What are we all playing this weekend?
WELL?
With Eurovision out the way (it had too many ballads and not enough poppy pop, but Moldova's staging was a delight), it's almost time for The Other E: E3. The other Es? The Electronic Entertainment Expo. That good ol' close-mid front unrounded vowel x 3. To the max. As tired as I always feel after a week of working long days starting from Saturday, writing so very many posts, and watching too many awkward presentations, I do still find it quite exciting. From afar, mind. God, I've never been to E3 and hopefully I never will. But the PRODUCTBLASTORAMA is still quite exciting. I'm predicting a lot of dads and royale battles this year. Maybe even combined. Daddle royale.
What are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
Alec: Alec has been fired.
Alice: It's swimming season, so any time I'm not in a river, loch, or the sea is wasted as far as I'm concerned. Buuut I am known to waste time every now and then. I'm enjoying Plunkbat's latest team deathmatch event mode, getting some frenetic murdertime in with guns I don't find very often. And I've now started a crimebusiness in GTA Online so it'd be unprofessional if I didn't do crimes.
Brendan: I've got to put some work into my settlement in State of Decay 2. This red-eyed zombie horde won't overwhelm me by itself, you know. But I've also been sneaking back to Skyrim in the evenings for some cold dandering from town to town. And now that I think of it, it's been a few days since I've been splattered across the walls of a Tekken dojo...
Graham: I've just got code for Yoku's Island Express, a platformer where you shunt your little bug character around the environment using pinball-style paddles. That's why Matthew is interested in it, but my only experience with pinball machines is putting money into them and then watching as every ball heads straight down the middle between my paddles. Instead, I'm in it for its green grass and upbeat island-paradise music. I just want to live inside a bright, jaunty platformer for a few hours.
John: John has been fired.
Katharine: I got suckered back in to Breath of the Wild this week after finally deciding to give its DLC a go after another few depressing days in Frostpunk, and holy moly what a game that still is. The Champion's Ballad story is quite different from what I was expecting, but it's been such a pleasure rediscovering that world, especially when nearly every DLC quest involves poring over its gorgeous map in order to find hidden chest and trial locations. I love me a good map, and Breath of the Wild's is one of the very best in all of games. It's also a good way of distracting myself from buying Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition for a third time, because as much as I love skewering hundreds of moblins with over-the-top spin attacks, I simply cannot justify getting it again after completing it on both the Wii U and 3DS. OR CAN I?
Matt: I'm looking forward to tucking into Omensight, an action adventure about preventing the end of the world by cracking a murder case, which you solve by manipulating characters based on your knowledge of that days events because you're a time traveller. If the game's half as fun to play as it is to describe, it should be a blast.
Also more God Of War.
Matthew: I'm still on Pillars of Eternity (the original), and imagine I will be for some time. You can't turn the corner in Defiance Bay without another NPC dumping a quest on you. I've spent so long hunting down lost loved ones and bashing up woodland creatures that I've lost the thread of the central quest line. Something involving hollow children? (This makes me think of hollow chocolate eggs, but I imagine that's a very different deal.) So I'll spend this weekend trying to get my adventure back on track. *spends next two days punching bears for pennies*
But you, dearest reader, what are you playing?