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The 2026 Steam Summer Sale is live (runs June 25 - July 9)
Quick links:
Share noteworthy deals!
Ask for recommendations!
Discuss what you bought!
Quick links:
Share noteworthy deals!
Ask for recommendations!
Discuss what you bought!
For anyone who prefers DRM-free games, GOG is also having its summer sale currently.
If you're on Linux (as I know many of us are), Heroic Game Launcher is fantastic for running your GOG library.
If you're a Steam-first kind of person but dabble in other catalogs, these are the games that GOG has put effort into preserving, making the GOG version superior to other versions.
Likewise, these are games that are only available on GOG
Your have extra brackets in your penultimate link :-)
these are the games that GOG has put effort into preserving
Thanks! It's fixed.
Thanks for this suggestion; I picked up the Sim City games mostly so my son can check them out. He's 8, so right around the age I was when I played the first Sim City. I'm pretty curious to see how he reacts to them, especially since I can't quite remember how I reacted to them.
I was more permissive than normal with my purchases. I've been feeling a bit annoyed about all the studio closures and layoffs (typically affecting the best studios) amidst record profits in one of the most valuable entertainment industries, plus I'm trying to enjoy more of my backlog (my backlog is pre-purchase games). I even bought a new game with just the launch discount!
If you too would like to help indie devs pay their bills, here are some deals on good games that I've played:
Binding of Isaac rebirth complete at 90% off is an absolute steal.
Yeah I finally got Repentance.
Probably not a healthy purchase since I have more than 1300 hours on Rebirth+Afterbirth... But it's cheap enough and enough additional content that I felt like it would be worth finally starting over to play with the content of every DLC, plus I was aware that newer DLCs fix the poor balance of the horrific, unplayable Afterbirth+.
Sekiro is 50% off, it's not often on sales IIRC.
Looking for Recommendations: something like the modern Far Cry games without (or with less) shooty bits
I'm currently playing Far Cry 4, and I like running/driving/flying around the open world, exploring different areas, and getting the myriad collectibles strewn about. (Especially the collectibles)
I don't love the shooting though, and could do without it (though the hunting is somewhat enjoyable).
What other good open world explorathon/collectathon titles are out there that would have me firing guns less and gathering up things more?
Morels: The Hunt is 90% off right now. I haven't played it but it's on my wishlist. I don't think it is open world, but its Steam page description may interest you:
You do shoot animals, but it's with a camera. If shooting animals with a gun is your thing, theHunter: Call of the Wild is also on sale for 90% off. This one doesn't fit your conditions, but if you wanted to put your gun away and not deal with collecting things, this is yet another game that lets you roam a beautifully rendered wilderness.
I already own theHunter, so that was an easy one. I might pick up the ATV DLC for it since apparently that's a big QoL help.
Also Morels looks great, and I'm a complete sucker for pretty much anything that's 90% off. Into the cart it goes! Thanks!
Please report back if Morels is up to snuff. I would like to know where on the spectrum for mushroom picking it is aligned with: whether the more chaotic "maps are for losers, breadcrumbs aren't for eating" Hansel and Gretel, or the more lawful "I got things to do, set the GPS for Grandma's" Little Red Riding Hood.
Funny enough I think Assassin's Creed games fit your description a bit (no driving or flying but also no shooting either). Tons of open world exploration that feels pretty fluid since you can climb pretty much anything, and lots of collectibles and hidden regions to explore. There's combat, sure, but you can ignore a fair bit of it and just run around climbing digitally-reconstructed historic cities and structures. I especially loved Origins for this, as I loved the setting of Ancient Egypt.
And separately from that, not sure if you have a Switch, but Zelda BOTW fits your description perfectly. You can ignore almost all the combat in the game and just focus on exploring and discovering things. And the open world in the game feels super natural and organic, rather than just a big map with a compass telling you where to go. It's the only open world game so far that I've managed to play from beginning to end without any HUD. I could go on for hours about how well designed the open world aspect of this game is.
Lastly, not really different from your suggestions, but if you're liking the Far Cry games I always feel like it's my duty to bring up Far Cry 2 and Far Cry Primal. 2 is just my favorite in the whole series, very interesting setting and tons of attention to detail (even compared to some of the newer games). And Primal is just completely different than the other ones in setting, and honestly pretty unique as far as open world games in general (not many of them set in prehistoric times). Very cool, but I'm a sucker for history so your mileage may vary.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 1 or 2.
1s major drawback is the combat, but get the master strike (or whatever it’s called) watch a YouTube video or two and don’t let the combat deter you. You don’t do combat too often, and it’s usually your choice to engage.
2 is a bit easier to get into, and is one of my favorite games of all time. The atmosphere and length, and things to do is incredible.
It’s not modern like Far Cry, but it doesn’t have any shooting (well, modern shooting) and you’re basically free to run around and explore whatever.
I was so disappointed that they STILL didn't provide a "no head bob" option in the 2nd. I couldn't continue with 1 due to nausea.
Seems like someone made a mod for it? (Can't vouch for it though.)
Yeah, it's very much a kludge that doesn't really work too well, unfortunately. It's just a baffling decision in 2026.
Hey again, I was just scrolling through some short videos on YouTube when I came across this one with some good recommendations for open world games without combat. Tons of examples I hadn’t heard of before. Reminded me of your question, so figured you might be interested in some of the games.
Edit: oh and there are a ton more suggestions in the comments of that video too!
This was perfect! I wishlisted a few games, as well as identified a few that I already own (because of course). Thanks fefellama!
A few good 'deep discounts'.
I think I'm gonna get 'The Invincible' for €3, 'A Plague Tale Innocence' for €4 and Rainworld for ~€2.40.
Looking for recommendations for Action RPGs
A few months ago I bought Wayfinder (it's like three fiddy right now, well worth it), and I'm looking for similar games.
I'm eyeing these ones: Outriders, Cloudheim, Farever (a bit too early access), AC Mirage, Horizon Zero Dawn
I'm not against something different, as long as there are places to go and loot to discover.
Eternal Strands might fit this bill? I didn't love it but I think it hits a lot of your criteria.
The Horizon games are excellent, so a hearty recommendation there. IMO the sequel is strictly better than the original gameplay wise, but the story is good enough that it's worth playing both games.
Looks like it might! I'm downloading the demo right now, thanks.
Edit: the demo is generous and the game totally fits my criteria!
I was also thinking about Eternal Strands, so I'll recommend it too. The game fits your description and is a joy and a hidden gem.
Bonus points as it's made by an independent, Canadian studio including talent like Mike Laidlaw (Creative Director for Dragon Age).
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - this one is the first one because it is on sale right now for $4.79 USD. There is no crafting, base building, or survival elements and the "souls-like" part of the game is completely optional, as in it is in a completely different part of the game.
Edit: forgot to add this, Warframe (because of Destiny 2) and its free.
Thank you. Dragon's Dogma looks a bit too dark, not what I'm looking for atm but I've added it to my wishlist for another time.
I started Steam accounts for my kids earlier this year so that we could play Grounded together, but they're otherwise still sharing my Steam account and games. My wife and I have been planning on buying them their favorite ones once this started, so I'll probably be picking up a couple of the Just Cause games, Teardown, Lego City, Subnautica and a bunch of other random stuff for them.
For myself, I'm really only thinking I'll pick up Stalker 2, but inevitably that'll turn into a handful of other titles as well, but S2 will probably be the most expensive thing I buy.
Aside from the big-name ones everyone knows about, here are some games on my wishlist that are 90% off that I'm still not 100% on but you may find interesting:
And that's not even half of them. I've probably got 25 games on my wishlist at 90% off, a few even higher. Please try to talk me out of it, or at least tell me what great steals these all are to have.
I'll put in a vote for Othercide. It's actually all XCOM with roguelite elements (not sure where the Automata comparison comes from). It's challenging as heck but if you like XCOM style games but without the "miss even if you have a 150% hit chance," then it'll be a great buy.
As a side thing, I love the visual aesthetics of the game and the soundtrack is actually pretty darn good (hint: turn your speakers up loud for the first boss).
Hot chick warriors that lack humanity. In Othercide, a game I admittedly have not played, its strongly hinted that the "Daughters" are clones. You have a whole bunch of them, they're disposable, they look the same (hot), and they're all "Daughters", meaning they somehow all share the same "Mother". Meanwhile, in Nier Automata, yet another game I admittedly have not played, you play as "2B", a robot (android?) stumping on behalf of humanity.
Another one like this I can think of is that French revolution steampunk soulslike where you play as an automaton (yes, I have not played that either). It really interesting that games like to dehumanize their heroines through doll-ification. Meanwhile, games dehumanize their male heroes by outright making them into straight-up monsters (e.g. God of War, Darksiders).
Yes, it's a generalization to say that video game heroines have a tendency to be sleek, refined dolls while video game heroes tend to be animalistic and demonic. An all-out total generalization.
All this says to me is that there needs to be more games starring femme boys. Like, a femme boy android warrior designed to serve as humanity's final chance at stopping a legion of marauding hirsute bear demons.
Thanks for the recommendation. I really want this game. The problem is, I'm likely to splurge on Keep Gambling first. The satire is simply too strong for me to resist.
Making a new post to ask: Has anyone tried clicking on the Steam Summer Sale image? The banner at the top of the page?
On computer, use your mouse to hover over the spot where the chicken's fishing line enters the water. You'll notice that your cursor will change into a very noticeable chicken head. Click, and be rewarded with a revelation!
But wait! There's more! The secret clicking is not yet over! There is another secret to be found! Imbued with the wisdom you now have, hunt with your mouse until your cursor becomes a chicken head, click, and lo! You are rewarded! Something unexpected!
Doesn't make up for the lack of Steam Delivery Girl, but what does.
Grabbed 3 games from the wish list that dropped under the $10 threshold (although some because I own other games from their collection).
Underspace - "freelancer successor" in EA. Price played a large part in purchasing as I'm skeptical.
Samurai Gunn 2 - First game was fun, I was happy to see there was a second.
Emuurom - Puzzle game I'd had my eye on. Heard mostly good things and it's one of those puzzle games so I plan to play with the wife and see what we find.
Considering I railed against the lack of a Freelancer-like (Lancer-like? We'll workshop it) in this thread, I just bought Underspace. Worst case scenario it sucks, but at least I will show support for initiatives that want to create the Freelancer experience.
Interesting. After looking it up I am also skeptical. If you end up playing it and want to report back in one of the weekly gaming threads, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
I sometimes tend to give myself a budget of like $20 and try and add in as many things in my wishlist as I can. Then either wait until the sale is over(lol) or actually buy what I put in my cart.
I see Sanabi a mentioned a lot in comparison to Katana Zero, they do sure similar visuals but I like the gameplay of Katana Zero.
I’ve just finished my A-levels, and as such my friends and I are looking for some co-op multiplayer games to get through over the following months. Anyone got any recommendations for online co-op multiplayer games, preferably designed for ~3-4 people (but if you have any for more or fewer I’d still love to take a look)
I'm part of a group of 4 that has been playing co-op games weekly for years now, so everything below supports 4 players (and in some cases more).
Here's what we've played and whether or not I'd recommend it:
Highlights
Gunfire Reborn
Inkbound
Raft
Sunderfolk
Recommended
Grounded
Killing Floor
Killing Floor 2
Sanctum 2
Stardew Valley
Terraria
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Soft/Qualified Recommendations
Back 4 Blood
Barony
Deep Rock Galactic
Diablo II: Resurrected - Infernal Edition
Dungeons of Sundaria
Fortified
Palworld
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
Tom Clancy's The Division
Valheim
Not Recommended
Fallout 76
Green Hell
Voidtrain
Our group has had a lot of fun with some of these as well; I'd also recommend:
Abiotic Factor - SCP inspired wackyness. Tons of areas to explore, lots of fighting, crafting, cooking and a few puzzles to solve.
Volcanoids - Fight steampunk robots, collect resources to upgrade and expand your drillship.
Necesse - Like a top-down Terraria but with a bit more village-sim where you can assign tasks for farming and defense.
I'll second Abiotic Factor. My group played a lot of survival/crafters in a row and I got burned out. Abiotic was the survival game that we played when we came back around to the genre and it's a standout for me.
I've seen Raft and Sunderfolk played, solid games!
Grounded 2 is in early access, have you guys tried that yet? I'm told it's an improvement on the first one in some ways.
Any forays into so-called "friendslop"? Like PEAK, R.E.P.O., RV there yet?
Haven't tried Grounded 2 yet -- or any friendslop. We as a group tend to want a bit more of a serious experience than those, though I'm sure we'll pick one of them up eventually out of sheer curiosity.
REPO is awesome with 4+ players, genuinely funny. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
I didn't like Peak. It's a much more difficult and demanding game, and you have to play the whole adventure in one go, which can easily take 90min+. It's rewarding but not relaxing.
Gunfire Reborn is loads of fun! One of the few shooting games I still enjoy.
Just an FYI, there is a larger more advanced portal later in the game (needs stuff from the Ashlands biome) that does allow ore and every other restricted item to go through it. I also found the ore thing super annoying my first time through, but on later playthroughs it wasn't much of a big deal. The devs were clearly trying to force you to not stick to your one location for everything and make at least a small base in the other biomes and make more use of the boats. We got really good and efficient at going to new larger landmasses with all we needed to through together the stuff we'd need to process the materials on site.
Edit: also i think they allow you to disable that portal restriction in the server settings now.
Ah, good to know! We played the game a while ago, so I'm glad to hear they've updated that.
If you didn't know about that then there is already a lot of content and quality of life changes you haven't seen. The 1.0 release is going to have some fairly massive changes as well as the final biome so it is likely to be a pretty fresh experience.
Hey, I've got the same! This is a great list, too. We're always looking For good next options.
I'll add some of the games my group has played (scored out of 4):
Sunderfolk has been on our list to try when we finish DOS2! As is Frosthaven, if/when it goes 1.0.
The roguelite Windblown can be played with 3 players co-op and it's quite good, though it's still in early access. At the time I played it you had to play a little bit before unlocking access to co-op, which was a stupid design choice. I don't know if they have fixed that since.
Looking for recommendations: cleanup chore "simulators"
I feel like I've played a lot of the "main" ones in the genre (PowerWash Simulator, Crime Scene Cleaner, Fresh Start, Island Saver, Viscera Cleanup Detail, Ship Graveyard Simulator), but I'm sure there are other ones out there. Steam, please give us a
cleaningtag.Basically, I like to clean things up/remove trash/fight entropy while I listen to audiobooks.
I'm not really into making new things, so, like, in House Flipper I enjoyed cleaning things up initially in the levels but then didn't enjoy sprucing the house up, putting up walls, painting, etc. For me it's all about the cleanup.
How do you feel about organising?
There is a Library-in-shambles game I've seen played that seems interesting to me, but I can't really pick it up for myself yet when I have a real apartment to organise first!
Lol, you're right on the money. I had just bought that game and it's what inspired me to ask the question!
Oh, well, then I really don't have any other suggestion except starting a side hustle as a body doubler/house cleaner!
Oh I haaaaate IRL cleaning.
It's only fun in games. XD
Bad news about Librarian: Tidy Up the Arcane Library for anyone interested in it: the game currently does not have an FOV slider.
I tried playing it for half an hour and, despite really liking the concept, had to stop on account of motion sickness.
Here's hoping they update the game with one soon.
Have you played Hardspace: Shipbreaker?
Yes! That's actually another one that perfectly scratches this particular itch.
Excellent game, seconded. Very chill, very vibes. Games don't have to be political. But when they are, they have a tendency to be brilliant, if for no other reason than being a game about something is always better than being a game about nothing.
A bit late & it's not out yet, but are you aware of Restory?
It looks right up your alley for cleaning & repairing things. It does have a demo that lasted me about an hour which was enough to sell me on the game.
This looks great. Thanks!
Asking for recommendation as I'm looking to scratch that itch that I got from Return to castle Wolfenstein and the first 3 games in the Hitman series...
So: something like a mostly slowpaced, single player FPS with some stealth and a light but existing story/campaign.
I could replay these games again & again but unfortunately the versions on steam are for PC with mouse & keyboard so they don't play well with controllers, and I'm looking to play on my steamdeck-ish.
Have you played any of the Stalker games? Skip Clear Sky, but the first game Shadow of Chernobyl is pretty great and Call of Pripyat is excellent.
Thank you, I will check them out!
Have you tried Deus Ex: Human Revolution or the sequel Mankind Divided?
Edit: I guess I wouldn't say these have "light" story, but it checks the other boxes
Thanks, I'll be checking them out <3
I merely meant more like I don't want games without story/progression at all, and I'm not superfond of the roguelite kind of progression.
Can't speak to how well they'll play on the steam deck, but hope you like them! They're a couple of my favorite games, and it's a shame there hasn't been more in the series in recent years
Daedalic - Gigantic Bundle
14 lesser-known titles for CA$3.99, 95% off the regular price of $79.99:
Seems like a good deal, and is among the best in-store bundles I've seen in this Steam sale, really any Steam sale. Posting it here to see if anyone has any opinions on the games. Look like they are from a bunch of different genres, and are rather old. Anna's Quest looks like a decent point and click.