The bane of weak-willed PC gamers far and wide, Steam’s annual Summer Sale has begun its vicious assault on your wallet. Every year we are lured by a steady stream of daily deals and flash sales to pad out our Steam libraries with everything from AAA releases to the latest indie hotness. Each purchase seems innocuous enough in and of itself–75-percent off XCOM? I’d be losing money not to buy that!–but the party always comes to an end and you wake up hung over and surrounded by 100 new games which you’ll probably never actually play, already mired in the insurmountable backlog you’ve accrued from previous sales.
This time last year Redditor Rogenhamen posted a very useful guide to getting the most out of the sale that is worth checking out again. The gist is that you shouldn’t buy anything until the last day unless it’s featured in a Daily Deal, Flash Sale, or Community Choice, as these are the cheapest the games will ever be. He also makes the interesting suggestion to buy them as gifts, which gives you the flexibility to install them later if you actually want to play, or trade them away to friends if you lose interest in the cold, sober light of day.
At time of writing the Flash Sale features Dead Island Riptide, DMC Devil May Cry, Mirror’s Edge, and Hotline Miami, so get in there now if any of those games have been on your to-play list. Good luck out there, and be responsible.
(image via gaben.tv)
