The Steam Deal Thread V7 - The soda wars have ended, but the deals rage on.

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Welcome to the Steam Deal Thread V7! You can find link to past threads at the bottom of this post. Read post #2 of this thread for Steam FAQs and more.

Since the V6 thread, we've decided to leave regular minor sales out of the OP. This post will keep track of major sales (Summer sale, etc.), Steam deals available through other sellers (like Amazon), Preorder deals, and Group Buys.

I would still greatly appreciate help from you folks at home in keeping this smaller-scale OP up-to-date. This is a Wiki post so anyone can contribute. Wiki instructions:
Thanks for your help! If you notice a sale has ended, feel free to delete its line from the sale list. Of course, if you see something does need to be added, then kindly add it to the list.

Make sure your changes match the thread's format! For example, every game that's on sale is part of an unordered list. When adding a game to the list, copy an existing line and update the link, title, and prices. That way, the format stays correct. Do not list percentages off! We list the original price and the sale price here. If you have any suggestions for major changes to the post/thread, PM me (EastX) about them.

Steam Sales - Updated 5/20


CAG Threads Featuring Steam Games on Sale Elsewhere - Updated 1/9


Preorder Deals - Updated 1/10
Group Buy Deals - Updated 1/9/13
Several multiplayer Steam games are available in 2-packs or 4-packs. These packs offer a discount over buying multiple copies of a game separately. We also maintain group buy trade threads for several games, so please use those threads if you're interested in setting up a group buy.


Free Stuff - List needs updating with F2P games!
There are several free games and mods on Steam. These are a few choice ones; you can find a full list here. Note that free games are not permanently attached to your Steam account like actual purchases would be. You'll need to manually download a game again from the website if you uninstall it.


Steam around CAG

If you are interested in joining the Steam CAG Community or participating in a trade or group buy with fellow Cheap Ass Gamers, please do so in the dedicated threads and not in the deal discussion thread. In the dedicated threads you will find CAGers with the same specialized interest who will be much quicker (and happier) to respond than in the Deals thread.

Past Special Sales

Visit www.steamgamesales.com to check previous sale prices on Steam games. We do keep track of some older sales here though:

Steam Retail Key List

What is a CD key and where can I find it?

Steam's explanation and list of Steam-activatable keys

The CD Key is a serial number with a combination of 13, 18, or 25 letters and numbers - it can be found on a sticker inside your game's case or printed on the game's quick reference card. The CD Key acts as your proof of purchase for the game - Steam Support may ask for it if you need to establish your ownership of an account. It is recommended that you keep your CD Key in a safe place to ensure the security of your account.

Other Keys that can be redeemed on Steam (CAG tested & verified)
11.gif

  • The Ball (bought @D2D, tested by voken)
  • Supreme Commander Forged Alliance (gives both FA and original, bought @amazon, tested by vism)

Indie Bundles thread on Steam forums (link)

Past CAG Steam Deal Threads
 
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Since we're on the subject of HDD's and since I'm a noob when it comes to knowledge of SSD's...

...What the hell is a spinner? What's it do?
And why are they so much faster than normal HDD's (like say WD Black Cav & Seagate Barracuda)?
I usually ain't got issues w/ dealing w/ load times here, so...do they really improve framerates and performance of games majorly?
Will it allow me to turn-on more graphical bells and whistles w/out much problems?

And how expensive are SSD's and spinners?

What are the pro's and con's of SSD's?

SIDE NOTE:
My Current PC Specs:
Case -> Cooler Master 932
Watt Supply -> 800 Watts - Corsair Gaming Series
OS -> Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Motherboard -> Socket 1366 ASUS Sabertooth X58 motherboard (will allow for 2 SLI allowed on video cards).
Processor -> Intel i7 950 @ 3.06 Ghz Quad-Core processor multi-threaded (8 threads)
RAM -> 8 GB worth of Corsair DDR3 1600 XMS3
Optical Drives -> TWO Sony Scribe DVD-Burners
Internal Hard Drive(s) -> TWO Western Digital Black Caviar 1 TB with 64MB cache & 7200 RPM [2 TB of HDD in total]
Video Card -> EVGA 1GB GeForce GTX 560 Ti.
Monitor -> HP 2311x
 
This thread is a lot different than I remember. I think I'd seen it once referred to as the PC-gaming OTT. ;)

As for me, started up Tomb Raider this morning. Finally taking advantage of the awesome graphics card my hubby got me for Christmas. Everything in the game is running on High, and it's beautiful. I'm liking Tomb Raider far more than I expected to.
 
The first part of Tomb Raider was annoying me with the QTE's but those seem to have largely subsided.

I set the game aside to play Biosharks* but was enjoying it when it got put aside. Once I'm done with B:I, it'll ne bice to have TR to return to.


*
Spoony totally wins that one
 
I liked his further suggestion of "Bilesharks" moreso.

Need to go back and finish the original sometime so I can be ready for the new one to be on sale.
 
[quote name='MysterD']Okay, w/ all this SSD talk - which I know very little about - you're so talking over my head w/ all this stuff, such as spinners...
God, I feel like such a noob.


How much performance difference is b/t say the WD Black vs. Blue vs. Green vs. any other bloody colors?[/QUOTE]


You forgot Red!

Spinners = Rotating Storage (traditional hard drive, non-SSDs)

Avoid WD Green drives. The earlier models at least had serious issues. I've had two go south on me.

There are two fundamental reasons SSDs are a lot faster:
1) SSDs have far lower "seek time" (time to start reading the data you want). This is because on average a hard drive will have to rotate half a rotation to be over the data you want It also has to physically move the arm with it's read head. These are very strong meatspace limitations. SSDs just electrically address to the data you want (similar to RAM). (Just FYI, I'm simplifying slightly, there are other delays that arent' pertinent to this discussion.) In short SSD have lower latency access since they aren't limited by how fast you can practically mechanically move the disk and read/write heads.

2) SSDs are faster because an SSD is a controller and a bunch of flash chips in a RAID-like arrangement. Their sustained read/write rates are so high because of this internal RAID-like arrangement. (You can often see this in SSD benchmarking were a 128 GB drive is slower than a 256 GB drive due to the larger one having more chips/"disks" in it's internal RAID arrangement.)

For as much as review sites quibble over which SSD is faster, those differences are insignificant in comparison to the HDD-SDD performance gap.

SSD will not improve your FPS. SSDs will improve your load times (new game area, system boot, application loading times, etc)


Decent SSDs are now dropping below $1/GB. Check SlickDeals or Tomshardware.
They still are a lot more expensive than spinners, but their performance makes them attractive to the impatient. SSDs used to have a fair number of catastrophic bugs, but they are moving on from these teething issues. SSDs do have a limited number of writes, but for ordinary applications you'll be upgrading to a newer faster computer before that becomes a problem.
 
[quote name='MysterD']Since we're on the subject of HDD's and since I'm a noob when it comes to knowledge of SSD's...

...What the hell is a spinner? What's it do?
And why are they so much faster than normal HDD's (like say WD Black Cav & Seagate Barracuda)?
I usually ain't got issues w/ dealing w/ load times here, so...do they really improve framerates and performance of games majorly?
Will it allow me to turn-on more graphical bells and whistles w/out much problems?

And how expensive are SSD's and spinners?

What are the pro's and con's of SSD's?
[/QUOTE]

A spinnner...spins. Your traditional 3.5" drives are platters (think mechanical CDs) that spin. A head (like a record player needle) reads data off it. Because it spins, the outside travels further per second than the inside, so there's a difference of speeds. If you have data stored on 10 different locations that you need to retrieve sequentially, worst case is you have to let the platters spin 10 times to get the data, since it spins in one direction only. To save power, the platters can spin down and idle, but it takes a few seconds to spin back up to speed. You've probably heard this sound before.

Solid state doesn't have mechanical platters, but transistors. Because of this, there's no mechanical positioning delay; Any data is read (roughly) at the same speed.

They shouldn't affect frame rates much, if at all. It's mostly load times. If absolutely everything the program needs is loaded into RAM, the hard drive no longer matters.

Same with graphical bells and whistle. Most of the extras will be calculated by the graphics card, so as long as it can get data to process fast enough, the hard drive no longer matters. If the "getting data to process" involved the hard drive, then an SSD will help. Otherwise, it will affect nothing.

SSDs are about $1 per TB. Compared to mechanical 3.5" hard drives of like $0.05~0.10 a GB.

SSDs are faster, are cooler*, and use less power*. (* mostly moot in a desktop)
They costs more, have smaller capacities.

They used to write slower than platters, but I don't think that's true any more. They also used to have a much lower "number of writes" before failing, but it's been increased by a magnitude of 1 or 2 since then. Plus, they have better algorithms inside to further increase that.

tl;dr: You don't need it.
 
[quote name='louiedog']Today's deal is Batman: Arkham City GOTY Edition at 75% off ($7.50)[/QUOTE]
Tempted on finally getting this just for the Harley Quinn's Revenge so I can uninstall the game after finishing it cause I'm running out of space. Just wondering though do you need to reinstall this completely or does it just addon to the original version if you don't have game of the year edition?
 
[quote name='Sion']Tempted on finally getting this just for the Harley Quinn's Revenge so I can uninstall the game after finishing it cause I'm running out of space. Just wondering though do you need to reinstall this completely or does it just addon to the original version if you don't have game of the year edition?[/QUOTE]

It is either already on your hdd just not activated, or it will just download the new content.
 
[quote name='Sion']Tempted on finally getting this just for the Harley Quinn's Revenge so I can uninstall the game after finishing it cause I'm running out of space. Just wondering though do you need to reinstall this completely or does it just addon to the original version if you don't have game of the year edition?[/QUOTE]

I believe the way it works with this game is the GOTY version of the game will show up as a separate entry in your steam library from just the base game. There is no longer any way to purchase the DLC by itself so this is your only option as far as getting it from Steam. Not sure if you have to re-download completely or if you can use the data from the base game or not.
 
[quote name='asheskitty']
They still are a lot more expensive than spinners, but their performance makes them attractive to the impatient. SSDs used to have a fair number of catastrophic bugs, but they are moving on from these teething issues.[/QUOTE]

I'd still say they have a fair number of catastrophic bugs, with a decent risk of data loss, but I'd say the same thing about any hard drive. Just make sure to back up anything at all important. If it's really important, have an off-site backup.
 
Finished Bioshock Infinite and I find it odd that the main complaint beyond the save system (which is not good) was that it wasn't realistic enough. The story is based on a flying city in 1912, no surprise that the style is a little more cartoony rather than photo-realism.
 
[quote name='momouchi']Finished Bioshock Infinite and I find it odd that the main complaint beyond the save system (which is not good) was that it wasn't realistic enough. The story is based on a flying city in 1912, no surprise that the style is a little more cartoony rather than photo-realism.[/QUOTE]


I firmly assumed that given the promotional materials before release. It's become something of a trend imo. I suspect it is partly driven by the need to look new games look non-dated on the PS3/360. The upside for me is that recent games like Dishonored still run great on my 4 year old gaming PC.
 
I thought the art was fine in B:I (excellent, in fact) although I'd have preferred if the NPCs were a little more detailed. The women in particular seemed a bit mannequin-like especially compared to Elizabeth.

Speaking of, enough with people thinking they're clever for pointing out how Elizabeth has a Disney-esque quality to her looks. The developers have plainly stated that they looked to the Disney "princess" films for inspiration as they wanted Elizabeth's features to be to be very expressive, especially when she was a distance away from you. No one is exactly cracking the Rosetta stone or brilliantly uncovering secret plagiarism when they compare her looks to Belle.
 
Not all games have to be photo realistic. Actually I'd greatly greatly prefer that they weren't. I also think it has nothing to do with performance. Irrational simply has a vision they want to produce. Their games are beautiful.

Why would someone wish for that? So that it can run like crap on anything but a GPU released 4 years from now and also look like crap? Infinite is beyond beautiful. Hell, I hope whoever wants more photo realism gets their wish in 9 months, then has to wait 3 years to see a GPU that can run it and another 2 to be able to afford it. Uhg. Probably the same people who hate Wind Waker.
If you want photo realism, look out your window.
 
[quote name='Syntax Error']No one is exactly cracking the Rosetta stone or brilliantly uncovering secret plagiarism when they compare her looks to Belle.[/QUOTE]

Elizabeth taught me both to read hieroglyphics and to speak conversational German.

Game of the Year.
 
Well I finished Saints Row 2 today. It was great, but then ending didn't feel quite as epic and frenetic as SR3. I'd easily recommend SR2 to anyone who enjoyed SR3. You'll want to grab the Gentlemen of the Row mod, and possibly the speed mod, and spend a little time finding a nice balance of graphics settings and performance.

So I just fired up Hitman Absolution and spent some time benchmarking and tweaking. Out of the box it runs 29 FPS avg, dipping to 23 fps min on my GTX 260, medium settings added high textures and 8x AF @ 1920x1200. Nothing I was tweaking was really changing that. Dropping to the lowest settings and 800x600 rez only resulted in a couple FPS increase. It seems like I'm CPU limited on my Phenom II X3 720 BE @ 3.2GHz.* This is the first game I've encountered in which I seem to be CPU limited.

* Dropping to the smallest available resolution and graphics settings results in the Graphics card having it easy, and thus revealing CPU bottlenecks. This the flip side of the more common, "crank the graphics to eXtrEmE" to stress the GPU.
 
@Ashes

If I recall, SR2 on the PC is missing 2 DLC's that the consoles had.
SR2 was good, but the ending...felt like nothing special.

Yeah, I definitely preferred SR3 base game's ending over SR2.
 
[quote name='DPsycho']Baby, I'll give you the hardest drive you've ever processed. And you'd better believe it's solid state. But first, how much cache do you have?

(Giga-ty!)[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Eldredpe']I like how you made data storage a euphemism for your penis.

Good stuff.

Yup.

;)
[/QUOTE]
so no one has one of these?
floppy8.jpg


[quote name='akmgmer']I believe the way it works with this game is the GOTY version of the game will show up as a separate entry in your steam library from just the base game. There is no longer any way to purchase the DLC by itself so this is your only option as far as getting it from Steam. Not sure if you have to re-download completely or if you can use the data from the base game or not.[/QUOTE]
You have to re-download it completely.
 
[quote name='asheskitty']Well I finished Saints Row 2 today. It was great, but then ending didn't feel quite as epic and frenetic as SR3. I'd easily recommend SR2 to anyone who enjoyed SR3. You'll want to grab the Gentlemen of the Row mod, and possibly the speed mod, and spend a little time finding a nice balance of graphics settings and performance.
[/QUOTE]

I installed that and was wondering why we had skateboards attached to our hands at the beginning, thats what that animation mod does hehe (you move around on a skateboard).

I made an African American guy...but I couldnt resist picking the British accent haha
 
Yeah, I now firmly agree SR3 is a better game since it takes SR2, gives it some polish, and cranks it to 11. Saints Row 2 is still a very enjoyable romp. I completed SR3 on Normal (Hard is *hard*), and SR2 on Hard (rarely hard). My random complaint in SR2 is that I probably died due to being hit with vehicles more than any other cause. Vehicular homicide is a bit too easy given how all enemies will try to run you over. I'm not sure if this is related to playing in "hard mode" though.

SR3 opened with the epic bank robbery sequence and closed in Summer action blockbuster fashion.


Interesting Hitman: Absolution has an achievement for running the benchmark. Only 46.4% of people have that achieve ...interesting, especially given how Hitman Absolution is hard CPUs and GPUs alike.
 
[quote name='Larce80']
I made an African American guy...but I couldnt resist picking the British accent haha[/QUOTE]

You know, there are black people in Great Britain...

Or at least that's the extrapolation I've made based on my limited sample size of Idris Elba and one of my adopted cousins.
 
[quote name='MysterD']@Ashes

If I recall, SR2 on the PC is missing 2 DLC's that the consoles had.
SR2 was good, but the ending...felt like nothing special.

Yeah, I definitely preferred SR3 base game's ending over SR2.[/QUOTE]

I am guessing you didn't keep playing and get the extra special ending. The 2 DLCs didn't add much.
 
@Ashes

About SR3 - it's just a much better game over SR2 in every single solitary way, IMHO.
I still have yet to touch the SR3 DLC, though.

Yeah, even though Hitman: Absolution is a much different Hitman games in many ways, it's still awesome - and if you have the PC to handle it, it's downright gorgeous.

In Nixxes (doing PC ports for Square Enix and Eidos), I trust.


EDIT:
[quote name='travathian']I am guessing you didn't keep playing and get the extra special ending. The 2 DLCs didn't add much.[/QUOTE]
Nope.
After wrecking the Ultor corporation, that was pretty much it for me.
 
[quote name='travathian']I am guessing you didn't keep playing and get the extra special ending. The 2 DLCs didn't add much.[/QUOTE]


Thanks for the tip! No, I finished the main ending, and just wrapped up a few little loose ends. I plan to return later to finish out my remaining activities. I think I'll go hunt down that extra ending soon though. I've been playing SR2 exclusively (to make sure I finish it) and I am ready for something else. I really want to knock down some of my newer releases AAA backlog (Hitman Ab, Dishonored, Sonic All Stars Transformed, etc).
 
[quote name='MysterD']About SR3 - it's just a much better game over SR2 in every single solitary way, IMHO.[/QUOTE]
Ehh, having just started it, I have to disagree. By all means, SR3 blows SR2 out of the water (funny how MUCH better graphics in SR3 run at a MUCH higher framerate than SR2...), but SR2 got a lot of things right, that I'm immediately seeing off the bat.

Simple touches are the obvious example. You can pick up a pistol and use it, and if you find another pistol, you can pick that up and dual wield. If you wanna use one pistol again? Easy, you have the choice of either dual or single in your crib armory. In SR3? Once you buy the dual pistol UPGRADE, you can never go back to using one pistol (unless you tweak game files, iirc).

Other things too, like driving. Don't get me wrong, the driving in SR2 is choppy and not great, but the feel they were going for makes more sense than SR3. Burning out and taking off works, while in SR3 you can't even do that. Another thing is clothing. You can slap logos on stuff. WHY couldn't you do that in SR3? Why are there no car dealerships in SR3?

I think I remember hearing SR3 was rushed, so content and features suffered. SR2 just suffers from other things.
 
While idly screwing around, I discovered I could do donuts in SR2! (and clearly just as a result of the car physics model, not an intended move).
 
[quote name='Eldredpe']You know, there are black people in Great Britain...

Or at least that's the extrapolation I've made based on my limited sample size of Idris Elba and one of my adopted cousins.[/QUOTE]
omg really?
 
[quote name='asheskitty']While idly screwing around, I discovered I could do donuts in SR2! (and clearly just as a result of the car physics model, not an intended move).[/QUOTE]

I just saw Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon DLC box-art (which might be April Fools Prank)...
...and figured that could've been some stuff that I'd expect to see in SR3 and/or SR4.

EDIT:
BTW, since you said "donuts", I think I'd like to eat a donut.
Honey-dipped, chocolate coconut, coconut, cinnamon donuts - they're all yum to me.
Oh, I absolutely love coffee rolls, BTW.
 
@MysterD & Idioteque

Gentlemen of the Row seems to have ported a couple of the DLC missions for SR2 that show up after the "extra" ending
starts in
Room 303 in the Police Station
 
[quote name='MysterD']BTW, since you said "donuts", I think I'd like to eat a donut.
Honey-dipped, chocolate coconut, coconut, cinnamon donuts - they're all yum to me.
Oh, I absolutely love coffee rolls, BTW.[/QUOTE]


Applefritter* > Donut

* though it's kinda hard to find a decent apple fritter these days


Which brings up the next topic for the tread to rage about:
"Traditional"* Donuts VS Fluffy/Risen Donuts
Fight!

* Cake donuts, they are the dense kind, the other kind is quite airy.
 
[quote name='asheskitty']
Which brings up the next topic for the tread to rage about:
"Traditional"* Donuts VS Fluffy/Risen Donuts
Fight!

* Cake donuts, they are the dense kind, the other kind is quite airy.[/QUOTE]

The problem with this argument idea is you can like both. Depending on how I'm feeling I could go for either.

Whereas if you say both "pop" and "soda" aka "sodapop," you're a person with no convictions or dignity, a failure to yourself and a disappointment to your family.
 
[quote name='asheskitty']Applefritter* > Donut

* though it's kinda hard to find a decent apple fritter these days


Which brings up the next topic for the tread to rage about:
"Traditional"* Donuts VS Fluffy/Risen Donuts
Fight!

* Cake donuts, they are the dense kind, the other kind is quite airy.[/QUOTE]

As if donuts could ever be a zero-sum game (aside from "I eat them all, and you get none")
 
[quote name='travathian']Flatware in the dishwasher, handle up or handle down? Inquiring minds want to know.[/QUOTE]

I go handle up, as I don't know that either results in cleaner utensils but it means I don't get my filthy hands all over the part that touches the food when I'm unloading.
 
[quote name='travathian']Flatware in the dishwasher, handle up or handle down? Inquiring minds want to know.[/QUOTE]


Not all of us are dishwasher-owning bourgeois!

I'll have to ask the servants.

After handwashing dishes, only sharp knives go point-down in the drying rack, everything else is handle-down.
 
[quote name='Idiotekque']
Mostly just to make Eldredpe think less of me as a human being.
[/QUOTE]

And I had thought it was impossible.
 
[quote name='Idiotekque']Ehh, having just started it, I have to disagree. By all means, SR3 blows SR2 out of the water (funny how MUCH better graphics in SR3 run at a MUCH higher framerate than SR2...), but SR2 got a lot of things right, that I'm immediately seeing off the bat.

Simple touches are the obvious example. You can pick up a pistol and use it, and if you find another pistol, you can pick that up and dual wield. If you wanna use one pistol again? Easy, you have the choice of either dual or single in your crib armory. In SR3? Once you buy the dual pistol UPGRADE, you can never go back to using one pistol (unless you tweak game files, iirc).

Other things too, like driving. Don't get me wrong, the driving in SR2 is choppy and not great, but the feel they were going for makes more sense than SR3. Burning out and taking off works, while in SR3 you can't even do that. Another thing is clothing. You can slap logos on stuff. WHY couldn't you do that in SR3? Why are there no car dealerships in SR3?

I think I remember hearing SR3 was rushed, so content and features suffered. SR2 just suffers from other things.[/QUOTE]
also liking how people fly out the windscreen and off bikes in collisions :D
also picking up, using and throwing objects + the rag-doll physics

I like the driving too
[quote name='asheskitty']While idly screwing around, I discovered I could do donuts in SR2! (and clearly just as a result of the car physics model, not an intended move).[/QUOTE]
handbrake + accelerate + direction? makes for easy turns in tight places
 
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[quote name='Eldredpe']I go handle up, as I don't know that either results in cleaner utensils but it means I don't get my filthy hands all over the part that touches the food when I'm unloading.[/QUOTE]

My answer is simpler. I just don't want to be stabbed by wayward, rebellious knives and forks as I attempt to unload.

So, handle up.
 
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