I'm waiting to buy some hot paradox strategy games, aka Victoria II and hearts of iron III for cheap. I am also hoping for a deal on pandemic evolved or whatever it is called. Maybe a deal on far cry if I'm real lucky. The first day had been poor for me but still a lot of good deals

I was thinking about getting 'Always Sometimes Monsters' after hearing about it. Its £3.50 right now. Not sure if its worth that....? It's allot like cart life where its not a "fun" game to play, right?

I have a ton of stuff on my wishlist so... anything that goes under 50% is a buy. That's basically what I usually do (waiting for things to be 75% off is often ridiculous as most things never do that anymore).

The main thing I want to go on sale is the Dark Souls 2 DLC. Weirdly it hasn't yet. That's weird because the game itself is like 75% off right now or something, and they don't seem to shy about putting Dark Souls on sale (they do it all the time). I am sure the DLC will go on sale eventually.

@thethingaboutmachines: I got that game for free from the developer after making a comment about it when I saw it on UPF one time.

I like profound, deep, and even dark stories. I did not feel that game really hit the nail with any of that, though. It felt really tedious and dull to play, to me.

It's mostly an adventure game with life sim elements (have to eat, drink, find a job, etc.).

The idea behind the game is basically to understand the world from someone else's perspective, but the writing falls flat and the characters are not very interesting. In fact I didn't really like the girl character I played at all (there are actually several characters you could end up playing), and I didn't really ever connect with anything she was doing. There are other things, but if you do want to play it I don't want to spoil it.

I just don't think it was a very good game. That's just my experience with it, though.

I'd like to remind people that last year just about everything that was on sale and also available on humble was also on sale there for the same price. So you could be getting the same deals but with some money going to charity. The daily deals were usually the same as well, except on different days, with stuff being a humble daily deal one day and a steam daily the next and vice versa.

Lots of the sales also had price parity on PSN too, if console gaming is your thing.

I'm not sure you are approaching this with the best strategy. If a game is already on sale and will be on sale until January 2nd at say 40-50% off, chances are very high that it will be on special for 75-85% off at some point during the sale as part of a Daily Deal or Community Choice. If not, then get it on the last day and you have lost nothing. If you jump the gun on all these games you could be costing yourself a lot of money for no reason.

If you want to waste money or must have a game right now then by all means, but there is a method to getting the best value out of these events. Also I'm not sure why you would say "most things never do that anymore" because it happens all the time, especially during the Summer and Holiday sales. Just look at the games that are 75% off or more right now, and it's only the first day.

PSA: if you are wondering why SteamWebHelper.exe has started taking 5-10%CPU even when minimized and hidden, I think its the holiday animation on the front page!!!

If I navigate away, CPU drops to nothing. Only posting this in case there are duders sailing close to the wind with their CPU's and need every cycle they can get. :(

@mb: Ya, I know the 75% method. I did it for years.

Last year maybe 1 game on my wish list ever went down to 75%. It was 100% pointless to wait.

So, I am not wasting money. I am spending money wisely. I don't think buying most games under 5$ is wasting money, haha. The games i bought today were all around 60% to 75% off, so I know.

And I am speaking of things on the daily/community deals or whatever. Some games just don't go down to 75%. Being on there doesn't mean they will. Obviously I don't mean all games, but at this point I can tell what the lowest a game will go is. Most, meaning a majority of games I want, will not go as low as 75%. They just don't, historically speaking.

If they don't get to at least 50% during the sale, I don't buy it. Make sense now?

How is waiting until the last day of the sale to potentially save more pointless if even one of your wish list games drops down to 75% off or more? You have lost nothing, saved money, and all it cost you was a little bit of patience.

It's fucking bitchin'. Too bad you missed the -50% from yesterday, I grabbed it then and I do not regret a thing, it's awesome.

If the Marlow Briggs quick look sold any of you on the idea of that game, it is a dollar, a dollar. Marlowhyhellowthere.

Also I have No Mouth And I Must Scream is basically a buck as well. I have no mouth and I must link.

@super2j: the port is great, you'll be able to run it just fine with settings on low or even medium, but I gotta say even at lowest settings game still looks beautiful.

running it perfect with everything on ultra high at 1080 with an old gtx 680, drops to 50-54 sometimes but mostly solid 60, and if I take some settings a notch down (like screen filtering) it stays at 60 throughout.

My only gripe is that they grouped bloom, DOF and FXAA on this one setting, screen filtering, and I wish I could disable DOF because it looks like shit sometimes.

@mb: I'm saying I know how low games will go and I know how to tell, and I don't have to wait until the last day to be able to tell.

I feel like you've had a problem with my system before. I think you get angry at me about it every year haha

Wait...how can you tell for sure if a game is going to be a daily deal or not? Or be a part of a Community Choice?

@mb: I just know. I don't know. I haven't been wrong yet (hyperbole, I have been wrong once or twice), and when I'm not sure I usually wait.

Maybe I'm just that in touch with what everybody else wants. I don't know.

As for daily deals, there are certain publishers that will go to a certain price point and others that won't. The ones that won't usually don't end up on there, indie games always end up on there, and Activision only recently started showing up on there so they're still a wild card for me (Shit, Singularity just showed up on there for the first time last year and it was only 50%- that game came out 4 years ago haha). You can usually tell by looking at the daily deals through out the year. The same stuff, and some new stuff by those developers/publishers, will show up there every time. A large percentage of that will always be indie games. If a new game (this year) shows up there it's always no lower than 50% unless it sold very poorly and even still that depends on the publisher as some publishers won't lower the price of a game that sold poorly for a really long time- although that seems to be changing now that they're starting to get in tune with Digital Distribution markets.

Tomorrows community choice is going to be Neverending Nightmare. That's my prediction. I'm still not sure if I even want that yet. This year I have to also think about games that I will actually play and not find reasons to not play. I do want to play that game, though. Hmm, ya I don't know. I might get it.

@l1ghtn1n: Thanks for the reply. I'm interested because I really like Cart Life and Papers Please. Both games were well made. For a game like this, it hinges on either the writing or if the message they are trying to make comes across well. Papers Please didn't really have much writing, but I got the point. It sounds like this game doesn't have either, which is a shame. On the plus side, the title is pretty dam cool.

Hoping to get good deals on The Talos Principle, Far Cry 4, and Dark Souls II DLC.

Bought the Dungeon Siege complete set for $5. I'm wanting Shovel Knight and Valkriya Chronicles to go on sale. I'll be watching out for them.

I've been waiting for dark souls 2 to drop but now that they've announced the delux edition I'm hesitant to make the purchase.

Just spent $5.99 for Metal Gear Rising Revengence. Was set on not buying anything this time around but since i sold my ps3 recently and wanted a good action game so i re-bought it.

@zolroyce: Thanks for reminding me of Marlow Briggs. That's a buy for me.

Do a bunch of things ever go on sale in the Dota 2 shop for the holiday sale? Or is that a negative, because Dota 2 gotta get that papah?

I bought Omerta for 5 bucks, it'll make a great gift for a friend of mine.
Anyone think Starbound will go on sale?

Thanks for the advice everyone! I can't deny the good words from my fellow duders. I am definitely picking this up with your recommendations. Will try to hold out for a flash sale :)

Paradox stuff for me too. I already have all the games, so I'm just waiting for the DLC I'm missing to go on sale. I'm a total sucker for Paradox DLC...

I really want the dlc for shadow of mordor but even at 25% off it seems still high

@cirdain: I have news. It drove me crazy to not be able to play a metal gear. And previous experiences with Metal gear revengeance and Dark souls 2 told me not to trust the crazy high minimum requirements of a Japanese dev. So... I had to find out. And the results were SO SMOOTH! I was pissed and super happy. I expected to have to tweak to get the performance but everything set to high and medium at 768p ran like a dream. That fox engine is really amazing, I imagine I could connect it to my display and push it higher. How could they do this? Messing up low requirements means the loss of potential buyers. If I didn't literally go out of my way to make sure it ran ok... I would have never bought it. Haha, luckily I made sure to take advantage of the greenmangaming deal, so aside from the whole requirements thing, I couldn't be more pleased!

Edit: Just for other people out there: I am running on a laptop with i5-2430m, nvidia GT540m, on 64bit windows 7. I didn't spend too much time in game but I ran in through a gate, and ran around in alert phase, fired a number of shots and had the first watchtower collapse while I was in it. I could not perceive any blatant changes in framerate or performance. If you like, I can clarify after I spend more time in game. The settings it ran on are in the image below.

Picked up Dark Souls. Doesn't detect my controller. Too lazy to look up a fix. Picked up Flight Sim X and MGS: Revengence. Good first day.

Haven't got a thing yet, trying to be patient.

I'd like to get Dark Souls 2 but I I really want the DLC and that's not one sale. So I'll wait for the Sins of the Scholar Edition.

Number targets for me are Mordor, DreamFall, Wasteland 2 and Lords of the Fallen

Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition? If so try this

If you are using Windows

1. Go into Control Panel - >Devices & Printers - >Device Manager - > Human Interface Devices
2. Look for HID-compliant Game controller, right click, select "disable"
3. Launch Dark Souls

I have no idea why, but it worked for me and seems to work for a lot of folks.

I picked up both Puzzle Agent games for like $3. Heard they are pretty good and have a good sense of humor.

First is amazing, second jumps the shark halfway through. It could have been an awesome series, but they cocked it up.

In any case, if you're psyched about the art style (as I was), check out Graham Annable on Youtube. He did a bunch of animations before directing Puzzle Agent.

@thethingaboutmachines said:

Think of Always Sometimes Monsters as a 16 bit RPG with no combat whatsoever, story branches, and a modern setting. I think it's good.

You can currently get Thief (as in the new one) for 94% off from Game UK. http://www.game.co.uk/en/thief-master-thief-edition-288957

I have paid using Paypal from Australia and they have sent me an email confirming that they have received my payment. Now just waiting for them to send me the code. I will update this once I have that and can confirm that it does authenticate correctly on Steam.

Edit: Still have not received the code and it's looking like I wont be. Mixed bag on Reddit, some have got it no worries, others like me with no code. Apparently this has happened before with Game UK. Bugger.

@super2j: Holy fuck!

Go tell the guys at

http://www.giantbomb.com/metal-gear-solid-v-ground-zeroes/3030-39575/forums/impressive-pc-port-1503371/

edit: I did...

Hey guys, sorry if this is a silly question - never bought from Steam before (console gamer)

Do collections/bundles of games go on the daily/'flash' sales or just individual games?

I'm really tempted to get the Sherlock Holmes Collection which is 50% off atm, just wondering if its likely to drop in price further in this sale

@discomposure: It varies. They'll rarely feature a collection/bundle on the front page, but usually if they feature a newer game (for example, Saints Row 4), the discount on it will apply on all the older games in the series (individual Saints Row 2 and 3 will probably have the same discount, and so will a Saints Row bundle).

For example, right now, Dead Space 2 is featured on the front page as 75% off, but Dead Space 1 and a Dead Space bundle (games 1 and 2) are also 75% off.

-Picked up Lords of the Fallen, Metal Gear Rising and, Don't Starve yesterday.

-I'm hoping that Kentucky Route Zero, Wolf Among Us, and Sniper Elite 3 get a slightly better discount then I'll pick those up.

-I will more than likely give in and go ahead and pick up Broken Age, Age of Mythology Enhanced, and Mark of the Ninja.

I've been watching that one for months, 50% off is the lowest I've ever seen it go.

btw if you aren't already I recommend using Enhanced Steam extension for Chrome (hat tip @fattony12000 who I saw champion it a good while back), it pulls in price history data from Isthereanydeal.com. Which helps you piece of mind you are getting a good price.

Today's new deals are up!

• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel - 50% off
• Assassin’s Creed Unity - 33% off
• Batman: Arkham Origins - 75% off
• Fable Anniversary - 50% off
• Ryse: Son of Rome - 50% off
• Depth - 40% off
• Killing Floor - 75% off
• Castle Crashers - 90% off
• Valkyria Chronicles - 25% off

So far there have been some really good deals. It's a shame I already own most of it haha. Anyway, during the summer sale, I remember people keeping track of the stuff they bought and at what prices, so I guess I'll do that again. It was pretty interesting to see the savings.

Good luck everyone, and try not to spend too much money!

Is the Arkham Origins DLC any good? Oddly there is no GotY edition (which I thought Warner released regardless of whether the game wins any GotY awards or not, since how many people seriously gave Arkham City GotY?), so I'm weighing whether any of the DLC is worth getting. The only major DLC seems to be a Mr. Freeze bonus mini-campaign or something? The rest sounds like dumb skins, or combat arenas, or multiplayer stuff.

@fredchuckdave:

Yeah I have a PS3 hooked up to small TV in bedroom try to avoid using it... all about Xbox One and PC these days but none the less will take a look next time I'm at EB cheers.

I find it funny that Ryse is already 50% off...says alot of that game!

Edit: If you missed yesterday sales they are still available for another day!

Also AC: Black Flag is at 75% off, don't know why it's not on the front page.

@onarum: That's because Unity is on the front page and it's a newer game. Whenever a game in a franchise is featured most (if not all) of the other entries get a bit cheaper.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut

£12.99

-80% £2.59

ahhhhhhhh I might!!!

Edit: I did.

Bundles and prequels to games do go on 'flash' and 'daily' sales BUT it is only the most recent game that gets featured on the front page.

In your case, I see the Sherlock Holmes Collection has blue writing underneath that says "Holiday Sale offer ends 2 January" - this is not a daily or flash deal... so there is a chance that it could go lower during the sale, so if you can, I recommend you hold off for a bit.

Welcome to PC gaming and enjoy your stay.

Will Valkyria Chronicles go lower I wonder?

I doubt Dark Souls II will go lower, but there is the whole new version to consider. Hopefully it will come back at the lowest price the last day of the sale?

Monaco is 91% off right now, that is crazy. Everyone should have that game.

Thinkin about jumping in on Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. I loved Borderlands 2, but never got around to finishing all the DLC. Not sure I will to be honest, except maybe that Tiny Tina one because people've talked it up so much (and it looks pretty funny).

I was worried about classes, but it looks like Pre-Sequel took my playstyle (melee Zer0 with Jakobs revolver) and split it into two different characters, so that's exciting.

Defcon for $0.99 if anyone is interested. http://store.steampowered.com/app/1520/