There is a farmer's market close to where I live at which I can fill up a cart of fruit and vegetables and always be shocked to be able to pay for it all with the change I have under the mats of my car. I mean, $3 for this crate of blueberries, how are you making money!? There is an incredible sense of pride when you get a great deal on something. I love telling people that I bought my TV for 25 bucks on craigslist.In that spirit, I was pleased to see that when I woke the, now annual, Steam Summer Sale had begun. Before I knew it, my credit card had leapt into my left hand as my right hand furiously ten-keyed the numbers into my first purchase(s). I know I finished the main story of Oblivion years ago, but $8.50 for the Game of the Year Edition Deluxe... DELUXE! I would be ripped off not to buy it.
I can't wait to get around to playing it sometime in late 2013 and someone interrupt a conversation with a stony faced NPC to say, "Oblivion huh?" "Yes," I will reply, "and guess how much I got it for?"
While the feeling that these deals are just too good to pass up is at the forefront of my gaming consumer heart, the stupid logically part of my brain is whispering, "You know you won't play these games; you're backlog is already deeper than the hole to hell you dug in Terraria (NOW ONLY $7.49)."
In addition to Steam having deals that are making my bank account shed numbers like a Badass being shot w/ an assault rifle in Borderlands (Game of the Year Edition now only $7.50), Steam is also continuing their quest for prizes system that they introduced in the Great Steam Treasure Hunt of 2010. Each day of the sale is highlighted by certain games at discounted discounts discounting discounts, some of which have special achievements that can be done for tickets which are subsequently spent in a prize shop full of little pieces of DLC and knickknacks. Confused? See the full rundown by those who created it here.
The genius of the achievement for prizes for me is that it gets me to play games that have been sitting on their virtual shelf collecting online dust (which I imagine is a combination of rejected reddit posts and pornography). The Treasure Hunt got me to finally install Zombie Driver and Just Cause 2, both of which it turns out, are pretty amazing games.
Today Steam will have me playing:
Bit.Trip.Beat ($2.50) to get a perfect score in 1-1 (probably somewhere near impossible)
Lead and Gold ($1.50) to try to headshot 7 poor westerners without kicking the bucket. That sounds like I will be buying a friend a copy of that fantastically under-appreciated online multiplayer hoedown, in exchange for a favor.
Toki Tori ($1.24) to stand in all the sun beams. I don't know what that means, but I can't wait to finally have a reason to install Toki Tori and find out.
Swords and Soldiers High Definition ($3.40) to complete the Viking Campaign level 3 by killing all units.
There is a lot of gaming to be done, so until tomorrow, wish me luck.
