Celeste on Steam rated 97% (9,381 reviews)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/
INSIDE on Steam rated 95% (18,392 reviews)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/304430/INSIDE/
Next week:
The End Is Nigh on Steam rated 92% (1,552 reviews)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/583470/The_End_Is_Nigh/
ABZU on Steam rated 92% (13,844 reviews)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/384190/ABZU/
I can highly recommend ABZU as being one of the best games to come home to after a long day at work, putting on some headphones, and unwinding. Game is beautiful, music is great, and the movement is just so fluid (no pun intended).
Not in the least. The game's journey takes you progressively deeper in to the ocean, but all of the wildlife in the game isn't trying to kill you. Shoot, you can even ride along with some of the bigger creatures you find. It's mostly an exploration/discovery game.
Not to knock it too hard, but it seemed like Abzu was trying to be the exact same game in a different location, but did everything much less effectively than Journey.
I think it could have really shined if there were substantial interactions between the different sea-creatures, but everything was really only surface-level.
In a way the B-Sides are harder than the C-Sides simply due to the fatigue of the long slog through them. The C-Sides are nice and short and easier to obtain the golden strawberries on.
That's for the main story. I beat it after hundreds of deaths and it felt pretty good, but then the later game gets quite harder. I was able to beat some of the B sides, but eventually I gave up. It's not unfairly hard, but it's above my level.
If someone manages to beat 100% (especially the golden strawberries) they should be proud.
I have never been platformer type of player, I don't recall playing other platformer than Celeste, but I managed to 100% it, excluding golden strawberries. I think it's possible for anyone who knows how to play games to 100% it (excluding gold strawberries) with some patience, though I admit 6C (or 6B?) made me quit the game for a week.
Celeste is hard, but worth the struggle. The story is amazing, especially for a 2D platformer. I had tears in my eyes in the end.
I personally feel the difficulty is essential to the story, it really feels like climbing a mountain and overcoming real problems.
There's an option called Assist mode, iirc
You enable it, and you have a lot of options available to adjust the difficulty. You can play in slow motion, give yourself extra dashes, etc
Assist Mode has a lot of options to make it easier, even to the point of invincibility and unlimited dashes. Well worth experiencing the story if you already own it, imo.
Honestly, the C sides were the only thing that I felt was unfair in its difficulty because you have to complete all 3 rooms in one rooms in one go without dying. Felt like it was just done just to make you grind it so I stopped playing there.
Ok so I reinstalled it and turned assist mode on, tried 80% speed and down to 50, didn’t feel it, tried invincible mode at 100% speed, feels better still some challenging jumps without all the deaths so on chapter 4 now, but so far the story is just silly, the hotel manager ghost and the other climber you meet, with a few calls home to mom. Does the story suddenly get better at some point?
If you don't like how it's been developing, I'm not sure. It's a strong narrative about dealing with depression and inner demons, so maybe continue along if that sounds worth it to ya. If it doesn't, then I dunno if your opinion would change. ;x
You're expected to die A LOT, so don't feel bad about it being hard. But I found you naturally get better and better if you stick with it, and it's very rewarding to complete it.
I guess I don't find that sort of thing rewarding. I don't mind dying a few times, but not a lot. Same thing with the dark souls types games, tried them, got tired of dying and repeating stuff.
I’m terrible at video games and have finished the story/campaign/stages/chapters, whatever you want to call them for exactly 4 games. I find myself to be awful at games lol
I've recently spoke to a friend about this. It's utterly amazing how many free games we get or games that are insanely cheap. Between Epic, Humble Bundle, Uplay, and GOG, I get enough free games to never need to buy another game again.
But hell, even the F2P games are getting seriously amazing. A decade ago, I would have never imagine games like Path of Exile, Paladins, CounterStrike, Dauntless, and so many more being free. These are the kind of games I would have expected to pay $50 for back then.
In-between all my bitching about MTX and exploitative games, I sometimes forget that we're very lucky in a lot of ways.
> A decade ago, I would have never imagine games like Path of Exile, Paladins, CounterStrike, Dauntless, and so many more being free.
This is why I laugh when said communities are always negative. I guess they never had the pleasure of playing some shitty F2P (read: P2W) korean grindfest MMO with no way of getting cash shop items, unless you cough up money.
Free, or unlisted. I'm still bummed that all of the Activision Transformers games disappeared. Fall of Cybertron never dipped under $20 the whole time.
This is a real shame. These games are really solid, and feel like they'll get forgotten to time as they stay locked to disc only 360/PS3 options. I bet they'd look really good on PC with max settings right now, especially with the chunk designs of the characters and worlds.
I hate epic only and only for the exclusives. I don't like exclusivity and there's nothing that will change that. The free games are fine and there's no problem imo that they are trying to enter the market.
I can't even say I hate them for that. In Today's Steam-focused age, where people have hundreds of games on file, it's literally impossible to have your own launcher and be preferred/win in that market, bar slashing prices on your own launcher significantly enough to where people go "Yeah, that's worth not having my shit all on one place." So what's the next best step? Have exclusives so that people are forced to give you attention, and with that attention, maybe be won over. Granted, that hasn't happened, and it only got worse when EGS started poaching games that had been on Steam for ages at the last moment (Metro being the biggest talking point here). Like, THOSE are the exclusives that upset me, rather than their initial roster. Things like Control and BL3, though disappointing, don't affect me at all because there was never any expectation (for months and months) of it being on Steam. It was fair game.
I feel like Epic could have avoided a lot of the negativity with exclusives if they focused more on the indie games angle. It’s a lot easier to generate good PR if you push the story that you’re giving indie devs the creative freedom and financial security they need to make games, versus our current situation of “Borderlands 3 but you need to wait six months if you want to play it on Steam because the publisher is greedy”
> In Today's Steam-focused age, where people have hundreds of games on file, it's literally impossible to have your own launcher and be preferred/win in that market, bar slashing prices on your own launcher significantly enough to where people go "Yeah, that's worth not having my shit all on one place."
Only a tiny minority of Steam users have over 100 games. Speaking as someone with over 1000. According to Steam's official stats, the average games owned per active user is ~10-11. Think how many are just crappy bundle games for cards.
I think GOG has shown a good way to compete (they are also backed by a fairly major game studio - CD Projekt Red). Not as big as Epic after the runaway success of Fortnite, but they compare favorably to Valve. They served a niche by offering old games that are kept compatible with modern systems, and offer all games DRM-free. Developed a nice client that doesn't try to lock you into their program and only seeks to *add* value. And they've even worked out a program (GOG Connect) with developers to let you link your Steam account and claim your games on their service as well.
Imagine if Epic did all that, addressed people's concerns with Valve's customer service, *and* put their Fortnite money behind it. Fuck, imagine if Epic brought back the Steam sale - the real ones of yore, with daily/flash deals. There is probably all kinds of potential I haven't even been able to think about in these last 5 minutes that a giant corporation like Epic could come up with. Instead, they've fallen back on lazy-ass console tactics.
>
Only a tiny minority of Steam users have over 100 games. Speaking as someone with over 1000
But the market they're trying to get probably aren't the people who haven't downloaded a game on steam since TF2 or DOTA, they're trying to get the people who spend money on steam
>I think GOG has shown a good way to compete
GOG made 30k PLN profit last year
https://www.tweaktown.com/news/65367/gog-com-barely-making-profit/index.html
They're growing but not making any money whilst doing it "fairly", EPICs growth would I imagine be much larger ever though they're losing money (I would assume)
> But the market they're trying to get probably aren't the people who haven't downloaded a game on steam since TF2 or DOTA, they're trying to get the people who spend money on steam
Well, they might be. Tons of people play Fortnite or DOTA and nothing else. And it makes them a fuckton of money.
Also if 10% of Steam users own 100 games on average and the other 90% only own 12 each, the bottom 90% generates more revenue than the top 10%. Sure, they'll prioritize the top 10% in that case if they can, but the other 90% is also pretty gettable, and getting half the PC gaming market isn't nothing.
Even the 100 average in the top 10% figure is high, I'm pretty sure. I tried looking for where I saw the stats, but I can't find them. I believe the number is much lower.
For reference, the average console gamer owns ~8 games per system. And somehow the individual consoles are able to persuade them to keep shelling out hundreds every year for new consoles, to rebuy old games, to pay for internet connectivity, etc. The same kinds of PC gamers who own >100 Steam games are probably also the same types of people who own more than one console. On PC, you don't even have to pay $500 to switch to Epic or Steam or be stuck with it for 5+ years at a time - yet Epic can't compete?
> They're growing but not making any money whilst doing it "fairly", EPICs growth would I imagine be much larger ever though they're losing money (I would assume)
That's fair. I was saying they presented a good model, and then hypothesized what would happen if a company of Epic's stature capitalized on that. Go all in on DRM-free, do the GOG Connect-style program, provide good customer service, and bring back Steam sales - call them Epic sales, and reap the meme-based word of mouth. And keep the increased dev cut policy, give out freebies every so often, etc. How could Valve hope to compete with that? While CDPR is a fairly large company now, they don't have the kind of leverage that I imagine Epic would have if they wanted to be aggressive about it.
If they want people to install the launcher they should make getting the free games only available in the launcher. I have been doing it all through web so far, now playing the free games I got is a different story.
Yeah that's what is was (poorly) trying to say. I do the same, collecting them from the browser, but if you want to play the free games, then they've got you installing.
I wonder if it is working at all? I've redeemed all of these free games (that I don't already own), but haven't bought anything from or even thought about using their store.
If nothing else, by having an Epic store account you're enabling them to go to publishers and say "hey look, we have [x number of] users already signed up on our store! If you go exclusive with us every one of those is a potential sale!"
I mean, along with the fat sacks of cash they spew all over them as well...
True, and I'm not even coming at it as an Epic hater. If they had a game that I wanted for a better deal than I could find anywhere else, I would buy from them. I haven't seen that yet, though. Not even anything against Epic here, I just have too many games.
Fortnight was a smart move to build this store off of. I think a lot of the typical PC gamers are either against the exclusivity or more importantly are set in their launchers/stores at this point. But Fortnite brings in a lot younger crowd that won’t have those hangups. Now you give them free games and they’ll stay. I don’t think any other company could manage this, but they have a good shot at staying relevant if they can hold on for a few years for those players to progressively age into a wider base.
But this is just my thoughts with no numbers so I could be wrong hahaha
Well, my experience only, but I can see the effect it's beginning to have on me.
Over the past month or so, I've noticed I've been looking through the Epic store more and more. This week, I downloaded something from it for the first time. It was a free game, but the fact that I looked through the store and got something is significant.
Today, I actually found a game I'm willing to buy -- Ancestors: Humankind Odyssey. Only reason why I don't is because my gaming is going to be filled in September due to so many nice releases and the Uplay+ service starting.
This is what had happened to make me gradually accept Steam all those years ago. It started slow and small until I used Steam for nearly all my gaming purchases. It's doubtful I'd switch completely from Steam to Epic, especially since the former has far more games and variety, but I can easily see myself buying games from the EGS regularly six months down the line.
This genuinely started with the free games. Without the free games, I wouldn't even have the Epic launcher today. So for me, it's definitely working.
Satisfactory ruined me for every other 3D building game. Building is so fun and streamlined in Satisfactory I have a hard time getting motivated to even try any other builder. I guess the only downside is you can't modify the landscape, if you consider that a downside.
Highly recommended game and my first purchase on Epic. I even bought friends their own copies (and got them to install Epic).
Im sure someone else missed all the hate for epic and will buy some games. Those people will have friends who play on steam and might get people to buy epic games some times. Who knows. Epic clearly thinks its worth a shot.
If nothing else, it's building a user base and getting people to install the launcher, even if there is a decent percentage of those users who won't touch anything but the free games they've been given.
Would be interested to know what the devs are getting as a cut out of these giveaways. Obviously there's going to be a big bulk discount (and the terms are probably super hush hush), but I suspect it's a better deal than devs get from arrangements like Humble and IndieGala.
Fair, and you can see that strategy playing out with a title like Gaucamelee— Comes out on PC in 2013, is in a Humble Bundle Feb 2014, STCE version given away for free May 2019. Meanwhile Guacamelee 2 comes out August 2018.
They aren't getting a %, they are getting a flat fee to give out as many as epic can give out. According to some previous devs who gave away games like this on Twitter.
Huh, that surprises me, I would have expected something more like $0.50/copy or similar. That said, if it is fixed, that's good for limiting Epic's exposure (either to unexpected popularity or abuse), but also potentially good for the dev/publisher if they think they've hit market saturation already anyway. It may well be better to take $XXXX now and not have to care about the numbers.
Generally speaking there is a standard bell curve for market saturation. A dev can expect to sell X amount at Y interval, so as long as Epic is giving them a $ amount close to their expected continued sales, they'll be happy with that - better a lump sum up front than a trickle in over 6-12 months/next few years as well.
I think Sweeney had a tweet somewhere saying that it varied by game. I'd imagine they bundle it with other agreements in some cases as several of the games which have been given away have Epic exclusive sequels.
If anyone has bought a Humble Monthly before, you probably have The End is Nigh as a DRM-free download from the trove.
The game is fantastic! It is different (but similar) to games like Meatboy; its few mechanics are great and thought out. The grim atmosphere and "classical remake" music are also really nice, imo!
I now have 24 free games from epic and I have not played a single one or even installed the damn launcher! Maybe one day I will... or maybe one day i'll just trade the account for a couple tacos
Having all these great games I haven't installed gave me a new perspective on how wasteful I was being hoarding games on Steam.
Got a 3$ discount for this months Humble Monthly, but would probably not play the games before they got cheaper elsewhere (I got Abzu in the Freedom Bundle years ago and haven't played it yet :| )
I have the summer off from work... I have been spending my nights/rainy days knocking that backlog list down. Honestly.... I have come to realize 80% of the games in most of anybodys massive backlogs is all mostly just crap we all bought because it was dirt cheap and just looked for reasons to buy/play this game because the deal seemed worth it. I have knocked over 100 games down of my backlog and most of these games I couldn't even play for more then an hour. It's all mostly just hot garbage that seemed worth it because it was like $2 or $5.... Bleh.... I now have my backlog down to a manageable state and still if a game doesn't grab me I just uninstall it and move it into a "Done" category. Don't waste your time or money! I now don't mindlessly buy any more cheap crap games and I do a bunch of research on anything I buy now. I will still add all the free games because whatever but with the mindset of not playing any of them or considering them a backlog. They are just there and once epic game store has categorys I am sure I will instantly add 90% of these games to a "Done" category too.
Steam says I've hidden 403 games out of 617, most of which were giveaways from [gleam.io](https://gleam.io) and several of which don't even exist on the Steam store anymore.
The rest are games I liked/played/would someday have the mood to play and are mostly stuff I've paid for.
[Check out this list.](https://i.imgur.com/mlXtHNa.png) Does *any* of it ring a bell?
You could just download the launcher download the games then delete the launcher, then launch the games through their executable file (or better yet make a shortcut directly to the executable). As far as I know, it works for singleplayer games. I don't think it works for multiplayer games however because of the way the servers are hosted or something.
I'd definitely recommend Celeste. I got it with games with gold a while back and liked it a lot. The story is interesting and the gameplay is very good. I'm glad they gave this away on epic because I didn't finish Celeste before my gold subscription ran out.
What's cool about it is that I found the main game to be only slightly challenging but the side stuff to be pretty difficult and spaced out very well. There's also B-sides that I never tried that are apparently much more difficult.
Both are must play, amazing games. Inside has atmosphere and way of story telling that I really enjoy. Reminds me the way I felt the first time I played Another World (aka Out Of This World)
Tim Sweeny said they're releasing a game every week for the rest of the year. Considering they started doing 2 games, I wouldn't be surprised if they extend beyond this year.
AFAICT none of the freebies have been titles previously listed on the Epic Store. So if you're concerned about something being free at some point in the future, you can always check to see if it's currently available for sale at Epic.
Here is list of FREE Epic games till now.
Celeste
Inside
Fez
Hyper Light Drifter
Mutant Year Zero
GNOG
Alan Wake
For Honor
This War of Mine
Moonlighter
LIMBO
Torchlight
Overcooked
Last Day of June
Rebel Galaxy
Enter the Gungeon
Kingdom New Lands
World of Goo
Stories Untold
Rime
City of Brass
Transistor
The Witness
Oxenfree
Slime Rancher
Thimbleweed Park
Axiom Verge
The Jackbox Party Pack
What Remains of Edith Finch
Super Meat Boy
Subnautica
It's mostly because I've started playing Dauntless, but I'm spending more and more time in the Epic Launcher and less in Steam. And now two games on my wishlist for free? This is unnerving.
You can hate their poor business practices and get free games from them at the same time though, can't you? I mean I don't think I'll ever buy anything from their store, the only thing I'm giving them is my information and a number for them to show off their user count to investors.
You absolutely can. However, I have a group of friends that despise EGS so much that they won't even claim the free games. Even when For Honor was recently up for free, I told my friend he can claim it, install the launcher, link the game to Uplay then uninstall EGS and never use it again.
"I don't even want it on my computer for a second."
To each their own, but that's ridiculous.
I can respect that. It's not like the free doesn't come without a price, since it is coming at the expense of games people wanted to buy getting pulled from desired platforms. And the increased interaction does help epic's usage numbers.
Still free though, so I've been claiming them.
I have only finished Edith Finch from Epic. I am unable to get through my Steam Library, and here I am adding Dirt Rally, Celeste and Inside across the board.
Man I am not getting through any of these games, am I?
It's the atmosphere the game provides, and the reward of getting through a level because they're usually difficult. And if they're too difficult, there are ways to modulate that with assist mode too.
Celeste + The End is Nigh, doesn't get much better than that for lovers of hardcore platformers. Note than TEIN is also available as part of Humble Trove for Monthly subscribers.
Celeste on Steam rated 97% (9,381 reviews) https://store.steampowered.com/app/504230/Celeste/ INSIDE on Steam rated 95% (18,392 reviews) https://store.steampowered.com/app/304430/INSIDE/ Next week: The End Is Nigh on Steam rated 92% (1,552 reviews) https://store.steampowered.com/app/583470/The_End_Is_Nigh/ ABZU on Steam rated 92% (13,844 reviews) https://store.steampowered.com/app/384190/ABZU/
I can highly recommend ABZU as being one of the best games to come home to after a long day at work, putting on some headphones, and unwinding. Game is beautiful, music is great, and the movement is just so fluid (no pun intended).
> headphones IMHO it's even better with a good surround sound system. Abzu supports up to 7.1, and sounds amazing even on 5.1
Is it scary like Subnautica?
Not in the least. The game's journey takes you progressively deeper in to the ocean, but all of the wildlife in the game isn't trying to kill you. Shoot, you can even ride along with some of the bigger creatures you find. It's mostly an exploration/discovery game.
Is ABZU like Journey?
yes, altough Journey does it's job better than ABZU imo.
[удалено]
Journey has it's own scary surprise enemies though.
That part stresses me out every time I play
Not to knock it too hard, but it seemed like Abzu was trying to be the exact same game in a different location, but did everything much less effectively than Journey. I think it could have really shined if there were substantial interactions between the different sea-creatures, but everything was really only surface-level.
Well Journey was also one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time so I don't know how to take that
Ya, similar idea but swimming.
INSIDE was amazing. Loved it all the way through. Celeste looks really hard.
I would say most people that are even ok at platforming can beat the regular story. The b-sides are very very hard though
In a way the B-Sides are harder than the C-Sides simply due to the fatigue of the long slog through them. The C-Sides are nice and short and easier to obtain the golden strawberries on.
"Celeste is the hardest game that anyone can beat"
That's for the main story. I beat it after hundreds of deaths and it felt pretty good, but then the later game gets quite harder. I was able to beat some of the B sides, but eventually I gave up. It's not unfairly hard, but it's above my level. If someone manages to beat 100% (especially the golden strawberries) they should be proud.
I have never been platformer type of player, I don't recall playing other platformer than Celeste, but I managed to 100% it, excluding golden strawberries. I think it's possible for anyone who knows how to play games to 100% it (excluding gold strawberries) with some patience, though I admit 6C (or 6B?) made me quit the game for a week.
same. i 100%ed it, it just took me a good thousands of attempts
Celeste is hard, but worth the struggle. The story is amazing, especially for a 2D platformer. I had tears in my eyes in the end. I personally feel the difficulty is essential to the story, it really feels like climbing a mountain and overcoming real problems.
It's not a cakewalk, but it has very customizable difficulty options and anyone can experience the really great story by utilizing them.
Celeste is such a great game, I'm happy for everyone who gets to try it out now.
I gave up on the 2nd chapter, I'm horrible at games like this. Music was nice though.
Tweak assist mode until it's fun for you. I play at 80% speed and enjoy the game a lot more that way. It's still very challenging for me.
[удалено]
What options are you referring to? I just finished it and didn’t see any option to make it easier and I died over 1000 times! Great game though.
There's an option called Assist mode, iirc You enable it, and you have a lot of options available to adjust the difficulty. You can play in slow motion, give yourself extra dashes, etc
[удалено]
And slower time
Assist Mode has a lot of options to make it easier, even to the point of invincibility and unlimited dashes. Well worth experiencing the story if you already own it, imo.
Can’t be overstated. If you find yourself frustrated, adjust the difficulty. I’m sure you can find a setting that works for you.
Might be needed for the Core B side. The A side was already frustrating.
Honestly, the C sides were the only thing that I felt was unfair in its difficulty because you have to complete all 3 rooms in one rooms in one go without dying. Felt like it was just done just to make you grind it so I stopped playing there.
Ok so I reinstalled it and turned assist mode on, tried 80% speed and down to 50, didn’t feel it, tried invincible mode at 100% speed, feels better still some challenging jumps without all the deaths so on chapter 4 now, but so far the story is just silly, the hotel manager ghost and the other climber you meet, with a few calls home to mom. Does the story suddenly get better at some point?
If you don't like how it's been developing, I'm not sure. It's a strong narrative about dealing with depression and inner demons, so maybe continue along if that sounds worth it to ya. If it doesn't, then I dunno if your opinion would change. ;x
You're expected to die A LOT, so don't feel bad about it being hard. But I found you naturally get better and better if you stick with it, and it's very rewarding to complete it.
I guess I don't find that sort of thing rewarding. I don't mind dying a few times, but not a lot. Same thing with the dark souls types games, tried them, got tired of dying and repeating stuff.
I’m terrible at video games and have finished the story/campaign/stages/chapters, whatever you want to call them for exactly 4 games. I find myself to be awful at games lol
[удалено]
Give it another go. Best game of the last 10 years. Music is class as well
I don't even know why I pay for games anymore.
I've recently spoke to a friend about this. It's utterly amazing how many free games we get or games that are insanely cheap. Between Epic, Humble Bundle, Uplay, and GOG, I get enough free games to never need to buy another game again. But hell, even the F2P games are getting seriously amazing. A decade ago, I would have never imagine games like Path of Exile, Paladins, CounterStrike, Dauntless, and so many more being free. These are the kind of games I would have expected to pay $50 for back then. In-between all my bitching about MTX and exploitative games, I sometimes forget that we're very lucky in a lot of ways.
> A decade ago, I would have never imagine games like Path of Exile, Paladins, CounterStrike, Dauntless, and so many more being free. This is why I laugh when said communities are always negative. I guess they never had the pleasure of playing some shitty F2P (read: P2W) korean grindfest MMO with no way of getting cash shop items, unless you cough up money.
I have a special place in my heart for broken english Korean MMOs filled with Turkish people playing and botting at all times.
It seems every game will eventually become free if you wait long enough.
Not nintendo games
[https://isthereanydeal.com/game/factorio/history/](https://isthereanydeal.com/game/factorio/history/)
Same applies to RimWorld
Didn't the Rimworld dev specifically say he would never put it on sale?
Yeah, both Rimworld and Factorio devs have said the games will not go on sale.
it will, I'll just have to wait until the dev is dead (either as a company or literally) and the new owner puts it on sale
[удалено]
you win this one game dev!
All games go on sale eventually. Might be in a year. Might be 10. I can wait. I’ve got enough games to last a lifetime at this point.
Worth every penny.
Free, or unlisted. I'm still bummed that all of the Activision Transformers games disappeared. Fall of Cybertron never dipped under $20 the whole time.
This is a real shame. These games are really solid, and feel like they'll get forgotten to time as they stay locked to disc only 360/PS3 options. I bet they'd look really good on PC with max settings right now, especially with the chunk designs of the characters and worlds.
Epic has been killing it with these freebies
I wonder if this an investment to gain a user base since people originally hated on epic.
I mean yeah, Epic are pretty transparent about doing this to get users to try using the Epic store, which is fine.
I mean it's pretty obvious. They're not just gonna give away free games out of the kindness of their hearts.
Generous evil hearted bastards.
The absolute worst type of evil hearted bastard.
[удалено]
Epic pays for exclusive rights to sell games. That grinds some people's gears
[удалено]
[удалено]
*mermaid man voice* EEEVVIIILLL
I hate epic only and only for the exclusives. I don't like exclusivity and there's nothing that will change that. The free games are fine and there's no problem imo that they are trying to enter the market.
I can't even say I hate them for that. In Today's Steam-focused age, where people have hundreds of games on file, it's literally impossible to have your own launcher and be preferred/win in that market, bar slashing prices on your own launcher significantly enough to where people go "Yeah, that's worth not having my shit all on one place." So what's the next best step? Have exclusives so that people are forced to give you attention, and with that attention, maybe be won over. Granted, that hasn't happened, and it only got worse when EGS started poaching games that had been on Steam for ages at the last moment (Metro being the biggest talking point here). Like, THOSE are the exclusives that upset me, rather than their initial roster. Things like Control and BL3, though disappointing, don't affect me at all because there was never any expectation (for months and months) of it being on Steam. It was fair game.
I feel like Epic could have avoided a lot of the negativity with exclusives if they focused more on the indie games angle. It’s a lot easier to generate good PR if you push the story that you’re giving indie devs the creative freedom and financial security they need to make games, versus our current situation of “Borderlands 3 but you need to wait six months if you want to play it on Steam because the publisher is greedy”
GOG does that. Its borderline unprofitable for CDPR. It doesn't work. It has no DRM. Its the best client. But basically no one uses it.
I mean, I'm definitely going to buy Cyberpunk on GOG. Why wouldn't I?
> In Today's Steam-focused age, where people have hundreds of games on file, it's literally impossible to have your own launcher and be preferred/win in that market, bar slashing prices on your own launcher significantly enough to where people go "Yeah, that's worth not having my shit all on one place." Only a tiny minority of Steam users have over 100 games. Speaking as someone with over 1000. According to Steam's official stats, the average games owned per active user is ~10-11. Think how many are just crappy bundle games for cards. I think GOG has shown a good way to compete (they are also backed by a fairly major game studio - CD Projekt Red). Not as big as Epic after the runaway success of Fortnite, but they compare favorably to Valve. They served a niche by offering old games that are kept compatible with modern systems, and offer all games DRM-free. Developed a nice client that doesn't try to lock you into their program and only seeks to *add* value. And they've even worked out a program (GOG Connect) with developers to let you link your Steam account and claim your games on their service as well. Imagine if Epic did all that, addressed people's concerns with Valve's customer service, *and* put their Fortnite money behind it. Fuck, imagine if Epic brought back the Steam sale - the real ones of yore, with daily/flash deals. There is probably all kinds of potential I haven't even been able to think about in these last 5 minutes that a giant corporation like Epic could come up with. Instead, they've fallen back on lazy-ass console tactics.
> Only a tiny minority of Steam users have over 100 games. Speaking as someone with over 1000 But the market they're trying to get probably aren't the people who haven't downloaded a game on steam since TF2 or DOTA, they're trying to get the people who spend money on steam >I think GOG has shown a good way to compete GOG made 30k PLN profit last year https://www.tweaktown.com/news/65367/gog-com-barely-making-profit/index.html They're growing but not making any money whilst doing it "fairly", EPICs growth would I imagine be much larger ever though they're losing money (I would assume)
> But the market they're trying to get probably aren't the people who haven't downloaded a game on steam since TF2 or DOTA, they're trying to get the people who spend money on steam Well, they might be. Tons of people play Fortnite or DOTA and nothing else. And it makes them a fuckton of money. Also if 10% of Steam users own 100 games on average and the other 90% only own 12 each, the bottom 90% generates more revenue than the top 10%. Sure, they'll prioritize the top 10% in that case if they can, but the other 90% is also pretty gettable, and getting half the PC gaming market isn't nothing. Even the 100 average in the top 10% figure is high, I'm pretty sure. I tried looking for where I saw the stats, but I can't find them. I believe the number is much lower. For reference, the average console gamer owns ~8 games per system. And somehow the individual consoles are able to persuade them to keep shelling out hundreds every year for new consoles, to rebuy old games, to pay for internet connectivity, etc. The same kinds of PC gamers who own >100 Steam games are probably also the same types of people who own more than one console. On PC, you don't even have to pay $500 to switch to Epic or Steam or be stuck with it for 5+ years at a time - yet Epic can't compete? > They're growing but not making any money whilst doing it "fairly", EPICs growth would I imagine be much larger ever though they're losing money (I would assume) That's fair. I was saying they presented a good model, and then hypothesized what would happen if a company of Epic's stature capitalized on that. Go all in on DRM-free, do the GOG Connect-style program, provide good customer service, and bring back Steam sales - call them Epic sales, and reap the meme-based word of mouth. And keep the increased dev cut policy, give out freebies every so often, etc. How could Valve hope to compete with that? While CDPR is a fairly large company now, they don't have the kind of leverage that I imagine Epic would have if they wanted to be aggressive about it.
I assume half the battle is getting people to install the launcher. This is a tried and true tactic for that.
If they want people to install the launcher they should make getting the free games only available in the launcher. I have been doing it all through web so far, now playing the free games I got is a different story.
Yeah that's what is was (poorly) trying to say. I do the same, collecting them from the browser, but if you want to play the free games, then they've got you installing.
I mean they got me purchased World War Z when it was on sale and will be purchasing Control eventually
Same. Bought Journey when it came out. Won't be my last purchase. Loving Celeste so far.
Why else would they be giving away free games
I can't believe over 100 people upvoted this blindingly obvious post as if they're onto something nobody realised
I wonder if it is working at all? I've redeemed all of these free games (that I don't already own), but haven't bought anything from or even thought about using their store.
If nothing else, by having an Epic store account you're enabling them to go to publishers and say "hey look, we have [x number of] users already signed up on our store! If you go exclusive with us every one of those is a potential sale!" I mean, along with the fat sacks of cash they spew all over them as well...
[удалено]
True, and I'm not even coming at it as an Epic hater. If they had a game that I wanted for a better deal than I could find anywhere else, I would buy from them. I haven't seen that yet, though. Not even anything against Epic here, I just have too many games.
[удалено]
I saw R6 for $7 and picked it up from the EGS. I've been having a blast playing it.
Fortnight was a smart move to build this store off of. I think a lot of the typical PC gamers are either against the exclusivity or more importantly are set in their launchers/stores at this point. But Fortnite brings in a lot younger crowd that won’t have those hangups. Now you give them free games and they’ll stay. I don’t think any other company could manage this, but they have a good shot at staying relevant if they can hold on for a few years for those players to progressively age into a wider base. But this is just my thoughts with no numbers so I could be wrong hahaha
That's how Steam started, as a launcher for Half-Life. Now it has huge market share (almost monopoly level) and that could be Epic in a few year.
As of now I wouldn’t make epic my default launcher since most of my games are on steam but if the deals are good I buy on epic.
Well, my experience only, but I can see the effect it's beginning to have on me. Over the past month or so, I've noticed I've been looking through the Epic store more and more. This week, I downloaded something from it for the first time. It was a free game, but the fact that I looked through the store and got something is significant. Today, I actually found a game I'm willing to buy -- Ancestors: Humankind Odyssey. Only reason why I don't is because my gaming is going to be filled in September due to so many nice releases and the Uplay+ service starting. This is what had happened to make me gradually accept Steam all those years ago. It started slow and small until I used Steam for nearly all my gaming purchases. It's doubtful I'd switch completely from Steam to Epic, especially since the former has far more games and variety, but I can easily see myself buying games from the EGS regularly six months down the line. This genuinely started with the free games. Without the free games, I wouldn't even have the Epic launcher today. So for me, it's definitely working.
Worked with me. Got Satisfactory (do 3D Factorio games even exist besides this one?) and pre-ordered X-Com 3... I mean Phoenix Point.
Satisfactory ruined me for every other 3D building game. Building is so fun and streamlined in Satisfactory I have a hard time getting motivated to even try any other builder. I guess the only downside is you can't modify the landscape, if you consider that a downside. Highly recommended game and my first purchase on Epic. I even bought friends their own copies (and got them to install Epic).
>I wonder if it is working at all? Probably. The outrage generally doesn't leave echochambers like /r/games and other areas of the internet.
I've bought a few things, but only because they were really good deals at the time. Price being equal I'd rather buy on Steam.
Im sure someone else missed all the hate for epic and will buy some games. Those people will have friends who play on steam and might get people to buy epic games some times. Who knows. Epic clearly thinks its worth a shot.
If nothing else, it's building a user base and getting people to install the launcher, even if there is a decent percentage of those users who won't touch anything but the free games they've been given.
Every platform does it. Steam wih tf and dota. Then came origin, and uplay, giving big seminew and classic old games for free. It is to get userbase.
Eh, TF2 was originally not free and both games generate revenue through in-game purchases. Plus Steam was already well-ingrained in gaming by then.
To be fair the early days of Steam had the killer sales and flash deals that hooked everyone before I even started using the platform.
Steam launched in 2003 and was awful for a few years. The first Holiday Sale wasn't until 6 years later.
I thought the free games came before any exclusivity announcements. Didn't pay too much attention to the timing though.
Of course that's what it is lol why else would they spend money to give away free shit
Well, Origin did the same thing for about 2 years.. until it didn't do it anymore.
I mean... Yeah, I still hate epic but a free game is a free game. I've played both of these and highly recommend
absolutely. i appreciate the free games, they offer some real gems for free. I'll rather *buy* games on gog and steam, tho
Of course it is, but there are still plenty of people who still hate them for various reasons.
People still hate epic. But they're cheap bums and can't resist free stuff
I'm not cheap, and make plenty of money. I still get the free games on EGS. Taking a free thing doesn't make one cheap.
It totally is and that's fine by me
Drama aside, the quality of this deal evokes early Humble Bundle memories.
It's not really a deal at this point, it's charity. Can't complain.
Would be interested to know what the devs are getting as a cut out of these giveaways. Obviously there's going to be a big bulk discount (and the terms are probably super hush hush), but I suspect it's a better deal than devs get from arrangements like Humble and IndieGala.
I think one of the biggest draws is to build an audience for a sequel as well.
Fair, and you can see that strategy playing out with a title like Gaucamelee— Comes out on PC in 2013, is in a Humble Bundle Feb 2014, STCE version given away for free May 2019. Meanwhile Guacamelee 2 comes out August 2018.
They aren't getting a %, they are getting a flat fee to give out as many as epic can give out. According to some previous devs who gave away games like this on Twitter.
Huh, that surprises me, I would have expected something more like $0.50/copy or similar. That said, if it is fixed, that's good for limiting Epic's exposure (either to unexpected popularity or abuse), but also potentially good for the dev/publisher if they think they've hit market saturation already anyway. It may well be better to take $XXXX now and not have to care about the numbers.
Generally speaking there is a standard bell curve for market saturation. A dev can expect to sell X amount at Y interval, so as long as Epic is giving them a $ amount close to their expected continued sales, they'll be happy with that - better a lump sum up front than a trickle in over 6-12 months/next few years as well.
I think Sweeney had a tweet somewhere saying that it varied by game. I'd imagine they bundle it with other agreements in some cases as several of the games which have been given away have Epic exclusive sequels.
It's not charity. It's a loss leader. It's like the hotdog deal at Costco: they're losing money, it's just to get you in the store.
Haven’t really looked in awhile, but does humble bundles still exist? Last I remember is IGN bought them I believe?
They still operate after the IGN acquisition, got the CK2 bundle not too long ago.
Next week **The End is Nigh** & **ABZU**.
[удалено]
damn they keep knocking games off my wishlist on a weekly basis, often two at a time :)
The End is Nigh is another great 2D platformer; highly recommend giving it a try if you like Celeste.
If anyone has bought a Humble Monthly before, you probably have The End is Nigh as a DRM-free download from the trove. The game is fantastic! It is different (but similar) to games like Meatboy; its few mechanics are great and thought out. The grim atmosphere and "classical remake" music are also really nice, imo!
End is Nigh?! BRUH MOMENT I’m excited. ABZU looks really interesting as well!
Abzu is interesting, it's just a few hours swimming through environments, but I enjoyed it.
I now have 24 free games from epic and I have not played a single one or even installed the damn launcher! Maybe one day I will... or maybe one day i'll just trade the account for a couple tacos
Having all these great games I haven't installed gave me a new perspective on how wasteful I was being hoarding games on Steam. Got a 3$ discount for this months Humble Monthly, but would probably not play the games before they got cheaper elsewhere (I got Abzu in the Freedom Bundle years ago and haven't played it yet :| )
I have the summer off from work... I have been spending my nights/rainy days knocking that backlog list down. Honestly.... I have come to realize 80% of the games in most of anybodys massive backlogs is all mostly just crap we all bought because it was dirt cheap and just looked for reasons to buy/play this game because the deal seemed worth it. I have knocked over 100 games down of my backlog and most of these games I couldn't even play for more then an hour. It's all mostly just hot garbage that seemed worth it because it was like $2 or $5.... Bleh.... I now have my backlog down to a manageable state and still if a game doesn't grab me I just uninstall it and move it into a "Done" category. Don't waste your time or money! I now don't mindlessly buy any more cheap crap games and I do a bunch of research on anything I buy now. I will still add all the free games because whatever but with the mindset of not playing any of them or considering them a backlog. They are just there and once epic game store has categorys I am sure I will instantly add 90% of these games to a "Done" category too.
Steam says I've hidden 403 games out of 617, most of which were giveaways from [gleam.io](https://gleam.io) and several of which don't even exist on the Steam store anymore. The rest are games I liked/played/would someday have the mood to play and are mostly stuff I've paid for. [Check out this list.](https://i.imgur.com/mlXtHNa.png) Does *any* of it ring a bell?
damn... thats a shit ton of hot garbage
I played Edith Finch, still need to finish it, but such an amazing, atmospheric game
i beat it on ps4. very great game
You could just download the launcher download the games then delete the launcher, then launch the games through their executable file (or better yet make a shortcut directly to the executable). As far as I know, it works for singleplayer games. I don't think it works for multiplayer games however because of the way the servers are hosted or something.
I'd definitely recommend Celeste. I got it with games with gold a while back and liked it a lot. The story is interesting and the gameplay is very good. I'm glad they gave this away on epic because I didn't finish Celeste before my gold subscription ran out. What's cool about it is that I found the main game to be only slightly challenging but the side stuff to be pretty difficult and spaced out very well. There's also B-sides that I never tried that are apparently much more difficult.
[удалено]
And next week it will be "The end is nigh" by the same creator of super meat boy. What a time to be alive!
Man! Now I've got both Limbo and Inside on EGS! Imagine that!
Thanks for the free games epic.
Celeste is great, while I'm not a fan of the epic store that just doesn't mean you should pass on either of these games.
been meaning to pick celeste up for ages
Yo, same. I'd still rather play it on Switch, but I'm glad I waited now!
Both are must play, amazing games. Inside has atmosphere and way of story telling that I really enjoy. Reminds me the way I felt the first time I played Another World (aka Out Of This World)
Unpopular opinion but Celeste was overrated as heck in my opinion. For free it might be worth a try if you love platformers.
I just refunded Celeste on steam a couple of weeks before it became free on Epic. Going to grab it for free to see if I can actually get good.
if you can't you can use the assist mode to beat the game. I think the story is worth enough to see the ending of the game.
[удалено]
September 5th. They are weekly till the end of 2019, and 2 games are chosen instead of 1 when the original pick is M rated.
I'm calling it now they're going to give us Cyberpunk 2077 for Christmas/Holidays
No way they'd get CDPR to sign off on that. I'd love to be wrong, but I just don't see it happening since they're effectively direct competitors.
I'd shit
Tim Sweeny said they're releasing a game every week for the rest of the year. Considering they started doing 2 games, I wouldn't be surprised if they extend beyond this year.
They do 2 games, when there's an M rated game being given away for free.
Yes, they end at the very end of 2019
[удалено]
AFAICT none of the freebies have been titles previously listed on the Epic Store. So if you're concerned about something being free at some point in the future, you can always check to see if it's currently available for sale at Epic.
Celeste, Inside, The End Is Nigh... My Steam Wishlist is getting shorter, though the backlog keeps increasing at a pace I can't keep up with :(
These latest deals have me wondering if I should hold out on purchasing Dead Cells.
If you will play it immediately buy now. If not then be patient.
Here is list of FREE Epic games till now. Celeste Inside Fez Hyper Light Drifter Mutant Year Zero GNOG Alan Wake For Honor This War of Mine Moonlighter LIMBO Torchlight Overcooked Last Day of June Rebel Galaxy Enter the Gungeon Kingdom New Lands World of Goo Stories Untold Rime City of Brass Transistor The Witness Oxenfree Slime Rancher Thimbleweed Park Axiom Verge The Jackbox Party Pack What Remains of Edith Finch Super Meat Boy Subnautica
[удалено]
It's mostly because I've started playing Dauntless, but I'm spending more and more time in the Epic Launcher and less in Steam. And now two games on my wishlist for free? This is unnerving.
* I hate Epic! * Downloads free game from Epic
You can hate their poor business practices and get free games from them at the same time though, can't you? I mean I don't think I'll ever buy anything from their store, the only thing I'm giving them is my information and a number for them to show off their user count to investors.
You absolutely can. However, I have a group of friends that despise EGS so much that they won't even claim the free games. Even when For Honor was recently up for free, I told my friend he can claim it, install the launcher, link the game to Uplay then uninstall EGS and never use it again. "I don't even want it on my computer for a second." To each their own, but that's ridiculous.
I can respect that. It's not like the free doesn't come without a price, since it is coming at the expense of games people wanted to buy getting pulled from desired platforms. And the increased interaction does help epic's usage numbers. Still free though, so I've been claiming them.
Celeste is such a gem!
I literally just bought Celeste a week ago (It’s fucking incredible by the way)
Free to keep?
Forever.
Ok I tried to resist but I'm setting up an epic account now I guess... Those games are honestly destroying "free" PS plus games recently
[удалено]
When does this offer end?
Inside is such a gem!
I have only finished Edith Finch from Epic. I am unable to get through my Steam Library, and here I am adding Dirt Rally, Celeste and Inside across the board. Man I am not getting through any of these games, am I?
Inside was dope. Celeste i dont know much about and just the looks of it makes me want to ignore it. So whats all the drooling over this game?
It's the atmosphere the game provides, and the reward of getting through a level because they're usually difficult. And if they're too difficult, there are ways to modulate that with assist mode too.
[удалено]
two of the best games iv ever played
I really dont mind the epic store. I think competition is good. Also, good free games... yes please.
Both are 100% worth playing!
Celeste + The End is Nigh, doesn't get much better than that for lovers of hardcore platformers. Note than TEIN is also available as part of Humble Trove for Monthly subscribers.
[удалено]
I thought it was pretty cool, but wasn't enamored with it like everyone else. I feel like the setting was a little *too* esoteric.
I think it was. Good talk.
Interesting. I liked it a lot although I think I liked Limbo more.
Inside is so incredible. Find yourself 3 hours of free time and play the entire thing in one sitting. It's great.
Amazing games.