Freebie Info - Subnautica [UPDATE 2]

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

The Epic Games giveaway has ended, but the Gamespot sweepstake giveway below is still ongoing till 12:00 PM PT on January 7, 2019. It's not a guaranteed win, but it's something.

Gamespot is currently hosting a sweepstake giveway for Subnautica for PS4/Xbone. [https://www.gamespot.com/articles/free-ps4-and-xbox-one-codes-for-subnautica-giveawa/1100-6464036/]. If interested, try your luck, although the rules state it's only open to US residents. Big thanks to Johnny Novgorod for the heads-up on this.

Season's greetings, you wonderful rapscallions! This one's a little different, because the game is not free yet (or even available), but it should be tomorrow. That's right, I now know about this shit before it even happens! Anyway, that game is:

[HEADING=2]Subnautica [https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/subnautica/home][/HEADING]

Subnautica will be free on the Epic Games Store from 14 to 27 december. Epic seems intent on promoting its new store and promises a free game every two week. Subnautica is the first, Super Meat Boy will be the second. How exactly it'll work, I obviously don't now yet. If this all ends up so much hot air, blame Epic though. Not me. Buuuuuuut, I'd be willing to let you all pelt me with fruit to work out your frustrations vicariously. Crates of ripe juicy mangos and bananas will be provided.

Subnautica is a great game tho. I played it recently and quite enjoyed the Life Aquatic, at least until some 60ft piscine abomination emerged from below to eat me. Yeah, on the surface it might seem another survival game with crafting and meter management, but beneath the waves, in the murky depths, it's actually a horror game. Honestly one of the scariest I've played in a long time.

So, if you're interested and don't mind splitting your game libraries (even more), you probably won't regret it.

 

[Dalisclock]

Gonna second how good this game is. I don't really care much for the Survival Genre and generally decide to pass on a game if I see that as one of the big parts of the game. Subnautica, OTOH, just worked and worked very well. Especially helped how scary it can be despite not being a horror game.

I rather appreciated the fact it felt like the ocean and it's various ecosystems feel like actual ecosystems to some extent and not just random creatures that spawn in to provide you with something to kill or be killed by. Not often you see that in a game.

 

[Saelune]

I see they are going the drug dealer method. It wont work on me though, fuck Epic. I don't need another fucking e-store.

 

[EvilRoy]

I see you won't be caught snoozing this time, hella early instead.

I bought this one a while back and had a lot of fun with it, particularly the entries on species (live and cooked) showed creative writing. As to the store itself, I am thus far impressed. It lookes decent, and it could potentially fill a hole in my estore options. Humble and gog are both solid but very niche, battle.net exists for blizzard, ubisoft can fuck itself, and steam is the king of pure volume. I'm hoping epic goes the steam route with heavy curation to avoid the ocean of model replicas and shovelware.

 

[meiam]

Actually, since it's also on steam, can you claim it and then turn around and activate it on steam?

 

[Dalisclock]

I see they are going the drug dealer method. It wont work on me though, fuck Epic. I don't need another fucking e-store.

That's how they get you. First you get the free game, then a Reaper is eating your submarine to get to the sweet chewy diver(that would be you) inside.

All as planned.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Oh, neat. Subnautica was one of the best games (if not THE best) that I played this past year.

It marries survival gameplay in a truly alien-feeling world with a story that's told exactly how a survival game should be. By exploring and finding things, and the occasional set piece that doesn't give a damn whether or not you're looking in the right direction when it happens (which makes it feel "real").

And like other people have said, the deeper you go, the freakier the game gets. It does a beautiful job of making you feel vulnerable, and making many of the creatures feel like epic-tier threats that you need to be on watch for when you swim into their waters.

If they're giving away freebies on the Epic Game store, I'll need to keep my eyes peeled. I'm already going to need to use that storefront for Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, because the devs want to make it a timed exclusive. *sigh*

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Actually, since it's also on steam, can you claim it and then turn around and activate it on steam?

Don't know, but I doubt you're going to get a key redeemable on Steam, if you get a key at all. It'll probably be added directly to your Epic Library or Launcher or whatever they call it, like it works for freebies gotten on Steam, GOG or really any proprietary platform.

I'm hoping epic goes the steam route with heavy curation to avoid the ocean of model replicas and shovelware.

The store for the discerning customer. Being on the Epic Store is a mark of quality. That sounds kind of nice.

If anything, it might actually become successful enough to make Valve get off their complacent asses. It's easy to be the best when you're the only real game in town. A real competitor tho? Epic is enough of an industry juggernaut to have the know-how and resources to make it work.

 

[meiam]

Actually, since it's also on steam, can you claim it and then turn around and activate it on steam?

Don't know, but I doubt you're going to get a key redeemable on Steam, if you get a key at all. It'll probably be added directly to your Epic Library or Launcher or whatever they call it, like it works for freebies gotten on Steam, GOG or really any proprietary platform.

I'm hoping epic goes the steam route with heavy curation to avoid the ocean of model replicas and shovelware.

The store for the discerning customer. Being on the Epic Store is a mark of quality. That sounds kind of nice.

If anything, it might actually become successful enough to make Valve get off their complacent asses. It's easy to be the best when you're the only real game in town. A real competitor tho? Epic is enough of an industry juggernaut to have the know-how and resources to make it work.

Well with steam there's a way to get the CD code like bar code which could be theoretically used on another platform, so it might be possible to do it in reverse

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

This is purely on PC right? Any chance I can play it for free on PS4?

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

This is purely on PC right? Any chance I can play it for free on PS4?

Sorry to disappoint, but I'm afraid it's PC only.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

This is purely on PC right? Any chance I can play it for free on PS4?

Sorry to disappoint, but I'm afraid it's PC only.

I'm getting it anyway, hope my shitty laptop can run it.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

For those interested, the offer is now live. [https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/subnautica/home]

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

Actually, since it's also on steam, can you claim it and then turn around and activate it on steam?

Don't know, but I doubt you're going to get a key redeemable on Steam, if you get a key at all. It'll probably be added directly to your Epic Library or Launcher or whatever they call it, like it works for freebies gotten on Steam, GOG or really any proprietary platform.

I'm hoping epic goes the steam route with heavy curation to avoid the ocean of model replicas and shovelware.

The store for the discerning customer. Being on the Epic Store is a mark of quality. That sounds kind of nice.

If anything, it might actually become successful enough to make Valve get off their complacent asses. It's easy to be the best when you're the only real game in town. A real competitor tho? Epic is enough of an industry juggernaut to have the know-how and resources to make it work.

Well with steam there's a way to get the CD code like bar code which could be theoretically used on another platform, so it might be possible to do it in reverse

I don't think so. This is epic trying to get people using their client. They aren't going to let you pick up the game and move it to steam. The whole point is to use the client.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Well with steam there's a way to get the CD code like bar code which could be theoretically used on another platform, so it might be possible to do it in reverse

I've tried it now. The game gets sent straight to your Epic client's library. No key or any steps in between you could fiddle with. Basically works the same as if you bought a game on Steam through their website. In short, it's like nomotog said.

 

[Hawki]

I see they are going the drug dealer method. It wont work on me though, fuck Epic. I don't need another fucking e-store.

...how the heck do you turn a free game into an analogy for drug addiction?

Anyway, on a related note, does this mean that Epic Games is pretty much Valve 2.0 at this point? As in, like Valve, they've gutted any notion of singleplayer games, they've got their cash cow of Fortnite (draw comparisons to TF2 or Dota 2 if you want), and can now stay content and secure through the Epic Store without ever having to worry about developing again.

Which, like Valve, is their right to do so. And I've never played any Epic Games bar Gears of War and Jill of the Jungle (anyone remember that?), so this isn't really too bitter a pill to swallow for me personally, but it is yet another case of "Valve Effect" or whatnot.

 

[Dalisclock]

I see they are going the drug dealer method. It wont work on me though, fuck Epic. I don't need another fucking e-store.

...how the heck do you turn a free game into an analogy for drug addiction?

Anyway, on a related note, does this mean that Epic Games is pretty much Valve 2.0 at this point? As in, like Valve, they've gutted any notion of singleplayer games, they've got their cash cow of Fortnite (draw comparisons to TF2 or Dota 2 if you want), and can now stay content and secure through the Epic Store without ever having to worry about developing again.

Which, like Valve, is their right to do so. And I've never played any Epic Games bar Gears of War and Jill of the Jungle (anyone remember that?), so this isn't really too bitter a pill to swallow for me personally, but it is yet another case of "Valve Effect" or whatnot.

It depends on if Epic actually cares about not making the same mistakes Valve did with Steam, which is essentially letting it flood with shovelware because their approach to curation is "Don't fucking care because the money is rolling in". I've pretty much gotten to the point if I can get a game through GOG instead of steam I will and I've even held off purchases until it shows up on GOG because of this. And honestly I wouldn't mind if Epic can give Steam some actual competition to make them actually give a shit about their store for once. It's easy to sit fat and happy when nobody else can really threaten your position, less so when people are more then happy to go make deals elsewhere(Especially since the Epic store takes a 12% cut instead of 30%).

 

[Hawki]

...and it's a moot point because my graphics card can't support the ap.

Fuck.

 

[meiam]

Well with steam there's a way to get the CD code like bar code which could be theoretically used on another platform, so it might be possible to do it in reverse

I've tried it now. The game gets sent straight to your Epic client's library. No key or any steps in between you could fiddle with. Basically works the same as if you bought a game on Steam through their website. In short, it's like nomotog said.

Well no big surprise but would have been cool. I get what epic is doing, but I just can't bring myself to make a new account. I actually have a trash epic account I made to play some moba they had a few year back, and every so often it sends me an email telling me someone tried to access my account (I can't deactivate the account since I don't have the password anymore and I don't really care about it cause there's no information that's important on the account). I just really don't want to have one more potential place my personal info/credit card could get leaked from (cause they always end up being leaked).

 

[09philj]

I'm really enjoying Subnautica. The early game is terrible because the core gameplay loop is not explained well at all, and neither is where and how to get drinking water. Once you've worked that out it's a great survival-crafty-buildy-explory game. I've got a yellow submarine called Paul McCartney because John Lennon was eaten by a Reaper Leviathan and whenever I launch it I pretend I'm in Stingray and hum the theme tune.