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Steam's penchant for spit-take-worthy sales is well-documented, but in the past, we've at least been given time between bouts of purchase lust to re-amass our fortunes so we can once again blow them on a million games we'll never get around to playing. Now, however, Valve's elected to add daily deals to the mix, ensuring that we'll perish poor, alone, and in possession of every game ever conceived. Oh well. Could be worse.
The system, as you might expect, is pretty self-explanatory. Simply check Steam's frontpage (or the service's Twitter and Facebook accounts) every 24 hours, whip out your credit card, and learn to love the pungent odor of wet cardboard walls and the fresh scent of week-old dumpster dive pizza.
On that note, Majesty 2's 66 percent off right now, sending it plummeting down to the maniacally irresistable price of $3.40. “Majesty 2? What's that?” we pondered aloud to ourselves upon noticing it. “Oh well. Sold.” Forgive us, miserly instincts, for we have sinned.
Comments are closed on this article
JohnsonSmith
June 28, 2011 at 4:38am
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kris79
May 18, 2011 at 9:42am
Whoa there! Did Nathan say that there are games that he hasn't played yet? Just languishing around in his game harem waiting to be opened? I'm shocked! I always thought that he knew everything about everything - games that is. Gotta go now and check out Majesty 2... Wondering about the pizza situation.
TommM
May 18, 2011 at 8:41am
Yeah, the Steam start-up is clunky and annoying, but seriously, we're only talking a few seconds. It's not that big of a deal. Not to mention you can play your games on any machine you can log in. Steam is my hero because they're the ones who saved us from having to purchase games from primarily brick and mortar outlets at ridiculously high prices. Even 2-3 years after a games release.
And yes, my Steam library of games contains more games than I'll probably ever play thanks to their sales. ;)
ChatterboxChuck
May 18, 2011 at 8:25am
The only thing I dislike about Steam is that not only does it take for ever to launch or start up if you haven't signed in already (as if it has to get in line to ask permission or something) but then it also makes the games on it's list take a long time just to launch, let alone having to wait thru the sometimes useless previews and brand names of the game beofre you actually get to the menu.
I do however like that they do drop some good games at good prices, I got Left4Dead 2 for like $5 a while back. The game is actually not half bad.
One more thing, can you Maximum PC writers write in plain English and not clutter your articles with ridiculous "whip out your credit card, and learn to love the pungent odor of wet cardboard walls and the fresh scent of week-old dumpster dive pizza" comments and puns? Seriously, not everyone who reads you articles is slang educated and knows every new "word is born" word or phrase out there. Keep it simply with maybe a little bit of fun.
Biceps
May 18, 2011 at 6:53pm
@ Chatterbox.
My games might take 1 or 2 seconds longer to boot through Steam as opposed to if I had them on a disc. But it take me a full minute to find the disc, pop it in my drive (while PRAYING the stupid disc wasn't scratched), and then boot up the game. So, Steam is still a timesaver in that respect, unless you always play the same game, or have a 100-disc changer hooked up to your PC. I think you might be having problems with your HDD if you are waiting more than a couple seconds.
Left4Dead2 is a work of art IMHO.
Lastly, your commentary on the writer's choice of words: seriously? You are asking a writing not to be a writer? Really? MaxPC is a magazing, not a tech-spec sheet. I actually enjoy reading MaxPC, and like the style this author used. Maybe you need to brush up on your slang. Writing is about painting a picture, not about your slang vocabulary.
MaxPC thank you for making Facebook opt-in and not opt-out.
p47riot
May 18, 2011 at 11:00am
Oh come on, it's not that bad, really. You gotta have some color commentary in there to keep people interested. I mean would anybody come back to the site if he'd just written: "You go Steam...buy games cheap...never leave house." ??
Lighten up ;-)
Holly Golightly
May 18, 2011 at 7:45am
I really do hope that Direct2Drive and Gamer's Gate follows. Steam is great, but it drives me insane each and everytime I have to launch a client in order to play a game... Even if it is in "Offline mode" unless somebody know how to bypass the launch to still play the game without having the program to automatically log in. I will admit, the sales are tempting... Especially during the holiday season. Another great competitor in prices is Amazon Game Downloads.
Caboose
May 18, 2011 at 10:47am
Having the Steam client launch is a small price to pay for the ease of gameplay. The fact that Steam will auto-update games, manage your saves (now, and games that support it), etc. It can be a little annoying when the client stutters, but overall it could be worse.
Holly Golightly
May 18, 2011 at 10:39pm
I like the Steam Client, don't get me wrong... I just don't like being required to have the program running while playing a game. The client is somewhat heavy on my computer's resources... So it takes a little long to load the library and the "Steam Update" advertisements. I feel that the alternatives are not that bad. GOG and Game Comrade are pretty darn good, and don't require the extra step Steam has. GOG is free of DRM and Game Comrade also automatically updates your games. I just wish steam wasn't as rigid as it is today.
To be honest with you... Steam sort of reminds me of XBOX360... In a way that they both require you to log in to an account of a platform that is closed. It drives me somewhat insane knowing I can not freely relocate my Steam games as I wish. I also would like to be totally independent from Steam, but now there are some games that require Steam. So in a way, all PC Gamers are sort of forced to use Steam... Making it equal to consoles in a way...
Caboose
May 19, 2011 at 12:39pm
When you say that you can't freely relocate your steam games as you wish, do you mean giving a game you no longer play to a friend, or do you mean backup/install to an alternate location? The "unable to give game to friend" bit I can understand, and frankly I'd love to be able to return a game that ended up being an absolute waste of money (Command & Conquer 4)
Holly Golightly
May 19, 2011 at 7:00pm
Well you see, I am in the market for a Solid State Drive. I want to be able to load windows at optimal speed, but I can not afford enough space to accommodate my Steam games. Some which which are 10GB.
Steam will not allow you to relocate your Steam Apps from drive C to drive D. They use some pretty strong DRM that just wont allow you to do anything like take it from your desktop and put it into a laptop. You have to download it the old fashioned way. There is also being able to let your friends borrow your games, and in return borrow your friends games.
Though steam is great in running the latest software with the most stable patches, it is still a very rigid platform. Like how all sales are final. I too have some games that are a complete waste as they can not run on my PC. That game being the Penumbra series due to my aspect ratio... 16x9. Other than Steam's inflexible practices, I think it is a very great program to run and organize your games. :o)
Caboose
May 20, 2011 at 8:21am
"Steam will not allow you to relocate your Steam Apps from drive C to drive D. They use some pretty strong DRM that just wont allow you to do anything like take it from your desktop and put it into a laptop"
Not sure why you can't, but I backup my entire steam folder whenever I have to rebuild my computer, or when I had one of my RAID drives fail and I decided to just replace them both. All you have to do is just put the game back in to its original location and away you go. Steam can't be running (or you'll have to restart steam) when you perform the C&P, but it does work. There's actually an app out that will automate the entire process for you. I've copied my steam folder from the original laptop that I had about 8yrs ago, to a desktop I replace it with, then after I moved copied it to the desktop that replaced that one, and then to each of the 4 desktops that replaced the previous ones (new motherboard counts as a new desktop in this case), and then over to a new laptop, then its replacement laptop. Plus when I built my roomate's new desktop, I copied his steam folder over to my PC's backup drive, then to his new PC. And I've copied games that I've downloaded that my roomate and my wife have bought to each of their PC's with no issue. All I have to do after is just turn the auto-updates back on for each game. Is a pain, but small price to pay for ease of backup.
Have you checked out www.widescreengamingforum.com to see if if the Penumbra series can be forced in to 16x9?
Joji
May 17, 2011 at 11:03pm
What's wrong with Majuesty 2? I didn't understand the pun there. O_o
However, the cost of Steam games are said to be pretty unfair in countries outside of North America, am I right? I wonder...
zaphodbeeblebrox 42
May 17, 2011 at 10:50pm
must be the their reaction to impulse having a shit ton of deals latly(yes i measure stuff in shit tons) or maybe i should say gamestops deals lately. whatever point is i love competition and you do to.
Marthian
May 18, 2011 at 5:44am
no kidding. granted I do not like Gamestop trade ins (but they got to make money somehow), but they have some really great deals (Portal 2 is $30 vs $50 on steam. Fallout New Vegas is $20 at Gamestop compared to $50 on Steam).
Kethsar
May 17, 2011 at 10:39pm
I lol'd.
In all seriousness, I think I'll grow to like the new system. While I'm not one to buy every game I see (and, hell, I even got one for free at the Intel NW Spring 2011 LANFest 2 days ago) This is a great way to find new games that I may have never seen or thought of trying.
BTW, the game I won at the LANFest was The King's Crusade. Can't wait to get caught up in school so I can play it. :D
