Welcome back to our weekend hunt for smaller PC Game Pass games. We have quite the doozy for you today: a game where you can melt your way through an ice wall, provided you’ve thought about where all that water will go. If that sounds too much like work, we’ve also got a shooter that rewards a little, let’s say, property damage, as well as a school like no other.
If you are new here, what is Game Pass? Think of it as “Netflix for video games.” It is a service that gives you unlimited access to hundreds of great games for one monthly fee. For a lot of gamers, us included, it’s a great way to try new types of games and find unexpected favorites without spending extra money. Speaking of which, what are the games that you should try this weekend?
Suggestions for this Weekend:
Sandustry: Before You Buy That Flamethrower
In Sandustry, you’re building a factory on an unfamiliar planet. To put it mildly, dealing with the ground beneath your machinery is part of the job. Every pixel has physical properties, so you’ll need to transport sand, melt ice, and make sure those neat rows of conveyors you’ve laid down can handle whatever the terrain sends their way.
When faced with a wall of ice, no one will stop you from buying a flamethrower to get through it. Alternatively, you could figure out how to divert lava towards it and let the heat do the job. The sky, as they say, is the limit! There are artefacts to uncover farther underground, but figuring out how to reach them sounds like a perfectly good way to spend a Saturday in itself.
Game card — Factory building and exploration · Solo · Game Preview. A playful sandbox for patient tinkerers who like watching a machine work and can usually think of one small improvement before calling it a night.
VOID/BREAKER: Aim for the Building
The machines in VOID/BREAKER, or more specifically, their AI, have you trapped in a simulation. Whenever you die, the AI sends you back for another run. That doesn’t mean you can’t make the scenery work in your favour. For example, you can shoot through a wall to open up a route or bring part of a structure crashing down to stagger the machines long enough to get moving again.
Between fights, you combine weapon mods and choose your path. There’s an abundance of nasty encounters, and each one offers a cool reward. This is our pick for anyone who misses fast-paced shooters from the good old days.
Game card — Roguelite first-person shooter · Solo · Version 1.0. A hostile machine world built for quick movement and destructive gunfights. Best for players who enjoy experimenting with weapons across repeated runs.
Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School: Check the Sofa Cushions
At Escape Academy, your escape rooms are timed and graded. Here, the school considers a spiked ceiling an acceptable teaching aid. Between classes, though, you can wander around the campus at your own pace. Fellow students offer jobs that pay in Escape Bucks. You’ll need plenty of those to progress (psst! You can also find some tucked between sofa cushions).
We’d recommend this one for a pair who enjoy talking through clues, since you can share a screen or play together online. And if one of you likes working through a cipher on paper while the other keeps announcing how many seconds are left, the optional no-timer mode might do wonders for the friendship. Then again, keeping the timer on is a great way to put that friendship to the test. Chances are, if you survive this, you’ll survive anything together!
Game card — Escape-room puzzles · Solo or two-player local and online co-op. A colourful campus mystery with unhurried side puzzles between more frantic classes. A good fit for puzzle partners, including those who disagree about how much pressure counts as fun.
And that’s another weekend sorted! We sincerely hope you won’t will spend it burning down your factory, bringing an entire building down on yourself, or getting expelled from a school with some seriously questionable safety regulations. Have a lovely weekend, and happy gaming!
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