What are we all playing this weekend?

A week of goodbyes. Vid bud Colm waved goodbye on Monday, and Friday was the final shift at the news face for longtime evening freelancer Lauren Morton. She leaves us to join cheery RPS fanzine PC Gamer and they'll be lucky to have her, as we were. Say goodbye, gang.

Alice Bee
I have not spent enough time chopping wood in New World so it's probably going to be that, isn't it, because chairs don't make themselves. But on the other, meatier hand there is the siren shriek of Back 4 Blood, which at least one friend (I have one) is desperate to play together. So we will see.

Alice0
I've just received my copy of Deep Wheel Orcadia, the new sci-fi novel from Josie Giles (who you might know from the Twine game Raik), so that's a lot of my sitting time spoken for. Beyond that, I need to make the most of weekend daytime with a long bike ride; cycling after work is stressful with sunset nearing 6pm. Plus Deus Ex: Mankind Divided because reasons.

Ed
After a long hiatus, Hollow Knight beckons. I'd also like to get better at rally sim WRC 10, to the point where I can skid around a course without taking a single tumble. A tough weekend ahead, then.

Hayden
After slaying endless amounts of zombies in Back 4 Blood this week, I'm ready to change things up a bit for the weekend. Hunting down a dictator and his cronies in Yara should be pretty different, right? No? Maybe I'll drop into Warzone and make the most of Verdansk before it potentially disappears forever in a few weeks' time. Oh, and I'll be watching Venom: Let There Be Carnage, of course!

Imogen
Gonna be on that zombie murderin' grind in Back 4 Blood with some pals. I'm really enjoying it! Left 4 Dead came out a little bit before my PC gaming time, so I haven't fallen into the trap of comparing them constantly, which is nice. I'm just having fun shooting zombos, you know?

James
I'm looking forward to playing Back 4 Blood with my eyes in their normal shape, and not perma-squinting for benchmarking purposes.

Katharine
My list of games I'd like to play has been growing longer every single day this week. I've heard incredible things about the action vania Unsighted, as well as the spooky Pikmin-esque Dap, but man, I also really want to try the Pokémon-like Monster Crown and Swery's incredibly wonky The Good Life as well. And I don't even have a full weekend to sample them all, as I'm off to London again today to see a play for the first time in forever. Honestly, my Steam Deck can't come soon enough...

Ollie
I've finally completed my mahoossive build in Valheim, so I finally have more time to actually go out and do some exploring and boss-fighting again. Aside from that (because I have been playing an awful lot of Valheim lately), I've dipped my toes into the woefully named Age Of Darkness: Final Stand, and I'm having a lot of fun with it so far. Although - and it's a strange thing to say when the inspiration is one of my favourite games in recent years, but - it might actually be a little too much like They Are Billions. Sure, there are hero units and day-night cycles, but everything else is near-enough identical. I can even use the same build orders for both games.

Rebecca
I had planned to play horror games throughout October, but I've got an errand that's going to take me into a city centre for the first time since early 2020, and honestly that's scary enough for one weekend. Fortunately I was just hoping for an excuse to hit pause on the spookiness and revisit Max Gentlemen Sexy Business, which this week saw the long-anticipated release of a free expansion.

But you, reader dear, what are you playing this weekend?