EvaUnit02 on 30/12/2009 at 19:45
Today's deals:-
Osmos - $2 USD - 80% off
Call of Duty: World at War - $25 - 50% off
FIFA Manager 10 - $33.49 - 33% off
Civilisation 4 - $6.79 - 66% off (I'd honestly just opt for the Complete Edition bundle with all the expansions for $13.60)
Left 4 Dead 1 - $7.50 - 50% off
Nothing there that I want today. I already own Civ4 Euro Complete on disc + (Colonisation 2 from Gamersgate), CoD:WaW and L4D1.
Aja on 30/12/2009 at 19:54
Sweet, I've been waiting for Left for Dead to get super-cheap. And at $2, everyone should get Osmos.
Shadowcat on 30/12/2009 at 21:20
I don't want to start anything up again, but there is one significant advantage to using Steam's backup facility -- you end up with just a handful of files per game, not the thousands that is so common (I wish that more companies would realise that Id's approach is very sensible, and mimic it).
I was copying my Steam games to an external drive the other day, and the overhead in opening and closing all those thousands of files is really significant. Copying a handful of big files is much faster.
It also seems to do a bit of compression, which improves things even more (but the file count is still a big factor).
steamapps: ~52,000 files, 31.5 GB
backup: 120 files, 27.7 GB
Nothing wrong with just copying the whole thing, but this is the main reason I'm now using the built-in backup system.
edit: In fact the compression is better than that. That backup includes at least 8GB of (compressed) data for games that I subsequently uninstalled from my primary drive, so I think the ratio would actually be more than 3:2 in my case.
twisty on 31/12/2009 at 09:58
My god I'm a sucker. I've accumulated such a large amount of games through Steam that I'll probably never play but at the price of some of them it has been pretty hard to refuse.
SubJeff on 31/12/2009 at 10:16
I hear you.
Zerker on 31/12/2009 at 14:06
Osmos looks kinda neat, but I think I'd rather get the multiplatform DRM-free version from the developer so I can play without booting into Windows.
Of course, I still need to try the demo to decide if I like it or not. The trailer looks somewhat like Art Style : Orbient, although less strictly about orbital mechanics.
gunsmoke on 31/12/2009 at 15:26
Wow, L4D for $7? I have never played it before. Maybe this will get me in the door.
I don't play many multiplayer games these days, though. I used to be one of the best in the world in FarCry multiplayer, spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours on S.W.A.T. 4, and was godly at Soldier of Fortune 2 multiplayer. I semi-'retired' in early 2006, and haven't found a new game that really grabbed me and the style of online play I enjoy.
That said, L4D has piqued my interest since its release, and had I owned a computer that wouldn't reboot every time I launched a SOURCE game I would have bought it day 1. I would love to get in on it, possibly with some fellow TTLG'ers, but I have one concern; should I just go ahead and get the sequel, L4D2? They have demos of both games, right? Hopefully they do. I will sample the goods.
Jason Moyer on 31/12/2009 at 18:34
Despite what everyone else is going to tell you, they're different enough that it's worth getting both eventually, and personally I like the levels/cast better in the first one.
june gloom on 31/12/2009 at 20:40
I'm not buying L4D2 unless one of two things happen- they improve the bot code and/or the price drops below $20. It's nothing to do with the boycott though.
EvaUnit02 on 31/12/2009 at 21:58
Kick ass, Shattered Horizon for $5 USD. I'm all over that.
Today's deal:-
Street Fighter 4 - $10 USD - 75% off
Half-Life: Source - $2.50 - 75% off
Crysis Maximum Edition - 66% off (Has SecuROM limited activation, BTW)
Multiwinia + Darwinia - $3 - 80% off
Medieval 2: Total Wat - $7.50 - 75% off
Shattered Horizon - $5 - 75% off
Darwinia is amazing. Everyone should pick it up at that price.