What are we all playing this long weekend?

Alice Bee

My glasses have not arrived yet, which means I get terrible headaches whenever I read anything off a screen, and have done probably irreparable damage to my (already haggard) intestines with all the paracetamol I've been chugging. But if I'm able, I want to continue the playthrough of the Dragon Age series that I have started. I am currently still in act one of Origins. All the elves are American instead of Welsh.

Alice0

I'm coming up on the end of XCOM: Chimera Squad and still enjoying breaching and clearing. The research and training and healing and outreach are all chores but I still enjoy shouting BREACH BREACH BREACH then sending in a squad of superhuman murderers. Big fan of Blueblood now I've got him firing seventy poisoned pistol shots per turn.

Colm

Long weekends are brilliant, aren't they? They're especially good for playing meaty video games, like Gears Tactics. After dabbling last weekend, I've only scratched the surface on the teeny but still very large army men. This weekend I plan to spend a ridiculous amount of time shooting baddies from behind cover.

Dave

I'll likely be continuing my Murder By Numbers playthrough. I'm about halfway through the third case and while I'm still enjoying the game and its Picross puzzles, the music is getting a tad repetitive for my liking. There's also the usual Animal Crossing (I'm trying to get all the flowers) and Pokémon Go (I completed the first Throwback Challenges), but I might also try something new later during the weekend.

Graham

I want to get back this weekend to playing Gears Tactics, because I've enjoyed every second I've spent with it so far. The Geoscape was by far the worst thing about XCOM 2, and so a similarly robust tactics game that sheds that layer in favour of pure monster-pulping is welcome.

Imogen

Aside from a little more Dark Souls 3, I wanna take a bit of a break from games for the next couple days. I'm burnt out on all the usual stuff I play, and, uh, I've taken up whittling, so I'm gonna spend some time doing that. I'm making a spoon! I do not think it's going well.

Katharine

I feel like I'm getting into the meat of the FFVII Remake now, so I'll probably be continuing my quest into the heart of the Midgar's slums this weekend. There will no doubt be lots of Animal Crossing involved as well, and maybe a bit of Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun to prepare for next month's launch of Desperados III. That's if I can tear myself away from Gears Tactics, of course.

Matt

I've still hardly played any Gears Tactics. I think my brain has done that thing where because I had a tough time when I last booted it up, I can't launch it again without thinking about how draining that was. I'm convinced I'll get sucked in again if I can get myself to play for more than five minutes, though, because everybody keeps telling me how ace it is.

Matthew

I've switched from Gears Tactics to XCOM: Chimera Squad. I'm digging the close quarters setup as it feels like every encounter cuts straight to the exciting bit of XCOM tactics: all the parts are in play, you're trying to squeeze every advantage from the map and the character powers allow for the showing off that doesn't tend to happen until the later hours of XCOM proper. Plus there's a hero with a magnificently stretchy tongue. Ideal long weekend fodder.

Nate

This weekend, inevitably, there will be more Gears Tactics, but I'm gradually getting back into my groove with Age Of Empires 2, and I want to give Chimera Squad a proper try as well. Then of course, after quite a few requests about the Basement of Curiosity, I guess it's time to fire up Dwarf Fortress again...

Ollie

I feel pulled in so many different directions. It's occurred to me that Heat Signature was a really great game that I didn't spend enough time with. But if I spend my time on that, I'm cutting short my time with Old World, the really quite lovely new Civ-like from Civ IV lead designer Soren Johnson. And I also need to meet my quota of Valorant matches each day. And try out Jedi: Fallen Order's New Game+ mode. And Plants Vs. Zombies. I guess it's a good thing this weekend is a day longer than most.

Sin

I will be playing Elite Dangerous, in preparation for next week's Fleet Carrier beta. I'm not even that into massive ships, as I am too humble. In fact I am the most humble. But I'm curious to see what I can do with them, and whether it's possible to let people dock and then lock them in and crash into the sun while cackling madly. There are many reasons why I am not a space captain. Also I might continue my hobo squad adventures in Battle Brothers. They're doing surprisingly well.