Off Topic > Video GamesMay 3, 2024 4:30 pm CT

What to play this weekend: Dark fairytale horror, early access city builders, and a Jedi-filled holiday

By Liz Patt

Happy Friday, Watchers! On the Blizzard front, we’ve had the Diablo 4 seasonal theme(-ish), a delightful venture (hah) into transmog with the May Trading Post, and new writers joining the Blizzard Watch team. While it’s been busy here, we’re now ready to embrace the weekend and explore some new games.

Release of the week: Indika (horror)

Mature content warning: This game may contain content not appropriate for all ages (e.g. partial nudity, use of tobacco, violence, consumption of alcohol, cursing, body dismemberment, non-consensual sex, sexual assault).

Indika is darkly beautiful, but don’t go into it with expectations — no matter what you’re anticipating, you’ll be surprised. The not-a-launch trailer (above) does a great job of capturing its uniqueness — it’s not a racing game, a walking sim, a city builder, a loot-based RPG, or an arcade game, and yet it’s all of those. Ultimately, it’s a story of survival, the third-person view following the titular Sister Indika on her journey of self discovery and questioning through an alternative-universe Russia at the turn of the 19th century.

Get Indika for $24.99 for PC on Steam and GOG. Coming to Xbox, PlayStation, and the Epic Games Store with separate release dates.

Community highlight: Manor Lords (strategy)

Manor Lords is already making a splash despite being newly moved to early access at the end of April. Live the life of a medieval lord in this title, where historical accuracy drives both the visuals and mechanics. Organically grow your city, wrangle your resource management, and engage in warfare to expand your territory but remember — every death has a cost.

The game is making its way around the Blizzard Watch community! Head LoLcat Dan O’Halloran has been enjoying his playthrough, but reminded our community Discord that the title’s early access state means there isn’t much of a tutorial phase (yet) so there’s a big trial and error element right now. However, the title has an ever-developing wiki open for community update and Discord server devoted to the title, so it’s clearly getting a lot of support from the development and publishing team.

Get Manor Lords early access for $39.99 for Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC on Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store.

Star Wars banner header

Steal of a deal: May the 4th sales

Star Wars fans, your time of the year has come, and both Steam and Epic Games are celebrating alongside you with May the 4th sales. The Epic Games Store sale has six base games, four deluxe editions, and twenty addons, all discounted anywhere from 30 up to 90% off, while the Steam sale highlights an array of retail Star Wars games (not discounted) and legacy titles at deep (65-95%) discounts. Epic Games has a bonus though — you can also pre-purchase the coming Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition to experience the first open-world Star Wars title; however, it’s up to you to determine if the base game, three days early access, and a season pass with two story expansions, an exclusive launch mission, and a character cosmetic pack are worth the $105 price.

Personally, I’m resisting the urge to pick up yet another copy of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga so I can play it on computer in addition to my Switch — it’s both incredibly fun and chock full of content for replays. It’s basically a steal at 75% off. You can peruse both May the 4th sales at:

The Epic Games Store, available now until May 9 at 11am eastern.
The Steam store, available now until May 6 for non-EA titles and May 13 for EA titles.

Now tell us, Watchers — what are you playing this weekend? Share in the comments below, and we’ll feature your new interest in next week’s round-up!

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