What Are We All Playing This Weekend?
Phantom Pain, Undertale, and literal Venice
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Merry weekend, one and all! May you have a wonderful Saturday, and a calm Boxing Day. Why, perhaps you'll even manage to get away from your friends, families, and loved ones after dinner to squeeze in a cheeky video game or two before you all wrap up and head out carolling! Here's what we'll be playing when we can sneak away:
Adam: Undertale. I think I'm near the end of my first playthrough and I'm already looking forward to starting again, partly because I'm curious as to what else there is to discover but mostly because I didn't realise how much freedom I had until I'd made several terrible mistakes. It's as well-written and funny as I'd heard, but also sinister and sad. The graphics might make you think you're in for a nostalgia-tickling series of in-jokes but that's not the case at all. While there are jokes and thoughts about RPG conventions, Undertale never leans too heavily on spoofing or tapping on the fourth wall. It's one of my favourite games released this year and I'm not even sure I've seen half of it yet.
Alec: I think I might finally have burned out on Metal Gear Solid V (and if I were an unreflective, vindictive idiot, this would be the point at which I charged onto Steam and wrote a damning review that was totally undermined by having '200 hours played' written at the top of it), so I'm ready for something else, and something very different. I'm half-tempted by SOMA but not sure I want to make my mood bleaker than it already is now Summer's over, so I suspect I'm more likely to end up looking at Undertale, which I'm hearing tons of great buzz about. Presuming I can get over my knee-jerk reaction to the faux-retro art, anyway.
Alice: Like Adam and Alec, I am also planning to venture into Undertale. The demo a while back was delightful, and I'm very keen to return to its funny and charming world. I'm slightly put off by knowing I'll want to replay it several times to see what changes, which is daft considering how much time I've spent - and will continue to spend - doing essentially the same in The Phantom Pain. I'm in Act 2 at the moment, still having a gay old time and reaching some wackier parts of the tech tree. Still having a blast. Still getting too into the Mother Baseville side of Deployments and Research and levelling up staff and whatnot. I want to make time for We Know the Devil too.
Graham: This weekend I shall be playing Phantom Pain, as per every other free moment for the last three weeks. For a change I'll also be playing FIFA 16, however. I'm not expecting it to be dramatically different from previous iterations - that hasn't been the case for the last five years - but I am looking forward to seeing where the balance falls this time around between attacking and defending. Last year was attacking-focused, so this year will almost inevitably swing back the other way.
John: [John has evidently decided not to tell poor old Alice what he's up to this weekend, which usually would mean I might say something snippy or sarcistic here, but instead I shall turn it over to you. Readers, what is John playing this weekend? The closest to the truth will win a much-coveted Marvel No-Prize I swiped from Stan Lee on the night bus. -ed.]
Philippa: What I'm playing at the weekend is trying to remember all my best jokes about venetian renaissance artworks so I can bring the lols while on holiday.
But you, dearest reader, what are you playing?