OK, the Steam Summer Sale is starting. Lewis B doesn’t believe me, but it’s happening.
How do we know? Valve have just fired the first shots. Valve Collection 82% off? Rockstar Collection 71% off? It begins.
I’m delirious with excitement. This is obviously my first Steam sale as a fully fledged member of the PC community, and I can’t wait to fill my library with games I can’t possibly find the time to play for the next three years. I’ve just loaded my wallet and I’m prepared to buy anything on the cheap. For the next 10 minutes, F5 is going to be my bitch.
Let’s do this.
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-cough
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Oops I done break comments, sorry.
I done fixin’.
In this comments thread, Lewis apologises to Mat for being WRONG.
Already!?
Dear God.
Steam is down folks, I repeat STEAM IS DOWN.
Slam your faces into F5 as required.
This is mental. This is the end of the world as I know it.
MUST BUY ALL THE THINGS!!!
They are up again. That’s a lot of Valve games for 50 bucks.
So it begins…
I still believe that I have played all of 1 of the 15+ games I bought during the last sales. And I didn’t even play that game very long.
Still, I might not be willing to resist. For example, I am intrigued by “Dawn of War II: Retribution”, despite the fact that I have owned “Dawn of War II” for two and a half years and have never played it.
I could bite on Test Drive Unlimited 2 (£4.99), Medal of Honour (£6.79) or The Witcher 2 (£23.44) today, but I’m going to hedge my bets and wait for tomorrows deals. Today, I’m just going with BIT.TRIP.RUNNER and Lead & Gold.
Lead & Gold is £1.05. That’s the same price as a bottle of Coke. The perspective is fucking killing me.
“MUST BUY ALL THE THINGS!!!” Hah hah… was just about to post that as a meme on Reddit.
A list of every single game on the Steam Summer Sale 2011 SO FAR….
http://savygamer.co.uk/2011/06/30/steam-summer-sale/
I NEED A LIFETIME TO PLAY JUST THAT LOT! The list isn’t even finished!
Crazy, isn’t it.
The necessity to buy VVVVVV at £1.99 can’t be understated. If you ignore that deal you should have your graphics card removed.
I agree. Aside from Armand who has no soul, everybody should buy VVVVVV. It is the light.
I think the lack of a soul would aid one in the playing of VVVVV. That game is painfully hard.
On another note, does anyone else feel a sense of relief when the new sale items come up, and you don’t “need” any of the games? For me, it’s like “thank goodness, another day without spending money!”
I just had that. Not a hugely awesome day of sales today.
That said, Knights of the Old Republic for £1.79 is essential, and I’m kind of tempted by Just Cause 2 at £3.49. The GTA Classics pack is also screaming at me, and sounds a better deal than the Rockstar pack at £27, given that I can’t be bothered with GTA IV or Bully, Midnight Club doesn’t work on Windows 7 and I only really need Max Payne 1..
This sale is messing with my mind, and with my perception of value. I’m looking at games I was tempted to buy at £40 when they first came out and showing indifference to them now at £4..
That’s what they do, Mat. The sales get so good that you just become addicted to the low low prices, and now even the modest prices don’t seem worth it. I’m looking for shit that’s like 99 cents. I don’t think I’d pay more than 2 dollars for anything on my wish list. What’s wrong with me?
These sales are changing us all. But for better or worse? Hmmmm…
You’re a sinner, pure and simple, if you don’t grab Just Cause 2 for $5. That game is Happiness.
Once again I find myself buying games I already own, out of sheer laziness and laziness. And laziness. World in Conflict? Own it. Bought it. Heroes V? Have my eye on it.
I am quite literally held back by hard drive space, not strength of will.
You’ll be pleased to know I did bite at JC2 for £3.49. Can’t say no to that, really. The game looks like a blast.
DEAR GOD MAKE IT STOP
Not only does Steam have a huge sale where everthing is, like, a dollar, but Comcast announces it’s increased everyone’s connection speed. Darksiders, here I come!
Let us know how that one is, fearless leader. I played the demo and thought “meh.”
Ahahahahahahahahahaha…………
As the winner of the Tap Repeatedly Steam winter sale of shame contest for 2010, I was just waiting for this to come along.
As I sit in my computer chair munching potato chips and sweating my butt off, I spy several games that are tantalizingly cheap. Shall I resist? Of course not!
Yeah I’d be interested to know how Darksiders is too, so I can duly regret not picking it up for such a cheap price in future. Potentially.
The vibe I get from Darksiders is that it’s a Zelda/God of War hybrid that is pretty good at a lot of things but not really excellent at anything.
“The vibe I get from Darksiders is that it’s a Zelda/God of War hybrid that is pretty good at a lot of things but not really excellent at anything.”
That is EXACTLY how it is. Played it on Xbox back when it came out but bought it on Steam for christmas, because it was ridicuously cheap. It’s well worth the peanuts they ask for it on sales.
Anyone who doesn’t have New Vegas, now is the time. $14.99. And Alpha Protocol at $4.99… is it finally worth it?
New Vegas is on its way down my int0rwebz pipes as I type.
Excited to play it.
At $4.99 Alpha Protocol is most decidedly worth it. You may get $50 worth of fun out of it, provided your system dodges the bugs. But you’ll get at least five bucks’ worth out of it.
sold
I can’t believe we are parsing the worth of a major studio game at $4.99. Does Valve realize that they are creating a monster?
This is happening in the e-book world, (though for completely difference reasons) but it’s the same model: digital distribution reducing the cost of manufacturing to almost nothing, making feasible product offering for 2.99 or 3.99. Readers who once thought nothing of paying 8.99 for a book now wait for the price to half and half again.
I don’t know. I can see myself paying $2.99 for Alpha Protocol. MAYBE $3.99. $5 seems a bit much though.
Believe this: I’ve bought a total of 0 games in the Steam Summer Sale thus far.
It’s never good enough for my sick mind.
Why spend $5 now when I could spend $1 in the 2013 Holiday Sale?
* goes to asylum, commits self *
I haven’t bought any full games so far, but did pick up the DLC for New Vegas (which I already have, though I haven’t played it yet).
Wondering if I’ll have time for a go at the achievements thing – a couple of the prizes involve actual content for games I have. More worthwhile than hats this time, though I still rather disapprove of the whole ‘achievements’ focus.
I think the idea behind the achievements mini game this year is to encourage people to actually play the games they buy. In all fairness, buying games during the Steam sale and never playing them is pretty much a meme in itself.
The downside to that however is that people buy and only play games for the achievements. Particularly multiplayer based games. It’d be a shame if people buy these games yet they don’t retain a community. I’d still like to be able to jump into a game of Lead and Gold even after the achievement horders have been and gone.
I haven’t bought anything yet either.
I think it’s a combination of getting almost everything I wanted (and somethings I didn’t even want) during the Christmas sale, the newer things I am interested not being discounted enough yet to justify purchase and that I always feel more justified buying myself gifts over Christmas than I do over the 4th of July.
I keep checking every day, but, so far, nothing has jumped out at me that I don’t already own (and likely haven’t even installed and may not know exactly what it is).
Today is a free day for me. My last £9.81 lives to see tomorrow.
Activision and EA have been particularly grotty this sale, I’ve noticed. £9.99 for Call of Duty 4 is taking the absolute piss and £25 for both of the Shift games seems harsh, especially as you have to buy both and there’s no discount on the much better Hot Pursuit. Not that I’m surprised that Acti and EA aren’t playing nice but.. hey.
Civ 5 doesn’t seem that hot a deal either given that it was available for £6 on one of the other DD services about 3 days ago.
Agreed with those sentiments, Mat. Today’s best deals are certainly Shadow of Chernobyl, Monkey Island, and AI War, if you don’t already have them, that is.
Call of Duty 4 (four years old) at $9.99 is a kick in the face. It should be 99 cents.
I realised my greatest folly with the sale so far: not checking the indie section. My cart is swelling.
Total agreement with Mat on the achievements. I had some problems with the xmas one, but this time I see them in a much more positive light for the reason Mat lists, and it’s less about winning a prize and more about adding content to games you actually own. I really doubt someone will pick up one of these games just to then “buy” the added content through achievement
tickets.
So – anyone picked up prizes and want to tell us if they’re any good? So far I’ve got the extra content for SpaceChem and Winter Voices – but haven’t played either yet as I’ve been playing other games to win more tickets to get more extra content…
(and yes, I have bought one or two games because they were on the activities list and were cheap. More often it’s been a question of installing games I had from previous sales though, or installing the Steam versions of games I had already)
Phlebas, I still don’t have a single ticket to my name. I’ve pretty much passed on the whole thing!
Todays new deals are up. In my opinion it’s the weakest day of the sale. Some decent games, sure, but some of the prices seem abit off. I know Red Faction: Armageddon and DiRT 3 have only just come out, but -33% isn’t really getting into the spirit of a flagship daily deal. I’m pretty disappointed there’s no franchise sale on DiRT either as in all fairness I’d sooner pay less for DiRT 2. Amnesia is the deal of the day for sure, but even £3.24 is £3.24 wasted if it just sits in my library because I’m too scared to play it.
I’ve pretty much ignored Mass Effect’s existence. Do I jump in now? Is it recommended to play the first one or am I safe to jump straight into 2?
Mass Effect 2 is not the same without having played the first. So many subtleties are missed out on. Having said that, it’s very difficult for me to go back to ME1 now without cringing at some of its sluggishness. That may be due to having completed it seven times.
Haha, that’s some serious Mass Effecting, Max.
So Mass Effect is still worth playing then? I might snap it up at this price. If only for DAT HAWT ALIEN SEX
Since you’ve never played it, Mat, I think the only way you could swallow Mass Effect 1 is by not having played 2. I’m being a bit harsh on the game; there’s nothing wrong with it, and certainly the PC version was way better than the 360; it just appears rough around the edges after having played ME2.
You can definitely still enjoy the first game. It is a good game, flaws and all. Don’t bother with the Pinnacle Station DLC (unless it comes free or something), it’s garbage. There’s a neat view out a space station window, but that’s it. Also, Bring Down the Sky is take-it-or-leave-it. A few good sequences but mostly uninteresting exploration.
My all-around general advice for enjoying Mass Effect 1 is keep your playthrough at a decent time. Don’t get carried away by completionism (not a word) or feel the need to do all the side quests. Do the ones that sound good. A ton of them are boring or unfairly hard because their design is broken.
Do Major Kyle, Helena Blake, the Cerberus missions. Ignore the distress calls. They’re all fake, and then some geth drop out of the sky, or a giant sandworm shits all over you.
Punch Khalisah bint Sinan al Jilani.
I was suggesting this to Mat C by Steam chat earlier, but Mass Effect is probably the most boring game that I would recommend to anyone. It’s a great series thus fur, no denying it, but damn if they don’t drag things out to the breaking point. So much conversation and dicking around…
Mass Effect 2 was a little better about it, but there is a clinical quality to the games. Maybe FO3 just ruined me on clean swept streets in my games.
Hmm. I like conversation and dicking around – it’s too much fighting that tends to bore me in RPGs. Maybe I should get round to playing ME sooner rather than later…
Guys, Terraria is £1.49.
Anybody who doesn’t already own it or has been on the fence.. please jump in at that price.