Steam Summer Sale Day One: the best games, the best deals

Buy Portal 2. Now.

Today’s best Steam Summer Sale deal

Portal 2 - £3.74 (-75%)

TE: Absolutely brilliant. Essential. Buy it. Or buy it for a friend so you can play co-op with someone you love/like.

SH: You should probably own this already. If not, it’s not going to get any cheaper. Unless Valve make it free one day, which sounds like something they’d eventually do.

But... there's more daily deals. 

Terraria - £1.49 (-75%)

TE: A brilliant little side-on alternative to Minecraft. It was already cheap, now it’s ridiculous. Buy it.

SH: Better than Minecraft. There’s more fun content in Terraria’s little finger than in the whole of Minecraft’s big blocky body. If you don’t have it already, this is perhaps the best deal currently on the board.

Ridge Racer: Unbounded - £14.99 (-50%)

PC: As good as the drifting is, once the AI starts cheating, it gets unfun very fast, not matter how much fun it started out as.

TE: Reviews for this were all over the place, depending on whether the reviewer understood how the drift controls worked. If they understood, 8/10. If they didn’t, 6/10 or less. If you’re going to buy it, you should probably figure out how the drift controls work.

SH: No thanks. Even with that generous discount, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box is better and only £4.99, I’d sooner buy that three times.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - £19.99 (-25%)

TE: It’s good! Honest! But only 25% off is a stingy discount. Frankly, you already know if you want it. If you’re hovering over a purchase, I doubt 25% off is going to sway you.

SH: Ehh, if you’d asked me yesterday how much I thought I could pick up Modern Warfare 3 for, I’d have said around twenty pounds. Not seeing the incentive here. God, I’m ungrateful.

UPDATE: It's actually 50% off. We fail. That's actually a strong deal. Buy buy buy!

Total War: Shogun 2  Franchise - £7.49 (-75%)

PC: Creative Assembly stripping back and focusing in on what they do best; lots of wonderful battles and tiny men dying tiny deaths in Japan. Perfect preparation for Rome II next year.

TE: It’s a great, great game and a very good deal. I’d say yes, but with a caveat: the Sega Hits Collection includes Shogun II and many, many more great games. And is an insane deal.

Legend of Grimrock - £4.79 (-60%)

TE: It’s a first-person dungeon crawler: Eye of the Beholder reborn, and with Steam Workshop support. Very good.

SH: This is the Dungeon Master jobbie, right? The smidge-above-£10 price-point had been just high enough to put me off purchasing until now. Grimrock will be the first game I pick up in this sale.

Crusader Kings 2 - £7.49 (-75%)

PC: When it comes to medieval diplomacy, there’s not really a better game. Manage a dynasty rather than a nation, meaning keeping our kids alive (and not killing you) is far more important than expanding your borders.

Might and Magic: Heroes VI - £14.99 (-30%)

TE: S’alright I suppose. Would prefer the King’s Bounty series, which is the same price for three games. I'd hold out for that. 

Indie Bundle I (Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Cave Story+, Edge, Lone Survivor, The Baconing):

PC: At least three of these games are great. I haven’t played Edge, but Lone Survivor is worth £7 all on its own. Cave Story+, too.