The Steam Summer Sale is looming right ahead of us, with only a few short days left before we can get our paws on the games we've been waiting all year to snag! Scouring the Store pages to find what you're looking for is all fine and dandy, but the entirety of the Steam Summer Sale will go a lot smoother if you take your time and prepare while you still can.
You may not have any friends willing to look at your Steam Wishlist for gift ideas, but that doesn't make the Wishlist completely worthless. The Steam Wishlist shines brightest when you plop a sale down in front of it.
Steam notifies you (usually via email) when a game on your Wishlist goes on sale. With all of those Flash Sales passing by, you won't want to miss that sliver of opportunity for a fantastic deal on a game you've wanted for centuries.
So go Wishlist crazy, and check out our top 15 notable games worth holding out on until the 2015 Steam Summer Sale — which is rumored to start June 11th.
Magicka 2
Steam User Rating: 64% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
Magicka 2 just released a few weeks ago, yet even still we're anticipating it's appearance during the Steam Summer Sale this year, even if only for a 25% discount!
This game brings all of the humor and non-vampires of Magicka — also expected to make an appearance — to a whole new playing-field, with it's renown spell combination system heading the charge.
Fair warning: a few changes were made to the spell system, so fans who really sunk their teeth into the first game may have trouble getting into Magicka 2.
Killing Floor 2
Steam User Rating: 94% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
Okay, so the first two entries on this list may be a stretch, but it wouldn't be the first time an early-access/relatively new game made it to the Steam Summer Sale. Killing Floor 2 is a great co-op shooter made to be played with up to five of your friends.
Fight waves and waves of enemy Zeds as they swarm you and your surviving team-mates. If you're into FPS games, Killing Floor 2 is not something you want to miss this year.
Cities: Skylines
Steam User Rating: 95% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
Cities: Skylines is the newest city builder on the block that all the Sim City fans are raving about. This game makes some incredibly necessary leaps in the genre that pulls itself together remarkably well.
Currently Cities: Skylines is more of a sandbox city-building game without any true objectives, even though in normal gameplay you do have to manage funds, among many other things. Nothing disastrous is going to come from outer space and demolish your city, you — the Creator — are the one who determines its fate.
This is a solid product with an enormous amount of customizable freedom and great modding community to boot. With the developers planning to update and support this game for many years to come, there's no reason not to pick up Cities: Skylines during the Steam Summer Sale if you're into that sort of stuff.
Don't Starve / Don't Starve Together
Steam User Rating: 97% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
Klei Entertainment just released Don't Starve Together to all previous Don't Starve owners last week. Two million veteran players are finally able to starve with all their friends.
Don't Starve is a densely thematic survival game with quirky characters and an interesting world to explore. The art-style and overall feeling the game invokes are very specific and niche at heart.
It's worth it at full price, but Don't Starve is bound to be ready for the Steam Summer Sale.
Kerbal Space Program
Steam User Rating: 98% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
I can't talk about the latest simulation games without bringing up Kerbal Space Program. This ambitious project aims to realistically recreate space physics for space craft.
You can build and rebuild your space craft, watch it crash fifty times before it breaks the atmosphere and watch it explode when attempting re-entry.
There is a steep learning curve to be had in Kerbal Space Program, but if you are as dedicated to astronomy as these adorable little Kerbals, than you will be making supply trips to space stations you placed among the stars in no time.
Couple it all together with a lovely community and some great mods, and you have a must-watch for the Steam Summer Sale.
Life is Strange
Steam User Rating: 97% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
Similar to The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead, Life is Strange is an episodic, story-driven game set in a young woman's final high-school years. She discovers she has the power to rewind time, which allows her to play with situations and see how they immediately play out.
Most choices that you make begin to feel morally gray, to the point where you aren't really happy with any situation. Life is Strange is tense, and realistically touches on all walks of life wherever necessary.
If you love realistic characters and well thought out stories that pull at all the right/wrong heartstrings, wishlist Life is Strange. We hope Square Enix jumps on the Steam Summer Sale bandwagon with this horse leading the charge.
Darksiders 2
Steam User Rating: 90% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
Darksiders is an interesting franchise — I once heard it described as Zelda with darker themes, although that's not entirely what I got out of it.
Darksiders 2 is an incredibly fun action-adventure game where you play as Death, a member of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who is working to free his brother War from a terrible fate.
The combat is engaging, and the "dungeon" environments that Darksiders 2 sends you through are beautifully beset with their own interesting mind-puzzlers to keep your neurons firing. Well worth a wishlist if you like beautiful worlds and fun combat.
Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition
Steam User Rating: 97% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
With Batman: Arkham Knight scheduled to release the day after the Steam Summer Sale ends, what better time to discount the previous Batman: Arkham games?
If you're unfamiliar with the Arkham series, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a really great place to start.
What is known as arguably the best Batman game released to date is about to dip below the cost of a milkshake. Prepare your wishlist, for these sales will zip by fast!
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Steam User Rating: 88% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
While it may not look like much, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a surprisingly well made action-fantasy RPG with an enjoyable combat system and just an overall fun experience.
Unfortunately, the story and characters of Reckoning are not especially memorable. Everyone else simply seems to take a back seat to you.
Despite this, the gameplay is incredibly enjoyable and has its special quriks. Make sure to wishlist Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning if you get that action-fantasy RPG itch!
Orcs Must Die! 2
Steam User Rating: 96% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
With Orcs Must Die! Unchained on the not-so-distant horizon, there's no doubt they'll bring the Orcs Must Die! franchise back to the Steam Summer Sale this year!
With many dozens of traps, guardians and weapons at your disposal in Orcs Must Die! 2, your tasked with keeping the onslaught of orcs from reaching the gateway to the outside world.
If you've never played Orcs Must Die! 2, the 2015 Steam Summer Sale is definitely the time to nab it. The mixture of trap and weapon style combat is satisfying, if a bit challenging for newcomers, and the sprinkle of humor is a nice touch.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Steam User Rating: 93% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
Still in the mood for slaughtering orcs? Good, because Shadow of Mordor offers up orcs that are actually interesting to fight.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is renowned at this point for its incredible faction system. I mean who doesn't want to fight orcs in the middle of a bunch of warring orcs?
If you haven't already picked up Shadow of Mordor, the GOTY edition just recently released, making the Steam Summer Sale a prime opportunity to pick up a good AAA game at a great price!
Game of Thrones - A Telltale Games Series
Steam User Rating: 87% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
The award-winning book and HBO show finds itself in yet another form of digestible entertainment, this time in the form of an episodic video game, similar to Life is Strange.
Game of Thrones from Telltale Games delivers an interactive experience in the most deceptively devilish world possibly imagined. You play as five members of a northern family loyal to the Starks of Winterfell, and ride the descent into madness as all hell breaks loose in Westeros.
If you enjoy making critical decisions in tense situations, this is definitely a game to have on your wishlist this upcoming Steam Summer Sale season.
Divinity: Original Sin
Steam User Rating: 91% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
Divinity: Original Sin proved to be one of the best RPGs in 2014, and since then the developers announced an Enhanced Edition.
This top-down classic-style RPG blew fans of the genre out of the waters when it launched, and deserves the attention of modern gamers.
An RPG nut would do well to wishlist Divinity: Original Sin. Not only will we score a ridiculous discount during the Steam Summer Sale, but owners of the PC game will also receive the Enhanced Edition as a gift upon release.
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin
Steam User Rating: 83% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
I know Dark Souls gets a lot of bad rep — yes, bad rep — for being a terrifyingly difficult game. Personally, I would never recommend a game that's hard for the sake of being hard. That's just plain brutality.
After sinking many hours into the first Dark Souls in recent weeks, I have come to adore the unparalleled sense of immersion found in From Software's titles.
The game world is so organic it can make you believe in it almost as much as you believe in the real world. If you've played Bloodborne, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Wishlist Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin — and Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition — for the Steam Summer Sale if you're a nut for immersive gameplay, stories and worlds. You can thank me later.
Pillars of Eternity
Steam User Rating: 91% Positive
Wishlist It: Steam Store
If Pillars of Eternity fails to show up in the Steam Summer Sale I'm sure I'm not the only one who will be cross with it.
This quickly renown classic RPG that pulls inspiration from games like Baldur's Gate demands to be played by its own rules — literally. They created a completely new game system just for Pillars of Eternity instead of pulling from Dungeons and Dragons for the calculations.
Nothing is quite like a great RPG in a fascinating setting, which is why I have Pillars of Eternity wishlisted going into this year's Steam Summer Sale.
Careful not to lose yourself during the Steam Summer Sale!
Keeping an updated wishlist is a great way to keep on your toes and make sure you miss nary a deal during the Steam Summer Sale. While your at it, check out our list of 15 more games you need to wishlist!
What fills your wishlist in anticipation for the Sales?
Let us know in the comments below what games you have sitting in your wishlist as we await the Steam Summer Sale!
Published: Jun 8, 2015 05:24 pm