Throughout “winter break”, Steam had been running a monster sale on various PC games, knocking off up to 80% many titles. I must have bought over a dozen games during this sale, but they were so inexpensive at only a few dollars a pop that I really felt like a kid in a candy store. I have to give Valve major props for arranging their crazy holiday sale: I don’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited during the holiday season and I have the Steam sale to really thank for it.
My buying got so bad that I actually wondered to myself if I actually enjoyed buying each game more than actually playing it. After all, it looks like I’m all excited to find new deals, add them to my cart, buy them, but end up not spending too much time playing them. Is this what happens to a hardcore gamer as he gets older?
Will I really eventually play Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, even though I bought each of them for only a few dollars? Why did I buy Max Payne 1 and 2 when I’ve already beaten them years ago? For under $2 each, I guess my rationale was that I would probably want to check them out again at some point before Max Payne 3 releases later in 2010. If I were a betting man though, I’d bet against myself ever actually replaying the Max Payne games I just bought. Then there’s classics like the Abe’s Odyssey games and LucasArts adventure games, which sold in collections for only $2.50. My rationale behind buying these very dated games? Playing them on my netbook when I travel.
My theory of perhaps enjoying the thrill of buying games (for a good deal) over actually playing them came to fullblown craziness when I started actually pondering whether or not to buy the Civilization IV complete pack when it went on sale for $13.60. The only issue with that pondering was that I already owned Civilization IV and all its expansions. They were sitting in a box in my basement. I was nearly convincing myself that maybe it’s worth it to just own the digital copy so I wouldn’t have to worry about scrounging up the discs in the future if I were to ever play Civ 4 again, but thankfully some ounce of practicality forced me to hold off from rebuying the digital version of a game I physically owned. That’s when you know a deal is good – when you’re considering buying games you already own!
One thing I have to be thankful about though is the sheer number of indie titles that I’m now checking out since many of them were selling for a couple of bucks. I never got a chance to check out Braid on the 360, so it was no contest to pick it up on Steam since it was on sale for $2.50. After that, I jumped into several more indie title purchases that I had never even heard of prior to the sale: Audiosurf, Harvest: Massive Encounter, Mr. Robot, Osmos, Darwinia, Multiwinia, and Trine. Aside from Harvest: Massive Encounter, which I spent a good several hours on, I played only a couple of these games for a few minutes, and then went back to my 360. I’m glad that I gave the indie developers my support, and even more enthusiastic with many of them now coming with their own Steam Achievements.
The combination of gameplay similar to Call of Duty: World at War’s Nazi Zombie mode, the $5 sale price, and Steam Achievements compelled me to check out Killing Floor as well. It doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of polish, but I can see it being pretty enjoyable if I find the right crowd to play it with. I’m also shocked that Torchlight was on sale for $5, as it’s a remarkable Diablo-style game from the makers of Diablo – a game that can potentially suck players in for hours – hours I’m currently trying to find. For those still interested, both are still on sale for $5 each today until 12pm est.
I sat down and started counting up all the games I had backlogged now between the 360 and PC. It’s over 20 games long. What the heck happened? Bayonetta comes out tomorrow. Mass Effect 2 comes out in a few weeks. BioShock 2 comes out next month. Final Fantasy XIII and Battlefield Bad Company 2 come out in March. Looks like I may have to delay some of these purchases so I can get through my backlog. I distinctly remember selling off most of my lower quality 360 titles I was backlogged last summer, yet now I’m back to the same situation!
