Kotaku’s Weekend Guide: 7 Games To Say Goodbye To September With

Play it on: Switch, Windows, Mac
Current goal: Pour the perfect pint

Dave the Diver, the hit adventure game in which you dive for fish by day and run a sushi restaurant by night, intimately understands the satisfaction gained from unlocking new abilities. Swimming through its story steadily gives you cool new items and capabilities, like a gas cutter you can use to access otherwise unreachable areas, or new restaurant staff you can hire to help you run your booming business.

However, what’s really grabbed me is serving up draft beers to the hungry patrons of Bancho Sushi. Unlike the simpler green tea minigame, foam management is vital, and dare I say…an art? All those college years manning the keg have finally paid off.

With news out this week that studio MintRocket’s next project, Nakwon: Last Paradise, is quite the departure from Dave’s breezy oceanfront vibes, it does make me hold out hope you’ll be able to sling pints in its zombie apocalypse as well. — Eric Schulkin

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Current goal: Pay tribute to the fallen

I didn’t play Fall Guys very much at launch. It was fine, fun, and chaotic, and I’m still enamored with the results of some crossovers it’s featured over the years. (Beanified Gordon Freeman will live forever in my head rent free.) But after hearing the news about Epic laying off 16 percent of its workforce, members of Fall Guys developer Mediatonic included, I feel like jumping back in.

Sometimes you move on from a game so quickly that you forget people are still working on it long after you’ve uninstalled. Then you remember them again when there’s news of an acquisition, then news of layoffs. Fall Guys was never for me, but it was made by people just trying to get by like the rest of us. I think I want to see what they’ve been doing since the last time I pushed someone off the side of its silly obstacle courses. — Kenneth Shepard

Play it on: Switch
Current goal: See what all the hubbub is about

When Nintendo announced the surprise drop of a new F-Zero game during its latest Direct, I noticed a mixed reaction from fans who’ve long been hoping for something new out of the franchise. While yes, as an online multiplayer battle royale, F-Zero 99 probably isn’t what that one fan who bought roughly $40,000 of Nintendo stock for the opportunity to beg Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa for a new entry in the sci-fi racing series had in mind, at least it’s something, right?

I’ve never played an F-Zero game in my life but I have put countless hours into Tetris 99, a game conceptually similar to F-Zero 99. In fact, as of writing this, I’ve logged over 90 hours into Tetris 99, which is more time than I put into Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Playing it is a bit of a ritual for me, something I do either to warm up my mind before playing other games or to cool myself down after something intense like XC3. Seeing as how F-Zero 99 appears to offer a hovercar-shaped alternative to that tradition—coupled with the fact that I keep hearing how great the series is—I figure it’s about time I see what the hubbub is all about myself by taking the game for a test drive. — Isaiah Colbert

Play it on: PS5, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
Current goal: Defeat this one damn boss fight in Act II

When Baldur’s Gate 3’s story is humming along, I really love it. However, from time to time, I come to some boss battle or other challenging encounter that feels like hitting a brick wall. I don’t want to get too specific here for fear of upsetting the Spoiler Police, but last Sunday, after spending many happy hours advancing through the game’s second act, I came to just such a battle, one in which my hapless party got their asses handed to them again and again. My enjoyment quickly turned to frustration, and I soon opted to stop banging my head against a wall trying to figure out which of the tactical tricks at my disposal could help me overcome this challenge.

I admit I’ve never been great at tactical combat games, and although Baldur’s Gate 3 is mostly a traditional role-playing game, in its hardest encounters it demands some real tactical ingenuity. I know I’m not alone in struggling with some of its fights; a quick online search will take me to Reddit posts other players have written begging for tips on a particular boss, or declaring a given fight “impossible.” Typically there’s some mockery in the replies, as the brainiac gigachads for whom tactical dominance in Baldur’s Gate 3 is child’s play simply reply, “skill issue.”

Well, ya got me. I’m mainly here to explore Faerûn, experiencing the narrative and the relationships you can form with other characters. I’m not a tactical genius. And yet I still want the satisfaction of overcoming the challenges BG3 places in front of me, so I’m not about to drop the difficulty to easy. (No shade at all if you do; I think people should play games in whatever way they find most enjoyable. I just find enduring some exasperation and ultimately emerging victorious more fun.)

I haven’t played it at all this week. When I get home from work, facing the ordeal of that boss fight is just not how I want to unwind. But come the weekend, when I can wake up energized and ready to tackle the challenge once again, I’m gonna throw myself into it full bore. And when this boss finally goes down, my paladin and her party are gonna have a few extra bottles of wine at camp that night to celebrate. — Carolyn Petit

Play it on: Windows (Steam Deck: OK), macOS, Linux, iOS
Current goal: Spread the good word

I’m very analytical, but rarely discover puzzle games that delve deep into my brain’s furrows in the most pleasurable way. So when I do find one I never forget, and the Hexcells trilogy is one such goat.

Hexcells is kind of like Minesweeper, but unlike that Windows mainstay it’s attractive to behold and 100 percent fair. Each puzzle, which you solve by marking hexagons as occupied (blue) or empty based on numeric clues, is completely based in logic, and can be solved entirely without guessing. Developer Matthew Brown is an incredible puzzle maker, rolling out new rules and logic foibles at just the right pace to keep you enjoyably awash in earned-feeling “a-ha!” moments while avoiding repetition.

According to Steam, whenever I first played these I got five hours of enjoyment from Hexcells, 20 from its sequel Hexcells Plus (same idea but more, harder puzzles), and 20 from Hexcells Infinite (yet more stumpers, plus a level generator). This weekend Steam has the trilogy on sale for $2.69. If you enjoy logic puzzles I’d call that a no-brainer, but your brain’s actually going to be quite busy. — Alexandra Hall

Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, Windows (Steam Deck: YMMV)
Current goal: Unlock the secret ending

I worry Cocoon might get overlooked. When Limbo and Inside released they had striking art styles, cinematic trailers, and platform marketing hype around their timed exclusivity. Cocoon, the debut puzzle adventure by a new indie studio co-founded by ex-Playdead devs, doesn’t seem to be getting quite the same fanfare, but it’s every bit as unmissable as those games, and is in some ways even more daring and sophisticated. It’s one of those puzzle games that transcends the genre, offering delightful discoveries to make rather than arduous obstacles to get hung up on. I’d recommend it to anyone, even if they barely ever play games. So I really hope it doesn’t get lost in the chaotic autumn shuffle between Starfield and Spider-Man 2.

I’ll be returning to Cocoon myself even though I finished it earlier this week for my review. I still haven’t fully grasped some of its more complex puzzles, even if I managed to fumble my way toward their solution in the moment. I’m curious if I’ll be able to see exactly what’s going on the second time around, or if it will still manage to surprise me even on another playthrough. And then there is the secret ending to unlock. I’m even tempted to pick it up on PS5 and get the platinum trophy. They don’t often make them like this, so I want to savor it for as long as possible. —Ethan Gach

Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, PC
Current goal: Unlock the remaining achievements

Starfield has absolutely dominated this past month for me. Since August 31, basically all I’ve played is Bethesda’s massive space romp. I have complicated feelings about Starfield for sure, and find so much of it very disappointing, yet here I am, ready to spend another weekend in this digital galaxy.

Read More: Starfield: The Kotaku Review

This weekend I’m really zoning in on the nine achievements I have yet to unlock. They require a push to level 100, and some serious fieldwork gathering rocks and plants. I’m totally here for it though. My issues with its segmented world aside, I love walking through these spaces, picking things up, gazing at the night sky, taking photographs, and working on my outpost building chops.

Outpost building in particular is making me really appreciate the amount of planets that are in this game. Setting up each new base requires me to pay close attention to the resources available, and spend some time hunting down an optimal place to mine for essential materials. So far, I’m finding that with this as the central activity, everything else about the game gets pushed to the margins, and the things that often take me out of the adventure—like its repetitive interior spaces and not-so-smart AI—don’t feel that agitating when they’re not taking up the spotlight.

The freedom to take this game at my own pace and focus on what I choose to focus on is calling to me. Combined with mods (I can’t live without StarUI, for example), Starfield is feeling like a stack of TTRPG books whose fundamental rules aren’t the greatest, but still offer a core concept that draws me in. In Bethesda’s latest, there’s enough engaging material and tweakable rules that I’ll make my own fun, no matter what the vanilla experience is like. — Claire Jackson

And that’s it for our game picks on September 29, 2023. What games are you playing this weekend?