Day 2 has come and gone, bringing with it a heaping helping of healthy savings that I hope you didn’t let pass by. But with the end of the first day brings on the appearance of the next. Here’s a highlight reel of today’s top offers to definitely NOT miss out on.
While not a specific title, many of the Tomb Raider games are going on sale today. The newer two (soon to be three) titles are always a source of wonder to me because they’re a pair of very well-made, very interesting and fun story based third person single player titles that have both sold well under expectations. They’ve got good amounts of story for their asking price, solid game times, plenty of pretty environments, SUPER INTENSE HAIR PHYSICS, and numerous collectibles for the eager completionist. If you’re still a bit on the edge, Steam’s refund policy gives you two hours of leeway to try a game out for yourself risk-free. If there’s one positive to how often they’re overlooked, it’s the great sales they often go on, so you’re looking at the best of the best right here.
BattleBlock Theater ($4.99) is the couch co-op game for that one friend / family member / significant other who isn’t too familiar with video games. From the creators of Castle Crashers, it’s chock full of cartoonish characters, silly humor, and easy to learn mechanics that slowly become more challenging as you progress. Each set of levels ends in a timed race through a puzzling arena that can get pretty stressful in the later areas. But once each timed challenge is complete, another healthy set of more laid-back puzzle levels follow, keeping the daily dose of stress easily manageable and avoidable in this goofy romp through a world controlled by cats. And as with the best couch co-op games, this one doesn’t really punish you for that one moment where you just gotta uppercut your freind into the maw of a roaming monster. Oh come on – Don’t tell me you’ve never felt like doing that before.
Star Trek: Bridge Crew ($19.99) is a spaceshipping simulator that can be played both in and out of VR. Forming up into crews 4-person crews, players choose the roles of Captain, Helm, Tactical or Engineer and must manage resources and communicate effectively with the other crew members in order to accomplish a variety of tasks. These tasks range from escort missions to deliveries to rescues to diplomacy, and will test the wits and skill of your entire crew. The game also allows players to choose between a more classic and a modernized control layout for their ship, and even allows players to turn off the in-game overlay that spells out functions for all the console buttons. Want to truly immerse yourself as a starship captain and memorize the individual functions of 30+ tiny colored buttons on a control panel? This is the game you’ve been waiting for.
HELLDIVERS ($9.99) is a multiplayer isometric shooter title that pits you and up to three other soldiers with the task of surviving your way through several different environmental objectives as you drop from orbit into what might as well be hell. This game is not for the faint of heart, and certainly isn’t for that person you played Battleblock Theater with. Missions usually begin with tense stealth scenarios, escalates when some guy messes up the stealth, progresses into a rush to complete that last objective, and finishes in a climatic stand-your-ground fight to the death while the timer to extraction ticks down. The game allows users to equip special beacons that call for resources via orbital drop. These pieces of equipment can range from super-powered guns to mech suits to emplaced guns to airstrikes to mines to a massive tank capable of seating a full team. Calling in the resources takes precision and skill, however; Rather than a button prompt, players must memorize a specific button combination and use the signal transceiver so the orbital ship knows what to drop. And if they’re not careful, messing up the signal could slow them down and be the deciding factor in a very tense shootout.
