Need to get my little brother a steam game for christmas. Any recommendations?

[SirPigglesworth]

First of all I'm on a limited budget ($20 is probably the most I could spend) My brother loves Team Fortress 2, Far Cry 3, and Half-Life. I'm asking you lovely people because I don't have the faintest clue of how good the cheap games on steam are. Do you know any games that are really good in my budget?

 

[The Forces of Chaos]

Wait For the Steam Christmas sale mate. Be patient as 75% off may come sometimes even higher. Total biscuit I think may do a rundown of the steam sale.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I second Just Cause 2. If your brother likes open world games at all, then Just Cause 2 is a must play, especially with the multiplayer mod that just came out. Plus, it's like three bucks right now, so you might as well give it a shot.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Sounds like a guy who likes shooters.

I recommend Just Cause 2 (which is currently on sale for $3 at 80% off). It's an open world shooter/action game. Has a massive map, tons of weapons and vehicles, tons of things to blow up and destroy, and the protagonist is equipped with a grappling hook (the best grappling hook in any game) and parachute at all times, which can create some interesting gameplay scenarios.

The game has been out for many years now so you can pop over to youtube and take a look at some gameplay videos. It's a pretty ridiculous game.

Also, the Bioshock games would probably be right up his alley. Bioshock 1 and 2 are currently $20 each on steam and Bioshock Infinite is $40, but those prices will go down to $5 and $10 during the winter sale.

Natural Selection 2 might also interest him. It's a class based multiplayer FPS where one side plays as Space Marines and the other side plays as aliens. The twist is that each side also has a commander, one person who plays the game like an RTS, issues orders to their group, chooses what upgrades to build and how to expand, and gives health to injured players. It's kind of a difficult game to get into but a lot of fun once you understand the mechanics. It's $25 right now but will go down to about $7 during the steam sale.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

First, wait for the Steam Winter sale that will soon be upon us, encouraging money to leave our wallets one irresistible game at a time.

If he's a fan of shooters in general, there are a couple worth looking into. The STALKER series are good, very atmospheric and enjoyable. Metro 2033 is another shooter, also set in a Russian wasteland and they're all a bit older and should be quite reasonably priced.

Payday 1/2 and Left4Dead 2 are also fun multiplayer shooters where up to 4 players team up to steal money and survive zombies respectively. Get a copy for yourself and you've got a winning recipe for holiday co-op FPS fun.

 

[kingthrall]

get Postal 2 for your little brother jk, Id recommend stalker shadow of Chernobyl or fallout simply put the multiplayer scene is a hostile, virus like environment that turns people into trollops especially shooters.

That said, if you must get an online shooter, get COD world at war, Counter strike Source.

 

[red ant]

I'd also recommend getting on the humble weekly sale as Killing Floor is a great fps in line with Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 and both are good games. Amazon is also having a huge winter sale starting the 19th so watch out as tons of games will go on sale. There are also a few good F2P FPS games such as Quake Live, Super MNC, Tribes Ascend and Planetside 2.

In the end you could always just get Typing of the Dead Overkill on sale and hit both fronts, typing and railgun shooter though I'm not sure how much he would like that.

Natural Selection is a pretty fun game as well though it is a little more strategy oriented.

For mindless shooting the Serious Sam series is sure to fill the void, though with a little story Bioshock is the one that could 2 is more meh than 1 though infinite is a great way to start as well.

Sorta wish Shogo: Mobile Armor Division was on sale more often that was a classic for me.

Borderlands 1 & 2 might be good as well with the leveling fps aspect that many games are missing.

The Painkiller series is great for mindless shooting, though with a little kick the Fallout series has turned full swing with a action fps/rpg element few can surpass.

A stealthy Thief may be the way and the series will be on sale on the 24th on amazon mmmm

Just head out the box and into the past with War of the Roses and Chivalry.

Last recommendation is to get plants vs zombies the first not the second ahhh I always wanted to say that

#1 just get the humble bundle weekly sale
#2 wait for steam sales/amazon sales
#3 click top sellers for both stores and wait

 

[Jiffex]

Like everyone else I'd wait for the Winter Sale on Steam. There's a game I think is really fun called Awesomenauts. It's a 2D side-scrolling MOBA type game with two teams of three and has a bunch of different characters to play as that all play differently.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well you could go for Borderlands GOTY and Borderlands 2 GOTY once that comes down in price.
And if he likes the unlocking shenanigans then also direct him to Super Monday Night Combat, Blacklight Retribution, Tribes Ascend, Hawken, Mechwarrior Online, Warframe, these are all free to play so dipping in isn't a problem for people on a tight budget (especially if you want to team up online, saves you buying two games).

 

[Mick Beard]

War of the Roses
or
War of the Vikings (in open beta atm)

they are both multiplayer melee combat games, excellent games and well worth the $20is they cost

 

[Charli]

...Honestly I don't know if the Xmas/Winter sale will go on before xmas. Seeing as how the Autumn sale was late November as it was. And we're now one week exactly to xmas.

I'd... actually Jiffex makes a good suggestion. Depends how your brother views games. Some dislike cartoony visuals but I think they really work in alot of games, but I know alot of younguns' who want to be 'growned up' want their gritty darkness so they can feel that way.

Awesomenauts is a good game to play with 2 friends, but he might get bored of it since there's not much to much to the single player aspect, it's all about picking a character you like and mastering it for PvP matches.
Portal 2 possibly? Does it need to be a shooter?

I'm playing the fuck out of Starbound right now. (2D minecraft space adventure with more enemy variety)


Sorry I'm useless when it comes to the FPS genre. But there's very few games on steam I'd say really aren't worth attention. If anything they all do something different.

 

[Ascend]

Bastion is pretty fun,beautiful and story driven and killing floor is always good for well...killing things,time included with great gunplay,there's even the stalker series which are shooter survival games.

 

[Kapol]

Edit: And yes, there is the Steam Christmas sale, but I don't know when that begins, so I personally wouldn't bank on it.

The nice thing about buying digital is that you can literally wait until the very last minute to buy the gift. But it'll pretty much certainly start before Christmas. I'm pretty sure it'll start by the end of the week, or next Monday at the latest. Part of me thinks today, but Thursday seems more likely, as that's when they'd normally begin the 'weekend sale.'

As others have said, it'd be good to have more information to go off to give a better recommendation. From the sounds of it, shooters are the common link. Just Cause 2 seems like a solid choice given it's currently on sale. The Left 4 Dead series might be good to pick up, as he seems to be a Valve fan. Though he'll likely already have them if I had to guess. As much as a lot of people don't like it, checking out Metacritic scores would be wise before you pick anything in particular up.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Secret of the Magic Crystals or Bad Rats are both solid choices.

Spoiler

It'd be hard to say, if he likes Valve, then Portal 1/2 are no brainers.

It depends on how old he is, you could get him Painkiller, Serious Sam, Shadow Warrior(once it is on sale during christmas, it goes for like £7 which is embarrasingly cheap) or any other old school shooter: Half Life still has that run & gun mentality, so he might like them.

 

[Don't taze me bro]

Get him a $20 steam gift card from Gamestop. That way he can take advantage of the Steam sales himself.

 

[josemlopes]

With 20$ he can get a lot of good games with the sales, not exactly games released this year but with stuff like Just Cause 2 at 3$ and the odds of having Serious Sam games at 90% off you can get him a nice batch of quality shooters.

 

[In Search of Username]

Pretty sure the sale begins tomorrow, so I'd definitely wait for that. And also seconding the recommendation of Just Cause 2 plus the multiplayer mod, he'd definitely like that if he liked Far Cry 3, same kind of thing exactly.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

There's the current weekly Humble Bundle, which for $1 you can get Killing Floor (don't know anything about the other games there except Rock of Ages).

https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly

I say go for this, OP. If not, Killing Floor is an excellent game on its own and generally goes on sale for less than $10 every winter sale.