Buying a steam deck significantly increased by gaming time. The ability to immediately suspend and resume my gameplay, and not have to go over to my desktop helped a lot. I've played more this past year than I have in the last 3 years combined.
Outer Wilds. For a few friends who don’t have it yet. I’ve already bought it a couple times.
I already own it… but it’s just that good. So good I vicariously try to relive the game by watching livestreams and Eelis’ recaps of other live-streamers.
It really is something you have to experience blind. Since the entire game progression is knowledge based and pulling threads on the mysteries until the mosaic of the story and experience unfolds is truly something you can experience once.
I thought you meant The Outer Wilds, and spent a solid two minutes on a routine sanity check. Hadn't heard of this game though, so we'll call it even 😸
It was a bit of a slow burner on release so I'm not surprised you didn't hear about it. People had access to the beta years before the official release, so when it came out essentially nothing really changed and there wasn't this big announcement.
How is the dlc? I had a tough time with outer wilds. At the time I played it, I found it to be very frustrating. I needed a spoiler to get past two or three major points. But in hindsight I think it’s really an impressive game. I’m thinking about picking up the dlc, but I’m not sure about it and I don’t want to search about it to avoid spoiler.
It started off a little slow, but imo it was better than the main game. It's both a little more streamlined and better story-wise. You probably should play the main game first
Heaven's Vault, Hardspace Shipbreaker, and both Subnautica games.
Heaven's Vault is a puzzle game where you have to learn to translate an unknown language. Haven't gotten too deep into the game yet, but I picked it up because I liked Chants of Sennaar, which has a similar premise. Chants is 25% off right now, so I think that's a decent recommendation
Hardspace Shipbreaker is a casual game where you break down spaceships for parts. It seemed fun, and I wanted to have something casual to balance out my library, which currently has more intense games than I would like.
Subnautica is a survival game where you're stuck on an ocean world. I'm honestly not too sure if I would like this one too much, since I'm not too much of a fan of survival games. It just seemed unique enough from the other survival games, and it had a decent deal, and it was in my wishlist for a while. So I acted a bit on impulse and bought both games (Subnautica and Subnautica Below Zero)
I envy you greatly right now, you're about to embark on a beautiful journey. Xcom2 is one of my favorites, especially once mods factor in, of which there are thousands covering so many franchises and ideas you can't possibly play them all.
I wish you nothing but an excellent time and lots of dead aliens.
Xenonauts 2 is 30% off also. It's a modern version of classic X-COM, which is quite different from modern XCOM. It's still in early access, but it's very good. I've done one playthrough (to the end of what was available) and I'm waiting for release to do another. It's much better than what XCOM has become in my opinion though.
This is the way. Why would I hoard 5 more games just because there is a sale? The next one will come shortly. Only buy games you plan to play in the next 2 weeks.
I have so many Steam Sale games in my library that I haven't played yet that I don't know if I could justify buying more. My backlog is just too long. By the time I get around to playing any purchases for this dale, 2 more Steam Sales could have already passed.
I started playing each game in my library for about 10 min and then moving on. Some games catch me playing longer but otherwise I check them off as played. With recent Steam sales I’d buy 5-6 games, immediately install them all, and play each right away. Feels good man.
How the hell do you find fulfillment in that (unless they're super small games)? I don't think I could speedrun something like Cave Story in 10 minutes, much less roguelikes - Dead Cells, Darkest Dungeon, Balatro etc, where the gameplay loop takes hours and hours.
I have to upvote your upvote. Subnautica is one of the greatest games ever made. Gave me serious Mal de Debarquement Syndrome when I finally pulled myself away to go to bed.
I just chip away at my list every time there’s a sale. This time I got God of War, Spiderman, Jedi Survivor, and Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen.
DD was an impulse buy since I don’t know anything about it, but the reviews were good. It was $4.79 and I see there’s a sequel coming later this month, so that’s probably a good deal and a good time to catch up.
But I’ll probably still be “ahh, suffering…” through Elden Ring when the summer sale rolls around…
Dragon's Dogma is a great game that was ahead of its time when it came out. I can't help but wonder how much of a hit it could have been if Capcom marketed it better (or at all).
Grim Dawn is the most fun I've had with an ARPG in years. The class system is very interesting and, as far as I know, unique to this game. Rather than just being a barbarian or necromancer or whatever other typical ARPG class you can think of, your class is determined by selecting any 2 archetypes. For instance, maybe you like being a pet class like necromancer, but you want to have a slightly more active play style than just watching your skellingtons paint the map red. So, you mix in the Nightblade (melee rogue) class at level 10. Your new, combined class is called a Reaper, and you have access to both skill trees, free to mix and match as you wish. Very interesting playstyles can emerge from creative pairings.
I am a casual player so I can't offer any perspective on the endgame or anything like that, but if you're looking for something to scratch the Diablo 2 itch with a fun twist on classes,you cant go wrong with Grim Dawn.
It’s actually a spiritual successor to a game called Titan Quest, which had the same dual class system. It’s a ton of fun, though pretty dated in terms of quality of life for ARPGs.
It's a VERY good spiritual successor to titan quest. I'll recommend last epoch too, if you like the genre and are interested also in multi-player (it has an offline mode as well)
I have played it for a while, albeit shorter than some true veterans, and I am a little bit torn in my opinion about it. The customizations options are great and the story is cool and engaging. However, the game feels very much grindy overall and you have to win the game to unlock higher difficulty settings, which is a bit boring in my opinion. Also, the loot from some early bosses are better than what comes later for certain builds, meaning you have to return back to areas you have passed through and grind the same bosses again for better versions of the same loot that you already have, which is also a tad boring. I've also had some weird stuttering issues on Linux. Otherwise, great game and I recommend trying it!
It's a good game, but you should know ZA/UM (the studio behind the game) was sold under suspicious cirucmstances; the lead designer and other major memebrs are no longer part of the studio (they sued, but it didn't go anywhere). Personally I wouldn't give them any money.
I really don't understand. Can someone divulge the circumstances or is this all just hearsay? IP law really isn't all that complicated. Its been in practice for a long time, and generally things only need to go to court when one of the parties didn't do some basic homework. If the court didn't rule in the author's favor I find it hard to believe the author didn't legitimately give up their rights to that IP.
I'm considering pirating the game, since I bought it 2 years ago and have been unable to login to my rockstar account or receive any help from support. I bought the game, just can't play it because of the launcher. I've only played about 1hr through, I know the game has so much more to offer
Rdr2 I bought full price and don't regret so if you can get it for cheaper it is worth if you like slower paced games. I know some people can find it boring especially the beginning parts but the story is great.
Dunno if it's on sale, but Solasta Crown of the Magister is a great dnd game made by a small studio. It's much shorter, but imo the general mechanics are really good and the use of height in combat is better than in bg3.
Also not to mention workshop support! There're a few campaigns that come with the game already, but people can make their own and add them through the steam workshop
I've read this opinion a few times actually which is great news for me. Bg3 was the game that pulled me back from a long hiatus from gaming and after finishing it I was kinda lost about what to play next. Lookin forward to playing it.
I have a feeling you’ll really enjoy it! DOS1 is also awesome but rough around the edges in comparison. The story is super whimsical though. I really loved the story in dos 1 lol
Ah thanks for the recommendation! Due to kids and life in general I am about 7-8 years behind when it comes to gaming. It's nice being able to get back to playing every now and then. Also, no need to get latest and pay full price which is also nice.
If only for the soundtrack, it's worth playing once, at least. It's so haunting and beautiful. The first time I played DOS1, I knew I would love it the moment I heard the music at startup. RIP Kirill, his music was so beautiful. Also nice they put his music on the piano in a certain evil dude's house in DOS2!
Maybe I should replay it again. Just like OP I'm having a bit of a BG3 withdrawal issue.
I highly recommend Amid Evil. I wasn't even a big Hexen/Heretic fan, but it's fantastic. It has the record for highest screenshots->playtime of any game I've played on steam.
Lol, I would have bought factario, but I have trouble spending that much on a game, and I would have had to buy two copies (one for partner). However first person games give her motion sickness, so satisfactory was about 1/4 the price overall. And she's hooked on monster hunter world herself, so I have time..
I got the Vampire Survivors DLC. I try not to buy Steam stuff anymore unless it's either a deep discount on something I kind of am interested in, or it's something I badly wanted.
I ran across a metroidvania called Feudal Alloy set in a medieval world where you and all the enemies are low-tech robots with fish bowls as heads. There's an interesting mechanic where swinging your sword generates heat and if you're overheated you can't attack temporarily. You can upgrade different parts of your body to fit the situation or your play style (more armor/damage/health, slower overheat, faster cooldown, etc), and the art is nice.
Felt like a lucky find for me because I just found out about it last week from an old vid on one of the yt gaming channels I follow (Let's Game It Out if anyone likes watching a dude try to break games by essentially QA testing the hell out of them), and when I checked the steam sale this week it came up for under 2 bucks.
Controls felt a little janky to me, but I loved the game. I would recommend it to anyone wanting a shorter Metroidvania experience, especially if the art style is appealing to you.
I bought Project: Snowblind and E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy for a total of 3 Euros. I've been replaying the entire Deus Ex Series over the last couple of months and these two games are kinda similar in nature and I've been wanting to play them for ages.
Edit: my group has people who have never played controller so I need something easy to pick up. I have tried overcooked but I guess there are too many buttons
I spent a whole sick day blasting through a good chunk of the games a while back. It's weirdly fun. I basically just bought it for the pin pull game that always infuriates me in ads but spent several hours getting all the stars in the parking lot game instead.
Night in the Woods is an okay story/adventure game, but man the soundtrack for that game is a real earworm. Years later now and some of the town jingles still pop into my head randomly. RIP to the composer who passed away way too young.
I'm not going to elbow drop Owlboy, but I think you should try it within the refund window because in my opinion it's way overhyped, and does not deliver much mechanically.
I've only played it a bit so far, but it's been enjoyable fwiw. I'm pretty into looters and survival games, though, so if that's not your bag, I can see it seeming boring. I find arena pvp shooters repetitive, personally. Everyone's got their own interests.
From watching other people play it, it seems like all you really do is drive from point a to point b while weird things happen. And occasionally random things break on your car.
That reminder that the cult is just expendable resources made me love the game. I name them after my family and friends, and after I ran out of names, started adding numbers. So sacrificing Mom 4 and Sister 5 to the Outer Gods, only to save a new cult member and naming them Mom 5 and Sister 6 makes me laugh.
I was surprised to see two games called Knightfall. Not the one you're referring to (assuming it was a typo), is a 2D dungeon crawler, and came out in 2017, with 13 reviews.
Huh, interesting that it's OK to have such a similar name. Maybe it's all OK until someone complains.
I bought Wrestlequest and You Suck at Parking. The former you probably won't vibe with if you aren't a big pro wrestling and maybe RPG fan. The latter is fun but at ten bucks on sale still feels a smidge overpriced
I finally got tired of Melvor after like a year and the first DLC. I guess I could see myself going back and doing the 2nd one at some point but my interest hasn't been there since I put it down some time last year.
Even before that though I think that township thing was a huge misstep. I'm all for trying some new stuff as a dev and not everyone's going to be happy but cramming some weird town management sim into the incremental rpg genre never really made much sense to me.
Township does seem rather tacked on I agree, outside of the tasks there isn't much to do and it doesn't reward you enough to justify the money sink. Quite frankly, there's a lot in the game that seems rather pointless outside of getting to lvl 99 (120 with DLC), but I guess that's the point.
I can't beat the goddamn black deck, I don't know what's wrong with me 😢
IMPORTANT UPDATE: I have managed to beat the black deck. Vagabond for a lot of death cards, shoot the moon to make those death cards queens, and an early triboulet led me to victory. I wish all fellow balatroers a pleasant evening and a lucky night
I've done it on the Magic Deck; I do think it has a lot of luck involved at the higher stakes, sadly, it could definitely do with a bit of balance or engineering to make each run possible (as Slay the Spire always seems).
Broooo, that black deck is harder than the next stakes on other decks, it's insane!
I need to try again though, it unlocks a new deck and I want them haha
Ended up grabbing Jupiter hell and wizordum. Jupiter hell is a Doom adjacent top down turn based rogue like. Wizordum is a retro fps of the hexen variety. Both games evoke nostalgia in different ways for me.
Jupiter Hell was okay. I absolutely LOVED doomRL, and felt the jump to Jupiter Hell, not certain why it didn't click. The controls are interesting. And would still support the dev.
+1 for Lies of P. It's the most Fromsoft-like game of that style not made by Fromsoft I've ever played. So if you're a big Soulsebornering fan, it's right up there with those.
Jedi Fallen Order! It's a great game and only like £3.50 in the sale. Might also pick up Kingdom Come Deliverance and Mafia Definitive Edition since they're both under £10
Personally, I'd say it's a fair price at £3.50, but not worth more than that. Fallen Order should've been called "climbing simulator" instead, as that's what you spend half of the game doing.
I honestly really enjoyed it but maybe I had the difficulty set hard enough that I was instead spending most of my time fighting. Tbf I also enjoyed the tomb raider trilogy which was mostly climbing puzzles
Being based on DnD, it takes a little getting used to, especially compared to most RPG combat that were built for PC rather than tabletop. That said, while the system doesn't get any less 'clunky' it does feel more natural as you become more familiar with it.
Over 600 games so there's not much I don't have but I grabbed that new ratchet and clank to throw at my 4090, and I got some stupid idle game I'm addicted to. Thinking of grabbing the halls of torment/brotato combo
I was starting to get nostalgic for an old game called Riddle of the Sphinx, found out there's a remaster of it on Steam...that is apparently put out by one of those shady fucking churches, so nope.
I've been playing the hell out of Satisfactory lately, I've had the game beat for awhile but I'm buying all the trophies. I want to FULL CLEAR the game in early access before the 1.0 release and I'm building up coupons for the Golden Nut.
The Talos Principle 2. After spending nearly all day on it yesterday, I am hooked. It really does it justice to the first one, I just wish they would release a VR version as the original in VR made the game much more intimate for me—I never played the pancake version.
The Talos Principle 2. It's a cerebral, first person puzzle game by the makers of Serious Sam. The first one was amazing! One of my favorite games. The reviews make it sound like this one is at least just as good. It's not even that old and already 40% off.
I'm considering Bomb Rush Cyberfunk but I reckon it has a decent chance of ending up in Humble Choice so I may wait for that. Definitely a game I will enjoy, but I have a big backlog so eh.
Nothing for me this go round. Had to take a 30 day unpaid medical leave from work due to some health issues, and my leave started a week before the steam sale. 😂 I have bad timing, but there's always summer sale 🤷.
I'm very tempted to get Dead Cells' Castlevania DLC, but I haven't been in the mood for metroidvanias lately. The base game is fantastic, though, and I absolutely recommend.
Hidden Through Time 2 and Monument Valley 2. Just small games where I liked the first game, I‘m still far from done with my Xmas purchases so no need to go harder for me.
Last summer I got one year of gamepass for free with the MS rewards program (before it was nerfed into oblivion), and I played a grand total of... Three games on it. Maybe four? Gaming doesn't excite me like it used to. It's not that good games aren't released anymore. I guess I just got older and my taste changed.
I bought Golf with Friends and gifted another copy to a friend of mine, just to spend some good time with them. Nothing else really excites me.