$20 - What's the best game on Steam

[Jimmy T. Malice]

To agree with virtually everyone in the thread, The Orange Box. It's got the best puzzle game ever (well, second best now that the sequel's out), the best FPS ever, and the best multiplayer FPS ever. You can't go wrong with that. I assume it's under $20 (I got it for £15 in the UK at retail).

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Neverwinter Nights 2 if you really like RPG's and can put up with a few LOT of bugs

http://store.steampowered.com/app/2760/

 

[Trololo Punk]

either the orange box or amnesia the dark descent,

 

[Rack]

Might as well pick up Ben There Dan That as well, you can see if you're into adventure games which are something of a relative to RPGs and it's free so you can definitely afford it no matter what else you pick up. You can also pick up a few Command and Conquer games free to see if you're into RTS, but Dawn of War, Starcraft 2 and Company of Heroes are better introductions to the genre so you might just play a few demos of those.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

I really thought about this, but unfortunately WoW is the sole reason i ended up with a sweet gaming PC, but have not played any awesome games on it. haha

I quit WoW a month or so ago after about 2 1/2 years, i just can't get into another MMO if i want my relationship to survive!

Haha, I see. You could get her/him into the MMO too!

Guild Wars isn't an MMO in the traditional sense. You're only with other players when you're in safe zones, like cities and villages. You go into instanced areas with up to 7 other people or henchmen (NPC's) when you walk out of the city, it's there where you do quests. The level cap is lv20 and the armor/weaponry is capped at that level too, so the costly armors are for aesthetic/achievement purposes only. You'll generally hit lv20 about 25% into the campaign of any one expansion. It's more of an RPG with MMO elements, the fun lies within the experience itself, not the fun of experience (ala WoW). It's definitely an MMO (I'll call it that for simplification) that you can play for 30 minutes at a time and still make progress, and not feel like you need to play more to accomplish more. Not to mention the PvP combat, which is one of the most balanced out there.

 

[intheweeds]

I really thought about this, but unfortunately WoW is the sole reason i ended up with a sweet gaming PC, but have not played any awesome games on it. haha

I quit WoW a month or so ago after about 2 1/2 years, i just can't get into another MMO if i want my relationship to survive!

Haha, I see. You could get her/him into the MMO too!

Guild Wars isn't an MMO in the traditional sense. You're only with other players when you're in safe zones, like cities and villages. You go into instanced areas with up to 7 other people or henchmen (NPC's) when you walk out of the city, it's there where you do quests. The level cap is lv20 and the armor/weaponry is capped at that level too, so the costly armors are for aesthetic/achievement purposes only. You'll generally hit lv20 about 25% into the campaign of any one expansion. It's more of an RPG with MMO elements, the fun lies within the experience itself, not the fun of experience (ala WoW). It's definitely an MMO (I'll call it that for simplification) that you can play for 30 minutes at a time and still make progress, and not feel like you need to play more to accomplish more. Not to mention the PvP combat, which is one of the most balanced out there.

Maybe i will check it out then... I just can't get into a raid schedule again!

 

[Baneat]

I really thought about this, but unfortunately WoW is the sole reason i ended up with a sweet gaming PC, but have not played any awesome games on it. haha

I quit WoW a month or so ago after about 2 1/2 years, i just can't get into another MMO if i want my relationship to survive!

Haha, I see. You could get her/him into the MMO too!

Guild Wars isn't an MMO in the traditional sense. You're only with other players when you're in safe zones, like cities and villages. You go into instanced areas with up to 7 other people or henchmen (NPC's) when you walk out of the city, it's there where you do quests. The level cap is lv20 and the armor/weaponry is capped at that level too, so the costly armors are for aesthetic/achievement purposes only. You'll generally hit lv20 about 25% into the campaign of any one expansion. It's more of an RPG with MMO elements, the fun lies within the experience itself, not the fun of experience (ala WoW). It's definitely an MMO (I'll call it that for simplification) that you can play for 30 minutes at a time and still make progress, and not feel like you need to play more to accomplish more. Not to mention the PvP combat, which is one of the most balanced out there.

Maybe i will check it out then... I just can't get into a raid schedule again!

Game's been dead for years.

 

[Starke]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl ($20) or Call of Pripyat ($15). Two of the best ever FPSRPGs. Avoid Clear Sky. >_>

I would have suggested this but STALKER is pretty unrepentantly hard core, and might not be the best place for someone to start, unless they're looking for a baptism of fire.

My favorite $20 games are: Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Metro 2033, Drakensang The River of Time. There are also some great $10 games if you want to pick up 2 games: Magicka, Psychonauts, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, and Portal.

Bloodlines and 2033 are also pretty vicious and unless River of Time was a massive improvement on the first game, that's also, honestly a poor choice, due in large part to dodgy translations (even in the P&P version of Die Schawrze Augre (sp?)).

I can't speak to Psychonauts except that it's neither an RPG nor an FPS... I hear very good things about it, though.

On that thought, Fallout 3 is $20, though the GotY edition is $30 and is probably worth it just for the amount of content it adds.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

Game's been dead for years.

Hardly, stop abusing the word. Sure, it's not as popular as it was a few years back, but it's not dead. I still play it and I have no problem grouping up with other people.

 

[player3141]

If you get the orange box, you get the dozens of mods that are availabe for it.
The mods themselves are more fun than most of the stuff released from EA.
My personal favore it is Empires, which you can even download on steam.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/17740/

 

[Ranorak]

Morrowind, for the love of GOD morrowind!