Well then, that was a busy week in games. Didn't it feel busy? Dead Cells left early access and is still great, Monster Hunter: World hit PC, a new Zachlike from Zachtronics entered early access, Wadjet Eye's Unavowed is out and great, QuakeCon is hopping, Overcooked 2 came out with more cracking party game antics, Madden NFL returned to PC after 11 years away, Football Manager fired Manager Man, Doom Eternal looks wild, Germany recognised games other than BioShock Infinite might potentially have artistic merit and eased up on banning swastikas, loads of great little games I've not fully had time to play and post about (I'm sorry; I will try to, or at least get others to) launched... it just felt busy, in a good way, for a random week in August.
What are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
Alec
Alec has been fired.
Alice O
I've snagged the Hunt: Showdown weekend trial to skulk around swamps shooting monsters and pretending to be a cowboy satan. Some of the lads are quite excited by the explode-o-rama of Plunkbat's Dodgebomb event mode too, so you might find me trying to bat grenades back at assailants with my pan.
But, truth be told, if I'm not off in a river or sea somewhere, I'll probably be on the streets of Kamurocho and Sotenbori in Yakuza 0. I still can't believe how many people need the help only a friendly neighbourhood wrestledad can provide. These are the dads games deserve, not those grim neckstabbers from Binfinite and Last Of Us and all that.
Brendan
Brendan has been fired.
Dave
I got really stuck into Monster Hunter: World this week as you can probably tell and this weekend looks like more of that is to come. Currently hot on the trail of a mysterious new monster with ???s by its name and it keeps shedding its scales all over the place. It's certainly an elusive swine, but I shall have it successfully researched and captured, for science!
Graham
This past week I decided to try out No Man's Sky for the first time since its first month of release. I chose 'Normal' mode for that chill exploration experience, spawned on a snow planet, and immediately started to freeze. I couldn't work out if this was causing me damage but it made the screen all blurry. I started firing my laser at some rocks, which didn't appear to be made of the material the UI told me I needed, but I gained that material after each rock was destroyed anyway. Destroying it, by the way, felt like nothing at all. The absence of gamefeel.
Then, after three rocks, the rock police showed up and started shooting at me. And to make sure I didn't get carried away with freezing, shooting at rocks, or being shot, my laser overheated.
With this wonderful first experience under my belt, I shall return this weekend but this time try creative mode.
John
John has been fired.
Katharine
I'm off to see some friends this weekend, so I'll mostly be catching up on some new Switch games I bought recently while I count down the minutes on my three-hour train ride. Cute puzzle platformer Semblance is top of my list, and I'll probably give this Hollow Knight lark a go too. If I get bored of those, I've always got some more Axiom Verge to plough through as well.
Matt
After a few days spent mainlining it, my interest in No Man's Sky is fizzling - but I'll probably go on one last wild space jaunt where I burn up my remaining warp fuel and visit as many new planets as I can. I will also punch some men in Yakuza 0 while fixing their absurd life problems.
Matthew
I'll be playing some We Happy Few. I thought the early access version was a big old mess of bad survival game and interactive cutscenes, but they've trimmed back the former and opened up the latter, giving it a much more pleasing shape. I wouldn't want to be the next NPC I meet, though, as I looted a vomit bomb at the end of my last play session and am now looking to unleash it on the general public. That'll be a weekend well spent.
But you, dearest reader, what are you playing?
