Steam Christmas sale serves up piping-hot gaming bargains

Gaming downloads store Steam has unwrapped its Christmas sale, and it's brimming with delightful bargains that won't trouble your snow-shy postie.

With new deals each day of up to 85 per cent off popular titles, massive packs of games for the price of just one, and across the board price drops for the biggest publishers, it's a mouth-watering prospect for the PC gamer.

Today's deals include 75 per cent off Portal, Super Meat Boy, Titan Quest, FEAR and all five Prince of Persia games. Huge hits such as Fallout 3 (£13.39) and Battlefield Bad Company 2 (£6.79) are begging to be rediscovered. Even Crave fave Peggle is in on it, with a 60 per cent price drop to £5.59 for the Complete edition, including Peggle Nights.

2010 was the year the Mac steamed up and it's not missing out on the festive fun, with Left 4 Dead 2 (£7.49), Half Life 2 (£3.49), Team Fortress 2 (£6.49) and Civilization V (£19.99) a mighty fine start to your Apple-powered gaming library.

Several PC publishers are offering massive bundles, known as megapacks. You can buy the entirety of Rockstar's gaudy opus for just £27.99, including every Grand Theft Auto game, Bully, Max Payne and more. Bethesda's deal gives you Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Oblivion and a few more for £44.99.

SquareEnix, Eidos and LucasArts games are all half price for the duration, with other publishers offering steep discounts too.

Valve, Steam's owner, trumps the lot in Christmas spirit, offering every single one of its games, including every part of Half Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike franchises, for the trifling sum of £24.99.

That should keep you going till New Year -- let us know if you spot any particularly juicy tidbits. The sale runs until 2 January. Download the Steam client here.