It’s the middle of the month, so another batch of games just came to the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium catalog. There’s a solid mix of scary games here just in time for Halloween and hidden gems in the PS4, PS5, and PSVR2’s libraries that are well worth your time. If you’re wondering what you should play this weekend, I can safely say that you’ll have a good time with any of these three games.
It can be hard for zombie games to stand out because so many exist. Dead Island 2 had the benefit of being infamous because it was constantly delayed and shifting developers during development. It finally launched almost seven years after its initial announcement. Despite those development woes, Dambuster Studios and Deep Silver’s Dead Island 2 is a surprisingly solid action game. It stands out because of its particularly satisfying melee combat and extraordinarily detailed dismemberment system. Dead Island 2 is a fitting game to play ahead of Halloween and definitely the headliner for October’s batch of PS Plus additions.
The PS4 and PS5 versions of Dead Island 2 are available with a PS Plus Extra subscription. It’s also available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S via Xbox Game Pass.
Earlier this week, Nomada Studio and Devolver Digital released Neva, a beautiful and emotional 2D platformer. If you enjoyed that game, you should check out its predecessor, Gris. It’s an equally emotional adventure about a young woman dealing with feelings of depression, grief, and sorrow. While its platforming gameplay is very simple, Gris‘ visuals are absolutely stunning and do a fantastic job of eliciting the right feeling for each scene. If you do decide to check Gris out, it will become a gaming experience you won’t forget anytime soon.
The PS4 and PS5 versions of Gris are available via PS Plus Extra. It’s also on Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, iOS, and Android.
Sony is throwing PS Plus Premium subscribers a bone this month by adding The Last Clockwinder to the service’s small VR game catalog. Thankfully, this is a fantastic addition, as The Last Clockwinder is one of the best VR puzzle games out there. Its puzzles are all designed around the fact that players can record their actions and then create clones to perform them to help solve a puzzle. Like the best puzzle games, its solutions are Rube Goldberg machines that can be hard to parse initially, but are ridiculously satisfying to solve. It’s a must-play for anyone who owns a virtual reality headset.
The PlayStation VR2 version of The Last Clockwinder is now part of the PS Plus Premium VR catalog. It’s also available for PC and Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.