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 this weekly Discount Drone feature comes in. Within 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, EA Store, GamersGate, Get Games, Good Old Games, Green Man Gaming, Impulse and Steam.
The selection of games on offer this weekend doesn’t quite compare to those insane Thanksgiving deals we saw last week, but there are still a few good catches to be found. The most notable deal has to be the adventure bundle over at Good Old Games, with adventure gaming classics The Longest Journey and Sanitarium. However, the new Stronghold Collection deal over at GamersGate is also certainly worth a look. And the X3 Gold bundle over at Impulse is absolutely required material for those who enjoy a good space simulator.
Read on for more incredible deals and subscribe to GameDrone for weekly coverage of the best digital download offerings!
Deals of the Week
- Adventure Bundle on Good Old Games – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 13,60 EUR
A bundle of four very different, but much adored, adventure games. The captivating 3D point-and-click adventure spanning two parallel worlds of The Longest Journey and the eerie psychological horror from an isometric perspective of Sanitarium really stand out here. The Journeyman Project 2 and Tex Murphy: The Pandora Detective are also on offer, but fall more in the ‘interactive movie’ genre with their FMV scenes. Fortunately it’s 50% off on each game individually as well as the entire bundle, so you can pick and choose whichever game you think you’ll like best. - Stronghold Collection on GamersGate – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 14,98 EUR
The Stronghold series offers an interesting take on the real-time strategy genre. The five games included in this package all involve building a stronghold and then defending it from invasions while keeping it operational. These games are also known for their excellent depiction of medieval siege warfare although it should be noted that the original two are much better than the newer installments in the franchise. - X3 Gold on Impulse – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 12,49 EUR
This bundle pack includes both X3: The Reunion and its sequel X3: Terran Conflict. These are amongst the most beautiful and complex space simulators to date and Terran Conflict is without a doubt the best game in the X series. The Reunion already overhauls the graphics, AI and features a more engaging story. But Terran Conflict takes it a step further by introducing recognizable elements (Earth and the Terrans) and far more accessible gameplay with superior controls, space combat and an easier to handle interface. This is as good as modern space simulators get.
Specials
- Direct2Drive – 1-in-5 orders is free until December 31st
Direct2Drive will waive the applicable price on 20% of all orders on their service from now until the end of this year. Do note that it’s only valid for purchases made with a credit card. - Good Old Games – Daily deals until December 14th
GOG.com will see a new deal each day until a final big surprise on the 14th of December. Thus far these have ranged from contests with prizes to massive price reductions on specific games. - Telltale Games – One unique deal each day until December 25th
Telltale will offer unique deals on one or more of their products each day until December 25th. These can range anywhere from great discounts on games to savings on game goodies like Back to the Future t-shirts. Today it’s 25% off all items in the Telltale store.
Adventure
- Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon on Green Man Gaming – Save 61% Deal - 4,95 EUR
The latest entry in the Broken Sword franchise that features George Stobbart and Nico Collard being drawn into yet another conspiracy. It’s considered the weakest Broken Sword game primarily because of its awkward control scheme (no point-and-click, but specific buttons for specific situations) and poorly handled character movement in general. Still the story is certainly worth it for fans of the series, but I’d give the Director’s Cut version of the original a try before grabbing this one if you’re new to the franchise. - Sam & Max Save the World on GamersGate – Save 60% Weekend Deal – 7,98 EUR
The entire first season of this excellent new series of comical 3D point-and-click adventure games. This is unfortunately a weaker season than the others, mainly due to repetition of assets and characters, but it’s still well worth playing for the laughable situations Sam & Max continually find themselves in. - Secret Files: Tunguska on GamersGate – Save 60% Weekend Deal – 4,- EUR
Attractive young mechanic Nina Kalenkov sets out to find her missing father, but stumbles across a web of secrets and conspiracies surrounding the Tunguska Phenomenon, which would be the massive aerial explosion over the Siberian highlands in 1908. An interesting and supposedly quite good point-and-click adventure game.
First Person Shooter
- Cryostasis on Get Games – Save 75% Weekend Deal - 2,49 EUR
A first person survival horror game that takes place inside an old nuclear icebreaker that’s stranded at the North Pole. This not only involves the requisite undead monsters, but also has you scouring the environment for sources of heat in order to survive. - F.E.A.R. 1 & 2 Bundle on GamersGate – Save 44% Weekend Deal – 19,99 EUR
A bundle that contains the two best games in a franchise of horrifying first person shooters! Not only will you be fighting against soldiers working together to take you out to great effect due to competent AI, but also against horrifying monstrosities sent to block your path by a semi-dead little girl. And said little girl also pops up herself in a number of creepy visions. F.E.A.R. is a tad monotone in terms of environments, but offers a rather compelling tale with some unexpected twists. I prefer F.E.A.R. 2 which exposes more of what’s been going on at Armacham and offers far more variety in terms of gameplay and environments (like a bombed out elementary school haunted by ghosts). The horrible expansion packs for the first game are fortunately not included, but neither is the excellent Reborn DLC for F.E.A.R. 2. - Medal of Honor: Airborne on EA Store – Save 33% Weekend Deal - 3,34 EUR
Airborne follows in its predecessors footsteps by presenting yet another World War 2 shooter. It adds a little twist to things by making the player a paratrooper, so that it’s always possible to choose your own insertion point at the start of a mission. This makes for a more varied singleplayer campaign, which when combined with the competently executed shooter mechanics makes for a decent FPS. It never really rises far above mediocrity, but it doesn’t really need to at this price point. - NecroVisioN: Lost Company on Green Man Gaming – Save 79% Deal – 3,- 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.
Role-playing Game
- Dungeon Defenders on GamersGate / Impulse – Save 10% Pre-order Deal – 7,19 EUR
Choose a class, create a character and team up with three friends to defend your dungeon from waves of monsters! Add in a wide variety of towers, pets, loot, monsters, achievements, game modes and a storydriven campaign and you have Dungeon Defenders’ unique take on the tower defense genre. These digital pre-orders come with an exclusive familiar depending on the digital distribution service (Direct2Drive, GamersGate, Impulse or Steam). - Sacred 2: Fallen Angel on GamersGate – Save 50% Weekend Deal - 9,98 EUR
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is an expansive 3D action RPG with a wide variety of playable characters who cannot be customized. It makes up for this in a wealth of items, a huge explorable open world and tons of monsters to kill. It easily ranks amongst the better games of the hack & slash persuasion.
Real-time Strategy
- Blood Bowl: Dark Elves Edition on GamersGate – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 9,98 EUR
A mixture of Warhammer and American Football produces a surprisingly fun, but complex, strategy game. It has two game modes with a real-time strategy variant for fast-paced, bloody, action and a turn-based strategy variant that faithfully recreates the board game. - Darwinia on Green Man Gaming – Save 83% Deal – 0,99 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. - Europa Universalis 3 Complete on GamersGate – Save 70% Weekend Deal – 8,39 EUR
Europa Universalis 3 lets you lead a nation from the 15th to 19th century in either singleplayer or cooperative multiplayer. It’s an extremely detailed empire management game and lauded as one of the best of its kind and the included Napoleon’s Amibition and In Nomine expansion packs further improve the experience with extended timelines, enhanced trading systems and more. All other Europa Universalis games are also on sale at GamersGate this weekend, but this is without a doubt the finest of them all. Note that the Heir to the Throne expansion pack is not included in this ‘complete’ edition. - Evil Genius on GamersGate – Save 60% Weekend Deal - 3,98 EUR
Assume the role of an evil genius and make a bid for that most worthy of goals: world domination. Meanwhile fend off special agents and spies with inventive traps and powerful minions. It’s a comical game of villainous activity that’s certain to be good for a laugh even if the singleplayer campaign is a tad linear and there are still some minor bugs sprinkled throughout which only fan-made patches can resolve. At this price it’s more than worth a look. - Faces of War on Green Man Gaming – Save 92% Christmas Offer – 0,99 EUR
Faces of War involves small scale real-time strategy gameplay with heavy unit micromanagement similar to Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2. That involves managing units inventories and actions in far greater detail than in ordinary real-time strategy games. It’s also a very challenging game with extensive multiplayer support and 3D graphics similar of Company of Heroes. - King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame on Steam – Save 70% Weekend Deal – 11,99 EUR
King Arthur is a real-time 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. - Knights of Honor on GamersGate – Save 70% Weekend Deal - 3,45 EUR
A historical real-time strategy game set sometime during the Middle Ages. Build up a medieval kingdom through diplomacy, trade and warfare. - Men of War on GamersGate – Save 70% Weekend Deal – 3,98 EUR
Men of War is the superior successor to Faces of War. This means it’s a real-time strategy game set in World War 2 that features a limited number of troops and a high degree of realism and control. With both an expansive singleplayer campaign and multiplayer component included, this game is counted as (one of) the best realistic strategy games to date, despite sub-par voice acting and some tough scenarios. - Swords and Soldiers HD on Steam – Save 20% Launch Deal – 7,99 EUR
A side-scrolling 2D strategy game with colorful graphics and an exaggerated art style. Swords and Soldiers HD involves gathering resources, training units, using special abilities and demolishing the enemy on the other end of the two-dimensional battlefield. Included are three tough singleplayer campaigns and a multiplayer component. - Victoria 2 on Impulse – Save 30% Weekend Deal - 27,99 EUR
In Victoria 2 you’re tasked with leading a nation towards becoming a superpower during the colonial era of the 19th century. It’s a grand strategy game that revolves around politics and will have you balance the people’s happiness with the goals you set for your nation. This involves more than 200 playable nations, complex and detailed economies, as well as the possibility of military conquest. The game still suffers from a few minor bugs, but Paradox Interactive has been actively patching these out.
Turn-based Strategy
- Guardians of Graxia on Impulse – Save 25% Launch Deal - 5,67 EUR
An interesting mixture of a Magic: The Gathering style card game with a board game and fancy 3D graphics. It suffers a bit from a lack of longevity due to a limited number of maps, no difficulty levels and no multiplayer mode. - UFO: Extraterrestrials on GamersGate – Save 70% Weekend Deal – 2,99 EUR
Build and improve a space colony while fighting off alien incursions with a squad of marines. It features small-scale turn-based tactical engagements whenever aliens are encountered, but the rest of the game involves base-building and researching technologies.
Simulator
- A.I.M. on Green Man Gaming – Save 90% Christmas Offer – 0,99 EUR
A.I.M. is an open-world action game that’s similar to the likes of Elite, Privateer and the X series. It differs from those in taking place completely on a planet’s surface and letting the player assume the role of an AI-driven android. It should be noted that while the basic concept is comparable to the previously mentioned games, the execution is inferior in most respects. - Miner Wars 2081 on Impulse / GamersGate – Save 71% Pre-order Deal – 9,99 EUR
A space simulator with a fully destructible environment in both space and underground areas. It’s a combined single/multiplayer game that can be played cooperatively or versus and comes with joystick support as well as WASD + mouse. It supports battles with up to 300 ships, a wide variety of ships, numerous ship upgrades, full looting on all ships (similar to EVE Online) and 30 different factions to join. It’s hard to tell whether the game will actually be any good, but given the fact that it’s pretty much the only known upcoming space sim I’d say it’s worth mentioning by default. If you pre-order you will get access to the currently ongoing early alpha test. - X2: The Threat on Impulse – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 4,99 EUR
X2: The Threat is one of the most expansive space simulators released to date and allows you to assume any role you wish. It’s possible to fly around as a space pirate or start your own mega corporation and even assemble a private fleet of warships. With over 60 ships, 130 sectors and countless missions this is a game that will occupy a lot of your time. Unfortunately that does take some perseverance as the interface is poor, space combat isn’t its prime alluring aspect, the learning curve is steep (EVE Online is peanuts in comparison) and the storyline is flimsy and poorly acted out. Yet underneath all that shines a rough gem for any space simulator fan.
Platform and Puzzle Games
- Gish on Impulse – Save 50% Weekend Deal – 7,54 EUR
A curious platform game that follows all the genre conventions but spices things up with the implementation of realistic physics that affect the platforming and puzzling action. The protagonist is a gelatinous blob of tar called Gish, who can become slippery to fit through tight spaces, rigid to gain extra weight and use his form in other unique ways. - LEGO Batman and LEGO Harry Potter on GamersGate – Save 40% Weekend Deal – 29,99 EUR
LEGO Batman let’s you control Batman and Robin in a LEGO world where they’re required to construct contraptions, jump and fight their way through levels. Some of the opponents you’ll be facing include The Joker, Penguin, Scarecrow and more all with the obligatory LEGO style of animation. LEGO Harry Potter is much the same deal but rather takes you through an adventure that spans the first four Harry Potter books. Cooperative multiplayer gameplay is of course included in both games.
Other Games and Bundles
- Go Commando on Green Man Gaming – Save 75% Christmas Offer – 5,- EUR
Included in this bundle pack are the two most recent top-down squad-based strategy games in the Commandos franchise: Commandos 2 & Commandos 3. These are generally considered to be inferior to their predecessors, but are still well worth playing for their challenging World War 2 era behind enemy lines scenarios. Strike Force is also included, which is a mediocre first person shooter loosely based on the Commandos franchise. - Hacker Bundle on Green Man Gaming – Save 78% Christmas Offer – 11,48 EUR
A bundle pack that consists of three interesting indie games. The two Hacker Evolution games provide numerous hacking challenges that need to be overcome by the use of console commands in order to prevent a hostile AI from taking over the planet. Defcon is quite a different beast and puts the player in charge of a global superpower on the brink of thermonuclear war. In this case you don’t prevent the war from happening, but instead aim to win it by inflicting as many casualties as possible! With its distant global map view and cold statistics on nuke efficiency this is definitely not your average heroic real-time strategy game. - Shooter Bundle on Green Man Gaming – Save 50% Christmas Offer – 24,99 EUR
This bundle consists of three very different first person shooters. Painkiller: Black Edition lets you go in all-guns-blazing against hordes of demonic enemies in a grim mythical setting. It’s over-the-top and crazy, but that’s what makes it so good. Mafia on the other hand is a brilliantly executed story-driven shooter set in 1930s and is an absolute must-have for all fans of Mafia movies and good singleplayer shooters. And Borderlands is a great co-op shooter with a random loot system based on action RPGs like Diablo. - THQ Ultimate Bundle on Impulse – Save 68% Deal – 93,64 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 83% Deal – 0,99 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. - X-Com Complete Pack on GamersGate – Save 66% Weekend Deal - 5,08 EUR
An older series of celebrated squad-based turn-based strategy games in which your marines fight off alien incursions on Earth. Also included are a shooter (Enforcer) and arcade space sim (Interceptor).
http://www.gog.com/en/promo/jowood_collection
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