Weekend's Hottest Games REVEALED! You Won't Believe #3!

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone! In the spirit of the day, we're diving into games that... well, aren't *all* that scary. Okay, maybe "spooky-adjacent" is a better description. Unless, of course, you find the crushing weight of failing a nonogram puzzle to be truly terrifying, or you have a deeply ingrained phobia of cats. The God of War games *do* have monsters, and Crisol is undeniably creepy, so we're stretching the definition a bit, I'll admit.

Weekend's Hottest Games REVEALED! You Won't Believ...

But hey, the weekend is finally here, and that means it's time for our weekly dose of Gaming recommendations to keep you entertained. Let's quickly recap the week's headlines first, just to make sure you're all caught up: we had the PlayStation State of Play dropping some serious bombs, Konami teaming up with the Dead Cells folks for a new Castlevania (due in 2026!), Santa Monica Studio is apparently remaking the original God of War trilogy (huge!), Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 is freeing Guns of the Patriots from its PS3 prison (finally!), Blizzard is adding the Warlock class to basically everything, and sadly, Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment confirmed layoffs. A bit of a rollercoaster week, eh?

Alright, let's get to the good stuff – the games you should be playing this weekend!

Crisol: Theater of Idols (Wesley LeBlanc)

Crisol: Theater of Idols is really shaping up to be something special. It's got that distinct Double-A vibe, you know? Like something straight out of the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era. If you appreciate that feeling, this horror adventure is definitely worth a look. I'm still fairly early in, so things could change, but it's giving me serious Resident Evil vibes, only with a really unique twist: your guns use your *blood* as ammo. You literally have to sacrifice health to reload, creating this incredibly tense back-and-forth with the creepy, blade-wielding puppet things that are trying to kill you. The story is there, and things are definitely happening, but it hasn't fully grabbed me yet. The voice acting can be a bit... inconsistent, bordering on melodramatic at times. That being said, Crisol's Spanish-Gothic take on Catholicism is visually stunning, and I'm definitely eager to see where it goes.

CiniCross (Kyle Hilliard)

I completely missed CiniCross leading up to release, and man, was that a mistake! It manages to blend two of my favorite genres – nonogram puzzles (aka Picross) and rogue-like games – into something truly addictive. You're completing nonogram puzzles as fast as you can to earn upgrades, which you have to strategically choose to survive until the final floor. It's not perfect, mind you. I've run into some pretty consistent game-crashing bugs (which is especially frustrating in a rogue-like!), and the music and sound effects aren't exactly my cup of tea. But I'm completely hooked on the core mechanics and the overall dark aesthetic. I've been playing it on my Steam Deck and haven't had this much trouble putting it down since my Vampire Survivors obsession. This probably won't convert you to nonogram puzzles if you're not already a fan, but if you are, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

Mewgenics (Charles Harte)

I've already sunk around 90 hours into Mewgenics, and honestly, I still have no idea how close I am to the end. This game is *massive*. More on this one soon...