Kotaku Weekend Guide: 6 Awesome Games We Can't Wait To Escape Back Into

Play it on: PC, Netflix, PSVR2

Current goal: Remember there’s good in the world

The truth is that I’m probably not going to play video games much this weekend, so instead I’ll take this opportunity to recommend a game that might help remind you there’s good in the world in these trying times. Before Your Eyes is a blink-tracking adventure game that takes you through the life of a guy named Benjamin Brynn, with each blink jumping forward to a different point in his life. Its reflections on the way we try to play storyteller with our own lives make for one of the most affecting games I’ve ever played. It’s 90 minutes long and well worth spending a night in complete distraction-free darkness to finish it on one sitting. You won’t regret it. — Kenneth Shepard

Play it on: PC

Current goal: Not play this at some point

My fascination with 2024: Mosaic Retrospective all started when I found Proverbs in November, a vast puzzle game the size of a wall, in which you deduced which tiles to fill and which to block based on the numbers splattered all over it (it’s Fill-A-Pix, basically), to create a vast recreation of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting Netherlandish Proverbs. It was tremendously entertaining, and a perfect game to play on one monitor while watching things like Game Changer on the other. Then after I finished it, I discovered the developer—Mark Ffrench—had made a previous, similar game, Mega Mosaic. I played that one while catching up on two years’ worth of Nebula’s Jet Lag: The Game. And just as it was done, to my complete delight Ffrench put out yet another one, 2024: Mosaic Retrospective. And once again, it’s a wall-sized puzzle that eventually depicts dozens of events that occurred in the last year.

I’ve been playing it for days, and am 33.61 percent through. What am I watching for this one? Why, Nebula’s version of The Mole (a game in which one player was designated the Snitch) called The Getaway, which has the crucial difference that they’ve secretly told all of the players that they’re the Snitch. Hilarity results, as seven people attempt to sabotage each other while not getting noticed, at the same time becoming increasingly bemused as to why everyone else is so terrible at everything. It’s great. As is 2024: Mosaic Retrospective, which is free! FREE! And even better, because it’s free, the game encourages you to pay what you think it’s worth to Unicef.—John Walker

Play it on: PS5, Windows (Steam Deck OK-ish)

Current goal: Prepare for Hard Mode

Was 120 hours of FFVII Rebirth last year enough for me? Hell no.

All it took was firing up the recently released PC version of Rebirth and hearing the gentle swelling strings of its main theme to make me ready to jump in all over again.

Read More: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: The Kotaku Review

This time around, I’m looking to put this wonderfully messy and strange alternate-dimension revision of one of my favorite games of all time through its paces on Steam Deck (and I’ll report my findings next week for ya’ll). Initial impressions are, well, interesting. The game does look quite blurry and soft, with some texture pop-in here and there…but it also plays quite well, typically sitting at a decent 30-40 FPS during combat. And speaking of combat, that’s probably the most appealing aspect of replaying Rebirth.

While I loved this game dearly, I won’t disagree with much of what its critics have had to say. The story can be wildly confusing, and jeeze, the mini-games are just too much sometimes. But the combat is a ton of fun, both to play and to see in motion. And thus far, it doesn’t look and feel too bad on Steam Deck (for my tastes, at least). We’ll see how that pans out when I get to the more substantial boss fights and the open-world roaming. In any case, I’m looking forward to rebuilding my characters and immersing myself in the explosive theater of combat Rebirth has to offer. — Claire

Play it on: Switch

Current goal: Get farther than I did back in 2012

Lately, I’ve been craving a big, epic role-playing game, the kind I can really get lost in and that maybe has something to say about evil, courage, compassion, and resistance. And rather than one such game, I now find myself playing two: Dragon Age: Origins, which I’m playing on my PC, and Xenoblade Chronicles, which I spend a bit of time with on my Switch each night before bed.

This isn’t my first time giving Xenoblade a shot. I bought it for the Wii back when it first released and found its world utterly captivating. However, upon arriving at some fairly early boss who wiped the floor with me, I realized I didn’t have a good enough handle on the game’s combat to emerge victorious and, rather than sticking with it, I set it aside in favor of other things. This time, however, I’m taking my time and being a bit more diligent about absorbing the game’s intricacies. I did every last quest I could find in the game’s opening region of Colony 6 before setting off on the next stage of my adventure, both to reap the in-game benefits and because I’m so smitten with the setting that I’m in no hurry to leave any part of it behind.

Even all these years after the original Wii version released, the game on Switch remains stunningly gorgeous, and its “world”—which is actually the bodies of two colossal titans, frozen forever in their battle’s final moment—remains one of the most conceptually fascinating settings for a game I’ve ever encountered. Hopefully this time, I’ll get to the bottom of its mysteries. — Carolyn Petit

Play it on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Current goal: Play something other than Fortnite

Right now I need the video game equivalent of warm oatmeal to make me feel better. It’s too cold outside to do anything out there. It’s too depressing to hang out online. So I’m going to play some Dynasty Warriors: Origins on PS5 and kill thousands of enemies for a few hours. I’ve heard this latest entry is better than many of the previous Dynasty Warriors games and that sounds good to me. Even if it wasn’t better, at this point the franchise has been doing the same thing for so long that it feels less like the series itself actually gets better or worse and more like people just gain or lose interest in the formula throughout their lives. I’m very ready to slash up crowds of enemies for a few hours while I try to forget about everything happening around me. That sounds nice. — Zack Zwiezen

Play it on: PC, Switch

Current goal: Find cool new demon powers

Blade Chimera might be easy to initially overlook as another admirably retro-looking pixel art metroidvania with no deeper hook, but that would be a mistake. Don’t do that! It’s a great 2D action platformer following in the foot-steps of Symphony of the Night that prioritizes cool combat abilities over knocking on walls in search of secrets.

Not that I don’t love occasionally backtracking in search of that ledge I can now reach or the obstacle I can now dislodge in order to reach a new area, but Blade Chimera offers a nice change of pace from some of the other metroidvania-style map games I’ve played in the past year. You’re a demon hunter keeping the horrors at bay in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk version of Osaka, Japan using guns and magic melee weapons that double as traversal tools.

It’s pretty and fairly short, with just enough personality and unique twists on familiar ideas to keep it from getting tedious; the perfect old-school palate cleanser to open the year with. It’s from Team Ladybug, the same group that made Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, another very good looking 2D side-scroller I didn’t gel with as much. I haven’t played their other games though, and I’m interested to go back and give them a try after Blade Chimera won me over so effortlessly. — Ethan Gach