And It Was All Going So Well...: The Steam Summer Camp Sale

So, I guess Steam's summer sale is annual now. Pretty bad news for my gaming backlog, but how could I resist these fine deals?

Day One: 30 June 2011

Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition (€6.80)

I may have had to pull myself away from Morrowind last year for fear of never finishing another game ever, but I enjoyed the hell out of the fifty or so hours I put into it, and I've been chomping at the bit to try out Oblivion. I passed it up during the holiday sale for €10, but now I'm slightly glad I waited, cheapskate that I am.

BIT.TRIP RUNNER (€2.00)

This looked awesome when it debuted on WiiWare, so it was a no-brainer for €2. . It plays a lot like Tomena Sanner, another WiiWare game. It's kind of a rhythm game masquerading as a platformer. In each level, you automatically run from left to right, encountering a series of obstacles, which you need to avoid by hitting the appropriate action button at the right time. When you do, a little beep or bloop is played, which form into an 8-bit style ditty, when you pass a bunch of obstacles in a row. Pretty neat, but it does get pretty hard pretty quickly.

Day Four: 3 July 2011

Torchlight (€2.99)

I've heard a lot of great things in this, mostly on the Bombcast, but I've often had to turn down a discounted copy on Steam in favour of some other, more desirable goodies. On the 3rd of July, I said "No more!". (Not really though.)

Day Six: 5 July 2011

Beat Hazard Ultra (€1.12)

I picked up vanilla Beat Hazard during last summer's sale and enjoyed it a ton for a few days and then, sadly, kind of forgot about it. Hopefully, this cheap and seemingly large piece of DLC will rekindle my love for music-fuelled, twin-stick shooting.

Day Ten: 9 July 2011

id Super Pack (€29.99)

The big one. I've been lusting after this since I first joined Steam in 2008, but it's always seemed a bit too expensive to grab, even for €30 during the previous sales it popped up in. This time, I hadn't gone too crazy with my spending beforehand, so I decided to finally throw down the required amount and finally get to play some Final Doom, Commander Keen, Hexen etc. and not for id's over-inflated asking prices. Seriously, €20 for Doom 3, €20 for Quake III, €10 for each of the classic Doom games. Is there anyone out there who'd pay that much for those games in this day and age?

Eternity's Child (€1.00)

I remember this was slated for a WiiWare release at one point. I'm not really sure what happened there, but I always quite liked the art style and it's got to be worth a go for a euro.

NyxQuest (€2.50)

A WiiWare game that did actually make it out, I really enjoyed the demo for this that Nintendo released a while ago. I guess I'm legitimising their disinterest in demos by going ahead and getting this on Steam instead of WiiWare though. Sorry, everyone. :D

Total: 

If my calculations are correct that brings my total spending to €46.39. Ouch! A bit more than I was expecting to drop, especially given how frugal I was last during last summer's sale, not to mention the size of my backlog (again). Still, I'm glad I finally grabbed the id pack. When it didn't go on sale during the holiday sale, I was afraid I missed my last chance to get hold of it for €30. Now, to get source ports of all those games up and running and then never touch any of them ever again. :D