By Alec Meer on December 23rd, 2009 at 4:10 pm.
Digital distribution’s a funny bugger – it’s growing ever harder to predict and apply patterns to it. One day, a new videogame from Steam et al is more expensive than its boxed-copy counter-part, then a few weeks later it can be selling for next-to-nothing. The Steam Christmas sale is almost unreal in both the amount and extent of its discounts, and it’s going to be having Valve’s competitors howling with despair. Honestly: some of these deals are yer-actual-genuine-proper-mental. Today only: Mirror’s Edge is £3.24, GTA IV is £5. In general over the seasonal shakedown: Braid is £1.74, Medieval II: Total War is £2.50, Ghostbusters is £5, Batman’s £20… And dozens and dozens more. Of course, there are sales on at the other major download services too..
Gamersgate – Highlights include Football Manager 2009 £10 and Bioshock £12
Impulse – Eve for £6, Shadowgrounds for £2.45
http://www.impulsedriven.com/explore/onsale“>Direct2Drive – Torchlight $10, Champions $15
GoG – Fallout $4, Sacrifice $4
Some good stuff, but none of it holds a candle to Steam’s insanity. Honestly, we try not to seem to prefer Steam on RPS, but it’s impossible to not punch the air in delight in the face of this. If you need another way of combing through the huge box of delights (Steam’s rather perversely categorising it by genre), SavyGamer’s gone and turned the whole lot into a giant list with direct links and prices
23/12/2009 at 16:18 Bhazor says:
What a time for my Steam account to be disabled.
23/12/2009 at 16:18 The LxR says:
Also, we finally got The Void on Steam, and it costs only 9.99 during the christmas sale. :o)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/37000 – Nya.
23/12/2009 at 16:31 Walruss says:
@ The LxR:
Bough it a week ago:\
23/12/2009 at 16:51 invisiblejesus says:
@Walruss: Same here. Oh well, GTA4, Mirror’s Edge and Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood for super cheap. I can’t complain.
23/12/2009 at 17:37 Arsewisely says:
@ The LxR – Bought just now. “I wonder if The Void’s been discounted…” thought I. And lo it were!
23/12/2009 at 18:01 Damien Stark says:
!!!
The cup runneth over.
I’m sure this question has been asked many times, but… is the version being sold to the US via Steam different in any particular way? Censored? Re-voiced or subtitled? Or is it just the same exact software being sold in the UK and Europe?
23/12/2009 at 18:16 pkt-zer0 says:
@Walruss: I would’ve waited for the discount to end, if I hadn’t already bought the game. I think supporting Ice-Pick Lodge is worth 20 (insert currency here).
23/12/2009 at 18:25 Kadayi says:
Snapped that up, the latest PoP (to check out the graphics) & Indigo Prophesy which I’m hoping will run on my W7 machine.
23/12/2009 at 18:29 The LxR says:
@ pkt-zer0: Why waste money? They could just buy two versions now, and give one away as a gift. :o)
23/12/2009 at 19:25 PleasingFungus says:
Noticed when the Void went on Steam, was sternly tempted to buy it. Managed to resist. Glad now that I did! (Bought it for the sale-price about five minutes ago.)
23/12/2009 at 20:33 Mac says:
Is the Void any good – seems to get mixed reviews?
23/12/2009 at 23:40 luminosity says:
It’s amazing. Hard, hard to play, and amazing. My personal GOTY.
23/12/2009 at 16:19 Tyheam says:
Yay, I got The Void and Time Gentlemen, Please! for cheap.
23/12/2009 at 16:19 Vinraith says:
Gamersgate has both latter-day King’s Bounty games (The Legend and Armored Princess) at 50% off today, for those interested.
I’m not much of a Steam fan (I find the client obnoxious, and lament the brokenness of offline mode) but have to admit that they have the best sales. Frankly, their sales are the only reason I own any non-Valve games on the system. Unreliable access to a game necessitates a $5-$10 price point, max.
23/12/2009 at 16:23 Senethro says:
You’d have to be beyond the reach of an internet connection for Steam to be an unreliable system. Frankly, what kind of rude savage does that include these days?
23/12/2009 at 16:27 Vinraith says:
@Senethro
People in the midst of a power outage or an internet outage and people gaming on laptops outside of a wifi hotspot, off the top of my head. And then there are those times when Steam jams up due to excess traffic and won’t let you download (or in one memorable instance even start) any of your Steam games. Oh, and of course there’s the “if my wife is playing PvZ on my laptop on Steam I can’t play anything from Steam on my desktop,” and the ever present “we can ban you from your own games whenever we feel like it” threat. Steam has a fairly hefty pile of drawbacks, “cheap” and “convenient” are all it really has going for it. It’s basically the Wal-Mart of digital game distribution.
23/12/2009 at 16:28 Bhazor says:
Well I’ve been locked out of Steam for a week now for being accused of fraud because I complained about paying for a game without Steam actually giving me it. My confidence in Steam has taken a big hit from all this.
https://support.steampowered.com/view.php?ticketref=3870-DZIM-3869
23/12/2009 at 16:48 frymaster says:
your link only works if we know your support username/password
care to summarise it for us?
23/12/2009 at 16:48 Senethro says:
Vinraith: I’m pretty sure most electronic video games don’t work in a power outage. I’ve literally never had a Steam outage problem despite owning over 50 games on it, so I’ve always been a little puzzled by those who claim it happens regularly. Multiple instances is the same thing as a CD-check and so is standard business practice, not a unique feature of Steam.
I’ll happily accept the wireless hotspot problem for the low prices and convenience otherwise.
Bhazor: Apparently I don’t have permission to view that. I’d hope that you’ve done nothing more than trip some kind of automatic switch that freezes your account and flags it for review and that one of the Tech support minions will get to you quickly. Tell us if its something more malicious/lazy though.
23/12/2009 at 16:54 Vinraith says:
@Senethro
“I’m pretty sure most electronic video games don’t work in a power outage.”
Good lord, that would suck if it were true. Fortunately, they have these things called batteries, and they do a marvelous job of letting you continue to use your laptop even when the power is out (damned midwestern ice storms).
“I’ve literally never had a Steam outage problem”
You’re a very lucky person, and have presumably been otherwise occupied on several of these “free weekend” jags of theirs. The first UT3 free weekend is legendary, in this respect.
“Multiple instances is the same thing as a CD-check”
True, but it’s not a problem with any other digital distribution service.
By all means, do whatever you like, but Steam’s certainly got its drawbacks. That’s to say nothing of horror stories like Bhazor’s, which are far more common than I’m comfortable with.
23/12/2009 at 17:05 Bhazor says:
Well essentially Paypal crashed just after the payment was sent so I didn’t get the “Open My Games Tab to install” screen and the game (Medieval 2 for £2.49) didn’t appear on my list. Lodged complaint with paypal about not recieving the goods and so the transaction was flagged. Fair enough a silly mistake by companies that take hundreds of transactions a day but the bit that pissed me off came later.
First, they didn’t disable my account for a fortnight after my transaction was flagged so if it was fraud then the bastard would have had great fun running up a bill. Secondly they didn’t tell me why my account was disabled and I had to email them to find out. Then they told me to close the dispute with paypal which I did but then they said it was still marked as a charge back and I should contact paypal which I did. Paypal then told me they can’t do anything about a closed dispute and told me to contact Steam. Who told me to contact Paypal. Who told me to contact Steam.
To be fair Steams responses have been prompt, about 6 hours to 2 days in fact, just a shame all their advice was crap. I mean surely a digital download store should how Paypal handle payments.
As I was typing this I got a response from Steam essentially saying that the back and forth is still going but they’ve essentially cut me out so they’re now emailing each other. So at least I’ve brought people together at Christmas.
23/12/2009 at 17:19 jonfitt says:
@ Vinraith For those who have a wife using their Steam account on other PCs, I recommend sticking their computer in Offline mode. It seems to work for me. I switch her to online mode to install games and validate them, then once they’ve been run once, stick her back in offline.
It’s not even as if we’re trying to play the same games simultaneously, she’ll be playing Puzzle Quest, while I need an active connection to play TF2.
Although at the moment she’s on Dragon Age, and I’m glad it’s on Impulse since it seems to have online hooks up the ying yang.
23/12/2009 at 17:34 Vinraith says:
@JonFitt
Yup, when one of us is playing something that doesn’t require net access that’s definitely the way to go. I’ve not had problems with offline mode in cases where it’s been set in advance and hasn’t been left that way for too long, so for single sessions with no internet outages it works fine.
23/12/2009 at 17:54 user@example.com says:
£10 less on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/2520/
23/12/2009 at 17:57 Vinraith says:
user@example.com: Only if you don’t already own one. Steam’s package deal is cheaper than buying them individually at Gamersgate, but Gamersgate’s price on Armored Princess alone is better that Steam’s price on Armored Princess alone.
23/12/2009 at 18:04 Bhazor says:
You can get the original King’s Bounty for £5.25 (£7.18 with postage) from Amazon.
23/12/2009 at 18:17 Kadayi says:
More nebulous moaning? No surprise
23/12/2009 at 18:31 Lilliput King says:
That’s truly awful, Bhazor. I feel for you, as someone caught up in the sticky, dangerous and glacial web of customer support far too many times.
23/12/2009 at 18:39 Urthman says:
Steam is the only DRM that has ever kept me from playing a game I’d paid for when I wanted to play it.
Whether it’s “Sorry, you have to wait for a mandatory update to download” (even when I was certain I’d selected “Don’t update this game” in the properties menu), or “Sorry, Steam is too busy to log in right now,” I’ve had more problems with Steam than any other DRM. And yea, offline mode is great, but you have to log in successfully to switch to offline mode, so that only works if you’re not having any problems.
Unless you’re in offline mode, Steam requires you to check in with Valve every single time you want to play a game. I remember when people went Banana Ape Berserk becuase Bioshock wanted to check in once.
23/12/2009 at 19:05 Blather Blob says:
@user: The sad thing is GamersGate’s “sale” price is the same as Steam’s everyday, pre-sale price. And on Steam it’s published by Paradox… who own GamersGate.
@Bhazor: Steam are actually sounding much more responsive to you than they usually do in these sorts of stories about them. My impression has always been that they’re pretty steadfast with their “if you talk to your credit card company about us, you’re banned for life” rule.
23/12/2009 at 21:02 Alexander Norris says:
But Valve can do no wrong! They are the Jesus Christ of gaming, and will save us all. To criticise them is beyond un-American; it’s cauliflower and ketchup bananas!
In case that wasn’t irony: I’m glad to see that having an opinion is still considered lame on the Internet.
23/12/2009 at 21:19 Baris says:
Blather Blob: My impression has always been that they’re pretty steadfast with their “if you talk to your credit card company about us, you’re banned for life” rule.
Jesus christ, that’s the worst Valve-related thing I’ve ever heard! I mean, I know it’s sort of legal because technically you don’t own anything, but wouldn’t that create insane amounts of badwill? I know if they did that to me I’d devote the rest of my life to figuring out who the 52 most prominent people at Valve are, photoshopping their faces on to a deck of cards and hunting them down in a film noir atmosphere. Possibly saying insightful one liners about Half-Life 3 and stocking more strategy games at each death.
23/12/2009 at 16:22 Vinraith says:
Can anyone with a measure of “industry insider” knowledge tell me how a sale like this impacts the developer’s cut for a game like “The Void?” I’d like to get that one, and obviously $10 is a tempting price point even considering the Steam client, but I don’t want to shaft the devs of such a daring and unusual game.
23/12/2009 at 16:31 cqdemal says:
I think a 50% price cut is more than worth it if sales go up by, say, 1,000%. Which isn’t exactly impossible given Steam’s track record for crazy sales like this.
23/12/2009 at 16:33 The LxR says:
I’d say you go buy it and don’t worry! :o)
23/12/2009 at 16:33 Vinraith says:
@cqdemal
Yes, I suspect the increase in sales offsets the loss, I’m just curious about how my own individual sale breaks down.
23/12/2009 at 16:34 Vinraith says:
@The LxR
Well, you’re the authority. :)
23/12/2009 at 16:44 frymaster says:
afaik their %age cut stays the same
also don’t forget the price is set by the developer i.e. they will have had to agree the price cut – steam can’t initiate these sales unilaterally
23/12/2009 at 17:01 dadioflex says:
If you’re THAT worried about the developer cut, just stuff an envelope full of cash and mail it to them. :p
23/12/2009 at 18:47 Vinraith says:
With regards to The Void, having given it some more thought, I think this is a case where I’d rather shell out the extra and get a physical copy.
Edit: Decided to treat the Steam version as a $10 full-featured demo. If I really like the game I’ll still order a physical copy to have it long-term and have a printed manual and whatnot.
23/12/2009 at 16:23 Pod says:
browse every game on steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Price&sort_order=ASC
Also,
http://tinydragonapps.com/steam/
and
http://www.steamgamesales.com/
23/12/2009 at 19:09 Blather Blob says:
Reddit also had a link to an even better list of Steam games + prices. It’s on google spreadsheet, so you can sort the games by price (Col C) or by percentage savings (Col D).
23/12/2009 at 16:24 PHeMoX says:
I’m a sucker for free stuff, but this is pretty close for what you get.
Mirror’s Edge for 3 bucks, GTA:IV for 5 or so, that’s many hours of gaming for nearly free in my book.
Thanks for the heads-up RPS! This made my day. I guess at days like these Steam is pretty damn cool.
23/12/2009 at 16:26 Steve the Imperial Guardsmen says:
I bought the Zombie Island DLC for Borderlands a couple days ago, just to find out it was on sale for $6.00 yesterday. Only $3.00 less dollars so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was the fact that I knew a huge sale was coming and still didn’t wait.
Also, Empire TW is $25.00, is it worth it?
23/12/2009 at 19:09 Stromko says:
If you’re willing to put in a lot of time and work to enjoy it, then Empire: Total War is a quite solid entry in the Total War milieu. Especially if you really like black powder combat. However, it has no modding support (the files are encrypted apparently). This could really put a damper on it. It’s also not the most stable Total War ever, although most of the glitches have been cleared up. AI still won’t do naval invasions AFAIK, though.
23/12/2009 at 16:28 cqdemal says:
Two STALKER games for $6.98 is a totally, mind-blowingly, overwhelmingly, amazingly, fantastically great deal.
23/12/2009 at 16:29 Doug F says:
Vinraith – considering the devs are the second comment in the thread, letting everyone know about the deal, I’d say they’re more than okay with it :)
23/12/2009 at 16:31 Vinraith says:
@Doug F
Point taken, I hadn’t noticed that was LxR’s post. Still, I’d be interested in knowing, generally, who price cuts on Steam is really hitting harder in the wallet.
23/12/2009 at 16:30 BobB says:
This is probably a really naive question (showing my complete lack of business knowledge), but how do Valve knock 50%-90% off most of their games? Have they had to go and negotiate this with each publisher/developer (if so why would the publisher/developer allow themselves to be undercut?) or do Valve take a huge cut normally and for this week they aren’t in order to draw people to Steam? Or is it more complicated that that?
23/12/2009 at 16:55 Starky says:
I’d guess (semi-educated guess, but still a guess), that it’s a combination.
Steam take roughly around 30%, so I’d wager anything with a discount more than 25% will be arranged with the publishers/studios responsible, each sharing the discount – Steam might even drop it’s cut down to make it more attractive to the publisher/studio to go lower.
While those that refuse to be part of the sale, will get a 10-20% discount that probably comes straight out of steams cut.
Only an insane company not interested in making money would refuse though. Steam is going to do massive, massive volume this week – and those games with the best discount are going to be the ones topping the sales lists, and the ones that might get special mention – not just on steams front page, or sales list, but on gaming blogs and websites all over.
23/12/2009 at 17:04 Starky says:
***deleted***
23/12/2009 at 16:31 syrion says:
Bastards! I just bought the Void for $20 yesterday!
23/12/2009 at 16:42 Starky says:
@Vin (Great having an edit feature when reply fails)
Maybe not in this insane “everything must go” sale, but I’ll wager that getting a Steam weekend deal is a great thing for any Indie dev, even if that means a 50% drop in sale price is probably more than worth it in volume sales.
I don’t think I’ve seen a weekend deal that failed to get in the top 5 on steam, with the vast majority getting number 1 for the whole weekend.
23/12/2009 at 16:49 Lars BR says:
I find these deals beyond crazy, like http://store.steampowered.com/sub/2687/
First, who the hell has time for all those games? I’d go insane picking the first to install.
Also, a bazillion games for the price of one? Maybe the “price of one” is set a little high to begin with?
23/12/2009 at 17:04 dadioflex says:
I bought that. It equates to Batman AA for 20 quid plus a metric crapload of other games for an extra fifteen. I’m way beyond the point where I’ll ever do justice to every game on my Steam list.
23/12/2009 at 16:53 Adam Whitehead says:
* sees GTA4 for £4.50 *
* goes to online system checker *
* cries *
23/12/2009 at 16:54 Markoff Chaney says:
But you can’t take my full color manual from me! Worth every penny at 30$. 10$ seems as surreal as the game itself. Worth a purchase indeed.
23/12/2009 at 16:54 raaawwr says:
Blame yourself for buying right before the anticipated holiday sales.
Either way, you might be able to get the difference refunded if you contact Steam customer support.
23/12/2009 at 18:23 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Unlikely. If you choose to buy a game just before or after a sale (regardless of whether you know about it), you thought it worth the price and forked it over. It seems a bit cheap to go “Hey! I actually didn’t want to pay as much as I did for this game!”
I mean, they’re sales for a reason. A temporary lowering of prices. If they go beyond the announced date they are asking for people to expect the same treatment in similar cases.
23/12/2009 at 16:55 Heliocentric says:
List all games by price ascending. When a game cost less than 50p per 10 metacritic points buy it. When you go broke from sub £5 purchases and steam refuses to load under the strain of the game list mutter under your breath that gabe newell is evil.
23/12/2009 at 17:03 Octacon100 says:
Got it first day it came out. Great game. I’m seriously staying up way too late playing it. You totally got me thinking “What is going to happen next?” ALL THE TIME.
mmm, quoting someone doesn’t seem to work too well.
23/12/2009 at 17:05 Starky says:
Next time I go to a cash machine (ATM for you yanks), I just KNOW that instead of giving me money it’s going to print out a red banknote to the value of £0 with Gabe Newell’s head replacing the Queens, and a caption of…
“Computer says no.”
On the flip side where Darwin should be, is a pic of Gordon Freeman crowbar in hand, oh and of course the watermark, only visable when you hold it to the light will be G-man.
Damn you steam, damn you and your remembering my credit card details!
23/12/2009 at 17:06 Duck says:
I agree with Vinraith, Steam is certainly not my platform of choice for buying games.
I have actually been banned from all my steam games before, with no explanation, reason, or ability to appeal, just “we ban you from all your games that you paid for goodbye”. Their policy basically says “we can ban you if we want, without reason or accusation, and if you really didn’t do anything wrong, it’s not our problem”. This is why I will only own Valve games on Steam. I’ve made the mistake of buying other games before, as now there is an inactive account floating on the internet with various non-Valve games on it, that can no longer be used. Good thing I “only” sank $80 into that, eh?
Right now, the only non-Valve game on my new account is Dirt 2, as it came free (through steam, of course) with my beautiful new Radeon HD 5970.
However, I’m happy for the Christmas sale, as it means I get to have Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat back for cheap!
23/12/2009 at 17:13 Walsh says:
No offense but that generally sounds like a load of crap. There is never no reason for something.
23/12/2009 at 17:35 Starky says:
I second Walsh
Valve don’t randomly ban accounts, they’ll tell you why and there is an appeals process.
I don’t think that Valve actually ban steam accounts at all, they disable them in suspected cases of fraud, or account theft. I could see them disabling an account if it was sold on ebay or something – that isn’t really banning anyone though (the rightful owner sold it, and the buyer was a sucker) but I’ve never once heard of them doing that.
The worst that can happen is a person gets VAC banned for cheating, but that only effects playing Steam games on VAC enabled servers, single player is fine as is any other 3rd party game…
If you got VAC banned that’s your own damn fault, either you hacked and earned it, let someone else use your account who hacked, or you were careless with your account information and it got stolen and those people hacked. All of the above are your own responsibility.
23/12/2009 at 18:30 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Starky: But they can deny access regardless of how they do so. Mistakes happen. Things go wrong. Ask Bhazor.
Sure, Duck could be witholding information, but I have heard enough stories about certain MMOs and online services that his story doesn’t surprise me.
23/12/2009 at 18:51 Bhazor says:
Yep, they didn’t tell me why I was suspended and I had to trawl through customer support to find a contact address. Been a week so far.
I’m still going to use Steam but only when theres a really hefty discount or it’s my only option. Otherwise I’ll be sticking with Gog for budget games and Amazon/Play for bigger games.
But that’s pretty much what I was doing anyway (the embuggering transaction was for Medieval Total War 2 at £2.49) so I won’t actually be changing how I shop.
23/12/2009 at 17:06 jsutcliffe says:
Oh my — should I pick Anno 1404, which the missus would enjoy playing with me, or Medieval II which is way cheaper?
Both! Wheee!
23/12/2009 at 18:30 Vinraith says:
@jsutcliffe
Keep in mind that while the limited install DRM has been removed from box copies of Anno 1404 it has NOT been removed from any of the digital editions.
23/12/2009 at 20:12 Bhazor says:
Personally I recommend the ludicrously indulgent collectors edition on Amazon which comes with an Art book, cloth map, brass compass, making of dvd and a bag of almonds all in a leather lined wooden chest. For £30 I’d say it’s a real bargain and as Vinraith says you’ll dodge the extra drm.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anno-1404-Collectors-PC-DVD
23/12/2009 at 20:20 jsutcliffe says:
Would be tempting but for two things
1) I’m in the US, and there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent for the US version
2) I’m thinking of getting it as a thing to play over the Xmas break with the missus, so an instant digital purchase is preferable.
The collector’s edition looks shiny though!
23/12/2009 at 17:09 Carra says:
None of the EA games. I see an EA store bargain coming…
Some good stuff in there. All the Telltale games for £35? Yes please, that’s the price of the Monkey Island games alone! Then there’s the Eidos deal which has all their games for £35, that’s the price of Batman: Arkham Asylum alone. Also a good time to pick up the witcher for £7.5 and time gentleman please for close to nothing.
23/12/2009 at 17:21 jonfitt says:
Isn’t Mirror’s Edge EA?
23/12/2009 at 18:15 Damien Stark says:
That Eidos pack is unreal… Batman alone is nearly worth the price of admission, but they throw in Hitman:Blood Money (and two others), Deus Ex (1 and 2, if you care about IW) Tomb Raider Underworld and Legend, Mini Ninjas…
Also, if you don’t own it, buy STALKER SOC for $2 right now. Right. Now. Even if you’re not sure you’ll like it, $2 ! 90% off! Give it a try, seriously.
23/12/2009 at 18:29 Carra says:
Mirror’s edge is indeed EA. But it’s the only EA game. None from Bioware, no C&C games, no FIFA or those other sport games. Nada.
23/12/2009 at 18:50 Vinraith says:
@Carra
Another possibility is that they’re holding some of the big EA and Activision titles for daily sales. I recall Dragon Age being in the “dailies” for the Thanksgiving sale, and wouldn’t be surprised to see it turn up in that context again (though I’m expecting a nice boxed copy for Christmas, myself :)).
23/12/2009 at 21:06 Carra says:
My boxed copy of Dragon Age was well worth it :)
Even if I’ve seenit in stores for half the price I paid a month ago (~£15)…
23/12/2009 at 17:10 syrion says:
@raaawwr
I just saw it yesterday, didn’t even think about it going on sale. I actually don’t mind having paid more for it; I’ll just balance it out by not buying two games at $5 like I probably would have otherwise.
23/12/2009 at 17:11 Heliocentric says:
At the sub £1.50 point i’m genuinely considering getting digital copies of games i already own on disc. For the rainy day after i scratch my stalker, rome total war or whatever discs.
23/12/2009 at 17:38 Starky says:
Steam should totally start a service like that, prove you have a legitimate retail copy and you get a steam account version for cheap as chips.
We know it is possible to backwardly do such because it was done with DoW: Soulstorm prior to the DoW2 release.
I’d pay £2-3 to get games I already own on steam.
23/12/2009 at 18:27 Damien Stark says:
@Starky
Agreed. Essentially they would just need to coordinate with the publishers to accept non-Steam CD keys, something I’ve long desired. As far as the publisher is concerned, you’ve already bought it from them (though that argument hasn’t worked for blu-ray/DVD/digital copies) but you’d need a buck or two to compensate Steam for their trouble/infrastructure.
I’d happily toss in $50 to have all my previous game purchases re-downloadable in Steam…
23/12/2009 at 20:54 leeder_krenon says:
as awesome and ideal as that sounds, it’ll never happen. because most sane people would sell their physical copy of the game as soon as they reg’d it on steam, thus diddling the manufacturer out of a sale.
23/12/2009 at 17:13 1stGear says:
I heard the PC port of GTA IV was fairly awful and that the game wasn’t all it was hyped up to be anyway. Worth $5 if I already have Saints Row 2?
The Void is definitely going in the games list though. Was teetering on the edge before now, but that sends me plunging straight into the gloomy, artistically nude depths.
23/12/2009 at 19:13 Zyrxil says:
Compared to Saints Row 2, GTAIV is a masterpiece of PC optimization. Certainly worth $5, even if the plot isn’t anything near as good as all the shiteatting reviewers hyped it up to be.
23/12/2009 at 20:23 Jakkar says:
The key problem is that GTAIV lost the sense of fun. In my opinion, it becomes stunningly boring quite quickly – so wrapped up in a dull, grim-but-unexciting crime story of needless misery without stylish extremes..
I couldn’t bring myself to finish it, and it was becoming a chore to play either the empty sandbox or the annoying missions long before the end.
23/12/2009 at 21:51 Wulf says:
I snagged GTA IV for my PS3 back when it was originally released, before I completely lost interest in the consoles and mainstream again (as is my wont) and I became enamoured with the PC and the indie scene all over again (as is also my wont). One of these days I’ll realise that the mainstream is worth shit all in regards to my personal tastes, with perhaps the exception of the odd game on the portables (the Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton series of games will always have my undying love).
The only interesting things seem to come out for the PC (and on the odd occasion, the portables, as I pointed out), and things that get ported to the PC are usually fairly average and I rarely encounter any jewels that go against that unending flow of shit-brown. GTA was not one of the exceptions, it was one of the games that upholds the rule.
The most grating thing for me about it though was Bellic’s brother, and how immature the game thought I was, I felt so completely insulted by the whole process.
“TITTEEZ!” *click!*
“BRUZZA, TITTEEZ!” *click!*
“BEEG… AMERICA–” *click!*
“LEESSEN, LEESSEN BRUZZA, LEESSEN, JES LEESSEN, LEESSEN, TIT–” *click!*
!BRUZZER, DUN HANG UP ON ME, I HAFF ENTELLIGENZ THINK TA SAY TO YOO, DOES YOO KNOW WAT EET EES BRUZZA? TEETEEEZ!!”, *click!*
Fuck you, Roman.
23/12/2009 at 21:59 Wulf says:
In all fairness though, there are things on my PS3 that I adored. Both LittleBigPlanet and Flower made me smile from ear to ear, dragging me along to some blissful, tranquil place of pure joy that I rarely go to, a place that mostly only little gems like Knytt would have me visit.
And LittleBigPlanet had Stephen Fry.
/hugs his copy of LBP.
I just wish there were more LBP and Flower, and less GTA IV for those plastic bricks, because for every one title of joy and happiness, there seems to be 1,000 mainstream titles that would have me scowling and doubting upon the very worth of the next human, the next human often owning one of those plastic bricks.
That’s why I often take refuge in PC gaming. But still… Flower and LBP. For those, I can forgive the PS3 many sins.
[/Tangent]
24/12/2009 at 01:31 Baris says:
Hah, well done on capturing Roman’s particular style of speech.
23/12/2009 at 17:18 Lambchops says:
I bought:
GTA IV
Cogs
Loom
Then stopped myself! That’s plenty to add to the unplayed pile.
I’ll keep an eye out on the changing deals for anything particularly awesome though.
23/12/2009 at 17:24 Stense says:
Thats a lot of discountage. With more to come it seems.
I weakened and got GTA 4 and Medieval II: Total War. Not sure when I’ll get round to giving them a whirl, but its nice to know I have something new (to me at least) to play when needed.
23/12/2009 at 17:32 Senethro says:
I’ve still got about 5 games from various weekends and the Thanksgiving sale that I haven’t even downloaded. I’m sure I’ll buy 5 more this Christmas, probably for under a total of £20, so at least it won’t hurt!
23/12/2009 at 17:24 c-Row says:
I am tempted to buy GTA 4 at that price, but I’ll rather flock out some additional money and get it for my XBox instead. No performance problems, no unnecessary additional software to run.
23/12/2009 at 17:33 Stijn says:
Oh, magical christmas wonderland, where pounds are worth twice as much as euros.
23/12/2009 at 17:42 Starky says:
They ARE worth twice as much, what the exchange rate says doesn’t matter.
We have the Queens head on our money, you don’t, there for ours is more valuable.
Of course when Prince Charles becomes king the British pound will be worthless, and that is when we’ll jump ship and join the Euro… anything to avoid his massive ears on our currency.
23/12/2009 at 17:44 Stijn says:
Hey, us Dutchies also have the Queen’s head on our money!
23/12/2009 at 21:04 Rinox says:
And we got our king on it (Belgium)!
Although mentioning his name in any sort of decent conversation is a joke on itself.
23/12/2009 at 17:41 Nero says:
Bought The Void finally and going to enjoy when I get back after christmas. Tempted to get GTA IV for some other time since my current computer surely can’t play it in any form. I hope there’s a 50% off for L4D2 some day because at that price it’s worth it to me.
Also might finally pick up STALKER: Clear Sky because for all the shortcomings it can’t be beat at this price. I love Steam for these kind of sales because there aren’t many new games that I would consider buying at full price today.
23/12/2009 at 17:41 Heliosicle says:
Hmm, connection rejected?
back to my original post:
Yay witcher, should probably get void and soc and dow2 as well..
23/12/2009 at 17:52 Gpig says:
@Vinraith I wouldn’t have paid $20 for The Void simply because I’ve been in a bad habit of buying games and not playing them(which is why I haven’t bought Left 4 Dead 2 or really anything full price on the pc this fall). I’m interested in it but don’t know when I will have the time for getting into it, but at $10 I ended up buying it. I would have never bought Mirror’s Edge because of the negative press it got, despite anticipating it before release, but at $5 I figure I’d try it because it looks interesting. Once a game that I’m interested in but not sure I’ll find the time to play as much as I feel I should hits a certain price I tend to impulse buy it. (Aquaria is $10 but I’m not in the Metroidvania mood at the moment, if it were $5 I’d snag it anyway)
The only game that I bought on here that I was about to buy full price was Machinarium, but developers have said in interviews that games still continue to sell after their steam sales end so I wouldn’t really worry about it.
23/12/2009 at 17:59 Vinraith says:
@GPig
Again, I’m not disputing that sales volume can offset discount losses, I’m wondering how these sale prices impact the distribution of funds from an INDIVIDUAL sale.
23/12/2009 at 17:57 DarkT says:
I bought GTA IV, Braid & MoW Red Tide. I told myself that was it, I can’t afford any more.
Then I saw The Void.
I’m weak willed… and poor now.
23/12/2009 at 18:17 mandrill says:
I would be making purchases from this veritable cornucopia of cheap gaming, if I could get my paypal account to work. having recently moved country I have had to make a whole new paypal account, and steam won’t accept it without it having a credit/debit card linked to it. I don’t have either which are registered at my current address (because all the one’s I have are linked to my old paypal account).
It is not paypal that requires my card details, as I have made purchases form other companies through paypal without having to provide them. It must be steam, possibly for an age verification thing, I don’t know. but it now means that I can no longer purchase things from Steam. and will have to find somwhere else to buy my games.
Sorry for rant but I’ve been jumping through digital hoops trying to get this thing to work all day, purely to take advantage of the stunning deals that are available and am a tad pissed off.
23/12/2009 at 18:20 Steve the Imperial Guardsmen says:
Bought GTA4, installed it, tried to load it up only to get a FATAL ERROR saying I needed Vista SP1…what the fuck?
PS: I’m using 64-bit Windows 7 and it says GTA4 is compatible with that
23/12/2009 at 18:43 Drew says:
Anyone else having this problem? $7.50 is a great price–but only if the game, you know, works.
23/12/2009 at 18:21 Drew says:
According to Jonathan Blow, the developer’s cut remains the same, percentage-wise.
http://braid-game.com/news/?p=614#comment-7067
23/12/2009 at 18:22 Drew says:
Opps. The above was @Vinraith.
23/12/2009 at 18:29 Vinraith says:
@Drew
Thanks, that’s worth knowing.
23/12/2009 at 18:31 Damien Stark says:
That still leaves me confused though. Maybe I’m just dense, but “same percentage” sounds like:
game full-price == good
game on sale == less
game as part of giant package deal == very little
Again, not disputing that the volume makes up for it, nor claiming anyone should feel guilty about buying awesome package deals, but as far as Vinraith’s question, the answer seems to be: yes, you would help the dev much more by waiting ’til the game goes back to full price.
No?
23/12/2009 at 18:41 Drew says:
@Damien Stark
In terms of pure, immediate profit, yes.
But in the long run, you might help the developer even more by buying the game cheap and then, if you like it, gifting it to several friends–who in turn might gift it to several friends, and so on. Of course, this is really just the volume argument from another angle. But especially in the case of relatively obscure games, there’s a lot to be said for volume.
23/12/2009 at 19:34 Damien Stark says:
@Drew
Cool, thanks for clarifying. And I definitely intend to take advantage of some of the crazy sales, I’m just curious about the detail. There are some rare edge cases where I’m genuinely just as happy to pay $10 for a gem of a game as to pay $5, and knowing that it helps the dev a little more is a nice encouragement.
Yes, I suppose in theory I could try to just send them cash, but honestly that might be more trouble for their accounting department than it’s worth. Games need to come with a button on the main menu for “buy devs a round”.
; )
23/12/2009 at 20:13 Chris Park says:
I can also confirm that the cut is the same with these sorts of deals, with Steam and elsewhere. Digital distributors take a percentage of net profits, so discounts are taken off before that. So, in the case of Steam, that would meant that then the developer/publisher would make less on discounted sales, but so does Steam. However, the loss on any individual sale is generally greatly offset by the huge influx of sales in general that these sort of discounts bring.
With any digital distributor, having a sale on a given game is going to increase its sales volume 10x or more in my experience with AI War. Sometimes as much as 50x, depending on the day. For AI War, one of these sales can make us several month’s worth of income from a distributor in a single week. That’s why you see this sort of thing so commonly, and why it is becoming even more commonplace. I think that these sorts of sales tend to incite people to buy who might otherwise not, so it’s not even really seeming to cut into longer-term sales at all. On the contrary, on the wake of any given sale, I tend to see a ripple effect of higher sales volume even for a week or so after the game returns to full price.
I assume that’s people trying the demo while it’s on sale, then not buying it in time, then deciding they like it well enough to buy it at full price. Or something along those lines, anyway — those discounts are essentially marketing costs, is one way you could look at it, given the increase in visibility these sorts of sales bring.
Anyway, in my opinion there’s no reason you should feel guilty at all for partaking of buying a game on discount, you’re still helping the developer/publisher. If you really want the max money to go to them, you can always wait and buy it at full price, I guess, but I’m always happy to see new customers no matter when they buy it; if I wasn’t cool with the discounted price, I wouldn’t sell it at that discount, you know?
23/12/2009 at 18:36 Samson says:
Pro-tip:
If considering buying Loom or The Dig or any of the Indy Jones Classic Adventures, it’s better to buy the Lucasarts Adventure Pack for the same price of any one of those games.
Almost paid 2.49 for The Dig when I could’ve paid that amount for all 4 games.
23/12/2009 at 18:36 jsutcliffe says:
Don’t care.
I used to get a bee in my bonnet about DRM, but I can’t get the energy up for it now. It’s highly unlikely I’ll run up against the install limit.
23/12/2009 at 18:53 Vinraith says:
@jsutcliffe
Fair enough, I just figured I’d let you know. It’s Tages 3-install, no revocations. On Gamersgate you get unlimited activations because they don’t tolerate that shit, and it’s been removed from the boxed copies, but with Steam it’s 3 installations and you’re done. Also, Steam’s sale price is really nothing extra on Anno 1404, it’s roughly the same as Amazon retail, at least in the US.
23/12/2009 at 22:50 Oak says:
@ Vinraith
You sure about that? I’m seeing it as $25 on Steam.
@ jsutcliffe
Medieval II is cheap, but Medieval II + Kingdoms is twenty bucks and you can probably find the gold edition for that much outside of a sale. Meanwhile, I’ve never seen Anno 1404 so cheap and it’s one of the best new games I’ve played this year.
24/12/2009 at 00:08 Vinraith says:
@Oak
My bad, it wasn’t Amazon, it was Gogamer. Gogamer has Anno 1404 for $25, same as Steam, but with no limited installation Tages nonsense:
http://www.gogamer.com/searchresults.htm?keywords=anno+1404&categoryId=&x=0&y=0
23/12/2009 at 18:44 bylch says:
@steve:
I happen to know for a fact it runs fine on W7 64-bit, so it’s something else. I’d post this on the forums.
23/12/2009 at 18:46 Joe Duck says:
Well, I’m sorry that I have no insider industry knowledge, but I’d guess the one hurting the most because of this sale is probably GameStop.
These sales not only sell a lot of games that in normal retail are “dead”, they also train people on the wonders of digital distribution…
23/12/2009 at 18:47 CTA says:
Bought Braid, EQ2 and The Void in sales so far. I was uming and ahing about AI War but decided against it for now. BioShock, Alien Shooter 2, Fuel and Oblivion GOTY Edition are still maybes =P
I just hope they can put a bargain on Dragon Age that will rival Amazon UK’s £15.
23/12/2009 at 18:51 Vinraith says:
@Damien Stark
“but as far as Vinraith’s question, the answer seems to be: yes, you would help the dev much more by waiting ’til the game goes back to full price.”
That’s what I got out of it, yes.
23/12/2009 at 18:52 Joe Duck says:
Oh, and as people is posting their buys, I will jump also.
GTA4
Braid
Indigo Prophecy
Flatout
Beyond good and evil
and holding on for a Borderlands special sale day plus whatever they can think of next.
I have seriously loved Indigo prophecy’s first 40 mins, btw.
23/12/2009 at 18:54 Metal_Circus says:
GTA4 for 4 quid is absoloutley fucking mental. I’d buy it but I’ve got it. Genuine bargain, that is.
23/12/2009 at 19:05 druski says:
Grand Theft Auto IV (EU) 6,46 EUR
Mirror’s Edge 3,22 EUR
Braid 1,93 EUR
Indigo Prophecy 2,63 EUR
Trine 6,89 EUR
Splintercell: Chaos Theory 4,30 EUR
Zombie Shooter 2 1,93 EUR
Fuck yeah, merry xmas steam!
23/12/2009 at 19:09 Hybrid says:
So far:
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
Machinarium
Braid
And I’ll be keeping an eye on the “Today Only” deals. Still more to browse through!
23/12/2009 at 19:15 Samson says:
http://www.charliesgames.com/wordpress/?p=471
Irukandji and Bullet Candy Perfect for whatever you want that’s at least $1. Previously, this promotion was only for Bullet Candy.
Bullet Candy’s a fun shmup along the lines of Geometry Wars.
23/12/2009 at 19:58 Blather Blob says:
Nice deal! Everytime I see Bullet Candy on sale, it reminds me to take advantage of the pay what you want pricing for Bullet Candy Perfect instead, but I never get around to it and now it’s even better! Studio Eres is also having a pay what you want sale on Immortal Defense until Jan 1.
24/12/2009 at 00:39 Baris says:
Incase people are on the fence about Immortal Defence: buy it! It really is a great game, you’ll probably play it through once and never go back to it, but that one time is a good few hours long and filled with a very interesting, minimalist story.
23/12/2009 at 19:38 Jacques says:
Just bought the Eidos pack, my Steam game list is growing massive now, especially after getting the THQ deal around American turkey day time.
23/12/2009 at 19:38 Muzman says:
Mirror’s Edge is definitely worth a go for nearly everyone. It’s uniquely designed, adventurous first person PC gaming.
Can’t really deny the story is meh (and I really don’t know how they could have messed it up, given the premise. Trying too hard from nervousness is my impression.) Combat too. But the running is where it’s at and there’s nothing like it. Time trials are a lot of fun.
Anyway, how’s steam’s backup facilities working for people? I’m worried about overcommiting to digital distribution for when the inevitable disaster strikes. Ten or so recent games would represent months worth of bandwidth quota for me and I can’t see that changing in the near future.
23/12/2009 at 20:53 Starky says:
Steam backup is as easy as pie, forget the backup option in steam there is a much easier way. You literally just copy the whole “steamapps” folder to wherever you like (you could even RAR/7zip it to DVD burnable chunks if you liked). then when you reinstall steam just copy paste it back.
I just installed windows 7 and it was just a case of copying that folder to my external HD (All 240GB of it), then once steam was installed, closing it and copying it back.
They come back as “download paused” but then instantly become ready when you click them.
Given HD space is so cheap now, it’s less than the cost of most new games to get yourself a 500GB to 1TB external HD for backup/archiving.
24/12/2009 at 00:10 Vinraith says:
@Muzzman
The in-client backup tool is slow and awkward. If Starky’s method works (and I’ve no reason to think it doesn’t) then that’s the vastly superior method. I’ll have to give that a try, thanks for the tip, Starky!
24/12/2009 at 00:18 invisiblejesus says:
Agreed with Starky and Vinraith both; Steam’s backup feature is a bit crap, but Starky’s method works great. I keep Windows on a separate partition from all my other stuff, and I’d recommend that any gamer do the same. It saves a ton of trouble when you go to reinstall.
24/12/2009 at 05:56 Muzman says:
Thanks Starky and others. Actually when I had to move steam from one drive to another, that involved shifting around steamapps intact and some other stuff. So that fits with what Starky’s saying too, now I think about it, and sounds like the way to go.
Cheers.
27/12/2009 at 02:39 duffster says:
@ Starky
That’s a great tip, thanks!
23/12/2009 at 19:40 Paul says:
The Void
Trials 2
Bard’s Tale
AudioSurf.
Only these 4 so far, and that is because I already own everything else I want – Stalker, MiE, GTA, Borderlands arrived today from zavvi for 15 quid, Shift same thing also today..
23/12/2009 at 19:45 Dominic White says:
I snapped up Mirror’s Edge, which I’d previously rented on the 360, but that cheap on the PC? I’m in.
It’s a very good game, just so long as you’re aware that it’s a racing game with a bit of a story to tie it together. Every level is just about getting from A to B as quickly and impressively as possible. The time-trials are where the real meat of the gameplay is, too.
Down to £2 now is Zombie Shooter 2. It’s just more Alien Shooter 2, but with the undead, so my brother snapped it up because AS2 was pretty neat. Also, I got a copy of STALKER for a friend.
24/12/2009 at 00:21 Velvet Fist, Iron Glove says:
@Dominic: Mirror’s Edge on the PC is great. The controls are perfect, and feel just right, unlike so many other games on both PC and consoles.
23/12/2009 at 19:52 Lavitz says:
WOW these are really nice deals. I am planning on getting gta 4. But I still don’t like game digitaly purchased couple game but I LIKE THE BOX!!!. If steam would even charge me $15 and send me the box I would buy it now.
24/12/2009 at 11:38 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
I have recently bought The Saboteur in a box…and it’s just a normal DVD case…what’s so special about it? I’m more annoyed by the need to input the cd key and leaving the DVD in drive in order to play
23/12/2009 at 19:55 mattwombat says:
Buggers they are.
Just bought:
Beyond Good & Evil
World of Goo (finally)
Ghostbusters
Evil Genius
Trine
& Fahrenheit (or Indigenous Porcupine, or whatever it is in yankland)
22 squid in total. Now I can’t buy those last minute prezzies tomorrow. Oh well.
23/12/2009 at 20:13 TheLordHimself says:
LOL Modern Warfare 2 – £39.99
No fuckin’ thanks.
23/12/2009 at 20:53 underproseductor says:
God, why???
23/12/2009 at 20:59 Alexander Norris says:
I grabbed Gothic 2 and IL-2 1946 from GOG, and will probably get Psychonauts sometime before their sale ends, too. I also have to get the Machinarium/Samorost 2 bundle even though I’ll likely never play them, if only because RPS has told me Machinarium is lovely and that Amanita deserve my money.
As for Steam, I got Mirror’s Edge, Fahrenheit and the Freedom Force pack. I finished Mirror’s Edge on 360 last year but damn it, it’s still an amazing game. It’s like Sonic with better characterisation and a female protagonist that isn’t an over-sexed walking pair of tits. It’s one of the few games that make me feel genuinely happy just by playing them.
23/12/2009 at 21:03 Carra says:
They’re doing quite a few things wrong.Their regional pricing is totally fucked up (£30 == €50?). And their prices are way more expensive than retail boxes.
But then they have a bargain deal like this and we can forget about all that for a few days.
23/12/2009 at 21:10 Alexander Norris says:
Carra: I screwed up my reply the first time around, so the original contents of this post (to which you were presumably replying) are now about a third of the way down page 1. Just so no one wonders where your reply came from. ;)
And yes, the price regionalisation is screwed up; they don’t bother changing prices to reflect currency rates, so it’s still modelled off what the pound was to the euro three years ago – which is downright stupid.
23/12/2009 at 21:25 Starky says:
Remember, it isn’t Valve – publishers set their own prices on steam.
24/12/2009 at 09:09 jalf says:
No, it is Valve *and* the publishers. Valve were the ones who came up with “hey, let’s do regional pricing, using a semi-random currency, and let’s default to an absurd exchange rate… Then publishers can change it on a per-game basis *if they really want to lower their prices*”
Don’t pretend that Valve had nothing to do with it. It’s their service. They initiated the whole fiasco. They came up with the default exchange rate.
24/12/2009 at 12:35 Xocrates says:
@jalf: To be fair, if they hadn’t done that we would probably have a lot more games only available on certain regions, or even less publishers on Steam altogether. While it wasn’t a particularly pleasant change it was almost unavoidable.
Other services, like Impulse, D2D, etc… do the same thing.
23/12/2009 at 21:00 fabrulana says:
Don’t really have the the money now after prezzy buying, but I picked up ate least Defense – The Grid (or something) finally as well as the Lucas Arts old adventures, hard to pass the nostalgia at this price.
24/12/2009 at 07:18 Wooly says:
You stole my icon! :O
23/12/2009 at 21:06 Alexander Norris says:
As an aside, should I get Rome: Total War Gold? It’s on sale for $5 (apparently, us Europeans still control the slave and spice trades, which is why we’re all twice as rich as the poor, oppressed colonists). I’ve got Medieval II, so I’m really more interested in the mods – like Europa Barbarorum and Rome: Total Realism – but apparently those all run better off vanilla Rome, and I’m afraid that Gold might be a single game combining both Rome and Barbarian Invasions (much like the retail Medieval II Gold).
23/12/2009 at 22:03 Starky says:
Europa Barbarorum works fine with RT:W Gold, as does total realism.
Gold is just both of them prepatched Rome:TW at patch 1.5 and Barb invasion at 1.6 – I’ve not installed my steam version yet, so I’m not 100% sure, but I believe you get separate exe’s for each one. Steam will probably give you the option when you click on the icon in a launch window.
The only problem will be if you want to play a mod for an older patch than 1.5 – as you can’t downgrade in steam.
Not much of a problem though as most mods have been updated to 1.5 by now. It’s pretty much the standard.
24/12/2009 at 00:01 Vinraith says:
@Alexander Norris
Actually Europa Barborum can use any Rome build up through Alexander, and the more expansions you have the better it will tend to be. The AI was improved with those expansions, and quite a few things were tweaked, and EB takes advantage of that.
24/12/2009 at 09:46 Alexander Norris says:
Awesome news. I guess I’ll grab it for $5 sometime this week.
24/12/2009 at 10:15 Buckermann says:
@Alexander Norris
Steam Medieval II had problems with mods since you couldn’t launch the exe directly; only with the launcher. I don’t think Rome:TW has the same problem.
Anyway, if you run into trouble, get a no-cd/no-steam exe. That solves this problem.
23/12/2009 at 21:07 Rinox says:
How has the GTA IV port been patched so far? And do I still need to sign up for Rockstar Games and Windows accounts in order to play it, even with the steam version?
Thanks for any input you can give me. :-)
23/12/2009 at 21:19 moosedrool says:
@Rinox – the xliveless mod is supposed to remove the need to log into GFWL. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet as I just purchased the game. http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=388658
23/12/2009 at 21:51 Blather Blob says:
@Rinox: You don’t need to create accounts, Rockstar Social Club has a “Skip Login” button, and GFWL lets you play with an “offline account”, but as mousedrool says, xliveless removes the need to see even that much of either program. It turns it into a proper offline single player game. You do need to create accounts for one or both logins if you want to do online multiplayer, but I’ve never even tried that because of all the complaints about rampant cheating. LAN still works fine with xliveless though.
23/12/2009 at 21:10 Rane2k says:
What I got:
Torchlight
GTA IV (Last GTA game I played was GTA 2)
Braid
Maybe more to come. :-)
23/12/2009 at 21:18 dsmart says:
Nothing to negotiate. They run the sales and if you want to participate, you’re in. No matter what the price drop is, the royalty cut remains the same. So if you get a 50% cut on a game that normally sells for $20 and it is on sale for $10, you still get 50% cut.
Considering that upticks in the region of 300+ % are not unheard of, there is some money to be made from these sales due to their impulse buy nature.
23/12/2009 at 21:20 dsmart says:
Sometimes you get asked to participate, depending on what special they are running. e.g. this is the second time we’re participating in these type of sales, so both of our games (All Aspect Warfare and Angle Of Attack) are also on sale at 50% off. So you bastards sitting on the fence had better go and get them both. I’m watching you.
23/12/2009 at 21:44 Starky says:
£20.99 discounted too £14.49 for AAW, so only 31% off in the UK. Though the double pack is indeed 50% off though at £21.49.
24/12/2009 at 15:23 Peace of Eight says:
*snort* You should be paying people to install your crap.
23/12/2009 at 21:24 Mr Lizard says:
It”s catch-up time:
Lucasarts pack (Loom, The Dig and 2 Indy games)
Oddworld pack (Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus)
Beyond Good And Evil
Broken Sword 3
Dark Messiah
Darwinia
GTA IV
Mirror’s Edge
Rome: Total War Gold
Second Sight
Time Gentlemen Please
(probably a whole year’s gaming, all for under £28)
23/12/2009 at 21:25 godwin says:
Too bad GTA:IV is “not available in my region.”
23/12/2009 at 21:39 Scandalon says:
RE: Machinarium
$10 on Steam.
$10 direct from Amanita gets you both Machinarium and Samarost 2, including the Mac and Linux versions, and the soundtracks. In this case, the only thing Steam has on it is continued, centralized availability. Don’t know how much re-download Amanita has.
24/12/2009 at 01:50 TRS-80 says:
Amanita have 2 weeks of downloadability, there was a bit of grousing about this in the Machinarium game of Christmas post. I bought from them because of the native (as native as Flash can be) Linux version, the soundtrack is just a bonus. Of course now I’m stuck on the third screen and can’t even get through the walkthrough game :-S Oh, and I picked up Stalker on Steam even though I already own the collector’s edition, you can’t argue with $1.50.
23/12/2009 at 21:52 Gerbick says:
Just purchased : Mirror’s Edge
World of Goo
Braid
This, on top of the TF2 and Samarost 2 purchase in the last week, represents the most games ever purchased by my good self in a year, let alone a week! And I’m still looking to get L4D2 and possibly a few more from the sales. Wife = Not Happy.
23/12/2009 at 22:16 Starky says:
Just shush her.
A man has a right to spend some of his hard earned cash on ridiculously cheap entertainment products. Just as a woman has the right to spend hers on overly expensive beauty products.
Agree that you’ll limit your entertainment budget (games, dvd’s so on) to the exact same amount they limit their hair/beauty “product” budget too… You’ll have enough to buy any game you please with plenty left over.
24/12/2009 at 13:10 Rinox says:
Good God Starky, don’t you know how that conversation will end? She will argue that the beauty products are not for her and get mad at you because she’s doing it to look good for you. Then it’s sleeping on the couch.
I’d rather just lie about it.
23/12/2009 at 21:54 Illuvatar says:
GTA IV
Mirrors Edge
Sniper Elite (bite me wallet, if I find €1.39 on the streets tomorrow we’re even again!)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
All of this goodness for €15. I’m close to crying.
23/12/2009 at 21:54 Scandalon says:
If I was to get one of the total wars, should it be Rome or Medieval II?
Also: Space Quest Collection: $5. I’m there!
23/12/2009 at 22:06 Starky says:
Both. M:TW2 is the better game by itself, but in my opinion R:TW has the better mods.
24/12/2009 at 03:27 Adam Whitehead says:
ROME is the slightly better vanilla game, but KINGDOMS (the add-on for MEDIEVAL II) is the best add-on. Both have awesome mods, but only MED II (plus KINGDOMS) has the THIRD AGE Middle-earth mod, which is (a bit) better than ROME’s equivalent FOURTH AGE mod (IMO, others may disagree).
On the twisted-WTF? scale, MED II has flamethrowers and witches, but ROME allows you to set fire to pigs and have them charge into enemy ranks, freaking them out. So it’s probably about even on that scale.
23/12/2009 at 22:11 Subjective Effect says:
Now is this Indigo Prophecy the European one or the nerfed American one?
24/12/2009 at 20:01 rei says:
The linked manual has no credits for euro-specific positions and the listed customer service contacts are for US & Canada only, so barring any first-hand accounts I’d guess it’s the nerfed version.
(P.S. TTLG represent!)
23/12/2009 at 22:44 JAKDWAUGH says:
Hey guys, i just found a deal on PLAY.COM
Warhammer 40,000 Dawn Of War II = £4.99 !!!!!!!!!!!
Its in their xmas sale section, probly wont arrive by xmas though, sob sob :(
23/12/2009 at 23:02 Flimgoblin says:
Too many games *twitch twitch* still not played half the games in the THQ collection which was half price back in november, but have still bought The Longest Journey (coz I’d heard it’s quite good on some website wot I read I fink) and Sanitarium from GoG and Mirror’s Edge from Steam today…
Have just finished working my way through the Red Faction trilogy:
Red faction 1: Kinda cool, smash things, felt like Deus Ex without the choices. Died to a door closing on me and found out it predated autosave. Uninstall.
Red faction 2: read too much about it while it was downloading. Uninstall
Red faction 3: Fought with GFWL patching crashing for an evening, finally got it installed. After seseseseseveral epepepepeisodes of the vivivivideos stuttering, had it running in windowed mode to some success. Finished first area.
Tried to play again today, mandatory patch through GFWL, crash, patch, crash, patch, hang, crash, forum check, priority change on .exe, patch downloaded, run patch, crash, can’t find the Steam installed version.
Uninstalled, time for Mirrors Edge I think….
23/12/2009 at 23:08 Magius Paulus says:
Did anyone tried the King’s Quest series in Vista? I would certainly buy it for oldtimes sake, but that disclaimer about not supporting Vista kind of worries me.
23/12/2009 at 23:13 Kua says:
Bought Mirror’s Edge and sorely tempted by BGAE (does the steam version work seamlessly with duo cores and other modern computer gadgetry? I remember having issues in the past) and Civ 3 Complete (I’m a Civ 4 devotee but I’m not sure whether its possible to go backwards and enjoy it and not feel like I might as well be playing the later iteration – I suppose there’s one way to find out).
23/12/2009 at 23:50 Stijn says:
BG&E worked fine for me (quad core etc), I think I needed to tweak a few settings but it’s nothing mindblowing. It’s probably one of my favourite games of all time, so I’d say it’s well worth the money, especially for the current price.
23/12/2009 at 23:52 Kadayi says:
I think you need to do a few tweaks, but can get it to work ok. Also seconded in that it is a must play game. Extremely sad to hear that the sequel has been shelved for the time though…
24/12/2009 at 01:11 The Sombrero Kid says:
jk & motsa are a bargin, i’m thinking about that right now.
24/12/2009 at 09:14 jalf says:
If you’re buying BG&E, do so on GoG. It might be a dollar or two more expensive, but they actually support the game, and install it with an utility to fix the bugs that occur on some modern systems. On Steam, you’re just screwed if it doesn’t work.
And the game is pretty brittle. On a few systems it works fine, on others it takes a ton of tweaking and hacking to get working. Save yourself some of the hassle and buy it from GoG instead.
24/12/2009 at 12:33 Xocrates says:
EDIT: oops. wrong reply
23/12/2009 at 23:20 Quijote3000 says:
Yesterday I didn’t want to buy ANY game for some time. Just to eliminate the many games I want to play
Today:
Freedom Force: Freedom Pack
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
Commandos 2 – Men of Courage
Indigo Prophecy
Beyond Good and Evil™
Rome: Total War™ – Gold
Braid
Brother in Arms: Earned in blood
Flesh is weak. We need the borg.
24/12/2009 at 12:45 MrTambourineMan says:
BIA: Earned in Blood is the best in series IMO.
23/12/2009 at 23:39 Quijote3000 says:
there is also an interesting sale going on at gog.com
http://www.gog.com/en/page/xmas09
I just bought Sacrifice and Jagged Alliance 2. As I said, the sales were just too good.
23/12/2009 at 23:44 The Sombrero Kid says:
i went mental today and spent £40 on steam, i couldn’t resist! i’m still tempted by some of the others too!
24/12/2009 at 00:09 Cooper says:
Wow. Bugger me.
Just spent £48, but saved myself over £50 doing that.
Moreover, all those games I bought were on my ‘to eventually get around to playing’ list – GTA IV, Riddick, Tropico 3, The Void, Clear Sky.
Except for the Lucas Arts pack (Indiana Jones, Loom & The Dig for a whoppoing £1.80…) and the King’s Quest Collection which were impulse buys at stupid prices and should keep me amused with my netbook for the next week or two I’m at the folks’.
Quids in, that was amazing – it even beat a lot of second hand or online retail deals which is how I usually get my cheap games.
24/12/2009 at 09:50 Alexander Norris says:
This is the horrible sales mentality: you have not, in fact, saved yourself £50. You’ve spent £48. At most, you’ve saved yourself whatever it would’ve cost you to buy just the games you really, really wanted when they weren’t on sale. ;)
24/12/2009 at 15:05 TeeJay says:
@Alexander Norris
GTA IV £4.99 >> £9.99 (play.com)
Riddick dark athena £5.09 >> £14.99 (play.com)
Tropico 3 £14.99 >> £18.85 (shopto.net)
The Void £9.99 >> c.£15.00 (various)
Clear Sky £3.99 >> £6.49 (coolshop)
Lucas Arts pack £1.74 >> £6.99 (normal steam price)
King’s Quest pack £2.49 >> £9.99 (normal steam price)
Saving over next cheapest prices (excluding eBay/2nd hand) = £39.02 (or excluding the last two packs, £26.27)
24/12/2009 at 00:15 invisiblejesus says:
Just grabbed Indigo Prophecy on top of GTA4, Mirror’s Edge and Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood. Good times. BTW, just to point out a couple gems that no one’s talking about, Madballs in Babo… Invasion and Nation Red are both on sale for $5 apiece, and both more than worth it. And Chains is only 99 cents; it’s a simple puzzle game, but even if that isn’t your thing I’d give it a try at this price. I don’t usually get too excited about puzzle games, but Chains is just wonderful stuff and has a great soundtrack to boot.
24/12/2009 at 00:30 David says:
L4D2 is 14.99 on amazon.co.uk right now if you’re interested in picking it up cheap.
24/12/2009 at 19:20 Carra says:
Damn £5 shipping costs (and less then £2 for a DVD?).
24/12/2009 at 01:13 The Sombrero Kid says:
woops acidentally replied to a comment, lets try again:
jk & motsa are a bargin, i’m thinking about that right now.
24/12/2009 at 01:41 Baris says:
…What are jk & motsa?
24/12/2009 at 02:06 whalleywhat says:
So far:
Braid
Indigo Prophecy
HoMM 5
Unreal Pack
Oddworld Pack
I’ll probably pick up Bionic Commando: Rearmed and The Witcher before this is over. What are the chances a newly added game like DMC4 goes on sale? Seems like it’s ripe for one of these daily deals.
24/12/2009 at 02:18 valli-r says:
Its ok we all prefer steam.
24/12/2009 at 08:48 bill says:
Gah! I wanted to pick up M2: Total War for the mods you guys have featured here… but they all seem to need Kingdoms, and the pack including kingdoms is $30… and the steam M2:TW doesn’t work with non-steam Kingdoms. Sigh.
24/12/2009 at 09:11 Miker says:
Hear, hear. I was just as disappointed last time Steam had its weekend sale a few weeks back. However, you can find M2: TW Gold on Amazon for ~$10 (+S/H) new, which I may eventually resort to.
24/12/2009 at 09:52 akbar says:
Mirror’s Edge and Braid, under a fiver. Done.
24/12/2009 at 10:06 hydra9 says:
It’s great that so many people are picking up Mirror’s Edge. One of my favourite games of 2009 (Yes, the PC version was released this year – I doubt it’ll be in the RPS advent calendar, though).
24/12/2009 at 11:29 Crush says:
Bought Mini-Ninjas, Defense Grid Awakening, Torchlight and Time Gentleman Please
All good stuff I had been meaning to get Mini-Ninjas (from makers of Hitman) and Defense Grid Awakening on the old x360 but this was way too good an offer to miss on the PC.
24/12/2009 at 12:32 Brooksy says:
Mirror’s Edge, Time Gentlemen, King’s Bounty and GTAIV and it’s only the first day or so of the sale. Probably also pick up Indigo Prophecy, The Void and Beyond Good and Evil at least before its over. That Freedom Force pack is also looking mighty tempting. Goodbye money
24/12/2009 at 12:43 MrTambourineMan says:
Bougt: GTAIV, Braid, Stalker SOC and GTAIV :)
24/12/2009 at 14:19 Nerd Rage says:
The only part of this that I don’t like is the part where, just a few weeks ago, I spent a little over $100 to catch up on some games from earlier in the year that I’d missed. Had I made those same purchases today that would have been less than $50. That makes me sad inside.
24/12/2009 at 16:08 NicoD says:
Christ on a bike, this is outlandish. Grabbed GTAIV, GRID, Oddworld pack and Far Cry 2. Checked to see what Clear Sky was going for and this comes up:
Oops, this is embarrassing. Due to high demand we have temporarily run out of unique keys for this title. You may, by all means, purchase at the awesome sale price but may not be able to play until we receive more unique product keys. It shouldn’t take too long, we have sent armed guards to the publisher’s house to get them out of bed, drive them to their secret lair and produce more keys.
Love Steam’s sense of humour.
24/12/2009 at 16:42 Adventurous Putty says:
Wowzahs! I just got the ENTIRE Penumbra collection for $10 US! This is fucking badass!
Any other recommendations?
24/12/2009 at 18:12 Jimmy says:
I got the Penumbra collection at that price a couple of months ago. It is just sitting there waiting to be played, one I finish my degree.. And now I can add GTAIV, M:TW2, Braid, and The Void to that list.
I had been waiting to get The Void for quite a while, but will give it a blast next week.
24/12/2009 at 19:08 Vinraith says:
FYI: Gamersgate has both Men of War games at 50% off, today only.
24/12/2009 at 22:08 Rob S. says:
Today’s specials seem a bit weak compared to yesterday (apart from the id pack, but I’ve already bought most of those at least once and don’t really feel like playing them anyways).
25/12/2009 at 04:06 Vinraith says:
I’ve actually managed to avoid buying anything so far, since none of the daily deals have caught my interest to date. In the “general sales pool” I’m thinking about:
Dark Athena ($6.79)
Rogue Trooper ($6.69)
Zuma’s Revenge ($7.49)
Evil Genius ($2)
Alien Shooter 2 ($1.24)
Zombie Shooter 2 ($2.49)
Port Royale 2 ($2.49)
but since I have til Jan. 3 I figure I’ll wait and see what I get for Christmas and whether i have any holiday cash to spend before making any purchase commitments. I need to pick up Anno 1404 (boxed copy = DRM free, yay!), Dragon Age: Origins, Tropico 3, and The Void if they don’t turn up under the tree, and those come before cheap Steam games on the priorities list. There’s also that huge GOG sale to consider, along with any ancillary deals that turn up on Gamersgate and Direct2Drive.
25/12/2009 at 16:53 Shalrath says:
“No, it is Valve *and* the publishers. Valve were the ones who came up with “hey, let’s do regional pricing, using a semi-random currency, and let’s default to an absurd exchange rate… Then publishers can change it on a per-game basis *if they really want to lower their prices*”
Don’t pretend that Valve had nothing to do with it. It’s their service. They initiated the whole fiasco. They came up with the default exchange rate.”
The regions themselves set the prices, just like goddamn FIGS (France, Italy, Germany, Spain) all need their specific languages done JUST SO and my GOD if you fuck that up you’ll never hear the end of it.
25/12/2009 at 17:32 dadioflex says:
Yesterday Impulse Now had Kings Bounty: Armored Princess for 25% off and I almost bought it, today Steam has it for 75% off and I totally did.
25/12/2009 at 18:49 LewieP says:
Cogs is fantastic folks. Grab it at that price.
25/12/2009 at 19:58 McNubbins says:
Damn those busy Steam servers, I wanna download some demos before I buy!
25/12/2009 at 20:14 Nullbyte says:
Hey guys. Machinarium is fucking worth it.. Buy it immediately. I just played through it, and it’s so good, one of the best point and click puzzles I have ever played.
25/12/2009 at 21:33 dadioflex says:
Yeah, they’re getting completely hammered. I’m managing about 80-100KB/s for my Armored Princess download.
25/12/2009 at 22:40 mcnubbins says:
Changed download region to Middle East, and now it’s downloading full speed no problem.
26/12/2009 at 03:40 Shadowcat says:
I’m kinda disappointed, RPS. A couple of days before Steam’s sale started, GOG put their entire catalogue on sale (25-40% off everything, save for the few games released in December) and you don’t comment at all. Fair enough, I though — presumably you were just waiting to report on all digital stores together to avoid too many sale posts. But when you do that, you make the story about Steam, and mention GOG in a one-liner which lists two games?
Yeah, Steam’s sale is impressive, but the other stores really deserved a little bit more coverage than that. (Personally I bought more games from GOG’s sale than I did from Steam’s, so the “none of it holds a candle to Steam’s insanity” just doesn’t hold up to my mind.)
26/12/2009 at 19:21 Starky says:
Eh? Sorry but RPS are right, old games at a minor discount don’t even come close, not even close by interplanetary scale.
GoG is offering old games at 25-40%, steam is offering brand new, newish (2-3 years) and older games at crazy discounts, 80%, even 90% in one case.
It’s offering entire catalogues of games (often featuring new AAA titles) less than the cost of a single new title.
As much as I like GoG when I get the urge for a bit of nostalgia (because I can trust that they will just work), Steams sale blows every other companies out the water and makes them look slightly pitiful by comparison.
26/12/2009 at 06:08 dadioflex says:
Hey, so long as you’re happy in your mind.
26/12/2009 at 16:16 Hardlylikely says:
Haven’t seen it mentioned that Eve is $5 US to sign up on Steam right now. I’m going to convert my trial account and finally have a crack instead of just reading about amazing things other people have done. Five American Dollars for a month of game time. That has to be pulling in some fellow fence sitters.
Also from Steam I’m looking at getting The Witcher (finally), Zeno Clash (ditto), The Void, another copy of Rome: Total War for MP with The Lady, and Integral Papacy (aka Fahrenheit). Damn selective region policies. It was called Fahrenheit in my country, if you can block games I can’t buy here (AU), couldn’t the game titles be correct as well? If it is also the censored version I will become stern.
There are some excellent bargains on GOG too, but that’s a tomorrow thing.
I don’t usually assume that people on the Internet will care about my purchases, and hey, most of you probably don’t, but I’m liking this seasonal cheap game festival. Also I’m full of festive whiskey and love for my fellow man.
26/12/2009 at 17:16 James G says:
Torchlight is only £3.74! I already own a copy, but at that price am half contemplating getting a version on Steam to take advantage of the Steam-cloud additions.
26/12/2009 at 17:19 Dominic White says:
My brother owns Torchlight already, but I didn’t – I held off because I heard it was too easy, but now it’s so crazy-cheap and also highly moddable/modded, I’m snapping it up.
He reccomended that I also get Torchleech:
http://forums.runicgames.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=5875
A community mod database/downloader/manager, apparently. Neat stuff.
Now to find myself a proper Roguelike mod.
26/12/2009 at 17:27 mcnubbins says:
Been looking forward to a rogue-like mod for this actually, but seems no one is making one yet unfortunately.
26/12/2009 at 19:08 Dominic White says:
The tools have only really been out for a while. It’ll be some time until any big project mods come to fruition. Nice to see that there’s also some interesting stuff, though. New dungeon segments, frameworks for new classes, rebalance attempts, etc.
26/12/2009 at 17:23 cdub says:
Dragon Age 25% off today….sooo tempting after reading the Games of Christmas praise on RPS. And Torchlight for $5.00!
26/12/2009 at 18:08 Vinraith says:
@cdub
GoGamer has it (in the US) for $35 for a boxed copy.
26/12/2009 at 18:49 cdub says:
Cool, thanks. Would be a good game to have the box for.
26/12/2009 at 17:25 mcnubbins says:
Damn, I almost bought that Star Wars Premier Pack at 10 euros, but now they changed the pirce to 23! And it seems they added a game (KotOR) to the pack.
26/12/2009 at 22:15 invisiblejesus says:
@mcnubbins
Check out the store page for that Star Wars pack before you buy, by my math you actually pay less by buying the games individually. And if you already have or don’t want anything in the pack, you pay even less by skipping ‘em. It’s kind of a lame deal given the discounts the individual games are at.
26/12/2009 at 22:31 invisiblejesus says:
Gah, wait, ignore that last post. My math was fucked up. My bad!
26/12/2009 at 18:03 Alexander Norris says:
I’m really annoyed I spent $20 on Torchlight to get it straight from Runic in November, when I could’ve waited until now and bought it for $6 with Steam Cloud so it’d keep my saves backed up. :(
26/12/2009 at 18:09 Vinraith says:
@Alexander Norris
The saves are so small you can email them to yourself quite easily, if it’s any consolation, and at least you don’t have to run Steam every time you start the game. Plus you helped support the developer (I got it off Gamersgate for $20, myself, because of Runic’s limited install thing).
26/12/2009 at 18:40 Alexander Norris says:
Sadly, I didn’t think to back up my save because I didn’t think I’d have to back it up – my HDD gave absolutely no indication of anything being wrong before it failed (then I found out I had a HDD from a line of faulty Seagate drives that usually fail within two to three months, except mine lasted a full year).
Anyway, I didn’t even know Runic had DRM on Torchlight. What’s the limited install thing? I hope I didn’t get shafted by buying it from them. :/
26/12/2009 at 19:11 Vinraith says:
@Alexander Norris
My condolences, I got bitten by one of those Seagate drives a few months ago myself. I’ve been keeping borderline paranoid backups of everything ever since.
Runic supposedly set an activation limit on copies direct from them (it’s the only reason I didn’t buy it from them, normally I try to buy straight from indie devs so as to best support them). It’s supposed to be very high (10, 12, something like that) and they claim that if you ever run up against it they’ll happily give you more, but it was still enough to ward me off.
26/12/2009 at 20:49 ManaTree says:
But only if you consider price, unfortunately. But you’re also missing another fact. It’s much harder to slap a 90% off tag on GoG prices when they’re already so low. In fact, their normal prices are what the discounted Steam prices are, sometimes. But of course, they’re mostly selling different games.
I’m actually surprised there was another Torchlight sale, though. And it’s very very very much worth getting now.
ALSO, a bump for Lumines. I got it at full price and I haven’t regretted it (besides the fact that I paid full). But it’s awesome and very worth the $3. The visuals and audio are freakin’ great.
27/12/2009 at 00:34 whalleywhat says:
I wonder how hard Bill Roper is kicking himself, seeing how little Torchlight changed the Diablo II formula and how successful it’s been?
27/12/2009 at 17:08 Alexander Norris says:
The Diablo II formula? Torchlight has a lot more in common with Diablo than Diablo II.
28/12/2009 at 04:06 whalleywhat says:
It’s a bit pedantic, but sure. The point was that Hellgate tried to innovate so much and bit off way more than it could chew. Torchlight seems to be succeeding by just giving people more of that thing that they already like.
27/12/2009 at 02:16 Shadowcat says:
Exactly. A minimum 25% discount at GOG means there’s not a single thing in the entire store that costs more than $7.50. Up to 40% off means there are loads of games which cost $3.60 and $3.90. DRM-free.
Steam absolutely has lots of remarkable bargains going on, but the GOG sale most definitely “holds a candle” to it. That’s all I’m saying.
27/12/2009 at 03:09 Vinraith says:
Yes, 90% off for a GOG game would make it $0.50. GOG prices are extremely reasonable, especially considering that it’s virtually the only digital distributor that actually lets you really “own” a game. With Steam you’ve got at best 10-20% ownership, so it makes perfect sense you should only have to pay 10-20% of MSRP. :)
27/12/2009 at 03:13 ManaTree says:
I like your logic. It works. Although personally, I’ve gotten like, I dunno, 98% ownership at 10-20% of the price. ;)
27/12/2009 at 15:13 Speedcore says:
thanx to whoever tweeted the torchlight special. $5 bargain :D
27/12/2009 at 17:10 Alexander Norris says:
New deals are up. Is Hearts of Iron III worth it? I’m tempted to get it on the basis that it’s new-ish and cheap-ish, and I know someone who has it – does it have multiplayer campaign?
27/12/2009 at 18:21 cdub says:
I’m definitely gonna snag HoI 3 now that it’s only $7.49. Was on the fence before. Although I wish they kept something like the cool 2d animated icons from HoI 2 instead of giving you a choice between 3d sprites and counters. I know it shouldn’t matter much in this kind of game but I just really liked the look of HoI 2.
27/12/2009 at 18:49 LeBump says:
I would like opinions on HOI 3, as well. Heard there were terrible, terrible issues at launch that have since been patched out, but would still like to know how it stacks up compared to HOI 2. All of the horse armor type DLC available for this game doesn’t make me exactly confident that Paradox won’t be charging for fixes later via paid expansions either.
27/12/2009 at 19:23 cdub says:
I won’t be able to really delve into the game until later, but so far it is already crashing for me when I try to run the tutorial. Running a normal game, however, works fine so far. I’m on a laptop, core duo 2.26, 4 gb ram, running vista.
I’m sure there are others around here that can give more detailed feedback.
27/12/2009 at 19:29 Schaulustiger says:
@cdub:
The tutorials in the Steam version are broken since patch 1.3 but there is a fix for that in the Tech Support forum over at paradoxplaza.com. You have to register your CD key to their forum, though.
27/12/2009 at 20:47 cdub says:
Thanks Schaulustiger!
27/12/2009 at 21:00 Oak says:
It’s probably best that that particular tutorial stays broken.
27/12/2009 at 21:22 Vinraith says:
While I’d personally never buy a Paradox game on Steam (they’re updated far more reliably on Gamersgate as a result of affiliation between the companies) I would be interested in hearing how HOI3 compares to 2 with all the expansions. I’d also be interested in knowing what’s up with those sprite packs. Are they just aesthetic additions, or actual additional units?
29/12/2009 at 20:56 cdub says:
It’s just an aesthetic thing, you can turn the counters on or off during the game and they are replaced by 3d graphics, which can only be seen while zoomed in fairly closely. I don’t know if I’m just partial to 2d strategy games or what, but I much preferred the graphics in HoI 2.
31/12/2009 at 21:40 Vinraith says:
@cdub
Thanks, that was the impression I’d gotten but it’s nice to have it confirmed.
27/12/2009 at 19:08 invisiblejesus says:
Mmmm, Dead Space and DoD:S for me. Just a note for bargain hunters, Gamersgate has Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason on sale for $6.49. I took a chance on it, and while it’s performance is pretty awful I’m still happy with it so far. Good, immersive horror stuff.
28/12/2009 at 03:42 Hardlylikely says:
I stipulate that this is selfish, (and trying not to get too ranty), but now that I have had some bargains, and most people have had a good shot too, I can’t wait for the sale to be over. The performance of the Steam home page is even worse than usual, with all the (Flash?) sale widgets dancing about and ticking over.
Admittedly this is because I’m on a weakish borrowed machine while my stuff is stored in a different city (moving). I’d have thought a Celeron 2.4 with an AGP 7600GT and 1.2 GB RAM should be able to run a storefront app. It’s no monster, but compared to days of yore this should have somewhat acceptable performance for basic tasks. But no, Steam has always been sluggish for me on a range of PCs, and on this it’s almost unusable. Even discounting the home page animations, it has rarely felt responsive to me, and it’s difficult to see a good reason for that. It’s not as if it does very much, is it?
It would be nice if they would add a plain, static option for when people are stuck on an older system for whatever reason. Valve has their own hardware survey that would support this idea. It’s a pity that there are many low performance requirements games on my list that are outweighed by the wheezing, heaving bulk of a specialised browser client. Come on Valve, invest in the platform a little and use your own survey data, will you?
28/12/2009 at 13:19 Magius Paulus says:
Anyone else thinking that Steam will repeat all individual daysales at the final day of their holidaysales?
28/12/2009 at 14:41 Muzman says:
I wonder how The Void did? Seems like plenty from here and TTLG picked it up. Is it a niche group of nerds grabbing it or are more taking the plunge, I wonder.
28/12/2009 at 20:17 ManaTree says:
I don’t think so, Magius. That’s not their style. But since this is all so new I could be wrong.
Get the Orange Box if you don’t have it.
Any thoughts on Killing Floor and/or Burnout? Specifically, is there anything about KF that put you over the fence (the review by RPS put me straight on the fence)? And for a non-racing person, is Burnout a good game? Did you get hooked? I’m not usually one for racing games (I find racing on the same track gets repetitive and I’m not a huge fan of trial and error gameplay).
28/12/2009 at 21:42 mcnubbins says:
Was just about to buy Prey for mega-cheap, and guess what happens? They run out of keys and remove it from the sale!
28/12/2009 at 21:43 jsutcliffe says:
Oh bugger, and I was going to get Prey when I got home. Arsecakes.
28/12/2009 at 21:54 Oak says:
That sucks, but it makes me happy that so many people wanted to buy it.
28/12/2009 at 22:25 TeeJay says:
@ mcnubbins
Don’t know if this helps you but last week I picked up a 2nd hand DVD/boxed version of Prey from from Computer Exchange for £1. Their website lists them now for £0.80 (with free postage).
http://www.cex.co.uk/products/Gaming/PC%20Gaming/PC%20CD-ROM/index.php?sku=5026555051149&name=Prey%20%2818%29&mode=buy
28/12/2009 at 22:50 Frosty says:
Oh good grief. I just purchased Empire Total War and Burnout. I promised myself I wouldn’t.
Bank balance is currently two pounds above zero. Oh dear.
28/12/2009 at 22:52 jsutcliffe says:
I’m pretty sure there’s still something in the Steam sale you can afford, if you want to get to zero ;)
28/12/2009 at 22:56 TeeJay says:
Just to follow up on that Computer Exchange thing, they seem to have an online minimum of £2 so here’s some other ultra cheap stuff that could be used to make up the difference:
£1.00
IL2 Sturmovik
Mutant Storm
Prince Of Persia – Sands Of Time
Spellforce – Order of Dawn
Gun
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
£0.80
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3
Thief – Dark Project
Sacrifice
Armed And Dangerous
Pro Evolution Soccer 5
£0.50
Startopia
Vietcong
Thief 2
£0.25
Perimeter
£0.20
Freedom Force
£0.10
Space Colony
Serious Sam
28/12/2009 at 22:57 KindredPhantom says:
If i recall retail cd keys of Prey can be added to steam. I did that with a pre-owned version i bought once, then i traded it in at gamestation after finishing it.
28/12/2009 at 23:07 TeeJay says:
@KindredPhantom
I’ve just noticed the Prey cd-key. What’s the score if the previous owner has already registered it with their own Steam account? I only want it for the single player and I don’t really need to link it to Steam do I?
I prefer to buy new stuff and I have occasionally had bad experiences with 2nd-hand stuff from Gamestation (eg missing keys, missing disks etc) but I am giving my newly opened CeX a try. Also at these kinds of £1-and-under prices it doesn’t really matter.
29/12/2009 at 04:17 Blather Blob says:
@TeeJay: Prey will run fine without activating it on steam — I think the steam activation was added later due to whatever Steam-alike they encouraged people to buy it through going bankrupt and shutting down, so they had to find some way for all the digital-only folks to get a new copy and just went ahead and made it available to anyone with a physical copy too. But if you have a physical copy, telling Steam about it is entirely optional and you can even install a later patch than is available on Steam (but only removes the CD check and adds compatibility for Japanese versions, so Steam users aren’t missing much).
If a CD key is already active on Steam you can email them a scan/photo of your printed key or cd or something and a receipt, but they only accept receipts for new copies of games, not used.
Off your list of cheap games, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is also activatable on Steam if you’re going for maximum Steam list growth. Steam is also optional for it, though maybe Multiplayer requires it? I can’t remember. I activated it on Steam under the assumption that if there were any patches they’d be on Steam and that seemed easiest.
29/12/2009 at 10:39 Acidburns says:
Is it just me or does it really say “Sold Out” for Prey in today’s Steam deals.
Am I missing something here or have we reached Peak Digital Distribution or something? Since it doesn’t show up in the Top 20 sellers maybe they mean “Wont Sell”?
29/12/2009 at 11:29 Tei says:
Re: Wont Sell Prey Marketing (?) Weirdness
You maybe can try to run “javascript:addToCart(3970);” in the javascript context of the page. then visit your cart, and continue the checkout process.
Buy one, and post here the result, will your buy be undone later? will you be stoped by a error message? will you be banned from steam? I suppose this is marketing, but maybe is real that Steam is allowed to a top of Prey licenses ( say… 8000 licenses / 8000 cd-keys ).
29/12/2009 at 11:42 Clovis says:
@Tei: According to that website that calculates the worth of your steam games, I’m over the $600 mark. According to Steam’s TOS, they can ban my account on a whim. So I definitely will not be trying that ;-)
I’ll pretty much do whatever Valve tell me to do. Please don’t take away my games and make me face the real world.
29/12/2009 at 12:38 Tei says:
Yea. Another reason for DRM to suck. All your toys can be removed from you, literally.
If I where a hacker (I am not), another option would be to create another account, with different email. And buy the game on that other account, but as a gift to your real account. You can’t be banned for a gift, do you?, but If you can be banned because a gift, then you have created a interesting tool: the ability to ban any Steam account. Since there are humans in the process is not as automatic as can be, but is still a WMD.
29/12/2009 at 17:49 stahlwerk says:
So, what’s the word on Jade Empire™ (a tempting € 3.75 today)? Last I heard it was overly consolized, yet the visuals to me looked quite nice.. how does it hold up? Is it more action/puzzling rather than rpg/questing? Do I need a controller for it? How does it compare to KOTOR, Mass Effect et al.?
29/12/2009 at 17:51 Deoden says:
Could anyone tell me whether Silent Hill: Homecoming is worth the £7.50 Steam is currently asking for?
Oh, and hello everyone! First time posting here :)
EDIT: And yes, Jade Empire is definitely worth the (tiny amount of) money. It’s Bioware’s most lightweight game to date, and as such should serve as a nice appetizer before Mass Effect 2 arrives.
29/12/2009 at 17:59 jsutcliffe says:
@stahlwerk
I really enjoyed Jade Empire — you can think of it as a more actiony KOTOR, with fewer side quests. I had no problems playing it with a keyboard and mouse and didn’t think it felt like a console game, though it did feel a little lightweight for Bioware. Well worth a shot for today’s sale price, I’d say.
@everyone
Mr. Robot for $2. All get!
29/12/2009 at 18:00 Deoden says:
29/12/2009 at 18:02 Dean says:
Jade Empire is your standard Bioware template RPG (so pretty awesome). Only difference are the combat mechanics which are a real time melee brawler, and quite fun in my opinion. Levelling up is a matter of choosing which fighting styles to improve and in what way, so not quite as deep on that score as the other games, but the plot is pretty strong,
29/12/2009 at 18:06 stahlwerk says:
Hi Deoden, thanks for the head’s up. Yeah, I probably should have mentioned, that I am actually looking for something more casual than D&D in space/china/far far away. Off to the check-out, then! :-)
Can’t tell you anything about Silent Hill: Homecoming, though.
29/12/2009 at 18:07 Anon says:
You know, not to bring up that topic again, but between these offers and the thanksgiving ones I’ve found myself buying a lot of games that I’ve pirated the past few years. Curious if I’m the only one. (And yes, I know that doesn’t make it okay, I just find it sort of interesting)
29/12/2009 at 18:16 dadioflex says:
I hated Jade Empire. Had to quit it after less than 7 or 8 hours play AND I’d bought the collectors edition in a tin box. As far as I could see the whole levelling system was broken, though no-one else seemed to notice. I’d finished all of Bioware’s other games up until that point. TBH Dragon Age had the same effect on me though, so if you liked that you might like JE as well. They’re both action RPGs.
29/12/2009 at 18:18 Psychopomp says:
I think you meant Mass Effect, not Dragon Age…
29/12/2009 at 20:57 KindredPhantom says:
When i bought my copy of Half-Life 2 off a carboot all i had to do was send in a scan/picture of the serial key and a picture of the game in it’s dvd case. That was proof enough for them to transfer ownership across to my account.
But that was a few years ago, before steam became as big and as popular as it is today. Knowing valve though you could probably still do it,
31/12/2009 at 18:37 Magius Paulus says:
Get Street Fighter 4 today! It’s a great game, especially if you have sweet memories back to when Street Fighter 2 was hot (i played it evening after evening with friends on a SNES back then).
31/12/2009 at 22:50 invisiblejesus says:
Just nabbed it, along with the Darwinia/Multiwinia pack and Shattered Horizon. Gonna be a long time before I need to buy any more games….
02/01/2010 at 01:49 MD says:
Tempted by both seasons of Sam & Max for $15, anyone have a strong opinion either way?
02/01/2010 at 01:54 Vinraith says:
@MD
Season 1 Episode 4 is available free through Steam IIRC. Give it a try and see what you think. Personally, I liked the humor but found the actual gameplay too tedious, but people that enjoy point-and-click adventure games are likely to have a much higher tolerance than I and might really enjoy it.
02/01/2010 at 02:08 MD says:
Thanks Vinraith, now that you mention it I actually did try the free episode quite some time ago. So a better question for me to ask would have been ‘how representative is that episode of the entire series?’. From memory I found the tone and humour to be fairly charming — not hilarious, and occasionally annoying, but enjoyable overall — and the gameplay not particularly interesting but not boring or time-consuming enough to ruin the game provided the dialogue, plot etc. were up to scratch.
I’m not even sure whether I like adventure games. I’m terrible at them, and I find actually playing them to be an incredibly tedious experience at times, but when everything falls into place the experience is well worth it. Zombie Cow (Ben There Done That, Time Gentlemen Please) and Amanita Design (Samorost 1&2, Machinarium) made some of my favourite single-player games, but in both cases the developers seemed to make a special effort to avoid infuriating me. With copious walkthrough usage I got a lot out of Grim Fandango, but that was certainly a case of enjoying a game despite its mechanics.
02/01/2010 at 02:41 invisiblejesus says:
I thought the Sam and Max stuff was pretty fun, but the gameplay isn’t anything to get excited about. Just sort of cute and fun humor. I skipped it as I have season 1 on Wii already, and prefer it there. For me it’s more of a sit on the couch and veg out sort of game.
02/01/2010 at 01:57 Forceflow says:
I’m going to wait a few more days to see what special deals pop up.
I already bought Trials 2, Lumines, Prey, Indigo Prophecy and Red Faction: Guerilla.
I’d like to pick up Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena too, but maybe it drops into the special sales … :)
02/01/2010 at 18:13 Carra says:
Trine is up now for a reasonable price.
And if someone still hasn’t played Oblivion, it’s the time to get it.
02/01/2010 at 18:41 invisiblejesus says:
Trine’s great, if you don’t already have it then grab it now. I got it for $10 the last time it was on sale, and it was well worth it. At $5, it’s a must-buy.
02/01/2010 at 22:03 Vinraith says:
@invisiblejesus
Yes, it’s a fun, gorgeous, clever platformer. That is, until that god-awful last level.
02/01/2010 at 22:37 Dominic White says:
You mean the one challenging level in the game, right? Seriously, it’s a cakewalk (the thief is so exploitable) except for that one stretch, which isnt’ even that hard.
With more players, it actually gets more subtle and complex. And dificult too, so it’s well worth bringing in another two players if you have the controllers for it.
03/01/2010 at 00:21 Vinraith says:
@Dominic
If you’re patient with and good at platformers I’m sure the rest of the game is a cakewalk and that’s a pleasant challenge. As I’m neither, I found much of the game pleasantly relaxing, the last few levels a pleasant challenge, and the final one an incomprehensible difficulty spike. I’ve watched videos of what’s supposed to be done, and as best I can tell the only way to succeed on that level is to go through by trial-and-error and memorize the entire course. If the rest of the game were like that, or even gradually became like that, I wouldn’t mind it so much. My issue is that the game went from “relaxing, pretty game” to “enormously frustrating challenge” with no warning, transition, or preperation.
02/01/2010 at 19:22 jsutcliffe says:
Sweet, I’d been waiting for Trine to come down in price. I was on the fence at $20 — $5 is a steal.
02/01/2010 at 19:57 Frosty says:
Finally got paid. Peed off I missed out buying Burnout because of the sale time limit and when my pay went in but there is the breaks.
A question. Fallout 3; do I get the plain game from Amazon for thirteen pounds or do I get the game of the year edition (with all the DLC) from Steam for twenty-two pounds?
02/01/2010 at 21:59 Blather Blob says:
@Frosty: You wait until tomorrow to be sure it doesn’t go on sale in the last of Steam’s daily deals.
03/01/2010 at 02:10 ManaTree says:
Morrowind is the one on sale, not Oblivion. I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting it. That’s quite cheap from such a huge game (AFAIK).
03/01/2010 at 05:31 Clovis says:
@Vinraith,DW: I think I’m pretty good at platformers, but I immediately gave up on that last level. I’m sure I could have finished, but I found myself bored with the game really quickly. A better game would have made me want to keep trying to figure it out. The last level of New Super Mario Bros Wii also has a weird difficulty spike, but I went ahead and tried it 20 times or so and finished it. Trine is a nice game, but not great.
03/01/2010 at 13:46 Forceflow says:
Thought about getting Riddick, until I saw it came with Tages DRM, a system notorious for frakking up system stability.
Dear developers: Steam = DRM. No need for 3rd party, dodgy bullshit installing tier 3 drivers in our Windows System folders.
03/01/2010 at 13:54 Baris says:
Trine is a nice game, but not great.
I’m going to go ahead and disagree by saying Trine is an amazing game and I’d give up any other 2 games I’ve played in the last 5 years for it.
03/01/2010 at 23:23 MD says:
Heh, is it just a quirk of my region/browser/whatever, or has Stalker’s return to the daily deals section seen its price rise from $2 to $13?
In other news, Torchlight is $5 (again, I think — I missed it the first time). $5 was the price-point I set myself for that one, so I guess Steam wins this round.
04/01/2010 at 01:29 DerangedStoat says:
Haha you’re not the only one, I saw it and had to go and double check to see if I did in fact get it for $2 the first time around. I’m in Aus, so a regional price hike wouldn’t be surprising unfortunately…
04/01/2010 at 02:44 invisiblejesus says:
Must be a regional thing, it’s still $2 for me here in the US.
04/01/2010 at 11:46 Carra says:
I also passed on the Riddick deal the second I saw “3 activations”. Their loss.
04/01/2010 at 13:35 Vandelay says:
Anyone else finding steam to be exceptionally slow at the moment (in the UK)?
Started downloading GTAIV yesterday at a very slow speed (only managed to do about 10% from 5-5.30pm till 1.30-2am.) Started it back up again this morning, got some decent speeds but now it has dropped back down to the double figures of KB/s it was at during peak time last night. It ever so often creeps up to about 250KB/s, but for most of the time it is down at 50KB/s.
I’m guessing it is due to heavy load, but just wanted to check with everyone else and make sure it wasn’t just me.
04/01/2010 at 16:11 Jeremy says:
Stalker – 2 USD for another 45 minutes.
04/01/2010 at 17:46 Alexander Norris says:
And it’s over, gents.
Vandelay: it’s load. Happened to everyone. Change your download centre to Africa; that’ll solve your problem.
04/01/2010 at 22:46 Oak says:
It was a good sale. A long sale. I think we all learned a little about ourselves, and maybe a little about just what it means to be human.
Thanks, Steam.
04/01/2010 at 22:54 jsutcliffe says:
I learned that I actually have some self-control in the face of unrelenting bargains, and managed to spend about 1/5th of what I spent on last year’s Xmas Steam sale.
06/01/2010 at 17:08 Jeremy says:
I learned that if you’re looking specifically for one game to go on sale, you’ll forget to check out the deals for the day on That Day.