The sun saw fit to rise again, so I guess we’re all engaging in Steam’s festive capitalism. Don’t worry that line will make sense with the first pick, comrade. However, as David noted about two hours before me, the Steam Winter Sale is now live and has been since last Thursday. The festive wallet drainer will continue for a little while longer, but keep in mind that you only have until the 5th of January. Which is probably when you’ll sober up from the Work’s Christmas party, where you made offensive jokes and drank enough to drown a fish.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition – $38.62

There is no better advertisement for capitalism than the game about the dystopian hellscape we’re slowly marching toward, with a major detour into Judge Dredd. I could say many things about CD Projekt RED’s missteps and glimmers of good story in an otherwise above-standard sci-fi dystopia, but I don’t think that’s really the story here. It is the fact that we’re five years removed from the disaster of a launch, and I’m telling you to pick up the super-sexy ultra edition with all the bells and whistles.

After basically four years of fixing the game, CD Projekt RED has created and released not only a game, but a bloody good DLC and the soundtrack, for about the same price as this year’s game of the year. I shouldn’t have to tell you which game that is, but I did mention it back in July. Albeit minus the flying taxis, you can live out some of your Fifth Element or Blade Runner-based electric dreams in an utterly breathtaking world, with some of that super sexy ray-tracing.

PowerWash Simulator 2 – $21.24

A little bit more modern, in every respect of the phrasing, we need to talk about PowerWash Simulator 2. It seems a lot of vocal people don’t like it when a sequel does more of the thing that was done before, but refined, and with small additions. They also don’t like when everything is changed – see Football Manager 26 and Civilization VII – but that’s besides the point. PowerWash Sim 2 does the former, and I want to tell you why I like that approach with only the second game in the series: Burnout.

Burnout (1) was a racing game, Burnout 2 was a game about racing that was refined, and Burnout 3 was high-speed car murder with a bit of racing on the side. Right now, with FuturLab’s PowerWash Simulator 2, we’re in that Burnout 2 stage where the boost has been metaphorically added; the second mission, when “Public Facility” did that thing, I still swore and enjoyed cleaning the inside. If you loved PowerWash Simulator the first time, you’ll love it a second time with new bells and whistles.

Camper Van: Make it Home – $10.49

For a more pastel, hot-chocolate-drinking vibe, Camper Van: Make it Home is perfect. No fail states, no right or wrong thing, just making a van, bus, or the back of a car really cozy for a short unspoken narrative. However, that’s not all. If the warm cozy vibes were enough already, there was a Christmas update over a month ago, adding trees, cozy baking vibes, and lots of seasonal-based things to bring the warmth of being snuggled up by a fire and a hot drink in winter.

METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER – $41.99

All I need here is the video of the ladder and call it a day. The messed-up little mind of Hideo Kojima is brilliant and can’t be understated or understood, but you can enjoy it while it lasts. Snake Eater, though a remake done without his direct involvement, is a brilliant bit of modernization that retains 99% of the original game with optional new controls, a modern look, and all the posters of the women have been replaced by themselves holding their babies or whatever.

Don’t worry if you’re still a weird sex pest; the blondes are still written like Kojima characters, for good and bad. I don’t know what to say if you haven’t already been sold on Snake Eater – this remake or otherwise, the Subsistence version is the 13th best PS2 game (84th overall) according to Metacritic of all time, if that’s your barometer.

Loop Hero – $2.99

I asked Alexx for something cheap to suggest, and aside from a game that makes you feel sad about dead animals and a game I’m sick of covering, I had to pick one of my favorite games of 2021. A game that not only does everything right in terms of Rogue-like/lites, does so with a beautiful bit of pixel art, and does so with a dark fantasy theme, but also has a dyslexic font filter. In a space where I am constantly reminded how I can find it difficult to read certain things, and in a style of art that exemplifies that, Loop Hero made me feel seen.

The idea of Loop Hero is that you are the hero on a quest, but your world is a blank space that you keep walking around. With certain cards, you’ll place forests and castles, which will spawn monsters to fight. You don’t actually do the fighting; you are more of a manager of this hero’s quest, filling out the world and managing not only equipment but also their home base, where they’ll build up a camp to upgrade and come back stronger.

A truly delightful little experience that is dirt cheap, and I think everyone could play it.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – Price Varies

Why do you have both when the ways to get both are quite expensive bundles, I hear you ask. Well, it feels odd to suggest one over the other without at least mentioning both, so we’re doing this weird thing. The base game of KC: Deliverance is $5.99, but the Royal Edition is only $7.99, which is only different from the full Deliverance Collection by the addition of the OST and artbook that you can pick up for $17.46. $7.99 is good enough for me.

How about Kingdom Come: Deliverance II? You can pick that up on its own for $29.99; the Royal Edition is $39.99, but you can pick up the whole series and DLCs for $53.81 in the Saga Bundle. If you just want the base games without the DLCs, you can pick up the bundle that offers Manor Lords alongside both Kingdom Come: Deliverance games for $49.57. But why pick them up? Kingdom Come: Deliverance (the series) is one of the most immersive Western RPGs you’ll play. Especially of modern RPGs.

It isn’t about high fantasy, it isn’t about dragons having sex with donkies, the first game is quite literally about the Blacksmith’s son delivering a sword. That sounds so boring or mundane, but if you love a historical European setting and grounded politics/fighting, then not many other games do this. You could argue that the feudal politics of The Witcher 3 are better, but you have to admit that the Bloody Baron’s quest is “enhanced” with fantasy bits. There is just very little like it, though you do need to mod out the awful save system.

Easy Red 2 – $7.19

I wrote about this one two years ago, and part of me didn’t want to cover it here simply as my “cheap, can’t pass up” option. It isn’t, but I still think it is worth looking at if you’re a fan of a more basic version of Battlefield – a Battlefield game made by one person, that spans different sections of World War II. Be it the invasion of Kos, the last stand of Germany in North Africa, Italian adventures, and with DLCs covering nearly the entirety of D-Day, the battle of Stalingrad, and, as released this past March, Shanghai and Nanking.

You can pick up the base game and have fun solo or in multiplayer for the price above, but the All Fronts bundle is $23.71. But here is the thing that is great about Easy Red 2: You aren’t just the gun in the battle, you are the commander, you are the field medic, you are the pilot with only a pistol, you are in the tank unit. There is an element of strategy that is lost in the big, stupid battles of modern Battlefield, but you also have the modern idea of destructible environments.

Here is the thing that sells it beyond that, which is already a lot: There is a map editor, Steam workshop support, and general modding encouraged. Easy Red 2 isn’t an ultra 4K ray-traced to the nines triple-A title, but because of that, there is so much that you can do with it from a creative perspective. The only thing I’m missing, and maybe this is for someone smarter than me to implement, is to have a personal Piper like Bill Millin as the Allies assault Sword Beach and later secure Pegasus Bridge.

Still Wakes the Deep – $8.74

Sticking with the theme of Scotland (minus Canada this time), The Chinese Room and Secret Mode’s spooky oil rig ’em up is probably one of the most authentic uses of Scottish accents and dialects you’ll see in media. I’ve moaned about this all the time in things like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, but despite a couple of things I’ll bemoan, you’ll not find a better use of the Scots language in gaming for some time.

Yeah, Still Wakes the Deep is the typical “walking simulator” that we’re all happy to bemoan, but I was looking for something with a bit of mass appeal alongside what I could actually say about certain games. As I’ve noted above with other games, you can also pick up the DLC in the Complete Collection bundle, which is $15.71.

Last Stop – $5.99

When I checked to see what I had said about Loop Hero at the end of 2021, I was reminded of another game I loved from that year that wasn’t Unpacking. I mean this so much, but the fact that Variable State hasn’t done a DLC or announced another game in the same vein as Last Stop kind of upsets me. Last Stop isn’t a brilliant out-of-this-world gaming experience, but more of an interactive episode of Doctor Who without The Doctor and mostly about Clara and Danny Pink. No, that’s unfair, I actually like Last Stop.

Essentially, you are shifting perspectives throughout a story about a mysterious supernatural event that brings three people from across modern-day London together. I say London, the swimming pool seems to be inspired by Bristol South Swimming Pool, which you’ll know from BBC’s Sherlock. Though Last Stop isn’t just for fans of BBC mystery dramas written by Steven Moffat, there is a thing in there that is spoiler-ish and will probably be right up the alley of Stargate fans. At roughly 6 hours per playthrough (multiple endings) and this price, it is difficult to say no to another Annapurna Interactive gem.

Final Fantasy VII Remake & Rebirth Twin Pack – $49.99

Ya know, Friday I (privately) made the comparison while editing that Nintendo is like the Western Christianity of video games, but I think Final Fantasy VII is the Buddhism of video games after that one episode of The Simpsons. It is really trendy to like it, even if you don’t love it or climb the pole of watching anime and pretending Japan is a utopia. What’s my point? Though I do like these remakes for what they are, and I do recommend them, they are the trendy, going vegan, and saying you’re a Buddhist because Lisa did that one time, pick.

Die Hard isn’t just a good Christmas movie; it is also what you’d call the people who think these remakes are the equivalent of killing kids. If you want the slow, exclusively turn-based, and quite frankly dated but full Final Fantasy VII experience right now, that’s available for $4.79 (ahh sneaky cheap pick) and a lot of brain power to envision the full idea. These shiny, full 3D, super sexy remakes, however, feel like the original game’s vision (graphically) being realized.

Annoying enough, though, given that both remakes released thus far are $19.99 and $34.99 respectively, all you’re saving is $4.99. Which I guess you can use to pick up the PC port of the original 1997’s 2012 re-release. As awkward as that sentence is, knowing Final Fantasy fans, if I don’t get that correct, I’ll get a bunch of emails. That said, why am I not talking about the plot to sell it to you, or anything in-game? Do I really need to sell you on the game about eco-terrorism committed by a group of rag-tag K-pop members?

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