playing games on a PC, misc. chatter, Steam names, etc...

bought
Trine 2
the Serious Sam RPG

will probably buy (but wait to see all the daily sales first)
Ys: The Oath in Felghana
Lost Horizon
Legend of Fae

Death Rally is out (again) for PC today. I do like these top-down racers, but I didn't like what little I played of the iOS version, mainly because I couldn't get used to the (shit) virtual controls. Since the PC version has controller support, it should be pretty good?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/108700/

i liked the iOS version, just wished there was more of a story mode or something

JCL, did you play Bang Bang Racing? I thought it was pretty decent.

I sort of regret not buying it during the steam sale. I tried the demo and thought it was fun (on 360), but the lack of online multiplayer has held me back so far from dropping the cash. I'll probably get it during the christmas sale though (I'm sure it'll be cheaper)...

Steam's Big Picture display mode for TVs is live (well, in beta) now. The interface is really slick and pleasant to use, and I've found I can set it up with about $15 worth of cable (a ten-foot HDMI mini-to-HDMI cable and a ten-foot USB extension for my Xbox controller) so I'm going to give it a shot over the weekend.

Yeah, I've been looking forward to this and it's turned out a lot nicer and a lot more functional than I'd expected. Long hdmi tends to be flaky though, I thnk it's more likely I'll end up just building a new small quiet living room machine (although small + quiet + powerful is still really hard to pull off - I'm kind of hoping that the fact this mode exists now will be enough to convince Dell or someone to make something along those lines, and save me the trouble of speccing one up).

hmmm i have an unused Quad Q6600 PC that could be hooked up to my tv, would just need to buy a decent graphics card for it. If this thing works as promised then maybe i don't need to buy a nextgen console? its certainly a tempting idea.

I've turned my quad-core PC into a HTPC. I popped in about £150 of new fans and a fan controller and it's silent as a mouse - certainhly quitere than a PS3 or an xbox. I've got a satellite screen sitting next to "my chair", so I can stream footie on the big screen and read ILF on the little screen. With a wireless mouse+keyboard it's kinda all I need. Will certainly not be needing a next-gen console (although probably will need a new graphics card at some point, which means new fans - hurumph)

Tips for quiet fans? £150 is waaaay more than I've ever spent, but I've never got it to sound any quieter than a hoover.

On closer inspection it turns out I spent a lot more than £150, but on reflection I probably overdid it

The two items that made the biggest difference to me were a quiet graphics card fan (graphics cards are small = fan has to go quicker = fans are loud. The hoover in your PC is probably the graphics card) and a fan controller so the the fans only come on when needed. Those will set you back around £70 and will make the biggest difference imo.

http://www.quietpc.com/kaze-server - fan controller
http://www.quietpc.com/gel-icy-vision - graphics cards

I also splurged out on a monster cpu cooler as well, which mostly cools the CPU passively and only flicks on when you're doing something intensive. Whether or not it would be overkill for you, you'll have to decide.

http://www.quietpc.com/nh-d14

The QuietPC website is great btw. Good range, informative website, and cheaper than Amazon on the odd item I compared.

thanks for that, website looks very useful. just need some £££ now!

Quiet PC are a great supplier, I buy a lot of stuff from them. The Noctua fans particularly are great - 6 in my desktop PC at the moment. The case is lined with soundproofing acoustic foam, and something else I installed was an HDD silencer http://www.quietpc.com/smartdrive-classic, which quietens an already quiet HDD down to practically inaudible unless I put my ear against the case.

FTL is out. Looks neat. Roguelike starship fun.

currently $9. If I get half the playtime out of this that I did from Hack, Slash, Loot, It'll be worth it.

http://www.ftlgame.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4imWvoqxmc

comes on Mac & Linux, too.

I wonder how long before Star Command hits.

man this game is brutal

but is it good?

i feel kinda bad saying this, but though this looks cool something about it tells me it's gonna be in an indie bundle

Big Picture update: it works, sort of, but it's a pain in the ass. Since I can't force Steam (or anything else) to launch only on my secondary monitor (my TV), and since I don't want to make the TV my primary, the best way I've found to work this is annoyingly complicated: I keep the primary/secondary setup, switch to duplicate displays when I'm ready to play something, switch the sound from speakers to HDMI, and set the game's resolution as necessary. For some games (including, surprisingly, Bastion, originally an XBLA title) they don't actually support low enough resolutions for my 720p TV.

my guess is that the 720p has a natural output at a resolution like 1388x768, i think few 720p TVs actually render at 720p

Yeah, mine is 1360x738 or something weird like that. The problem is Bastion doesn't have anything within that range- the lowest available resolution just gets me a blank screen.

How about fixing the resoltion in the steam launcher...

https://www.wsgf.org/dr/bastion/en

Thanks, I'll give that a try!

Hmm, guess I'll wait and see how this pans out before I jump in and build a new box:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/18/valve-hardware-jeri-ellsworth/

holy shit, Jet Set Radio is out steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/205950/

Also, Torchlight 2 out

there is something crazy that it got a PC port over ten years later. but also great because i can wait until it's on a steam sale and feel less guilty about rebuying it then

still waiting for the TL2 mac port

This really is fantastic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZE7kGax7Ds

Who the hell knows when it will be finished, though; this is actually shorter than the last alpha release that came out a year or so ago.

looks nice

Anybody for Hotline Miami?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OJ51PG0swE

waiting for Mac port, but yes, i'm pretty interested. Cactus! it's been getting good notes from all over the place, especially compared to Retro City Rampage, whose response has been more lukewarm

Death Rally is having a free weekend on Steam - available from now until Sunday @ 1 PM PST.

Are any of you playing Planetside 2?

Upgraded much of the desktop today.

Man, I need a cheaper hobby, like narcotics.

Kingfish - specs?

How to date a post to very late 2012, here we go:

I5 - 3570k
8gig ddr3 1600
MSi z77 something mobo, does not have a eide port meaning I gotta dig up an ext hdd enclosure to pull old data off old drives
120gb Samsung ssd. Damn but Win 7 loads in less than 60 seconds.

Also, bought a Radeon hd 7870 earlier in the week.

Far Cry 3 runs nicely on it, like it should.

summation of the fuss over Steam game War Z, interesting to see how Valve plays this
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/12/19/allegations-of-false-advertising-hound-the-war-z-release-on-steam/

aaaaaaaand Valve have pulled it from sale

From time to time a mistake can be made and one was made by prematurely issuing a copy of War Z for sale via Steam. We apologize for this and have temporary removed the sale offering of the title until we have time to work with the developer and have confidence in a new build. Those who purchase the game and wish to continue playing it via Steam may do so. Those who purchased the title via Steam and are unhappy with what they received may seek a refund by creating a ticket at our support site here.

http://www.capcom-unity.com/mega_man

Mega Man X Street Fighter is available for free download today

Elder Scrolls Bundle, one Steam code for £20.61 - Oblivion GOTY, Morrowind GOTY, Skyrim, Hearthfire and Dawnguard

Speaking of Steam, Gaben and other Valve guys are interviewed in 2-parter ep of Nerdist out today.

I now have 8 free copies of DOTA2 clogging up my steam gift box (it'll be free to play once it launches properly anyway but at the moment early access is £22ish so I guess this is a good deal?). Chuck me your steam name if you want one of them.

Simcity closed beta went live this weekend. Check your email for a code if you signed up for it.

FUCK STEAM aaargh fucking idiot fuckety bastard fuckers!

It's attempting to download the world's most massive update on my 2kb/s Nigerian connection. Cannot delay the update. Cannot play any Steam games inc single player. Update will complete in about a week. They haven't even done us the courtesy of saying what's *in* the fucking update. I'll take up any offers of a lift back to 1998.

i think it's the linux update. I feel your pain.

This probably belongs in the deal thread but the current Groupees/Be Mine bundle is up
http://groupees.com/bma

I mention this mostly because The Cat Lady looks like a possible so-bad-its-good throwback to '90s PC FMV adventure games

From the first hour or so in, indie Escherian puzzler Antichamber does seem to live up to the hype.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT2VlffrSMg

Has anyone here played Actual Sunlight?
http://www.actualsunlight.com/
It's pretty harrowing. I can tell you from experience that its first-person perspective of suicidal depression is completely on point.

RPS coverage if you'd rather read about it than play it, for which I can't really blame you. (Or you can read it after you've played it, the whole game is about 20 minutes.)
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/11/thoughts-on-actual-sunlight/

I guess I should do the responsible thing and say this game just may have some triggering effects, it's that raw

Played this tonight. By halfway through I was bored and it was repetitive and miserable and I just wanted it to hurry up and end. Which was pretty woah in itself.

this looks really cool. Patrick Klepek posted about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCg8J2NrSrE

John Carpenter Soundtrack....the game!

haha, well put sir