Oops clicked too soon:
I also got:
Rocksmith 2014 - Man. I used to be able to play most 90’s Metallica riffs. When I played around with this I had trouble with the Cure’s love song solo. My god.
The walking dead Season 2 - loving this opening episode!
Injustice gods among us: I don’t know why I picked this up. I honestly think I was sleep walking.
You need a budget: 'Cause I do.
I got
Risk of Rain
Space Hulk
Battlefield 2 (punkbuster keeps booting me off servers, least it was only $5)
Magic 2014
Awesomenauts
Flashback (great reboot of the original)
Shadow Warrior (also a fun reboot)
Ballpoint universe
Super Hexagon (only 39 cents! wooo!)
Steam Marines
Most of the games I got were only $5. I asked for Steam Gift cards as birthday presents and basically hoarded up money on Steam to blow on the winter sale. For what I spent I got a ton of games. I regret buying Castle Story and Age of Empires II before the sale; I could’ve gotten them for half what I spent. Of all the games, Risk of Rain is my favorite, and like FTL which I bought last year, is in my all-star list of games under $10 that had more replay value for me than dozens of $60 games. I love steam sales because for 5 bucks you can get a super addictive game that keeps you entertained for months.
Sure you get a few lemons (punkbuster won’t let me play Battlefield 2 for more than a few minutes at a time, still trying to figure out the problem), games with performance issues or games that you try them and they are just boring/tedious as shit. But for 5 bucks its a pretty marginal risk, considering I’ve wasted sixty bucks on games that sucked in the past.
Typically, I got rid of the one wired XBox controller I had just a bit over a month ago. “A wired controller?” I thought to myself. “When am I ever going to want to use that again?”
I’ll look for the wireless adapter, though - thanks!
The additional investment is what dissuaded me from buying Dark Souls: Prepare to Die. I have to admit that high difficultly was another factor: I don’t have heaps of time for gaming, which leads to a lower frustration level. I passed on Teleglitch as well, which is surely perfectly playable with a keyboard.
My recollection about the older Battlefields is that you need to download and install Punkbuster on your own, if that helps.
I picked up a few things this year:
Batman: Arkham Asylum
La-Mulana
Reus
Cities XL Platinum
Ys I and II Chronicles
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes
The best purchase so far has been Fallen Enchantress. It was the most expensive thing I bought ($9.99), but I’ve been playing the crap out of it. It’s kind of a spiritual successor to Master of Magic (or a cross between Heroes of Might and Magic and Civilization).
For those of you who bought Terraria, there is a pretty good wiki for the game which I have found to be a great resource.
I had Bioshock Infinite in my cart at sale-price, just before it ended. The system froze up (people making last minute buys like me, I guess). Next thing I knew, it was asking me if I wanted the game, but now at the regular price. Sigh.
I got:
The Stanley Parable
X-Com: Enemy Within
Hammerwatch
How to Survive
Another World
The Bridge
Legend of Dungeon
Toki Tori
Shadowgrounds
What will I not play? Probably Shadowgrounds, it’s very similar to the Alien Shooter and Zombie Shooter games, which I’ve played the hell out of. Still, it was cheap enough that I had to pick it up.
Also Legend of Dungeon. I tried playing it a couple times and the game is just boring and uninteresting. The dungeons are really small, the game window is really small, the text is really small and almost impossible to read. The graphics are not my highest priority in a game and I do like a lot of retro stuff, but this looks and feels like an Atari 2600 game.
I keep thinking they no longer have anything I want, and so I win. But again a few things came up:
Two Worlds Collection - Heard good things about the original from a friend.
Bioshock 3-Pack - I already had the first two games on disc, and they can take their rightful place in the closet along with my other physical copies of classic games that I’ll always play from digital downloads now
Sword of the Stars: The Pit - Played the demo, and was willing to fork over $1.39 to get past fifth level
Brutal Legend - Generally in favor of Double Fine’s Work. I’ll get around to actually playing it one day
The Cave - Another cutesy-weird vision from Double Fine. I’ve been camping it for a while, because I didn’t want to pay a whole $15 bucks for it.
Steam Marines - I don’t remember what sold me on this one.
Borderlands: Game of the Year - I’ve been looking to play these games ever since Telltale announced that they’d be doing they’re own game based on the setting. Recently sunk a lot of time into it. Well worth it, entertaining and funny, though the story was thin and the ending didn’t even make sense.
Wizardry 6+7+8 - All on disc somewhere, but I’d rather never get around to replaying it without having to not dig through the closet.
On the one hand, I kind of wished I’d gone for the Borderlands 2: Game of the Year edition when it was $30. On the other hand, I now realize that a Steam code for the game is available on Amazon for $30. I can probably wait for the fiscal month to roll around.
From GOG.com I got I have no Mouth and I Must Scream. I’ll get right on that after I finish The Cat Lady.
It kinda-sorta makes more sense in the context of Borderlands 2 although that was an obvious retcon to keep the story going. Borderlands is really weak on plot (but long on shootin’ fun) and BL2 has more of a story. Arguably not a great story – nothing you’d want to read in a book – but they try harder anyway.
Well, they got me, the bastards. I’m downloading Borderlands 2, from a Steam code I bought on Amazon. They keep reeling me in, these bastards.
I ended up buying:
Batman: Arkham Origins
Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
Dead Island Riptide
Far Cry 3
Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing
Inquisitor
Long Live the Queen
Remember Me
Rise of Venice
Saints Row 4 DLC
Shadowrun Returns
Stanley Parable
Startopia
Sword of the Stars: The Pit
Unepic
Valdis Story: Abyssal City
More than I was expecting, but some things like Arkham Origins popped up at unexpectedly low prices.
Of the things I’ve tried already:
Inquisitor: this was really not the old-school CRPG I was expecting it to be.
Long Live the Queen: fun, with lots of replay value
Rise of Venice: This was fun for the first 10 hours or so but has gotten old fast.
Unepic: I’m about 80% of the way through this, but I think I’m going to set it aside. I’m at the point where the game has said “Oh, you have a melee build? Sorry, you can’t beat this boss” and I’m not willing to grind up some magic skills.
They do a pretty good job of creating an arch-villain that you really, really, really want to kill, though.
There’s the problem with the first game. If they’d had Chthulu calling you up every 30 minutes or so to say something psycho-douchbag, you’d have had more stake in whether or not he was released onto the prime material plane. “He is not dead who can forever chill, dude!” Yeah, I’m coming to kill that Bro-gorath or whatever his name is.
I’m about 70% through it now and can not imagine having played it without a controller. It should almost have a warning not to buy if you don’t have one.
I’ve read the nightmares of people who played it on the keyboard. Some of the “stick twirling” sections are almost impossible without the controller.
Decent game, though, nothing great.
It took me like 5-6 runs before I could hold my itchy trigger finger long enough to listen to the end of his monologue at the end. He doesn’t really say anything interesting, though. Love the fact you can interrupt him at any point you wish. 
I picked up Sleeping Dogs, and every last DLC that came with it, all for the low-low price of free (I got a $20 Steam gift card for Christmas).
But still – all for $20 is a good price too.
I picked up a handful of things:
Godus - pretty much crap right now. It’s not a game, it’s just something you watch and occasionally click on the screen. I played for over an hour and had not had to make a decision at all. Not really my idea of a “game” but it’s still in alpha phase so maybe they’ll get that worked out. Or maybe I just threw away $7 or whatever it was I paid for it on sale.
Metro: Last Light - I was excited to get this for a good price as it looked like a really fun FPS and I don’t play those that much anymore. Sadly, it does not run on my Mac, even tho the Steam listing says it will. In fact, it doesn’t seem to run on any Mac judging by the forum on Steam. So that was like $20 wasted.
Proteus - looked like fun but this is another game that, despite being advertised as Mac, does not actually run on a Mac. So that was like $3 I wasted.
Strike Suit Zero - meh. Not bad but the tutorial is LONG and again, there’s no decision making that I’ve seen yet in this game. You’re told where to go and what to do and you do that and then you move on to the next thing. BORING. I think this cost me like $10.
So all-in-all, if the devs don’t fix their games, I threw away $30 on garbage and maybe $10 on something that’s playable but not any fun.
Alpha games or early release games are games you buy to support the devs. Not to play a completed, finished experience.
If you want that, you wait until they are released. You’re basically paying for an unfinished game, often times, coming ina t a higher price than what the final game will sell for.
It’s ENTIRELY about supporting indie or small devs in their endeavour to complete the game, because you believe in it/them, you love the concept and you know no publisher would pay for it, etc, etc.
Think of it as Steam’s version of kickstarter. If you wouldn’t support particular kickstarter, then don’t buy an early access version on Steam.
Steam should move its Alpha/Early Access games to another section or something, in my opinion. I know they put a warning on there but I think most people still assume that if a store is selling the product then the product is in saleable condition. It’s different from Kickstarter because that site’s explicit purpose is to fund new things (and KS doesn’t distribute the product) whereas Steam is a retailer who adds the “game” to your library.
I just see enough people disappointed in Alpha/Early Access titles that obviously the warning on the page isn’t doing its job. Or maybe a separate pop-up click-through warning when you add it to your cart (is there one? I never bought such a title).