6 games I’m picking up during the Xbox Summer Sale

The Xbox Ultimate Sale, the equivalent of the Xbox Summer Sale, similar to the sales run by Steam and PlayStation this month, is officially live and running through the end of July. While the Xbox ecosystem is dominated by Xbox Game Pass, there are tons of fantastic games that release on Xbox but don’t come to Xbox Game Pass. Luckily, many of those games are on sale for relatively cheap, so you can build out your library. If you are planning to get an Xbox Ally X handheld when it releases later this year, check for Play Anywhere in the features’ column, which will let you play the game on both console and PC, and the handheld runs PC games. For this list, I put together six deals that include deal discounts on fantastic games across a variety of genres.

6

RoboCop: Rogue City – Alex Murphy Edition

A fun time that isn’t quite worth full price

RoboCop: Rogue City is a fun FPS set in the same universe as the original movie. Unlike some of the sequels and reboots of the original RoboCop film, RoboCop: Rogue City manages to capture the silly satirical aspects of the story, and not just the over-the-top violence. RoboCop: Rogue City does have the over-the-top violence, managing to make the methodical slow movement of RoboCop feel great in an FPS game. It’s not a perfect game by any means, but it’s far better than a modern RoboCop game has any right to be, and considering the deluxe edition, which comes with a digital art book and a small DLC pack, is only $7 during the sale, it’s absolutely worth the asking price. A stand-alone DLC has also just been released, so there is even more RoboCop: Rogue City to enjoy after the main game.

Discounts

5

Batman: Arkham Collection

An incredible deal on three of the best superhero games ever made

The Batman: Arkham Collection brings together three of the best superhero games ever made into a single package on modern consoles, and right now it’s an incredible deal on Xbox. Batman: Arkham Collection includes the three mainline games, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and Batman: Arkham Knight. It includes the remastered versions of the first two games, and all the DLC available for Arkham Knight, including combat challenge packs, suits, and the incredible Batgirl DLC mission. There’s a ton of Batman to playthrough, and even if you played these games when they initially came out, now is a great time to run back through them, since it seems like we won’t be getting another quality Batman game in the near future.

Discounts:

Batman: Arkham Collection – $9 until the end of July

4

LEGO DC Super-Villains Deluxe Edition

One of the best modern LEGO games

LEGO DC Super-Villains is one of the best LEGO games, which is shocking considering how modern it is. While some of the more modern iterations get bogged down in recreating movies, LEGO DC Super-Villains instead tells an original story based on some of the comics. The Justice Syndicate comes from an alternate world and the Justice League disappears, leaving the villains to sort out the new evil superheros. It tells a fun story, uses its open-world format to create Metropolis and Gotham, and, since it isn’t restricted in terms of plot, has basically every DC Comics character you can think of in it. The co-op mode is great and even someone who doesn’t normally play video games can enjoy it. The deluxe version comes with the season pass, which includes DLC missions based on Batman: The Animated Series and Young Justice.

Discounts:

3

Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition

Fill the GTA 6 hole in your life

Sleeping Dogs is an open-world crime game made by Square Enix set in Hong Kong. It follows an undercover cop, Wei Shen, as you investigate crime syndicates while trying not to blow your cover. It has all the makings of a Grand Theft Auto game, complete with an explorable open-world filled with side activities. Unlike GTA, Sleeping Dogs features a fairly deep hand-to-hand combat system that feels more like an action game than a sandbox crime game. This is the definitive version, which has remastered graphics, but more importantly, includes all 24 DLC packs built into the story, so you can enjoy them as part of the main experience.

Discounts

2

Nier: Automata Become As Gods Edition

Play the transcendent JRPG

Nier: Automata is a critically acclaimed action RPG from PlatinumGames and visionary director Yoko Taro, featuring fantastic third-person action combat and deep sci-fi story about humanity. You play as 2B, an android sent from the human colony in space down to the planet in order to help secure it for the population. As you meet people and machines, you discover so much about the world that you didn’t previously know. I don’t want to give away too much about the story, but you can expect a compelling narrative and some fantastic third-person combat. This version is the visually enhanced version for Xbox One X, which gets the same benefits on Xbox Series X|S, and includes the DLC, which adds a few skins for some of the different characters.

If you have never played Nier: Automata, it’s important to know that there are multiple endings which come from replaying the game. I won’t give too much away, but each playthrough is different, so make sure to check them out to get the complete story.

Discounts:

• Nier: Automata Become As Gods Edition – $16 through the end of July

1

Yakuza: Like A Dragon

A fantastic turn-based RPG and a great entry point for the series

Yakuza: Like A Dragon is the seventh (technically eighth depending on how you count Yakuza: 0) game in the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series, but it also serves as a new starting point for the current cast of the series. While having knowledge of the previous games provides more context, you don’t need it to hop in here with Ichiban Kasuga, the new protagonist. The other reason it’s a great entry point is that it marks the first game in the series to use the new turn-based combat system. The previous games were all beat-em-up action games, but Yakuza: Like A Dragon is a turn-based RPG, complete with a job system. It’s a fantastic game with a great story, along with the best protagonist in all of gaming, Ichiban Kasuga.

Discounts:

• Yakuza: Like A Dragon – $11 through the end of July

A massive sale full of great games

Those six games are only a handful of the hundreds of games that are discounted. You can get small discounts on major 2025 releases, like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and there are even more older games that you can pick up for less than $20 each. The sale runs through the end of July, so make sure to check it out before its over.