Yesterday, I shared how—this month—I bought 226 PC games for $135. Generally speaking, there were three responses to that post:
- “Wow, that’s a ton of games for so little!”
- “Will you ever actually play all of those?”
- “That’s gotta be pure slop.”
Fair questions. So here’s some context.
Back in 2015, I had a dumb-but-sincere goal: to collect every budget game on Steam. At the time, it felt doable. But then came the deluge—more games releasing every day, plus the rise of asset flips and lazy shovelware. I gave up on the idea and started being… selective-ish.
Still, that reckless phase taught me something valuable: not all budget games are garbage. In fact, some of the best games I’ve ever played came from that experiment. They just never had marketing muscle behind them.
Here are a few that stuck with me:
- Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages. A top-down action RPG, set in space, with some similarities to Escape Velocity but with a more involved story. It also has a killer soundtrack, and a spin-off novel available on Amazon.
- Enemy Mind. A horizontal shooter, with pixel art graphics, where you play a consciousness that can seize and take hold of enemy ships.
- Shadowgrounds. A top-down shooter that takes place in a space colony. Somewhat similar to Alien Breed for Amiga but with even better weapons. Made by Frozenbyte, the same team behind Trine.
- Caster. A low-poly 3rd person shooter where you battle bug-like creatures, featuring lots of terrain deformation.
- AquaNox. An underwater submarine cockpit shooter that merges arcade thrills with a fun post-apocalyptic sci-fi story.
- Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi. A vampire-themed survival horror and FPS hybrid with the best opening scene I’ve experienced in any video game.
Of course, it wasn’t all hidden gems. 2015 was also the year I was introduced to Hotline Miami, Psychonauts, VVVVVV, Disciples: Sacred Lands, and Savant Ascent. All those games I acquired 10 years ago for less than $1. Good luck convincing me that wasn’t a better use of a dollar than a gas station coffee.
Now, sure—I played some absolute trash. Camera Obscura, Intergalactic Bubbles, Warriors & Castles—all of them unplayable disasters. I ignored the red flags. I thought “it’s only 50 cents.” Rookie mistake.
I have since become pickier.
And I know what you’re thinking: “You bought 226 games this month. That’s you being pickier?”
Yes, I bought 226 games this month. But I’ve become discerning. I avoid anything with reviews below 60% on Steam unless it’s hilariously bad (Daikatana, I’m looking at you). No meme games. No anime titty mahjong. No asset flips with “Simulator” in the title.
Lately, I’ve been diving into Warhammer, Star Wars, Battlefield, Sherlock Holmes, and Men of War titles—all dirt cheap. Finally played Enter the Gungeon, Doom (2016), Skyrim, and Undertale.
And some new-to-me standouts? Try these:
- Another Crusade
- Sundered
- The Ascent
- Andro Dunos 2
- Soulstice
So no, price doesn’t equal quality. If you’re willing to dig through the bargain bin, you’ll find gold. Just wear gloves.
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I bought a pile of Steam sales early on, and Humble Bundles to the point I can’t bring myself to spend money anymore on games I won’t play… my backlog is too much, but damn, the Epic store’s freebie of the week? You can bet your ass I’m building up a backlog in that store too. There has been some junk in that but every now and then they have a fun little puzzle game or something - which is about my pace these days.
Most of the replies to your other post were terrible. You don’t have to justify yourself to them. But I do appreciate the suggestions on hidden gems to try out.
thank you for your service
The Ascent
Oooh, let me second this recommendation! I play this fairly regularly in online co-op with my remote gaming group. It’s an isometric perspective cyberpunk-themed action game with gorgeous, detailed environments.
What exactly do you mean by bargain bin though? I just checked and The Ascent seems to be going for almost $30 at the moment. I think I bought it on sale for quite a bit less, but I still wondered what you meant.
If I could throw out my own recommendation that’s even cheaper than that, I’m always trying to get more people to know about Project Zomboid. Another isometric perspective game, this time it’s an open-world survival game with incredible gameplay depth and also online co-op (or PvP). The graphics look somewhat antiquated, but it more than makes up for it in almost every other area. Some people have played this for hundreds or even thousands of hours, so the return on investment tends to be through the roof.
Me and my friends tried to play the ascend but it was unplayable because of desync everywhere. Ever had that problem? Since then I think it may have been the player hosting the server because we always have problems depending on who is being the host.
Sorry to hear. I’m not sure what you mean by desync? Do you mean that the remote players lose track of what’s happening on the server? I don’t recall having major issues with that. I think our game is always hosted by the same person, so maybe it could be dependent on host?
Pickups stayed on the ground is the only thing I remember but there was other funky stuff. Maybe we should give it another go with me hosting. Seem to be the only person able to do so without someone having problems.
Oh, wait, now that you mention that it’s bringing back some memories. Yes, I think we have run into issues like that, but it wasn’t so much that we stopped playing because of it. It’s been a little while, but we’ll get back to it eventually. I just love the environments on that game.
I bought a Steam key for The Ascent on Fanatical for $0.62. It was part of a bundle.
Sweet! I have to look more into Fanatical. Thanks!
Where do you find the time tho? That is 7.5 games per day.
When you’re in an arcade, how many games do you tend to play?
Personally, I easily play around 10 within an hour.
Arcade games are meant to turnover “plays” as quickly as possible to make the most profit in a given time. This logic doesn’t really apply well here.
How so? Arcade-style games aren’t confined to physical arcades. Plenty exist on PC. Raptor: Call of the Shadows, for example, was never in arcades but plays exactly like one.
The core design philosophy—short sessions, high intensity, replayable loops—is identical. So I don’t see how the logic doesn’t apply. A fast-paced game is still a fast-paced game, no matter where you’re playing it.
I think when people refer to"arcade" it conjures up visions of the 80s and 90s of being present in an arcade and pumping quarters into machines.
I think if you’re gonna talk about modern arcade style games you should probably make that clear.
So you can’t really form an opinion of the games you’re playing then, that’s like saying you didn’t like a movie because your didn’t like the first minute and stopped it.
I definitely can form an opinion of a game within the first five minutes of playing it—just as I can with a TV show or movie.
Namely, I can form an opinion on control, mechanics, aesthetic, and enjoyability.
Should every game be completed in order to assess its worth? Nope, not at all.
Then I would say that your opinion of these things is irrelevant since you didn’t have the time to truly experience them. In most games 5 minutes is the length of the tutorial section, in shows it’s the beginning of the pilot episode, for movies nothing has actually happened yet.
If all the games you play require tutorials, then you haven’t experienced a whole lot of games.
There are whole genres devoted to instant gratification. No tutorials. Most arcade games, for example. You start up and simply play.
I recommend Everything
Hell I’ve been spending months just playing through my backlog of games I bought on sale and never played.
I couldn’t think of a way that was more opposite to my approach of game collection, but I’m very glad that there are pioneers like you playing all the stuff that didn’t get marketed well to find the gems.
You got my upvote, you trash-digger raccoon man
If you did more posts about gems you’ve found in the bin, I’d read them
I’ve done that quite a few times, actually.
nice! i’ll have to take a look.
I own both Shadowgrounds and Caster.
Caster is a short, janky, lovable mess. It has real “this is my passion project and first ever video game” vibes.
Shadowgrounds was forgettable, but I vaguely remember enjoying it.
A few weeks ago, I finally beat Shadowgrounds and talked about it over here:
https://lemmy.world/post/29179804
I like this game a great deal.
I just skimmed your post and it didn’t sound familiar. I’m out of the house right now, but I checked Steam on my phone, and I’ve definitely played it.
Sundered slaps
Saved this post for later. Am also a sucker for cheap little indie games.
The number of replies in that last thread that were outright dismissive or hostile to the very idea of your collection was frankly absurd. I’m glad you were able to explain why you find value in managing your collection the way you do.
People seem to be so afraid of wasting time, or making a bad purchase regardless of how minimal the functional loss might be. But as you say, there are worthwhile experiences of fun and/or artistic merit waiting to be found for thise willing to take a risk.
Personally I’m just very picky and increasingly so as I age because there’s a lot of retread ground I’m unwilling to pay to retread. I have no…interest really… for average/mediocrity. People say time or energy, but I always find those two things when I’m really into a game, so I don’t think it’s that. It’s fine, I’ve found new hobbies when I have nothing to play.
I also almost never replay anything. I’m the same with books and shows/movies. One and done.
A well written story will get me to forgive A LOT of bad however. The first NIER game, Replicant, comes to mind as a perfect example. The gameplay is repetitive dogshit, but I didn’t care. The story is amazing and motivated me through.
But I’m not some weird gatekeeper. You’re not doing something you need to be defensive about. Your way is not inferior somehow. Unless it was somehow financially harmful to you or loved ones relying on you is how I view it.
Plus, I rely on guys like you who recommend the stand-outs in their otherwise mountainous pile of shit :p so thanks! haha.
A lot of the really obscure stand outs I find by digging through Steam’s new releases myself, github, aggregators like lemmy, etc, or from variety game streamers who don’t chase trends. Tomato for example occasionally picks something new with no reviews that looks interesting and I end up obbessed with some flopped indie game like Knight’s Try Just perfectly on point physics and difficulty. Don’t judge a book by it’s Unity engine aping Mario 64 cover.
