Cheap games to play this Christmas: the best bargains we’ve spotted so far

This is, famously, a time for giving. The problem with such a time, of course, is that it coincides with a cost of living crisis which makes even buying a new tub of butter an eye-watering experience. In short: we all need good deals more than ever. 

Here then, are the gaming discounts that caught our eye over the festive period. Make use of them and be merry. 

You’ll find recent titles and classics, for both current-gen consoles and last-gen hardware, and we haven’t limited ourselves to racing games, either. 

These deals are active at the time of writing, but please do double-check the pricing in your area, and at the time you’re viewing the store, as each deal is active for a limited time. 

PlayStation Store: winter sale

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PS5) - £17.50

All the enigmatic exploration and masterfully crafted melee combat of a Soulslike, set in George Lucas’ imagination. Actually, maybe that doesn’t sell Jedi Survivor so well. Listen, it’s brilliant. Instead of trying and failing to be an interactive Star Wars movie, like so many other games do with this license, Respawn’s take focuses on being brilliant to play first, and using the universe to keep pulling you along on the journey. 

EA WRC (PS5) - £11.25

The best game to carry the official WRC license in many years is going extremely cheap this Christmas, and it’s been bolstered with countless free updates since launch so now’s the best time to play it. Just over a tenner for all those WRC cars and courses, plus a host of classic vehicles, is basically theft. 

Dragon Age: The Veilguard (PS5) - £41.99

It only just came out! And now you can pick BioWare’s epic action-RPG up at a hefty discount. It’s not as deep or fascinated with dice rolls as precious series entrant, but by and large that’s a good thing. Think Mass Effect with elf ears.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage (PS5 & PS4) - £17.99

AssCreed is such a Christmas game, isn’t it? The perfect way to occupy those magical days off, just you, a confrontationally large box of confectionary, a Sports Direct mug containing one metric pint of tea, and a historical RPG stealth open world game to lose yourself in. Mirage goes back to the series’ roots in 9th century Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age – cue gorgeous rooftop views, rolling sands, and a very inconspicuous game protagonist ‘hiding’ at the very top of a spire.

UFC 5 (PS5) - £27.99

Family disagreements are an unavoidable fact of the Christmas break. Buy this, load it up, and then batter your teenage cousin who reckons they’re going to be TikTok famous and keeps bragging about their Dogecoin wallet.

F1 24 (PS5 & PS4) - £20.99

Not just a racing game with the license to simulate motorsport’s premier class, but a role-playing game set in that diamond-studded universe. Codemaster’s career mode in F1 24 is so deep and involving, you start to care deeply about the outcomes of practice sessions and lay awake at night thinking about how to settle your bitter rivalry with someone really nice and normal, like Alexander Albon. As long as you never take it to the public multiplayer lobbies, your fantasy of F1 stardom is safe. 

Xbox Store: Xbox Series X/S

No Man’s Sky - £15.99

18 quintillion planets to explore, and now after many years of updates, there’s actually stuff to do when you land on them. NMS is an incredible turnaround story after a poorly received launch, and you can now consider it the premier space exploration survival sandbox thingy on the market. As for value for money, 18 quintillion planets for £15.99 works out at – carry the one – 8.88 \times 10^{-18} pounds per planet. Bargain. 

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 - Turbocharged - £8.99

Channeling old school Micro Machines games from the 16-bit era, Milestone’s Hot Wheels Unleashed series strip away all the fuss and delivers simple, lightning-quick arcade racing with a loving level of detail lavished on the titular toy cars. Great for playing with younger racers, too.

Resident Evil 2 Remake - £7.99

This is how you remake a classic game. Mechanically Capcom were unsentimental about update the survival horror classic, throwing out the old camera, controls, dialogue and visuals in favour of modernised equivalents. But Resi 2’s spirit feels untouched. Scarier than Max Verstappen’s passenger seat, dripping in atmosphere, and going for well under a tenner.

Descenders - £15.99

A brilliantly designed downhill mountain biking racer, with roguelike and procedural elements that add a real sense of risk to stacking it off a tabletop. You complete events on three different world maps, working your way to the ‘boss jump’: always a ridiculously steep stunt with a technical landing that will make every muscle in your body tense until your tires hit the dirt again.

Lies of P - £29.99

Pinocchio doesn’t jump off the page at us as the premise for a Soulslike game, but that’s why we’re not game developers. Neowiz games saw something in the tale of the little wooden boy whose nose grows when he lies and decided it was the perfect venue for a ruthlessly challenging action RPG full of boss fights, and we can only commend their vision. It’ll be a sweary Christmas if you download it, but a rewarding new year.

Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 - £19.99

Look, not that anyone would get bored with driving cars, but sometimes it’s nice to have an excuse to get out of them and start fiddling with their innards. This game provides exactly that excuse, and also a surprisingly deep business management game, too. Take on jobs via email and perform brake pad replacements and engine swaps to your heart’s content, on a variety of vehicles from prosaic to performance cars.