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Steam Specials Weekly Wrap-up #2

Steam Specials Weekly Wrap-up #2

Now that Steam Family Sharing has been officially out for a few days have you all been making use of it? I certainly have, joining my account with a few of my friends and suddenly I have over 250 games available to me. I have even considered rotating purchases of new games between these friends so that we all have access to everything we want. Even if that doesn’t end up happening I know that I probably won’t need to buy a new game (at least on PC) for a very long time now, and this could even delay my purchase of a next-g… sorry ‘this-gen’ console.

Some people just can’t have enough games however, and if you fall under that category this list of discounts below is certainly for you.

The Night of the Rabbit – £8.49 (50% off)

Steam page

The Night of the Rabbit Steam Sale Specials #2 Valve PC Daedalic Entertainment

Developers Daedalic Entertainment are well versed in the genre of adventure gaming and if you like a good story and a good puzzle then The Night of the Rabbit is the game for you. I had this to say when I reviewed the game back in 2013:

From the initial scenes of Jerry waking up to discover he still has two days of summer holiday left to the exploration of Mousewood, The Night of the Rabbit really performs well at keeping me engaged in the story. The unravelling mysteries of the forest keep me second guessing the direction of the story and how to progress with the game. Who are the mysterious foxes and lizards seen in Mousewood? Will I ever get to meet the Great Zaroff? And just what exactly is blue juice made from? The Night of the Rabbit is not without its flaws of course and with so many directions in which to venture the pacing of the game does suffer somewhat after the first visit to the town of Mousewood. It’s almost as if the games has its own Inception of puzzles, within puzzles, within… you get the idea.

Bounce over to Steam quickly as discount ends on March 17th.

F1 2013 Classic Edition – £9.99 (75% off)

Steam page

F1 2013 Steam Specials Sale #2 Codemasters Valve PC PS3 Xbox 360

The F1 franchise is probably the only type of sporting games that I would consider buying on a semi-regular basis. It seems that these days every year or two F1 is having a major overhaul to the rules, drivers, competing teams or there is some kind of scandal going on that will change the way the sport is run. With all this in mind it means that unlike other yearly sports games, there are usually significant changes to each F1 game as it is released.

With F1 2013 you of course have driver changes and new tracks along with the new challenge mode and the inclusion of classic cars and tracks to race on as well. There is also improved multiplayer, although I haven’t had a chance to play this yet so who knows if the harsh penalties of F1 2012 multiplayer will still be in effect or not.

Speed your way over to the Steam page as discount ends on 17th of March.

GTA: IV & GTA: San Andreas – £5.99 (80% off)

Steam page

GTA IV San Andreas PC PS2 Xbox Android iOS Steam Sale Specials Rockstar Valve #2

San Andreas is a classic in the GTA franchise. I still remember my first gang war, my first trip to the gym, the first tattoo and of course the first time I got fat from eating too much pizza. GTA III‘s plot and characters were probably more memorable to me but it was when playing San Andreas that I realised that Rockstar were pushing the game to be something more than just a rehash of the same ideas again and again and credit should be given for that. If you buy this bundle you also get GTA: IV included and if GTA isn’t really your thing, check out the rest of the Rockstar sale here.

Better shoot as the discounts end on 17th of March.

Deus Ex: The Fall Makes A Leap To PC

Deus Ex: The Fall Makes A Leap To PC

Following its release last July on iOS and Android devices, Deus Ex: The Fall will launch on PC via Steam this March. The new version will receive a host of additions such as updated AI, an improved tutorial, Steam achievements and badges and improved graphics optimisation. Microtransactions, which are present in the iOS/Android versions, have also been removed for the PC version.

Deus Ex: The Fall will release on March 25th 2014. As a bonus anyone who pre-orders the game will also receive a free copy of the original Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, which I recommend to anyone who is into old school action/shooters and can handle the now ancient graphics.

Unfortunately one thing they have yet to update is the trailer, so here’s last years launch trailer instead.

Oculus Rift Founder Palmer Luckey Talks About The Challenges Of Porting Games To VR

Oculus Rift Founder Palmer Luckey Talks About The Challenges Of Porting Games To VR

During a recent ‘Steam Developer Day’ Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus Rift gave a talk about the pros and cons of porting existing games to the Oculus VR. He believes that consumer virtual reality is closer than we think and that there is the potential for a game developer to step into the VR world and produce a genre defining game in the way that Doom once was. As things currently are, not many people are doing this instead choosing to port their pre-existing games to a VR environment. As you would imagine there are rather a lot of challenges to overcome when porting your game to VR and Palmer’s short answer for developers is don’t do this.

First thing we need to do is stop porting our existing games. The problem is that VR games are not just about wide FOV and head tracking added to a game that has mechanics that were intended for a fundamentally different system. The best way to think about porting games to VR is not to think about how you can shoe-horn an existing title into VR, it’s to think about what if anything you can re-use in a new type of experience.

Palmer then goes on to explain in more detail the obstacles that need to be tackled when creating a game for VR. It’s a shame the talk lasts only 20 minutes as he makes a lot of interesting points about motion control and how players react to certain situations within a VR environment. The full video can be found below, I recommend it for anyone with an interest in VR gaming.

To keep up to date with Oculus Rift and the games being developed for its use refer to the offical forums here.

Brief Thoughts on Steam In-Home Streaming

Brief Thoughts on Steam In-Home Streaming

While I was loading up Steam this evening I was merrily flicking through Twitter and saw a link to PC Gamer’s article on the Steam in-home streaming beta. Safe to say, I was intrigued to see what the streaming service was like for myself. I quickly opted into the relevant Beta through my Steam client, dug out my netbook and got ready to play. Some brief thoughts follow.

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Valve Announce – The Steam Controller

Valve Announce – The Steam Controller

Whilst Valve’s first two announcements took many by surprise, the third unveiling that occurred today suffered somewhat from being a shade predictable. Amidst the excitement of the first two announcements, a small, innocent and rather NES-like controller had quietly sat, conspicuously absent from all of Valve’s previous announcements, seemingly observing developments and waiting for its inevitable moment in the spotlight.

Well little fella, now’s your chance to shine.

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SteamOS – What We Think

SteamOS – What We Think

After Valve decided to unveil the SteamOS we here at The Reticule Towers thought we would come together and share our thoughts on this, the first of Valve’s three announcements planned for this week. We might also muse on what else they might reveal. We are pleased to welcome back previous, and most excellent, writer Steph Woor for a one-off piece of opinion sharing. Hit the break to read our thoughts.

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Valve Announce the SteamOS

Valve Announce the SteamOS

Valve have made their first reveal of the week and it is a bit more all encompassing than I for one first thought. I was expecting simply a reveal of the Steam Box today, instead we have received word of SteamOS, Valve’s foray into replacing Windows and Mac on what is a Linux based system. There is bound to be a lot to take in from the next two announcements (next coming Wednesday) over this week, so you can find a brief run-down after the break.

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