The Bargains Thread

Not free but this is an excellent hexmap creation app/tool/thing:

https://t.co/NyQJbOFLIj?amp=1

Sentinel Comics RPG and adventures free to download. I think this one's supposed to be pretty good.
https://store.greaterthangames.com/?target=search&mode=search&substring=digital&including=all

Also Alto's Adventure and Alto's Odyssey are free, basically everywhere. Jetpac Joyride meets Journey.

Forget all the freebies I've mentioned already, this here is gold. Exhaled Funeral publish esoteric and experimental indie RPG books and they have just put eight of them up for free.

I highly recommend A Pound of Flesh, Troika, Witchburner and Lorn Song. I'm sure the other for are great too though.

https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/

Tomb Raider 2013 is currently free on Steam, as part of a "Stay Home and Play" campaign intended to encourage people not to go out.

Not sure how successful a mid-tier game from seven years ago is going to be at enticing people to stay home, but I've added it to my account anyway.

Even more freebies have been added to the Exhaled Funeral site. Some of them are things that I have heard a lot of good things about.

The Hole in the Oak is one of them, it's a wonderful little old school D&D dungeon sandbox. You could run it with the freebie Old School Essentials demo rules.

https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/

Mario + Rabbids is down to £7.50 on the eShop, which is frankly crazy good value.

Anyone dipping for the Big in Japan sale on PS4? I broke my 'not buying anything' streak and went for Taiko no Tetsujin for £15.

Bought the latest Blazblue and Guilty Gear and that's it for me

Alien Isolation is currently £1.50 on Steam

That's £1.50 more than I'd like to pay to scare myself shitless.

That's £1.50 more than I'd like to pay to scare myself shitless.

Cheaper than Dulcolax

I bought Tetris Effect on the PS store on Saturday night after a few drinks. Seeing it sitting waiting to be played on Sunday (along with Wipeout: Omega Collection) was a sort of surprise… Anyway, £17 or there abouts which I think is the cheapest I've seen on PSN and I'm enjoying it a lot.

Tetris Effect on PSVR is quite the thing.

I didn’t really see the point. It was just Tetris.

Astrobot and Beat Saber remain the best reasons to buy a PSVR.

Couldn't find a dedicated/ongoing PS+ thread, so I'll stick this here for now: May's games are Cities Skylines & Farming Simulator. Two games which I would expect to be the B game on a normal month.

I guess they might be fine games, but they're not exactly exciting, are they? Neither of them feels like headline, "check this out!" material.

I never feel like management games quite fit on console, but Cities Skylines got decent press when it launched on PC, right? Is the port any good? In any case, Evelyn loves tractors, so we'll probably get some mileage (ha) out of Farming Sim.

The love for Cities Skyline is saving this month, super interested for it. As for Farming Simulator, is this actually good for the people who care about this sort of attention to detail or is it just a meme?

I was going to post this here, but then you beat me to it.

Both of those games can get to fuck. Desperation much, Sony?

There are some throwing around the theory on the PS+ subredditthat they're trying to cash in on the Animal Crossing "manage your town" fever, but I don't think a ship this big turns that fast.

but I don't think a ship this big turns that fast.

Animal Crossing wasn't exactly a surprise – the delayed March 2020 release date was announced in July last year.

I really don't see Animal Crossing fans going for these more sim-heavy games, though.

Cities Skylines is really, really good though. I haven’t played the PS4 version but it ran really well on the Xbox One X so I’m sure this version is good too. I don’t get why people are complaining. It’s one of the better games of the last few months.

Cities Skylines is really, really good though. I haven’t played the PS4 version but it ran really well on the Xbox One X so I’m sure this version is good too. I don’t get why people are complaining. It’s one of the better games of the last few months.

… if you like that kind of thing. But it's about balance. Have Cities matched with a platformer, a shooter, a racer, sure. Have it paired with an equally-slow sim game, you're basically saying to a huge chunk of the audience that they can skip a month. It's bullshit.

Agreed they're a bit similar but still. We've had much worse months. Compared to the double-header last year that was Conan Exiles and The Surge, or indeed the shit that Microsoft routinely pimp out for Games With Gold, this is a good month.

We've had much worse months. Compared to the double-header last year that was Conan Exiles and The Surge, or indeed the shit that Microsoft routinely pimp out for Games With Gold, this is a good month.

This is an agree-to-disagree thing. This month absolutely ranks alongside the Conan/Surge month for me - no interest in either title. Second month in a row I've not bothered even with the games on offer too (no interest in Uncharted 4 or Dirt 3.0 either). I usually add them to my library regardless, but haven't for two months now.

And you've already played the Xbox One version… so getting something you've already done counts as good? Hmm. :(

If you can’t find anything to like in Cities Skyline, Uncharted 4 or Dirt 2.0, that’s not Sony’s fault to be fair. They’re all stonkingly good,

And you've already played the Xbox One version… so getting something you've already done counts as good? Hmm. :(

It was on GamePass, it's recently been removed from GamePass, so getting the full thing for free through PS+ is a very nice thing.

Regardless, I can't always expect PS+ to give me (a) games that I like and (b) games that I don't already own. It's nice when it does of course but realistically if there's something I'm really interested in then I'll likely have already bought it. Cities Skylines is a great game that I'm glad more people will get the chance to experience. (Farming Simulator 19 may also be good, of course, and I'll actually be checking that one out).

As MPH says, if you're unable to enjoy anything about Uncharted 4, Dirt 2.0 or Cities Skylines - three very high-quality games in different genres - then you simply have very niche taste in games and you're probably not going to get much out of the PS+ selection in general. Especially at the end of a generation where most stuff's been on sale a few times and people have picked up most of what they're interested in. Not a criticism, just an observation.

As MPH says, if you're unable to enjoy anything about Uncharted 4, Dirt 2.0 or Cities Skylines - three very high-quality games in different genres - then you simply have very niche taste in games and you're probably not going to get much out of the PS+ selection in general. Especially at the end of a generation where most stuff's been on sale a few times and people have picked up most of what they're interested in. Not a criticism, just an observation.

That's quite… harsh. Actually hurts a little, that.

DIRT isn't for me, because I like stupid arcade racers (see: Burnout, Blur, OnRush) rather than ones with even a vague sense of realism. Cities isn't for me because the genre bores me to tears. Uncharted isn't for me because I've just never been interested in the series; I like Tomb Raider et al, so it's a franchise thing rather than a genre thing.

I like to think my taste in genres is pretty widespread, so saying I have niche taste just because I don't like a racing style, one very niche genre and a franchise isn't right. But you're right, clearly PS+ isn't for me. Can't even think of the last time I played online, bar cleaning up for trophies (Granblue, DOOM). Once my partner gets over here and I have no need for voice chat, I think I'll ditch it.

Wasn't meant to come across as harsh, sorry about that.

Maybe "niche" isn't the word but your tastes definitely run towards smaller, quirkier games rather than big-budget crowdpleasers, wouldn't you say?

I have a friend who has been obsessed with Cities Skylines on PC for about a month. It's not my bag, but plenty of people will discover on PS+ that it is very much their bag.

I have less patience for sprawling stuff, yeah. It's less an interest thing and more money: I don't have £70 to spend on something I'll need to play for several months to get the most out of, but happily drop £15 on something that'll keep me busy for a few weeks or so. The 'epic' stuff just tends to spread their ideas too thin as well… I got bored of Witcher 3 really quickly, where something like DOOM (shoot stuff, over in 12 levels, the end) kept me interested.

As I see it, the issue isn't games being small but rather more about compact. Burnout Paradise isn't a small game, but it's constant in terms of action and I love it. Same for DOOM. I'm also put off by the faux gloss and 'complexity for the sake of complexity' big budget games have. Everything looks the same, all the open-world things blend into one until I just don't care. I couldn't be less interested in Cyberpunk if I tried. I love cowboy nonsense, but Red Dead took itself so seriously and all the unnecessary mechanics just killed it for me. Bounced off Witcher 3 and GTA V. I just don't have the patience or the attention span.

That said: 428 Shibuya Scramble is right up my alley and I've fallen off that one without even finishing the first chapter. So. Hmm.

I think everyone here has it, but just in case: the entire first season of Hitman (so, the whole first game) is completely free on PSN right now until Sunday. Get that. Get it now.

Then also get the Hitman 2 trial, so you can play it all in Hitman 2 and carry over your unlocks.

A bundle of digital boardgames!
Patchwork
Splendor
Carcassonne
Small World
Twilight Struggle
Not Twilight Imperium
Love Letter
Potion Explosion

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/asmodee-play-with-friends?hmb_source=navbar&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=tile_index_1

I checked, excited, but it's Twilight Struggle, not Twilight Imperium. Still a heck of a bundle.

Sorry. My mistake.

There's a game on the PS Store at the moment called 8-Bit Invaders that has 97% off (or something) leaving it at 96p… Sounds daft to be asking but has anyone played it?

Not played, but I've heard of it (and the other games in the series). RTS combat thing with a sci-fi edge. Reviews seem to suggest it's good.

Lost me at RTS. RTS games need a mouse, IMO. I'm not even going to bet 99p on testing that hypothesis. I've been burned before.

There was a pretty ambitious (read: janky) Tom Clancy RTS on 360 that used voice commands. It was very awkward to play with anyone else in the room, but the voice recognition stuff was actually pretty solid.

It was very awkward to play with anyone else in the room

I'm hoping this is because it used army terminology for doing things, and that said terminology involves phrases like 'Hump the weasel' and 'Yeah, do it do it do it'. Because that makes me laugh.

Reminds me of SOCOM with the headset. (I loved that game)

GTA 5 for PC is currently free on the Epic Games Store, if there's anyone out there who hasn't played this yet.

Looks like Civ 6, Handsome Collection and Ark to come as well.

Thanks for the heads up. It seems you also get a free £10 voucher to use in their sale, which I used to get Control for £13.99. This then gave me another £10 voucher, and I'm considering spending that on getting ANNO 1800 for £14.99. You could get Ass Creed Odyssey for £6.49 if you like.

Anno 1800 is brilliant, that's a great choice.

Yeah, I got it. It keeps giving you £10 vouchers.

Spider-Man on PS4 appears to be free right now? It says full price but if you add it to your basket, it then says free. Weird. Anyone who doesn't already have it want to see if it actually works? Looks like it might be an early PS+ accidental release. I already have it, so can't test it.

Stupid double posting.

Spider-Man on PS4 appears to be free right now? It says full price but if you add it to your basket, it then says free

It says free on the product page, but once you add it to your cart it shows the full £35 price tag.

PS+ for June confirmed then.

Itch.io has a Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that includes over 740 titles (including videogames, tabletop RPGs and game assets) from over 500 creators – all for five bucks.

It looks like their server's getting hammered at the moment, though.