The Steam Summer Sale is upon us....

[therain93]

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=24.media.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_m7lg1qDjji1qge1r3o1_1280.jpg

[Rust]

I've already fired the first shot on my end. Picked up Borderlands 2 and the Mechomancer Pack.

[FlyingCarcass]

That comic strip is so true.  :P

[General Idiot]

I'm actually kinda meh on this, since most of the games I want I already have. So unless something pops up that looks really good I'm probably not going to spend any more than I already do on Steam stuff.

.....that said, I did pick up Civilisation V plus the gold edition upgrade plus the brand new expansion that came out a few days ago for a total of about ten bucks less than the normal price of the base game alone, so there's that. I'm still not sure whether that was a good idea or not but we'll see.

[Mantic]

Ehh... I just don't do Steam. They've treated me poorly, and the bundling of Steamworks on physical media forced me to deal with them when I didn't have the bandwidth to deal with such things. So now that I can do digital, I'll download direct from publishers or go to competitors like GamersGate, who don't bundle their online service with physical media. They do sales, too, after all.

Any game that is exclusive to Steam/Steamworks just doesn't get into my wallet, at any price.

[dwturducken]

I don't get the comic, but the dude looks a like Henchman 21 cosplaying Braveheart, which I find amusing.

[Rust]

The comic's pertaining to a guy trying desperately not to spend all his money.

For myself, day two of the sale and still nothing really "grabbing me". That's not saying there aren't plenty of games I'm interested in - but they're not Featured Sales, so there really is no tearing rushing to snap them up before the sale ends. I get paid next week, so I'm holding off until there's some "padding" in the Bank Account.

Compared to last year when I ended up spending about $120 for 40 games - of which I've maybe only played 15 of them and really only 5 of them for any length of time.

I definitely plan on snagging Dungeons next week though. A game in the same vein as Dungeon Keeper? Yes please!

[therain93]

As it would turn out, I did snag a copy of Arkham City GotY this afternoon.
Steam was never really a "problem" while CoH was around, but this past Christmas Valve got my money instead of NCsoft (just like now...)

[Rust]

Today's been an "expensive" day for me. Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum.

Blood Bowl has a learning curve like a sheer cliff but I oddly am enjoying it. Once I find a team I'm good with I feel the game will go much smoother - but with 23 teams right out of the gate and some of them seemingly deliberately designed to be terrible (Halflings' Team Description even admits this), that's gonna take a bit.

[FlyingCarcass]

I picked up Blood Bowl as well (though I'm kicking myself for getting it earlier in the sale at 50%, ah well) and have been having quite a bit of fun with my Nurgle team (Go Bloody Belchers!).

On a side note, here's a face not even a mother could love.  :P
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/Flying_Carcass/daisy_zps40710a4d.png

[Rust]

Heh. I'm slowly getting...better? (I almost scored a Touchdown!)

For whatever reason I keep gravitating back towards the Lizardmen. Probably because of their decent mix of bulk and speed, but I'm still experimenting with others.

EDIT: I DID IT! I won a game of Blood Bowl! With the High Elves.  :D 1-0 all told, but I'll take that.

[therain93]

Valve got me again....
System Shock 2 and the new Tomb Raider...

[Aggelakis]

I got Defiance (been meaning to get it anyway) and FTL. I've been meaning to get FTL for at least a month now, so that just makes it more awesome.

I also got The Last Remnant, but I can't seem to make it function on my computer. :( When I have time, I am going to attempt to figure out what's wrong. Hopefully I didn't waste five bucks. :p

[Kederren]

Can these games only be played through 3rd person portal? (i.e. Steam). Does that mean that there are now two people who can pull the plug on you? Does it have to play windowed with ads all around it? How far down has Defiance come from the $60 dollar price?

I might like to play, but these questionshave always held me back.

[Rust]

Can these games only be played through 3rd person portal? (i.e. Steam).

Yes/No. Everything goes through Steam, true but you've got final control over what you do and don't experience while playing the game. You can fully disable the Steam In-Game Community Interface (Shift+Tab), for example.

Does that mean that there are now two people who can pull the plug on you?

Steam isn't like that. Heck, there are some games that Steam has ceased to sell for one reason or another but if you purchased said titles before Steam "pulled them", you still have full access to those games in your library.

Does it have to play windowed with ads all around it?

Nope. Full Screen Mode with optional Community Interface (That is accessed via Shift+Tab and automatically pauses your game when you access it). Beyond that and a "Steam News" window that opens after you exit a game - which is just a brief little blurb about upcoming releases and daily sales occurring. 

How far down has Defiance come from the $60 dollar price?

When it was on sale (The Summer Sale has rotating deals at 45 hour intervals) it was $14 I believe.


I avoided Steam for quite awhile because I distrusted the whole "Digital Distribution" business, but consider this - Valve made Steam successful by making it work for the gaming industry. And unlike EA's Origin service, Valve is a private company not beholden to shareholders or the stock market - only the customers that use the service.

[saipaman]

Valve would be committing suicide if they started disabling (legal) keys for games they had sold in the past.

Their entire business model involves selling keys.

[Rust]

Pretty much.

And as for fears that Valve may go belly up...Valve has become the "Too Big to Fail" business of PC Gaming. Origin wishes it had half the support Steam has, and Steam is very, very friendly to Indie Developers.

So yeah. While there's no much that can be done in the event of a Steam supported MMO shuts down, all those single player games are going to remain perfectly viable and available.

[Rust]

Expensive (Relatively speaking) day for me.

Tropico 4 Bundle
Mount & Blade Collection
Torchlight II
Risen II: Dark Waters Gold Edition
X-Com: Enemy Unknown (plus DLC)

All tallied that's $43. Heck of a lot of entertainment there for forty bucks.

[Captain Electric]

Some nice grabs there. :D

I'm going to wait until the end to show and tell my loot. It's spread across Steam, Gamers Gate, and GOG.com. There are some days when I feel very much like the picture in the OP! I am holding out and budgeting for one big purchase or a couple medium ones. If they don't materialize, I have a laundry list of $3 to $5 games I'm going to snap up on the last day. Either way, I'll come out victorious!!!! You can take my money, but you can't take my Freedom!!! HAHAHAHAHAHahhahahHAahAHAHAhahahhahahahahaahhhhhhhhhaaa...

Sorry...lost it there for a sec....

[Rust]

The biggest boon to me is if it's anything like last year, I'll be so blitzed and inundated with games by the end of the sale that it'll be 2014 before I make another gaming purchase.

The biggest downfall to me is if it's anything like last year, I'll be so blitzed and inundated with games by 2014 that I still won't have played the games I bought this year when next year's Summer Sale rolls around.

Seriously. I'm squatting on so many triple A titles...