I'm somewhat late with today's installment given the usual craziness that happens around Christmas. But now that everyone is properly comatose from obscene amounts of cake I have a bit of time to go over some really good Steam Deals.
There are no daily deals in this Winter Sale so no matter when you end up reading this, as long as its before January 4, the discounts will still be in effect. With that said, let's start:
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Pack (-80%)
A simply excellent turn based strategy game with a lot content and depth to it. Perhaps the best thing about it is watching your hopeless crew of rookies who learned to aim at the storm-trooper academy become slowly better at their jobs as they gain combat experience and new gear. You can get really attached and protective of your squad as you play through XCOM because you will watch these people rise from nothingness and face overwhelming challenges.
The Complete pack comes with all of the DLC, the most important of which is the Enemy Within expansion which brings with it a lot of new missions and tilesets, improved robotics and psychic combat styles and a lot more.
XCOM is a great game and with the sequel coming relatively soon now would be the time to play it.
Bastion, as far as gameplay is concerned is pretty good but when you add the narrator and story it becomes obvious why it won so many awards when it first released. I won't discuss anything about the story in fear of spoiling some of the wonder but it is well paced and very emotional by the end of it. A lot of the impact the story carries comes from the gravely-voiced narrator who did such a good job at bringing the world to life.
Bastion isn't an overly long game, and it doesn't cost much either, so I'd suggest you put aside a couple of hours and play through it as its one of those games best experienced fully blind.
Resident Evil 4 (-66%) & Resident Evil Revelations (-70%)
While pretty bad as horror games these two Resident Evil titles are best played as tactical action games with some very tense moments because the enemies don't die easily, you don't have much ammo and you can't run around the battlefield like a madman so positioning is crucial. The monsters probably won't scare you but you'll be shitting your pants as you realize your gun isn't reloading and you're stuck in a house surrounded by demented villagers.
So if you think you'll enjoy a slow & tense third-person shooter with some horror elements mixed in then I'd suggest both of these as they have essentially the same gameplay style and they're both good at they do.
Trine 1 (-85%) & Trine 2 (-85%)
The first two Trine games are breathtakingly beautiful 2.5D puzzle-platformers with some really cool mechanics, most notably the Wizard class with its ability to summon objects in to the world. As a single player game they're a bit too easy given that you can "cheat" with the grappling hook but if you play them in multiplayer and you have to get all three characters across then it becomes really interesting.
Both are fairly cheap at this point so if you can I'd suggest you play them with friends but even if you have to go at it solo they're still fun games in their own right, just resist the urge to cheat.
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (-90%)
Chivalry is one of the best, if not only actually active, first person fighting game. With plenty of weaponry to chose from you'll be able to behead, pommel, riddle with arrows or whatever else one might do with medieval weaponry to your opponents.
While there is a lot of skill to the combat its still one of the better "relax and unwind" games out there as you can spam the shout button while rushing in to the fray and still have a ton of fun doing so. Its super cheap right now which means there's going to be a huge influx of new players so if you ever wanted to try out a medieval fighting game while on even ground with the other players, now's the time.
The Mass Effect series is Bioware's best RPG work showcasing some of the most detailed and nuanced companions in gaming. If you're interested in exploring a lore-rich galaxy while shooting the place up and romancing all of the alien species along the way then Mass Effect has you cowered. Despite being in the same series the two games are somewhat different with ME1 focusing mostly on the overall story and RPG aspects of gameplay and ME2 focusing on characters and more action orientated TPS combat.
Either way, both are amazing games with great stories and I fully recommend them to any RPG lover.
And that is it for today. I'll see you again shortly as the next Steam Sale rotation is going to be coming up in a couple of hours. And if you're interested in the previous bunch of great deals, look no further.