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STEAM Announcements & Updates 2013 IV - Christmas in July is over, back to real life

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Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Does PhysX really add more? I only have a couple of games that use them (AC is one of them) but I don't see any difference.
 

Nabs

Member
Why is spelunky in that image?



Arkham Asylum and Arkham City have the exact same similar Beta entries.

An update done to one, is always later applied to another. Historically, its seems that they have updated one beta, tested the results for 24 hours, then updated the beta entry in another game.

Bioshock 2 has similar beta entries and is being QA's by the same firm.

2k is handling B2 QA. (2kgamesqa)
 

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
Does PhysX really add more? I only have a couple of games that use them (AC is one of them) but I don't see any difference.

No it tends to add shitty particle effects that contrast harshly with the games art style and rarely seem to be effected by environment lighting. They are tack on and almost never planned by the actual game artists.
 

Grief.exe

Member
2k is handling B2 QA. (2kgamesqa)

It is being done by a company called VMC that specializes in QA https://www.vmc.com/gamelabs/SitePages/ServicesGameTesting.aspx

http://steamdb.info/sub/17039/#section_apps

There is two possible explanations for 2K QA showing up in the Bioshock 2 entry.

Either, they have their own QA department working on it simultaneously.

Or, that title is from when Bioshock 2 was originally released. If you notice, Digital Extremes is still listed as a Beta entry, and they have nothing to do with these changes. That entry is left over from Bioshock 2's multiplayer from when it was first released.
 

Nabs

Member
Slow down Grief.

We don't know that VMC is doing anything with Bioshock 2. Games get added to that sub before launch and are usually left there.

How do you know Digital Extremes isn't doing this stuff?
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Think I'll probably pass on Cloudberry Kingdom

h798F58F4
 

DukeBobby

Member
Think I'll probably pass on Cloudberry Kingdom

h798F58F4

Stump said it's pretty shit anyway:

I had a very bad time with Cloudberry Kingdom. Levels are short and not particularly interesting. Like, the geometry and the patterns repeat very commonly, the variety of obstacles (at least in the demo) is quite low--you've got pop-up spikes, moving platforms, fire fingers, ball and chains, lasers, falling blocks, and pits obviously. They really feel randomly generated. Stuff kinda doesn't fit together all that well. I mean it's all playable, it's doable, I'm not saying it doesn't work, but it just doesn't feel memorable. No one is ever going to step away from this game and say "That was a neat little section".

Jumping and horizontal movement sucks, characters are ugly, customizations are ugly, sound effects suck, the music really sucks--it feels like "nerd music" to me. Not nerd music as in chiptune or electronic, I love electronic music. Hell, I love dubstep. But it feels like low-key uninteresting My First Track techno. Just really unprovocative and unengaging.

The difficulty level ramp is kind of neat, but ultimately the controls don't support wanting to play a masochistically hard level the way Super Meat Boy's fluidity does. I played with the free play mode on maximum difficulty or whatever, and I died between 3 and 10 times in a level.

I dunno, I guess I just got absolutely nothing out of it. I like platformers, I like difficulty, I like randomly generated content. I just didn't like this.
 

JBourne

maybe tomorrow it rains
I woke up today to PM from Autofokus explaining that he didn't intentionally resolve my comment in the Dunder Store, and he apologized for doing so. Apparently he wasn't even able to see my comment, he was just inserting his own into what he thought was an unclaimed spot. I believe him, as Google Docs can be kinda wonky. He also checked out my wishlist and gifted me a copy of Fist Puncher, which makes me feel pretty shitty about assuming he was being a dick yesterday.

Next time I won't assume someone was being malicious if weird stuff happens with the store. I'm sure Dunder will work out the kinks, though.
 

Knurek

Member
God damn it, Quake games are (still) amazing.

Took me few seconds to remember how to pick up Nightmare difficulty in Q1, will need to look for Reaper bot, if that's still available...

They don't make them as they used to anymore. :(
 
Does PhysX really add more? I only have a couple of games that use them (AC is one of them) but I don't see any difference.

Its mostly eye candy stuff like particle physics and better fluid modeling. Its kind of a throwaway feature in most games. Borderlands 2 did some fun stuff with it, enemies melting into pools of acid etc. It also serves to make AMD users cry as it usually kills framerate as all the physics processing is dumped onto the cpu instead.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Slow down Grief.

We don't know that VMC is doing anything with Bioshock 2. Games get added to that sub before launch and are usually left there.

How do you know Digital Extremes isn't doing this stuff?

I emailed Digital Extremes when this all got started.

From their response, they actually had no idea the game was even available on Steam.

You would think that if a portion of your studio had been working on the game for about a month and a half, they would have some knowledge of what was going on.

Grief is Steam's version of jeff_rigby ;)

At least he's not banned! There's something.
 

Nabs

Member
I emailed Digital Extremes when this all got started.

From their response, they actually had no idea the game was even available on Steam.

You would think that if a portion of your studio had been working on the game for about a month and a half, they would have some knowledge of what was going on.

I'm sorry Grief, but this is ridiculous. They have no reason to tell you anything, plus DE is a pretty big studio.
 
I assume this is a filler title for a bundle since I already have it.
ModBot said:
I am giving away a Steam key. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line and copy the key line below into the body of the PM.

Rules for this Giveaway:
- If you are a lurker--if you have both fewer than five posts in this Steam thread and fewer than five posts in the immediate previous Steam thread--you are not eligible for this giveaway.
- If you won a game from ModBot in the last day, you are not eligible for this giveaway.
- This giveaway is a LIGHTNING raffle. The winners will be selected by random draw 15 minutes after the draw was created. Any games not claimed after that point will be given away first come first serve.
- This giveaway has a manual blocklist. The giver has identified members who abuse giveaways and restricted them from participating.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two:

Men of War -- MB-73D7C10CF5B66975 - Taken by 73V3N
 
Hope someone enjoys these:

ModBot said:
Just quote this message and paste the quote in the thread:

I am giving away 3 Steam keys. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line. In the body, copy and paste the line below that corresponds to the key you want (if you include more than one game, you will be blocked from entering).

Rules for this Giveaway:
- If you are a lurker--if you have both fewer than five posts in this Steam thread and fewer than five posts in the immediate previous Steam thread--you are not eligible for this giveaway.
- If you won a game from ModBot in the last week, you are not eligible for this giveaway.
- This giveaway has a manual blocklist. The giver has identified members who abuse giveaways and restricted them from participating.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two:

King's Bounty The Legend -- MB-6AE9FA47872A350C - Taken by kevin1025
King's Bounty Armored Princess -- MB-EAB98B384B6192DB - Taken by I H8 Memes
King's Bounty Crossworlds -- MB-A2CA0E7D0B170AF4 - Taken by Firehead

I would have given away most of the main humble bundle away as well, but they're all tied up in bundle keys :(. I swear I must have bought Saints Row 3 at least five times now.
 

Fireblend

Banned
Yeah...that looks like it might be kind of rough. I would last probably less than a nanosecond in that.

Don't belittle the power of muscle memory.

Edit: So many giveaways! I don't know any of the games though, and as such will take as many as possible and trade them for RAGE not take them.
 

Crayons

Banned
ModBot said:
Just quote this message and paste the quote in the thread:

I am giving away a Steam key. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line and copy the key line below into the body of the PM.

Rules for this Giveaway:
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two:

King's Bounty: Armored Princess -- MB-63A14A752B58DF2F - Taken by koolaroo
.
 
Here is the other Men of War
ModBot said:
I am giving away a Steam key. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line and copy the key line below into the body of the PM.

Rules for this Giveaway:
- If you are a lurker--if you have both fewer than five posts in this Steam thread and fewer than five posts in the immediate previous Steam thread--you are not eligible for this giveaway.
- If you won a game from ModBot in the last day, you are not eligible for this giveaway.
- This giveaway is a LIGHTNING raffle. The winners will be selected by random draw 15 minutes after the draw was created. Any games not claimed after that point will be given away first come first serve.
- This giveaway has a manual blocklist. The giver has identified members who abuse giveaways and restricted them from participating.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two:

Men of War Red Tide -- MB-3732525DE99A5888 - Taken by Pestilence11
 

demonkaze

Member
Thought i'd actually play some of the games I got from the Steam Summer Sale, although can't decide on which one to play next, help me out here (just finished Sleeping Dogs):

Ys II
Alpha Protocol
Dust
Torchlight II

or finish Saints Row 3 although i'm a bit burned out on open world games after finishing Sleeping Dogs.
 

Grief.exe

Member
I'm sorry Grief, but this is ridiculous. They have no reason to tell you anything, plus DE is a pretty big studio.

Its interesting, because, before i discovered what VMC was, I theorized that the update to Bioshock 2 and Batman:AA/AC was being done by the same company.

This was due to the QA updates occurring for all the games at around the same time period.

Now that I have discovered what VMC is, the evidence seems to line up that they are using the same QA company.

Here is my email to Digital Extremes.

Very strange that he has no idea if the game was even available on Steam. Or, even if he did, how the new version doesn't have the Steam Achievements.

Companies don't tend to respond to a direct answer like this. They will obfuscate the truth, rather than give direct answers. Or this completely oblivious answer.

For example, I emailed Drinkbox about a PC port for Guacamelee when it was first released. They replied that they had, 'no current plans.' That is a perfect example with how a company usually replies.

I noticed the Steam version of Bioshock 2 is being updated. Is Digital Extremes assisting in any way with the update process?

If you guys are working on the update, I was curious as to what you were doing. Adding achievements? Updating Keyboard/Mouse Controls? Removing DRM (Securom, GFWL)?

I appreciate your time, thank you.


I didn't realize it was announced that B2 was coming to Steam. Essentially it's the same PC version, nothing new just being made available for Steam. Sorry to disappoint :(
 
It seems that I have this King's Bounty game too, Steam told me that I already have it when I tried to redeem it.
So beware, I don't know the procedure but Steam may have counted this one as used.
ModBot said:
I am giving away a Steam key. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line and copy the key line below into the body of the PM.

Rules for this Giveaway:
- If you are a lurker--if you have both fewer than five posts in this Steam thread and fewer than five posts in the immediate previous Steam thread--you are not eligible for this giveaway.
- If you won a game from ModBot in the last day, you are not eligible for this giveaway.
- This giveaway is a LIGHTNING raffle. The winners will be selected by random draw 15 minutes after the draw was created. Any games not claimed after that point will be given away first come first serve.
- This giveaway has a manual blocklist. The giver has identified members who abuse giveaways and restricted them from participating.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two:

King's Bounty The Legend -- MB-3EA54C0F6B3E1B4B - Taken by Deliverance
 
Hi guys! Sorry for the (probably) dumb question, but how does this 4-pack works? I mean, how do i send the money to the person who bought the pack? Can i use my steam wallet?
 
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