Steam Winter Sale 2012

Far Cry had mutants, not aliens.

And it cannot have aged well....

One man's mutants is another man's aliens. Or something. Anyway, I have corrected it for future perusal. Also the original Far Cry still looks pretty nice for a game released in the ancient year of 2004. I never got to the mutants, though.

How much do you like hitting the "End Turn" button again and again and not doing anything, ever?

Well I caved and bought MotN.

"The new standard for stealth gaming" was the money quote.

Every time I see Anno 2070 on sale on Steam, I keep kicking myself for purchasing it through Amazon, as I can't take advantage of when the DLC is on sale.

Some of the Anno DLC can be obtained in the game as rewards from "world events", special mission chains that are only occasionally available. Those buildings can be useful but I'm not sure you'll miss any of them. I'm not sure about the rest, except this one, which you can do without.

Edit: Bleh, I'll just go down the list. Note that I just bought all of these during this sale and I haven't played with any of them yet. Also note that you can get these in three-item packages that make them cheaper.

Deep Ocean: the expansion. Go for it.
Silent Running: a reskin of a nuclear sub you can get from one of the world events. I tend to avoid combat in these games.
Nordamark Line: some scenery objects and the lighthouse, which allows you to switch between day and night. That might be fun to have.
Central Statistical Package: a reskin of a building you can get from a world event. I have the in-game version of this building and it's fairly useful; it allows you to see stats on all your buildings across all your islands at once, but it also costs something like 250 gold in upkeep so it's more of a mid- to late-game building.
Crisis Response Package: two missions. Could be fun. I like some of the missions but overall I tend to play sandbox mode because a lot of the metagame stuff like ark storage is turned off during missions.
Distrust Series: scenery objects. I don't like how scenery costs upkeep in the game. It restricts it to late in the game when you're probably ready to move on to a fresh map.
Eden Series: scenery objects.
Keeper Package: a reskin of a world event building. This is the reward for doing the (always easy) first mission of the current world event, which has about a week to go. I'm not sure what it does.
Development Package: two missions.
EVE Package: A portrait for your game account that no one will ever see. It's like the EVE portrait you get in the game but it's red instead of blue.

Good to know - thanks !

How is PayDay: The Heist? I have a friend who is trying to get me to go in on it, but other than him claiming it's awesome I have no context.

With friends a lot of fun, without less so, but still good.

New info added! Not well-sourced info, but info nonetheless.

Thanks. Wow, most of these make Horse Armor look like a good deal, especially considering the non-discounted price !

There's not a way to only get e-mails on certain games in your wishlist, is there? My wishlist kind of has Games I'd buy if they were cheaper and Games I'd play if someone gave them to me or if my backog were shorter, but wouldn't pay money for right now. I'd like to get e-mails about the former but not the latter. If it's impossible, I'll probably turn off the notifications for now.

Seriously, when is Silent Hunter 4 going to get a decent sale? Has Ubisoft completely forgotten about that game? How do you have a 50% off sale on Anno 2070 but not SH4?

I've been waiting on SH3 for the same thing.

For me the playtime was actually a feature, not a bug - (A) I don't have the time for super-long games, and (B) given the game is structured around crescendos of tension as you try to make each in-game payment deadline, it might have worn out its welcome if it had been much longer. But yeah, YMMV. And you're welcome! :)

Flash deals with ~7.5 hours to go:

• Closure $2.49 (75% off). Freaky-looking B&W platformer.
• Civilization franchise. Everything 75% off, such as Civilization V for $7.49. Goes great with the GMG deal on Gods & Kings (it's only 24 hours, could be expiring any minute now).
• Men of War Collector Pack $24.99 (50% off). Includes all the men. Of war.

Is Far Cry 2 worth putting time into?

I myself just don't like it, I got it free with a video card back in the day, and I've started it 3 separate times since release, never getting much more than 2 hours into it each time.I hate the setting and the story.

Other people seem to like it though. :p

I really enjoyed it. It's fun to roam around with the different goals and missions and explore. If you like (semi) open world style games it's a fun time. It was a bit long IIRC.

I think it rewards anyone who gets passed the ~5 hour "tutorial" section of setting things up like the main mission, buddy system, underground missions, and the ordering of new weapons and upgrades.

It also rewards anyone smart enough to drive up to outposts with a turret gun and clear it out in the span of several seconds instead of complaining about constant respawns.

In which I declare Steam not even trying anymore, these are the newest flash deals, with ~12 hours to go:

• Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion $13.59 (66% off). Again.
• Endless Space $10.19 (66% off). I have a couple of friends who are enjoying this allegedly soulless game. Maybe they also have no souls!
• Need for Speed 75% off:
  • Hot Pursuit $4.99
  • Undercover $2.49
  • Shift $4.99

Shift 2 is also $5 for another 5 hours.

I imagine if one wanted to pick up an "authentic" racing game for the PC, that Shift 2 would be the way to go?

Yeah. It's got a bit of Dirt style flashy X-tremeness to it, but you should do well with that. By authentic you mean something that works with a wheel and actually appreciates real racing cars, right?
Note that you can also get the old SimBin games for pennies:
GTR2 $3.60 GT Legends $3.60 RACE07 $0.89

And up next for the 11:00 AM EST flash sales....three games that have been up for flash sales at least once before!

*facepalm*

At least two of those three were up for community vote and did not win -- but let's flash sale them anyway.

Okay.

Just look at the next vote. Thief Gold ? Freedom Force ? Prince of Persia ? All three already pretty cheap (FF goes for 4 euro without any discount) and pretty old... Steam, I am disappointed.


Edit: And DOTA 2 won the last one ? Christ - no one takes the gift coupons away from me, and now the game plus a few cosmetic items needs to be on sale ?

Honestly, I've seen the titular art on Steam's frontpage so often I didn't even realize we had a new flash sale.

Yeah, at this point it feels like Steam is pulling the sales equivalent of a rickroll on everyone. Nonetheless:

Flash deals ending in ~4 hours:

• Psychonauts $2.49 (7% off). This is a good game and you should get it if for some reason you don't have it already.
• Bit.Trip franchise 25-75% off. Too many to list, the collection is 25% off, individual games are 50-75% off.
• A-10C Warthog $9.99 (75% off). Community choice, flash deal, the warthog wants it all.

Flash deals ending in ~10 hours:

• Chivalry Medieval Warfare $12.49 (50% off). Repeat.
• Train Simulator 2013 $13.74 (75% off). Spurned by the community, it goes on sale anyway.
• Castle Crashers $5.09 (66% off). Again.

Bit Trip Runner should be retitled: "Memorizing Levels for fun and then tedium"

"Well, they really redeemed themselves with today's Daily Deals."

A thing said by no one.

Other than DX:HR for $5... yeah pretty bad.

The daily deals for December 31st may cause feelings of déjà vu...

• Terraria $3.39 (66% off). Can you dig it? Ho ho.
• The Binding of Isaac $1.24 (75% off). Still cheap and disturbing.
• Alan Wake franchise $9.99 (75% off). Or individually:
  • Alan Wake $7.49
  • Alan Wake's On Sale Again Nightmare $3.74
  • Alan Wake Collector's Edition Extras $2.49
• Deus Ex Human Revolution $4.99 (75% off). Augmented Always On Sale Edition.
• Fable - The Lost Chapters $2.49 (75% off). Includes bonus content.
• Fable III $12.49 (75% off). Does not include bonus content. But the DLC is 75% off.
• F1 2012 $24.99 (50% off). Again with the vroom vroom.

At this point I have to imagine these deals are algorithm generated; there's just no reason a human would keep putting the same stuff up again and again.

Yeah, I tend to agree. The repetition of the Alan Wake stuff is starting to tempt me, though.

That train simulator logo sure is hypnotizing!

I actually spent a good ~75 bucks so far on this Steam sale, picking up games I let pass me by whilst under my rock (named World of Tanks, near a stream called King's Bounty). As a result my Steam library has doubled in size, though that is mostly a function of my not getting much in previous sales. Half the time when someone in this thread lamented already having something that is selling for five bucks, to me it was an irresistible deal. But, at this point, even I have run out of things to get.

Do something new, Steam.

I've already bought about twenty games during the sale, and I have about twenty more lined up for the last day, but the constant repeats are wearing me down. If they don't have enough unique deals then they should make the sale shorter.

I'd like to see Cortex Command for $5, Puddle for $5 (not likely since it's not on sale at all), Little Inferno for the $7.50 that got voted down in favor of repeats, A Game Of Dwarves: Star Dwarves DLC for some kind of discount, and I'd like to see Paradox's latest middle finger on Crusader Kings 2 compared to those crazy Amazon deals.

All I really want for steam sale now is Puzzle Agent 2 for $2.50 and Burnout Paradise for $5. Most everything else that I really wanted I got or was on sale already (above my threshold).

The sale has been great for me so far this year, and I've picked up a few long-time wants because of it. Here's what I've purchased so far:

1. Sims 3 + a couple expansions
2. Anno 2070
3. Home
4. Rayman Origins
5. Vessel
6. Alan Wake
7. Mark of the Ninja
8. Tropico 4
9. SimCity 4 Deluxe

That's a lot of games, and more than enough for any one sales event as far as I'm concerned. I'm actually surprised I was able to find so much I wanted, since I'm typically a pretty prolific buyer anyway and there weren't that many titles I had my eye out for this time around; but the Steam sale delivered. Mark me down for satisfied.

A10C, and Train simulator...okay. WHERE'S FARM SIMULATOR 2013? Damn you, Steam!