Valve has launched its annual summer sale, which is about to threaten wallets everywhere with deeply discounted games. The sale lasts for 10 days, and every 24 hours new deals become available, with anywhere from a few games to almost a dozen put on sale for a limited time.
Additionally, the Steam Store is also offering eight-hour flash sales which offer even better discounts on surprise titles, but as the name suggests, you have to check back frequently to find out which ones.
According to Valve, its plan is to feature sales on more than 100 titles over the next 10 days. In addition to all the great deals, Steam is also running a promotion it calls "Steam Summer Adventure," which involves collecting virtual trading cards. With 10 trading cards, you get to craft the official Summer Adventure 2014 badge, which you can use to get in-game items for various games.
You're also assigned to a team of players when you sign up for the adventure, and each card you collect earns points for your team. Thirty members of the winning team will be selected at random to win three games from their Steam wish list. All other members of the winning team will receive two bonus trading cards, which they can cash in for in-game items.
All users who participate and successfully craft the Summer Adventure badge will receive one in-game item, one emoticon for use on the Steam forums, one forum profile background, and an entry into a drawing for a Team Token. Cards are earned by buying games (one card for every $10 you spend), crafting badges, voting in a community choice sale, trading, or simply purchasing cards outright.
There are Community Choice sale titles as well, where every four hours, Steam users get to vote on the genre of game they want the next Community Choice sale to feature. Two genres are available to be voted on each time, and the winning genre gets a limited-time game on sale selected by the Steam Store staff.
At the time of this writing, available deals of the day include popular titles like Far Cry 3, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Day Z, Divinity: Original Sin, and more, with discounts going as high as 80 percent off. A helpful countdown clock on the Steam homepage lets you know how long you have to go until each day's primary sale titles change.
