Full transparency, readers, I’m not thinking much about video games this weekend. It is a weekend for movies and music. It’s Wicked weekend and, on top of that, Kendrick Lamar just dropped a whole album. But if, for some reason, you’re looking for something to do other than watch Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo absolutely kill it at your local theater (or you’re a Drake stan), you could also play a video game this weekend. We’ve got a few suggestions right here:
Play it on: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Current goal: No goals, just happiness
Having spent a good chunk of time playing next year’s Avowed this week, I’m desperate to find a way to spend more time in Eora. It then occurred to me, it’s been nearly ten years since I played the game’s first prequel, Pillars of Eternity.
I almost never replay RPGs, because…I’ve just had three goes at typing out why, but I’m not entirely sure. It’s something to do with not wanting to re-experience a beloved story, but with the existential weirdness of not wanting to make all the same choices, and yet knowing I made all those choices because they were the ones that feel right to me. Also, revisiting a beloved RPG is quite different than returning to a favorite book, because the way RPGs tell stories is utterly different, not least in that a bunch of average skirmishes is a lot more hard work to do a second time than turning over a page.
Despite all this, and despite remembering the main beats of Pillars’ plot, I really have forgotten huge swathes of the story, and just want to be back in that world some more. It’s also the perfect time to play it (and its sequel) before February 2025 finally lets us get our hands on Avowed. — John Walker
Play it on: PC, Switch
Current goal: Finish a video game
I think I’ve written about 1000xRESIST multiple times for the weekend guide over the past year, and that’s because it’s been hanging over my backlog all along. I was so enthralled with Sunset Visitor’s adventure game when I first started it, but for one reason or another, I got pulled away multiple times. Now it’s the end of November, and if I’m going to have anything insightful to say at Game of the Year talks, I need to play more games. I usually carve out time around now to play the smaller games that slipped through the cracks, and 1000xRESIST is sitting at the top of the list. I’m still a little exhausted after marathoning Metaphor: ReFantazio and Dragon Age: The Veilguard with little time in between, so I just need something shorter that’s going to draw me in. 1000xRESIST was full of moments that told me it would do that, but I haven’t been able to commit to it. Until now. So help me god. — Kenneth Shepard
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC
Current goal: Reach the Tower of Transcendence
I didn’t expect a remake of a 1980s RPG that stays surprisingly faithful to its simple roots would grip me the way it has, but the more I play Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, the deeper it pulls me in. Not so much its barebones story or simplistic party progression, but its beautifully retooled world that still hides secrets like a pre-internet game intended for extended obsession rather than easy consumption. Like the early Final Fantasy games, the directions are minimal and the fights will knock you on your ass if you don’t put the grind in. That makes it perfect for playing during football games and late-night sessions rocking the baby to sleep, my eyes lit up with child-like glee at the hi-res pixel art and gorgeous, whimsical backgrounds. It’s not for the faint of heart, but RPG nerds with nostalgia for the old-school days are in for a treat. — Ethan Gach
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Current goal: Kill a god or two
The Veilguard took quite a while to hook me. For its first dozen hours or more, it all just felt so video game-y, so amusement park-y to me, the fairly small areas I was in so hyper-designed, so full of little caches of coins and resources for me to find so I never went more than a few seconds without some little dopamine-hit reward. And it still does have those problems, exacerbated all the while by how familiar the structure is, so plainly “Mass-Effect-2-but-make-it-fantasy.” So rigid and tightly controlled it sometimes feels lifeless. And yet I liked the concept of some of its characters enough to keep going, even if it took some time for the characters themselves to become deep and complex enough to intrigue me. I mean, Neve, a fantasy private eye and political rebel who wields ice magic and wears a dwarven prosthesis to replace her lower-right leg? That’s rad as hell!
And yes, now that I’m many, many hours into the game, I actually feel a connection to these characters and not just to the idea of them, and to the stakes of the conflict they’re facing, too. (I just played a second-act siege sequence that was pretty exciting and helped remind me what a serious threat the escaped elven gods actually are.) In some ways, the fact that every party member has some problem they need help with feels very contrived. “Oh, I just can’t focus on the thing threatening the whole world if we don’t deal with my personal issue first!” It’s, again, just all very Mass Effect 2, in a way that feels pretty conspicuous and artificial to me. But if surrendering to that structure lets me get to know Neve better, so be it. Ya got me, game. Ya got me. — Carolyn Petit
Play it on: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch
Current goal: Get to know the new guy
Like I said, I want to get to 1000xRESIST this weekend, but I also gotta carve out some time for Overwatch 2, my greatest love/hate relationship in video games. This weekend, Blizzard is letting folks test out Hazard, the new tank hero officially joining the game in December. I don’t play tank often unless I queue for every role and just end up in it. I love claiming space as Orisa and defending my teammates as Ramattra, but I tend to just queue for damage and support. I don’t know if Hazard will bring me back to tanking, but he could at least shake things up enough that I stop actively avoiding it. Hopefully, the queue times aren’t so bad that I don’t get to put Hazard through his paces. — Kenneth Shepard