Video Game Deals Catch-All

Stengah wrote:

Of course the flash were emotionally manipulative, that's what made the sales exciting in the first place. Now that they're gone we're not buying games we don't really want for fear of missing out on a potentially good deal anymore, but it also means we're not able to get truly good deals on games that we do want. The sales are very predictable now and predictable is boring. Better for our budgets, but boring.

People were complaining back then about the 8-hour rotating flash sales, and being "forced" to check Steam at awkward hours. Can't have it both ways.

And in other news, the Steam Summer Sale did indeed start today, running until July 9. There's something there about a Points Shop, stickers, golden profiles, and game-specific items. I don't know, the store's getting hammered now.

Yup. I'm going to grab Deeprock Galactic. Looking if there's anything else worth grabbing, but I think I will be good.

Rezzy wrote:

I'll be looking for some steep discounts on VR titles, and will be disappointed.

I dunno man, I think you might be disappointed at how disappointed you're not. I picked up:

To The Top ($5)
BoxVR ($18.50)
Angry Birds VR ($10)
OhShape ($15)

Reasonable discounts on all of the above.

Did anyone make a Steam sale thread? Does look like there's a badge. And now a brand new store where you can buy profiles and emoticons, stuff that you usually get at random for crafting badges with cards. Now buy what you want with points.

I still enjoy the Steam Sale. I know I can use the Discovery Queue any time but adding a digital tchotchke makes me use it and every sale I add a few items to my wishlist or just outright purchase from it. I guess its a bid weird that I see something on sale that's interesting and still just add it to the wishlist instead of buying, but that's what I do.

I was on another site that was having Flash sales for my flight sim software and it just ends up being a waiting fest. I didn't know if the software I wanted was going to be on sale, so I waited a week while flash sales came and went, just to end up buying it at full price anyways after it was over.

merphle wrote:
Stengah wrote:

Of course the flash were emotionally manipulative, that's what made the sales exciting in the first place. Now that they're gone we're not buying games we don't really want for fear of missing out on a potentially good deal anymore, but it also means we're not able to get truly good deals on games that we do want. The sales are very predictable now and predictable is boring. Better for our budgets, but boring.

People were complaining back then about the 8-hour rotating flash sales, and being "forced" to check Steam at awkward hours. Can't have it both ways. :)

You can if you're talking about two different groups of people. The people complaining about the current sales being uninteresting aren't the same people who complained about the flash sales.

Stengah wrote:
merphle wrote:
Stengah wrote:

Of course the flash were emotionally manipulative, that's what made the sales exciting in the first place. Now that they're gone we're not buying games we don't really want for fear of missing out on a potentially good deal anymore, but it also means we're not able to get truly good deals on games that we do want. The sales are very predictable now and predictable is boring. Better for our budgets, but boring.

People were complaining back then about the 8-hour rotating flash sales, and being "forced" to check Steam at awkward hours. Can't have it both ways. :)

You can if you're talking about two different groups of people. The people complaining about the current sales being uninteresting aren't the same people who complained about the flash sales.

Let me clarify: Steam can't have it both ways.

Stengah wrote:
merphle wrote:
Stengah wrote:

Of course the flash were emotionally manipulative, that's what made the sales exciting in the first place. Now that they're gone we're not buying games we don't really want for fear of missing out on a potentially good deal anymore, but it also means we're not able to get truly good deals on games that we do want. The sales are very predictable now and predictable is boring. Better for our budgets, but boring.

People were complaining back then about the 8-hour rotating flash sales, and being "forced" to check Steam at awkward hours. Can't have it both ways. :)

You can if you're talking about two different groups of people. The people complaining about the current sales being uninteresting aren't the same people who complained about the flash sales.

Oh hell, I am probably both of those. Something about nostalgia and "grass is greener" or something. Or some of just like to yell at clouds.

master0 wrote:

Yeah I've realized I should only buy games if I want to play them right then and there. So sales are meaningless.

On the Steam Sale front, yeah, there were too many occasions like that where I got excited seeing a game that is $12, logging in only to discover I bought it for $15 two years ago.

This is something I have slowly learned about every aspect of my life. I guess I became an adherent of minimalism without even trying. $15 for something that is usually $50 isn't a great deal if it sits on my shelf unused.

Jonman wrote:

To The Top ($5)
BoxVR ($18.50)
Angry Birds VR ($10)
OhShape ($15)

Reasonable discounts on all of the above.

I think you might be right. Out of that list I'm considering To The Top, and BoxVR is actually in a bundle where for five bucks more I also get Until You Fall (on sale for $12) since I already have the "I will never remember the name of this game." Line Riders or Synth Tracers or something. It's fun, but my brain refuses to get the name right. Synth Riders. I looked it up. ($13.99 but you'll want the DLC. So much fun!)

All that big talk about not buying games. Then I noticed Rimworld was actually on sale. With the coupon its about 25 bucks. Then I picked of age of empires 2 (stupid spirt of law videos got me into it), and the dragon quest builder game....

Wonder of these silly points are worth anything. So far it seems like it's not.

FWIW if you missed Total Warhammer for $20 a few weeks back, it is on sale on Steam for the same price.
Most of the DLC is 50% off as well.

I kind of like what they were heading towards with the playing of games tied to rewards and whatnot, but it looks like they've abandoned that. I mean, I never had time to actually play any of the stuff they wanted me to play, but I did like the concept.

I get that some people might like stickers and backgrounds but I'd rather mow the lawn than care about that stuff. So the whole "spend your points for some chat sticker" motivation just isn't there for me.

master0 wrote:

Wonder of these silly points are worth anything. So far it seems like it's not.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I get that some people might like stickers and backgrounds but I'd rather mow the lawn than care about that stuff. So the whole "spend your points for some chat sticker" motivation just isn't there for me.

I respect your opinions, and agreed 100% with them until I saw this:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/8LbXM1R.png)

Oh, yay, we can pay for emoji. And spending fifty bucks will let you turn your profile golden for thirty entire days.

Why, that means you could have a constant golden profile for just six hundred dollars per year.

I'm excited. This is my excited face. Can't you tell?

I think I want Greedfall.

I don't need it. But it has been on my list for a while. Too bad is it $29.99 and the $5 off is only for $30 and up. I would need some cheap dlc or game to get me over $30.

Oh well maybe next sale.

Yeah, Greedfall might be at the top of what I am looking to get currently. Not an impressive price though (like most things in this sale). Hopefully the third parties will do better.

Not buying anything until I see next months Humble Choice offers though (lessons learned, or not).

I was vaguely interested in DLC for Total Warhammer 2, and in Civ 6. The base game for 6 is steeply discounted, but both it and TW2 suffer from the same problem: oodles of DLC packages, all very expensive.

Last Summer sale, I bought the base game for TW2 and had a pretty good time with it, but it was messed up because I was missing key unit types. (like, some critical chariot for the Vampire Counts, for instance, I forget which one.) I ended up dropping the game because of that.

I really dislike this modern model of gaming, especially with multiplayer games. It just splits communities. It badly damages the games themselves, and the gamers as well; only the developers benefit. It's gotten to the point now that I mostly don't buy AAA games anymore, until they stop development and bundle everything together for a reasonable price. I really dislike being monetized. When there's a Complete Edition, then maybe I'll jump.

Stellaris is the same way. Just try playing the base game without DLC if you want an exercise in annoyance. Pretty much the whole thing is one long ad for all the features you don't have, greyed-out buttons that tell you to spend more money.

I do not like this model. It's gotten to the point that the only games I really enjoy are indies and classic titles. At least I know then that I'm trading X dollars for Y game, and our transaction is finished.

Maybe I'll grab the Subnautica expansion; it's not on sale, but I know they won't be trying to turn it into a gravy train of extended income.

Afaik if you buy the second expansion for civ 6 you get the first included, except for the extra civs. And all other dlc is extra civs only, except for the new “season pass” which is mostly new civs with a smaller additional and very optional game feature added.
It is far from the Paradox dlc spam model.

Ohh look a Steam Sale. I’m playing Baldurs Gate right now and sense Divinity 2 making its way to my collection. The bounced off 1, but think that 2 might draw me in with a better story

lunchbox12682 wrote:

Yup. I'm going to grab Deeprock Galactic. Looking if there's anything else worth grabbing, but I think I will be good.

I grabbed this too, been looking at gameplay videos and has been on my wishlist forever, added Telling lies to the cart to hop over the $50 mex pesos discount to get it almost for free. Gonna try to play that with the wife.

I like Civ6 but was underwhelmed by the DLCs so far.

Yeah, I'm now of the position that I have so many games in my backlog, I don't buy anything in any of these sales unless it's something I *really* know I want to play. It's too easy otherwise to say "oh it's only a couple of bucks" and then it sits in your eternal backlog with everything else in there.

Yeah, time is the limiting factor.

I'm only tempted by Out Of The Park 21, but I just bought Imperator:Rome and I have t touched Civ6 from the Epic giveaway (or Civ4 since I upgraded my PC... I should load that up again).

Can't hurt to sit and stew on it for a few days.

I use a $10 threshold for sales. If it is more than that, I'll probably pass because of my backlog. There have been exceptions - like sports games because of their timeliness - but those are rare. I will usually buy something once it falls under $10, because even if I bounce off it, the lost cost won't annoy me.

So, I picked up Glass Masquerade 1 & 2, plus all of the DLC. I added Fantasy Blacksmith, Golf It, and Outer Wilds to get over $30 for the $5 discount.

Thank you lol

Roke wrote:

Yeah, time is the limiting factor.

I'm only tempted by Out Of The Park 21...

I'm glad you wrote that. I just bought OOTP20 the other day because I wanted a baseball game. I'll be getting 21, now.

-BEP

bepnewt wrote:
Roke wrote:

Yeah, time is the limiting factor.

I'm only tempted by Out Of The Park 21...

I'm glad you wrote that. I just bought OOTP20 the other day because I wanted a baseball game. I'll be getting 21, now.

-BEP

If you want more of an actual hands on baseball game than management/coaching sim, Super Mega Baseball 3 is a very good baseball game. Don't let the graphics style fool you, it plays a very realistic game of baseball. The only downside is it doesn't have an MLB license, but the actual gameplay is as close to the real thing as you can get.

Stealthpizza wrote:

I think I want Greedfall.

I don't need it. But it has been on my list for a while. Too bad is it $29.99 and the $5 off is only for $30 and up. I would need some cheap dlc or game to get me over $30.

Oh well maybe next sale.

Shadout wrote:

Yeah, Greedfall might be at the top of what I am looking to get currently. Not an impressive price though (like most things in this sale). Hopefully the third parties will do better.

Not buying anything until I see next months Humble Choice offers though (lessons learned, or not).

Greedfall was a weird beast. The basic gameplay wasn't bad. The story itself was just interesting enough that I didn't want to stop, but the dialog was not the greatest.

The biggest problem was the repetition in the enemies and the environments. There was quite a bit of combat too and it wasn't that interesting due to the lack of variety.