Steam Summer Sale 7-18-13

 Well, today I can safely say that I am far more familiar with the main sales, which is good. I've actually reviewed 3 of the ten games, and have recently completed a 4th that is a few reviews away. This is good because it'll drastically cut down on the amount of lies and falsehoods I could potentially spread.


Main Sale

Torchlight 2 - Reviewed! Great ARPG that I strongly recommend you get. Once you get back the main story, which takes about 24 hours the first play through, you can either play through multiple times or try level specific maps. With added mod support there is plenty more you can do now than when I played it earlier this year, so that's good. $4.99 for II, and only $3.74 for the original game. Currently an all time low price.

Gary's Mod - This one is just wierd. All it is a sandbox where you can mess around with various models from HL2 based games. The results to this can be rather impressive though, and generally make for fun times as you position things around. I've only ever used it because you can create a camera path, which is useful if you happened to have made custom maps for TF2 in the past. It's usual $2.49 today.

Van Helsing - In case you weren't into the ARPGness of Torchlight 2, you can try this one instead. One character, but he's highly customizable. The game looks pretty good, and is more in line with darker ARPGs, rather than the blast of color that Torchlight brings. Currently 50% off at $7.49, but sadly no demo.

XCOM Enemy Unknown - Just finished this up about 2 weeks ago. A really good tactical game with much more than the battles going on. You've got base management, UFO missions, the whole part where you can upgrade soldiers as they level up. It's certainly a good game, but it can become a bit tedious when you get far enough that you have satelite coverage on all countries and oodles of cash with which to buy the best gear. Can either try it hardcore mode where you utilize autosaving or try and remember to save yourself, which that at least allows you to go back and replay things over and over again until you get them right. All time low of $9.99 with the two DLCs, one of which includes a few more missions, costing another $2.98. I would certainly suggest picking up, because it'll keep you occupied for quite a while.

Simcity 4 - I haven't played a sim city game since 2000, so I'm not the best to ask about this. The advantage it has is that it isn't the latest game, so there's that. $5.99 today.

Farcry 3 - Still too new for me to get around it, plus I never finished the first one. It's $23.99 for the regular version, $29.99 for the deluxe, or $42.47 for the franchise bundle, but you can actually pick up the games cheaper if you buy them separately.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - It's $9.99.

Infestation - This is the relaunched The War Z MMO.You know, the one that everyone calls a rip of Day Z and says you shouldn't buy. It's also the one that was previously pulled from Steam because it's store listing was misleading about what features were in the game. There are various deals in case you want buy a few extra credits, but it's probably best to avoid it all together.

Call of Duty MW3 - Reviewed! Honestly, not something that I'd really recommend. The single player is acceptable, but very sort, and when I stopped playing the multiplayer was full of hackers. Plus its the same game that you've seen for the last 4 or 5 years where you simply spawn, shoot from the hip, and then die. It's $19.99 today.

Magicka - Reviewed! The base game is $2.49, and you should certainly pick it up. But what you should really get is the Collection, which is $8.74 and includes the large number of DLC this game has.

Flash Sales

Age of Empires II - Makes it's return after the other day. Still the same $9.99 with a bundle option for $16.99.

Chivalry Midieval Warfare - Also makes a return today for $6.24.

Borderlands 2 - I know this is making a return, but I'm not sure if it's the  2nd or 3rd time it's been listed. I could look, but that would involve work. $10.19 for the base game again.

Dungeon Defenders - Reviewed! One of those hybrid action/tower defense games. It's okay single player if you either the mage or knight, but is really geared towards coop play. Frankly, I wasn't to impressed with what the game had to offer and would suggest Orcs Must Die! or Sanctum in it's stead, both of which have sequels that offer coop, but the game does have a demo so you can judge for yourself. It's $2.24 for the base version but $7.49 for a pack that includes a ton of stuff, including new missions, characters, and skins.

Voters' Choice

Counter Strike GO - Despite what the store page says, it isn't actually 90% off. Once you get to it's specific page you'll see it's $5.09. Personally I never cared for CS, growing up in the days of 1.6, since I found myself playing TFC instead. Still, it's kind of the game that really made online shooters popular. Not a bad deal at today's price.

In case you missed it: Antichamber ($6.79) was on sale again, as was the Witcher 2 ($4.99), there was also Cities in Motion 2 ($6.79), Dirt 3 ($6.24), and the Warframe Starter Pack ($9.99) over night; Bindings of Isaac ($1.24), Port Royale 3 ($9.99), Resident Evil 6 ($19.99), Sang Froid Tales of Werewolves ($5.09), and Risen 2 ($4.99) were all up this afternoon.

*****

Certainly a much better day than the last few. I personally picked up Sang Froid earlier today. Still, several good games to get, with my picks being XCOM and Torchlight II, though Magicka can be quite fun and Van Helsing has potential. I would also recommend steering clear of Call of Duty MW3, Infestation, Dungeon Defenders since two of those are just so-so games, and one is supposed to be really, really, really bad. Until tomorrow!