What We're Playing: Hearthstone Warface Edition

The Nintendo Game Boy turned 25 this week. Blizzard wants people to play together in real life during nationwide Hearthstone Fireside Gatherings. And now that China lifted its ban on video game consoles, how will Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo do against Chinese knockoffs like X-Game 360, PolyStation, and Chintendo?

What are you playing this weekend?

Russell Archey, staff writer, @NeoScyther
Now that I'm finally done with Cloudbuilt, life goes on. No really, that's the next game I'm reviewing: Life Goes On. It's an interesting concept. You simply get to a gold trophy at the end of each stage, but chances are you'll die along the way. In fact, that's the whole mechanic of the game: you sacrifice knights to help you reach your goal. It's kind of hard to explain without seeing it visually, so if you can find a video on YouTube, definitely give it a look. Outside of that I've been playing more Borderlands 2, going back and forth between DLC and the main story in True Vault Hunter Mode. I really hate stalkers. Actually, I despise the Wildlife Preserve itself. Thankfully, I'm done with that area.

Sean Cahill, staff writer, @GN_Punk
I'm locked back into Dark Souls II, but my attention will turn to MLB The Show 14 since baseball season is once again in swing, even though the Cubs are already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Nathan Carter, staff writer, @natedoggcata
I just picked up the Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection, so I guess now is as good a time as ever to start playing through all those games. My time with Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was limited, but I really gotta catch up on the series before Phantom Pain is released, hopefully next year. I've also been on a Resident Evil kick as of late, so I will most likely be playing through Resident Evil 1 through 3 on my PS Vita. Years later, these games still terrify me. It's a damn shame that developers these days just don't realize how to make a truly terrifying survival horror game.

Charles Husemann, editor-in-chief, @chusemann
I finally started playing Hearthstone this week, and I think that's what will occupy my time most of the weekend. I might also dig into South Park: The Stick of Truth, but only if the Ohio weather turns cold and rainy and I can't get out for yardwork and cycling.

Randy Kalista, staff writer, @RandyKalista
Warface first launched on PC in mainland China. Then it came out West, still on PC. Now its free-to-play first-person-shooting galleries are on Xbox 360. When you use the terms "free-to-play" and "on Xbox 360" in the same sentence, then you probably already guessed that means you need a gold membership. I'd shot up a few bad guys in the beta already, so I'll report for duty again and see what's what now that the game's shipped. Time to put on my Warface.

Dan Keener, staff writer, @zoboa
It looks like the Easter Bunny brought Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare for the Xbox One, and two shiny, new controllers for the Xbox 360. So I expect to get some quality time in the garden as well as on the track (Forza 5) on the One, and hit up Skyrim again on the 360.

Jeff Kintner, staff writer, @JKTerrezas
I'll be tackling the PC port of Dark Souls II for review this weekend. Thankfully, this one doesn't need a mod just to get up and running—but I'm still hoping for the return of the "Thanks, Obama" death screen.

Matt Mirkovich, staff writer, @Stillmywords
I got hit with a bit of a deluge of games this week. I've got Disney Magical World on 3DS, which is like Animal Crossing with visible objectives and non-skeezy Facebook game mechanics. Kirby: Triple Deluxe and Mario Golf: World Tour also showed up this week, and the new Kirby game has a stage with dubstep, instantly making it the greatest Kirby game of all time. All kidding aside, it is really great, and Mario Golf is a ton of infuriating fun (how do you eagle a par 4 at the 18th hole, Mario?). And then, to cap it all off, a review code for Daylight fell into my lap. It has been a long time since I've played a good horror game, so I'll be checking that out.

John Yan, senior hardware editor, @TheJohnYan
Since it's my son's birthday this weekend, I won't be doing as much gaming as I normally do, but I'll be playing Diablo III for a little bit and farming some items to get my character better. I'll probably be playing some NBA 2K14 with my son as well—provided he doesn't play as the Miami Heat again.