The Xbox Summer Sale was always going to be a tough act to follow, but there are still decent discounts in this week’s selection if you know where to look. For those struggling with that part, the TA news team is back with some more pointers. Well, most of them, anyway — Sean is off getting drunk in a field somewhere, and Heidi struggled to find any featured games that she hadn’t already championed quite recently, so politely abstained. Nevertheless, the rest of us have put together a trio of choices, so you may still find something new to add to your backlog yet. Here’s what we’ve got for you this week…Kes — Outer WildsEvery now and again, by which I mean every week, I wax lyrical about Outer Wilds. I will continue to bang the drum long into this week, too. I haven’t even looked at the actual discount because it is worth all of your money. All of it. Oh, it’s 40 percent off… that’s a great deal, actually. Let me preface before I rock your world, as this game isn’t for you if you get annoyed by puzzles, don’t like reading, or exclusively play AAA games and want the bangs and the booms all the time (not in a derogatory way, I like them too). Other than for those gamers, I truly believe this game is an exceptional experience. It is one of my favourite games of all time, so be warned of the hyperbole ahead. This is a space exploration game in which you are given a solar system to explore for 20 minutes until the sun explodes. Now, off you jet in your cute rocket ship and explore planets and discover the expertly written story. The music is unreal, the look of the game is unbelievably well-stylised, the achievements are gratifying (see: Hotshot). The world design — or rather, planet design — is perfectly attuned to what you as a player are doing. You find the solution to a little mystery that then feeds another, that feeds past mysteries, present mysteries, and future mysteries. It alters the planets you pick out for each voyage, it gives you the sensation of working things out all the time. I cannot stress this enough, don’t look at guides. Nothing is missable, so getting the story and mystery and exploration so closely interwoven is all part of the exact science of Outer Wilds. Eventually, you come to a conclusion which — and this is not an exaggeration — rewired how I think about the time I spend on Earth. There is some freaky looking expansion content on the outer rims of September, so picking it up now and waiting for that to drop into the game is an option, if you so fancy. I just don’t know what more to say. I think this is one of the best games ever made and it is now on sale. What more do you want?Outer WildsOuter Wilds is an open world mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop.Luke — Sayonara Wild HeartsA vibrant and imaginative fusion of awesome tunes, simple-yet-varied twitch gameplay, and a killer sense of style, Sayonara Wild Hearts is one hell of a ride. It’s been on my wishlist for a good while, but seeing it in the sale after it got so many mentions in the comments on my recent best Xbox soundtracks piece, I knew I had to bite this week. It really takes me back to that turn-of-the-millennium explosion of wonderfully creative music-themed games — Space Channel 5, Rez, Gitaroo Man, et al — before the success of Guitar Hero homogenised rhythm-action interfaces into just being note highways. While not strictly a music game in the traditional sense, Sayonara Wild Hearts does have some typical timed inputs and rewards gameplay that follows the soundtrack without demanding it as strictly as some other games might.Sayonara Wild Hearts really keeps you on your toes with its fast-moving gameplay, leaping between different styles and angles with reckless abandon to create an experience quite unlike any other. Yes, it’s short, but it’s so dense and so chaotic that you’ll actively want to go back and experience most of the incredible sequences again, which is just as well as you’ll have to for a bunch of the achievements. Even here, the game refuses to play by the rules, with 24 cryptic riddles where an achievement list would usually be. Solve these to work out the tasks you’ll need to perform to unlock each in turn, and just like everything else about this game, I’d personally recommend going in blind and just seeing how you get on. Should you get stumped on your way to the completion, though, RadicalSniper99’s superb walkthrough has a neat tips system in place for this section, meaning you can often find helpful hints that don’t completely ruin the fun of solving the puzzles for yourself. Or you can just look up the answers and have at it. You monsters.Sayonara Wild HeartsSayonara Wild Hearts is a euphoric music video dream about being awesome, riding motorcycles, skateboarding, dance battling, shooting lasers, wielding swords, and breaking hearts at 200 mph.As the heart of a young woman breaks, the balance of the universe is disturbed. A diamond butterfly appears in her dreams and leads her through a highway in the sky, where she finds her other self: the masked biker called The Fool.Travelling through futuristic cities, dark forests, and electric deserts, The Fool sets out to find the harmony of the universe, hidden away in the hearts of Little Death and her star crossed allies; Dancing Devils, Howling Moons, Stereo Lovers and Hermit 64.Tom — Dead Island Definitive CollectionWhen it comes to zombie survival games, Dead Island is up there at the top of my list of best experiences. I played through the whole game in online co-op with my brother, charging through the tropical paradise and dismembering all undead in our path. It was a fantastic time, filled with tense moments that sometimes catch you off-guard and end in your position being overrun by flesh-eating creatures. The story itself is decent and gives the game a natural feeling of progression as you travel through the seaside holiday resort, jungle interior, and the island’s main city district. I’d recommend you grab a buddy to play with because Dead Island is at its best when you can co-op your way to greatness.I haven’t got around to playing Dead Island: Riptide or the arcade-style Dead Island Retro Revenge — which I now feel slightly ashamed of admitting — but at 75% off the bundle, they are definitely worth a shot. To be honest, the first game is worth that price alone so the other two are a solid bonus. The chances of seeing a new Dead Island seem to be slipping further away with each passing moment, so this might be the only way to experience the awesome world… anytime soon, at least.Dead Island Definitive CollectionThe ultimate Dead Island collection – fully remastered!
Paradise meets Hell!
Welcome to the Zombie Apocalypse experience of a lifetime – and now more beautiful than ever.
Caught in the midst of an epic zombie outbreak on the tropical island of Banoi, your only thought is: Survival!
Contains the genre-defining Dead Island, its successor Dead Island Riptide, and all previously released DLC.Any of these three wildly different deals pique your interest, or perhaps you’ve found your own brilliant bargains to share? Get involved down below!
Source link
