Alright! That's the first fortnight of notE3 finished and done. With E3 2020 cancelled by the pandemic and its organisers not putting an official online alternative, instead of a tight week of marketing events we have a months-long sprawl of events with different focuses (and amounts of focus). Bit weird. I miss E3. But enough about the future: have you seen all those great demos in the Steam Game Festival right now? So, so much to play.
What are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
Alice Bee
Alice is on holiday!
Alice0
I'm keen to finally get started cutting up spaceships in Hardspace: Shipbreaker. I'm running out of steam with Mass Effect Andromeda because it keeps on going and so many of the quests are so boring - then one will come along that makes me want to keep doing them. Could've done with 70% less stuff. And no crafting and scavenging. Just more of Ryder being a spacegoofus with the nice krogan grandpa.
Dave
Everything's just come along all at once. New Pokémon DLC, moving house, and Desperados 3! I'm going to be very busy with all three of these things over the next fortnight.
Graham
I've installed a bunch of the demos from the Steam summer fest, just like everyone else. My favourite so far is Trepang2, which is for people who feel nostalgic not for Quake and Doom but for early-'00s shooters like FEAR. Cinderblock corridors, spooky ghosts, a slide kick that sends men spinning, and a shotgun that splits them in two. Lovely.
Imogen
In my pure excitement about the new Ratchet And Clank game last weekend, I went back and completed the very first PS2 game twice this week. To save myself from a third playthrough (which I, uh, may have already started) I'm gonna play the second one instead, Going Commando (which was given the far more inferior title of Locked & Loaded in the UK). Also, PC games are a thing, so might play some Valorant. I'm very bad at it. If you see a Viper player who will not stop running while she's shooting, that's probably me. Sorry.
Katharine
When I'm not watching Matthew play the sad PS4 game, I'll be doing my best to chomp through as many Steam demos as I can this weekend. I've already sampled the delights of Inkle's Pendragon, Genesis Noir and Gestalt: Steam And Cinder, and I've also got Pull Stay, Ultrakill, KeyWe and Ghostrunner on my list, too.
Matt
I will be playing Desperados 3, for the brief spells where I can convince myself to disembark the Monster Train. Also Valorant, because my friends are nice and I like them.
Matthew
All aboard The Last Of Us 2 train. Apparently all the enemies have names now, and their pals shout them out in grief to make you feel extra grubby as you press triangle to murder. Going to be a jolly weekend.
Nate
I've gotten so into guzzling down demos from the Steam festival this week that I'm just going to carry on through the weekend, even though we've finished our best-of lists. I mean, there's just an inexhaustible hole full of free, short games. It's like something from a cool Irish folk story about a boy who wished for "too many games". My pick of the crop so far is dieselgrim WW1 mech RTS Iron Harvest, whose demo was so substantial I reckon it's good for hours more play, so that's Saturday morning, realistically.
Ollie
I'm writing this on Thursday evening rather than my usual Friday morning. Partially because Alice O always makes a note of who submitted their entry first, and recently Graham's been hogging all the praise. But mostly because I've just this minute finished the first proper mission in Desperados 3, and it's left me in no doubt that this game will consume my every waking moment this weekend.
Sin
I have taken to streaming Ostriv in the weekly post-work discord chats, and am now a person who looks forward to Friday nights. Going out is vastly better when you don't have to go out. After that, it could be any one of the hundreds of games from The Bundle, demos from the Steam fest, or I could finally play Across The Grooves. Let chaos and whim decide.
But you, dearest reader, what are you playing?
