Horror, aliens, courtroom drama and… cards?
The heat may have broken where you are, but Fanatical's summer sale continues apace. If you're looking to beef up your library without emptying your wallet, you'll want to head over and see what they've got on offer.
But if you're overcome by choice paralysis, we've got you covered. Just like last week, we've picked out five of our favourites from Fanatical's wide catalogue of discounted games for your perusal. As ever, remember to grab everything you want before the sale concludes on August 21.
£21.99/$26.39 | Fanatical link
Resident Evil Village is an enthralling tale of a bumbling dad and the things that happen to his hands. It's also one of the finest survival horror experiences of the last few years, pitting you against a patchwork assemblage of lycanthropes, lunatics, a magnet guy, and—yes—a very tall vampire lady.
Village takes the humid, intimate horror of Resident Evil 7 and swaps it out for a more extravagant and traditional spooky story of monstrous aristocrats in an unnamed Eastern European village. The icky dread of the Bayou is traded in for a more action-packed adventure through the infinite perversions of Europe's lingering noble class, which have been a recipe for excellent horror for literal centuries. Which one you prefer is, of course, up to you, but we really liked Village here at PCG, scoring it a handsome 85% and praising its "strength and variety of ideas".
£5.74/$6.89 | Fanatical link
Arkane's confusingly-named opus takes all the open-endedness of the Dishonored games and transplants it into a big, unhappy space station. In my book, the mark of a great immersive sim is when your failure to overcome an obstacle feels like a failure of your imagination rather than talent or resources, and that's definitely the case here. Personally, I'm looking forward to Prey 2 almost as much as I once looked forward to Prey 2.
£5.99/$7.99 | Fanatical link
Ask me what gets me up in the morning and I'll tell you it's the white heat of my anger that so few people played this game. PoE 2 takes the materialist history and interesting factions of New Vegas, the tactical combat and divergent character builds of Icewind Dale, and sets it all in a fantasy version of the golden age of piracy. It is a sumptuous-looking and sumptuously-written game and it's a steal at this price.
£13.19/$13.19 | Fanatical link
Even if you've never laid hands on a Phoenix Wright game, you'll know its spiky-haired protagonist from the endless proliferation of "OBJECTION!" memes that get shared online everyday. But behind the meme-worthy antics is a classic puzzle game that splits its time evenly between crime scene investigation, courtroom chicanery, and some of the most anime nonsense you've ever seen.
£14.27/$16.99 | Fanatical link
It's the 18th century, the industrial revolution is on its way, the Enlightenment is upending centuries-old moral norms, and the hot breath of revolution is on the aristocracy's neck. But you don't care about any of that; you're just a con artist out to take the blue bloods for everything they have in a series of increasingly elaborate scams. It's basically Barry Lyndon does Ocean's 11 and we liked it quite a bit.
£1.74/$2.49 | Fanatical link
Forget everything you've just read, Regency Solitaire is the real main pick here: the one that lives in our hearts. Regency Solitaire dares to ask, "What if Jane Austen's Lizzy Bennet played cards?" and answers it with a worryingly addictive solitaire sim that tells an unfolding love story across a series of solitaire games. Microsoft Solitaire has nothing on this.
