Tacoma Archives – Thumbsticks

Save up to 80% on immersive sims, horror and RPGs in the Steam 0451 sale. You know the history of the number "0451" in video games, right? If you do, you can skip down to the list of games in the Steam 0451 sale. If you don't, then we'll rattle through it really quickly. "451" is the code for the first door you open in System Shock, the grandaddy of the immersive sim, released in 1995. It was also the access code for the offices of Looking Glass, the developer of System Shock. We're unclear which one came first, or why it's "451" in particular – rumours say it was chosen after Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit: 451 – but it has become the hallmark of the immersive sim ever since. It's sometimes followed by other numbers – "451000" in System Shock 2, for instance – but is more often preceded with a zero to make a four-digit PIN code, as in Deus Ex in 2000, or BioShock in 2007. Since then, most every game which has any trace of immersive sim in its DNA, either in its gameplay or in the history of the people who made it, has a "0451" code. Often, it's used as a bit of a gag, as an "easy" door early into the game, with the code written right next to the thing it opens. So now you know the abridged version why "0451" is such a special number in games – maybe we'll do a big feature on it one day? – you'll be keen to see which games are included in the Steam 0451 sale. (Why is Steam having a 0451 sale? Because it would've been Ray Bradbury's 100th birthday, of course.) And, because it's chock full of immersive sims, there are absolute crackers on the list. Games featured in the Steam 0451 sale Alien Isolation BioShock Remastered BioShock 2 Remastered BioShock infinite Deus Ex Game of the Year Edition Deus Ex Invisible War Deus Ex Mankind Divided Deus Ex Human Revolution Director's Cut Deus Ex The Fall Dishonored Dishonored 2 Firewatch Gone Home Infra Might & Magic X: Legacy Neon Struct The Novelist Prey Sanitarium Spirits of Xanadu System Shock Enhanced Edition System Shock 2 Tacoma Transistor Seriously, look at that flipping list. Look at it! There's nary a bad game to be seen, and some of them are absolute bangers. Alien Isolation! The BioShocks! Deus Ex! Dishonored! Firewatch! Gone Home! Prey! System Shock! Tacoma! If the Steam 0451 isn't the best PC sale in recent years, we'd be very surprised. It's only on for this weekend, though, so you'd better get cracking. Follow Thumbsticks on Twitter and Facebook for more video game sale news. (And maybe more potted histories, if you enjoyed this?)

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All posts tagged "Tacoma"

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