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The Steam Winter Sale is now live, prepare your wallet

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It's that time of the year again, Steam are now doing their own Winter Sale and there's obviously a lot of cheap games available for Linux.

Here's a few picks of my own, games that I know run reasonably well on Linux while also being on sale:

  • Rocket League - I reserve my right to talk about Rocket League any time. It's hooked me like no other game has been able to since the release of Dota 2 and it's my absolute favourite game in the world right now. You can also get involved in some of our tournaments!
  • Surviving Mars - A city-builder with a difference, can you tame the barren wasteland of Mars and build a thriving colony? Even better with the recent expansion!
  • Opus Magnum - The puzzle game that made me fall in love with Zachtronics. Build machines, watch them work and then make them even better.
  • DiRT Rally - One of the few good rally games to be available on Linux, ported by Feral Interactive it's a beautiful game. Difficult but still worth a look if you still haven't.
  • Dead Cells - Easily one of the best games released this year. Tough combat, absolutely gorgeous art and certainly addictive to push through one more run.
  • BATTLETECH - Massive mech units smashing each other to pieces, what's not to love about that? Linux version still classed as a beta, but it does work rather swimmingly.
  • Prison Architect - Building the best and most secure prison in the world just got more fun with money off. Even better, it just gained multiplayer support.

For those who want to try out Steam Play, remember to take a look at ProtonDB first before deciding. While user-reports should always be taken with a pinch of salt, they're at least a reasonable indicator of what to expect.

Valve are also giving out some free stuff each day at the Cozy Cottage. You will get things like profile backgrounds, emoticons, DLC for popular games and so on.

Whatever you decide to pick up, we hope you enjoy your new games. See more on Steam. If you just want to see want's available specifically for Linux while also on sale, hit this link.

As a reminder, the GOG Winter Sale is also still going and Humble Store are currently giving away LEGO Lord of the Rings free for 48 hours.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: On Sale, Steam
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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stretch611 Dec 21, 2018
Quoting: Thormack
Quoting: LeopardSteam Sale is a dissappointment generally. There are so less discounts on games that i'm interested.


I REALLY wanted a discount on RimWorld :(
Game is so expensive right now and publisher is so greedy not even giving a 10 or 20%.

Same for Factorio.

You missed the lower prices on both by about 3 or 4 months.

Rimworld was $30(US) before release and is now $35.
Factorio was $20(US) a few months ago, then announced an increase about a month prior to becoming $30.
Both companies have long explained that they do not plan to go on sale. (and many complaint threads have been in each games respective forums every few months.)

The only way I know how to get a discount on either is to sign up for a month of "Humble Monthly" to get 10% back on either or both... But, the cost of Humble Monthly is twice as much as what you would save; so it is only worthwhile if you want the titles the month you sign up.

That being said, IMHO, both games are worth the price even if there is no discount. They are both half the cost of a so-called AAA title. Both games are also from small indie developers that have shown that they plan to continue supporting the title as well... A lot better than huge corporations that fail to care anything at all about their customers after the game is bought.

Finally, despite what the developers have said, both will go on sale eventually. However not until the people buying the game goes into a significant decline; but with the popularity of both (each with over 1 million copies sold) it may be a long wait. (Its a simple rule of marketing... when people are no longer buying what you are selling, lower the price.)
Salvatos Dec 21, 2018
Quoting: morbiusNope. What I liked I would always buy afterwards. Depending on how much I liked it, I might even buy it on smaller discount, get special editions, DLCs, etc. And I would make sure to promote good games as well.
Oh, I get that approach. I do it a lot with music (although it's not always exactly piracy since it's often posted by the artists themselves). I can't imagine buying an album without listening to it first. At least you have Steam's no-questions-asked refund policy under 2 hours if you want to sample games before judging whether the price is fair.

Quoting: tmtvlI would definitely recommend Pathfinder Kingmaker to any RPG fans, most problems have been fixed, and it's a massively addicting game.
That's interesting to hear. I heard only about the weird difficulty balance/progression. Has that been fixed and what else has?
Eike Dec 21, 2018
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Quoting: LeopardSteam Sale is a dissappointment generally. There are so less discounts on games that i'm interested.

Do you mean too small discounts or too few games discounted?

Of the 48 (relased) games on my wish list, only 5 don't have a discount, and it wouldn't surprise me if the developers/publishers of those are gone.


Last edited by Eike on 21 December 2018 at 8:51 am UTC
FredO Dec 21, 2018
For those that have been contemplating getting a Steam Controller, they're 50% off in this sale. I've not seen them that discountered before!

I'm finally getting Helium Rain. I haven't played a space trading type game since Freelancers! I had hoped they would bring Elite Dangerous to Linux at some point, but it never happened...

Happy gaming everybody ^_^
Leopard Dec 21, 2018
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: LeopardSteam Sale is a dissappointment generally. There are so less discounts on games that i'm interested.

Do you mean too small discounts or too few games discounted?

Of the 48 (relased) games on my wish list, only 5 don't have a discount, and it wouldn't surprise me if the developers/publishers of those are gone.

Small discount rates mostly.

I'm sure Bethesda and Rockstar are still alive.
g000h Dec 21, 2018
Aww no. I just checked my Steam wishlist, and there are a bunch of games at an acceptable level of discount. Now, it is great to grab them on discount rather than pay more... BUT... I still have a massive stockpile of existing bought games that I haven't touched yet. I like owning NOW but I'm also thinking about the practicalities, e.g. The fact that I could maybe buy at a later date at an even more substantial discount.

Also, it is quite annoying to potentially go through pages and pages of titles, hunting out that one beacon which is so tempting that you can't resist. Fortunately many of my wishlist titles that really appeal to me are hovering at 20% discount level, which doesn't break my discipline.

One small indie title that I tried the free demo and liked is Frost which is sitting at 40% discount. Thinking that I'll probably grab that. Thumbs up to free demos.

Also might grab I Hate Running Backwards which is at a tasty 75% discount.
FredO Dec 21, 2018
Quoting: Patola
Quoting: FredOI'm finally getting Helium Rain. I haven't played a space trading type game since Freelancers! I had hoped they would bring Elite Dangerous to Linux at some point, but it never happened...
Consider buying X4: Foundations when the Linux port is finished. Seems to be an amazing game.

Yeah, it does look really good. I've got it wishlisted, and just waiting for the Linux release.

It's from a German developer too, so worth supporting in my book


Last edited by FredO on 21 December 2018 at 10:57 am UTC
kuhpunkt Dec 21, 2018
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: morbius
Quoting: Salvatos
Quoting: morbiuspeople are ruining a good thing here by getting greedy.
Quoting: morbiusHonestly, I might as well go back to piracy.
Double standards?

Nope. What I liked I would always buy afterwards. Depending on how much I liked it, I might even buy it on smaller discount, get special editions, DLCs, etc. And I would make sure to promote good games as well.

But cheaper games meant I would risk getting more stuff, although I might end up not liking it. That meant I would get to try out more things, while industry gets more of my money overall, seems like a sweet deal for everyone. But now I see games that are over three years old cost 10+ euros on a Steam's biggest sale. Who does that benefit exactly? Whoever really wanted that game has bought it already, you're not generating any new sales with that strategy. Withholding art from people is wrong, developers should care to get their money, but also that their art is available to audiences.

Games are NOT art. At best, the contain some art, alongside other things. For example music in games is art. But games per se, are NOT art.

This is just a bullshit excuse we tell ourselves just so we can justify the time we waste playing them. We want to feel like we are experiencing art while all we are doing is playing with virtual toys.

Video games are just entertainment, and there is nothing wrong with that. Stop deluding yourselves.

Of course games are art. Stop deluding yourself.
ageres Dec 21, 2018
Ketil Dec 21, 2018
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: morbius
Quoting: Salvatos
Quoting: morbiuspeople are ruining a good thing here by getting greedy.
Quoting: morbiusHonestly, I might as well go back to piracy.
Double standards?

Nope. What I liked I would always buy afterwards. Depending on how much I liked it, I might even buy it on smaller discount, get special editions, DLCs, etc. And I would make sure to promote good games as well.

But cheaper games meant I would risk getting more stuff, although I might end up not liking it. That meant I would get to try out more things, while industry gets more of my money overall, seems like a sweet deal for everyone. But now I see games that are over three years old cost 10+ euros on a Steam's biggest sale. Who does that benefit exactly? Whoever really wanted that game has bought it already, you're not generating any new sales with that strategy. Withholding art from people is wrong, developers should care to get their money, but also that their art is available to audiences.

Games are NOT art. At best, the contain some art, alongside other things. For example music in games is art. But games per se, are NOT art.

This is just a bullshit excuse we tell ourselves just so we can justify the time we waste playing them. We want to feel like we are experiencing art while all we are doing is playing with virtual toys.

Video games are just entertainment, and there is nothing wrong with that. Stop deluding yourselves.
I disagree, video games are art as long as the components of the game are combined with the purpose of realizing a vision. Disqualifying all games from being art, will in my opinion also disqualify a lot of films, and a lot of music from being art.
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