The Steam Deals + Cards Thread V9 | Torchlight II Weekend

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Psydero

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Welcome to the Steam Deal Thread V9! I'm your new host, Psydero.
You can find link to past threads at the bottom of this post. Read post #2 of this thread for Steam FAQs and more.

Steam Sales on Steam

$6.79
 

  $14.99




Steam Sales Elsewhere on CAG - Updated 11/2


Indie Bundle Threads - Updated 8/26

Free Stuff - Needs Updating

There are quite a few free and free2play games and mods on steam. You can find a full list here. Note that free games are not permanently attached to your Steam account like actual purchases would be. You'll need to manually download a game again from the website if you uninstall it.

Past Special Sales
Visit www.steamgamesales.com to check previous sale prices on Steam games. We do keep track of some older sales here though:

Past CAG Steam Deal Threads

 
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warreni said:
My 2p: I haven't played much of Disciples III, but the reviews do indicate that II is much better. I found some of the combat and movement a little awkard in the demo for III. Disciples II is a great TBS, but like a lot of these HOMM knockoffs, I find that it's easy to get yourself in a corner when your stacks are too weak to successfully challenge the enemies you need to finish a map. Maybe I'm just not very good at this type of game.
Click to expand...
Generally if you're losing more than a couple cheap units in your battles you're doing it wrong. Speaking just from my experience with HOMM and KB, you want to find strategies that allow you to win with no losses. Some games/factions require you to be more inventive in this regard than others.

Cheaplikeafox 3.0 said:
Also, regarding Pickers in the new Groupees, it is a hidden object casual game. So anyone looking into it might want to take that into account. Some people don't play those types of games. You go to different locations to find hidden objects from your list of wanted items, once you find them, you come back to your shop and decide what you want to do with your items and how much you want to try to sell them for. There's goals in the game to make a certain amount of money and stuff like that. So it's hidden object mixed with a little shop keeping. It's nothing super deep, but I found it a ton of fun, especially being a big fan of the show.
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Thanks, I'll look into it!

 
A question about how CAGs deal with backlogs:

I scored a ridiculous bunch of new games during the Steam Summer Sale, GMG and Amazon sales not to mention the backlog I had before the sales.  I started Borderlands 2 and I imagine that with the DLC, I'm looking at 80+ hours.  Generally, if I set a game aside for a while I find it very hard to come back to, but I'm itching to try some of the other new (to me) games.  RPGs are huge time sinks and strategy games have learning curves that take tome to come to grips with. 

So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs?  Are you juggling multiple games?  Powering through games in serial?  My time is so limited at the moment, I don't even want to start the strategy or RPG games due to the time commitment, and I'm reluctant to stop playing Borderlands.

Thoughts?

 
DrR0Ck said:
A question about how CAGs deal with backlogs:

I scored a ridiculous bunch of new games during the Steam Summer Sale, GMG and Amazon sales not to mention the backlog I had before the sales. I started Borderlands 2 and I imagine that with the DLC, I'm looking at 80+ hours. Generally, if I set a game aside for a while I find it very hard to come back to, but I'm itching to try some of the other new (to me) games. RPGs are huge time sinks and strategy games have learning curves that take tome to come to grips with.

So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs? Are you juggling multiple games? Powering through games in serial? My time is so limited at the moment, I don't even want to start the strategy or RPG games due to the time commitment, and I'm reluctant to stop playing Borderlands.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I play none and buy more
 
DrR0Ck said:
A question about how CAGs deal with backlogs:

I scored a ridiculous bunch of new games during the Steam Summer Sale, GMG and Amazon sales not to mention the backlog I had before the sales. I started Borderlands 2 and I imagine that with the DLC, I'm looking at 80+ hours. Generally, if I set a game aside for a while I find it very hard to come back to, but I'm itching to try some of the other new (to me) games. RPGs are huge time sinks and strategy games have learning curves that take tome to come to grips with.

So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs? Are you juggling multiple games? Powering through games in serial? My time is so limited at the moment, I don't even want to start the strategy or RPG games due to the time commitment, and I'm reluctant to stop playing Borderlands.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Backlogs aren't played. They are admired or feared. :booty:

 
DrR0Ck said:
A question about how CAGs deal with backlogs:

I scored a ridiculous bunch of new games during the Steam Summer Sale, GMG and Amazon sales not to mention the backlog I had before the sales. I started Borderlands 2 and I imagine that with the DLC, I'm looking at 80+ hours. Generally, if I set a game aside for a while I find it very hard to come back to, but I'm itching to try some of the other new (to me) games. RPGs are huge time sinks and strategy games have learning curves that take tome to come to grips with.

So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs? Are you juggling multiple games? Powering through games in serial? My time is so limited at the moment, I don't even want to start the strategy or RPG games due to the time commitment, and I'm reluctant to stop playing Borderlands.

Thoughts?
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I'm about 130 continuous hours into BL2. I look at games like BL, ME, DS:ptD, Skyrim as main courses. I'll play the hell out of them and in between those long playthroughs I'll snack on some smaller games. Though it helps not having any other distractions, like a family.

 
DrR0Ck said:
A question about how CAGs deal with backlogs:

I scored a ridiculous bunch of new games during the Steam Summer Sale, GMG and Amazon sales not to mention the backlog I had before the sales. I started Borderlands 2 and I imagine that with the DLC, I'm looking at 80+ hours. Generally, if I set a game aside for a while I find it very hard to come back to, but I'm itching to try some of the other new (to me) games. RPGs are huge time sinks and strategy games have learning curves that take tome to come to grips with.

So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs? Are you juggling multiple games? Powering through games in serial? My time is so limited at the moment, I don't even want to start the strategy or RPG games due to the time commitment, and I'm reluctant to stop playing Borderlands.

Thoughts?
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Steam Cardz destroyed my backlog plans :drool:

 
DrR0Ck said:
So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs?
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I typically have one game I play very heavily.

The rest of my unplayed games get a try for various reasons: trading cards, high recommendation from friends/forums, fits my time restrictions, or just simply scratches a gaming itch I may have at that particular time.

If I enjoy the game and want to return to it I'll leave it installed; otherwise, I uninstall. At any given time I have 25 games at various states of play.

I don't let myself get stressed out about the backlog or unfinished games. But, as a result, I do have an aversion to games with overly-complicated rules or mechanics. When I'm looking through my play list and I come across a game that I know I'm going to have to re-learn just to get caught up, it does reduce the chances I'm going to spend time with it unless the mood just strikes me.

 
DrR0Ck said:
So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs? Are you juggling multiple games? Powering through games in serial? My time is so limited at the moment, I don't even want to start the strategy or RPG games due to the time commitment, and I'm reluctant to stop playing Borderlands.

Thoughts?
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Accept these things:

1) You're not going to beat every game, most of your games, or even half of the games you buy - only the ones that are good, enjoyable and/or rewarding.

2) Heavily multiplayer games such as Borderlands 2 never really end; don't feel any obligation to "finish it" beyond one runthrough, if that. The only risk is that if you wait long enough for some games the MP community could die off, but in this case that's pretty unlikely.

3) Juggle it all! You'll keep playing the good stuff or go back to it. Great thing about Steam is that you have all these games forever! You can go back months later, years later to a game you feel like playing on the spot.

4) Value your own time the most, over the dollars and pennies you spent on these games.

 
Neuro5i5 said:
Though it helps not having any other distractions, like a family.
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Are you saying you don't have a family, or that you offed them to have more time to devote to the backlog? I had not considered this option before...

SevereTireDamage said:
Accept these things:

1) You're not going to beat every game, most of your games, or even half of the games you buy - only the ones that are good, enjoyable and/or rewarding.

2) Heavily multiplayer games such as Borderlands 2 never really end; don't feel any obligation to "finish it" beyond one runthrough, if that. The only risk is that if you wait long enough for some games the MP community could die off, but in this case that's pretty unlikely.

3) Juggle it all! You'll keep playing the good stuff or go back to it. Great thing about Steam is that you have all these games forever! You can go back months later, years later to a game you feel like playing on the spot.

4) Value your own time the most, over the dollars and pennies you spent on these games.
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Some good advice here. I have been stressing over the money spent, and feeling obligated to play more. I need to try to keep realistic expectations, but there are so many potentially great games..

I'm not really into MP, so at least this is not an issue for me.

 
Revixe06 said:
Have:
$5 - Fallout Collection (1 copies left)
$1 - Just Cause (3 copies left)
$8 - Portal 2 (2 copies left)

Want:
Amazon GC
Offers (My Wishist)

* Free coupons for however wants them. I'll gladly take a trading card in return, but not necessary.

-33% Hamilton's Great Adventure
-50% Killing Floor
-50% Sniper Elite V2
-50% Strike Suit Infinity (x2)
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UNDERCUT SPECIAL

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:22941]

Only $.75
Cheaplikeafox 3.0 said:
Can't get Burnout Paradise to run on my computer - burning rage!!! The most frustrating thing is that I've played it before, on this exact computer, but I'm assuming the hard drive crash/replacement and reinstallment of everything added some sort of conflicting driver. BP has known issues with Windows 8, webcam drivers, and other ridiculous BS. oh well, more hours in ETS2.

I also played Bleed for the first time last night. I remember Spoder told me he loved it, and now I see why. It's a really fun side scrolling platform shooter thing. I don't really understand what's going on storywise, but running around shooting crap was fun even if I suck. D grade on easy mode for the win!

Edit:

Also, regarding Pickers in the new Groupees, it is a hidden object casual game. So anyone looking into it might want to take that into account. Some people don't play those types of games. You go to different locations to find hidden objects from your list of wanted items, once you find them, you come back to your shop and decide what you want to do with your items and how much you want to try to sell them for. There's goals in the game to make a certain amount of money and stuff like that. So it's hidden object mixed with a little shop keeping. It's nothing super deep, but I found it a ton of fun, especially being a big fan of the show.
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my wife wants pickers, pickers she will have :) i'll probably watch her play it.

DrR0Ck said:
A question about how CAGs deal with backlogs:

I scored a ridiculous bunch of new games during the Steam Summer Sale, GMG and Amazon sales not to mention the backlog I had before the sales. I started Borderlands 2 and I imagine that with the DLC, I'm looking at 80+ hours. Generally, if I set a game aside for a while I find it very hard to come back to, but I'm itching to try some of the other new (to me) games. RPGs are huge time sinks and strategy games have learning curves that take tome to come to grips with.

So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs? Are you juggling multiple games? Powering through games in serial? My time is so limited at the moment, I don't even want to start the strategy or RPG games due to the time commitment, and I'm reluctant to stop playing Borderlands.

Thoughts?
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I just beat Costume Quest's DLC portion!!!! Thanks Steam Cardz!!!!! More free shit during the winter sale. But I loved that game, never got to trick or treat as a kid so maybe mind fucked or something. Ummmm, not any steam deals today though. maybe in an hour.

125-nothing-to-see-here-move-along.jpg


bought some liquor with my steam bucks :) steam cards are awesome.

oops, forgot to type anything under most of the quotes lol

 
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My backlog tactics are just random, which is one of the benefits of hoarding games.

The last week I've put the most time into Euro Truck Simulator 2.  I've played a little of Noitu Love 2 and Bleed.  Tried playing Burnout Paradise.  DLing Bioshock 1 now.  Patching Defiance as well.  DLed and played a little of Farewell to Dragons (1C RPG on Gamersgate).  Also, before that I replayed the first third of GTA III. 

Will I finish any of the above games?  Who knows.  I think I'm three levels into Noitu Love 2 so that one is the easiest to finish probably, but also the one that will probably annoy me the most. 

At a certain point for us hoarders we just come to the realization we are paying for the ability to play these games when we want and not to finish every game we own.

Did anyone else notice the new Voodoo DLC for Tropico 4?

Also, has anyone every played 7554?  Vietnam's Call of Duty the box said...

 
DrR0Ck said:
I play few and buy many

I both admire and am intimidated by my backlog.

Was this a stupid question?
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It's not at all a stupid question. Personally, I focus on 2-3 games at a time at most, but only one of a particular genre. My most recent mix was Sleeping Dogs and Faerie Solitaire. When I finished FS, I switched to Zombie Driver HD and I'm also playing a little Poker Night at the Inventory. I'm probably going to start either Borderlands 2 or Skyrim soon, but not before I play the ME3 DLC I just bought that will allow me to "close the book" on Mass Effect 3.

I rarely buy and immediately play a game, so backlogs always grow. My PS3 backlog is much smaller (10s instead of 100s), but I play PS3 so infrequently, it makes me reluctant to buy even a cheap (~$10) game. I've just started Uncharted 3 (about 5-6 chapters in) and the missus bought me The Last of Us as an anniversary present. . . .

When adding to backlog, the golden rule of CAG is look for 75% off or more. I have a number of things I've been eyeballing for years that go on sale at 75% during every big Steam sale, but I keeping putting off those purchases because I know they'll be on sale for the same price again down the road.

 
annihilator said:
Generally if you're losing more than a couple cheap units in your battles you're doing it wrong. Speaking just from my experience with HOMM and KB, you want to find strategies that allow you to win with no losses. Some games/factions require you to be more inventive in this regard than others.
Click to expand...
I remember putting something like 50 hours into King's Bounty: The Legend and getting stuck in the campaign with nowhere to go that had mobs my armies could handle. It was fun but it sucks getting stuck and not being able to finish a game for that reason. I'm sure I was doing it wrong, but it has made me a little gun-shy about the other KB games and the HOMMs I have on GOG.

 
I find it really difficult to give up on games after I've already invested several hours into them, unless it's a game that doesn't have a real end to begin with.  For example, I started Darksiders II several months ago, probably put 10 hours or so into it, but since then I've played dozens of other games.  I KNOW in the back of my head there is a voice that compels me to start DS2 again and bring it to completion, but, even though it was moderately fun, I just can't seem to start it.  

I'm finding a similar problem with Tomb Raider, which I started a month ago but since then I played five or six incredible indie games (Swapper, Gunpoint, Rogue Legacy, etc) and now I just seem to be spending all my spare time with Sonic All Star Racing Transformed (and, ugh, Animal Crossing New Leaf).  What is wrong with me?  Should I just give up on the games and start something else?

My backlog sayeth unto me: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

 
I'm pretty damn pissed that it shows up at 50% off

Sorry, but I wont buy it till 75% off since you (dev/pub) showed you were already willing to sell it for 75% off

 
RE: Odds of gaining boosters

Something to take into account is that boosters are generated when people craft badges, done as a means of replacing the cards that disappear from the card pool.  Why is this important?  Because Steam isn't selecting your account to receive a booster and then choosing which of your valid games it happens to be.  Steam is generating the specific booster first and then determining which account (of those that own that game and have exhausted their drops and have been active in the past week, all weighed a little differently based on Steam level bonuses to this chance) will receive that booster.  This means that if your account has only one valid title, and it's one where a badge is crafted once a day, your chances are going to differ against having a valid title where twenty badges are crafted each day.  (Of course, it's also affected and probably normalized by the more popular badge being for a game that more people own, reducing the odds again, but the point is that the chances will be different.)  Also, owning every game with all drops exhausted means you're eligible for every single booster generated by the system.

(tldr)  So looking at it this way, it seems pretty clear that exhausting more games' card drops does increase your chance of getting a booster since boosters are generated independently.  Every exhausted game is a ticket in a separate raffle.

 
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KaOTiK said:
I'm pretty damn pissed that it shows up at 50% off

Sorry, but I wont buy it till 75% off since you (dev/pub) showed you were already willing to sell it for 75% off
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Arrggh!!

I hope this daily deal fails hard.

Conquistador... out of my cart and back into my wishlist!

 
Regarding backlogs, I've found that as I've collected an unreasonable number of games I've actually become very picky about which games I will bother investing in. I tend to play one game at a time for hours on end and anything that can't suck me in within an hour is likely going in the permanent backlog. At the same time my standard for what is worth my time has been raised to such a level that I now realize I own a number of games that I have no interest in playing at all. And I'm less forgiving of minor flaws in AAA titles. For example, XCOM has been sucking me in for the past few days, but I'm actually enjoying it less than I thought it would be. The gameplay is addictive but feels a bit limited, and the setting is very generic.

I also have a problem with finishing games. I think with both Witcher 1 and Mass Effect 1 I got close to the end, decided to backtrack to change some choices I had made, and then kind of lost steam and gave up...relegating them and their sequels to the backlog for what has now been embarrassingly long. Sleeping Dogs I was enjoying tremendously until probably about 75% of the way through the game when the missions started feeling too samey. I wanted to see how the rest of the story was going to play out, but I was no longer interested enough in the gameplay to slog through it. I'm picky and don't have much time to spend.

warreni said:
I remember putting something like 50 hours into King's Bounty: The Legend and getting stuck in the campaign with nowhere to go that had mobs my armies could handle. It was fun but it sucks getting stuck and not being able to finish a game for that reason. I'm sure I was doing it wrong, but it has made me a little gun-shy about the other KB games and the HOMMs I have on GOG.
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That happened to me too, definitely with Armored Princess and I think maybe even once with the original. I think in both cases I took some time off and then started new games. I wouldn't expect everyone to do that. At least in KB there are very specific strategies that work and a lot of ways to go wrong. Once you figure out what the developers want you to do you get a great sense of empowerment and there are actually many interesting and varied ways to play the games, but there is a bit of a learning curve and I wouldn't blame you if you found it off-putting. I had to do a bit of googling to research strategies more than once myself.

 
Nobody's going to smugly note that Conquistadors is bitComposer published and we should all just wait a few months for the IndieGala?

I'll do it.

I'll note that.

 
Wow.  Would have been an insta-buy for me at $5.  At $10, I'm much more likely to hold off.  That's a shame... Conquistador is #1 on my wishlist right now, but money is tight at the moment.

 
DrR0Ck said:
A question about how CAGs deal with backlogs:

I scored a ridiculous bunch of new games during the Steam Summer Sale, GMG and Amazon sales not to mention the backlog I had before the sales. I started Borderlands 2 and I imagine that with the DLC, I'm looking at 80+ hours. Generally, if I set a game aside for a while I find it very hard to come back to, but I'm itching to try some of the other new (to me) games. RPGs are huge time sinks and strategy games have learning curves that take tome to come to grips with.

So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs? Are you juggling multiple games? Powering through games in serial? My time is so limited at the moment, I don't even want to start the strategy or RPG games due to the time commitment, and I'm reluctant to stop playing Borderlands.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I don't know how people with young kids can even play games. I know I barely have time to play anything and when I do, it's probably due to neglecting work. Being self-employed also doesn't help with young kids. Rule is best time to play games is in high school or college when you are single with no kids. Once kids come, gaming is mostly over (at least IMO when they are a young age)...

All that said, I tend to only play 1 game at a time. After I die or what not in the game, I may try something else every once in a while, but if the game doesn't catch my attention, I go back to try the original game or something else. I may juggle a game (doing that with walking dead), but pretty rarely do that.

I now juggle / work the backlog by simply not buying things at 75% off even. In all seriousness, having a backlog you won't touch is a waste of money when games won't ever be more expensive when it does hit 75% off. MSRP goes down and eventually, things hit $2.50.

I'm actually playing Armored Princess right now, but trying for no loss / no reload on a first play through has been tough...Back to a Warrior since I read it's the easiest...At least this game, I got a ton of good spells I see in the shops like Target and Phoenix already. :)

 
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I would have bought Conquistadors at $5 (and yes I know it may end up in a bundle eventually) but not at $10. They were going to sell it for $5 if it won the flash deal so I don't get it with the $10 now.

Oh well, I'll wait and also keep an eye on it at GMG since they sell it as a Steam key there.

Eldredpe said:
Weeklong Deals

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What's really lame is I have a 75% off coupon for Prime World Defenders I got from crafting badges but now I can't use it because the 33% off sale is going on now. And the coupon expires on 8/4 prior to the end of the week long sale so it's effectively worthless.

I probably wasn't going to use it anyway, but still. :p

 
yangwenli said:
I don't know how people with young kids can even play games. I know I barely have time to play anything and when I do, it's probably due to neglecting work. Being self-employed also doesn't help with young kids. Rule is best time to play games is in high school or college when you are single with no kids. Once kids come, gaming is mostly over (at least IMO when they are a young age)...
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My wife and I have 4 under 6, but I still need my gaming fix. She's not much of a gamer, but a couple times a week, we'll turn on the Wii and play Mario Bros/Kart/Party or DK. My PC saving grace is that she works 3 nights a week. That's when I get my Tomb Raiding on (currently). After the housework and the honey-to-do's, of course. Since it takes at least an hour or more to progress anywhere in big games, if I don't have time for that, I'll mix in a few Sonic races or a couple levels of a platformer before bed. That being said, I've conditioned myself to live on 5 hours of sleep a night just so I can play a few games a week.

 
A note on space empires

You can get it cheaper if you buy the pack if you want both games:

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/287/

However this pack does not show up in searches so you have to know the URL to get to it.  Also steams store page is slightly jacked up, or at least was during the summer sale.  It has 2 checkout buttons, the first one will fail and it will go in to your cart but not let you checkout saying you already have all the items in your cart.  The second checkout button will work though as thats how I got it during the sale

 
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Motoki said:
What's really lame is I have a 75% off coupon for Prime World Defenders I got from crafting badges but now I can't use it because the 33% off sale is going on now. And the coupon expires on 8/4 prior to the end of the week long sale so it's effectively worthless.

I probably wasn't going to use it anyway, but still. :p
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I always assumed you could just choose to apply the coupon and void the stock discount.

It doesn't work that way?

 
Eldredpe said:
I always assumed you could just choose to apply the coupon and void the stock discount.

It doesn't work that way?
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The option to switch to the coupon is there but it's greyed out and it doesn't let you select it.

This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened either, I remember last December Remedy gave out keys for a coupon to get Death Rally for 99 cents but then they ran this sale on it that was higher priced like 50% off or something like that and people couldn't use the coupon because it didn't stack and the sale was going on.

I would have thought Valve would have gotten that situation figured out by now but I guess not.

 
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Jaysonguy said:
Exactly

It lost a vote at 75%, so they saw that 75% wasn't enough to spark an interest.

So why would they think that 50% would generate more?
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Yeah, they went the wrong way, it should be 91%, and if it still doesn't sell, they'll realize that maybe their game just sucks, cause.

Eldredpe said:
Nobody's going to smugly note that Conquistadors is bitComposer published and we should all just wait a few months for the IndieGala?

I'll do it.

I'll note that.
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yep, not an exciting deal, I'll buy it from fox in a month for a little over a $1 + another 4 or 5 crappy games I'll never wanna play. Steam cards has made me realize something, most games suck. :)

 
Motoki said:
What's really lame is I have a 75% off coupon for Prime World Defenders I got from crafting badges but now I can't use it because the 33% off sale is going on now. And the coupon expires on 8/4 prior to the end of the week long sale so it's effectively worthless.

I probably wasn't going to use it anyway, but still. :p
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Same situation here. I really wanted to buy that game, it's a very amateurish bug
 
juanjava said:
Same situation here. I really wanted to buy that game, it's a very amateurish bug
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The sad thing is I've got a bunch of those coupons and that one was the only one even worth considering and now they went and screwed that up too.

The rest are all like 33% or 50% off games that have already been on sale much cheaper than that multiple times in the past including just a week ago on the summer sale.
 
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ltrain23 said:
My wife and I have 4 under 6, but I still need my gaming fix. She's not much of a gamer, but a couple times a week, we'll turn on the Wii and play Mario Bros/Kart/Party or DK. My PC saving grace is that she works 3 nights a week. That's when I get my Tomb Raiding on (currently). After the housework and the honey-to-do's, of course. Since it takes at least an hour or more to progress anywhere in big games, if I don't have time for that, I'll mix in a few Sonic races or a couple levels of a platformer before bed. That being said, I've conditioned myself to live on 5 hours of sleep a night just so I can play a few games a week.
Click to expand...

I have a 6 year old and used to get by on less sleep for gaming, but lately even that isn't working. Here's some tips:

* My steam backlog is as big as anyone's. I just tell myself that I am playing the "game of buying games at their cheapest."

* I usually try and finish one before going on to another. I'm lucky to get an hour a night to play so this means progress is slow, I just accept that. Takes me a month or more to finish something like Uncharted 3.

* To keep things moving I sometimes (1) play on easy just to finish games out, (2) generally avoid DLC which would extend games, and (3) make hard decisions about what games to buy, and (4) sell games as soon as I finish them (not on steam obviously).

* Cards on steam are a blessing for me, not just because they're easy money, but it provides a GREAT excuse to load up and try games I otherwise would never get to. FTL and GSB being two similar recent examples, I put a couple hours into each, got a feel for what they are like and earned all the drops (liked FTL a lot better for what that's worth). Probably won't put much more time into either and I consider them "cleared" from the backlog.

* Still waiting for the day I can play games WITH the kid. All he wants to play is Minecraft which I find just insufferable to watch or play. But I imagine that will be fun, some day!

 
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One way you can handle your backlog is buy all your games as gifts and store them in your inventory. Then, place them on the trade thread for a few dollars mark-up. If someone buys them before you get around to redeeming them, then you get some extra money. If not, at least your Library tab looks less cluttered, which tends to help you actually play the games you already have. 

 
DrR0Ck said:
A question about how CAGs deal with backlogs:

I scored a ridiculous bunch of new games during the Steam Summer Sale, GMG and Amazon sales not to mention the backlog I had before the sales. I started Borderlands 2 and I imagine that with the DLC, I'm looking at 80+ hours. Generally, if I set a game aside for a while I find it very hard to come back to, but I'm itching to try some of the other new (to me) games. RPGs are huge time sinks and strategy games have learning curves that take tome to come to grips with.

So how are other CAGs dealing with their backlogs? Are you juggling multiple games? Powering through games in serial? My time is so limited at the moment, I don't even want to start the strategy or RPG games due to the time commitment, and I'm reluctant to stop playing Borderlands.

Thoughts?
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I don't have a computer yet :mrgreen: what backlog? I have a "to complete with computer, If I had one!" Log :mrgreen:
 
zenaphobe zerj said:
I don't have a computer yet :mrgreen: what backlog? I have a "to complete with computer, If I had one!" Log :mrgreen:
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This is the best built-in excuse yet for not playing your games. I congratulate you on your ingenuity!

My problem is that once I buy a game I have to have everything for it and then I have to have the franchise collection and then the publisher collection and then...I may or may not play any of it. But if I start then I will have to have all achievements to feel complete and my sucky game skills make this impossible unless I cheat which makes me feel pathetic and lame so I am much better off collecting then playing. This is why I maintain a huge backlog filled with complete sets of games. My happiness depends on it.

Thanks for that link to the Voodoo DLC Fox. Now I am going to be unhappy and out of sorts until it goes on sale.

 
yangwenli said:
I don't know how people with young kids can even play games. I know I barely have time to play anything and when I do, it's probably due to neglecting work. Being self-employed also doesn't help with young kids. Rule is best time to play games is in high school or college when you are single with no kids. Once kids come, gaming is mostly over (at least IMO when they are a young age)...
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I managed to play through all of Dark Souls with a 3 month old (6 month old now). Largely during a week when it was just he and I as well (mom was out of town on business). It's possible, you just have to completely change the way you look at gaming and change the way you game. It requires planning your play schedule and selecting games that are 'parent' friendly (Dark Souls is NOT). One of the reasons I loved Rogue Legacy so much was because it's super parent friendly. Pause anywhere, play in 15 minute increments and make progress, don't forget where you are in a story or controls. Having a good partner who is gamer friendly is key too - of course why you'd stick your junk in or have junk stuck into you by anyone who isn't gamer friendly is beyond me. MMOs and multiplayer in general are pretty much off the table. Unless you play the MMO largely solo, which some people do, but I don't get the point. If you want to do multiplayer, it's going to have to be with a devoted group of people who know your circumstance (and are accepting) and you have to plan with your significant other - and it's going to have to be something with sub-15 minute matches/events/levels.

I've actually been strongly considering making a blog of my experience - because I've learned a lot about how to game as a parent and just the amount of shit they don't tell you or you don't consider is astronomical. I spent a good month after the birth of Baby McDickface lamenting the loss of my favorite hobby - and fully believing it was dead for the next 10-12 years - but with some creativity and persistence, I've actually ended up gaming a bit more and certainly more effectively.

Beaten with Baby (generally hover around 70% completion rate as far as collectibles and crap):

Tomb Raider

Sleeping Dogs

Dishonored

Saints Row 3

Rogue Legacy

Bleed

Mark of the Ninja

Spec Ops: The Line

Thomas Was Alone

Bioshock 1

Portal 2

Max Payne 3

Dark Souls - ~700 achievement points - I view this as the pinnacle of my gaming career. Playing such a deadly game, with literally no pause button, while being the solo care provider for a 3 month old is pretty damn beast.

 
Palinn said:
This is the best built-in excuse yet for not playing your games. I congratulate you on your ingenuity!

My problem is that once I buy a game I have to have everything for it and then I have to have the franchise collection and then the publisher collection and then...I may or may not play any of it. But if I start then I will have to have all achievements to feel complete and my sucky game skills make this impossible unless I cheat which makes me feel pathetic and lame so I am much better off collecting then playing. This is why I maintain a huge backlog filled with complete sets of games. My happiness depends on it.

Thanks for that link to the Voodoo DLC Fox. Now I am going to be unhappy and out of sorts until it goes on sale.
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damn everytime I think I have all the dlc for Tropico 4 they add more arrggghhhhhhhhhhhh

 
Super troll my steam.  50% off of Expedition makes me think Incredipede will never happen, but as Mooby pointed out, probably a good thing.

Quick tutorial impression of Defiance:

Really like this.  Even from the tutorial I can tell this isn't going to be Gears of War type shooting or missions or whatever, so it's likely to get a little grindy and repetitive, but definitely digging the look, feel, and story line so far. 

I think my aversion to MMOs was really more an aversion to fantasy based games than anything else.  Nothing against them, just not my first choice in gaming.  Give me guns and some alien or supernatural crap and I'll be MMOing away happily.

 
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