Steam Sale Writer’s Picks – November 2nd

Steam Sale Writer's Picks

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. You know what that means, right? All the stores and supermarkets have reduced their Halloween candy and chocolate. I got ten Reese’s Peanut Butter Pumpkins for £3, and given the state of the pound in the financial market, that’s pretty good.

Here are my picks from this week’s rather small list of Steam Specials.

Owlboy

Owlboy was Released on Tuesday,and this indie adventure side-scroller is a charmer, and has 10% off for launch. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s more than a Kid Icarus NES clone. The set pieces and artwork are wonderful, and the dynamic gameplay is refreshing. The obstacles and enemies are interesting, and the story is reminiscent of classic JRPGs, albeit in a simplified way.

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I don’t have heaps to say about it, as it’s brand new, other than it looks like a great one for any age, and harkens back to similar family friendly platformers like Rayman Origins and Legends. It’s not always easy to find an indie game that ticks these boxes; it’s a great platformer, has interesting and engaging gameplay, and it’s one to respect and admire, no matter your age.

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Firewatch

Have I mentioned this one before? I think I might have, but never mind, I’ll mention it again. A contender for one of my favourite games of the year, Firewatch has a groovy 40% off. It’s a “walking simulator” (I put that in inverted commas because it’s stupid), who’s story is unique and enthralling as it is, but is made so much more personal by its delivery. You find yourself reacting emotionally to every piece of dialogue, and as eager to press on and find out the story as Henry is.

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It’s heartbreaking, with wires of hope threaded through each part of the character’s lives. We’ve all thought about those lives we could have had, and the ones we might like to try, and Firewatch explores that wonderfully. Take the time to enjoy it, and try not to think too hard about action or some big overarching plot. The game is built entirely of subplots, and the idea is to leave you scratching your head about some of them. At the end of the day, it’s a huge area of forest, and you are only one man. In the real world, that sort of environment might well feel a little supernatural or more than meets the eye, and you’d never see the truth.

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Carmageddon: Max Damage

Think about the craziest, most stupid fun you could have with a racing game. You got Carmageddon. Special promotion until tomorrow for a third off too! Yeah it looks a bit crappy, and the AI is questionable, but there’s so much fun to be had. Get Spotify on, put on the Christmas playlist why not, or a bit o’ Brahms maybe. Get the endorphins flowing and go wild.

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The maps are fun and defy the laws of physics, though it’s easy to get lost. Thankfully the aim of the game is not to finish in first place, but to cause as much damage as is Carmageddon-ly possible. There is a whole variety of vehicles and upgrades, of course, and it’s part of the fun. You can customise like crazy and roll out however you wanna do it.

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Batman  – The Telltale Series

The Batman Telltale Series has 15% off, and you get Episode 1 for free. It’s about as far as you can get from the most recent Batman games – the ones from Rocksteady – in that the action is all in the storytelling, and the gameplay depends on the choices you make and the buttons you push. Telltale have obviously seen success beyond anything we’ve seen for a long time in their Walking Dead game, and they followed up with their Back to the Future and Game of Thrones titles.

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Based on point-and-click games of old, the veteran developers know what they’re doing. Former LucasArts employees are now here, and those guys are responsible for the best of the best of all time (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle etc). Elements of action and quicktime events make the gameplay standout away from pretty much anything else. If you can live with the bugs, get it. Bruce Wayne is a damaged man, and as such, the choices he makes can seem extreme. That’s where you come in. With Wayne’s famous morality subject to change, how far will you make him go to clean up the streets of Gotham?

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Special Mention – Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut

OK, so Halloween is done, and I mentioned this game in my top 10 horror games countdown, but you really should give it a go if you like quirky black humour. I know many people don’t, and that’s cool too – I get why people don’t like this game. There’s plenty wrong with it technically, but the story is macabre in just my favourite kind of way. Tim Burton movies might suffice for most, but that extra itch that needs to be scratched – and not by creepy pastas – is satisfied by Deadly Premonition. Grab it for a wholesome 90% off until next week. Why not? If you hate it that much, you can troll your mate and send it to them, it’s that cheap.

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In a world pretty much directly ripped from David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks etc), you play as an FBI agent trying to solve the murder of a young woman in a small town in the US. Frank faces demons and creatures of horror as he investigates around the town, but it’s apparent that a lot of it seems to be rather personal. You battle your “good” and “evil” sides, all whilst talking to your imaginary friend Zach, and looking cool as a cucumber. Go figure.

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So there you go. Time to start my Christmas shopping. What? There’s only one more payday you know….