Another year, another smattering of games bought from the Steam Sale in search of bargains and prizes. The biggest gains I came away with are probably Fallout: New Vegas and Neverwinter Nights 2 for $5 each. Valve also handed out special achievements to any player who completed a special holiday-themed achievement in select games, and doing so would either give you a voucher for a free game, a coupon for a discount on a game in Steam’s catalog, or…a lump of coal. However, if you collect seven of them, you can trade them in for a mystery gift (which can be either a game or a coupon). I think I was able to get 15 gifts in total, and was getting close to obtaining another one, but I wasn’t able to complete the achievement in time for me to go to work, so I was left with six lumps of coal that I couldn’t use for anything.

Of course, I also have this one 50% off coupon for Universe Sandbox that I’m sitting on, because I bought the game at 75% off the day it went on sale. I think I’ll put my Valve coupon toward Portal 2, my 1C coupon on Space Rangers (which plays like the newer King’s Bounty games, except IN SPACE!) and the Bethesda discount will be used to score Brink. I played that one a bit during the free weekend, and while it runs somewhat slow on my computer, I could probably get used to it so long as I stick to single-player. Maybe Santa Newell had something good in my for my Christmas stocking after all…