Steam+ Deals Mega Thread (All PC Gaming Deals)

[Neuro5i5]

This thread will attempt to provide a place to discuss past/present/future PC gaming deals. While mainly focusing on Steam games, any standout sales may also be presented. I will not be updating every Daily/Weekly/etc. sale. The tools to help individuals become a smarter shopper will be provided below.

See this POST for links to store sale pages, threads of interest and other tools to help you become a more informed PC game shopper.

 

[jimbodan]

Someone please talk me out of buying all the Crusader Kings 2 DLC.

 

[Mooby]

Couldn't you abuse it by using Sam to unlock achievements to get tickets? It wasn't abused anywhere near the same extent, but it was abused IIRC

Sure but there was a finite amount of things worth getting with tickets. The coal thing was a total disaster since there were limited rewards and everything good was claimed by exploiters within a couple of days.

 

[pasports31]

I'm going to put on my SadPanda mask.. so bear with me.

I know the current flash deals are weak, but overall the sale is a lot more solid than the last 2 summer sales. We've gotten a lot more variety with dailies/flash deals and the milestones from the monster summer game have been much better than the shitty community votes. Hell, there's 2 games I'll probably buy from the current set of milestones when they go live (Dreadout/Astebreed). Usually at this point you'd see a few sales repeated, and I don't think I've seen any at all. If there have been any, I haven't noticed, which is a good thing IMO.

I think Valve has learned from the last 2 summer sales and improved on pretty much everything except for the inconsistent card drops.

I agree. The last two days have been a bit meh overall, but the first couple days I was actually kind of impressed. I also don't think I've seen any repeats, and the first couple days I actually restrained myself a bit. I forget what day it was but one of the days there were something like four or five things in the featured deals I was debating buying. Another thing that's been nice is they've actually shaved off a little bit of price on some of the deals. An example of this is Alice: Madness Returns, which typically goes on sale for 5 bucks/75% off was something like 4.50 at 78% off, which pushed me to buy it. In past deals there were a lot of days where in the featured sales it was primarily nothing I had any interest in at all, and then midway through the sales it'd be half repeats. This has been a lot better.

 

[coyotedelmar]

Heard good things about Kentucky Route Zero but the price is way off considering it isn't finish (with no timetable when it will be). It's a $12.50 EA game basically. Also, according to the Adventuregamer's reviews, there is barely any gameplay (I-III is about 5 hours already though so might hit the typical 8 hour adventure game run time whenever  IV & V come out). 

Gunpoint is supposed to be very good, but was in HIB 12 for $1.00 (via ITAD). 

The Ship looked to actually have a small active community somehow (I thought it was dead), I really liked it a few years back but never seemed active enough =/. When it got bought by some new guy, they have away extra copies to people buying it and people who already owned it, so you can probably still save $1.99 and just ask around for a copy. 

 

[taylort3]

Someone please talk me out of buying all the Crusader Kings 2 DLC.

 

[archibishopthedoge]

I would say this sale is at least better than 2014 Winter. My memory isnt strong about last summer, but I hated the team BS they did last summer. The gimmick of the clicker game this year is pretty terrible. Generally I think most of the games in the "milestones" have been lackluster, but I do agree that the community votes almost always were ass b/c people are so dumb with their votes. GTA IV YES! 

What I think they've done right this sale has been the amount of variety. There's 15 dailies (typically more as 1 or 2 is a franchise) + 30 Flashes every 24 hours. And on top of that the 8-9 milestones. I can't recall how many flashes there used to be per day and frankly, I do miss the every 8 hour turnover as it broke up the wait for each new set of deals and overall I found the sale more interesting.

I do agree there hasn't been 1 repeat yet and I would imagine we wont see any repeats until Encore day. That's a start, now the discounts just need to get back to great. I also wish they'd limit the amount of Early Access stuff as the amount of it in the sale is a bit excruciating. EA games shouldnt be allowed to be a featured deal IMO. Discount them, sure, but the main page deals should all be finished games at the absolute least. I can at least understand bundle fodder being featured.

 

[jimbodan]

I agree the variety has been good, but the prices have been pretty bad. The only stuff getting 75% off are 4 year old games and bundle fodder.  I'd rather have less variety and better prices personally.

 

[pasports31]

Honestly it doesnt matter how bad the games they display in the milestones are, its better than the community votes. Those were infuriating. Really look at it like in each of the three milestone sections the worst deal of the three is probably what would get selected in the vote, now all three games are put on sale.

 

[coyotedelmar]

I can't stand all the EA games that get featured, but honestly bundles spoil a lot. If not for bundles something like 3 bucks for spelunky you'd see everybody buying it, but nobody will because it's bound to be bundled. Same with Dust. And Gunpoint. Same with 99 cents for system shock 2...its been bundled. Also nuuvem spoils it for people. Payday 2 four pack comes out to 3.75 a person, which is a pretty good deal, but i bet people got that from nuuvem. Say what you want, but Steam can't compete with bundles and buying from foreign countries for a discount.

For people who don't buy a ton of bundles/buy for foreign, I agree Spelunky, Dust and Gunpoint would come across as pretty good deals. Though with Dust and System Shock 2 they've been on sale quite a bit before now, so more decent deals? *Shrugs*.

Someone please talk me out of buying all the Crusader Kings 2 DLC.

Ewwwwwww. 90% of it is just song packs, crests, and faces/troop looking better (sometimes) so already no.

Okay, most of non cosmetic stuff isn't really needed either. The Old Gods is one of the ones thought to be very much worth picking up. I like Sword of Islam as playing as Islamic countries is a nice change of pace. The Republic was okay but nothing I'd go out of my way for.

If you want a rough breakdown of what parts of a DLC were included in a free patch, and what parts require buying the DLC, can use the wiki page here to check each one. Some of the features on the store page for DLC are bit of a lie due to this (e.g. Rajas of India includes the map expansion with or without the DLC):

http://www.ckiiwiki.com/CategoryLC

 

[Motiv]

If anyone is looking, there are a lot of people trading The Talos Principle for about 3 keys or so. Noticing them mainly on Steamtrades. Must be some sort of a glitch going on.

Awesome! Thanks for posting that since it's a game I almost bought earlier today. I found a reliable trader taking 3 keys (not too bad) or $5.25 in the end. I amassed far too many TF2 keys for $1.75 last November so it's nice to almost be rid of those.

 

[Camthur]

I'll agree that some things about this year's sale are much more solid than in the past.    I certainly don't miss the community votes.  This year's sale theme flat out stinks though.  The unlocks are ok, but might as well be automatic since most of the requirements are easily met.  There's very reason to even play the game.

I liked the theme last year.  I loved being on a team and competing against others.  I liked that the game gave us additional reasons to collect cards and create badges.  I liked that there was a chance, even a small one, of winning games off your wishlist.

I had fun.  (something that is sorely missing  this year for me in clickfest 2015)

 

[Dr Sasquatch]

FTFY

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

[Blade]

Thanks for breaking the forums, Squatch.

 

[josekortez]

Does anybody know if you can create a Steam account to buy Steam games before having a decent PC on which to play them? I'm considering buying an Alienware Alpha soon and I figure why not start my backlog now if possible.

 

[Mooby]

Uh... of course.  The account isn't tied to any one device.  Also... don't buy Alienware.

 

[deckmeup]

Someone please talk me out of buying all the Crusader Kings 2 DLC.

That's easy. They'll come up with yet another new patch brand-new-expansion-dlc-honest a month from now for $14.99.

 

[zenii]

Someone please talk me out of buying all the Crusader Kings 2 DLC.

Dooooo iiiittttt.

Oh, sorry. Talk you out of it. Can't help you there. I just got back from vacationing in South America where I bought EU4's newest DLC for $10. It was totally worth it.

 

[Flowette]

I've never eaten Ramen because I'm not a pleb.

 

[Neuro5i5]

Ending 6/18 Group #1
15% off Chroma Squad - $12.74
80% off Dust: An Elysian Tail - $2.99
33% off Eastside Hockey Manager - $10.04
88% off Gone Home - $2.39
80% off Gunpoint - $1.99 (80% off editions/ DLC)
75% off Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition - $4.99
50% off Kentucky Route Zero - $12.49
50% off Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas - $7.49
25% off Overgrowth - $22.49
75% off Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds - $2.99 (50% off DLC)
75% off RAGE - $4.99 (50% off DLC)
75% off Supreme Commander 2 - $3.24 (75% off DLC)
80% off The Ship: Murder Party - $1.99
40% off War for the Overworld - $17.99
Up to 76% off Devil May Cry Franchise


Weekly, Midweek and Weekend Deals
Ending 6/19
90% off Chivalry games and DLC

 

[Flowette]

Uh... of course. The account isn't tied to any one device. Also... don't buy Alienware.

Do as the Golden Calf says and start building your library.

If you don't have any Steam games whatsoever you can probably get some decent bundles from HumbleBundle and BundleStars.

Welcome to the black hole.



P.s. Don't buy Alienware, bad value. Research your own parts (or ask here for help) and build your own. You'll get a machine 50% more powerful for the same amount of cash.

 

[thepcgameguy]

forgot to turn off my PC last night and hit level 4120 on the summer click fest game.  Shouldn't that badge give more xp based on how many levels completed?  

Level 4120 Monster Summer Badge. Helped the Steam Community defeat monsters during the 2015 Steam Summer Sale.

 

[madjoki]

It gives 200 XP max

 

[Flowette]

forgot to turn off my PC last night and hit level 4120 on the summer click fest game. Shouldn't that badge give more xp based on how many levels completed?

Level 4120 Monster Summer Badge. Helped the Steam Community defeat monsters during the 2015 Steam Summer Sale.

No. I don't want any of you filthy casuals cheapening my Level 96 Steam status!

 

[Tomasety]

You should be proud americans.

https://twitter.com/i_akari_daisuki/status/611005506321297409

 

[kaiyouske]

Didn't know PC Games = exclusively indie games. Oh well maybe next years PC gaming show will be better.

 

[garrion81]

Yea, it's only 10 bucks cheaper than Steam that way.. that's why I was halfheartedly hoping for a sale. It's always a good reminder though as I can't keep track of what's locked down anymore.

Games planet has it at 60% off:

https://uk.gamesplanet.com/game/pillars-of-eternity-hero-edition--2709-1

Bought last night, got key and activated with zero issues. Used PayPal, came to about $22 USD. Figured we won't see anything close to this price on the Summer Seal.

 

[Draekon]

It gives 200 XP max

Yeah, which is stupid.

No. I don't want any of you filthy casuals cheapening my Level 96 Steam status!

If I was up at midnight and paying attention to the place I go for room info, I may have made it into the 1.9 million level and still growing room.

Two days ago my max was like 44k. Then yesterday, I made it to 169k before jumping into another game which made it to 615k in like 2 or 3 hours. After that I jumped in a few others to help boost past 300k. Wormholes are pretty OP now when used in conjunction with everybody else on levels divisible by 100.

 

[thepcgameguy]

No. I don't want any of you filthy casuals cheapening my Level 96 Steam status!

what if I told you I'm

/

 

[CocheseUGA]

what if I told you I'm

/

My condolences for being ginger.

Please don't steal my soul.

 

[Flowette]

what if I told you I'm

/

Then I ing love you and I'm heartbroken you left.

But you're not, you're just lying to me. You heartless bastard.

 

[josekortez]

Do as the Golden Calf says and start building your library.

If you don't have any Steam games whatsoever you can probably get some decent bundles from HumbleBundle and BundleStars.

Welcome to the black hole.



P.s. Don't buy Alienware, bad value. Research your own parts (or ask here for help) and build your own. You'll get a machine 50% more powerful for the same amount of cash.

Thanks for the tip. I'm only considering an Alienware Alpha Steambox rig because it would allow me to have access to the legendary sales that I read about in this thread. I don't have room for or need a gaming PC setup since I own a cheap netbook which is all I need for word processing. The Alpha is smaller than the PS4/Xbox One and I saw a video online that showed you how to replace the CPU, RAM and hard drive. Looked relatively easy. I don't have $500 for one right now though anyway.

 

[Flowette]

Thanks for the tip. I'm only considering an Alienware Alpha Steambox rig because it would allow me to have access to the legendary sales that I read about in this thread. I don't have room for or need a gaming PC setup since I own a cheap netbook which is all I need for word processing. The Alpha is smaller than the PS4/Xbox One and I saw a video online that showed you how to replace the CPU, RAM and hard drive. Looked relatively easy. I don't have $500 for one right now though anyway.

I've just knocked up a build on PCPartPicker.com that's similar to the Alienware Alpha cheapest build, with a similarly small case (small cases are becoming MUCH more popular as gaming moves into the living room, the Silverstone RVZ02 and Fractal Design Node 202 are pretty small). It would cost you ~$420 without Windows. That's before we start bargain hunting.

I'd be concerned that the Alienware only has 4gb RAM and we don't really know what the graphics card would be like. However, these are small details. In short, it'd be possible to beat what Alienware offer. Maybe not by 50%, but certainly 20-25%. I've had pre-mades before and they have their place but knowing your own PC is a great advantage.

As for back logging, I'd advise you to start hoarding cheap bundles soon. Every now and then there's an amazing Humble Bundle which gives 8-10 good games for a few bucks. That way you won't feel the urge to go crazy on expensive stuff in between sales.

 

[CheapLikeAFox]

Apparently, Raptr has something called Plays.tv that will record your gaming sessions for you without warning.  It just recorded a few minutes of Clicker Heroes, but that was too much excitement to upload. 

 

[Motoki]

Sounds like a hidden cam peep show for video games.

 

[annihilator]

Basically I wonder how steam sales are perceived by people who don't log onto a cheap video game site everyday.

Hey...we work HARD for the right to complain about lackluster sales!

I'm with Mooby. I've got almost 70 items on my wishlist, and going into the sale I realized I was unlikely to see any deals worth getting excited about on any of them. That has proven to be the case. The AAA titles I wanted had even stingier discounts than I had expected, the indies I can't buy for fear of being bundled. I've been picking up things here and there just to use up card money, but I don't really care anymore. Speaking of which, Rage DLC, yes or no?

 

[josekortez]

I've just knocked up a build on PCPartPicker.com that's similar to the Alienware Alpha cheapest build, with a similarly small case (small cases are becoming MUCH more popular as gaming moves into the living room, the Silverstone RVZ02 and Fractal Design Node 202 are pretty small). It would cost you ~$420 without Windows. That's before we start bargain hunting.

I'd be concerned that the Alienware only has 4gb RAM and we don't really know what the graphics card would be like. However, these are small details. In short, it'd be possible to beat what Alienware offer. Maybe not by 50%, but certainly 20-25%. I've had pre-mades before and they have their place but knowing your own PC is a great advantage.

As for back logging, I'd advise you to start hoarding cheap bundles soon. Every now and then there's an amazing Humble Bundle which gives 8-10 good games for a few bucks. That way you won't feel the urge to go crazy on expensive stuff in between sales.

I've always been a console owner and I'm not mechanically inclined at all so I'd be afraid that I'd eff up trying to build a PC. The cheapest Alphas I've seen online are between $450 and $500, and I would need to replace the hard drive up to 2 TB for me to even want to bother so that would be at least another $100. Plus, I already own a PS4 and Xbox One so I'm pretty much set for the current gen. It's just that I'm envious that Steam owners have access to games between $1 and $3 when I lurk on the Steam thread. But later on this year, I might look at a small case PC set-up if I don't get a Steambox since digital is becoming more and more attractive to me. But thanks for the advice!

 

[Psydero]

I've always been a console owner and I'm not mechanically inclined at all so I'd be afraid that I'd eff up trying to build a PC. The cheapest Alphas I've seen online are between $450 and $500, and I would need to replace the hard drive up to 2 TB for me to even want to bother so that would be at least another $100. Plus, I already own a PS4 and Xbox One so I'm pretty much set for the current gen. It's just that I'm envious that Steam owners have access to games between $1 and $3 when I lurk on the Steam thread. But later on this year, I might look at a small case PC set-up if I don't get a Steambox since digital is becoming more and more attractive to me. But thanks for the advice!

If you've ever built anything with Legos, you already know how to build a PC. Come, join the PC Master Race.

 

[Motoki]

Not everyone wants to or needs to build their own PC and that's fine. The only advice I'd give is if someone's going with a premade I would personally advise again Linux (SteamOS) because the options will be a lot more limited.

 

[IkedaTeramusa]

It had been a LONG while since I built my last PC til this one.  I was an off the shelf... but the one I built saved me about $800 from the prebuilt ones.  The CheapAss in me couldn't just let that go.  I'll build my own.

And the 60% was fan-freakin-tastic for POE.  And I didn't have to Hola! to do it.

 

[Flowette]

Not everyone wants to or needs to build their own PC and that's fine. The only advice I'd give is if someone's going with a premade I would personally advise again Linux (SteamOS) because the options will be a lot more limited.

I'll second that. My brief experience with Linux was that there was a learning curve that I simply did not want to bother with. I'm sure it's more efficient/cheaper (free) but at the end of the day Windows means everything is user-friendly and it just runs.

I'm afraid that since turning into a hardware geek I've turned into one of those "Let me talk to you about Jesus" or "Let me talk to you about grandma clicker games" types.

 

[thepcgameguy]

I'll second that. My brief experience with Linux was that there was a learning curve that I simply did not want to bother with. I'm sure it's more efficient/cheaper (free) but at the end of the day Windows means everything is user-friendly and it just runs.

I'm afraid that since turning into a hardware geek I've turned into one of those "Let me talk to you about Jesus" or "Let me talk to you about grandma clicker games" types.

as they say in your part of the world "suck it and see", I think linux can be nice for some things but for a gaming machine not a great choice. I think everyone should "suck it and see" for themselves.

 

[Flowette]

as they say in your part of the world "suck it and see", I think linux can be nice for some things but for a gaming machine not a great choice. I think everyone should "suck it and see" for themselves.

Slow down there lad. Eulogywerd21 hasn't had his breakfast yet.

 

[Motoki]

I'll second that. My brief experience with Linux was that there was a learning curve that I simply did not want to bother with. I'm sure it's more efficient/cheaper (free) but at the end of the day Windows means everything is user-friendly and it just runs.

The SteamOS part on top of it is supposed to make everything all user friendly in a console controller type way, but even so you can still do that in Windows by running Steam in big picture mode and have access to way more games so eh.

I'm afraid that since turning into a hardware geek I've turned into one of those "Let me talk to you about Jesus" or "Let me talk to you about grandma clicker games" types.

Did someone mention Grandma games?

 

[Syntax Error]

Also have to remember the people on this site are collectors who own like 95% of the titles on Steam that are worth owning (in addition to owning a lot of titles that aren't worth owning at get sold for 3 bucks for a pack of 8 on groupees) excluding the most recent releases.

Basically I wonder how steam sales are perceived by people who don't log onto a cheap video game site everyday.

Yeah, but like Mooby said, there hasn't even been sales that made me say "That's a sweet price" and want to tell friends about it or anything. Even if there was nothing I needed, there was at least stuff to get excited about for someone else's sake.

Sounds like a hidden cam peep show for video games.

Awesome. I'm ready to step up my game to creeping on other people's Huniepop playthroughs.

The SteamOS part on top of it is suppose to make everything all user friendly in a console controller type way, but even so you can still do that in Windows by running Steam in big picture mode and have access to way more games so eh.

Plus the whole "Do you actually want games to play?" thing. I think one of the gaming/tech columns did a count and, at the time Valve put the controller/boxes up for sale a few weeks ago, maybe ten out of the top fifty games on Steam had a Linux/SteamOS version.

 

[2wicked]

Raptr can record my Idle Master all it wants.

 

[josekortez]

Not everyone wants to or needs to build their own PC and that's fine. The only advice I'd give is if someone's going with a premade I would personally advise again Linux (SteamOS) because the options will be a lot more limited.

Not that I'm here to campaign for the Alienware Alpha but it has Windows 8.1. Just clarifying.

 

[Pickle14]

I've always been a console owner and I'm not mechanically inclined at all so I'd be afraid that I'd eff up trying to build a PC. The cheapest Alphas I've seen online are between $450 and $500, and I would need to replace the hard drive up to 2 TB for me to even want to bother so that would be at least another $100. Plus, I already own a PS4 and Xbox One so I'm pretty much set for the current gen. It's just that I'm envious that Steam owners have access to games between $1 and $3 when I lurk on the Steam thread. But later on this year, I might look at a small case PC set-up if I don't get a Steambox since digital is becoming more and more attractive to me. But thanks for the advice!

If you've ever built anything with Legos, you already know how to build a PC. Come, join the PC Master Race.

1000x this. I built my first PC thinking along your lines of "I will most likely mess this up and set my house on fire" but couldn't be more wrong. Really, every piece has an exact place and usually the worst thing you could do if forget to plug something in and have to open it back up. My first time took me 3 hours from opening boxes to installing drivers.

Also, keep in mind if you get Windows 7 or 8 now you'll get 10 for free when it launches.

 

[Motoki]

Well, you knew this was coming.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/idlemastery#announcements/detail/203007488879621804

Card Drop Algorithm Changed by Valve

It appears that the algorithm used by Steam to determine the rate at which cards drop was changed yesterday by Valve. After hearing numerous reports and doing testing of my own, it appears they have made this change to attempt to prevent people from purchasing a game, idling it for cards, selling the cards then refunding the game. As a result, most games will not start dropping Steam Trading Cards until approximately 2 hours of playtime has been recorded on your account.

As a reminder: if Idle Master is running and Steam shows you are "in-game" (and that game has available card drops) then you will eventually get those card drops. There is no difference between using Idle Master to idle the game, or downloading a game and sitting in it's main menu to idle for this purpose.

While I understand that this was a necessary change for Valve to make to help prevent fraud, I also know that it immensely affects those of us with a large number of games to idle. For me personally, this means that my idling time has increased approximately 650 hours (almost 28 days) as a result of this change.

Additionally, I encourage everyone who purchases games on Steam to test them out with your PC and be sure that you will not want to have that game refunded before using Idle Master to idle it's cards. The program includes a blacklist feature that can be employed to prevent the program from idling these games if you're not sure.

This change could be temporary. Valve could be trying to affect the supply of trading cards in the market, or it could be the result of the ongoing sale. If the situation changes further I'll try to keep everyone updated.

 

[ygoloib]

Well, you knew this was coming.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/idlemastery#announcements/detail/203007488879621804

yep idling now and taken forever to get 1 card to drop. why didn't I do this before the sale

edit: arkham asylum goty card just dropped at 2 hour mark

 

[Syntax Error]

Thankfully I tend to idle as soon as I get something so not a huge deal for me.

I guess that that's the "best" way for Valve to handle cards and game refunds.  Either that or they revoke the card which means whoever bought it needs THEIR money refunded, etc.  Pretty messy to handle it any way except to delay the drops past the refund grace period.