Bastion grabbed my heart exactly one minute and 30 seconds after it started, reads the first line of PC Gamer s 2011 Bastion review, which is a feeling that never left me until the game s end. The action-RPG is now (somehow) five years old but still stands as one of my all time favourites which is why I think you should check it out this weekend via Steam s Supergiant Games Anniversary Sale.

Although hard at work on its next venture Pyre which Tom described as like The Oregon Trail mixed with Rocket League Supergiant will spend this weekend celebrating Bastion s fifth birthday. Both it and and its genre-similar sibling Transistor are subject to an 80 percent discount. Transistor didn t quite hit the same highs as its forerunner, but wowed with its vivid hand-drawn cyberpunk world and cool time-freeze combat mechanic.

The price reduction means you can grab Bastion for 2.19/$2.99/2,99 , and Transistor for 2.99/$3.99/3,79 . Should you wish to pick up the Supergiant Collection which includes both games and their official soundtracks that ll set you back 6.98/$9.86/9,68 . All offers run from now until Monday 6pm BST/10am PT.

Transistor was a gorgeous game. I spent most of my time wandering around the strange futuristic world, allowing protagonist Red to sing along to the strange soundtrack. Occasionally I'd take a break to kill whatever needed to be killed, but whenever a chance presented itself to hear Red sing, I'd take it.

So I'm happy to see that it's done quite well for studio Supergiant Games. According to a post on the studio's website the game has shifted over 600,000 units across Steam and PSN. Not only that, but since its launch last year the isometric RPG has sold at a more rapid rate than the studio's other hit, Bastion. 

Interestingly, the rate at which Bastion sold increased over time, with the studio reporting that the majority of sales happened "many months" after the game first released. It goes to show that launching a game with a huge marketing push is sometimes less valuable than word of mouth. As of now, the game has sold over 3 million copies.

Our Wes Fenlon liked Transistor when it launched last May, writing that "a brilliant and rewarding combat system propels a story that never becomes as interesting as it seemingly should."

We like cheap PC components and accessories. But you know what we like even more? Expensive PC components and accessories that are on sale. We ve partnered with the bargainmeisters at TechBargains to bring you a weekly list of the best component, accessory, and software sales for PC gamers.

Some highlights this week: You can get a Dell 22" monitor with a built-in webcam that comes with a $100 Dell gift card for $239.99. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is $20 off on Amazon, and its DLC season pass is also on sale over at Green Man Gaming. GamersGate is having a huge sale on Warner Bros. games, including the Warner Bros. Action Pack; a bundle that includes Batman: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, Arkham Origins, Injustice: Gods Among Us, FEAR 3, and Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition all for only $30.

Hardware:

— The Toshiba Q Series 512GB SSD is only $199 on BHPhotoVideo.com, nearly 40% off.

— The Dell UltraSharp UZ2215H 22" Monitor is $239.99 on Dell s site and comes with a $100 Dell gift card.

— Get the Logitech G502 Proteus Gaming Mouse together with the G240 Mouse Pad for $79.99 on Dell s site, which also comes with a $25 Dell gift card. 

— Get the EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX760 4GB Video Card for $229.99 on Newegg after a $20 rebate.

— Get the MSI Z97 U3 Plus Intel Z97 LGA1150 ATX Intel Motherboard for $69.99 on Newegg after a $20 rebate.

— The Seagate STBP100 Diskless 4-Bay NAS is a massive 65% off, now $139 on Newegg.

— The Lenovo Y40 14" Laptop is currently $400 off, $699 on Lenovo s site.

Games:

— GOG.com is having a big Fall sale with new 24-hour deals each day until the 25th. As of Monday morning, SimCity 4, Mount & Blade: Warband, Dust: an Elysian Tale, and many more are on sale.

— Get Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for $20 off, $39.99 on Amazon.

— Additionally, the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Season Pass is available for $24 on GreenManGaming.com with the code NOVEMB-ERGMGX-20XOFF

— South Park: The Stick of Truth is 50% off, only $20 on GamersGate.com, along with all its DLC being at least 50% off as well.

— Pre-order Final Fantasy XIII-2 for $13.50 on GreenManGaming.com with the code FINALF-ANTASY-25OFFX

— Lego Batman 3 is 20% off for $21.60 on GreenManGaming.com with the code NOVEMB-ERGMGX-20XOFF

— GamersGate.com is having Warner Bros. sale, including Injustice: Gods Among Us, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Bastion, and a lot more.

For more tech deals, visit techbargains.com.

A note on affiliates: some of our stories, like this one, include affiliate links to online stores. These online stores share a small amount of revenue with us if you buy something through one of these links, which help support our work evaluating components and games.

We like cheap PC components and accessories. But you know what we like even more? Expensive PC components and accessories that are on sale. We ve partnered with the bargainmeisters at TechBargains to bring you a weekly list of the best component, accessory, and software sales for PC gamers.

Some highlights this week: Ubisoft has a huge amount of games on sale starting at 40% off. You can get Bastion for only $3.75, and if you haven't played it yet then you probably should. Newegg has a 250GB Solid State Drive for only $112.99 and it comes with Borderlands 2 for free. And, in a similar deal to last week, XFX has another video card on sale that comes with your choice of three free games from a list that includes Alien: Isolation, Sniper Elite 3, and Tomb Raider.

Hardware:

— The Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD is over 40% off, only $112.99 on Newegg, and comes with Borderlands 2 for free.

— Similar to a deal last week, the XFX Double D R9-270X-CDFC Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card is $154.99 on Newegg after a $30 rebate, and comes with three free games. The choices include Alien: Isolation, Star Citizen, Sniper Elite 3, Thief, Tomb Raider, and many more.

— The Acer S241HLbmid 24 LCD Monitor is 30% off, $139.99 on Newegg.

— The Motorola SB6141 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem is $89.99 with free shipping on Newegg s ebay page.

— Get the HP Omen 15XT Touch Gaming Laptop for $1674.99 with free shipping coupon code PC599Q4

Games:

— Get Bastion for $3.75 over at Gamersgate.com.

— Steamworld Dig is 75% off, $2.49 on Steam, for the next 48 hours only.

— Ubisoft is having a weeklong sale on Gamersgate.com on a bunch of games, including Watch Dogs, Rayman Legends, and Trials Fusion.

— The Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm expansion is $16.97 at Gamestop.

— Majesty Gold is only $2 on GreenManGaming.com after a using the coupon code NOVEMB-ERGMGX-20XOFF

For more tech deals, visit techbargains.com.

A note on affiliates: some of our stories, like this one, include affiliate links to online stores. These online stores share a small amount of revenue with us if you buy something through one of these links, which help support our work evaluating components and games.

Consider this your official notice to get pumped for Transistor s imminent release. Even if you didn t play Bastion, every little bit we ve seen of Supergiant Games sophomore effort so far has looked excellent recognizably from the same studio, but different enough to carry its own surprises. The recently released launch trailer gives us few new details about the game, and it's looking better than ever.

With its red-haired singer heroine and her talking sword companion (voiced by Bastion s narrator Logan Cunningham), Transistor always gave off a futuristic noir vibe. This newest trailer leans in that direction even more, setting up the plot with a mysterious crime, and four problems, bad guys that we can assume you ll take on throughout the game.

The gameplay footage also shows off the game s Turn mechanic, which stops combat and transforms it into a semi-turn-based game. According Cassandra s hand-on time with the game at PAX East, it s one of the main differentiators between Transistor and Bastion.

Transistor launches on Steam May 20, and we'll have a review posted then.

From the makers of Bastion is pretty much all I need to know before I buy Transistor, Supergiant Games sophomore effort. The sci-fi themed role-playing game is coming out May 20, and starting today you can pre-order it from Steam or Supergiants website. Even better, we now know that the game s promising soundtrack will drop on the same day. Drop, because that s what I m told albums do.
Transistor s protagonist, Red, is a singer who comes across a powerful, sentient sword. Supergiant leaned into the singer part and created a bunch of original music for the game more than 60 minutes, to be exact. If you ve played Bastion or watched the trailer for Transistor, you ll know why we re excited about it:

The album is by Supergiant s Audio director Darren Korb and the vocals you hear are courtesy of Ashley Barrett. If you buy it digitally, you ll get it in MP3 and FLAC formats. If you buy it from Supergiants website, you ll also get a physical compact disc, which has been fully remastered and comes with an all-new bonus track in addition to the existing 22 tracks.
The game alone will cost you $20, while the game and soundtrack will cost $30.

Are you ready for some Doter? That's just one of the questions posed by Rucks, the narrator from Bastion. He's an old-timey sort of fella, and ain't got no truck with these kids' short-As. If you'd like your wizard killing narrated by his smooth, folksy tones, you can now grab the recently released Bastion Announcer Pack for Doter Dota 2.

As with other announcement packs, it replaces the voice of both the announcer and the mega-kill announcer with the Bastion's elderly guardian. You can see (and hear) the full round-up of his proclamations over at the Dota 2 wiki. He's got some pretty sharp words for anybody caught cussing.

The pack is currently available at 3.24 for the next 20 hours. After that, it'll default to the regular price of 6.49. It follows a series of other external game announcement packs, including Half-Life 2's Dr. Kleiner, Portal's GLaDOS, and - oddly enough - the extremely British AI from Defense Grid. In the future, a Stanley Parable narrator pack is also planned.

In addition to commentating on Dota's forests of fantasy, Rucks' voice actor Logan Cunningham is also working on Transistor, the next game from Bastion developers Supergiant Games. You can read Cass's preview of that game here.

Transistor, the new action RPG from Bastion devs Supergiant Games, got a brand-new reveal trailer at last night’s Sony E3 press conference. Lost in a sci-fi cityscape and lugging a +1 Sword of Logan Cunningham, protagonist Red sings her way through piles of robot enemies.


The new trailer doesn’t show a lot of new gameplay above its PAX East footage. There are glimpses of some wild enemy design that prove Supergiant isn’t going to be rehashing any of its old Bastion assets. The pausable combat and stylish environments look great, but we didn’t see any information about the possible multiplayer elements hinted at by Supergiant’s Greg Kasavin earlier this year.

For a better look at Transistor, check out Cassandra Khaw’s hands-on preview of the game from PAX East.

For the latest from E3, check out our complete coverage.

Bastion creators Supergiant recently revealed their next game, Transistor. In it, protagonist Red finds a giant USB stick, and promptly destroys a legion of robots while trying to figure out where their input port is located. I can sympathise. You never get the bloody things the right way round first try.

Oh wait, it's actually a whopping great big sword - the eponymous Transistor - acting as both Red's weapon against the robotic onslaught, and the means with which Supergiant can pipe the smooth tones of Logan Cunningham directly into our ears. You can see and hear that it in action in this 15 minute PAX East game demo, courtesy of YouTuber Total Biscuit.



You can also see that same footage, this time with Total Biscuit interviewing Supergiant's Greg Kasavin. Kasivin details Transistor's planned combat, which expands from Bastion's real-time ARPG nature with a new strategic planning mode. Here you use action points to plan movement and attacks, which can be quickly executed, letting you pull off complicated plans without relying on twitch keyboard skills.

Enemies will have specific weaknesses to target in strategic mode. In the video, you can see the Young Lady robot type has, like many of us, a weakness to backstabs. But the same enemy teleports away with each hit, leaving a shadow copy that also opens fire. "This is a game in which you start with the ultimate weapon right at the very beginning," Kasavin says. As a result, enemies are designed to keep you thinking through the sword's abilities, and constantly switching between real-time and planning modes.

Transistor is out Early 2014. Platforms are still to be announced.

Supergiant - that's the developers of the fantastic Bastion, and not some sort of king of the giants - have announced their next game. It's called Transistor, it looks fab, and Logan Cunningham (the voice of Rucks) is back "in a vocal capacity". Well, I'm sure he makes a mean omelette, but that's the part of him we wanted - so grand. Read on for more details, plus the exciting reveal trailer.



As you can see, Transistor's isometric combat looks pretty similar to Bastion's, so fans of whacking gasfellas with a giant hammer should be well catered for. This game's set in a new world, with a new protagonist: a currently unnamed woman wielding a massive sword. However, it's a massive sword with a shady past - aren't they always? Here's the lowdown, from that Supergiant post:

"In Transistor, players assume the role of a young woman who gains control of a powerful weapon after a mysterious group of assailants nearly kills her with it. Now she must fight from street to street against forces that will stop at nothing to recover the weapon. During the course of the adventure, players will piece together the Transistor’s mysteries as they pursue its former owners." I bet the sword used to be a dagger, or something.

Transistor will be playable at PAX East in Boston this week, if you happen to be going, so we'll see and hear more of the game very soon.