For every big Steam sale r/gamedealsmeta does a Hidden Gems thread which is always one of my favorites to browse through. I'll add my own hidden gems recommendations here, and I welcome any...
I'll add my own hidden gems recommendations here, and I welcome any others! I'm setting my personal threshold for "hidden gem" as something with 500 or less Steam reviews, but feel free to use whatever criteria you like -- including none at all!
This is a surprisingly well-made 2D time-trial game where you run an action figure along Hot Wheels-esque tracks. The skill ceiling is surprisingly high, and it feels like a Sonic game (well, actually, BETTER than a Sonic game).
This is a first-person grid based dungeon crawler typing game. Think Legend of Grimrock meets Mavis Beacon. It's got a few rough edges and some odd design choices, but I enjoyed it and haven't played anything else like it.
Black Ice - 95% positive, 421 reviews; 25% discount
FPS looter shooter with a cyber hacker theme. Has been in regular development for a long while now (I think it's developed by only one person?), but doesn't feel unfinished.
A 2.5D metroidvania roguelike with a futuristic military theme. Rough around the edges, and pretty grindy, but I enjoyed my time with it. Like a roguelike version of Shadow Complex.
A slow-paced story-driven walking simulator about a gay relationship (which I personally appreciated). If you like the genre, this is good. If you don't, this won't change your mind.
Very mindless grindy game where you mine for resources to get more resources to mine for better resources. Perfect for audiobooks, podcasts, or second screen watching. Has a sequel that is slightly more polished but mostly more of the same (which is a good thing, IMO).
An isometric dragon game with a board-game aesthetic where you terrorize villages to steal their gold while they try to defend against you, as well as fight off other dragons stealing from your hoard.
An Initial D-inspired drifting game that's surprisingly well-made and deep. The control for drifting uses both sticks, and different cars have completely different feels for their drifting, so it takes some getting used to, but when it finally clicks it's very satisfying.
Robocop does Hotline Miami. It's made by the same people that did Neon Chrome and has almost the same aesthetic, but where that game's procedural generation and roguelike grind left me cold, JYDGE's handmade levels and missions won me over.
A successor to Subsurface Circular (which is also great but has >500 reviews). It fully stands alone, so you can play it separately without missing anything. A story-driven adventure game with difficult choices regarding a pandemic (sound familiar?). I played it long before COVID and really appreciated it. I wonder, if I were to return to it, if I would make different decisions now.
A 2D puzzle game that's reminiscent of Sokobon and Chip's Challenge. Looks simple, but has some genuine headscratchers. If you're interested in it, the entire series of Quell games is only slightly more expensive.
I think this is one of the most underrated games on Steam. I don't understand why its review score is so low. It's an indie love-letter to System Shock 2. I've played through it twice, and will probably do so again sometime soon.
This is an excellent 2D platformer with an unusual and refreshing mechanic: you have a gun that can shoot gels that make you bounce off of or stick to different surfaces. Takes a bit of time to learn, but it's very satisfying when you do.
Time Rifters - 87% positive; 349 reviews; 50% discount
A single-player co-op FPS (yes, you read that right!). Each level is a shooting gallery of targets, some with little health and some full bullet sponges. You choose a weapon and build and then record a run-through with that character, then do it again with other characters in hopes of having them all concurrently take down all the targets and beat the level.
I can't believe this game still has so few reviews. It has remained one of the very best and most hidden gems ever since its release SEVEN years ago. It's a well-made, polished, difficult rocket jump platformer. Great for time trials if you like that kind of thing.
I played Action Henk seriously for a couple months and it is possibly the greatest game to have anything near that concept. I also happen to think that Ragesquid outdid themselves with Descenders,...
I played Action Henk seriously for a couple months and it is possibly the greatest game to have anything near that concept. I also happen to think that Ragesquid outdid themselves with Descenders, also on sale. While Action Henk is a hand-built level-based game, Descenders, for those who don't know, is a procedurally generated downhill mountain biking game. If you like anything like Action Henk or time-trial-based games in general, you'd probably enjoy Descenders for exactly the same reasons, with a different perspective.
The steam description says this game is a "roguehate", do you know what that means? It also says it's a shooter. Is it a twin-stick shooter or do you just shoot where your character is facing? I...
JYDGE
The steam description says this game is a "roguehate", do you know what that means?
It also says it's a shooter. Is it a twin-stick shooter or do you just shoot where your character is facing? I can never seem to wrap my head around twin stick controls.
Thanks for your description of this game btw, the steam description does a poor job of explaining why one might want to play it IMO.
EDIT: I googled for answers to my questions. In case anyone else was wondering:
It is a twin stick shooter.
I found a steam thread where the devs clarified what they meant by "roguehate":
We're indeed trying to make it clear how this is different from Neon Chrome as that's what people asked us a lot when we started working on this. But yeah, hand crafted vs random generated levels is one of the big differentiators here. Roguehate is just something we found funny because of the double meaning (JYDGE really hating rogues). We're not exactly marketing geniuses :D
Thanks again for the recs! Although I won't be trying this particular one out, I added a lot of the other games you mentioned to my wishlist and am working my way through the reddit thread you linked as well.
Yeah, JYDGE and Neon Chrome are an interesting case-study in game development. The two are sibling games, using the same engine, assets, UI, etc. If you were to watch gameplay of the two, they'd...
Yeah, JYDGE and Neon Chrome are an interesting case-study in game development. The two are sibling games, using the same engine, assets, UI, etc. If you were to watch gameplay of the two, they'd look nearly identical.
In terms of design, however, the two games are at odds.
Neon Chrome follows the popular roguelike path. Procedural generation; permadeath; persistent unlocks over time. You do a run of a randomly generated levels until you die, then spend your resources to make your character slightly more powerful, so that you can make it slightly further, so that you can spend slightly more when you die, and so on.
Normally I like this kind of thing, but for some reason (and I can't remember exactly why), Neon Chrome left me cold. I think it suffered from the sort of "soullessness" that games of that type can have -- when everything is procedurally generated and your character feels artificially limited until you grind for hours, it can kind of make what you're playing feel meaningless.
JYDGE, on the other hand, has set, human-designed levels with specific missions. Beating those missions is what gives you upgrades to your character, which you can then more easily beat harder missions. It's a similar setup, but for some reason it gripped me a lot more than Neon Chrome did -- probably because the mission system felt more directed and substantial, and I liked returning to levels I was already familiar with for new challenges.
I realize you already looked up the answers to your own questions so me saying all of this is somewhat redundant, but I mention all of this because I actually think it's interesting for a dev team to release essentially two different games off of the same base. I can't really think of another example of that, but I also think it's a smart move. Instead of the devs starting from scratch, they can simply restructure what they already have to create a different enough experience that it's worth selling separately.
Disco Elysium is currently $10, which is a steal. Stick Fight is $1.50. Towerfall Ascension is $3. Celeste is $5. Portal and Portal 2 are a buck each (as per usual). The Witness is $14 (I've...
Disco Elysium is currently $10, which is a steal.
Stick Fight is $1.50. Towerfall Ascension is $3. Celeste is $5. Portal and Portal 2 are a buck each (as per usual).
The Witness is $14 (I've recently gotten into it thanks to @brews_hairy_cats) . Skyrim is $10.
I’ve been recommended Disco Elysium more times than I can remember at this point. I was surprised to see that it was available as a bundle with Control. And I was extra surprised that it was...
I’ve been recommended Disco Elysium more times than I can remember at this point. I was surprised to see that it was available as a bundle with Control. And I was extra surprised that it was cheaper to buy that bundle because I already owned control so it just subtracted that portion of the price. I don’t think I have seen that happen before.
I never could quite get into this game but can see how it appeals to others. I found that in the attempt to be historically accurate/realistic there were quite a few mechanics that I found more...
I never could quite get into this game but can see how it appeals to others. I found that in the attempt to be historically accurate/realistic there were quite a few mechanics that I found more tedious than fun. More than anything I really disliked the combat.
How’s the side questing in that game? Honestly if an “open world” game is much less open than Skyrim I lose interest pretty quickly. Elder Scrolls set the bar high. I want to be told what the main...
How’s the side questing in that game? Honestly if an “open world” game is much less open than Skyrim I lose interest pretty quickly. Elder Scrolls set the bar high. I want to be told what the main quest is and then immediately be able to do something else for 50 hours.
The side quests are top notch, and won't just wait around for you. If people talk about something as being urgent, the situation can move on without you if you don't attend to it.
The side quests are top notch, and won't just wait around for you. If people talk about something as being urgent, the situation can move on without you if you don't attend to it.
Ample side quests. Some of the DLC quests are excellent. In particular, I highly recommend the Woman's Lot DLC for the story content. Some of the main quest line must be done within a time limit,...
Ample side quests. Some of the DLC quests are excellent. In particular, I highly recommend the Woman's Lot DLC for the story content.
Some of the main quest line must be done within a time limit, but a lot of it can be deferred, letting you progress at your own pace. So, you can explore the world, level up your skills and attributes, and whatever you like.
Comparing to Skyrim, I'd say it's actually about the same ratio of side and main.
The main quest line is playable no matter what. There isn't something that you can do which will abort the whole story line. You might just miss out on some scenes and lines, and fall into...
The main quest line is playable no matter what. There isn't something that you can do which will abort the whole story line. You might just miss out on some scenes and lines, and fall into disfavour with some people.
Just cruising through top level at the moment, but see some things I own that are deeply discounted and would recommend. Children of Morta: A great pixel action roguelike, awesome art, story, and...
Just cruising through top level at the moment, but see some things I own that are deeply discounted and would recommend.
Children of Morta: A great pixel action roguelike, awesome art, story, and gameplay (plus it's Deck verified). 70% off and I might pick up the DLC as I played it prior to those coming out.
Pillars of Eternity II is 75% off and is a solid isometric RPG, kinda disappointing that they didn't also put the first game on sale so people new to the series could pick up both.
If you want some space shooting, Everspace is 90% off.
If you want one of the best in-atmosphere flying shooters, Ace Combat 7 is 84% off.
What's that? You want alt-history WW1ish mecha RTS, check out Iron Harvest at 75% off.
Oh shit, I haven't played that series since the PSX original, that's worth £8 just for the nostalgia! My ten year old self would be thoroughly satisfied to see that we really are still playing the...
If you want one of the best in-atmosphere flying shooters, Ace Combat 7 is 84% off.
Oh shit, I haven't played that series since the PSX original, that's worth £8 just for the nostalgia! My ten year old self would be thoroughly satisfied to see that we really are still playing the same games all these years later, except in fully immersive near-photorealistic VR.
It's hard for me to see AC7 recommended without also recommending Project Wingman. I've written elsewhere on tilde about it but the tldr version is that's an Ace Combat game made by three (!) fans...
It's hard for me to see AC7 recommended without also recommending Project Wingman. I've written elsewhere on tilde about it but the tldr version is that's an Ace Combat game made by three (!) fans with a lesser production value but all of the heart of the game. It even manage to surpass the AC games on some point (I much prefer the load out system of PW; the whole campaign bien playable in VR).
Hello everyone, With the commencement of the steam winter sale, I'd like to know of any games on sale that you'd consider a must buy. My current, long term addiction is Wargame: Red Dragon...
Hello everyone,
With the commencement of the steam winter sale, I'd like to know of any games on sale that you'd consider a must buy. My current, long term addiction is Wargame: Red Dragon (A$7.49/80% off), but am always on the look out for great new games.
Door Kickers (A$ 7.37/75% off) is a great fun top-down shooter that plays like a puzzle game. There is 2-man multiplayer and a sequel, but I suggest trying out the first one to get a feel for it.
I've been gaming since the 1990s: the games that had the largest impact on me were AoE 2, Warcraft 3 and Counter-Strike. In particular, Warcraft 3 and Counter-Strike custom maps (so many I lose...
I've been gaming since the 1990s: the games that had the largest impact on me were AoE 2, Warcraft 3 and Counter-Strike. In particular, Warcraft 3 and Counter-Strike custom maps (so many I lose track!). I'm still interested in old classics if you had any in mind.
Just going through my library, these are some great games that I think are pretty well-known and worth picking up if they're up your alley regardless of whether or not they're on sale (seems like...
Just going through my library, these are some great games that I think are pretty well-known and worth picking up if they're up your alley regardless of whether or not they're on sale (seems like almost everything is, I stopped checking after a few games as it quickly became tedious):
FTL
Into the Breach
Slime Rancher
Spiritfarer
Slay the Spire
Bioshock Infinite
Cave Story+
Hollow Knight
Terraria
Valheim (if you have a friend to play with)
Portal & Portal 2
Here some other games I thought were really cool or at least memorable for one reason or another. I think they're not as well known as the ones above although I'm probably not a great judge of that:
Merchant of the Skies
DemonCrawl
Steredenn (if you have a friend to play with)
Curious Expedition
Kingdom: Two Crowns
OneShot (do not play in fullscreen mode)
Life Goes On
shapez.io (there is a free web version you can try before buying)
Portal and Portal 2 are both on sale for ~$1 right now, and well worth it if you've never played them before. But for something newer, Vampire Survivors just came out of Early Access, is <$5, and...
Portal and Portal 2 are both on sale for ~$1 right now, and well worth it if you've never played them before.
But for something newer, Vampire Survivors just came out of Early Access, is <$5, and addictive as hell.
And not Steam, but Dishonored is free right now on Epic store, and Dishonored 2 is free for Twitch/Amazon Prime Gaming subscribers right now too. They're both awesome games, IMO.
p.s. If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and sign up for Epic games store (even if you never plan on buying anything), just so you can start collecting all their free games. Most are trash, but occasionally there are some real gems on there.
I keep my whole Steam library categorized by six different criteria. I'll just go down the list in my "highest rated" category and see what matches. Warning: May skew HEAVILY indie puzzle solver...
I keep my whole Steam library categorized by six different criteria. I'll just go down the list in my "highest rated" category and see what matches. Warning: May skew HEAVILY indie puzzle solver or metroidvania ;)
(prices checked in EU at time of writing.)
The Adventure Pals is 90% discounted rn (that means 10% of the regular price). Alan Wake 75%
!! Antichamber 75%
!! Bastion 80% Braid 41%
!! [5€ not necessarily dollars] Celeste 75% Costume Quest 75% The Deadly Tower of Monsters 80% [note: a certain character uses deliberately offensive humor. You are not supposed to like him.]
!! Dust: An Elysian Tail 67% [speedrun slated for AGDQ next week! I'm excited!] [killer soundtrack] Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition 75% [warning: hard] Hammerwatch 80% [recommend playing with friends] Helheim Hassle 90% INSIDE 90%
!! Legend of Grimrock 75% Lifeslide 60% LIMBO 90% [ageing, I know] Machinarium 75%
!! Mark of the Ninja 72% Old School Musical 75% Psychonauts 70% Quern: Undying Thoughts 80% [this is basically a good Myst game, by another dev)
[5€ not necessarily dollars] RAD 75% Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder 75% Salt and Sanctuary 75% Teslagrad 80% Trine 2 75% [recommend playing with friends]
A couple of these were on offer in the giveaway thread, might still be possible to get them.
Looks like some of the games listed have these exclamation marks before them... (I didn't highlight games I love but that I believe "everyone" has played.)
I'm very surprised by how expensive a few extremely good, but considerably old games still are...
Under $5, there is Vampire Survivors, which scratches the same roguelite roulette itch Binding of Isaac gives me with it's runaway builds and simple controls. Lot of people saying a lot of good...
Under $5, there is Vampire Survivors, which scratches the same roguelite roulette itch Binding of Isaac gives me with it's runaway builds and simple controls. Lot of people saying a lot of good things about this game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794680/Vampire_Survivors/
I just bought Prodeus for $5 off. If you like Doom (pick one) or Quake, you'll probably like this one. It's a little bit slower than og Doom, but all of the combat feels great, and it feels like...
I just bought Prodeus for $5 off. If you like Doom (pick one) or Quake, you'll probably like this one. It's a little bit slower than og Doom, but all of the combat feels great, and it feels like playing a great doom mod in a great way. There's over the top gore and explosions, and it is fully 3d, with plenty of fun and interesting platforming. It feels like Slayer's Testament, a Quake Doom Eternal mod, and Brutal Doom had a baby in a lot of great ways.
I bought Timberborn, but haven't started it. I find I like these sorts of citybuilders and have watched so much Timberborn that I feel I can justify it.
I think I'll get New World. I know it had a rough launch, but I'm on an MMO/MUD binge, it saw improvements, and for the price, I think it's a good deal. Also, it's a buy-to-play MMO, which is...
I think I'll get New World. I know it had a rough launch, but I'm on an MMO/MUD binge, it saw improvements, and for the price, I think it's a good deal. Also, it's a buy-to-play MMO, which is nice.
For the puzzle game fans that I know are here, the DROD is on its lowest price in years. Classic games that can be played on any computer device, and hundreds of hours of excellent puzzles.
For the puzzle game fans that I know are here, the DROD is on its lowest price in years. Classic games that can be played on any computer device, and hundreds of hours of excellent puzzles.
I don't think the collection is available in my region (the link goes straight to the main page -- searching Steam only shows the games separately, tried from Google too), but I will look up the...
I don't think the collection is available in my region (the link goes straight to the main page -- searching Steam only shows the games separately, tried from Google too), but I will look up the individual games. Thanks ;)
Have you played Subnautica? It's one of my favourite games of all time (I'm big into survival/crafting games) and it lets you build and pilot different underwater vehicles, including a submarine.
Have you played Subnautica? It's one of my favourite games of all time (I'm big into survival/crafting games) and it lets you build and pilot different underwater vehicles, including a submarine.
For every big Steam sale r/gamedealsmeta does a Hidden Gems thread which is always one of my favorites to browse through.
I'll add my own hidden gems recommendations here, and I welcome any others! I'm setting my personal threshold for "hidden gem" as something with 500 or less Steam reviews, but feel free to use whatever criteria you like -- including none at all!
Action Henk - 92% positive; 271 ratings; 80% discount
Backspace Bouken - 94% positive; 54 reviews; 67% discount
Black Ice - 95% positive, 421 reviews; 25% discount
Cally's Caves 3 - 83% positive; 314 reviews; 80% discount
Drag Star! - 95% positive; 20 reviews; 40% discount
Escape Goat - 95% positive; 395 reviews; 60% discount
Fallback - 86% positive; 267 reviews; 75% discount
Fragments of Him - 86% positive, 94 reviews; 75% discount
Geo - 88% positive; 95 reviews; 75% discount
HOARD - 85% positive; 475 reviews; 80% discount
Inertial Drift - 91% positive; 491 reviews; 55% discount
JYDGE - 88% positive; 375 reviews; 50% discount
Lifeslide - 94% positive; 250 reviews; 60% discount
Paint It Back! - 98% positive; 430 reviews; 50% discount
Poi - 93% positive; 379 reviews; 70% discount
Quarantine Circular - 88% positive; 385 reviews; 80% discount
Quell - 97% positive; 248 reviews; 87% discount
Spirits of Xanadu - 76% positive; 308 reviews; 70% discount
Splasher - 95% positive; 409 reviews; 80% discount
Time Rifters - 87% positive; 349 reviews; 50% discount
Tinertia - 97% positive; 71 reviews; 60% discount
Verlet Swing - 92% positive; 260 reviews; 66% discount
Volume - 79% positive; 351 reviews; 80% discount
I played Action Henk seriously for a couple months and it is possibly the greatest game to have anything near that concept. I also happen to think that Ragesquid outdid themselves with Descenders, also on sale. While Action Henk is a hand-built level-based game, Descenders, for those who don't know, is a procedurally generated downhill mountain biking game. If you like anything like Action Henk or time-trial-based games in general, you'd probably enjoy Descenders for exactly the same reasons, with a different perspective.
Descenders is also excellent! Also, until you mentioned it here, I had no idea they were made by the same devs.
The steam description says this game is a "roguehate", do you know what that means?
It also says it's a shooter. Is it a twin-stick shooter or do you just shoot where your character is facing? I can never seem to wrap my head around twin stick controls.
Thanks for your description of this game btw, the steam description does a poor job of explaining why one might want to play it IMO.
EDIT: I googled for answers to my questions. In case anyone else was wondering:
It is a twin stick shooter.
I found a steam thread where the devs clarified what they meant by "roguehate":
https://steamcommunity.com/app/654050/discussions/0/1496741765147630966/#c1520386297688285127
Thanks again for the recs! Although I won't be trying this particular one out, I added a lot of the other games you mentioned to my wishlist and am working my way through the reddit thread you linked as well.
Yeah, JYDGE and Neon Chrome are an interesting case-study in game development. The two are sibling games, using the same engine, assets, UI, etc. If you were to watch gameplay of the two, they'd look nearly identical.
In terms of design, however, the two games are at odds.
Neon Chrome follows the popular roguelike path. Procedural generation; permadeath; persistent unlocks over time. You do a run of a randomly generated levels until you die, then spend your resources to make your character slightly more powerful, so that you can make it slightly further, so that you can spend slightly more when you die, and so on.
Normally I like this kind of thing, but for some reason (and I can't remember exactly why), Neon Chrome left me cold. I think it suffered from the sort of "soullessness" that games of that type can have -- when everything is procedurally generated and your character feels artificially limited until you grind for hours, it can kind of make what you're playing feel meaningless.
JYDGE, on the other hand, has set, human-designed levels with specific missions. Beating those missions is what gives you upgrades to your character, which you can then more easily beat harder missions. It's a similar setup, but for some reason it gripped me a lot more than Neon Chrome did -- probably because the mission system felt more directed and substantial, and I liked returning to levels I was already familiar with for new challenges.
I realize you already looked up the answers to your own questions so me saying all of this is somewhat redundant, but I mention all of this because I actually think it's interesting for a dev team to release essentially two different games off of the same base. I can't really think of another example of that, but I also think it's a smart move. Instead of the devs starting from scratch, they can simply restructure what they already have to create a different enough experience that it's worth selling separately.
I loved playing HOARD. I just never managed to get anyone else interested.
Ditto. Tildes tourney? I think it has same-screen play so various remote play means could be done without everyone buying.
I have it in my library, I'd be down to try it out with y'all
Disco Elysium is currently $10, which is a steal.
Stick Fight is $1.50. Towerfall Ascension is $3. Celeste is $5. Portal and Portal 2 are a buck each (as per usual).
The Witness is $14 (I've recently gotten into it thanks to @brews_hairy_cats) . Skyrim is $10.
I’ve been recommended Disco Elysium more times than I can remember at this point. I was surprised to see that it was available as a bundle with Control. And I was extra surprised that it was cheaper to buy that bundle because I already owned control so it just subtracted that portion of the price. I don’t think I have seen that happen before.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure I would recommend buying it anymore, as the devs got royally screwed by the publishers. The game is amazing though.
Let's pirate it then!
Let's just say I won't official endorse that wink.
Which game? I think all of the ones I mentioned were developed and published by the same entity.
Disco Elysium. My bad, I forgot you listed multiple.
Ah, that's too bad :-/
It really is.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance My favourite game of all time. Historical RPG.
I never could quite get into this game but can see how it appeals to others. I found that in the attempt to be historically accurate/realistic there were quite a few mechanics that I found more tedious than fun. More than anything I really disliked the combat.
How’s the side questing in that game? Honestly if an “open world” game is much less open than Skyrim I lose interest pretty quickly. Elder Scrolls set the bar high. I want to be told what the main quest is and then immediately be able to do something else for 50 hours.
The side quests are top notch, and won't just wait around for you. If people talk about something as being urgent, the situation can move on without you if you don't attend to it.
Ample side quests. Some of the DLC quests are excellent. In particular, I highly recommend the Woman's Lot DLC for the story content.
Some of the main quest line must be done within a time limit, but a lot of it can be deferred, letting you progress at your own pace. So, you can explore the world, level up your skills and attributes, and whatever you like.
Comparing to Skyrim, I'd say it's actually about the same ratio of side and main.
Is there a time limit on the main quest from the start? What happens if I let the main quest time out?
The main quest line is playable no matter what. There isn't something that you can do which will abort the whole story line. You might just miss out on some scenes and lines, and fall into disfavour with some people.
Thanks!
Just cruising through top level at the moment, but see some things I own that are deeply discounted and would recommend.
Children of Morta: A great pixel action roguelike, awesome art, story, and gameplay (plus it's Deck verified). 70% off and I might pick up the DLC as I played it prior to those coming out.
Pillars of Eternity II is 75% off and is a solid isometric RPG, kinda disappointing that they didn't also put the first game on sale so people new to the series could pick up both.
If you want some space shooting, Everspace is 90% off.
If you want one of the best in-atmosphere flying shooters, Ace Combat 7 is 84% off.
What's that? You want alt-history WW1ish mecha RTS, check out Iron Harvest at 75% off.
Oh shit, I haven't played that series since the PSX original, that's worth £8 just for the nostalgia! My ten year old self would be thoroughly satisfied to see that we really are still playing the same games all these years later, except in fully immersive near-photorealistic VR.
It's hard for me to see AC7 recommended without also recommending Project Wingman. I've written elsewhere on tilde about it but the tldr version is that's an Ace Combat game made by three (!) fans with a lesser production value but all of the heart of the game. It even manage to surpass the AC games on some point (I much prefer the load out system of PW; the whole campaign bien playable in VR).
Hello everyone,
With the commencement of the steam winter sale, I'd like to know of any games on sale that you'd consider a must buy. My current, long term addiction is Wargame: Red Dragon (A$7.49/80% off), but am always on the look out for great new games.
Door Kickers (A$ 7.37/75% off) is a great fun top-down shooter that plays like a puzzle game. There is 2-man multiplayer and a sequel, but I suggest trying out the first one to get a feel for it.
How long have you been a PC gamer? How tolerant of old jank are you?
I've been gaming since the 1990s: the games that had the largest impact on me were AoE 2, Warcraft 3 and Counter-Strike. In particular, Warcraft 3 and Counter-Strike custom maps (so many I lose track!). I'm still interested in old classics if you had any in mind.
Just going through my library, these are some great games that I think are pretty well-known and worth picking up if they're up your alley regardless of whether or not they're on sale (seems like almost everything is, I stopped checking after a few games as it quickly became tedious):
Here some other games I thought were really cool or at least memorable for one reason or another. I think they're not as well known as the ones above although I'm probably not a great judge of that:
God I need to get back into Hollow Knight, it was my favourite game for a while. Turns out they'll be releasing Silksong before June next year too
What great games do you recommend that are equal or under 5 US dollars? Any genre.
Portal and Portal 2 are both on sale for ~$1 right now, and well worth it if you've never played them before.
But for something newer, Vampire Survivors just came out of Early Access, is <$5, and addictive as hell.
And not Steam, but Dishonored is free right now on Epic store, and Dishonored 2 is free for Twitch/Amazon Prime Gaming subscribers right now too. They're both awesome games, IMO.
p.s. If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and sign up for Epic games store (even if you never plan on buying anything), just so you can start collecting all their free games. Most are trash, but occasionally there are some real gems on there.
Portal 2 is my favorite game of all time! Thanks!
I'll look into the others.
I keep my whole Steam library categorized by six different criteria. I'll just go down the list in my "highest rated" category and see what matches. Warning: May skew HEAVILY indie puzzle solver or metroidvania ;)
(prices checked in EU at time of writing.)
The Adventure Pals is 90% discounted rn (that means 10% of the regular price).
Alan Wake 75%
!! Antichamber 75%
!! Bastion 80%
Braid 41%
!! [5€ not necessarily dollars] Celeste 75%
Costume Quest 75%
The Deadly Tower of Monsters 80% [note: a certain character uses deliberately offensive humor. You are not supposed to like him.]
!! Dust: An Elysian Tail 67% [speedrun slated for AGDQ next week! I'm excited!] [killer soundtrack]
Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition 75% [warning: hard]
Hammerwatch 80% [recommend playing with friends]
Helheim Hassle 90%
INSIDE 90%
!! Legend of Grimrock 75%
Lifeslide 60%
LIMBO 90% [ageing, I know]
Machinarium 75%
!! Mark of the Ninja 72%
Old School Musical 75%
Psychonauts 70%
Quern: Undying Thoughts 80% [this is basically a good Myst game, by another dev)
[5€ not necessarily dollars] RAD 75%
Rock of Ages 2: Bigger and Boulder 75%
Salt and Sanctuary 75%
Teslagrad 80%
Trine 2 75% [recommend playing with friends]
A couple of these were on offer in the giveaway thread, might still be possible to get them.
Looks like some of the games listed have these exclamation marks before them... (I didn't highlight games I love but that I believe "everyone" has played.)
I'm very surprised by how expensive a few extremely good, but considerably old games still are...
Under $5, there is Vampire Survivors, which scratches the same roguelite roulette itch Binding of Isaac gives me with it's runaway builds and simple controls. Lot of people saying a lot of good things about this game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794680/Vampire_Survivors/
I just bought Prodeus for $5 off. If you like Doom (pick one) or Quake, you'll probably like this one. It's a little bit slower than og Doom, but all of the combat feels great, and it feels like playing a great doom mod in a great way. There's over the top gore and explosions, and it is fully 3d, with plenty of fun and interesting platforming. It feels like Slayer's Testament, a Quake Doom Eternal mod, and Brutal Doom had a baby in a lot of great ways.
I bought Timberborn, but haven't started it. I find I like these sorts of citybuilders and have watched so much Timberborn that I feel I can justify it.
I picked up Return to Money Island for 5$ off yesterday, because I figured it was new enough that it was unlikely to get more off ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I think I'll get New World. I know it had a rough launch, but I'm on an MMO/MUD binge, it saw improvements, and for the price, I think it's a good deal. Also, it's a buy-to-play MMO, which is nice.
Also, RPG Maker MV.
For the puzzle game fans that I know are here, the DROD is on its lowest price in years. Classic games that can be played on any computer device, and hundreds of hours of excellent puzzles.
I'm up for recommendations for MMORPGs, RTS, and games that allow me to control a submarine.
I don't think the collection is available in my region (the link goes straight to the main page -- searching Steam only shows the games separately, tried from Google too), but I will look up the individual games. Thanks ;)
Have you played Subnautica? It's one of my favourite games of all time (I'm big into survival/crafting games) and it lets you build and pilot different underwater vehicles, including a submarine.
I have not. It's my understanding that is not a realistic game, but I'll look it up. Thanks ;)