For the past day, I’ve been hitting refresh on Gmail like a madman, just waiting for Valve to tell me it wants my money for the Steam Machine. No dice so far. But as it happens, the Steam Summer Sale is currently in full swing, so I had a look through my playlist of favorites and rounded up the ones with the best and juiciest discounts.
Here, in no particular order, are a bunch of PC games I like, all discounted by at least 50 percent from now until July 9th. Enjoy.
Hades
Hades is simply one of the best games I’ve ever played. It’s a damn near perfect blend of fast-paced, top-down action, well-crafted storytelling, and absolutely incredible artistry. It’s also the platonic ideal of the roguelike setup, giving you tons of different combat options that slowly and organically open up as you fight to escape your dad’s house (figuratively, and literally, Hell). The sequel, now complete after a long Early Access period, is also on sale. I think the combat is even better and the game is much bigger, but the story ending is a let-down.
Chess with giant robots. That’s the pitch for Into the Breach, a game about punching building-sized aliens in the face, but in a very tactical, turn-based way. Small combat arenas with environmental variables force you to focus on optimizing your mech team’s abilities. This is almost more of a puzzle than a strategy game, but it’s a wonderful blend of both.
Possibly the best stealth game I’ve ever played, Mark of the Ninja mixes hand-drawn animations, precision platforming, and sneaky-sneaky (to use a technical term). Infiltrate each level without alerting the guards, track down your target, find secrets and tools, and maybe don’t listen to the voice in your head spurring you on to seek vengeance. Or do. You’re playing the game, not me.
If you’ve ever played Total War and wished you could just get down on the ground and crack skulls with your army, or played Dynasty Warriors and wished your army wasn’t a bunch of completely useless chowderheads, then this is the game for you. Mount & Blade is still the ultimate mix of role-playing, kingdom-building, and battle strategy, and the sequel adds more of just about everything while giving the visuals some much-needed polish.
You can’t play Mario Kart on the PC, at least not without getting a targeting reticule on your head from Nintendo’s lawyers. But this Sega alternative is a pretty great substitute, with fantastic and dynamic stages with land, sea, and air mixed. It’s also a bit of a reunion for classic Sega characters, so if you’re a Dreamcast kid like me, you’ll love seeing Crazy Taxi and Space Channel 5 getting much-deserved shout-outs.
We might have The Stanley Parable to blame for the current crop of “walking simulator” games, but despite my general disdain for those, I can’t be mad at this one. It’s just too clever and entertaining. If you like the humor of Portal but want a little more chill, then you’ll love it like I do. Pick it up, play five minutes, and I guarantee you’ll be hooked.
If LEGO sets came with explosives and screaming victims, they might look a lot like Besiege. What starts as a humble little building game with a medieval theme goes bonkers as you progress, pushing you to create more and more elaborate machines of iron-banded doom to achieve each stage’s goals. The building system is simply amazing, as are the supports for customizing stages and parts. The sea and space expansions are also steeply discounted.
I’m usually not much for Metroidvanias, but something about the wonderful style and punchy lucha libre combat of Guacamelee really clicks with me. In a cartoon version of Mexico, you must smack and suplex your way through hordes of underworld legions, and chuckle at some very self-aware gaming humor. Grab a friend and play it co-op, then check out the sequel, also on sale.
Incredible pixel art, solid combat, and pitch-perfect narration. This action game hits all my buttons even before you get to the surprisingly atmospheric story. Children of Morta has the soul of an old-school dungeon crawler but the fit and finish of something much deeper and fresher. You can get the entire game, plus two DLC packs, for just five bucks at the moment.
We can talk about hand-crafted worlds, wonderful storytelling, expertly-tuned gameplay… but sometimes you just want to see a million of something beat up a million of something else. Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator 2 is my favorite way to show off my gaming PC’s power, a digital version of dumping all your toys out on the carpet and smacking them into each other. The easy mod support is also great—I spent a fun night pitting 6,000 Legolases against 6 million Tyranid aliens.
