It’s the Steam winter sale! Wallets! Money! Paypal transactions! Death! All these things await us in the coming fortnight as millions of pounds are spent on videogames under the guise of saving thousands. We get gifts and distractions from family, game developers get money and Gabe gets that fifth backscratcher made of emerald encrusted diamonds he’s been after for his dog. And probably a new knife.
If you just need a holiday fix, here’s the best Christmas games, from us to you.
As previously reported, there won’t be any flash or daily deals in this year’s post-Summer sales, so whatever games you’ve been thinking about grabbing are as cheap now as they will be at any stage. As for minigames, there’s nothing as complex as Summer’s clicker game, but there are a pair of new additions for the holiday period.
The most significant is the Northpole Noir comicwhich will be updated, presumably, every day through the sale with another page of story from Gingerbread Jake’s dark-fantasy tale of murder and mystery at the top of the world. He has a candy cane standin for a cigarette and it looks like Santa has either killed someone or been murdered. Fun fact: the barcode on the comic is apparently similar to Agent 47’sback-of-the-neck tattoo.Intrigue!
Meanwhile, you’re now able to earn the new set of winter trading cards simply by browsing your discovery queue, the little section of Steam you probably haven’t touched since they launched it which asks you if you’re interested in various games it think you might be. Get through your queue and you’ll get a card. Do it some more and you’ll get two extra cards to sell for pennies on the market or craft the badge.Economics!
There’s a bit more info on all that in the new card FAQ. As always, I’ll pretend to be better than all that and then diligently earn my three cards a day anyway, craft the badge and then have a long, hard look in the mirror at what I’ve become. I nearly hard-locked my computer, multiple times, with auto-clickers during Summer. I’m the problem.Death!
There doesn’t seem to be an ARG or Half-Life 3 attached, so we can all get back in our Christmas holes. If you’d like some fast recommendations, here’s a few highlights:
- You can get The Witcher 3 for the price of a normal videogame, or its prequel for a cup of coffee.
- People like Spelunky for some reason, even though it’s entirely not my personal bag. £2.74 / $3.74 / €3.74.
- The whole Devil May Cry series is very cheap and as good as action gets on PC until Nintendo port Bayonetta. The reboot, DmC, is an utterly fantastic game.
- Remember how you kept saying you’d get Rocket League in a sale? Yours for a tenner, or 14 American/European.
- We haven’t talked about Undertalemuch on the site and probably should. It’s one of the most fascinating games of the year and a decent mix of Earthbound wandering and bullet hell battle system. Worth buying for the soundtrack alone.
Got your own recommendations? Let everyone know below, and begin the Northpole Noir speculation.SALE!