The best videogame sale of the year just started – the annual Steam Powered Christmas Sale. Even Black Friday, that post-Thanksgiving day where bloated Americans, bellies stretched and ripped, pore obsessively through retail shelves and websites devouring with their colored and striped plastic utensils, fails to offer videogame-related deals of this magnitude. And that’s considering all stores. Steam’s just one. It doesn’t have a street address, force limited installations of offered products, or eventually forget about consumer purchases unless slipped a fiver. It’s an exemplary digital distribution service, and now, for a limited time, offers staggering discounts on titles new and old across multiple genres. As a reminder, if you’re not one of the millions of financially strapped individuals, the world’s still drowning in a recession. When this sale ends on January 3, I predict we’ll all be in tears, myself included. Foregoing the luxury of food’s going to be rough…
Others might find staving off the cold, biting winds of consumerism a little more difficult than me. I’ve played many of the most recent released titles before, and I don’t often repurchase games on multiple platforms or pick them up on Steam “just to add them to my list.” I prefer the path not yet traveled. The titles I’m buying I either overlooked years ago, didn’t know about, or didn’t possess the platform on which they appeared (PC). But oh do I still feel that wind nip at my nose, and I think I like it.
Let’s embrace that chill and take a look at 20 of my top picks currently on sale as of Wednesday, December 23.
Braid
$9.99 $2.49
Designer Jonathan Blow’s masterpiece, and my personal favorite title of 2008. For three years, and using his own money, Blow carefully designed, developed, and tweaked Braid to represent his vision, and not some bottom-line pushing publisher’s. He even fought with the Xbox certification department, eventually convincing the otherwise never-compromising group to allow the circumvention of a traditional menu screen upon first play. The end result is a beautiful game impeccably rife with detail – where every object, sound, word, and piece of artwork reflects Blow’s own passionate dedication to quality.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
$19.99 $1.99
(at this price only until Thursday morning)
Americans don’t make games like this. Neither do the Japanese. GSC Game World’s first-person shooter set in the outskirts of Chernobyl, Ukraine features common shooter mechanics, and even a Diablo-style inventory management system, but operates like a beast all its own – often taunting players expecting a traditional experience. Winding corridors and murky terrain littered with powerful enemies rarely yield difficulty-related rewards. “That’s bad game design,” a traditional designer might say. “But that’s not how the environment exists in real life,” GSC might defensively respond. In their strive for realism, the team built S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s world as realistically as possible and populated it with their own creations – both mutant and human.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
$9.99 $4.99
Developed after Shadow of Chernobyl, this prequel distinguishes itself by taking most of what made the original title so unique (the eerie atmosphere, real map design, and a lack of modern-day handholding game design) and placing a slight focus on gunplay and combat. The change shouldn’t startle even the most diehard S.T.A.L.K.E.R. purists, but rather broaden the palatte established by its predecessor.
Action Indie Pack
$24.99-$20.00 = $4.99
Four titles for only five bucks – the Indie Action Pack features two top-down shooters, a penguin-themed arena title, and an old-school first-person tank shooter ripped from unseen cut Tron film. The quality’s spotty, but the price is reasonable. Besides, do you need that Tri-mocha strawberry-flavored heart-stopper EVERY day?
Puzzle Indie Pack
$14.99 – $12.00 = $2.99
Four titles for only $3. Buy the pack and support independent development or live a life of a big publisher-supporting tool.
Witcher Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut
$39.99 $13.59
I’ve written extensively about The Witcher before. Click HERE for more information. Everyone else, it’s a high-quality third-person RPG that capably competes with Bioware’s latest.
Indigo Prophecy (a.k.a. Fahrenheit)
$9.99 $3.39
Excited for Heavy Rain‘s imminent release? Give Indigo Prophecy a try. The last-generation graphics might burn your eyes, the absurdity of the third act could send you into a coma, and Theory of a Deadman’s (thankfully) sparse audio contribution will inevitably reduce your IQ by 13 points, but playing as both the killer and detective offers unique storytelling devices only available in this medium, and the presentation’s part comic noir set in a (mostly) day-lit New York hit by a record-setting blizzard. The American version’s censored, but still worth your eight to ten hours.
Painkiller: Black Edition
$9.99 $4.99
The first-person shooter genre used to live by the “shoot first and ask questions never” motto before implementing elements like “plot” and “storytelling.” Once thought lost forever, Painkiller proved games can follow that basic design and still kick a whole lot of hiney. Here, I’ll turn it over to Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation. He can explain Painkiller’s brilliance much more eloquently through video.
Osmos
$9.99 $4.99
Like the Witcher, I previously wrote extensively about Osmos. Click HERE to check out the article. Everyone else, it’s a relaxing puzzle title more than deserving of its full price. Pass it up for the sale price and you’re not someone I’d like.
World of Goo
$19.99 $4.99
An essential part of every console or PC gamer’s library. World of Goo’s an ingenious puzzle title tasking players with fulfilling particular objectives, usually to reach an end pipe as efficiently as possible, by manipulating balls of goo and building bridge-like structures. The game could sell solely on the responsive and malleable gameplay, but the art and audio catapult this indie title into your long-term memory. I’d call it Burton and Elfman-esque (Danny, not Jenna), but both would feel envious of this two-man accomplishment.
Audiosurf
$9.99 $2.50
The foundation on which Rock Band and Guitar Hero were built appear dated and elementary when set beside Audiosurf. The formers feature levels with note placement pre-determined by the respective development houses for songs released at a pre-determined time. Audiosurf procedurally generates its levels on-the-fly and allows users to upload whatever audio files they want. Even more, the game isn’t designed to give non-musicians a pat on the back for plastic instrument mastery, but provide multiple ways to interact with audio in a puzzle game setting. The game’s an essential component of any audiophile’s library, and anyone else should at least give the title a try.
Machinarium
$19.99 $9.99
Once thought dead and long-gone, the point-and-click adventure genre received massive amounts of publicity in the last year due to the return of Monkey Island and Sam and Max, but the unsung heroes like Machinarium walk softly but…you know. As an independent title, the game doesn’t receive the marketing push of its genre brothers, but the quality’s just as high. This robot title’s built upon traditional mechanics and flavored with subtle steampunk aesthetics. If you’re feeling particularly giving, head to the developer’s site and beat out the middleman. You’ll be rewarded with their previous title, Samorost 2, the soundtracks to the titles, and a plethora of original artwork for the same price.
Crayon Physics Deluxe
$19.99 $9.99
Sometimes all you need to know about a game is expressed in its title. In Crayon Physics, users must use crayons to draw objects in a physics-based environment in order to solve puzzles. The quiet and reserved visuals remind us of simpler times when “naps” represented an integral part of the learning process and the audio will try its best to quell any anger that may arise from encountering a particularly difficult puzzle. To no surprise, the title won 2008′s independent game festival Seumus McNally Grand Prize and $30,000.
Eidos Collector Pack
$99.99-$50.00 = $49.99
For $50, people who purchase this monstrous pack receive both Battlestations Pacific and Midway, both Deus Ex titles, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, Thief: Deadly Shadows, the two most recent original Tomb Raider games, and many more. If you don’t already own Arkham Asylum on the PC, this pack’s a no-brainer of a purchase.
Second Sight
$9.99 $4.99
Developer Free Radical Design might no longer exist as it once was (after tumultuous financial difficulties the Timesplitters devs were bought out by Crytek), but their titles remain. Second Sight debuted in 2005 to mediocre reviews, but critics raved about the storyline of this “psychological thriller” that gives players the ability to “psychically influence characters and remotely manipulate objects and individuals.” I somehow missed it in 2005, but I’m making double sure I don’t in late 2009.
Mirror’s Edge
$19.99 $4.99
I still keep the main menu music to Mirror’s Edge in my regular music rotation. The sparse and airy theme to the free-running title from EA encapsulates my favorite moments of the game – all of which involve precisely navigating rooftop jungles and their striking urban vistas and beautiful color palettes. Check out the video below to see what I mean.
Rome: Total War Gold
$9.99 $2.49
I’d rather not divulge how many hours I spent with Rome: Total War, but I’ll just admit I became lost in its world for months following one exploratory night. After trying the game out again, just for this article, I’m happy the old gal still holds up. But Total War titles aren’t for everyone. There’s dozens of hours of micro-management alone, and even still your formations and adept fighters could lose to overwhelming odds. That’s just how the system works. I definitely recommend picking this up if you have even the slightest hint of interest in the newest Total War title, Napoleon: Total War.
Medieval 2: Total War
$19.99 $4.99
Like Rome, but a little newer and set in a different time period.
Quantz
$9.99 $2.99
This 3D puzzle game sold for under $5 during the Black Friday sale and it’s sat in my regular game rotation since. Colored balls fall from the sky and land on a 3D block, which you can move in any direction, and players are tasked with putting four of the same color together in any fashion. That’s it. As with most good puzzle games, the developers flesh out the idea more with multiple modes and gameplay types, but the game’s still basically the same. The best part, for me, is starting a game and knowing I can shut it off in five or fifty minutes.
Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena
$19.99 $6.79
Much more action-packed than its predecessor, Escape from Butcher Bay, and shorter, too. Athena’s still an excellent first-person shooter/melee/stealth title, and absolutely displays developer Starbreeze’s ability to create an alluring, dark atmosphere and populate it with unique characters full of…uh…character (compare these people to those found in other games and hopefully you’ll see what I mean).
Ghostbusters: The Videogame
$19.99 $6.79
Buy it or cats and will live together (mass hysteria).
So…what did I miss?
EVIL GENIUS HELLO