If you’re one that likes to save money like me, you know buying games is hard to do, and to avoid hefty costs, you actually spend time away from the games that are too expensive so as not to set your wallet ablaze and regret doing it. Guess what? Best Buy may just have you covered this weekend if you are looking to save a bit of cash. Even Winston from Overwatch (above) agrees with me! See those adorable eyes? Well, lets take a look at these killer savings. You can click each link to go directly to the sale, but note. These sales won’t last long as they are part of today’s bonus deals that end at the end of the day.
Even with a few games listed above being niche titles and some being popular by demand, it never hurts to see a few sales going on. For the Full Bonus Deal of the Day Games List it’ll never hurt to check it out as there are still a few titles we left unlisted. If you want to save some money? Just head on over to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and or even the Battle.net App and join in on the Overwatch Open Beta Weekend and stay tuned for our upcoming reviews for Battleborn, Overwatch, and DOOM.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
If you’re looking for ways to save money, so are we, and we write about it when it’s there to do-so. You’ve seen us write about free-to-play games, you’ve seen us write about store membership services,tablet gaming and you’ve even seen us write about how to save money in general. This weekend doesn’t change that at all thanks to Sony’s current PlayStation Flash Sale, which is gigantic for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 owners. With the games, t.v. shows, and movies on the sale, you’ll be hard-pressed to not set your wallet on fire and walk away with some pieces of it still remaining.
So what do we recommend you taking a peek at? Take a look at the games we recommend that are available via the flash sale, but do note, there’s a lot more to choose from available in this Flash Sale.
For the full list? You can always check out it out through the website, PlayStation App for phones, and even through consoles. The Official PlayStation Blog also has the full list so you don’t have to do the digging! The sale runs from 4/23/2016 to 4/25/2016 at 11am PT. Jump on these and many more sales while you can!
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
I’ve reported a few times about my passion for free-to-play games, how to save money, and even what to do if you just don’t have the money in general. Today I’ve decided to take a look at one of my passion’s that some of the hardcore of the hardcore don’t consider a part of the gaming genre; tablet gaming on Android and iOS. This passion of mine has come around recently as it has become easily accessible to almost anyone. By anyone I mean literally almost everyone that has a smart phone or a tablet. Heck even Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 have implemented a decent amount of mobile games to their operating systems.
A few of the games that we’re going to talk about might be free-to-play or even come at a small cost. There’s even a few that cost almost the same price as their console or PC counterparts, but they’re still worth a go if you’d rather have them on the go. Granted the tablet versions may not just cut it in the end. Luckily for us, tablet gaming is rather inexpensive and easily enjoyable by anyone.
When looking at tablet gaming there’s always the question about App Permissions, memory use, and well performance as tablets are beginning to get the power treatment for gaming and usability. For many of the games listed the tablet used was a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. As mentioned in our review, the Tab S2 is a powerful, powerful tablet, but it’s not anywhere near the Nvidia Shield, which is something we’ve been tempting to get our hands on for several years now. One of these days we will if we’re lucky enough to hear from Nvidia or even get a chance to have one that we come across in the wild. Till then bare with us as the S2 is a powerhouse and does quite well.
On the first of the list is Vainglory. For many MOBA fans, the title brings an interesting aspect to the well known genre. One that has offered a unique blind of both touch and the subtly of high paced action. With characters ranging from Guardian, Assassin, Jungler, Support, and Warrior, the game offers a unique blend of familiar mechanics on a one lane map with objectives off to the sides. Luckily the game offers out some unique twists at every corner as all characters can be earned by simple gameplay. For those wanting a character that’s not accessible instantly, a few dollars (around 7 USD a character) can purchase a single character. While this alternative is there, it’s advised to save this for unique skins that get posted from time to time or even Early Access characters that may fit your preferred play style.
Next up on the list is a tower defense game I’ve found myself enjoying quite a bit when on the go. It has worked great on both my HTC One M9 as well as the Galaxy Tab S2. The game is called Epic War TD 2. TD standing for Tower Defense. The game idea is simple. A war has broken out. Your objective is to play turrets in a precise fashion in order to keep enemy forces at bay so you can defend your territory, but all this is not as easy as it sounds. The game requires patience, a quick mind, and the ability to swap out turrets faster than they can be placed. This means tactical thinking is a must for those wanting to spend a decent .99 cents or rather 1 USD. The game is gorgeous for being a tablet game and stands with a very simple and streamlined HUD for those looking to play. The game can be found on iOS and Android much like the previously mentioned Vainglory.
Next up on the list is Implosion – Never Lose Hope. The unique thing about this game isn’t that it’s just beautiful, but it plays extremely well for being on a tablet. With a rather chunky analog stick and a nice implementation of action command buttons, Implosion – Never Lose Hope is a game that does what most haven’t done on tablets quite well. It’s unique blend of high action AAA like graphics and mechanics keep it alive even though maps can get rather repetitive, but not enough to make you want to quit. Instead its blend of in-app purchases to gameplay don’t take away from the overall experience. While it’d been nice to see the game come to life on say the PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS we can’t be disappointed at what the game has to offer. The boss fights are unique, tough, and will ground players down in the post-apocalyptic setting the game has aimed for. However, it’s not quite like our next game that’ll rip at the hearts of fans as it has already been doing on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for quite some time now.
This War of Mine is a breathtaking experience. For 4.99 USD on Google Play or 3.99 on the Apple App Store, we’ve been able to play this game for some time on both console and PC. This War of Mine takes place in the fictional city of Pogoren, Graznavia where a group of survivors find themselves hiding together in order to survive the ongoing war. With a ceasefire seeming to be no where in sight, fans must take to this strategically challenging survival game by building up their house, going out at night to find supplies, and somehow managing their survival so that their characters don’t die. This includes making use of limited supplies, surviving break-in’s that will cause loss of food, and even surviving hostile enemies when going out at night. Here character traits do matter as does the characters back-packs as these will determine the supplies they can carry back on their adventure outside of the house. If that doesn’t sound like fun, the next title we have coming up might seem all-to-familiar to some while others may find themselves scratching their heads.
Blizzard Entertainment has been known for their massively successful franchises such as Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm, their Upcoming title named Overwatch, but also their famed card game by the name of Hearthstone. Originally launched a few years back on P.C., Hearthstone has taken the world by storm since it allows a TCG like experience on mobile platform and PC. Luckily the game allows fans to go from PC to handheld quite easily as the account that you use will be your Battle.net account so that you can migrate your progress seamlessly without any hassle. Much like any free-to-play, Hearthstone does have in-app purchases that allow players to buy the raids at full cost with real money or save up gold via playing in order to unlock them. This also goes for booster packs as well, which means the free-to-play portion may take newcomers a bit longer to build up to the builds that veteran players have.
Now we do have a few MOBA’s on here, but there is another worthwhile mentioning as it is quite fun, but at the same time different from my favored go-to mobile MOBA Vianglory. This one is called Ace of Arenas. Ace of Arenas uses the well known hack-‘n-slash mechanics we’ve gotten used to with many Android and iOS based RPG’s and Shooter genres. What this game does differently, however, is take the idea and has gone MOBA with it. With graphics being slightly lower that of games like Vainglory or even Implosion, the game still offers a wide array of characters and player matches allowing for a fun if-not challenging time. The game does feature a free-rotation as well as a unique use of a gem system, which many may seem slightly familiar with thanks to MOBA’s like League of Legends.
While it’s hard to say there aren’t other games out there, there is a hard-time finding games that we know a majority of you will like since there are other genres out there. We’ve seen Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, and a numerous amount of other games out there. We’ve played so many of them to even bring this article it’s been hard to choose what ones we know would be best for gaming on a budget. Because a majority of games on Android are free-to-play, we decided to grab a few of the hardcore games out there just to show you what is there, and what you can enjoy for free or at a cheap cost, and on-the-go.
Till next week, here’s your Cheap @$$ Gaming article.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
So when it comes to gaming, we’re all about cutting corners to save a bit of cash. We all know as gamers the cost of gaming has finally exceeded the 80-120 dollar limit, which means in the short term of things? Our games aren’t cheap. They’re actually quite expensive with micro-transactions, season passes, and other little additions here and there. Luckily a few companies have come out clean and showed their two-tier pricing scale for their games. For Ubisoft they’re showing our games are going to average between 69.99 USD to 99.99 USD depending on the value of content offered with the packaging. For many of us, that means we’re buckling down, holding our breaths, and taking a punch in the kisser. Yes, you read that right. We get hurt and we get hurt badly when it comes to what we do. However, this price scale isn’t that odd at all. Battlefield and Call of Duty entries with season passes will run you roughly 99.99 USD to 120 USD and some loose pocket change, but how can we shave off a few dollars in the long haul? Easy, lets take a look at the memberships such as GameStop’s PowerUp Rewards, Best Buy’s Gamer’s Club Unlocked, and Amazon’s Prime membership to see who takes the crown and the B.A.T.G.R. recommendation.
Power Up Rewards
If you’re a frequent to GameStop and their system, you’re no stranger to their constant ways of trying to cut a few dollars off your pre-orders. You’re also used to the fact it takes a lot of time to even get rewards through their store. If you’re like me, it’s enough to make you cringe, and even pucker a bit at the sour taste in your mouth. While GameStop as a company has been doing a lot to reformat Power Up Rewards, they – at times – just don’t seem to get it right. As a Power Up Rewards veteran, I can already tell you I’ve not been impressed for years. Want that 5 USD coupon? Guess what. That’s going to cost you several hundred to say the least. However, GameStop has recently begun to run a lot more promotions in order to give their membership some appeal. Lately they’ve been doing things such as matching cash with in-store credit to bring in more used games, but also customers.
They’ve also been offering some rather good trade deals, the company has also made a few advances towards better promotions. Like recently, they had an offer with Far Cry Primal; buy the game, get a 1,000 reward points, plus what you already get for just purchasing the game. Good deal, right? We wish, but unfortunately, GameStop is still losing out to both Amazon Prime and even Best Buy. Their promotions are attempts to bring in some extra customers, but unlike the next two titans. This does not necessarily mean GameStop is back in the front of the race. Instead they’re going to have to change up their approach, make better offers, and even show just how good they really are in order to keep ahead of the race. Unfortunately for them, they may not have what it takes, and that spells trouble out for the company as a whole.
Amazon Prime
If you are an avid Amazon Prime subscriber, you already know the company has a mean streak with creating some awesome deals, but also pulling a bit more money out of your pocket. With them now splitting Kindle Unlimited from Prime Membership, we won’t be surprised if they soon split both the movie and music departments away also and force users into subscribing to more services to earn just a few more dollars. But what this online giant market has done, is joined Best Buy in the 20% off of new games, but this theirs? Only through pre-orders that are directly coming from the company themselves. This means that any game you pre-order will see 20 dollars cut from the top and thrown down just for you to have. However, this does not mean hold your breath and pray that you’ll save a giant amount. This does spell trouble for those of you who may want your game on day of release.
There has been some issues regarding this, but in the long run? It’s 20% off and you are guaranteed your copy of your game and its pre-order bonuses, which we’ll admit that Amazon has had some great offers in the past. However, that doesn’t always mean you’ll get that collector’s edition as we have seen those disappear faster than both GameStop and Best Buy. So you may want to hit multiple outlets if you are expecting a rare copy of a game. Y’know, like that DOOM Limited Collector’s Edition with the Revenant statue.
Best Buy’s Gamer’s Club Unlocked
While we’ve never been quite impressed with Best Buy’s attempts at gaming, we can say that they are truly trying to revitalize a user base, and a consumer base. With Gamer’s Club Unlocked, Best Buy has decided to once more step up to the plate and attempt a grand slam, or if you want to be honest – undermining their competition. While Wal-Mart has never been a great place to go, GameStop has been decent, Amazon has been a crowning champion, but here comes Best Buy on their pink little bicycle, crash helmet, and a sucker in their mouth attempting to ramp a plywood ramp. Guess what? They’ve made the jump and are doing it over, and over, and over again.
But how did Best Buy manage this? We’ve become loyal to using their new service, offering between 20% off new games, 10% off used, and double points on all game purchases, this was too good to pass up, but they also offer rewards for trade-in’s, which seems to sucker punch GameStop quite well. If these two titans were in the ring? It’d be a helluva good show to watch as we know fists would be flying. What GameStop doesn’t have though, is Best Buy has one-upped them yet again. With certain pre-orders Best Buy offers between 5 USD coupons and 10 USD coupons. While these offers aren’t stackable, they are quite enjoyable, and ones that keep customers coming back. It’s why we do. The certificates, however, aren’t like GameStop’s where they are instantly redeemable. They instead are ones that you will have to wait between 15 to 30 days to see moved to your account so that you may use them. While that seems like a bit of a nail-biter, we can honestly say it’s worth it in the long haul.
Who’s the Victor?
While some of us like to be cheap a$$ gamer’s, it’s hard to say that GameStop is even in the ring anymore. Instead they’ve been put in time out as their offers have begun to decline and not keep a grasp upon those hoping to have any form of relief when committing financially to games. While Amazon doesn’t have a loyalty program or even a rewards program of any sort, it’s nice to see they are joining in and finally giving Best Buy a run for their money. With some of their exclusive pre-order bonuses, it’s hard to say that Amazon isn’t in this race. Instead they are slightly ahead of GameStop, but not by much, but what our third competitor does offer is what these two titans don’t.
If you’re familiar with Jason and the Giant, you’ll know that Best Buy was one that suffered in this arena. Their prices are sometimes much higher than others, but with competitor pricing becoming more frequent and allowing for price matches with Amazon, it’s hard to say they aren’t ahead in this race. With their unique loyalty program through Gamer’s Club Unlocked and My Best Buy Rewards programs stacking, the points add up quick, which means fast discounts on games within a month. Due to this Best Buy has become the best one we’ve found to save a good 20-30 dollars with within a month if you are one that buys multiple games. With base games going between 59.99 USD and 89.99 USD it’s nice to see Best Buy takes those offers down to 48 USD and some change before tax and even 63 USD and some change. So our victor? Best Buy wins the day and we hate saying it, but if GameStop want’s to stay in the race, they’ll need to re-work their points scaling as well as special offers to bring in customers already using Gamer’s Club Unlocked. Unless you’re, well, a PC Gamer then Steam, GoG, and Humble Bundle have your back.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.
