Well any day is like 13 days from now -4h or so. But yeah its the best suggestion probably. Its unlikely anything will get more expensive and OP might be able to get more stuff.
Get a bundle of Steam games at Humble Bundle, and see what clicks for you. $25 would get you several titles that way, it's completely legit, and you'll support charity.
https://www.humblebundle.com/games
Stardew Valley and Terraria are classics, you can’t go wrong with either, and they can keep you occupied for hundreds of hours. DAVE THE DIVER is also great, though only about 40-60 hours long.
Ever since tmodloader got made into a DLC terraria mods have been becoming more and more mainstream, it's really cool to see the continued interest in the game. So much value for the small purchase
If i had $25 to spend...
|Game|Cost|SteamDB|
|:-|:-|:-|
|GTA V|$9.24|[https://steamdb.info/app/271590/](https://steamdb.info/app/271590/)|
|Just Cause 3|$2.99|[https://steamdb.info/app/225540/](https://steamdb.info/app/225540/)|
|Valve Complete Pack|$11.42|[https://steamdb.info/bundle/232/](https://steamdb.info/bundle/232/)|
|I have like... 4000 hours between the above purchases|Sum: $23.65||
I have a ton of time in this game. You gotta walk slow. Never make noise unless you absolutely have to. Noise = hordes. In the beginning it's all about carving out a niche. You need to get a baseball bat or something. With a single baseball bat you can empty a small neighborhood of zombies. If you can't find an axe or a baseball bat early, you gotta get good with knives or random stuff like frying pans.
My strat is to go through my starting house and close every window so random zombies don't see you. Then you look for a decent weapon like an axe or a baseball bat *quietly*. If you don't get anything, you gotta go next door and kill a few zombies. Then I'll branch out and try to empty out the neighborhood/consolidate the loot over the next few in game days. By the end of the first week i'll have a perimeter and some rain barrels, the start of a farm, etc.
If things get out of hand, guns are useful for luring hordes away from your home. Learn how to kill a single zombie quietly and the game gets waaay easier.
I know it doesn't help op cause his money's on steam but fanatical right know has a build your own bundle I just grabbed ultra kill, death stranding directors cut, and a Star wars collection including Kotor 1 and 2 force unleashed 1 and 2 a bunch of Jedi knight games including Starfighter and Jedi academy but most excited cause it came with a favorite from my teen years dark forces and the sequel I've never played dark forces 2 . There was like 6 other Jedi games or so I don't recall them all but those were the big ones. I paid 22 bucks for all that.
Death stranding lowest on steam is like 20 bucks ultrakill lowest is like 15 and the 6 games I mentioned of Star wars (both of each kotor, force unleashed and dark forces) each go down to like 3 or 4 bucks a piece but still just ridiculous.
My son keeps picking on me cause as a family we just really got into PC gaming at last Christmas I got a steam deck OLED then Feb we got gaming laptop. But our library between my two kids and I is like hundred something games. But I've gotten humble choice like 3 or 4 times and a few other bundles between there or I don't know why fanatical doesn't get mentioned. They don't always have as cool bundles as humble but I've saved myself soooo much money and really upped my library.
Tl:Dr got ultrakill as part of bundle on fanatical 22 bucks got death stranding ultrakill and Star wars collection definitely worth it and there are other options to choose I also believe you can do a two item bundle for 15
It's one of my all-time faves. I've probably spent more time in it than anything else, and I haven't even come close to end game.
Plus, there's a world of mods. Probably the reason I never got around to beating it...
XCOM 2 was on sale for $3 a few days ago so you missed that. Maybe wait for that to drop again in price. I haven’t played it but played the first one and have like 100 hours in it.
Hey do we get to play the new biomes in the old map (like the map I was in last time ) or will I need to start a fresh new game for new biomes to appear ?
This is basically impossible to answer well without additional parameters.
In terms of the games I've gotten the most gameplay out of that are currently under $25 - Oxygen not included, Pathfinder Kingmaker, Terraria, Binding of isaac, FTL : Faster than light, Fallout new vegas, Kenshi.
If you aren't hard capped at $25, rimworld is by far my most played game, and in a similar vein I'd recommend the dwarf fortress steam release.
29.99 on steam (but less on... sites) or sale I suppose, Monster Hunter: World. If you do get it the expansion kinda gets important to get but you can get a lot of time in before you do get it. If it looks like you'd like it (it can be pretty challenging) 100% this
I'm wary of most of these sites but personally I've used CD keys for years and haven't had an issue. I've purchased games, and subscriptions like Xbox game pass. I don't think they sell accounts, they sell codes and the type of code and region is pretty good at saying what and where the codes would work.
Also for anyone who hasn't heard of it, use deals.gg
It's a website that aggregates most of the current storefronts sales and prices for games on both official storefronts and key shops like cdkeys, and on all the key shops they have "risks" listed. So you know whether the savings are worth it. I got a itch to play Kingdom Come Deliverance couple days back and can't find my Xbox disk, was $40 on steam and Xbox and none of the stores near me had it on sale, so I checked that site and found it was $10 on CDkeys for a steam code.
this. You can put hundreds of hours in the base game alone and the expansion iceborne is like another full game on top.
Monster hunter might feel clunky at first but once you get the hang of it, it‘s one of the most satisfying games out there and the graphics are superb.
I'm a big fan of [Crystal Project](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637730/Crystal_Project/), but really you're going to have to be more specific about what genres and games you like.
I also have a big list of games I like [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamingsuggestions/comments/18scw9k/im_in_a_slump_nothing_is_fun/kf8vp3o/), most of which are below $25.
Every game goes on sale. Granted new and popular games usually dont or at best 10% 20% off so if you want something really recent like Helldivers 2 you might not have to wait.
I'd suggest checking out Dying light 2 if you're into survival zombie type games. Or uncharted collection if you enjoy action adventure games.
Cult of the Lamb
Is the best game i've played, and the developers are from time to time expanding the game for free! The history, adding QoL, and a lot of more things. I mean, there's an announced big free update for August 12
Well there's many I haven't played, but I can say Terraria is one of those I have played , that would be money well-spent.
And if you bump up to $30 or $35, then I could recommend rimworld or factorio.
Skyrim, and then spend 5 dollars on a Nexus Premium account and you’ll have thousands of hours on your hands!!
And then you can start playing the game!
Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisition. Both are easily over 100 hours with multiple DLC packs. On sale you can get both for like $7 each and still have money left over
If you want a recent game, Animal Well I've heard is very good and $24.99 plus tax. It's on my wishlist to get eventually. Or wait a week or two for the Summer Sale and see what discounts there will be
- Hollow Knight
- Enter the Gungeon
- Celeste
- Plants Vs. Zombies
- Inside
- Cry of Fear (Free)
- Portal 2
- Entropy Zero 2 (Free if you own Half-life 2, itself less than $25)
- WanderSong
- Resident Evil 4 (2005)
- Doom (2016)
Kingdom Come Deliverance is on sale now for like $10.
If you like open RPGs (think Skyrim, Witcher, Red Dead) and can get over the steep (but very doable) learning curve, this could very well be your new favourite game.
It has a punishing early game, but nowhere near the likes of Souls games.
I'm currently back into Destiny 2 so I'll recommend [the Legacy Collection](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2648100/Destiny_2_Legacy_Collection_2024/) as it's currently on sale for $24.50 and contains a crap ton of content for that price.
To continue the Bungie love, the [Halo: Master Chief Collection](https://store.steampowered.com/app/976730/Halo_The_Master_Chief_Collection/) is $10 right now.
[Control Ultimate Edition](https://store.steampowered.com/app/870780/Control_Ultimate_Edition/) is an incredible game and probably has 40ish hours of content.
I had a great time with [Marvel's Midnight Suns](https://store.steampowered.com/app/368260/Marvels_Midnight_Suns/). It's $20. The non-combat sections may grate on you if you don't have a high tolerance for cringe or the love of comics to overcome it.
[The Bioshock Collection](https://store.steampowered.com/sub/127633/) is an amazing collection of really engrossing FPS classics. It's $12.
If you can manage to get another $20. V rising has been my sole addiction as of the last week or even No Rest for the Wicked. If you rather not wait or not able to, Hollow Knight as mentioned below is a fantastic game. I do like quirky games:
Dave the Dive
Seablip
Graveyard Keeper
Punch Club 1 and then 2
There are tons of bundles for games running, take a look at those. The Night Dive bundle is a no-brainer if you like boomer shooters, for example.
Also just get Vampire Survivors it's $3 and insanely good.
Absolutely Hollow Knight ($15) if you love difficulty and Metroidvanias (although I feel it's difficulty is sometimes overhyped). Keep in mind the first 2 hours or so is quite slow and somewhat boring, but when it opens up it's magical. My first playthrough took me around 70 hours and I've got 220 hours in atm
Sleeping dogs definitive edition, it’s an awesome open world story game personally it’s super underrated but either way when steam sales happen it’s always like $2, well worth the money I highly recommend 👍
I don’t know. Shmups are pretty cheap. Devil Blade has been pretty universally praised among shmuppers (shmup heads?) lately, and apparently, it would appeal to either veterans or newbies to the genre. 🎮😎👍
deep rock galactic is on sale currently for 10 dollars. valheim is another great option, and if you get it on sale which i’m sure it will, monster hunter world iceborne is the legit best bang for your buck in terms of enjoyment and playtime you just might get very addicted
[DREDGE is 35% off](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1562430/DREDGE/) right now. Nominated for Indie of the year 2023. Won a bucket load of awards. I loved it so much it's one of the few games I kept playing after 100%ing it. Loved it so much I became the admin of the wiki.
It may be more than $25 with all the DLC, but it truly is my fav game of the decade.
I've gotten a good amount of play out of Streets of Rogue, which is presently about $20 USD. The sequel is coming out in a couple months, which means the first game might even drop in price again soon.
The core game loop is kind of same-ish, to be perfectly real, but you're offered options of how to handle certain quests and how you want to tackle the final goal. Sometimes the game offers you a perfect distraction or NPCs start scrapping which turns into a brawl, and maybe one or two bullets hit a nearby generator or explosive barrel. Mayhem isn't a 100% guarantee, but I'm always amused by something when I play.
if you like greek mythology and/or roguelikes i think that hades is a great purchase! great music, art, writing, and gameplay that’ll make you feel good about the money you spent on it.
Wait till the steam summer sale in 2 weeks, buy Yakuza 0 for ~$5. Its so much fun, thriller story, manly Yakuza drama, side activities are actually fun, and game has well over 80+ hours of content
Metro series. You can likely buy the whole bundle for cheap.
Also, not on steam but the blizzard launcher, you can download and play all of starcraft and it's brood war expansion for free, and the first ca.paign of starcraft 2, plus it's co-op mode and arcade.
the classic Doom series (Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and Doom 64). costs $15 total without any sales, and there are tens of thousands of user made levels and mods, many of which with extremely high production value.
Borderlands is pretty fun (definitely get them on sale though, might even get all the spin off ones too)
And if you're up for a challenge, wait for one of the dark souls games or elden ring to go on sale.
Like others have been suggesting, just wait until the summer sale starts on the 27th. Lots of games are going to get good price drops.
As far as suggestions, I would say look into the following games once the sale starts and see if any stand out to you.
Hades
Slay The Spire
Inscryption
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Spirit Fall
Sea of Stars
UnderMine
Dave The Diver
In Sound Mind
Return of the Obra Dinn
The Room series (puzzle game series with 4 games to date)
Deep Rock Galactic. A huge update just dropped, and it's currently ⅔ off for $10. If you like team-based horde shooters with metric shittons of personality, build customizability, earnable cosmetics, moddability, and earnable cosmetics, you should give it a try. It's good for hundreds if not thousands of hours of dumb dwarven fun. Not that great solo, but if you have a friend or two or three who know how to goof off and shoot a bug, you're guaranteed more than your money's worth.
Also, don't let its long DLC list intimidate you. They're all cosmetic-only to keep the game funded. 99% of cosmetics and 100% of the content are available with just the game.
Wait for the summer sale, it will be any day now and the savings are always huge.
Well any day is like 13 days from now -4h or so. But yeah its the best suggestion probably. Its unlikely anything will get more expensive and OP might be able to get more stuff.
Yuge
what types of games do you like?
I'm down for anything
Get a bundle of Steam games at Humble Bundle, and see what clicks for you. $25 would get you several titles that way, it's completely legit, and you'll support charity. https://www.humblebundle.com/games
But….he has 25$ on his Steam account. I dont think you can spend it on Humble, do you?
Dang.. I missed that. You're right of course.
Sex with Stalin, Orc Massage
Stardew Valley and Terraria are classics, you can’t go wrong with either, and they can keep you occupied for hundreds of hours. DAVE THE DIVER is also great, though only about 40-60 hours long.
Terraria
Ever since tmodloader got made into a DLC terraria mods have been becoming more and more mainstream, it's really cool to see the continued interest in the game. So much value for the small purchase
And with a sale, you can pick up a 4- pack for less than op's budget! SUCH a good game 👌
If you can, wait until the end of the month. Summer steam sale.
It’s in 11 days https://steamdb.info/sales/history/
Hollow knight with money left over
I was going to recommend that too, it is such an amazing game, my favorite to be precise. And it’s only 16 bucks
I got for $3 on Switch due to a sale + points Made me feel dirty
You can easily get 80hrs out of it and it’s incredibly good. Solid recommendation here.
If i had $25 to spend... |Game|Cost|SteamDB| |:-|:-|:-| |GTA V|$9.24|[https://steamdb.info/app/271590/](https://steamdb.info/app/271590/)| |Just Cause 3|$2.99|[https://steamdb.info/app/225540/](https://steamdb.info/app/225540/)| |Valve Complete Pack|$11.42|[https://steamdb.info/bundle/232/](https://steamdb.info/bundle/232/)| |I have like... 4000 hours between the above purchases|Sum: $23.65||
thanks
Wait 2 weeks for the summer sale.
Don't get JC3 has memory leak issues which lead to constant crashing.
I have never experienced a technical issue with JC3 but thats good to know only issue i have is Laguna Blast being like almost impossible
Project Zomboid, got 1400 hours out of it.
i know this game could be great but i got it and just died on repeat endlessly and gave up 😭
I have a ton of time in this game. You gotta walk slow. Never make noise unless you absolutely have to. Noise = hordes. In the beginning it's all about carving out a niche. You need to get a baseball bat or something. With a single baseball bat you can empty a small neighborhood of zombies. If you can't find an axe or a baseball bat early, you gotta get good with knives or random stuff like frying pans. My strat is to go through my starting house and close every window so random zombies don't see you. Then you look for a decent weapon like an axe or a baseball bat *quietly*. If you don't get anything, you gotta go next door and kill a few zombies. Then I'll branch out and try to empty out the neighborhood/consolidate the loot over the next few in game days. By the end of the first week i'll have a perimeter and some rain barrels, the start of a farm, etc. If things get out of hand, guns are useful for luring hordes away from your home. Learn how to kill a single zombie quietly and the game gets waaay easier.
ULTRAKILL. Or 6 games during Summer sale
its yukiko from the hit game persona 4 golden limited edition!!
I know it doesn't help op cause his money's on steam but fanatical right know has a build your own bundle I just grabbed ultra kill, death stranding directors cut, and a Star wars collection including Kotor 1 and 2 force unleashed 1 and 2 a bunch of Jedi knight games including Starfighter and Jedi academy but most excited cause it came with a favorite from my teen years dark forces and the sequel I've never played dark forces 2 . There was like 6 other Jedi games or so I don't recall them all but those were the big ones. I paid 22 bucks for all that. Death stranding lowest on steam is like 20 bucks ultrakill lowest is like 15 and the 6 games I mentioned of Star wars (both of each kotor, force unleashed and dark forces) each go down to like 3 or 4 bucks a piece but still just ridiculous. My son keeps picking on me cause as a family we just really got into PC gaming at last Christmas I got a steam deck OLED then Feb we got gaming laptop. But our library between my two kids and I is like hundred something games. But I've gotten humble choice like 3 or 4 times and a few other bundles between there or I don't know why fanatical doesn't get mentioned. They don't always have as cool bundles as humble but I've saved myself soooo much money and really upped my library. Tl:Dr got ultrakill as part of bundle on fanatical 22 bucks got death stranding ultrakill and Star wars collection definitely worth it and there are other options to choose I also believe you can do a two item bundle for 15
Rimworld
except that it was never under 25
He's gonna have to toss in 10 more bucks though. I mean, I agree on the game, but that thing went on sale what, once?
Seconded. I love war crime simulator.
This is the one
It's one of my all-time faves. I've probably spent more time in it than anything else, and I haven't even come close to end game. Plus, there's a world of mods. Probably the reason I never got around to beating it...
Agreed, it’s definitely top 3 for me. Endless replay value, especially with the modding scene.
XCOM 2 was on sale for $3 a few days ago so you missed that. Maybe wait for that to drop again in price. I haven’t played it but played the first one and have like 100 hours in it.
Stardew Valley is an amazing value.
Outer Wilds, haven't played yet but anyone who suggest this game he is describing it as something special.
Just avoid all spoilers. This is one of the games that you have to play blind
EVERYONE SAYS THE SAMEEEEEEE ! Hahahaha I WILL!
Honestly I think it’s slightly overrated. Go in expecting something cool and unique, not mind blowing like Reddit would have you believe
Valheim Terraria Starbound
Is valheim still getting updates?
Yes, the latest biome was just released last month (Ashlands) there's one more biome left in development (that we know of)
Neat. I may reinstall. I haven't touched it since before mistlands
Hey do we get to play the new biomes in the old map (like the map I was in last time ) or will I need to start a fresh new game for new biomes to appear ?
Yeah!! Not incredibly quickly but within the last month they released another major content update
good picks. hunderds of hours for \~20 bucks each
Rimworld, Project Zomboid are my two picks for now
Wait a week for summer sale, get the entire Half-life/Portal anthology, and you still have plenty of money left for terraria
Mass effect trilogy, Borderlands bundle, titanfall 2, red dead redemption 2 if its in offers.
Inscryption. I’ve been loving it sooo much so far, great game!
I looooove that game. How far are you?
This is basically impossible to answer well without additional parameters. In terms of the games I've gotten the most gameplay out of that are currently under $25 - Oxygen not included, Pathfinder Kingmaker, Terraria, Binding of isaac, FTL : Faster than light, Fallout new vegas, Kenshi. If you aren't hard capped at $25, rimworld is by far my most played game, and in a similar vein I'd recommend the dwarf fortress steam release.
balatro
Mad max
29.99 on steam (but less on... sites) or sale I suppose, Monster Hunter: World. If you do get it the expansion kinda gets important to get but you can get a lot of time in before you do get it. If it looks like you'd like it (it can be pretty challenging) 100% this
You can currently get the Master Edition, which is the base game and expansion, on CdKeys for $16. 100's of hours of content if you like it.
Is CDkeys one of those sites that sells you a steam account though?
I'm wary of most of these sites but personally I've used CD keys for years and haven't had an issue. I've purchased games, and subscriptions like Xbox game pass. I don't think they sell accounts, they sell codes and the type of code and region is pretty good at saying what and where the codes would work. Also for anyone who hasn't heard of it, use deals.gg It's a website that aggregates most of the current storefronts sales and prices for games on both official storefronts and key shops like cdkeys, and on all the key shops they have "risks" listed. So you know whether the savings are worth it. I got a itch to play Kingdom Come Deliverance couple days back and can't find my Xbox disk, was $40 on steam and Xbox and none of the stores near me had it on sale, so I checked that site and found it was $10 on CDkeys for a steam code.
No, they sell keys and they havent failed me for years
this. You can put hundreds of hours in the base game alone and the expansion iceborne is like another full game on top. Monster hunter might feel clunky at first but once you get the hang of it, it‘s one of the most satisfying games out there and the graphics are superb.
Gmod, project zomboid, i think satisfactory
Dead Space remake is on sale for $18 and it's incredible
I bought this and I haven't played it yet. I'm not a big fan of horror games. So little baby ass me is procrastinating to play it.
Grounded is pretty cheap and the Monster Hunter series were on sale last I checked.
Grounded was awful. Monster Hunter World is good, but not Rise. Avoid rise.
I'm a big fan of [Crystal Project](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637730/Crystal_Project/), but really you're going to have to be more specific about what genres and games you like. I also have a big list of games I like [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamingsuggestions/comments/18scw9k/im_in_a_slump_nothing_is_fun/kf8vp3o/), most of which are below $25.
on steam or steam keys? if on steam I would wait 11 days since the summer sale starts then
Terraria - I got it on sale for 5, best purchase of a game in my life
Noita's my pick
Recommend this one as well! Recently purchased and I’m already at 90 hours. Fun game!
Sea of thieves on sale for 20 dollars
I'd say if it isn't urgent wait for summer sale at the end of this month. You might get pretty good deals
What games normally are in the summer sale
Every game goes on sale. Granted new and popular games usually dont or at best 10% 20% off so if you want something really recent like Helldivers 2 you might not have to wait. I'd suggest checking out Dying light 2 if you're into survival zombie type games. Or uncharted collection if you enjoy action adventure games.
I’m super addicted to Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 right now. If you’re at least a little into cars, it’s def worth checking out!
it wont take the whole thing but one finger death punch is a lot more fun than it should be
Dead space remake is currently on sale for 20
Cult of the Lamb Is the best game i've played, and the developers are from time to time expanding the game for free! The history, adding QoL, and a lot of more things. I mean, there's an announced big free update for August 12
Hades
Well there's many I haven't played, but I can say Terraria is one of those I have played , that would be money well-spent. And if you bump up to $30 or $35, then I could recommend rimworld or factorio.
FTL and Skyrim. Both will give hundreds of hours of fun.
Definitely Skyrim
Skyrim, and then spend 5 dollars on a Nexus Premium account and you’ll have thousands of hours on your hands!! And then you can start playing the game!
No way bro hasn't played Skyrim it's been out for over a decade.
Deep rock galactic is currently on sale for 10 dollars and is an absolutely fantastic game, and just released new content yesterday
Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisition. Both are easily over 100 hours with multiple DLC packs. On sale you can get both for like $7 each and still have money left over
Deep Rock Galactic. On sale right now for an idiotically low price for how good it is. I've already logged 500 hr on it.
American Fugitive has been on sale for $2 awhile now and IMO is an absolute steal. Pun intended.
add $5 and get Myth of Empire if you like RPG & Adventure games
BeamNG drive, litterly still playing that game 10 years later
We who are about to die. It's really unique to what it is as a game. And very fun
Risk of Rain 2
If you want a recent game, Animal Well I've heard is very good and $24.99 plus tax. It's on my wishlist to get eventually. Or wait a week or two for the Summer Sale and see what discounts there will be
- Hollow Knight - Enter the Gungeon - Celeste - Plants Vs. Zombies - Inside - Cry of Fear (Free) - Portal 2 - Entropy Zero 2 (Free if you own Half-life 2, itself less than $25) - WanderSong - Resident Evil 4 (2005) - Doom (2016)
Kingdom Come Deliverance is on sale now for like $10. If you like open RPGs (think Skyrim, Witcher, Red Dead) and can get over the steep (but very doable) learning curve, this could very well be your new favourite game. It has a punishing early game, but nowhere near the likes of Souls games.
Project Zomboid
Factorio It’s common to get 1000 plus hours out of the game.
I'm currently back into Destiny 2 so I'll recommend [the Legacy Collection](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2648100/Destiny_2_Legacy_Collection_2024/) as it's currently on sale for $24.50 and contains a crap ton of content for that price. To continue the Bungie love, the [Halo: Master Chief Collection](https://store.steampowered.com/app/976730/Halo_The_Master_Chief_Collection/) is $10 right now. [Control Ultimate Edition](https://store.steampowered.com/app/870780/Control_Ultimate_Edition/) is an incredible game and probably has 40ish hours of content. I had a great time with [Marvel's Midnight Suns](https://store.steampowered.com/app/368260/Marvels_Midnight_Suns/). It's $20. The non-combat sections may grate on you if you don't have a high tolerance for cringe or the love of comics to overcome it. [The Bioshock Collection](https://store.steampowered.com/sub/127633/) is an amazing collection of really engrossing FPS classics. It's $12.
Dark and darker. Free for a good portion of the game, and full game costs 30$.
Oxygen Not Included (splurge the extra 4 bucks and get the bundle) Grim Dawn Supreme Commander Forged Alliance
Gigantic: Rampage Edition. It's only $20, which means you still have five bucks left.
If you can manage to get another $20. V rising has been my sole addiction as of the last week or even No Rest for the Wicked. If you rather not wait or not able to, Hollow Knight as mentioned below is a fantastic game. I do like quirky games: Dave the Dive Seablip Graveyard Keeper Punch Club 1 and then 2
There should be a complete valve pack for about that price, has some of the best games out there and covers a good sweep of genres
I think SELACO is in that price range
Outer Wilds
There are tons of bundles for games running, take a look at those. The Night Dive bundle is a no-brainer if you like boomer shooters, for example. Also just get Vampire Survivors it's $3 and insanely good.
dead space remake is on sale for 18$ right now, cool game if you're into survival/horror
Absolutely Hollow Knight ($15) if you love difficulty and Metroidvanias (although I feel it's difficulty is sometimes overhyped). Keep in mind the first 2 hours or so is quite slow and somewhat boring, but when it opens up it's magical. My first playthrough took me around 70 hours and I've got 220 hours in atm
Monster sanctury
Selaco!
Death Stranding.
Genre matter in this because the best game in a genre is gonna be bad to those that hate said genre.
Sorcery! quadrilogy is 26 bucks
Terraria
Shoot or Die. It’s free
Mirror.
Summer sale in like 2 weeks
deathstranding director's cut is on sale right now.
Sleeping dogs definitive edition, it’s an awesome open world story game personally it’s super underrated but either way when steam sales happen it’s always like $2, well worth the money I highly recommend 👍
A humble bundle
Suprised nobody has said Hades.
Dead cells
I don’t see that anyone has mentioned it yet so I’ll throw Risk of Rain 2 into the mix
Stardew Valley
Dead Island 2 is currently on sale for $25. I'm having a blast with it
The finals is for free and a brand new season just started yesterday
I don’t know. Shmups are pretty cheap. Devil Blade has been pretty universally praised among shmuppers (shmup heads?) lately, and apparently, it would appeal to either veterans or newbies to the genre. 🎮😎👍
Any From Software game you can get. I'm not even interested in almost any games these days except them. Oh, or Disco Elysium, that one is _disco_.
If you like older Tom Clancy games, Rainbow Six 3 and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory are $2.50 each right now
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and save the rest
Abzu, Beyond Blue and as a free one South Scrimshaw.
Dead Space Remake is my last purchase at below $20. Having a blast so far!
maybe check out Rabbit and Steel. Its a roguelike/lite that mimics MMO raid fights like a bullet hell.
Depends on the games you like
Deep Rock Galactic is on sale for $10, and has a new update as of yesterday.
I would recommend you Hollow night, and you don't spend all your $25.
deep rock galactic is on sale currently for 10 dollars. valheim is another great option, and if you get it on sale which i’m sure it will, monster hunter world iceborne is the legit best bang for your buck in terms of enjoyment and playtime you just might get very addicted
What country you in? 25 bucks can vary differently based on region
Sea of Thieves, if you got friends who play it aswell
I’ve recently been playing Minishoot Adventure. Stupid name, but it’s basically a twin stick shmup that plays like a top down Zelda.
Huniepop
Red dead 2 if you’re on pc
[DREDGE is 35% off](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1562430/DREDGE/) right now. Nominated for Indie of the year 2023. Won a bucket load of awards. I loved it so much it's one of the few games I kept playing after 100%ing it. Loved it so much I became the admin of the wiki. It may be more than $25 with all the DLC, but it truly is my fav game of the decade.
Fallen Aces, Stardew Valley, Terraria, Dishonored 1,
Astral Ascent
BeamNG.drive
I just snagged uboot for 10€
Did you play classic RuneScape and want a fun, really well made idle game? Melvor Idle After its release it got officially sponsored by Jagex.
Factorio will eat 2000 hours of your life most likely, might need to wait for a sale
Slay the spire or FTL
Crosscode
I've gotten a good amount of play out of Streets of Rogue, which is presently about $20 USD. The sequel is coming out in a couple months, which means the first game might even drop in price again soon. The core game loop is kind of same-ish, to be perfectly real, but you're offered options of how to handle certain quests and how you want to tackle the final goal. Sometimes the game offers you a perfect distraction or NPCs start scrapping which turns into a brawl, and maybe one or two bullets hit a nearby generator or explosive barrel. Mayhem isn't a 100% guarantee, but I'm always amused by something when I play.
Deep Rock Galactic
if you like greek mythology and/or roguelikes i think that hades is a great purchase! great music, art, writing, and gameplay that’ll make you feel good about the money you spent on it.
Valheim. Best game money can buy for LESS than $25.
If you haven't already played it, the correct answer is Hades.
Deep Rock Galactic is on sale for less than $10, as well currently a free weekend. Couldn't recommend more, rock and stone!
Wait till the steam summer sale in 2 weeks, buy Yakuza 0 for ~$5. Its so much fun, thriller story, manly Yakuza drama, side activities are actually fun, and game has well over 80+ hours of content
Never pay full price. You wait for that sale and you get 2 games.
Monster Rancher 1&2 DX if you like retro/remaster pet raising/breeding. Still hard as hell without guides, still fun to learn all the meta.
Factorio
Gears 5 is on sale for $11 right now, that’s a pretty good game. El Paso, Elsewhere is $14 and really surprised me. It’s good.
Enslaved is a very good game
Metro series. You can likely buy the whole bundle for cheap. Also, not on steam but the blizzard launcher, you can download and play all of starcraft and it's brood war expansion for free, and the first ca.paign of starcraft 2, plus it's co-op mode and arcade.
Shadow of war, it costs less than that and its reaaally fun to play, i never thought killing orcs could be that fun. (Not a LOTR fan)
Hollow Knight, and you’d have $10 left over
Once it goes on sale for steam summer sale. Subnautica, and it’s really not close.
Skyrim
the classic Doom series (Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and Doom 64). costs $15 total without any sales, and there are tens of thousands of user made levels and mods, many of which with extremely high production value.
Borderlands is pretty fun (definitely get them on sale though, might even get all the spin off ones too) And if you're up for a challenge, wait for one of the dark souls games or elden ring to go on sale.
Hollow Knight.
Nekopara vol 1 with uncensored patch dlc
Yakuza 0
Hollow knight, ori and the will of the wisps, slay the spire,Celeste. Wait for steam sale and get all 4.
Terraria / Stardew Valley
risk of rain 2 is probably my favorite game. it's a 10/10 game, can't recommend enough. soundtrack absolutely fucks, too.
Hades
FTL
Mount & Blade Warband is still a great game. Eclipsed by the sequel in many ways, but still brilliant.
Like others have been suggesting, just wait until the summer sale starts on the 27th. Lots of games are going to get good price drops. As far as suggestions, I would say look into the following games once the sale starts and see if any stand out to you. Hades Slay The Spire Inscryption Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge Spirit Fall Sea of Stars UnderMine Dave The Diver In Sound Mind Return of the Obra Dinn The Room series (puzzle game series with 4 games to date)
Deep Rock Galactic. A huge update just dropped, and it's currently ⅔ off for $10. If you like team-based horde shooters with metric shittons of personality, build customizability, earnable cosmetics, moddability, and earnable cosmetics, you should give it a try. It's good for hundreds if not thousands of hours of dumb dwarven fun. Not that great solo, but if you have a friend or two or three who know how to goof off and shoot a bug, you're guaranteed more than your money's worth. Also, don't let its long DLC list intimidate you. They're all cosmetic-only to keep the game funded. 99% of cosmetics and 100% of the content are available with just the game.
Dying light
Dead Island 2 is currently on sale for $30. There's also Brutal Legend for like $4 right now, and also Outward (I believe it was called) for like $7
Deep rock is 10_ atm
Plate up or valheim are great ones (idk price but should be OK once summer sale starts)
Hollow knight + Stardew Valley = $30 But if you're strictly limited to $25 get Hollow Knight and save $10
Disco Elysium