The Steam Deal Thread V6. We're all pumped for CAG 3.0!

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Welcome to the Steam Deal Thread V6! You can find link to past threads at the bottom of this post. Read post #2 of this thread for Steam FAQs and more.

With the V6 Thread, we're trying a slight formatting change. We used to list every possible Steam deal in the OP, but they change too frequently for anyone to keep up with (even in the Wiki format). So now, we'll leave regular minor sales out of the OP. This post will keep track of major sales (Winter sale, etc.), Steam deals available through other sellers (like Amazon), Preorder deals, and Group Buys.

I would still greatly appreciate help from you folks at home in keeping this smaller-scale OP up-to-date. This is a Wiki post so anyone can contribute. Wiki instructions:
Thanks for your help! If you notice a sale has ended, feel free to delete its line from the sale list. Of course, if you see something does need to be added, then kindly add it to the list.

Make sure your changes match the thread's format! For example, every game that's on sale is part of an unordered list. When adding a game to the list, copy an existing line and update the link, title, and prices. That way, the format stays correct. Do not list percentages off! We list the original price and the sale price here. If you have any suggestions for major changes to the post/thread, PM me (EastX) about them.

Steam Sales - Updated 1/22


CAG Threads Featuring Steam Games on Sale Elsewhere - Updated 1/9


Preorder Deals - Updated 1/10
Group Buy Deals - Updated 1/9/13
Several multiplayer Steam games are available in 2-packs or 4-packs. These packs offer a discount over buying multiple copies of a game separately. We also maintain group buy trade threads for several games, so please use those threads if you're interested in setting up a group buy.


Free Stuff - List needs updating with F2P games!
There are several free games and mods on Steam. These are a few choice ones; you can find a full list here. Note that free games are not permanently attached to your Steam account like actual purchases would be. You'll need to manually download a game again from the website if you uninstall it.


Steam around CAG

If you are interested in joining the Steam CAG Community or participating in a trade or group buy with fellow Cheap Ass Gamers, please do so in the dedicated threads and not in the deal discussion thread. In the dedicated threads you will find CAGers with the same specialized interest who will be much quicker (and happier) to respond than in the Deals thread.

Past Special Sales

Visit www.steamgamesales.com to check previous sale prices on Steam games. We do keep track of some older sales here though:

Steam Retail Key List

What is a CD key and where can I find it?

Steam's explanation and list of Steam-activatable keys

The CD Key is a serial number with a combination of 13, 18, or 25 letters and numbers - it can be found on a sticker inside your game's case or printed on the game's quick reference card. The CD Key acts as your proof of purchase for the game - Steam Support may ask for it if you need to establish your ownership of an account. It is recommended that you keep your CD Key in a safe place to ensure the security of your account.

Other Keys that can be redeemed on Steam (CAG tested & verified)
11.gif

  • The Ball (bought @D2D, tested by voken)
  • Supreme Commander Forged Alliance (gives both FA and original, bought @amazon, tested by vism)

Indie Bundles thread on Steam forums (link)

Past CAG Steam Deal Threads
 
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Hm I don't think so. I have an old Lynnfield i5 overclocked to 3.8 ghz and a 7850, and I was able to play SD with the HD texture pack and all settings maxed out at 1080p resolution 60fps... actually, I think the only things I toned down were the ambient occlusion and some shadow resolution.

Otherwise I also played it at 1440p and lowered the AA since I don't think it's that useful at such a high resolution and was still able to get 50-60 fps most of the time. I think your computer has better specs than mine so you should be good. I was happy that SD was so well optimized, since GTA4 plays like crap on my machine even though it looks way worse... even SRTT had finicky framerates until I messed around with some settings.
 
[quote name='Idiotekque']Is Sleeping Dogs wicked hard to run at full specs unless you've got some crazy SLi/Crossfire setup?[/QUOTE]

Probably. On a 670, it runs well on like 4x and high textures. At full, it was like 30 frames, but dips under to the 20s and teens quite a bit.

*Edit* Maybe it wasn't 4x. I had it at absolute max and had to turn it down a little bit.
 
[quote name='Idiotekque']Is Sleeping Dogs wicked hard to run at full specs unless you've got some crazy SLi/Crossfire setup?[/QUOTE]

Not at all in my experience. With:

i5 3330 (stock)
Radeon HD 7870 (factory OC)
8 GB RAM

I maxed everything at 1080 and never dipped below 55 FPS

Edit: It was developed with AMD in mind and because of that probable runs a bit better on those than on Nvidia cards, keep that in mind
 
I played it with a Radeon HD 7970 + i5 2500k at 1920x1200. Set everything to max except for AA. Had to set AA to "high" instead of max, but other than that it usually stays at 60 FPS. Setting AA to max, I got like 20 less FPS.
 
[quote name='asheskitty']That'd better be before coupon =p




I picked up the term while playing wow.
[/QUOTE]

Lol just was about to write the same. I picked it up playing WoW as well.
 
[quote name='asheskitty']I picked up the term while playing wow. I imagine the truth is pretty dull: its shorter to write than character. Also from a pen & paper RPG background character denotes depth and backstory that you are playing to. I believe the term "toon" entered mainstream lingo with Who Framed Rodger Rabbit (1988).[/QUOTE]
It sounds so... uneducated when applied to game characters when they're not cartoon characters.

[quote name='asheskitty']High res texture pack.[/QUOTE]
Is there any way to disable it once you have it?
 
Doing a quick Google search about the "toon" question reveals... that the Internet is full of people who absolutely love to argue vehemently over the most mundane of things. So, it must be a day of the week ending in Y, I guess.
 
[quote name='Detruire']It sounds so... uneducated when applied to game characters when they're not cartoon characters.


Is there any way to disable it once you have it?[/QUOTE]


IDK, in CoH & Freedom Force they are. I consider it to mean little depth. It helps distinguish between the player and puppet.

There's an in game setting to enable/disable the high res texture pack. It really only requires VRAM. As texture packs should, it had negligible performance impact on my GTX 260. Recovering HDD space -- no clue, probably SOL.
 
[quote name='spoderman']Yeah, you can disable it in the menu.[/QUOTE]
[quote name='melvinmelon123']Yes. It's in the "Visuals" menu.[/QUOTE]
[quote name='melvinmelon123']There's an in game setting to enable/disable the high res texture pack.[/QUOTE]
Thanks. :)

[quote name='melvinmelon123']It really only requires VRAM. As texture packs should, it had negligible performance impact on my GTX 260. Recovering HDD space -- no clue, probably SOL.[/QUOTE]
I have an older gaming PC w/ a HD4850 that I'm going to hook up to the TV (not 1080p) that we have in the lounge. I'll probably play on that every now and then, so I didn't want to ruin any chance that it'll run OK.

[quote name='asheskitty']IDK, in CoH & Freedom Force they are. I consider it to mean little depth. It helps distinguish between the player and puppet.[/QUOTE]
I interpret its use as indicating that the person using the term doesn't know what a cartoon is.
 
[quote name='Motoki']So this was posted in the Indie Game Stand thread but I figure some people might not check there and it's a game that is highly likely to get Greenlit thus getting in now gets you a Steam copy later for cheap.

Cognition is the current Indie Game stand game.

http://indiegamestand.com/

It's pay what you want, with a $1 minimum to get keys (so if you want a Steam key later make sure you pay at least $1). If you beat the Average, currently $1.43, you get a soundtrack and prequel comic.

Jane Jensen (who made some classic adventure games like Gabriel Knight) was involved in this project so it's pretty high profile and looks really well put together. I'm fairly certain it will get Greenlit at some point but everyone interested should go vote for it. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92915746

If you have any interest in adventure games at all then definitely get in on this.

Do note that they are having some problems with Paypal at the moment where the payment info isn't flowing through properly for some people so if you can pay with another form like Google or Amazon that would be advisable for the time being.

If you do Paypal and the game doesn't show up for you submit a support ticket and keep checking back as some people have had it show up for them after several hours. The issue is known by Indie Game Stand and they are working on it.[/QUOTE]



Just wanted to mention that I bought it using PayPal and it only took about fifteen minutes for the game to appear in my Games section, no support contact necessary. I got the bonuses for beating the average as well despite the short delay (which saw the average rise another two cents). If you're holding back because of the PayPal difficulties, have no fear.
 
[quote name='spoderman']Nope, it all sucks. I'm not sure about Zodiac Tournament, it's the only one I haven't played.. but I can say for sure the rest of it isn't worth buying, even at 91% off (price glitch).[/QUOTE]

I passed this time, but I was tempted by the SWAT pack and the Street Racer pack as both offered extra side missions. Were they just not very engaging missions?
 
The SWAT missions are one-off activities. A hostage situation where you snipe one dood. A car chase. A shootout. Stuff like that here and there.

There are ENOUGH FRICKEN RACES IN THE GAME ALREADY HOLY COW.

Nightmare in North Point wasn't fun.

I love SD but the DLC is just a swing and a miss
 
[quote name='RollingSkull']

There are ENOUGH FRICKEN RACES IN THE GAME ALREADY HOLY COW.
[/QUOTE]

No way! There needs to be MORE races!!
That said, the DLC races aren't worth it, it's only three races and only one of them is any good.
 
[quote name='RollingSkull']The SWAT missions are one-off activities. A hostage situation where you snipe one dood. A car chase. A shootout. Stuff like that here and there.

There are ENOUGH FRICKEN RACES IN THE GAME ALREADY HOLY COW.

Nightmare in North Point wasn't fun.

I love SD but the DLC is just a swing and a miss[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Jon7']No way! There needs to be MORE races!!
That said, the DLC races aren't worth it, it's only three races and only one of them is any good.[/QUOTE]

Good info. Thanks.
 
[quote name='elessar123']They need a Sleep Dogs DLC with more Emma Stone.[/QUOTE]

Nah. The dating elements in the game were beyond creepy.
 
I thought they weren't fleshed out enough to be considered much of anything except a poorly executed mechanic to show more things on the map, let alone creepy. Definitely the weakest part of the game, imo.
 
[quote name='Corpekata']Nah. The dating elements in the game were beyond creepy.[/QUOTE]

Not only that, the game encourages you to cheat on each girl to get all of the mission rewards (I believe all of the rewards are worth it..).
 
I didn't find it creepy at all. I also didn't realize they were serious dates. One girl found out, and got all mad. I'm like, dude, we went on one brief date that may or may not have ended in sex. You're a crazy bitch.
 
[quote name='elessar123']I didn't find it creepy at all. I also didn't realize they were serious dates. One girl found out, and got all mad. I'm like, dude, we went on one brief date that may or may not have ended in sex. You're a crazy bitch.[/QUOTE]


Exactly. She knew what it was.

But you might want to spoiler that. Not sure.
 
Did you guys not play the mission where Wei literally stalks a girl he barely knows and went on a single date with, and angrily confronts her about meeting another man?
 
I'm way too drunk to be on this site right now, but I read side boob and creepy dating so I'm in. Better be good xerofun or I'll rip off your head and eat it.

FATALITY
 
I think the dating was cut weirdly which explains why Wei was so weird about it. Him bouncing from girl to girl seems normal. Him stalking that singer girl, maybe not.

Maybe that's how Triads roll though. Who knows?
 
[quote name='Idiotekque']Is Sleeping Dogs wicked hard to run at full specs unless you've got some crazy SLi/Crossfire setup?[/QUOTE]

[quote name='asheskitty']http://www.rage3d.com/articles/gaming/sleepingdogs_tweak_guide/
SD_Benchmark.jpg
[/QUOTE]

Just to give you an idea, I'm pulling the following with a AMD 3870K APU (quad core 3.0) with a slight OC on the graphics chip from 600MHz to 800MHz) and 8GB of 1600 MHz SDRAM. I don't have a dedicated graphics card, it's on die with the CPU. The GPU uses 1GB of main system memory for VRAM. I agree with the statement that the higher res you go, the less AA is needed. Also before someone says something about the res I'm running at, I have a 18.5" monitor less than 2 feet from me. The higher res you go, the further back the display has to sit for you to take it all in. The sweet spot for a 32" 720p display is 8'. At a certain point you hit a point of diminishing returns. I have the LCD in front of me on a swing arm, directly in front on my Sony 720p XBR......the display is the exact same relative size as the TV is. I could buy a 1080 23" LCD and SLI 2 dedicated cards together, but the display would have to sit further away from me, as well as the cost of the monitor and the 2 graphics cards. I spent less than $400 total for the system I game on now. My monitor res is 1366X768 which is actually a bit higher than 720p. I have used the HDMI out to my TV and the game doesn't look any better, mostly due to the relative size of the displays being the same. Keep in mind that you don't have to spend a fortune to get HD gaming. The cost of the hardware necessary to push the higher resolution, when you just end up "losing" it because you have to push the bigger display further away from you anyway becomes a losing battle, and largely a cash sinkhole. This run also included the Hi-Res Texture Pack.

My Sleeping Dogs Benchmark:
Screen_Hunter.jpg


new.jpg
 
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I really enjoyed DmC. It's a different style than the predecessors but it's a damn fun hack and slash.

Strike Suit Zero is Wing Commander without the enemy variety and, I would assume, without the mission variety either. It's been a while since I've played the classics WC and X-Wing/Tie Fighter but I seem to remember you were free to do big furball dogfights without having to escort worthless capital ships most of the time. The game tries to give them some appropriate power to make it feel like your facilitating their heavy strikes is proper space naval tactics but it just still feels like you're the only one that does anything, which is frightful considering how huge the HP bars on big ships are against anything but Strike Suit super missiles.

Dogfighting has a nice gimmick of a gatling gun to down shields faster, then lasers to take down the hull, with torpedos, swarm missiles, and normal missiles all acting as limited use game changers.

The Strike Suit is a limited use power up that lets you turn the game from Wing Commander to Wing Commander in a robot suit that has awkward tap dodges and can blast things a bit faster. It's no game changer but it's a fun gimmick. Missions plod along though with a lot of just staring at the screen waiting for the awful plot to roll out and for you to turn the next dozen planes into scrap. I was not inspired to continue beyond my initial session much.

I'm pretty sure we are in NO shortage of arcade space combat games. This, Sol Exodus, that Wing Commander fan campaign that was released for free. Just something to think about while you wait for a sale.
 
:whee: I was messing around resetting up BL1. I used to run nHancer to force some AA into the game (MSAAx4 iirc) but I had to turn down some settings to keep a decent frame rate. I replaced that with the SMAA Injector (that many of you are probably using for DS:ptD) and and am able to turn up settings and maintain a decent frame rate (60 dipping to 45 in limited testing).

I had my F510 hooked up in DirectInput mode and I was surprised that BL1 had DirectInput support (actually I used to know this, I just forgot).

[quote name='walkonshadows']Just to give you an idea, I'm pulling the following with a AMD 3870K APU (quad core 3.0) with a slight OC on the graphics chip from 600MHz to 800MHz) and 8GB of 1600 MHz SDRAM.
I don't have a dedicated graphics card, it's on die with the CPU. The GPU uses 1GB of main system memory for VRAM. I agree with the statement that the higher res you go, the less AA is needed. Also before someone says something about the res I'm running at, I have a 18.5" monitor less than 2 feet from me. The higher res you go, the further back the display has to sit for you to take it all in. The sweet spot for a 32" 720p display is 8'. At a certain point you hit a point of diminishing returns. I have the LCD in front of me on a swing arm, directly in front on my Sony 720p XBR......the display is the exact same relative size as the TV is. I could buy a 1080 23" LCD and SLI 2 dedicated cards together, but the display would have to sit further away from me, as well as the cost of the monitor and the 2 graphics cards. I spent less than $400 total for the system I game on now. My monitor res is 1366X768 which is actually a bit higher than 720p. I have used the HDMI out to my TV and the game doesn't look any better, mostly due to the relative size of the displays being the same. Keep in mind that you don't have to spend a fortune to get HD gaming. This run also included the Hi-Res Texture Pack.

My Sleeping Dogs Benchmark:
Screen_Hunter.jpg
[/QUOTE]


Nice =) able to stay above 30 FPS at those settings and with the high res texture pack. My processor is a Phenom II X3 720 BE @ 3.2 GHz (slightly OC'd from 2.8, yes it's a 3-core processor) 12 GB of DDR-3 1066.
 
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So, I finally gave up and bought a copy of Sleeping Dogs + all the DLCs my residual PayPal credit allowed me to (=all, bar none) 'cause I suffer from gaming-related OCD.

Now, while it is undoubtly beautiful to watch, it runs really bad on my rig with High default settings (I'm not even looking at the Extreme option), and that's a tad strange since I'm able to run games like L.A. Noire at (almost) maximum details and 1080p.

I've got an Asus N76VZ with an i7 3630QM (2.4 GHz), 8 GB RAM and a GeForce GT 650M with 2 GB, so I was expecting at least decent performances... instead, I had to turn settings to Medium to finally be able to play an action-adventure and not a slideshow of still frames. IIRC, someone in this thread mentioned a site like the System Requirements Lab one, but with more in-depth analysis of OS related tweaks, backgrounds processes to disable and the like. Can anybody point me to that? Or am I being too much optimistic and can't expect much better results from my PC configuration?

I know I should fiddle with advanced settings to check what's the best in my case, but I'd like to begin with a general analysis and then start messing from that :)

Also, I should add that I'm running Windows 8, so my problems could be largely due to that... the aforementioned L.A. Noire had horrible performances on this OS before a patch fixed almost all compatibility issues...

Last question: is there a CAG group for SteamGifts? I found some Steam keys in an old .txt, so I figured it would be nice to give them through a raffle instead of the usual "first to lurk gets 'em"... if that's the case, can someone invite me so I can set up the giveaways (and boost my SteamGifts' value, I'm not pretending :bouncy:)?
 
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Odd that you're having issues. I just bought a new 2012 27" iMac. It's an i7 3770 3.4Ghz quad, Geforce 680MX 2GB card, 32GB RAM (overkill for games, but great for VMs etc), and I was playing Sleeping Dogs at 2560x1440 in Windows 7 with everything on max (except AA) at 60fps solid. I even Fraps-ed it to check. Just beat the game a few nights ago. I leave vysnc on so it was probably more than 60fps. You should EASILY be able to run 1080p at close-to-max settings, I'd imagine. My 680MX is clocked close to a 660ti from what I gather.
 
[quote name='WilliamG']Odd that you're having issues. I just bought a new 2012 27" iMac. It's an i7 3770 3.4Ghz quad, Geforce 680MX 2GB card, 32GB RAM (overkill for games, but great for VMs etc), and I was playing Sleeping Dogs at 2560x1440 in Windows 7 with everything on max (except AA) at 60fps solid. I even Fraps-ed it to check. Just beat the game a few nights ago. I leave vysnc on so it was probably more than 60fps. You should EASILY be able to run 1080p at close-to-max settings, I'd imagine. My 680MX is clocked close to a 660ti from what I gather.[/QUOTE]

Your specs are very nearly top of the line and not at all a good comparison to what he's running.
[quote name='Preedatore']2gb of ram is pretty light. I would guess that may be your issue. The minimum for the specs is 2, recommended 4.[/QUOTE]
2GB of VRAM, system RAM at 8gb. The 650M is a lower power card though which is likely what's holding him back.
 
I read that as system ram for some reason. I have a 650ti and I can't get it to run very well on all high settings either. I just go 1080 on normal with high res textures and it looks good enough while getting 60fps.
 
[quote name='Preedatore']I read that as system ram for some reason. I have a 650ti and I can't get it to run very well on all high settings either. I just go 1080 on normal with high res textures and it looks good enough while getting 60fps.[/QUOTE]

Oh well, that's it then :)
I'm able to get 60fps and 1080p on Medium only, but textures are no more detailed than on the Xbox... gotta check if I've downloaded and enabled the HD texture pack. Thank you for your feedback :)
 
[quote name='Junpei']So, I finally gave up and bought a copy of Sleeping Dogs + all the DLCs my residual PayPal credit allowed me to (=all, bar none) 'cause I suffer from gaming-related OCD.

Now, while it is undoubtly beautiful to watch, it runs really bad on my rig with High default settings (I'm not even looking at the Extreme option), and that's a tad strange since I'm able to run games like L.A. Noire at (almost) maximum details and 1080p.

I've got an Asus N76VZ with an i7 3630QM (2.4 GHz), 8 GB RAM and a GeForce GT 650M with 2 GB, so I was expecting at least decent performances... instead, I had to turn settings to Medium to finally be able to play an action-adventure and not a slideshow of still frames. IIRC, someone in this thread mentioned a site like the System Requirements Lab one, but with more in-depth analysis of OS related tweaks, backgrounds processes to disable and the like. Can anybody point me to that? Or am I being too much optimistic and can't expect much better results from my PC configuration?

I know I should fiddle with advanced settings to check what's the best in my case, but I'd like to begin with a general analysis and then start messing from that :)[/QUOTE]


Your GTX 650 has very similar performance to my GTX 260. No clue about Win8, but in Win7 using a Basic (non-Aero) theme bought me 10+FPS in Sleeping Dogs. Below is the tweak guide I used, as well as my benchmark. Try my settings on the benchmark and see what you get.


http://www.rage3d.com/articles/gaming/sleepingdogs_tweak_guide/

SD_Benchmark.jpg
 
Using Aero while playing games in general is not a good idea unless you are playing something that only offers like borderless windowed and you need Vsync.
 
[quote name='MrBonk']Using Aero while playing games in general is not a good idea unless you are playing something that only offers like borderless windowed and you need Vsync.[/QUOTE]


I swear tweaking CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT was less hassle >.>
 
[quote name='asheskitty']Your GTX 650 has very similar performance to my GTX 260. No clue about Win8, but in Win7 using a Basic (non-Aero) theme bought me 10+FPS in Sleeping Dogs. Below is the tweak guide I used, as well as my benchmark. Try my settings on the benchmark and see what you get.


http://www.rage3d.com/articles/gaming/sleepingdogs_tweak_guide/

*img snip!*[/QUOTE]

Thanks, I saw that you already posted your benchmark some messages ago, but it flew over my head somehow... I'll try that once I get home :)

And what about that CAG Steamgifts group I asked? Is there such a thing or should I just write down here the titles for which I have a code and ask those interested to PM me (first gone, first served)?
 
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