maingon

Picked up Cities XL and somehow spent 14 hours playing it the past few days. Dont know how....and all my cities suck. All are broke. Fun game though.

flashburn

Only $7 less, but I hate to say I told you so (not really)...

I think I'll probably get it, since I have only bought The Witcher so far.

GreenVulture

Cities XL 2011 ($19.99) [50% off]
Eve: Incursion ($4.99) [75% off]
Killing Floor - Bundle ($6.99) [75% off]
Lost Planet 2 ($19.99) [50% off; 60% off if you own the first game]
Machinarium ($2.99) [85% off]
Mirror's Edge ($4.99) [75% off]
Neverwinter Nights 2 - Platinum ($9.99) [50% off]
Serious Sam HD - Gold Edition ($3.99) [90% off]
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ($2.49) [75% off]
Street Fighter IV ($14.99) [50% off]
Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 ($33.49) [33% off]
Victoria series [70% off]

Indie Game - Power of Defense ($2.50) [75% off]

DGibFen

Today's (12/27) deals:

Cities XL 2011 - $19.99 (50% off)
EVE Online: Incursion - $4.99 (75% off)
Machinarium - $2.99 (85% off)
D&D Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum - $9.99 (50% off)
Street Fighter IV - $14.99 (50% off)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - $2.49 (75% off)
All Victoria games are 70% off
Serious Sam HD Gold Edition - $3.99 (90% off)
Lost Planet 2 - $19.99 (50% off) or $15.99 (If you own Lost Planet: Extreme Condition or Colonies Edition)
HAWX 2 - $33.49 (33% off)
Mirror's Edge - $4.99 (75% off)
Killing Floor Complete Pack - $6.99 (75% off)

Drexl

Anyone who may have been thinking of HAWX 2 might want to know that Ubisoft's DRM requires an internet connection at all times to play. Other recent Ubisoft games have the same issue.

shizawn

Machinarium looks really interesting. I'm going to pick that one up.

Decker

It was part of the Humble Bundle 2 that just closed. You didn't get in on that one?

flashburn

Today's deals:
Brothers in Blood games - 50-75% off
The Ball - $4.99
Swords & Soldiers HD - $2.50
Sniper: Ghost Warrior - $7.50
Quake Collection - $10.20
Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition - $4.00
Kane & Lynch 2 - $4.99
Dead Space - $6.80
City of Heroes Going Rogue Complete Collection - $10.00
Hearts of Iron 3 Complete - $14.10
Greed Corp - $2.50
Amnesia: The Dark Descent - $6.80

Daily Indie Deal:
Archon Classic - $2.50

flashburn

Went ahead and picked up Sniper, I heard it was pretty good, and that's a nice price.

Anyone know how Swords & Soldiers is? I'll probably just grab it for $2.50, but thought I'd ask first.

lordwow

I got the Mix Pack, primarily for DEFCON, but I have to say, Eufloria is turning out to be my favorite.

flashburn

Picked up Swords & Soldiers after trying the PS3 demo, fun little game.

Drexl

I'm getting that Amnesia thing, which is $4.80 if you have any of the Penumbra games.

Has anyone played The Ball? It looks interesting.

UncleGramps

I'm pretty sure that there's a Steam demo for The Ball if you want to give it a spin before you buy it.

flashburn

Yep, there is a demo for it. I was interested in it but the demo turned me off it. Didn't like the FPS gameplay mechanics of it.

Decker

Fairly good weekend sale : Penny Arcade 1 & 2 Bundle for $2.99. Those games were obscenely priced at $20 and $15 respectively on XBLA. At this price, though, they're worth picking up. No gamepad compatibility though, unfortunately. (At least I couldn't find any).

Groucho

I think those games play better w/ mouse and keyboard myself. $2.99 is a great price.

Ghym

Steam is having sales this week. A different game on sale each day.

Today is Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition for $7.50

Quake1028

Bought it, since I missed the Xmas sale .

Ghym

Tuesday's deal.

Just Cause 2 for $7.50.

They also have the first Just Cause for $3.75.

RichC2

Great game, probably delicious too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohyum/5153591006/

Ghym

Wednesday's deal.

Front Mission Evolved for $12.49

The DLC is also 75% off.

Ghym

Thursday's deal.

Supreme Commander 2 for $3.74.

SupCom2: Infinite War Battle Pack DLC for $2.49.

Ghym

Friday's deal.

The Hitman Collection for $7.47.
Or each game separately is $2.49.

They are also having a weekend sale on Civilization.

Civilization V for $29.99
Civilization IV Complete Edition for $7.50

Jam Master Jay

Cool, I just recently signed up for Steam. Think I'll grab both of those Civilization games.

kgrogers1979

The Hitman collection isn't complete. It is missing Hitman 3: Contracts for some reason.

Also I would say Civ V isn't worth $30. That game was a massive disappointment, easily the worst Civ game in the franchise. Most people on the civfanatics site (the biggest Civ site on the internet) don't like it either. Many of them, myself included, went back to playing Civ IV...

Civ V tried to streamline the game and ultimately they streamlined too much.

The new hexagonal interface is great and probably the best thing about the game.

The one unit per tile was a good idea in theory, but it in the end it really shows just how incompetent the AI is at strategy. So while this aspect was intended to improve combat, it actually made it worse. Your small army can be extremely outnumbered and still easily defeat an AI army just because the AI is so bad and doesn't use any real strategy.

Diplomacy is all but gone. Civ IV had excellent diplomacy that was quite entertaining. Rival religious nations would almost always result in wars breaking out. Making friends with at least some of the AI nations was pretty essential for most victories. Civ V basically has no diplomacy. No matter what you do, every AI nation is going to end up hating you in Civ V. There is really no way to make a lasting friendship with anyone. This means the diplomatic win by winning enough votes from the UN is essentially a sham. The only way to win is to have deep enough pockets to bribe everyone to vote for you. Some "diplomatic" win that is.

The lack of movies for completing wonders and especially the lack of victory movies is very disappointing. You win and nothing. Not even a detailed analysis of what all happened throughout the years or who ranked where in different categories. All you get is just a message saying "congratulations" basically.

Worst of all the game is a huge resource hog. Unless you have a very fast quad-core CPU and a bare minimum of 4 GB RAM, then good luck playing on any map bigger than the standard map. In the late game once the AIs get all built up, the load time between turns becomes unbearable, easily approaching a minute long.

Overall the game just lacks the "one more turn" feeling that the previous Civ games gave you. I had many many many sleepless nights where I stayed up all night playing Civ IV. I still replay Civ IV frequently to this day. I was bored with Civ V within a week and never once stayed up all night playing it....