What are we all playing this weekend?

Adam: I'm replaying Resident Evil 7 on Madhouse difficulty. I've become even fonder of the game since I finished it, accepting its flaws and enjoying how fantastically bloody and grotesque it is. I don't particularly think it needs to be any harder, but I'll be interested to see if making some of the unpleasantness even more unkillable increases the tension, or rather just the frustration of throwing bullets at baddies that don't give a damn how brave I am.

Alec: I'm going to break ranks and play Final Fantasy XV, as I stumbled across a reasonably-priced secondhand PS4 copy the other day. I have an uneven relationship with Final Fantasies to say the least, but the road trip element appeals enormously, and someone told me that it is reliably very silly indeed. I plan to go into it in that spirit, rather than taking it as seriously as I'm sure series fans do, and perhaps that way I can shrug off the series' least palatable tropes and just enjoy the drive. That is, if I ever get to play. It's been downloading the same patch for five hours now.

Alice: I'm wonkywristed again this weekend so I really shouldn't play anything but let's not pretend I won't be cranking Isaac. Now that I've bumped off most the new expansion's unlocks (beating Delirium as Lost and Keeper will be a chore but at least I've done Greedier) I'm settling happily into the new shape of Isaac. I might also have a crack at Infra, a first-person explore-o-puzzler about investigating damaged infrastructure. I picked it up yonks ago on sale then a recent update reminded me that oh! I should play that.

Brendan: [Brendan's absence note for the past few days says he "has gone to the beach" so I assume he's off drinking piña coladas and getting caught in the rain -ed.]

Graham: I have finally got round to starting on Hitman, 2016's now complete episodic murder simulator. I've only completed the opening fashion show mission so far and I'm still finding the 'opportunities' system heavy-handed in the way it routes you towards certain modes of assassination. I'm hoping that those to come offer a great illusion of creativity, even if I'm still only ever following paths laid out for me by the developers.

John: [Forever fired -ed.]

Philippa: This weekend I'll definitely be playing the next part of the Silver Tower campaign with the gaming group I have at the moment. I'm looking forward to it after a long hiatus due to Christmas and New Year things. In terms of digital things, I have a review or two in progress so I'm chipping away at a couple of games which haven't been released yet, but other than that there's nothing I'm especially excited to start right now. A bunch of games are having Lunar New Year events so I might dip into those to see how they measure up too.