Although none of them originated on Steam, my top five favorite games of all time in no particular order are as follows.

Before the proliferation of pay-to-win mechanics, this MMO embodied the quintessential gaming community all online games should strive for

Exactly what you'd want in a JRPG, plus a phenomenal soundtrack for good measure

The forever-unparalleled roguelike management simulation

Equal parts difficult, rewarding, and content-heavy, it set the standard in its class for good reason

Everything an OCD-driven, programming-minded problem-solver could possibly ask for in a game




Moreover, I've often played games before they released on Steam, during long bouts in Offline Mode, or via their DRM-free alternatives. This, in turn, skews a lot of my Steam records and Achievements accordingly. Below are rough approximations of unrecorded time investments for my most notable outliers.

~5,000 hours (I used to play exclusively in the standalone client)

~4,750 hours (Became a 10m SP CovOps/EWAR pilot with fully-fit Widow reqs a decade ago)

~400 hours (Most of my time invested was pre-Steam release)

~300 hours (I played via Rockstar's launcher)

~300 hours (My childhood's FPS of choice)

~75 hours (All of my playtime was pre-Steam release)

~50 hours (I played almost entirely in Offline Mode)

~40 hours (I played almost entirely in Offline Mode)




And for completion's sake, I've also extensively played (>1,000 hours) several non-Steam games as listed below.

Primarily Co-op Missions and Melee

Gold-skilled Support main, left near the end of Season 7

Mesmer main, Guild Leader with roughly half-upgraded Guild Hall, sPVP Gold ranked

Last player to be recorded to the original Hall of Honor for winning 1st Place in the final International Popularity Contest event

Played through most of the series and its spin-offs exclusively on console/handheld

Avid fan primarily of MHFU, MH4U, MHGen, and MHRise

Still following the competitive scene nearly 20 years later