Valve Launches Much-anticipated Steam Summer Sale

For PC gamers, few things make summer feel quite like summer like Valve’s annual Steam Summer Sale. I can tell from comments I’ve read around the Web the past couple of weeks (especially Reddit) that some have been (im)patiently waiting, and today, you can finally all relax. It’s here, and as expected, there’s a lot to buy and a lot of things to do.

By now, you’re all likely used to how Valve structures these things, and this particular sale doesn’t change things up too much. The front of the site will list off a number of daily deals, and directly below that, you’ll be able to vote for one of three games that you’d like to see go on sale for -66%. Currently, the choices are Dishonored, Borderlands 2 and Far Cry 3 – the first two would be $10.20, the latter, $24.00.

Tying into Steam’s card system that it unveiled in May, many of these games featured in the main section of the site include support for those. This is a system I’m not exactly thrilled with since it rewards you simply for leaving a particular game open for hours on end, but meh – it’s there for those who want to take part.

As with all of the biggest sales on Steam, this one ties a special achievements list in with it. If you accomplish everything laid-out here, you’ll earn a special summer getaway badge. As of the time of writing, that page is down; Steam is getting hit by likely hundreds of thousands of users all at once. Things are sure to die down a bit as the day goes on.

Sales run until July 22, with fresh deals to be released throughout each day until then.

What are you hoping to pick up?