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What are we all playing this weekend?

Well?

Two people stare in delight at a cat sat on a desk, its paw reaching out to touch their face.
Image credit: The Silence of Dean Maitland

One bonus treat in all this beautiful weather is the experience of everyone on my road having their windows open. We're letting each other into our daily lives a little more, and I'm hearing and smelling things I've never smelled before. I may not know your name, downstairs neighbour, but by god I certainly know you use Lynx Africa. Lots of Lynx Africa. Honestly, about seven bodies' worth of Lynx Africa. Anyway, what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

Before we talk presentgames, hey, here are some futuregames we liked the look of at NotE3Watch on YouTube

Alice Bee
I started place Alice: Madness Returns last night and you know what? It's extremely "that one kid who works in the shop selling Nightmare Before Christmas notepads" - but it's also pretty good! I forgot how the weapons are mapped to different buttons, so while the combat camera is a bit bleh the fighting itself is deece. Also I like becoming teeny tiny at will.

Alice0
I had a grand old time with Brotato in early access, and I see the wave survival arena shooter just launched in full. I played an awful lot, up to winning on the highest difficulty with every character (and then some), so that'll do nicely for me.

Ed
Hopefully by this point I've recovered from notE3 jetlag, and I'll have time to sit down with some demos. As a Souls-liker I need to see whether Lies Of P strikes me as a Bloodborne imitator that won't be as good as Bloodborne, because it isn't Bloodborne. I also aim to dig into Final Fantasy 16's PS5 demo which I've spent only 30-minutes with. Seems cool! Nice menus.

Hayden
Once again, it's Magic prerelease weekend! My pal and I have committed to doing four events for the new Lord of the Rings set, which... well, I think it'll be a miracle if we actually make it through all four in this heat. I'd like to make an Orzhov (black-white) deck around the new Tempt the Ring mechanic, but we shall see what the booster draft gods give me.

Alien bugs encircle the player in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor.
Image credit: Ghost Ship Publishing / Rock Paper Shotgun

James
This weekend will be a weekend of playtests: I haven't been kicked out of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor yet, and there's another closed beta for The Finals that I've been waiting for since the last one. At some point I'll play something that's actually finished, but not until, I dunno, Monday.

Katharine
Now the onslaught of endless NotE3 streams has come to an end, I'll be diving back into Diablo IV to continue turning my Druid into a cool bear at every available opportunity. Then again, it's also my birthday this weekend, so some inevitable family entertaining will have to be done alongside it. And maybe I'll play some more Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom as a little birthday treat. Who can say?

Liam
I am playing something secret at the moment (that sounds more exciting than it probably is, but I'm enjoying it) so I can't really disclose what I'll be occupying myself with this weekend otherwise a man in a suit will abseil through my window and punch me in the head. I am playing a lot of We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie, though, so definitely a bit of that. Katamari is the only good video game.

Ollie
I've recently fallen back in love with The Cycle: Frontier, and I'm playing it whenever I have time. There's just no feeling quite like it. The atmosphere is extremely tense like other extraction shooters, but it isn't a dark tension like Hunt: Showdown or Escape From Tarkov. It's a rich, bright tension. The tension of watching the gigantic Howler fly overhead, searching for new prey. The tension of hearing footsteps next to you and realising it isn't your teammate. The tension of setting an uplink going and knowing that others will be able to hear your exploits from across half the map, and you have no choice but to stay there until the work is done. I'd almost forgotten how much I adore this game.

Rachel
This weekend I'm planning on finishing Killer Frequency as I'm enjoying its campy slasher vibes. If you like puzzle games with a dash of horror, I highly recommend giving it a go. You play as a late-night radio host who is trying to save people calling into the show from a rampaging murderer. Brings a new meaning to the graveyard shift doesn't it?

Rebecca
I try to keep my brand-new games confined to weeknights, in order that my weekends might be dedicated to tackling a years-long backlog. Yes, this is genuinely one of the ways I've tried to organise my life around this whole "monetising my hobbies" gig. Well, good job the new Layers Of Fear is technically not a brand-new game and therefore is totally legal to play on the weekend, right? Right?


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

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