Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The RPS Bargain Bucket: One Free

By RPS on April 28th, 2012 at 3:48 pm.

Lewie’s away being fitted for birthday hats and I’m all alone in the Savy Tower this weekend. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. I was racing the bargain-bots down the endless stairs when Lewie appeared to me in a text message. ‘Tony, you should probably find cheap games’ he said – in an impressive hat – so here I am. If you are in London on May 4th, please do come celebrate five years of Savygamer, more details and daily deals are on SavyGamer.co.uk. Hats welcome.

In the bucket today: Syndicate (the fab one), Gratuitous Space Battles, Total War packs, Serious Sam 3 and, oh, all sorts.

Syndicate £1.84/$2.99/€2.26
As part of GOG’s EA promo, you can grab Syndicate for the price of a coffee. I’m going to defer to The Gillenman:

‘Syndicate positioned you as commander of four cybernetically enhanced goons of a global corporation. Your task was building a new world order, one hostile take-over of a country at a time. After receiving your mission and being left in the city, it’s up to achieve it by any means possible. Normally, this will be wiping out opposing corporate agents, but other things to see and do in the near future include rescue, escort, brainwashing and assassination. It distinguished itself by being one of the earliest examples of a convincing living city. People wandered the streets, going about their daily business before having their routine (and often fleshy bodies) exploded by corporate conflict in the high street. Cars patrol the street, and can often be commandeered with a burst of UZI fire. Cops desperately try to keep the peace…’

They should remake this.

Gratuitous Space Battles £13.99/$18.99/€17.99
I am not a good space Captain. My splendid ships are politely lined-up as their crews think of distant families and probably discuss rumours of my poor command while they stare down the equally politely lined-up enemy. This time, I have compensated for their stratagems and the holes in mine. This time, I am ready. I sip my tea and yell ‘make it so’ at my computer, before remembering to actually click the button.
This time, I lose again. I am bad at Gratuitous Space Battles but I still love it – the idea of setting up a battle and then watching it unfold is a brilliant one and the space battles are so lovely that I don’t much mind being beaten. This pack includes lots of new species for you to lead to glorious victories or amusing defeats.

Total War sale
You don’t have to be in space to line up men to hit other men, war is a tradition as enduring as Morris dancing and at least as violent. I would suggest scooping up Empire Gold (£4.99/$7.49/€7.49), Napoleon Imperial (£3.74/$4.99/€3.74) and Medieval II Gold (£2.49/$2.49/€2.49). I’m sure Total War: Morris Dancing will be announced any day now.

1C Amazon Sale
It would have been enough for Amazon to reduce 73 1C games to $5 (£3.07/€3.77) each but they will also give you $5 credit toward another 1C game for every one you buy, essentially making this ‘buy one get one free’ on quite a lot of brilliant games. I would personally recommend the Men of War, King’s Bounty and Space Rangers games but you may want to have a rummage and fill your boots. Those not from the land of dot coms can order through their normal Amazon account and add any valid US address as the delivery address, nothing will be sent there, and you can access all your games through their website. Just make sure your mean old bank doesn’t throw its hands up in the air and charge you extra fees purely at the site of a dollar sign.

Serious Sam 3: BFE £10.19/$13.59/€13.59
Is this week far too strategy heavy for you? It’s ok, everyone knows the best defence is a good offence and the best offence is a gun that shoots cannon balls. Get Games have cheekily priced this a penny less than Steam’s sale and – since it comes with a Steam key – you can take advantage of the cheap upgrade to the deluxe edition that includes the original versions of the first two games. Steam’s four-pack is still your best bet if you can assemble three trigger happy friends with bad attitudes in the face of an alien invasion.

Also of note:
Civilization V £4.99/$7.49/€7.49
The Indie Gala Bundle Pay what you want for A.R.E.S.: Extinction Agenda and Alien Shooter. Minimum $5.62 for Disciples II, Altitude and Wake with more games due to unlock in the future.
Humble Indie Bundle is still a great deal. Pay what you want for Botanicula, Machinariumm and Samorost 2. Minimum $8.83 for Kooky and Windowsill.
GamersGate Mac Week for our Mac chums.
Modern Warfare 3 free weekend That’s a direct Steam link to the modern multiplayer manshoot.
Crysis Maximum Edition £5.99 using the pcgamer20 discount code. Might be UK only.
Mount & Blade Collection £9.27/$14.99/€11.33 For a collection of mounts and blades.

Don’t forget – SavyGamer.co.uk maintains a
constantly-updating list of game deals, curated by top men and abused robots.

__________________

« | »

, , , , .

74 Comments »

  1. 28/04/2012 at 15:52 pakoito says:

    Shit! I wanted Rome:TW because it’s the only one that works on my netbook, and it’s not in the promotion :/

  2. 28/04/2012 at 16:03 0positivo says:

    “Syndicate [...] They should remake this.”

    I see what you did there

    • 28/04/2012 at 16:14 LionsPhil says:

      I was all excited about discounted Syndicate until I found it was some rubbish ugly old 2D thing with NES sprites rather than an immersive AAA cinematic experience with next-gen gameplay and online co-op.

      • 28/04/2012 at 16:18 ThatGuy says:

        Same, after checking it out I had to quickly load up American Shootman: Patriotic Protector and bring myself back down to earth. What was gaming like before good graphics, eh?

      • 28/04/2012 at 18:49 Henke says:

        I honestly was disapointed it wasn’t the new one. The original Syndicate is probably best left in my hazy rose-tinted memory. Wouldn’t mind giving the new one a go on the cheap tho.

        • 28/04/2012 at 21:37 TillEulenspiegel says:

          Except for getting very difficult after a few missions, Syndicate is still excellent. I played through a good chunk of it a couple years ago. Nostalgia is overrated.

        • 28/04/2012 at 23:53 Jimbo says:

          Syndicate holds up surprisingly well.

        • 29/04/2012 at 02:51 malkav11 says:

          Gamersgate has the new one for 40% off, at least in the US. Not a big enough discount for my tastes, but might be for you?

          • 29/04/2012 at 12:03 Henke says:

            Thanks for the tip malkav11 but I’m not in the US and that’s still a bit more than I’m willing to pay for it.

    • 30/04/2012 at 12:46 sonofsanta says:

      I think the most amazing thing is that all that influential, incredible, brilliant game fits into 17mb. It’s astonishing what could be done with so little back in t’ day.

  3. 28/04/2012 at 16:10 killias2 says:

    I’m surprised by the attention the Amazon 1c sale is getting. Gamersgate had pretty much their entire catalogue for 20 bucks (before the IGN 15% off deal and blue coins), yet that got no attention.
    I bought it despite owning about one third of the games already…

    • 28/04/2012 at 16:17 flowsnake says:

      I saw that and decided that most of it was crap.

      $5 for two good games > $20 for lots of games of which you’ll play about three.

      • 28/04/2012 at 16:40 malkav11 says:

        $20 for 86 games of which about 15 are brilliant and another 10-20 are eminently playable > $5 for two brilliant games.

      • 28/04/2012 at 16:52 killias2 says:

        Honestly, just the Men of War, Real Warfare/XIII Century, and Space Rangers games are -a steal- for 20 bucks (much less the 15 it actually cost me including the 15% IGN discount and blue coins). Add the UFO games, Star Wolves, Theater of War (although the first ToW game is oddly missing), King’s Bounty, and 7.62, and you have an absolutely insane deal. Sure, there is still a whole bunch of crap in that collection. I don’t care. The Amazon deal isn’t even close. I still considered it a crazy deal, despite already owning all the Men of War games, Space Rangers 2 and 2 Reboot, King’s Bounty (but not the expansions), and Fantasy Wars.

        Still, for any who missed it, the Amazon deal is a good opportunity.

        • 28/04/2012 at 18:03 arccos says:

          Agreed about the GG deal. 1C has some truly terrible games, but most of them are at least interesting for an hour. A few are even quite good. It’s great if you either really enjoy starting new games, or love games with quirkiness.

          Although I think their slogan should be “1C: We’ll publish anything.”

          • 28/04/2012 at 20:57 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:

            1C: We publish B-games.

            And I like it that way.

          • 28/04/2012 at 21:07 killias2 says:

            I feel like Paradox is becoming more like that anymore. Obviously, Paradox is still more deeply routed in its role as a designer, and the EU family of games is just phenomenal (IMO). However, it seems like they aren’t terribly picky when it comes to publishing other developers’ games. Sure, Warlock seems cool, and War of the Roses will hopefully rock. However, some of their recent releases have been.. in a lamentable state. It’s said because I’ve seen Paradox tagged a few times recently as a company that releases unfinished games, but that’s not true at all for their internally developed games. Crusader KIngs II is easily their most playable game on release yet. There are just some bad apples there.

          • 29/04/2012 at 22:30 DrazharLn says:

            killas2, what?

            Victoria 2, was internally developed and was broken on launch. Same for Hearts of Iron 3 and other internally developed titles.

    • 28/04/2012 at 16:42 Tams80 says:

      I tried getting that, but needed to use PayPal to buy it and PayPal hates me.*

      *no really it does

    • 28/04/2012 at 17:36 El_MUERkO says:

      Fffuuuucccckkkk!

      Been trying to get friends to buy Men of War for ages (in particular Assault Squad for MP) and I missed it :(

  4. 28/04/2012 at 16:16 ThatGuy says:

    I see an extreme lack of physical sales here, and that saddens me.

    Digital is nice, and the savings are always appreciated, but as far as I’m concerned nothing beats those delightful cases, even if they do take up this so called “physical” space.

  5. 28/04/2012 at 16:20 Fox89 says:

    Just finished a campaign of Shogun 2 about 5 minutes ago. Decided to buy Fall of the Samurai. Just about to buy it on Steam when I thought I’d browse the internet for five minutes first. Come here and find it on getgames for £10 less.

    Serendipity! /

  6. 28/04/2012 at 16:21 Fumarole says:

    I’ve never done the Amazon game download dance. Anyone have experience with it?

    • 28/04/2012 at 16:50 sacred_flame101 says:

      It seems easy enough. I have bought two games off them both were painless to buy after adding a us address to my account. However their download service seems slow, it might have been a busy time for downloads but might be something to keep in mind.

      • 28/04/2012 at 17:03 Fumarole says:

        Any clients or DRM of any kind?

        • 28/04/2012 at 17:18 sacred_flame101 says:

          The download is similar to the way gamers gate does it and I don’t think there is any extra DRM

          • 29/04/2012 at 11:13 mendel says:

            Will Amazon let you redownload the games later (like Kindle books), or do you have to be quick to download your purchases because they disappear soon (like their mp3s)?

        • 28/04/2012 at 18:46 Pointless Puppies says:

          No extra DRM other than whatever the publisher of the game has. They let you download the installer and that’s that, or in the case of Steam games, just the Steam keys.

    • 28/04/2012 at 21:59 Snakejuice says:

      I was going to answer your question with a funny youtube video involving dancing plus amazon and/or download but after a couple minutes I realized how many shitty videos I would have to wade through before finding a good one so I just gave up. :(

  7. 28/04/2012 at 16:42 JoeyJungle says:

    Amazon also has a sale on Might & Magic: Heroes VI. Standard edition for $17, deluxe for $18.69. It doesn’t seem to be advertised on their site at all, which is weird cause this is the cheapest I’ve seen it.
    http://www.amazon.com/Might-Magic-Heroes-Edition-Download/dp/B005TMG0IU/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1335627331&sr=1-1

    • 28/04/2012 at 17:37 pakoito says:

      Don’t anybody get even close to that game.

      • 28/04/2012 at 17:43 jaheira says:

        I’m really enjoying it. It’s grindy but fun. What’s the problem?

        • 28/04/2012 at 18:31 pakoito says:

          Always online singleplayer DRM, cuttoff multiplayer, screwed-up balance.

          • 28/04/2012 at 18:57 Khemm says:

            There’s no always-online DRM for single player. You can play offline from start to finish, you only get bonus overpowered items if you choose an online profile.
            They’re working on patches, the upcoming one will bring the old town screens back and subsequent patches will address balance, too.

      • 28/04/2012 at 22:09 Snakejuice says:

        I like it. Not as bad as some people say but then again I’m only on the second mission on the Haven campaign.

      • 29/04/2012 at 06:03 Blaaaaaaag says:

        It’s not a game I’d quickly recommend to others, but I really like it, and am seriously looking forward to the day that Ubisoft finishes it.

    • 28/04/2012 at 20:56 caddyB says:

      I liked it more than 5

    • 29/04/2012 at 16:39 mwoody says:

      For those curious, I tried to track down the most recent word from the developers on the status of patches. Here’s an interview from earlier this week. Fans are getting worried that they’re delaying much of the mentioned features – town screens in particular – for a paid expansion, but they still appear to be sticking to the idea that they’ll patch it back in eventually.

      I think I’ll hold off a bit, tempting as that Amazon deal appears. Thanks for the link, though.

  8. 28/04/2012 at 17:12 GT3000 says:

    Toy Soldiers is on Steam and 25% off.

    http://store.steampowered.com/app/98300/

  9. 28/04/2012 at 17:17 hypercrisis says:

    anyone know if amazon MoW: Assault Squad wires up to steam?

  10. 28/04/2012 at 17:24 ajf0 says:

    Tempted by the Total War sale, which is more worthy Napoleon or Empire?

  11. 28/04/2012 at 17:24 KDR_11k says:

    That price for GSB is considered a deal? Wow, the DLC must really have taken its toll.

    I didn’t enjoy GSB much, especially since I played Lost Empire: Immortals before it and that also has a “set up the battle, then watch it unfold” mechanism except embedded into a full 4X game with a lot of focus on electronic warfare.

    • 28/04/2012 at 23:50 standardman says:

      It’s a lot of DLC:

      ‘Gratuitous Space Battles
      Gratuitous Space Battles: The Tribe
      Gratuitous Space Battles: The Order
      Gratuitous Space Battles: The Swarm
      Gratuitous Space Battles: Galactic Conquest
      Gratuitous Space Battles: The Nomads
      Gratuitous Space Battles The Parasites’

      Still, if you don’t like the game itself, I doubt that will change your mind. I’ll even be rebuying it once the android tablet version appears.

  12. 28/04/2012 at 17:43 Radiant says:

    Do yourself a favor and get Crysis Maximum edition.
    I used to HATE the game when it first came out until I upgraded my machine.

    Any mid level machine should run both games flawlessly now and they are both GREAT fucking fun to play when your framerate matches the ambition of the game.

    • 28/04/2012 at 18:48 Jac says:

      I just got crysis 2 from the pcworld link using the discount code for 5.99. Not played warhead but the first is excellent.

      Registered the key on origin, which is handy for the download if you dont have an unfounded aversion to it.

  13. 28/04/2012 at 17:45 Gasmask Hero says:

    What? Mount & Blade collection was £6.24 on gamersgate for what seemed like an eternity, then it was £6.25 on steam for one weekend, and now it’s £9.27 and it’s…i’ve forgotten what my point was. Maybe I didn’t have one to begin with.

    • 29/04/2012 at 23:29 Baines says:

      Yeah, Mount & Blade collection was just on sale, for a better price, on two other services.

      Steamgamesales says it was just $7.50 on Steam, GamersGate, *and* Impulse.

  14. 28/04/2012 at 18:35 kud13 says:

    for the record, GamersGate is also discounting a bunch of EA games, though nowhere near as cheap.

  15. 28/04/2012 at 18:41 Unfair says:

    As always, I have a quick video review of all the Indie Gala 4 games if anyone is on the fence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCzUmgTYhNA

    I made it right after they released the first five games, but I think they’re adding more to the bundle soon. There’s also a Humble Indie Bundle video on my channel from last week, along with any other indie bundle you might want reviewed.

  16. 28/04/2012 at 19:24 Gnashy says:

    What’s going on with Steam’s Daily Deal? The Cursed Crusade was on the sidebar last night (%50 off) but when I logged on this morning, it was only listed under Specials (where it’s still listed, but without the discount) and the Daily Deal was off the sidebar and has yet to be replaced an hour and a half after today’s Daily Deal should have been posted.

    Not cool. I always check for the updated Daily Deal and I’m getting a little anxious…

    • 28/04/2012 at 21:12 ShineyBlueShoes says:

      I was wondering the same but if you recall it wasn’t until fairly recently, like February maybe, that they had started running a daily deal every day. Before that they only ran them on days that there wasn’t a weekend or midweek sale going, when those didn’t cover the whole week as well, so I’m assuming they’re doing their usual experimenting. I like having the extra smaller game available for cheap so hopefully it will be back.

    • 29/04/2012 at 23:18 Baines says:

      Steam is a bit flaky on updating its sale info.

      Routinely, it won’t remove items from the “Specials” section for an hour or two after their sale is over and the discounts have been removed. Sometimes it will also list items before their sale prices are added.

  17. 28/04/2012 at 20:06 alundra says:

    Amazon and Get Game coverage? this is improving!! keep going RPS!!!!!

  18. 28/04/2012 at 21:51 stupid_mcgee says:

    Greenman Gaming has 10% off Guild Wars 2 pre-purchases.

  19. 28/04/2012 at 22:11 Jason Moyer says:

    Do any of those 1C games include Steamworks?

  20. 28/04/2012 at 22:33 Det says:

    Isn’t a gun that shoots cannonballs just a cannon?

  21. 29/04/2012 at 10:11 wengart says:

    Tropico 4: 26.36$, Dungeon Siege 3: 34.27$, Disciples 3 Resurrection: 19.95$, Two Worlds 2: 30$, The First Templar: 21$

    at http://www.greenmangaming.com/?gmgr=rinasawe

  22. 29/04/2012 at 15:38 RegisteredUser says:

    This may or not be spamming, but the kickstarter project “Nekro” should be quite a steal at $15 and they could really use every $$$ of funding they can get.

    There are only 4 days left and they have a video of gameplay footage, Totalbiscuit endorsed them in a “Kicksmarter” video episode and the pigs in the game? ACTUALLY POOP!

    I am in no way affiliated with the people behind this, nor was I in any way instigated to post this comment.

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/343838885/nekro/

  23. 29/04/2012 at 18:57 kud13 says:

    Also, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, was released on GOG, for 6 bucks.

    can’t wait till they get Blood Omen….

Comment on this story

XHTML: Allowed code: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Respond to our gibber

Read our finest words

A Grim Couple Of Hours With Akaneiro: Demon Hunter

Search for clues

Play indie, mods, demos

Browse the archive