As we enter the middle of October, Halloween celebrations will only continue to ramp up. That makes this a perfect time to play horror games or games that elicit an eerie, autumn-like vibe despite all of the new releases like Metaphor: ReFantazio and Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. Thankfully, several new additions to Sony’s subscription service, from PlayStation Plus Essential to Extra, fit that bill. Those are the games I’m drawing from as I recommend three more PS Plus titles for you to check out this weekend.
One of October’s PS Plus Essential monthly games is EA Motive’s excellent Dead Space remake. It’s an utterly gorgeous, faithful recreation of Visceral Games’ iconic 2008 sci-fi horror game that’s still one of the best-looking games on PlayStation 5. It’s a must-play during this spooky season, even if one of the most frightening things about doing so is realizing EA doesn’t plan to follow excellent remake up anytime soon. The PS5 version of Dead Space is available to all PS Plus subscribers until November 5. It’s also on PC and Xbox Series X/S through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
While it’s not a horror game, Night in the Woods oozes fall vibes with its black-cat protagonist, Mae, vibrant autumn-colored visuals, and some narrative and setting elements. It’s an intensely relatable story about a college dropout returning to their hometown, reuniting with old friends, and getting swept up in a supernatural mystery. If you’ve never played this charming indie before, October is the perfect time of year to do so. PS Plus Extra subscribers can now access the PS4 and PS5 versions of Night in the Woods as part of its game catalog. It’s also available on PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and iOS.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 might not be released in time for Halloween this year, but you can play Chernobylite at last. Chernobylite has much in common with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as players fight against other humans and more supernatural obstacles and foes around the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. It specifically leans into the RPG aspects of such an experience, with player choices that interact with the narrative, permadeath for NPCs, and more. The PS4 and PS5 versions of Chernobylite are available via PS Plus Extra. It’s also on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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.