Steam Summer Sale Buying Guide

[Kageru]

I believe that is the case with Amalur.

Looked at Galactic Civilisations II but wondered if I'd retain the enthusiasm through a game, and generally dislike games where it involves sending hordes of your faceless minions in to wear down the enemy. Watching a long play pretty much confirming that it's not my sort of thing.

Something where your units are more at the level of the individual, like Jagged Alliance : Back in action is more my thing. That game got slammed in the reviews but apparently has had some major patches since then. Somewhat tempting... anyone playing it?

[fuser]

I was annoyed by the amount of repeats, the flash sales to daily to community choice sales were cycled between a lot.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, I wish they'd saved a few fun surprises for the end. Kind of just whimper, not bang.

[Azazel]

Aye, the phone app's been pretty swank for staying informed about all the deals and stuff.  Kinda gives Steam an 'out' for getting away with 8-hour cycle deals.

There's a phone app now?

Actually, maybe I'm better off not installing it...

[waffel]

Just picked up Skyrim for sub-$30 at the end of the sale. Pretty happy with the summer sale myself.

Purchased a lot of games I either wanted or already played. It feels real good to legitimately purchase and own the games I pirated and enjoyed. Spent just under $80.

[Paelos]

Big fan of the sale, probably blew over $100 on stuff across 10 or so games or packages.

[rk47]

I was annoyed by the amount of repeats, the flash sales to daily to community choice sales were cycled between a lot.

Pretty much. Best buy of the lot is still Saint Row 3 & Warlock for me. Everything else are kinda bland and just impulse Sub $10. purchase for me.

[Ceryse]

Even though I picked up a decent number of games, including a couple I'm really pleased with (SR3 and Divinity 2), I was disappointed in this year's sale. Number of games on my maybe list didn't get a sale and I missed a couple others, or they never won a vote.

Of course its hard to complain overall given its basically bitching about how much money I could of thrown at them for stuff I may or may not ever actually play.

[Bann]

I've got about 1 week's worth of actually packing lunch and not sneaking off to subway to make up for this sale. Medieval 2 and two worlds 2 will probably be the only ones that see significant playtime before GW2 or Torchlight 2 drops. 

[Lantyssa]

I got a lot of bargin-bin games that had caught my eye but were never cheap enough for me to give a go, and Batman: Arkam City for ridiculously cheap.  Really happy with the sales overall.

[Lucas]

Ok, I think I'm done. For € 54.23 I've purchased:

- All the Fallout:NV DLC
- All the Fallout 3 DLC
- Just Cause 2 (plus all the DLC)
- Saints Row ( plus Third Season Pass DLC)
- Metro 2033
- E.Y.E.
- Stalker: Clear Sky 
- Stalker: Call of Pripyat
- Terraria
- Trine 2
- Eschalon Book II
- Gal Civ II: Ultimate

[Sky]

Good haul, Lucas.

$20 got me:

Two Worlds 2 + DLC
Dear Esther
Limbo
GalCiv2 ultimate

[Zetor]

I spent E37.91 total for
- Legend of Grimrock
- Frozen Synapse [x2]
- Bastion
- SR3
- Eschalon Book 1+2
- Avernum: Escape from the Pit
- Avadon, Avernum 4, Avernum 5, Avernum 6 bundle

The last two items weren't on a super-crazy sale ('just' 50%), but I got them due to my extreme nostalgia for Spiderweb games... I spent way, way, way too many hours playing the Exile series back in the day.  

e: All games were below 5E except for SR3 (7.49E) and the Avadon/Avernum 4-bundle (7.98E). Pretty good deals, all told!

[Thrawn]

One or two I'm still considering.  But the haul for $65, or about the cost of one current new release is -

• Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate
• Arma II: Combined Operations  (For Day-Z)
• Beyond Good and Evil
• Saints Row: The Third
• E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy
• The Longest Journey + Dreamfall
• Cave Story+
• Frozen Synapse
• From Dust
• Legend of Grimrock
• Trine 2

I also won 4 games from Steamgifts.  

• Secret of the Magic Crystals
• Cricket Revolution
• Dear Esther
• Dungeon Defenders - Warping Core Challenge Mission Pack DLC

In true Steam fashion I haven't even installed any of them and continue to just play DotA 2.

[Nebu]

Football Manager 2012 for $7.49.

SOLD!

[Sky]

In true Steam fashion I haven't even installed any of them and continue to just play DotA 2.

Change DotA 2 to TSW and yeah. Yay Steam!

[Merusk]

As I posted:
http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=11268.msg1091279#msg1091279

[Chimpy]

I spent like $60 bucks on probably a dozen games. I installed SR3 and played for about an hour, installed Bejeweled 3 and have played like 11 hours of that. Damn you Zen mode!

[Lucas]

I spent like $60 bucks on probably a dozen games. I installed SR3 and played for about an hour, installed Bejeweled 3 and have played like 11 hours of that. Damn you Zen mode!

Yep, Bejeweled 3 is very addictive: I love lightning mode and Quest, of course. It's just a great piece of software (unless of course that kind of genre is not your cup of tea) and very recommended for casual playing in-between more "serious" gaming sessions.

[Rasix]

$24.  Not sure if I'll manage to play Arkham City or SR3 this year.  I might!

[raydeen]

I was a pretty good boy this time around. Spent around $30-35 and got Terraria, Fallout:New Vegas Ultimate Edition, All the Unreal games, Swords and Soldiers with Sausage Fest and Evochron Mercenary. I *almost* bought the whole Dawn of War package for $30 when it was at 92% off but remembered how much I suck at RTS games. It was tempting though.

[apocrypha]

I got SR3, a bunch of WH40K stuff, Blood Bowl and the Introversion bundle (Darwinia, Defcon, etc) because a mate of mine wanted to play some of them multiplayer.

SR3 was the pick of the bunch, I've put 30 hours into it and hugely enjoyed every single second :)

[Sir Fodder]

"Nah, don't need any more games at this time, Steam need to play list is backlogged to heck, can't think of any games I want anyhow, broke, etc..."

Picked up:

Alan Wake (played the first few minutes, its awesome so far! fell asleep)
BEEP
Crusader Kings II
Far Cry, Far Cry 2
Galactic Civs II
the indie pack with Limbo and Lone Survivor
Terraria

Probably some other stuff too, at least I managed to grab them all at steep discounts. Whew, glad that's over, feel like a boxer that went too many rounds, and I'm glad there was no last day reprieve because I had my eye on a few others.

Aaand back to playing Avernum: Escape From The Pit, about 20 hours in and barely scratched the surface, sweet...

[Ingmar]

I bought a shitload of stuff as usual, you'd think there wouldn't be anything left for me to buy by now.

So far my favorite buy is Botanicula. 

[Mrbloodworth]

When does this end?

[Ingmar]

Yesterday.

[Mrbloodworth]

Oh, oddly my steam store just switched over to the regular page look.

[Sir Fodder]

Oh, one other thing, was browsing the Steam item schwag store thinking "who buys this crap" and ended up with this:

[Segoris]

Speaking of cool Valve/Steam moments - NASA sends Portal 2's Wheatley to Spaaaaaaaace.

[jakonovski]

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Driver: San Francisco
SplinterCell: Double Agent
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction
Alan Wake Bundle
Napoleon: Total War - Units of the Coalition
Napoleon: Total War - Peninsular Campaign
Napoleon: Total War - Imperial Eagle Pack
Serious Sam 3 BFE
Darkness II  
Two Worlds 2 - Pirates of the Flying Fortress
From Dust
Trine 2
Legend of Grimrock

For a total of €67,71.

The flesh is weak.

I have yet to install any of these.

[Rendakor]

For ~$30 I grabbed Darksiders and the complete SR3 pack; I haven't installed DS yet but I put about 2 hours into SR3 before buying TSW and becoming addicted.

[Kail]

The flesh is weak.

Quoted for truth.  My failure reel:

• Nexus - The Jupiter Incident (this was on my wishlist, I forget why, though)
• SpaceChem + DLC
• Fortune Summoners  (adorable, but the controls are floaty as hell)
• Warlock - Master of the Arcane + DLC (Probably the purchase I'm happiest with so far)
• Crusader Kings II DLC Combo (I dislike these kinds of games, but people here kept on about how great it was, so I guess peer pressure won out)
• Two Worlds II Bundle  (Before I found out about the DRM)
• A Valley Without Wind (Looks like a cool idea, but the graphics are shit on a biscuit ugly)
• Saints Row: The Third - Buncha DLC
• Dear Esther Game Plus OST  (I can't resist an OST bundle, even if I've never heard the music)
• Divine Divinity
• Assassin's Creed Revelations - Gold Edition (disliked AC1, but AC2 was a lot better, hoping they continue the trend)
• Fable 3 - Buncha DLC (I can't believe I paid actual money for a dog costume in a video game, goddamn me)
• Civ V Denmark and Korea DLC (Gods and Kings was still pricey for me)
• Crysis 2 Maximum Edition
• Binary Domain  (because of the radicalthon)
• Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (haven't played, heard good things about it)
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky (the only one of the series I don't have yet, but I haven't played any of them)
• Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers Soundtrack Edition (CURSE YOU SOUNDTRACK EDITION, looks interesting though)
• The Longest Journey
• Tribes: Ascend - Steam Starter Pack (I keep meaning to give this an honest run someday)
• Galactic Civilizations II
• Red Faction: Armageddon + DLC (another "the only game in the series I don't have" purchase, I suspect it'll be bad)
• Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (Not sure why, since I don't generally play these)
• Risen
• Payday: The Heist
• Jade Empire (not sure why I got this, since I have it on XBox, but meh)
• The Sims Medieval  (been curious about this one for a while)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4 - Episode II

[Ingmar]

Huh, I never noticed Jade Empire hitting Steam!

[Paelos]

Age of Empires 3 Complete
Divinity 2
Indie 6
GTA Complete
Fallout NV
Witcher 2
SpellForce 2 Faith in Destiny
Saints Row 3
Crusader Kings 2

Total Damage: $92.72

[Kageru]

Was a fun sale:

• Warlock: Master of the Arcane
• Saints Row 3, Season Pass, Money Shot
• Spacechem
• Sanctum + Soundtrack
• Binding Isaac + Soundtrack
• Super Meatboy + Soundtrack
• Indie: The movie
• Hard Reset
• Stalker : Clear Sky
• Renegade Ops
• Fortune Summoners
• Indie pack with Cave Story+, the Baconing, anomaly
• Longest Journey (Gifted)
• Legend of Grimrock
• Thief II

Enough to keep me busy till xmas and of it at ridiculously good prices.