Explore Ancient Greece in This Week’s Good-Ass Games at Good-Ass Prices

Howdy, folks! It’s Friday, which means it’s time to save y’all some money. This week sees the continuation of Sony’s Games of a Generation Sale and Xbox currently has a Warner Bros., publisher sale along with the standard deals with gold. It’s not a particularly stacked week but there were some gems to be found.

Quick warning for my Switch heads, I got nothing for you this week. I’m sorry Nintendo doesn’t love your wallets like I do.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (PS4 and Xbox One), $14.99

The most recent entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise tops this week’s list. The game expands on the Role Playing Game-lite approach introduced in Assassin’s Creed: Origins with branching quests, multiple endings, and a focus on character leveling.

While there’s a new AC game on the horizon, Odyssey is still worth giving a look. I personally picked it up during a sale over the summer following two years of friends texting me “Yo. Have you played Odyssey??” I’m still early into the game but I can definitely see how folks have sunk dozens of hours into this game.

Set in Ancient Greece, the game allows you to play as either Alexios or Kassandra, a descendant of Spartan King Leonidas I. Yes, “THIS. IS. SPARTAAAAAH,” Leonidas. The game even includes his iconic kick from 300. You fight through the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens and the approach rides a line between historical fiction and mythology.

If you’re looking for something that will give you an incredible amount of content and an incredibly reasonable price this is your game.

Batman: Arkham Collection (PS4 and Xbox One), $14.99/$17.99

Speaking of lots of content at a decent price, the Batman: Arkham Collection includes all three games in Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham trilogy. Batman: Arkham City remains one of my favorite October games to this day. It’s not a horror game, but goddamn if it isn’t close. I remember sitting in my bedroom being fucking horrified after picking up a pay phone only to hear Victor Zasz talk about the various atrocities he’s committed.

In terms of atmosphere and gameplay, both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City perfectly encapsulate how it should feel to be the Caped Crusader. While the third game, Arkham Knight didn’t quite reach the highs of its predecessors, it still had its charms here and there. Driving the Batmobile is tight, until, you know, it’s not.

Still, the first two games alone justify the price of this collection. If you’ve never played or simply haven’t revisited them in sometime, I would definitely recommend giving it a look.

Hey, real quick, y’all like free shit? I figured as much. It’s the first week of the month which means both Xbox and Playstation have revealed their free games for the month.

Playstation Plus members can currently grab both Need for Speed: Payback and Vampyr for free. Payback is the second most recent entry in the Need for Speed franchise and was the series second attempt at being a not-Fast and Furious game. It’s been three years since I Redboxed the game but I remember the gameplay being aight but the loot box driven progression system really turned me off.

I haven’t personally played Vampyr but from what I’ve seen it’s a third-person action role playing game that has some cool ideas but also a fair amount of jank. For free.99 though, I just may give it a go.

Xbox Gold members can currently grab Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut, a puzzle game that puts you in control of Skullface. The game looks like a hybrid of ‘80s slasher movies with some Minecraft graphics.

Gold members can also grab The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, a game for the original Xbox that I always remembered seeing at Gamestop as a kid and never felt an inclination to try. It got good reviews in 2003 according to Wikipedia though, so it could be good? Maybe? No? Okay, I tried.

That will do it for me today, folks. I hope y’all have a safe and lovely weekend and I will see you next week with more cost-effective goodness.

As always, play more video games.

Deuces.