Crusader Kings II was free on Steam

Bedinsis

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EDIT: The giveaway has ended. If you were interested, I hop you picked up a copy. Below is what this post used to say.

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As of this writing, Crusader Kings II is available free of charge on Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/203770/Crusader_Kings_II/

It lasts until the 7th, getting it before then will ensure that you get to keep it after the 7th.

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This thread was originally about a Spec Ops: The Line giveaway. Below is what this post said earlier.

EDIT: the give-away has ended. Below is what the opening post originally said:

As of this writing Spec Ops: The Line is available for free at humblebundle, for an additional 23 hours.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/spec-ops-the-line

Since Yahtzee named it his game of the year 2012 I thought it might be of interest to ya'll.

EDIT: and now I see that 00danX had already started a thread with this subject. Oh well. Since I want people to get this game I'll let the thread be open; I suspect this heading will grab more clickers.
 

Bedinsis

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Ezekiel said:
Bedinsis said:
Since Yahtzee named it his game of the year 2012 I thought it might be of interest to ya'll.
What the heck? Why, Yahtzee? Spec Ops: The Line was nothing special.
There is always the review, if you're curious about his reasoning.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/6021-Spec-Ops-The-Line

Although this is not the first time I've heard rumblings about re-assessment of Spec Ops: The Line. I'd be down for a re-review, since I believe a lot of his positive reaction to it can be attributed to what the gaming scene was at the time.
 

B-Cell_v1legacy

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I played it.

its a generic cover based shooter. a gears of war with sands. waste of time.

it feel like every other cover based third person shooter.
 

Trunkage

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B-Cell said:
I played it.

its a generic cover based shooter. a gears of war with sands. waste of time.

it feel like every other cover based third person shooter.
You don't play this one for the gameplay. The only thing going for it was the story

But then I think most shooters are a wasted space when it comes to stories, so this was a breath of fresh air
 

Poetic Nova

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Spec Ops: The Line is a good story packaged into a bad game. I wanted the game to be over with, but not because of the story making me feel guilty or anything, but because the gameplay was shit, detrimental to the experience.
 

TilMorrow

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trunkage said:
B-Cell said:
I played it.

its a generic cover based shooter. a gears of war with sands. waste of time.

it feel like every other cover based third person shooter.
You don't play this one for the gameplay. The only thing going for it was the story

But then I think most shooters are a wasted space when it comes to stories, so this was a breath of fresh air
The story was pretty underwhelming tbh, it has a lot of plot holes and some of it just plain doesn't make sense, all whilst it tries to hand wave it as "Oh Walker may or may not have had PTSD throughout the game" depending on how you choose your ending whilst also seemingly forgetting there were two other people accompanying Walker through the whole game till just before the end. Oh and that Mass Effect 3 style ending choice was hilarious considering it's:
- You can shoot at nothing which consequently means you shoot yourself in the head.
- Not do that and do nothing in the final scene.
- Not do that and fire a bullet in the final scene and get gunned down.
- Not do that and kill everyone in the final scene with ease.

Real compelling story telling.
 

Trunkage

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Nile McMorrow said:
trunkage said:
B-Cell said:
I played it.

its a generic cover based shooter. a gears of war with sands. waste of time.

it feel like every other cover based third person shooter.
You don't play this one for the gameplay. The only thing going for it was the story

But then I think most shooters are a wasted space when it comes to stories, so this was a breath of fresh air
The story was pretty underwhelming tbh, it has a lot of plot holes and some of it just plain doesn't make sense, all whilst it tries to hand wave it as "Oh Walker may or may not have had PTSD throughout the game" depending on how you choose your ending whilst also seemingly forgetting there were two other people accompanying Walker through the whole game till just before the end. Oh and that Mass Effect 3 style ending choice was hilarious considering it's:
- You can shoot at nothing which consequently means you shoot yourself in the head.
- Not do that and do nothing in the final scene.
- Not do that and fire a bullet in the final scene and get gunned down.
- Not do that and kill everyone in the final scene with ease.

Real compelling story telling.
1. I'm comparing this story to other shooters. Its not a high bar.

2. In Witcher 3, you make two choices. Say nice or demeaning words to Ciri and go through with an assassination. This leads to 3 different options of endings. Its exactly like ME3. In New Vegas, you pick 1 of 4 factions. Exactly like ME3. Because that's how games works. Pretend choice is their breadbasket.
 

jademunky

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Bedinsis said:
As of this writing Spec Ops: The Line is available for free at humblebundle, for an additional 23 hours.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/spec-ops-the-line

Since Yahtzee named it his game of the year 2012 I thought it might be of interest to ya'll.

EDIT: and now I see that 00danX had already started a thread with this subject. Oh well. Since I want people to get this game I'll let the thread be open; I suspect this heading will grab more clickers.
Good eye! Thanks.

Added it to my backlog.

Now back to Nier:Automata and the continued and seemingly unending trauma of
9S
 

Gergar12_v1legacy

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The story was what was good about the game. If you play it a second time and look deep into the symbolism, you could see it was a true work of art.
 

LysanderNemoinis

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When I played the demo years ago, I thought it was thoroughly boring and forgettable. After finding out how unbearably pretentious and preachy it was, Humblebundle would have to pay me to play it now.
 

Arnoxthe1

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I think the majority of people who play Spec Ops ironically aren't the kind of people Spec Ops is aiming at. Hence why a lot of people find it objectionable.
 

Jadak

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Arnoxthe1 said:
I think the majority of people who play Spec Ops ironically aren't the kind of people Spec Ops is aiming at. Hence why a lot of people find it objectionable.
I don't find it objectionable, I just don't get the appeal. It's a fine shooter, ... and that was it. Story was fine, but not praiseworthy. They threw in a twist, so what?

I liked the game, but having only played it after all the rave reviews and with corresponding expectations, I was disappointed.
 

JUMBO PALACE

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I got it for $6.50 on Steam a couple months ago and played through it for the second time actually. I think I rented it once or something. For that price or lower I'd say it's worth it- it hits that short, 7/10 popcorn game sweet spot when you just wanna play something casual and fun for a bit.

I never understood why so many people gush about the story. I found it ham-fisted and preachy, and not because I didn't get it. We are the real monsters, violence is not the right answer, look at what man is capable of, yada yada yada. The problem is all of that is meaningless when you don't have a choice. If I was able to I wouldn't have used the white phosphorous. Maybe if the game had offered a non-lethal or stealth option I would have taken it. But no, it drops you into a warzone with automatic weapons and forces you to do horrible things. The characters might be wrong when they claim they "don't have a choice" but the player legitimately doesn't other than not buying the game at all.
 

Squilookle

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From what I can gather, it used a generic third person shooting mechanic to put forward a clumsily constructed diatribe on how a military's glorification of violence in a game might actually be a bad thing, and doesn't let you choose your way around it.

Now, with that said...​

It's also a shooter that took a long hard look at the utterly cookie-cutter barely-anything-there plots of literally every other military shooter of the time and decided to deconstruct it, using its plot to actually make a self-aware point about the state of videogames as a whole.

And for that it deserves our respect regardless of the overall package.​

Honestly, those deriding it just because it wasn't a perfect 10/10 in all areas ought to be ashamed of yourselves. It chose to advance the medium in one specific area, and since not many had done it this way before, it had to work it out as it went and as a result was rough around the edges. Big deal. It's the kind of game we should be applauding, and encouraging companies to make more of. Because at the end of the day, more games that take risks like Spec Ops: The Line did are a benefit to the industry- certainly moreso than another goddamn Medal of Honor at this stage.
 

Trunkage

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JUMBO PALACE said:
I got it for $6.50 on Steam a couple months ago and played through it for the second time actually. I think I rented it once or something. For that price or lower I'd say it's worth it- it hits that short, 7/10 popcorn game sweet spot when you just wanna play something casual and fun for a bit.

I never understood why so many people gush about the story. I found it ham-fisted and preachy, and not because I didn't get it. We are the real monsters, violence is not the right answer, look at what man is capable of, yada yada yada. The problem is all of that is meaningless when you don't have a choice. If I was able to I wouldn't have used the white phosphorous. Maybe if the game had offered a non-lethal or stealth option I would have taken it. But no, it drops you into a warzone with automatic weapons and forces you to do horrible things. The characters might be wrong when they claim they "don't have a choice" but the player legitimately doesn't other than not buying the game at all.
They probably didn't give you a non-phosphorus option because it would have no impact. Much of the game would have been rendered pointless, and its gameplay is not why you play Spec Ops.

I see it as similar to Apocalypse Now: The Game. The movie isn't that great either, but the message clearly hits something visceral inside a certain segment of the population. As to preachy, this sounds like a "get politics out of our games" sort of comment. I can understand preachy can be a turn off but I'm up to a stage in my life where I realise everyone is being preachy, so I just got over it.
 

Bedinsis

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Oh hey, I discovered another giveaway: Crusader Kings II is free on Steam until the 7th.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/203770/Crusader_Kings_II/

Dunno if I should update the headline; it seems this subject actually started a discussion on the merits of Spec Ops: The Line.
 

Trunkage

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Bedinsis said:
Oh hey, I discovered another giveaway: Crusader Kings II is free on Steam until the 7th.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/203770/Crusader_Kings_II/

Dunno if I should update the headline; it seems this subject actually started a discussion on the merits of Spec Ops: The Line.
Do it, I know nothing of this game except apparently it's hard
 

Bedinsis

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Bedinsis said:
Oh hey, I discovered another giveaway: Crusader Kings II is free on Steam until the 7th.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/203770/Crusader_Kings_II/

Dunno if I should update the headline; it seems this subject actually started a discussion on the merits of Spec Ops: The Line.
Can't hurt
Epic Bundle is a pretty good site to bookmark for free game stuff
 

Bedinsis

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trunkage said:
Bedinsis said:
Oh hey, I discovered another giveaway: Crusader Kings II is free on Steam until the 7th.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/203770/Crusader_Kings_II/

Dunno if I should update the headline; it seems this subject actually started a discussion on the merits of Spec Ops: The Line.
Do it, I know nothing of this game except apparently it's hard
Consider it done.

Since I've logged 200+ hours into the game, my description would be that it's a role-playing game disguising itself as a strategy game. With family politics. It reminds me of The Sims, only you get to murder people.