Summer progresses in Fanatical (opens in a new tab) as we enter our third week of deal rush. As always, if you want this to be a summer to remember (that is, one where you spend most of your time indoors playing video games), you’ll want to head there and see what’s on offer.
But if that sounds like too much decision making so early in the day, we can help. We’ve selected another crop of the best discounted games for you to check out among the many currently on sale.
Top Pick: Soul Hackers 2 – 20% off
£39.99 / $47.99 | fan link (opens in a new tab)
Soul Hackers 2 is the latest in the proud line of “non-Person Shin Megami Tensei games” and follows the story of a war between dueling cabals of devil summoners. It’s a sequel that’s been 25 years in the making: the original Soul Hackers debuted on a mysterious monolith called the Sega Saturn in 1997. I guess you can’t rush perfection.
It’s more combat-focused than the Persona games. You’ll find yourself guiding your group of adorable cyberpunk demon fighters through various dungeons and engaging in traditional yet rewarding turn-based JRPG combat. Even social links and confidants, the Persona series’ dating sim staple, are replaced with a set of dungeons called “Soul Matrices” that see you dive into the minds of your peers and battle their demons, which They are literal and metaphorical at the same time. . If you got hooked on SMT when we finally got Persona 4 in 2020, Soul Hackers 2 will see you through until Joker and the Phantom Thieves finally land on our shores this October. (opens in a new tab).
Subnautics – 40% off
£14.99 / $17.99 | fan link (opens in a new tab)
I have never liked survival games; I fight enough to survive in real life. But something about Subnautica meant I put almost 70 hours into the damn thing. Maybe it’s the subversive and (ironically) dry wit of its anti-corporate humor, maybe it’s the constantly unfolding, well-paced mystery at the heart of the game’s plot. Maybe I just like hanging out with huge fish. Whatever it is, Subnautica is the only survival game I’ve ever loved, and I suspect that will be the case for some time.
Shenmue 3 – 78% off
£5.49 / $6.59 | fan link (opens in a new tab)
The adventures of jiu-jitsu idiot Ryo Hazuki continue in Shenmue 3, as our beloved and perplexing hero continues his search for his father’s killer in the mountains of Guilin, China. Shenmue 3 is a strange, deliberate, languid experience that listened to the criticism people made of previous games and responded, “All of that stuff is good, actually.” We really liked it, and while it won’t change the minds of Shenmue haters, the world is a better place for its existence.
Kerbal Space Program – 77% off
£6.89/$9.19 | fan link (opens in a new tab)
We choose to go to the moon because we are clearly not fit to survive here on Earth. Kerbal Space Program is the premier NASA simulator on the market, painstakingly modeling the physics and mechanics of spaceflight and allowing you to build the jaw-droppingly explosive death traps of your dreams.
£3.32/$5.69 | fan link (opens in a new tab)
You’re not playing defense anymore. XCOM 2 takes the defensive gameplay of Firaxis’ first XCOM and turns it on its head: you’re now controlling a group of revolutionary guerrillas fighting to overthrow a tyrannical alien regime whose conquest of Earth was a huge success.
Elite Dangerous – 79% off
£4.19/$6.29 | fan link (opens in a new tab)
The best space truck simulator on the market. Elite Dangerous isn’t perfect – its procedurally generated missions can get old and its last expansion was controversial, to say the least – but nothing else I’ve played captures the vastness and sublimity of space like this. Simply point yourself in a random direction and activate your frame shift unit. That’s where the real fun is.
