Before I begin, I've got some exciting projects and whatnot in the works. It all depends on how quickly the parts arrive and how quickly I can get to work on it, but I'm restoring an older pair of super-audiophile tier planar speakers, which is very exciting. There's also Grand Theft Auto 5, which I've been playing fairly relentlessly the past few days, and to top it all off I've got a Nintendo 2DS preordered and I'm going to try my hand at Pokemon X/Y when it releases in two weeks.
Anyways, moving on to my experience with the pile of games that I bought on Steam during their summer sale. I'll be running down the list that I had made in my previous summer sale post:
Borderlands 2 Season Pass DLC
In terms of hours of content added to the game this is a big win. It's pretty entertaining and there is a TON of quests available for you to mess around with, including side quests. I've been running through it with a friend and so far it feels like we've barely scratched the surface. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem quite as polished as the original game and I've noticed a number of silly glitches that just plain shouldn't be there if everything was tested properly. Things like gun sounds just dropping out in certain areas, clipping through scenery, and spectacularly glitchy ragdolls that explode off into the sky. (I'm guessing this last one is a PhysX bug because it happens on my GTX 780 computer but not with my 5850 computer) All in all though, definitely worth the extra coin for all the goodies you get. If you liked Borderlands 2 to begin with, it is well worth it.
Carrier Command: Gaea Mission
Sadly disappointing. I haven't tried to play though a lot of it to see if it gets better. Despite looking quite good, its awful voice acting and poorly explained interface really put a damper on the experience.
Chivalry
I'll admit to having bought this one simply because of the hilarious Birgirpall video. It's actually pretty damn entertaining, though the learning curve can be a brutal- you pretty much get slaughtered relentlessly until you learn how to fight well. Best played with a big group of friends, though I've yet to get much play time in.
Dishonored
Liking it so far, though I find it rather annoying that the game presents you with a whole array of awesome ways to kill things, and then asks you to kindly refrain from murder. Finding it a bit hard to get drawn into it because of that looming threat of "bad end" hanging over your head, and trial and error stealth being the other option.
Far Cry 3 and Blood Dragon
Far Cry 3 was quite fun. Annoying as hell graphics bugs aside, it was quite a fun game punctuated with a few moments of abject rage. The AI would wildly flail between being bumbling incompetent fools and omniscient god kings who knew exactly where you were the moment you so much as farted. This does not make for fun stealth gameplay. Add to that the attack dogs appearing out of thin air and the bullet sponging "heavy" enemies that are immune to headshots and take essentially an entire loadout of ammunition to kill and you've got a recipe for frustration at times.
After all is said and done, though, hip firing a PKM light machine gun at pirates and barrels of fertilizer while a field of marijuana burns down around you, with this song playing in the background just goes so far over the top that I can't help but remark about how memorable it was. It was hilarious, over the top absurd, and most importantly, incredibly fun.
Kerbal Space Program
Absolutely addictive and incredibly fun, but hampered by a few really frustrating interface issues. In all fairness, a number of these complaints are being addressed in the upcoming .22 patch, like the ability to save and "paste" in sub modules. It's intensely annoying to design an awesome lander or probe, only to have to rebuild it from scratch if you want to retrofit it onto a different rocket, or vice versa attaching multiple varied payloads to a successful rocket design. Thankfully, this and some other little annoyances will (hopefully soon) be taken care of, so I have to give credit where credit is due.
It also sort of bugs me that there is no automated telemetry available- though launching into orbit on completely manual control is great at first and really gives a great "seat of your pants" experience, I feel like establishing a nice clean orbit on autopilot makes later missions less stressful and more fun, because you still need a rocket that can do the necessary maneuvers. There's a mod for that, though- the community is quite active with generating their own content, making the game all the more fun to pick up and play. Definitely recommended.
Operation Flashpoint: Red River
I don't like it. At all. I was hopeful considering it had the Flashpoint name, but it was a huge disappointment. I went into the game fully expecting there to be the occasional AI derp here and there, but I was truly not prepared for the three ring circus of idiocy that ensued. Blue on blue everywhere. The uninspiring graphics, lifeless weapon handling, and overall clunky interface didn't help either. I didn't even bother playing any more after the first hour or so.
PAYDAY
I'm withholding judgement on this one until I get some more time with it, playing with friends. Initially, it seemed like a very poorly organized and explained clusterfuck of a heist game but that could simply be because I was thrown into "the deep end" and didn't have much time to get a feel for things before I was running around aimlessly, trying to figure out what to do to be useful.
RAGE
Also less fun than I hoped it would be. Still haven't gotten much time in, but I say it always is a bad omen for a game when you shoot someone in the head and their reaction is to say "ow" and continue attacking you.
Receiver
Really cool little independent game. A bit on the difficult side because of its main attraction, the fully functioning and correct firearm handling. There are so many key binds you initially have to pretty much play with the help menu open. Not so sure about it's long term appeal, though.
Strike Suit Zero
Still need to get more time with this one. So far though, it looks pretty nice. Though I don't really dig the space shooter genre as much as I used to, barring some absurd difficulty spike or other fatal flaw, it looks to be a nice diversion from my usual fare.
