Steam Sale Spotlight

[Chyron8472]

Hereupon exists a place to discuss current Steam Spotlight deals and your opinion of the games' value and/or the sale price.

[Chyron8472]

currently, there is a Midweek Madness until Thursday, 4pm Pacific Time for FarCry and FarCry 2 (1 for $2.50, 2 for $5, and both bundled for $7.50)

What is your opinion of the FarCry games for PC?

[caeska]

Wow that's a weird coincidence. I was looking at Steam 2 days ago to see how much FarCry went for and now of all games those just went on sale?
They were 30 € bundled then (1 for 10 and 2 for 20).
It is a great deal though, I think I'll buy them actually though I don't have that much money at the moment.

By the way what's the point of having a bundle that is exactly the same price as buying the 2 games individually?

[Darth Marsden]

I dunno, convenience?

Serious Sam: Double D is now out, and you get 20% off if you already own any Serious Sam game on Steam. Dunno how much that is in US terms, but in the UK it's £4.79, down from £5.99.

I won't be getting this (I've resolved to drastically cut down on buying new games until I've gone through some of the other ones I own), but it looks interesting and kinda fun. I like the idea of stackable weapons!

[corruptbiggins]

Originally Posted by caeska

By the way what's the point of having a bundle that is exactly the same price as buying the 2 games individually?

Actually it's a penny cheaper if I got them separately (here in the UK at least), the bundle being £3.74 & individually they cost £1.24 & £2.49.

I must say that I'm happy with them being available separately as I've already got Far Cry, and the sale has got me thinking of getting Far Cry 2.

And there's the daily deal which is interesting me - 75% off The Polynomial. Don't know much about the game but it does look interesting and it's has a great price (£1.50 here) but only for the next 3 and a bit hours. Gonna try out the demo at least first.

[Chyron8472]

I bought The Polynomial, as it is $2.50 (for the next 4 hours), and... well, it just feels like a "me too" game in response to Audiosurf. I bought it because it said it was a space shooter where objects ingame are affected by the music being played (and you can import your own tracks), but Audiosurf is just better in every way that I can compare them.

[corruptbiggins]

Cheers for that Chyron, and good timing! The comparison to Audiosurf is very useful as I love playing that just to chill out and listen to music. Guess I was hoping that this would be similar yet different (as in doing the same thing with music but with a different type of gameplay). Still, probably will give the demo a go and I may still go for it as it's very cheap right now (can you tell I just got some money today!).

[Chyron8472]

well it is similar, but the gameplay is 3D and free-flight--not on rails--with infinitely looping music (meaning there is no definable beginning or end).

I found myself being unimpressed by just flying around at random looking for stuff to shoot or powerups to fly through. The only 'objectives' that I could tell exist are the Steam achievements. The evidence of this being that the music playlist just loops endlessly, while in Audiosurf each 'level' is only as long as each track.

Perhaps I only gave the game 30 minutes of my attention so far, but I can say for certain that when I first started the game I had no idea what I needed to be doing; and that once I figured out what to do, I was underwhelmed by the ability to fly around and shoot seemingly inconsequential enemies. In Audiosurf, there is a lot more to the gameplay.

[Darth Marsden]

I get the feeling I'm gonna be the one posting the latest deals. I don't have a problem with that though!

Today's daily deal is actually really impressive. The Next BIG Thing has 50% off (£15 or $15... wait, how the hell does that work?), and considering it only came out in April, that's pretty good!

Also, the King's Crusade collection (the original game and its three DLC packs) are half-price as well (£10.49, or $14.99).

I won't be getting either (having played Runaway and its sequels, TNBT holds no interest for me, and I'm just not into historical strategy games) , but they're both great deals if you're interested!

And for the record, the Far Cry 1 + 2 deal is £3.74, or $7.49. The US pays a bit more here, which makes a nice change

I'm gonna harp on about price conversion here, so if that doesn't interest you, feel free to skip this bit. So Steam prices are frequently converted poorly, or just not at all. The Next BIG Thing is a perfect example. Even fully priced, the figures are exactly the same - 29.99 in dollars, euros and pounds. The thing is, if you convert $29.99 into pounds, the exact converted figure is £18.38. Which is a clear £10 cheaper! It's like they didn't even care!

And this isn't the only game they've done this with. I'm gonna use Hector as another example. Full priced in the UK it's £17.50. In the US it's $19.99. You don't have to be a genius to realize that that's not right. Converted to pounds, the US price is £12.25. Uh, that's a fiver. I could be using that to buy a pint. Maybe two, if I went to the right pub. But it's bull.

It works the other way too! Let's go with Call of Juarez: The Cartel. In the UK, that's £19.99. Convert that to dollars, it's 32.62. Actual US price: $49.99. Yeah, that's fair. There's others as well. It's just a great big shambles, and it really needs looking at. Useless, the whole thing. THere's a great site that shows you the compared prices - http://www.steamprices.com. Check it out and see for yourself just how badly Steam is balanced.

[puzzlebox]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

The Next BIG Thing has 50% off (£15 or $15... wait, how the hell does that work?)

For real? That means us foreigners over the pond pay about $25.

I do want The Next BIG Thing, but I've still got Runaway 3 to play so I guess it can wait.

[Darth Marsden]

Originally Posted by puzzlebox

For real? That means us foreigners over the pond pay about $25.

No no, you pay $15.

Any time I post prices like that, they're the actual prices that Steam charges. Check Steam prices for a pre-converted figure.

[Rawr]

It's because the original price sucked, each region gets the same percentage knocked off, so if it was already outrageously priced for the UK or Europe, then it will still be on the sale.

[Darth Marsden]

I know. Read my spoiler'd bit earlier to hear me rant about it.

[puzzlebox]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

No no, you pay $15.

Nah, I get the ripoff price. I just converted to dollars to indicate how much more expensive it is.

[Darth Marsden]

...wait, what? You've lost me.

[puzzlebox]

I'm in the UK, so would pay the £15 price, which is about the equivalent of $25. Never mind!

[Darth Marsden]

Oh! Didn't know you were in the UK. Fair enough.

[Darth Marsden]

Double post - please don't ban me.

Today's daily deal is the imaginatively named Alien Shooter, which is £1.33, or $1.66 (converted: £1.02, which would annoy me if it were much more expensive).

Alternatively, you can get the Shooter pack (Alien Shooter, Alien Shooter: Revisited, Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded and Zombie Shooter) for £3.66, or $5. You'll have to use the Search bar for that one though (the actual title is 'Complete Shooter Pack'), since they're not really advertising the collection.

The games, if you've not heard of them, are basically isometric shooters. I can't really tell you more because I don't own them (nor will I, it's not my sort of game).

-x-

EDIT: The weekend deal! It's the Call of Duty series, all of which (well, the ones available on Steam, anyway) are half price, with Black Ops being 33% off. So, the amount that one should have been with from the very start.

Anyway. The actual prices:

Call of Duty War Chest (CoD1, United Offensive and CoD2): £9.99, or $14.99
World at War: £9.99, or $9.99 (which, converted, is £6.16, which is annoying because I'd pay that much but not a penny more for it)
Modern Warfare: £9.99, or $9.99 (which is also converted to £6.16)
Modern Warfare 2: £14.99, or $14.99 (converts to £9.25)
MW2 Resurgence Pack: £5.49 or $7.49
MW2 Stimulus Pack: £5.49 or $7.49
Black Ops: £26.79, or $40.19

You can get CoD1, United Offensive and CoD2 individually, but just one costs about the same as all three put together, so there's absolutely no point in doing so.

[der_ketzer]

The Alien Shooter games are great but just pick one. One of them is more than enough.

[Darth Marsden]

I'm just showing you what's on offer. You're the one who has to pick 'em!

For the record, I'm not getting any of them. No interest in the lot.