Intrinsically, most modern currencies have no objective value. Instead, they all have relative value. A marker that gives them worth as compared to the cost of goods, or more accurately, as compared to other currency. I means that a dollar to me, today, may not be identical to what a dollar could mean to me tomorrow, or next month, or next year. As an abstract thought, this isn’t hard to grasp. It’s never really concrete though. Except, perhaps, in the face of sales. Through the likes of Steam and such, the value of a single dollar has a visible, simple marker for how far it can be stretched.
With that in mind, let’s see how far we can stretch ours with the help of this week’s deals.
Humble Bundle
Making a reappearance from last week, the Square Enix Humble Bundle 2 has picked up a few new friends. Sitting an average of $7.77, there’s still plenty of goodness to be found, especially out of the stellar Sleeping Dogs at the above-$15 level. Tomb Raider (2013), Murdered: Soul Suspect, Hitman Absolution, Hitman GO, and plenty more are on offer, depending on how much you decide to stump up. Unusually for the publisher, there are no Final Fantasy games in the bundle - with Type 0 HD coming out, and Final Fantsy XIII now on Steam, it’s slightly surprising that Square Enix hasn’t taken the opportunity to leverage the brand. Perhaps they’re sitting on a dedicated Final Fantasy bundle for a later date?
This week’s Weekly Bundle is Made in Japan, offering a pretty varied mix of genres. Sitting at a $4.45 average, this bundle offers language learning software, RPGs, action games, turn-based strategies, and side-scrolling and top-down shmups. At above $10, there’s also the excellent Half-Minute Hero II, worth the price of entry alone.
GOG.com
GOG is currently celebrating the launch of the German version of its service with a weekend sale on a number of German titles. As you might expect, titles published by Daedalic feature rather prominently here, with discounts of up to a whopping 97% on titles such as Deponia. The point and click genre is well-represented, but for strategy fans there’s the Blackguards series and a few Settlers games, as well as the rather lovely The Last Tinker: City of Colors.
The Herzlich Willkommen! sale runs until Tuesday, March 3rd.
Indie Royale
This week, Indie Royale has a list of three bundles on offer. The first is the KISS Bundle, a group of games from digital indie games label. The current list of 11 games is going for $2.70. Interestingly, this bundle seems like a wide mix of casual and core titles, which should suit a decent variety of tastes.
The second is the Mixer 15 Bundle, 10 games currently on offer for $2.75. Surprisingly, this bundle also includes Slaughtering Grounds, which made some waves after a string of videos from Jim Sterling of the Jimquisition.
The third and final is the Debut 24 Bundle, putting 9 Steam Greenlight games on offer for $1.97.
Bundle Stars
This week, Bundle Stars goes off the reservation with 11 different bundles. I won’t drag out the time to list all eleven of them, but they’re all available here. Several of the Reboot bundles have made a re-appearance from weeks past, but the one that caught my eye was the F.E.A.R. Bundle, offering all FEAR titles (and FEAR 1 and 2 DLC) for $7.99.
Beyond their bundles, Bundle Stars is also running a wide range of sales on their Store page, including Shadow of Mordor for $24.99, RPG Maker VX Ace for $9.99, and indie darling To the Moon for $1.99.
Indie Game Stand
Indie Game Stand’s current Pay What You Want offer is Ascendant, an action-platformer featuring procedurally generated maps and permadeath.
Steam
Outside of their free weekend on Europa Universalis IV ($9.99) and sale price on Galactic Civilizations, Steam currently has a usual assortment of 278 other items on sale. Full list of specials can be found here.
Nintendo Network
Nintendo’s current offer on special is the Donkey Kong Knock-Out offer, granting a 30% discount on WiiU’s Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and 3DS’s Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D with accompanying purchase of Donkey Kong Country or Donkey Kong Land Virtual Console titles. Full details can be found here, including the prices a small collection of games on sale through the eShop.
Xbox Marketplace
In addition to many of the same the deals covered last week, Xbox Marketplace has added the Sliver Crew Credit Pack to their spotlight for $14.99, and a number of deals to the Deals with Gold sales, including Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag for $24.99 and the Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition for $24.99.
Playstation Network
Sony’s showing this week includes a Playstation Vita birthday sale, offering a number of excellent Vita titles at roughly 50% discounts. Some standouts in the list include several titles in the Atlier series for $23.99, the excellent Jak and Daxter Collection for $13.50, and fan-recommended Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP at $8.99.
The other major on-going sale is the Ubisoft Sale, offering several major AAA titles on discount. For my money, the best part of this sale is Beyond Good and Evil HD (PS3) for $3.49. However, Watch Dogs ($24.99), Rayman Origins ($9.99), and Far Cry 4 ($53.99) are also in attendance.
That’s all I’ve got this week. As always, we welcome any comments you may have, shout outs for deals we may have missed, or just if you have mountains of praise you’d like to send our way.
