This article was supposed to come up yesterday but Steam decided to surprise everyone with an information leak for Christmas so the servers were down for a while.
The issues have now been fixed however and everything is more or less back to normal so here's my somewhat delayed, again, Steam sale recommendation list for December 25-26:
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin (-62%)
Don't let the reputation surrounding Dark Souls prevent you from trying it out. It is hard, that much is true, but its not unfair and through even a modicum of effort you'll be able to find a build that works for you and rise up to the challenge.
Dark Souls 2 on launch was an excellent game but it suffered from some issues that kept it from being truly amazing. Those have since then been fixed in the Scholar of the First Sin edition which also comes with all of the DLC bundled in so if its sheer value for your money that you're looking for, look no further.
Dark Souls 2 is one of my favorite games ever made and shares that lofty position with quite a few timeless classics so believe me when I say, I fully recommend you get this if you have even the tiniest spark of interested in action RPGs.
This one is a bit of a niche recommendation because while Age of Empires II is an excellent game I can understand that some might find it a bit clunky after playing much more polished games such as Starcraft 2, Dawn of War 2, or really any modern RTS.
But if you can get past some of the clunkyness Age of Empires II and its modern expansions (yes, they are actually still working on this game) are some of the best examples of oldschool base-building RTS which is just as strategic as the modern variants but without the need for 400 clicks a minute to accomplish anything.
I've spent a lot of my early childhood on Age of Empires II so I'm aware I might be a bit nostalgic and biased towards it but given that I still keep playing it should be at least some guarantee of its quality. Either way, it doesn't cost much at all so if you have an interest in oldschool RTS games I'd say go for it.
If you've ever enjoyed a Paradox grand strategy game before you'll enjoy Crusader Kings 2 as well. Your goal is to spread the influence of your bloodline throughout the ages by ensuring that only the strongest heirs inherit your throne and that your enemies and competition meet unfortunate ends.
Crusader Kings 2 allows you a frankly stunning amount of freedom when it comes to how you'll play the game, whether it be through politics, war, trade, backroom deals or whatever else you can think of. This complexity does mean that if you start playing Crusader Kings 2 completely blind you'll find yourself easily overwhelmed so if you do get it I'd recommend watching a video tutorial for 5 minutes before hand.
If you're looking for an interesting game to sink an obscene amount of time in to then Crusader Kings 2 will fit that bill perfectly because your play sessions can be as long or as short as you want them to be.
Do you like freedom? How about explosions, unnecessary necessary use of overwhelming force and a ton of burly men grunting while shooting at hordes of enemies? If the answer to any of those is yes then Broforce might be the game for you.
Its a sidescrolling run & gun with a great art style and even better humor with plenty of different characters to play, weapons to shoot and enemies to explode. It also has a bro-op mode so if you have any friends you could team up and bring freedom twice, or even four times as efficiently.
Don't expect a touching story from Broforce but if you're interested in a fun and silly action game where the answer to every question is "more explosions" then I'd suggest you go for it.
I've just recently finished my third co-op playthrough of Portal 2 and while it might be a touch too easy its still one of the best games to bring new people in to the world of PC gaming. The puzzles and graphics are well done but it is the writing that keeps drawing me back to the game every year or so for a new playthrough. I could listen to Cave Johnson rant for houuuuurs.
As I said, Portal 2 is a bit too easy though but luckily there is an integrated system for importing custom maps from the Steam Workshop so you can add exactly as much challenge as you want to your game. The best thing is there are both solo and co-op custom maps so whichever route you decide to go for you'll be cowered.
Its fun, its funny, and its cheap so I'd recommend Portal 2 to you, especially if you can also get someone else to play it with.
And that's it for today's Steam sale recommendations. With the next shuffle approaching within a couple of hours I'll see you again soon. Until then enjoy the post-Christmas feasting.