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.

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.

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.

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).

Amazon Labor Day Digital Download Sale

Amazon is having a Labor Day salethat supposedly offers "up to 75% off over 400 PC titles."

Looks like there are some pretty decent deals available at first glance. Mass Effect 3is available for $16, Homefront,Darksiders,and Metro 2033are all 5 bucks each, and the Crysis 2 Maximum Editionis $10. Metro is definitely worth more than $5 and is a pretty solid DX11 game. While I haven't played the others, these are the cheapest prices I've seen, including on Steam.

The sale runs from now until September 9th.

Where to Find Gaming Deals Online

Last night I made a post about the Steam Summer Sale and a current sale that Amazon is running throughout July.  Almost everyone knows about these major events, but sites like these have sales all the time.  I'm a cheap bastard who refuses to pay full price for most game any more - if I wait it'll be on Steam for half price in a couple of months, so unless it's something super exciting I can wait and instead play through my backlog.  Thankfully I've found a couple of useful sites that make it easy to keep track of the offerings of all of these digital download services.

Links and descriptions after the jump.

Steam Summer Sale

The Steam Summer Sale ended this past weekend.  Let's have a moment of silence in remembrance of sales past.

When the dust had settled I had picked up three games for $26-ish: GTA IV, Civilization V GOTY, and Darksiders.  I had played through Episodes from Liberty City but not GTA IV since it seemed like Steam always wanted to bundle them together in the past.  Civ V has been on my radar for a while, and it finally hit a price point that made me jump on it.  Darksiders, on the other hand, was a game I had never looked into previously - a friend recommended it to me and I ended up snagging it for 5 bucks.  As I plow through my gigantic backlog of Steam games I'll be posting my thoughts - stay tuned.

On a side note, Amazon has been discounting digital game downloads all month long.  We're down to the last few days of July, but you can check out these Amazon Digital Deals to get your post-Summer-Sale deals fix.  In addition, as of the time of this post (3am Thursday - why am I still awake?), Newegg has RAGE for $5.99.  The reviews that I've read have been pretty underwhelming, but 6 bucks for a 8-10 hours of campaign isn't the worst deal I've seen.