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Trash, trash and more trash. That's how I would describe what has been gaining a foothold on Steam over the past year or so. Today it's time to rinse 'Noob Squad' [Steam], an indie FPS that normally costs £0.75.

I'm all for stores being a bit more open, but stuff like this takes the biscuit and then some. It's usually £0.75, but right now it's on sale for £0.37. I know what you're thinking, and I don't expect anything really for that amount of money, but damn this is a game that's actually being sold on Steam.

Their official description of the game on Steam is just full of pictures of random people, rather than actually giving a proper description of the game itself.

I purchased it to see if maybe, just maybe, the developers were acting like children on Steam to be "edgy", but no, the game is just junk. This is the kind of thing I would expect to see fail to gain enough votes even on Greenlight, which is supposed to be Valve's way of weeding out the crap. Valve are utterly failing at any form of quality control. Sadly Greenlight is often abused by developers, giving out free keys for votes, bot voting and so on.

To make it clear: This is not an Early Access game, this is a full and complete game suggesting it should have some level of quality to it.

I'm damn sure the developer simply slapped some low resolution stock Unity assets along with some kind of FPS tutorial and called it a day. It sounds like it even rips kill announcements from Unreal Tournament.

I'm not asking for GOG-level curation here where legitimate indie games get turned down all the time, but at least a little please Valve.

Games like this flooding Steam take away some of the valuable time other new games would usually get in the newly released section, which can be a real problem for other more deserving developers who need the visibility. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Guest Oct 9, 2016
Quoting: ElectricPrism
Quoting: liamdawe
Quoting: GuestDon't buy it?
No shit.

Sarcastic angry or annoyed Liam

Thats normal isn't it :P

Spud13y Oct 9, 2016
Valve isn't going to do anything about this until people start leaving in droves. because of this
QUASAR Oct 9, 2016
Mmm also that map it's from COD 4
rkfg Oct 9, 2016
From my perspective this looks like CS, I don't know why people like it as it feels for me just like this junk. Except this is way cheaper.
Stupendous Man Oct 9, 2016
So why is this game bad? Your article doesn't say...

I went and watched your video of it, and to me it looked like a super cheap shooter, but I didn't spot anything inherently horrible about it - no bugs, the shooting seemed to work etc.
At the price they are asking what is the problem? Sure, you and I would never buy this, but I could easily see some 3rd world kid picking it up who otherwise couldn't afford a 'real' shooter, and actually having fun with it. So where's the harm?
You really can't compare this to a AAA shooter at the price they are asking for it.


Last edited by Stupendous Man on 9 October 2016 at 8:12 am UTC
Gobo Oct 9, 2016
I wouldn't like to rinse out games like this, it's a way for newcomers to set foot and gain first experience. Pick any legendary developer and judge their first releases from about 30 years ago, you'll be amazed at how much crap they shoved out the door until they created something worthwhile.

Maybe some tag to indicate a new developer's maiden product could help, but I think a massive platform like steam should be open enough to allow small and experimental titles, even from inexperienced studios and individuals.

There is junk in almost every store. Yesterday I bought a box of sushi from a supermarket and it contained small wooden sticks. Too blunt to be used as toothpicks, too small to be used as chop sticks. But every single one of them had two thirds of them stuck in a plastic cap and then they were wrapped in a plastic bag in pairs. WTF, I don't want that garbage. But the sushi itself was worth the price. And the quality of the product doesn't hint at the quality of the shop and the other products they offer.
tuubi Oct 9, 2016
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Quoting: meggermanWith the recent Windows games showing bug in Steam i got a glimpse of many new and decent AA / AAA titles I will never have a chance of playing unless I pony up for a console or use Windows.
You'll always have titles you can't play if you stick to a single platform. Sure, Linux has fewer of the big franchises than the others, which is to be expected at this point, but with seventy-odd titles on my wishlist I sure can't complain.
MayeulC Oct 9, 2016
Well, at least it runs.

And it doesn't seem to be a bad game per se, maybe just by today's standards, and the fact that the "developer" apparently didn't put a lot of time into it.

I think I remember Gabe Newell stating something such as wanting to make Steam an "open platform" where people could sell whatever game they wanted (think google play or apple store), with minimal moderation. While this is debatable, there is an upside, which is lowering the entry barrier for newcomers, and have more good games as a result.

Quoting: meggermanRight now as i type this i have a steam client menu popping through my Firefox window and the video doesn't work fullscreen from the client playing trailers, i have to use the web browser or BP mode.

Yep, those issues have been around for a while. I agree with every point you made in your post, but I just wanted to share a "Workaround" for this: It seems to me that this issue comes from some kind of uninitialized buffer, and I found that trying to play another video in fullscreen generally fixes it. I also recall having this kind of problems with chrome or Firefox in the early html5 days, so maybe they should update their embedded chrome plugin?
Alm888 Oct 9, 2016
Quoting: Guest...you should care about the amount of crap games on Linux.

And currently Feral, Aspyr and Virtual Programming are doing exectly this: making ever-late wrapper-ports with bloated system requirements serving as the proof why Linux is inferior as a gaming platform.

This number inflation by "porters" will do no good. The only hope is direct personal work with (mostly indie) developers via Kickstarter or otherwise to persuade them in releasing day-1 versions and not "ports". And this will be way harder.
kalin Oct 9, 2016
Stop crying like a baby. Without valve and steam we probably will have nothing. Steam is very good serves and the only one I have know to have refund. Also it is not possible for valve to manage all indi entries and for that they create steam greenlight and if something bad pass the greenlight its users fault.
Next time bofero buy somethin watch the reviews and videos attach to the game
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