i just got a “gaming PC” (steam deck in my case). this is great for a few reasons, most of all it gives me a chance to play indie games of years past that never made their way to console.
however, as time marches on, it can be hard to remember or even find the smaller, niche games that didn’t leave a broader cultural impression. we have threads for recent gaming news and games we’re playing lately, but we don’t have a general thread for games that aren’t new, current, or all-time classics but are still pretty cool.
so while i’m mainly making this thread for selfish reasons, i think it might also be cool to have a chance to talk about cool games that wouldn’t fit into the conversation otherwise.
All of the good smaller and indie games that come immediately to mind are available on most everything: Celeste, Hollow Knight, Slay the Spire. You already know UFO 50. Is Inscryption still PC only? That is a must play.
Edit: Inscyption is definitely available on most everything. I’m struggling to think of anything that’s PC only, just because generally the kind of stuff of enough note for me to be aware of are the same things that get published on every platform. The only things I can think of would be stuff so depraved that they likely won’t be ported, like Fear and Hunger - which I’ve never played so don’t take that as an endorsement.
You should play Space Rangers HD: A War Apart. I don’t know why that’s the game I’m thinking of right now, but it fits the criteria of being cool, a little old, and on PC.
while i’m interested in PC, for the purposes of a healthy discussion thread there’s no reason to limit it. but yeah all those games are great/fear and hunger is definitely on the list. @yeso can you start with 2?
You should probably start by playing The Beginner’s Guide
For a good keyboard mouse platformer, check out Dustforce
The Outer Wilds is one that everyone who owns a PC loves
PC is also great for puzzle games like Myst, Portal, or the Zachtronics games
Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2 are also solid CRPGs that surely perform better than Baldur’s Gate 3 does on steam deck.
Strategy games and management sims are also good for PC, but I have no idea if a steam deck is powerful enough to run stuff like Crusader Kings 3 or Rimworld or Planet Coaster but it might be!
Now that you can play Early Access games, you can check out that Hades 2, or better yet Supergiant’s other PC-only game, Pyre.
You could also leave gaming behind to focus on becoming a european long haul truck driver
With it being steam, you should probably wait to get stuff on sale, since everything goes on sale every couple weeks.
Also I’m sure you’ve seen this but there’s a website called Proton DB that crowdsources whether games are compatible for steam deck and the best settings to use:
I’m in a very similar position to MoH, as I only recently got the Steam Deck myself. Good thread!
I’m currently playing this. The Enhanced edition runs smooth and looks good on the Steam deck. I’m having a great time with it so far, nice contrast with my current BG3 playthrough. I’ve become a CRPG fan I think, or maybe just a fan of Larian studios, I don’t know yet.
about Fear & Hunger - you can jump into Termina if you’d like: it’s not a narrative sequel in any significant way. However I think I’d recommend playing the first game though bc it does kind of prime you for the couple notches up in complexity the second game throws at you. It’s also a strong experience in and of itself. Maybe @JoJoestar will see this and add his thoughts too.
As for it being a “bad kid” game. Don’t know if this fits. The explicit content can be juvenile, but there are also times when it’s genuinely nasty. The occasional amateurishness gives it that out-of-control feeling that watching something like Last House on Dead End Street has, where you find yourself way off the path of normal media
i didn’t mean juvenile. more so that when i see it, i get the small, child-like feeling of “this isn’t something i’m supposed to see,” so i suppose the last house comparison is apt. like i’m as equally excited and apprehensive to play it, which is how i felt when i asked my parents to buy me a slayer cd for the first time.
also @Bonsai i got psuedoregalia too. it took me a long time to figure out what “trigger axis” meant in the controls and frankly i’m still not sure i understand.
I’m avoiding work so I looked through my Steam account. Here’s some more possibilities. I’m mostly focusing on indie games from roughly 10 years ago.
Flinthook was a game I really liked that I don’t think many people played
Iconoclasts is a bit more mainstream but worth a look
I remember Punch Club being a cool sim. Can’t comment on the sequel.
Salt & Sanctuary is a very flawed riff on Dark Souls as a sidescroller that I think is still pretty interesting to play. Might even be more interesting now that we’re in a world where everybody has made their Souls riff.
Wuppo is a fun little game.
That’s all I got.
EDIT: Wait one more! I realized my beloved Silver Grapple fits here. (if you bought the bundle for racial justice you might already own it!)
Here’s some stuff I played at least partly on the deck (steam cloud saves rule) and dug a bunch. Links are to steam pages.
Norco- Really like the presentation/atmosphere in this one. Suburbs and industrialized swamps
Flywrench- Fast, frenetic arcade game with a sick soundtrack
Pentiment- Murder mystery set in 16th century Bavaria. Enjoyed getting to know the town. Still think about the meal scenes.
Fading Afternoon- The Yeo crew do some really nice pixel backgrounds. This one is sorta like a Kitano movie. If you like JP Melville more check out their other game, Arrest of a Stone Buddha
Infra- You play a structural analyst and explore decrepit structural buildings like dams and electrical plants. It plays sort of like the exploration/puzzle sections of Half Life 2. This one is labeled unsupported by valve, but it worked out of the box for me.
With these things I tend to be on the “if the first game is good on its own why skip it?” team, but on top of that for me it is a Silent Hill 1 vs 2 kind of deal, the second one is the one more highly regarded but when the first one holds its ground so well, I’d say it’s worth the hassle.
For recommendations I’m going to do something different and stick to stuff from strictly this year, which has been absolutely crazed in terms of cool and highly interesting niche stuff.