Save big bucks on games so good you’ll stay inside all summer

By

Hotline Miami

With summertime here in the northern hemisphere, it’s definitely time to get outdoors and sample all that the world has to offer.

Of course, if Steam or GoG.com have anything to say about it, you’ll stay inside working on your pasty complexion playing all these amazing games for very little money.

Both gaming digital distribution platforms have their respective summer sales on right now, and you can grab some amazing games without emptying your wallet. All of the games below are playable on Mac or PC, so pick your poison.

Just lay off the sunscreen, ok?

Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero is one of those games that you’ll have to play to really appreciate, but it’s buzzing all over the internets right now, especially with the recently released Act 3, which is sitting on an unheard-of 91 aggregate score on Metacritic. It’s a poignant, atmpospheric adventure game about a secret highway in caves under Kentucky, full of magic and mystery. The season pass (for all five acts planned) is on sale now at GoG.com for half off the regular price, at $12.49.

Hotline Miami made waves when it came out due to its weird frission of retro video game graphics and sound with brutal violence. It’s been called a commentary on video game violence, and, if nothing else, will challenge you with it’s old school difficulty. You’ll play as a mysterious anti-hero in an alternative 1989 Miami who goes on a rage-fueled rampage against the criminal underworld because your answering machine tells you to. Solve the mystery of why you’re doing these horrible things while you’re blasting your way through boss after boss. You can get this 85 Metacritic-rated game for a sweet $1.99 right now, too.

Sid Meier is the king of highly technical yet entertaining historical simulation games, Like the super-popular Civilization V. With Alpha Centauri, the strategy game takes to space, where you must gain control of a new planet as one of seven unique factions, each with its own agenda. Play this 92-rated Metacritic game before the new Beyond Earth comes out to get a sense of what the new game will have in store for you. Heck, it’s only $1.49 right now and includes the “Alien Crossfire” expansion, too, so why hesitate?

If you’ve got a spare $3.74, you can grab yourself a copy of Rogue Legacy (above), a fantastic rogue-like-lite 2D action platformer for your PC or Mac. It’s got a respectable 85 score on Metacritic, and it’s one of my favorite games to play when I have a few minutes to kill. Every time you die, and you will die quite a bit, your hero’s child will succeed you. The trick here is that each child has some unique issues, like color blindness, dwarfism or Tourette’s. You’ll get to use these special abilities to your advantage as you run through tough dungeons filled with traps and enemies.

metrolastlight

Steam has its own summer sale on, as well, but as they put new games on sale every 24 hours, which games you find for cheap is a matter of when you head to the Steam store. As of this posting, There are some great games on sale, like post-apocalyptic Russia first person shooter, Metro: Last Light for $6.79, post-apocalyptic shooter/adventure game Fallout: New Vegas with all the DLC trimmings for $6.79, and role-playing favorite Space Hulk, based on the crazy-popular Warhammer 40,000 universe, for only $2.50. You can’t get much better than this for much cheaper, for sure.

Whether you head to GoG.com or Steam (or both!), now is the time to fill up your digital playground with these incredibly discounted games, and skip the outdoors altogether.

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