Several franchises have gone to their roots in hopes of recapturing the magic that earlier games held. “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” and “Forza Motorsport” are throwbacks to early days of the series.
Ubisoft’s flagship franchise has changed and evolved drastically since “Assassin’s Creed Origins” revamped the series to be more open-world and loot-centric like “The Witcher” but the latest entry harkens back to the best of the first three games with a few more modern touches.
Meanwhile, “Forza Motorsport” drops the number at the end of the title (this would have been the eighth entry in the series) and marks a new approach based on what the older titles did so well: They created an engrossing campaign where players tuned and upgraded their cars to beat the competition.
While those two games lead the list, there are others worth checking out:
“Forza Motorsport” — Turn 10 Studios goes back to the basics with this entry and doubles down on its sim roots. Thankfully, that doesn’t mean the developers made the game more complicated but rather, it finds ways to bring the nuance and strategy of racing to the forefront without players being bogged down in the technical issues.
For true gearheads, the options to tweak different parts of a car are still there and they impact cars from race to race and course to course, depending on the weather conditions. That was par for the course in the past games, but “Forza Motorsport” also brings overlooked elements such as tire wear and fuel weight into the equation. The weight of the fuel and how fast you burn through it impacts how your car handles during a race.
As for the visuals, Turn 10 Studios doesn’t disappoint, especially if players run this on a gaming rig. The game features on-track ray tracing, making this one of the most visually stunning racing games anywhere.
Playtime: “Forza Motorsport” is an evergreen type of game. It’s one that you can jump into for a few minutes of racing or you can spend a whole afternoon trying to beat other racers and their track times. This is a game that will have a long shelf life as Turn 10 will likely add more vehicles and features for the foreseeable future.
“Assassin’s Creed Mirage” — Sometimes a series strays so far from what made it great that it loses sight of that. “Mirage” is an attempt to recapture the golden age of the series and marry it with some elements of the more recent efforts.
This entry focuses on Basim Ibn Ishaq, who was a pivotal character in the previous game, “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.” This follow-up details his origin story around Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate. It’s before the events of the original game with Altair, but players will visit locales that are key to the franchise.
More than that though, “Mirage” refocuses the series on its stealth DNA and tells a shorter, more-focused story. It’s a change of pace the series needed after several sprawling efforts as developers dabble in “Hitman”-style elements as Basim infiltrates different parts of the Order of Ancients in order to aid the Hidden Ones.
Playtime: Don’t expect a 100+ hour adventure. “Mirage” will take you about 15 to 20 hours or so to complete so you can finish it over the weekend if you have the opportunity to power through it.
“Detective Pikachu Returns” — Fans of the film or the Nintendo 3DS game will feel right at home with this sequel. Although it doesn’t exactly follow the plot of the film, it does carry over the same themes and characters.
Tim Goodman and Detective Pikachu have to dig into more about the origins of mysterious substance R. Unlike other Pokemon titles, this is more comparable to an adventure game in which players explore and figure out puzzles. It’s like a Telltale or an old Sierra game except Pokemon and their powers are often the key to solving problems.
Playtime: If you’re good at puzzles, the game could be finished over the weekend if you devote one solid day to it and then wrap it up later.
“Scorn” — PC and Xbox Series X and Series S players were able to experience this creepy survival horror game last year. The H.R. Giger- and Zdzislaw Bekinski-inspired visuals were mind-blowing and served to unsettle players in ways that few titles have.
Now, PlayStation fans have a chance to get in on this ideal game for spooky season. I would just keep vomit bag close by because there are some really disturbing scenes.
Play time: This title is extremely short and can be finished in a weekend easily. You just have to be really good at puzzles and learning how to master the unusual weapons that the protagonist comes across.
