Weekend Warrior 9/2/11

Hey, it's the Labor Day weekend! It's a great time to go outside and...grill...and toss the ol' pigskin...and whatever else people do. Or, you could stay inside and play video games. Can you guess what we're doing?

Ben H: This weekend I plan on sitting back and relaxing with a horrible flu (thanks, PAX) and playing some games. I'm dead-set on wrapping up Bastion. I'm playing it on PC and am enjoying it quite a bit. While sitting on said PC I will most likely play several more hours of Age of Empires Online. The game feels like an RPG-esque sequel to Age of Mythology. My only real complaint is that I can't find anybody to play a multiplayer match with. I also with that they had a "stock" option in multiplayer just to completely level the playing field. I would also love to finish my first playthough of Link's Awakening. Hopefully I can build up the nerve to face the final dungeon. Oh, and I'll be playing a fair amount of Jetpack Joyride for the iPhone. The game does a sickeningly great job of capitalizing on human psychology, but I'll just play the role of Cypher eating the steak and enjoy myself. Have a good weekend!

Joe: I'm about halfway through El Shaddai (that is one weird game), and I'm hoping to plow through more over the holiday weekend. I'm also in the middle of replaying Mass Effect 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, so I'll probably log some time on those when I need a break. After all that, I think it's time to watch Rubber on Netflix.

Phil: I've been fighting an annoying bug that I picked up on my trip to Vegas this week, so I'm going to use that as a handy excuse to spend the majority of this three-day weekend locked inside and playing video games. Here's what's on the plate: I'm currently trying to finish a replay of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I'm about 20 hours in, which means...maybe half done? This game is even bigger than I remembered. I'm also around halfway done with Infamous 2, which I really would like to wrap up before the quickly approach flood of fall releases. If I magically happen to wrap up both of those gems, I've still got a copy of Alice: Madness Returns that I've been waiting to dig into. Between these games, I'll be working to finish watching Battlestar Galactica (I'm on season 4 finally!), playing Quarrel on iPad (which I'll tell you more about on Monday), and maybe taking a trip to the state fair on Labor Day if I'm feeling any better. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Dan: I’ll most likely be spending some time at the lake and working on weekend news for the site. Game-wise, I’m planning on some time with Dead Island, as well as the 3DS Ambassador NES games on the drive up to the lake. Thankfully, I already beat all the Mortal Kombat games in the Kollection. so I won’t have to deal with Kintaro’s uppercuts or Shao Kahn’s taunts for a while.

Tim: Once again I’ll be returning to Banoi island with my coworkers to thin out the undead outbreak there. I’ll also be ripping of heads and probably get upper-cutted into a spike pit in Mortal Kombat Arcade Trilogy on XBLA. I also plan to beat Braid and to maybe start From Dust. I’m also going to Ben Hanson’s cabin this weekend, so I may have to bust out my new 3DS Ambassador NES games.

Reiner: The extended Labor Day weekend should give me a chance to finish off a few games that have been put aside. The biggest one of these games is LA Noire. After that, I'll spend most of my time in Dead Island with Tim, and Game Informer's Jeff tandem. Other games that will be played are Driver: San Francisco, and Catherine. For those asking, I've enjoyed what I've played of Dead Island.

Jeff M: This weekend I plan on playing Dead Island with a couple of co-workers, including that no-good bum Jeff Cork. I suspect he’ll spend most of the time crying about how scary the zombies are, which means I’ll have to kill twice as many as I normally would, while cooing reassuring statements into my headset about how the zombies aren’t real and he’s not in any actual danger. That guy is the worst!

Jeff C: I was planning on playing Dead Island with some people who I thought were my friends. Now I'm not so sure. Aside from that, I'm planning on tearing up the streets of San Francisco in the new Driver game. Spoiler: It is fun. If I have any time left, I may soak up a pillow or two with my tears.