The beta is really robust and goddamn sexy looking now, but the game is so deep I'm gonna have to break down and read the manual. There's just so much to do in that game that jumping in blind really gets me in over my head.
The beta is really robust and goddamn sexy looking now, but the game is so deep I'm gonna have to break down and read the manual. There's just so much to do in that game that jumping in blind really gets me in over my head.
I haven't actually done the beta much (crashes yay) but I read some complaints that they're releasing the game before it's really had the usual Phase 4 balancing/AI because it's a choice between releasing NOW or releasing in February because they can't get retail space in the months in between.
So keep in mind, you are basically getting the (supposedly much stabler) beta now while they continue polishing it up.
I haven't actually done the beta much (crashes yay) but I read some complaints that they're releasing the game before it's really had the usual Phase 4 balancing/AI because it's a choice between releasing NOW or releasing in February because they can't get retail space in the months in between.
So keep in mind, you are basically getting the (supposedly much stabler) beta now while they continue polishing it up.
My understanding is that they were actually on a phase 5 beta internally at the point that it went gold. We'll see I guess.
So I know I'll probably get reamed for saying this but...
I remember first hearing about this quite some time ago and remember seeing the first screenshots and thinking to myself that those were some of the worst graphics I'd seen in a long time for a video game from a non-indie developer.
Then I told myself I would stop reading about the game until it was close to release so that 1. I could sort of forget about it and then it wouldn't feel like a million years before it was released, and 2. I didn't want to see/hear about too many spoilers. But today, I broke my rule and happened to take a look at some screenshots on their site today. Imagine my surprise when I see that the game still looks as shitty as ever. And yes I know, I know, with these games it's not about the graphics, but my God, it's like they left the artwork to a two year old. It's terrible. Almost like they went out of their way to make them look that bad.
I still have high hopes for the game itself, but I'm surprised no one is really bringing up the topic (or maybe they are, but since I'm trying not to read too much about it before release, I just haven't come across it?).
datac0re, I don't think the game's going to win any beauty pageants. Hopefully it will look better in motion than the stills we've seen from the betas.
There are lots of updated (and commented) screenshots on the blog. They look a little better, although these first shots of tactical combat are nothing to write home about in the looks department.
All will be forgiven, though, if the gameplay is tight.
So, I've been playing the beta for awhile. Beta 4 is actually a pretty decent game - though I haven't played with any of the modding tools at all, yet.
Whatch'all wanna know?
Early-game, gold production is absolutely key, because adventurers are tough units but take quite a bit of gold to buy.
Spells from a spell-focused main character are not quite insta-win again most low-level enemies, but it's close (and fits the lore). Plus, depending on your character spec, you lose out on some nice bonuses by not leaving your main character at home.
The dynasty function / family tree reminds me a lot of Total War, but without the rampant homosexuality that always seems to afflict my heirs in that series.
Unit creation is very GalCiv / Alpha Centauri, which I really, really like.
Research is done in 5 broad areas, and you pick a breakthrough each time you advance a level in an area, and subsequent breakthroughs get more expensive. So, going from Rank 0 to Rank 1 will cost you 10 turns of research (par example), and you can pick from Farming, Mining, or Housing. Let's say you pick Farming. Going from Rank 1 to Rank 2 will cost you 12 turns of research, and now you can pick Mining, Housing, Better Farms, or Animal Raising. Etc. This makes selecting the right stuff for what you want to do in your kingdom / empire important, because early techs don't get cheaper as the game goes on (unlike Civ, where you can eventually back-fill for pretty cheap).
Various [semi-]permanent enchants are fun - two early ones grant the caster +2 Attack and +2 Defense, which are a pretty big deal in the early game.
Otherwise, it plays a lot like a mashup of GalCiv and Civiliation on a fantasy world with Master of Magic battles.
Oh - in my latest game, a "minor race" had a city next to me: Snathi, ruled by a huge drake (combat rating ... 157?). In comparison, an early-game small army has a combat rating of around 20. Making nice to the dragon so he didn't come eat my civ was good, plus he didn't know how to make "materials" (a generic unit of "building stuff") so I could trade them to him in exchange for sizeable portions of his hoard, which made recruiting other heroes much easier.
EDIT: I've never really made it into the middle or late games, because in earlier betas I'd run into a bug which would mess things up, and in later betas I've been restarting a lot (and, honestly, distracted by other games).
How does GalCiv/AC unit creation work in a fantasy game?
Slots.
Each character has hands, a head, a back, etc. In this respect, it leans more towards AC (weapon, power source, armor, spec1, spec2, IIRC) than GalCiv (whatever you want, wherever you want it, maximum space limitation).
In my current game, I haven't gone very far down the equipment tech tree (recently restarted, again, again, again), so these are pretty early examples, but I can pick from (Item: Bonus; Cost):
Weapons:
Gnarled Club: +2 Att; 2 G, 1 Mat
Staff: +3 Att, +0.25 Attack Speed; 4G, 1 Mat
Axe: +10 Att; 10G, 1 Mat, 1 Metal
Oak Spear: +5 Att; 5 G, 2 Mat
Dagger: +4 Att; 4 G, 1 Mat, 1 Metal
Armor:
Soldier's Cloak: +2 Def; 10 G, 10 Mat
Equipment:
Scout's Cloak: +0.25 Attack Speed, +1 LOS; 25 G
Pioneer Pack: Create Settlement; 10 G, 5 Turns
Scout's Pack: +1 Def, 0.25 Attack Speed; 25 G
Messenger's Pack: +1 LOS, +0.25 Attack Speed; 25 G
Medical Pack: +5 Health, +1 Regen; 25 G
Ranger's Pack: +1 Move, +1 LOS; 25 G
So, I can equip a unit with a Soldier's Cloak, but then it can't wear a Scout's Cloak - same slot. Packs, however, are freely-assignable accessories. You could, if you wanted, create a unit who is a medic who can found cities - or a Messenger-Ranger with a Scout's Cloak for someone who can really book it and see what's ahead.
So, if I were to make a total defensive badass at my current tech level, I'd start out withthe base soldier and add:
Gnarled Club: +2 Att; 2 G, 1 Mat
Soldier's Cloak: +2 Def; 10 G, 10 Mat
Scout's Pack: +1 Def, 0.25 Attack Speed; 25 G
He'd end up with 2 Att, 3 Def, and a bonus to his attack speed. Training one would cost me 37 G and 11 Materials. This, of course, isn't all that much power, but in Civ terms I'm still working on mining.
Eventually, you learn things like making armor (which has chest, arm, hand, upper leg, and lower leg parts) that you can mix-and-match (Chain torso armor with padded gloves to save on cost plus Scout Boots for extra speed).
EDIT: Ooh - forgot to mention. You can also park any of your adventurer henchmen in a town and choose the "Go Shoppin'" button, which lets them buy things that you could otherwise equip your soldiers with. So, if I had the money (I don't, at the moment), I could have all my adventurers (including my main sovereign character) run into town and buy Soldier cloaks to improve their defences or better weapons or whatnot. I think it costs extra gold in lieu of materials that way, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
Thanks for the update. It looks like it has a ton of replay value from your description (I loved the old MoM because of that). I guess what I want to know most aren't so much mechanics but of quality.
How is the polish on this and are there any either bugs or serious design flaws that really hinder this game?
I'm really interested in this, but with the new Civ coming out, I really don't think I can budget both time and money for 2 different 4 x games :P
How is the polish on this and are there any either bugs or serious design flaws that really hinder this game?
Well, everything I've played so far has very, very clearly stated that it's a Beta, and since the real polishing wasn't done until Beta 5 (which was internal), there's still bugs and other assorted stuff like that in my version (like, occasionally, the name bars on my cities will flip to someone else's; they're still mine and they still work fine, it's just that my capital undergoes a crisis of identity and starts calling itself Mayonne instead of Corvis, or what-have-you; it usually resolves itself whenever the city finishes its next upgrade, or when I reload, so ...).
Nothing makes me look at the game and say, "Seriously, why would you do it that way?" - except maybe some better sorting options in the various creation / equipping screen (e.g., sort by attack power, gold cost, materials cost, etc.).
Just like in [Gal]Civ, tile-resources are really, really important. Gold resources may be too important in the early game, because it's otherwise somewhat difficult to make money, and a lot of stuff requires money to build.
I like zooming out to the cloth map to check things out - it's a nice touch that's reminiscent of the GalCiv zoom-out and the various overlays that mods have added to CIV.
EDIT: I'd also say that my various restarts have been less, "Oooh! There's so much to do!" and more "Hey - they fixed / added / changed something important; time to restart!"
More Dwarf Fortress-style restarting; less Baldur's Gate-style restarting.
Which is not to say that the final game won't have enough interesting and varied approaches and differentiation between teams - GalCiv certainly delivers on that front, if aught else - but I haven't really formed my own opinion on that based on what I've seen.
Oh damn, this is coming next week already? Wasn't quite expecting that. I loved Master of Magic, not sure if this will live up, but eh... I'm willing to try it.
I can't believe this comes out in three days. I ordered it with release date delivery so I'll have it right on Tuesday, sometime in the evening. We need to jump right into campaign multiplayer. Would anyone be up for that?
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
I can't believe this comes out in three days. I ordered it with release date delivery so I'll have it right on Tuesday, sometime in the evening. We need to jump right into campaign multiplayer. Would anyone be up for that?
Maybe Wednesday. I usually try to play at least a little singleplayer so I'm not totally lost.
Trotted out the last beta version to muck around in anticipation. A lucky start position saw me rapidly rise to control an Empire of nearly a thousand souls, and my well-trained Knights of Blood, well-armored and armed, patrolled my northern and southern borders to keep my poorly-equipped neighbors from having any funny ideas. My sovereign, an armored behemoth wielding a Demon Blade and riding a giant black wolf, roamed the wilds with a band of summoned monstrosities foraging for ancient power and making diplomatic entreaties* to minor civilizations. Ultimately, Avarak the Unmaker met the only foe that was able to stop him, a nefarious creature native to the betas: the Memory Leak.
*i would like to trade ONE FIREBALL THE SIZE OF YOUR CITY for THE BONES OF YOUR CHILDREN
weird. It says it updated yesterday, and I can't see a way to force it to update again, but when I try to open the game it warns of a major update being available.
weird. It says it updated yesterday, and I can't see a way to force it to update again, but when I try to open the game it warns of a major update being available.
There was an update available yesterday but your CD key was inactive so you couldn't use it and then they removed it.
I've been trying to play the beta for a bit to get myself pumped but I'm suffering the memory leak that just gives me an out of memory error after like 40 turns. But they say thats fixed in retail so no biggie.
I'm digging the look they went with so hard my shovel is about to break. And my shovel is made of kitten bone and menaces with spikes of wool. It is a solid shovel, not to be mistaken for one of those sissy shovels sold at lawn and garden stores.
Sure the wastelands look every bit as brown as the environment of any other modern title worth its salt, but seeing the sprawling little civ towns grow over the land as you revive it is so keen.
Tile based construction makes a town growing out of the wilderness look like an honest to goodness accomplishment.
I love it. I adore it.
Right down to the little button nose on my unborn mutant grand daughter's likely to be horribly disfigured face, courtesy of an ill-fated union with a Trog.
Well, get ready to play tomorrow! Here is a post from Brad from the elemental forums:
Possible Broken Street Date
By Frogboy Posted August 21, 2010 9:12:16 PM
We are getting reports that the street date for Elemental has been broken. This is one of the downsides of being an indie, we lack sufficient retail clout to get retailers to take our street dates seriously apparently (same thing happened for Demigod).
As a result, we plan to make Elemental available to beta testers TOMORROW (Sunday) as well to pre-order customers ASAP (either tomorrow or first thing Monday).
However, because I have to re-task the IT team to do this, I'm going to have to have us delay the multiplayer server availability until later this week - Tuesday - the original release date - or Wednesday in all likelihood). It won't affect the single player, campaign, or modding.
____
In later posts they stated that pre-orders who weren't in the beta would get the game by 'mid-day', as long as you ordered before they processed them. People from the beta should be getting it 'early' tomorrow.
Well, get ready to play tomorrow! Here is a post from Brad from the elemental forums:
Possible Broken Street Date
By Frogboy Posted August 21, 2010 9:12:16 PM
We are getting reports that the street date for Elemental has been broken. This is one of the downsides of being an indie, we lack sufficient retail clout to get retailers to take our street dates seriously apparently (same thing happened for Demigod).
As a result, we plan to make Elemental available to beta testers TOMORROW (Sunday) as well to pre-order customers ASAP (either tomorrow or first thing Monday).
However, because I have to re-task the IT team to do this, I'm going to have to have us delay the multiplayer server availability until later this week - Tuesday - the original release date - or Wednesday in all likelihood). It won't affect the single player, campaign, or modding.
I wonder if I should cancel my Amazon pre-order and just order it off Impulse then to get it early.
____
In later posts they stated that pre-orders who weren't in the beta would get the game by 'mid-day', as long as you ordered before they processed them. People from the beta should be getting it 'early' tomorrow.
Edit: Whoops, I quoted but forgot to enter text!
I wonder if I should cancel my Amazon pre-order and get it off Impulse then. :P
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
I decided I'm impatient and pre-ordered it off Impulse (Digital + Boxed Edition, fuck yeah), although I had to send a support ticket off to Stardock for a slight issue. I switched my account e-mail to a newer one recently, and it went through fine. When I ordered Elemental, however, it displayed my old e-mail address as the account at the top of the screen and on the order summary. It sent the receipt to the old e-mail, as well. I'm a little worried, but hopefully Stardock will get back to me and correct this issue.
I don't see the game on the My Games list, though. When I pre-ordered Sins of a Solar Empire, I could have sworn it showed up in the list before release, but you obviously couldn't do anything with it as the game wasn't out yet, similar to pre-ordering a game on Steam.
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
Posts
That's what I like to hear.
Gamespot has it releasing this week, but the "approximate" date on Stardock's Elemental page still says Aug. 24. Still says 8/24 on Amazon too.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
So keep in mind, you are basically getting the (supposedly much stabler) beta now while they continue polishing it up.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
My understanding is that they were actually on a phase 5 beta internally at the point that it went gold. We'll see I guess.
I am a freaking nerd.
I remember first hearing about this quite some time ago and remember seeing the first screenshots and thinking to myself that those were some of the worst graphics I'd seen in a long time for a video game from a non-indie developer.
Then I told myself I would stop reading about the game until it was close to release so that 1. I could sort of forget about it and then it wouldn't feel like a million years before it was released, and 2. I didn't want to see/hear about too many spoilers. But today, I broke my rule and happened to take a look at some screenshots on their site today. Imagine my surprise when I see that the game still looks as shitty as ever. And yes I know, I know, with these games it's not about the graphics, but my God, it's like they left the artwork to a two year old. It's terrible. Almost like they went out of their way to make them look that bad.
I still have high hopes for the game itself, but I'm surprised no one is really bringing up the topic (or maybe they are, but since I'm trying not to read too much about it before release, I just haven't come across it?).
Steam Profile: miserium
Diablo 3 profile: miserium
PA Rocksmith League
There are lots of updated (and commented) screenshots on the blog. They look a little better, although these first shots of tactical combat are nothing to write home about in the looks department.
All will be forgiven, though, if the gameplay is tight.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I am a freaking nerd.
So, I got an email saying that this game is actually going to be released next Tuesday (Aug 24).
I haven't followed it closely in a while. Does anyone have the lowdown on it now? I know that if you pre ordered, you would get in the beta.
Whatch'all wanna know?
Early-game, gold production is absolutely key, because adventurers are tough units but take quite a bit of gold to buy.
Spells from a spell-focused main character are not quite insta-win again most low-level enemies, but it's close (and fits the lore). Plus, depending on your character spec, you lose out on some nice bonuses by not leaving your main character at home.
The dynasty function / family tree reminds me a lot of Total War, but without the rampant homosexuality that always seems to afflict my heirs in that series.
Unit creation is very GalCiv / Alpha Centauri, which I really, really like.
Research is done in 5 broad areas, and you pick a breakthrough each time you advance a level in an area, and subsequent breakthroughs get more expensive. So, going from Rank 0 to Rank 1 will cost you 10 turns of research (par example), and you can pick from Farming, Mining, or Housing. Let's say you pick Farming. Going from Rank 1 to Rank 2 will cost you 12 turns of research, and now you can pick Mining, Housing, Better Farms, or Animal Raising. Etc. This makes selecting the right stuff for what you want to do in your kingdom / empire important, because early techs don't get cheaper as the game goes on (unlike Civ, where you can eventually back-fill for pretty cheap).
Various [semi-]permanent enchants are fun - two early ones grant the caster +2 Attack and +2 Defense, which are a pretty big deal in the early game.
Otherwise, it plays a lot like a mashup of GalCiv and Civiliation on a fantasy world with Master of Magic battles.
Oh - in my latest game, a "minor race" had a city next to me: Snathi, ruled by a huge drake (combat rating ... 157?). In comparison, an early-game small army has a combat rating of around 20. Making nice to the dragon so he didn't come eat my civ was good, plus he didn't know how to make "materials" (a generic unit of "building stuff") so I could trade them to him in exchange for sizeable portions of his hoard, which made recruiting other heroes much easier.
EDIT: I've never really made it into the middle or late games, because in earlier betas I'd run into a bug which would mess things up, and in later betas I've been restarting a lot (and, honestly, distracted by other games).
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Slots.
Each character has hands, a head, a back, etc. In this respect, it leans more towards AC (weapon, power source, armor, spec1, spec2, IIRC) than GalCiv (whatever you want, wherever you want it, maximum space limitation).
In my current game, I haven't gone very far down the equipment tech tree (recently restarted, again, again, again), so these are pretty early examples, but I can pick from (Item: Bonus; Cost):
Weapons:
Armor:
Equipment:
So, I can equip a unit with a Soldier's Cloak, but then it can't wear a Scout's Cloak - same slot. Packs, however, are freely-assignable accessories. You could, if you wanted, create a unit who is a medic who can found cities - or a Messenger-Ranger with a Scout's Cloak for someone who can really book it and see what's ahead.
So, if I were to make a total defensive badass at my current tech level, I'd start out withthe base soldier and add:
He'd end up with 2 Att, 3 Def, and a bonus to his attack speed. Training one would cost me 37 G and 11 Materials. This, of course, isn't all that much power, but in Civ terms I'm still working on mining.
Eventually, you learn things like making armor (which has chest, arm, hand, upper leg, and lower leg parts) that you can mix-and-match (Chain torso armor with padded gloves to save on cost plus Scout Boots for extra speed).
EDIT: Ooh - forgot to mention. You can also park any of your adventurer henchmen in a town and choose the "Go Shoppin'" button, which lets them buy things that you could otherwise equip your soldiers with. So, if I had the money (I don't, at the moment), I could have all my adventurers (including my main sovereign character) run into town and buy Soldier cloaks to improve their defences or better weapons or whatnot. I think it costs extra gold in lieu of materials that way, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
How is the polish on this and are there any either bugs or serious design flaws that really hinder this game?
I'm really interested in this, but with the new Civ coming out, I really don't think I can budget both time and money for 2 different 4 x games :P
Well, everything I've played so far has very, very clearly stated that it's a Beta, and since the real polishing wasn't done until Beta 5 (which was internal), there's still bugs and other assorted stuff like that in my version (like, occasionally, the name bars on my cities will flip to someone else's; they're still mine and they still work fine, it's just that my capital undergoes a crisis of identity and starts calling itself Mayonne instead of Corvis, or what-have-you; it usually resolves itself whenever the city finishes its next upgrade, or when I reload, so ...).
Nothing makes me look at the game and say, "Seriously, why would you do it that way?" - except maybe some better sorting options in the various creation / equipping screen (e.g., sort by attack power, gold cost, materials cost, etc.).
Just like in [Gal]Civ, tile-resources are really, really important. Gold resources may be too important in the early game, because it's otherwise somewhat difficult to make money, and a lot of stuff requires money to build.
I like zooming out to the cloth map to check things out - it's a nice touch that's reminiscent of the GalCiv zoom-out and the various overlays that mods have added to CIV.
EDIT: I'd also say that my various restarts have been less, "Oooh! There's so much to do!" and more "Hey - they fixed / added / changed something important; time to restart!"
More Dwarf Fortress-style restarting; less Baldur's Gate-style restarting.
Which is not to say that the final game won't have enough interesting and varied approaches and differentiation between teams - GalCiv certainly delivers on that front, if aught else - but I haven't really formed my own opinion on that based on what I've seen.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I think Civ will have to wait.
Indeed. Thanks. Especially for...
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
http://forums.elementalgame.com/390900
Maybe Wednesday. I usually try to play at least a little singleplayer so I'm not totally lost.
AND
LP Part 2: http://forums.elementalgame.com/390950
LP Part 3: http://forums.elementalgame.com/391011
*i would like to trade ONE FIREBALL THE SIZE OF YOUR CITY for THE BONES OF YOUR CHILDREN
Christ. I should try the beta some more.
There was an update available yesterday but your CD key was inactive so you couldn't use it and then they removed it.
I've been trying to play the beta for a bit to get myself pumped but I'm suffering the memory leak that just gives me an out of memory error after like 40 turns. But they say thats fixed in retail so no biggie.
caffron said: "and cat pee is not a laughing matter"
Sure the wastelands look every bit as brown as the environment of any other modern title worth its salt, but seeing the sprawling little civ towns grow over the land as you revive it is so keen.
Tile based construction makes a town growing out of the wilderness look like an honest to goodness accomplishment.
I love it. I adore it.
Right down to the little button nose on my unborn mutant grand daughter's likely to be horribly disfigured face, courtesy of an ill-fated union with a Trog.
Possible Broken Street Date
By Frogboy Posted August 21, 2010 9:12:16 PM
We are getting reports that the street date for Elemental has been broken. This is one of the downsides of being an indie, we lack sufficient retail clout to get retailers to take our street dates seriously apparently (same thing happened for Demigod).
As a result, we plan to make Elemental available to beta testers TOMORROW (Sunday) as well to pre-order customers ASAP (either tomorrow or first thing Monday).
However, because I have to re-task the IT team to do this, I'm going to have to have us delay the multiplayer server availability until later this week - Tuesday - the original release date - or Wednesday in all likelihood). It won't affect the single player, campaign, or modding.
____
In later posts they stated that pre-orders who weren't in the beta would get the game by 'mid-day', as long as you ordered before they processed them. People from the beta should be getting it 'early' tomorrow.
Edit: Whoops, I quoted but forgot to enter text!
I wonder if I should cancel my Amazon pre-order and get it off Impulse then. :P
how are thou playing already? beta?
The mockup of proposed town development made with toy blocks is a high point, I think.
Graphics! But hey, why does the game look so weird, anyhow?
How mean is that dragon over yonder, really?
Lets talk about unit production. Also art assets. Be thankful they hired fabulous artistes to replace his designs.
So the official world map is pretty snazzy. The maps can also get pretty big.
What's a Kumquat? Can we eat it?
Beta 3b was pretty cool, I think. Watch this wonderful bastard demonstrate it.
Developers are cute when they're excited.
-Oh hell. With a little bit of updating this post would make a fantastic stolen op. Want to know anything about the game? Here's everything.
I don't see the game on the My Games list, though. When I pre-ordered Sins of a Solar Empire, I could have sworn it showed up in the list before release, but you obviously couldn't do anything with it as the game wasn't out yet, similar to pre-ordering a game on Steam.