I'll be honest: since I've gotten a better grasp on what games I want to play, I haven't asked about game purchasing advice in years.

That aside, I've found a lot of the games listed in this sale met some initial interest I had for games in general. Most of the games I either already have or I have no interest in whatsoever. These are the games that caught my eye:

• Sleeping Dogs ($4.99) - Because Vinny made such a strong case for it last year, I need to play it for myself to see what he saw in it
  • None of the DLC is included with this version; however, I didn't see that any of the DLC brought anything interesting to the table
• Alice: Madness Returns ($4.99) - I'm interested in seeing a different perspective on the world of Wonderland
  • I like me some tight 3D platforming, but I may never touch this game again after I beat it
• Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines ($4.99) - Every time I read about this, people say it's an amazing game
  • I honestly have no interest in playing this game outside of using mods and for 'academic value'
• Fallout: Las Vegas: Ultimate Edition ($4.99) - It includes all the DLC for the initial game
  • Much like Fallout 3 before it (and Skyrim after), it looks like the game may be filled to the brim with fetch quests, similar looking dungeons to crawl through, and busted AI that may make the game worth it for the first 3-4 hours
• I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream ($2.49) - It's somehow become part of some zeitgeist, and since it's cheap I wanted to check it out
  • I honestly hate old point-and-click adventure games, as they require you to pixel hunt for most things to interact with. The puzzles usually take the acceptance that most PaC game makers don't know how logic works in their own world (i.e. why do I have to combine a ruler and a string to make a fishing rod and use it to make a fan work?)
• Condemned: Criminal Origins ($3.74) - I wanted to see what all the fuss was about with this game.
  • I honestly don't have any idea as to what this game may truly be outside of jump scares and a good FPS combat system
• Overlord: Complete Pack ($4.99) - I heard the games were like Pikmin but playing the "bad guy." It includes the entire franchise, for what it's worth
  • I honestly don't know if these games are any good outside of making Pikmin-like goblins destroy things for you

As you can see, the main issue I have in front of me is (for the most part) I don't know if these games are as good as they are claimed to be.

Right now, I'm leaning towards Sleeping Dogs for its combat system. However, I just got finished playing Arkham City, finding that experience, though enjoyable, quite draining. I look forward to everyone's viewpoints on the games I've presented here, as these viewpoints are what will truly sell the game for me.

Out of those choices Id go with sleeping dogs. Looks utterly fantastic on pc, has great combat and a good story. Voice acting is top notch as well. Overall just a great game

Condemned is interesting in how it does first-person melee combat and is genuinely tense a lot of the time since the enemy AI was pretty well done for its time and (sometimes) picks pretty good hiding spots/ambush points. I suggest that one.

I'd say Sleeping Dogs it's incredibly fun and for $4.99 it's definitely worth it.

The only two I've played are Alice and New Vegas. Both of which I enjoyed.

New Vegas was definitely a buggy game, but I still enjoyed it more than both Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Despite its problems I found the world and characters a lot more entertaining than those two games. But if you really dislike F3 and Skyrim I'd probably stay away.

Alice is just a pretty solid game all around IMO. Not amazing in any particular way, but the platforming, combat, story and graphics are all good enough to be worth a playthrough. $5 is a steal.

Typing of the Dead is your one and only choice, don't deny it!

On a slightly more serious note, Sleeping Dogs is totally a great choice, and if you don't enjoy point and click adventure games, I'm not sure i can completely recommend I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. I enjoy point and clicks, to an extent, but it's more the stories told through and about the five characters that are the interesting parts. An interesting game to say the least, with a dark story to tell.

I picked up the recently released into Beta game Nether, and haven't booted it up yet due to launch day server problems, from the looks of it, it has some promise. It being at 27 bones (30 bones normally), i wouldn't go for it just yet.

If you haven't played the Penumbra games yet, the collector pack is on sale for 2.49, those are pretty great.

Condemned is Incredible.

Home is less than a dollar, and is pretty rad.

Let me be the one to recommend Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. It is fucking great if you enjoy games like Deus Ex. Just keep in mind that it is probably one of the most janky games ever too (get a fanpatch). Beware that the last fifth or so of the game is not really good, but everything before that is gold. I'm not even saying this out of nostalgia, I played it around a year ago.

@zeik: I actually feel like Alice is the opposite of a "solid game all around". It's a game of highs and lows. I think it's absolutely worth it at $5, but I would've been grossly disappointed if I paid $40 or $50 for the game when it came out.

The graphics are totally gorgeous, and the level designs are really neat and imaginative. The combat feels pretty good and is engaging, though ultimately it's your standard "x for light attack, y for heavy attack, other buttons for ranged attack" you've seen in many other games.

On the down side, the levels are extraordinarily long, and keep going long after they've shown you all the new enemies in that level and any new tricks the level itself may have. And those tricks are few and far between, because the platforming is pretty standard stuff, and the only real variation is "shoot a switch that opens a door, then run to said door before timer runs out" or "drop a bomb to weigh down a floor switch that opens a door, then run to said door before timer on bomb runs out". It feels like the game could've had like 9-12 levels that were each half as long, but they only had concept ideas for something like 6 levels, so the end result is that the game has like 6 incredibly long and unfortunately monotonous levels. Also, it's fairly obvious that each level was meant to lead up to a boss fight, but it seems the boss fights were cut for time/money reasons, so instead each level just ends anticlimactically with a cutscene where you either talk to the would-be boss and they hint at some shit, or in the case of the first couple levels, there's a cutscene where some random shit happens to the boss and then you're like "Well, that takes care of that, I guess". It's weird that the only boss in the game is the final boss.

The story is somewhere in the middle. The writing and voice acting are decent, but there just aren't that many story moments to begin with between the hours and hours of samey platforming, and the plot really doesn't advance at all until the final level. The ending was kinda neat, though.

@bisonhero: I hesitated using that wording, because I didn't want to imply it was all great, but I also didn't feel like there were any significant lows either. Even at it's worst I thought it was still decent. Well, except maybe those mini-games you had to do in one of the later levels. Those kind of sucked. I don't remember ever thinking the levels were excessively long though.

I picked up near when it came out for like $40 or so and I was satisfied with what I got, and that was after buying it on a total whim. (I had literally zero interest in it until like a couple days before it came out.)

I thought Sleeping Dogs was awesome as hell when I paid full price for it. It's almost a no-brainer at $5, even in the company you listed.

try getting these one i've played it its great. however, the others i haven't try those atm. :D

• Fallout: Las Vegas: Ultimate Edition ($4.99) - It includes all the DLC for the initial game
  • Much like Fallout 3 before it (and Skyrim after), it looks like the game may be filled to the brim with fetch quests, similar looking dungeons to crawl through, and busted AI that may make the game worth it for the first 3-4 hours

slepping dogs hands down. where's my poll option?!? haha

i too went for it after watching the numerous Vinny vids. Such a great game in so many ways. i beat it months ago but i have saved the spooky dlc for today!

Where is the poll??!

IF you're looking for plain dollars-to-gameplay then Sleeping Dogs is the way to go.

I've never played the original Condemned but I really liked Condemned 2.

Well, I picked up Vampire: the Masquerade and have really enjoyed it, I dunno how far I am into it, but whoever mentioned Deus Ex was right. Great writing so far, as well. Using a fan patch. Full disclosure: I am a huge White Wolf fan, though with no lost love for either Vampire line.

I Highly recommend the Penumbra series, it's Amnesia's little brother, much better too imo.

Overture is great if you like spooky mines and spiders/dogs.
Black Plague is great if you like guys with clearly visible penis' running after you.
Requiem is great if you hate the above, it's only puzzles that were cut from the first 2 games, no enemies(more importantly no spiders)


Penis monster, 2spooky

Condemned: Criminal Origins most definitely, but i must say Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is a great game bought it years ago but did not get to finish so i bought it again. it like twin peaks with vampires

If you love the Fallout/Elder Scrolls Bathesda games as much as I did, I would definitely say go for New Vegas. Other than that, Sleeping Dogs was a great game as well.

Sleepy Dogs or condemned. Both were good in my book.

@randomhero666: Is Black Plague spider-free? I loved Overture but the idea of facing more god damn spiders put me off ever launching into Black Plague.

From the list I would recommend Sleeping Dogs. Absolutely brilliant game and dirt cheap. Alice: Madness Returns is a decent enough game, especially at that price, but a dark and twisted take of Wonderland isn't exactly a "different perspective". I remember Condemned being really tense, but I never completed it thanks to a certain shop mannequin sequence.

I would say thing twice before buying anything on the halloween sale. Except when you are sure you are going to finish them before christmas. Because when the end of the year sale starts you can be sure that all of these games will be on sale again and maybe even cheaper. Still I guess that is true for every sale. I still have unplayed games that I bought on a sale two years ago..

Got-Damn

I know what I'm doing when I get home.

Of the list, my first recommendation would easily be New Vegas, but as that doesn't really seem like your thing, I'd go Sleeping Dogs. It's a fantastic game.

Of the games listed, Vampire is the most unlike something you can easily get elsewhere. That game has some great stuff in it. Great sense of player agency. And then the actual missions are a total bummer and suck and I will never play it again.

@creepingdeath0: I haven't actually finished it yet,a few hours in and haven't spotted any spiders yet, so that's good. Overture sucked, as if the dogs weren't terrifying enough.. those spiders...

Sleeping Dogs, Fallout: New Vegas, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodline, and Condemned: Criminal Origins are all pretty good games and worth at least trying out if they're on sale and you've got the money to spare.

VtM:B gets to a point where it kind of drags when it starts to become more combat heavy which I never felt was very fun or good, and the highpoint of the game happens pretty early in the game I thought. It was still something I thought was fun though and played through a few times.

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is an interesting but kind of bad game. Probably just read the short story (similar themes to the story but not the exact same thing, also less puzzles) that it was based on unless you're willing to put up with a lot of 90's adventure game bullshit and just follow a guide while you're playing if you want to avoid getting the worst ending. I guess for only 2.50 that's not a terrible deal but it's something that you could just watch a playthrough of and get the exact same entertainment out of it.

Typing of the Dead: Overkill.

Brothers. There won't be 10 more games released this year that will be better than it (at $7.50).

Vampire is just so good once you get it going. Since you're not super interested in it outside of quashing curiosity, I recommend playing as a Malkavian if you get it. It's normally a "second playthrough" class, but every player should see the Malk stuff at least once.

Condemned isn't about jump scares so much. It does have a few, but it earns them with great atmosphere.

The combat does not hold up great for the entire game, so it's probably not worth playing specifically for that. But it is fun.

Alice: Madness Returns

I picked up Penumbra and Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines

I think I've done something terrible: I just found out Dead Space and Dead Space 2 are on sale for $4.99 on Steam each.

Luckily, I've decided to just get Sleeping Dogs and skip Condemned; I already have Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Steam) and The Penumbra Collection (GOG), so I'm good for horror games. As for Fallout, I honestly fear I'll just get sucked into that world (in the bad way), so I'm skipping on that one indefinitely. Note that I have not purchased Sleeping Dogs. However, I'm willing to spend up to $10 for this sale.

For my other game, I'm split between Dead Space 1/2 and Vampire the Masquerade. This may be the last post before I just go and purchase Sleeping Dogs and one of these games. For those who've played at least one of these games, I'd like to know your favorite moments of each game and compare them with one another. The thing that got me to buy Arkham City over Asylumn, for example, was the talk about Catwoman's choice in a previous episode of Idle Thumbs. It was so interesting, I had to see it for myself. I want to see if something as interesting occurs in either Dead Space or Vampire the Masquerade.

P.S. I bought I Have No Mouth in the Big Brother bundle (currently going on) for $1 at Vodo.