Playing a top-rated Xbox 360 or One title doesn’t have to break the bank whether its a first-person shooter, role-playing game, platform or an indie title. Playing an Xbox title for less can be done at a fraction of the price while providing new gaming experiences and bumping up that Gamerscore. There are plenty of affordable titles to add to your library and we, at XBPSA Media, may have found some titles to love and share…
Blackwood Crossing
A hauntingly-beautiful first-person adventure game where you control Scarlett, a teenage girl who wakes up on a mysterious train journey with her younger brother Finn. What follows is a tragic yet beautiful story of love and loss, family strife and sibling rivalry set in locations that have been lovingly created with intricate details everywhere you look, culminating in the most memorable final sequence I have ever experienced in gaming.
Memorable characters and settings, well-crafted puzzles that further the story at a great pace, and a loving attention to detail seldom seen in titles from such a small studio, this game will stick with you for a while after completion.
More than a few tears were shed as the final credits rolled, ranking Blackwood Crossing as my favorite indie game ever played.
Greg Cawood
Overcooked
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love co-op games. The feeling of a team working together to achieve something greater and actually succeeding is comparable to very few others in gaming. Overcooked is one such game that allows players experience such sentiments as they try to complete orders with their friends in the hope of finishing a round efficiently.
Basically, in Overcooked players are tasked with running a restaurant, and work together to complete enough orders at a particular time limit. As players become better at the game, orders become more complex, customers more impatient and mistakes more frequent. In a nutshell, all the makings of an experience filled with laughter, rage, and future nostalgia.
I’ve only ever played Overcooked with a group of good friends, and each time has been amazing (even if slight intoxication has always dampened our abilities to play the game properly).
If you’re looking for a good cheap co-op game to play with your friends when they come over, you can’t go wrong with Overcooked, and with the game being under R200, it really is a steal.
Gaby Ferreira
Assassin’s Creed II
Stealth may not be my strongest in-game ability but I grew to admire it when I sat down for my first Assassin’s Creed experience in Assassin’s Creed II.
Assassin’s Creed II marks the players’ first adventure with the game’s main protagonist (and the most prevalent character within the franchise), Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Set in the beautiful world of the Italian Renaissance, players will be plunged into Ezio’s deadly world of the assassin as you hone your assassin skills while mastering the weapons designed by the legendary Leonardo da Vinci.
The environments are absolutely breathtaking and the exhilaration of traversing your way throughout the massive Italian map across buildings, market squares and the occasional wall along with the intense hand-to-hand combat system made this all for a worthwhile 90+ hours and for under 200 bucks, this game is a massive steal. But then again, all the titles in the Assassin’s Creed: Ezio Collection is also a massive steal as you make history once again as the legendary assassin in his three iconic adventures, Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed Revelations.
Ashleigh Klein
ABZÛ (included with Game Pass)
I have only played this very recently, but it instantly shot to the top of my favourites list. I find words that adequately describe this game, and the experience of playing it, hard to come by. ABZÛ can best be described as the video game equivalent of a beautiful poem, requiring your imagination to fill in the gaps where the game doesn’t explicitly describe the story.
There are no words spoken or written anywhere in the game, which sees you controlling a diver exploring breathtaking underwater landscapes, teeming with ocean life both past and present, on a mysterious and fantastical journey through the oceans’ depths. Backed by an original orchestral score, playing this game is an experience unlike many others, leaving you feeling calm and relaxed.
The peacefulness is accentuated by the game itself having a “Meditation” feature, where you can relax in a number of underwater scenes, admiring any of the sea creatures while listening to the beautiful soundtrack.
Unusual, unforgettable, and a highly recommended experience for gamers of all ages.
Greg Cawood
The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season
Telltale Games have a way of evoking the human condition in their titles, that brings storytelling to the forefront and have become one of the top developers that consistently produces spellbinding narratives.
The Walking Dead is one of my favourite television series alongside Game of Thrones (another series to be adapted into a Telltale game), but they have done something magical and exhilarating while placing the fate of characters in our hands (twisted faith). As Lee Everett, The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season explores a world ravaged by the undead following the zombie apocalypse. Lee, who rescues a girl named Clementine, formed one of the most powerful bonds in video game history as we get to see Clem grow up in front of eyes in later seasons. As Lee and Clem try to make sense of the new world, various dialogue choices will have a significant impact on the game like character dispositions towards Lee and certain character deaths (ahem!).
Critically acclaimed for its emotional approach to the narrative as well as the empathetic bond between Lee and Clem has seen this game make multiple appearances on Game of the Year lists as well as subsequent seasons with the fourth and final season dropping later this year as we bid farewell to Clem and the survivors in this masterful storytelling series.
Need I say more?
Ashleigh Klein
Bonus Pick: The Darwin Project
The latest addition to this list that looks to change things up in the battle royale genre.
If you had watched the #XboxE3 briefing from 2017, you may have slept on this battle royale title from Canadian developers, Scavenger Studio. Featuring an arcade-like, third-person combat system, Scavenger Studio went old-school with its choice of weapons: a pick-axe and bow & arrow! Wait, what…
The battle royale genre has been heating up since the arrival of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) and Fortnite, who are in direct competition with each other, The Darwin Project is welcoming game for those who want competition but on a smaller scale. What makes The Darwin Project a true gem is the game’s great emphasis on the art of survival as anything can eat up your health bar, from guerrilla-style tactics to the ever-changing weather conditions.
While PUBG and Fortnite are entangled in a full-blown war of who is the King of battle royales, The Darwin Project, like PUBG, is an Xbox One exclusive title. And the best part is that The Darwin Project is a free-to-play multiplayer game. yes, that’s right, FREE-TO-PLAY! FFFFFREEEEE!!!!!
Ashleigh Klein
