It’s that time of year again where gamers need to hide their wallets before the discounts get them. The Steam Summer Sale has just started on June the 25th and will run until July the 9th. This kind of sale typically tends to be the second biggest they have for the year with thousands of games for sale and points to collect.
Event
Some of these giant sales they try and make them a little extra fun with some kind of event. Unless there is some kind of delay there appears not to be anything big. It’s just a very vanilla for every $1 you spend you get 1k points to pick some stuff up in in the item store.
This year there appears to be no $10 off coupon that you can exchange points to acquire. While they have had some issues in the past by not limiting that kind of offer to just one. They flat out are not doing at it all. Instead, as I was writing this I noticed they just added a $5 “Road Trip” special if you spend $30.
As far as spending the points goes they have emoticons, stickers, and other stuff you can use in the platforms online chat. The last time I used that thing was to tell someone a better place to get ahold of me. So I am not the target demographic for this sort of thing.
The big-ticket item is the Summer Golden Profile at 5k points. Steam keeping up with the theme of some things only last a limited amount of time before they are consumed. The golden profile only lasts for 30 days. At least this time around they were kind enough to show what it looks like. At one point it was showing your profile. It seems they were not ready and now have replaced that with Mayor Carol of Sales.
I have also noticed that I already had some points without making any purchase. It seems the Point Shop is now here to stay year-round. Now sure if this is a new feature or if I missed the announcement of this change. I frankly don’t care for stickers on some chat I don’t use unless I have no other options in a game.
The only interesting thing going on here is some kind of push to get people to go out and gift points they earn to people who have written reviews. This is not a push towards Steam’s rather broken and dead curator part of the platform. Instead, it’s towards those who just leave a helpful “review” comment under a game’s store page.
Overall it feels like they either were rushing to put final touches on things or just have gotten lazy. Maybe they will roll more stuff out in the next couple of days. At least their website has been stable for me with only slow loading times as an issue.
My Top Game List
Usually, I try and pick 10 games that I have a review on that are also on sale during these events. I’ve done it a couple of times now. While I usually have a couple of repeats I try and include several games that have not made it on my pick list. Not this time around.
Due to several platform exclusives games elsewhere for buying digital games version on places like Epic Games and the Microsoft Store. There has not been for me at least a whole lot to get excited over for a while now on Steam.
Not to mention many games have either elected to not go on discount or offer quite a weak one. I’m somewhat shocked games are not being more aggressive in what has been for quite a while one of the largest platforms and sales to buy digital games. I guess times are changing. Even more so during these hard times where people are strapped for cash and struggling.
As such I’m reducing my list down quite a lot. If you would like to see games I’ve recommended in the past you can view my Winter sale and past Summer sale posts.
State of Decay 2
Genre: Survival
Price: $23.99 (20% off) *
This game was finally added to the Steam store a couple of months ago after being rather exclusive just to the Microsoft store. If you were a fan of the original State of Decay chances are you will end up loving this. Yes, you can hit a zombie with a car door. Along with a lot of other ways to get that zombie-killing needs out of the way!
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Genre: RPG
Price: $12.49 (75% Off) *
This game does contain a lot of inside jokes from the TV show South Park so it does help to have watched it some point to get the full enjoyment out of the game. On top of that you are rude, prude, and fart on just about everything! Not a game for those easily offended by a good time.
This War of Mine
Genre: Survival
Price: $4.99 (75% off) *
While each game only lasts a couple of hours in most instances there is quite a lot of replayability in making another attempt. It also takes the classic twist of survival and puts you in the shoes of average people who are that great in combat or other stills. You need to survive by collecting supplies and overcome stress and other factors the group is dealing with.
Surviving Mars
Genre: Strategy City Builder
Price: $10.19 (66% off) *
You get sent with limited funds and supplies to carry out missions on mars with humans and robots. Throughout the game, you can request or even send supplies back home to Earth. Along with several things from sending robots out to explore for a new area to build, managing your growing city, or taking on challenges around Mars. This game has a fair amount of stuff to do while you build out domes on mars.
Starbound
Genre: Survival
Price: $8.99 *
The biggest draw to this pixel adventure of survival is you are not limited to just exploring and looting on one planet. The spaceship you fly can be upgraded and tends to be your base of operations for crafting. While you travel all over the galaxy to complete missions and make discoveries.
(*Prices are based on the North America store and may be different in your area. Not responsible for any errors. Links are provided in the price to check the store page for the exact price.)
Perhaps some more games will end up going on sale in a couple of days. Seems like some were not fully prepared or there is some kind of delayed rollout.
Final Thoughts
As far as what I’m buying? It looks like nothing. Anything I’m interested in still has a “this game is not yet available on Steam” or has a very weak 20ish percent off discount. These past few big sales have been at least for me feeling lackluster. After talking with some others about the 2020 Summer Sale it appears I’m not alone in this feeling.
If you would like to see a full list of all games I have a review on that are currently on sale you can check out my curator pageand click on the discounts tab. I’ve gone in and included any game exclusives that have finally made their way over to Steam along with anything I forgot about.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about the Steam Summer Sales Event. Screenshots are from the Steam store or from the individual game they are listed under from when I played the game.
This year It seems that I don't buy this much. I should play my unplayed games and not buying new ones. But I've already said that last year.
Other places to buy games seem to be having more of what I’m interested in these days. That and I have a lot of games to get around to playing as well :)
I completely forgot about the sale, haha -- logs onto Steam!!!!
Starbound is an okay game, but I felt it was better when it was still in beta. They completely fugged up the hotbar. Some people can get past it but I can't. A bad hotbar = an unplayable game.
Cheers for mentioning the sale!
Well that blows if they messed that up. I had no issues the last time i played.
I hope you find something worth picking up. There sales are sadly becoming forgettable. There is no crazy 99% off go and get it game to bring in attention like they use to have years ago.
The hotbar used to be more intuitive. Simple 1, 2, 3, 4, etc like in Terraria and every other sane game.
Now it's some weird mish-mash where you have 1 handed things, 2 handed things, and it just feels clunky. After 300+ hours in early access playing with a normal hotbar, then, out of the blue just before release they switch to this clunky thing, it was terrible.
And they HARD CODED it in so people can't even mod it back. Really grinds my gears. I loved that game until they did that, haha!
Yeah, I'm not really finding anything interesting in the sale. 😞 I'll just stick with my acquisitions on Humble Bundle, and freebies from Epic.
At the rate Epic has been going they will end up replacing most of my Steem library with a couple extra games I did not have before. After that I’m not sure how often I’ll be logging into Steam.
I just need to get into Epic’s content creator program if that is still a thing.
Some cool stickers though!
On the other hand, what's the point of buying for example Ark: Survival Evolved 80% off on Steam, when it was for free on the Epic Game store not so long ago?
Not everyone picked it up for free. Some prefer to have all their games on a single platform as well.
I have over 1k hours into that game and even at its current price it’s quite a bargain.
Well, I guess it's that time of the year to get the wallet out again, and empty it 💸. Worth it? Absolutely! Having thoroughly enjoyed playing The Final Station, I've come to immensely appreciate the simplistic atmosphere of pixelated, 8-bit-ish games. That said, Starbound looks like the perfect game for me. Pixelated adventure, platformer in space... Yes!
I’ve not found anything yet that has made me pull the trigger and buy. Perhaps the winter sale will be something more to my liking in prices.
Ah, I nearly forgot that Steam had sales in other seasons, too! My lil' bro just bought a game from the sale, Divinity 2 or something of the sort. It looks neat!
I've already spent all my "pocket money" on yarn. Unfortunately, I have two hobbies that want part of my time and money ;)
Sounds like you acquired a mountain of yearn :)
I know that feeling. I have a few hobbies these days to the point I’m not even gaming much.
I've been wanting Underworld Ascendant ever since announced, but the reviews really turned me off. Considering it for $7.50.
I can vouch for This War of Mine is really good.
Starbound is fantastic, not my thing but my son loves it. There is a full makeover mod you can download that changes it completely.
I’ve never heard of Underworld Ascendant. I am a sucker for RPGs though. Sometimes those reviews are not worth a darn. I just noticed there is an option to filter out low playtime and then see the results.
I’ve not been paying much attention to the changing they been making on that platform. Wish they would overhaul the curator system over there a bit. Feels like they forgot about it.
Underworld Ascendant is a spiritual successor to the old Ultima Underworld series.