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[Darvi]

Guess what.

[freeformschooler]

That's an incredibly greedy design choice.

Okay, I'm gone now. I learned something today. Don't want this thread to devolve into more Steam pricing debates.

[Sirus]

I can vouch for deals like this being notoriously unlikely to allow gifting of anything you already have.

Then what do you do with the extra copies? Do they magically disappear, invalidating some unmeasurable amount of money you spent?

When you go to buy a pack that has games you already own, it tells you that you already own them.  (I do not remember if it tells you that you will not get another copy or not.  I'm pretty sure that Steam flags you as an owner or not... not how many copies you own.)

I understand that. But if you buy the pack anyway, some part of your money is going towards those games you already have. If you do not get another copy to give to your friends, logically that part of your purchase disappears into thin air. If that is really what happens, it's an incredibly greedy design choice.

I think it varies from pack to pack. I know when I bought the Orange Box, my spare copy of Half-Life 2 became a gift copy that I could send to whoever.

Usually though; yes, the game you already own a copy of disappears into the ether.

[Fikes]

Magicka is on sale for a retarded 2.50. If you don't have this game you must buy it. The TUTORIAL is worth 2.50.

[Andir]

Meh, I own all the Magicka packs from the last sale and I have to say I'm never had fun with having to remember the different combinations.  Sure, I could spam the same ones over and over, but it seems counter-productive.  There is some fun humor in the first two chapters, but I couldn't continue playing after that.

[Mickey Blue]

Magicka was a really fun game to play with other people co-op because of randomly killing one another so much.. But you are right trying to remember all the combos was a pain and I usually ended up just spamming thunderbolt or what have you (the closest I came to strategy was hitting people with water first).

It certainly isn't a bad game, and for two fifty its probably worth it, but yea it just didn't do it for me.

[Thexor]

Magicka is brilliant with other people - the glory of 'accidental' friendly-fire incidents, the joy of sheer overkill... seriously, it's worth the $2.50, especially if you can head online.

Memorizing combinations becomes a lot easier when you realize that the bulk of the spells are based on a simple formula. Each type has a 'style' of attack - lightning has a arcing cone, fire and water both have flamethrowers (waterthrowers?), arcane and life have beams, etc. The element with the highest priority (arcane > fire, for instance) determines what style of spell you cast. Beyond that, the other elements just make the spell stronger, and change its element - if you're facing an enormous tree, throwing a few fire elements into the mix will help.

True, the 'proper' Magicks require you to memorize spell formulas... but even then, there are only a couple of day-to-day spells that you need (Revive, Haste), and you can pull up a list of known Magicks at will. Heck, you can display your favourite right on your character, which is great for learning a new one! And once you cast them a few times, you'll memorize them naturally in no time.



In short? Buy it.

In long? Buuuuuuuuuuyyyyyyyyyyyy iiiiiiiiiiiiitttt.

[Sirus]

Already have it and quite a few DLCs (got them cheap on another sale). I like the concept, but I can't seem to wrap my head around the controls.

[Darvi]

Ooh, ooh, Trine 2 prepurchase? Sounds good.

[Flying Dice]

Thanks so much for posting that Magicka sale! I've been meaning to get it for ages, and I had a prepaid visa with 2.91 left on it kicking around. 

[BigD145]

True, the 'proper' Magicks require you to memorize spell formulas... but even then, there are only a couple of day-to-day spells that you need (Revive, Haste), and you can pull up a list of known Magicks at will. Heck, you can display your favourite right on your character, which is great for learning a new one! And once you cast them a few times, you'll memorize them naturally in no time.

A nice system obsoleting itself. This is why I didn't buy it.

[0x517A5D]

I found the article that made me think uninstalled games could be passed around.

Digital Swap Shop: Steam Trading on Rock Paper Shotgun.  Important part highlighted.

A few weeks ago, Valve started beta testing its Steam Trading feature and people have swapped over a million items since then. Were the majority of them hats? I don’t have those figures, but the entrails in this animal say “yes”. The trading feature is now officially live and you can trade all sorts of gubbins with one another. Clarification: “all sorts of gubbins” means Team Fortress 2, Portal 2 and Spiral Knights items so not a great deal has actually changed. Perhaps more interesting than item swapping is the ability to trade unredeemed games, although do note the qualifier ‘unredeemed’. Steam is not letting you swap grubby used goods. There’s a FAQ here. The fact that every public profile now comes with an inventory means that Steam is officially an RPG in which buying cheap games is the grind. The plan is to bring more developers on board in the coming months, so one day you may be able to trade the Incas for a pair of cowboy boots. Truly, we live in exciting times.

And the FAQ says that only games purchased as a gift (instead of for your account) can be traded, and that once a gift has been opened and attached to your account, it can't be traded.

So it's not just a question of never downloading a game.  I guess they don't track that.  It's business as usual, mostly, just gifting without a chosen recipient.

[Fikes]

True, the 'proper' Magicks require you to memorize spell formulas... but even then, there are only a couple of day-to-day spells that you need (Revive, Haste), and you can pull up a list of known Magicks at will. Heck, you can display your favourite right on your character, which is great for learning a new one! And once you cast them a few times, you'll memorize them naturally in no time.

A nice system obsoleting itself. This is why I didn't buy it.

I don't understand what you are saying.

For those of you on the fence, getting  your plan wrong in Magicka is half the fun. It takes any half way competent player .25 seconds to bring you back to life, it isn't like doing it wrong sets you back.

[zakkeh]

True, the 'proper' Magicks require you to memorize spell formulas... but even then, there are only a couple of day-to-day spells that you need (Revive, Haste), and you can pull up a list of known Magicks at will. Heck, you can display your favourite right on your character, which is great for learning a new one! And once you cast them a few times, you'll memorize them naturally in no time.

A nice system obsoleting itself. This is why I didn't buy it.

Those special spells aren't used altogether that often. Your bread and butter stuff is a combination of elements. To not buy it, simply because the spells are about memory or appear under your character (you really didn't single out why this system obsoletes itself), when it is a fun game, seems ridiculous to me

[Catastrophic lolcats]

I'm not too good with the Magicka controls so I decided to try out a gamepad with it. I have to say it has  the worse controls on a gamepad I have ever seen.

Instead of the controls being mapped to the [xbox] buttons+shoulders they decided to map it all to the right anolouge stick. Now the anolouge stick can only really move 4 ways and there are 8 "brances" of magic. One must move the anolouge stick in one direction to bring up a selection of two different magic branches and then move the stick either left or right to pick one. Try doing that 4 times while running in a circle being attacked. Just terrible.