Elden Ring is an open-world RPG about surviving incredible boss fights and piecing together fascinating bits of tragic lore. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is an arcade mech shooter about customizing robots and dueling to the death. They are both excellent and shockingly cheap right now at just $20 each.
Through some strange sorcery or Black Friday magic, both games are as cheap as they’ll ever be for the physical versions at places like Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers, including publisher Bandai Namco’s own website. Elden Ring, which originally launched back in 2022, has been this cheap before, and probably will again, but if you haven’t already played FromSoftware’s GOTY it’s a perfect time to dive in since the similarly acclaimed expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, arrived earlier this year.
Normally $80 for the full package, Elden Ring plus the expansion is currently on sale for $50. And even if you decide to forgo the meaty DLC at this time, getting a head start on Elden Ring will help since even accessing Shadow of the Erdtree, which takes place in an entirely new map, requires dozens of hours of playtime and beating some tough bosses.
Armored Core VI, meanwhile, has gone on sale much less frequently and never for this steep of a discount before. The 2023 sci-fi blockbuster was one of my personal top-10 games of the year but didn’t land on as many people’s lists as Elden Ring. Unlike its fantasy-based sibling, however, Armored Core VI is a lot more straightforward with short missions and generous checkpointing that lets you focus on tough boss fights without worrying about backtracking or losing XP when you die. Plus the grim industrial vibes and anime mech drama are immaculate.
Who knows how long both games will stay on sale. The games aren’t currently discounted on the PlayStation and Xbox storefronts or Steam, though the digital discounts might be coming closer to Black Friday. So far FromSoftware hasn’t indicated if Armored Core VI will get its own Shadow of the Erdtree-sized expansion, but I’m still holding out hope that it eventually will. Maybe sometime in 2025.
.