The Video Games And More You Should Play This Weekend – September 11, 2026

Much of the excitement in the sporting world might be squarely focused on the start of the NFL season this weekend, but for hockey fans, it’s hard not to look forward to the end of this month for the start of the NHL season. If you find yourself in that second camp, EA Sports’ NHL 27 might be a solid way to scratch that itch while you wait for the real players to take the ice. Our reviewer wasn’t the biggest fan of the AI-aided commentary, nor did he feel the game evolves over last year’s title in meaningful ways, but the base gameplay is solid enough that those who are just looking to play some virtual hockey with the latest rosters can jump in and have a fun enough time.

You can read Game Informer‘s NHL 27 review at the link.

Halloween: The Game, from Illfonic the creators of many nostalgic asymmetrical multiplayer games based on horror films, is pretty fun… as long as you go in with proper expectations for the genre.

In his review for the game, Wesley LeBlanc wrote, “Halloween needs some massaging. There are bugs galore, its Civilian onboarding isn’t great, and leveling up to unlock new color tints on sunglasses, or a new shirt or hat, isn’t the best motivation. But when I’m actually in a match, all of that fades away. The bugs aren’t game-breaking and blend in with IllFonic’s feature-not-a-bug jank, like one where another player and I hilariously moonwalked when we ran instead of sprinted. Learning what to do as a Civilian doesn’t take too much time, even without any helpful context built in-game, and cosmetics don’t affect how I play. What matters in Halloween is the scares I’m delivering and receiving, and the joy I’m feeling through it all. Death has arrived in IllFonic’s latest, and while the fear is abundant, so too is the fun waiting in the sleepy little town of Haddonfield.”

Wes also makes clear in his review that while there is a single-player campaign, and it is a functional tutorial for the multiplayer game, that the multiplayer is the draw. If you’re looking for a single-player Halloween game, this isn’t it.

If you’re not a big PC gamer, Meccha Chameleon is the game you probably heard about that sold a million billion copies. Its success will be intensely analyzed for the next few years by people who proclaim themselves experts on the business of video games on LinkedIn, but don’t actually engage with video games as a form of artistic expression. Please look forward to their consulting efforts selling video game publishers the wrong lessons about Meccha Chameleon for years to come.

But with those details out of the way and for those who like to play video games because they are fun (and read sites like gameinformer.com because they are very smart), Meccha Chamelon is available now on Switch 2 and it’s a great fit. The game is essentially high stakes hide and seek where players hide by literally painting themselves into the environment. With a group of friends, it can be a goofy blast. Just get ready to use your mouse on Switch 2 as it will make the painting aspect of the game much more fun.

I’ll openly admit that I don’t care much for Mewgenics’ humor and aesthetics (and I mentioned as much in my review), but I can’t deny that its game design is a work of beauty. You start each run with four cats, each with different stats and quirks, and assign them a class, equip them with items, and take them into a tactical roguelike run. There are so many variables in any given encounter that each new session is ripe with emergent gameplay, and you’ll have crazy stories about the way your cats combo or clash with certain enemy types, equipment, and the environment. This week, it’s finally made its way to consoles, so if you’ve been interested, now’s as good a time as any to check it out.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII originally released on PSP in 2007 and was generally well-liked. In terms of the Final Fantasy VII spin-offs that have released over the years, this prequel is widely considered to be the best. In 2022 the game was updated and released for just about every contemporary platform at the time and this week, it released for Switch 2.

I reviewed the PlayStation 5 version of the game in 2022 and wrote, “Reunion is a well-executed remake of the 2007 game that delivers fun combat alongside a stilted story with an interesting and narratively important final act. If you plan on starting or continuing the Final Fantasy VII Remake journey, make sure to do your homework.” The game is not necessary to enjoy the ongoing Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy, but it provides some nice context and the action is pretty good, if a little repetitive. Mainly, I recommend it if you just want to investigate every corner of the Final Fantasy VII universe, especially if you’ve like to do as much as you can before Final Fantasy VII Revelation releases in April of next year.

Next Tuesday, two new D&D books will be available for the general public: Arcana Unleashed and Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall. Technically, they’ve been in the wild for a while now, as they’ve been available at local game stores since September 1 and they were on sale at Gen Con before that. Still, I’ve been enjoying both. Arcana Unleashed is particularly exciting, with new subclasses, spells, and magic items that I’m definitely incorporating into my ongoing campaign. I’m most excited about the long-overdue update to the arcane archer and the new familiar-themed feats. I feel like every table I play at has a new person hoping to adopt a magic pet, and this makes it super easy, regardless of your class.

Meanwhile, Deadfall is a high-level (11-20) adventure ideal for a magic-heavy party. It’s cool to see support for a campaign that starts so highly-leveled, especially since most tables never play long enough to experience it. Aside from a few magic items, there’s not much in Deadfall that reaches the universal appeal of something like Arcana Unleashed, though. Regardless, the D&D team is still killing it with the art in these books, and they’re a joy to leaf through whether or not I’ll have time to play them any time soon.