The Steam Summer Sale starts with deals on Borderlands 3, Assassin's Creed and more

Is it...is it summer already? I locked the door to my apartment in March when it was cold and blustery outside and...well, it's June in San Francisco, so it's probably cold and blustery outside. But the point is that I'm reduced to marking time by the various Steam sales, and that means today it's summer.

Yes, the Steam Summer Sale kicks off Thursday, and runs through July 9 at 10AM Pacific. Like the last few sales, there's a points-driven meta layer that rewards you for purchasing games and such. "Rewards" is a bit strong of a term maybe, given it's all profile backgrounds and chat effects and the like, but hey, it's a "souvenir" of the sale, as Valve puts it. 

And hey, you're buying the games anyway, right? Thousands of games are on sale, and it always takes a bit to sort through everything. There are some early standouts though, with Borderlands 3 at 50% off (after six months), Assassin's Creed Odyssey providing over a hundred hours of game for $20, Planet Coaster and Cities Skylines both 75% off, the fantastic Shadow Tactics for just $6, and Pathologic 2 for under $15. Valve's Index VR headset also appears to be back in stock, though I'm unsure whether that's related to the sale. Either way, get it fast before it's gone.

Competition between Epic and Valve continues to pay off for the players. With the last few Epic Games Store sales, Epic sweetened the pot by giving out $10 coupons that can be applied to most any game in the store. Valve's put its own spin on that, taking $5 off when you spend $30. Not quite the same, but hey, it's free money.

As I said, the sale runs through July 9, so you've got plenty of time to peruse what's on offer. All those EA games just came back to Steam as well, so might I recommend picking up Titanfall 2?