Community MetaSteam | June 2024 - Let's conquer this kingdom with some pure hearts

[Mivey]

Summary from the most upvoted comment of r/games thread:


Why the fuck Obsidian didn't show anything listed here in the main trailer? Just one second of third-person gameplay and people who are not into 1st-person game would have gotten excited.

Will be strange to see Obsidian make a big RPG, where the publisher wasn't trying to screw them over by releasing the game early and partially unfinished (Star Wars KOTOR 2) or giving them a super short time frame to make the game in (New Vegas). Looks like Obsidian was really given enough resources and time to make this game just as they wanted to. Looking it up, the game's director Pattel worked on the Pillars games as a writer, and creative lead on The Outer Worlds, games that were pretty strong in their writing (even if I don't think Outer Worlds really worked well in terms of its level pacing, but that's another topic). Hoping this means Avowed will have great companions and quests. This plus what we already see from footage above would make for a great time

 

[Le Pertti]

I do think that if I could choose any game to play right now, of known games, Avowed would be it. Elder scrolls 6 would be an obvious choice but can’t really say it is a known game

 

[Hektor]

WHY IS NO ONE POSTING ABOUT THIS

I forgot EGS exclusive boooo! booooo!!

 

[LEANIJA]

WHY IS NO ONE POSTING ABOUT THIS

I forgot EGS exclusive boooo! booooo!!

I have

well they did just announce Anno 117 Pax Romana — no Steam logo of course, seems like theyre still tied to EGS

 

[Le Pertti]

Just realised that I'm 111 games away from the big 3k games on steam!

 

[Mivey]

WHY IS NO ONE POSTING ABOUT THIS

I forgot EGS exclusive boooo! booooo!!

At least going by how Ubi is handling Avatar, it seems that it's been reduced to only half a year of Steam exclusion, plus they support achievements too. Of course, that's assuming that one can predict their behaviour going forward by how they handle Avatar.

Do we have good data on how well Ubisoft+ is doing? It's clear that EGS is super dead, but given how Ubi continues to avoid Steam for half a year, I wonder if that strategy is actually working out for them

 

[curi0usBystander]

Do we have good data on how well Ubisoft+ is doing? It's clear that EGS is super dead, but given how Ubi continues to avoid Steam for half a year, I wonder if that strategy is actually working out for them

I mean, during the first run they make 100% of the sale of the game and then it uses uplay (or whatever they call it now) and any dlc/mtx they sell directly through there (unless that has changed recently), So for them is not much of a problem even if they sell 0 copies

 

[Mor]

At least going by how Ubi is handling Avatar, it seems that it's been reduced to only half a year of Steam exclusion, plus they support achievements too. Of course, that's assuming that one can predict their behaviour going forward by how they handle Avatar.

Do we have good data on how well Ubisoft+ is doing? It's clear that EGS is super dead, but given how Ubi continues to avoid Steam for half a year, I wonder if that strategy is actually working out for them

Not exactly.

So far what I was able to observe is:

• they are releasing at least 1 game per month on Steam this year (unknown which one btw)
• Avatar and Star Wars were part of First Run program so they took 6 months to reach Steam (Outlaws will too if I have to guess)
• their own IPs will last 12 months more or less, or a bit less depending on the title

 

[Lashley]

Xbox and Ubi shows were great

Sucks most of Xbox's game release dates are "to be announced" though

 

[Alexandros]

I didn't watch the Ubi show, I buy some of their games on Steam once they drop below $10 or they give them away for free on their launcher. I very recently finished Assassin's Creed Syndicate so I am many years away from caring about the new one.

 

[Arc]

Steam's quarterly mega-sales $ increases, revealed...

And yes, we also have 'not-E3' highlights somewhere within...

newsletter.gamediscover.co

Kassidy Gerber from Valve gave a talk about the Steam platform growth. A lot of it is trodden ground but there is some new info related to playerbase and revenue growth. There are some new growth statistics:

You can see Steam is still having great growth even after the COVID boost (and you now know why the likes of Sony wants in on the action).

Not exactly.

So far what I was able to observe is:

• they are releasing at least 1 game per month on Steam this year (unknown which one btw)
• Avatar and Star Wars were part of First Run program so they took 6 months to reach Steam (Outlaws will too if I have to guess)
• their own IPs will last 12 months more or less, or a bit less depending on the title

And then there's oddball decisions like releasing Monopoly and The Rogue Prince of Persia on Steam day one and randomly dropping Rocksmith+ on Steam. Granted I think that's more of an individual developer or IP owner requesting it as those are small games that aren't going to make a material impact on Ubi's bottom line.

 

[STHX]

This is where Valve makes a difference compared to the competition. Europe has historically been considered a "PC stronghold" while the rest of the world was seen as too "console-focused", especially Japan. But Valve made great strides in supporting even the smallest payment methods used only in Japan (like those prepaid cards they use for almost everything daily, which many stores don't support) and little by little they discovered a never seen before audience
And of course that growth ended up influencing other regions too. As the audience realized how "convenient" Steam was becoming they started to dip their toes in. As more users interested in their product on Steam grew big japanese publishers and small doujin developers saw more reason to put their games on Steam, and so more users from around the world saw more reasons to invest in PC gaming instead of consoles, which then caused developers from other countries too to release more games on Steam, which brought more and more users. A true spiral of success started from such a small change. Epic failed to realize this (just look at how many exclusives, especially the first year, were from asian developers compared to western ones) and even after all these years they're still playing catch up

 

[Cacher]

Explore a World of Wonders in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Xbox Wire

Explore a world of wonders inspired by Belle Époque France. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a gripping and beautiful RPG coming soon to Xbox Series X|S.

news.xbox.com

Along the way, you’ll grow your bond with your fellow Expeditioners and piece together their personal stories of heart and heartache. Together, you’ll strive to unravel the mystery of the Paintress – a desperate and seemingly hopeless undertaking that has eluded generations of Expeditioners. 

Each member of the Expedition has a distinct playstyle with their own unique mechanic. You will be able to further customize each character’s stat growth, expansive skill tree, and gear alongside a wide range of learnable passive traits, offering endless opportunities to fine-tune your preferred strategies. We can’t wait to see what crazy builds you will come up with.

But strategy alone won’t suffice. To reach the Paintress you will also need to master the defense systems. During the enemy’s turn, you can dodge, parry, or jump above enemy attacks in real time, allowing you to land devastating counterattacks. Mastering enemy patterns will ensure your victory and who knows, maybe you’ll even finish the battle without taking any damage and earn additional experience?

Additionally, the free-aim system allows you to shoot at enemies’ weak points, offering you a substantial advantage against the hardest foes or flying enemies.

 

[Ascheroth]

Expedition 33 honestly looks and sounds extremely rad.

 

[Le Pertti]

I know some games of mine on steam have soundtracks among the files, is it possible to just download the soundtrack?

 

[thekeats1999]

For me Expedition 33 was game of the Not E3

 

[Deku]

I know some games of mine on steam have soundtracks among the files, is it possible to just download the soundtrack?

If the soundtrack is sold as dlc then you can download the soundtrack without downloading the game. Check the link

how to download soundtrack DLC without downloading main game? :: Help and Tips

steamcommunity.com

Not sure if it works any more

 

[PC-tan]

But Valve made great strides in supporting even the smallest payment methods used only in Japan (like those prepaid cards they use for almost everything daily, which many stores don't support) and little by little they discovered a never seen before audience
And of course that growth ended up influencing other regions too.

I feel like things would have played out very different if Valve was not a business partner with Desigia (I can't spell the Name correctly). Since they are the ones that handle that stuff. They go by a different company name now but that was one of their responsibilities of handling payments methods. I'm guessing that Valve got involved with them in the earlier days of that company. They are unofficial part of the Valve Japan team. That helps with operations in Japan. Komodo is the other half, which is their sister company.

 

[Le Pertti]

If the soundtrack is sold as dlc then you can download the soundtrack without downloading the game. Check the link

how to download soundtrack DLC without downloading main game? :: Help and Tips

steamcommunity.com

Not sure if it works any more

Hmm I have the problem of not having the right platform even lol, tried on the Mac but didn't work.

 

[Hektor]

Expeditions 33 was definitely the biggest surprise on the E3.

That, Army of DOOMness and Anno Romana are my games of the shows for sure.

But i also gotta say, i feel like there wasn't a whole lot in it for me apart from those.

 

[didamangi]

 

[Derrick01]

Dragon age looked incredibly rough and not just visually. The dialogue was painful at times and it seems like they're still using that awful dialogue wheel (seriously what year is it) and the combat was just smacking away at enemies who didn't react to any of your hits. I don't mind them going full action but if you do you need to invest in some presentation values like that. Also seemed like you couldn't swap to other characters which would be a huge downgrade from the past games.

 

[Mivey]

Dragon age looked incredibly rough and not just visually. The dialogue was painful at times and it seems like they're still using that awful dialogue wheel (seriously what year is it) and the combat was just smacking away at enemies who didn't react to any of your hits. I don't mind them going full action but if you do you need to invest in some presentation values like that. Also seemed like you couldn't swap to other characters which would be a huge downgrade from the past games.

If you care about AAA stuff like presentation and all that, then yeah, weak, but that was always going to be the case with a game with such a rough development history. I'm more interested in how the game holds up as an RPG and how much of the usual light-weight choice and consequence stuff is still there. Not expecting too much here, but if they don't mess it up too much, then I will play it for sure. Tevinter looked pretty bleak and different than the relatively boring bits we had in Inquisition, at least the one city we see in the reveal there

 

[Derrick01]

If you care about AAA stuff like presentation and all that, then yeah, weak, but that was always going to be the case with a game with such a rough development history. I'm more interested in how the game holds up as an RPG and how much of the usual light-weight choice and consequence stuff is still there. Not expecting too much here, but if they don't mess it up too much, then I will play it for sure. Tevinter looked pretty bleak and different than the relatively boring bits we had in Inquisition, at least the one city we see in the reveal there

I mean the choices still look to be the usual bioware fare. The player disagreed with varric's plan to talk and varric went "well imma go do that anyway" and the only result was you get a few frowny face points to his relationship meter.

It looks like they're trying to make the same type of game they used to get away with in the 360 era back when the press was lauding them as the kings of the rpg genre (those were painful years for me) but that's not going to work anymore. We've had over a decade of the genre moving forward between CDPR and larian and even non RPG AAA games becoming more RPG-y over the years. It didn't work for todd howard either when he tried to put out the same game again last year.

edit: Press just confirmed there's no direct control of other party members. That's a massive mistake.

 

[Aaron D.]

Not exactly a hidden gem or anything but man the Riven demo from Next Fest is f'ing ace.

It's drop-dead gorgeous and quite faithful to the source material.

Exploring once pre-rendered backgrounds in full 3D is surreal af.

Day One-ing this bad boy.

 

[toxicitizen]

You know, I was willing to set my awful first impressions aside and give the Veilguard gameplay a proper shot. I wanted it to look good enough to motivate me to catch up on the series. It did not. I don't think it looked awful or anything but idk, I just didn't see anything to justify prioritizing it over all the other stuff I want to play. I might get back into Dragon Age some day but it's not gonna be this year lol.

 

[Mivey]

I mean the choices still look to be the usual bioware fare. The player disagreed with varric's plan to talk and varric went "well imma go do that anyway" and the only result was you get a few frowny face points to his relationship meter.

It looks like they're trying to make the same type of game they used to get away with in the 360 era back when the press was lauding them as the kings of the rpg genre (those were painful years for me) but that's not going to work anymore. We've had over a decade of the genre moving forward between CDPR and larian and even non RPG AAA games becoming more RPG-y over the years. It didn't work for todd howard either when he tried to put out the same game again last year.

edit: Press just confirmed there's no direct control of other party members. That's a massive mistake.

I think we knew from a leak a couple years back that they did not let you control other characters. Would assume it's a cost saving measure, easier to balance fights and things.

And yeah, this does look awfully similar to Starfield, in that an old studio is basically just doing the same thing they did over a decade ago and hoping to set the world on fire. I'm enough of a mark for Dragon Age that I will still bite (at a hefty discount) but it's been so long since the last game, that this game can really just tank or tank ultra hard.

 

[Madventure]

Dragon age looked incredibly rough and not just visually. The dialogue was painful at times and it seems like they're still using that awful dialogue wheel (seriously what year is it) and the combat was just smacking away at enemies who didn't react to any of your hits. I don't mind them going full action but if you do you need to invest in some presentation values like that. Also seemed like you couldn't swap to other characters which would be a huge downgrade from the past games.

Yeah it basically morphed into a fantasy themed mass effect instead of something completely different
This is a complete bullshit take from me but I think it's the same thing that basically happened/happening with Ubisoft & Bioware and other big game studios that they dont even realize happens with their titles

They slowly begin to merge all of their franchises into essentially the same type of fucking game

Essentially every ubisoft title is the same game but some of them are scifi themed or medieval themed or some have weird aliens

I saw this article today and it just made me sad lmao

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dragon-age/with-veilguard-dragon-age-becomes-what-it-was-probably-always-destined-to-be-a-mass-effect-game/

 

[Dandy]

I think the new Dragon Age looks fine. Is it exactly what I want? No, but BioWare hasn't made a CRPG in a very long time, so I guess I need to accept that and either enjoy this for what it is, or move on.

At least we have Larian and Owlcat. For now.

 

[Kyougar]

Will be strange to see Obsidian make a big RPG, where the publisher wasn't trying to screw them over by releasing the game early and partially unfinished (Star Wars KOTOR 2) or giving them a super short time frame to make the game in (New Vegas). Looks like Obsidian was really given enough resources and time to make this game just as they wanted to. Looking it up, the game's director Pattel worked on the Pillars games as a writer, and creative lead on The Outer Worlds, games that were pretty strong in their writing (even if I don't think Outer Worlds really worked well in terms of its level pacing, but that's another topic). Hoping this means Avowed will have great companions and quests. This plus what we already see from footage above would make for a great time

*gets 90+ Metacritic score and many awards
but not sets the sales world on fire
Phil Spencer half a year later: "In the end, I've said over and over, I have to run a sustainable business inside the company and grow, and that means sometimes I have to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make."
Obsidian gets closed.

 

[STHX]

edit: Press just confirmed there's no direct control of other party members. That's a massive mistake.

Always relevant, and always it will be

 

[Stevey]

I just wish more RPGs were RTWP, turned based takes far too fucking long.

 

[yuraya]

Yea not really happy with what I see with The Veilguard so far with that gameplay debut and hero shooter ass trailer.

It does however feel like an overly scripted part of the beginning. And the previous games suffer from that too like Inquisition where there is a lot of interruptions and character intros in the beginning sequence.

But honestly I'm not even too mad if this turns out to be a dud because Avowed looks really good. And there is Metaphor later this year too. Plenty of JRPGs and WRPGs to play. I plan on going back to Starfield and BG3 as well.

The Veilguard is looking like that wait for DLC and buy on discount type of game. Its how I experienced Inquisition so I'm in no hurry anyways.

 

[Durante]

Not exactly a hidden gem or anything but man the Riven demo from Next Fest is f'ing ace.

It's drop-dead gorgeous and quite faithful to the source material.

Exploring once pre-rendered backgrounds in full 3D is surreal af.

Day One-ing this bad boy.

I also really like that they are still doing VR support.

I just wish more RPGs were RTWP, turned based takes far too fucking long.

Preach! The perfect CRPG system.

 

[Joe Spangle]

Only just catching up with non-E3 and this game has caught my eye...


Looks very X-COMy but with an interesting time mechanic.

 

[kio]

I just wish more RPGs were RTWP, turned based takes far too fucking long.

Depends on what the game is trying to achieve. TB is always allow more depth at the cost of time whereas RTwP is faster but turns combat into a cooldown manager.
I don't dislike RTwP but TB is much more flexible and also simpler to implement, so it's overall a better system.

 

[Stevey]

Depends on what the game is trying to achieve. TB is always allow more depth at the cost of time whereas RTwP is faster but turns combat into a cooldown manager.
I don't dislike RTwP but TB is much more flexible and also simpler to implement, so it's overall a better system.

The same cooldowns in RTwP would be there if it was turn based.
And can't see it being easier to implement really.

 

[Dandy]

For every long fight in a turn-based game, you have 5 pointless trash fights in a RTWP game.

 

[Madventure]

I just wish more RPGs were RTWP, turned based takes far too fucking long.

is going to be RTWP iirc

 

[STHX]

Let's see some interesting things from the Steam Fest

The writer's barely disguised fetish: the game: the experience: the visual novel: the demo

VA-11 Hall-A but you smoke Hookah (posted in the past already, but there is a demo now)

Desert Strike but with aliens (same as above)

What if Metal Gear was a metroidvania? has a demo (and it's pretty good)

 

[Alextended]

 

[kio]

Let's see some interesting things from the Steam Fest

The writer's barely disguised fetish: the game: the experience: the visual novel: the demo

Sorry but I have to do it

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I was watching some videos about Path of Exile 2 gameplay and I just noticed the way the characters were moving might indicate that may be an option for WASD controls, also the characters can roll (I may have missed it in previous videos).

 

[rickyson33]

I was watching some videos about Path of Exile 2 gameplay and I just noticed the way the characters were moving might indicate that may be an option for WASD controls, also the characters can roll (I may have missed it in previous videos).

Path of Exile 2 will have both WASD controls and dodge rolling yes

 

[didamangi]

Like London buses.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Path of Exile 2 will have both WASD controls and dodge rolling yes

Thank you for the confirmation! I'm so excited to play it later this year.

 

[rickyson33]

Thank you for the confirmation! I'm so excited to play it later this year.

yeah i've kinda mostly fallen off the original the past couple years just out of general fatigue from playing it a couple thousand hours but excited to see how the new one feels to play

 

[dex3108]

Some games are currently leaking through EpicDB (SteamDB equivalent) and one of things there that So y has is PSS App Test. Could this be PlayStation Store? XD

 

[Kvik]

The writer's barely disguised fetish: the game: the experience: the visual novel: the demo

If I had a nickel for every time that a game features a giantess, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

 

[Sobatronix]

https://x.com/Wario64/status/1800703429456834638

Apparently a bunch of games got leaked on EpicDB (didn't know that shit existed lmao) Including FFXVI, FFIX Remake, Turok and TLOU2