While the gaming industry as a whole seems to have shifted away from the open-world craze that gripped the 6th and 7th generations, the open-world framework remains incredibly popular in a handful of genres and noteworthy franchises. Ultimately, it's been a positive change in paradigms that has resulted in open-world games mostly being a case of quality over quantity, where the opposite used to be true. As the work week comes to a close and gives way to the weekend, revisiting one of the greater games to use the open-world framework, or perhaps discovering one for the first time, is a great way to spend any free hours you might have dedicated to gaming.
Diablo 4
Season 9 of Diablo 4 is still going strong, especially after the recent hotfix that Blizzard rolled out on August 8 to address a handful of minor issues that players were having. The start of Diablo 4's Season 10 is just around the corner on September 23, so you have almost exactly one month to dive into Season 9 and check out all that it offers before the next changeover. Both the base game of Diablo 4 and the Vessel of Hatred expansion also happen to be on sale on a handful of digital storefronts, so if you've yet to dive into the latest chapter of Blizzard's iconic ARPG series, now is a perfect time.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 88 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Hack and Slash
Horizon Forbidden West
Despite being overshadowed by the launch of another open-world game (in this case, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild), the original Horizon Zero Dawn was an excellent action-adventure title with a compelling sci-fi plot and some well-designed combat. Its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, only ups the ante, improving everything that made its predecessor great while also delivering a more cohesive story and even more impressive visuals courtesy of the Decima engine. The Horizon games don't often go on sale, especially not their complete editions, but the Complete Edition of Horizon Forbidden West is currently on sale over at the PlayStation Store, making it an easy recommendation for one of the best open-world games to check out this weekend.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 90%
- Released
- March 21, 2024
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Guerrilla Games, Nixxes
- Publisher(s)
- PlayStation PC LLC
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Decima
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Open-World
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Speaking of the Decima engine, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is perhaps one of the most visually impressive titles to utilize Guerrilla Games' proprietary development tool, and it's also one of 2025's best games. Its open-world elements and gameplay loop are much more streamlined and enjoyable than its predecessor's, and it also just recently got an extended game trial for PS Plus subscribers. If you've yet to check out Kojima Productions' latest, this weekend is arguably the perfect time to download the game trial for Death Stranding 2 and check out its unique vision of post-apocalyptic Earth.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 95%
- Released
- June 26, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Kojima Productions
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Decima
- Genre(s)
- Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Horror, Open-World
Fallout: New Vegas
After dropping a recent teaser trailer revealing the season's premiere date, the cast and showrunners of Amazon's Fallout series took to the stage at Gamescom Opening Night Live to debut the official trailer for Season 2, and it confirmed what many fans were hoping: Fallout Season 2 will be taking viewers to New Vegas. There's perhaps no better way to prepare for the next season of Fallout than to dive back into 2010's Fallout: New Vegas. Obsidian Entertainment's crack at the modern Fallout universe remains one of the best games in the series, especially for its strong writing and quest design fit to put you in the mood for a new season of the TV adaptation.
- Released
- October 19, 2010
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Obsidian Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda
- Engine
- Gamebryo
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- RPG
Hyper Light Breaker
The Early Access launch of Hyper Light Breaker was plagued by a host of issues related to technical performance and optimization, which Heart Machine has consistently been addressing over the last several months with hotfixes and larger patches. After delivering a major content drop at the end of July, Heart Machine pushed out the Double Down update earlier this week, which adds a new Breaker, a new Crown, and makes plenty of tweaks to the game's systems and difficulty balance. Hyper Light Breaker might be in the best state it's been post-launch, and that it's currently on sale only sweetens the deal for anyone who might've been on the fence to hop into it this weekend.
