Steam X-mas Sale 2015: Don't Eat Mysterious Snow

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Steam X-mas Sale 2015: Don't Eat Mysterious Snow

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

((( My Steam ID in case you have suggestions/questions: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Palpek/ )))
((( Use IsThereAnyDeal to track your Steam wishlist on all the sites everywhere forever. )))

:gaben:

Welcome to the Steam (and other distribution platforms) X-mas Sale of 2015 Thread. The leaks tell us it should start on December 22nd.

Pro-click: http://store.steampowered.com/ or better use http://gabegaming.com/

:siren:

Join our #steamgoons IRC channel! :siren:

Other distribution services. Anyway, gently caress Steam Sale because there are better deals on:

Amazon.com has a fantastic Digital PC Downloads section. If Steam is somehow cheaper they often price-match. Put in a fake US address to buy outside US, also this doesn't work for everybody.
Greenman Gaming sometimes just has the best deals and often offers a discount code that additionally shaves off 15-25% from the sale price. If you can't see the code on the main page search their blog for it.
Nuuvem is a brazilian site but has already made a splash. Recently they started to lock up the regions so some titles may be available but many not.
Gamers Gate offers some cool daily deals but nothing too epic UNTIL they gently caress up the prices. $20 Bethesda's Catalogue anyone?
Humble Bundle has a store. Always remember to check their regular and weekly bundles while you're there.
Bundle Stars also has a store. They have some good deals on often obscure titles that aren't a highlight anywhere else.
Gamefly offers standard deals but then there's this ONE game that is absolutely cheaper than anywhere else.
Indie Royale may be that-bundle-that-used-to-be-great-but-now-sucks but they also have the Daily Royale site that has cool fresh deals every day.
Groupees always has 2-3 bundles going on at the same time. Better check them before you drop money on an obscure indie game.
Indie Gala has a store. It sucks. But hey, sometimes it doesn't!

Actually Steam sucks so much that I don't even need Steam keys:

Good Old Games also offers new games now. It's one of the only truly DRM-free services out there if that's important to you. GOG owns.
Yeah, yeah I know - Origin. But it DOES have big sales now as it turns out brands aren't cheapened by those that much. It offers EA's big popular games that are not available on Steam: Battlefield, Fifa, Mass Effect 3, NFS, SimCity and other crap.
Ubisoft Store offers Ubisoft games. Be sure to use the same Uplay account on Steam games that require it. Otherwise you'll end up with 2 stupid accounts that can't be merged.

Just kidding, I still love Steam! Rules of sale:

Apparently this sale will have no daily deals. We'll still have to see about that but this time the super important advice "not to buy games if it's not a daily deal" might become obsolete.
Put a set amount of money to your Steam wallet AND NO MORE*. You don't want your card being knocked back when you try buying that Nancy Drew game you've been waiting for with 5 minutes left on the sale clock. *Unless you are from and area that gets screwed by regional pricing a lot (eg. Australia). Put that sweet cash in your paypal, and you'll be sending off cash to one of our many regional gifters in no time, with no fuss!
Consider buying games as gifts into your inventory instead of your library and only open them when you intend to play them. When you finally wake up from the shopping spree you'll wonder why the hell you bought all those games but if they're gifts you'll be able to trade/sell them. Believe me we have all been there.
Organize 2 or 4 packs where possible. It can often save you and your fellow goons a good sum of cash.
There are usually tons of games discounted 75%+ that aren't mentioned on the main page. Go hunting.

This year's metagame is Mysterious Cards which shockingly is the same metagame as last year:

here's a cool Steam card site that will help you sell cards

You can buy them and sell them on the market if you want.

Tips & Tricks:

Did you know we have an official Steam Goons IRC channel? If you want to talk about games, deals, find gifters, give out games or just chill out - come on over. We're active throughout the year. Just don't be a dickhead and don't beg for games.
IsThereAnyDeal will e-mail you about deals on games from your wishlist when they hit prices you specifically set. It scans ALL distribution sites for those. This is an amazing service that will also make you spend all your money.
Use Cheap Shark to find good deals and Steam Prices to find out where it's the cheapest!
Augment your Steam! Install Enhanced Steam: for Chrome, for Mozilla:
"This might be a stupid question, but how do you get to the regular store screen?" -You can't. Big sales traditionally take over regular Steam until they're over.

Recommendations:

Here's my big list of cheap games written over the years of Steam Sales in the form of a handy google doc. Notice that they're not the newest games so ask for these in this thread.
We have SA goon curators you can follow.
Freak Futanari aka Waifu Hunter has solid recommendations for the best titties on Steam.

Goon Gifters: Sometimes there's just a better deal in another region. That's when you contact fellow goons that are willing to gift you a game after you paypal them the money. Ask in the thread and people will hook you up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thILxw6wBJE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlgZZd-Yxro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ptyz7k9F2k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr2GdRBDOmU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SGCWhWBjYc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUo1PgKksgw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoGxA48HQ1g

http://gaben.tv/

https://gaben.amigocraft.net/

Palpek fucked around with this message at 13:26 on Dec 20, 2015

# ? Dec 20, 2015 13:23

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# ? Apr 23, 2024 22:29

A good poster: Jan 10, 2010

Palpek posted:

There are usually tons of games discounted 75%+ that aren't mentioned on the main page. Go hunting.

SteamDB's sales page will list everything on Steam with a reduced price. You can dig through the entire sale this way.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 13:44

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Also remember to sell the Mysterious Cards the moment the sale starts or right before it does as their price will tank afterwards.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 13:46

tater_salad: Sep 15, 2007

Palpek posted:

Also remember to sell the Mysterious Cards the moment the sale starts or right before it does as their price will tank afterwards.

Never not sell cards.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 16:18

Jamfrost: Jul 20, 2013; I'm too busy thinkin' about my baby. Oh I ain't got time for nothin' else.; Slime TrainerS

I crafted 79 badges so far. I feel ill.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 17:22

BigRed0427: Mar 23, 2007; There's no one I'd rather be than me.

I have a lot of games that still have card drops.

Did they get rid of idling on games for cards? Because i've been doing that on a few game sand i'm getting nothing.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 17:38

Jamfrost: Jul 20, 2013; I'm too busy thinkin' about my baby. Oh I ain't got time for nothin' else.; Slime TrainerS

BigRed0427 posted:

I have a lot of games that still have card drops.

Did they get rid of idling on games for cards? Because i've been doing that on a few game sand i'm getting nothing.

If you ever refunded anything, you need to get pass the 2 hour wait first.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 17:39

BigRed0427: Mar 23, 2007; There's no one I'd rather be than me.

Jamfrost posted:

If you ever refunded anything, you need to get pass the 2 hour wait first.

Never refunded anything.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 17:41

Justin_Brett: Oct 23, 2012; GAMERDOME put down LOSER

Still mentioning Indie Royale, wow.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 17:43

Wiggly Wayne DDS: Sep 11, 2010

BigRed0427 posted:

I have a lot of games that still have card drops.

Did they get rid of idling on games for cards? Because i've been doing that on a few game sand i'm getting nothing.

Jamfrost posted:

If you ever refunded anything, you need to get pass the 2 hour wait first.

Nope, the wait period is set per-game - it used to be 2-hour across the board when refunds were rolled out but since then devs have gotten control over it. You can idle multiple games up to the 2-hour period, but to get cards to drop you can only be idling 1 game at a time. Refunding has nothing to do with it.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 17:43

Jamfrost: Jul 20, 2013; I'm too busy thinkin' about my baby. Oh I ain't got time for nothin' else.; Slime TrainerS

Well then, plenty of games are still rockin' the 2 hours for me. I assume 2 hours would be the default unless the dev makes some changes?

# ? Dec 20, 2015 17:45

Jordan7hm: Feb 17, 2011; Lipstick Apathy

Idlemaster stopped working for me a couple days ago. It's weird.

Oh well.

On a sale note... I've been waiting for a while to get Europa Universalis IV. Turns out my waiting was justified. Nuuvem is selling the base game and all the DLC at a pretty hefty discount right now.

Europa Universalis IV Steam - 3.76$
Europa Universalis IV - Digital Extreme Edition - 4.52$
Europa Universalis IV DLC Collection - 7.03$
Europa Universalis IV: Art of War - 3.01$
Europa Universalis IV: Common Sense - 2.26$
Europa Universalis IV: Common Sense Collection - 3.01$
Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise - 2.01$
Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado - 2.26$
Europa Universalis IV: The Art of War Collection - 3.76$
Europa Universalis IV: The El Dorado Collection - 3.01$
Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations - 1.63$

I used a VPN to login but your payal can be american / canadian / whatever and the keys aren't region locked.

e: a spreadsheet of sale prices in USD / pounds from reddit: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ldgyD5QRq0_Q1OlFyX6qR8qEzYyonoag2i-VVx1LTBQ/edit#gid=1857213155

# ? Dec 20, 2015 17:49

CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

Isn't GreenManGaming a grey market reseller now or was that misinformation?

# ? Dec 20, 2015 18:36

RhoA: Jul 20, 2014

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

Isn't GreenManGaming a grey market reseller now or was that misinformation?

This is news to me, when did this become a thing? I've been buying keys from them no problem for a long time.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 19:28

Ragequit: Jun 1, 2006; Lipstick Apathy

RhoA posted:

This is news to me, when did this become a thing? I've been buying keys from them no problem for a long time.

There was a big issue with them selling shady Witcher 3 keys according to the devs. Other than that I am not familiar with any other issues.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 19:42

Sleeveless: Dec 25, 2014; by Pragmatica

BigRed0427 posted:

I have a lot of games that still have card drops.

Did they get rid of idling on games for cards? Because i've been doing that on a few game sand i'm getting nothing.

Use Idle Master, it will idle games and get card drops without you having to even install the game. The options are pretty nifty too, you can have it idle game with the most valuable cards first and it can do multiple games at once to get past the initial 2 hour limit.

Then when you get your cards use Steam Inventory Helper (Chrome only) to put them up for sale en masse with the price automatically adjusted to your liking based on the last sold card.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 19:46

RhoA: Jul 20, 2014

Ragequit posted:

There was a big issue with them selling shady Witcher 3 keys according to the devs. Other than that I am not familiar with any other issues.

Hmm okay, wasn't aware that was a thing, but I also haven't gotten the Witcher 3 yet. Appreciate you letting me know that.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 19:49

Ragequit: Jun 1, 2006; Lipstick Apathy

RhoA posted:

Hmm okay, wasn't aware that was a thing, but I also haven't gotten the Witcher 3 yet. Appreciate you letting me know that.

Found where I read it, in case you were curious.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 20:00

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

GreenManGaming is ok. They did a gently caress up but they're legit and have some good deals. Some people in the past only bought from them during the X-mas sale as they had better prices than Steam while still not landing in the grey market zone.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 20:10

Fart of Presto: Feb 9, 2001; Clapping Larry

GMG also added to the product pages where they get their keys from now.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 20:15

Axialbloom: Jul 7, 2011; My life is a series of
lapses in judgement.

GMG is a godsend for those from AUS/NZ (like myself) who typically have to deal with a markup of approximately half a billion dollars on some steam titles.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 20:52

Sleeveless: Dec 25, 2014; by Pragmatica

GMG is fine. It's G2A that's the shady grey market reseller with a long history of bad codes purchased with stolen credit cards and no guarantee that the code you get from them will even work unless you pay extra for "insurance".

# ? Dec 20, 2015 20:55

Jordan7hm: Feb 17, 2011; Lipstick Apathy

Gmg is a bit sketchy. But I recommend using a vpn to buy from nuuvem so whatever.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 21:10

Wiggly Wayne DDS: Sep 11, 2010

GMG aren't sketchy at all, people just have trouble understanding business deals and think they're the same as getting keys via stolen credit cards.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 21:25

Gromit: Aug 15, 2000; I am an oppressed White Male, Asian women wont serve me! Save me Campbell Newman!!!!!!!

Gromit fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Dec 23, 2015

# ? Dec 20, 2015 22:41

Liquid Penguins: Feb 18, 2006; by Cowcaster; Grimey Drawer

GMG has always done right by their customers and I've had a great experience every time I've used them in the last several years. I hope evolve is like $5 this steam sale because this is really the last chance that thing has before it's completely dead.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 22:49

B-Mac: Apr 21, 2003; I'll never catch "the gay"!

Jordan7hm posted:

Gmg is a bit sketchy. But I recommend using a vpn to buy from nuuvem so whatever.

Problem is games are getting regional locks on steam that aren't mentioned on nuuvems website. Pillars of eternity is locked to South America and won't activate on steam but that isn't mentioned on the website. It's even more hit and miss now than it was before.

# ? Dec 20, 2015 23:21

super sweet best pal: Nov 18, 2009

Justin_Brett posted:

Still mentioning Indie Royale, wow.

Cricket Coach 2014 is a modern classic.

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:01

pezzie: Apr 11, 2003; everytime someone says a seasonal anime is GOAT

Just watch the best anime ever

I've used GMG for years now and have never been let down by them. Get my keys quickly, and they usually have an always persistent at least 20% off coupon, which makes buying launch titles from them a no brainer.

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:11

eonwe: Aug 11, 2008; Lipstick Apathy

i will buy cheap games on steam this year

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:14

Freak Futanari: Apr 11, 2008

Eonwe posted:

i will buy cheap games on steam this year

Heck, i might actually do this, too

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:17

Away all Goats: Jul 5, 2005; Goose's rebellion

I predict lots of complaining about how sales aren't as good as previous years

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:17

Freak Futanari: Apr 11, 2008

Away all Goats posted:

I predict lots of complaining about how sales aren't as good as previous years

I'm going to do this as well, because i'm probably going to realize that i already own all the games i want. Sorry in advance everyone

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:23

Tippis: Mar 21, 2008; It's yet another day in the wasteland.

Away all Goats posted:

I predict lots of complaining about how sales aren't as good as previous years

Valve should just purge the top 30 played games from everyone's steam accounts before each sale so people always have something ~~new~~ great to buy.

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:25

TopHatGenius: Oct 3, 2008; something feels
different; Hot Rope Guy

My wallet is primed and ready.

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:30

Sleeveless: Dec 25, 2014; by Pragmatica

Eonwe posted:

i will buy cheap games on steam this year

Me too. Heck, I may even play some of them!

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:42

Khanstant: Apr 5, 2007

Are there even any good games left to play this year?

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:44

Tippis: Mar 21, 2008; It's yet another day in the wasteland.

Sleeveless posted:

Me too. Heck, I may even play some of them!

Let's not overextend ourselves here.

# ? Dec 21, 2015 03:44

Kite Pride Worldwide: Apr 20, 2009

Have any other services started their holiday sale yet? I really want sale price New Vegas ASAP. Barring that, does anyone have a copy of NV:Ultimate they'd be willing to sell/trade for $5?

# ? Dec 21, 2015 04:05

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# ? Apr 23, 2024 22:29

afkmacro: Mar 29, 2009

i will obsessively refresh the steam store page ten times a day and not buy a single thing because gently caress you i only play the same three games

# ? Dec 21, 2015 04:09

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