Weekend Playlist: what are you playing?

Games! Stop reading about them and go play them. Then come back here, tell us about them, and read about them some more. This is the cycle by which we all thrive.

It's nearly release season, cats, and more importantly the seasons are slowly grinding. Soon those of you in the northern hemisphere will have an excuse not to attend that BBQ, beach party or other healthy outdoor pursuit and instead stay inside playing the latest triple-A releases. Or indies. Or ancient classics. Who knows? That's why we ask you to tell us what you're playing.

As ever, we'll go first. Nobody emailed me this week to tell me what they were up to (because I forgot to ask them to) so some of this week's entries are based on guesswork and Internet stalking. You think you can hide from me, Team VG247, but you can't. Well, Sherif can. Stop that, Sherif. Matt is also absent due to being on holiday; according to his Twitter he's mainly reading and trying to hold his gut in while shirtless.

• League of Legends

  Pat has just discovered League of Legends in the same way white explorers "discover" things millions of people already live on, although he hasn't made any efforts to have it named after himself yet. As with Diablo, Torchlight and Hearthstone, his past obsessions, he seems to have no defences whatsoever to its compulsive siren song and isn't interested in anything else. Expect a sharp uptick in our LoL coverage. Are you watching the summer play-offs? I'm not.

• Destiny

  It's amazing Pat has time to take up something as life-sucking as LoL when we already have Destiny to chew on. After last week's Year Two reveal he and I both fell into frantic, excited gibbering and feel pretty resentful of everything releasing in the weeks after The Taken King. I went on a The 100 raid this weekend and had a no-show, but my favourite sherpa was online (ILU Synertwin) and helped us through. I love how willing so many talented players are to help others out, especially me. Crux of Crota, you will be mine.

• Dark Souls

  I'm betting Sherif played Dark Souls this weekend because that's generally a very safe bet. Our resident Souls expert has been reinvigorated by all the Dark Souls 3 hype, but really, who needs an excuse to have another go when there are so many different builds and challenges to tackle?

• Samurai Warriors 4

  I need to clear some room on my Hard Drive for Rock Band 4 so I figured I'd better finish off some games with large install footprints, so I - okay, no, I remembered it existed and now I don't want to do anything else. I can't believe how little of this game I managed before life and work intervened. There are so many people to mash square in front of whom I haven't mashed square in front of yet. So many cutscenes of men howling into the sky while cradling their dead lovers comrades in arms. So many stupidly overpowered weapon upgrades to collect.

• [EMBARGOED]

  I have put a lot of time into [EMBARGOED] recently and I can say that it's really [EMBARGOED]. I'm looking forward to [EMBARGOED] when I can tell you all about how [EMBARGOED] it [EMBARGOED] and when it [EMBARGOED] its [EMBARGOED] and how I went to [EMBARGOED] and saw that [EMBARGOED] but [EMBARGOED] [EMBARGOED] and then [EMBARGOED] [EMBARGOED] [EMBARGOED]. It's not Metal Gear Solid 5, by the way.

• Volume

  I didn't play Volume with a controller this weekend, but I played it non-stop in my head. I'm still stuck on a particular level, letting it churn around in my brain, hoping a solution presents itself. It's been several days now. I might give in and use a guide. I must know what happens next, you see.

So what about you? Recently I've noticed a bunch of people playing Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes, presumably in preparation for The Phantom Pain on September 1. There seems to be a lot of Hearthstone action at the moment, too. Is anybody still keen on Rocket League?