Kotaku’s Weekend Guide: Six Games We Can’t Wait To Get Back To

Screenshot: Blue Manchu / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio / Hello Games / Claire Jackson / Kotaku

July 2024 may be coming to a close, but it’s still summer weather out there for many of us. Which means you still have a great excuse to stay indoors where it’s cool and dark, and where electricity abundantly flows for us to power our gaming machines.

This weekend we’re taking a look at a few games that have come out in recent years, as well as a few more recent ones too. Whether you’re looking to jump into a colossal new galaxy, an epic Japanese gangster saga, or a DOS-game classic, we think these picks are well worth your time.

Screenshot: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows (Steam Deck: OK)
Buy it from: Humble Bundle
Current goal: Not burning myself out on it

I’ve finally picked up Yakuza 0 and I don’t want to put it down, but I’ve been forcing myself to. As enthralling as it is, and as much fun as I’m having in 1980s Japan, these games are far too easy to burn out on, and I think that’s why I’m always hesitant to go all in on them. I first played Judgment after a bad breakup, and proceeded to devote every mind-numbing minute of the next few weeks to that game. I was physically exhausted from planting my ass on the couch for hours on end. Yakuza: Like a Dragon came out two months later, and I played it till I felt empty inside and couldn’t stomach it anymore. To this day, I still haven’t beaten it.

I wound up reviewing both Like a Dragon Gaiden and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and while the former was a much more relaxed (and thankfully brief experience) the latter nearly burnt me out at the very start of the year. These games are immense and all-consuming, which is both great and terrifying depending on the light in which you’re looking at it. Despite it all, I love this series and I want to experience the rest of Kiryu’s story from the beginning, so here we are. I’m a few chapters in, and enjoying the meticulous pace at which I’m absorbing the game. It’s like tuning in for a new episode of my favorite show every few nights. Given that it’s the weekend though, I’m planning on marathoning a few more installments than usual, while trying to make sure it doesn’t do too much psychic damage, or deprive me of water, food, some sunlight, and time with friends. — Moises Taveras

Screenshot: Digital Sun

Play it on: Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Buy it from: Humble Bundle
Current goal: Complete the existing campaign

I’ve had a hard time putting Cataclismo down and even when I do I’m still thinking about it. The real-time tower defense hybrid of They Are Billions and a Lego city builder scratches a very particular itch in my strategy brain. It’s in Early Access and rough around the edges still—lots of missing quality of life features and some annoying bugs—but the bones are there and fantastic. You build towering defenses during the day and survive onslaughts of horrors at night. The aesthetic feels a bit like water color Gormenghast fan art, and the mood is post-apocalyptic gothic punk. One of the nicest features is that there are automatic time anchors at regular intervals. If you lose, the game makes it easy to navigate back to previous points in a match to fix your mistakes and chart a different course. It’s not quite save-scumming and it’s a big time saver. If you like building thick stone walls and ridiculously precarious medieval shanty towns, this is the game for you. — Ethan Gach

Screenshot: Blue Manchu

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Buy it from: Humble Bundle
Current goal: Get past the fourth stage

When Void Bastards came out in 2019, I was super excited to play it, and then for reasons I’m not quite clear on, bounced off hard. However, this week I was playing a preview build of its spiritual successor, Wild Bastards, and went back to the first to see how much overlap there is between the two roguelite shooters.

It turns out, apart from the wonderfully distinctive art-style, not a huge number. Both are games where you need to progress along Slay The Spire-style pathways, completing FPS challenges and gathering resources. But after that, they really have a distinct feel. Void Bastards is about exploring spaceships to steal useful items, and shoot the violent residents, desperately trying to return to your airlock before you run out of air or blood.

Replaying it this time, however, I’m totally in love. I accidentally stayed up playing until 1am last night. I’m planning to play it this weekend too. And maybe forever. — John Walker

Screenshot: Koei Tecmo

Play it on: Switch
Buy it from: Amazon | Best Buy | Humble Bundle
Current goal: Enjoy one of the best Switch games to date (and have tea with Edelgard)

Did you know that today (July 26) is the five year anniversary of Fire Emblem: Three Houses releasing for Nintendo Switch? That’s as good as a reason as any to go play one of the best tactical RPGs ever made. If you’ve played it before or if you’ve never touched a Fire Emblem game in your life, you should still probably play some of Three Houses this weekend in celebration.

Three Houses puts you in the shoes of a professor at the Garreg Mach Monastery officer’s school, and gives you the choice of which of the titular three houses to control. Each house has a charismatic leader and a loveable cast of students. Over the course of the game, through both tactical combat and laid-back tea breaks at the school, you get to build bonds with the game’s wonderfully written characters. The tactical combat also delivers. It’s pretty standard tactical fare but it’s executed well—it’s never overtly punishing or too easy. As we near the end of the Switch’s lifespan, Three Houses remains one of the best games the console has given us. — Willa Rowe

Screenshot: Origin Systems

Play it on: PC (Available on GOG)
Current goal: Finally beat it after over 30 years

Each summer, the big online PC storefronts offer colossal sales that have thousands of gamers flocking to buy titles for 75 or 90 percent off, deals so good we can’t pass them up, even though, if we’re honest with ourselves, we may never get around to playing half of the games we buy in our mad shopping frenzy. And this year, it wasn’t Steam’s legendary summer sale that had me lusting to expand my library, but the one over at GOG.com. For whatever reason, lately I’ve been feeling the itch to experience older PC classics I missed out on when they first released, or to return to ones I never finished, and so this summer saw my GOG library expand to the tune of dozens of games, all picked up on the cheap.

And right now, the game in my GOG library that’s calling to me like no other is Ultima Underworld, the absolutely remarkable 1992 first-person role-playing game that made you feel immersed in its environments like no game had before. Considered by some the first example of an immersive sim, Ultima Underworld has had a level of influence and impact on the medium that few games can match. And although, of course, by today’s standards it all looks and feels pretty basic, for me there’s something really compelling about it all—the charm of its interface, with that gargoyle sneering over the gameplay window; the way the jagged, pixel-y graphics just make the stones of the dungeon look that more rough-hewn; the Sound Blaster-ass music, which adapts on the fly to the kind of situation you’re in. If you’ve never played it and you consider yourself someone with an interest in game history, I highly recommend delving into the Stygian Abyss one of these days, and experiencing the Origin (™) of one of the great gaming genres.— Carolyn Petit

Screenshot: Hello Games / Claire Jackson / Kotaku

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck: OK)
Buy it from: Amazon | Best Buy | Humble Bundle
Current goal: Vibe. Blissfully, galactically vibe.

I’ve been playing a ton of No Man’s Sky since the new update arrived a short while ago, and it’s managed to finally stick with me. Though I appreciated and didn’t mind the state the game shipped in in 2016, a busy life kept me from sinking any meaningfully sustained time into this near-endless virtual galaxy. And then with all the updates, it just seemed impossible to know when to jump in for any meaningful amount of time.

Read More: No Man’s Sky Is Getting A Complete Universal Refresh In One Of Its Biggest Updates Ever

But both as a consequence of the recent improvements by way of Worlds Part I and the massive backlog of material I have to discover after so many free updates, No Man’s Sky is a massive, make-your-own-fun kind of sandbox that I just can’t resist. So this weekend will likely see me continue my efforts to keep building up my base and exploring the planets in the system I’m presently sticking to until it feels appropriate to move on.

I have to stress though how much I love the core foundation of No Man’s Sky: simply traveling and scouting, seamlessly flying from world to world, taking in new horizons, finding all sorts of emergent opportunities. It’s wonderful. The scale of this world also just makes me feel so small (especially in VR) and instills that joyous sense of wonder that I get from watching vintage Cosmos while, um, well. Under the influence of. Uh. stuff. And though I do wish the graphics were a touch more photorealistic, I’ve learned to love NMS’ cartoony, overly colorful look, especially on a vibrant screen where the very red grass of the planet I’ve been covering every inch of just pops with life.

Does the game still feel a little hollow in some ways? Sure. Could it have More To Do™, sure. (Past Expeditions, actually, should still be available to play). But ya’ll, just vibing in digital spaces is a valid way to enjoy one’s time. I don’t need to be chewing through content all the goddamn time. I like that NMS exists as a refuge for that. — Claire Jackson

And that wraps up our picks for this weekend. Happy gaming!