The start of the year is always a quiet one, with devs just getting back to work after the holiday, but stuff is beginning to happen again. That's good. I say as if, y'know, I didn't already have more games I want to play than I do time to play them.
What are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
Alice Bee
I have not entirely decided, but this weekend will be either the further surprising adventures of Ian in Hitman 3 or more Assassin's Creed Valhalla. So, the theme is going to be murder.
Alice0
I've started a new farm in Stardew Valley, but on mobile. This has me only playing a day or two at a time, rather than power through whole seasons. Quite a nice pace. Removed the urge to min-max too. Lots of my farm (the lake-y one, of course) is pretty pasture and woodland.
Colm
This weekend I will be mostly be murdering the same people over and over again in Hitman 3.
Ed
Yet again, I'm spending more time with Ian Hitman who has plenty of murders left to commit. Spelunky 2 also calls, but I'm genuinely frightened of the game. I just want to beat the first level, that's all I ask.
Graham
Hitman 3 is out, but I don't think I want to spend the money on it right now. This has been a good week for smaller, cheaper game releases though, between resource manager Dyson Sphere Program, the Zelda-like Ocean's Heart, and roguelite Skul: The Hero Slayer leaving early access. I will pick one of these on a whim and have a go.
Imogen
I've been playing some of the old PS2 Ratchet & Clank games recently after seeing them demolished in speedruns at AGDQ. I will not be trying to play them that fast, but I do want to see if I can earn all the skill points. Also I'll probably play some Minecraft, me and my pals made a house on an iceberg the other day next to some cute polar bears (!).
Jake
I've been messing around with Hitman 3 this week and would definitely like to finish it at the weekend. Part of me wants to go for the harder difficulty challenges, the rest wants to dress up as a cowboy and beat my enemies to death with a mop. We'll see where the mood takes me.
James
It's Hitman 3 weekend, baby. I've finally got my mitts on this one, and it's so flipping good. I squished someone in a grape crusher yesterday. I'm guiding Hitman 3 for the site, but it's one of those games that I can't stop playing in my free time either. What an absolute banger from my favourite bald barcode boy.
Katharine
I finished Assassin's Creed Valhalla earlier this week, and yet somehow my answer is still Assassin's Creed Valhalla? I might have completed the main story line, but there's still one more county on my to-do list before I've properly conquered the whole of England, as well as two more targets on my Order assassination list to bump off. It ain't over till it's over, as they say.
Nate
In a moment of fevered inspiration while recording the podcast this week, I bought and downloaded the entire Dishonored series, live on air. So I suppose I probably ought to follow through on that wild moment and play them, eh?
Ollie
I'm very interested in trying out the early access of Dyson Sphere Program, having heard it compared to Factorio and Satisfactory. I've no idea whether those comparisons have any merit, but I'm sure as hell gonna find out.
But you, dearest reader, what are you playing?
