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Steam purchases
Jan. 11th, 2014 10:39 amDuring this past turn of the New Year, just before my dog fell ill, I actually for the first time purchased a good amount of games during a Steam sale. Not just at Steam, though; I did also take advantage of other sales offered during the season at competing outlets. I didn't spend enough at Steam to get a single snow globe, but I did snag:
Dream Chronicles and its sequel: These appeared to be more hidden-object nonsense, but the Art Nouveau style lured me in. I had hoped that the game would make something of its art style, but no such luck, at least with the first; the second so far seems to have beefed up its adventure-game elements.
Universe Sandbox: What it says on the box: a toy with which you can bombard Earth with meteors and give huge rings to every moon of Jupiter and launch planet-sized teapots into orbit. Sates both fun and curiosity and is not a bad occasional distraction for $1.99.
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death: Sadly, this doesn't seem to have sold well, as it's being deep-discounted only a month or two after its release (I got it for $7.49, just before the Steam sale proper; it was down to $3.47 at other outlets shortly afterward). It seems to have been widely overlooked, even during the Giant Bomb quick look, that the game is very obviously a parody of action games and big-budget blockbusters, as if the Conglomerate Company or 16,000 other things in Giant Bomb's video didn't make that clear. The gameplay is an apparent ripoff of God of War, but I'm actually looking forward to experiencing that genre without having to put up with Kratos and his ultragore. I'll need a controller to play it, though, and I don't yet have a means of hooking one up to my PC.
Damnation: I'll link this again, and everything should be explained. Supposedly an atrocity in more than a narrative & historical sense, but I'll be too FPS-motion-sick to care. It was a dollar on some Indie Gala sale. (Also, I have a spare code for Clive Barker's Jericho in the unlikely event that anyone wants it.)
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams: As with Marlow Briggs, I don't yet have the controller I'll need to enjoy this title, but from supergreatfriend's demo video, it seems like a polished and imaginative platformer with a unique dual-worlds gimmick. We get too many rehashes these days of stuff that wasn't broken in the first place; I fully support the resurrection of an old, problematic IP in a manner that brings it into its own and corrects what wasn't done right the first time.
Wizorb: Not on sale, but what the heck; it was $2.99. Promoted as an RPG-esque take on Breakout (like the SNES title Firestriker). Too hard for me in which to make any progress, though.
Kentucky Route Zero: Adventure game featuring magical realism and art deco-ish graphics that follows a deliveryman trying to find the titular route as he travels through a twilit South. Looks sharp and atmospheric. Activated on Steam but not purchased from there; the game was a failed candidate for a flash deal, and I had to go off-site for a decent discount.
Total of $31.54 spent, $12.50 of that being taken up by Kentucky Route Zero. Not bad for eight games outside a bundle - but it's not as if I don't already have a surfeit of games I want to play. Hmm. We'll see how quickly I knock some of these off.
Dream Chronicles and its sequel: These appeared to be more hidden-object nonsense, but the Art Nouveau style lured me in. I had hoped that the game would make something of its art style, but no such luck, at least with the first; the second so far seems to have beefed up its adventure-game elements.
Universe Sandbox: What it says on the box: a toy with which you can bombard Earth with meteors and give huge rings to every moon of Jupiter and launch planet-sized teapots into orbit. Sates both fun and curiosity and is not a bad occasional distraction for $1.99.
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death: Sadly, this doesn't seem to have sold well, as it's being deep-discounted only a month or two after its release (I got it for $7.49, just before the Steam sale proper; it was down to $3.47 at other outlets shortly afterward). It seems to have been widely overlooked, even during the Giant Bomb quick look, that the game is very obviously a parody of action games and big-budget blockbusters, as if the Conglomerate Company or 16,000 other things in Giant Bomb's video didn't make that clear. The gameplay is an apparent ripoff of God of War, but I'm actually looking forward to experiencing that genre without having to put up with Kratos and his ultragore. I'll need a controller to play it, though, and I don't yet have a means of hooking one up to my PC.
Damnation: I'll link this again, and everything should be explained. Supposedly an atrocity in more than a narrative & historical sense, but I'll be too FPS-motion-sick to care. It was a dollar on some Indie Gala sale. (Also, I have a spare code for Clive Barker's Jericho in the unlikely event that anyone wants it.)
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams: As with Marlow Briggs, I don't yet have the controller I'll need to enjoy this title, but from supergreatfriend's demo video, it seems like a polished and imaginative platformer with a unique dual-worlds gimmick. We get too many rehashes these days of stuff that wasn't broken in the first place; I fully support the resurrection of an old, problematic IP in a manner that brings it into its own and corrects what wasn't done right the first time.
Wizorb: Not on sale, but what the heck; it was $2.99. Promoted as an RPG-esque take on Breakout (like the SNES title Firestriker). Too hard for me in which to make any progress, though.
Kentucky Route Zero: Adventure game featuring magical realism and art deco-ish graphics that follows a deliveryman trying to find the titular route as he travels through a twilit South. Looks sharp and atmospheric. Activated on Steam but not purchased from there; the game was a failed candidate for a flash deal, and I had to go off-site for a decent discount.
Total of $31.54 spent, $12.50 of that being taken up by Kentucky Route Zero. Not bad for eight games outside a bundle - but it's not as if I don't already have a surfeit of games I want to play. Hmm. We'll see how quickly I knock some of these off.
