Another week, another Xbox sale, and this one is considerably better than the last few. The Deep Sea Discounts sale is overflowing with nautical-themed titles (and more), so the team went fishing for great deals on great games. Here’s what they caught… Bad North is an excellent roguelite strategy game about defending your home from Vikings. Its cutesy pastel art style makes the sudden blood and gore of its battles all the more startling — it’s a combination which shouldn’t work, but really does. We included Bad North in our list of five Xbox games for when you’re short on time, along with the likes of Children of Morta and Riverbond, due to the ease with which you can pick it up for either five minutes or five hours. Your goal is to stay ahead of the wave obliterating everything behind you, and to command your little army across a chain of islands to drive off invading Vikings. You need to take the layout of each island into account when commanding your troops — to position pikes in narrow paths, for example, or to make sure your vulnerable infantry have cover against enemy archers. The speed and ease with which you can get stuck into Bad North and restart after a loss might have made those losses feel inconsequential, if it weren’t for the fact that losing a commander means losing them for good — it’s surprising how much of a blow it is to lose any soldiers you’ve worked so hard to obtain. Bad North is a gem of a game which excellently executes a simple premise. It’s easy, for instance, to play through the tutorial and think you’ve got the hang of things. Bad North wants you to feel a little smug, to be lulled into a false sense of security, and to think you’re a fantastic commander, so that it’s all the more shocking when your island descends into absolute chaos. You might have bossed the tutorial, but somehow just a few islands later you’ll find your troops perishing, while more enemies are arriving by the second, and you’ve got no one left to defend that last lonely house. Factor in that huge wave roaring along behind you, and you’ll see the kind of pressure you’re up against. You should definitely snatch up Bad North while it’s on sale — while I might have hesitated at full price, it’s a steal at 50% off.Bad North: Jotunn EditionYour home is under attack. The king is dead at the hands of Viking invaders. Hope is a distant glimmer in the fog, fading fast with every passing moment. As you rise to take your father’s place as ruler, it will fall to you to stage your defenses. But make no mistake – this is no fight for victory, but a desperate grasp for survival.I’m going to let you in on a little secret, but keep it between you and I or there will be intangible consequences. I really want to play Stranded Sails because there are pirates, but I haven’t yet. Sorry, this is now a theoretical sales pick. But, this is good tidings. You see, I feel like you and I can begin on a pioneering voyage together: a journey into the farming sim world that has cutlassess and spirits and a pretty bland art style that still might somehow charm us both. We will be able to farm independently of one another, because there is no co-op, but maybe we can exchange tales by sticking a message in a bottle and floating it to a comments section? We could exchange recipes… oh, you did the grilled mackerel with the coconut! Or we could exchange crafting tips… yes, I see, I should have upgraded my beach hut with a sea-view veranda before I tried to get involved in combat! Maybe we could start a discourse about the various story beats around the estranged castaways that we met along the way… that Tony, bit of a saggy-sailed poop deck, isn’t he? And when the privateers of the world try to prey on us digital adventurers, we will say so what if Stranded Sails doesn’t hit the high seas like Spiritfarer or Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag? You and I, my adventuring friend, will have dived into the water of this 50% discount head-first and made a go of it, so much so it would be worth writing in a highly imaginative, but quite akratic, sales pick. Stranded Sails – Explorers of the Cursed IslandsStranded Sails – Explorers of the Cursed Islands is an open world, exploration and farming adventure full of quests and discovery! You’re ship-wrecked on a mysterious archipelago. It’s up to you to survive and solve the mysteries deep in the heart of the islands, then finally escape! Both cosmic and gothic horror are typically played pretty straight, which I think is the main reason that the dry, dark humour of Sunless Sea tickles me so. The Fallout-esque blend of harrowing backdrop, bizarre goings-on, and barbed wit works wonderfully, turning the game’s drowned world from an otherwise deeply depressing place into a setting that can amuse and fascinate as much as it disturbs. Sunless Sea will be too pedestrian for some, I’m sure, as beyond the simple sailing and basic naval combat, most of the game is heavily text-based. It feels a lot like a board game in this and many other regards — another reason I love it, actually — and the superb writing paints vivid pictures of the weird and wonderful horrors that lie beyond the relative safety of Victorian London. These kinds of eldritch mysteries are supposed to be unfathomable, inexplicable, and incomprehensible, so the theatre of the mind is probably the best place for them to play out anyway… that’s precisely why Lovecraftian themes are so common and effective in tabletop gaming, where imagination does most of the heavy lifting.I really enjoy how open-ended and oblique Sunless Sea is, with each ill-fated voyage teaching you more about the core systems and the world to put to good use on your successor’s journey — it’s mainly you, the player, that gains experience rather than an in-game character, although you are able to pass some in-game wealth and/or knowledge on to the next generation as well. There’s not even a fixed goal. You’ll have a selection to choose from based on your chosen background when starting a run, and you’ll have a completely different experience if you sail forth in search of your deceased father’s remains to if you decide to, say, venture out to the furthest reaches of the weird waterscape to find inspiration for your next literary masterpiece. If the idea of being left to your own devices as a steamboat captain operating in and around sunken Victorian London sounds like a good time to you, Sunless Sea has all the tentacles, cults, gaping maws, existential dread, eldritch creatures, dark rites, and elder gods you will need for a long, long time to come.Sunless Sea: Zubmariner Edition”LOSE YOUR MIND. EAT YOUR CREW. DIE. Take the helm of your steamship in a Victorian Gothic roleplaying game of discovery, loneliness and frequent death. Find your father’s bones. Determine London’s destiny. Defy the gods of the deep sea.For my team pick this week, I’ve chosen a game that I’m not actually that fond of, but thanks to a drought in the genre, I’ve been playing it non-stop. PGA Tour 2K21 is possibly one of the least exciting, drab, and passionless golf games I have ever played (yes, I know golf isn’t exciting at the best of times, let alone in a video game made by 2K). The crowds lack atmosphere and oomph like previous games in the genre, the commentators are a bit annoying, and the career mode is dull, flat and seriously lacking. However, PGA Tour 2K21 is probably the best golf game since EA’s Tiger Woods series was at its peak. The swing mechanic is fantastic, and overall the game is much easier to get to grips with when compared to The Golf Club 2019, which was too heavily steeped in simulation for my tastes and not at all friendly to beginners. The game modes are interesting and a laugh to play with pals, and while I haven’t checked it out, I’ve heard great things about the course creator. PGA Tour 2K21 definitely isn’t scoring a hole in one. It’s a little lifeless, and 2K Games has tried to monetise it with a bizarre golf battlepass that doesn’t really make sense (surely nobody is buying that?), but the actual golf is satisfying and fun to play. I’d say it’s definitely worth the $23.09/£19.79/€23.09 for the Deluxe Edition, especially if you’re longing for a golf game that will fill the gap left by all those good Tiger Woods PGA Tour games from back in the day. PGA TOUR 2K21 Digital DeluxeThe Digital Deluxe Edition includes the Golden Touch Pack featuring a gold-plated driver and gold-plated putter, as well as the 2K/adidas CodeChaos MyPLAYER Pack featuring the adidas CodeChaos BOA Golf Shoes, and custom adidas / 2K CodeChaos Polo, Pants and Hat, designed by adidas, exclusively for PGA TOUR 2K21. Players will also receive an additional 2300 currency to unlock additional MyPLAYER gear to hit the links in style!Yes, The Elder Scrolls Online is part of Xbox Game Pass and has been for quite some time, but it’s only the base game that’s available. This bundle comes with the Morrowind expansion and Wolfhunter DLC, which will open up a whole new zone and two higher difficulty dungeons. If you grab the bundle, you’ll be able to fill hundreds of hours with magical memories and the feeling of camaraderie with other players. The 60% discount is a great reason to enjoy the base game and dabble with some additional content before committing to the in-game monthly subscription to unlock almost all the other content. I’ll always shout about the greatness of The Elder Scrolls Online, especially seeing as I’ve spent over 2,000 hours exploring Tamriel and saving Nirn from countless threats, and you’ll find me in there for well over another 2,000 as long as Zenimax keeps on pushing out content. If you enjoy the MMO structure and large open worlds filled with lore, memorable characters, and challenging combat, this is the game for you — especially seeing as we could be a very, very long way away from getting our hands on The Elder Scrolls VI. The Elder Scrolls® OnlineIncludes The Elder Scrolls Online base game and the Morrowind Chapter. Join over 18 million players in the award-winning online multiplayer RPG and experience an ever-expanding story in a persistent Elder Scrolls world. Optimized for the Xbox Series X|S with Console Enhanced, bringing a new level of fidelity and performance—free for all ESO players. Planning on taking the plunge on any of these? Or maybe you’ve fished out a few choice catches of your own? Let us know down below!
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