As we stare down at the last stretch of September 2023 and the imminent arrival of autumn (seriously, how?), many of us likely find ourselves itching to spend the next 48 hours blissfully gaming. But what game to play? This year has delivered no shortage of games, big and small, deserving of your attention, and it shows no signs of stopping now.
So if you’re looking for some select picks, might we suggest some games that we’re looking forward to spending some time with in these next few work-free days? We’ve gathered up five games for you to consider. Yes, Massive Space Game returns, but there are some other, quite different things on offer here as well, if you’re in the mood for something more brutal, more chill, or more stealthy.
Lies of P
Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Current goal: Beat this one stupid boss
Although it gets on my nerves sometimes, I’m thoroughly enjoying Neowiz Games and Round8 Studio’s Soulslike RPG Lies of P. It’s got an evocative setting centered around 19th-century France, a raft of eclectic characters with charm, humor, and verve, and a pretty neat weapon customization system that lets you build your own murdering tools. It’s also got some aggravatingly cheap enemies that will beat you into oblivion enough times to make you rage.
Read More: Lies of P: The Kotaku Review
To that last point, I’m currently stuck on the game’s Chapter 8 boss, the Green Monster of the Swamp, a Lovecraftian spider-like creature that’s becoming the bane of my existence. It’s erratic, fast, and punishing, with a second phase that exacerbates all those problems. It sucks, especially since I need to kill it to get to the next main objective. But mark my words: I will kill it and then move on to the subsequent boss, which, too, will no doubt wreck my shit. Onward. — Levi Winslow
Starfield
Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Current goal: Stop spinning my wheels on random side-quests
Bethesda RPGs are only really good once modders lift them out of mediocrity, so I hadn’t planned to get in on the ground floor with Starfield. But then a kind friend sent me a Steam gift so sure, why not? I blasted off into the version 1.0 yonder.
You know what? It’s not really changing my opinions about Bethesda games! In fact, I’d suggest this one is more half-baked than usual in the way its discordant gameplay systems strain to mesh, the truly awful UI, a veritable onslaught of mediocre Bethesdian prose, and the nagging feeling that fast-travel is really putting in work to stitch together the game’s disparate zones.
And yet, every night, you’ll find me in there shooting, looting, and generally probing to detect where the (likely frayed) edges lie, seeing what there is to see. I can’t deny that this unplanned early encounter with the pre-unshittified Starfield has displaced every other game I was playing recently: I’m clocking some serious space hours. So there must be something compelling here, right?
Well, I’m trying to find out. In my last session or two I’ve grown weary of storming through randomly generated side dungeons so now I’ll devote time to mainlining the main quest to see more of the game and hopefully perk my interest. This is for sure, though: Amateur modders, like always, are already saving the damn game. From day one they’ve been fixing many of Starfield’s most irksome oversights and shortcomings, and once the official mod tools come out, the galaxy’s the limit. I really can’t wait to see what they can accomplish in this one, as the stage now set before them is uncommonly vast. — Alexandra Hall
Nour
Play it on: PS5, PS4, Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Current goal: Not think
Reader, I don’t want to think this weekend. I simply wish to vibe. Between Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy XVI, Baldur’s Gate 3, the Cyberpunk expansion, and the Pokémon DLC, I feel like I haven’t had a minute to discard my critical thinking cap and simply turn my brain off.
Sure, I get some Overwatch 2 matches in here and there, but you know what I want? I want something low-stress. I want to watch food bounce around on my TV while sick beats play in the background to match the visuals. This weekend, I’m going to play Nour, the food-based visual art game that is just watching and manipulating food as it bounces around the screen. I don’t have to think about a thing. I just have to distract myself with the video game equivalent of opening up the ASMR tag on TikTok. Not a thought behind these eyes. — Kenneth Shepard
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Play it on: PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, Windows (Steam Deck: N/A)
Current goal: Try my best
When something irrevocably changes my life, I try to honor it first by crying for as long as possible (I managed to produce 18 hours’ worth of tears this weekend), preferably while listening to a sad, but nonspecific song (Julie Byrne’s “Love’s Refrain” remix), and then by performing an activity as insane as I feel.
In college, that meant throwing organic eggs at an ex-boyfriend’s car. Now, it means I’m going to start playing, for the first time, Kojima Productions’ action-adventure stealth game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain on Xbox 360 because I have some phantom pain, too. But at least I don’t have to wear a bikini all the time like Quiet does. That would make all the crying feel too much like a metaphor. I hear there are some specific, sad songs of the ‘80s to find on cassette scattered through the game. Maybe listening to one of them while I moodily scowl in a helicopter over Afghanistan is just what I need.— Ashley Bardhan
Star Ocean The Second Story R (Demo)
Play it on: PS5, PS4, Switch
Current goal: Finish Star Ocean: The Divine Force
Big things are happening right now in the world of Star Ocean, Square Enix’s often overlooked sci-fi fantasy RPG series developed by Tri-Ace. The publisher recently released a demo for Star Ocean Second Story R, the upcoming 2.5HD remaster of the PS1 classic, and this month Sony added every other game in the series to PS Plus. As a longtime fan I’m over the moon. While last year’s Star Ocean: The Divine Force (the sixth game) left me underwhelmed, there’s still a lot to love in its strange mashup of modern mechanics (semi-open world exploration) and retro sensibilities (talk to NPCs in towns, complete fetch quests, unlock stuff, make numbers go up).
The demo for Second Story R, however, can be recommended without reservation. It’s everything I love about the original game elevated by the daring new hybrid art style, overhauled voice work, tighter combat, and the eradication of random encounters (you now see enemies in the overworld). The best new feature is a shield break and dodge-and-counter mechanic in battle, which livens things up a lot. Based on the demo at least, Second Story R is poised to deliver just what I want from a remaster of a beloved classic: a retro look that leans into what made the original beautiful while modernizing things with new tweaks where it makes sense. The full game comes out November 2, but in the meantime I recommend checking out where the whole series started with Star Ocean First Departure R, the PSP remake which also happens to be free with a paid PS Plus subscription now. — Ethan Gach
And that’s it for the Kotaku Weekend Guide’s picks this Friday, September 22. What games are you playing this weekend?
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