When you’ve got an expansive world to explore, you can sit there playing for hours while the world passes you by, and what better way to spend a sweltering summer? When it’s too hot or too stormy to be enjoying the sights and sounds of the real world, video games are there to help you pass the time, and open-world games are usually among the longest type of games.
We’ve picked out the best open-world games that you can grab at the biggest discounts during this Steam Summer Sale.
Who doesn’t want to experience a world so realistic you can watch your horses’ balls retract when it gets cold? Ok, that might not be the best selling point for Red Dead Redemption 2, but detail is the name of the game in all of Rockstar’s worlds. We still hold out a vein hope that one day the original will come to PC, but in the meantime, this brilliant sequel can help us while away the hours.
Just Cause 3
- 85% off
- Find Just Cause 3 on Steam
Sometimes you just want to watch the world burn, and thankfully that’s the entire point of Just Cause 3, where the motto is “If it exists, you can blow it up.” The game gives you a huge number of tools to wreak havoc upon the world and sits back to watch you play with them in increasingly creative and chaotic ways.
- 65% off
- Find Bully on Steam
Returning to Rockstar for one of their older titles, Bully is arguably the most alive-feeling world they’ve ever made. With a world that spoofs the classic high school flicks of the 80s and 90s, you can spend your days taking classes and your evenings beating up bullies and/or nerds, depending on what you prefer. With the levels of violence a lot lower than something like GTA, it allows the game to have a much more whimsical tone, while still playing with interesting narrative ideas.
Fallout 76
- 75% off
- Find Fallout 76 on Steam
Fallout 76 has largely overcome its rocky launch at this point and continues to be supported by new content on a semi-regular basis. So, if you’ve ever felt tempted but have been holding off all these years for whatever reason, now is a great time to pick it up for a bargain and see what you’ve been missing.
- 25% off
- Find Palworld on Steam
This survival/crafting creature collector took the world by storm earlier this year, and it continues to be one of the freshest-feeling survival/crafting games out there. It is still in Early Access but development is active, with it having received its first major content update just last week. Plenty more is sure to come in the future, so you’ll have plenty to sink your teeth into.
Far Cry 6
- 80% off
- Find Far Cry 6 on Steam
If you have some suppressed frustration and a need to overthrow a corrupt government for no particular reason whatsoever, then Far Cry 6 is a good fantasy land to do that in. Moreso than its predecessors, it’s happy to take a more hands-off approach in letting you slowly infiltrate and destroy everything in its sizable open world. Whether you do that stealthily or explosively is up to you.
Monster Hunter’s open worlds may not be as big as most series, but it puts them to great use. Rather than just wandering around and exploring, you’ll need to study the terrain to track down your targets and use it to your advantage to help take down even the most powerful monsters.
Cyberpunk 2077
- 50% off
- Find Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam
Like Fallout 76, it’s understandable if you’ve been putting off buying Cyberpunk for all these years, but now is the perfect time. Last year it received a 2.0 update and a new DLC which has made the game more solid than ever, and it’s definitely worth trying if you were put off by its rocky launch. We also shouted out Cyberpunk on our list of best RPGs in the Steam Summer Sale if you want to see even more great titles on offer.
It’s an open world but with cars! Forza is still one of the pinnacles of the racing genre, and Horizon 5 is a title worth putting plenty of time into. Collecting cars is satisfying, with a real feel of how every type drives differently, not to mention all of the pulse-pounding races you can participate in.
Elden Ring
- 30% off
- Find Elden Ring on Steam
Many herald this as FromSoftware’s masterpiece, and it’s hard to argue with that fact. It takes the fantastic gameplay from the Souls games and drops it in a massive open world with secrets upon secrets to explore. Plus, if that’s somehow not enough, the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has just launched, so there’s even more content than ever before.
