What Are You Playing This Weekend? (Christmas 2024 Edition)

Ollie Reynolds, Staff Writer

I never want to belittle the incredible achievement CD Projekt Red and Saber Interactive managed in porting The Witcher III to the Nintendo Switch, but when I recently booted it up for a fresh playthrough, I just couldn’t cope with the visuals. It was nice back in 2019, but not anymore. So I’m playing it on my Series X instead! Ah, much better…

I’m also playing through The Thing: Remastered on the PS5, which is a lovely, albeit slightly flawed take on the John Carpenter classic. Nightdive, as always, did an excellent job at beefing up the performance and visuals here.

What, no Switch..? Well, yes, I’m playing something for review, but more on that soon!

Jim Norman, Staff Writer

I’d like to think that this weekend will see me putting a few more hours into Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, maybe playing a few more games of Marvel Rivals with my pals and ticking off another island or two in Mario & Luigi: Brothership. But I’ll be heading back to my parent’s house for the holidays, so all that will be put aside in favour of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo Switch Sports and explaining the rules of Mario Party for the 100th time.

Ah, Christmas is almost here. Have a good one, folks!

Gavin Lane, Editor

So many games I’m looking forward to tucking into. Unicorn Overlord is the big one, with Nine Sols, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, and Loco Motive waiting in the wings. I got Braid: Anniversary Edition on sale a couple of weeks back, plus cute puzzler Railbound for 99 cents.

I also want to play some more Yakuza and dip into Arco. I hear the latter has some issues on Switch but a 30% discount tempted me. Have a fantastic week, everyone!

Alana Hagues, Deputy Editor

After beating Nine Sols, I’m in a bit of a gaming rut! I should go back to Trails through Daybreak, and I should start 1000xRESIST, but what have I done instead? Bounce around between Balatro, Tetris DX on NSO, and Bust A Move 4 on the PlayStation.

But I’ve just found out that Arco is on sale, and now I’m thinking about making my backlog even bigger before 2025 hits. Let’s just say it’s a little Christmas present to myself.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, everyone!

Kate Gray, Contributor

This weekend I am on a PLANE once more. I’ll be taking my Switch, my Steam Deck, and my iPad, which means I will have a fair amount of choice, but I feel like I should probably play Brothership, which I apparently pre-ordered a while ago and still haven’t got around to playing.

In reality, though, I will probably play a lot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and maybe some of the games I’m picking up in the Steam sale (Fields of Mistria, Void Stranger, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes). Or my backlog. Spoilers: it’s never my backlog…

Gonçalo Lopes, Contributor

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse… except me unpacking all my mini retro arcades, consoles and computers to display under the giant LCD set in the living room. It is the season for cosy retro gaming, and to ensure entertainment to both host and guests of all ages that will run by my humble abode this holiday season, I have reassembled all my minis not just as decoration but because I will surely spend the coming weeks revisiting classics on my SNES, Mega Drive and PC Engine minis. I do suspect the latest addition to the gang will be quite popular among folks of a certain age: The Spectrum continues to impress unaware folks who stumble upon it setup next to the A500 Mini.

My game of the week is still New Star GP, now competing in the 1990’s season championship. I also convinced my dad to pick up the PS4 version on his PS5 and I really, REALLY love to play this arcade racing gem with analogue triggers. Someone at Nintendo is taking notes for the next Switch Pro Ultra 2, right? There is absolutely no reason in this day and age not to take full advantage of analogue acceleration and braking on ‘Mario Kart 9’.

Happy holidays, folks! I’ll see you soonish after another complete playthrough of Secret of Mana on SNES (Santa is in it in case you don’t remember).

(PS: The developers reached out to me and assured that world ten is indeed the very last hurdle to conquer Abathor. Sequel please?)

That’s what we have planned for the weekend, but what about you? Let us know in the following poll which games you’re planning on booting up over the next couple of days.