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This time of the year for gamers has started to mean sales, not unlike a lot of other things like shoes and such. Even though retail chains are starting to get with it, the bulk of these deals still mainly center around the PC.
“But-but-but-but I don’t have a $6,000 computer with an i7 and a DirectX 11 graphics card! Guess those sales aren’t for me!” says the typical console gamer every time I try to promote the best deals. This will be my second attempt to bring some attention to the fact that these digital PC game stores contain more than enough perfectly fun, low-end games that probably will run on your six-year-old laptop. All of these sales will last at least until the end of the week.
Now, honestly a lot of these games are actually stuff that’s also probably on Xbox Live Arcade or the iTunes App Store, but even those games, for the next week, will cheaper on Steam or GamersGate. Plus, it’s still always nice to be able to play Torchlight or Super Meat Boy whenever you have your netbook out.
For this post I’m mainly going to focus on deals for PC exclusive games that probably don’t require a quad core processor or dedicated video card. All of them are more indie-level games equivalent to what you would buy on XBLA. All main items below have a demo downloadable right from Steam unless otherwise stated.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/98200/?snr=1_4_4__13
Strategy gamers should definitely be giving this one a look. I haven’t actually played it yet but it’s been making quite a bit of conversation in PC gaming circles as of late. Many compare it to tactical shooters like Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon, but it seems to focus entirely on the “tactical” part. You write up entire plans for missions that AI operatives will follow, working against another AI team that has its own counter plan written up. Mentally it sounds a lot like being a football coach but with guns. When you buy a copy on Steam you actually get two copies – one for yourself and one to gift to a friend. Sadly this is the only item out of my main collection that doesn’t have a demo.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/70400/?snr=1_5_9__300
This is actually a “doujin” game – a Japanese indie game that somehow made its way onto Western PC gaming storefronts. Basically, you become the guy who runs the item shop that you’d be doing business with in any other RPG. You collect, buy, sell, trade, and even haggle prices. Stylistically it’s a niche anime thing through-and-through (think the art style of Disgaea), but has gotten a whole lot of praise for $20 (now $10 in this sale).
http://store.steampowered.com/app/42910/
Magicka is a four-player co-op isometric RPG where all players are mages who mix and match spells. What makes this game work so well is the spell-casting system that’s so intuitive that I was already learning new spells on my own even before I was done with the tutorial. On top of that the game has a unique satirical style to the narrative that you can already see from the DLC (also dirt cheap this week) like the Vietnam pack.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/12900/
I listed this one on my last post about a Steam sale too, because there is really very little excuse for not buying this game if you own a computer that runs Windows. For those that still might not know, it’s a game where you ride the music that’s on your computer. Try to imagine playing Lumines and F-Zero simultaneously. I bought this game years ago at full price and am still getting my money’s worth out of it.
The real reason I’m posting this behind how great these games are, is because getting them on Steam gets you into a great online gaming community that’s at least as fully-featured as Xbox Live. It’s definitely not only for the high end master race riggers, as Steam and the other stores contain tons of casual, family, and indie content if you don’t have it or can’t get it on your console, perfect for wasting time on your laptop.
Other Great Deals:
(all are on Steam unless otherwise linked)
Aquaria (demo at the official website) – $5
And Yet It Moves – $2.50
Torchlight
Super Meat Boy – $11.24
Flight Control HD – $1.25
Bit.Trip.Runner – $5
Bit.Trip.Beat – $5
Oddworld Abe’s Odyssee and Exodus – $0.84 each