My favourite bit of gaming hardware was the "NeGcon" for the original playstation. It gave you analog steering, throttle and braking. Exactly what you needed for Gran Turismo 1 and 2. I fairly well wore out one of these controllers! Such a shame that I never saw the same thing for the PS2 or 360, as I think that would have increased my patience with racing games!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeGcon

How can a gamer blogs article today not be on the start of the steam summer sale? Its arguably the best time of the year to pick up new games or old classics that you never got around to.

I guess I'll do what this blog should have done and pull out the best deals on today. As always remember people that there may be even better deals on the last day of the sale.

For strategy enthusiasts you can't look past Shogun 2 at 70% off. I wouldn't recommend buying all the expansions unless you already have and enjoy Shogun 2. Crusader kings II would be a great purchase for anyone looking to get into more 'hardcore' strategy games.

For RPG/FPS fans the Deus Ex pack (40% off 36USD) is great value. You get the new Human revolutions, a AAA title, as well as one of the great classics of PC gaming: the original Deus Ex.

The best 'pack' if you really want to add a whole array of games to your arsenal is the THQ collection. 80% off ($75USD) such classics as Company of heroes plus expansions, Dawn of War II plus expansions, plus great fps games like metro 2033, stalker games. Its also nice to see saints row III and Space marine, relatively new, lighthearted and enjoyable games also included.

There are also a few cheap classics that if anyone doesn't own they should pick up now: Left 4 Dead 2, Magicka, portal/portal 2

Finally I would advise Skyrim fans that have been waiting for it to be on sale should hold off buying as I suspect the price will drop lower than 33% off in the coming week. Similarly I suspect Arma II: combined operations may also have a bigger price drop than 20% for people wanting to get on the (extremely interesting) DayZ zombie mod.

Lets hope I don't have to be here all week

Best peripheral I've ever had was the Saitek X45 HOTAS. Worst would be the Razor Onza xbox controller.

Are the Triton Headsets any good? I'm desperately in need of a new set to replace my aging HP ones.

Also your quip was from Top Gear :p

Best: The NeGcon controller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeGcon absolute perfection for driving games. It was a very sad day when games stopped supporting it. I have 2 of them.

Best: Naturalpoints TrackIR. I spend a good portion of my gaming time flight-simming and the TrackIR inrease the immersion ten fold. I've also used it in driving sims and even some FPS with mixed results but anybody serious about flight simming should get one

Worst: My partner at the time thought she'd be a great girlfriend and bought me a steering wheel for xmas. Only problem was the only way to attach it to a desk was 4 of those stupid little sucker pads which made were worse than useless. I couldn't even put it on Trademe for fear of upsetting her and had to get it out every now and then and grin like a chump to keep her happy.

@ James - Maybe because a blog is not a commercial platform for advertising? Sure the Steam sale may be good value (for certain areas of the world - be nice if they got rid of regionally based pricing) but as far as a topic to actually talk about it's not that interesting (and certainly not as interesting as Gerards posted topic).

I certainly hope you're not going to be here all week simply providing advertising...

@james #2 - Check out Gamejunkies 2.0 blog, he discusses the very topic you crave!

@ Scott C - It's unlikely James works for Steam, so what would be the reason for him purposefully 'advertising' it... He was simply making people aware of a gaming event that cannot be taken advantage of at a later date. A blog typically includes useful information, and whilst I liked reading Gerard's post it really had no relevancy to at all.

@ Jay - I never implied (let alone said) that James works for Steam. I only commented that the Steam sale is well publicised and that listing the specials basically amounts to advertising. Gerard had posted an interesting topic and there is no requirement for a blog to post "useful information" - reporting on contemporary events is what news does, this is a blog, not news.

James, I haven't actually posted today's blog yet (working on it now) and while I am going to mention the Steam sale in today's post, I'm not going to do a "Today's deals on Steam" for readers. People who are interested in the Steam sale will be aware of what's going on.