Surprise: another big Steam sale has arrived. And while different deals will pop up, it’s often the case that you can find plenty of interesting discounts on the opening day. So here’s a big list of games to help you determine what’s worth buying.
NBA 2K16 leads the way with one of the largest discounts for a major franchise today. It’s not free, which is how much its costing Playstation Plus users, but if you’ve ever been interested in the sport or sports games in general, NBA 2K16 isn’t a bad game to start with. Just try to ignore the crappy Spike Lee story.
Other good deals include PAYDAY 2, which no longer has microtransactions (and is back in the good books of PC gamers as a result) and the second Jackbox Party Pack. All the Jackbox games are mandatory purchases as far as I’m concerned, but then TAYbies are pretty familiar with my preference for Jackbox shenanigans.
Something to note: the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom is having a massive impact on financial markets right now, which can result in a fair amount of volatility in the Australian dollar. So keep in mind that there could be a good deal of movement on the below prices, which I’ve converted to Australian dollars. As always, check the exchange rate at the time of purchase.
NBA 2K16: $18.58 (80% off)
Orcs Must Die! 2: $4.97 (75% off)
This War of Mine: $6.63 (75% off)
PAYDAY 2: $6.65 (75% off)
Jackbox Party Pack 2: $11.60 (65% off)
Some real good offerings here. Orcs Must Die! is a fantastic co-op game to play with a friend or partner. This War of Mine’s an excellent survival roguelike, and the Jackbox party pack … see here for my feelings on that. (As in: buy. Buy now.)
PAYDAY 2’s also free to play for the next 10 days, if you want to try it out.
Gauntlet: Slayer Edition: $6.63 (75% off)
Surgeon Simulator 2013: $2.64 (80% off)
ArmA 3: $26.54 (50% off)
Deus Ex Collection: $10.94 (75% off)
Ashes of the Singularity: $26.54 (50% off)
Gauntlet’s a surprisingly competent top-down romp for a bunch of friends, and the Deus Ex Collection is at a good deal even if you only play through Human Revolution and the original. If you’re just after Human Revolution, however, you can pick that up for $6.63.
KHOLAT: $10.61 ($60% off)
Game Dev Tycoon: $8.88 (33% off)
Banished: $9.01 (66% off)
Anno 2205: $36.60 (40% off)
Don’t Starve: $4.97 (75% off)
The Wolf Among Us: $16.58 (50% off)
Hotline Miami: $3.31 (75% off)
Euro Truck Simulator 2: $9.15 (70% off)
Some indie classics here. Don’t Starve has some good bundles available as well. Euro Truck Simulator 2 is great if you like going for cathartic drives, while Hotline Miami should be a must-have in anyone’s Steam library.
What Steam sales have caught your eye today?
Comments
18 responses to “Here’s Today’s Big Discounts In The Steam Sale”
Woah, when did that happen? I’ve had the clover DLC pack on my wishlist for ages and just kept ignoring it til I heard they weren’t being fuckers anymore, but obviously I missed that memo.
(Edit: Also, I’m totally going to come back to this article tonight and post my recommendations for cheap but totally worthwhile indie titles.)
The rights for the game went back from the publisher to the developer. That’s what the devs are saying was the reason for the shittiness anyway. Maybe now they can work on the hideout customisation that they promised during beta, what are now v101?
This happened about 4 weeks ago.
Lies, damn lies
AIEEE. You’re right! I better do that NOW.
Everyone needs to buy SOMA (50% off at 15USD) so we can rant about how amazing it is. kgo
For those that never heard of it, I’d describe it as a combat-lite Bioshock 1 that asks the question of what it means to be human in a world full of AI.
Done.
Woooo!
A few games I loved going for very little:
Gunpoint: USD $2.49 – 75% off
The Music Machine: USD $1.24 – 75% off
Mirrors Edge: USD $4.99 – 75% off
I was under the impression that Valve has changed Steam sales from having various “limited time” deals to having “one discount price for the duration of the sale”.
They do change the featured titles daily (or whatever), but the actual discounts don’t change.
Which is both good and bad.. good because you know you have time to get something that’s featured but you can’t get on the spot.. bad because the discounts are generally less than they were due to having to last for the entire sale period, rather than being able to offer a really steep discount for 18 hours or whatever. (ie, I don’t see anything on my wishlist with 90% off, while that was relatively common in other the previous sales daily deals etc)
Also sad to say that the majority of the discounts are only bringing the price back in the realm of “reasonable”.. most non-small-indie/early access titles on my wishlist are still more than $50 AUS even at 40-50% discounts =(
You are correct. It was done when Steam started doing refunds because otherwise people would just refund any game they had recently bought if it was to then go on sale for less than they had already paid.
Why do we still have to convert to USD… New Zealands get to pay in local NZ dollars.
I didn’t want to gum up the other Deus Ex article the other day with my queries:
How best to start OG Deus Ex? I find the start really tedious (I know that’s a common complaint) but the New Vision mod makes it look very nice so I want to give it another go.
From what I can remember at first it was a case of getting quite close and sneaking up in shadows before firing whatever I had. I soon put points into sniping and it got better but Yeh I think I avoided enemies unless they were in the way of somewhere I wanted to visit. Just know that shooting is going to be wobbly at first but man just keep on going, game us so worth it. I played this on a piece of absolute shit pc at 640 x 480 back in the day and still loved the shit outta it
Looking at specials by price… stuff in my library that I’ve actually played and can recommend!
@tigerion
i, Zombie – unquestionably worth the fifty cents, cute little puzzler. Very basic, but fun and eventually pretty taxing.
Winter Voices – a very interesting/poetic little turn-based isometric RPG. Maybe even a little heavy on the poetry and the engine sucks, but I loved the setting and aesthetic, and the combat system is basically based around emotions and self-confidence/relationships. Very novel. Has a demo for try-before-you-buy, but for two bucks for the entire series, I have no idea why you wouldn’t just gamble. I really liked this one.
Hunters of the Dead – A surprisingly fun rogue-like’ish/TD’ish thing. TD/lane-pusher combat with hero stats etc combat arenas, isometric block-by-block city management/reclamation mix, with every game failure boosting your stats for the next run. No hesitation recommending at even more than the fifty cents its going for.
Soul Gambler – Masquerades as a point and click but the puzzles are so basic that it’s essentially a Western-style visual novel. Very interesting hook, though. Meant to be played multiple times through, by the look of it, but I was quickly distracted. Worth the fifty cents, though.
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines – This whole franchise was a cracker back in the day. There are actually fixed ‘optimum’ solutions for most of the maps, but trying to figure those out from experimentation was great. Really hurt by a lack of variety in barks and sometimes finnicky controls, this game isn’t so punishing that you can’t enjoy some improvization. Some solid differences between crew and compelling Hitman-style gameplay (albeit isometric from a long distance) made this a ball. 50c per title, by the looks. The original is still the best.
The Oddworld games and a bunch of Mega Drive Classics are going for 75c each. No-brainers, here.
Ecco, Columns, Altered Beast, Phantasy Star, Eternal Champions, Fatal Labyrinth, Super Thunderblade, Alien Storm, Bio-Hazard Battle, ESWAT, Galaxy Force 2, Gain Ground, Space Harrier, Comix Zone, Shinobi 3, Alex the Kidd… dudes. Get a mega drive pack.
Dungeon Hearts – An interesting little RPG/rhythm game. I sucked at it, but could’ve improved, sticking with it and/or grinding. For 75c, it was worth the play.
Kami – Origami puzzle game. Colour-matching kinda thing. 80c. Maddening puzzles, gorgeous aesthetics.
Super Sanctum TD – Originally a bit of a ‘throwaway bonus’ to the Sanctum 2 release, which was more involved… but it turned out to be an excellent little Tower Defense game that stands on its own. If you like TD. Which I do. Can heartily recommend for 80c.
Cubemen – Another TD game, although symmetrical, so kinda RTS as well almost? Watch a YouTube video if you’re hesitant to gamble 80c; what you see is what you get, there. But I liked it.
One-Way Heroics – Unbelievable value, worth way more than the 87c. I’d call it a very average JRPG/roguelike if it wasn’t for the insane amount of depth it has. The novelty of the levelling-up system is enough to recommend it for a few hours, alone.
Saturday Morning RPG – This RPG is wall-to-wall 90s references which made me laugh, plus a very servicable combat system that’s mostly turn-based with some real-time triggers for optimal damage. Stick-of-truth style, which I hear people call paper mario style? I never played that, though. Worth the buck.
Disciples 2 – Multiple titles for a buck each, probably available in some kind of cheap bundle, I really enjoyed the disciples system. It’s like Heroes of Might and Magic’s foreign and slightly weird cousin. A little bit more grim, a little bit weirder, slightly less intuitive combat system (smaller troop sizes/selections, but more depth to them) but still very solid. Ended up having a surprisingly strong narrative.
DLC Quest – A gag game, which is really a metroidvania that uses ‘DLC’ purchases to allow you to progress. Could’ve been EPIC if it actually engaged in microtransactions for the full experience, but as it is, it’s more of a snide and toothless but cute commentary.
Breath of Death VII / Cthulu Saves The World – Takes a Final Fantasy 4 style of RPG and flips the script by making bad guys the heroes, subverting tropes all over the place. Interesting combat systems for an early FF title type game. Worth the buck each.
Psychonauts – It’s Psychonauts. And it’s a buck. If you don’t have this already, go grab a vastly-underrated piece of gaming history.
Costume Quest – Very cute. Very worth the buck. Another Paper Mario style game, I guess? Smart, funny RPG with great visuals. Highly recommended.
Postal 2 – Huh. Only a buck. I recommend this if only to see what riled everyone up so much back in the day. The poster child for juvenile GTA-style havoc, in a FPS that had a toilet-humour attitude to the world, but – for all that – also a loving attention to detail in its world-building. Actually looks like it still holds up! Provided you’re OK with RIDICULOUSLY non-PC over-the-top crudity.
Jet Set Radio – The iconic classic is a buck, guys.
Before The Echo – A really novel rhythm game + RPG with a compelling story. The voice-acting sells it almost as much as the music does, and the music is overwhelmingly populated by Ronald Jenkees doing some great music. So toe-tappingly brilliant. I can’t recommend this enough and it’s only a buck.
Some more solid titles that shouldn’t need describing for a buck:
Rome: Total War – Alexander, Penny Arcade, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, Bloodrayne 1 and 2, You Don’t Know Jack Vol 6 (seriously though, just get the YDKJ bundle)… These are all good.
‘Shadowgrounds: Survivor’ and ‘Space Hack’ – I dunno what this genre is called. Top-down shooter/shooty diablo clone? These are some of the better ones. Survivor is more collect ammo and progress than Space Hack’s crafty system, but both have decent weapon/upgrade collection systems and smooth enough controls/level design to be worth it. A buck each.
Nikopol – A point-and-click adventure whose fascinating world ended up getting me to watch the (foreign – french?) movie and read the comics, for which I am grateful. Just be warned that the game likes to kill you, so save often. Otherwise, what can I say? It’s a point-and-click.
Tank Universal – A well-presented take on Battlezone meets Tron – blue neon everywhere tank game. Uprades, practically puzzle maps, and a story. Solid stuff for only a buck.
Home – 2D horror. Not so much point-and-click and 2D-platform-and-click. A similar entry to Lone Survivor, but a bit less shooty. Worth the play, and only a buck.
Wasteland 1 – The original Fallout before Fallout was Fallout. Fantastically rich and deep top-down RPG, the only way you can tell it’s NEARLY THIRTY YEARS OLD is by the somewhat unwieldy controls. Good enough to have inspired the Fallout franchise and a resoundingly successful megabucks Kickstarter for the sequel, before everyone was burned by Kickstarter. A slice of history for a buck twenty that still holds up. Seriously wide variety of options for approach in the game mechanics.
Plants vs Zombies GOTY Edition – HOLY CRAP. How is this only a $1.20 price? Popcap must’ve decided to just frickin’ give away their cash cow now that they’ve made a mint off it. And rightly so. One of the best TD games ever, and still the best version of it ever.
Bejeweled 3 – $1.24
One of the best of its kind. Attractively-presented, simple and fun. Same goes for a bunch of the other popcap titles up for $1.24. Looking at Bejeweled 1 & 2, Insaniquarium, Zuma Deluxe, Dynomite, Rocket Mania, AstroPop, Pizza Frenzy, Big Money, Typer Shark, Iggle Pop, Talismania. All worth the buck twenty-five each, and most likely available in some kid of mucho-cheaper package.
Poker Night 1 & 2 – $1.24 each (maybe in a cheap bundle?)
Actually a solid poker game under there, but the lines from a surprising combination of characters are often hilarious. They interact in fun ways and the variety is huge.
Overlord – $1.24
Kind of a PC Gamer’s take on Pikmin? Run around as The Overlord, fearsome-armoured evil lord, controlling hordes of different-coloured/abilitied minions, who you can equip with bits of picked-up litter-as-armour and solve puzzles with. Some of which are frustrating, but it’s still very solid.
10,000,000 – $1.24
One of the most addictive and frenetic match-3 titles I’ve played, this kept me coming back for more until finished. And it is finishable. Do a dungeon-run with match-3 combat/loot-collecting against monster-obstacles, ‘die’, go back to your stronghold, use the loot to upgrade your odds for the next run out. Repeat until you reach score 10,000,000.
Fieldrunners – $1.24
One of the original TD flash/mobile games, incredibly popular in that space for a reason. Steam doesn’t add much, but it’s still a very solid TD game, and those are my jam.
Genesis Rising – $1.24
One of the old-school RTS(tactics more than strategy), narrative-driven jaunt with an increasing collection of ships through space. Not actually sure how this holds up today, but I definitely derived more than a buck twenty enjoyment out of it on release, and it deserves better than the poor rating it has right now.
UFO: Afterlight – $1.39
Actually kinda closer to the modern XCOM games than the original X-COM was. It’s like X-COM lite. Again, a little more narrative-driven – earth was invaded by aliens and lost. In the treaty/settlement, human colonists shunt off to Mars, to terraform it and re-settle. Complicated by the landing of alternate-faction extreme-xenophobe aliens, and something nasty slumbering under the surface, woken by research/terraforming attempts. Unique but fixed personalities for troops lets you get way too attached. Good stuff, if a little dated by the latest XCOMs.
Brutal Legend – $1.49
A somewhat confused 3rd-person brawler-RPG that baits-and-switches into a decidedly weaker RTS’ish affair. Still worth playing, though, if only for its totally on-point metal icon references.
How to Survive – $1.49
Out of all the ‘open world survival’ clogging up the store these days, this is the best I’ve seen/played. Its mechanics make the most sense, it has zombies (which I will NEVER grow tired of), and is actually more explore/craft-focused than the explosion/combat-heavy trailer would have you believe. Worth the money.
Halo: Spartan Assault – $1.49
IF you like twin-stick shooters, this one’s actually a pretty servicable one. Too many nods towards trying to attempt score-runs or compete on leaderboards, whatever, but it’s servicable.
Stronghold HD – $1.49
Classic castle-building, peasant-managing sim. One of the best of its kind from that era, and hasn’t really been matched quite as well, since. Elegant in its simplicity.
DEFCON – $1.49
Holy crap this strategy title is depressing. Place your forces (land, air, nuke, nuke-defence), and wait until international tensions rise to the point that someone fires a nuke. From there, try to either fire your own nukes as interception to mimize your losses, or fire for maximum destruction. Regardless of the result, everyone loses. And in its spartan UI, the soundtrack is the haunting star. This is a must-play at least ONCE.
LOOM – $1.49
ASK ME ABOUT LOOM
Look… it’s just a classic, alright? Pick it up! One of the great early point-and-click adventures from LucasArts before they basically refined, mastered, and dominated the genre for a decade or two. Fascinating world, utterly morally-grey/depressing story, hell of a trip. With Feels(tm).
Actually, it looks like a bunch of LucasArts classics are in this price range as well. The Indiana Jones games, for example!
Iron Brigade – $1.49
Very worthwhile TD/shooter combo in a similar vein to (the superior) Orcs Must Die franchise. WW2’ish era setting, only some mad scientists got involve and souped up the tech a tad, with a rampant AI/robot force as the aggressors which your ‘walking trenches’ (MECHS) must defeat. Some towers to place, but more emphasis on the shooty (unfortunately). Infinitely better in co-op, though it can be a tad buggy.
I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream – $1.49
Mandatory point-and-click adventure/wrist-slasher. Be compelled by the horror.
Uplink – $1.49
One of the best ‘hacking’ games to never be rivalled yet. Well, I hear good things about Hacker: Evolution, but I haven’t played that yet. Upgrade your deck, take on hacking jobs, build a library of IP addresses and servers that you can bounce your connection through, then clean your tracks so you can’t be traced by the victims of your hacks. Uncover a sinister plot in the background by delving too deep.
Avernum series – $1.49 each (probably cheaper in a bundle)
An excellent take on the Ultima school of isometric/top-down’ish RPG dungeon-crawling. A wide variety of playstyle options and character growth paths, novel conversations, huge world. A lot to recommend, if you have enough time to devote to something so unfuckingbelievably huge.
Darwinia – $1.49
3rd-person semi-RTS game of point-control and controlling little AI thingies to advance unlock zones and move to the next map, in a ‘virtual world’ infested with ‘viruses’ that threaten your tiny AI charges. Give ’em weapons to fight back and clear the path for their brethren, capture nodes, clean the virus out of the system.
Myst: Masterpiece Edition – $1.49
Have you not heard of Myst? Buy this. Now.
Have you heard, but not tried? Buy this, now.
Have you fond memories of this first person puzzler but not own it? Buy this, Now. Gaming history, made prettier and slicker. For a dollar freakin’ fifty.
You Must Build A Boat – $1.69
Remember how I was totally propping 10,000,000? This is its sequel and it’s just as awesome if not better. So… grab that, too.
Congratulations, you bought all the ultra-cheap titles I recommended? Now you have paid like… a hundred and fifty dollars. CHEAP!