Looks like there will be plenty to do for the cost conscious gamer this weekend. Currently, the Shadowgrounds games are 75% off due to Steam's midweek madness sale. Shattered Horizon will be free to play this weekend, from the 19th to the 21st of February and the price will be knocked down 50% during this time as well. If you're curious about this excellent and unique game then now is the time to check it out.
Also, GOG now has a number of Activision games in their catalog, including Gabriel Knight, Phantasmagoria and Vampire: The Masquerade: Redemption (one of my personal favorites). Interstate 76 is due to release at the end of February as well - looks like it'll be a good month for retro-ish PC gaming.
If you haven't played this yet, or even if you have, its up for $2 on Steam for a couple of days. It's pretty much one of the most recommended games ever.
One of the biggest comments around the Calculator that I see goes something like this:
Wow, $2000, but I didn't spend nearly that much, I bought mostly everything on sale.
With that in mind I'll soon be including sale prices and tallying those up as well. The calculator will make two assumptions; that you bought everything on sale and that you bought nothing on sale. It will give you a low and high value with the idea that what you actually spent is somewhere in between.
Thanks to omnilynx at Steam Deals I have historic sale pricing from the Christmas Sale which will give a good baseline to start from. Thanks omnilynx!
Gamers With Jobs has an article up this morning about the pathological need to buy games simply because they're on sale on Steam rather than an actual desire to play them.
These deals and insane publisher game packs have turned selective game buyers into sudden onset collectors. It’s not enough for Deus Ex to be snug in a jewel case and shoved into a basement closet somewhere; it needs to be on THE LIST. The ‘My Games’ tab on Steam isn’t just a launch pad for your game library -- it’s a gaping maw, a whisper in your head that there’s comfort to be found in THE LIST. The bigger THE LIST, the happier you’ll be.
I'm not only susceptible to this pattern myself but I'll actually feel a need to buy games even when they aren't on sale. As soon as something from that past that used to be in my physical collection shows up on Steam I'll grab it right away. I can justify it to myself as saying is much more convenient to have it on Steam - no disc to insert, no install process to go through, just a quick download (I live in a city with a Steam content server) and I'm good to go.
What other readers of this site suffer from this problem?
If you're in need of a new MMO fix, you might as well try Pirates of the Burning Sea for $5. I've still got my 'Support Piracy' t-shirt from Pax for Pirates... maybe I should give it a try again.
Pirates of the Burning Sea from Sony Online Entertainment is available for 75% off until December 11th!
Pirates of the Burning Sea is an MMORPG featuring high-seas action and adventure in a bold world of pirates and plunder. Set against the backdrop of the New World of the 18th century, players can choose one of three nations - England, France or Spain - or choose the role of a Pirate and battle it out for glory and power.