What are you playing this weekend?
It's starting to get spooky out there.
Halloween is almost here. It's a week and four days from now if you believe it. Where did the time go? It seems the older you get, the faster the year goes by. Kinda depressing.
For some of us, Halloween is a holiday, and still, we have yet to purchase a costume, candy for the neighborhood munchkins, or set out decorations. Honestly, we're feeling a bit ba-humbung about it this year. Maybe it's all the rain we have been getting, plus it's a bit colder than usual this time of year. Maybe our mood will change once the night of ghosts, goblins, and all things that go bump in the night rolls around.
Until our disposition changes, there are things that will help pass the time. Get together with friends, celebrate, take in a movie, some DIY, rest up, and play games.
This weekend, we're playing games that star cats, trying something we've had on our radar for years, solving murderous puzzles, and matching up jewels.
James Billcliffe, Guides Editor - Alan Wake Remastered
In this spookiest of seasons, I make a yearly resolution to play the one that got away.
I was a dedicated PlayStation player throughout my teenage years, and while the PS3 eventually shook out as the right choice, in the end, it was a rough end to the '00s for Sony. I've made my way through most of the stuff I missed in that generation, but one game I've always wanted to play but never managed to is Remedy's Alan Wake. I think I've bought or been given it three times? Once on Steam when I got a PC, once on the Epic Games Store, and now the remastered version via PS Plus.
People always say it has a Twin Peaks and X-Files vibe (two series I love), and Control (particularly the reworked PS5 version) is a brilliant game, so I've high hopes. But hopefully, not too high: this is an Xbox 360 game with nearly 15 years of jank under its belt, after all.
Jim Trinca, Video Producer - Cats on Duty, Bejewelled, Gems of War
This weekend, I'll be playing and replaying the Cats on Duty demo recently featured on Steam's Next Fest. It's a ridiculous blend of Match 3 gameplay and Plants vs Zombies style tower defence, except instead of plants, it's cats. So, you have a Bejewelled clone on one side of the screen on which you match gems to collect different colours of currency and on the other side, a Cats vs Zombies lane defence thing where you spend that currency on armed cats. Some shoot far but slow, and some shoot fast yet not very far, so you need to use the resources available to fend off a load of pixelated undead.
It's cute and funny, and it's got Match 3 gameplay in it as well as cats, and I love cats because I'm a millennial cliche, and I have a cat, and I like to hug her a lot. Also related to this, I've become obsessed with Gems of War recently, which is one of the few Puzzle Quest clones that didn't get ruined by the fact that it's against the law now to make a mobile game that isn't some sort of free-to-play slot machine nonsense.
I'll also play Puzzle Quest on Switch, because I like matching gems. I just really like matching gems, ok?
Kelsey Raynor, Guides Writer - Super Mario Bros. Wonder
My weekend is as unexciting as it usually is, with me mainly wanting to catch up on sleep for most of it. That said, I've some DIY to do that will keep me from sleeping too much. I've also got a copy of Super Mario Bros. Wonder sat behind me, waiting to be played, so I plan on sinking a good few hours into that if I've the time.
I've also been playing Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood lately, which I've mentioned before. It's also installed on my Switch and pretty great, so I'll likely switch between that and Mario once my DIY side quests are out of the way. I'll probably also kick back and relax with a drink because why not? I'll have earnt it!
Rebecca Jones, Guides Writer - Underground Blossom
I had vaguely planned some socialising this weekend, but it fell through, serendipitously even before the point where I decided to take a tumble down the stairs yesterday and rearrange the shape of my foot.
The silver lining is that I now have enough free time and reasons not to move around much this weekend to play something short and indie from start to finish. I'm a bit sad not to be seeing people, but happy to dedicate a couple of those unexpectedly free and immobile hours to Underground Blossom, the new Rusty Lake game released late last month.
A game taking the form of a surreal train journey where you solve logic puzzles to assemble the lifetime memories of a murdered woman wouldn't exactly be a hard sell for me, even if I wasn't already a massive fan of the Rusty Lake series. Will I understand the overarching story better after playing Game #17? 16 games' worth of prior experience says: "not without consulting smarter people than me over on the fan wiki" - but my heart says: "who cares? These games are awesome!"
Stephany Nunneley-Jackson, News Editor - Trying to decide
I have quite a busy few days ahead of me. After I finish up here on Saturday, I am going to the movies with my mother. What movie are we going to see? The Eras Tour. Yes. The Taylor Swift concert film. I have no idea how I got talked into this by my mother, but she rarely asks for anything and hasn't left the house much since my awesome step-father passed away last year. So, I suppose I can put aside my disinterest in everything Taylor Swift and do this for her. I just hope there aren't a bunch of Swifties screaming and singing along to the music the entire time, like at some screenings I've read about. I'll go mad.
When Sunday comes, I plan to do a few things around the house. That evening, the hubs and I will have dinner at this fancy Italian place we enjoy for our first wedding anniversary. We've been together half of our lives, so it may seem a bit strange to celebrate the day you had a big, expensive party for everyone, but any excuse to eat some of the best Italian food in the state is alright by me.
When Monday rolls around, I plan on doing a whole lotta nothing! There are three games on Steam I am itching to play, so I will probably grab one of them. I am trying to decide which one to purchase. There's the Early Access game Against the Storm that looks really cool, Mineko's Night Market, and Cattails: Wildwood Story. Now that I think about it, I will likely wait on Mineko's Night Market because it's coming to Game Pass on October 26. That's only a few days away, so it's probably best to hold out. I really enjoyed my time with the demo for Cattails: Wildwood Story during Steam Next Fest, and it's on sale for 10% off right now, so that's a possibility. Then again, as I said, Against the Storm looks really cool and has overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam despite being an early access game. So, I dunno. I'll probably end up with Cattails in the end.
Alright, that's us for the week. What are you up to this weekend?