What We're Playing: The Sims 4 Dragon Age Edition

Two thousand developers, publishers, critics, and members of the press have signed their names to an open letter calling for the video game community to stop all the hate. A quiet Pax Prime 2014 still managed to light a fire in the indie camp. And certain gaming sites, like Kotaku, now feel that supporting indie game developers through Patreon is a conflict of interest.

What are you playing this weekend?

Russell Archey, staff writer, @NeoScyther
I have a trio of games that I'll be working on for reviews, the big one being Concursion, an interesting game on Steam that basically mashes up various genres of games, most of the time in the same stage. Imagine a game in which any given stage may start out as a platformer, then part way through turns into a Shinobi-style hack and slasher, then enters a Pac-Man-style maze where you're collecting dots to progress.  That's Concursion in a nutshell. The other two games are DeDeDe's Drum Dash Deluxe and Kirby Fighters Deluxe, standalone versions of the mini-games found in Kirby: Triple Deluxe. Interesting that Nintendo would release them on their own and expand them a bit, but the real question is if they're worth picking up on their own if you already have Kirby: Triple Deluxe.

Sean Colleli, staff writer, @scolleli
I've been slacking on my Dragon Age: Origins playthrough, so I'll be heading back to that and finishing the Broken Circle quest. I also might take some time to decompress and meditate in my Zen garden, otherwise known as Minecraft. I'll finish that floating space city one of these days.

Jeremy Duff, senior staff writer, @Duff3c
This weekend I am going to find time to fit in some Diablo 3, and maybe a little bit of Diablo 3, as well as some more Diablo 3. As you can see, I have quite a bit of an addiction on my hands and I can no longer criticize John for the amount of time he has put into the game. As a matter of fact, I am a bit jealous. The pursuit to construct the ultimate Holy Shotgun Crusader continues in the Duff household—that is, at least until the Destiny servers turn on. Then we head to the moon.

Travis Huinker, staff writer, @travishuinker
This weekend I'll be hopelessly addicted to playing recently released The Sims 4 in preparation for my review next week. In any spare time beyond that, I hope to play some Diablo 3 with John on PC.

Charles Husemann, editor-in-chief, @chusemann
MechWarrior Online has reclaimed its hold on my free time this week, and I'm starting the grind to level up a new trio of mechs. It's hard to believe how far the game has come this year, with the significant tweaks to the maps and the addition of the Clan mechs to the game. I'm still getting a feel for how to properly use my new toys, but they are a lot of fun and it adds another level of strategy to an outstanding game. Outside of that, I need to find time to wrap up my first game of CounterSpy. I just have one level to go on my first playthrough, but I need to go back through and lower the DEFCON levels a bit before attempting the final mission again. I'm also enjoying the fun of planning a wedding, which is a bit more fun than I thought it would be. It's fun to try and catch the venue owners up in whether they are serving children or if they are serving children.

Randy Kalista, staff writer, @RandyKalista
My four-year-old daughter has been playing the Viva Pinata demo over and over for months now, so I sprung for the full download. "I love you," I told her. "I love Viva Pinata," she told me back. How is it possible that game is eight years old? I'm also wrapping a review of pigeon-dating interactive novel, Hatoful Boyfriend. It has its moments, but I can't shake the feeling that it should be a lot weirder than it actually is. I'm also a dozen hours deep into the long-playing Dragon Age: Origins. I've caught up to where I left off the first time I played five years ago.

Jeff Kintner, staff writer, @JKTerrezas
I just need to get all of the vitriol and hatred that's going around out of my system. I think it might be time for a blast of cuteness from a world where even the things that are trying to kill you are cute and cuddly. I think I'm gonna ride this one out in my LittleBigPlanet 2 fallout shelter.