Oh, the glorious Steam sale. It pops up a few times a year to empty the wallets of anyone who plays PC games. It’s gotten so popular that competing digital services like Amazon and GreenManGaming run similar sales during the same time period in order to pull sales away from Steam. Even EA’s Origin gets into the mix, but I wouldn’t recommend using that service to my worst enemy. (Be sure to check the section on Steam’s Trading Cards below!)

If you are new to the process, here’s the skinny. Steam, Valve’s PC game distribution platform, cranks up a massive sale on nearly all items in the store. The current one just started (June 24) and will run through July 8th at 10 a.m. PT. The next massive sale will hit during the winter of 2021, so it’s best to jump on sales right now to get some amazing deals. The sale period usually lasts for about 10 days and discounts range from 10 percent to 90 percent depending on the type of sale.

1. The Standard: This discount starts on the first date of the sale and lasts the entire sale period. This is the only sale price requested by Valve from publishers when it comes to purchasing a single game. It can be between 10 to 90% off the normal price of the game.
2. The Bundle: If you are new to PC gaming, this is really where you can get the most bang for your buck. Valve either bundles games from the same publisher or the same genre all together and adds an additional discount on top of the standard discount. It’s a great way to purchase a ton of games at once, typically for $25 to $75 depending on the bundle.

Patience Doesn’t Matter Anymore

The key to getting the best value out of Steam sale purchases used to be patience. During the older format in early 2015, you could snag amazing discounts with daily and flash sales. However, these were phased out in favor of a single discount for the entire sale period.

It doesn’t really matter what day you make your purchases on now. The sale price will be the same on the first day as the last day.

In preparation for a sale, I usually make a list of games that I want to add to my collection. You can use the Wishlist feature within Steam after you register for an account or simply type it out in Excel or Notepad. I’ll also come up with a budget of what I want to spend for each game.

You can also add funds to your Steam account prior to starting in order to cut one step out of the purchase process, however that’s not a huge necessity anymore due to the lack of daily and flash sales.

The Right Tools for the Job

If you are using Google Chrome or Firefox, I recommend checking out the  Augmented Steam extension. It provides a plethora of added features like color coding games you already own to avoid duplicate purchases, identifying 3rd party DRM, showing DLC categories and providing a pricing history to see if you are really getting a great deal.

If you are stuck at work or on a PC that you can’t make purchases on, be sure to download the Steam app for iOS or Android phones. This will help you keep up to date on the latest deals and make purchases that you can download later on your gaming PC.

Advanced Tips

If you’re looking for information on a game and standard reviews just don’t cut it, pop over to r/gaming in Reddit and look for the thread on each day’s deals. There’s usually a solid discussion on both the quality of the deals as well as the quality of the games.

You should also be sure to check out r/steamdeals and r/patientgamers for alerts on newly listed Flash and Daily deals as well as tips on cheap prices on competing services. Amazon, for instance, competes heavily with Steam and will discount games even more aggressively sometimes. Those games can also be downloaded directly within Steam, assuming it’s a digital version with a Steam key.

If you have a little extra money to invest in heavily discounted Steam games, consider purchasing a popular game at a 50 to 75 percent discount and hanging onto it rather than installing it. Beyond trading with friends in the Steam community, r/SteamGameSwap allows you to trade game keys with others. When something comes out that you really want to play, someone may consider trading that game for a key or keys that you own. If you are creative with trades, you could come away with a new release for the discounted price that you paid during the last Steam sale. You can also trade away duplicate games from a Bundle pack as well.

Steam It Up!

Those are the basics to taking advantage of the big Steam sales. Go forth and hand over your paycheck to the Mighty Gabe during the next Steam sale. If you are interested in beefing up your gaming PC in preparation of the next major Steam sale, check out our Build-a-Gaming-PC guide here.

How to Score the Best Gaming Deals During This Steam Sale

10 years ago, PC gaming was mostly about DIY custom rigs in souped-up tower cases. Gaming laptops were overpriced, overstuffed monstrosities—never mind, that’s actually still a thing. But today, gaming laptops can be sleek, they can be cheap, and they can even look and act like regular laptops!

Where they might suffer in price-to-performance ratio or limited customization, PC gaming laptops offer portability, can double as work machines, and usually have premium display technology.

Of course, you can break the bank and get every bell and whistle crammed into a single machine (like the $4000 Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition with 4K OLED and Quadro RTX). But if, like most of Ben’s visitors, you’re interested in affordable gaming laptops that are robust enough to play new games for the next few years to come, then please read on!

Most of our favorite affordable gaming laptops on this list use AMD Ryzen processors. AMD has really come a long way, and Ryzen is now the chip du jour for gaming PCs. They cost less and performance is arguably better.

You’ll see some commonalties among the starting specs here, which is to be expected, considering their (relative) price constraints. All of the laptops in this guide have Full HD (1080p) IPS displays, but you will find some with faster 144Hz (even 240Hz) refresh rates. If you play a lot of online multiplayer games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, Overwatch and the like, you will want to select the fastest refresh rate and GPU options that you can afford (120Hz refresh or better and GTX 1650 Ti graphics or better).

And, sure, the RTX 3000 Series mobile GPUs are now available, but affordable they are not… if you can even find them.

One last thing: if you’re thinking of pulling double duty for work, keep in mind that none of these otherwise excellent gaming laptops has a decent webcam. Corners had to be cut somewhere…

It’s Black Friday season, so watch for price drops and deals on these affordable gaming laptops on Ben’s in the coming weeks (set deal alerts here)!

Under $700

$700 to $1,000

Over $1,000

Check Ben’s for the latest PC Gaming deals

2020 Gift Guide: Our Favorite Affordable Gaming Laptops

On February 4th, Nvidia has pushed their cloud gaming service live to the public, exiting an extensive beta period. Called GeForce Now, it’s designed to allow gamers access to extremely high end gaming machines via streaming.

Basically, Nvidia connects to your existing gaming libraries, on services like Steam & Epic, and allows you to play cloud-based copies of those games via GeForce Now

This could be a particularly inexpensive solution for people that have an older PC or Macs, unable to push high-end graphic performance. The service also works on Nvidia Shield devices as well as Android devices (with 2GB with Android 5.0 (L) or later).

At launch, Nvidia is offering two tiers, a free-to-play option and a $5-a-month Founders edition. The 1st tier is limited to 1-hour sessions and you have to wait in a queue to connect. The Founders level offers a priority queue as well as sessions up to 6 hours as well as RTX (ray tracing) activated.

Of course, the quality of your stream is going to be highly dependent on the bandwidth you pay for. For instance, streaming at the highest bitrate at 1080p and 60 frames per second will require a 50 Mbps download speed. And if you have monthly data caps with your ISP, you could quickly hit your cap as that setting streams 15 GB of data per hour.

Of course, you can scale down data use with Nvidia’s preset data profiles. You also have the option of scaling up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second. Be aware that anyone else on your network could potentially reduce the quality of your gaming stream if using other services like Netflix.

With high-end gaming PC’s potentially costing in the thousands (depending on how much you sink into your monitor / gaming cards), Geforce Now could be a bargain option for someone that simply can’t afford to upgrade for new, advanced games like CyberPunk 2077.

You can sign up for the free tier here. Just FYI, the Founders edition does come with a 90-day free trial. You can play for the first 90 days before being charged. Check out the video below to see GeForce Now on multiple platforms:

Shut Up and Take My Money: Geforce Now Cloud Gaming Service

Attempting to become Steam’s main competitor in the PC gaming marketplace (arguably using some questionable strategies via exclusivity), Epic Games is taking a page out of Steam’s book with their first store-wide sale.

While some games are simply on sale, Epic is also offering an unlimited use $10-off discount on all orders $14.99 or more. It works on preorders as well. Borderlands 3, for instance, is available for $49.99 after discount.

How long does the Sale last?

The sale starts on May 16, 2019 and runs through June 13, 2019.

Does the $10 Discount work on DLC?

No. It’s also not going to work on in-game purchase items. You wouldn’t be able to use it for Fortnite credits, for instance.

Is the $10 Discount Retroactive?

Yes, for the last two weeks. If you purchased a game $14.99 or higher between May 2 and May 15 on the Epic Games store, you will receive a $10 refund on your purchase credited to your original payment method.

Any Free Games?

Yes! Epic is giving away at least one game every two weeks during the sale. The first free game, Stories Untold, is available between May 16 through May 30. A second free game, RiME, will become available on May 23 through May 30.

What are some of the Best Deals for this sale?

• World War Z for $19.99. (MSRP: $35)
• Subnautica: Below Zero (Early Access) for $9.99. (MSRP: $20)
• John Wick Hex for $7.99 (MSRP: $20)
• Metro Exodus for $34.99 (MSRP: $50)
• The Walking Dead: The Final Season for $4.99 (MSRP $20)

What if I’m outside the United States?

If you are in a region outside of the United States, you are really in luck. The deals are insane compared to the U.S. store. Borderlands 3 preorder for $20 in Russia, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 preorder for $9, Metro Exodus for $7, Detroit: Become Human for $10, etc… For U.S. residents that try to roll the dice on a preorder purchase via VPN, be aware there are no guarantees the game will activate at launch.

How to find the Best Deals at the first Epic Games Store Sale

Hate wires, but love gaming? Then it’s time to reconsider the wireless mouse option. Now you can have gaming performance without either wires or annoying rechargeable batteries. Logitech’s G602 promises both gaming grade performance and long battery life.

A Gaming Mouse Without Gimmicks

Typical gaming mice (wireless or otherwise) are packed with unnecessary features like adjustable LEDs, tiny interchangeable mouse weights, and vastly overblown dots per inch sensitivity. Some even have such extreme designs they look no better than a cheap sci-fi movie prop.

The G602, on the other hand, boasts 11 programmable (and accessible) buttons, useful and adjustable DPI up to 2500, AA battery power, and a toggleable power saving mode that serves as part of the mouse mobile friendly package.

Performance

When the mouse’s topside toggle, which is flush in line with the scroll wheel, is set to the (blue) Performance Mode, the mouse operates without any of the troubling lag associated with a typical wireless mouse. The DPI range allows for not one, but five quick DPI settings that can be accessed on the mouse itself, in the Logitech app, or even through game-specific profiles. The mouse can detect when switching from a sprawling desktop resolution into “StarCraft II,” and adjust on-the-fly. Then again, should you prefer one or more settings to also be in use, that preference can be stored in the mouse’s on-board memory, which will follow the mouse from laptop to desktop and even to USB-capable tablets.

Endurance

Switch the mouse’s topside toggle to (green) Endurance Mode, and the G602 becomes a lot more like a typical laggy wireless mouse. However, battery life increases from Performance Mode’s 250 hours to a staggering 1440 hours. So it goes without saying that Endurance is good for overnight stays at the airport or other such power-conservative situations.

Shapely

The G602 starts with the ergonomically pleasing shape of mice like the Logitech G5 or the excellent G500s, and takes it to the next level, perfectly accommodating the extra thumb buttons. The mouse has no less than six Teflon slick feet, which allows it to glide beautifully while keeping the laser at just the right height. The rubber coating on the palm rest works surprising well in one of the typical mouse trouble areas. This, of course, assumes the user is willing to hold the mouse with the right hand; lefties will find most of the buttons clumsily obscured.

In Practice

Compared with excellent Logitech G500s, the wireless G602 takes some adjustment. The G500s has Logitech’s smooth-as-silk scroll wheel, which the G602 must do without. The G602 even lacks the G700s’ tilt function for the scroll wheel. Of course, after tweaking a few settings and settling into the great new shape, the G602s becomes so natural, you may wonder how you ever lived without it or how you lived with wires or wireless lag.

Conclusion

Logitech has a winner. The G602 effectively combines the demands of gaming performance and capability, with all of the advantages of modern wireless mice. Even in Performance Mode, the batteries last and last. Little details, like being able to stash the tiny USB receiver in the AA battery compartment, make the G602 perfect for at home or on-the-go. Plus, the new shape does such a good job of allowing more buttons, it’s shocking this isn’t already the industry standard. With the G602, the term “wireless gaming mouse” is no longer a joke.

BUY NOW: Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse

Logitech G602 Wireless Mouse Review: Great for Work or Gaming