It's that time of year again. The Steam Summer Sale is back, and that means two weeks of constantly reloading the Steam store to see what games you can pick up for a few bucks each. It's easy to go nuts during the sale, so here are some tips on how to get the most during the event.
1. Don't Buy From the Catalog
Most games get some kind of discount during the Steam Sale. If you search for the game or find it by digging into a menu, that discount will probably be 10 to 25 percent. That's not great. It's something, but it's not as much as you can get by keeping an eye on the hot spots of the store. The further you have to dig past the front page, the lower the discount will probably be.
2. Don't Rush to Buy Anything
The sale lasts about two weeks. Anything you see on sale will likely be on sale at least once again in a few days. If you're not sure if you want a game even at a deep discount price, just wait for it to appear again in the hot spots. It might even show up for less.
3. Use Your Wish List
If you have games you want and they're not in the Daily Deals or Flash Sales sections, add them to your wish list. Keep an eye on that list and you might see a deep cut later in the sale you'd otherwise miss.
4. Check Flash Sales First
The Flash Sales refresh every eight hours and have four games with deep discounts each time. As I write this, the games are Dead Island: Riptide, DmC: Devil May Cry, Hotline: Miami, and Mirror's Edge. They're all available for 75 percent off, except Hotline: Miami which is 85 percent off at just $1.49. The Flash Sales section gets the deepest discounts and rotates frequently. That's the first place to look if you want to get games for really cheap.
5. Check Daily Deals Next
The Daily Deals refresh every day at 1 p.m. Eastern and usually have around nine games each time. The discounts are generally lower than the Flash Sales, but some are still extremely compelling. Right now, The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings and Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion are 80 percent off, and Don't Starve, X-Com: Enemy Unknown, and Far Cry 3 are 75 percent off. The other discounts range from a respectable 66 percent to a scant 15 percent. The Daily Deals offer more selection than the Flash Sales, but rotate more slowly, so you can wait on them a bit more.
6. Ignore the Trading Cards
Steam trading cards are evil. They're randomized, awarded frequently, and can be crafted into badges to level up your Steam Profile to get more cards. There are even rare foil cards that can be crafted into rarer badges. The Steam Summer Sale has its own set of cards, and it awards them for buying games and answering surveys to determine sales. It's very, very easy to get hooked on the cards, and that tempting bar that says "Just $5.07 until your next card!" will call out to you. Try to resist it. I haven't been able to listen to this particular piece of advice.
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