Code Red: the PlayStation Holiday Sale (or January Sale for those in the UK) is coming to a close soon. Savings are set to officially wrap up on January 17, but browsing the store reveals that loads of offers are ending before that date.
In fact, lots of the best deals only last until the start of next week so you really don’t have long to make your final purchases. I’m TechRadar Gaming’s resident PlayStation addict, with an embarrassingly large game library that I’ve built over the years. I’m also a dedicated deal finder, and can count the number of times I’ve paid full price for game on just one hand.
This means that I’m in a fantastic position to dish out expert buying advice, with an intimate knowledge of exactly which titles are most worthy of your time. Before I move on to my top five picks this week, you can make sure that you’re getting the best savings by checking for any PlayStation Gift Card deals below.
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
There’s only been one game that I’ve poured tens of hours into over the winter holidays and that’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. This year’s incarnation of the long-running first-person shooter (FPS) series is by far one of the best yet, offering a truly electric multiplayer experience.
That’s on top of an exciting single-player campaign with stunning best-in-class visuals and mind-bending action set pieces. There’s also the co-op Zombies mode, which is a real treat with friends and packed with enough content to keep you coming back time and time again.
Set in 1991 at the height of the Gulf War, the theme for this entry is covert espionage. Maps take place in many varied environments, from abandoned American strip malls to opulent desert palaces in Iraq.
Recent Call of Duty games are often quite pricey, so the chance to pick up Black Ops 6 on PS5 and PS4 for just $52.49 / £52.49 shouldn’t be sniffed at. A new limited time Squid Game event is also active right now, which is perfect if you’ve just finished the second season of the hit Netflix show.
2. Hazelight Bundle
You’re not just getting one, but two incredible co-op experiences in the Hazelight Bundle. If you’re solely looking for single player games, then keep scrolling, but for the co-op lovers among us this should absolutely not be missed.
It contains a PS4 copy of A Way Out, a co-op prison break adventure where you and a partner play two daring convicts attempting to escape from a high security facility. Careful coordination and plenty of cooperation is required to succeed, with each of you controlling one character each throughout the campaign.
You also get the award-winning It Takes Two for PS5, which applies a similar concept to a much more varied platformer. You assume the roles of a bickering married couple who have been shrunk down to a minute size, exploring a now massive house and trying to find a way to return to normal.
It’s charming and sweet and, much like A Way Out, requires both players to work together if you want to get very far. Just bear in mind that both of these games are co-op only, so cannot be played single-player in any capacity.
Luckily, they do have a useful friend pass feature, where you can grant a friend free access to the entire game in order to play with you.
The Hazelight Bundle is on sale now for only $19.99 / £18.14 with the deal set to end on January 7 (or one day earlier in the UK).
3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition
In terms of sheer value, you can’t get much better than The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition on both PS5 and PS4 for only $9.99 / £6.99. With this you’re getting one of the best RPG games of all time, plus all of its expansion content and loads of bonus post-launch DLC at an incredibly low price.
This is a multi-hour epic that will occupy you for hundreds of hours throughout this year. From the developers of Cyberpunk 2077, it follows legendary Witcher Geralt of Rivia as he journeys into a war-torn dark fantasy land. Action-packed combat and superbly written dialogue make this a real delight and there are plenty of impactful moral decisions that are going to stick with you for a long time.
It’s got a sprawling, beautiful open-world too, with countless side activities and even an addictive card game, Gwent, to master. Although the third game in the series, it works in an entirely standalone capacity with no prior knowledge of the story needed to enjoy it to the fullest.
A sequel, The Witcher 4, was also revealed at The Game Awards last year. If you want to immerse yourself in the world of the series before that next installment, plus learn the story so far, now is a great time to play.
4. Hitman World of Assassination – Deluxe Edition
Hitman is one of my favorite series ever, so I’m seriously hyped about the opportunity to grab the three latest entries in one complete mega bundle. The amount of content that you’re getting for PS5 and PS4 in the Hitman World of Assassination – Deluxe Edition is absolutely staggering, so let me break it down simply.
You get the entire campaign from 2016’s Hitman, with six main locations and a detailed tutorial. These locations aren’t like your usual game levels, as they’re absolutely huge and all designed to be explored and replayed for hours and hours. I easily spent over 100 hours in these six areas alone, so I think this makes the bundle worth the price of admission already.
That’s not all though, as there’s also the bonus Patient Zero campaign which adds a second story mode with some cool new variants of those stages to challenge yourself with after the credits have rolled.
Then you also net all content from the sequel Hitman 2, with its own story campaign, six new main locations, plus an additional two DLC locations at no extra cost. These are, in my opinion, some of the greatest locations in Hitman history, especially the moody and atmospheric New York map.
If you thought that was everything, then you’re mistaken as you then get all of the content from the recent Hitman 3. This means another story campaign with seven locations. Throw in DLC like two special assignments (basically just short bonus missions), cool suits and weapons, and the trippy 7 Deadly Sins campaign and you have one mega package.
It’s enough to make your head spin but, to sum it all up, that’s five campaigns, 21 locations (technically 22 if you count the one featured in the tutorial), and loads of bonus DLC. For just $44.99 / £35.99 this is an absolute steal for stealth action lovers.
5. Riders Republic
Riders Republic is one of the games that I picked up in this sale and for just $9.99 / £8.74 on PS5 and PS4 can you really blame me?
Although I’m not normally drawn to sports games, I’ve been finding it a lot of fun especially given the focus on more bombastic, larger than life activities.
This is basically the ultimate extreme sports playground, giving you a giant multiplayer world to race around with a range of tools like bikes, skis, snowboards, and wingsuits which you can swap between at any time. As the map is inspired by a range of US national parks, I’ve been particularly fond of riding around its muddy trails on a bike.
Not only can you reach absolutely break-neck speeds, but it’s surprisingly immersive if you switch the camera over to first person. Performing tricks and stunts to form long combos is a joy, especially as you start to master some of the more complicated moves.
For those who prefer more organized competition, there are no shortage of events to discover. Completing them awards experience and currency, which you can then pour into customizing the look of your character with gear modeled after products from real-world brands.