What are we all playing this weekend?

Remember remember the fifth of November, when either we celebrate someone being stopped from bursting the king or we celebrate someone trying. Sometimes I'm still not sure which. My head says thwarting, my heart says attempting. You wrap up warm, keep your pets safe, and enjoy the shmup particle effects. But what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

Alice Bee
I'm going to play Alan Wake 2! I'm enjoying the little bit I've played so far, although I think it is genuinely hilarious that FBI agent Saga makes deductions by going to her Mind Place and this does not pause the game - meaning that canonically, and this is highlighted as a thing, other characters see her just stand still and look blank for however many minutes it takes you to faff about in her brain. Related to this: I think Alan Wake 2 is more self-aware about being ridiculous than Alan Wake was? Maybe?

Alice0
I also want to hang out with your man Al, just to see if he'll continue shouting my name. Ha ha you idiot, I was right there the whole time. Thirsty Suitors sounds good too.

Ed
This weekend I... don't think I'll have time to play anything. I'm off to London to see some pals and that's that, really. I don't have any games on my phone, nor do I plan to play anything on public transport. I'm one of those people who's content to bang on some headphones and sit/stand for hours, maybe have a little doze.

Edwin
This weekend I am finally, finally going to play some Alan Wake 2, after getting a bit overambitious with the settings and causing it to crash repeatedly. No ray-tracing for me, it seems. I'm also going to play the demo for Beyond Sunset, a cyberpunky DOOMalot, and maybe a bit of Starfield for the next and final chapter of my no-planets run.

James
Alan Wake 2 is good and all, but it quite forcefully makes me want more Control. Thus: I have paused it to replay Control. Sorry Alan, hang in there mate.

Jeremy
It's my wife's birthday on Sunday and her first in the UK after living abroad for several years, so it's likely that I'll be too busy this weekend to fire up any games. But if there is time, I'll probably mess around with Capcom Arcade Stadium on my Steam Deck, since I download all of the games in the classic 19XX shmup series a while back and they're perfect for handheld consumption. I was playing 1941: Counter Attack the last time I touched my Deck, and it'll be nice to engage in some ol' fashioned top-down bullet dodging action. Incidentally my 7-year-old nephew, who I'll be seeing this weekend, has recently been getting into planes and will probably bring his British Airways model to our house, which I'll use to re-enact my shooting escapades in person when nobody's looking.

Katharine
I'm all in on The Talos Principle 2 this weekend, as I'm, err, quite behind in getting our review sorted. Apologies folks! You can blame it all on Alan Wake.

Kiera
I've recently re-visited Dead Island 2 so I reckon I'll polish off the remaining side quests this weekend and gear up for the new Haus DLC. Dead Island 2 has received mixed responses, and understandably so, but I actually really enjoyed the main campaign. It's the sort of mindless game you can plunge a few hours into, slash up some zombies and then bow out again. No fuss, no stress. The new DLC looks slightly more horror-centric than the main game so I'm up for giving it a whirl. I've always felt that Dead Island is the games industry equivalent of a good popcorn flick, nothing ground-breaking but a fun way to kill a few hours, nonetheless.

Ollie
After encountering a persistent and rather game-breaking bug in the latest The Finals beta where I periodically can't shoot or aim down sights, I've turned once again to Hunt: Showdown. Man, people are so goddamn good at clicking on heads in this game. And I'm determined to be one of them. This time next year, I'll be a Hunt legend. You'll see. You'll all see.

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