• Amazon.com has a fantastic Digital PC Downloads section that has been destroying Steam over and over. If Steam is somehow cheaper they often price-match. Put in a fake US address to buy outside US, also this doesn't work for everybody.
  
  
  
• Greenman Gaming sometimes just has the best deals and often offers a discount code that additionally shaves off 15-25% from the sale price. If you can't see the code on the main page search their blog for it.
  
  
  
• Nuuvem is a relatively fresh brazilian site but has already made a splash. Some of their deals are insane and don't worry - they're legit and goon-approved. Be aware though they may not accept a card from your region for no apparent reason.
  
  
  
• Gamers Gate offers some cool daily deals but nothing too epic UNTIL they gently caress up the prices. $20 Bethesda's Catalogue anyone?
  
  
  
• Humble Bundle has just opened a full-fledged store. It has kick-rear end deals AND allows you to buy in $ even if you're from a different region. Always remember to check their regular and weekly bundles while you're there.
  
  
  
• Bundle Stars has also just opened a store. They have some good deals on often obscure titles that aren't a highlight anywhere else.
  
  
  
• Gamefly offers standard deals but then there's this ONE game that is absolutely cheaper than anywhere else.
  
  
  
• Indie Royale may be that-bundle-that-used-to-be-great-but-now-sucks but they also just launched the Daily Royale site that has cool fresh deals every day.
  
  
  
• Groupees always has 2-3 bundles going on at the same time. Better check them before you drop money on an obscure indie game.
  
  
  
• Indie Gala has a store. It sucks. But hey, sometimes it doesn't!

• Good Old Games also offers new games now. It's one of the only truly DRM-free services out there if that's important to you. GOG owns.
  
  
  
• Yeah, yeah I know - Origin. But it DOES have big sales now as it turns out brands aren't cheapened by those that much. It offers EA's big popular games that are not available on Steam: Battlefield, Fifa, Mass Effect 3, NFS, SimCity and other crap.
  
  
  
• Ubisoft Store offers Ubisoft games. Be sure to use the same Uplay account on Steam games that require it. Otherwise you'll end up with 2 stupid accounts that can't be merged.

• Daily Deals - The standard way of Steam to offer amazing deals during these sales. You have 24 hours to get a game, then another 24 hours after the deals change to compare the current deals and the deals still live from one day ago. Makes it much easier to make up your mind where to spend your hard earned cash.
  
• Flash Deals - The new way of getting your money - each game gets 8 hours of being on sale, and it might or might not show up multiple times during the entire sale.
  
• “Community Choice” Deals - A new vote starts every 8 hours where you choose 1 of 3 proposed games and the most voted one will become a deal.
  
• Deals swap over at 10am Pacific Time. Also more often than not, you should see an "Offer ends in" timer to give you an idea how much longer for you can get the game at a certain sale price. For the sale, they're giving is two day (48 hour) timers.
  
• There will most likely be an encore of the most popular deals at the end of the sale

• If the game you want isn't a daily/flash deal - wait for it to become one or buy it on the last day. "Aw hell I just bought Skyrim for $30 and now it's a daily for $10 " is something we read in the sale threads on every single page.
  
• Put a set amount of money to your Steam wallet AND NO MORE*. You don't want your card being knocked back when you try and buy that Nancy Drew game you've been waiting for with 5 minutes on the sale clock.
  *Unless you are from and area that gets screwed by regional pricing a lot (eg. Australia). Put that sweet cash in your paypal, and you'll be sending off cash to one of our many regional gifters in no time, with no fuss!
  
• Consider buying games as gifts into your inventory instead of your library and only open them when you intend to play them. When you finally wake up from the shopping spree you'll wonder why the hell you bought all those games but if they're gifts you'll be able to trade/sell them. Believe me we have all been there.
  
• Organize 2 or 4 packs where possible. It can often save you and your fellow goons a good sum of cash.
  
• There are usually tons of games discounted 75%+ that aren't mentioned on the main page. Go hunting.

They're cards (by the way, here's a cool Steam card site that will help you sell cards) - there are 10 regular and 10 foil types. You can buy them and sell them on the market if you want. Whatever.

• Did you know we have an official Steam Goons IRC channel? If you want to talk about games, deals, find gifters, give out games or just chill out - come on over. We're active throughout the year. Just don't be a dickhead and don't beg for games.
  
• IsThereAnyDeal will e-mail you about deals on games from your wishlist when they hit prices you specifically set. It scans ALL distribution sites for those. This is an amazing service that will also make you spend all your money.
  
• Use Cheap Shark to find good deals and Steam Prices to find out where it's the cheapest!
  
• Augment your Steam! Install Enhanced Steam: for Chrome, for Mozilla:
  
  Owned games will be marked green, wishlisted games will be blue:
  
  
  You'll get a fancy table on the game pages showing you when the game was at its lowest on Steam and other places:
  
  
  Also the newest version apparently shows regional prices when you hover over the shown price. Neat.
  
  
• If you want to see regional prices as a handy table on the right install Steam Regional Price Checker:
  
  
  (Although it's not turned on by default, if you go into the options of the 'All region price checker' you can select a default currency, and it will then display all regions in that currency)
  
  
• If you're looking for the main Steam thread, it's here. If you want to trade games, go here. If you want to trade Steam Cards, go here. If you're feeling generous and want to give away games, go here.
  
  
• "This might be a stupid question, but how do you get to the regular store screen?" -You can't. Big sales traditionally take over regular Steam until they're over.

US Gifters: Lock, Atroos, Master_Odin, Ragequit, Aqua Hamster, Morter, DarkestLite (normally on later at night), Beard Yawn, Witters, Liquid Courage, Unbalanced, Pins, Cowman, Kuros

UK Gifters: Lavatein, TheRam, AirRaid, RoboJoe, Crashbee, Red Dragon, Dregan

NEW Brazilian Gifters: DoctorOfLawls

European Gifters:
There are different regions in Europe that can have different prices. If you are listed here, please let me know what region you are in. For more information on regions, see the Regions & Country Codes section of the OP.
Zedd (Europe 1), Smol (Europe 1), Palpek (Travels between 1 and 2, just ask), Saoshyant (Europe 2), Tecman (Europe 2), Xabarin (Europe 2)
_{Region 1: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland
Region 2: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Vatican City}

Canadian Gifters: Awcko

Australian Gifters: Red_Fred, KuroKisei, tehsid

Gabe, bring back

Palpek fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Jun 19, 2014

• 1001 Spikes - Something Something Super Meat Boy.
  
  
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent - The scariest game on Steam. Also owns (I never finished it because it was too much)
  
  
• A New Beginning - Final Cut - A solid point'n'click adventure giving me some Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars flashbacks due to similar graphical style.
  
  
• Anomaly: Warzone Earth and its sequel - One of the best looking tower defense games that's also a reverse one - you control the attackers instead of the towers and have to get through to the enemy base. A Very Polish-ed title (it's a Polish game heh).
  
  
• Analogue: A Hate Story and its sequel - An anime visual novel...are you still with me? Good, because this is one of the few actually good ones, it carries a solid plot and uses a few original game mechanics. If you can accept the visual style then you will enjoy this.
  
  
• Alpha Protocol - It's an Obsidian espionage RPG that features a lot of choices. It was rushed, it's janky, it has a lot of annoying gameplay decisions in it, some people absolutely hate it. But I love it and maybe so will you.
  
  
• Anachronox - Trigger warning: old game. At the same time it's the best Western JRPG ever made.
  
  
• A Story About My Uncle - A first person puzzle-platformer in the vein of Portal.
  
  
• The Banner Saga - Beautiful hand-drawn art with a mediocre turn-based gameplay to go along.
  
  
• The Bard's Tale - Trigger warning: old game. A funny RPG game for a chenge. A pretty solid game with hilarious dialogues.
  
  
• The Basement Collection - You loved Super Meatboy and The Binding of Isaac? Here are 7 games from Edmund McMillen that were developed before his famous works. A surprisingly high amount of content in this package.
  
  
• Bastion - A beautifully illustrated action RPG with a simple unobtrusitvely-told story, and one of the best soundtracks.
  
  
• Batman: Arkham Asylum + sequel + another sequel - The best Batman games ever made, you're Batman. Some people argue the first one was the best.
  
  
• Beat Hazard - Audiosurf meets Asteroids on steroids.
  
  
• Beyond Good & Evil - This is still one of the best 3D platformers/exploration games and hasn't aged at all since its release. Even the graphics still hold up thanks to their stylish character.
  
  
• Binary Domain - This game simply owns. It's a classic over-the-shoulder action game but features memorable characters, an amazing dismemberment engine (you shoot off robot's legs and he will keep crawling towards you) and cool boss fights. It's just a pure fun kick-rear end game.
  
  
• Binding of Isaac - an old-school action game set in your mom's menstruation blood.
  
  
• BIT.TRIP series - all games from the series are good reflex platformers but especially BIT.TRIP RUNNER 2 and BIT.TRIP BEAT.
  
  
• The Blackwell Bundle (and the rest of Widjet Eye Games except for Puzzle Bots, don't get that poo poo)- A series of 4 old-school point'n'click adventure games. Well worth playing if you're a fan of the genre.
  
  
• Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition Do you like Turn Based Strategy? Warhammer? Sport Games with RPG character building?
  
  
• Bob Came in Pieces - Another overlooked little title. A 2D puzzle platformer where you control a spaceship that allows you to attaching various kinds of engines to it that completely change the way it moves. It's pretty clever. The controls can get clunky sometimes but if you played one of those lunar landing games in the past - it's something like that.
  
  
• The Book of Unwritten Tales - A really great and funny adventure game set in a fantasy world with a crazy line-up of bizarre characters.
  
  
• Botanicula - An AMAZING adventure title from the creators of Machinarium. It's actually their best game. It's cute, funny and has an excellent graphical style.
  
  
• Broken Age - Double Fine's new adventure game is really charming with likable characters, a genuine sense of humor, and an interesting story. Second half is supposed to come later this year.
  
  
• Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons - An incredible game where you control 2 brothers at the same time with 2 thumbsticks so a controller is required. It's an absolutely unique experience though and will leave you with the feeling of experiencing something grand and unique.
  
  
• Brutal Legend - An open world action adventure rock/metal game from Double Fine. It's actually one of their best games.
  
  
• Bulletstorm - One of the best arcady FPSes ever made that lets you leash a guy, wrap an explosive bolo around his neck, kick him back into a group of his friends and explode them all into a chasm. Also all of that will be recognised and awarded by the game. This game is just a wild ride.
  
  
• Burnout Paradise - It's still the one of the best racing games ever made.
  
  
• Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - A fun arcade shooter with a lot of character set in the wild west.
  
  
• Cave Story+ - One of the best metroidvania games on Steam. Combines RPG elements with an interesting story and cute graphics. One of the indie classics at this point.
  
  
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - 3D Castlevania that is actually pretty solid and fun.
  
  
• Chivalry - The best medieval sword combat multiplayer game and shouting simulator on Steam. AGATHAAAAAAA
  
  
• Closure - A stylish platformer where only lit objects exist while objects in the darkness don't. This leads to all sorts of puzzling shenanigans using lamps, reflectors and mirrors. A really polished and fun game.
  
  
• Cook, Serve, Delicious! - Is an addictive Wario Ware-style game in which you fill customer orders and do chores in a restaurant. The orders/chores are very fast and simple minigames, but the fun comes from keeping up and staying cool under pressure while juggling multiple tasks at once.
  
  
• Dark Messiah of Might & Magic - Trigger warning - it's an older title but still looks pretty great. It's a melee + magic fantasy FPS with far ancestors being Hexen. Anyway kick Orcs off cliffs, kick Orcs into spikes, kick Orcs into ice puddle you cast so that they fall off a cliff/into spikes. This game really does justice to visceral blade combat.
  
  
• Dark Souls - a metroidvania roguelike.
  
  
• Deadly Premonition - Twin Peaks meets video-game camp.
  
  
• Dear Esther - Avoid if you don't like conceptual games with slow paced gameplay. You'll explore a gorgeously presented island flooded with fog, darkness, misery and sadness. This is for people who find enjoyment in contemplating visuals and taking in an atmosphere of mystery. It's worth playing to see how much can be done with Source Engine and for masterful level design.
  
  
• Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten - THE best tower defense game on Steam. Period. It's like one of those browser-based games in the genre that you couldn't put down but even better.
  
  
• Deus Ex HR: Director's Cut - This is a worthy Deus Ex sequel. Missions offer many different ways of approaching them, different playstyles, skill trees, you name it. Overall this is a modern classic and the Director's Cut solves most of the issues people had with the game and incorporates the excellent epliogue DLC into the game.
  
  
• Disciples III - Reincarnation - A turn-based RPG in the vein of Heroes of M&M. It's pretty complex and offers a grimdark atmosphere. DO NOT mistake with Ressurection OR Reinassance, those are poo poo.
  
  
• Dishonored - A modern thief game that is absolutely amazing. It offers both stealthy approach and a full-fledged combat depending on what you feel like doing. The story DLCs are a must as they take place at the same time as the main plot so a lot of details are filled in. High Chaos ending is better but try to find ways to non-lethally take out your targets to understand the most of the story. No matter what you do - don't save spam as dealing with being caught by the enemies is the most fun you'll ever have in this game.
  
  
• Don't Starve - An uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic. It's difficult, it's fun, it's gorgeous and has a big community support with mods etc.
  
  
• Drakensang and its sequel - A very solid RPG with a deep, party oriented combat system and large list of craftable objects add depth to a well presented story and environment.
  
  
• Dreamfall - A sequel to one of the best adventure games of all time: The Longest Journey. A really beautiful game with an immersive universe.
  
  
• Dungeons of Dredmor Complete - This is a roguelike for people who normally can't stand roguelikes. Very accessible, polished and absolutely hilarious. This might be the funniest game on Steam, also one of the best.
  
  
• Driver: San Francisco - This is a great racing game with a fantastic gimmick that lets you take over ANY car in the whole city. You're being chased by police? Take over the truck that is driving in the opposite direction, ram the police and jump back to your car. Yes it's as awesome as it sounds.
  
  
• Dust: An Elysian Tail - A really great fighting action platformer with attrocious story. Yep, it's still worth it and don't get discouraged by antropomorphic animals but drat the story is embarassing.
  
  
• Dustforce - Super Meat Boy with brooms. It's really good but gets hard.
  
  
• Echo of the Wilds - A puzzly narrativy adventure, featuring randomised wilderness survival.
  
  
• Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes: - A point n click adventure where you're a kid who inadvertently (or perhaps intentionally??) kills a ton of your classmates.
  
  
• English Country Tune - A-ball-in-a-3d-cube-world kind of puzzle game and one of the best in the genre. Seems pretty harmless but it will suck you in for hours.
  
  
• Escape Goat and its sequel - Great platformers where you're goat.
  
  
• Euro Truck Simulator 2 - A game about driving a delivery truck around Europe and starting a haulage business. It might not sound it but it's utterly amazing.
  
  
• E.Y.E - The best/worst game on Steam. A pretty deep FPS RPG where Warhammer 40k somehow meets Bladerunner and the ATM machine that you're trying to hack is able to hack you back. Don't go near if you don't like to stick your dick in crazy.
  
  
• Eversion - A cute 2d platformer in the style of Mario except it's not cute. It's not cute at all. Death and decay and staring into the void. It's loving terrifying and you should get it.
  
  
• Expeditions: Conquistador - A tactical RPG set during 16th Century wehn Spanish explorers reached the shores of America. A pretty original setting for a game, the story is actually cool and if you're looking for something different - this might be a title you've been waiting for.
  
  
• Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon - 80's neon robocop simulator.
  
  
• Fly'N - The cutest platformer next to Rayman: Origins. The visuals are stunning and it's just a blast to play. I know people heard it's good but it really deserves a place among the best in the genre.
  
  
• FEZ - A joyful platformer/puzzle game full of exploration, secrets, chellenges and just uncovering the fantastic world the author has created.
  
  
• Fortix 2 - A new incarnation of the classic Qix - the border of the screen is safe and you have to cut into the middle avoiding various enemies. It gets a bit harder later in the game and starts adding some unnecessary elements but for this price it's a good game.
  
  
• FTL: Faster Than Light - I will tell you that Hotline Miami is the best indie game of 2012 - well, I bet some people will send me death threats because I should have chosen FTL for that spot. A space strategy game where you willingly burn half of your own ship during a hostile alien takeover only to realize that your last surviving crew member is slowly suffocating while the oxygen controls are in a decompressed room. Fun times.
  
  
• Gateways - What if somebody made a 2d Portal game and then decided it's not mindfucking enough so the portals can now change your size, gravity or take you back in time? And if that somebody also placed it on one huge metroidvania-style map? That game would be called Gateways.
  
  
• Gemini Rue: - A dystopian future point and click adventure plus it's Wadjet Eye so it's extra good.
  
  
• Gigantic Army - It’s kind of like a Contra or something but you’re in a mech suit.
  
  
• Goat Simulator - You're goat.
  
  
• Gone Home - Discover the story behind your sister's disappearance and with it your family's secrets in this first person adventure game.
  
  
• Guacamelee - A Metroidvania style action-platformer set in a luchadore wrestling world. The graphics are awesome and it's really funny and overall a cool game. It's more of a casual experience though so great for people scared of more challenging games in the genre.
  
  
• Gunpoint - 2d stealth+hacking action. Better than Watch_Dogs.
  
  
• Half Minute Hero - An interesting game which mixes styles of various classic games and combines them into a single adventure of saving the world all in 30 seconds. It's crazy and simply a blast to play.
  
  
• Hammerwatch - A hack and slash action adventure, set in a fantasy pixel art environment. It's pretty fun and there are tons of enemies flooding the screen.
  
  
• Hard Reset Extended Edition - An old-school FPS game with tons of enemies sent in your general direction and no reload button. Also environmental explosions galore. Everything explodes. Gun upgrades are ~awesome~. Surprisingly high production values for a small studio - the devs upgraded the game to Extended Edition for free which added a whole act to the story.
  
  
• Hell Yeah: - Basically modern Jazz Jackrabbit
  
  
• Hexcells - Blend Picross and Sudoku with the parts of Minesweeper that aren't total poo poo, add in super-relaxing art and sound design, and you have Hexcells.
  
  
• Hotline Miami - The best indie game of 2012 with the best soundtrack of 2012. Frantic, bloody and making your hands shake in real life. Tarantino dialogues with a story set in the 80's.
  
  
• The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing + sequel - This is the best Diablo-like arpg since Diablo 2. Seriously it's that good, it has funny writing, satisfying combat with a lot of gore and the ideas it brings to the genre are just perfect. For example your companion is a witty Russian ghost lady. It doesn't offer crazy replayability but is just a blast to play through. Get the Blue Blood DLC while you're at it as it greatly expands on the main gameplay.
  
  
• Ikaruga - Best shmup ever made.
  
  
• inMomentum - Just an amazing, stylish fast-paced running game that is way better than it seems from the store page.
  
  
• The Inner World - Charming point and click adventure game that's animated well and has great music.
  
  
• Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet: - A nice stylistic twin-stick shooter in a big game world.
  
  
• Intrusion 2 - A crazy cool action side-scroller with physics, explosions, robot panthers and explosions.
  
  
• Ittle Dew - A parody of early Legend of Zelda games with plenty of puzzling and fun boss battles.
  
  
• Jamestown - A bullethell game for players that aren't hardcore. A very nice graphical style and takes place on 17th century Mars, yeah.
  
  
• Jet Set Radio - Tony Hawk Parappa the Rapper.
  
  
• The Journey Down: Chapter One - A really cool old-school adventure game, nice music and visuals combined with very original character design.
  
  
• Kentucky Route Zero - An absolutely gorgeous and jaw-dropping adventure game that is more about atmosphere, dialogues and music than anything else. An absolute masterpiece that features some puzzles that are pretty easy but playing this game is an experience in itself.
  
  
• Kill The Bad Guy - Track the Bad Guys, be brutal and smart in your planning, and eliminate them making it look like an accident.
  
  
• Kingdom of Amalur - a boring RPG game that plays like a single-player mmo that some people like.
  
  
• King Arthur's Gold - A multiplayer Terraria-like game where you get to create your own castles, ships, set traps and try to capture the other team's fortress.
  
  
• THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII STEAM EDITION - The best fighting game on steam. The characters are plentiful and unique without being over the top, the background art is gorgeous, the characters animate really well, the soundtrack is solid, and the gameplay is just as good as any SNK game.
  
  
• King's Bounty Platinum - This is a proper competition to Heroes of Might and Magic. A turn-based game where you control a couple of heroes, upgrade them, develop cities, raise armies and gather resources. Really fun even for people who don't normally like strategy games.
  
  
• Knytt Underground - A massive open world platformer where you gain various powers that let you get through atomspheric levels.
  
  
• La-Mulana - is deceptively massive and has some great puzzles if you're into mixing your metroidvania with puzzles that go beyond pushing boxes/lighting torches.
  
  
• LA Noire: - If it's $5 or less and you like games like Phoenix Wright/Walking Dead, you can't go wrong.
  
  
• The Last Express - Trigger warning: an old game. At the same time it's one of the most revolutionary adventures of all time. It takes place in real time and all characters have their own goals that you can fluidly influence. There are dozens of endings. It's one hell of a game.
  
  
• The Last Remnant - Square's anime turn-based RPG that has a surprisingly fun combat system and lets you sink tons of hours into it. The story can get cringeworthy though.
  
  
• Legend of Dungeon - A randomly generated action RPG Beat'em'up with heavy Rogue-like elements, nice visuals, and dynamic music. It's ok.
  
  
• LEGO games - They're all funny platformer games mixing famous franchises with LEGO in one of a kind parodies. You gather points, unlock various characters that have different powers and you can often freely switch between them or play co-op on one screen. The new generation of LEGO games are generally more epic, interesting and have varied mini-games (last Harry Poter, Batman 2, Hobbit, Marvel). The older games are also fun if you enjoy the franchises they're based on.
  
  
• Limbo - An excellent, stylish 2D platformer. If you ever wondered how your nightmares would look like in a 2D gaming form then this is it.
  
  
• Lone Survivor - 2D Silent Hill. One of the best horror games on Steam.
  
  
• Long Live The Queen - A queen murdering simulator. By this I mean you're faced with a variety of choices that have far-fetching consequences and your aim is to survive. It's a very good non-creepy game. I promise.
  
  
• Lost Horizon - An adventure game with a proper Indiana Jones feel: the Orient, Nazis and uncovering secret plans. It's pretty good.
  
  
• Luftrausers - 2D frantic dogfighting action.
  
  
• Lunar Flight - A lunar module simulation that is simply extremely fun to play. The monochrome visuals add to the experience of being far away from Earth.
  
  
• Luxor Evolved - First you have to undestand that this is a casual game. It's basically Zuma where you shoot colored balls at matching balls from a row of incoming...balls. But this version has nice vector graphics and a rhythm that makes it way more frantic.
  
  
• Machinarium - One of the best adventure games in recent years. Graphic style is simply incredible and the devs invented a pretty revolutionary hint system in the form of custom comic books which you can only see after beating a simple arcade minigame - it's enough to make you not overuse it. The game does get harder towards the end.
  
  
• Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death- A quite solid and delightfully cheesy God of War clone.
  
  
• Mark of the Ninja - The best 2D stealth game ever made. Period. It has wonderful graphics, great mechanics and is just an addictive title you can't put down.
  
  
• McPixel - You have 10 seconds to diffuse a bomb. It's a combination of Wario Ware and old adventure games. It's also hilarious.
  
  
• Megabyte Punch - Super Smash Bros + customizable robots + 4 player coop action adventure or competitive fighting. Owns.
  
  
• METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE - Metal Gear Solid + Devil May Cry, with memes and nanobots. Owns.
  
  
• Metro: Last Light - A sequel to the excellent FPS Metro 2033. You should play both really but Metro:LL improves a ton on the original and is honestly one of the best FPS games in years. It's basically what Half-Life 3 would be liek if it was more brutal, scary, action-packed and beautiful. I'm not exaggerating, they don't make games like this anymore.
  
  
• Miasmata - You have a strange disease and you're stuck on a mysterious island that's home to a research station. The island has a lot of odd statues and ruins all over, left behind by an ancient civilization. You go around exploring the island, looking for clues as to what happened and for information on how to create the cure for your disease.
  
  
• Misadventures of PB Winterbottom: - A pretty tricky game in the same vein as Braid (and from the same time period too).
  
  
• Monaco - A frantic top-down heist game that works best in co-op. Assemble an insane team of professionals and go nuts. The graphics are also very original.
  
  
• Mount & Blade: Warband - Become a medieval lord with his own army, battles and castles, all in FPS combat. This game is pretty great in what it's trying to achieve.

Palpek fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Jun 19, 2014

• Nidhogg - 1st Prince of Persia's combat cranked up to 11: the game.
  
  
• Nihilumbra - Pretty good puzzly platformer with a cool narrator.
  
  
• Nimbus - An overlooked little 2D platformer where you control a ship free falling through checkpoints that give it a little boost enough to free fall to the next checkpoint. It's actually well done.
  
  
• Noire Syndrome - A procedurally generated Detective Murder-Mystery with a new story every time.
  
  
• Noitu Love 2: Devolution - An amazing action platformer that manages to pull off amazing mid-air combat.
  
  
• Offspring Fling - A very solid 2D platformer with cool graphics that mixes gameplay from many different games. Super Meat Boy meets puzzles.
  
  
• One Finger Death Punch - You have two buttons, hundreds of stick enemies, and ancient kung-fu action.
  
  
• Orcs Must Die and its sequel - A fantastic castle-defense TPP game where you set traps, unlock abilities and arm yourself against swarming hordes of orcs. It's one of the best series in this genre.
  
  
• Outlast - There are many games that tried to reproduce Amnesia's successful horror atmosphere. Almost none did but Outlast is an exception. It's a surprisingly good and scary game in the flood of incompetent competition.
  
  
• PAC-MAN™ Championship Edition DX+ - Pac-Man is back BUT in completely fresh visual style and with amazing new gameplay ideas, it's really worth getting.
  
  
• Painkiller HD - A remake of the original Painkiller with better graphics. An FPS which plays more like Quake than current shooters.
  
  
• Panzer Elite Action - An awesome arcady tank shooter.
  
  
• Paper Sorcerer - An old-school dungeon delving RPG with an unique look and a divisive soundtrack.
  
  
• Papers, Please! - Your job as immigration inspector is to control the flow of people entering Arstotzka - a communist regime. This game will make you think about the moral lines you can or can't cross and where's the border between the responsibility for your family, yourself and for your country.
  
  
• Papo & Yo - A very polished 3d platformer/puzzler where you rely on the help from a monster who's an incarnation of your alcoholic father
  
  
• PixelJunk Eden - A beautiful 2D platformer/exploration title with some experimental gameplay. It's mesmerizing and very polished.
  
  
• Primal Carnage - One of the best current asymetric multiplayer FPSes. Have you ever wanted to control an rear end in a top hat Velociraptor? Have you ever wanted to be a soldier killed repeatedly by an rear end in a top hat Velociraptor? This is a game for you then. Also the community is quite alive.
  
  
• Primordia - one of the best adventure games in recent time. Fantastic old-school graphics, original setting, good writing and very balanced difficulty. A pure joy to play through.
  
  
• Psychonauts - Still the best 3D platformer on Steam which is probably a sad thing but everything except for the goofy finale is so great and distinct and unique.
  
  
• Puzzle Agent + sequel - Grickle + Professor Layton + Minnesota.
  
  
• Puzzle Dimension - One of the best ball-in-a-cube-world puzzle games. It has really nice graphics and the levels are very enjoyable. Like every game from this genre gets really hard later on.
  
  
• Rayman: Legends - Best couch co-op (or singleplayer) platformer since Donkey Kong Country 2.
  
  
• Receiver - An experimental FPS that takes weapon handling to the extreme. Successfully reloading a gun for the first time through sheer muscle memory is easily one of the greatest feelings you wouldn't expect to be satisfied with in a game but here we are.
  
  
• Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale - A very cutesy game where you run a magic shop, it has anime art style but the gameplay is addictive as hell and the writing is genuinely charming.
  
  
• Resonance - A very good old-school adventure game where you can switch between 4 playable characters to solve a mystery of a particle physicist's death.
  
  
• Retro City Rampage - GTA for the NES. That's literally what it is. Except it's also funny and full of references to other games. It does lose its novelty after a while and you might drop it before finishing.
  
  
• Ring Runner - Ring Runner combines the fast-paced action of space combat with the rich story and skill variety of an RPG.
  
  
• Rise of the Argonauts - Mass Effect in Mythological Greece that you never heard of. It's a fine game as long as you dig the setting. Consider it as something you could drop extra money on and not the main attraction. It's gory and the story is pretty interesting.
  
  
• Risk of Rain - A randomly generated action platformer with roguelike elements. It's really hard and best played in co-op. The game becomes better with every item you unlock and stack with your earlier unlocks. This is a really good game.
  
  
• Rock of Ages - A mix of tower defense, Monkey Ball and god knows what else. Art style taken straight from Monty Python's animations. It's hilarious and very original.
  
  
• RPG Maker VX Ace - Create your own anime slashfiction games using hundreds of stock assets that make all games look the same. Become a real game developer.
  
  
• Rogue Legacy - Highly addictive rouglike 2D sidescroller with some elements of Castlevania where you get to select a heir that has different traits after you die.
  
  
• Sam & Max: The Devil's Treehouse - The best Sam & Max series since Hit the Road. Finally nails the voices of the characters, every episode has a neat hook, and the typical episodic recycled conventions are dropped.
  
  
• Samurai Gunn - If the samurai had a gun this wouldn't happen.
  
  
• Sang-Froid - Tales of Werewolves - Orcs Must Die but with Warewolves. You basically have to defend certain points on the map by first preparing for battle setting traps, buffs, buying weapons and resources and then actually fight that battle in a third person view. A fantastic game.
  
  
• Secrets of Rćtikon - Ruthless bird versus bird action.
  
  
• The Secret World - An MMO that plays like an MMO but brings a lot of interesting/original ideas to the table. It has good writing, really cool contemporary Cthulhu setting, nice graphics and they dropped the subscription so you pay once and have it all.
  
  
• Shad'O - A tower defense game that actually carries an interesting plot, looks gorgeous and brings quite a few new twists to the table.
  
  
• Shadowrun Returns- A fun cyberpunk RPG. The DLC, Dragonfall, is even better.
  
  
• Shadow Warrior - Remake of an old game by the maker's of Hard Reset. Features an old-school style FPS with powerups, hidden collectibles, and backpeddaling arena style shooting.
  
  
• Shelter - You are a badger taking care of your babies. You are experiencing the beauty of nature and the way its logic works. The environments are gorgeous and keep topping one another. It's just a fantastic game.
  
  
• The Shivah - A fantastic adventure game with an original setting. You're a Jewish Rabbi at a poor synagogue in New York City and you suddenly receive a big amount of money. Will this be a blessing?
  
  
• Sine Mora - A fantastic SHMUP with jaw-dropping visuals, interesting story, characters and flavor. It's just an extremely polished game in every aspect.
  
  
• Singularity - A really solid FPS from Raven Software. It features a couple of gimmicks like time manipulation but overall it just does the linear shooter thing really well - dismemberment, cool weapons, interesting setting and environment. It's kind of a mix of Half-Life 2 and Wolfenstein, yes really.
  
  
• Sleeping Dogs - The best GTA-like sandbox ever made. Period. It even features melee combat straight from Batman games. loving get this, it's the real deal.
  
  
• Sonic Racing Transformed - The best kart racer since Mario 64. Actually it's better than that. That's right it's that good so go buy it now.
  
  
• SpaceChem - A puzzle game that will make you break down and go cry to your mom. And then you'll come for more because it's good.
  
  
• Space Rangers HD - A praised genre-bending Russian space game where you'll be doing everything from classic universe exploration to escaping prisons in built-in text adventures.
  
  
• Spectromancer - A card game created by Richard Garfield - the creator of MtG. If you need to scratch a virtual card game itch - this is a really cool choice.
  
  
• Speedrunners - It's a great multiplayer game for up to 4 people based around racing superheroes around a city circuit, including Mario Kart-like power ups that help you or gently caress your rivals.
  
  
• Spelunky - A kick-rear end roguelike platformer with destructable environment and tons of character and content.
  
  
• Stacking - Doublefine's best game since Psychonauts, solve puzzles by essentially possessing other people and using their abilities.
  
  
• The Stanley Parable - A game about gaming and experiencing gaming and experiencing storytelling. This game ISN'T mean to you, it's not full of itself, that's only a part of the narration, a part of its point. Find all the different endings and the actual meaning will emerge from the overall experience and not just one of them. Give it a shot and don't take it so personally. You want to know more?
  
  
• Stick It to the Man - A hybrid platformer/adventure game (Cosmic Spacehead?) where you read people's thoughts and slap inventory items in em.
  
  
• Strider - ninja metroidvania.
  
  
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP - A beautiful action adventure game that oozes atmosphere and is just jaw-dropping gorgeous. An archetypal feeling of taking part in a myth is unlike any other and the combat is simplistic but fun and just fine for this title.
  
  
• Super House of Dead Ninjas - Old-school NES style fast-paced Ninja Gaiden-like.
  
  
• Super Meat Boy - A classic at this point. It's a game I spent days playing and I don't even like platformers that much. The winning formula is simple: short deadly levels BUT at the same time instantanious respawn after death. So it doesn't make you frustrated...that much. Very tight controls.
  
  
• Surgeon Simulator - QWOP meets first person surgery simulation. It's hilarious and lets you abduct an alien or perform a brain transplant in zero g. Be warned that it's a sandbox - you'll have as much fun as you're personally willing to, no hand-holding.
  
  
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords - RPGs that might be the best thing ever done with the Star Wars Franchise outside of the original three movies.
  
  
• Stealth Bastard Deluxe - This is a really great stealth 2d platformer but it's very fast paced for the genre. If you're used to jumping from cover to cover and waiting minutes for the perfect window between enemy patrols - you won't find this here. You need reflexes here but it makes the game extremely fun.
  
  
• Super Hexagon - Epilepsy: The Game. But it's the good epilepsy! This simple reflex game can make you tense and grit your teeth. You will ragequit this game - and then you will come back to it because it's really cool.
  
  
• The Swapper - Claymation puzzle game with an amazingly good atmosphere and interesting puzzles. Story, sound & level design are very high quality. Mechanics are creating clones and swapping bodies.
  
  
• Sword of the Stars: The Pit - A decent roguelike with OK content but the DLC turns it into a pretty deep and fun roguelike with shitloads of content.
  
  
• Terraria - A 2D sidescrolling Minecraft. The game does its own thing though - it's more combat and survival driven and you will go much deeper into the ground.
  
  
• Teslagrad - A 2D puzzle platformer with action elements, where magnetism and other electromagnetic powers are the key.
  
  
• They Bleed Pixles - Super Hard platformer about a demon girl having bad dreams.
  
  
• Thomas Was Alone - It's cool.
  
  
• Tiny Barbarian DX - An action-packed pixelated sword'em up inspired by fantasy pulp fiction and full of barbarian rage.
  
  
• Ticket to Ride - Digital version of the extremely popular boardgame. Fun to play alone or in multiplayer. The DLC with new boards are also good and actually the cheapest way of playing the game as you'd have to pay quite a lot for the physical versions of those.
  
  
• Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers - a third person platformer with amazing graphical style (hand-crafted comic book textures) and a cool gameplay gimmick where you can slice everything on the map with a laser in any chosen angle. Tons of secrets on every level.
  
  
• Torchlight 2 - This is a very competent ARPG that is fun and brings some cool ideas to the otherwise stale genre. A big step up from the original game which was rather simplistic. It mixes the classic environments with some fresh flavors and enemies and is overall a joy to play. Its biggest success is the mod support as the game has its Steam Workshop and there are already a lot of mods expanding greatly on this title.
  
  
• To The Moon - A game that makes grown manchildren cry. It's beautiful.
  
  
• TrackMania˛ - What if a racing game actually offered puzzles? The game consists of 3 different settings that have different feel to them, try the demos first to see which one you like most.
  
  
• Transformers: War for Cybertron and the sequel which is even better - Remember how Batman games are recommended as "you're Batman"? Well here you're Transformer. This game really nails it and even offers 2 separate campaings for Autobots and Decepticons.
  
  
• Transistor - It could be Bastion's sequel, Really beautiful visuals and music.
  
  
• Trine 2 - One of the most gorgeous games on Steam. It's just mindblowing how good this game looks. The gameplay consists of controlling 3 different characters between which you can switch on the fly while you solve physics based puzzles and kill skeletons. It's worth mentioning that the excellent DLC is also worth picking up.
  
  
• Trials Evolution: Gold - The best "tilty bikes" game where you control the throttle and the rotation of the biker on a series obstacle courses. It's really amazing and addictive but the port isn't that optimal - so be warned it might not work that well on your machine.
  
  
• Two Tribes Bundle - EDGE, RUSH, Toki Tori 1+2 in one fancy package. A bunch of very solid and good looking puzzle games.
  
  
• Unholy Heights - Manage a monster hotel where you encourage them to have kids so that you can raise a satan's army.
  
  
• Universe Sandbox - I still think the freeware Space Engine is the best universe-themed title ever created by man but it's not on Steam so you'll have to do with Universe Sandbox. It doesn't really convey the scale of the universe and is more like controlling toys painted in planet colors - but it's fun for what it offers. Beware though - it's pretty sandboxy so if you need games with actual gameplay and direction you will drop this fast.
  
  
• Valdis Story - A deep and refined metroidvania with an actual honest to god mechanics for the genre with backtracking to previously inaccessible areas, random challenges, unlocking items etc. You can put hundreds of hours into this game and it also looks gorgeous.
  
  
• Vessel - A fantastic platformer that uses physics-based liquid for puzzles. It's something between 2d Portal and Little Big Planet.
  
  
• The Void - A werid but beautiful game from the makers of Pathologic. Their signature idea is to incorporate gameplay mechanics into emotions they want to invoke with the atmosphere and the story. It's very interesting.
  
  
• Volgarr The Viking - A hardcore arcade action platformer that requires you to plan ahead, anticipate traps and encounters or you're dead. It's good but hard.
  
  
• Waking Mars - One of the most original platformers of recent months. Gameplay allows you to actually grow things instead of killing them and use the Martian life cycle as your tool. Space gardener - the game.
  
  
• The Walking Dead Season 1 and 2 - Telltale's best adventure game. Better than the comic, better than the tv series. Instead of solving item-based puzzles this game focuses on telling a story where you're the one choosing the dialogues and the tone. You don't really have that much choice in the game but the point is the journey and it's amazing.
  
  
• Where is my Heart? - Control different characters with different powers that allow them to finish levels together.
  
  
• The Wolf Among Us - Some say it's better than The Walking Dead so yeah.
  
  
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Turn Based Strategy. Aliens are loving up Earth. Build a Squad, turn them into robots and abominations of mankind, kill aliens, save the world.
  
  
• Year Walk - A creepy atmospheric adventure game based in Swedish folklore.
  
  
• Ys series - A classic top-down jrpg that features cool arcady combat and is actually really good. The whole series is great although experts say it's easier to start with Origin and Oath.
  
  
• Zen Bound 2 - This is the most relaxing title on Steam and offers some simple but gorgeous graphics. The premise is simple - an end of a rope is attached to a sculpture and you control the sculpture's 3D rotation in order to fully cover it with rope. Sounds simple but gets gradually harder with stranger shapes you unlock.
  
  
• Zeno Clash and its sequel - A weird melee FPS with trippy world deign. Punch and kick opponents to death. It's very satisfying and worth grabbing. The sequel has been recently released and seems even better.

Palpek fucked around with this message at 10:28 on Jun 19, 2014

Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Jun 16, 2014

Plinko fucked around with this message at 23:06 on Jun 16, 2014

Sivek fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Jun 17, 2014

cbirdsong fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Jun 16, 2014