What We're Playing

What you could play this weekend

And what we are playing
By Graham Smith
A unicorn, hands on his hips, in a 2D environment of grey blocks.

Gamescom took place this week, but that didn't stop people releasing new game after new game. I could have packed this list with triple the usual number, but I am but one frail and achy person, and so you get just three.

You can correct this failing yourself by letting us know what you're playing this weekend in the comments.

Blood Dungeon

A big wyrm, some satyrs, and a lil guy clinging to a wall as he shoots the wyrm.

I wrote about Blood Dungeon, the autoshooter from the maker of Nidhogg, back when the demo came out. I wrote about its manic beauty and its significance as a work of art by a creator who has refined their distinctive voice over decades of releases. I did not mention that the player is pooped out of a butt in the ceiling every time they return to the hub world. Now I have.

Folk Emerging

A close view of some hexy settlements and dense UI amid a sandy environment.

It's been a long while since I've fallen for a 4X game, and I suspect something smaller and more focussed might be my route back into the genre. Folk Emerging could be it. It's about leading nomadic tribes through the Stone Age, in which you must juggle family politics and deal with brand new inventions like subsistence farming and fire.

Star Wars Zero Company

The projected arc of a grenade and the damage area of effect upon some paused men and droids.

I feel so little for Star Wars these days, but I love turn-based tactics games. The genre feels a little quiet since all those challengers to XCOM's throne, like Lamplighters League, failed to capture much of an audience. Zero Company is also being made by some former XCOM developers. All of these things make it an enticing proposition. Will I play it? Probably not. But it's nice that it exists.

What we're playing

Graham: I've just returned from a week away, in which I played a little Alien Swarm, a little Blood Dungeon, and a handful of boardgames. This meant I had to surrender the Vholume review to Brendy (who nailed it), and means I now get to spend the weekend trying to beat him on the leaderboards.

Brendan: I made the possibly unwise decision to open the Vholume mapping guide and thought "I'll just do one little prototype to see how it works". I fear my entire weekend may now be lost to plopping shapes in Unreal and making brutalist racecourses. A first-person game with level editor tools in 2026? Maybe videogames are healing.

Jonty: It has been a while since I played anything XCOM-flavoured and after Gamescom I absolutely can't face anything remotely real-time so Star Wars: Zero Company looks ideal. I am mildly intrigued to see if my enthusiasm for Andor has unlocked any additional Star Wars fandom or whether I'll just tune the licence out in favour of getting cross about percentage chances to hit.

That's us, but what about you? Tell us what you're playing down below, in the internet's best and only comments section.

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What We're Playing
Graham Smith

Graham Smith

Graham is a former editorial director of Rock Paper Shotgun and editor-in-chief of PC Gamer. He has now been a games journalist for over twenty years, and retains a bottomless appetite for playing new games and tinkering with old ones.