What you could play this weekend

Earlier this week I tried to install Ace Combat 8, only to discover that I didn't have space for its 140GB girth on any of my three hard drives. This is a signal that I should play some of the games I've already got installed, many of which were downloaded months ago and never touched. So this weekend I shall be playing a lot of games for 15 minutes and then deleting them forever.

What about you? I humbly petition that this article's commenters are not sufficiently numerous. Tell us what you're playing down below, and then tell all your friends to do the same.

Dicevaders

I had some fun with StarVaders, a turn-based tactics game about buildcrafting against robot enemies that trundle onto a single-screen grid. Dicevaders is set in the same universe but injects dice into its name and systems, with all your build craft and tactical manipulation focused on adjusting your dice and their odds. Starvaders deserved more attention; hopefully Dicevaders gets it.

RetroSpace

There have been a handful of BioShock-inspired immersive sims this year, and I confess that a phrase like "disco-punk" makes me want to run a mile, but still this has plenty that's enticing in the trailers. Set on a spaceship that's been sucked into a black hole and overrun with monstrous gribblies, you have to choose between stealth or becoming a "mutant action hero" to survive.

Songs Of Glimmerwick

A long in-development life sim about attending a magic school, befriending your class mates, going fishing, and attending to your other cosy RPG tasks. 2026 has been overrun with post-Stardew games, including Moonlight Peaks and Fields Of Mistria, and there are signs people are starting to tire of museums, dungeons and the cruft of the genre. Glimmerwick isn't about farming and seems to have its own take on a similar vibe.

What we're playing

Graham: I needed something brainless with which to unwind this week and so I have been playing Sort Them Ducks, a first-person tidy-'em-up about placing rubber ducks back on shelves. I'm 2000 ducks in with another 2000 to go.

Jonty: It's been a long week and I can't conceive of anything complicated or emotionally taxing, so 20 More, Somehow Even Smaller, Mazes is about the limit of my ambitions. It'll be nice to stare at something that doesn't require me to send emails about it.

Brendan: I have succumbed to mindless farming of plants in Nivalis Nights. This goes against the primary joy of this game, which is to walk around doing nothing in a stunned state, eyes filling up with flashing pixel art adverts.

Well, don't the three of us tell quite the tale of mutual exhaustion, but what about you? Tell us what you're playing or uninstalling down below, in the internet's best and only comment section.