What we're playing this weekend

by: Chuck - posted: 9/13/2007 11:40:00 PM

Elliot Bonnie - Staff Writer/Fighting off the urge to join the SIXAXIS nation
This weekend I am busy trying to fight off the urge to purchase a PS3. Hopefully some Halo and beers can do the trick instead. I also want to check out the demo for FIFA 08. In between a bunch of football watching and these games I may head to the local Gamestop and see if they have a copy of Call of Juarez.

Sean Colleli - Staff Writer/Playing a NIN song
I've been playing a game I received to review (for once), a weird little shooter called You Are Empty.  It's set in 1950s Russia after some experiment went wrong, and crazy people are running around trying to kill you.  The gameplay is pretty standard, point, shoot, find exit, but the environments are phenomenal.   Cities,  buildings, even an opera  house are  presented in a very lonely, very realistic way that sets a great atmosphere.  The cutscenes are done very artistically too, like some kind of European animated art film.

Randy Kalista - Staff Writer/Wondering wherefore art thou
Sunday night has me locked into an Oregon Shakespeare Festival showing of Romeo & Juliet.  Don't laugh -- the OSF is freaking incredible.  But until then, I'll be chopping some woods and pumping some irons in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, spiking my hair in a flight with Project Sylpheed.  Alas, poor BioShock, you'll know my shelf.

Dan Keener - Staff Writer/Wondering what that red light on his forehead is
Looks like I will be getting into the Call of Duty 4 beta, orb Whoring in Crackdown and whatever else I may have time for.

Matt Mirkovich - Staff Writer/Taking a gun to his head for all the right reasons
Ok, so I've got close to 80 hours in Persona 3 and I'm at the end of the calender year, I think I'm close to the finish on this one, but then again I may go through again to complete all the social links. The crappy part about this? I'm playing on the press build, making my save incompatible with any other version. So if Persona 3 FES comes out, I am totally boned. YOU HEAR THAT ATLUS!? THAT'S DEDICATION HOLMES! (Not to be confused with levitation). Also I've got some Beatmania IIDX 13th Style DistorteD on the music games front. Along with some Heroes of Mana in my DS for when I am not training my brain (Review coming soon) and Soul Nomad: The World Eaters (Review also coming soon).

Shawn Sines - Staff Writer/Knee deep in poo monsters
Atrociously cute Akira Toriyama designs normally scare me (though Dragon Quest rocks) but I've been seduced by the old school charm of Blue Dragon. In many ways it feels like a hybrid mix of the Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior games of old and the Final Fantasy 16-bit games (FF VI and even a bit of FF VII actually). I'm 12 hours in and fighting walking piles of poo has still not lost its appeal. Despite the fact the bad guy is a purple septuagenarians called Nene I'm still playing. Only Two more DVD's to go till the end!

Rachel Steiner - Staff Writer/Cooking Queen
I’ve personally started playing Cooking Mama in order to bridge the gap between major releases that I expect to get in the next few months. This is the DS version, and the mini-games for the cooking are awesome. I love the idea behind the game and it’ll probably keep me busy for a bit.

Tyler Sager - Sr. Staff Writer/Titan of Armageddon
This weekend I'll still be fiddling around with Titan Quest, and I'll finally get around to taking a look at Armageddon Empires, a turn-based CCG-like game.  I may also dive into a quick game of Civilization IV, if the time permits.

Charles Husemann - Editor in Chief/Hunter- Killer
Now that I've finished Bioshock I'm going to switch over and try to bang through Heavenly Sword and maybe force myself to play more Lair.  Time pending I'll hunt down Dan in the Call of Duty 4 beta and play a litte CyberBall 2072.