Astro Bot
We’re officially in one of the busiest seasons of the year for high-profile game releases. AAA titles and compelling indies are flying at us left and right and it’s impossible to play them all. It’s tough even for someone who writes about games for a living (hi!) to keep on top of everything.
To that end, there are a whole bunch of intriguing games that have come out over the last week or so that I haven’t had time to play all the way through. I’ve been bouncing between these over the last several days and I’ve at gotten through enough of each (with one exception) that I can safely recommend them. I think there’s something for just about everyone here.
Star Wars Outlaws
This one came out a week ago but it’s still fresh enough to highlight. It’s pretty cool to have a big-budget Star Wars game that doesn’t place you in the role of a Jedi or Sith, even though that means you don’t get to wield a lightsaber. Instead, you play as Kay Voss, a Han Solo-type scoundrel. The game takes place between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and you’ll encounter quite a few familiar faces and locations.
I’m around five hours into Star Wars Outlaws and I’m having a good time with it. There are quite a lot of stealth missions that require you to remain undetected. Those won’t be for everyone, so I’d suggest bumping the difficulty down to easy for those so bad guys are less likely to spot you and send you back several minutes to a previous checkpoint.
My favorite thing about Star Wars Outlaws is the detail and level of care that the developers have put into creating one of the best-realized versions of this universe in a game yet. It’s absolutely gorgeous and you might very well end up spending hours in the photo mode, taking screenshots galore.
Star Wars Outlaws is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Sumerian Six
Oddly, of all the other games on this list, this one is actually the most like Star Wars: Outlaws since it involves a lot of sneaking around. Sumerian Six is a real-time tactical stealth game that draws from the likes of Commandos and Shadow Tactics.
Although I did enjoy Commandos as a kid, this isn’t usually my type of game. But I’ve dug the few hours of Sumerian Six I’ve played so far. The conceit of this World War II-set game is pretty solid — you play as a group of scientists-turned-commandos who try to stop a Nazi general from making broad use of a powerful, mystical substance called Geiststoff.
Each of the six characters you control (you can’t pick which ones to use in each level, unfortunately) has a very fun set of abilities. From hitching a ride on a patrolling enemy so you can access another area undetected to turning into a “werebear” to rip enemies apart, there are tons of ways to navigate the intelligently designed levels and take out the bad guys.
My favorite is chemist Rosa Reznick, who can turn Nazis into literal timebombs or inject them with a substance that melts their bodies in an instant. That way. you don’t have to hide Nazi remains from their patrol cohorts.
So far, Sumerian Six is an entertaining, pulpy adventure with enjoyable dialogue that I’m definitely going to continue on with. It’s out now on PC.
The Casting Of Frank Stone
On the heels of the surprisingly enjoyable roguelite What The Fog comes a more ambitious Dead by Daylight spinoff. With The Casting Of Frank Stone, Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, The Quarry) has done a marvelous job of marrying the narrative adventure style it’s become known for with the universe of DbD. It brought some elements of the latter into the fold, such as the skill check that pops up when DbD players try to start a generator.
The Casting Of Frank Stone takes place across multiple time periods but centers around a group of young filmmakers who venture into a condemned steel mill to make a horror movie in 1980.
Like Supermassive’s other horror games, The Casting Of Frank Stone has a branching narrative (that you’ll be able to go back and change) and the path you take depends on your actions and choices. Those also determine whether the characters live or die.
Whenever I play through a Supermassive game for the first time, I have one goal: to make sure no one is left standing by the end. I didn’t quite achieve that on my first run here, but it’s relatively short and you’re encouraged to replay it to discover all of the ways different scenes play out. There’s also a “cutting room floor” feature that makes it easy to go back and replay sections to try and get a different outcome.
This would be a very enjoyable game to play with friends, especially because there’s a pass-the-controller co-op mode for up to five people, with each player taking control of a certain character. You don’t need to be a DbD fanatic to enjoy it, either. As much as I enjoy watching streamers play Dead by Daylight, I’m certainly not a diehard and I’m sure there are references here that flew over my head. I enjoy …Frank Stone all the same.
The Casting Of Frank Stone is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Astro Bot
Astro Bot rocketed to the top of my most-anticipated games list after Sony revealed it back in May and, only a few hours in, I am not disappointed in the slightest. It’s exactly as delightful as I hoped it would be. In all honestly, I’m annoyed I dragged myself away from it to write this piece. I’m going back to it as soon as I’m done.
Astro Bot is out now on PlayStation 5.
NBA 2K25
This is the only game on this list I haven’t gotten around to trying yet, but 2K’s basketball sims are reliably solid year after year. I have enough faith in 2K’s track record to be convinced that the latest edition is worth checking out.
There are new dribbling, shooting and defense systems this year. I’m interested to find out whether Learn 2K, a new system for helping players learn the basics as well as trickier skills, is as effective as 2K’s marketing is making it out to be.
NBA 2K25 is out now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
It’s going to be a busy weekend for me. I’ll be trying to race through as many of these as I can, since I’m looking forward to Towerborne, I Am Your Beast and the Lollipop Chainsaw remake, all of which are out next week. And that’s before the likes of The Plucky Squire, Zoochosis and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom arrive later in the month. Good luck out there, gamers.
(Disclaimer: The publishers of Star Wars Outlaws, Sumerian Six and The Casting of Frank Stone provided me with review copies of each game.)