Because you haven’t spent enough money already, right?
The Steam Christmas sales are finally here. And while we don’t have the daily drama of flash sales anymore, there are plenty of offers right now that will hang around until 8:00pm on January 3.
You can see the sales, and buy them, for yourself through Steam or through the very handy SteamDB sales tracker. But here’s some picks to help you out.
Insurgency: $2.76
If you prefer your shooters to have more of a realistic bent, where enemies definitely aren’t bullet sponges and you like to have that genuine sense of fear about moving around the map, there’s literally no reason not to pick up Insurgency.
Originally a Source mod that was spun off into its own game, Insurgency does an excellent job of offering the recoil-heavy, thoughtful punishing gameplay of classic military shooters. It’s a little more down the Counter-Strike road than, say, ArmA, but the pacing is great and there’s Australian servers to boot. Best of all: you can get a 4 pack of keys for $9.68. No kidding. Go gift some to your friends now.
Invisible, Inc: $8.30
One of the best strategy games of last year is now available for the price of a hipster smoothie or a cheap pad thai. If you like XCOM, Splinter Cell, roguelikes, and the idea of all three being mashed together, Invisible, Inc. is absolutely worth your time. It also has one of the best difficulty sliders that has existed in a game outside of FIFA or the NBA 2K series, which does wonders for customising the campaign to your playstyle.
Project CARS: $19.18
It might not have knocked iRacing off its perch, but if you’re looking for some gorgeous racing – or something pretty to play in VR – then the career mode of Project CARS will keep you going for a solid while. You’ll have to contend with some bizarre AI at points (good luck in Formula A), but at least you’ll be entertained by how lovely everything looks and sounds in the process.
For those who doubled down on pedals and a full racing wheel, Assetto Corsa is on sale as well. It’s got a better force feedback system and offers better value as a sim racer, but for those who want the arcade career experience Project CARS is probably the better buy.
Castlevania Lords of Shadow – Ultimate Edition: $10.38
While there’s not a great deal of variety in the enemies, Lords of Shadow is a fun, challenging Castlevania done in a Devil May Cry sort of way. The camera can get a bit frustrating, but the voice acting (which has Patrick Stewart!) is good, the soundtrack is neat and the large bosses are worth it alone for a tenner. Solid action romp.
Grim Fandango Remastered: $4.14
The day Good Old Games launched, people started lobbying the site for two games: System Shock 2 and Grim Fandango. You can now get a better version of Grim Fandango for the price of a coffee. That’s kind of absurd, when you think about how monumentally well respected it is in the world of point-and-click adventures.
DOOM: $27.42
One of your favourite games of the year and an absolute steal at this price.
Subnautica: $13.84
Imagine a first-person Don’t Starve underwater. It’s still in Early Access, but think more like Starbound-levels of Early Access – the game has been available for a couple of years. There’s plenty of content here. Go nuts.
War for the Overworld: $16.61
Liked Dungeon Keeper? That was free on Origin recently. But if you’d like something a little more modern, War for the Overworld is basically an indie version of the Bullfrog classic.
Axiom Verge: $13.84
Like Metroidvania games that look like Metroidvania games? Axiom Verge is what you need. It’s also an exceptionally clever game, but I won’t spoil any of the surprises for you.
Bastion: $4.14
There’s a reason why Bastion and Transistor are some of the most highly acclaimed games on Steam and just about every gaming site on the planet. If you need a fairly chilled action RPG that only lasts several hours and has a fantastic narrator, check out Bastion.
LISA: $3.45
If you’d like to spend with something over the holidays that is completely demented, the side-scrolling RPG LISA is worth a look. It’s a story about a man searching for the only thing he still cares about, and it’s darkly – very dark – funny. A very troubling game, in the best possible way.
You can check out the rest of the sales from the Steam mobile app, the client itself, or the front page. Will you be buying anything on the cheap this Christmas?
Comments
12 responses to “The Christmas Steam Sales Have Arrived, Here’s Our Picks”
Be warned with Insurgency, amazing game… very very rough learning curve and the community is very unforgiving to new players.
and constant allah akbarring
No Genital Jousting though…oh wait
You can also get a free Steam key for the original GRID on the humble store today. A bit old now but still a pretty good racing game.
My sister wanted Guitar Hero Live for Xbox One for Christmas, so after ages of searching I managed to find 4 of them for $25 each at Target in the next town over from where I live, it’s such a bargain, you can’t get them online but there are some stores that have “limited stock” listed on their store page when you type in your postcode. I recommend trying to find it because they’re worth a minimum of $79:
https://www.target.com.au/p/guitar-hero-live-bundle-xbox-one/58349342
https://www.target.com.au/p/guitar-hero-live-bundle-ps4/58349144
Put your postcode in the find a store and see if you can get one, it’s definitely worth it.
I got two for my sister (minus one copy of the game, will be selling that later) and two for myself because I’ve got an Xbox One coming for Christmas for myself.
Just saw Mad Max was $6.79 USD. Had my eye on this one for a while, so pulled the trigger at that price.
Great game for that price. I really liked it.
If that’s the best on offer then it’s slim pickings indeed.
I saw squad was only like 20 bucks and I considered it because I have some mates that play, but I’m hesitant as I’m not sure it’s the sort of game I’m really keen on right now, especially since I recently pulled the trigger on Star Citizen and have all but abandoned those that love me for it.
Vermintide is 66% off. It wouldn’t be too far off to describe it as Left 4 Rats. The item progression is much smoother now, and the DLC is on sale too, and the maps are pretty cool.
Witcher 3 GOTY for $29.
Bought it. And I’ve played and finished it on PS4. So good I want to play it again on PC and see how pretty I can make it.
Highlights from my wishlist (courtesy of itsthereanydeal, which shows me the history of previous sales) Jotun (67% off) and Soma (65% off) are the lowest they have ever been, significantly so in Soma’s case. Bundle Stars also has Pillars of Eternity going for its recurrent lowest, but they also has a 10% store-wide coupon that works with it.