#every member of the Platoons gets a chance to shine

[shidoukanae]

*fistpumps*

Lmao I’m watching Wars and they were talking about Hernes’s commander Doldkins and I’m just shouting “IT’S JIN” throughout the entire episode and I was actually right holy fucking shit. They didn’t even give us any hints aside from like the super early episodes that he was their commander but YESSSS I’m so pumped to see an alliance between Hernes and Jenock next episode

[deepseacritter]

Every Dog Has His Day

For those who want to read here…

Characters: CC-3636 | Wolffe, CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody, Sinker

Summary: Wolffe gets his revenge.

Sinker knew his commander, and could tell when Wolffe was having an off day. The clone walked a certain way when he was agitated, with his feet hitting the ground harder than usual, hands clenched into fists that were about ready to take a swing at anyone who so much as looked at him the wrong way. Cody joked that the Wolfpack could probably smell the change in their commander’s mood as well. Wolffe had not appreciated that comment, but General Koon thought there might actually be some truth there. The Force was in all things, and given the strong bonds of the Pack, perhaps they truly were sensing what Wolffe was feeling.

Things were not going well so far. The mess hall ran out of caf at breakfast and lunch. Some of the troopers from the 501st had occupied the firing range longer than expected, and the new shinies were late arriving from Kamino, which meant the rest of the day’s schedule was shot. To top it all off, someone had also “borrowed” Wolffe’s datapad and returned it full of questionable holovids…Sinker suspected it was Cody. The commanders were currently inside the barracks, having a rather loud discussion about it.  

The door to the barracks flew open and Wolffe stormed out muttering a stream of curses. Sinker quickly shot to his right and flattened himself against the wall to get out of the way. The commander would never take his anger out on any member of the Pack, but it was still a good idea to give the man some space when he was upset. Wolffe had clearly lost the argument (not that there was any real proof Cody did anything), and Sinker could just feel the anger emanating from Wolffe as he passed and headed towards the officer’s lounge. Yes, today was definitely an off day.

———-

Rex was catching up on some field reports in the officer’s lounge when Wolffe made a rather loud entrance. The commander looked agitated, and cursed as he smashed his helmet on the table and threw himself into one of the lounge chairs. Rex guessed he had recently crossed paths with Cody, and not wishing to listen to another tirade, simply greeted his brother by name and went back to his reports.

Wolffe rocked his chair back and stared at the ceiling for a good hour before speaking. “Hey, Rex. Do you remember those training rocket launchers we used back on Kamino?”

Odd question, but of course he remembered them. During a weapons session one of his batch mates was messing around and accidentally fired the rocket launcher across the room. The non-lethal blank hit Rex square in the gut and sent him flying. He was what…maybe four or five at the time? The hit to his small body broke three ribs, and he had massive bruising for months.

“Yeah, I remember those. Reminiscing on our youthful training days?”

“I wonder if I’d be able to get my hands on one. Maybe have one shipped in with the next batch of shinies.”

Rex put his data pad down and looked over at Wolffe, who was still apparently contemplating the ceiling. “Vod, we have plenty of rocket launchers on base right now. What do you want a training launcher for?”

Wolffe leaned further back in the chair and rested his hands behind his head. “Might be fun.”

Might be fun? That was doubtful. Nothing about Wolffe screamed “fun.” Cody, on the other hand…ah, that was it.

“Listen, Wolffe…as temping as it may be to fire a rocket at Cody, that’s a sure way to see yourself decommissioned.”

Wolffe turned a scarred face to Rex, his cybernetic eye glowing. “I’m not an idiot, Rex. I don’t like Cody, but I don’t hate him enough to do that. Not yet anyway.”

“So then why the training launcher?”

“I just want one.” The commander abruptly straightened his chair and stood. “Forget about it. Wishful thinking.” He was out the door before Rex could respond.

———-

Sinker sat at a far console in the command center, watching the daily GAR newsfeed. On days like this, when nothing was happening on base and they weren’t deploying, the command center was the best place to be if you wanted a nice, quiet space. Perhaps he would take a quick nap…

The clone jumped when his comm panel suddenly sounded, disrupting the tranquility of the dark room.

“Sinker, do you have an updated ETA for those shinies?” Wolff’s voice echoed through the mostly empty room.

Update…he had seen a notice somewhere recently. Quickly scrolling through fleet notifications, he found it.

“Yes, sir. They’re now scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning.”

“They haven’t left Kamino yet. Good.”

Sinker wasn’t sure how to respond. How was that good? It wasn’t good a couple hours ago, when you were ranting about the schedule. Silence was the better option.

“Meet me in the armory in five. I have some questions about the requisition form you filled out.”

Requisition form? He hadn’t filed any reqs recently, and Wolffe never made errors with paperwork, so it had to be something else…something that couldn’t be spoken about in the open command center.

“On my way, sir.” Sinker closed the newsfeed he had been watching and headed out the door, wondering what Wolffe had in store.

———

Wolffe had repeated his request, and Sinker still couldn’t believe it.

“A training rocket launcher? I just…Wolffe…that’s an unusual request.”

“Can you make it happen? Our best chance is to get one with this next batch of shinies coming in tomorrow.”

Sinker eyed the commander, and considered asking him if it was a joke…again. No, clearly Wolffe wasn’t joking at all. He wanted a kriffing training launcher, and wouldn’t say exactly why.

“I know one of the training sergeants who might be able to pull some strings. I need a good reason to give him though. Something plausible.”

Wolffe closed his eyes and furrowed his brow in thought. Plausible. After several moments he had an idea…

“Tell him I want it for some training exercises. I want to test these new clones myself, observe how they react to a more realistic battlefield conditions. No better way than to actually shoot at them, right?”

Shooting at shinies. If it had been any other commander, it would have never worked…but Wolffe? It would be an easy sell. The story fit with what other clones outside the 104th thought he would be like.  

“I can work with that. No guarantees, though.”

“Do what you have to do, Sinker. Just get me that launcher.”

Sinker couldn’t help but shake his head as he left the armory. What the hell was Wolffe up to?

———-

The transport from Kamino arrived just after morning muster. Sinker had the clones fall in, and nodded to Wolffe. The commander gave a cursory inspection and speech to the shinies, sent them off to the mess hall, then headed towards central command. It was going to be a good day.

At the officers’ meeting, General Kenobi announced the dates for battalion inspections, and the 104th had a week to prepare. That was plenty of time to really polish up their armor and acclimate the new clones to the rest of the Wolfpack. The 212th would be the first in line for inspection in two days. General Kenobi had mentioned at least four times how important image was, so the pressure was on Cody to have all his men looking their best. Seeing Cody sweat a little at the news made Wolffe happy, and kriffing hells if his good mood didn’t last for the next two days.

———-

From his vantage point, Wolffe could see Cody clearly. The 212th commander was speaking with his top platoon, and giving their armor one final check. Hells they all looked so clean, with the white plastoid shining like new. All the orange paint had been touched up as well. It was almost a shame…almost.

Five minutes to inspection. Wolffe shouldered the training rocket launcher and aimed at Cody. Four minutes. He exhaled slowly, and calmly pulled the trigger. The round hit Cody center mass, exploding everywhere. He never saw it coming. As the cloud started to settle, Wolffe quickly made his escape, barely suppressing his laughter.

———-

The clones in the 212th had been knocked flat in a flash of color. Cody was still on his back, staring at the sky as several of the clones that had been standing near him were stumbling to their feet. They were all trying to process what had just happened.

As he sat up, Cody took several seconds to realize that the colors he was seeing weren’t from the blast, but from the hideous paint that was now covering himself and a good portion of his men. It was like someone had taken all the colors from a drunk night at 79’s, added some glitter, and then threw it up all over the 212th. This is not happening. Not now.

“I swear to kriffing hells, I’m going to get the piece of rankweed who did this…”

Cody scrambled to his feet, still not totally comprehending the situation, as the rest of the 212th snapped to attention. It was too late to do anything; the generals had arrived for inspection.

———-

Obi-wan looked as shocked as Cody felt, and was quite lost for words. Skywalker surveyed the slightly disoriented clones, shaking his head with a grin.

“Well, I must say Master, I’m not a fan of your battalion’s new colors.”

“Anakin…”

“I mean, it does make a statement. Just not sure if you needed so much glitter.”

Plo chuckled as he booted the remnants of the paint round that hit Cody. “Oh, I’m not sure about that. I think the glitter is a fine addition to the armor. It catches the sunlight nicely. Perhaps it’s the color combination that’s a bit distracting.”

“Ah, yes. The green, blue, gold, red, and purple do seem to clash a bit with the original orange paint.”  

Obi-wan was getting a headache. “Unbelievable.” He marched up to the clone at front and center.

“Commander Cody, perhaps you would care to explain yourself.”

———-

Wolffe had hidden the training launcher and returned to watch as Kenobi thoroughly chewed out Cody. Cody, who was covered in every single blasted color the supply room had, plus some extras Wolffe was able to scrounge up. Cody, who would now be stuck scrubbing his armor clear for hours. Cody, who would likely be given extra duty to make up for this inspection fiasco. Cody, who completely and utterly deserved what he got.

It was glorious.

[kazenokuri]

Expedition to Sol2487-3 Pt.4

“This is the weirdest ride of my life” noted Xato Nexgrra. I could only consent him. Our platoon of eleven, sitting in a CARDBOX, big enough it could have been a scouting ship, attending to our incapacitated member while being carried by a foreign race’s pup, which had the size of a legitimate skyscraper, stomping through the endless plains. Each step of the tremendous creature echoed in our heads and brought us dozens of IFPS standard steps ahead. With our improvised vessel in one and the smaller vicious gazing beast - a cat, as Dr. Proaxl could tell us after touching the giant pup’s mind - in the other hand, the giant crossed the lands in an astonishing swift manner.

“So exactly how is this giant going to help us?” I asked Dr. Proaxl. The doc, while easing Loxxar Kraes’ pain by mental attendance as best as she could, answered to me. “It’s taking us to its home, where we will find shelter, food, medical equipment and - so all your religious deities are at our side - the support of its family. For this it would be great if we all could communicate with them. Mindtouching is really tiresome and I don’t want to translate between you as our leader and this world’s inhabitants the whole time, so... Üprrkl, how’s it going?” The annoying Pjörecian scientist had gone silent for a while now and hatched on the task Dr. Proaxl had ordered him. A brilliant move of her, both shutting him up and giving his undoubtedly enormous brain something better to do than analysing the non-existing chances of our survival. “Not bad, the data you collected from the pup’s mind are feeding our intercom’s translation codes. They are fragmentary, and at first glance I would say this specimen does not understand its own language’s grammatic rules quite well - or those rules are so broken and arbitrary I for myself can’t wrap my brain around their structure - but its quite the basis. Some rudimentary communication with natives should be possible at least, until you are able to widen the database by mindtouching a - let’s say more experienced - specimen.” “OK, then let’s try it” I said and formed with my forelimbs a funnel before my mouth. “Hey! You!” I yelled towards our ride. “It’s name is Max” filled Dr. Proaxl me in. "Hey! Max! Can you understand me?!” “YE... I... UN... U...!” The roaring voice echoed in our whole bodies and stressed the intercom’s abilities. “Maybe I should build in a filter that pitches the tune up and the volume down” suggested Üprrkl. “Wait a moment.” He manipulated his own intercom and shared the changes to the others. “Now.” “I’ll try again, Max!” I shouted again. “We couldn’t understand you! Say something, please!” “CAN YOU UNDERSTAND ME NOW!!!?” We flinched under the noise. “You aren’t too quit, you are too loud! Volume down, please!” “Oh, sorry. Better?” “That’s it. Good work, Üprrkl. Ok, Max, we can understand you now. How far is it to your home?” “Why? We’re here!”

Due to the sunset and the speed, we hadn’t even noticed the sudden difference in the scenery. We entered some gigantic building and the reddish yellow light of the sun changed to the cold blue shining of electric lights. Of course this building had to be gigantic, given the fact the giant carrying us - Max – was only a pup, the house of its family must have been astronomic to our standards. It was just reasonable. But nevertheless we were struck speechless, for this building was for real taller as you could see. Max brought us in through a huge gate – or was it a simple door? It was archaic, moving around a pivot without any means of electromotoric assistance. Then he brought us upwards by stairs into his room. Beside the electric lights there were no proofs of advanced technologies. At least those giants seemed to be far away from space travel and so they posed no threat for the IFPS for now. “Wait here, I’ll get some food and medicine. What do you need?” asked Max, the giant. “Something to prevent inflammation and a narcotic against pain” answered Dr. Proaxl. As a bodyless being, it was only natural for here to ignore the offered food. So I added to her request: “Some water and something filling and easy to swallow, please.” Max showed quite the troubled face, but nevertheless left us alone in his room. Thank Xaleates he took that “cat” with him, wouldn’t have wanted to be left alone with that.

After a short while we heard those gigantic steps approaching again, but this time it seemed to be four legs. “Please Mom”, we heard Max’ voice from behind the door, “just promise me you don’t freak out!” “Maxwell, I dare you, if you took in a spider or a snake, you’ll sleep in the garage tonight!” The door swung open and a way taller giant came in, the head covered in lots and lots of those swirly filaments nearly every living thing here had – hair, as Dr. Proaxl told us. The bigger giant glimpsed at us. “Quick!” insisted Dr. Proaxl, “Wave one of your forelimps and bare your fangs! It’s a gesture of greetings.” We did as she told us – but… “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…!!!!!” My eyesight went blank, my hearing broke down, my intercom went sparkling and – I admit it with disgust – I had lost control of some of my digestive organs for a moment. When I regained my senses, I found more than half of my men on the ground, struggling for breath. And even Dr. Proaxl, whose nebulous body usually shimmered in a sparkling yellow white, now smouldered in a nauseous looking green. “WHA… THE… HE…HA…!” My hearing was still burrowed under a constant screaming noise, but I registered the muffled rough roar coming from the gate. And through my limbs I felt the tremors of a vast approaching third giant. Just when would this superlative end? The third one was even taller than the second, by at least two heads. And I mean their heads, not mine. It gestured to the second, the second to Max, and Max gestured to us. And all of them made those annoying roaring noises. My head went numb. Then finally, the biggest one made a wide gesture and the noises stopped. I remember the face of that giant coming nearer and nearer until it filled all of my field of vision. Then my mind went black.

When I came to my senses again, the biggest giant was talking to a still green shimmering Dr. Proaxl, but I couldn’t follow their talking, so I interrupted them. “How long have I…?” “Just seconds, captain. Don’t worry.” “Oh, you are the captain?” asked the gigantic giant. He oppressed his voice with one of his limbs and tried to be as quiet as he could. Plenty of noise still, nevertheless. “Nice to meet you.” “This is Captain Bcao Kjuk Mrra, Leading Officer of our expedition ship, and this here is Dr. Smith, Max’ father and biologist of this planet the natives call “Earth”” introduced Dr. Proaxl. “I apologize in behalf of my wife” began the giant. “Our voices must have quite the destructive force to your bodies. We intended no harm to you, we were just… overwhelmed by your appearance. I mean, it’s just natural, that someday, eventually, someone from out there… I mean now, that after all this time finally…” The giant began quiet, but unknowingly it got louder and louder, like a little boy who couldn’t hide his joy about a new toy. Then Dr. Smith coughed slightly and got quiet again. “Ahem… my apologies. Let’s concentrate at the task at hand. Max said, one of your group is injured?” “Yes, Loxxar Kraes. He got wounded by a … hamster is what Max mind called it” answered Dr. Proaxl. “Oh you encountered a field hamster? God, you’re lucky the crop’s plenty. In spring, when it’s their season and the food resources are scarce, they go savage for any intruder in their yard. Some fairly random facts the least of my people knew, but for someone in your… position… it would have been crucial intel. Ok, I see. That breastplate absorbed most of the impact. Some sturdy material you got there. The wound is… what’s that?” “A force field to keep the wound steril” answered the misty Doc. “Fascinating” mumbled the giant Doc. Two in their element. I decided to leave them be. Then the giant Doc asked. “How do you stand alcohol?” “For disinfecting? Isopropanol should do…” “No, no, I mean, how do you stand drinking ethanol?” Did that monster just say “Drinking ethanol”?!?!

[hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff]

https://ift.tt/2A4LP93 For PC gamers, the launch of Steam’s Summer Sale is one of the biggest days of the summer, offering an opportunity to snag some of the platform’s best games for their cheapest price yet. While multi-platform games have the chance to be featured in multiple sales, like Nintendo’s or PlayStation’s, PC-exclusive games like Total War: Three Kingdoms, Gears Tactics, and Half-Life: Alyx only get a chance to shine in the Steam Summer Sale, so it’s worth paying extra attention to those games–you might not see them at this price for a long time. From turn-based strategy and digital board games to fighting games, action RPGs, and more, here are some of the best PC exclusives in Steam Summer Sale 2020. Please, see our overall list of the best Steam Summer Sale 2020 game deals and the best cheap Steam games under $10. Total War: Three Kingdoms $45 / £33.74 / $67.49 AUD (25% off) Total War: Three Kingdoms still hews closely to the series’ expansive strategy sim framework but makes a few key changes that, along with the ancient Chinese period setting, make it stand out within the series. The increased emphasis on individual commanders and general gives each playthrough with a different army a new flair, and whip-smart enemy leaders make it difficult to simply steamroll the map on your way to victory, making this an intense new entry with a lot of depth. See on Steam Gears Tactics $40.19 / £33.49 / $66.96 AUD (33% off) Gears Tactics takes a more bombastic approach to the XCOM school of turn-based strategy and melds it with the pulpy, war-fueled world of Sera. Each of the Gears franchises’ iconic weapons like the Lancer, Gnasher, and Longshot translate seamlessly to a strategy game, and their abilities serve to differentiate each of your squad members in combat. You’re also closing up emergence holes with grenades and mowing down Wretches with machine-gun fire–just like in the third-person shooter franchise Gears Tactics takes its name from. See on Steam Half-Life: Alyx $45 / £34.86 / $63.71 AUD (25% off) There are quite a few great games you can play on VR headsets, but Half-Life: Alyx is one that really makes the case for games designed exclusively with VR in mind. Grabbing and throwing objects with the new Gravity Gloves feels fantastic, and trying to stay quiet so a blind, unstoppable monster doesn’t hear you makes you naturally hesitant to even close a cupboard door. Exploring City 17 feels incredible through a headset, from the moment you see a Strider towering above the city’s rooftops in the first few minutes of the game to the moment you begin a mind-bending trek near the end I won’t spoil here. Alyx quickly becomes an essential part of the Half-Life universe, even if you think you know how it all ends. See on Steam Killer7 $10 / £7.74 / $11.97 AUD (50% off) If you’re a fan of any Grasshopper or Suda Goichi game (No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned, Let It Die), you owe it to yourself to experience Killer7. It’s undoubtedly his most surreal, trippy game, and this remaster of the original Gamecube and PS2 classic updates it for PC, complete with higher resolution options and mouse-and-keyboard aiming, making it the best way to experience this strange masterpiece in 2020. See on Steam XCOM: Chimera Squad $15 / £12.74 / $22.46 AUD (25% off) XCOM: Chimera Squad is a smaller entry in the series that focuses on a single squad of fleshed-out characters rather than a platoon of random soldiers and offers a few twists on the intense XCOM firefights we’re familiar with, like a back-and-forth turn order, breaches that give you a chance to whittle down enemy squads from the jump, and special abilities that give each member of your squad a special role in fights. See on Steam Disco Elysium $30 / £26.24 / $42.71 AUD (25% off) Disco Elysium eschews the fantasy trappings, combat-oriented encounters, and easy morality that underpin a lot of RPGs and instead lets you tell a story that truly feels your own. As an alcoholic detective hitting rock-bottom just as he’s assigned a major murder case, you explore a city block in the middle of a conflicted territory recovering from a political revolution. The conversations you have with various denizens around Revachol have you re-litigating the city’s tumultuous past, putting together a dance club in the middle of a church, and delivering heartbreaking news to unsuspecting families as you come to terms with who you were before your last bender. It’s a long journey with twists that flip from pensive to laugh-out-loud funny to solemn on a dime while somehow telling a consistent, powerful story along the way–something I can’t say about many other games. Disco Elysium is planned to release on consoles later this year, but for now, you can only enjoy this incredible narrative experience on PC. See on Steam Tabletop Simulator $9 / £7.49 / $14.47 AUD (50% off) The coronavirus pandemic has forced many people to spend much more time indoors and distance themselves from friends and family, so finding ways to stay connected while apart has become crucial. One of my favorite ways to hang out with friends virtually has been Tabletop Simulator, an indie game that lets you play digital versions of board games in a player-driven physics sandbox. The game comes with classics like chess, poker, and dominoes included, but the real draw is the massive collection of free player-created board games and card games available in the Tabletop Simulator workshop. Here, people have recreated some of the best board games around, including Pandemic Legacy, Gloomhaven, and Root. Obviously, some of these creations are more polished than others, but the larger games tend to work really well; in fact, I was really shocked how well complex games like Root worked within Tabletop Simulator. Some publishers have also published official DLC for Tabletop Simulator, so there’s no shortage of content available to try out. If you’re a board game fan like me and can’t always get friends together in person to play, Tabletop Simulator is worth every penny. See on Steam Mordhau $24 / £25.14 / $34.36 AUD (20% off) Mordhau is a fun medieval multiplayer game that features some of the most involved first-person sword-fighting out there. It’s not exactly a sim, though–there are lots of hectic, one-off multiplayer moments that will probably remind you of games like Battlefield, but the strong emphasis on teamwork and sieging castles set it apart. See on Steam Black Mesa $13 / £9.74 / $18.81 AUD (35% off) This remake of the original Half-Life has been over a decade in the making, but it’s finally complete and definitely worth the wait. It features revamped graphics and overhauls the previously-maligned Xen section of the original but manages to keep the soul of Half-Life intact, making this the best way to see Gordon Freeman’s first encounter with the G-Man and alien life if you’re looking to catch up on the series before playing Half-Life: Alyx. See on Steam Jackbox Party Pack 3 $16.24 / £12.34 / $23.36 AUD (35% off) It’s hard to find a series that’s more immediately accessible than the Jackbox games. These party games, which you can play with others online or in-person through your PC or phone, have you responding to all kinds of outlandish prompts, drawing your own (often lewd) pictures to show off and working together to accomplish a common goal. The entire series is on sale for cheap, but Jackbox Party Pack 3 is the one to play, since it’s the best collection of games overall. Quiplash 2 lets you answer a bunch of weird questions with even weirder answers and then pick the funniest ones. Meanwhile, Tee K.O. has you separately drawing pictures and coming up with taglines, then putting together a shirt based on the pictures and tags you randomly get from the group. See on Steam Them’s Fightin’ Herds $10.04 / £7.63 / $14.40 AUD (33% off) Originally developed as a My Little Pony fan game, Them’s Fightin’ Herds has blossomed into a unique fighting game all its own, complete with new equestrian designs from MLP producer Lauren Faust. The roster is small compared to its higher-budget competition, but there are a lot of creative concepts packed into each of these manes, and tutorial and single-player options are more diverse than you might expect from a fighting game made by a smaller team. See on Steam Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition $15 / £11.24 / $17.21 AUD (25% off) For some history buffs, the empire-building sim genre that slowly evolved into the 4X genre began and ended with the Age of Empires series. The iconic second entry is finally available for modern computers, complete with 4K visuals, a remade soundtrack, and a new “The Last Khans” expansion that includes more campaigns and civilizations to round out this strategy classic. See on Steam If Found If Found is a deeply emotional and resonant visual novel that follows Kasio, a woman struggling at a crossroads between ending her education and looking for a career with meaning. The gorgeous illustrations give the game a vibrant style, and its focus on smaller moments and more relatable topics make it a fantastic palette cleanser between other games on this list. See on Steam Monster Train $22.49 / £17.54 / $32.35 AUD (20% off) Deck-building roguelikes are pretty popular nowadays, but Monster has a few tricks up its sleeve that have proved popular with a growing fanbase. The deck-building mechanics are top-notch, and the presence of factions, which act as a way of theming your deck, make building effective combos easy and natural. See on Steam from GameSpot - All Content https://ift.tt/3dwkx97

[hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff]

For PC gamers, the launch of Steam's Summer Sale is one of the biggest days of the summer, offering an opportunity to snag some of the platform's best games for their cheapest price yet. While multi-platform games have the chance to be featured in multiple sales, like Nintendo's or PlayStation's, PC-exclusive games like Total War: Three Kingdoms, Gears Tactics, and Half-Life: Alyx only get a chance to shine in the Steam Summer Sale, so it's worth paying extra attention to those games--you might not see them at this price for a long time.

From turn-based strategy and digital board games to fighting games, action RPGs, and more, here are some of the best PC exclusives in Steam Summer Sale 2020. Please, see our overall list of the best Steam Summer Sale 2020 game deals and the best cheap Steam games under $10.

Total War: Three Kingdoms

$45 / £33.74 / $67.49 AUD (25% off)

Total War: Three Kingdoms still hews closely to the series' expansive strategy sim framework but makes a few key changes that, along with the ancient Chinese period setting, make it stand out within the series. The increased emphasis on individual commanders and general gives each playthrough with a different army a new flair, and whip-smart enemy leaders make it difficult to simply steamroll the map on your way to victory, making this an intense new entry with a lot of depth.

See on Steam

Gears Tactics

$40.19 / £33.49 / $66.96 AUD (33% off)

Gears Tactics takes a more bombastic approach to the XCOM school of turn-based strategy and melds it with the pulpy, war-fueled world of Sera. Each of the Gears franchises' iconic weapons like the Lancer, Gnasher, and Longshot translate seamlessly to a strategy game, and their abilities serve to differentiate each of your squad members in combat. You're also closing up emergence holes with grenades and mowing down Wretches with machine-gun fire--just like in the third-person shooter franchise Gears Tactics takes its name from.

See on Steam

Half-Life: Alyx

$45 / £34.86 / $63.71 AUD (25% off)

There are quite a few great games you can play on VR headsets, but Half-Life: Alyx is one that really makes the case for games designed exclusively with VR in mind. Grabbing and throwing objects with the new Gravity Gloves feels fantastic, and trying to stay quiet so a blind, unstoppable monster doesn't hear you makes you naturally hesitant to even close a cupboard door. Exploring City 17 feels incredible through a headset, from the moment you see a Strider towering above the city's rooftops in the first few minutes of the game to the moment you begin a mind-bending trek near the end I won't spoil here. Alyx quickly becomes an essential part of the Half-Life universe, even if you think you know how it all ends.

See on Steam

Killer7

$10 / £7.74 / $11.97 AUD (50% off)

If you're a fan of any Grasshopper or Suda Goichi game (No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned, Let It Die), you owe it to yourself to experience Killer7. It's undoubtedly his most surreal, trippy game, and this remaster of the original Gamecube and PS2 classic updates it for PC, complete with higher resolution options and mouse-and-keyboard aiming, making it the best way to experience this strange masterpiece in 2020.

See on Steam

XCOM: Chimera Squad

$15 / £12.74 / $22.46 AUD (25% off)

XCOM: Chimera Squad is a smaller entry in the series that focuses on a single squad of fleshed-out characters rather than a platoon of random soldiers and offers a few twists on the intense XCOM firefights we're familiar with, like a back-and-forth turn order, breaches that give you a chance to whittle down enemy squads from the jump, and special abilities that give each member of your squad a special role in fights.

See on Steam

Disco Elysium

$30 / £26.24 / $42.71 AUD (25% off)

Disco Elysium eschews the fantasy trappings, combat-oriented encounters, and easy morality that underpin a lot of RPGs and instead lets you tell a story that truly feels your own. As an alcoholic detective hitting rock-bottom just as he's assigned a major murder case, you explore a city block in the middle of a conflicted territory recovering from a political revolution. The conversations you have with various denizens around Revachol have you re-litigating the city's tumultuous past, putting together a dance club in the middle of a church, and delivering heartbreaking news to unsuspecting families as you come to terms with who you were before your last bender. It's a long journey with twists that flip from pensive to laugh-out-loud funny to solemn on a dime while somehow telling a consistent, powerful story along the way--something I can't say about many other games. Disco Elysium is planned to release on consoles later this year, but for now, you can only enjoy this incredible narrative experience on PC.

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Tabletop Simulator

$9 / £7.49 / $14.47 AUD (50% off)

The coronavirus pandemic has forced many people to spend much more time indoors and distance themselves from friends and family, so finding ways to stay connected while apart has become crucial. One of my favorite ways to hang out with friends virtually has been Tabletop Simulator, an indie game that lets you play digital versions of board games in a player-driven physics sandbox. The game comes with classics like chess, poker, and dominoes included, but the real draw is the massive collection of free player-created board games and card games available in the Tabletop Simulator workshop. Here, people have recreated some of the best board games around, including Pandemic Legacy, Gloomhaven, and Root.

Obviously, some of these creations are more polished than others, but the larger games tend to work really well; in fact, I was really shocked how well complex games like Root worked within Tabletop Simulator. Some publishers have also published official DLC for Tabletop Simulator, so there's no shortage of content available to try out. If you're a board game fan like me and can't always get friends together in person to play, Tabletop Simulator is worth every penny.

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Mordhau

$24 / £25.14 / $34.36 AUD (20% off)

Mordhau is a fun medieval multiplayer game that features some of the most involved first-person sword-fighting out there. It's not exactly a sim, though--there are lots of hectic, one-off multiplayer moments that will probably remind you of games like Battlefield, but the strong emphasis on teamwork and sieging castles set it apart.

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Black Mesa

$13 / £9.74 / $18.81 AUD (35% off)

This remake of the original Half-Life has been over a decade in the making, but it's finally complete and definitely worth the wait. It features revamped graphics and overhauls the previously-maligned Xen section of the original but manages to keep the soul of Half-Life intact, making this the best way to see Gordon Freeman's first encounter with the G-Man and alien life if you're looking to catch up on the series before playing Half-Life: Alyx.

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Jackbox Party Pack 3

$16.24 / £12.34 / $23.36 AUD (35% off)

It's hard to find a series that's more immediately accessible than the Jackbox games. These party games, which you can play with others online or in-person through your PC or phone, have you responding to all kinds of outlandish prompts, drawing your own (often lewd) pictures to show off and working together to accomplish a common goal. The entire series is on sale for cheap, but Jackbox Party Pack 3 is the one to play, since it's the best collection of games overall. Quiplash 2 lets you answer a bunch of weird questions with even weirder answers and then pick the funniest ones. Meanwhile, Tee K.O. has you separately drawing pictures and coming up with taglines, then putting together a shirt based on the pictures and tags you randomly get from the group.

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Them's Fightin' Herds

$10.04 / £7.63 / $14.40 AUD (33% off)

Originally developed as a My Little Pony fan game, Them's Fightin' Herds has blossomed into a unique fighting game all its own, complete with new equestrian designs from MLP producer Lauren Faust. The roster is small compared to its higher-budget competition, but there are a lot of creative concepts packed into each of these manes, and tutorial and single-player options are more diverse than you might expect from a fighting game made by a smaller team.

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Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

$15 / £11.24 / $17.21 AUD (25% off)

For some history buffs, the empire-building sim genre that slowly evolved into the 4X genre began and ended with the Age of Empires series. The iconic second entry is finally available for modern computers, complete with 4K visuals, a remade soundtrack, and a new "The Last Khans" expansion that includes more campaigns and civilizations to round out this strategy classic.

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If Found

If Found is a deeply emotional and resonant visual novel that follows Kasio, a woman struggling at a crossroads between ending her education and looking for a career with meaning. The gorgeous illustrations give the game a vibrant style, and its focus on smaller moments and more relatable topics make it a fantastic palette cleanser between other games on this list.

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Monster Train

$22.49 / £17.54 / $32.35 AUD (20% off)

Deck-building roguelikes are pretty popular nowadays, but Monster has a few tricks up its sleeve that have proved popular with a growing fanbase. The deck-building mechanics are top-notch, and the presence of factions, which act as a way of theming your deck, make building effective combos easy and natural.

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