Steam Summer Sale '11

It's that time of year again. Little kids running around with all kinds of excitement. Adults running around spending money frivolously for nothing but sheer entertainment. Gathering together with your closest friends to celebrate one of the things that makes you proud to be an American.

No, not the Fourth of July. It's the big Summer time sales on Steam.

Now through July 10 is that wonderful time of year where we spend our hard-earned money on games marked 75% - 90% off… that we will never play. Yes, friends, there are insane deals to be had during the sales that make them impossible to resist.

Right now you can own the entire collection of Valve games, including Portal 2 for $50. THQ has a similar deal including Homefront for the same price. But the real deals are the ones that come for only 24 hours during this time that offer $20 games for $1.99 or $50 games for $4.99. Even if you're not going to play it, something in your gamer brain goes “OMG Dealz!!111 I can haz moar gamez!!!111”

Every time one of these sales comes around, I lose at least $150… stupid sales…

Anyway. Back on topic. Another thing they are doing is called daily summer camp, which entails playing certain games and completing certain achievements for “tickets.” Tickets can be redeemed in two ways.

1. Every ticket is an official entry into the grand prize giveaway. 100 lucky people chosen at random from the drawing will be given the 10 games on their wish list.
2. For every three achievements you complete you can pick one of their prize booth prizes, which range from map packs to dlc to free games.

Unfortunately, most of it is a big marketing ploy. You need to own the particular game that the achievement takes place in so that you can get the ticket. They are kind enough to offer discounts on the games you need to buy, however. And many of the games are not accessible to many of us.

Fortunately, there is an alternative. As you can see from the no purchase necessary rules, you can simply send a postcard for each achievement you want.

“ (b) Sweepstakes. Each completed Achievement will automatically provide the user with one (1) entry for the Sweepstakes drawing. To manually enter the Sweepstakes, each eligible entrant must print his or her name, address, city, state, country, postal code, email address, Steam account name, and telephone number, as well as the name of the Summer Camp Activity objective that the entry is for, on a self-addressed 4”x6” note card and mail the completed form to: Valve Corporation, P.O. Box 1688, Bellevue, WA 98009-1688. Note cards may be mailed as postcards or in envelopes. No e-mailed or faxed alternate entries are eligible. Facsimiles, photocopies or mechanical reproductions of entries will be void. An alternate entry must be postmarked during the Summer Sales period to be eligible for the Grand Prize Drawing. Alternate entries received after July 18, 2011 will not be eligible for the Sweepstakes. Each user may submit one alternative entry per Summer Camp Activity. Proof of sending or submitting an alternate entry is not proof of receipt of such alternate entry.”

Steam is a tricky beast, but there are definitely some very good deals and these types of sales are excellent for getting older games that may or not be accessible to you. It's a lot better to risk $2 to find out whether you can play a game than $50.

It's also worth noting both Direct 2 Drive and Impulse are running competitive sales. However, it is the opinion of this writer that most of those games are cheaper on Steam and Gamers Gate. No matter where you buy your Fourth of July games, these by annual sales are a gift and a curse, depending on how you look at it.