Yes, it is officially summer as per the magical calendar. Blessed Litha to all who celebrate. You might have some fun stuff lined up given that the weather is…well, at least here in New York it’s not terrible—yet. So maybe you want to go outside. Maybe you want to stay in? Either way, if you want to get some gaming in but aren’t sure where to start, then we have some lovely recommendations for you to consider.
So let’s kick off our weekend early and jump into some gaming.
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Playable”)
Current goal: Escape the planet
Don’t be fooled by The Alters’ box art which looks like something you might see for an asset-flip dating gameshow game made of AI-slop art in Unreal. It is actually a very compelling management sim from 11Bit Studios, maker of Frostpunk. You play as the lone survivor of a mysterious space expedition trying to survive by using clones of himself to build a functioning base. Think Mickey 17 if instead of each copy being killed, they got to run a Fallout shelter together. 11Bit Studios management sims have never just been about resource gathering and min-maxing to survive, however, and what really makes Alters special is how it puts these meaty systems in service of telling a carefully crafted story based around social interactions between the clones. Come for the survival crafting, stay to gaze into a mirror of flawed humanity and existential regret. I’m still just a few hours in but it already has its hooks in me. If you want a narrative adventure but found yourself bouncing off of the esoteric strands of Blue Prince this might be the one to check out. — Ethan Gach
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Playable”)
Current goal: Actually finish it (probably!)
I know. You’re all like, “What do you mean you didn’t finish this game after writing about it for three weeks in a row in the Weekend Guide?”
Look, I have a busy, complicated life. Also, this game is enormous and, really, am I just gonna walk up to the final boss without being level 99 for every character with as many Pictos and Luminas as I can stock them with?
This weekend, I shall finally finish this game. I mean, at least in theory. I will tell you that Saturday will most likely be spent just grinding combat while listening to Dream Theater. And yes, I love the soundtrack in this game, but I’ve heard all the fight music at this point. Plus, the challenge of nailing the parrying and blocking window while listening to something like “Dance of Eternity” sounds like a good time to me!
The combat in this game, while stressful at the highest difficulty given its reliance on blocking and parrying, is a ton of fun. Every time I feel like I’m getting destroyed, I see a path to relearning the reaction-based mechanics, spec out my characters to become even more devastating, and power further on. The power you can scale to in this game is truly impressive and sometimes more than a little intoxicating, and it’s all based on a comfortable combination of RPG stat-readiness and reaction time. Best of both worlds!
But I do have an epic fantasy story to conclude. If I’m being honest, a soft critique I have thus far of this game is that its lore gets a little too tangled up with itself. Maybe the ending will stitch it together for me, or perhaps I’ll have to suffer reading a synopsis because some of the nuances passed me by. That said, Renoir is waiting for me in Lumiere. I’ll just show up once I’ve knocked out all the trials in the Endless Tower. — Claire Jackson
Play it on: PS5, Switch, Windows PCs (Steam Deck: “Unsupported”)
Current goal: Collect my faves again
We love a hyperfixation moment. After playing Digimon Story: Time Stranger at Summer Game Fest earlier this month, I’ve been on a Digimon kick. I made my friends start watching the original anime, finally watched the latest movie I had never gotten around to, and when I went to reinstall Cyber Sleuth—the turn-based RPG that was one of my favorites from 2016—I saw that the game had been delisted from the PlayStation Network. While I could have done nothing and let this just be a devastating blow to Pride Month, instead I bought a copy of it and the Hacker’s Memory sequel bundled together on Switch.
I’m not thrilled that I spent half a grand on my Switch 2 just to be playing old shit on it, but it is what it is, and I’d rather be playing Cyber Sleuth than most other things right now. I’ve spent much of the opening hours grinding to collect my favorite Digimon right out the gate: Guilmon. My fire-breathing doofus, despite being the face of the series’ third season, is not as prominent throughout the franchise as the original cast from season one. So any time I can have him on my team right near the start of the game immediately puts the wind in my sails. I stayed up later than usual last night grinding to get my other favorites, Gabumon and Salamon, and now that my trio has been reunited I can actually move forward with the plot.
Cyber Sleuth has an almost Persona-like vibe, with you playing as a teenager secretly fighting evil in another world while also living a more mundane real-world life in modern-day Japan. It’s been long enough since I played the RPG that a lot of its mysteries have become foggy, and I’m looking forward to re-discovering all the answers on my heavy-ass bulky Switch 2. If you’ve bounced off Digimon, or just never got around to it, I can’t recommend Cyber Sleuth enough. Its turn-based battles are pretty meh, but its monster collection, elaborate mysteries, and all-round cool vibes are still great, and make for an incredibly special, underrated RPG. — Kenneth Shepard
And that wraps our picks for the weekend. Happy gaming!
