Cheap or Free Games!

[Insomnia]

These are all updated pretty frequently, so if you are looking for cheap games, make sure to check out and bookmark these links:

Origin gives away free games every few months.
UPlay is giving away a game a month right now to celebrate 30 years of Ubisoft and sometimes gives games away as well.

Stores:
Steam often has sales.
Good Old Games has a store and often has sales. (You can also get free games for signing up). - They are also going to start their own Greenlight type project.
HumbleBundle has bundles and the store which has sales ever so often.
GreenManGaming often has games on sale, and usually cheaper than Steam (if you are Canadian, anyway).
DLGamer has keys and sales too!

Bundles:
IndieGala does several bundles a week, and discount the bundles even more usually for the first 48 hours.
Fanatical does several bundles a week too.
DailyIndieGame is pretty cool too!

IsThereAnyDeal.com is pretty good for checking up on things if you randomly want to buy a game cheaply.
GameDeals subreddit is a pretty good place to check out too.
PCGiveaways is also a good subreddit with free stuff!

IndieDB has daily giveaways. If you sign up for the newsletter it will mail you every time there is a new giveaway, and it'll also tell you if you won or not.
Alpha Beta Gamer has lots and lots of betas if, like me you are leery of pre-orders now.

Arise or something, Edited. Groupees is trash.

[Three-Eyed Crow]

I picked this up when it was featured in the holiday Steam sale. Haven't gotten into it yet (work, and other gifted games) but it's getting some quality time this weekend.

Should I start with Saints Row 2, or skip straight to 4 (which was actually the one I'd been meaning to buy forever, just seemed wise to get them all since it was the price of a relatively cheap game) and backtrack if I enjoy it? Never played any of them.

[Insomnia]

I've been told things carry on as you go so that's one reason to start from 2 and work your way through.

On the other hand, I've been told That 2 is the weakest of the series in terms of gameplay.

[3543thrh67]

I have all of them. I should pay more attention to the Humble Bundle. Often they have games I want.

[Insomnia]

Theme Hospital is Free right now on Origin.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/free-games/on-the-house

Of course it requires Origin..

Also Free:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books

Not the whole bundle, however: "Each day at 11 a.m. Pacific time, we're offering a different free issue from Image Comics -- including ones from this bundle! Enter your email below to receive a download page where you'll receive each day's free comic."

Only 24hrs left on that bundle, but they often to that when a books bundle is a comics bundle.

[Insomnia]

Steam is having a weekend sale, up to 85% off Square games:

Tombraider (The collection, 11 games is on for $17.73 CAD atm, for example)
Hitman,
Final Fantasy 3, 4, 7, 8, 13, 13-2
Deus Ex
Thief
Just Cause
Soul Suspect
Sleeping Dogs

And if they have DLC's those are on sale too, as well as bundles of everything on Sale. I've left a lot off the list too.

[Thenomain]

@Insomnia said:

Final Fantasy 3, 4, 7, 8, 13, 13-2

I'm currently thinking about picking up one of these FFs. Which one is good for someone who a) doesn't like jrpg combats (clarification: turn-based combats that look like it's the age of combat where everyone is expected to line up one at a time and then you do things on your mark—tho I didn't mind it in FF Tactics Advance) , but `b) will put up with it for a good story? Game length, gender of protagonist, quality of graphics don't matter. (Well, graphics from this century would be nice.) VII is my first thought, but, y'know, whatever's the greatest.

[Glitch]

FFIX. <.<

[Bobotron]

@Glitch
FF9 is love.

[3543thrh67]

Is FF9 on sale now? That's the one with Zidane and Garnet isn't it? Mind, I liked FF8 best. Riona and Squall were pretty neat.

[Thenomain]

Hello reading comprehension!

Final Fantasy 3, 4, 7, 8, 13, 13-2

No 9. Maybe for that reason? Who knows.

[darksabrz]

I didn't like 9 very much, though part of it was because the ending really screwed with me. Honestly, 7 and 8 were the only ones I liked -- I absolutely hated X, and between my head-shaking with aspects of 9 and how much I hated X, I haven't touched FF since.

...dammit, now I want to get myself a PS2 again so I can get 7 and 8.

[3543thrh67]

THese games are on PC @darksabrz. Which is PC friendly games.

@Thenomain Oooh. Maybe! I just thought I missed it in my steam search/the list of games.

[Insomnia]

It's not been ported over, from the looks of it.

[Bobotron]

@Thenomain
As one of the resident FF nerds, everything there except for FFXIII and XIII-2 uses a turn-based ATB-variant combat, so all of those will be 'stand on side, smack enemies until dead' except XIII, which has its own variants. Strategy goes into what you do. Of note...

If you liked FFTA's Job System, FFIII is the progenitor to all Job Systems, though there's no mix-and-matching of powers. FFIII also has a 'meh' story. It was updated somewhat for the DS/iOS release (which is what I assume is this one)

FFIV has probably my favorite story in the series (even more than VI) and is one of the few games with 'set Jobs' for characters. If you like some political intrigue, good versus evil, a world-spanning conflict and don't mind a little grinding occasionally I'd recommend this one.

FFVII is what most people say is their favorite; the story was okay, but I found it hard to relate to the protagonist and I found the story confusing in parts.

VIII I never finished; again, I found the story confusing (and I got lost partway on Disc 3 and had NO idea where to go). FFVIII has the most unique of the magic systems, in that you draw magic from the world around you and from monsters, and 'stock' it as spell charges. It also has the most customization; it has no jobs really, and all customization is based on the weaponry and equipment, magic and attaching it to your stats, and Summons and their Junctions.

XIII is less 'line up' but you still deal with 'queued actions' via Action Points to do various things, so you queue up, execute and such. All combat does happen from the map though, IIRC. It's also pretty linear from my understanding.

No real clue about XIII-2, as I haven't watched my friends play it (or played it myself).

[Ganymede]

My favorite of all is FF8. It falls way outside of the mold. I never found it confusing, personally. Then again, I'm Asian.

If you have an iThing, you might want to look up the FF games on it. They go for around $15 a pop, if I recall, but you can pick up FFT (which is probably the strongest game) and FF6 (aka FF3 in 'Murica), which is by far the best game insofar as the plot is concerned.

All games after FF6, if I recall, use an ATB system -- or active turn-based. That means that the enemies will keep coming after you, and your PCs can act "out-of-turn" based on their relative speeds (e.g., you have Haste cast on them).

[BobGoblin]

Last Remnant was on sale -- if you haven't played that one, it is definitely a different style of game from Squaresoft, one that I enjoyed.

[Saulot]

4, 5, and 6 use the atb, mate. Not sure if the 3 remake does. Passed it over for Dragon Commander.

[Thenomain]

FF8 it is.

... Next time Squeenix has a sale, you slowpokes.

[Bobotron]

@Huzuruth
III doesn't, really. It uses the same initiative order system that I and II do (which is more or less Agility-based descending D&D initiative).

@Thenomain said:

FF8 it is.

... Next time Squeenix has a sale, you slowpokes.

Hey, next time Squeenix has a sale you might get FF9