Best Steam Deck Game Deals In Steam Winter Sale

The city-buildingPC video game genre offers a depth of experience that includes a lot of forethought and strategy, as well as creativity. It is sometimes mixed with the general survival theme, as players take on the role of a great leader and are responsible for the welfare of their citizens. The imaginative processes that some can incorporate into laying out their cities can make for beautiful displays of creativity and give a very satisfying boost.

2023 has seen my gaming life jump off of a cliff. Due to a promotion at the day job, I'm an elected councillor, and I have two gorgeous cats, which means I have a lot on - not to mention other family commitments, illnesses, and general "why is life?!" moments. That doesn't stop me from playing games; it just means I have to be selective, and something needs to make me want to play it. Yes, that is precisely why I reviewed Arrow a Row. You're here for Wccftech's Best Strategy and Simulation Games of 2023, so let's get started.

Sony's PlayStation 5 console was initially released in November 2020, and has accrued an impressive catalog of games since. The two launch models – one with a built-in disc drive, and one without – have given way to a new iteration of the PS5, with a slightly smaller form factor and a detachable disc drive. The ninth console generation has ushered in the use of solid-state drives, rather than the hard disk drives that came before, nixing lengthy load times for even the most demanding games. Many of the PS5's best games put the SSD to good use, while simultaneously providing unprecedented tactile feedback via the DualSense controller.

As fun as it is to buy a brand-new game, sometimes it just isn't feasible with the budget, but, luckily, many games are available as free-to-play on Steam. While it is easy to mistakenly assume that a free game is smaller or not as well-designed, this is not the case when it comes to many of the options on the PC gaming platform. The list of free games on Steam can include everything from long-running MMOs, such as ​​​​​, to the social simulation behemoth,, and although there may be additional purchases available within the games, there is a lot of content that can be enjoyed for free.

Despite some major releases like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and EA Sports FC 24, Hogwarts Legacy is the UK’s biggest physical game of 2023. As GamesIndustry notes, this is the first time that a football title from EA Sports hasn’t been the best-selling physical game of the year since 2013 when Grand Theft Auto 5 launched.

Valve has released their annual Best of Steam 2023, a showcase of what was played most and made the most money broken down into roughly grouped tiers: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. In a year of absolutely great games, some of these chart-toppers aren't surprises, but dang I'd never have guessed that Half-Life, the 1998 classic, would make the top tier of the most-played Steam Deck games by daily active players.

Story-driven games are still as popular as ever, offering players a chance to lose themselves in a fictional world that's less passive than watching a movie or TV show. Where multiplayer games can bring people together, single player narrative-centric games give users a chance to step into the shoes of someone else to experience something entirely new across any genre they can think of, whether it be horror, drama, or even romance.

Playing multiplayer video games together as a family can be a wonderful way to spend time with one another in a fun and relaxed way, and there are many games that all ages can enjoy participating in, from to . Whether the group consists of little ones, teenagers, grown adults, or all of the above, these games are perfect for getting cozy in the family room together, especially during the cold winter months. Even once family members have moved away and spread out across long distances, playing video games together online can help keep relationships strong and lines of communication open in a relaxed way.

Steam has released its annual end-of-year charts, ranking the games that have generated the most cold-hard cash on the digital PC storefront. Frequent chart-toppers this year include the obvious subjects (Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield), as well as the games that silently crushed it (Sons of the Forest, Goose Goose Duck.)

2023 was an incredible year for Nintendo Switch fans, with Nintendo having easily the strongest line up of first party games and exclusives from the big three console manufacturers. Sure, a large part of that was thanks to the company trawling through their back catalogue of beloved classics and sprucing them up for their current handheld, but there were also long-awaited sequels, rejuvenated mainstays and more.

Seven years on from the first VR gaming headsets launching, it still feels like we’re finding our way with virtual reality. 2024 could change all of that, with Apple hoping to do Apple things for yet another nascent technology, but 2023 has relaid the foundations for gamers with PSVR 2 and Meta Quest 3 both launching and bringing big improvements.

Today's a top day for two things: great gaming deals and frosty decorations that don't translate well to our oven-esque hemisphere. I'm pausing my family's Festivus Celebrations early—including this afternoon's Feats of Strength—to hunt discounts for you instead. I've got a great list going that will swell even larger tomorrow, thanks to the usual Boxing Day madness. Be sure to swing back around!