Steam Summer Sale!
Well, kids, it’s here. The long-awaited Steam Summer Sale. Lots of crazy sales and cheap games.
If you follow Reddit’s /r/gaming, then you probably heard all sorts of speculation over the past few weeks about when the sale was to begin. Most of them wrong, but the past couple days they’ve been predicting that it would start today. Lo and Behold, if you predict things a lot, eventually you will be right. Mind you, this time they had a few more hints that it was coming, new bundles being added to Steam, a “leak” from a foreign company that was poorly translated, probably some other things that I didn’t care enough to go into. The point is, the Summer Sale is finally here.
They seem to have taken out the achievement hunt of the last two major sales, which is getting mixed reviews. Some people are happy it’s gone, others enjoyed the hunt. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. Last year I spent money on a few games for the sole purpose of getting a ticket, or during the winter sale to get a piece of coal. Mind you, I only properly regretted buying one of those games. So the rest were probably worth it. But mind you, the official Summer Sale group on Steam says that there are “activities” planned. No idea what that might entail, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless.
This year they also added “badges” to Steam. Two badges are currently available, but up to three have been unlocked for things done in the past. If you participated in last year’s Summer Sale, the most recent Winter Sale, it lists those as badges and lets you know what you earned back then. It also has another badge that lists your “Years of service”. Apparently I’ve been on Steam for three years, although that will bump up to four come November. The two badges you can currently earn are the “Pillar of the Community” badge, for such things as linking Steam to Facebook, recommending games, rating games, and the like, and the Summer Sale 2012 badge. The latter badge is of course unlocked by doing things during the Summer Sale, such as buying a game, and voting.
Oh, did I not mention the voting? Silly me. The big thing about this Summer Sale seems to be the ability to vote on upcoming sales. Every eight hours a new vote pops up and lets you choose which sale you would prefer. At the time of my writing this, the vote is between Arkham City, The Witcher 2, and Saints Row The Third. But that only has three hours left on it, so by the time this gets posted and you read this, who knows what it’ll be?
There’s also a series of “flash sales”. Normally the daily deals last for the full twenty-four hours, but these flash deals seem to last between eight and twelve hours. So if you like Steam sales, keep an eye out for new games all the time. There’s also a lot of unlisted sales. In fact, most of the games in the Steam library are currently on sale for at least a little bit off. And then there’s the collections. Oh, the collection. Bethesda collection, Star Wars collection, Valve collection. All sorts of bundles and games up there.
Honestly, this early in the sale there’s not really that much to say about it. But some of you probably don’t check Steam every day like I do, so I wanted to make sure that all of you were aware of it. And for those of you not super familiar with Steam sales, I’ll even go so far as to give you a few pointers. I’m a bit of a pro when it comes to Steam Sales. By which I mean I have spent a LOT of money on Steam over the years, and my Steam Community thing says I have four hundred and forty-eight games. Mind you, that number includes come DLC things and double of games when they come with Mac versions, but I’m still impressive.
At any rate, here’s a couple of helpful tips to help you and your wallet survive the Steam sale.
See something you want to buy? Neat. Is it on a daily sale? No? Whoa, man. Don’t buy that shit. Slap that puppy on your wishlist and wait for the last day of the sale. How would you feel it you spent fifteen bucks on a game because it was on sale, and then two days later it was marked down to ten bucks? Well, that’s only five bucks, you probably wouldn’t be devastated, but every time it happens, somebody goes to the forum bitching about how they’ve been ripped off, because they didn’t know it would go cheaper. So save yourself potentially five bucks, and wait to see if it pops up on sale. Seriously, WAIT TO SEE IF THINGS GO ON SALE. I cannot stress this enough. There’s ten days of deals! You never know what will pop up. And on that note…
Check back every day. I mean, you don’t know what’s going to come on sale. Maybe that game that’s been sitting on your wishlist for six months is going to pop up for super cheap. What would happen if you were outside, being social? You’d miss out on the sale, that’s what! Which is why I recommend that you don’t leave the house at all for the next ten or so days. Don’t go outside, you might miss SALES. VIDEO GAMES. MAYBE SOME ZOMBIES OR SOMETHING, I DUNNO MAN. Okay, that might be a little over the top. But it won’t kill you to check back once a day, yeah? You never know when that one game you want could pop up on sale. Granted, there’s a little leeway around the end of the sale. Generally the last day of the Steam Sales tends to be the top sellers for the entire sale, put back up as a daily deal. So even if you miss something when it’s on the twenty-four hour sale, don’t pick it up the next day for more money, because you never know. It could be back.
And don’t be afraid to check out games that aren’t on the daily deals. Only so many games can get on the front page over the course of the sale. There are a ton of hidden gems out there, just waiting to be found and bought. Binding of Isaac? It’s on for two dollars and fifty cents. And only a buck fifty more for the Wrath of the Lamb expansion. For another fifty cents on top of that, you could get the collection with the game, expansion, and soundtrack for only four dollars and forty-eight cents. Holy butts, Batman. Space Pirates and Zombies? Fifty percent off, that’s a steal for only five bucks. I bought the game when it first came out and was fifteen dollars. And it was well worth it then. And those are only a couple examples. There are a ton of games marked down right now. So pick them up. On the last day of the sale. I mean, Binding of Isaac is not likely to go any cheaper, and Space Pirates and Zombies isn’t either. But the last day is the best day to make your choices. They won’t get any more expensive as the sale goes on, so you’re not missing out on anything.
Okay. I think you’re ready. Just remember to NOT BUY ANYTHING THAT IS NOT ON A DAILY SALE UNTIL THE LAST DAY OF THE SALE. But if it’s on a daily sale, that is as cheap as you will get it. If you want it, buy that shit. Buy it. I’m currently pretty tempted by Legend of Grimrock for only six bucks. And if I didn’t already buy Terraria back when it was fifteen bucks, I would be a fool not to buy it now for only two fifty. But yeah. Just keep these things in mind, and you and your wallet may come out of this intact. But probably not your wallet. Sorry, man.
Also, please post down in the comments about any games that are on sale that you highly recommend. Tell us what you like, and if sales are worth it! SALES! STEAM! GAMES! WHEEEEE!
Also, expect another article from me in the next couple of days. It’s been in the works for the past week and a half, and it’s just about done. Spoiler alert, it’s about the undead. And not zombies this time!