Sale season 2015 is coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean you can slouch on saving money.
Coming off of gog.com and Steam’s major summer sales doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of things to get on discount. And with the games industry now hitting its annual drought until things pick up in late September, what better time is there to pick up a few bargains to give yourself something to do?
Thankfully, all of the major players have anticipated this, and there are plenty of bargains to be found this week - particularly if you’re a fan of indies. Bundle Stars in particular seems to be pushing the boat out. And if you somehow have yet to get your hands on the Borderlands series, Humble Bundle has you covered.
Things are looking a little sparse on the console front this week, which perhaps isn’t surprising: they’ll be saving the big guns for when they go on their annual sequel marketing splurge in a few months. But there’s a few things of interest to be found, notably the excellent Spec Ops: The Line.
Without further ado, here’s this week’s gaming deals.
Steam
This week’s Steams sales features games that start with “M” and that’s, uh, remarkable. Steam’s Midweek Madness offers two genres of games: turn-based strategy Massive Chalice for $9.99 and the sci-fi RPG Mass Effect 2 for $4.99.
Although it’s showing its age a bit these days, Mass Effect 2 for $4.99 is a hard deal to beat, especially for first-person shooter and RPG fans.
gog.com
gog.com’s weekly staff picks sends you racing for sales on Moto
r Racer, Motor Racer 2, Motor Racer 3 Gold Edition, Megarace 1+2, and Megarace 3.
Certainly a nostalgia trip for many, and a treat for racing fans to look backward at what built the genre into what it is today. It’s also interesting to look at the rarely touched motorcycle racing genre in a featured sale.
IndieGameStand
This week’s pay-what-you-want title is Chainsaw Warrior, which is introduced as follows: “It’s the year 2032 and spatial warping has opened a hole into another dimension in the midst of the old municipal buildings at the heart of Manhattan. Bizarre and dangerous creatures are flooding into our dimension, intent on destruction. Behind their actions is a controlling intelligence known as ‘Darkness’, who intends to drag New York back into the warp – destroying it utterly!”
No idea whether it’s good or not, and that blurb does sound like a bad movie on SyFy; but you never know.
Bundle Stars
This’s weeks deals are largely new: There’s the Dungeons and Demons bundle ($34.99 for 5 games + DLC), the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete bundle ($9.99 for 3 games), the LEGO Batman 3 bundle ($12.99 for LEGO Batman 3 + 7 DLC), the Shockwave bundle ($3.49 for 10 games), and the Legions of War bundle ($1.99 for 6 games).
From the past deals articles, the All-Stars 2 bundle ($2.99 for 10 games), the Shadow of Mordor bundle ($19.99 for Shadow of Mordor and DLC); the Barbaric bundle ($3.49 for 10 games); the F.E.A.R. bundle ($4.99 for 3 games and DLC); the Guardians of Middle Earth bundle ($4.99 for Guardians of Middle Earth and DLC); the Reboot 4.0 bundle ($2.99 for 6 games); the Reboot 2.0 bundle ($2.99 for 6 games); the Hacker (Reloaded) bundle ($2.99 for 13 games.); the RPG Champions bundle ($4.99 for 6 games); the Reboot 7.0 bundle ($2.99 for 6 games and DLC); and the Blaze of Glory bundle ($3.49 for 6 games).
Phew.
Still going since last week, the All-Stars 2 bundle is really hard to pass up. A Bird Story, Mount & Blade, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl are each by themselves worth the $2.99 cost of entry, much less together in a single bundle. Picking it up is an easy recommendation. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. bundle in particular is great value for $10. The new Shockwave bundle this week certainly has a lot of interesting choices, with the 140 and Frozen Synapse double pack.
Indie Gala
Along with the usual Monday, Hump Day, and Friday Bundles, Indie Gala is running a Magicka Mega Bundle this week. From platformers and MMOs to flight simulators and adventure games, this week’s Monday bundle (7 games for $2.49) offers a variety of genres.
Similarly varied, the Hump Day bundle (12 games for $3.99) features games such as 2D action platformer Aaru’s Awakening, adventure RPG QuestEvent, and sci-fi shooter Escape Machines.
The Friday bundle (a whopping 14 games for $3.49) has interesting games such as Hare in the Hat (cartoon puzzle adventure), Shin Samurai Jazz (8-bit platformer), and Grapple (3D puzzle platformer). Lastly, the Magicka Mega Bundle offers Magicka, Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet, and the Magicka Mega DLC Pack (22 DLC) for $3.89.
The Magicka Mega Bundle seems like a sure way to get started on the series - providing a lot of DLC content and a game featuring cross-platform play with iOS and Android systems.
Humble Bundle
Less on the “indie” side of Humble Bundle’s showings this week is the Humble Borderlands bundle.
The bundle includes Borderlands plus all DLC. For beating the average, $6.05 at time of writing, the bundle will include Borderlands 2, Psycho and Mecromancer character packs, and Creature Slaughterdome DLC. Beating $15 will include the Borderlands 2 Season Pass, Headhunter 5: Son of Crawmerax DLC, and Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2.
The weekly bundle this time around is the Humble Weekly Bundle Cats Cats Cats. This feline-themed box includes Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark, Pix the Cat, and Aqua Kitty - Milk Mine Defender. Beating the average, $4.15 at time of writing, will add Torchlight 2 and Mousecraft (Humble Deluxe Edition). Pitching in $10 or more will add Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora.
The Mobile bundle this week is the Humble BulkyPix Bundle, with an average of $3.92. Pay $1 or more for Type:Rider, Meltdown, iPollute, and Pretentious Game. Going above the average adds Joe Dever’s Lone Wolf, Corto Maltese, Twin Blades, Dark Lands, Aby Escape, Orborun, and Jazz: Trump’s Journey.
Perhaps I’m biased, but it’s hard not to be enamored with the Cats Cats Cats weekly bundle this week, especially as just about every game in there is great and excellent choices for the price.
PlayStation Store
The PlayStation Store is running two major sales: the Sonic & Friends Anniversary sale, and the 2K Sale.
Although Sonic hasn’t been doing well in the review circuit lately, there are still a handful of titles worth looking into. For my money, Jet Set Radio is a steal for $3.99 (PS3, PS Vita) and Yakuza 4 for $5.99. The 2K publisher sale is mildly interesting, with Bioshock Infinite for $7.99, Spec Ops: The Line for $3.99, and Mafia II for $3.99.
Xbox Live
Following E3, Microsoft’s Deals with Gold offers The Crew, Evolve, Another World, Blue Estate, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for Xbox One.
For the Xbox 360 line-up, we have Ghost-Recon: Future Solider, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, GTA V, GTA IV, GTA: San Andreas, and MX VS ATV Supercross. Their Games with Gold includes Pool Nation FX, Massive Chalice, and Thief, as with last week.
Nintendo Network
Nintendo’s Offers page is celebrating with the EnjoyUp 10th Anniversary sale on a good list of games, from Spy Chameleon and Rock Zombie to Darts Up and 99Seconds.
The Don’t Starve: Giant Edition “Don’t Let Your Friends Starve” special continues on - giving buyers a free download code to give their friends.
Nintendo is also giving away the 3DS version of Mario vs. Donkey King Tipping Stars when you buy the Wii U version and vice versa.
That’s it for this week, as always, let us know how we’re doing in the comments section. Cheers, and happy deal-hunting.
