Steam 2012 Winter Holiday Sale

[Eightball]

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT

What the fuck is this?
Around most holiday seasons, Steam has massive sales wherein games sell for up to 90% off their original prices. Sure enough, today marks the first of 16 days of steam sales: December 20th through January 5th. This thread is for the discussion of sales: Hidden deals, evaluations of games that are on-sale, recommendations, and so on.

But don't we already have a game deals discussion thread?
Shut the fuck up! I mean, it's better to have a dedicated thread for this for organization's sake. Also, new threads tend to garner more attention, which is good considering the short-notice nature of these sales, which change every day, or even every few hours.

How are the sales structured?
There are a few different types of sales. There are "Daily Deals", which go up at 12pm CST every day, and stay there for 48 hours. These tend to be the biggest titles & best sales, but not always. There are "Flash Sales" which tend to last for only 10 hours, so check often for those. There are also "Publisher packs", which contain just about all of the games a publisher has put on Steam. These are arguably the best value, but chances are you already own some of the included games (extra copies are rarely transferable on Steam). Lastly, almost all steam games will have some low, constitutive discount on them (maybe -25% off), but these aren't usually advertised on the steam front-page. Oh, and there are also deals that users can vote on.

How can I make the most of this?
First, set a budget aside for yourself. If gaming is your primary source of entertainment, I don't think it's unreasonable to budget $100 or more...but I tend to go overboard. Update your wishlist, as Caffeine suggests below. Not only will this make receiving gifts easier, but Steam will now also inform you when your wishlisted games go on sale. Once you've done that, just check twice a day and look at what's being offered. There will be 16 days of sales, the longest yet, so don't spend all your cash in one go. In fact, save a bunch of cash for the last day, and do not buy games that aren't featured in a daily deal or flash sale until that last day. So, if you see Witcher 2 for -25% off now, but it's not advertised anywhere, wait. It may come up -75% later. If not, buy it on the last day.

Shoutout to Boney for being a huge gaylord

[CaffeinePowered]

Also relevant, up date your wishlists should anyone want to grace you with a gift.

[Eightball]

I'll start with a recommendation for a 4-pack of Castle Crashers. Deb and I picked it up during the Big Picture sale, and it'd be good if we had more people to play with! It's a hack-n-slash side scrolling adventure game. The main quest itself is pretty short, beatable in one sitting if you're moderately dedicated. The devs add more lifetime via ~30 unlockable characters and an "Insane mode". It's by the creators of Alien Hominid, so expect a bunch of Newgrounds references. I strongly recommend having a gamepad though, a microsoft 360 one.

EDIT: That didn't sound like a great sales job. It's colorful, intuitive, and (presumably) a lot of fun with 4 people. The music is also pretty memorable, and there are plenty of (sometimes juvenile) laughs.

[Hobospartan]

Obligatory




Anywho, how is War of the Roses?  I really like the Mount and Blade games, how similar is it?

[Evil Cheese]

Obligatory

Anywho, how is War of the Roses?  I really like the Mount and Blade games, how similar is it?

I enjoy it well enough but there are some downsides. Gameplay is fun and different from your average first person game (combat tends to be a little slower paced and require more thinking than point and shoot, especially during 1vs1 fights) , but the learning curve is a little steep and I think the current game modes consist of basically team deathmatch and capture points which is a bit disappointing if you ask me. There's a crazy amount of weapons, armor, and customization you can get, but unlocking weapons and armor usually require both a certain level and gold amount (you get gold and exp from doing various activities in battle) so it can take a while to unlock some of the cooler weapons and builds. There's also mounted combat in game which is an interesting mechanic that I've only ever really ever seen in Mount and Blade. The graphics are nicer than M&B and there are a few other cool little feature like each map having various times of day which have different lighting effects and shadows which adds some atmosphere.

I haven't played Chivalry so I can't compare it to that, but if it goes on sale again I'd be tempted to pick it up.

[Eightball]

Borderlands 2 is -50% off, if you can organize a 4-pack then each copy is 22.50 USD.

I'm looking at Fable III, as it's -75% off in the flash sales. My impression of the Fable series is that each game is hyped up a lot and ends up being a disappointment. I played Fable 1 on xbox, and don't remember much about it. Is this worth $12.50? Am I better off forgetting about it? Why the hell is it still $50 retail anyways?

[Reevesith]

I'm eying the two dlc I don't have for tropico 4 but only have 2$ o-o and we know steam, one day its cheap, then the next even cheaper... then not so much.

[Hobospartan]

Fable III is easily the worst 'major' title I've ever played, stay far away.

And thanks for the thoughts on War of the Roses, Evil Cheese, I think imma pick it up.

[CaffeinePowered]

My impression of the Fable series is that each game is hyped up a lot and ends up being a disappointment.

This is every Peter Molyeux game ever

[Eschatos]

I'll start with a recommendation for a 4-pack of Castle Crashers. Deb and I picked it up during the Big Picture sale, and it'd be good if we had more people to play with! It's a hack-n-slash side scrolling adventure game. The main quest itself is pretty short, beatable in one sitting if you're moderately dedicated. The devs add more lifetime via ~30 unlockable characters and an "Insane mode". It's by the creators of Alien Hominid, so expect a bunch of Newgrounds references. I strongly recommend having a gamepad though, a microsoft 360 one.

EDIT: That didn't sound like a great sales job. It's colorful, intuitive, and (presumably) a lot of fun with 4 people. The music is also pretty memorable, and there are plenty of (sometimes juvenile) laughs.

I like it, but it is indeed awful without a gamepad which I do not have.

[Eightball]

Wow raped, no Fable III then.

I'm also going to recommend (as many will) The Walking Dead, even if you've never done the point-and-click adventure game thing. The quality of storytelling is great, and if you need anything more than that, go look at some reviews I guess. A highly memorable & remarkable game, which will almost certainly be on sale.

[A. Crow]

Scribblenauts, worth $20?

[Kor]

Scribblenauts, worth $20?

Only if you didn't trade in your imagination to "grow up".

I had 60+ hours logged on my DS version.

[A. Crow]

[quote author=LT Crow link=topic=6685.msg258910#msg258910 date=1356042778]
Scribblenauts, worth $20?

Only if you didn't trade in your imagination to "grow up".

[/quote]

Fuck.

[Sogo]

It Begins!

[Reevesith]

Wow did not expect this, received a 50$ steam card & x-com for ps3 @3@ oh boy.

[matter11]

https://twitter.com/Steam_Support/status...to/1/large

[Eightball]

Deus Ex: HR is on a flash sale ($5.00), it's well worth the price. Also interesting, "Art Rage" is on sale, the first time I've seen software on sale.

[Coppanuva]

Deus Ex: HR is on a flash sale ($5.00), it's well worth the price. Also interesting, "Art Rage" is on sale, the first time I've seen software on sale.

Let's hope You Need a Budget 4 goes on sale the last day. Y'know, for the sake of irony.

[cbre88x]

Wanted to point out along with the Darksiders pack being $13 dollars (holy balls), the THQ pack has been discounted to $25 (jaysus).

Might have to bite on that Darksiders pack..