Kotaku’s Weekend Guide: 8 Intriguing Games To Greet October With

Play it on: PS5, PS4, PS3, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Figure out its less-than-stellar cabaret club
Buy it from: Amazon | GameStop

I’ve been slowly replaying the Yakuza games this year to pump myself up for the release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and the glorious return of one of the series’ best side-quests, the cabaret club.

Cabaret clubs, at least in Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami 2, play out like a frenetic match in games like Overcooked in which you must manage a rotating roster of hostesses as they get clientele to spend oodles of money on liquid libations. You also have to consider how the personalities of each hostess will match well with clients who want to dine with someone who is either a good talker, a great partygoer, or just drop-dead gorgeous, and accessorize your hostesses accordingly. The cabaret club side-quests in the games above are so good I spent hours ignoring their main quests to win a series of hostess club tournament series. Sadly, the cabaret club side-quest in Yakuza 3 is not as hands-on and frenetic. In fact, it is almost a different beast entirely.

Instead of micromanaging every aspect of customer service during the cabaret’s business hours, Yakuza 3 strips things down by having protagonist Kiryu eavesdrop on customers and guess the style of hostess they’d like to dine with by picking up hints of their preferences over dinners. What follows is what I can only describe as an accessorized guessing game in which all you have to go off of is a hostess’s vague facial expressions over the gaudy articles of clothing and jewelry you’re sprucing her up with before carting her out into the unknown for three shifts, hoping her look are what customers were hoping for.

Reader, I’ve stun-locked my early Yakuza 3 playthrough experience just trying to get someone—anyone— to dine with my first hostess. Folks said they want a “glamorous” girl but when I fashion Ritsuko, an aspiring chef whom I’ve renamed Ramsay, in jewelry and dresses whose descriptions fit the bill, customers still don’t come. But no matter. If I can become a two-time king of the cabaret club whilst ignoring Haruka’s umpteenth kidnapping, I can overcome this challenge as well. I hope. — Isaiah Colbert

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Find my perfect Kameo partner
Buy it from: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop

Kameo fighters are a new feature to the Mortal Kombat franchise, support characters that you can choose from the selection screen that’ll aid you in battle at a press of a button, similar in concept to Marvel vs. Capcom’s special partners.

I’m finding it a welcome addition to NetherRealm’s refresh of the venerable fighting franchise as it adds an extra layer of delicious decision making for how best to konquer (allow me this one) your foes.

I’m neither skilled nor patient enough for a keepaway, projectile-focused playstyle so instead like to close the distance when playing Mortal Kombat 1. Hence I gratitate toward Kameo fighters who help control space and give me cover to get in. So far, I’m digging Johnny Cage’s Shadow Kick and Reptile’s Force Ball for keeping my opponents on their back foot. — Eric Schulkin

Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: See what awaits in the new district of Dogtown
Buy it from: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop

I played through Cyberpunk 2077 for review back when it first came out, and haven’t felt compelled to revisit it since. But now, I have to see what the new Phantom Liberty expansion brings to the game, so I’ve spent my evenings this week making a fresh start in Night City and playing through enough of the main story to unlock the expansion’s events.

My feelings on the game as a whole remain as ambivalent as ever. There are moments of shimmering beauty and humanity here and there, but so much of what surrounds them is so grimly cynical, and not in a good, compelling way but as a flat monotone that provides drab accompaniment to everything. It also still feels held together by duct tape, despite the recent upgrade to 2.0. A boss I fought last night got stuck a few feet off the ground, rendering him unable to move or attack me, so fighting him became something like taking potshots at a piñata with a shotgun.

And yet, I remain fascinated enough by the streets of Night City and the stories of those who live there that I have to see what awaits in the new district of Dogtown. Maybe it’ll be home to some of the most compelling and human tales Night City has to tell. — Carolyn Petit

Play it on: PS4, Xbox One, Windows (Steam Deck OK), macOS, Linux
Current goal: Muster my courage or swallow my pride

I always tend to like horror games more in theory than practice. I love scary movies—well-made ones, I mean, not just any horror trash—so it’s not that I’m a total chicken. But I never find myself too compelled by spooky games once I actually have a controller in hand. Sure, part of it’s a failure of nerves, but the prospect of creeping around on tiptoes for hours to come just never strikes me as “fun” in the way so many games that I actually like are fun.

Well, now my local Discord’s game of the month is Soma, the warmly received 2015 horror hallway from Frictional Games, best known for 2010’s smash-hit Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I’ve actually been interested in Soma because I’ve heard its post-apoc, sci-fi storyline is phenomenal. The question, as always, is will I find it worth tolerating the actual horror game to experience the cool story?

Read More: Soma, The Kotaku Review

After my first session, I’m really not sure! Soma’s well made in all the expected ways and seems like a fine example of its genre. But as usual, I find it hard to sit down and actually subject myself to its unsettling vibes when I could just play something comfier, like the mediocre-ass Starfield.

Funnily enough, Soma has a “story only” mode meant to let timid players walk through all the plot beats with no danger of actually dying to (or even being pursued by) the monsters. The answer to my prayers? You’d think, but first I’d have to get over my decades of gung-ho gamer conditioning and a deep-seated preference to usually choose hard modes. Of course, in this case it’s just the “normal” mode I’m pondering dipping out on, which makes my dilemma even more psychically hazardous.

Anyway, hopefully I’ll experience more of this game, one way or the other. And if you’d like to try braving Soma’s halls for yourself, word to the wise: It’s included on Xbox Game Pass. — Alexandra Hall

Play it on: PS4, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Get good
Buy it from: Amazon

Duck Game, a 2014 action game published by Adult Swim, is stupid… but brain-meltingly fun. Once you commit to playing, you’re a duck in 1984, shooting and slicing other ducks with absurd weaponry—like shotguns, magnet guns, all kinds of explosives, and about 50 other options—you find across 2D maps.

I am so bad at this stupid, fun game. I’m not very good at shooters in general, and Duck Game’s tricky stages—its platforms riddled with transportive portals and sudden drops—make my eyes cross. But that’s why I like playing it. It quiets my brain for at least 20 minutes, like Kirby does, or half a shot of vodka. But my misplaced competitiveness makes it so that I’d rather become suddenly and inhumanly good at a 2014 multiplayer shooter than do something easy for me, like drink a half shot of vodka, which gives me indigestion anyway.

So, this weekend, I’m going to get good at Duck Game. I like to win where the stakes are low. — Ashley Bardhan

Play it on: Switch
Current goal: Solve the mystery
Buy it from: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop

I’ve been waiting for Detective Pikachu Returns for five years. While the original 3DS adventure game was simple, I loved its depiction of the Pokémon world without battles, gyms, and Pokémon Leagues. The game and its live-action adaptation singlehandedly rejuvenated my love of Pokémon because it was such a refreshing take on the series in a genre I was really feeling at the time. Detective Pikachu Returns is finally picking up on the game’s cliffhanger (that the movie may have already spoiled) and even if it’s a pretty middling adventure game, I’m so invested in its mysteries that I gotta see it through. Look for a full review at Kotaku sometime next week! — Kenneth Shepard

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows (Steam Deck YMMV)
Current goal: Finishing up a few last things
Buy it from: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop | Ubisoft

While I might have finished the main campaign in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, I have some achievements to unlock and a few last contracts to complete. So I’ll be sneaking and stabbing this weekend as I wrap up a fantastic new Assassin’s Creed entry.

Read More: Assassin’s Creed Mirage: The Kotaku Review

I don’t normally care that much about cleaning out an open-world game of all its objectives and side content; there is far too much to play these days to waste all my time in just a few games. But I just want to spend more time playing Mirage. Its return to stealth and its intricately detailed city is pushing all the right buttons for me, so I’m happy to spend a few more hours with it over the weekend. — Zack Zwiezen

Play it on: PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Reconnect with the world before the sequel
Buy it from: Amazon | GameStop

My Xbox 360 and I were permanently separated in the late 2000s (there was a brief fling for a weekend, but we decided to go our separate ways shortly after). In 2014 I had a talk with my PS3 about opening up our relationship, though. It was amenable, so I met a new Xbox 360 and caught up on some exclusives I’d missed out on. One of those, of course, was 2010’s Alan Wake.

I love Remedy’s games, especially Max Payne and its sequel. And Alan Wake was a bit of a departure for me, as it wasn’t so action-oriented. The lack of adrenaline-pumping gun fights didn’t dissuade me though. I loved the presentation of its storytelling and its Pacific Northwest setting. I delighted playing it to completion and kept hope alive that a sequel would some day emerge. That day, as it turns out, is this coming October 27, the launch date of Alan Wake II. I’ve kept exposure to the trailers as distant as this job allows me to because I am eager to return to this character’s life and don’t want too much spoiled.

But it’s been a while since I’ve caught up with this character, and my immediate memory of his first adventure isn’t so sharp. I’m hoping to revisit Alan Wake over the weekend to reconnect with its Twin Peaks-style presentation and refresh myself on some of the main plot points. I’m not sure if I’ll play it to completion this time, but I’m looking forward to reconnecting with its tone and sense of horror before what I anticipate will be a delightful gaming treat at the end of the month. — Claire Jackson

And that wraps our picks for the weekend of October 6, 2023. What games are you playing this weekend?