As the holiday week winds to a close, some of us on the east coast of the United States are patiently awaiting a few inches of snow (and hopefully not rain). I’m probably not alone in looking forward to a quiet weekend in which I can hopefully carve out an hour or two of relaxing game time before the end-of-year parties and the race back to the grindstone in 2026. If you’re looking for recommendations of what to play, here’s what we at Kotaku are making time for this weekend.
Cast n Chill
Play it on: PC, Switch (Switch 2 edition also available)
Goal: Catch the legendary King Salmon of Safety Cove
It’s that strange, liminal week between Christmas and New Year’s, a time when many of us, myself included, seem possessed of a desire to do as little as possible. And as if intended specifically to fill this niche, Cast n Chill has recently arrived on Switch and Switch 2, letting me play something when I want to play something and also not play something when I literally don’t want to do anything at all. See, Cast n Chill is a fishing game with an idle mode; if you don’t feel like actively playing it yourself, you can just have your little pixel-art fisherman work the rod and the reel all by himself, catching some fish and selling them for cash so that, when you do come back to the game, you’ve got some more money to spend in the bait and tackle shop on new fishing rods, boats, licenses, and so forth.
But what really makes Cast n Chill so pleasant is, well, how chill it is, whether you’re actively playing or not. The landscapes surrounding its various fishing spots are remarkably picturesque and dense with detail, and the sounds of nature that accompany your time on these tranquil lakes and rivers are so soothing that hearing them play in the background while I sit here working at my desk makes me feel like some small part of me is out there on the water, too. Of course, time spent playing Cast n Chill is screentime, but it also feels like a real reminder that there’s a whole world of gorgeous forests, clear lakes, and big starry skies to enjoy, and that sometimes just taking all that beauty in is a better use of our time than anything that might show up on a productivity spreadsheet. – Carolyn Petit
Unbeatable
Play it on: PC, PS5, Xbox
Goal: Give it a second chance
As end-of-year season wraps up, I’m thinking back on a game I played and soured on pretty quickly: Unbeatable. The anime-inspired rhythm game’s opening hours felt poorly tutorialized and its music wasn’t grabbing me, but now that I’ve got some time, I feel like if any game I played this year deserved a charitable second shot, it was this one. I love rhythm games, doing crimes, and Unbeatable‘s punk aesthetic. Even if its story doesn’t end up grabbing me, there’s probably a lot of fun to be found in its arcade mode if I can find songs that resonate with me. What else am I gonna do this holiday weekend? – Kenneth Shepard
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC
Goal: Enjoy some nostalgic RPG vibes
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Bethesda’s massive open-world RPG from the Xbox 360 era, will forever be a Christmas game to me. I have vivid memories of playing it on my Xbox 360 near a roaring fireplace after ripping open my gifts from Santa. So I felt compelled on Christmas Eve to download this year’s remastered version of Oblivion and hop back in. I doubt I’ll finish this playthrough—I so rarely do finish Bethesda RPGs despite replaying them over and over—but it was nice to spend a few hours back in Cyrodil around the holidays. – Zack Zwiezen
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Current Goal: Get out of the Trosky zone
I ordered Kingdom Come 2 for PS5 over Black Friday when it was half-off in response to a sneaking suspicion that it might secretly be the best game of 2025, or at least in the top five. I bounced off the first game due to boredom and bugs and never revisited it. But several Very Smart People™ in my life convinced me the sequel makes good on the promise of the original and might be the best first-person immersive sim RPG around. So far I have no reason to doubt them but I’m still early on. I’m currently prepping for the Whom the Bell Tolls quest, which I’m assured is one of the game’s standouts. We’ll see how it lands! – Ethan Gach
The Séance of Blake Manor
Play it on: PC
Current Goal: Knives Out my way through the occult mystery
I’m similarly doing some remedial GOTY homework with The Séance of Blake Manor, another beloved entry in the “click things and read tiny text on a screen to solve puzzles” genre and one that many people I greatly admire have praised very highly. I can see why. The mechanics are pretty streamlined as far as these games go and the writing is excellent. I’m not sure if rummaging around an environment until random linguistic signifiers can be linked together to solve a mystery and advance the plot will ever be for me. Still, I’m determined to find out what foul magic is afoot on the west coast of 19th century Ireland. – Ethan Gach
