Steam had a sale...

So Steam had a big ol' summer sale.  Most of it didn't interest me but my inner 5 year old couldn't help but keep tabs on it. 

Ok so I heard Test Drive Unlimited 2 was a disaster but at 10 bucks it's worth a try.

So with great indifference I pulled the trigger.  The verdict...

It's a disaster.

If you played the first game you'll get up to speed pretty quickly.  It's the same game just on a different island. 

The car control is maybe 10% better but the "ambiance" is 100% worse and intrusive.  If you're going to force me to engage in the "lifestyle" aspects of the game at least get some decent voice actors and give me something interesting to look at.  The graphics don't appear to have improved from the first game so no saving grace there.  All the characters in the game look like animated barbie dolls with one too many botox injections.  I guess flailing arms and bobbing heads are supposed to add to the realism.  To me they all look like they're having some sort of fit. 

Oh, did I mention that the game crashed twice on me within 30 minutes of playing it?  Even Shift 2 couldn't do that...

I heard there was a strike by 50% of the employees of developer, Eden Games in May.  To my mind the other 50% should have went with them and just kept walking.  I just feel fortunate that this thing didn't cost me more than a 12 pack of my favorite brew.  The only real fun I had was harassing the other online players by ramming them with my in-game 67 Mustang.  The other players had some nice cars too which tells me one of two things.  They invested too much money and time into this game and deserve the abuse or they cheated and similarly deserve the abuse.  Either way, they get abused till I get my $10 worth.

Steam had some other goodies come up that I'm happier with, however.  I picked up Portal 2 and And Fallout New Vegas with 2 DLC packs all for about 50 bucks total.  That's what Atari wanted for TDU2 when it came out in February, boy would I have been ticked off..

I haven't had a chance to install Fallout:New Vegas but I look forward to it.  I enjoyed Fallout 3 and the premise of the followup seems tailor made for the franchise. I look forward to it.

I DID install Portal 2 and started the single player campaign last weekend.  I'm enjoying it so far.  I just hope I don't have to "cheat" on it with youtube too early on in the game.  The aura of decay that permeates the game and the brilliant voice acting makes the game engrossing.  I had to stop more than once while playing because of uncontrollable laughter at a perfectly timed one-liner.  Portal 2 has taken an original idea and made it better.  They know how to do ambiance as well.  You can't help but get invested in the story when the environment can determine your success instead of just being a backdrop.  TDU2's ambiance in comparison is much like those pop-up story books with the BIG LETTERS.

Co-op in Portal 2 (you know how I feel about co-op) is EXCELLENT  as well.  It brings in all the aspects of the single player game but goes in a completely different direction.  This gives whole new meaning to co-op gameplay that goes beyond scoring or skill points.  If you don't work together you don't get anywhere.  Although just standing there can be entertaining in itself.

So I've got 1 miss, 1 hit and 1 maybe out of the Steam Sale.  Not a bad average considering I paid maybe 1/4 of the price that I would have had I bought all 3 at full price.