Steam Summer Sale 2014

The Steam Summer 2014 sale has been over for a little less than an hour, and we’ve now come a full circle from last year’s Steam Summer sale. Since then, much has happened from my end: I’m now rolling into a MSc of Computer Science in the fall, and half the summer has already elapsed. In that time, I’ve picked up the basics to Unity and learned some C# in the process. Last year’s Steam Summer sale, I picked up four titles and had a blast with them, although the backlog endures: in fact, I’ve only just gotten around to playing through Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Of course, this summer sale saw some impressive deals, as well, and overall, after some forty dollars worth of purchases later, I ended up with The Stanley Parable, Wolfire Overgrowth, Receiver, Skullgirls, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Magicka and Borderlands 2. This is rather more than I purchased last summer, and I doubt I’ll be able to beat everything by the end of this summer, or next summer, for that matter: I have enough games to last well through to next year. Thus, I am now presented with the classic conundrum: will I ever get around to playing some of the titles I purchased (or even finish the titles from last summer)? Given that Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Skyrim and Borderlands 2 are not typical AAA shooters with six-hour campaigns, it’ll be unlikely that I manage to succeed before the summer is over.

• At the time of writing, I’m level fifteen, and are 24 XP points away from reaching level sixteen. The main incentive to level up now is to get at the extra showcase box so that I can show off my favourite achievements.

• Compared to last year, I purchased more games, but I should also be good for the next while as far as buying things during Steam sales should go: there’s enough content here to last me at least two years (with the way I progress). I probably won’t buy anything during the Winter 2014 sale this year, as I more or less have everything that I was looking to buy since last year (Magicka, Trials: Evolution, Borderlands 2).

• After initial rumours that the teams were rigged to win fairly, Red Team won consecutively for four days in a row. I was assigned onto Pink Team after crafting a badge for Portal 2, and ultimately, Pink Team was able to disrupt Red Team’s streak. The setup allowed me to craft two Summer 2014 badges, which are cosmetic but do add a bit of customisation to one’s Steam profile.

• With all these games on my plate, Battlefield 3 is something I will set aside for the present. Besides the new games, I’m also doing more pencil sketches and have finally made progress in my books from last year. Over the weekend, in a strange twist of déjà vu from last year, I went out for dinner at The Green Chili for Indian cuisine, then watched How To Train Your Dragon 2). I also finished building the HGUC Full Armour Unicorn Gundam (Destory Mode) model that I had acquired during Otafest 2014. We now reach the halfway point of summer, and with the time remaining, besides hanging out with friends for wings, I should also resume biking.

Now, that isn’t to say everything is doom and gloom: from the looks of things, I have enough games to last the next while. Moreover, games like The Stanley Parable, Magicka and Skullgirls can be played at a more casual pace. For the present, I’ll probably alternate between Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Magicka. At some point later this summer (say, late July to early August), I’ll start Borderlands 2 and Tomb Raider: Underworld (after I find a software for capturing screenshots: Steam Overlay doesn’t work with the latter). I will also find time to get back into Skyrim and finish the main quest line near the beginning of August. Over the course of the sale, I also was able to level up from rank twelve to rank fifteen by crafting badges. Through voting and contributing points to pink team, I contributed 24 points, acquired 26 cards to craft a level two Summer 2014 badge, and with that, I’m getting closer to rank twenty (which means an additional showcase for my profile). I understand that there was quite a bit of heated discussion on social media surrounding the whole “earn points for your team” mechanic, but at the end of the day, what really matters is the sale, and that for now, I should aim to complete at least Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Magicka and Tomb Raider: Underworld before term starts in September.