Our Steam Sale Picks, Round Two

We already chose 13 of our favourite games in the current Summer Steam sale, but more games have been discounted since. So, based on the entirely correct hypothesis that you all have completed every single one of our first round games and are now thirsting for more, here are 18 more to throw your spare change at. Everyone on the RPS team has picked three stone-cold personal favourites, making for a grand old set of excellent PC games: here's what we chose and why.

John:

Dishonored £3.99 / $4.99 Our coverage

Having recently replayed it, I've been reminded how this is, well, one of the best games ever made. For £4! If you played it at the time, it's even better than you remember. If you didn't, what a treat you have waiting.

Far Cry 3 £3.74 / £4.99 Our coverage

Yes, the story is bad like dying in a ditch on your own is bad, but the world is amazing! Hunting, fleeing, flying, exploding - there's so much meandering to be done here. And a game this massive for £3.74 makes it actually illegal to complain.

Saints Row IV £2.74 $3.74 Our coverage

One of my all-time favourite games, with unquestionably the funniest moment in all of gaming during its closing credits, for £2.74. That's actually too low. You'll not properly value it while you play it for £2.74. Wait until it's a tenner again.

Adam:

Mount and Blade Warband £3.74 / $4.99 Our coverage

The sequel looks absolutely fantastic but you might be waiting a long time to play it. Warband will fill that time comfortably. It's Crusader Kings as a third-person RPG. Total War where you play a single person, getting a soldier's view of the battlefield, or a general's, or a lord's, depending on the choices you make and the goals you set for yourself. And if you do get tired of the base game while waiting for the sequel, there's a healthy modding community to explore.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons £1.09 / $1.49 Our coverage

A singleplayer cooperative game, in which the control system is not only inventive but a key part of the story's arc. It's emotive but it's also one of the smartest marriages of character and control method that I've ever seen. And it currently costs £1.09.

Mark of the Ninja £2.74 / $3.74 Our coverage

From the mighty Klei, they of Invisible, Inc. and Don't Starve, this is one of the best stealth games ever made. Worth playing just to see how elegantly great gobbets of information can be communicated. Perfect clarity, even during moments of incredible tension and trickiness.

Pip:

The Stanley Parable £1.99 / $2.99 Our coverage

While I'm not sure there's anyone left who doesn't own this, I'm going to recommend it just in case. A high watermark when it comes to writing and design working together (and both being wonderful) and yours for less than two quid.

Child of Light £2.99 / $3.74 Our coverage

I wasn't super keen on Ubisoft's playable poem when I attended a preview event so never picked up the full game. But now it's 75% off and it's downloading as we speak. I remember the JRPG-inspired combat being pleasing too.

Regency Solitaire £3.49 / $4.99 Our coverage

One of the greatest games of last year combining a Jane-Austen inspired love plot with some solid (and very more-ish) solitaire. I go back to this time and time again because it's just this lovely, different, soothing thing. And now it's 50% off.

Subnautica $11.99/£8.99 Our coverage

Alec says I'm not allowed to recommend it a second time but what's he going to do about it? I RECOMMEND SUBNAUTICA AGAIN.

Alec:

Helldivers £9.59 / $11.99 Our coverage

This top-ish down alien-shooter is best co-op game I've played in a while: intense, over-the-top, basically a Space Marines game in disguise. Not sure how big a community it picked up, but given that a ton of people are probably taking a punt on it the sale, now might well be the best-ever time to Helldive.

Hand Of Fate £3.70 / $7.49 Our coverage

Conventional wisdom has it that computer-controlled opponents cannot possibly emulate the thrill and challenge of human ones. Hand of Fate, an RPG/CCG hybrid, says otherwise - because it understands that you have to hate your enemy in order to truly wish to defeat them. The hooded dealer character who acts as both enemy and narrator is a masterclass in supercilious, quiet bastardry. HOF is a pretty good singleplayer CCG in its own right, too.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag $7.49 / £3.99 (or £5.99 for deluxe edition with all DLC) Our coverage

This flabby, fearful series often makes me despair for what modern gaming has become, but Black Flag is the best AssCreed by several furlongs - mostly because it's the only one that dares to meaningfully tweak the icon-hoovering formula. It's a game about swashbuckling and gloriously pop naval buttons rather than collecting feathers from rooftops, and its Welsh hero has a wit and a cavalier merriment about him that his fellow cover stars have so often lacked. At £4, this is yer bona fide steal.

Graham:

Mirror's Edge £2.49 / $4.99 Our coverage

Its sequel Catalyst does most things better, but the original first-person free-runner still has a better sense of place than any other FPS ever made. It's worth playing today - and even struggling through its combat and dismal boss fights - in order to see its bright blue sky, its bright green shopping malls, and to enjoy the still-satisfying movement.

Universe Sandbox 2 £15.19 / $19.99 Our coverage

An educational simulation about outerspace, but one that's educational in the way that watching a building demolition is educational about physics. US2 lets you do things like increase the mass of our sun to see how long it takes before the earth is pulled in and swallowed by its gravity, or to see what happens when two galaxies collide with one another. It's pretty, and playful, and it now has an experimental VR mode.

Rocket League £8.99 / $11.99 Our coverage

The best game about driving cars into footballs in order to score goals. Unlike watching England play, Rocket League is remarkable because it's a game that's fun even if you're bad at it. That's because while it's skill ceiling is frighteningly high, supporting impossible jetpack-flying wundergoals, its fun flooring is extremely low. It's fun to move forward. It's fun to jump. It's fun to hit the boost button and to try to leap into the giant ball. £9 is a steal for the best game of last year.

Subnautica $11.99/£8.99 Our coverage

I haven't played it but Pip frightens me.

Alice:

Californium £3.49 / $4.99 Our coverage

A failing writer goes tripping across colliding realities in this beautiful odd thing inspired by the work Philip K. Dick. Parts can get a bit repetitive but the spectacle is well worth a couple of quid.

Viscera Cleanup Detail £6.99 / $9.09 Our coverage

Sure, maybe it is fun to be a space marine gunning down robots and demons, but you know what's really satisfying? Playing the space janitors tasked with painstakingly mopping up every blood splat, picking up every bullet casing, buffing out every bullet hole, incinerating gibs, and restocking those medkits. It's a real co-op treat.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance £4.99 / $7.49 Our coverage

The spin-off combines the fun parts of Metal Gear silliness with the beautiful fighting of a PlatinumGames hack 'n' slash. By the end of the tutorial level, you will have sliced cyborgs into hundreds of pieces, parried the stomps of a twenty-metre robodinosaur with only your sword, flung that robodinosaur into the sky, and sprinted down the side of a collapsing church tower to bisect that robodinosaur. That's before you even get the ability to devour spines.

Please do suggest more below!