The Christmas Steam Sales Have Arrived, Here’s Our Picks

Because you haven’t spent enough money already, right?

The Steam Christmas sales are finally here. And while we don’t have the daily drama of flash sales anymore, there are plenty of offers right now that will hang around until 8:00pm on January 3.

You can see the sales, and buy them, for yourself through Steam or through the very handy SteamDB sales tracker. But here’s some picks to help you out.

Insurgency: $2.76

If you prefer your shooters to have more of a realistic bent, where enemies definitely aren’t bullet sponges and you like to have that genuine sense of fear about moving around the map, there’s literally no reason not to pick up Insurgency.

Originally a Source mod that was spun off into its own game, Insurgency does an excellent job of offering the recoil-heavy, thoughtful punishing gameplay of classic military shooters. It’s a little more down the Counter-Strike road than, say, ArmA, but the pacing is great and there’s Australian servers to boot. Best of all: you can get a 4 pack of keys for $9.68. No kidding. Go gift some to your friends now.

Invisible, Inc: $8.30

One of the best strategy games of last year is now available for the price of a hipster smoothie or a cheap pad thai. If you like XCOM, Splinter Cell, roguelikes, and the idea of all three being mashed together, Invisible, Inc. is absolutely worth your time. It also has one of the best difficulty sliders that has existed in a game outside of FIFA or the NBA 2K series, which does wonders for customising the campaign to your playstyle.

Project CARS: $19.18

It might not have knocked iRacing off its perch, but if you’re looking for some gorgeous racing – or something pretty to play in VR – then the career mode of Project CARS will keep you going for a solid while. You’ll have to contend with some bizarre AI at points (good luck in Formula A), but at least you’ll be entertained by how lovely everything looks and sounds in the process.

For those who doubled down on pedals and a full racing wheel, Assetto Corsa is on sale as well. It’s got a better force feedback system and offers better value as a sim racer, but for those who want the arcade career experience Project CARS is probably the better buy.

Castlevania Lords of Shadow – Ultimate Edition: $10.38

While there’s not a great deal of variety in the enemies, Lords of Shadow is a fun, challenging Castlevania done in a Devil May Cry sort of way. The camera can get a bit frustrating, but the voice acting (which has Patrick Stewart!) is good, the soundtrack is neat and the large bosses are worth it alone for a tenner. Solid action romp.

Grim Fandango Remastered: $4.14

The day Good Old Games launched, people started lobbying the site for two games: System Shock 2 and Grim Fandango. You can now get a better version of Grim Fandango for the price of a coffee. That’s kind of absurd, when you think about how monumentally well respected it is in the world of point-and-click adventures.

DOOM: $27.42

One of your favourite games of the year and an absolute steal at this price.

Subnautica: $13.84

Imagine a first-person Don’t Starve underwater. It’s still in Early Access, but think more like Starbound-levels of Early Access – the game has been available for a couple of years. There’s plenty of content here. Go nuts.

War for the Overworld: $16.61

Liked Dungeon Keeper? That was free on Origin recently. But if you’d like something a little more modern, War for the Overworld is basically an indie version of the Bullfrog classic.

Axiom Verge: $13.84

Like Metroidvania games that look like Metroidvania games? Axiom Verge is what you need. It’s also an exceptionally clever game, but I won’t spoil any of the surprises for you.

Bastion: $4.14

There’s a reason why Bastion and Transistor are some of the most highly acclaimed games on Steam and just about every gaming site on the planet. If you need a fairly chilled action RPG that only lasts several hours and has a fantastic narrator, check out Bastion.

LISA: $3.45

If you’d like to spend with something over the holidays that is completely demented, the side-scrolling RPG LISA is worth a look. It’s a story about a man searching for the only thing he still cares about, and it’s darkly – very dark – funny. A very troubling game, in the best possible way.


You can check out the rest of the sales from the Steam mobile app, the client itself, or the front page. Will you be buying anything on the cheap this Christmas?


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At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

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