Last update 8/13/2024

Hello everyone!

Maybe you're new to Steam or you've just happened across my page. I've put a list here of games I highly recommend for different categories. Take all the games listed here as a serious recommendation. I don't put games I feel were "meh", just ok, or good on this list.

2024 - Helldivers 2 - Until they went face first off a cliff....
2023 - Baldur's Gate 3 - Holy cow this RPG has it all. Amazing story, characters, and interactions. Just look at the facial motion capture! NO IN GAME STORE. This sets the bar for RPGs going forward.
2022 - Busy with women, I really didn't game this year.
2021 - Bloons TD6 - I got back into this game in a big way and had a blast with the different events, the challenging maps, and the variety of monkey towers in this classic TD format game. It's fun to experiment with different builds/towers and the online multiplayer has a plethora of emotes to spam at your teammates.
2020 - Dead by Daylight - Four years after it's release I rejoined the game during the four year anniversary event, dove deep into the meta, and had a blast!
2019 - Hard to say, played a lot of good games this year- Vermintide 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and World War Z to name a few.
2018* - StarCraft Remastered
2017 - PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
2016 - DOOM
2015 - The Witcher 3 + both amazing expansions
2014 - Alien Isolation
2013 - The Last of Us on PS3/PS4 - For PC only: Tomb Raider

*A note on 2018 and my GOTY recommendations. I played a number of 2018 releases and some back catalog games from 2017 including StarCraft: Remastered & Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. I decided I would make my 2018 GOTY a back catalog game because of how satisfying my experience was and how strongly I would recommend the game. Shadow of War was also excellent and left me wanting more. The 2018 new releases I played included Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and Battlefield V. None of these I felt were recommendation worthy. I did a search to check if there were any titles I played and missed, but there were none I played through and plenty I skipped. There were some I bought which are now sitting in queue, I'm pretty sure we're all guilty of this, and I may recommend them in the future. There's also many titles I just haven't put enough time into yet to make the ultimate thumbs up/down recommendation. This includes Super Mario Party, Fallout 4, Super Smash Bros, to name a few. I'm pretty sure whenever I finish Divinity Original Sin 2, it will be the GOTY for that given year =)

The Witcher Trilogy
The Longest Journey Trilogy (close runner up!)
Mass Effect Trilogy
Uncharted Trilogy

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (3rd person)
Mass Effect 1+2 (3rd person shooter)
Dragon Age: Origins + DLC, aka "Ultimate Edition" (3rd person)
Witcher 1, 2, & 3 All 3 games are great RPGs with the second and third being a bit better IMO.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Really good shooter game. Has RPG elements by giving you very limited skill points, but many trees to choose from- you can't max them out!)
Stardew Valley A little life simulator with farming, combat, fishing, romance, and adventure. Be forewarned of this wonderful time sink
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Very unique world with interesting characters. You'll need to download the unofficial patch to have it run on modern systems
Life is Strange (I was blown away by this sleeper hit, an amazing game)
Telltale's The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead 1 & 2 + DLC, and last but not least Puzzle Agent 1+2 (I found these two, especially the first, to be very funny!)
The Longest Journey, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, and Dreamfall: Chapters (AMAZING STORIES!! Read my reviews)
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Simple Puzzles, 2.5-3 hours, controller required for best play)

Torchlight 2 (Diablo clone)
Borderlands 2 (FPS)
Killing Floor 1 + 2 (FPS)
Orcs Must Die 1+2 (3rd person shooter/Tower Defense)
Diablo 3 from Blizzard/Battle.net (Non-Steam)
StarCraft 2 Co-Op Commanders from Blizzard/Battle.net (Non-Steam)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Killing Floor 1 + 2
Borderlands 2
Left 4 Dead 2

Puzzle Agent
Faster Than Light (rouge-lite)
Plants vs Zombies (tower defense)
Torchlight 2
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Hearthstone from Blizzard/Battle.net (Non-Steam)
Space, Pirates, and Zombies (top down spaceship shooter, repetitive, but cute and fun)

Bastion & Transistor
Batman Arkham Asylum (City + Origins sequels were fun, but somewhere between Meh & Good. I preferred the less-open world and first game in the series)
Tomb Raider & the sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider [by Crystal Dynamics, 2013 & 2015/16] (This game is *exactly* my cup of tea, I highly, highly recommend it.)

DOOM Effin amazin'
Half Life, Half Life 2 + DLC
Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light
Wolfenstein: The New Order (Total Biscuit's GOTY for 2014 and a really well built shooter with great story implementation)
Alien: Isolation (It left a solid impression on me and months after beating the game I keep thinking back on many of the scenes I played through in this game)
Far Cry 3, Blood Dragon, and Far Cry 4 (All very good games and fun to play, with Blood Dragon and FC4 getting 2 big thumbs up from me)

DOTA 2
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Team Fortress 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Overwatch from Blizzard/Battle.net (Non-Steam)

XCOM: Enemy Unknown + Enemy Within (Expansion)
XCOM 2 (Amazing follow up to the original game)
Civilization 5 + DLC/Expansions (after first playing the God & Kings xpac, and then playing Brave New World (BNW), I would say you can't play this game without at least one of the expansions and BNW is the better one).

*Alien's Colonial Marines - I preordered this and got burned; only buy at bargain bin prices (<$10). DLC probably isn't worth it as the crowd who played around release has moved on... if they haven't, they're losers.
*Deadlight - A great example of everything wrong when you port to PC and had inconsistent platforming expectations.
*Lost Planet - Bad PC port, bad mechanics, and bad story.


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Ok, there's a lot of games there! I have a small list of recommendations if you're able to hit one of the many Steam Sales and want to get a few titles with a solid bang-for-the-buck. These include my "must haves" on Steam.
Mass Effect 1+2, $10
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1+2, $10
Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition $7.50
Bastion ~$4
Metro 2033 $5 (as low as $2 now!)
Half Life 2 $5 + Episode 1+2 ~$5, so about $10 total
Torchlight 2 ~$6
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons $5

I really feel if you start your game collection here you'll have hundreds of hours of game play with really solid, high-quality games for a bit over $50. This small batch of highly recommended games focuses strongly on story. All but 1, Torchlight 2, are single player games, but they will take you on the emotional roller coaster, give you a sense of adventure, fear, or the sensation of being pulled into another world.

If you're a veteran then check out of these games and let me know what you think, and if you agree or disagree with my recommendations! Happy gaming!