What are we all playing this weekend?
Well?
I'm writing this on my last day at work before I get to go on my Christmas holidays. I'm going to take this opportunity to say something I've always wanted to, but never had the chance. I hate you, reader.
Only kidding! I mean, statistically speaking I probably wouldn't get on with all of you, but I actually really appreciate that you're taking the time to read this and check out what games we'll be playing this weekend. In fact, we'll probably play loads of games over our breaks, but we'll tell you about those later. Until I see you again, have a lovely time celebrating the end of the year, however you do it.
Alice Bee
I've gotten well into an early access god sim called WorldBox - God Simulator. You can do loads of weird shit in it: conjure aliens; drop a nuclear bomb; infect a single person and watch a zombie apocalypse play out. But what I most like is just dropping down some elves or orcs or dwarfs or humans somewhere and then leaving it running like a screensaver, to see what the AI does on its own. It models civilisations and kingdoms on top of different cultural regions. It's fascinating stuff.
Alice0
Alice0 is away.
Ed
Final Fantasy XIV or Final Fantasy XV, probably. Can't get enough of the fantasy right now and I can't remember what I was doing in either. Might even make a return to Valorant, as I've been craving some tactical FPS action lately.
Hayden
With a new dog in the family, I need a light game that I can hop into between bursts of puppy playtime. Something like Timberborn or Jurassic World Evolution 2 should fit the bill. Then again, I’ve wanted to try GTFO for a while and the recent 1.0 launch feels like the perfect excuse to give it a go. I’ll try a few runs while the pupper naps, but I’ll need to keep shrill screams and panicked yelps to a minimum. [Hayden does indeed now have a ludicrously small puppy; he has shown us pictures and said puppy is smaller than I believe science would accept as possible. - ed]
Imogen
This weekend I'm dressing up as an orc to play D&D. It's the end of a campaign I've been playing with pals for two years now, so we're being mega dorks and showing up in costume. When I get a spare moment I'll probably jump into some Inscryption to try out more of the new mini-expansion too. It's tough! But excellent.
James
Now it's on Game Pass I've been talked into playing Aliens: Fireteam Elite, which in fairness has proven pleasantly un-terrible so far. I've been playing a medic, whose idea of preventive medicine is to just buff up everyone's guns.
Katharine
I'm going to try and finish Unsighted, but I'm also tempted to hop back into Assassin's Creed Odyssey to play the new Eivor / Kassandra crossover missions. I've already played the Valhalla one, and it is literally everything I'd hoped for in terms of how those two characters would interact with each other. It's glorious stuff, so I hope the Odyssey one is just as good.
Ollie
Well, I'm off until January, so instead of talking about all the games I plan on playing over Christmas, I'll instead mention the one that's got me most excited, It's a party game of my brother's making, and we're planning to trial it with the family this weekend. Basically we all have to screenshot a single frame from a film that we all know, such that some but not all of the other players can guess the film. We'll borrow the scoring system from Dixit, which is where we got the whole "some but not all" idea from in the first place. I think it could be really good fun.
Rebecca
All being well, this weekend I'll be seeing my relatives for some responsible Christmas socialising. So, for once, shocking though it may be, video gaming will have to fit in around my real life plans rather than the other way around. That being said, I did specifically save Hercule Poirot: The First Cases until I could play it with my Dad, so you could argue that counts as a family festive activity.
What games do you have ready to play over the next few weeks? Is there one that you always play around this time of year for nostalgia's sake? Are you hoping to get something new as a present?