What are we all playing this weekend?

With E3 finally out of my system (though I know our Brendy is still writing odds and ends about games he saw), Gamescom has jerked violently into my sphere of awareness. Slow down! We're fine. We're good. With over a month to go, I might even recover from E3's sleep loss in time. I like Gamescom, and not just because it's close to my timezone and focuses more on the weird PC games you'd expect at a German show - though obviously I am a sucker for job simulators. I feel we're so close to seeing another breakout hit like American Truck Simulator, though sadly Bus Simulator 18 hasn't quite proven to be that game (not that it's bad, mind).

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

Alec: Alec has been fired.

Alice B: This weekend I'm hoping to finish Youropa, which is a 3D platformer that I mentioned on this week's episode of the Electronic Wireless Show. You play a little concrete person with a big round head who has become stranded in the sky, along with chunks of Paris to walk around. Their feet stick to the ground even upside down and sideways, as long as the surface is continuous, but in my game I've just gotten the ability to jump, which has curiously made everything much more difficult...

Alice O: I completely forgot that I was saving up for one of those upcoming nightclubs in GTA Online and so blew so much money on a garage full of trash vehicles (all upgraded because... reasons?). Stylish, sure, but worthless for productivity. So it's back to the serious business of doing a virtual job for funsies while I'm not doing my real job. Maybe I can use my collection of family vehicles to lead camping expeditions for city slickers. Also, I shall of course get in the sea. The real sea. Had some cracking swims so far this summer. Picked up some gnarly barnacle wounds too.

Brendan: Brendan has been fired.

Dave: Dave has been fired.

Graham: I am a bad man and only managed to play one (1) hour of Yoku's Island Express last weekend, and none since, and so it's still that. It's a good videogame? If forever trying and failing to find time to review it is to be my hell, then it's a very pleasant hell.

John: I've got to go to a stupid boring wedding all day Saturday, so no games will be played even one bit. Weddings are the WORST. "Ooh look at me, I'm getting married, so everyone has to spend the whole day in uncomfortable clothes while it's 80 million degrees outside, even though getting married only takes a few minutes. Now wait around for 392 hours while we have our pictures taken." Sod off, weddings.

So I think I'll try to sulk as much of Sunday as I can by playing unreleased games for review purposes.

Katharine: With Octopath Traveller out now on Switch, I'll be rinsing through yet more Ni No Kuni II this weekend in a bid to try and get some more of it under my belt before I succumb to the pleasures of Acquire and the Bravely Default team's latest and greatest. I can only cope with one massive JRPG at a time these days, but man alive do I want to play Octopath real bad.

Matt: I've cast Final Fantasy 15 aside, partly because every sidequest seemed to involve collecting vegetables and partly because it kept crashing. I've been playing Pillars Of Eternity II: Deadfire instead, and having a much grander time making pirates explode with booby-trapped harpsichords.

Well, one of them. Maybe more will meet their musical ends over the weekend.

Matthew: Matthew has been fired.

Nöa: Nöa has been fired.

But you, dearest reader, what are you playing?