Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.
3rd International Volunteer Brigade (Hexbear gaming discord)
Rules
My personal list, if it's starred it means you can play as the communists.
Strategy
Shooter
RPG
Starcraft is on the Blizzard platform (for free!), Lichess is online (and free!), everything else should be on Steam.
My game is very easy to run if you're into retro stuff and super cheap, and I love it when comrades play it.
Otherwise Inscryption was a pretty neat time if you haven't played it yet.
Cavern of Dreams, $5.19 - Short and sweet collectathon 3d platformer. I finished it in 8 hours and it doesn't overstay its welcome. N64 visual style (you can disable the blur filter in settings if you hate it).
Death's Door, $5 - Cute soulslike combat in an overhead isometric view, not too difficult. You play as a crow, a reaper of souls, tracking down the one soul who escaped from you. You may have to lower settings depending on how bad your gpu is.
Paradise Killer, $5 - A detective game in a world of (sexy) Gods. You have to identify suspects and build a case against them. There is no objectively "correct" culprit. There is also a beautiful 3d environment to explore with some collectables.
Tunic, $15 - Similar combat to death's door but with the added element that progression is often gated not by items, but knowledge checks. You collect pages of a game manual for Tunic written in a language you can't read. One of my absolute favorite games.
Sea of Stars, $22.74 - Very fun turn-based rpg that reminds me a lot of Chrono Trigger. I had 45 hours playtime and that's before the 10 hour free DLC that just released. Timed QTE events for every attack and block a la the (Paper) Mario RPG series.
Rollerdrome, $7.50 - Rollerdrome is the perfect video game. Arcadey shooter on rollerskates with dodge rolls and also you have to do tony hawk style tricks to reload your guns. Unfortunately, Take Two "laid off" the entire team who made it, so consider pirating it instead of buying.
I liked Death's Door, very cute and it's not a huge time sink, think you can beat it in a couple days.
The Messenger is a real gem of a game. Ninja Gaiden meets Metroid, lovely pixel art (should run on anything), a banging chiptune soundtrack, super tight gameplay, funny writing, and it's currently 80% off. If you like platformers and metroidvanias you got to check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We4N8-GC57E
Listening to this while going top speed through the level, doin sick ninja moves fuckin wrecking shop, it's some of the most fun I've ever had playing video games, the whole game is such a treat when you unlock all the movement upgrades and get good at flying around everywhere
i got the division 2 for like 7 bucks and im having fun with it so far. its pretty mindless which im liking atm cause life is tiring lol.
One of those games (maybe both) deepthroats cops and the troops so fucking hard
yeah all these tom clancy games do. i just turn my brain off to enjoy it.
Any of the persona games or metaphor
Know you were asking Steam specifically but the current free Epic game is neat. I add them to my Steam library sometimes. https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/sable
+1 to recommend Sable, especially for free! Basically it's like if breath of the wild didn't have combat and instead was about exploration and quests. You play as a young adult going on a coming of age quest in which you learn about the different professions you could choose. Set in a post apocalyptic world, but a wholesome one. You get to ride on an upgradable Star Wars pod racer.
Free on Epic, $8.74 on Steam.
A Hat in Time is a fun 3D platformer
Subnautica: survive in the ocean after a shipwreck... In spaaaaace!
The following games are cheap (lower than 10 euros), not graphically demanding at all, and range from good to being masterpieces in my opinion:
I like your style. I see somebody rate ZeroRanger 10/10, I know we're cool.
Someone on hexbear recommend outer wilds to me a while back, I'd like to thank that person..
It was me, I take Xi bucks in lieu of personal thanks these days though
The renembis in the mail comrade
Seriously tho, outer wilds is a slow burn but I really like it
CrossCode is 70% off 
Any genres you like?
A bit older, but still great IMHO: Sanctum 2 and its DLC go on sale for $3 every sale. I've sunk over 450 hours into this FPS TD hybrid. The DLC is worth getting as well as it doubles the content of the game.
Titanfall 2 is about $5 and offers a diverse and creative SP campaign with mixed soldier and mech combat. I've played it at least 5 times.
Mirror's Edge is $7 with a robust parkour mechanic and alright, if not a little dated story. I've also played this at least 5 times.
For more casual offerings: A Short Hike, Alba, Firewatch, Smushi Come Home, Röki, Journey, Turnip Boy, Scanner Sombre, Deepest Sword, Yono, Snakey Pass, Baba is You
Other Games I've enjoyed: Portal 1&2, Full Metal Furies, Superhot, Borderlands 1&2, Mothergunship, Echo, High On Life, Crab Champions, Gunfire Reborn, Journey to the Savage Planet, Hades, Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice
I've been enthralled by Valheim lately. It's probably one of, it not the best of the open-world-survival-crafting-RPG genre.
And pretty easy to mod to boot, with a ton of mods ranging from extending what's available in the game already (like adding all weapon types and magic from the meadows biome and above) to game changing systems like classes, abilities, and perks.
It feels like the middle point between Minecraft and Terraria, with a smooth progression curve with clear checkpoints to guide the player through the tech stages while offering some homesteading and down time activities.
It pretty much entirely replaced Minecraft and Terraria for me due to those reasons. Plus, building in Valheim is pretty satisfying. Much prefer having material limitations as opposed to the other two's gravity defying builds.
Only wish it was a bit more optimized, because my builds tend to be tall and dense and the game really doesn't like it. And modding could be handled better I guess, Zomboid took a page off of Rimworld's approach to the workshop and Valheim could do that as well.
Valheim is definitely a game I loved, but man there is still a lot of jank to it that I just cannot stand to bear any longer. All the jank is bearable up until the mistlands and then I just cant deal with the floaty combat, dying destroying hours of skill grinding, inventory space being so limited, and the procedural generation putting some stuff in ridiculous places. All of it leads to pretty poor single player experience (at that point), where it feels like having other players with you is a downright necessity.
But as you stated mods do fix quite a lot of what is broken or should really just be in the game to begin with.
Yeah. The devs did say that the next update isn't just going to be the deep north, hopefully they learn something from the most popular mods (same as rimworld is doing, integrating some of them into the base game).
SteamDB is useful, you can see all games on sale and filter by review score and discount percentage.
My reccs:
Cobalt Core - Spaceship combat similar to FTL with amazing vibes. Technically a roguelike deckbuilder but don't let that scare you
Drova: Forsaken Kin - One of the best games in recent years, pixel art RPG with great combat
Songs of Conquest - Spiritual successor to Heroes of Might and Magic III with beautiful pixel art
Pathway - Indiana Jones inspired game where you fuck up Nazis in turn-based combat
SteamWorld Dig 2 - Fun mining game, satisfying game loop, chill vibes
Risen - Probably my all time favourite game, amazing eurojank RPG made by the developers that made Gothic
Please Touch The Artwork is a cool relaxed puzzle game based on real paintings (£2.15)
Citizen Sleeper is one of my favourite games ever; a really narrative rich (but not long winded) sci-fi game with fantastic worldbuilding, vibes, and politics that uses a novel streamlined version of TTRPG dice to do decision making and resources stuff. Really sublime (£5.02) The sequel is on sale but is new so is more like £15.
Mad Max is an open-world vehicular combat (and occassional Batman game style parry combat section) game that was the best 7-out-of-10 type game when it game out but has aged well & is genuinely a great bit of canon Mad Max lore and worldbuilding if you care about that series. (£2.39)
Thronebreaker: Witcher Tales is a narrative RPG based around playing Gwent (sometimes with traditional rules, sometimes with unique interest puzzle battles) that has writing as good or better than the Witcher 3. It wasn't a hit, despite being excellent, and so they tried to turn Gwent into Hearthstone later, but Thronebreaker is standalone and still my favourite Witcher game. (£3.39)
Swordship is a fast, roguelite indie 'schmup' where you pilot a superfast boat through heavily sci-fi militarised sea dodging turrents and other dangers. I found it difficult, but addictive with a cool style and soundtrack. (£0.84)
Invisible Inc is a fantastic turn-based strategy heist game with a great art style and really good gameplay. I'm quiet a picky turn-based nerd and this is one of the best. It's also not too punishing (unless you want it to be) and is relatively short to finish a run in a satisfying way compared to longer campaigns. (£3.74)
Steamworld Heist is my favourite of the various Steamworld games. It's basically robot Firefly and a 2D turn-based shooter-strategy game where your pirate captain & crew board ships, fight your way to cargo with a variety of cool weapons (and hats) & escape with it. (£1.13)
Yoku's Island Express is a unique, colourful, joyous platformer-pinball hybrid game where your little dung beetle (with dung ball) slides, pinballs, jumps through a lovely, relaxing island metroidvania world. Just lovely all round. (£3.19)
Sludge Life is a stylised, low-rez, 3D open world adventure game with excellent lofi 90s hip hop meets chillwave vibes and a banger soundtrack including the best in game rapper since Parappa; BIG MUD! (£2.55)
Ape Out is a top-down indie action game where you play as a giant ape escaping its captors and splattering armed mercanaries against walls with a Saul Bass animation style and top drawer jazz-drum soundtrack that syncs with your hits. (£2.55)
Monster Train is probably the best roguelite card game since Slay the Spire with more variation and quicker to get into, where you play the forces of hell trying to protect a big train careening through the seven circles to relight hells fires while battling those irritating crusade-fash coded angels heaven has sent to stop you. (£6.29)
Crypt of the Necrodancer is a roguelite homage to old Zelda (so much so Nintendo eventually had them do an actual Zelda version) that's also a hardcore rhythm game where you move and attack with the beat (and so do all the enemies). As someone who really cannot play rhythm games and never even beat the fourth level I still loved my time with it. It's got an all time banger soundtrack and the best shopkeeper in games. (£1.27)
Both Citizen Sleeper games are fantastic. The story pacing is great. Be warned that you can softlock yourself really easily in 2 at the very beginning if you go straight to the big mission.
Once you get the flow though, it's pretty easy to maintain the good path. One slip up can snowball you to a fail state though
Monster Train got a really good sequel too, you can use mushroom guys that stack with each other 10/10
These are some good picks, I enjoyed SteamWorld Heist and Monster Train. Haven't played their sequels yet, how about you? I also had a good time with Mad Max
I highly recommend Far Cry 2 and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, which are a combined 5 eurodollars from where I sit because they both, in different ways, really actually use the fact that video games are an interactive medium to do something with it beyond having fun gameplay that unlocks the next cutscene
Brew Barons is like half arcade planer shooter half RPG, maybe it fits your tastes. It's 10 eurodollars and is set in legally-not-porco-rosso-world. You definitely don't play this for the story, but I found it quite charming.
Brew Barons is like half arcade planer shooter half RPG, maybe it fits your tastes. It's 10 eurodollars and is set in legally-not-porco-rosso-world. You definitely don't play this for the story, but I found it quite charming.
I wanted to like this game so badly, but the use of AI voice acting killed it for me.
the only far cry worth playing is the frist one
The first Far Cry is not worth playing today. It's a standard-setting-tech-demo for the shooter genre. It was important in its time and genuinely a good game back then, not now.
Elden Ring is amazing and surprisingly light on the computer
RDR2 is one of the best action RPGs I've played
Hades was a lot of fun
Rogue Trader is a great RPG if you like the WH40k world
And of course Disco Elysium if you haven't played it
And of course Disco Elysium if you haven’t played it
Are we still boycotting? If so you wouldn't want to get it on Steam then
I don't think it's necessarily a boycott, but people should indeed just pirate it.
I think it can count. It's not an organised boycott, but the devs have asked people to pirate it/not pay for it, and people seem to be following suit, so I'd say that counts as a boycott.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a very good game.
Sort by "under $5" and grab anything you recognize.
It's not on sale but theres a new indie Zelda-like called Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo that I'm absolutely obsessed with. It can run on anything, it's basically a fancy gba game
Wow I saw that and It looked rat as hell. Im quite tempted
I grabbed Lost Planet and Onimusha off ru tracker the other day, two capcom classics. Lost Planet is a third person shooter while Onimusha is a hack and slash survival horror, if that interests you.
Is there anything you broadly like / dislike? You've given me an excuse to browse it even though I shouldn't be.
My tastes are pretty broad. I like RPGs and Shooters a lot, not super into rogue likes.
I was impatient and posted a bunch. There's a few with roguelike/lite elements in the list I posted, but should be plenty in there that you'd like. On the RPG front I'd strongly recommend both Citizen Sleeper and Thronebreaker.
Some of the thronebreaker puzzle levels are my all time favorite card game content. Fantastic game
Lol i actually already have both citizen sleeper games