It’s that time again, the silly season where money magically disappears in exchange for those games that you were interested in but just never got around to buying. You will play them after you’ve bought them in the Steam Summer Sale, though, honestly. I haven’t got games that I bought over five years ago, still gathering digital dust. Honest. As always, the sale has begun, and the first casualty is the store. I’m trying to get a screenshot to talk about the new meta-game, the Steam Grand Prix, and I bloody-well can’t. So what I’m going to do is talk about the games I can see on the game I daren’t reload first.
Fair play to Valve, the layout of the sale seems to be very well laid out. Three featured games, with a few featured categories, highlighting core titles that are 75% off of greater and then even more categories. The shapes are nice, though, with a plain hexagon for City-Building games. So, enough about shapes – let’s refresh the page. The featured games are the same: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is 50% off, Astronomer is 25% off, and Devil May Cry 5 is 34% off. I’ve gone and joined Team Corgi because, being a proud British person, I was never going to go for Pig, Hare, Cockatiel, or Tortoise (shouldn’t it have been Turtle?). I am somewhat distraught by the lack of Whippet, though. For the full rules of the Steam Grand Prix, you can read them here. Let’s look at the highlights on the Grand Prix page, though.
You can gain points by buying games and completing achievements during the event, boosting your team. These points can be exchanged in the ‘pit stop’ for backgrounds, emoticons, and, the biggest reward, a discount off of your next Steam store purchase. I’m not sure how much of a discount it is. As for the other rewards, random people from the top three teams will be selected to win the top item from their wishlist. You know what that means; get organizing! So you want to know which games to buy, don’t you? Well, let me be the seedy dealer of all things that addict you and drop you hints on some of the games you really want to buy and a few words explaining why. There will be some older titles included.
90%+ Off
Endless Space Collection – One of the best space-strategy games around and a true epic
Divinity: Dragon Commander – A pretty damn great, story-oriented strategy game where you get to take to the battlefield yourself… AS A DRAGON.
Portal Bundle – If you haven’t played these games yet, leave now and don’t come back until you have.
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition – Still one of the best GTA-likes with an entertaining narrative and more.
Serious Sam 3: BFE – Big shooty bang bang WHOOSH BANG WHEY FUN
Pathologic Classic HD – One of the best survival horror games around with a fantastic atmosphere, great characterization, if not hindered by clunky controls.
Amnesia Collection – The first is the game that brought back survival horror. Enough said.
75-89% Off
SOMA – While not as good as Amnesia, SOMA is still a very atmospheric and generally creepy survival horror.
Psychonauts – It’s Psychonauts, a stupidly fantastic game, and you need to have played it.
Rebel Galaxy – Just read my review.
Grim Fandango Remastered – Come on, you know you need to play it. It’s legendary.
Outlast Trinity – The first is the other game that brought back survival horror. Enough said.
Spec Ops: The Line – The last great ‘realistic’ first-person shooter.
Carpe Fulgur Collection – This is worth it for Recettear, but with two other very worthwhile games.
DMC: Devil May Cry – It’s easy to dislike this game because it’s not a traditional DMC, but the gameplay was great, characters campy, and just a fun romp.
Dark Souls II – GIT GUDDER
Dark Souls III – GIT GUDDEST
Age of Empires III: Complete Collection – Still an absolutely fantastic strategy game.
Bioshock: The Collection – First and Infinite, fantastic. Second… eh. Would you kindly?
