What Are We All Playing This Weekend?

Adam: I'll be playing Caves of Qud, a traditional roguelike with loads of key bindings to remember, limbs to lop off and mutations to apply to your characters. I've made a scholar who can emit corrosive gases from his pores. During his first series of adventures, he melted a grizzly bear and killed dozens of baboons. The baboons started it by chucking rocks at him and the bear was already half-dead and covered in blood when he found it. No idea why. During character creation, I picked the Evil Twin option, which means there's a small chance that my scholar will meet a mirror image of himself bent on his destruction. Makes sense.

Alec: I want to be playing Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate in the wake of its GOG re-release, but EXCITING BUGS are currently preventing me from living a 40K-does-XCOM dream. Probably just as well, as this way it remains a pleasant dream rather than grimly antiquated reality. What I'm actually playing is... nothing. Nothing at all. I went to a conference this week and tried to 'network', as the big, loud boys call it, which meant I spent my spare time standing awkwardly in the corner of a noisy room and trying to say something insightful about monetisation, instead of in my natural and preferred state of slumping in front of some flashing pixels on my lonesome.

Alice: I moved to Edinburgh this week, sharing a flat with my friend (and RPS survivor) Cara Ellison. We're still waiting for our Internet hookup so multiplayer games are off the table but, really, I'm going to spend the weekend out and about anyway, getting to know my new home. I do enjoy a nice spot of aimless wandering. I suppose I am also playing the Sims-y game of decorating: I want my bedroom to contain little more than a huge bed, some cool art, a wardrobe, and a whole load of plants. It's all fun and games until someone dies in a corner.

Graham: I am "playing" Clicker Heroes. I'm not putting "playing" in scare quotes because I'm a snob who looks down their nose at idle games - though I am - but because I've just discovered that you continue to make progress across its various levels and stats and moneys even when the game isn't running. I don't even have to leave it on in the background to continue passively killing its monsters and earning their gold. This is another interesting puzzle piece to slot into my understanding of why people play the game, and also a slightly terrifying thought: if Clicker Heroes is being played even when it's not running, then how will I ever stop playing it? It cannot be escaped. Please copy and paste this paragraph into all future What Are You Playing This Weekend posts.

John: I shall hopefully be taking a look at Niko: Through the Dream, which just came out. Looks like it could go either way. A fascinating exploration of dream landscapes, or pretentious flap. Really hoping for the former.

I've also got a code for The Flame in the Flood, so if I can find a moment between nappies and naptimes, I'm very keen to give that a go after reading Alec's thoughts.

Philippa: This week I've been using Rocket League as a kind of videogame grouting. Every time I see a gap in my day or there's a space between playing other games I'll boot up Rocket League to fill it. I oscillate wildly between being terrible and being amazing so that probably works out at "average". I'll manage some spectacular chip from the halfway line or clear the ball with a fantastically timed biff before missing the easiest nudge in the universe and mistaking the ball on a billboard outside the stadium for the actual ball. Three dimensional game spaces are hard!