A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
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I'll always recommend Catherine, Bayonetta, and Crimzon Clover: World EXplosion. Cheap, extremely fun, and very replayable.
Also, one of the best fighting games of all-time for $4: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R.
And if you're a Persona person, maybe don't sleep on Persona 4 Arena Ultimax? Super fun fighting game and relatively cheap.
Ori & the Will of the Whisps is an incredible story, on sale for pretty cheap right now!
Enter the gungeon is like 1.50
Kenshi is back on sale for 12$. It's a special kind of special, but someone out there might connect with it. Lots of yt videos to get a feel for gameplay.
This is one of those games that I love the description, love the sales pitches, streamers do a good job of promoting it. In paper I should love this game, but it just doesn't gel with me. There's something about video games that just cannot be conveyed through video or text.
Here is a link to Steam DB showing popular games more than 50% off:
https://steamdb.info/sales/?min_discount=50&min_rating=70&min_reviews=500
Celeste is 75% off and is a near-masterpiece of a game.
Portal 1 and Portal 2 are on sale again of course on the chance you haven't yet hit these absolutely classic legendary games.
Persona 4 Golden is 40% off and is awesome, and Persona 5 Royal is 60% and is even more awesome.
Metal: Hellsinger is 70% off and while it isn't a GOTY type game, it's a hell of a lot of fun if you're a contemporary metal music fan.
but my biggest recommendation is probably gonna be
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale at 80% for only $3.99 (US) which is an completely underrated hidden gem of a game and a huge recommendation for anyone who likes quirky cozy-hybrid games or who, like me, spent way too long on the shopkeeper segments in RPGs like Torneko Taloon's chapter in DQIV.
edit: why in the world would anyone ever downvote a personal recommendation comment? Weird behavior, fam
Btw Recettear is getting a HD remaster in 2025.
Eyyy I hadn't heard that yet! That's awesome, thanks for sharing!
If you like Recettear you should check out Final Profit:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1705140/Final_Profit_A_Shop_RPG/
Doom (2016), Doom Eternal, Helldivers 2, Broforce
my reccomendation? whatever's on gog
in all seriousness, you can't go very wrong with games made by valve, portal especially.
Outer Wilds is on sale. Great game if you like space, puzzles or platforming!
Talos Principle is $5
Talos Principle 2 is $15
Highly recommend both games!
Both combined is $15.58. That doesn't include the excellent expansions for either game though.
They are the only portal-likes (chamber-based player movement puzzlers) that I'd place on the same level as the Portal games.
Imo they're better. Portal was more groundbreaking because of when the first one came out, what valve was doing at the time, because everybody played it, and because of its connection with other games at the time.
But now, it's just a very good game that (re)introduced portals as a concept into pop culture and repopulatized and proved that AAA puzzle games were possible.
Talos, on the other hand, is a philosophical indie sleeper, and more of a social experiment. I don't like comparing it to portal, because most people see portal as an insurmountable peak with an impenetrable meme forcefield. And yeah, portal is great. But the Talos games are something very different and stands all on its own.
Can anyone recommend a good multiplayer shooter with a high player population? (Either 2D or VR is fine.) Or any non-MMO, non-role-playing PvP game that is mostly online and has populated servers? Something my 37-year-old ass can just jump into and play a quick match without having to dedicate my life to it?
Getting sick of all the PUBGs, Counter-Strikes, Call of Duties, and Overwatches/Marvel Rivalses. My best gaming memories were during the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 days. I never had more fun in a shooter than when I was playing Rush. But unfortunately EA never managed to recapture that same magic in the sequels. After the 2042 flop I quit Battlefield for good.
BattleBit Remastered is legitimately the tightest battlefield-like fps i’ve ever played, better than name-brand battlefield even. it fills the exact same niche for me.
i play with mic off and still manage serviceable communication with a squad of randies pretty much every game. there’s relatively frequent balance updates, so the meta isn’t focused on any one single playstyle. it’s exactly what i imagine an fps made by fps-junkies to look like.
Also playing support actually feels rewarding, and i think that’s proper rare in multiplayer games.
e: fuck hahah just kidding apparently it was abandoned by the devs. last update 15 months ago, rip to my favorite fps :c
God damnit; you had me sold up until the very end. :(
this is the worst way to find out my favorite game had a scummy dev the whole time lmao
there’s reviews from February that say you can still find populated servers, but that might be region dependant and you almost certainly won’t have a choice for gamemode.
guess we’re both just waiting for the next next good battlefield game 🙃
Due Process is a multiplayer competitive shooter similar in vein to Counterstrike or Rainbow Six Siege, but the maps are somewhat procedurally generated (there's tilesets and certain rooms layouts for every map) meaning there's no consistant strategy and sniper points to meta game. You play as defenders guarding a bomb or attackers breaking into the building to disarm the bomb, switching sides after 3 rounds. Rounds last 2 minutes with an extra minute given at the start to plan out the strategy. The economy of weapons works in that all the guns for 3 rounds are all available at the start and only the living players get to bring weapons to the next round. The original devs are no longer working on it I believe, but it is being updated and maintained by volunteers.
Operation Harsh Doorstop is my favorite fps, it is a semi-realistic vehicle big map shooter.. but it has mod support and mods like Casualfield (which has active multiplayer servers) have much more Call Of Duty like gameplay. It is free, no live service crap. Even if you don't like where the vanilla game is right now, keep your eye on it, it is an easy platform for other shooters to be modded on. Player population isn't huge but there are consistently full servers. I also don't think the realistic nature of the game makes it less accessible than a game like battlebit, since there is such a specific gun meta at certain ranges in arcadey games like battlebit, and everything happens so fast with constantly rushing smg players... it is actually really hard to break into when you are playing on even normal pub servers. Apex Legends is in my opinion the worst game with this. In a game like OHD though, an assault rifle with a scope can do pretty much anything well enough, though you might prefer a more specific kit for a situation, but there isn't this crazy focus on constantly changing weird metas and gun balances to pump up paid skins for a gun that was just added... This is just a free moddable big map vehicle shooter with a server browser and barebones singleplayer, which is awesome.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/736590/Operation_Harsh_Doorstop/
Halo Infinite I grew up with Halo 1-3, I don't have any special love for 343, but Halo Infinite big team battle is the best halo multiplayer has ever been. Capture the flag is amazing with the warthogs the way they are balanced in halo infinite, I can't stand microsoft lol but damn halo infinite is in a nice state now.
Splitgate Ok, player population isn't massive, but this is a realllllly good game, even outside the portal gun mechanic. The gunplay is great and the jetpack is tuned perfectly. Can't recommend it enough!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/677620/Splitgate/
Easy Red 2 Alright now I am just straight up lying, this game never has huge concurrent numbers, but you can give large numbers of forces commands pretty easy in the interface (like you can drive a half track up to an objective and order your squad to dismount and assault). It is another WW2 game... but this game actually strives for historical specificity in lots of areas that aren't usually covered in WW2 games. There is a great diversity of armor, vehicles and fighter planes, the games is a blast and is a steal at around $10. Cross platform tooo!!?!?!?! Great for bot bashing.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1324780/Easy_Red_2/
Xonotic is the best arena fps ever, playerbase is HUGEEEE E
ok but I love it
I went back to the finals, i played the beta a lot but kinda lost interst at launch. It's a really fun, solid and pretty shooter.
Next battlefield could turn things around, respawn /Vince zampella was given control of the series
Borderlands 3, if you somehow missed it, for under £5 is just a good value.
Noita is currently 60% off and is hands down the best game I have ever played (kind of). It is ridiculously brutal and you will die very often but you have the potential to get ludicrously powerful as well. The game will cheese you so don't be afraid to cheese it back. In has so much content that beating the final boss for the first time is considered beating the tutorial.
Also if the some aspects are too bullshit for you there is a variety of mods to fix these, and there is absolutely no shame in using them.
I got myself and can recommend:
Returnal (29.99€) (Rogue-like shooter),
Wisper (6.99€) (Open world exploration) and Crossroads OS (3.74€) (Puzzle game).
I can further recommend:
Studio System (8.84€) (Horror),
With My Past (6.59€) (Puzzle),
Signalis (13.99€) (Horror).
Here’s what I picked up during the Steam Spring Sale:
DOOM - $1.99 (90% off)
Stray - $18.99 (40% off)
Undertale - $0.99 (90% off)
Celeste - $4.99 (75% off)
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - $4.99 (90% off)
Red Dead Redemption 2 - $14.99 (75% off)
NieR: Automata - $15.99 (60% off)
Hades - $9.99 (60% off)
Devil May Cry 5 - $19.79 (67% off)
Anno 1800 is 5 bucks. I love it, but you need to deal with Uplay as well
I have over 600 hours in Anno 1800 and highly recommend it buuuut I would advise people consider the more expensive edition that includes all the expansions.
If you are the simmy type or like space, Elite Dangerous is insanely good, but has a learning curve up front. It's the only game I've put over 1,100 hours in and still haven't explored everything.
Subnautica is another game I can highly recommend.
If you wanna play games with friends (Elite is also MP), The Forest is a great game to bond over.
Black mesa is another banger.
Undertale is at a new all time love at $0.99. It's not really my jam but it's the time to pick it up if you always wanted to play it but never did.