Steam Sales 2016.

[vallorn]

So friends, it's that time of year again where Lord Gaben unleashes his army of 90% off sales onto our besieged wallets. What deals have you got and how are you planning to work through this years sale?

Myself I'm mostly watching the highlighted deals and keeping an eye on titles I have been waiting for (DOOM) to purchase. but with 12705 titles on sale this year I hope to find something really good.

With that in mind.

Spoiler: what are ya buyin?

 

[FakeSympathy]

It is currently 51 min after the steam summer sale has began and I am experiencing a random load time error in Steam store page. It can happen when trying to load game page from wishlist, or from the featured front page. The purchase process seems bit fucked up as well. There be careful and don't press anything multiple times

 

[DefunctTheory]

Steam Sales! GLORIOUS STEAM SALES!!

Anyway, I had a couple games in my cart and was half way through a recommendation list, and then Steam logged me out, so... haven't gotten anything yet. On the 'Probably/Maybe' list so far is...

1. Doom (40% off)
2. Rise of the Tomb Raider - Digital Deluxe Edition (35% off)
3. Bulletstorm (75% off)
4. Hyper Light Drifter (20% off)
5. Super Hot (20% off)
6. Grey Goo (66% off)

On a related note... Nuclear Throne. Why wont it EVER go on sale?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Taking bets on if people's personal and financial information will be leaked this time!

 

[mad825]

After looking at my wishlist. There was nothing I thought worth buying this sale. Wow, this has been a great summer sale.

 

[Fhqwhgod]

6. Grey Goo (66% off)

That one was in the Humble E3 Bundle at the 4$ tier. I got it in there.

 

[DoPo]

1. Doom (40% off)

I'm surprised it's even on sale, but not only that, it's 40% off, to boot. New-ish releases, which Doom falls under, don't really do that. Or they get something like -10% tops.

I'm still going to wait, though, as I'm not just THAT excited about it to want it right now. Still, nice that they did add it to the sale.

3. Bulletstorm (75% off)

If it helps, from what I've seen it's almost as if two different writing teams did the "cutscene story" and the "gameplay story". The game tries to be gritty and serious in cutscenes but then goes for more of a goofy tone in the mean time. And the seriousness doesn't really suit it. Moreover, the story is dumb . Gameplay is fine, though - it's pretty linear, but the shooting and combat mechanics are delightfully quirky.

It's a bit like Blood Dragon, only Blood Dragon doesn't go all frowny and somber between letting you collect cyber hearts, feeding them to laser spewing giant lizards and then recovering health by soldering your robotic arm for a couple of seconds. Oh, and having a button to literally just flip people off. That's definitely a thing Blood Dragon has. And I think it's awesome.

5. Super Hot (20% off)

I've played this quite a lot and I loved it. I don't know if you will but I'll share what I can:
- the main story is really short. It composes (if you didn't know) of essentially different puzzle levels, which you have to solve using the "time slows down to a crawl when you stop" mechanic and later on adding to that "you can body jump". There is about 20-ish levels in the main story
- once you finish the main mission, you unlock various free-form play types. You can either play unlimited or try to get a a given amount of kills in a limited amount of time (in-game) or try to get as many kills possible in a time limit (real or in-game, again). There are several different maps you can play these but they are all arena-types, so it's not really that much of a puzzle.
- the other types of challenges you get are "replay the main story missions but with a gimmick". They range from "katana only" (you should be able to guess what this is) through to "thrown weapons kill (but you can't shoot)", speedrun (beat the level under par time (two separate modes - real and in-game), "you can on-hit kill and body swap (but can't use guns)", hard mode, harder mode, and so on. There are about a dozen alternatives but you are still replaying the main missions.

I've finished everything aside from the "norestart" challenge (play all of the main missions. If you die, you have to start again) and I found them really fun. When I got into the speedrun, it was actually REALLY interesting finding some of the non-obvious mechanics and level strategies that allow you to save precious seconds or even fractions of. To be honest the "impossible" challenge wasn't not even that hard after those.

 

[DefunctTheory]

1. Doom (40% off)

I'm surprised it's even on sale, but not only that, it's 40% off, to boot. New-ish releases, which Doom falls under, don't really do that. Or they get something like -10% tops.

I'm still going to wait, though, as I'm not just THAT excited about it to want it right now. Still, nice that they did add it to the sale.

Doom's been on perpetual sale since about day 5, weirdly enough, at one location or another - GMG, Amazon, Best Buy, so on. The weirdest thing about it is that I haven't seen anyone really mention it - Battleborn cute its price a month in and a bunch of people lose their beans. Doom goes on sale and never stops after one week of release, and no one bats and eye.

Is weird.

3. Bulletstorm (75% off)

Spoiler

If it helps, from what I've seen it's almost as if two different writing teams did the "cutscene story" and the "gameplay story". The game tries to be gritty and serious in cutscenes but then goes for more of a goofy tone in the mean time. And the seriousness doesn't really suit it. Moreover, the story is dumb . Gameplay is fine, though - it's pretty linear, but the shooting and combat mechanics are delightfully quirky.

It's a bit like Blood Dragon, only Blood Dragon doesn't go all frowny and somber between letting you collect cyber hearts, feeding them to laser spewing giant lizards and then recovering health by soldering your robotic arm for a couple of seconds. Oh, and having a button to literally just flip people off. That's definitely a thing Blood Dragon has. And I think it's awesome.

Oh, I've already played through Bulletstorm. Several times. But that was on my PS3, which I gave to my brother a while ago (He needed a bluray player and I didn't use the damn thing that much anyway). Just been waiting for a sale good enough to justify me rebuying.

5. Super Hot (20% off)

Spoiler

I've played this quite a lot and I loved it. I don't know if you will but I'll share what I can:
- the main story is really short. It composes (if you didn't know) of essentially different puzzle levels, which you have to solve using the "time slows down to a crawl when you stop" mechanic and later on adding to that "you can body jump". There is about 20-ish levels in the main story
- once you finish the main mission, you unlock various free-form play types. You can either play unlimited or try to get a a given amount of kills in a limited amount of time (in-game) or try to get as many kills possible in a time limit (real or in-game, again). There are several different maps you can play these but they are all arena-types, so it's not really that much of a puzzle.
- the other types of challenges you get are "replay the main story missions but with a gimmick". They range from "katana only" (you should be able to guess what this is) through to "thrown weapons kill (but you can't shoot)", speedrun (beat the level under par time (two separate modes - real and in-game), "you can on-hit kill and body swap (but can't use guns)", hard mode, harder mode, and so on. There are about a dozen alternatives but you are still replaying the main missions.

I've finished everything aside from the "norestart" challenge (play all of the main missions. If you die, you have to start again) and I found them really fun. When I got into the speedrun, it was actually REALLY interesting finding some of the non-obvious mechanics and level strategies that allow you to save precious seconds or even fractions of. To be honest the "impossible" challenge wasn't not even that hard after those.

I'm still torn on this one. Everyone I know who's played it had a blast. At the same time, everyone I know that's played it basically ran through it, and then never looked back at it. I was kind of hoping for a sale a bit better then 20%, to be honest. May wait on it.

 

[DoPo]

I'm still torn on this one. Everyone I know who's played it had a blast. At the same time, everyone I know that's played it basically ran through it, and then never looked back at it. I was kind of hoping for a sale a bit better then 20%, to be honest. May wait on it.

Yeah, I know what you mean. The game grabbed me, but I definitely understand that some people won't like doing the same thing over and over again with some modifications (main story challenges or free mode only on different maps). And the game isn't really cheap enough to justify getting it to run through it once, given that the main story missions take...around 2.5 hours or so?

On somewhat related news, I reinstalled the game now, to have another go at just killing red dudes on endless and I realised that I HAVE finished norestart. I'm actually impressed with myself, and I don't even remember doing that. So I have done absolutely all of the challenges there are to do. Woohoo, go me!

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Oh, I've already played through Bulletstorm. Several times. But that was on my PS3, which I gave to my brother a while ago (He needed a bluray player and I didn't use the damn thing that much anyway). Just been waiting for a sale good enough to justify me rebuying.

It's worth mentioning that the game uses GFWL and never got updated to Steamworks when GFWL went down. You can still get it running but it might be a ballache.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I just bought-

Tales from the Borderlands
Costume Quest 2
Tourchlight 2
Freedom Planet OST

I may also reconsider-
Dead Star including the DLC (but I'm been put off from competitive games lately but it does have a demo).
Undertales (I prefer it to be over 50%, yes I know it already cheap but hey it's Steam)
Grey Goo
RWBY: Grimm Eclipse
DEX
Heavy Bullets
Terraia
Dragonball Xenoverse (still too expensice since I know for a fact I won't played it for long)

EDIT- Ok I give into DEX and Dead Star (with the DLC) cos I read you can get a hologram avatar when you start the game during the sale!

 

[DoPo]

however I have no idea if some of them are already as part of daily deals or not because the store isn't working properly.

Works fine for me, so I'll try to help. But first, it's worth noting that Steam, for better or worse, has done away with daily deals during sales. Now for the duration of a seasonal sale, game's don't change their price, so whatever mark down the games have remains until 4th of July.

Second, I'm in the UK - Steam seems to have also done away with the flag that allowed looking at the store front for other countries, so I'll only give you the current percentage off the games have. Most likely, it'd be the same for you, but I imagine the actual price would differ, so I can't just convert it using exchange rate.

Anyway, here we go:

F.E.A.R.: all games -75%. F.E.A.R. collection also -75% (on top of whatever the pack nets you in savings)

Sonic CD: -50%

Riff Racer: -75%

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood: -50%

Trails in the Sky: -50%
Trails in the Sky Second Chapter: -35%

Party Hard: -75%

 

[DoPo]

Costume Quest 2

I just finished this one about a week ago It's good, I liked it. It's pretty much more of the first game but here is a list of the significant changes:
- slightly more combat mechanics and more costumes.
- the stamps stamps from the first game, which provided passive bonuses, are replaced with new items which can be activated in combat for some effect.
- new costumes
- more candy

 

[DoPo]

snip

So no dailies anymore? I thought that was exclusive to the atumn/winter sales

It used to be for all seasonal sales. The way they were done has slightly shifter over the years but you had
- daily sales - one bulk of "main" games that were on sale for a day[footnote]or, technically, two days, but they got to be on the front page for one, then for the other 24 hours, the next batch of games would replace them[/footnote]
- flash sales - less in number but rotated faster
- community choice - similar to flash sales but you could vote for which games you want to be in the next batch.

That was, frankly, a bit of a pain in the ass. Especially since for a while a game could have different discounts based on which of the three sales categories it appeared in - say, it may have been -60% in a daily sale, but -70% in a flash sale. And the flash sales were also, for a while, too quick, as well - at one point they were rotated every 4 hours, I think, so for many people that meant they couldn't even catch all of them. Especially since you are (almost) guaranteed to miss at least one while you sleep.

In the most recent sales, these had all been addressed - games went on the special sales for a fixed "max" discount and flash sales were set to rotate every either 6 or 8 hours (I think it was 8) - way easier to get most of them, unless you are really busy. However, it was still a pain in the ass, since you have to check all the time hoping your game to go on sale, or otherwise wait until the very end to get whatever you hadn't got.

So now, during the sales, Steam only does "highlights" - it's sort of like the special sales from before but there is no extra price cut - the games just show up on the main page.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Well, I bought Bulletstorm and Doom. Now I get to spend the next 20 mins deleting/movie games around so I can install them. And then, with my internet speeds as they are, I can play tomorrow!

Still considering what else to get. I got time.

 

[DoPo]

Still considering what else to get. I got time.

Well, if you behave, I will make a list tomorrow.

Or rather, I'll probably just make a list tomorrow. Been meaning to do that for a while now - when a Steam sale starts, try to show games that are almost guaranteed to never get to the front page and that a lot of people would probably have missed out but I have some knowledge of.

I think it's high time I do that. First time I came up with this idea was few years ago. I just never really got around to do it.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Still considering what else to get. I got time.

Well, if you behave, I will make a list tomorrow.

Or rather, I'll probably just make a list tomorrow. Been meaning to do that for a while now - when a Steam sale starts, try to show games that are almost guaranteed to never get to the front page and that a lot of people would probably have missed out but I have some knowledge of.

I think it's high time I do that. First time I came up with this idea was few years ago. I just never really got around to do it.

Pretty much what the wishlist is for me. I don't need Steam to keep track of new games I need to get on release, I need it to track old/unpopular games when they go on sale.

All the same, I'm sure there are some gems in Steam I'm missing and will kick myself in the ass for not getting. So if you dig up any of those diamonds, sure, shoot'em my/our way.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Haven't bought anything yet. I miss the Flash sales. The current system is just so boring. I know it's more convenient for some people, but I liked checking back for new deals and thought it was exciting.

Games on my radar
-Soma
-Blood and Wine
-The Old Blood
-Fran Bow
-The Cat Lady
-Rainbow Six siege (this has been a thought in my head for awhile but I just can't pull the trigger on it. I feel like I'll regret it
-Dishonored (my 360 broke)
-Darkest Dungeon
-Project Cars or Assetto Corsa (would love some input from anyone who's played them. They seem nickle and dimey)
-Verdun
-Squad
-Sniper Elite 3

 

[DeadProxy]

I really wish the canadian dollar was doing better, cause I'd be a little more generous with this sale.

Pretty much my entire wishlist is on sale, but barely half of them are decent price drops, and barely half of those are under 10 bucks, which is my current cut off price. If Oblivion was 7.99 or even 9.99 I'd be pretty tempted to buy it and morrowind, but at 12 bucks, when skyrim regularly went down to 5 bucks (which i never see happening again with the rerelease), I don't see a deal.

I'm sad though that Universe Sandbox 2 still hasn't gotten an attractive discount in all the time I've seen it on steam, and Cradle refuses to drop under 10 bucks.

So far though, my shopping cart has a couple "surprises" I guess I could call them. No advanced knowledge of them, haven't even watched the steam trailers on the store pages for most of these.
-1979 Revolution
-The Song of Seven
-Kingdom
-Leviathan: Last day of the decade

Also, I'm curious as to how friendly is Payday 2 to newbies? I know I can download it and demo it for the next little while, but I'm definitely a "casual" type player so I'm wondering how likely it is I'll be kicked repeatedly for just being new or dying repeatedly because I'm learning and all that crap and not consulting a wiki for a perfect character build.