What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 17th)

*deep breath* There was a Nintendo Direct this week! And it was chock-a-block full of games. But the big news is that we, at last, know the name (and release date) of Breath of the Wild’s follow-up. RIP The Sequel to… The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a lot less of a mouthful, to be honest. And that box art is… well, art.

Other Direct highlights include Pikmin 4 actually, really existing, a brand new Fire Emblem game with a toothpaste-haired protagonist, and Octopath Traveler II bringing more HD-2D goodness to the Switch.

Elsewhere, we broke down the new Zelda trailer in extreme detail and took a look back at Xenoblade Chronicles 3 developer Monolith Soft’s history with Nintendo, who just happens to be working on Tears of the Kingdom. But we also made time to review the MMO Pokémon-like Temtem, and we were pretty impressed!

Now, some of our wonderful writers have shared what their plans are for the weekend below and we would love to hear what you guys are up to in the comments below! Happy reading!

Gonçalo Lopes, reviewer

Remember when I left on vacation believing I would complete Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in said period of absence? The 100th hour is coming up on my save data and as far as I can tell I’m nowhere near the end.

Add a splice of SD Gundam Battle Alliance hectic combat and grind-heavy upgrades along with the sad realization I’m nowhere near as good as I remember at Radiant Silvergun and that’s my weekend sorted… Assuming I can stay away long enough from Splatoon 3, River City Saga Three Kingdoms and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R. 48 hours just isn’t enough.

Kate Gray, staff writer

I’ve just downloaded the Harvestella demo — I don’t usually bother with demos, but this one I think requires me trying it out for myself. I love farming-type games, but I’m not a massive fan of Square Enix JRPGs… they’re too long, and there are too many characters. Admittedly, so are farming games. But it’s different!!!

So far it seems nice but it’s been pretty much one long cutscene. I hope I get to do something soon. Also, is it just me, or is it almost exactly the plot of Bloodborne???

Ollie Reynolds, staff writer

With the recent gameplay demonstrations of Bayonetta 3 leaving me feeling a bit… well, deflated, for lack of a better word, I’ve gone back to Bayonetta 2 to try and get myself back in the mood again. I would go back to the first game, but I’m just not sure I’ll have the time to get through both of them before the end of October, so this will have to do. And yes, it’s still a masterpiece in action gameplay!

Elsewhere, I’m playing through Death Stranding on the PS5, with all those ‘Director’s Cut’ additions and whatnot. It’s a really good game to just chill out with when I want to wind down; walking across the beautiful terrain whilst listening to the glorious music of Low Roar definitely makes for some memorable moments. It took me a few attempts to really appreciate Death Stranding, but now I just can’t get enough of it.

Alana Hagues, staff writer

Blimey, what a Direct that was. At least for me anyway. I’ve got some work to get done this weekend, so there won’t be too much gaming for me. Because I think I need more RPGs and farming sims in my life, I’ll be snatching up the demos for Harvestella and Jack Move on Switch. But also, I won’t shut up about the new Theatrhythm game, Final Bar Line, so to satiate my appetite, I’m digging out my 3DS to play some Curtain Call!

Honestly, it’s probably going to be a heavy Final Fantasy weekend. I’ve been dragged back into Final Fantasy XIV on PS5 thanks to the ‘Call Back Campaign’ — so that’s any other free time I may have gone. Oh well. See you next week, folks!

Gavin Lane, editor

This weekend will be much like the last few for me: a struggle to squeeze any quality gaming time in at all! I’ve recently moved house and any free moment I get is spent surrounded by towers of still-not-unpacked boxes making me feel guilty for watching an episode of The Boys before bed instead of tidying things away.

I have managed to play one game a little bit over the past couple of weeks, and I’d love to be able to spend some more time with it – with an eye to reviewing it for you lovely people. Please, Touch The Artwork has been great company so far, a handheld-only puzzler with striking visuals and a brilliant sense of humour.

The premise is way too complex to explain in the space I’ve got here, but this video I was linked to a while back featuring the developer himself does a good job of introducing things.

Zion Grassl, senior video producer

I’ve had a problem of starting a slew of new games this summer but never committing to finishing them, but that changed this week! I managed to roll the credits on Attack of the Friday Monsters, Elite Beat Agents, Later Alligator and even Immortality on Xbox (don’t tell our bosses, please!) While I still have a few games on my docket to finish (I’m looking at you Death’s Door & Digimon Survive) I’m thinking it may be okay to start something new!

While the campaign for Splatoon 3 looks incredibly enticing, I’m thinking I’ve had this incredible urge to bust out my GameCube and play through something on my old school CRT tube TV! I did start up Metroid Prime earlier this week, and while I should realistically stick with it since I’ve never really played it before, another part of me wants to dive into the Master Quest disc I own for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time… the classics will always have a hold on me I swear. But now Tunic is coming to switch and Omori is collecting dust on my shelf! What do I do? Someone, please send help!

As ever, thank you for reading! Make sure to leave us a comment below with your weekend gaming plans!