David’s 2022 Steam Summer Sale Recommendations

In the lyrics to their song “Night Moves,” Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band sang in part about what they called the “sweet summertime.” I often find myself in an unusually positive mindset this time of year because of the sweet Steam Summer Sale. Another one of these events is now upon us, so I’m in fairly high spirits as a result. As is tradition, I’ve prepared what I hope is a sufficiently long list of games I think you should consider picking up before the festivities conclude the morning of July 7th, 2022.

If you’ve read any of my past articles written in this format, however, you know I’ve got some disclaimers to make before we get to the good stuff. Firstly, the following list will function exactly the same as all of its predecessors have done. The only changes will be in the variety of games I wish to present for your perusal. Secondly, I will not include any titles in this list that I’ve discussed in this format before unless I feel I have proper justification for doing so.

Essentially, if I’ve recommended a game during a Steam Summer Sale or Winter Sale in the past and it hasn’t received a significant update or piece of DLC since then, I consider it ineligible for another turn in the limelight. Furthermore, you can rest assured that I’ve actually played each and every game I suggest in this article. I consider it highly unethical to even entertain the possibility of recommending titles to you with which I’m not personally familiar.

For my next point, I want to emphasize that the games I’ve placed on this list are arranged in no particular order. That is to say that I don’t value the game I’ve put in the first spot on this list more or less than the final game I’ve chosen to include. I’ve said before that the entire structure of my articles like this is based on me browsing my Steam library and selecting games from it in an almost completely arbitrary manner. I always intend for these lists to reflect that.

Finally, the prices presented here are all in USD. As such, I would advise keeping a currency conversion calculator handy if you need one. With all of that quasi-legal mumbo-jumbo out of the way, I see no further obstructions keeping us from getting to the main event. Let us now begin the process of striking while both the weather and the Steam deals are hot! That is how the saying goes, right?

A Hat in Time – Discount: 50% – Sale Price: $14.99 ($19.90 for the Ultimate Edition with the soundtrack and all DLC)

I feel a burning desire to make the following joke, so I’m going to get it out of the way right up front. No, A Hat in Time is not the name of a new, unusual-quality cosmetic item in Team Fortress 2. Rather, it is a game that developers Gears for Breakfast describe as “a cute-as-heck 3D Platformer featuring a little girl who stitches hats for wicked powers.” For what it’s worth, I certainly agree with that description, especially the “cute-as-heck” part.

I think an important distinction that must be made here is that the game’s devs don’t mean “wicked powers” in a more nefarious sense of the phrase. A Hat in Time‘s protagonist, known simply as “Hat Kid,” is far too pure of heart for that sort of thing. Instead, the developers simply mean that Hat Kid can collect yarn from the various worlds she’ll visit over the course of the game, then use that yarn to stitch new hats that give her various impressive abilities. I remember when the aforementioned Team Fortress 2’s hats had similar effects when combined with certain cosmetics, but that’s neither here nor there.

I’ve got to tell you, folks, I absolutely adore this game. I can’t stress that enough. When I fired up A Hat in Time for the first time in years to get the footage from which I extracted the screenshots present in this entry, I fell in love with the game all over again. I had a huge smile on my face during every moment I spent playing it. I even said to Alexx after I wrapped up recording all the footage I needed that I desperately wished I had the time to just sit here and play its entire campaign in one sitting.

It occurs to me that I should probably explain at least a bit about why I feel so strongly in regards to A Hat in Time. You see, Hat Kid’s primary goal in the story campaign is to collect all of the magical Time Pieces that fuel her spaceship. Upon collecting enough of these Time Pieces, Hat Kid can provide power to her space-faring vessel once again and complete her journey home. It falls to you to guide Hat Kid through all the various worlds, levels, and acts that comprise the game’s campaign and regain as many Time Pieces as possible.

If you’re unsure as to what sort of game A Hat in Time actually is, and that aforementioned “cute-as-heck 3D Platformer” quote from the developers wasn’t quite enough to clue you in, let me provide a slightly more thorough explanation. Think Super Mario 64, except with a much more likable protagonist, a main antagonist who has more personality to her than Bowser could ever hope to, and heavily-detailed environments that serve to make this title look positively outstanding.

It is the combination of these factors that cause me to adore A Hat in Time as much as I do. I loved Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine when I was a lad, and this title brings back memories of those games in spades. However, I absolutely don’t mean to say this title just rides Nintendo’s coattails to fame and prominence. Not by a long shot. It’s mainly the game’s graphical fidelity that reminds me of Super Mario Sunshine, while the level structure and ultimate goal of collecting one Time Piece per level evoke memories of Super Mario 64.

In all honesty, when I write lists like this, I rarely return to the games I recommend during each roundup unless I wasn’t quite finished with them after playing them for long enough to acquire screenshots. The game to which I quickly returned after finishing last year’s Steam Winter Sale recommendation rally, for example, was easily The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. That was primarily because I created a character for myself who looks as much like Freddie Mercury as I could manage, but of course, I have vastly different reasons for enjoying A Hat in Time quite so much.

Now that I’ve been reminded of what A Hat in Time has in store for me, it’ll definitely be one of the games I keep going back to once this article is published. I want to experience every last thing that this title has to offer because I’m unshakably convinced that I’ll have a grand old time with it. Let it be known that there are several concrete reasons as to why I feel that way, as well as an equal amount of justifying factors for the game to make an appearance on this list.

LEGO DC Super-Villains – Discount: 85% – Sale Price: $5.99 ($8.24 for the Deluxe Edition)

Even though I believe I own almost every LEGO-themed game available on Steam, I hadn’t actually played any of them until LEGO DC Super-Villains came along. If I had to hazard a guess as to why that is, I’d say this one was the first game in the franchise that really piqued my interest. After all, outside of games like the Injustice series and Batman: Arkham Asylum’s PlayStation 3-exclusive DLC that let you play as The Joker in certain challenge maps, I can’t think of too many titles that allow their players to directly control a gaggle of DC Comics’ titular evildoers.

Of course, since this is a LEGO game, the darker aspects of DC’s storylines have been significantly toned down so as to safely appeal to a wider audience. For example, neither Scarecrow’s trademark fear toxin nor The Joker’s eponymous poison has quite the same nasty effects on those unfortunate enough to inhale them as they do in most comics and the Batman: Arkham games. Even despite the more “kid-friendly” nature of this game and its brick-based brethren, I quite enjoy what I’ve experienced of LEGO DC Super-Villains thus far.

One of the primary reasons for that is the fact that the game’s developers managed to assemble an all-star voice cast. This game features several of the same voice actors who have previously played iconic roles in all things Batman-related. I can feel myself getting started rambling about a subject related to DC Comics, which usually means I won’t be able to shut up for a while. Even so, I hope you’ll allow me to geek out for a moment or two.

Let me more properly explain why LEGO DC Super-Villains’ voice cast appeals to me so much. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprise their respective, legendary roles as Batman and The Joker. Wally Wingert returns as The Riddler. Grey DeLisle steals the show as Catwoman. Tara Strong hammers it home as Harley Quinn, and Tom Kane attempts to restore order as Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, to name several examples. If you’re as much of a DC nerd as I am, or if you’ve at least finished all four Batman: Arkham titles, that list probably tells you all you need to know.

Of course, the game’s voice cast is far from the only reason I so thoroughly enjoy what LEGO DC Super-Villains has to offer. There have been a few occasions when I’ve found myself unsure of what to do next in order to progress through the story. When this happens, it turns out that the answer most of the time is just to destroy some of the objects in your immediate vicinity, and use the resulting LEGO bricks to build whatever it is you need to bypass an obstacle. In my experience, you don’t really have to think very hard to solve most of the puzzles in this title, which is absolutely fine by me.

I feel I should also mention that you don’t play exclusively as, say, members of Batman’s rogues’ gallery through the game’s story. You actually get to create a super-villain of your very own, built out of LEGO bricks to whatever approved specifications you select. You don’t play as your own creation very frequently in the story mode as far as I’ve played up to this point, but I honestly don’t take much issue with that. Your custom super-villain is also mute, so I’d personally rather play as someone with a voice and, therefore, at least a bit more personality.

Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition – Discount: 75% – Sale Price: $4.99

Since I already let my more nerdy side out for a while during the previous entry, I’m going to make a concerted effort to refrain from doing that a second time as I discuss why I’ve included NetherRealm Studios’ 2013 release on this list. Longtime readers of ours may recall that I’ve already done a very similar song and dance with the arguably more prominent entry into the Injustice franchise, Injustice 2, during a past list of this scope. Even so, I see no harm in going back to the original Injustice: Gods Among Us every now and then.

Admittedly, one of my main reasons for saying that is the fact that the two fighters I considered my “mains” in the original Injustice (Nightwing and Lobo) aren’t playable in Injustice 2. So, even though I tend to prefer the second game in this series due primarily to the new features it added that the original lacked, I sometimes return to the first title. I mainly do so when I’m in the mood to crack some skulls with Nightwing’s escrima sticks or show my opponents why Lobo isn’t referred to as “the Main Man” for nothing.

The more of this entry I write out, the more I realize I don’t exactly have the sturdiest (or lengthiest) justification for recommending the original Injustice. Even so, I’ve put it on this list because I find it just plain fun when I feel like playing it. I may not have much to say to explain that mindset or the frequency with which it strikes in my case, but if finding a game fun isn’t at least a passable reason for including any title in a recommendation roundup, I don’t know what is.

Besides, both Injustice games are old enough now that you may be able to score both of them in a Steam bundle, or at least for quite cheap individually. Injustice 2 does have a fair bit of downloadable content stuck behind a paywall, but there exists its so-called “Legendary Edition” to address that to a certain extent. In contrast, the only version of the first Injustice available on Steam is one that already contains all of its DLC by default, so I’d say you’re getting a pretty sweet deal. That’s especially true if you grab both games before the end of the Summer Sale.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition – Discount: 70% – Sale Price: $5.99

I found myself faced with a bit of a conundrum when it came to looking through my Steam library for games I could include on this list. I’ve already recommended a collection containing Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas in the second list of this type that I’ve ever written (the one for 2019’s Winter Sale), so I couldn’t include those three again as per my aforementioned self-imposed rule. Beyond that, Grand Theft Auto V has been released and re-released on almost every platform imaginable by this point, so I’m certain you fine folks don’t need me to recommend that to you.

Then the solution hit me. There’s nothing stopping me from suggesting Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition, and I’ve elected to do exactly that for two primary reasons. Firstly, I’ve long felt that GTA IV and its DLC expansions, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, are at least somewhat underappreciated. Secondly, this anthology has been updated with such things as unlockable Steam achievements since its return to sale on the Steam platform after it was temporarily removed a while back due to a copyright issue.

I want to explain in more detail why I believe GTA 4 and its expansions deserve a bit more time in the limelight. I know these three campaigns have been something of an endless source of Internet memes, which I think is somewhat deserved. However, despite the constant threat of Roman Bellic driving me insane by constantly calling to ask if I want to go bowling with him, I greatly enjoy everything the original Grand Theft Auto IV, The Lost and Damned, and The Ballad of Gay Tony have to offer any players willing to give them a chance.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, all the screenshots I’ve included throughout this entry are from the story campaign of The Lost and Damned. That’s my personal favorite of the three and, as it happens, the only one of them I’ve actually finished at the time of writing. I specifically went back to TLAD to acquire screenshots for this article because I wanted to lose myself in the game’s world for a while.

I hadn’t played this collection in ages before going back to it for this article, so I wanted to give myself quite a bit of time to remember what it was like to control protagonist Johnny Klebitz again as seemingly everything comes crashing down around him due to ill-advised decisions made largely by others in his life. The Complete Edition of GTA IV may well be another game to which I find myself somewhat frequently returning after this article is finished and published, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

However, having said all that, I do want to pass on a couple of words of caution if you’re thinking about picking up this anthology. Firstly, as you might expect, this collection still requires you to sign in to the Rockstar Social Club if you want to enable features such as cloud save synchronization. Even so, to be fair to Rockstar to some extent, at least some form of cloud save syncing is present this time around, I suppose.

As far as I know, that’s currently the only method of automatically backing up your save file to a cloud of any description. I’m not sure whether or not GTA IV’s Complete Edition also syncs with the Steam Cloud because of that, but knowing how Rockstar typically does business, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if that isn’t the case.

Secondly, for some strange reason, this entire collection throws a not-insignificant tantrum whenever you alt-tab out of it. I had to do exactly that in order to configure my recording software to capture the game so I could get footage and screenshots for this article. The game locked up and refused to close as soon as I alt-tabbed, and I ended up having to restart my entire PC to get things back to normal. I don’t think I need to tell you how annoying this was. I think it really shouldn’t continue happening considering how long the game has been on Steam.

For my final word within this entry, I’d like to offer three bits of advice to Rockstar. I know their decision-makers probably won’t even see this article, much less read it and actually consider implementing my suggestions, but I want to say my peace regardless. For one, Rockstar, maybe stop re-releasing GTA V whenever you have so much as a modicum of an excuse to do so. If you don’t convince yourselves that you have to develop higher-resolution ports of the honestly rapidly-aging game every other year, that’ll give you time and resources to put my next two points into action.

For two, it probably wouldn’t kill you to go back and update the PC ports of your older titles so that they aren’t buggy messes quite as often. Granted, some of the bugs are amusing, but I think they still shouldn’t occur as frequently as they have been for me. For three, I see no harm whatsoever in allowing players to sync their save data to the Steam Cloud instead of that of your Social Club.

Not for Broadcast [Honorable Mention] – Discount: 50% – Sale Price: $12.49 ($15.66 for the Supporter Bundle with the soundtrack)

I’ve just received some extremely late-breaking news at the top of the hour this morning: Not for Broadcast rather triumphantly left Steam Early Access back in January to glowing reviews, including one written by yours truly. I’ve designated the game’s appearance on this list as an honorable mention solely because this isn’t the first time NFB has made its way into one of my biannual recommendation rallies.

On the previous occasion, however, the game had only recently entered Early Access. Though I must say, it looked quite promising even so early on in its development. So, now the question becomes what I can say about Not for Broadcast to entice you to check it out that I haven’t already said in my full review. Of course, I’m somewhat obligated to humbly suggest that you have a look at that article if you want a more thorough picture of my thoughts on this title. Even so, I suppose I can still provide you with something of an “elevator pitch” if you’d rather not do that.

Not for Broadcast takes place in an unnamed, yet somehow suspiciously British country in an alternate version of the 1980s. You play as Alex Winston, who was originally supposed to be a simple janitor at a building that houses the broadcast room for that nation’s daily 6 PM news program. However, since the fellow who previously ran the broadcast room and was in charge of editing each news show on the fly has not-so-mysteriously disappeared from his post, his job becomes yours.

That means you’re in charge of ensuring that each news broadcast is both informative and entertaining, bleeping out any naughty words that would’ve otherwise been said on national television, and above all else, keeping the news channel’s ratings as high as humanly possible. To make your end of the bargain more interesting, it just so happens that you stumble into your new gig on the same night that your home country holds a massively consequential election.

That election is won by a fringe political party that basically no one expected to make it past the primaries, let alone actually emerge victorious. The first thing this party (known as Advance) does when it takes power is confiscate the passports of everyone in the nation whose net worth exceeds a certain amount. Based on the tone of Advance’s leaders and the optics of certain policies they enact following this move, the country becomes increasingly divided on the topic of whether or not Advance and their agenda will actually prove beneficial for the unnamed nation and its citizens.

That’s precisely where you come in. Since you run the National Nightly News broadcast room, you directly control everything everyone watching the news program will hear and see. You have the option of doing your job exactly as you’re meant to, or perhaps beginning to let your political leanings play a role in your day-to-day duties.

You can do this by, say, choosing not to play an ad in support of Advance during one of the news broadcast’s commercial breaks, or by employing more overt methods of getting your point across. How you run the show is entirely up to you, which is one of many reasons I wholeheartedly recommend that you check out Not for Broadcast. Again, I suggest you take a look at my aforementioned full review if you’re still on the fence, but that’s the best I can do without spoiling the review.

There you have it, folks! I know this list and the one immediately preceding it have been shorter than you may have come to expect from me, and I feel compelled to apologize for that. This one was certainly less packed than I originally wanted it to be, but I had to cut several games from this list due to encroaching time constraints. In the interest of transparency, I started working on this article in early February in an effort to prevent exactly that from happening, and yet time still slipped through my fingers much more quickly than I would have preferred.

Even so, I hope this list was lengthy and detailed enough to give you some ideas if you’ve got some cash burning a hole in your pocket during one of the two major Steam sale events of any given year. Of course, if you’ve got any suggestions for games I may not have checked out yet, you’re more than welcome to leave them in this article’s comments if you wish. Hey, look at that! I even made it through an entire recommendation rally without mentioning Sid Meier’s Civilization VI! Oh, wait…