Steam Sale!

I’m starting to view Colonial Marines as a benchmark for developer humiliation. It’s not quite as bad as what’s been happening to Resident Evil 6‘s preorder options, or the way that its price has crept downwards before it’s ever been officially released on Steam. No, it’s that Colonial Marines‘ truly abysmal launch was not met with an immediate reduction in price – an attempt to mollify the blow of asking eighty dollars for a non-functional game – but that it stoically tried to hold its price on the Steam advertising banner even while Far Cry 3‘s price slid downwards. That’s right, Colonial Marines wanted you to think it was worth almost half again of what Far Cry 3 is.

Steam’s holding an indie-themed game sale, with almost a thousand titles plummeting in price, and good for them. I was going to just do a run-down of a handful of titles that are, at the moment, ridiculously cheap and I would recommend, but I found, right at the bottom of all the Steam sale prices, Colonial Marines lurking nervously, like a walrus trying to sneak out of the zoo by hiding in the fish bucket. Well, Mr Marines, what’s your new price point for a game that might be good in a years’ time with all the patches and DLC having a chance to fix major fundamental problems? 53 dollars? Oh, you’ve decided you’re probably not as good as Skyrim, Far Cry 3 or XCOM? How nice.

Problem is, right now, you’re offering during a sale.

What can I get for fifty-three dollars? Without deviating from games I have either played, or had a friend highly recommend after they’ve actively played it, here’s the list I was able to compose:

In total, that pile of games is $52.19. More importantly, at least to me, this pile of games respresents the type of game creators we should be incentivizing. Colonial Marines needs its hand smacked, and the only way consumers can do that is by refusing to purchase it.

I could go into more depth on this list of indie games, if there’s an interest.