Throne of Games: Steam Summer Sale Post Carnage Report

This year's Steam Summer Sale has been met with a fair degree of cynicism from the gaming press, who seem suddenly very hostile towards Valve's annual wallet busting shindig. Although I'd concede that some of the grievances raised were legitimate, I didn't sympathise enough not to partake.

This year I got:

Papers, Please

Planetary Annihilation Gamma

Shadowrun Returns

Plus I also bought the Strategy Humble Bundle available at the same time, which contained:

Sang-Froid: Tales of The Werewolves

Stronghold Crusader: Extreme

Cubetractor

Unity of Command: Stalingrad Campaign

Eador: Masters of The Broken World

Space Hulk

Ironclad Tactics

Planetary Annihilation, Shadowrun and Space Hulk have all been on my radar for a while. Papers, Please piqued my interest due to it being so unlike anything else out there, fantastic reviews not withstanding. For the benefit of the uninitiated, the game puts you in the shoes of an immigration inspector working on the borders of a fictional post-Sovie-esque state, your task being to correctly assess a steady stream of disheveled citizens' eligibility to enter the country by checking their story, paperwork and appearance for inconsistencies. Doing a bad job will result in you not making enough money to cover your living costs, and having to make some tough decisions on how best to distribute your limited wealth. It's difficult to describe the concept in such a way that it sounds in any way compelling, but trust me, it is, and what's more it'll tug your heart strings in a way that few other games can as you attempt to weigh each refugee's tale of woe against the needs of your own family.

Space Hulk thus far seems to be simply a computer version of the beloved board game aimed squarely at fans of its original plastic and cardboard iteration. It's certainly worth the pittance I paid for it, and a tantalising appetiser for the upcoming Deathwing, a first person shooter take on the same subject matter. Planetary Annihilation I've already talked about in a previous post, but I'm yet to boot Shadowrun Returns, so more on that to come shortly.

The rest of the Humble Bundle stuff is just gravy, and I have to admit that out of what's left, only Stronghold Crusader: Extreme and Ironclad Tactics, which I'd never heard of before but now understand to be an oddball American Civil War meets steampunk card battler, are likely to ever grace my computer's hard drive.

Obscene bargains or impulsive wastes of money? As always, only time will tell.