What are we all playing this weekend?

Has E3 started? Maybe E3 has started. The games industry's marketing megablast unofficially begins earlier and runs longer every year, and if the announcement of Rage 2 in mid-May wasn't the start, Ubisoft confirming Assassin's Creed Odyssey after word of the game leaked via some promo tat surely was. Expect more leaks, teasers, rumours, and daftness as we lead up to the official start of the unofficial start with publishers' press conferences next weekend. It's a hectic time of year for me but ah, I do half-enjoy seeing what my brain does when it breaks over a seemingly endless week of ludicrous hours. Full of surprises, that skullful of slop.

What are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!

Alec: I'll be playing Vampyr, because Vampyr apparently lasts longer than six different realities' Lord of The Rings special editions, and somehow I have to write, by Monday, a review of a game that doesn't seem interested in ending until sometime next century. A little behind-the-scenes insight into THE CONSTANT STATE OF PANIC that is playing videogames for a living, there.

Alice: Now that The Defect is properly in Slay The Spire, I'll be zapping and ripping monsters with this lovely little murderwizbot. I'll also be showing my new Lada around GTA Online, a car so scrappy that even the most murderous of players pauses to stare and honk before shooting my face off. Oh, and you'll find me lobbing apples at strangers' faces on Sanhok.

Brendan: I'm not playing ANY videogames. They're AWFUL and I hate them. What kind of a sick medium would let you accrue thousands upon thousands of human souls, only to introduce you to a large man with two swords who wants to feed you to his pet dogs? It's a sick industry and I'm tired of it. I'm quitting. Right after I beat this Capra Demon.

Graham: I still need to put more time in to Yoku's Island Express so I can review it, so I will probably spend the weekend either playing that or feeling bad for not playing that. The rest of the time will be spent also in Game Maker, because I've got to make a prototype of a game. Some people even gave me money to do so - uh oh.

John: I'm really stuck on Moonlighter, so I imagine a bit more of that. Plus playing some more Raft with the boy. And then, if there's a spare moment, I want to get closer to the end of God Of War.

Katharine: Having finally struggled through to the end of Frostpunk this week, I'm in desperate need of a gaming pick-me-up that doesn't involve anyone freezing to death or dying from starvation. My prime candidate? The bright and cherry world of Grow Up, the sequel to Ubisoft Reflections' delightful Grow Home which I played earlier in the year after finishing the excellent but almost equally harrowing Zero Time Dilemma. If lovely little BUD can't warm my heart, nothing will.

Matt: I've got cults to simulate, Valkyries to slay, bunkers to punk and a time-bending murder mystery to solve that I never got round to starting.

Will I actually find time to play Cultist Simulator, finish God of War, get past the first few levels of Bunker Punks and actually begin Omensight? Almost certainly not, especially if I end up going to the UK Games Expo.

Matthew: I've just picked up The Silver Case (on sale now, folks!) so I'll probably give that a go. I used to be big into Suda51's games; they're not always mechanically satisfying, but at least there's something there to react to. He's been in decline since No More Heroes - settling for a role of zany studio figurehead over hands-on director - so I'm looking forward to dipping into one of this earlier works. I've got a real soft spot for Flower, Sun and Rain, the sort-of sequel to The Silver Case, but never understood it; I'm hoping this brings much needed clarity.

But you, dearest reader, what are you playing?