Peggle Extreme now free on Steam

[Lashiec]

Deozaan brought to our attention on the IRC channel that Valve has made available for free Peggle Extreme, an Orange Box^w-themed variation of a well-known puzzle game with an insanely addictive gameplay. Note that you need to have the Steam client installed to be able to play it.

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In related news, as usual there's a weekend-only offer running on Steam. This week, the acclaimed multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 is sold by a mere $9.99, down from its normal $19.99 price.

[lanux128]

if you have an nVidia GPU, you can go here for not only Peggle Extreme but also these extras..

• Portal: The 1st Slice (a demo with 11 levels)
• Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
• Half-Life 2: Loast Coast

note: previously mentioned here.

[Deozaan]

Thanks for posting this Lashiec. 

I had been avoiding Peggle for a while (since before it was previously mentioned here on DC) because I dismissed it as another one of those stupid casual games such as Bejeweled. But since it was free I decided to let Steam download it for me and I tried out the first Stage today. It's actually not that bad. I don't see myself sinking hours and hours into it, but it seems fun for a go.

And thanks, lanux, for posting about the nVidia offer again! I never took advantage of it before because I wasn't interested in just a demo of portal. But since I see it comes with some other things, I'll be getting that as well!

[f0dder]

Why do you call casual games stupid?

Sometimes it's nice being able to spend half an hour on something not too brain-boggling, without having to get immersed in storylines and whatnot. Casual games work pretty well for that. Peggle is quite nice imho, and I kinda like bejeweled as well

[Deozaan]

Why do you call casual games stupid?

I didn't mean to make a blanket statement on all casual games. What I meant was that I really thought Peggle was more like Bejeweled, instead of a glorified Pachinko machine. I tried Bejeweled and have come across many of its n-thousand clones. I even tried out Puzzle Quest. I just do not like Bejeweled and for some reason (probably without much good reason) have clumped PopCap games all in the same category of good-for-nothing time wasters.

I like casual games, too. But maybe I just like to trick myself into thinking that my casual tastes are more complex than match-three repetition.

Right now I'm really enjoying Animal Crossing: City Folk. That's pretty darn casual, when there's not even an end to the game and no real purpose in playing it.

[lanux128]

i have Bejeweled even on my phone. quite handy when on long commutes..

[app103]

I can't think of any puzzle games that don't fall into the classification of "casual games".

That being said, not all of them are easy and I can think of a few that can be quite brain boggling.

If you like Mahjongg type games and want a real challenge, try Rahjongg. (there are also 2 additional add-on mission packs available, in case you beat the game and need 100 more levels to solve)

[Lashiec]

And thanks, lanux, for posting about the nVidia offer again! I never took advantage of it before because I wasn't interested in just a demo of portal. But since I see it comes with some other things, I'll be getting that as well!

And if you have an ATI card, the older offer by Valve is still up and running

[iphigenie]

The fascinating thing about peggle is that there is very little skill involved - i mean it feels like there is, but things go random so quickly.

You are always delighted when things turn up good, it's like a surprise win. And it's not at all frustrating when things go totally pear shaped, because frankly who could foresee that?

Add to that some very slick crafting of the game, achievements etc. and it works as a fun little game