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[BlackFlyme]

What do you get from playing online?

Spoiler: because somewhat off-topic (click to show/hide)

You can occasionally see "ghosts" of other players on screen, though the shades only last for a few seconds.

There are exceedingly rare creatures known as vagrants. They spawn in areas where a player has lost a large amount of souls or humanity, or where a player has dropped and abandoned a valuable item. There are two types, with one being 'good', and is created through abandoned items, and the other being 'evil', and is created through lost souls or humanity. I've only ever seen one.

There will be bloodstains on the ground to mark where other players have died, and you can touch these stains to see their ghost play out their last few seconds before they died. Useful for warning you of traps, or you might just watch someone fail at jumping.

Miracle type spells have a "synergy bonus." You can occasionally see glowing white rings floating off of the ground that mark where another player has used a miracle, and if you use a miracle close to that ring, your spell will get a minor boost.

When a player kindles a bonfire (strengthens a checkpoint) players who are currently tied to that bonfire may get an extra charge for their estus flasks (healing potions).

You can leave messages on the ground for other players to see. They can even be rated, though I don't know if ratings do anything other than change the symbol displayed next to the text. They are also somewhat limited, in that you pull words from a pool instead of typing whatever you want.

You can summon other players or be summoned by other players, which is done by using a certain item to leave a summoning mark for other players to summon you with or touch another player's sign to summon them. This can be for co-op or for PvP, depending on the type of sign left behind, though the PvP sign item is found later in the game than the co-op one.

There are also special stones that allow you to invade other players. Unlike the signs, invasions are random, and the person being invaded doesn't willingly invite the invader.

The rewards for co-op or PvP are typically souls, the in-game currency, and humanity, which has a few different in-game uses. Though players can join covenants, which can grant you different rewards, or alter invading/co-op in minor ways.

[Hugehead]

WTFPL in turn reminded me of the Don't Ask Me About It License.

[Graknorke]

WTFPL in turn reminded me of the Don't Ask Me About It License.

Licensed under itself. Don't bother emailing me about it.

Blastoff! Sides are now moving into orbit.

[Mephisto]

Iesabel is on sale for $1.49. I've not actually played it yet so I'm mostly posting it here because of the EULA.

I'm a sucker for Diablo clones. For $1.49, I might as well add another game to my backlog.

Post-purchase edit: Don't bother. It's functional, but you would be better off with just about anything else.

Speaking of Diablo clones, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II is out. It's not on sale, however. This is just a warning for when it eventually does go on sale. It's currently the same price as the original, which came out last year (literally, May 22, 2013 vs. May 22, 2014). The Metascore is a bit higher in the sequel, but the original had annoying DLC and I bet the sequel will as well.

[BurnedToast]

What do you get from playing online?

One-shotted by cheaters and twinks invading your game just to troll you.

also the other stuff Blackflyme mentioned

[Delta Foxtrot]

XCOM and XCOM: Enemy Within are on sale on gamersgate for another 18 hours. Priced 4,50€ and 12,50€ respectively.

Is there any reason to pick the original or is enemy within a strict upgrade? Reading the wikipedia page leaves me with the assumption that the standalone expansion has everything from XCOM and more. Can anyone confirm?

Now that I think about it, I'll probably wait out for Steam Summer Sale and see if they offer EW even cheaper.

Other things of interest to me:
Evil Genius for 2,50 and Sniper Elite V2 for 7€ with a chance of some content DLC's at 1€ a pop.

[Sean Mirrsen]

XCOM and XCOM: Enemy Within are on sale on gamersgate for another 18 hours. Priced 4,50€ and 12,50€ respectively.

Is there any reason to pick the original or is enemy within a strict upgrade? Reading the wikipedia page leaves me with the assumption that the standalone expansion has everything from XCOM and more. Can anyone confirm?

Now that I think about it, I'll probably wait out for Steam Summer Sale and see if they offer EW even cheaper.

Other things of interest to me:
Evil Genius for 2,50 and Sniper Elite V2 for 7€ with a chance of some content DLC's at 1€ a pop.

You probably won't get XCOM:EW cheaper on Steam, primarily because EW is a standalone expansion - it can be played separately from EU if you buy it separately, as Gamersgate appears to offer it, but on Steam you have to purchase EU before you can play EW.

edit: disregard the above, noticed that it's listed as DLC and requires Steamworks anyway. So yeah, perhaps you should wait for the big sale to start and see how that goes.

[DeKaFu]

What do you get from playing online?

Dark Souls (and Demon's Souls, though it's not for PC) are completely unique in how the multiplayer experience is seamlessly interwoven with the single player game. Other players helping and hindering you, directly and indirectly, is a concept the entire game is designed around.

Certain entire aspects of the game won't "work" as intended if you're offline. BlackFlyme mentioned "covenants", which are factions you can join that mostly let you interact with other people's games in different unique ways, be it PVP (consentual or not) or co-op. Certain actions in the game are "punished" by being attacked by player members of a certain covenant, for example. The covenants and what they do are all tied directly into the game's lore and backstory. The game's still entirely beatable offline, but you miss out on a lot of things that were intended to be a part of the core experience.

A specific example from Demon's Souls (Dark Souls' predecessor) was that there was a major boss in the game that was actually another player summoned from their game to fight you. If they succeeded in killing you, they'd get a unique item for it, but you had to defeat an actual human being to progress through the game. Playing offline would get you a (usually much easier) NPC boss in their place.

[Graknorke]

XCOM and XCOM: Enemy Within are on sale on gamersgate for another 18 hours. Priced 4,50€ and 12,50€ respectively.

Is there any reason to pick the original or is enemy within a strict upgrade? Reading the wikipedia page leaves me with the assumption that the standalone expansion has everything from XCOM and more. Can anyone confirm?

EW is DLC that costs more than the base game.

Thanks for the notice though, I bought EU because it was under £4 and I figured why not. Holding out on EW until I see it with a better discount.

[Sirus]

Distant Worlds: Universe is currently a bit less than $50 on Steam. Thoughts on whether it is worth the current price? Is it likely to decrease in price soon?

[Shooer]

With that company, no the price will never go down.  Also don't bet on a sale, ever.

If you want some opionions on the game go check out the thread kicking around here.

[engy]

Distant Worlds: Universe is currently a bit less than $50 on Steam. Thoughts on whether it is worth the current price? Is it likely to decrease in price soon?

If you own any of the other Distant Worlds games you can pick up Distant Worlds: Universe over on Matrix games for as low as 10 dollars (if you owned the full set) and get a free steam key.  Pretty solid game.

[Sirus]

I own nothing Distant-Worlds-related
On the other hand, the Steam package does include the base game, Return of the Shakturi, Legends, Shadows, and Universe. So maybe it's a decent deal?

[Itnetlolor]

If you want an essential Geometry Wars clone with a slightly different arena and more game modes, Waves is on sale as part of the Weeklong Deal. Real World Racing is also available.

[Chaoswizkid]

EW is DLC that costs more than the base game.

Thanks for the notice though, I bought EU because it was under £4 and I figured why not. Holding out on EW until I see it with a better discount.

Pretty sure that's because EW is meant to be like a full-on expansion pack and the base game has been out long enough for big price drops? Pricing for expansion packs has been similar in the past before digital distribution. Not 100% sure on just how much content EW has, so not sure if it's actually justified.