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Even in a year of what has seemed like one big permanent sale certain spots in the calendar are always highlighted as “the big sale”. Steam’s Autumn / Fall sale is one such event (even though it is followed by the Winter sale about 20 minutes after this one finishes).
The Autumn Sale is an opportunity to save big on games you might simply have missed out on or been too busy to play, but with the Holiday season fast approaching, maybe there is a little more free time on the horizon, and your backlog needs filling up right?
So here are five games we definitely think you need to add to your Steam Library to make everybody envious of your gaming prowess.
They are in no particular order and we have tried to select something for everybody, but they are undoubtedly all worth your time if you don’t already own them.
Steam Autumn Sale best buys
Satisfactory
Price: 20% off RRP
Rating: Overwhelmingly Positive
Regular readers of Readwrite Gaming will not be surprised to see this as a pick here. 2024 was the year Satisfactory emerged from five years of Early Access to become a grown-up game all of its own.
Satisfactory has already picked up Best PC Game at the first major awards of the season, the Golden Joysticks, and with good reason. Even if other factory construction games such as Factorio never grabbed you (it didn’t me), the accessibility and difficulty curve of Satisfactory, plus its ludicrous attention to detail make this a genuinely great game.
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2
Price: 20% off RRP
Rating: Very Positive
Another game long in the making – over a decade in fact, is Space Marine 2 which suffered the ignominy of a late version being leaked a week or so before launch. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have hampered its progress and the game has been very well-received for both single-player and multiplayer gameplay. It’s still not exactly cheap, but 20% off RRP might tip you towards adding it to your basket.
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Price: 43% off RRP
Rating: Mostly Positive
A sizeable discount is offered for Capcom’s action RPG, which attracted a lot of attention when it first came out back in March. We’re not sure Dragon’s Dogma 2 is worth a full-price purchase still but at nearly half off it’s definitely worth a look if you like the Elden Ring vibe of a Souls-like, without it actually being a Souls-like. It’s tough, does not explain itself, and just lets you get stuck into the action.
Dave the Diver
Price:30% off RRP
Rating: Overwhelmingly Positive
Now something for those with lighter of wallet and not looking for a AAA to play. Dve the Diver should be in every Steam library, the casual, single-player RPG sees you as the titular Dave, a Diver who goes deep-sea fishing during the day and runs a sushi restaurant to sell the catches at night. It’s absolute madness, but completely engaging and one of the best little games of the last 18 months.
Hearts of Iron IV Starter Edition
Price:70% off RRP
Rating: Very Positive
The oldest game on this list and also the most cerebral. Paradox Interactive’s WW2 magnum opus of a wargame has taken years to get as good as it is. It has so much DLC on offer, much of which is needed to make the game truly great, but this Starter Edition gets you going with some extra content including the Allied Speech Pack which will play you key speeches (Fight them on the Beaches type stuff) at appropriate points in the game. Next stop, Immersion Central.
Hearts of Iron IV is impossible to put down once it’s got you, and if you are worried about all the extra DLC, there’s a subscription model with a monthly fee that unlocks the lot for you.
When is the Steam Autumn Sale
The Steam Autumn sale is currently running and will run until the end of 4th December. It has a great selection of big titles with decent discounts that are unlikely to see anything bigger in terms of reductions when the Winter Sale starts shortly before Christmas.
