Damn it, Steam!

For those who even remotely know or care about gaming, you would know that Steam is currently having their Summer Sale (lol, America) - and as a result selling games ridiculously cheap. This is both a boon and a curse.

For starters, it is obviously a good thing due to cheap games! Never complain about cheap games (unless they're terrible, anyway)! I've managed to buy a fair few games off Steam in the last few days, and likely will continue to for the next few days until the sale is over. Magicka with all the DLC for $8! Monkey Island remakes for $8 (both together in a pack!) Dwarfs?! for $5! (don't buy it, its a trap) I believe The Witcher 2 was up for $50 at one stage... not bad for a brand new game.

Don't ask me to recall my purchase list - I've forgotten big chunks of it because there are so many. I recall picking up Frozen Synapse though (and it comes with two copies... anyone want a copy?).

And this is where part of the curse lies. I already had a ridiculous backlog of games I'd never finished. What better way to make this pile larger than for Steam to have a sale!

On the other hand, Steam has also put up a competition where each day there are specific achievements for specific games. Each achievement earnt gives you a ticket in the major draw - the prize being the top ten games o your wishlist. Once I saw this, I started working on the achievements they specified (at least, the ones I could do for the games I already owned), and have so far earnt 16 tickets. As an added bonus these tickets can be redeemed for extra free DLC for certain games (and they don't destroy your entries into the draw).
While I'm not typically an "achievement whore", if they are usable for something tangible then I'm all over it. I've averaged 3-4 tickets a day so far, though this will likely drop over the weekend when I stay at Spritza's place. Well, that's assuming I get over this cold (I'm still sick, to a degree >_<).
It's also quite nice having Steam tell me what to play - even if it is for a short period of time. It's reminding me that I have some great games that I've been neglecting (and not necessarily long ones either). For example, last night, I was working on achievements for Trine, Zombie Driver and Serious Sam HD. I had already finished Serious Sam, but I had completely forgotten how good the other two games were (particularly Trine)!

On the other hand...

Creddit where its due: MrGestore of Reddit