What Are We/You Playing This Weekend?

Alec: I've been quietly getting on with Arkham Knight, as I've been a minor winner in the performance lottery. It’s a compelling and generous batsim alright, but I'm not entirely in love with it yet. I can see that those bally Batmobile puzzle challenges are deviously clever pieces of work, but I hate them almost as much as I hate myself for being awful at them. I'd kill for a "just admit the Riddler is smarter than you and maybe then he'll leave you the hell alone" button.

Alice: With The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth's expansion drawing nearer, I'm trying to clean up a few unlocks from the base game. Mostly I'm looking into cheesing my way to unlocking its secret character, The Lost. It was meant to be discovered by the community following weird clues and discussing hints together, but someone peered into the data files to discover you need to die in a series of very specific, tedious ways. All this to unlock a character who dies in one hit. Looks like it can be cheesed a little, but is still a nuisance. Also, I'm playing Dive Down to Reach the Mud at the Bottom of Kenwood Ladies' Pond. I think I'm coming close to winning.

Graham: I've spent the week playing procedural detective sim Black Closet, as a petulant response to all the people telling me to play Her Story. It's by the folks who made Long Live The Queen, and it takes that game's approach to art and narrative and combines it with crimes - or rather, scandals at an all-girls school for the world's wealthy elite - that are different every time you play. That stops Long Live The Queen's awkward collapse into trial-and-error progression, and despite the strange theme, it offers the satisfaction of being a police chief as you order minions to harass, question, stalk and detain your classmates in the pursuit of the truth.

Philippa: This week has been all about Batman: Arkham Knight for me, swishing and flapping about while my forays into the comics get rewarded with references and callbacks. I've also had to make room for a couple of evenings of Dota because four industry colleagues and I are sneaking in some practice sessions for an upcoming tournament (The Rektreational). Oh, and I don't care that this is a PC specialist site. I'm *still* in love with Destiny. Iron Banana is doing my head in at the moment - it's all Thorn scum and lag. GROSS.