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The 2024 Steam Winter Sale is live (runs December 19 - January 2)
Quick links:
Share noteworthy deals!
Ask for recommendations!
Discuss what you bought!
Quick links:
Share noteworthy deals!
Ask for recommendations!
Discuss what you bought!
Here’s a link for what I call The 4H Club on IsThereAnyDeal.
What is The 4H Club? These are the sales for games that are:
Thanks for this! Picked up The Forest and Risk of Rain for less than $5.
Always love the list. Mass Effect Legendary edition being 92% off is insane value for someone who hasn't played these masterpieces.
Grabbed that ME LE because of this thread. Very little into the game so far, but the combat seems very arcadey -- but that's okay, the draw for me with this one is what I've read about the story, and that part seems good so far. I like a healthy dose of cut scenes, voice acting, etc., and this delivers.
Visuals look nice (in 4k here), but, even when I turn all settings down (of which there are about half of what I'd expect), I still can't get a good framerate. I expect if I go down to 1080, it'll be fine, but I want those great visuals. Framerate seems to suffer even more during the cut scenes.
Also, in case anyone's wondering: although it only has a Gold rating on protondb, it has worked flawlessly so far for me on Linux, zero tweaks needed.
Have fun! The story and characters are so good. It’s one of the only game series that I have played through multiple times and I think I’ve got the first game memorized at this point, ha.
What class did you pick?!
Class? I have no experience with this series, or know anything about it, so I'm going in without any biases. Did a custom character (nice range of face sculpting they offer), and picked Engineer, as I want to try a brains more than brawn approach. I can see the appeal of trying multiple playthroughs to try different classes, though.
Engineer is your class, you pick it during character creation. It shapes your play style, so I was just curious!
I haven't and picked it up yesterday. Was very surprised it was so cheap.
Tactical Breach Wizards is on sale at 20% off for $15.99 (USD). It came out this year, it’s kinda similar to XCOM or Into The Breach, but it’s with wizards with guns, and a main gameplay mechanic is defenestration. The story is an enjoyable romp.
It took my about 20 hours to beat to a point where I was satisfied, but I think there’s a couple achievements I want to go back and hunt for, and some community made maps. One of my favorite games I’ve played this year (though I’ve only played 10 games according to the Steam Wrapped…)
Been eyeing this one. I loved Frozen Synapse and this looks similar. Would you say that’s a good comparison for the mechanics if you’ve played it?
I have not played Frozen Synapse, but I might pick it up since it’s on sale and see if I can run it.
It’s not simultaneous like it looks like Frozen Synapse is, but you do choose your actions, then they trigger, and then the enemy actions trigger. (There are some enemies that have “reactions” and some characters that you control that have “reactions” and can act during the other turn, but based on a trigger that you set.)
You also have some rewinds if something doesn’t quite play out how you expect it to.
I would highly, highly recommend playing it though. It is not very challenging, though each mission has optional goals that are not always easy to get on your first time through a level. So you have to self-motivate the difficulty a bit, if you want those optional objectives. But you do, because then you can unlock cool outfits.
Frozen synapse is an odd comparison because it's so unique it's hard to compare.
That said I'd say it's similar enough that if you liked synapse you'll probably like TBW. As always I do recommend watching some gameplay footage from an actual person to help you figure that out.
List of games I'm buying for myself or friends:
I'm still hunting for the rest of my Christmas shopping which is quite difficult since a lot of Steam seems to be down right now.
Are there any good Skyrim-likes out there? I've got a hankering to play Skyrim again, only I don't want to actually play Skyrim (nor Oblivion or Morrowind). The games don't have to follow the formula exactly, but a big open-ended open-world RPG sounds nice.
Any recommendations?
Also, anyone have any recommendations for non-romance visual novels that play well on the Steam Deck? I’m trying to cultivate my reading habit.
For consideration: I liked 999 and 428 Shibuya Scramble. I’ve tried a few others, but anything that leans heavily on romance bores me. Also, anything with fan-servicey art is a pass. Target audience here: middle-aged gay guy looking for an entertaining or interesting story (yes, I know that’s well outside the norm for this genre).
I should also mention that I liked the concept of Danganronpa but didn’t like the gamey elements (if I’m in the mood for a VN, I’d rather just read than have to navigate a character around the world and whatnot).
My first thought was Enderal because it is a total conversion mod for Skyrim. I remember enjoying it a good bit, but it has been so long I can't remember much more about it other than that.
This makes me want a tool that "maps" games out in a web based on related tags like you can find for music.
I haven't played it yet, but apparently Dread Delusion is similar to Morrowind and other old-school open world RPGs.
Another one I haven't played, Drova: Forsaken Kin, is allegedly a 2D Gothic-like.
Seconding Drova. It was very good.
This YouTube video by The August Hail gives a good summary of the top rated Japanese visual novels as of a year ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qROSGD5F_T8
Among those, the probable safe choices IMO are:
All of the above are Platinum or Gold on ProtonDB.
Honorable mention that likely doesn't meet your needs: I personally love Kara no Shoujo, aka The Shell Part I: Inferno, a gruesome murder mystery with amazing somber atmosphere. But it may be too gruesome or unfortunately have unnecessary sex parts that will turn off a lot of people. The same YouTuber made a not-overly-spoilery video talking about it, so you get a sense of what the experience is like (NSFW, Gore): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pNUQfE0Nys
Can +1 fate/stay night, been playing through it its very fun!
While I think it's a good one, I'm pretty sure it and Stein's Gate fall pretty heavily into "romance". Its not JUST romance, but I'd certainly say that it might cross the line the OP is looking at.
I also can't stand the romance ones. From the same developer Spike Chunsoft, AI: Somnium Files is my favorite VN I've played. It's a detective mystery sci-fi VN. What I found refreshing is having a 30+ protagonist for once :D. He's a bit of a perv, but me and my partner both found it hilarious. The cast is great.
There are some "gamey" elements but those also have a lot of reading and are like light puzzle solving. Highly recommended.
I do not own a Steam deck, but the Steam forums say Ace Attorney runs great on the system. I can't say it's explicitly gay, but the fans are (rightly) convinced the two bachelors-for-life have a thing for each other as some of these ProZD skits show. You can find just about anything on VNDB if you're willing to do some searching. Emulation isn't an issue since visual novels are low-power games.
Ace Attorney runs amazing. Limit the TDP and frame rate and you can eek out almost 8 hours of gametime! I was hesitant to play the steam version since I vastly prefer the old pixel graphics but oddly enough I got used to the HD ones and don't find it an issue anymore.
Have you played Echo or Ad Astra yet? I know you’ve seen me recommend them before. I think you’re probably the perfect audience for it even if you aren’t furry! They are the most on sale of all of these games at 100% off. 😜 Seriously though, these games are quite literally the only ones I have ever played that I felt really reflected my life and experiences accurately. That’s really saying something. You really should play them if you haven’t already.
If you’ve played 999 and enjoyed it I think I saw the sequels on sale. I actually liked Virtue’s Last Reward better than its prequel. While the last game is still good it’s kind of meh and I honestly can’t remember what it is called. AI: The Somnium Files is by the creators of Danganronpa; I haven’t played it yet but it might be a bit more your style. You may want to also try the Psycho-Pass games though I haven’t played them either.
I haven't, but at 100% off you're speaking my language!
To be honest, they do genuinely seem interesting but I think I've held off on them for three reasons:
The labor cost of setting up non-Steam games on my Steam Deck (pretty much negligible)
The fact that they are romance-heavy (less negligible)
Having to explain to my husband why I'm playing a furry visual novel (significantly less negligible! 😂) For what it's worth: he wouldn't have a problem with it and would find the whole situation funny.
They are not romance stories, and if anything, they do a lot to subvert romantic tropes. And in Echo the “romantic” route is the absolutely most terrifying of all of them.
And if you are playing on Steam Deck your husband doesn’t have to know…. 😜
If they're not romance stories, then why do I have to verify that I'm 18 to see them, hmmm? 🤔😂
Also my husband already jokingly asks me "why I'm hiding my shame" when I toggle on Invisible mode on Steam. It's because I'm trying to get a game running on Linux and don't want to spam my friends with notifications of it starting over and over again, I promise!
For Echo in particular there is enough horror elements to earn a content warning. But really, both of them have sexual content in it. They aren’t porn games, and that content is not going to be satisfying. If you want that kind of game I could probably give you some recommendations though…. 😊
Copying over my comment from the hidden gems thread in reply to someone else who asked about visual novels. Might not fit your style exactly, but if you're looking for a good story then consider checking it out.
So caveat here is it's not quite a visual novel and I haven't finished it so I don't know how romancy it can be, but Citizen Sleeper might be worth a look
Kingdom Come: Deliverance . No magic, very historical. My favourite game of all time.
Talisman: Origins (85% off) is on its final sale. It's getting delisted tomorrow.
Sol Survivor (50% off) is getting delisted at the end of the sale. It's a fun tower defense game. I haven't played it in a decade, so I have no idea how it holds up today, but I loved it back when I played it.
Retrovirus (50% off) is also getting delisted at the end of the sale, but I haven't played this one.
Rocksmith (70% off) has, surprisingly, been re-listed on Steam (though the DLCs aren't discounted and are the main focus of the game).
Emerald City Confidential (80% off) is an old Wadjet Eye point-and-click adventure that has gone on sale for the first time in a decade.
You scared me for a second! I thought you meant Talisman: Digital Classic Edition was being delisted now that the new Talisman: Digital 5th Edition is out and meant to replace it. I haven't bothered with 5th Edition yet, but I have enjoyed playing Classic (which used to just be called "Digital Edition") on my own against the AI, and with friends. I haven't quite bought all the DLC for it yet though, so I was worried I would have to buy the rest of the DLC now or never be able to play with them later!
Apparently Origins is an entirely single player game based on Talisman? The reviews suggest it's pretty janky and buggy though, so I dunno if it's worth even the $5 for the complete bundle. Have you played it? Is it actually any good?
That is… a LOT of DLC!
As far as I know, only the Origins game is getting delisted, so the other versions should be safe.
I’m a sucker for “get it in your library before it’s gone in case you ever do want to play it even though you probably never will” so I pay the FOMO tax for games like that pretty frequently.
LOL. Yeah, the digital classic version has all the same content available for it that you can get for the tabletop version, up to 5th edition. And it’s a board game that has been around since the 80s so it has had several major rules updates and tons of expansions, characters packs, and add-on card decks made for it over the decades. I own about 1/4 of them in physical form and 3/4 in digital. ;)
p.s. I haven’t found anything suggesting Digital Classic is being delisted so I think I’m safe, at least for now.
New Beginnings Bundle (92% off)
Contains two reboots and a remaster. Pretty great deal if you don't have these already:
It's so sad how many games need attention so much, and Steam forces us through a meaningless 11-way popularity contest where we're basically voting for nothing.
And what even is that "innovative game" list?