Digital distribution platforms feature regular special offers to lure in new customers. These exceptional deals can be used to your advantage as a means to quickly assemble a vast collection of great PC games at very low cost. But that requires regularly checking in on each and every digital download service for their latest deals, which can be a tiresome affair.
That’s where my weekly Discount Drone feature comes in. In Discount Drone I take a weekly look at everything that is on offer and extract the best deals for your perusal. These are formatted by genre and accompanied by short and accurate descriptions, so that you can decide whether a game might be worth having. This includes special offers on: Direct2Drive, GamersGate, Get Games, Good Old Games, Green Man Gaming, Impulse and Steam.
Most of the summer deals have ended by now, but Impulse steps up to the plate with a sale for charity, Child’s Play to be precise. This and numerous interesting deals on the other digitial distribution platforms ensures that we actually have even more interesting games to choose from than last week!
Some of the more notable deals this week are the awesome RPG/Strategy bundle of the 1C Pack on Good Old Games, the entire Unreal series of first person shooters on Impulse, the excellent Star Wars shooters of the Jedi Knight Bundle on Direct2Drive and the entire third season of the adventure game series Sam & Max! And there are many more interesting deals this week, so be sure to check them all out below. And subscribe to GameDrone for weekly coverage of the best digital download offers!
Deals of the Week
- 1C Pack on Good Old Games – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 21,76 EUR
This is an excellent pack for fans of strategy role-playing games as it includes the excellent turn-based fantasy RPG King’s Bounty: The Legend. Also of note are futuristic organization building and alien killing games UFO: Afterlight, Aftermath and Aftershock. The space RPG Star Wolves and turn-based fantasy RPG Fantasy Wars round things out to form a package that offers many hundreds of hours of great strategic gameplay. - Altitude on Steam – Free Weekend And Save 50% Weekend Deal – 4,49 EUR
A multiplayer sidescrolling action game involving several classes of airplanes, numerous game modes, perks, power-ups and general 2D mayhem. It’s colorful and fun, with a lot of variety and a fair amount of players. Definitely worth a look if you’re in for some good multiplayer fun and even more-so if you can play it with a few friends. - Commandos Complete on Get Games – Save 50% Summer Deal - 7,49 EUR
This package includes all Commandos games, from the excellent and ridiculously difficult squad-based strategy games of Behind Enemy Lines & Commandos 2, to the sub-par shooter Strike Force. An awesome bundle at a great price – definitely worth a look. - Company of Heroes Complete Pack on Steam – Save 75% Weekend Deal – 11,49 EUR
Company of Heroes is a World War 2 themed real-time strategy game that revolves around controlling resource nodes on the map. It slims down base building and places a greater emphasis on aggressive play, which makes for much more intense gameplay. Both stand-alone expansion packs are also included, with Opposing Fronts mostly offering more of the same and Tales of Valor placing the emphasis on small-scale tactical battles without any form of base building or resource management. - Jedi Knight Bundle on Direct2Drive – Save 60% Anniversary Sale – 6,- EUR
These are some of the best Star Wars games ever created. Ranging from Doom-clone-with-a-plot Dark Forces to the epic post-movies tale of Jedi Knight 2 that sees Kyle Katarn place the foundations for Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy. It’s unclear whether this package includes Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, but all the other games are included. Dark Forces is a straight-up shooter, whereas the Jedi Knight games mix shooting, lightsaber and force power elements to great success. Jedi Knight 2 and Academy are still popular multiplayer games today. - Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse on Telltale Games – Save 43% Launch Deal – 15,55 EUR
The third season of Telltale’s popular adventure game series has finally concluded and it’s the best season yet! This package includes all five episodes of the third season for some hilarious point-and-click adventure gameplay. It’s been reduced in price to celebrate the launch of the final episode, but it can also be found over at Steam at a slightly higher price. - Space Rangers Bundle on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 11,70 EUR
This bundle pack includes both Space Rangers and Space Rangers 2: Rise of the Dominators. These are two very difficult games to describe as they mix elements of space exploration, adventure, real-time strategy and other genres into one awesome spacefaring experience. They’re highly unusual, but also very fun and engaging games. This bundle does not include the Space Rangers 2: Reboot expansion pack. - Titan Quest Bundle on Direct2Drive – Save 70% Anniversary Sale - 6,- EUR
Arguably the best Action RPG after the Diablo series, Titan Quest presents a linear world studded with countless monsters to slay, items to acquire and quests to partake in. This gold edition also contains the excellent Immortal Throne expansion pack which adds another campaign and eight new classes, amongst other things. Definitely a worthwhile purchase, especially because it also includes online and local co-op! - Trine on Green Man Gaming – Save 76% Deal – 4,81 EUR
A great indie platform game featuring singleplayer and local (same computer) co-op modes. Read my first impressions for an indication of what the game plays like and why you should get it. - Unreal Pack on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 15,60 EUR
This bundle contains the very epitome of hardcore shooters: Unreal Tournament. It’s still a very popular multiplayer game today with thousands of players every night! Also included is the excellent singleplayer FPS Unreal that offers an engaging science-fiction tale and similarly excellent first person shooter gameplay. Add in a good singleplayer FPS in the form of Unreal 2, a modding favorite but somewhat poor on the out-of-the-box gameplay front Unreal Tournament 2004 and an excellent multiplayer shooter held back by terrible menus and weird design decisions Unreal Tournament 3 and you get one heck of a deal. These games are all extremely popular amongst modders so they offer countless hours of fun in single- and multiplayer even beyond the out-of-the-box offerings. Only Unreal Tournament 2003 is exempted from the list, which is a good thing: it was so bad that Epic doesn’t even count it as part of the UT franchise anymore.
Action
- Call of Juarez on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 5,99 EUR
Call of Juarez is a third person shooter in a wild west setting. Horseback riding, shootouts, bank and train robberies, all the staples of the wild west genre are included. It’s not quite as good as the sequel and nowhere near as good as Red Dead Redemption, but certainly still a very decent purchase.c - Dark Sector on Green Man Gaming – Save 50% Deal – 6,02 EUR
A decent third-person action game with a cover system and mediocre plot. - Greed: Black Border on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 14,99 EUR
A new top-down alien shooter with fancy graphics, different classes, skills, items and more importantly: co-op! Perhaps not such a great deal anymore with the co-op alien shooter Alien Swarm available for free on Steam. - Tank Universal on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale - 3,89 EUR
Speaking of excellent innovative games – this is one too! It’s an absolute blast to play through this singleplayer tank game with strategy and RPG influences as well as TRON-styled graphics.
Adventure
- Broken Sword: Director’s Cut on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 4,99 EUR
This is a reenvisioning of the original Broken Sword adventure game with new content, a new hint system and more. It’s an adventure game classic that involves a conspiracy tale surrounding the Knights Templar and locations around the globe. - Ceville on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 9,99 EUR
A comical point-and-click adventure game in which you play a fallen tyrant who has turned to saving his kingdom. - Daemonica on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 5,84 EUR
Daemonica is a dark adventure game with a role-playing game interface. It has an engaging storyline that can culminate into several different outcomes and is supported by interesting characters. But its not the most well-paced adventure game and can become tedious.
First Person Shooter
- NecroVisioN: Lost Company on Green Man Gaming – Save 87% Weekend Deal – 3,62 EUR
The latest title in the NecroVisioN franchise is actually a prequel that puts you in the shoes of a German soldier fighting off hordes of monsters during World War I. A good deal if you’re into arcade first person shooters with hordes of mindless monsters to blast your way through. - Painkiller: Black Edition on Impulse – Save 50% gamescom Deal – 4,99 EUR
Go all-guns-blazing in this excellent fast-paced first person shooter with a grim mythical setting that puts you in the role of a demonic ass kicking mercenary. Crazy weapons, crazy enemies, crazy powers and a crazily fast pace make for one heck of a ride. And multiplayer offers solid competitive arena-based hardcore FPS play that’s unfortunately quite empty nowadays due to the free excellence that is Quake Live. This Black Edition also includes the Battle Out of Hell expansion pack, which was the last decent Painkiller game.
Role-playing Game
- ArcaniA: Gothic 4 on GamersGate – Save 15% Pre-order Deal – 42,45 EUR
ArcaniA is the fourth game in the long-standing open-world RPG series Gothic and is looking to be no less engaging than its predecessors. Hopefully it will be released without the slew of bugs that plagued Gothic 3. - Avencast: Rise of the Mage on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 4,99 EUR
Avencast is a mediocre hack & slash RPG with gameplay centered around wizardry and magic. There are many better games in the genre, but there are worse games to play if you’re looking to pass the time until Diablo 3, Dungeon Siege 3 or Torchlight. - Disciples 3: Renaissance on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 19,99 EUR
Disciples 3 is a gothic fantasy turn-based strategy games with strategic RPG gameplay similar to a Heroes of Might & Magic or King’s Bounty. This latest installment isn’t quite as good as its predecessors with numerous bugs and poor AI. It makes up for this by a story that miraculously doesn’t quite suck and solid, addictive, strategic battles. A good game to play after you’ve had your fun with Heroes of Might & Magic V and King’s Bounty, but you’ll definitely want to play those games first. - Dungeon Defenders on GamersGate / Impulse – Save 10% Pre-order Deal – 7,19 EUR
Dungeon Defenders presents an entirely new take on the popular tower defense genre. Players choose a class and actively engage in fighting off waves of monsters while acquiring experience and loot. Throw in a wide variety of towers, 4-player co-op, a story-driven campaign, survival and challenge modes, achievements, statistics, tons of monsters, epic boss encounters and colorful graphics and you’ve got a very promising indie game. Pre-orders gain an exclusive familiar that aids them in battle and differs depending on the digital distribution service (Direct2Drive, GamersGate, Impulse or Steam). - Gothic 2 Gold on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,49 EUR
An open world RPG with great gameplay, but sub-par voice acting and graphics. - Gothic 3: Game of the Year Edition on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,49 EUR
An open world fantasy RPG that’s mostly known for the buggy state in which it was released rather than the good gameplay it provides. - Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 9,99 EUR
The stand-alone expansion for Gothic 3. - King’s Bounty: Crossworlds on GamersGate – Save 15% Pre-order Deal – 16,99 EUR
Return to the hilarious and crazy world of King’s Bounty: Armored Princess. It includes two new campaigns and an expansion on the Armored Princess campaign. Also included are new creatures, items, spells, abilities and even a game editor! It promises to be mostly more of the same, but more of the very best game in a genre tends to be a good thing. A platinum edition including all King’s Bounty games is also on sale, just in case you’ve yet to bite into this tasty turn-based fantasy RPG franchise. - Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale on Steam / GamersGate / Impulse – Save 10% Pre-order Deal – 13,49 EUR
Recette Lemongrass is stuck with her father’s debts after he ran off to do some adventuring and when fairy creditor Tear knocks on the door there’s only one thing left to do: open up an item shop and work off those debts! There are a lot of ways to make Recettear a successful item shop, from simply buying low and selling high to actual adventuring in randomized dungeons for free items. It includes a lengthy campaign, alternate game modes, shop customization and more. It’s surprisingly fun. - Space Siege on GamersGate – Save 66% Weekend Deal – 5,09 EUR
Despite generic gameplay, slimmed down RPG elements, an unimaginative story and terrible mouse-driven controls, Space Siege still manages to be fairly entertaining if you’ve got nothing better to do. - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on Direct2Drive – Save 15% Anniversary Sale - 6,- EUR
BioWare delivered one of the best Star Wars games ever with this RPG that predates all previous Star Wars material. Become a jedi in the time of the Old Republic, many hundreds of years prior to The Phantom Menace, and experience an epic fantasy tale in this unique Star Wars setting. This is one game you don’t want to miss out on and it also forms an excellent introduction to BioWare’s upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG. - Star Wolves 3: Civil War on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale - 12,49 EUR
This game hearkens back to the original Star Wolves with similarly awesome and addictive RPG/RTS gameplay, no DRM and poor voice-acting. It’s nowhere near as buggy as Star Wolves 2 and while the interface takes a bit of getting used to it’s definitely a fun game to play. - The Guild 2 on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,49 EUR
The Guild 2 is a medieval life simulator with an emphasis on economics. It suffers from a low budget and a plethora of bugs, which make it significantly less appealing than that other low budget medieval life simulator which focuses on action: Mount & Blade. - The Guild 2: Pirates of the European Seas on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,49 EUR
A standalone expansion pack for The Guild 2 that introduces naval gameplay and a new campaign.
Real-time Strategy
- Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 on Direct2Drive – Save 70% Anniversary Sale – 6,- EUR
A historically accurate real-time strategy game featuring World War 2′s Battle of Kharkov and turn-based overmap gameplay. Suffers from an overly complex interface, lengthy battles with no save options and bugs. Still a fairly decent World War 2 strategy game, but no match for the likes of this week’s Battlestations: Pacific or Company of Heroes. - Battlestations Pacific on GamersGate – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 17,47 EUR
This game combines the real-time strategy and action genres as players get to control large fleets in the Pacific arena of World War 2 or take control over individual units. It even includes several multiplayer game modes to re-enact some of World War 2′s most memorable naval engagements. - Darwinia on Green Man Gaming – Save 50% Deal – 3,61 EUR
A retro-themed indie real-time strategy game where you have to save the Darwinians from extinction as a computer virus has infiltrated their world. It only features singleplayer, but is actually quite fun to play. - Defense Grid: The Awakening on Direct2Drive – Save 15% Anniversary Sale – 6,- EUR
Defense Grid is a singleplayer tower defense game with a futuristic setting. Its generic plot hardly matters in the face of excellent tower defense gameplay, with widely varied towers, maps and enemies. - Grand Ages: Rome on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale - 9,99 EUR
A city-building real-time strategy game set in the Roman era. - Grand Ages: Rome: Reign of Augustus – Save 50% Charity Sale – 9,99 EUR
An expansion pack to Grand Ages: Rome. Allows for players to transfer their Grand Ages: Rome character into the new campaign. - Gratuitous Space Battles Complete on Impulse - Save 35% Deal – 20,18 EUR
An excellent indie strategy game that puts you in command of a space fleet. Design your own ships and set up your armadas before each battle, then watch as they tear into the opposing fleets. There is no direct unit control in this game, but it really doesn’t matter given the gratuitous space battles and excellent pre-battle planning systems. This package also includes all three race expansions (The Order, The Swarm and The Tribe). This should really be bought from the developer’s website instead, because it’s equally cheap and all the cash goes straight to Positech Games and thus even more such cool indie games. - Imperium Romanum Gold Edition on Impulse – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 9,99 EUR
A celebrated series of Roman Empire simulation games. This includes the first expansion packs, but all the other expansion packs are also on sale. - King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame + Saxons on Steam – Save 33% Weekend Deal – 33,49 EUR
A recent strategy game with a fantasy setting inspired by the legends of king Arthur. It’s based around a turn-based campaign map and large scale real-time strategy battles that forms a mixture similar to the Total War games. The key differences being the inclusion of heroes, magic, RPG elements and a fantasy setting. This deal also includes two DLC packs and the Saxons expansion pack. - Men of War: Red Tide on Green Man Gaming – Save 55% Deal – 10,84 EUR
This sequel to Men of War introduces a brand new campaign spanning 23 missions and 4 factions during World War 2. It also includes six historical battles fought in the 1941-1945 time period and more than one hundred different units. - Real Warfare 1242 on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 13,99 EUR
A large scale real-time strategy game set in medieval Russia. It offers realistic strategic battles based on authentic historic events with decent graphics and large armies. - Spellforce Platinum on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale - 7,49 EUR
A collection that contains the entire original Spellforce series (Order of the Dawn, Breath of Winter and Shadow of the Phoenix). These games offer a very enjoyable mix of RTS and RPG gameplay, but aren’t quite as good as the Spellforce 2 series, which isn’t contained in this pack. - Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,49 EUR
Shadow Wars offers an excellent mixture of RTS and RPG gameplay in an engaging and expansive singleplayer campaign. It’s good for more than 50 hours of gameplay and features both an overarching narrative and a multitude of sidequests. Spellforce 2 may largely have been overlooked by gamers at release, but it’s definitely worth picking up. - Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,49 EUR
A large expansion pack to Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars that introduces a 30+ hour long singleplayer campaign and tons of new items, spells and a new race. The multiplayer component it introduced is unfortunately no longer supported, but it’s still a very good game. - Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Complete Pack on GamersGate – Save 50% Weekend Deal - 22,48 EUR
Dawn of War and its three stand-alone expansion packs offer intense futuristic real-time strategy gameplay. It deviates from the RTS norm by pushing players out to capture resource nodes and control points to be victorious. This is one package that any self-respecting strategy gamer can’t afford to miss in their collection.
Turn-based Strategy
- Elven Legacy on Green Man Gaming – Save 52% Deal – 14,46 EUR
In this turn-based fantasy strategy/RPG you take command of a small army of troops and scour clean maps with gameplay that’s mildly reminiscent of Heroes of Might & Magic. Interestingly the entire map is a battlefield so you always have to properly position your forces when moving, not just during combat. A solid strategy game that should be good for a fair few hours of fun, but don’t expect too much from the storytelling. Don’t bother with it until you’ve finished Heroes of Might & Magic V and King’s Bounty. - Europa Universalis 2 on Green Man Gaming – Save 25% Deal – 7,22 EUR
A turn-based grand strategy game that lets you lead a nation from the 15th to 19th century. It offers a wide variety of options while remaining very playable and is generally considered to be amongst the best in the genre. - Future Wars on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale - 7,49 EUR
This is a futuristic turn-based strategy game similar to Advance Wars and the Battle Isle series. It features colorful 3D graphics and relatively straightforward turn-based strategy gameplay, but adds some unique gameplay modes (e.g.: AI vs AI) and extensive modding capabilities to the mix. This Impulse version includes five additional maps. - Reign: Conflict of Nations on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 13,99 EUR
An ambitious game even by grand strategy standards, Reign: Conflict of Nations manages to present solidly crafted turn-based strategy gameplay. But it suffers from a lack of personality and many of the various gameplay elements aren’t quite fully realised. This results in a decent game that offers deep gameplay but never quite pulls you in.
Simulator
- Air Aces: Pacific on GamersGate - Save 40% Weekend Deal – 29,99 EUR
An arcade flight simulator set in the Pacific arena of World War 2 with variable reality-mode settings for different flight experiences. - Echelon: Wind Warriors on GamersGate – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 9,99 EUR
A futuristic arcade flight simulator. Comes with dated graphics, a generic story and fairly repetitive missions, but with so little else on offer in the genre it’s still worth mentioning. - Football Manager 2010 on Direct2Drive – Save 70% Weekend Deal – 6,- EUR
Become the manager of a football team and lead it to top of the local and international leagues. It’s a fairly addictive game despite the lack of actual control over the football matches themselves, but you do get to decide on the tactics, training and line-ups beforehand. - Patrician 3 on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale - 7,79 EUR
Build a trading empire in this 13th century trading/city-building game. - Pole Position 2010 on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 14,99 EUR
A new racing management game in which you assemble your own F1 racing crew and try to win racing seasons. - Port Royale 2 on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale - 7,79 EUR
Create a trading empire in the Caribbean of the 17th century. - Railworks on Steam – Save 40% Weekend Deal – 23,99 EUR
A realistic train simulator in which you get to drive numerous realistic locomotives across realistically modelled routes in the UK, United States and Europe. There are also 52 different DLC packs available that add extra locomotives and locations to the game. - Tropico 3 on Direct2Drive – Save 80% Anniversary Sale – 6,- EUR
Become the ruler of a remote, tropical, island during the cold war. Be anything from a kind and generous leader to a ruthless tyrant. - Tropico: Reloaded on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 4,99 EUR
The first two games in the Tropico series of tropical rulership games. - Wings of Prey on GamersGate – Save 50% Weekend Deal - 17,49 EUR
Wings of Prey is a recently released arcade flight simulator in a World War 2 setting. It features over 50 missions, a wide variety of realism settings, a proper tutorial, multiplayer and more than 40 historically accurate aircraft.
Platform and Puzzle Games
- Three Musketeers on Impulse – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 5,84 EUR
A third-person action platformer with a quaint cell-shaded graphical style. - World of Goo on Green Man Gaming – Save 23% Deal – 15,66 EUR
Take charge of an armada of goo and use it to form all sorts of weird contraptions to solve puzzles. It’s charming, humorous and challenging.
Racing
- 1C Racing Mega Pack on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,49 EUR
A bundle of five decent racing games by publisher 1C. This pack contains 4×4 Hummer, A.I.M. Racing, Classic Car Racing, Death Track: Resurrection and Streets of Moscow. - Gear Grinder on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,49 EUR
Take control over a variety of monstrous trucks that can be outfitted with state of the art weaponry in this action-packed truck racing game.
Other Games and Bundles
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent on Direct2Drive – Save 10% Pre-order Deal – 12,50 EUR
An upcoming first person survival horror game. - Neighbours From Hell Pack on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,79 EUR
Set traps for your neighbours and drive them absolutely crazy while avoiding detection in the wacky Neighbour From Hell games. A bit dated, but still charming and fun. - Penumbra Collection on GamersGate / Direct2Drive – Save 70% Weekend Deal – 5,99 EUR
This package includes all of the Penumbra first person horror adventure games. Very solid games if you’re into the genre. - Poker Night at the Inventory on Steam – Save 10% Pre-order Deal – 3,59 EUR
Take Team Fortress 2′s Heavy, Max from Sam & Max, Homestar Runner’s Strong Bad and Tychus from Penny Arcade and you get Poker Night at the Inventory! It’ll be a game about playing poker, but not quite in the way you’re used to. - Space Rangers 2: Reboot on Impulse – Save 50% Charity Sale – 7,49 EUR
This expansion pack for Space Rangers 2 introduces two new game modes and numerous other enhancements. - THQ Ultimate Bundle on Impulse – Save 80% – 52,38 EUR
This is a bundle of some of THQ’s best PC games. It includes the entire Company of Heroes series of World War 2-era real-time strategy games, along with Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War and Supreme Commander and their respective expansion packs. Proper first person shooters are also included in the form of the entire Red Faction franchise and both Full Spectrum Warrior games. The excellent Action RPG Titan Quest and its Immortal Throne expansion are also included, along with the superb free-roaming singleplayer FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. The racing game Juiced 2 and zoo simulator World of Zoo round out the package. - Uplink on Green Man Gaming – Save 50% Deal – 3,61 EUR
In this game you assume the role of a freelance hacker. Take on jobs and upgrade your tools with the earnings as you progress through the game’s plot.
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