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Half-Life: Alyx is a must-play VR game for $36

Half-Life: Alyx is a must-play VR game for $36

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The perfect time to buy if you recently bought a Quest 2

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Half-Life: Alyx screenshot
Image: Valve

Half-Life: Alyx belongs in every VR headset owner’s library of games, especially when it costs 40 percent less than usual. This game was released right at the start of the pandemic in early 2020 for $60, and while it’s worth every bit of that price, I highly suggest taking advantage of this deal, which drops the game to just $36. Not only does the game satisfy with respect to its story, which serves as the prequel to Half-Life 2 (you really need to see the ending), it’s a fantastic experience full of imaginative VR gameplay that makes every environment feel like a sandbox. Read our review.

You don’t need a high-end, wired VR headset to play this game. Grabbing an Oculus Quest or Quest 2 tether-free headset will do just fine (thanks to the free Air Link feature, you can wirelessly stream VR games to your headset over Wi-Fi — here’s how). But you will need a fast PC capable of running Alyx.

Half-Life Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx

$6040% off
$36

Valve’s latest Half-Life entry is exclusive to VR headsets, making one worth owning. Half-Life: Alyx is a prequel to Half-Life 2, serving up crucial plot advancements that any fan should enjoy.

Image: Apple

Walmart is still hosting its great $30-off preorder promo on the latest iPad model (which hasn’t released yet). Preorders cost $299 instead of $329, so check that out if you want to save some money. But if you had your eye on the pricier, yet smaller new iPad Mini with a USB-C charging port, Walmart is offering a preorder deal on that, too. The 64GB model can be yours for $459 instead of $499. Currently, the retailer has several colors available.

$469

Apple’s revamped iPad Mini ditches the home button and opts for a larger edge-to-edge display. It also comes outfitted with a faster processor, support for USB-C, and a top-mounted power button that moonlights as a Touch ID sensor.

If you’re preordering any of the iPhone 13 phones today, you may want to pick up a MagSafe magnetic charger that’ll help you avoid fussing with cables. Normally $40 through Apple, Amazon and Walmart are matching their discounts by charging just over $27 for the charger. In addition to charging your iPhone 13 or 12 series device, the MagSafe can serve as a Qi charger for other devices like AirPods that support wireless charging.

$29

Apple’s wired MagSafe Charger is nothing short of convenient — save for a short, 1m built-in USB-C cable. The magnetic device offers Qi support, meaning it can charge older iPhones and wireless AirPods cases, but the magnets offer perfect alignment with MagSafe-compatible models.

If a little extra storage can go a long way, this deal definitely goes the distance. Right now, you can save $80 on WD’s 5TB Easystore at Best Buy. This slim, external hard drive is a fantastic solution for archiving massive amounts of media without having to worry about making space. At less than an inch thick and weighing less than a pound, it’s easy to make room for this drive in any bag. It does rely on an older USB 3.0 connection for file transfers, and won’t support the same transfer speeds seen in modern SSDs, but for anyone looking for a cheap and efficient bulk storage solution for their files, this beefier version of the WD Easystore fits the bill.

A picture of the Western Digital hard drive on a desk near a laptop, a plant, and pencils.
$100

If you need to transfer or store a huge amount of files, WD’s 5TB Easystore is a great portable hard drive to consider. The lightweight and slim drive may not boast the transfer speeds of more contemporary SSDs, but it still offers a capable external storage solution.

Pick up a discounted UHD Blu-ray copy of the seminal anime film Ghost in the Shell at Best Buy for just $12. This version was released on the 25th anniversary of the film’s launch, and Polygon has a great post on the efforts made to revitalize it for the 4K era. It supports Dolby Vision and has Atmos support, and in addition to the disc version, this package includes a digital copy. Also, the box art for the film is just incredible.

$12

This 4K edition of the influential 1995 anime was released in late 2020, and includes a 4K Blu-ray, a standard 1080p copy of the Blu-ray, as well as a digital copy.

Normally $130, you can currently save a cool $30 on the compact Razer Huntsman TE at Amazon and Best Buy. With this tenkeyless keyboard, Razer has scaled down the optical switches found on its Huntsman line and, as an added bonus, added PBT keycaps that are designed to resist unsightly grease and fingerprints. This keyboard is also the first Razer keyboard to adopt a standardized key size, allowing you to swap out custom keycaps with ease. A final quality of life improvement is the inclusion of a detachable USB-C connection, making it easier to swap out or customize. Unless you absolutely need a number pad, there’s little reason to overlook this keyboard.

$80

Razer’s Huntsman Tournament Edition is a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard that eschews a number pad for a smaller size. It’s also backlit with full RGB lighting, uses linear optical switches, and comes with PBT keycaps.

Image: Dell

Lastly, you still have time to get a great bargain on Dell’s latest G15 gaming laptop. Normally selling for a budget-friendly $1,029, it only costs $749 for this configuration, including a 15.6-inch 1080p display that has a 120Hz refresh rate. What makes this laptop especially good, though, is its capable 11th-Gen Intel Core i5 processor, an Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics chip, and the fact that it has user-upgradeable RAM. This deal will last as long as there’s stock available at Dell, and at the time of publishing Dell says it has sold 55 percent of available stock. Read more about this model here.

Dell G15 Gaming Laptop

$103027% off
$750

This 15-inch gaming laptop from Dell manages to package a 30-series RTX GPU with an 11th Gen Intel processor, making this a laptop capable of punching well above its weight. What it lacks in flair, it more than makes up for in performance, and anyone in the market for a gaming laptop should take notice.