I Want It All

Of all the people in the world that I could possibly envy more than anyone else, it would be my Dad.

I envy him for his complete inability to want anything. It could just be the case that he doesn’t show it, or that the things he wants are much less tangible – but even if either of those were true, I’ve never seen him get worked up about not getting something he wanted. Buying things for him for Christmas is far too easy. Invariably, he’ll ask for some chocolate and a few DVDs, but that’s more or less the entirety of it. Maybe he already has everything he wants?

To put things in perspective, I want everything. If it’s shiny and awesome you can be sure that at some point in my life I’ve wanted it. For the most part I just want new games to play – new releases every month for the last 11 months have generally sated that lust – or some collectible item. But it’s Christmas now, and although most of the major releases have already been and gone, you can guarantee that Valve are going to make my wallet their bitch.

Last Christmas, I gave them my money. The very same day, they gave me some games. This year, I’m cowering in fear because it’s going to be a repeat of last year. I’d list all the games I bought but there are so many it would make you cry just reading them all. What’s even worse is that I could list all the games I bought that I haven’t played and it would still be around the same amount. Wait, did I just quote a song?

It’s quite obvious that I am, to quote a good friend of mine, a “sucker for a price drop”. I haven’t bought these because I wanted to play them, I bought them because they were cheap.

In fairness, a lot of it has been down to things like the iD Super Pack dropping to £12.99. This was a bundle that got you a copy of pretty much every single game that iD had ever made except the latest Wolfenstein and Quake 4 (those were developed by Raven Software anyway). At the time, £12.99 was the price tag for DOOM 3 alone (which was included in the iD bundle) – so buying the iD Super Pack was effectively the same as buying DOOM 3 and getting its expansion and 17 helpings of epic retro goodness for free.

Then there’s the Star Wars Collection. That went down to about £20 (from £70) and had every single Star Wars game available on Steam. Considering that the actual combined price was somewhere in the triple digits, that struck me as a proper bargain. Admittedly, there were a few games in the bundle I wouldn’t have missed were they left out, and some of the games I did already own. There were still enough games left that I didn’t own, but wanted, to make it worthwhile. Honest!

Actually, I’m just looking at the Star Wars Collection on Steam this very second as a point of reference for this blog. They’ve only gone and added all the Star Wars games that were released since last Christmas! It’s just a stroke of luck, then, that of the three new titles there’s only one I quite fancy. I’m also thankful that the second of the three I’ve already played to completion and the third is utter tripe. Phew!

I can only hope that Valve decide to drop the price on all their rubbish games, like they did last Summer. I saw through your tricksy ways, Valve! It took me completely by surprise, but luckily it had as much impact as a herring on the mightiest tree in the forest.

Right this very minute, just recently or a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away – depending on when and where you’re reading this – Valve are holding a competition where a small group of people can win the top 5 Steam games in their wishlist when they add 10 games to it. I can’t say I’ve really bothered doing it but that’s just because I’m a lazy ruffian. It also just strikes me as a way for Valve to see what games people want so they can drop the price on them over Christmas. What kind of fiendish company takes note of the games people want, then lowers the price on them? For shame, Valve. For shame.

Oh hey, Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition for £5?