Friday, December 28, 2012

Steam Holiday Sale 12-28

So I finished Spec Ops: The Line yesterday. Took me a lot longer than I was expecting, but man, is that one great game (still on sale for under $10 as part of a bundle on Amazon). Of course, after spending all that time there I immediately jumped into FTL: Faster Than Light, and have had enough of those "just one more time" moments that I didn't get much sleep last night. Still, that makes two great purchases so far this sale that I've already gotten to enjoy. Maybe I actually get around to reviewing some of them shortly. Or just maybe there is something else on sale today that will blow that plan out of the water ;-)


Main Sale:

Left 4 Dead Franchise - Never reviewed it, but I have played both. I've logged about 115 hours in the original, and only 15 in the second. It really is not something to play unless you plan on going online, and at that point I would highly recommend getting a group of friends together to play with, which explains the difference in time logged between the two games, as everyone moved on. Still, a great price for $7.49.

Limbo - Reviewed! In both written and video form, actually, so just click list of reviews at the top and enjoy both. This is really a great game, though more so as a work of art than a platformer, though it is still a good one at that. I have never seen it at less that today's $2.49, and it is more than worth it at that point. So set aside a couple of dollars and just as many hours, and enjoy this great game.

Assassin's Creed Franchise -Several games at various discounts. I've actually reviewed two of these games, #1 and #2. Frankly, the first one wasn't that good. The second was a huge improvement, from the artistic quality, to the setting, to the small attentions to detail that were lacking in the first one, such as why someone from the middle east during the third crusade sounds like an American, but during the second an Italian actually sounds like an Italian.You can get the first three games for $4.99 each, and the price just goes up from there.

Prototype Franchise - What's with all the franchises today? Anyways, I put over 30 hours into the original mutant sandbox game, and it is quite fun. Run around New York, up the side of buildings, and then jump into a glide towards that army helicopter, which you proceed to drop kick out of the sky. It really is over the top, but the level of destruction you can cause is very, very fun. An interesting enough story and plenty of rewards if you scour the city for memories to acquire or challenges to complete, makes this a game worth having, especially since the original is only $4.99. The latest game is $19.99, and I haven't gotten around to that one yet.

Just Cause 2 - Moar sandbox! From what I've heard, similar to Prototype in that you cause outrageous levels of destruction, which you can see from the image of a guy that is grappled onto a jet fighter. $3.74 for the base game, and then there are all kinds of DLCs you can add on for another $2.18 total. That is the lowest price for this I can recall.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion - Today this RTS is $13.59, which isn't too bad of a price, but one very odd number. If you're interested in a few more games, you could pick up the Stardock pack, which totals 6 games at $49.99.


Flash Sale
Saints Row III - $7.49
Miner Wars 2081 - $6.24
Pain Killer Hell & Damnation - $9.99
Strong Hold 3 Gold - $7.50
Prince of Persia - various titles and prices, complete pack is $12.24
Call of Duty franchise - same deals as the other day, various prices on most CoD titles.

Community Choice
Civilization 5 (Reviewed!) - $12.49 for the GOTY edition. Discount applies to the Gods and Kings expansion, which isn't included in the GOTY edition


Bonus Sale
So, similar to yesterday, greenmangaming.com has got a special daily deal. Today it's on XCOM, at 50% off. Additionally, you can use the same discount code (GMG30-DPLIM-DN831) to get an additional 30% off, which brings the total down to $17.50, or almost half of what it is on Steam right now. I actually had a $2 credit from an earlier purchase, so, yeah, I bought that right away. A few more things to consider: you can use the code multiple times in separate purchases, such as if you wanted to get the DLCs. However, the Elite Soldiers pack is actually cheaper on Steam. Go figure.

6 comments:

  1. Flash sales are now copying game and price of main sales from earlier in the week?

    Valve is struggling for games to drop in price if flash sales, community choice, and main sales are all intermixing and copying.
    I've seen several flash sales that weren't even price drops from before they went on flash sale too.

    Developers definitely can't be giving them the leeway to drop prices as much as they have in the past.

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    1. Yeah, games are all the same price no matter if they are on flash sale, community choice, or the main sale. Though it has been that way every since they introduced these various sales back during summer.

      During the summer sale the community choice was something like every 8 hours, and the flash sales were pretty short too (except overnight), so that something came up about every two hours between 8 in the morning and 10 at night. I know there was criticism for such short sales, but at the same time, I think it meant that many more games were on sale than is currently the case.

      What I'm curious about is how these other companies are selling the same games for so much less than Steam, specifically Green Man Gaming with it's huge discounts, and then an additional 30% off. Which in many cases will get you the same game for half the price as on Steam. Amazon has had some pretty great deals too. I'm wondering if these places are taking a smaller cut in order to secure the business or something. Either way, this sale hasn't been that interesting, and without any type of contest to keep it more engaging, well, I can afford to spend the time browsing other websites for the best deals.

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  2. Just Cause 2 is AMAZING.

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    Replies
    1. I'll have to add it to my "To Play" list, since I've had the game for quite a while and never gotten around to it. I'll admit I do like the look of it's over the top gameplay, in a sense similar to that of Prototype's.

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    2. JC2 is basically a long completely crazy adrenaline rush. Almost anything you can imagine you can do in it.

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    3. Well then I've got a question for you. Before I play it, should I play Just Cause 1? I've got both, thanks to a Square Enix Edios pack from a while back, but have never touched either game.

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