Falling Leaves, Tumbling Prices: Steam Autumn Sale On

An ache in my left hip awoke me this wet morning. This dicky joint has been reliably crying "Hey! Get up! You're missing a lovely noise!" for weeks now, but this morning's throb felt different. It's been going on long enough that I could sense something special in the air. It was as if we'd moved from rainy mornings into autumn - proper autumn - and do you know that means? My hip did.

The Steam autumn sale has begun with a flurry of bargains on games old and surprisingly new.

It's the usual routine for this bafflingly-named 'Exploration Sale': 5,630 games are discounted for the duration of the sale (yes, it returns regular results too - TF2 somehow being 50% off from £14.99 to free-to-play is not a special, the sillies), and many will receive extra discounts in flash sales. They're starting off with some cracking quickies.

For the next day or two, you can get e.g. The Evil Within for £11.89 (66% off), Civilization: Beyond Earth for £20.99 (30% off), The Long Dark for £7.49 (50% off), The Vanishing of Ethan Carter for £8.99 (40% off), FTL for £2.09 (70% off), BattleBlock Theater for £1.09 (90% off), Watch Dogs for £19.99 (50% off), Wargame: Red Dragon for £7.49 (75% off),The Stanley Parable for £2.99 (70% off) [disclosure: I'm pally with one of its makers], Don't Starve for £2.74 (75% off), and loads of other games for substantially cheaper than they were on Steam only a few hours ago.

The conventional wisdom is to not buy anything discounted until you've seen whether it'll turn up cheaper in a daily deal or not, but hey, if you don't want to watch Steam like a hawk, just buy at a price you're happy with. The sale will end on Tuesday, December 2nd.