Steam is fucking awesome.

[Radu]

I love Steam. It helps me keep in touch with people like Critter. In fact, I just bought him Cogs on sale. You can buy games for you friends! SWEET!

I'm RadioKuma on there if anyone wants to add me.

[Schizm]

Schyzm.

but then again, if someone says "add me" and ignores friend requests for days on end.... hmm...

[Radu]

The computer has been a touch on the fritz. I had to tinker with it slightly to get it whipped into shape, and now it is. Added!

[Dr_Avalanche]

I would add you all, but since I don't play any multiplayer games, I'm not sure if it would serve much of a point?

[Andreas]

You all should try "Orcs must die", fun game...

[Critter]

I would add you all, but since I don't play any multiplayer games, I'm not sure if it would serve much of a point?

Meh, I mostly bother Radu when I see him on even though I mostly play EUIII these days. It's a good way to pass the time when nothing exciting is going on in-game :)

[Hatter]

Sword of the Stars 2 comes out next week. 4x goodness.

[DarwinOfMind]

Is there a story? or predifined races? if so not interested..

the 4x series I got my start on (Space Empires) lets you customize everything... everyone always tries to get me to play MOO and it feels like the most pathetic rip off

[Critter]

Sword of the Stars 2 comes out next week. 4x goodness.

I saw the trailer for that and it looks sharp. How does the first one play out? I've never been a big fan of space oriented games like that, but after playing Twilight Imperium with a bunch of people I'm starting to get a little interested.

[Radu]

Bother me, Critter? Hardly. It's nice to keep in touch in a more realtime format than message board posts. It makes it seem more like there's an actual person on the other end of the conversation, you know? :)

[Hatter]

I saw the trailer for that and it looks sharp. How does the first one play out? I've never been a big fan of space oriented games like that, but after playing Twilight Imperium with a bunch of people I'm starting to get a little interested.

It's fairly heavily combat focused, with turn-based strategic map play in the vein of MOO, but with real time tactical combat (which can be simmed if you prefer, but the fights are pretty). Think Total War in space with better AI. The colony management is abstracted into sliders, so instead of building factories, biodomes, etc., you have sliders for Infrastructure, Terraforming, Construction, Trade, etc..

Other interesting things: There are six races and each uses it's own unique FTL system which makes each race play a bit differently. Also the tech tree is randomized so you don't get access to the same tech options every game, also the tech chances are weighted by race giving a bit more flavor. Not to mention the <shudder> random events.

The world has a remarkably in-depth backstory for a 4x game, and the sequel takes place roughly 150 years after the first game, so in SotS1 you start in the Fission Era and the game is about early exploration and colonization, first contact with other races and has a very frontier feel to it, while SotS2 has more advanced technology (starts in Fusion era I think), and is more about diplomacy and governing.

I enjoyed the first one a lot and the second one looks like a big improvement, though the development team is pretty tight-lipped on a lot of the details. The two biggest (and most anticipated) changes are multiple planets per star system (in SotS1 you could only colonize one planet per system) and 3D tactical combat (in SotS1 tactical combats were pretty much fought only on a 2 dimensional plane).

[Glass]

Oh dear, you think Critter's real. You poor bastard... :sorry:

[Hatter]

Oh dear, you think Critter's real. You poor bastard... :sorry:

I'm still quite certain that everyone who posts here is actually an alt of Cyberzombie so it's kind of like playing with myself. :fap:

[Radu]

I'm not an alt.

(Of course, that's exactly what someone would have an alt say, so you'll have to figure out where you stand on that one. Unless, of course, you're an alt yourself, in which case you'll have to figure out where your alt's persona stands. That's as far as I'm going with this parenthetical tangent, I promise.)

[DarwinOfMind]

Everyone is Cyberzombie's alt...

Including you Radu, you just don't know it becuase poor CZ has developed a massive case of Multiple Personality Disorder keeping up with all these alts.

[Dr_Avalanche]

Meh, I mostly bother Radu when I see him on even though I mostly play EUIII these days. It's a good way to pass the time when nothing exciting is going on in-game :)

Fair enough. :)

I'm Calaveth on Steam, in case someone would like to add me.

[Critter]

Fair enough. :)

I'm Calaveth on Steam, in case someone would like to add me.

Added you. I also added Schizm awhile back and he has yet to accept. I am deeply offended we haven't become Steam friends yet.

[Schizm]

Well fuck. It hasn't shown me a pending friend request. I will scour or when I get home tonight.

[Critter]

Well fuck. It hasn't shown me a pending friend request. I will scour or when I get home tonight.

I just resent a new one so we'll see if that goes through.

[Hatter]

I'm Crazy Eddie on Steam if ya'll get friend requests from me.

[Critter]

I'm Crazy Eddie on Steam if ya'll get friend requests from me.

Just sent you an invite as well.

[Hatter]

So if you're considering SotS2, I recommend holding off for at least a month until it can be patched a bit. It has a lot of potential, but so much is missing at launch.

[Critter]

So if you're considering SotS2, I recommend holding off for at least a month until it can be patched a bit. It has a lot of potential, but so much is missing at launch.

I assume you picked it up then? Keep me posted on it as it comes along being patched. It definitely sounds interesting.

[Hatter]

I'll let you know, it's not quite Elemental bad, but it's a pretty rough release. I'm suprised they went forward with it with all that's missing (no in-game documentation, can't adjust video options in game, etc.).

[Ergeheilalt]

I'm the Jolly Assassin

[Ergeheilalt]

I'll let you know, it's not quite Elemental bad, but it's a pretty rough release. I'm suprised they went forward with it with all that's missing (no in-game documentation, can't adjust video options in game, etc.).

OMG. Elemental was the BIGGEST goddamn letdown. Fucking Stardock.

[Hatter]

OMG. Elemental was the BIGGEST goddamn letdown. Fucking Stardock.

Yeah lots of comparisons being made to them over on the Paradox forums, not unjustly given the circumstances, but it's not that bad. At release Elemental was like pre-alpha quality, SotS2 is more like beta quality. It mostly just needs polish, tooltips and some CTD bugs fixed to be release-worthy. It just needs a lot of that. Unlike Elemental which is still awful a year later. :/

[Schizm]

Sanctum was free to play this weekend. I actually quite enjoyed it.

Thinking about buying it....

edit.. yeah, bought it. 11 bucks for it, all the DLC, and the soundtrack? I'll get that much entertainment out of it, definitely.

[Dr_Avalanche]

Is "Mind Liberator" and "viralmodernism" someone on here?

[Critter]

viralmodernism

That's me!

[DarwinOfMind]

Steam Hacked

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/steam-hack-confirmed-by-valve-game-company/2011/11/11/gIQAfw3FCN_story.html?tid=pm_pop

Steam, the online gaming network run by game company Valve, confirmed Thursday that its forums had been hacked and warned users to keep a close eye on their credit card statements.

The service’s forums had been defaced earlier in the week, resulting in some gamers receiving e-mails from a hacking Web site, Kotaku reported.


 In recent years, lawmakers and advocacy groups have made increased efforts to protects users’ privacy online. Here are some cases that helped stoke the debate about tracking and privacy on the Web.

On Thursday, Valve co-founder Gabe Newell left a message on the company’s forums confirming the intrusion, saying that all forum passwords will be reset and adding that the attack “goes beyond the Steam forums.” While there is evidence of a deeper intrusion, the company is not yet requiring all Steam users to reset their account passwords, which are separate from forum accounts.

“We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked,” Newell wrote. “We are still investigating.”

He added that there have been no reports that Steam accounts were compromised, but advised users to change their passwords as a precaution.

“I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience,” he said.

The intrusion comes at a bad time for Steam, which is not only premiering a major title — Bethesda’s “Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” — Friday, but is also facing long-term challenges from Electronic Arts’ Origin service, cloud gaming service OnLive and an as-yet-unreleased online service from retailer GameStop.

Security, understandably, is the most pressing issue facing these services as they ask gamers to trust their saved data, credit cards and other personal information to off-site servers. Companies are also jumpy following the Sony data hack that pulled the PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment services off line for a month and resulted in a lot of bad press for the electronics giant.

[Schizm]

wow. They broke that after the news blurb steam provided to everyone last night.

Good thing I don't bother with the steam forums.

[Hatter]

Valve actually handled this pretty well, announcing the break-in as soon as they learned what was compromised and noting that they had salted their hashed passwords. Plus they already have Steamguard which kind of limits the usefulness of having someones password. The only issue then being if they can decrypt CC numbers or if people use the same password for everything.

[DarwinOfMind]

I imagine the hackers are going to throw alot at it, but it would take alot to decrypt the salted hashed cc data.

[Hatter]

I imagine the hackers are going to throw alot at it, but it would take alot to decrypt the salted hashed cc data.

I just read that Valve used AES256. It would take longer than the present age of the universe to crack the CC data.

[DarwinOfMind]

Well good to hear they used good protection,

it's not just about the time, there's some physics stuff about entropy and thermodynamics that say it's actually physically impossible to brute force it no matter how long you wait.

[Schizm]

holy crap. I think almost everything in the steam store is on sale this weekend.

I just picked up the deluxe edition of mass effect 2, as well as mass effect 1, for 12 bucks and change.

[DarwinOfMind]

Thanks for the heads up, I've been meaning to grab Mass Effect.

And I went ahead and grab enough other things to hit $60 of on sale shit!

And I can't even download them as I'm waiting on Swtor beta to download...13GB and counting, they don't mention how much to expect.

EDIT: Damn I missed Portal 2 66% off... can't afford to get it now

[Schizm]

lol

No worries. I'm debating grabbing the orange box for $10 too right now...
reigning myself in with a "the two games I did grab and the massive backlog of sale games will keep me busy for MONTHS" line.

everything, like EVERYTHING is on sale. I could spend hundreds. The sale is cruel and unusual for a games junkie!

[Radu]

Oh I just went online and got a few games I wanted to get for a while now. Hooray for black Friday sales!

[Schizm]

So I made a steam Kay Tastrophe group a couple days ago. If you're not already in it, let me know your steam name and I'll throw the invite. Or anyone else already in the group should be able to.

[Ergeheilalt]

So I made a steam Kay Tastrophe group a couple days ago. If you're not already in it, let me know your steam name and I'll throw the invite. Or anyone else already in the group should be able to.

Oh, oh. Hit me up - The Jolly Assassin

[Schizm]

Oh, oh. Hit me up - The Jolly Assassin

done.

edit: I added a graphic for our group. hope no one minds...

[Andreas]

Well, invite Kengar then, please :)

[Schizm]

no players show up with that nic when I search...

[Andreas]

Uhm, try [30+ |Ron] then, please.

[Schizm]

Uhm, try [30+ |Ron] then, please.

done. Rorschach avatar?

[DarwinOfMind]

whiteflame74

[Andreas]

done. Rorschach avatar?

Jup, worked.

Thanks :)

[bunny]

flourpedal. I don't play multi-player games. I'm mostly in it for portal and a couple of the sweet rpg/(or) adventure titles they carry. I don't have an avatar or anything. Heck, until this moment I didn't even know you could friend people on Steam. Neat.

But the SO and I just got a gaming desktop with a big ass monitor (tm), and we can now play games made after 2007 (which the lap tops were being rather fussy about up to this point. Man Bioshock is the shit). 12 gigs of ram (capable of overclocking to 16 without overheating thanks to the liquid cooling system), and 3.14Ghz of processing power in the quad core. The system is nicely upgrade-able as well (3 easy access graphics card slots and 4 hard drive slots). So any game recommendations will be more than welcome. Although, I admit I'm putting off skyrim til after the christmas season just so that I don't get sucked too deep into it while I'm trying to have family over at christmas.

[Schizm]

whiteflame74

flourpedal. I don't play multi-player games. I'm mostly in it for portal and a couple of the sweet rpg/(or) adventure titles they carry. I don't have an avatar or anything. Heck, until this moment I didn't even know you could friend people on Steam. Neat.

Yup. I'll invite you both when the community server isn't giving me a doesn't exist error.

But the SO and I just got a gaming desktop with a big ass monitor (tm), and we can now play games made after 2007 (which the lap tops were being rather fussy about up to this point. Man Bioshock is the shit). 12 gigs of ram (capable of overclocking to 16 without overheating thanks to the liquid cooling system), and 3.14Ghz of processing power in the quad core. The system is nicely upgrade-able as well (3 easy access graphics card slots and 4 hard drive slots). So any game recommendations will be more than welcome. Although, I admit I'm putting off skyrim til after the christmas season just so that I don't get sucked too deep into it while I'm trying to have family over at christmas.

heh, I don't think that any of us are using steam for multiplayer at the moment. just kind of an amusing recognition of the existent community.

Though, if anyone wants to get some Sanctum on at some point, I'm down. :D Grats on the awesome new rig. I'm hoping on something similar next year sometime... my laptop ain't bad, but it was a medium level machine 2 years ago, so it's time for a fire-breathing monster of a desktop...

[Schizm]

whiteflame74

flourpedal

neither of those names exists via search. go to Community > Profile and tell me what your profile name is. :)

[Dr_Avalanche]

If you go through Add Friend, both of them show up.

Edit: And that's the better way to add a person whose profile name you know. Whiteflame74 is also known on Steam as Darwin, which you will get 603 hits for if you use the search function.

[DarwinOfMind]

I'm the Darwin with a PvZ peashooter for an avatar

[Steampunk]

DestructionJunction

[Schizm]

If you go through Add Friend, both of them show up.

Edit: And that's the better way to add a person whose profile name you know. Whiteflame74 is also known on Steam as Darwin, which you will get 603 hits for if you use the search function.
or I could just browse your friends list ;)

[cyphersmith]

I'm cyphersmith on Steam :)

[Dr_Avalanche]

or I could just browse your friends list ;)

That'd be assuming I befriended the right Darwin. :o

[Schizm]

new rule to make this WAY flipping easier on myself.

I'm Schyzm on steam. Real name: Lowell Burton.
Steam Profile URL:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mzihcs

friend me, and then I'll invite. or shit, anyone whose already in the group can invite.

[hobbiteer]

Hobbiteer. There's only one, and currently about to head towards a mass of skyrim playing.

[Dacke]

I'm DackeSJ on Steam. Real name Staffan.

[Schizm]

Dacke, Hobbiteer, and cyphersmith added.

[Caliphis]

I accepted the invitation last night

[Steampunk]

I spend most of my time playing Brink right now. Addictive as hell, at least it is to me. :D

[Ancalagon]

I've been playing Dungeon Defenders with my gf the last few days :)

[Radu]

Currently Aliens Versus Predator is my game of choice. I'm enjoying the Alien campaign immensely... because I get an (arguably) sick thrill out of the ambush style of play. I love using my superior mobility to ambush my prey... but it does take a LOT of getting used to the ability to walk across any surface.

So far my least favorite campaign is the Predator, because it's a (theoretically) similar ambush play style, but oddly enough the predator has a much more jarring play style that's difficult for me to pull off without vertigo, and the over-reliance on melee combat without having a smooth control scheme turns me off.

[Schizm]

currently playing Mass Effect & Aquaria.

Mass effect is pretty awesome, but there's some annoying as hell control scheme issues on the PC port.

Aquaria is awesome, if you liked the original metroid games. Flipping annoying...

[Dr_Avalanche]

I don't like the vehicle parts of Mass Effect, I was very happy to see them removed in Mass Effect 2. Otherwise it's a great game. I haven't replayed it though, because of that annoyance with the vehicle. Maybe I should play them in sequence once more, in time before ME3.

[Snatch]

I don't like the vehicle parts of Mass Effect, I was very happy to see them removed in Mass Effect 2. Otherwise it's a great game. I haven't replayed it though, because of that annoyance with the vehicle. Maybe I should play them in sequence once more, in time before ME3.

Me too. I love the franchise but found the vehicle controls to be frustrating at best in ME. I was happy to see it go in ME2. At first I missed the RPG elements that were removed between ME and ME2, but in the end I think ME2 was a better all-round game.

[Schizm]

Finished ME1. Pretty awesome set-piece for the end. The final boss fight was fairly intense, playing with the full time party that I did.
Yes, the MAKO's movement controls suck ass, and the super-bumpy terrain all the time was just annoying to work through. Sounds like I'll be pleased it's gone... though I did have fun cannon-sniping geth on a regular basis.

ME2 is downloading from steam right now... /grin.

[Dr_Avalanche]

I think you're gonna enjoy that. I think I rate that as my favorite game ever. I've played it through five times, and I'm feeling now that I'm ready for a sixth.

[Snatch]

Finished ME1. Pretty awesome set-piece for the end. The final boss fight was fairly intense, playing with the full time party that I did.
Yes, the MAKO's movement controls suck ass, and the super-bumpy terrain all the time was just annoying to work through. Sounds like I'll be pleased it's gone... though I did have fun cannon-sniping geth on a regular basis.

ME2 is downloading from steam right now... /grin.

If you thought that set-piece was nice, ME2 will up the ante quite a bit.

[DarwinOfMind]

picked up the 4th humble indie bundle... some really cool stuff in it

[Dr_Avalanche]

Finished ME1 (again). It was shorter than I remembered, maybe because I didn't complete every single side quest. First time I was all goody-two-shoes, this time I went all renegade, all humanity-first. On to ME2...

[Schizm]

I am digging my way through ME 2. This game is awesome.

[Dr_Avalanche]

If you have Shadow Broker installed when you start ME2, will it be incorporated in the middle of the game like any story line, or will it still take place after the main story?

Has anyone tried any of the other DLC's? Like Arrival, Overlord etc.

[Schizm]

I have all the cerberus network DLC's, as a free key came as a part of my game. I haven't tried anything else yet... but I'm probably going to buy shadow broker in the next couple days, at minimum - if only to get Liara as a part of the team again.

[Dr_Avalanche]

I read a couple of reviews and decided to get Shadowbroker, Overlord and Kasumi. Kasumi is an extra character similar to Zaeed that you get with the Cerberus Network. She has her own storyline with a couple of missions. Overlord got some good reviews, while Arrival got pretty brutal ones.

[Schizm]

steam holiday deals are up.... so i Picked up Orcs Must Die + DLC for 3 bucks, Portal 2 for 8 bucks, and the Orange box for 5 bucks.

wonder what else will come up that I'm interested in.

[Dr_Avalanche]

Did some kind person give me a copy of Portal 2? Or did I get that as some part of the general Steam Holiday gift scheme? Very kind, at any rate.

[Schizm]

one of my really good friends just assaulted my steam wishlist. He bought me Anno 2070, Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity, and Dungeon Siege 3.

And since I bought all the other stuff earlier that day... holy crap I'm drowning in content!

[Hatter]

I have the following inventory items that I have no use for if anyone wants them:
1 copy of Portal
1 copy of Shadowgrounds
1 50% off any Valve title coupon

[Schizm]

I've got a bunch of coupons that I have no use for:

33% and 50% off valve title coupons.
50% off sonic Generations
50% off dogfighter.

anyone want a coupon? they're only good january 2nd-march something. But I'm not likely to buy anything with them, given my madcap spree on picking up the titles I wanted while they were on sale these last couple weeks.

[Dr_Avalanche]

And I have a copy of Frozen Synapse in my inventory in case someone is interested.

I have the following inventory items that I have no use for if anyone wants them:
1 copy of Portal
1 copy of Shadowgrounds
1 50% off any Valve title coupon

I wouldn't mind giving Portal a go.

[Hatter]

I wouldn't mind giving Portal a go.

Sent! Have fun.

[Steampunk]

I have the following inventory items that I have no use for if anyone wants them:
1 copy of Portal
1 copy of Shadowgrounds
1 50% off any Valve title coupon

I wouldn't mind taking a stab at Shadowgrounds.

[DarwinOfMind]

So I got my hands on an orange box, and I've already got it...

Looking to trade

[Schizm]

If you thought that set-piece was nice, ME2 will up the ante quite a bit.

Fuck me running, the set pieces beyond the omega relay are awesome. Completely, massively awesome.

[Schizm]

I've got a bunch of coupons that I have no use for:

33% (*2) and 25% off valve title coupons.
50% off sonic Generations
50% off dogfighter.
10% off any paradox title.

Bueller? Bueller?

[Ergeheilalt]

http://gabenewell.org/

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

[Hatter]

Some games I've been playing lately:

Cities in Motion: A surprisingly fun simulation of a mass transit authority. You manage the buses, trams, metro trains, boats and helicopters of a major metropolitan city. I would not have thought I would enjoy it, but I started up a game and next thing I knew 5 hours had passed and I just couldn't stop watching all the people piling into the subway. It may get old after awhile, but worth it if you like simulation games and can pick it up cheap (I got it for free).

Majesty 2: I got this at the same time as Cities in Motion expecting it to be the more interesting game, but alas I found it far too repetitive. Also I think it's poorly billed as a fantasy kingdom simulator, it plays more like a fantasy RTS except you don't have direct control of your units. Poor AI on the heroes really cripples the playability as well. Kind of a bummer, but at least I got it cheap.

Legend of Grimrock: I just started playing this tile-based first person dungeon crawler and so far it's really fun. It plays like the old Ultima Underworld or Dungeon Master games. Good concept and level design and it's only $15. I'll let you know more once I've had more time to play (I'm only a few hours into it).

[Name Lips]

The original Majesty was better, if only because it had the ability to randomly generate maps. I kind of liked the twist where you can't control the heroes -- your job as King is to order construction of buildings and put bounties on things you want the heroes to go kill. Then the morons go get themselves killed... until one succeeds and levels up. It's like Gygaxian D&D -- they only level up by sheer luck.

But yeah, after a while it gets old.

Cities in Motion sounds like my thing. I used to really like Transport Tycoon Deluxe, and all the elaborate track systems I could set up. With proper signaling, you can run 4-track lines with hundreds of trains, all pulling into and out of stations like clockwork. It was possible to make complicated junctions, and eventually connect the entire map in a single rail network. Tricky, since the trains were stupid and if any of them touched each other they'd explode.

[The Winslow]

Legend of Grimrock: I just started playing this tile-based first person dungeon crawler and so far it's really fun. It plays like the old Ultima Underworld

Ultima Underworld isn't tile-based! *nerdrage*

[Hatter]

Ultima Underworld isn't tile-based! *nerdrage*

Yes, but it has a similar feel to it, even though mechanically it's different.

[Dr_Avalanche]

Legend of Grimrock looks awesome. There's no way to pause the action though, even though it's tile based? I'm generally less fond of action games than tactical ones...

[Hatter]

Legend of Grimrock looks awesome. There's no way to pause the action though, even though it's tile based? I'm generally less fond of action games than tactical ones...

No, it's a little twitchy. Spell casting during combat is particularly tough since you have to click multiple runes quickly in order to get the spell off while dodging away from the enemy attacks.