Steam+ Deals Mega Thread (All PC Gaming Deals)

Neuro5i5

Neuro5i5

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This thread will attempt to provide a place to discuss past/present/future PC gaming deals. While mainly focusing on Steam games, any standout sales may also be presented. I will not be updating every Daily/Weekly/etc. sale. The tools to help individuals become a smarter shopper will be provided below.

See this POST for links to store sale pages, threads of interest and other tools to help you become a more informed PC game shopper.
 
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spoderman said:
Anything else that code works on? I've tried a bunch of things and can't find any.

EDIT: Nevermind, found out myself after doing some testing. Basically, that code probably was never meant to work on anything that's already discounted. It only works on non-XP offers and anything that's not on their voucher exclusion list. Problem is, there's tons of games with XP offers right now, so there are very few games it works with. The only other halfway decent deal I could find that it applies to is Kunitsu Gami (preorder).

If anyone wants either of those deals, best to act now because the code will likely be fixed to not apply to them.
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Also works on Dragon's Dogma 2 for those who don't own it. Drops the price to $40.45 for standard, $46.23 for Deluxe.
 
Steam told me they're "pretty reasonable and we look at refunds on a case by case basis, so people are welcome to reach out and see what their options are" but wouldn't answer my question directly about whether I can spend time trying to troubleshoot the game and then still get a refund if I went over 2 hours. I don't know if I should risk it.
 
I checked out LossLess Scaling (LLS) [Steam key and DRM-FREE downloads] for like $5.59 or so from Humble with my 20% off discount (and also LLS is on sale on Steam straight-up at $5.59 too).

I have all kinds of ELEX 2 problems without LLS. ELEX 2 in DX12 mode performs good (i.e. 45-60fps often at 1080p), but you can get all kinds of weird graphical issues that get in your way to even get into areas (i.e. like at The Grotto, big weird boulder gets in the way of the entrance for me in DX12 mode) - so, that's a "no go" b/c of that sadly. DX11 has no graphical problems, but performs like crap at times - i.e. 25-30 frames in certain areas, such as Grotto and some places in the open-world.

Enter LLS. This app can use all kinds of scaling techniques (NIS, AMD FSR, etc)., force Frame Generation techniques on your GPU basically (this will be key for performance - as you can possibly double-to-triple framerates with this), and/or can force its own pseudo-like fullscreen (similar to what BorderLess Gaming app does).

A few things: you need a good & modern GPU with a good amount of VRAM to run this right; a high-end monitor (i.e. you want something with 120hz or better - so you can lock via MSI Afterburner or GPU's Software Panel to half of the monitor's supported framerate such as 60fps); run the game in Windowed Mode or Borderless Fullscreen (this app just doesn't work at all in Exclusive Fullscreen), and you need to in-game stabilize the framerate first (i.e go find the right settings to get it stable - stabilize that and you'll be good). Unstable framerates can cause in-game artifacts (think like DLSS does) and other graphical weirdness (framerate dips, slow-downs in performance, looks like someone at times threw Vaseline all over the screen like what TAA can do when you're not using FXAA with it, etc.) - so...find some settings you can run smooth fps at, most of the time and you'll be fine w/ this.

Also, MSI AfterBurner really won't tell you your new framerate via FG (Frame Generation); MSI AB shows me the OG non-FG framerate there on its display. LLS does show the FG-based framerate in the upper-left corner in-game when you enable the Show FPS Thing in the app, showing the new proper framerate with FG going in-game with its overlay/display. So, this app basically solved a lot of my ELEX 2: DX11 version performance problems, pushing it from 25-30 fps over (before LSS) to 60fps most of the time by enabling Frame Gen on my RTX 3060m laptop PC. Seems like a win there, so far. Running mostly at 1080p at Medium on ELEX 2 on my 3060m laptop, BTW.

I'm gonna have to test this on other games and all - but this looks to be a major performance booster, when it works right. And supposedly with locked 30fps or 60fps games, you can use Frame Gen to basically force it into 60fps (even if the game itself was locked at 30fps) or 120fps (if it was say locked at 60fps) - so this also could be really useful for old games that specific force framerate locks like that.

And definitely look at this LLS stuff on Youtube, if you're interested in this stuff. So, check Daniel Owens video on this app and Ancient GamePlays on this, for starters.

More to come.
 
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Solid-Snake-Eyes said:
Some people are finding that enabling Bluetooth stopped forza horizon 4 from crashing. I didn't try this.
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So an update. I installed it on my Steam Deck and haven't had a crash yet. I did encounter an issue where the start up movies would play but no picture would show. I just let it run and it finally outputted video, so for anyone playing on the deck just do that to bypass it. I did have my bluetooth on by default so I'll play some more with it off and see if that has any affect.
 
Solid-Snake-Eyes said:
Steam told me they're "pretty reasonable and we look at refunds on a case by case basis, so people are welcome to reach out and see what their options are" but wouldn't answer my question directly about whether I can spend time trying to troubleshoot the game and then still get a refund if I went over 2 hours. I don't know if I should risk it.
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Frankly as long as it's not super abused anything under 2 hours is a pretty quick within 24 hrs refund. Anything over 2 hours you're likely to not get it unless it's broken, abandoned, or something like that. Just keep an eye on the time and use a timer or something and don't risk it over 2 hours. You're likely screwed if it's over 2 hours. I've been denied for being 12 minutes over 2 hours before and the game was pretty broken.
 
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nitrosmob said:
Frankly as long as it's not super abused anything under 2 hours is a pretty quick within 24 hrs refund. Anything over 2 hours you're likely to not get it unless it's broken, abandoned, or something like that. Just keep an eye on the time and use a timer or something and don't risk it over 2 hours. You're likely screwed if it's over 2 hours. I've been denied for being 12 minutes over 2 hours before and the game was pretty broken.
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That is disappointing, I feel this Steam rep was basically telling me I could go ahead and do it, without saying it straight out.
 
bill123 said:
So an update. I installed it on my Steam Deck and haven't had a crash yet. I did encounter an issue where the start up movies would play but no picture would show. I just let it run and it finally outputted video, so for anyone playing on the deck just do that to bypass it. I did have my bluetooth on by default so I'll play some more with it off and see if that has any affect.
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I had a similar experience with my Deck. Running in game has been pretty smooth though.
 
Someone on steam forums said they struggled but eventually got a refund on the game with 3 hours playtime. They're going to buy Horizon 5 instead. I was actually considering that. Only 50% off, though.
 
It seems fairly likely that if you had it running before you'll be able to get it running again but I understand not taking that risk with a decently large purchase. The Game Pass version probably isn't identical but you could try a trial there to mess around with and test. You've got the better part of six months before it gets delisted so you could always wait and see if there's patches or possibly even a bigger sale.
 
lomaxgnome said:
It seems fairly likely that if you had it running before you'll be able to get it running again but I understand not taking that risk with a decently large purchase. The Game Pass version probably isn't identical but you could try a trial there to mess around with and test. You've got the better part of six months before it gets delisted so you could always wait and see if there's patches or possibly even a bigger sale.
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The game pass version is technically superior since it supports impulse trigger feedback on the Xbox one/series controller. I think it actually performed better too vs. the steam version on launch.. but the steam version got patched up so it SHOULD perform the same as the MS store version now. The only thing the steam version is definitely missing is impulse trigger feedback.

I say all of this but still bought it on steam. I know if I ever want to play it on steam deck, buying it on steam is the way to go
 
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Solid-Snake-Eyes said:
That's fine with me. I wonder if the different version would just work. Too bad the Microsoft version isn't on sale. If it just worked I'd buy that version.
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Hopefully the Microsoft PC version will go on sale on the 15th with the xbox version. I'm going to install it tomorrow on my PC and run it in windows to see what it does. I think it running in steam OS is not giving me the same issues. What exactly was happening with yours? Was it just straight crashing at start up? Or would it run a bit then crash? Any errors?
 
bill123 said:
Hopefully the Microsoft PC version will go on sale on the 15th with the xbox version. I'm going to install it tomorrow on my PC and run it in windows to see what it does. I think it running in steam OS is not giving me the same issues. What exactly was happening with yours? Was it just straight crashing at start up? Or would it run a bit then crash? Any errors?
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So on startup I could enter the benchmark mode and it would run through the benchmark with no issues. But if I instead chose the "continue" button it would proceed to a black loading screen with a white loading circle and be displaying some of my stats at the bottom of the screen. It was always on this screen while the loading circle was animating that the game would just close, no messages or anything. There is an application crash log in windows event viewer, but it didn't seem to tell me anything, as far as I could tell.

I just subscribed to gamepass for 14 days. On sale on the 15th? Too bad my gamepass will be expired by then, maybe I could have gotten an extra 20% off.
 
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Well I just played the microsoft store version of Forza Horizon 4 for like 3 hours with no issues. The only thing I can think of that I changed between refunding the Steam version and trying this version was I did "gaming services repair tool" in the xbox app. I don't know if that's what made the difference.

FYI it seems that the delisted hotwheels cars are available to buy in game with the in-game credits in this version of the game, in the DLC cars section. There were 6 cars. Unless those are different Hotwheels cars? In the xbox app you can't buy it. I got the mitsubishi pack for free in the xbox app.

I did not notice any different vibration/rumble in this version vs the Steam version. I have the series controller that I use with the PC USB dongle.

I guess I'll be waiting for them to discount the microsoft version and then buy the ultimate edition from them.
 
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Solid-Snake-Eyes said:
Well I just played the microsoft store version of Forza Horizon 4 for like 3 hours with no issues. The only thing I can think of that I changed between refunding the Steam version and trying this version was I did "gaming services repair tool" in the xbox app. I don't know if that's what made the difference.

FYI it seems that the delisted hotwheels cars are available to buy in game with the in-game credits in this version of the game, in the DLC cars section. There were 6 cars. Unless those are different Hotwheels cars? In the xbox app you can't buy it. I got the mitsubishi pack for free in the xbox app.

I did not notice any different vibration/rumble in this version vs the Steam version. I have the series controller that I use with the PC USB dongle.

I guess I'll be waiting for them to discount the microsoft version and then buy the ultimate edition from them.
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The vibration is in the triggers. Vibration itself works just fine in both versions, but MS Store version is the only one with trigger feedback AFAIK.
 
spoderman said:
The vibration is in the triggers. Vibration itself works just fine in both versions, but MS Store version is the only one with trigger feedback AFAIK.
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I didn't notice anything like that. I don't think I've played anything with this feature, so I think I would have noticed. There is a chance it's doing it and I can't tell the difference, but I really doubt it. I'll try to pay even closer attention next time I play.

Pc gaming wiki does say the game has it. I wonder if I don't have it set up properly.
 
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Solid-Snake-Eyes said:
I didn't notice anything like that. I don't think I've played anything with this feature, so I think I would have noticed. There is a chance it's doing it and I can't tell the difference, but I really doubt it. I'll try to pay even closer attention next time I play.

Pc gaming wiki does say the game has it. I wonder if I don't have it set up properly.
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Might be a driver you have to install. Go to steam controller settings and install the Xbox Extended Feature Support driver. I think that should enable it for the Xbox app games too since it's just a driver but I'm not sure. I saw on reddit that it fixed the issue for someone

I would think it'd definitely be noticeable. It makes the actual triggers vibrate.

EDIT: Yeah, that driver definitely adds trigger rumble. This is a full list of what it adds. Still not sure if it only affects Steam games

Added a setting for extended Xbox controller support. The option can be enabled in the General Controller Setting section of your Steam settings and requires a driver installation and restarting your computer.
Extended Xbox features include:
  • Support for more than 4 Xbox controllers
  • The ability to bind the Xbox Elite controller paddles in controller configurations
  • The ability to bind the Xbox Series X controller share button in controller configurations
  • Support for trigger rumble in games using Windows.Gaming.Input API
 
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spoderman said:
Might be a driver you have to install. Go to steam controller settings and install the Xbox Extended Feature Support driver. I think that should enable it for the Xbox app games too since it's just a driver but I'm not sure. I saw on reddit that it fixed the issue for someone

I would think it'd definitely be noticeable. It makes the actual triggers vibrate.

EDIT: Yeah, that driver definitely adds trigger rumble. This is a full list of what it adds. Still not sure if it only affects Steam games

Added a setting for extended Xbox controller support. The option can be enabled in the General Controller Setting section of your Steam settings and requires a driver installation and restarting your computer.
Extended Xbox features include:
  • Support for more than 4 Xbox controllers
  • The ability to bind the Xbox Elite controller paddles in controller configurations
  • The ability to bind the Xbox Series X controller share button in controller configurations
  • Support for trigger rumble in games using Windows.Gaming.Input API
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Thanks, I'll make figuring this out a priority.
 
I installed that controller driver through Steam and then I'm pretty sure I experienced the trigger vibrations in Forza Horizon 4 gamepass. It was more subtle than I expected, and I forgot about it after a few minutes. Still a cool thing to have, but it's no DualSense haptics.

It's possible the trigger rumble was working all along in the game and I didn't notice.

I said before that you could buy the hot wheels cars in-game, but when you try there's just an error message. But the Mitsubishi pack works. I think you can buy codes for the hot wheels pack.

The trigger vibration is more noticeable when driving in off-road environments.
 
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spoderman said:
It's super optimized. I've played it on my ROG Ally and it runs at 1080p/60-70 fps.
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I found that turning on frame generation dropped the GPU load from 95% to 70%, and raised the fps by 10-20. I'm not sure if AI AA is better, or temporal AA.

I watched an optimization guide and ended up turning off all that AI stuff.
 
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What do people usually do in terms of setting their mechanical hard drives to sleep, or just stay on all the time? I have always had mine run all the time, but just had an older one fail and been wondering if I'm doing it wrong.

Sorry if off-topic. It failed while playing a game, at least. 😅
 
Solid-Snake-Eyes said:
Sorry if off-topic. It failed while playing a game, at least. 😅
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Unless it failed from all the stringy cheese falling onto it off the pizza you were eating over it, that’s no more on topic.

Also stop eating pizza over your electronics while playing video games, that’s gross. Eat it over the sink like a civilized human being.
 
I played some Coral Island. It's cool, it's like Stardew but with good graphics. But at the end of the second day after I had accomplished a lot, the game crashed and I lost all of that day. Ruined my interest in the game.
 
Solid-Snake-Eyes said:
What do people usually do in terms of setting their mechanical hard drives to sleep, or just stay on all the time? I have always had mine run all the time, but just had an older one fail and been wondering if I'm doing it wrong.

Sorry if off-topic. It failed while playing a game, at least. 😅
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I never have/had mine sleep, though the only mechanicals I have left are in my server. The only time I recommend spinning down is if the device is not accessed frequently throughout the day.
 
If you're tier 5 on AWA they restocked the Warhammer 40,000 Battlesector keys. Currently about 800 left, 2k have been given away previously and there's a little over 5k total AWA members at tier 5.

na.alienwarearena.com

Warhammer 40,000 Battlesector Steam Game Key Giveaway

Command the battlefield and lead your forces to glory!Available to Tier 5 MembersExperience an epic twenty mission single-player campaign that explores the aftermath of the Devasta-tion of Baal. Help Sergeant Carleon and his allies purge the Tyranid...
na.alienwarearena.com
 
Been a while since I had a review but here is one for Doors of Insanity, a deck builder, beaten in 5 hours and 36 minutes currently in the Diamond Collection - Build your own Bundle (June 2024) bundle.

First of all this is a game where you actually get to make your own starting deck from a set of cards. It must have 10 cards in total, but you can use an okay amount after unlocking alternate starting cards with gems (I'll get more on this currency later). This gives you a good amount of customization to start, but be careful in this game as removing cards doesn't happen too often except for the stores and some events. You go through I believe 30 rooms in all with bosses at every 10th floor I believe.

To start with the graphics are strange being almost too bright with colors hurting the eyes (mine got used to it but at first it was annoying) with similar graphics to a less detailed Cuphead. They animate okay enough, but it's all very simple. The sound effects are OK for the most part and the music is somewhat strange electronic sounding sometimes rock music. It's all a bit above average, but just barely above it. I must mention that the UI for this game is atrocious. It's very hard to see how much familiars do to your op or how much the op's familiars will do to you (never figured this out). It is also very tricky to calculate damage done by and to you. There is lots of 14 x 3 or something like that. I wish a total damage coming or being done was put out there. Everything is clunkier than it should be for example equipment gives bonuses, but when choosing when equipment it doesn't show exact numbers of same items in the slot so you have to switch to your character to get exact numbers. It has green for better numbers on equipment, but that's not good enough for comparison. Everything feels like you need an extra one or two steps to look at things like your deck and some abilities are not explained when hovering above cards. Just a messy UI overall that makes things hard to use and look at. Also sometimes animations between things are a bit slow and make things slower as well.

The gameplay has you choosing doors every floor that either have battles, elite battles (harder enemies with better rewards including getting an artifact similar to Slay the Spire, events (choose an option and get stuff or just lose life), shop (get cards, artifacts similar to Slay the Spire, remove cards), specific events (stuff like a witch that removes a card and gives a random card, a well to heal HP, etc...), and random which generally does the first type of events. The battles are very Slay the Spire like with energy to use most of them, but there are quirks. First of all you get a dice a turn which can either do damage or give armor (x2 the dice roll). These add a little bit of mitigation and can be gained from cards or other things. Also some cards have a gold cost which means you have to spend that amount of gold each time to activate them. You have 6 energy to start as well, and it is very hard to get more energy from artifacts (I've seen it on 2 artifacts I believe). You try to deal damage and mitigate things. Enemy attacks are shown so you can plan things well, but it's hard to calculate things exactly because of the horrible UI, as I mentioned before. Every 10 floors has a boss which is harder and has a boat load of health. After beating it you get rare or better equipment and an artifact. If you beat boss 3 you can end the game or go on to fight harder things until you kill all the dragons I believe. One thing to mention is that enemies scale over time and put a beating on and have lots of HP, so mitigating high numbers and doing high amounts of damage are key to winning.

Overall I liked this game enough, but it feels so unpolished at times. The UI is just awful at times, but the gameplay can be punishing and weird at times too. I also miscalculated damage a lot because sometimes the numbers weren't quite right and did more damage than shown. This game is a hot mess the even crashed on me once, but I had fun getting my win. I doubt I'll do more games, but I do believe there are ascension levels as well. Worth it bundled for sure although Slay the Spire is still king here. 6.5/10
 
Solid-Snake-Eyes said:
The Sunbeam and Talbot free DLC cars for Forza Horizon 4 are available again on Steam and Microsoft. You might have to redeem them in game, I didn't see them in the microsoft store.
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store.steampowered.com

Forza Horizon 4: 1967 Sunbeam Tiger on Steam

1967 Sunbeam Tiger
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com

store.steampowered.com

Forza Horizon 4: 1979 Talbot Sunbeam Lotus on Steam

1979 Talbot Sunbeam Lotus
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com

They’re listed on separate pages that are not linked on the main Forza Horizon 4 page.
 
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