Sales, sales, sales! (Featuring the Blinding of Isaac) | Joann Kelleher

Once again, the lovely people at Valve have decided to tempt gamers everywhere by doing their annual Steam Christmas sale, where almost all games are reduced drastically in price, to the point where it seems silly. Many fans of the company dread the sales and their fund-sapping powers, knowing that resistance is futile. This year, I made a small mistake - I picked up The Binding of Isaac (with The Wrath of the Lamb DLC). It may very well be the start of a new obsession!Isaac is a wonderfully simple and frustrating game. You control Isaac, a boy running from his homicidal mother through a seemingly boundless basement filled with enemies. For a supposed storage area of the house, it's surprisingly difficult to move through. The general rule of thumb is that if it moves, it wants to kill you. Each 'run' is different thanks to the levels being randomised each time. Specs aren't a worry at all; the game itself could run on a potato. While Isaac costs €2.49 on its own, it's worth getting the DLC (an extra €1.49) which provides tons of extra power ups, bosses and minibosses to make each adventure even more unique.As for the rest of Steam's sales, those new to the general chaos could do worse than start with the Valve Complete Pack. With twenty five games that show the excellence of Steam's stock (including both Portals, DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Source), the price should total €141.53. At the time of writing, you can pick up all of them for €45, meaning savings of nearly €100! Which reminds me of a comment a friend of mine once made; "Why aren't you throwing your money at the screen?"For those who just want to mess around with no actual goal in mind, Garry's Mod is a brilliant time waster. An indie game (cliché at this stage) that was released in 2010, it's found a recent surge of popularity among gamers. It can be described as a more realistic version of Minecraft, with the option to build characters from scratch or just to use templates. Screenshots are often hilarious - in less than an hour a friend had created Sonic trapped under a truck (he's not that fond of SEGA). It's now €4.99, though it may go down in price. Keep in mind, however, that it can crash when used in conjunction with other programs.Although some of Steam's sales have ended, many more are still open. With Steam forever being unpredictable, they could end tomorrow or stay open for another six weeks. For now, I encourage readers to have a look at the software on offer and decide for themselves what they'd like to start with. With items often being reduced by up to 75%, it certainly can't hurt any student's wallet.