Even if building a gaming PC is prohibitively expensive for most people in 2026, software continues to be cheap and abundant. Valve launched its Steam Summer sale last week and all the normal things happened: Red Dead Redemption 2 got a 75% discount for the 14th time since January 2025. The Witcher 3 got its fifth 95% discount since July 2024 (though it’s been discounted 15 other times since then, at slightly lower percentages). After eight 65% discounts since June 2025, Cyberpunk 2077 finally got a new record (75% off).
Big publisher games—especially from the likes of Ubisoft, Sega, Sony, 2K and Bethesda—obviously dominate the front page, with major indie mainstays like Terraria, Satisfactory and Dead Cells sharing some of the limelight. Nowadays it’s rare to be surprised by an especially steep discount during a seasonal sale: publishers normally increase the discount percentage incrementally as a game gets longer in the tooth. If you’ve got a wishlist, you probably gravitate towards browsing that.
Rather than splashing out on games that might be conventionally fun to play, this sale has prompted me to spend most of Sunday afternoon browsing Steam’s ever-surprising abundance of ’90s PC gaming obscurities. It’s an especially deep, fascinating and occasionally troubling rabbit hole. I’m talking about real forgotten obscurities like—to pull an example randomly out of the air—this Accolade-published 1994 FMV motorbike racer.
For every carefully updated Nightdive Studios reissue like I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, or D: The Game there’s something like the straight-to-DOSBox Wolfenstein engine obscurity Operation Body Count, which had the great misfortune of releasing a year after Doom. I wouldn’t recommend playing it necessarily, but for $2.44 it’s fascinating as an insight into how devs were pushing that engine at the tail end of its relevance.
Or what about Interphase, a still-unique 1989 cyberpunk adventure puzzler whose better version was on Amiga? Or Corpse Killer, a 1995 FMV rail shooter with straight-to-VHS presentation, by the guy who directed Child’s Play 2? Keeping to the FMV theme, what about The Dame Was Loaded, a 1996 Australia-made detective noir point ‘n’ clicker with laughable accents? How could you possibly resist?
You don’t even need to buy these games: sometimes watching the trailer, looking at the screenshots, and then Googling other material—videos, contemporary reviews, forum threads—is enough. I wouldn’t necessarily advise you to go and finish the whole Realms of Arkania trilogy (though please feel welcome), but loading Blade of Destiny and simply beholding its gorgeously ornate pixel art immediately evokes the fragrance of the ’90s (the chemical smell of magazine paper, in particular).
Like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, these are all discounted as part of the Steam Summer Sale. For a good entry point to Steam’s collection of forgotten oldies, this Retro Games curator page is worth a browse.
If you want a couple of suggestions that I’ve enjoyed recently: Sanitarium is an absolute banger of a horror point ‘n’ clicker, while Bad Mojo Redux is still the best cockroach sim on PC.
Top Steam games by revenue (June 16 – 23)
Steam releases its top sellers charts on Wednesdays, so the below chart doesn’t factor in some late week releases, particularly the Steam Machine. We’ll also start to see the effect of the Summer sale more clearly this coming Wednesday (expect Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 to factor heavily).
|
Rank |
Game |
|---|---|
|
1 |
PUBG: Battlegrounds |
|
2 |
Meccha Chameleon |
|
3 |
Counter-Strike 2 |
|
4 |
Cyberpunk 2077 |
|
5 |
Dead By Daylight |
|
6 |
Marvel Rivals |
|
7 |
Warframe |
|
8 |
Steam Deck |
|
9 |
Path of Exile 2 |
|
10 |
Forza Horizon 6 |
Mecha Chameleon continues its domination: Lincoln Carpenter reviewed it late last week, writing that its “a multiplayer experience that exceeds its friendslop trappings”. It hit 10 million sales last Friday, which is a jaw-dropping amount for a sub-$10 indie.
The PUBG PNC 2026 tournament happened between June 23 and 28, hence its sudden flight to the top of the chart. As for Cyberpunk 2077, it’s among the most steeply discounted major games in the Steam Summer sale.
Last week’s Steam deep cuts
nophenia | June 26
This gentle, atmospheric exploration game seems heavily inspired by other liminal space games: there’s the rolling hills with homely two-storey bungalows, and there’s the greyscale urban expanse dotted with Soviet tower blocks. Unlike a lot of its contemporaries, people seem to be playing and enjoying this a lot, and the art style is quite distinctive.
The Ferryman’s Trial | June 26
The pixel art in this grimy visual novel goes extremely hard: it makes Skald: Against the Black Priory look crisp. The Ferryman’s Trial is loosely similar to Papers, Please: it’s ultimately a sequence of difficult decisions that culminate. Amazingly, it’s by the creators of Duck Souls.
Sludge Department | June 24
Sludge Department is a ’90s style point ‘n’ click adventure about “fixing a strange water treatment plant in a remote swampy area”. Resuscitating this plant will naturally require the solving of many puzzles, but there’s inevitably a bunch of weirdos to interface with as well. Definitely one for fans of forgotten CD-ROM oddities.
Hard Truck 2: King of the Road | June 24
It would’ve felt a shame to neglect this newly reissued 2000 trucking sim given the theme of this week’s column. It’s probably not going to replace your obsession with Euro or American Truck Simulator, but it is a lot more detailed and sim-focused than you might expect from some an ancient artefact. The response in the Steam forums is positive.
Steam review of the week
“Can bring kitty with you. Can pet kitty. Kitty don’t take resources. 10/10 game”
Vivilyen, enjoying the cats in Don’t Sleep With The Fishes.
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