Happy Friday! The days are feeling darker and shorter while the weather continues to drop in temperature (unless you’re living in a place with better weather than NYC, in which case, I’m real happy for you, but at least the holidays are around the corner.
We’ve got a whole weekend ahead of us before any festivities begin, though, and that means more time spent gaming. So let’s get to our picks!
Octopath Traveler 0
Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Switch 2 Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Unknown”)
Current goal: See if I can find the hot priest
I’ve been meaning to get around to Octopath Traveler 0’s demo for a bit, but it keeps getting put on the back burner. However, a few days ago I saw Celsus, the game’s thief character who a friend of mine described as “the hot priest from Fleabag.” I’m a simple man, and hot men are more likely to get me to play a game than the most perfectly crafted turn-based battle system. I don’t know if this man shows up in the demo, but I’m gonna search for him this weekend and report back. Who knows? Maybe I’ll tempt him from his godly life and make a season of perfect television about it. — Kenneth Shepard
Arc Raiders
© Screenshot: Embark Studios / Claire Jackson / Kotaku
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Verified”)
Current goal: Finish leveling up my workshops
Yes, I’m playing it again this weekend. After over 110 hours, Arc Raiders continues to be one of the best online shooter experiences I’ve ever played and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
It doesn’t just boil down to the shooting and crafting meta game (though I do enjoy those a great deal). As I’ve said before, the social interactions that this game sparks continue to fascinate me.
Recently, on a solo raid, I ran into someone who wasn’t expecting to see me. “I’m friendly, I’m friendly, please don’t shoot,” they said in this dark, dungeon-like remnant of a fallen civilization we found ourselves in. I replied with a “Don’t Shoot” emote and heard him audibly exhale a sigh of relief.“Oh, thank god. Good. Hey, do you know where I can find some androids around here? I’m on a quest.”
I’ve had several interactions like this, but each time they stop me in my tracks as I consider that me and this other person, who could be just about anywhere in the world for all I know, are sharing a moment of human emotion and communication; surprise, fright, relief, a request for help. I love that this kind of interaction just spontaneously happens as frequently as you find yourself in an epic battle with a massive robot, or a shootout to the death with someone pushing their luck.
So yes, I’ll be gladly spending more time in this extraction shooter this weekend. – Claire Jackson
Morsels
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Verified”)
Current goal: Finish a run and figure out what to do with these snails
Morsels, as I wrote earlier this week, is impeccably presented and utterly confounding to decode. It drops you into a familiar top-down roguelike milieu and then proceeds to pelt you with creatures, environments, and under-explained mechanics that propel you to wander, explore, and experiment. Since I wrote my initial, very early impressions, the game has continued to grow on me. I’ve transformed into a snake and a frog, climbed the high-score leaderboard for the crocodile’s arcade game, and managed to regularly beat three of the four bosses in each randomized run.
But I still feel like I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible in Morsels’ world and what it wants me to learn about how it works. It’s perfect for handheld sessions on the couch or in bed, and sometimes I just let it idle and listen to the incredible soundtrack. It might not end up having the depth or staying power of the best bullet hell roguelikes, but its warmth, character, and idiosyncrasies are more than making up for that as it quickly worms its way into the consideration pool for my top 10 games of the year. – Ethan Gach
And that wraps our picks! What are you playing?
