Holiday Sale Survival Guide

I have no idea where this originated, but it's hilariously accurate.

It's not officially Christmas until I've been saddled with feelings of shame and guilt after adding a dozen games to my already gigantic backlog. Amazon, Valve - why must you tempt me so?

If you're at all concerned about being able to afford food in January, you might want to take a look at the following tips.

1. Use resources like /r/GameDeals and IsThereAnyDeal.com to find the best deals.

While Steam might be the "Granddaddy of Them All" when it comes to offering games at stupid prices during the holidays, there's a lot of other stuff going on elsewhere on the Internet. Sites like Amazon and Green Man Gaming have been offering deals on par with - and occasionally better than - those of Valve's service. Plus, with Origin and Uplay on the prowl, it's increasingly common (albeit somewhat annoying) to find games that simply aren't offered on Steam.

Bottom line - it pays to look around, and using some kind of deal aggregator makes everything super easy. Sites like the aforementioned IsThereAnyDeal.com and Cheapshark.com can also give you an idea of the pricing trends for a given game and whether or not it's been cheaper in the past.

Finally Took the Plunge

After going back and forth on a graphics card upgrade for several weeks now, I finally pulled the trigger on an XFX Double D HD 7950 from NCIX. With a $20 referral promo code and $30 rebate I'll be getting the card for ~$258 total. Pretty excited.

The battle more or less came down to three cards in the end: the HD 7870 GHz Edition, the GTX 660 Ti, and the HD 7950. Since we're nearing the end of the current graphics card generation I was reluctant to spend money on a 7870; it's definitely an upgrade over my current 560 Ti, but chances are it won't look so hot compared to the next-gen stuff. The 660 Ti looked like a worthy competitor (plus it has 2 DVI ports) but that 192-bit memory bus still makes me a little sad. In the end, the fact that you can overclock the shit out of the 7950 (on the order of 25% or so) combined with the fact that it'll (hopefully) hold its value the longest out of the bunch led me to choose the 7950.

The price didn't hurt, either.

I'll be sure to post some unboxing pics and benchmarks once I get everything up and running next week. Guess I better grab some numbers from my 560 Ti so I have something to compare the new card to.

Humble THQ Bundle

The Humble Bundle guys are at it again, this time offering the "Humble THQ Bundle" to the masses. You can pay whatever you want (as long as it's a minimum of $1) for the following titles:

• Darksiders
• Metro 2033
• Red Faction Armageddon
• Company of Heroes
• CoH: Opposing Fronts
• CoH: Tales of Valor
• Saints Row The Third*
(* if you beat the ~$5.50 average)

This deal is straight up ridiculous and probably has something to do with the financial dilemma that the publisher finds itself in. THQ has already laid off a bunch of people and delayed a few games; the future doesn't exactly look bright at this point.

Humble Bundles traditionally offer DRM-free downloads of games on Windows, OSX, and Linux for as little as 1 cent. This time around there's a minimum of $1 and all of the games are Windows-only and tied to Steam. Several people (see: Ars Technica, The Penny Arcade Report) have been making a lot of noise claiming that Humble Bundle has sold out and destroyed their reputation by partnering with a AAA publisher for this bundle. Ben Kuchera of The PA Report said that "[this] isn’t a Humble Bundle, it’s a Steam sale." This seems a little bit like grandstanding to me.

Black Friday Postmortem

The dust appears to have finally settled after an extended weekend filled with gravy and impulse buying. I managed to score the following:

• Knights of the Old Republic I + II ($2.49 each)
• Orcs Must Die! 2 Complete ($6.24)
• The Witcher Extended Edition Director's Cut ($2.49)
• Civilization 5 Gods and Kings ($7.49)
• L.A. Noire Complete ($7.49)
• Sleeping Dogs ($13.60)

That's a total of $42.29 if you're keeping score at home. I'm currently playing Sleeping Dogs and from what I've seen so far that game is worth $42 alone. I'm pretty content with my haul, though the backlog just got that much larger.

Things were a little less exciting on the hardware side. There were some tempting SSD deals to be had - Amazon, Newegg, and TigerDirect all offered a 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K for $60 at various times throughout the weekend - but I held back hoping for a deal on an HD7950. That deal never materialized.

Instead, there were several 660 Ti's available for ~$230-260 after rebate. I'm assuming AMD has been killing it with the whole Never Settle Bundle thing and that retailers used Black Friday to move some of their Nvidia inventory. There's nothing wrong with the 660 Ti per se, but that 192-bit memory bus still worries me. If I'm going to put down money for a new card this late into a generation I don't want to make any compromises. AMD's HD8000-series cards should be making an appearance in the next couple of months and I don't want to regret my purchase.

On the bright side, my wallet made it through the weekend without taking too much of a hit. With Steam's Holiday Sale supposedly starting December 20th, that's probably a good thing.

Thanksgiving Deal Overload

It's been a busy week thus far - so much so that I haven't posted in a couple of days - and things are only going to get busier from here. It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year as far as PC gaming is concerned. Hopefully you and your wallet have prepared appropriately.

Deal-watching is going to be kind of a big thing for the next five weeks or so, and reddit's /r/GameDeals and sites like IsThereAnyDeal.com and CheapShark.com are going to be your best friend. Time to shovel another 6 or 7 games onto the backlog pile.

I've already picked up Civilization V Gods and Kings for $7.49 (Amazon), Sleeping Dogs for $13.60 (Green Man Gaming, no longer valid), and KOTOR I and II for $2.49 each (Steam). On the hardware side of things, Newegg has a Gigabyte 660 Ti for $250 after $20 rebate, with Assassin's Creed III and Borderlands 2 included at no cost. There's also a Galaxy 660 Ti for $225 AR, sans Borderlands 2. I'm debating whether to jump on a card this week, pick up a cheap 128GB SSD, or just hold off on everything till the next generation.

Should be an exciting week regardless. Happy hunting.

Possible Deal of the Year from Amazon

Amazon is offering a pretty sick THQ bundle this weekend: six games for ten bucks, plus a $5 coupon code. Ridiculous.

Should you take advantage of this deal you'll score copies of Homefront, Metro 2033, Red Faction Armageddon and Red Faction Guerrilla, STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl, and Warhammer 40K Space Marine. To make the deal that much sweeter, Amazon includes a promo code good for $5 off of an "Editor's Choice" game during the month of January. Amazon ran a similar promotion last year and games like Assassin's Creed (1 and 2) and The Witcher were available on the cheap. Some eligible games were on sale for 5 bucks, meaning they were effectively free with a promo code.

This deal might not last through the weekend, so act quickly if you're interested.

Tantalizing THQ Medley [Amazon]

Indie Bundles + Free Bioshock

Quick note on some deals happening right now:

• Humble Android Bundle 4: Here's yet another pay-what-you-want bundle from the Humble Bundle guys. This one includes Spice, Eufloria, Waking Mars, Swords and Sworcery EP, Crayon Physics Deluxe, and Machinarium. Despite this being an Android bundle, all games are available on Windows too (with individual Steam keys, minus Waking Mars). They usually add games to the bundle halfway through, so if you buy now you'll get those for free regardless of what you paid.

• Indie Royale Harvest Bundle: More indie stuff here. This one is also pay-what-you-want, but there's a minimum price involved (~$5.50 as of this post). The bundle includes Mutant Mudds, Pineapple Smash Crew, Spirits, Avernum: The Great Trials Trilogy, and Basketbelle.

• Free Bioshock @ Gamefly: To celebrate the GameFly Client leaving the beta tag behind, GameFly is giving everyone Bioshock 1 for free. A client download is required and I think you need to enter a credit card despite it costing $0.00, but hey, free is free. As far as I can tell this doesn't redeem on Steam.

Weekend Deals: November 2nd

This weekend is a little thin on savings since the middle of the week was filled with Halloween promotions. In addition, stores are undoubtedly gearing up for mega deals later in the month and into December.

With that being said, there are still a handful of games available on the cheap:

• Amazon: Kingdoms of Amalur Complete for $11.99
• GOG: Classic EA Sale
• Steam: CS: Global Offensive Free Weekend and 33% Off
• Steam: Tomb Raider 15th Anniversary Sale
• GetGames: Assassin's Creed Sale

AC3 for $38.49 is pretty tempting, but I should probably focus on playing through AC2/Brotherhood/Revelations first.

So many games; so little time - the very definition of a First World Problem.

Halloween PC Download Deals

It's Halloween, and just about every digital download service is having a sale to celebrate the occasion.

• Origin: Buy 1 Get 1
• GOG: 50% Off "Not Scary" Games
• GameFly: Halloween Sale
• Steam: Halloween Sale
• GamersGate: Halloween Sale
• GMG: Deals + New 25% Off Code

Most of these deals are pretty unremarkable - as one reddit user commented in reference to the Steam sale, "these deals are so mediocre they're scary!" With that being said, there are a couple of hidden gems like Orcs Must Die 2 for $7.49 and The Darkness II for $4.99.

Remember, Black Friday is just around the corner and the major holiday sales are less than 2 months away. It's not too late to pick up a second job for that extra disposable income.

Spooky Sales and Savings

Here's a sampling of the deals available this Halloween weekend. Highlights include Super Meat Boy for $3.49, Metro 2033 and Dead Space/2 for 5 bucks each, and Darksiders II for $22.49.

• GameStop: Halloween Sale
• GetGames: Halloween Sale
• GetGames: Darksiders II for $22.49
• Steam: L4D2 Free Weekend + Sale
• Steam: Rock of Ages Free Weekend + Sale
• GameFly: THQ Weekend
• Square Enix: Three Day Sale
• Amazon: Bioshock Dual Pack for $7.49

Also, you can head to StopZombieMouth.com and pick up vouchers for free copies of Plants vs. Zombies to give out to trick-or-treaters (or horde for yourself). Coupons are redeemable from October 30th to November 10th.

I just hope I still have power on October 30th.

Deal Alert: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7950 for $270 AR, Plus Free Stuff

This AMD "Never Settle" thing looks pretty tempting.

Right now, Newegg has a SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB card for $290 with a $20 mail-in rebate. $270 is already a pretty solid price for a 7950, but when you throw in Far Cry 3, Hitman: Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs (not to mention 20% off Medal of Honor: Warfighter), this deal gets straight up ridiculous.

I'm seriously thinking about trading up from my 1GB 560 Ti. Sure, we're near the end of a GPU generation, but that bundle is insane. Plus, 1GB of VRAM is starting to cramp my style a little bit, so the move to 3GB would open up some more options for the future.

Gaming at 2560x1440? Yes please.

Weekend Gaming Deal Roundup (Updated)

So. Many. Deals. At this rate I'm not sure what I'll have left to buy when the Steam Holiday Sale rolls around.

• GreenManGaming: Horror Deals - Up to 75% off + additional 20% code
  

  GMG has a bunch of "scary, scarier, and scariest" games on sale just in time for Halloween. Alan Wake, F.E.A.R. 3, Metro 2033, Darksiders II and more are being offered at 50-75% off, and promo code GMG20-FXYD1-7WHP1 chops another 20% off the top.

• Steam: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut, PAYDAY: The Heist, Sleeping Dogs Weekend Deals
  
  • PAYDAY is free to play this weekend and the game is on sale for 75% off. It's fun with friends, but we ultimately stopped playing after 3 or 4 days.
  • I haven't played The Witcher (I've heard it's pretty polarizing - love it or hate it), but 5 bucks is pretty cheap.
  • Sleeping Dogs is once again on sale this weekend, this time at $25. As I've said in the past, I have a feeling this one is going to be in the bargain bin in December; one glance at my backlog tells me that I can wait it out.
• GamersGate: Assassin's Weekend: Assassin's Creed games 50-83% off
  

  There are some great deals to be found here if you're a fan of the Assassin's Creed series. I picked up AC: Brotherhood and AC: Revelations for a total of $16.97. Checking price history on IsThereAnyDeal.com tells me that these are pretty much the lowest prices that we've seen for both games.

Thinking back, I'm pretty sure I paid a total of $22 for all four Assassin's Creed games. Patting myself on the back for that one.

Update: Amazon also has Sleeping Dogs for $25, but promo code SQRLUVOC can be applied for an extra 25% off. Total price is $18.74 (plus tax if Amazon hates you).

One Great Deal and One Huge Mess (Updated)

Oh EA, what are we going to do with you?

I was browsing /r/GameDeals late Friday night/early Saturday morning and came across a post about an Origin promo code. Things started out innocently enough: EA was sending out surveys and rewarding those who participated with $20 promo codes usable on Origin.

It didn't take long for some enterprising individuals to figure out that the promo code could be used twice, once via the Origin client and once via the website. Don't worry, it gets better (or worse, depending on your perspective). Whoever set this thing up must have been in a hurry to get out of the office on Friday, because the promo code could be used an unlimited number of times on a couple dozen games. By adding games to the cart one at a time and applying the promo code to each individual game, people could basically walk out with a sack of games for free.

As much fun as it would have been to load up a cart with everything I was missing à la the Nickelodeon Super Toy Run, I only added Sim City 4 to my account. It's hard to imagine EA just letting this one slide, but then again it'll be hard to distinguish between people who may have innocently snagged 2 or 3 games and those who were deliberately trying to game the system.

Update: EA has supposedly said that they will honor all "purchases" from this event, so download away.

Weekend Deal Roundup

We've reached the end of yet another week, and once again this weekend's sale lineup doesn't disappoint.

• Steam: Focus Home Interactive Weekend and Sanctum Free Weekend
  

  The Focus event looks to have some decent titles, but nothing that really screams "buy me now" as far as I can tell: Blood Bowl, Game of Thrones, Cities XL, Sherlock Holmes, etc. Likewise, Sanctum looks interesting (and it's only $2.49), but I feel like it'd find a place near the end of my game queue.

• GameFly: Select Racing Games 50-75% Off
  

  This sale offers titles from some pretty popular franchises, including Dirt 3, Driver SF, and some Need For Speed games. I'd highly recommend picking up Dirt 3 and Driver SF at the very least. I'm not a huge fan of the newer NFS games (basically everything after NFS Carbon, not including Shift 2), but these prices are low enough to be tempting if you haven't played them. Blur has always looked interesting, but the online community looks like it's pretty small. Then again, it's only 5 bucks.

• GamersGate: EA Week
  

  GamersGate's EA Week continues with different franchises being featured daily. Today the Mass Effect series is available for 60-75% off. 12 bucks for ME3 is a pretty solid deal.

More deals after the jump.

More Amazon Deals - Batman, FEAR

I'm sitting here browsing the 'nets while watching the Steelers and Eagles play an embarrassingly terrible first half of football. While this game isn't very interesting, Amazon has a couple of Digital Deals of the Week that definitely deserve some attention.

Both the Batman Arkham Action Pack (which includes Arkham Asylum GOTY and Arkham City vanilla) and the F.E.A.R Ultimate Pack (all three titles plus some DLC for the first) are available for $10. If you haven't used it yet, promo code OCTOFUN1 can be applied for an additional 25% off, bringing each pack to $7.50 before tax.

I've skipped Batman deals several times in the past because of the size of my Steam backlog, but this particular deal is way too good to pass up. Both Arkham games have a score of 91/100 on Metacritic; nabbing two critically-acclaimed games (released in the last 3 years) for less than 8 bucks is pretty amazing in my book.

The F.E.A.R. deal doesn't look quite as appealing to me, but there's a lot of content there for the money. I remember the first game being fun and pretty original when it was released in 2005, but I haven't played either of the more recent additions to the series. The general consensus seems to be that the series has gotten worse with each game - the original FEAR has an 88/100 on Metacritic, while the two sequels have scores of 79 and 74.

While the deals should stick around for several days, the promo code might expire as soon as tonight. If you're interested, you can pick up the deals here.

Holiday Weekend Deals

Monday October 8th is both Columbus Day in the US and Thanksgiving in Canada. Sounds like a good excuse to slash prices on a bunch of stuff.

• Steam Deals
  
  
  • THQ Weekend
    

    It's not a holiday without space marines, street gangs, and Russians. Metro 2033 is on sale for 5 bucks until 10am PDT Saturday - this game has been in the bargain bin for a while now and I highly recommend picking it up if you haven't already. I wouldn't be surprised to see Saints Row: The Third and either the Warhammer series, Darksiders, or Homefront as the daily deals Saturday and Sunday.

  • Vessel for $4.99
    

    Vessel looks like an interesting physics-based side-scrolling puzzler. Gameplay centers around liquids with unique properties. Seeing screenshots of the guy with a water tank on his back brings back memories of Super Mario Sunshine.

Game Deals (via reddit)

I found a couple of deals browsing /r/gamedeals earlier tonight that are worth sharing.

• Amazon: 25% off non-preorder, non-new release games with promo code OCTOFUN1 (reddit link)

  I guess Amazon wants us to have fun this October, and 25% off sounds pretty good to me. This code supposedly stacks with current sales, meaning you can use it to pick up Sleeping Dogs for $22.50 or this combo pack (featuring Mirror's Edge, Bulletstorm, Burnout Paradise, Mercenaries 2, and The Saboteur) for $7.50. No word on how long the code is good for, so act quickly.

• Toys 'R Us: Clearance games for $9.98 (reddit link)

  Looks like Toys 'R Us is making room for their holiday inventory by reducing a bunch of popular games to clearance prices. The reddit user who posted the deal stated that most deals were in-store only (SWTOR, Sims 3, MW3, SC2, Diablo 3), but Arkham City, Rage, and AC Revelations are all available online for less than 10 bucks. Almost all of these are well worth your hard-earned $10 - maybe even MW3, which I reviewed earlier today.

In addition, there was a link to a forum post at Cheap Ass Gamer by an Amazon employee. Apparently this weekend and throughout next week we'll see game deals on the FEAR and Batman franchises in addition to Vessel and Battlefield 3. No word on whether the above promo code will work during the sale - $10 for both Batman games is pretty amazing, but $7.50 would be even better.

Deal Alert: Amazon $10 Bundle

Just got word of a pretty amazing combo pack for sale on Amazon today. The "Storming, Burning, Reflecting, Flaming, Sabotaging Pack" contains Bulletstorm, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, The Saboteur, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, and Mirrors Edge. Each game retails individually for $10-20 and it'd set you back about 75 bucks to pick up everything. The combo pack is currently available for $10.

Burnout Paradise is arguably worth 10 bucks by itself as it easily offers 15-20 hours of gameplay, but the rest of the games are no slouch. According to a user on reddit, everything but Bulletstorm and Mercs 2 will activate on Origin; unfortunately none of the games activate on Steam. Amazon's game downloader isn't anything special, but it gets the job done.

Metacritic  scores
Bulletstorm (link)	82
Burnout Paradise (link)	87
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (link)	70
Mirror's Edge (link)	81
The Saboteur (link)	76

Pick up the deal on Amazon here.

Deals: Sleeping Dogs, Homefront, Total War, BF3 (updated)

This weekend is shaping up to be a good one, though maybe not for your wallet.

• Sleeping Dogs for $30 - GameStop, Amazon
  

  Sleeping Dogs has been steadily dropping in price as of late and I feel like this one might be sub-$20 by the time the holiday sales come around. I'm definitely going to pick this up at some point, but now might not be the time if you've got a gigantic gaming backlog like I do.

• Homefront Ultimate Edition for $6.24 - Gamersgate
  

  I think I might finally bite the bullet and pick up Homefront. The reviews weren't great and the campaign is supposed to be legendarily short, but for 6 bucks the price is right. It costs 15 bucks to see a 2-hour movie nowadays, so $6 for a 4-hour campaign with some multiplayer thrown in doesn't seem that awful.

• Total War Weekend - Steam
  

  Steam's latest weekend sale features the Total War franchise. Today's deal has Rome Total War available for a buck, and a new deal is promised each day. This is definitely a good opportunity to introduce yourself to or get reacquainted with the series.

• Modern Warfare 3 Free Weekend - Steam
  

  MW3's multiplayer mode is free to play on Steam until Sunday afternoon and the game is on sale for $30 throughout the weekend. This is a decidedly awful deal on a game that's a year old and likely to become irrelevant on November 13th when Black Ops 2 is released. Still, free is free, and it's worth a download to reaffirm the fact that they're still selling us CoD 4 for $60 every year.

• Battlefield 3 for $10 - GameStop
  

  In contrast to the terrible MW3 deal above, this BF3 deal for 10 bucks is pretty solid. I'm a little confused as to when the deal actually becomes active - the countdown timer points to 2am EST, but there's a statement on the page that references 12pm Central. Whenever this actually goes live, it's worth picking up.

UPDATE:

• Binding of Isaac for $1.24 - Steam
  

  According to the game's Steam page, The Binding of Isaac is a "randomly generated action RPG shooter with heavy Rogue-like elements." Similar to Super Meat Boy, the game is incredibly difficult. I'm not a gigantic fan of the game's randomly-generated structure, but at the same time this aspect puts The Binding of Isaac high on the replayability scale. For just over a buck it's worth checking out.

Two Game Combo Deals and More Deal Aggregators

First things first: GameStop has a couple of combo packs on sale featuring the Dead Space and Dragon Age franchises. The Dragon Age pack includes DA: Origins Ultimate Edition and DA2 for $10. This is a ridiculous amount of content for 10 bucks. The Dead Space pack isn't too shabby either, featuring the original game and the sequel for $10. Both combo packs require the GameStop app and as far as I know neither one will activate on Steam, though they might work with Origin.

Continuing on the subject of game deals, there was a reddit post earlier that listed a bunch of deal aggregator sites. I covered a few of these in my Where to Find Gaming Deals Online post a couple of months ago, but a few sites on the reddit list are worth adding to the rotation.

One site in particular that looks pretty solid is IsThereAnyDeal.com; it has a ton of filters that let you sift through deals in addition to price alerts and price history. Some of the game links (particularly those from GreenManGaming) don't point to the correct page, but the author of the site was actively commenting in the reddit thread and mentioned that he'd look into it.

All of these deals have ruined me. I don't know if I could bring myself to pay full price for a game ever again - not that that's a bad thing.