[STEAM] Best books all gamers should read

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Masters Of DOOM by David Kushner

Even though you can pretty much run

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you still can't run it on a book — yet — but we already have the next best thing. I'm talking about the thrilling story of John Carmack, John Romero, and the remaining OG crew at Id who brought the original title in the

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to life. This is not a "making of" featurette in the shape of a book, but rather the amazing story of the early days of the company, as well as a great account of the influence the title had all over the industry.





Masters Of Doom is so good it's Hollywood-worthy. An adaptation was going to happen before COVID and other problems caused it to sadly but aptly land in development hell, but here's hoping it'll one day rise from the grave to make everyone realize how cool of a tale this is.

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: *****, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation by Blake J. Harris

For dark and mysterious reasons, war oftentimes proves to be box office gold in movies. Luckily, video game wars lack the moral reprehensibleness of traditional warfare — while they maintain the same level of drama and surprise.





For example, would you believe me if I told you that ***** came close to winning the war against Nintendo? This means we could have been living in a world where ***** owned the market. One where Sony never even got a chance in the console business. That's one of the incredibly interesting details you'll learn from Console Wars, a fantastic account of the late '80s and early '90s war between ***** and Nintendo.

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by Mike Drucker

Do you think the world of

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would be too scary for you to handle? Then consider learning about it in book form, through the words of super fan Mike Drucker. For those unaware, Drucker made a name for himself as an excellent comedy writer, and here we see him nailing a completely different world by delving deep into one of the most harrowingly unfunny experiences you can have in gaming.





This book is the perfect gift for anyone who'd want to know more about Silent Hill 2, as, even though the Internet is (was?) great, it lacks many of the research materials Drucker lovingly dug into to find out all there is to learn about the history of the game.





Silent Hill 2, the book, is also so good I'd recommend it even to people who know nothing about the game — who knows, you might even finally be tempted enough to play it.

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Vol.1 and Vol.2 by Steven L. Kent

Unfortunately, you cannot fit everything one should know about the history of humanity into two volumes. The history of video games remains short enough to accomplish this feat. If you want to learn where it all started, how games evolved into what they are today, and perhaps even to catch up with your kid's hobby and understand the hype, these books are your way in.





The first Volume came out in 2001 and contains everything you should know from the very beginning of video gaming until the turn of the millennium. The second volume covers the two decades that followed. While the second title contains far more recent information, much of it will still surprise you.

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: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier

The last few years have revealed some of the darker aspects of the game development industry. If that sentence piqued your interest, you definitely want to read Jason Schreier's Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. Schreier spent a lot of time interviewing developers working on various top titles and put his findings about crunch, burnout, and unexpected victories in that bleak battleground together for us to enjoy.





At points, it feels like a scathing critique of the Industry, but Blood, Sweat, and Pixels is even more of a celebration of the true heroes who give it their all to make these beautiful works come to life.

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by Jordan Minor

Interested in acquiring more encyclopedic knowledge on video games? One easy way is by learning all about the games

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and no better way to dig into that than via Video Game Of The Year.





Since we only began using the GOTY designation after the release of Half-Life's GOTY edition, anything before that would be speculation. So, Jordan Minor's book does the digging required to bring up the best and most interesting games we could've possibly called the best of the year ever since 1977. The result is an interesting and informative trip down memory lane.

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: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell

The question of whether or not video games are art is one that has haunted gamers for a while. Before that, we had to justify whether video games were, in any way, shape, or form, a worthy way of spending our time. If either question sparks even a tiny bit of interest from you, then you should totally consider picking this one up.





In Extra Lives, author Tom Bissell looks into the "why" of video games with this deep dive into the medium and into what makes it a medium so many people care deeply about. Extra Lives is a great pick for anyone interested in video games, even slightly.

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: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry by Jason Schreier

If Jason Schreier's Blood, Sweat, and Pixels told you the story of trying to survive in the video games industry, Press Reset, the spiritual successor, talks about coming back to life after "dying" in it.





Press Reset tells the true stories of layoffs and studio closures that continuously leave people without the jobs they love in an industry that seemingly despises them — then about how they deal with it. It's a great, tough, read, but also one that will not leave you completely devoid of hope.

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: An Atlas & Exploration of Video Game Cities by Konstantinos Dimopoulos

Some of us don't care too much about where the game takes place, while others want to immerse themselves in every scrap of lore they can find about the game world. They want to explore, learn more about the world itself, and if you're a part of this group, then Virtual Cities is the book for you.





Konstantinos Dimopoulos' video game city Atlas digs deep into the lore and the reasoning behind the aesthetics and structures in 45 extremely iconic game cities such as Half-Life 2's City 17, Silent Hill, and New Vegas. If that's not enough for you, Virtual Cities then beautifully ties it all together via over 100 full-color illustrations that are gorgeous enough to justify the price on their own.

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: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games

If you're among the countless people who played Spec Ops: The Line and wanted to read more from the person behind it, then this may be your jam. The Line's lead writer, Walt Williams, wrote an entire book's worth of thoughts about video games.





in Significant Zero, Williams talks about the seemingly unfortunate time when his satirical writing first caused him to lose his job in the Air Force, then paved the way to an awesome career writing for games such as Bioshock and Civilization. He then delves into the billion-dollar video game industry, one filled with incredible talent and even more incredible egos. If you want to read a fun account about this sometimes beautiful, sometimes dreadful industry, then Significant Zero is the book for you.

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: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto by David Kushner

What better way to cap it all off than with yet another great work of David Kushner, the man who got the ball running with Masters of Doom? This time Kushner tells us about the origin story of the Grand Theft Auto series, which is now the biggest franchise in the world, but one that started off as anything but.





Did you know GTA started off as a dead average driving game that was pretty much carried by the free publicity it got from outlets everywhere complaining about the amount of violence It contained? Did you know the series owes its success to a glitch that

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Did you know the makers of GTA are British?! Those are just the tip of the iceberg in the incredibly outrageous origin story of Dan Houser, Sam Houser, and Rockstar games.



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