The Muppets Love Steam Sales

I know, I know. I said I would cover the Steam sales everyday so you wouldn’t have to. I let you down, and I broke the trust we so painstakingly built between us. The sale went up at 1PM my time, and by then I was traveling back home from my stay with family and that whole turkey ritual. Then instead of posting I saw The Muppets. I’m sorry! The bus dropped me off right in front of the theater. In front of the Muppet poster no less! I abandoned you for Muppets, and I can’t say I’m sorry for that. The Muppets was too good for me to regret this transgression of trust.

I would tell you what was on sale yesterday, but that would just be cruel. “Hey, that game you really wanted was $0.25 for some reason! Down from $59.99 no less!” You would kill yourselves out of overwhelming grief. I can’t have that on my conscience. What I can tell you is that the new Muppets movie is the greatest work of cinema of our time. Of all time. It makes Casablanca and Citizen Kane look like Uwe Boll movies. You should see it is basically what I am trying to tell you. Oh, I guess I could also tell you about today’s deals or something. Sure, why not.

If this doesn't excite you, then GET OFF MY LAWN!

First up we have a game that made quite the stir on that console thingamagigger, you know, that Xbox thing. In its quarter free arcade zone. I’m talking about the silhouette king Limbo. With its black on white on black imagery and a small boy dying and coming apart in violent ways, its both a beautiful and mildly disturbing experience. The game is a puzzler at heart, and some of those puzzles will really tax your imagination for solutions. New mechanics regularly slip in to keep the game fresh and to kill the boy in new ways, which is great for the first play through, but leaves only amnesiacs to enjoy it for repeated play. For $2.50, one play through of an interesting but flawed indie game was too good for me to pass up. If your on the fence however, check out our review for more thoughts. Also for why its flawed, I left that part out because our relationship is just so tense now.

Another flawed game that I have really been chomping at the bit to try is Kane and Lynch: Dog Days. For the aesthetic alone I had no problem plunking down $3.75 for the game. The camera is treated like a news camera, security feeds, and other such video devices to give the game the look and feel of an extreme episode of Cops or a video correspondent in a war. They even pixelate the particularly gory shots as if it was edited in post; I can’t get enough of games and movies that try something unique. The game has been praised for its mature and oft times disturbing story line, but just as heavily criticized for its cover system and shooting mechanics. As someone who grew up where a cover system was hiding behind NPCs or manually ducking behind crates, I don’t imagine I will mind that flaw much. I guess the rest of the staff felt the same way, as we have nothing written about this game. I may fix that after I play it.

Can never have enough games about people shooting people.

The Polynomial is part of my favorite niche sections of games, the kind where you can import your own music to drive gameplay. I just can’t get enough of it, Audiosurf, Beat Hazard, even 1… 2… 3… KICK IT! (Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby) which isn’t even close to being done, but I love it anyway. The Polynomial is the most relaxing of these by far, floating through some serene tracks, through spiraling stardust and cosmic colors can be a stress free and trippy experience. Turn on enemies and a more lively track and you have the same awesome fractal space to navigate but with enemies to shoot down. At a $2.50 price I would have bought it for the built in visualizers alone, but I can’t, because I already own it. Like you should. Even Mac people can do it!

Now to take a step backwards in time. Travel with me into my misspent youth. No, not the parts where me and friends shoplifted or shot fireworks at each other, further to the left for when we played computer games. Yeah, right their. Worms 2 and Worms Armageddon. Anytime we stopped putting our frail, fleshy bodies at severe risk we would be playing one of these two games. I loved them dearly. Flash forward to now and Worms: Reloaded on sale for $6.79. It takes everything I liked from those times, keeps the same humor and visuals, and adds some more weapons. Sure the team sizes are smaller, but that’s made up for by including online features that actually work for once in the series. Now I can lose to Frenchmen without being disconnected. Blowing up enemy worms, or your own by mistake, in destructible levels you made yourself warms the cockles. Its certainly not perfect, and has been cheaper in past sales, but this is like a time machine to some of my favorite memories. If you never played a worms game, or a similar artillery styled game, then check out the PC demo. Sorry Mac users, you can still play the game, but no demo for you.

Mmmm, blowin' up worms.

Again, more games are on sale, but didn’t get long winded talks about them. A number of new fancy big budget games are %40 and %50 off, like Witcher 2, F.3.a.r. and Rage. Splinter Cell: Conviction is only $5 if your into that kind of thing, as is the Overlord Complete Pack which I am sorely tempted to break my spending-per-day limit for. Sadly if I talked about all the games the editors would revoke my rights to cover news things and push me back into my cramped, “review hole,” to toil away on… well, reviews. Besides, that’s why I linked to the store page. After what I did to you, to us, yesterday, I hope that link is enough.