Careful with this Steam

(tags game, Windows, Steam, Unreal Tournament, puzzle)

The end of the year Steam sale has me filling up my cart... but I haven't checked out and purchased. Yes I wanna buy more games, virtually even.

I fixed my problem with buying stuff through my Steam Client. It turns out that my overzealous security settings in Internet Explorer 7 were blocking the Steam's Store from recording my additions to the Cart. Now I can keep stuff in my cart while shopping! huh.

So I want to get the ID super pack, the Unreal Pack, the PopCap games, and one indie game:

I've already experienced much of ID. Unreal stuff goes without saying. My mom had lots of fun with the PopCap series. She demoed Peggle to me. Also I really liked my time with Bejeweled 2 and Insane-aquarium (sp?) which I previously bought for my now dormant Sony Palm Clie. Finally I wanna try out either World of Goo or Aquaria. The World of Goo was declared contender for Game of the Year by Coding Horror's star programmer and extreme gaming enthusiast Jeff Atwood, so it deserves a look.

In total, I'm looking at USD 150.00. That's a lot for things that doesn't have a real physical presence. But I really like the convenience of Steam. I recently confirmed that the games are tied to my ability to log in, not just to a specific computer. I can move around with freedom and sponteniety. I can play the low-performance games on my laptop, then switch to higher-performance desktop to play the FPSs.

But I still haven't purchased. I've got till January 2 to decide, right?

Finally I've been looking at Good Old Games for their DRM-free selections. Steam is good, but still DRM-laden. Currently GOG's selection is paltry, but there were able to snag Unreal Tournament and also Fallout 1 and 2, so they are worth watching. Hope still burns for Sinistar Unleashed, hint hint hint.