Here, take a look at the following trailers.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0RuR3FREFw
Warhammer 40k Online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHu4Na0lsd0
DC Universe Online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hD4G8HlW8o
I think the next-generation of MMO's have finally arrived. Not simply because the Warhammer trailer actually says that, but because two of these games look like they are fun to play. Which game do I think doesn't look like fun?
Star Wars the Old Republic.
I'm sorry, but the Gameplay Trailer, makes it look like it is still using turned based timing attacks. The other two games look like they are action oriented. Here is the gameplay, complete with a mission.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-suP_LKcQcU
I think Star Wars, as a universe is a Dead Horse that everyone keeps beating. Bioware may make a great and successful MMO, but it is still a Dead Horse. I think the Mass Effect Universe is more compelling than Star Wars, but that's just my preference.
There have been MMO's released since WoW, but none have reached the standard that WoW has set. Some have directly copied World of Warcraft and became a moderate success. But, that is all they are, moderate. I think now, for the first time in over 6 years, other MMO's actually look good and exciting. They have finally reached up to WoW's standard and have just begun to push it up.
I hope for Blizzard's sake they show their Top Secret MMO project at this years Blizzcon. If they wait another year, the masses may leave World of Warcraft and begin to build guilds and social networks in other games. Once the river overflows in another direction, it is near impossible to get back.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0RuR3FREFw
Warhammer 40k Online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHu4Na0lsd0
DC Universe Online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hD4G8HlW8o
I think the next-generation of MMO's have finally arrived. Not simply because the Warhammer trailer actually says that, but because two of these games look like they are fun to play. Which game do I think doesn't look like fun?
Star Wars the Old Republic.
I'm sorry, but the Gameplay Trailer, makes it look like it is still using turned based timing attacks. The other two games look like they are action oriented. Here is the gameplay, complete with a mission.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-suP_LKcQcU
I think Star Wars, as a universe is a Dead Horse that everyone keeps beating. Bioware may make a great and successful MMO, but it is still a Dead Horse. I think the Mass Effect Universe is more compelling than Star Wars, but that's just my preference.
There have been MMO's released since WoW, but none have reached the standard that WoW has set. Some have directly copied World of Warcraft and became a moderate success. But, that is all they are, moderate. I think now, for the first time in over 6 years, other MMO's actually look good and exciting. They have finally reached up to WoW's standard and have just begun to push it up.
I hope for Blizzard's sake they show their Top Secret MMO project at this years Blizzcon. If they wait another year, the masses may leave World of Warcraft and begin to build guilds and social networks in other games. Once the river overflows in another direction, it is near impossible to get back.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Star Trek, the Armageddon of 2009
Note: This is an older item I wrote, but I wanted it up on my blog anyway. So this is all cut and paste, except for this note.
When I saw JJ Abrams Star Trek, I liked it. But, the more I think about it, the more my thoughts about it changed. I realized that I have experienced this sensation before about another movie: Michael Bay's "Armageddon". So, that's what I think of JJ Abrams Star Trek Now. It's the Armageddon of 2009.
My friend Jason Jenkins recently saw the and we had a nice little chat about it. Here are many of the reasons/items which kept me from enjoying the movie fully. I have to point out that my wonderful wife, brought up some of these points too.
1. What Starship Designer decided to have 40 foot tall ceilings in engineering? "You know what we need? Big ceilings!"
2. Why are there 8 Warp Core's?
3. Why did Kirk and Sulu need to be trained in hand to hand combat? Phasers worked near the drill.
4. Why didn't Kirk and Sulu just get inside the drill and turn it off? Why didn't they get inside the drill and wait for it to be retracted, thus boarding the enemy ship?
5. Where were all of the Vulcan defense systems?
6. How could Spock see Vulcan from Delta Vega? Isn't that in another star system? Also, if there was a black hole, would he see anything at all?
7. If they could beam Kirk, Sulu up while falling from sub orbit, why couldn't Chekov get Spock's mother who fell 10 feet?
8. Why are there only 10000 Vulcans left? We know the Vulcan's have colonies and ships.
9. Where were the Temporal Agents from the 31st Century who prevent people from using time travel to change past events?
10. If a super-nova can threaten the whole galaxy, how big was that star? Why save only Romulus?
11. How would starting a Black Hole near Romulus save it?
"Well it'll suck in the supernova, but now your sun is gone, and your planet too."
12. Also how far away is Vulcan from earth? Wouldn't that Black Hole pose a risk?
13. Why can ships pass through Black Hole's, but planets with solid iron core's are destroyed?
14. Why didn't Pike take command back when they got back to the ship?
15. What exactly did Pike do to deserve a promotion to admiral? "It seemed to me that all he did was get captured and gave away info about starfleet."
16. After his rescue, Pike walked off the transporter? What happened to his legs? Was McCoy his doctor? Did McCoy's treatment cause paralysis?
17. Where was Kirk's Irish Tormentor? Finnegan?
18. Since Sybok was banished from Vulcan before Spock joined Starfleet, is he still alive? (A co-worker asked this)
19. Are Photon Torpedoes really no bigger than people's hands?
20. What is red matter? Is it artificially created? If so, why not load up the ships Photon Torpedoes with this stuff?
21. Was Delta Vega the source of the Cloverfield creature? Did our military not try holding a torch and shouting loudly?
You might be wondering on what I thought Star Trek did right? I enjoyed the characters and chemistry of the cast. The Special effects were good.
I did like this quote from Timbis, Jason found in the comments here:
http://www.wetasphalt.com/?q=content/star-trek-what-ridiculous-load-crap
From Timbis: "I felt like I went to Disneyland and Micky was a cat, and Donald was a fish, and I was the only one that noticed. And the people that did notice were saying, it's ok just have a good time, it'll be fine. And it WASN'T FINE! It was lame!"
PS: A Trekkie's true power is the ability to spot plot holes.
Edited Questions
1. Shouldn't there be a trial for mutiny?
2. Why during an emergency, did every officer leave the bridge? Uhura still hadn't graduated from Starfleet and was left on the bridge.
When I saw JJ Abrams Star Trek, I liked it. But, the more I think about it, the more my thoughts about it changed. I realized that I have experienced this sensation before about another movie: Michael Bay's "Armageddon". So, that's what I think of JJ Abrams Star Trek Now. It's the Armageddon of 2009.
My friend Jason Jenkins recently saw the and we had a nice little chat about it. Here are many of the reasons/items which kept me from enjoying the movie fully. I have to point out that my wonderful wife, brought up some of these points too.
1. What Starship Designer decided to have 40 foot tall ceilings in engineering? "You know what we need? Big ceilings!"
2. Why are there 8 Warp Core's?
3. Why did Kirk and Sulu need to be trained in hand to hand combat? Phasers worked near the drill.
4. Why didn't Kirk and Sulu just get inside the drill and turn it off? Why didn't they get inside the drill and wait for it to be retracted, thus boarding the enemy ship?
5. Where were all of the Vulcan defense systems?
6. How could Spock see Vulcan from Delta Vega? Isn't that in another star system? Also, if there was a black hole, would he see anything at all?
7. If they could beam Kirk, Sulu up while falling from sub orbit, why couldn't Chekov get Spock's mother who fell 10 feet?
8. Why are there only 10000 Vulcans left? We know the Vulcan's have colonies and ships.
9. Where were the Temporal Agents from the 31st Century who prevent people from using time travel to change past events?
10. If a super-nova can threaten the whole galaxy, how big was that star? Why save only Romulus?
11. How would starting a Black Hole near Romulus save it?
"Well it'll suck in the supernova, but now your sun is gone, and your planet too."
12. Also how far away is Vulcan from earth? Wouldn't that Black Hole pose a risk?
13. Why can ships pass through Black Hole's, but planets with solid iron core's are destroyed?
14. Why didn't Pike take command back when they got back to the ship?
15. What exactly did Pike do to deserve a promotion to admiral? "It seemed to me that all he did was get captured and gave away info about starfleet."
16. After his rescue, Pike walked off the transporter? What happened to his legs? Was McCoy his doctor? Did McCoy's treatment cause paralysis?
17. Where was Kirk's Irish Tormentor? Finnegan?
18. Since Sybok was banished from Vulcan before Spock joined Starfleet, is he still alive? (A co-worker asked this)
19. Are Photon Torpedoes really no bigger than people's hands?
20. What is red matter? Is it artificially created? If so, why not load up the ships Photon Torpedoes with this stuff?
21. Was Delta Vega the source of the Cloverfield creature? Did our military not try holding a torch and shouting loudly?
You might be wondering on what I thought Star Trek did right? I enjoyed the characters and chemistry of the cast. The Special effects were good.
I did like this quote from Timbis, Jason found in the comments here:
http://www.wetasphalt.com/
From Timbis: "I felt like I went to Disneyland and Micky was a cat, and Donald was a fish, and I was the only one that noticed. And the people that did notice were saying, it's ok just have a good time, it'll be fine. And it WASN'T FINE! It was lame!"
PS: A Trekkie's true power is the ability to spot plot holes.
Edited Questions
1. Shouldn't there be a trial for mutiny?
2. Why during an emergency, did every officer leave the bridge? Uhura still hadn't graduated from Starfleet and was left on the bridge.
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