Steam Christmas Sale

[Eis Nein]

Today:

Theatre of War 75% OFF £8.74/£3.74
Half Life Series 75% OFF £6.74
Witcher 1 75% OFF / Witcher 2 40% OFF £3.24/£15.59
Tropico 4 66% OFF £10.19
Dungeons of Dredmor 75% OFF £0.86/£1.37
Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 2 50% OFF £9.99
Recettear & Chantelise 75% OFF £3.24/£1.61
Red Orchestra 2 50% OFF £12.49
Costume Quest 75% OFF £2.99
Sacred series 50% OFF £2.99/£3.99
Duke Nukem Forever 75% OFF £3.74
Lego Batman 75% OFF £2.49

[small_world]

^^^ Thanks for that.... But then again... Torrenting.....

Hmm... Decisions decisions.

[Ignatius_S]

I got Portal 2 as my free holiday gift... which was nice.

[falafel]

Oh, the WB deal has disappeared. Bum.

[WesterlyWinds]

Does anyone still play TF2? I used to play when it was released, up until it had released about 3 class's achievement/unlock packs. I took a little break and when I came back everyone was wearing hats or socks or something. Really put me off it.

[Eis Nein]

The post-free to play influx offered some easy pickings. Not sure what it's like now.

[Ignatius_S]

Oh, the WB deal has disappeared. Bum.

The link on the previous page doesn't take you to it, but it's still there.

[falafel]

Not in the list any more, that I can see.

[ThickAndCreamy]

Does anyone still play TF2? I used to play when it was released, up until it had released about 3 class's achievement/unlock packs. I took a little break and when I came back everyone was wearing hats or socks or something. Really put me off it.

I still play it regularly.

The hats are meaningless, but a huge selection of new weapons for every class has been introduced, which takes a while to get your head around. Much more exciting than when it first came out surprisingly, as the level of customisation avaliable gives you the option of playing a variety of styles for every character.

[madhair60]

Dungeons of Dredmor is well worth the 87p or whatever ludicrous thing it costs.

[SetToStun]

You could have told it to install from the disc, of course.  Then it wouldn't have tried to download the 1.4GB game!

(I agree though that installing from the disc should be automatic if you have one...but for some reason it doesn't do that, annoyingly)

I did install it from the disk - a complete install. The 1.4GB was for "updates" from the Steam site. The game was fully installed but wouldn't start until the updates had finished - I was rather miffed, I can tell you.

Anyway, I rarely if ever play games any more, but if I start again I certainly won't let one bad experience put me off going back to Steam.

[Ignatius_S]

Sorry, about that - when I posted, I found it by going through the developers' deals page (it was at top of the Warner's page) but I've just had a look at it's no longer there. You can still get to the page for the pack by doing a Google search, but Steam won't let you add it to your basket.

Had a quick look and it seems a lot of people have had trouble (e.g. they added it earlier in the day and when they went back to pay, although it was still in the basket, the transaction couldn't be completed.

[Dark Sky]

I did install it from the disk - a complete install. The 1.4GB was for "updates" from the Steam site.

I find that really hard to believe...there'd never be a patch that large, it'll be the size of the game itself!  I've had a look to try to see the history of Half-Life 2 updates to work out what it could have been, but generically they're all described as "micro-updates".

Though if you really did ask it to install by disc (which requires stopping the automatic download, closing Steam, and issuing "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -install D:" as a RUN instruction in the Start menu), then...blimey - absolute madness it would need to update that much.

[SetToStun]

Hang on - I don't remember doing all that crap! Steam installed itself first, if I remember correctly, then I selected "Install Half Life 2" and it started thrashing the CD and the hard drive, a few splash/processing screens went by (I think they showed stills from the game), and after about fifteen minutes or so, when the "Installing..." message disappeared it verified and updated the game. It came up with a screen of something like "required downloads/updates" and started downloading that huge file (or files, whatever). If you cancelled the download, every time you tried to run the game, it started it again.

I must have been running the install-by-download option, I suppose, but if that were the case, since I installed from the CD why the cockend didn't it just do that and install from the poxy CD which had the install routine and game files on it?! I specifically remember just being given the one option: Install Half Life 2.

EDIT: Never mind - I'm sure you're spot on and I was just too dense to get the installation done direct from the disc. It just seems odd that even though the files were there, on the CD, the default installation was to download. Odd and frustrating when you're dowloading at not-very-fast dial-up speeds.

[Ignatius_S]

...
I must have been running the install-by-download option, I suppose, but if that were the case, since I installed from the CD why the cockend didn't it just do that and install from the poxy CD which had the install routine and game files on it?! I specifically remember just being given the one option: Install Half Life 2.

I'm sure a similar thing happened when I installed from a retail version.

[Dark Sky]

EDIT: Never mind - I'm sure you're spot on and I was just too dense to get the installation done direct from the disc. It just seems odd that even though the files were there, on the CD, the default installation was to download. Odd and frustrating when you're dowloading at not-very-fast dial-up speeds.

Yeah, it is ridiculous and I wish they'd change it! 

You can get it to install from the disc, but yeah...you have to ask it to by running that instruction in your start menu (replacing it with location of your Steam folder / DVD drive, etc); there's no obvious, easy way to do it, and you certainly don't get the option to do it.

[Zetetic]

Or running the installer on the disc. You should only end up with it trying to install it by download if you activated it and then went about installing it in Steam.

It still works like this today, with Metro 2033 (for one example).

[Eis Nein]

Today's lot

Batman Arkham City -50% £19.99
Mount & Blade franchise -75% £3.74/£4.99/£2.49 All £8.74
Swords & Soldiers -75% £1.74
F1 2011 -50% £14.99
Stalker franchise -75% Chernobyl £2.49/ Pripyat £3.24/ Clear Sky £1.99
Sherlock Holmes franchise -75% £7.49 Nemesis -75% £1.74 vs Jack the Ripper -75% £2.99 The Awakened - Remastered Edition -75% £1.74 The Mystery of the Mummy -75% £1.74 The Mystery of the Persian Carpet -75% £1.74
Defense Grid: The Awakening -75% £1.74
Monday Night Combat -75% £1.99
Payday The Heist -50% £7.49
Neverwinter Nights 2 Platinum -75% £3.74
Jurassic Park -50% £10.99
Grotesque Tactics franchise -75% £1.86/£4.24 both £5.49

Mount and Blade compulsory, Stalker/Defense Grid for the few that don't have I'd say.

[Rev]

Or running the installer on the disc. You should only end up with it trying to install it by download if you activated it and then went about installing it in Steam.

Steam was a lot different back when Half Life 2 came out, and SetToStun's experiences do ring a bell.  I'd have to dig out the disc to check, but I don't think there was a separate installer for Steam on there (at least, not one that you'd click unless you went looking for it); it'd be installed at the end of the process like a DirectX update, fire up, and then insist on a massive update.  Things are now different, but the physical release of HL2 did seem like a bit of a balls-up.

[Dark Sky]

To be fair, I didn't have Steam back there.  Or a computer which could run Half-Life 2.  Despite the fact I bought a computer that year specifically to play modern games.  Not sure how I ballsed that one up.

This year I bought my replacement, and spent enough money to make sure this Beast will play every new release with settings set to buggery for the next seven years.

And then I play retro/indie games on it.  It's awesome!

[madhair60]

Is Blur any good?

[ThickAndCreamy]

Just bought Limbo for £1.74.

So far, I've only bought that and Psychonauts for £1.50. Bangin'.

[Dark Sky]

Limbo is a wonderful four hours of beautiful, yet occasionally frustrating gameplay.  Well worth the £8 I paid for it.

[AsparagusTrevor]

Is Blur any good?

I thought so, certainly worth the low price.

[The Region Legion]

So far I've snapped up Orcs Must Die, Bunch Of Heroes, Stalker: Clear Sky & Batman: Arkham City for the princely sum of £27.21. When they do the inevitable "favourite deals" on the last day and Portal 2 comes up I'll be getting that too.

Shame the WB pack isn't available anymore, that's a cracker of a deal.

[Eis Nein]

If anyone bit on Sherlock Holmes Nemesis, they are now haunted. I think I placed this in the Youtubes thread a while ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13YlEPwOfmk

[Dark Sky]

Jesus H Bidmead!

God it's like the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, only fifty times more terrifying

[Eis Nein]

It finally arrives: Railworks 3, -90% £2.49. The true meaning of Christmas.

Fat controllers will want the Railworks 3 bundle, -80% £199.00

[waste of chops]

There's only one DLC pack you need:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/27/traaaaaiiiiins-railworks-3-trains-vs-zombies/

(I've no idea really, I've never actually played it -- you never got that kind of bandwagon-jumping shite in Southern Belle on the Spectrum)

So far I've been pretty restrained with the Steam sale; my "to play" list is depressingly long (and getting even longer with all these bargain indie bundles doing the rounds) but I helped myself to Limbo and Mass Effect earlier today for just over £4. I missed out on a few bits of DLC that were daily deals (the Dungeons of Dredmor one and the Defense Grid/Portal 2 crossover DLC) but maybe they'll be reduced again on the last day; if not, I may as well pick them up anyway as the bonus discount was pennies anyway. Other than that, there's not been anything sufficiently cheap/tempting enough to buy. But we'll see what the final week of the sale has in store...

[ThickAndCreamy]

Batman: Arkham Asylum is currently £2.49.

Probably the best deal of the entire sale.