The Traditional STEAM Christmas Sale Was Lacklustre
This Year I Struggled With My Choice Of Games
Usually I look forward to the seasonal STEAM game sale, but when I looked through my STEAM wish list in December I had a uneasy sense of foreboding. Normally I have a few exciting triple A games in my list in the hope I will snag a bargain, but last year was a pretty depressing year for co-op FPS game releases (my daughter and my preferred game genre).
Sure, there was Borderlands 4 but between unexcited reviews and - I suspect - the franchise finally becoming a little tiresome this game did not have the drawing power that it used to. Time was I might have pre-ordered the game, but times have changed.
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| Above: A game that caught my attention in December was RESTORY, a chilled out electronics repair game. Unfortunately, it was only a early release demo AND a single player game, so while I am looking forward to the full release it won't be any good for the 'Dad & Daughter Coop Game Night' sessions! :( |
Aside from this big name I just haven't seen anything novel or interesting enough to really get me excited and so my wish list was mostly filled with games which had been announced but are *still* languishing in 'coming soon' purgatory (and one wonders whether they will ever see the light of day) or a couple of interesting co-ops - like Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 - which are not a part of the sale and so are still ludicrously expensive!
This left a smattering of single player games that piqued my curiosity, but weren't my first choice like Red Dead Redemption (Remastered). Sale fodder which I suppose is better than no games at all, but as my main gaming time is done as cooperative sessions with my daughter these were of little real help.
There were a couple of little oddities that provided me with some passing amusement, like Restory and Paint The Town Red. But these tended to just fill in the spare time while I was waiting - literally - for paint to dry on some ongoing model project. 😀
So, with little fanfare here's the complete list of my Christmas computer games haul:
- - Age of Water (co-op)
- - Red Dead Redemption (Remastered) (single player)
- - It Takes Two (co-op)
- - Six Days in Fallujah (multiplayer)
- - GTFO (co-op)
- - Paint The Town Red (co-op/multiplayer)
I played the demo of Age of Water a while ago and enjoyed it and you can look at it as a sort of third person shooter in the theme of the movie 'Waterworld'. It is passably interesting and might get a couple of sessions play as it's a bit different but I cannot foresee any long term value in it.
Red Dead is a game I have wanted for a long tome as I enjoyed RD2 so much and so wanted to see more of the character Arthur and the events than led up to Red Dead 2. But, I'm playing less and less single player games these days and just don't seem to get the pleasure that I used to with them. Still, I have this game in my collection now before it shoots back up to full price again.
It Take Two was my daughters idea as a fun co-op game that - again - would fill part of a gaming session before we moved on to a more intensive game. A sort of frivolous warm-up to get our reflexes working! 😉 But really this isn't a 'main feature' and won't get us online if that's all we have to play.
Six Days in Fallujah is my attempt to rekindle my love of 'Battlefield' type of first person shooters. It does have very good reviews and time was when I would have devoted a LOT of time to a game like this, but I've just gotten so used to playing shooters with someone else now and enjoy the banter you get with co-operative play that I will find it hard to see me getting back into having to find strangers to play this multiplayer game with. You can play this single player, so IF I do find myself with nothing else to do (what with my many other hobbies) this should be an enjoyable way to spend them.
GTFO is a possible horror based co-op that my daughter and I will give a go, but seeing how we never really got into Alien: Elite Fire Team I don't have great hopes for this other than it filling a session or two until something better comes along.
And finally, Paint The Town Read, and this is actually the big surprise 'winner' of the Christmas game haul for 2025!
Again, I got this just as a light hearted warm up game to start off a co-op session BUT I have played this a in single player just to set up the controls and blow me if I can't stop playing the stupid game! 😂
There really isn't that much to it - it's a sort of voxel based 'Battle Royale' last person standing beat 'em up but boy is it senseless fun. I really look forward to trying this out as a co-op as I can see it getting a few hilarious moments when my daughter and I work together to complete some of the amusing missions.
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And that's it. As I said, its a bit of a lacklustre haul with no real 'main feature' game standing out as something we can devote multiple play sessions too. But at least we have a few games that might keep us amused until something more interesting comes along (or until Warhammer 40K:Space Marines 2 finally comes down in price)!
We shall see.
Meanwhile, What Am I Looking Forward To In 2026?
Here's some stuff still on my wish list that is - allegedly - 'coming soon'... Fingers crossed!
- Terminator Survivors (co-op/RPG?)
- Restory:Chill Electronics Repairs (single player/casual game) - Played the demo
- The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu (co-op horror RPG)
- Hunger (co-op horror shooter) - Kinda like Vermintide, sorta!
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