Earlier this week, November’s batch of three new PlayStation Plus Essential titles dropped. Between now and December 2, PS Plus subscribers of all tiers can redeem these games for free. It’s a good batch of titles, too. We not only have a brand new Death Note game launching onto the service, but also an enjoyable all-ages racing game and an exhilarating horror action title. If you’re a PS Plus subscriber wondering what to play this weekend, any of these Essential monthly games can offer up a good time.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is the highest-profile PS Plus Essential game of the month. Tango Gameworks released this as a PS5 exclusive shortly after Microsoft acquired it. In the two-and-a-half years since its release, Tango brought Ghostwire: Tokyo to Xbox, released Hi-Fi Rush, got shut down by Microsoft, and was then revived by Krafton. That makes it fascinating to revisit Ghostwire: Tokyo now and see the last horror-infused swing the studio took before all of those wild things happened to it. Ghostwire: Tokyo is an entertaining supernatural action game where players fight Japanese demons with magic, and it’s a worthy download for any PS Plus subscriber.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is available as a PS Plus Essential game on PS5 until December 2. It’s also available on PC and Xbox Series X/S as part of Xbox Game Pass.
Death Note always seemed like a tough anime and manga to adapt to video game form to me, but Grounding Inc. and Bandai Namco Entertainment have now done so in the form of an Among Us clone. Death Note Killer Within is a social deduction game where some players work for L while others work for Kira. Players have to go around completing tasks and investigating other players before voting to decide who Kira is. It’s a little wonkier to play than something like Among Us, but it is still a fascinating way to adapt Death Note into video game form. Fans of Death Note should check it out, especially if they have a group of nine others to play with.
Death Note Killer Within is available exclusively on PS4 and PS5 as a PS Plus Essential game. After December 2, it will be available for purchase.
You might not expect much from a licensed Hot Wheels video game, but Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged is actually quite good. It features a wide variety of Hot Wheels vehicles to choose from, a sizeable single-player mode, and some entertaining arcade racer physics. It’s the kind of game that makes you feel like a child again as you play it and race a monster truck through a dinosaur museum track. If you’re a PS Plus subscriber with kids or just want a laid-back, casual racing game to kill some time with, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged is worth redeeming.
The PS4 and PS5 versions of Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged will be PS Plus Essential monthly titles until December 2. It’s also available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.