Much like how it went down last time the Steam Sale Recommendations are here to showcase you the best deals and most interesting games available in today's Steam Winter Sale.
Given that this Steam Sale doesn't actually have sales spread across different days I will focus on the first two sections which rotate daily and as such will give you a nice and broad spectrum of games. Naturally, if I come upon a deal that isn't a part of the first two sections but I believe is well worth your time, rest assured I will let you know.
With that said, let's start with the first day of the Steam Winter sale:
Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition (-85%) & Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (-50%)
The Witcher Series, along with the Souls series and a few others belong in the higher echelons of my personal tier list of best games ever so its no surprise I'm recommending the Witcher series for the third time now.
The Witcher 2 is an action RPG whose combat is pretty standard for the genre but whose storytelling and graphics are far above the competition. It might look a bit dated today, mostly because the Witcher 3 surpassed it, but The Witcher 2 is an excellent game in its own right, filled with complex moralities, intrigue and plenty of choices that change the entire course of the game. The whole of act 2 (some 5-10 hours of playtime) can change almost completely depending on how you go through act 1 so I'm not kidding when I say The Witcher 2 offers you a lot of choices.
The Witcher 3 is everything I wanted Witcher 2 to be and more. It is an open world RPG with once again fairly standard combat but this time around absolutely amazing storytelling. The bloody baron questline is easily one of my favorite quest chains in any similar game but it isn't just main quests that get the royal treatment. Even random "filler" quests have plenty of meat to their bones and a whole story to tell. The Witcher 3 is truly a great game and despite it "only" being on a 50% discount I fully recommend it.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Legendary Edition (-75%)
I doubt there are many people these days who haven't heard of The Elder Scrolls, a fabled series of RPG games with massive open worlds filled with tons of places to explore and loot to gather. However, the base version of Skyrim suffered from a lack of depth and as such was most often described as a meter deep ocean, a wast game with very little in it.
Wasn't I supposed to be recommending you this game? You aren't wrong. Where the base Skyrim faltered its expansions picked up the slack by adding more locations, more enemies and more reasons to delve in to undead infested ruins. But most importantly of all it is the mods that make Skyrim a true "must have" game.
Every single issue I have with Skyrim can be easily fixed with 5 minutes of googling because the Skyrim modding scene has been around for a while and there is quite the selection of mods now available for you to chose from. You can find everything from bugfixing mods to those that add new content and even one that turns your character in to Barney the dinosaur if that's the sort of thing you're in to.
Civilization V Complete Edition (-75%) & Civilization IV Complete Edition (-75%)
Do you hate having free time, do you hate having a good nights sleep and wish for those days of physical weakness to be gone? Then grab either Civilization V or IV, both are great games that are so well designed and so addicting you won't be able to resist playing just oneeeee more turn until you finally open your blinds and realize its 8 AM.
The Complete Editions of both games have all of the DLC and expansions bundled in meaning there's easily over a hundred or so hours of playtime in each of them so if its value for your money that you're looking for, you need look no further.
As for which one is better? Both are similar and the choice between them comes down to personal preference but if you're a complete beginner to the Civilization series I would start with V, it has slightly more streamlined mechanics and as such will be easier to grasp.
Spelunky is one of the games that first introduced me to a genre I've learned to love greatly, the roguelikes.
Spelunky is a game that puts the emphasis first and foremost on player skill as you explore ancient ruins filled with hazardous traps and monsters. You will need to be both vigilant and quick to act in order to make it far because it is very easy to die in Spelunky but to give everything a sense of balance the same applies to enemies.
If you're looking for a well designed game where you can challenge yourself as a player and slowly, through a lot of trial and error, become good enough to finally "beat" everything a game has to offer I'd suggest you go with Spelunky because it is that sort of game and it is bloody excellent.
Simply put, Defense Grid 2 is one of the best tower defense games I've played outside of Warcraft 3 custom maps. It has plenty of towers, upgrades and ways to approach any mission so if you're a tower defense aficionado you will find a lot to play around with here.
But Defense Grid 2 has another trick up its sleeve, an actual story. You might think I'm joking, a tower defense game with a story, but Defense Grid manages to present a heartwarming story about loss and sacrifice through the use of some top-notch voice acting. Even if you have little interest in tower defense games its probably worth it just to experience the story alone at this price.
DMC: Devil May Cry (-70%) & Devil May Cry: 3 (-75%)
Despite what you might hear from the louder parts of the Internet the Devil May Cry series did not get ruined with the release of DMC: Devil May Cry. The only thing that game should be ashamed of is its terrible name that seems to be trying too hard to appear on the top results of google search.
Silliness aside, the Devil May Cry series are a bunch of silly fighting games based around skillful execution and combo chaining. If you're eager for some over the top action and immensely cocky characters then you've found the games for you.
As for which one to start with I'd probably suggest you go with the newer DMC: Devil May Cry as that one will ease you in to the series better than DMC 3 which just assumes you know what you're doing and let's you loose on giant monsters. But once you're done with DMC: DMC I'd suggest you go and play DMC 3 because as far as DMC games go that one is my favorite. And yes, I was wondering how many DMC's I could fit in a single sentence, turns out its four.
And that's it for my Steam Sale recommendations for December 22, come back tomorrow for another round with another set of great games.