Steam sales are retail therapy at its best – Reader’s Feature

A bargain is never far away on Steam (Picture: Valve)

A reader advocates the joys of post-Christmas sales and how waiting till the right moment can net you dozens of games for virtually nothing.

The leftovers are spent. Christmas is over. All the chocolate you were given over the holidays has been devoured. You’ll have to go to work soon as well shudder… All seems pretty bleak doesn’t it? Among all the doom and gloom of the post-Christmas blues arrives what me and my friends have dubbed ‘Steamas’, practically a mini holiday of its own at this point. Could you stop laughing please, it doesn’t sound that bad does it?

It’s that brief part in the holiday hangover that is genuinely awesome: games aplenty at incredibly good prices. Everyone who plays video games knows of the notoriety of Steam sales, especially the winter sale that happens each year. For both veterans and people just starting out, it’s a great opportunity to clog up your library with an abundance of games that you will inevitably barely touch in the coming year.

Whether it’s as little as shaving off £10 from a recently released triple-A title or snapping up some games for under a £1, it’s a great time to get an inventory full of games you’ve been eyeing up. Forget the extravagant meals, gifts under the tree, forget the cheeseboard (I know I said it): this is where the holidays really start!

This Christmas I was given a £20 Steam voucher from an uncle and eagerly loaded it into my wallet on Boxing Day. Steamas had begun. I looked through my wishlist to see an abundance of games on sale, noticing I’ve never played any of the Half-Life games (and somehow have remained free from spoilers!).

I was able to get Half-Life 2 plus episodes 1 and 2 in The Orange Box, along with some other games, for a whopping £1.67. Add in Half-Life for 71p and that’s me sorted for the good part of the beginning of this year. Another game I had my Geiger counter on was Chernobylite and I was able to nab it for just shy of £10. Having played non-stop since, I can certainly say that it is an amazing game and would highly recommend it to anyone who’s been on the fence!

This is what is so brilliant about these sales; it gives more people the opportunity to try out and explore new games that they may have previously been hesitant to try out. Similar to Game Pass in a way, some of the games are so ludicrously cheap, such as Half-Life, you could easily get a month’s worth of games that would last you an incredibly long time for the same price, plus as a nice bonus you get to keep it afterwards too, it’s genuinely really good fun.

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And yes, I know that CDKeys exists but something about this feels good, especially with the controversy surrounding some third party distributors, as well as that satisfying discount total at the end of your cart; it makes for a pleasant way to buy your games.

My only problem is that it can be so cheap, even for old games like Half-Life, it feels like I’m quite literally stealing at this price: not quite in line with the Christmas spirit really, is it? Well, nothing quite clears post-Christmas blues than some shopping therapy, right? So my main question is who else has been celebrating Steamas this holiday? Anyone?

GC: The Steam winter sale ended on Thursday (the reader only sent us this feature on Wednesday) but we’re sure there’ll be another one soon.

By reader V

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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A reader advocates the joys of post-Christmas sales and how waiting till the right moment can net you dozens of games for virtually nothing.