Steam Christmas Sale

[madhair60]

All signs point to it starting today.  6pm GMT.  Everything will be going cheap.  New Christmas achievements have been added to lots of games - possibly for some sort of ARG.

Prepare your wallets.

I want to get Dead Island and Deus Ex Human Revolution.  Anything else is gravy.

[mikeyg27]

Oh no. OH NO!!! IT BEGINS!!!

[Barberism]

Holidays are coming...
Holidays are coming...

[AsparagusTrevor]

Not looking... Not looking.
Maybe just a peek.

[falafel]

Crashed much?

[madhair60]

Haha, Steam is taking a beating.  Just Cause 2 and Portal 2 are SO worth getting for the sale prices.

[Subtle Mocking]

Good luck getting on, haha. More deals added daily, here's today's:

Fable III -75% £7.49
Orcs Must Die -75% £2.99
Metro 2033 -75% £3.74
Rift -75% £4.99
Portal 2 -75% £4.99
Portal Bundle (1&2) -75% £5.74
Bunch of Heros -75% £2.24
Sam & Max Franchise -75% £various
Singularity -75% £3.74
Amnesia: The Dark Descent -75% £3.24
Pendulo Adventure Pack -75% £9.99
Max Payne Bundle -75% £2.49
Just Cause 2 -75% £3.49

[Dark Sky]

Portal 2 for £4.99 is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.  I think anyone who hasn't got it should ignore that and wait until it's £20 and buy it then.

Then play it and think, "blimey, this game is worth every penny".

[falafel]

Fable 3 worth a punt? How long will it last?

[madhair60]

Fable 3 worth a punt?

no

[Pete23]

possibly the greatest deal ever: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/13024/

Both Arkham games (including DLC for Arkham City), All F.E.A.R. games and packs, Lego Batman and Harry Potter Years 1-4, Bastion, Terminator Salvation and the two Watchman games all for £40!

[Subtle Mocking]

I don't know, wasn't that Terminator game god-awful?

[Dark Sky]

possibly the greatest deal ever: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/13024/

Both Arkham games (including DLC for Arkham City), All F.E.A.R. games and packs, Lego Batman and Harry Potter Years 1-4, Bastion, Terminator Salvation and the two Watchman games all for £40!

BT would charge me £40 just to download all that!

[madhair60]

I don't know, wasn't that Terminator game god-awful?

Surprisingly, no - it's actually a pretty solid experience.  Not gonna win any awards but it's a good crack.  Even without it the pack's worth £40, no question.

[small_world]

Alright alright alright... What is Steam?

Here I was thinking I could sit back and let the new techie stuff roll over me. No worries, but I've heard loads about Portal, I want to give it a go...
What do I do?

Also, my PC, while not ancient, isn't the most modern. It played Oblivion with the settings at about 30-40% off the best. Would I be Ok running Portal? What else would you recommend? 

[madhair60]

Portal will run fine, I'm sure of it.  Not sure about Portal 2, but it IS very customisable, being Source engine and all.

Steam is - basically - a digital distribution service and gaming client.  It's also excellent.  I... can't muster the energy to explain further.  I apologise.

[The Boston Crab]

It's basically like torrenting but you pay for it.

[Little Hoover]

Weren't they just having a sale a few weeks ago? It feels like there's almost always a sale going on at Steam.

[Wilbur]

Right Steam. STOP THIS NOW. I have Skyrim here unplayed. I have the GTA pack hardly started. Bastards.

[WesterlyWinds]

Alright alright alright... What is Steam?

Here I was thinking I could sit back and let the new techie stuff roll over me. No worries, but I've heard loads about Portal, I want to give it a go...
What do I do?

Also, my PC, while not ancient, isn't the most modern. It played Oblivion with the settings at about 30-40% off the best. Would I be Ok running Portal? What else would you recommend?

I tend to use a website called System Requirements Lab to see if my PC will run stuff. Apparently it will run Portal 2, hoorah! Shame I can't get it for that price on my PS3, I quite like being able to lie in bed and play games.

[Dark Sky]

Alright alright alright... What is Steam?

It's basically a digital distribution service which also doubles as social networking and DRM for computer games.  It was developed by Valve, who make Half-Life, Portal, Left4Dead, etc, as a way to distribute their own games, but many non-Valve games can be bought/installed through Steam, or - if they're bought in-store - actively require to be registered through Steam (as a form of DRM).

I really like Steam.  It's fantastic to have a library of games all held in one place, especially if you only own them digitally, and I often get quite annoyed if I buy a game nowadays which can't be installed in Steam!  It automatically updates all the games with the latest patches and the like, plus it has achievements programmed in (I quite like achievements).  And there's the whole community thing attached, meaning it makes online multiplaying really easy.

It's not limited to one computer, either, meaning you can in theory log into your Steam account on a different computer, and it'll let you re-download all the games and install them and play them on that computer instead.

The only bad side (for consumers) is that there's no way to deactivate a game from Steam.  Meaning I've had occasions where I've bought a second hand copy of a game through Amazon, and it turns out that the previous owner already activated it on their account, meaning the disc they sold me is only as good as a coaster. 

Prices on the Steam store vary quite a lot.  Outside of sales, games tend to be far, far more expensive via Steam than, say, buying a copy from Amazon.  But then they have a sale and the prices get stupidly cheap.  Plus it's the only place you can get hold of certain games...e.g., the fantastic Limbo...on PC, you could only buy that via Steam.

[The Boston Crab]

Cheers, WesterlyWinds, that's a very useful site!

It reckons I can't play Skyrim though because I don't have the Minimum NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRD factor.

Hahaha!


HAHA!

[SetToStun]

In this broadband age it's not such an issue but I do remember buying Half Life 2 on actual disc, in a box and everything, and getting it back to my folks' place (I was staying with them when I was between flats), installing it, trying to play it and being told that I needed a Steam account to register it or it wouldn't play. Great. My folks were on dial-up. I managed to set up an account (eventually), restarted the game and it went straight into "validating game[nb]May not be the exact description there, but it was something like that.[/nb]/downloading updates" mode. Validation took nearly an hour and then the download started. 1.4GB. On fucking dial-up. Updates I probably didn't want, forcibly done on-line, to play a game I'd bought brand new, in a box, shrink-wrapped, from an approved retailer. With errors and disconnections it took about three fucking days to get to even start playing the bastard thing. I tried cancelling the updates and just starting the game, but guess what?

Fucking Steam.

[ThickAndCreamy]

I once paid £40 to buy a CD version of the Half Life 2 Box Set from the US as I didn't have a DVD disk drive on my old PC. It wasn't until I installed it all using about 8 discs that I realised I could have bought it for less than half the price on Steam.

The world is now a better place.

[SetToStun]

The world is now a better place, provided you have reliable broadband access.

Fixed.

[Dark Sky]

In this broadband age it's not such an issue but I do remember buying Half Life 2 on actual disc, in a box and everything, and getting it back to my folks' place (I was staying with them when I was between flats), installing it, trying to play it and being told that I needed a Steam account to register it or it wouldn't play. Great. My folks were on dial-up. I managed to set up an account (eventually), restarted the game and it went straight into "validating game[nb]May not be the exact description there, but it was something like that.[/nb]/downloading updates" mode. Validation took nearly an hour and then the download started. 1.4GB. On fucking dial-up. Updates I probably didn't want, forcibly done on-line, to play a game I'd bought brand new, in a box, shrink-wrapped, from an approved retailer. With errors and disconnections it took about three fucking days to get to even start playing the bastard thing. I tried cancelling the updates and just starting the game, but guess what?

Fucking Steam.

You could have told it to install from the disc, of course.  Then it wouldn't have tried to download the 1.4GB game!

(I agree though that installing from the disc should be automatic if you have one...but for some reason it doesn't do that, annoyingly)

[Ignatius_S]

Yesterday's 'deals of the day' are still available for 4 more hours - wonder if this is because of the problems yesterday.

[Eis Nein]

Aside from all the other benefits, Steam has lots of free games, and some games are offered as such on free weekends. The mighty Team Fortress 2 is permanently free:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=851573

[ThickAndCreamy]

I have played over 500 hours of Team Fortress 2.

It's the best free game you will ever play, and the best online FPS ever made. Just get Steam for that alone.

[Eis Nein]

Your tally humbles my puny 90-odd, but do you have a Primeval Warrior badge?

I do, so there.