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The Verge
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
What my first five Steam purchases say about me
There's a meme currently going around Bluesky where people are posting their first purchases on Steam. Taking a look presents a neat time capsule, offering a glimpse of who we used to be. It also gives us a chance to compare our gaming habits now with what they were 10 or more years ago — that is, if you're one of the Olds that's been around that long. On a lark, I looked at mine and got the thrill of being able to place a date on when exactly my current life began. Sometimes, examining your earliest Steam purchases presents as many questions as answers. My very first Steam purchases were made on December 25th, 2010, and were all over the place in genre: Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the Left 4 Dead bundle, and Team Fortress 2. I played and enjoyed many hours of both Left 4 Dead and Amnesia, but to this very day, I have never stepped foot inside a TF2 lobby. TF2 was not my kind of game. Hero shooters wouldn't be a Thing for me until Overwatch blew down the doors of my anti-multiplayer shooter bunker and even then, it's only Overwatch. Not to mention that the stories of TF2 voice chat toxicity were the stuff of 4chan legend. My Black, female ass in a voice chat multiplayer lobby in 2010? Absolutely not! This list has kickstarted memories that I haven't reached for in decades, but I don't think I'll ever understand why I bought TF2. My next set of purchases came a few months later in January and February 2011: DC Universe Online and Rift. Why I bought these MMOs makes far more sense to me than my forever mysterious purchase of TF2. Before getting my Steam account, the only computer games I had ever played were MMOs and the Rise of Rome expansion from Age of Empires II. (If you want to know how the Roman Empire became my Roman Empire, look no further.) I was a big World of Warcraft player, but by that time, I had grown bored with it. 2011 would have been right between the Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria expansions, neither of which I particularly liked. I didn't really jive with DC Universe Online either, but I played it because, of all things, a boy. My boyfriend at the time was super into the MMO, in which you cosplay as heroes who take over when Wonder Woman and Batman are indisposed. Both my subscription and the relationship lasted longer than they should have. I remember the buzz surrounding Rift, a new-at-the-time MMO that was supposed to be the 'WoW killer' — unaware that such claims had been made about many other MMOs at the time. I remember very little about Rift, which is probably why my WoW subscription is more than 20 years old at this point. The fact that Dragon Age: Origins is on this list at all is another mystery. Before it, I had never played any BioWare games nor any narrative PC games. I don't remember who suggested it to me — maybe my boyfriend, maybe a friend at college. But the presence of this game on this list gives me an exact date for when my life changed as a gamer and a person: Saturday, March 19, 2011. Origins isn't my favorite in the series. In fact, it's the one I dread the most trying to replay. (I am mad as hell at the revelation from Dragon Age producer Mark Darrah that EA refused to fund a remaster of the series.) But it's the one that introduced me to narrative, choice-focused, and companion-romancing RPGs. It introduced me to my first BioWare romance Alistair Theirin, and as in all things regarding love, you never forget your first. Knowing when I bought this game puts me back in a place that I haven't thought of in literal decades. I played Origins on a tiny desktop computer tucked into the corner of my too-small living room. That was my first apartment with my boyfriend, and I felt grown for the first time, even though I was well into my early 20s. But even though I was cohabitating with a real man, I was obsessed with the pixelated one in my computer. So obsessed that I taught myself to mod just to add more, shall we say, 'narrative' scenes between my Warden character and Alistair. There's even a funny bit of environmental storytelling with this list. After Origins, I didn't make another Steam purchase for more than a year. The game took over my life. The rest is history. My introduction to the Dragon Age series brought me into the Dragon Age fandom. Through it, I would meet my best and longest friends, rediscover my love of writing, and with that instigating spark, start the journey that would lead me to becoming a game journalist — the second-best decision I've made in my life. (The first being finally letting go of that previous relationship.) I really appreciate that Steam has kept such a thorough accounting of my early activities on the platform because it's put a date on the origin of the person that I am today. Go look at yours and see how much you've changed. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Ash Parrish Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All PC Gaming
Digital Trends
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
These three new Game Pass games are worth cancelling your weekend plans to play (August 15-17)
The entire internet is currently obsessed with the Battlefield 6 beta, and this is the last weekend you can jump in and see what all the fuss is about. But you might be setting yourself up for disappointment since that game won't be hitting Xbox Series X until October, so you might as well rip the band-aid off now and see what new games have been added to Game Pass. Don't think of this as a consolation prize, either, because I would cancel my plans to play any of these games this weekend regardless. There's an amazing co-op shooter to test your teamwork in, a new roguelike just begging to be broken, and a surprise return of two amazing retro titles. Aliens: Fireteam Elite We all know and love Left 4 Dead, but aside from Back 4 Blood from many of the original developers, not that many games have attempted to iterate on that survival co-op formula. Not only does Alens: Fireteam Elite pull it off, but the Aliens franchise is a perfect fit for it. And with Alien: Earth hitting streaming this month, why not fully engross yourself in the world of Xenomorphs? Squads of three Marines will fight their way through four campaigns on planet LV-895 against waves of Xenomorphs, Prowlers, Spitters, and more. There are 7 classes to pick from and level up, with tons of weapons and ways to customize your character. This isn't a walk in the park, so make sure you and your friends are well prepared or you might end up saying…game over, man. Sorry. Recommended Videos Aliens: Fireteam Elite is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC. 9 Kings If you've never heard of 9 Kings, you're not alone. This roguelike kingdom builder came out earlier this year and completely flew under my radar until I saw it was coming to Game Pass as an Early Access game. The game is played on a grid where you place cards to build your kingdom, grow an army, and survive through as many decades of time as possible. Each King you can play as comes with their own unique deck of buildings, troops, and so on, but you can collect more cards by defeating rival Kings. Like any roguelike, 9 Kings is all about systems and synergies, allowing you to make completely busted runs. 9 Kings is available now on PC. Heretic + Hexen At the beginning of this month, only the two games I talked about above were scheduled to be coming to Game Pass, but we got a welcome surprise when Heretic + Hexen dropped with no prior warning onto the service. Anyone who was playing games back in the early '90s will at least recognize these names, but for everyone else, this is a remastered package of Doom-style FPS games originally made by Raven Software. Unlike many direct clones of that age, these two games had a distinct theme, the ability to aim vertically, character classes, and even an inventory. Between all the content of the originals, plus two new episodes added with this release, you're getting 117 campaign maps and 120 deathmatch maps, so there's plenty to dig into. Heretic + Hexen is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.
