ZealPath

heh I always suspected Crit-A-Cola wasn't in the drop list. I did bother to craft one with a spare Kritz and Bonk way back just because I was curious to try it but I never really use it (does anyone...). I guess it's fair to say that a Vintage Crit-A-Cola will be worth more than your average vintage weapon since there must be a lot fewer of them out there compared to all the other pre-vintage update items which could randomly drop. Of course it's not very useful, but that won't stop the crazy collectors!

I really like the blending of the two themes, it just sounds effortless and natural. Great style, very catchy, this is the kind of mix I can listen to a few times in a row and still not be sick of it. I'm a pretty big fan of the flute, so that is another major selling point of this mix for me, it drives the song with such a smooth feeling, and the guitar compliments it extremely well. Great job!

I just hope we see HL2 Ep3 sometime this decade, that's all I ask. Kind of agree about the zombies though, with the good job they did on the combine, I'm not sure why they couldn't come up with some kind of headcrab hat. And yes the katana was very out of place, combined with the zombies that almost reminds me more of L4D than Half-Life.

if you're a fan of the Half-Life series, I think they did a good job with what they had. Use of sound effects from the games certainly helped the atmosphere.Plenty of things to nitpick if you're inclined but personally I'm willing to let them slide since it's a small group of indie filmmakers. At least someone is working on the Half-Life series .

If nothing else I think it makes sense for SE to reuse the assets they created with their Crystal Tools Engine (or whatever it was called) in making more content directly related to FFXIII. I haven't actually played the game but have watched large chunks of it as my roomate played through and feel like whenever I get around to playing it I will probably mostly enjoy it, but that it certainly won't be setting the bar for the series or anything. The graphics however, were spectacular, so at least there's more of that to look forward to in this sequel, hopefully along with a lot more traditional elements like less linearity, towns, etc. That said, still looking more forward to Versus XIII than anything, where our update on that SE?!

Oh man that alternate ending was great, considering how many deaths and how much time one typically spends in Hell, there really couldn't be a better way to end it! I really enjoyed the mix itself as well, Cave Story is a game I only discovered last year but I instantly fell in love with it and it's old school music. Hearing the Hell theme on a more grand scale was a lot of fun, the mix takes a bit of time to get going but the theme was plain as day once it started, providing instant visions of that second part in hell where you are constantly barraged by angels. Orchestral mixes can be pretty hit or miss sometimes, this one I definitely feel preserved the feel of the original though. Great stuff, hopefully all this positive feedback means we'll get more than 1 mix this year .

Spy videos are always a lot of fun, nice job on the video, I am officially entertained! Intro line in particular was spectacular.

Not that I had anything else on my list to buy, and have certainly bought enough already, I am a little surprised that there was no final epic EVERYTHING IS BACK day. Then again, just about everything has been brought back once already, so it's more just a "oh... that's it then huh?" kind of feeling. Final tally for me: Deus Ex Collection Half-Life: Source (should have waited to get this yesterday I guess, thankfully it was only a difference of $3.00 versus the 50% I bought it for and the 85% I could have gotten it for yesterday) Civilization V (gifted to my brother) F.E.A.R. Complete Pack Crysis Complete Amnesia: The Dark Descent Shatter Half-Life 1 Anthology (never played the expansions and they were 74 cents each, hard to say no to) Between all these and the additions of any of the Humble Indie Bundle (1&2) games that I didn't already have to my Steam list, my library has grown considerably in the last month. Now, to actually play some of these games....

Based purely on the fanfare it got here on these very forums, I figured $2.50 for Shatter wouldn't kill me. Of course, I still have to actually play it to know if I actually enjoy it and all, but that can wait right? It seems stocking up on steam games during the christmas sales is going to be the way to go for the foreseeable future!

Good one, I love FFXI as much as anyone, even though I've been "done" with it for almost a year now. As FF soundtracks go it is probably one of the lesser known, but it certainly never disappointed, I would have to recommend anyone who decided to pass on the whole MMO thing (ie a lot of people) check it out!

I'm actually right there too as far as being intrigued by Singularity, I'm a little surprised I'd never heard of it before, but I can't see myself buying it even on sale for its current price. For 5 bucks on the other hand? Well, that would probably have worked, but that's not the case yet... maybe next year!. Really does look like a cool game though, and being developed by Raven Software, I almost want to impulse buy it.

A good deal on Machinarium you say? Not to derail a thread about Steam sales, but the games featured in the Humble Indie Bundle #2 are spectacular and well, probably even cheaper than what you'd pay for them on Steam at the moment (and that's assuming you decide to donate more than say, $1). The games are also now flaggable on Steam, and you can even unlock the games from the Humble Indie Bundle #1 now if you donate more than the average (which is why you should donate more than $1... you'll still end up paying less than $10) pretty awesome stuff! Edit: Powerlord beat me to it but the HiB deserves all the promotion it gets!

The really great thing about this is that they have now made the Humble Indie Bundle #1 available again as well as long as you pay more than the average donation price (which is of course, rising the longer this goes on). But hey, you shouldn't mind paying the $7.57+ that will require at the moment, hell, just put down an even $10 and help yourself to some awesome indie games, which you can then flag on Steam! Having missed out on the first bundle which my roommate recently told me about, I was really excited for the chance to get it this time around, being able to flag the games on Steam (which was only recently implemented) is a major plus as well. As for bundle #2, I already had Braid and Machinarium, which are both spectacular games, but I was happy to buy the second bundle both to give a little more money to the developers, and of course, to unlock the first bundle.

Great first song, after songs like Epoch I was expecting good things and that's exactly what we've got here, looking forward to the full album!

Last year some games that were for example, originally put up for 50% off ended up going to 75% off towards the end, so unless a deal is really grabbing you, patience and daily checking of deals is probably in your best interest. Unfortunately, unlike last year I really don't have too many big ideas on what to pick up, did get a couple things to go through on spare time for old time's sake (Deux Ex pack and Half Life Source), and I'll probably get Amnesia at some point, sneaking suspicion it will eventually go to 75% off, but I guess we'll see.

You can still do the old objectives, go run it now! I was at 8 and got to 10 easily today thanks to a combination of the 2 very easy objectives introduced today (write a review, and have played at least 15 different games since March 2009). I was worried there would only be 1 easy one today thus forcing me to try to play Beat Hazard which for whatever reason, as much as I thought I would enjoy it, I never really got into and was the only game on the previous objectives which I owned but did not have the objective for.

A good Cheetahmen game would actually probably be very popular just due to how well known it is that the first 2 games blew. The thing is... would a "good" Cheetahmen game still be Cheetahmen?!

Mine and my brother's as well, nothing quite like Sierra adventure games! Sierra plugging out of the way, there's another thing here that hasn't been brought up that stands out to me, and that's the success of a lot of indie games which use old school elements but modern graphics, often with a twist, such as Braid, Trine, VVVVVV, And Yet it Moves, most recently Super Meat Boy, and to add a non platformer, Machinarium (you mean the adventure genre isn't dead after all?!). I'm pretty sure these games are very popular with both the older and younger generation and wouldn't be too surprised if in some cases (especially with Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV) if it were a lot of younger generation gamers first exposure to ruthlessly difficult platforming. I think the combination of high quality graphics (VVVVVV's intentional oldschoolness excluded) and strong, fulfilling gameplay has made these games a good fit for anyone who is, for lack of a better term, a true gamer. In this case I will define that as anyone who enjoys being challenged (and then of course, rewarded) by games, whether it be puzzle solving in a game like Machanarium, the combination of thought process problem solving and platforming that goes into a game like Braid or Trine, or the pure twitch muscle memory needed for the unforgiving challenge of Super Meat Boy. The games I mentioned are among my favorites of the last year (ok AYIM wasn't that great, but still enjoyable), personally, I am an older gamer who started with PC and NES games so in many cases, the appeal of a lot of those games was in the nostalgia value, but I think that those games would be able to have a lot of appeal without that as well, with the more modern graphics serving as a lure to older style gameplay (thoughts from younger games might actually be interesting in regards to that). Regarding "PC gaming," I agree that it is almost kind of an anomaly now, in that sense that fewer games are "PC only" now, as compared to 10 years ago where there where still tons of big name games coming out only for PC and not for consoles. I'd say I'm very representative of the old school PC gamer in that I do like fps games like TF2, HL2, or anything Doom related, yet have never played Halo, and, even though it is available on PC, anything in the CoD series as well. As someone who grew up with id Software games and became a big fps fan as a result, their upcoming latest offering, , is one of my most anticipated games. I would imagine a lot of people either haven't heard of it, or don't really care, which I can totally understand, seeing how id hasn't done much at all in the last few years and their last offer of significance (Doom 3) wasn't as epic as it was supposed to be.I'd say it's fair to say that there's probably a whole generation of fps gamers who may have never touched an id game now, and this is where it gets interesting, as Rage, like so many other modern "big games" will be launching on consoles as well as PC and getting much more exposure than it would have had it just been on the PC. Whether or not it ends up being any good remains to be seen (will it be another amazing engine with less of a game?), but I sure would be happy if id was able to get to the forefront of the fps genre again, as someone who was strongly influenced by their games growing up. In the end, I also completely agree with the idea that it's hard to appreciate something that was new 20 years ago if you've never seen it before compared to the guy who saw it right when it was new and was wowed. I can remember being impressed by a "color monitor" in my earliest days of PC gaming, and obviously, the SNES was amazing compared to the NES, this list could go on but you get the point. Some younger people are able to look beyond the graphics and discover these games, and some, well, are missing out! Still, if you weren't there when it was new, then it's old, whether it be the NES, SNES, PS1, older PC game, etc, and I think I can understand why some people might not see much in an older game initially anyway.

VVVVVV, Braid, and Trine (platformers) and Machinarium (adventure) would be strong choices, aside from that, I will just throw out Mass Effect (1+2), Dragon Age, Torchlight, and Worms Reloaded, your mileage may vary but they are all great games if you ask me.

FFXI was fine since MMOs were still fairly new, simple as it may sound, WoW wasn't out yet so that comparison couldn't be made and people who did play MMOs were generally happy with whatever they could get. FFXI was a good MMO for FF fans, to oversimplify, it was like a Final Fantasy EverQuest, and back then, that was good enough. Years later, in a world of countless MMOs of varying degrees of success, FFXIV was launched way too early, and SE is paying for it. I still have every intention of going back eventually, but I removed my payment options for now, which ironically, has not mattered so far since the free trial has been extended 3 times, and now permanently extended until they "get the game into a state they are satisfied with." I completely agree with the idea that SE thought the Final Fantasy name was invincible and has now had it proven in no uncertain terms that that is not the case, they can't just shit on a game and except it to do well, and now they have finally learned this. I think it's a good move on their part to not charge monthly fees yet, and it does give me a little more faith that they are taking the relative failure of the game so far seriously, as someone who would like to return and enjoy themselves in FFXIV at some point. I still see a lot of things in it that I liked, to the point where I almost want to log in right now, and I imagine I will only want to return more as more updates roll in.

As soon as I read the concept idea for this mix I had a feeling it was going to be something I'd enjoy, and it certainly was! Only "problem" here, to echo everyone else, is just how short it is, this definitely one that I've already found myself listening to a couple times in a row just to really get that atmosphere. Speaking of the atmosphere, that's totally what makes this mix, and I really dig it, if it's creepy, it's not in a scary way, just in kind of a weird way. I've been playing a lot of Machinarium lately and I couldn't help but be reminded of the speechless way the characters interact in that game while listening to this. Of course, the original concept is a lot of fun to imagine too, I sort of get the sense of a character telling a story with flashbacks to all of the crazy things that must have happened in their life. The radio switch on/off is a very nice touch as well, amazing how good even a 2 minute mix can be when it manages to nail an atmosphere like this.

This is going to be a fun one, looking forward to seeing how this develops!

There are a few tracks that I'd still like to hear them do (FFVI's Fierce Battle comes to mind), though I'm not sure that will ever happen. I'd agree that the first album was the best, but the second was pretty good as far as I was concerned as well. I honestly can't say I have a huge problem with their 3rd album either, some of the tracks I'll admit I'm kinda neutral at best on, but I am a sucker for anything related to the FFVI Opera, and I also really liked their renditions of Neo Exdeath, FFIII's Final Battle, and Distant Worlds. So since I'm clearly not as picky as most people, I can use that logic to say that yes, I would probably enjoy a 4th album, whether or not it happens I'm not holding my breath.

Finally! Album art! And I have to say, very slick, worth the wait album art at that!

It's nice to finally get a chance to experience this soundtrack first hand after listening to the interview a week ago. Obviously I haven't heard it all yet with Super Meat Boy only becoming playable on Steam as of today, but, it hasn't taken long to realize how unique (and awesome for anyone who grew up playing NES-generation games) this soundtrack is If any other non-Xbox360 owners were looking forward to playing this on PC, the time has arrived (but you probably preordered last week, right?)!