Xbox’s big Spring Sale has arrived and it’s offering a large selection of titles with nice big discounts. We, the TA news team, like to think of ourselves as relatively adept bargain hunters, so we’ve pooled our selections here…Kes — Batman: Arkham KnightI’ve watched The Batman recently — the one with R-Batz playing a socially-detached Bruce Wayne like his character from the Safie brothers’ classic, Good Time (it works really well) — and that has me in the mood for more. Now, I’m aware that all three of the Rocksteady series are on sale in the collection, but I need ammo for other sales picks so I’m just picking out the final one, Arkham Knight. It gives you Gotham City in all of its depressing, rainy, grimy, crime-addled glory and opens the skies to more verticality than both the grounded (in the literal sense) Arkham Asylum and the two-storey Arkham City. The story sees a mysterious new villain enter the scene while Bruce is haunted by the events of the previous entry. The story is good, but not quite as tidy as the previous two games. Much like Nolan’s The Dark Knight, it spreads its narrative net a bit too wide and while it lands some big and incredible hits, it lets the smaller details slip through the holes sometimes. That being said, it’s still gripping and manages to create scenarios that use open-world Gotham to staggering effect. A level set on an airship stands out as being particularly strong with the narrative and location coalescing perfectly. It then also gives you the Batmobile for ground action, with the destructive four-wheeled force proving to be a sure-fire divide between those who like and those who dislike the game. Aesthetically it’s near-perfect, growling around the streets like a terrifying black boar, but the gameplay associated with it is sometimes a bit clunky and breaks the slow-paced brooding tempo that Rocksteady had used successfully previously. The combat on foot, though, is still a best-in-class combination of combo-chaining arcade brawler and 3D action game. It’s tense, frenetic, and full of depth that rewards dedicated players. The Batman: Arkham Knight achievements are a fun, but occasionally tricky, batch — do check our TA walkthrough if you need it! The game looks stunning, feels great on foot, and has more than enough Batman to satiate you for the many hours you will spend glowering with adrenaline after sitting with Matt Reeves’ film. Batman™: Arkham KnightIn Batman: Arkham Knight, the explosive finale to the Arkham series, Batman faces the ultimate threat against the city he is sworn to protect.Luke — Röki I’ve been looking to try out this spellbinding adventure game since it released late last year, so seeing 40% lopped off its price in the Xbox Spring Sale was the perfect time for me to pull the trigger. It’s a point-and-click-style game based on Scandinavian folklore, with young Tove out to rescue her little brother Lars from a pretty gnarly monster. Not all monsters are mean, mind, and those you help out tend to repay your kindness by helping you get ever closer to getting your brother back — think Labyrinth, only snowier. So far, puzzles have been pretty logical and creative (the genre can all too often be cryptic or even completely obtuse with its solutions), and the bold art style and fascinating theme make for beautiful scenes and surprises around every corner. The Röki achievements don’t look especially taxing bar a few missables to watch out for, so I’m looking forward to working through them some more — after hitting a bunch of huge, deep games hard, this charming adventure is exactly the change of pace I needed, so I can’t wait to see what other kinds of Nordic mysteries and creatures are still to come…RökiRediscover magic and chart your adventure through this forgotten northern world of mystery and monsters. Find your courage, discover hidden paths, solve ancient puzzles and travel deeper through the icy land to learn the truth.We join Tove on a fantastical journey to save her family. A journey that takes her deep into a hidden and long forgotten world of lost folklore filled with strange locations and even stranger creatures. Explore the ancient wilderness, solve its mysteries, save your family in this modern adventure game for all. EXPLORE a Living Fairy Tale Forest.Explore a rich, beguiling Northern world of mystery and monsters; filled with detail and brought to life by Roki’s signature graphical style.Make Friends With MONSTERS.Seek out the ancient and magical creatures of the Scandinavian wilderness; some are friendly, some not so much! Röki has a rich cast of unique ‘creepy-but-cute’ characters – discover our own take on Nordic folklore. SEARCH for Long Forgotten Items.The ancient wilderness holds many secrets. Seek out long forgotten items to aid you on your adventure.SOLVE the Riddles of the Wilderness.Röki is a game of brains not brawn. Can you unlock ancient pathways and solve the riddles of the ancients?CHART your Journey.Tove charts her progress in her trusty journal – it’s her grail diary. Map uncharted regions, delve into the rich Scandinavian folklore, collect loot and earn unique ‘wilderness explorer’ badges.An ADVENTURE For ALL.Röki is an adventure game for ALL gamers – with its non-violent gameplay, accessible controls and universal themes.. The game is designed uniquely to pose a challenge, but to also offer a helping hand when adventurers need it. A truly modern take on the adventure game genre.Sean — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt You don’t need me to tell you how good The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is. It’s won numerous awards, topped countless best games lists, and is beloved by many. The reason why I’ve chosen The Witcher 3 for my Spring Sale pick is because of the game’s upcoming free Xbox Series X|S upgrade, and its incredibly low price. The upgrade, which is due to launch sometime in Q2 2022, will be free to all who own a previous-gen copy of either the standard or the GOTY version of The Witcher 3, so if you have never played it (you really should), no longer have a copy, or just want to own it digitally, it makes sense to pick up The Witcher 3 from the Spring Sale — while it’s at its cheapest ever price — for $7.99/£4.99/€5.99. The Series X|S upgrade, dubbed: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition, includes both the Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone expansions and makes a raft of visual and technical improvements, including ray tracing and faster load times. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition will be sold as a standalone, but you might as well pick up a previous-gen copy now for much less now.The Witcher 3: Wild HuntThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a story-driven, next-generation open world role-playing game set in a visually stunning fantasy universe full of meaningful choices and impactful consequences. In The Witcher, you play as a professional monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia, tasked with finding a child of prophecy in a vast open world rich with merchant cities, pirate islands, dangerous mountain passes, and forgotten caverns to explore.Tom — Thief Thief, in my opinion, is one of the unsung beauties of the Xbox One generation and highly underrated. It features some pretty solid stealth mechanics and robust difficulty modifiers, which allows you to really tailor the experience to your tastes. Whether you want the challenge of not killing anyone, permadeath, or any other mechanical modifiers to make your time playing easier or harder, there’s a host of neat options. While its storyline isn’t particularly memorable, it does help string the journey along, introduce some interesting characters, as well as open new locations and keep things moving at a steady pace. It’s a shame that Square Enix never attempted a follow-up, really, but one can only hope that the future holds a new adventure for Garrett. It’s currently at its lowest price ever of £2.39, rocking an 85% discount, which makes it a great time to explore The City if you haven’t already. This reminds me; I haven’t unlocked all of the Thief achievements yet, so I should probably get that sorted.ThiefGarrett, the Master Thief, steps from the shadows into the City, a treacherous place ruled by a tyrannical Baron and his brutal Watch. When the citizens rise in bloody revolution, Garrett’s thieving skills are all he can trust as he walks a fine line between politics and the people, revealing a darker secret that threatens to tear his world apart.I couldn’t very well drop a sales pick without mentioning that The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood is also on sale this week, with a 67% discount. It includes all of the Chapter expansions to date, and will set you up perfectly for the launch of the High Isle chapter in June. I highly recommend anyone that’s interested in the game to grab it while it has such an awesome discount. The Elder Scrolls Online Collection: BlackwoodThe Elder Scrolls Online Collection: Blackwood is the ultimate Elder Scrolls experience and includes the base game and all previous Chapters. Optimized for the Xbox Series X|S with Console Enhanced, bringing a new level of fidelity and performance—free for all ESO players. Will you be picking up any of the games listed here, or are you still giving your backlog a spring clean? Let us now down below!
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