TA Team Picks (September 15th)

Xbox sales have refreshed again this week to offer up a selection of Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Windows PC discounts, so the TrueAchievements news team has done some digging to find their top picks.

We’ve returned this week to offer you our top choices from this week’s Xbox sales for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Windows PC. While these are our personal choices, we’d love to know what games you think are worthy of the price tag, so drop into the comments at the bottom of this article to let us know.

Bargains from the latest Xbox sales

I played the heck out of Mr. Driller DrillLand on GameCube, and seeing the remaster drop to its lowest price at 70% off this week was just the nudge I needed to pick it up and get lost in the block-busting nonsense all over again. This great little package is Mr. Driller with a twist — it’s a bunch of neat variations of the traditional formula, each with its own theme and mechanics. An Indiana Jones-style mode introduces rolling boulders, spike traps, and treasure to collect; a spooky variant sees you cleansing haunted blocks then destroying them to defeat the ghosts; an RPG mode adds all kinds of consumable items, a branching map, and boss fights; the space stage adds cosmic hazards and an assortment of crazy power-ups. It’s really cool to see the classic mechanics twisted into these strange yet enjoyable new versions, and there is of course a traditional version of the game on offer as well.

It’s all presented as a drilling theme park, and there’s loads of extra stuff around the main modes in terms of collectables to find, earn, and buy as you work your way through the increasingly challenging tiers of each attraction. It gets hard fast as well, and the Mr. Driller DrillLand achievements are absolutely brutal. No Everest for the Wicked asks you to dig 8,848 metres in the classic mode, in one run, with three lives and no way of getting more — for context, the ‘hard’ mode is only 1,500 metres and even that is a challenge, which would explain why literally nobody on Xbox has managed to unlock this yet. Completionists beware, then, but DrillLand is a fun time if you don’t mind a few borderline impossible achievements… or maybe even if you’re out to be the first to unlock them!

If you haven’t played Control yet, firstly, what are you doing? Secondly, buy it this second as Control: Ultimate Edition of the game, which includes both expansions, is just $15.99/£13.99/€15.99. In Control, you play as Jesse Faden, the new director of a secretive agency in New York that has been overrun by a supernatural threat. On the search for answers, you’ll explore the Oldest House to find the source of the threat and uncover the building’s secrets. Aside from the exciting combat, the thing I love the most about Control is the overall atmosphere Remedy manages to permeate throughout the game. The brutalist architecture, supernatural elements, and silent offices make for a unique experience. Couple this with a gripping story and powers that allow Jesse to levitate and throw enemies around at will, and you’ve got a winner here, my friends. I don’t want to say too much more about Control as I don’t want to spoil it — it’s one of those games you should go into blind and experience yourself. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about the expansions as I am yet to play them, but I have it on good authority that both are pretty damn good, especially if you’re an Alan Wake fan.

Usually, I wouldn’t condone the use of violence against OAPs, but in the case of the motley bunch you find in Just Die Already, I’m happy to make an exception. All you need to know is that it’s a physics-based sandbox game that allows you to put its older folk through hell-on-earth before they reach the pearly gates… I mean retirement home. Whether you want to attach rockets to their feet, have their bottom halves eaten by piranhas, electrocute them, dismember them, or any other imaginative way to torment them, this game gives you the tools to do so. Don’t worry, though; unlike us fragile beings, the oldies you find here will reappear like nothing had happened — even if their head was detached from their body a few seconds earlier.

While it probably won’t be winning any awards for being the most emotionally moving game you play this week, I think the level of chaos you can cause when working through the Just Die Already achievements is well worth the price you’ll pay with the current 55% discount. Check out our Just Die Already review to see what craziness you can get up to!

Is anything here making you want to reach for your wallet, or do you have something to recommend to us? Let us know in the comments section below!