This saved me.

I picked up the orange box for 25$ at best buy on black Friday. It's awesome, would be well worth 38$

Wow...at first, I was a little mad, but then I remembered that I got the Orange Box from a friend for my birthday.

But hell man, someone better take advantage of this.

PSYCHONAUTS FOR $9.95 SON, NO MORE EXCUSES.

@purplepopcorn: Pretty sure psychonauts is free somewhere. I think gametap.

Maldron is on sale for $5. Somebody needs to buy the poor guy a home.

Bishock is only $37. I'm really tempted to buy it, but I have so much to play right now.

id pack has all of Commander Keen. Get after it, people. Happy holidays.

@Detre: It's free (ad supported) on Gametap through the end of the year/the next week. A fine option, but I think $10 on Steam and $15 on XBLM are good options as well.

I'm not sure whether to buy TF2 alone or just the entire Orange Box. Portal is good, but I already have the HL2 stuff and so does everyone else I know on steam.

Ohhh, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is only $10. I've been wanting to check that out for a while now...just impulse bought it and I guess I'll give it a look-see this evening. Thanks a bunch for the heads up :)

!!!!!!!!!11one!

just yesterday i had to stop myself from buying the id Super Pack... but now... ZOMG

dammit guys, you win again!

so anyone up for some old school Quake, Quake 2 perhaps?

Well shit, I think I might have to go and install steam again.

Stupid question folks, I havent used steam since the initial release of HL2 but is the stuff sold via steam region locked?

*pleasesayno*

Subtotal $37.45 (includes discount)
yey

vat $9.36
total $46.81
meh..

There's like two actual deals here. TIn general, the prices now are what prices for download-only games would have to be for me to have much interest.

@Witzbold: sort of, from the wiki about the Orange Box lockout:

As a centralized system, Steam also allows Valve to enforce regional lockout on their games. This became an issue when some North American customers bought Valve's The Orange Box from international retailers. The retailers were issued authorization codes specific to their regions. When Valve noticed that these codes were used on computers located outside their regions, the company disabled the authorization codes.

@roushimsx:Vampire is absolutely excellent. It's been $10 before on Steam, but its definitely worth it. There's some great characters and level design waiting for you.

Make sure to patch it up first though. You'll have to install some unofficial patches to get it up to speed.

And this is why I love Kotaku. Hooking me up with a tip on a cheap gift for my roommate, on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas!

Nice. Not a lot thats really discounted, but two games i've been wanting to get are 50% off.

My buy:

Commandos 2
Psyconauts
Vampire: Bloodlines

@bigchiefsmokem: Hmm ok. D: Thanks for the info mate! Yeah I do remember that incident.

I bet the J peeps got screwed, those who bought the imported US version that was being sold in some of the stores here.

@Witzbold: i've talked to steam support a few times and they seem to be willing to do what it takes to fix your account and whatnot so i'd suggest emailing them about your particular situation before buying

i say this because i know they have the ability to reset accounts and the games on those accounts so if you ever do leave Japan they might be able to transfer your games over to a different region

@bigchiefsmokem: Ah right cheers. Yeah Ill be careful with the purchases and email them ahead of time like you said.

Im going to be stuck here for a while so Ill see what I can make do with.

Hahaha, typical. I bought all my new games last night. Oh well, I can buy more. WHO NEEDS TO EAT!?!?

@mrglass:

Same here!

25$ for "The Orange Box" - Best deal of the year.

Now the only games missing from my Valve collection are Counter-Strike: CZ and Day of Defeat: Source...but they are only a dollar off. Pass.

@WasabiJoe: You already purchased HL2: Episode 2 separately?

@KoolAidMan:
No, but I do have HL2 and Epi 1, and everyone else I know that is even remotely interested, have Orange Box already.

@WasabiJoe: Yeah...you know there's an Episode 2 in the Orange Box, right? You know, the new HL2 episode? Did you really buy that separately, and are now considering buying TF2 alone?

The Orange Box is HL2, Ep1, Ep2, Portal, and TF2. The last 3 are totally worth $50, and there's no question that you should buy it for like $40. Every game is worth it.

I think the problem stems from having bought the 360 version. I'd actually like TF2 just for the PC, but their asking price seems a bit steep in comparison to the Orange Box.

Augh. AUGH.
I seriously just bought Orange Box like two days ago for my boyfriend. Naturally, the prices come down juuust afterwards.

Someone up there hates me. ;) Oh, well!

The Orange Box for 38$? Hawt. I would say "If only I hadn't already gotten it," but having to wait till now to play Portal and TF2 would've killed me.

I'm super pissed, for two reasons.
1) I just bought Portal for $20 off Steam a few days ago. But more importantly,
2) The game doesn't work with my laptop's default video card. Steam apparently posted a message about this the same day that I bought it, and the solution is to wait for Intel to fix it.

They won't give me my fucking money back either. Bastards.

Wolfenstein 3D is 50 Cents off !!!! AWESOME!!!!

I bought Bioshock, ran out of excuses, time to get to work.

I bought CoD4 and am downloading it now. Only...way too long to go...sigh.

@Hand_O_Death: Wait, they're charging for Wolfenstein 3D?

Great move Valve, doing a post-Christmas style sale just before.

You know, with the fact some people just WON'T SHUT UP about Psychonauts, and that It's only 10 bucks, I'm buying it.

EVERYONE who didn't buy the Introversion Software pack for 20 bucks when it came out should get it now for something like 26 bucks.

Hrm, I think I might buy Sam & Max season 1...

And CoD4 is only 5 bucks off? darn it, I'm probably waiting for it to go below 40 USD...

@sxp151:
Yeah, because those 2 bucks you're not saving for portal is a huge freaking deal.

@Witzbold:
You shouldn't have any problems, given that that case where people were losing access to the game was when people were buying box copies. Someone buying directly from Valve via Steam shouldn't have problems.
I don't think they would try to screw over J customers, given that according to the steam survey, they only have like 5 thousand of them...

@Akin: lol good point.

I bought orange box last week. Humbug I say!

DO WANT

(Orange Box)

@Akin:
Yeah, because those 2 bucks you're not saving for portal is a huge freaking deal.

No, the fact that the game is unplayable on my system and Valve won't give me a refund is a huge freaking deal. Reading is fundamental!

I've never bought drm games before. Hope it doesn't bite me in the ass later. Can you play these games wih no internet connection after you dl them??
I just got the really underappreciated stalker to go with my 8800gt that arrived yesterday! ~20 was all wanted to pay and thats what i did. I'm liking stalker a lot, it seems like crazy fun.
I paid full price for the orange box, it's worth it at any price really. For 9 bucks if you haven't played Psychonaughts yet, do yourself a favor and grab it now.

I'm just in Japan a year, so I don't have a Japanese billing adress. So, when I try to use american cards here, they are rejected. Anyone know how to get around this situation? I emailed steam, but no harm in asking here.

Thanks for the sale information, maybe reading this site is actually worth while?

@francoamerica:

Ooh, I got it. Use a Japanese friend's credit card! I hope these work when I move back to America though!

thanks for the heads up....i couldnt stop myself from getting the orange box any longer...

my pc meets the minimum requirements for the orange box, pretty much exactly, and despite REALLY wanting to play portal and TF2, i didnt buy either, or the orange box because i wasnt sure they would run well on my machine...

considering that its $38, i figured what the hell...its worth trying it, worst case scenario, i have to buy a better video card, and some more ram...

and really, i had to get something to use my pc for gaming after getting this for christmas... [www.youtube.com] . its pretty sweet, this video i found doesnt really even do it justice, its great.