It's E3 next week, so we at PC gamer are stretching and limbering up for one of the most hectic weeks of the gaming year. Tom S, Tom F and Owen are prepping for a week on US time, and they've started drinking coffee and carrying handguns in order to get into the mindset.
This weekend, however, we'll be playing games. What games? These games.
Tom Hatfield - World of Tanks
I've been getting steadily obsessed with World of Tanks over the last couple of weeks, the deathmatch-but-in-tanks mechanic of the game proper is tremendous fun, and the complex nature of the tech tree has me completely absorbed.
This weekend I'll be hunting a Leopard, specifically a VK 1602 Leopard, fast, manouverable and with a decent gun, the it's considered one of the best scout tanks in the game. I'll have to farm a fair bit of money and xp in my humble Luchs, but if I can get in some solid playing time I'll have that lovely lovely Leopard by the time I get back to work on Monday.
The only problem is, the Leopard is a technological dead end, where do I go next tank heads? Do I climb the German Tank Destroyer tree and trade my Marder II for a Hetzer? Or do I push on up through the Russian Light and Medium tanks in search of the KV and it's hilariously massive gun. I could even check out what it's like to play as artillery.
Tom Francis - Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
I'm behind on my Frozen Synapse games, I have a bunch of interesting stuff I haven't played on my Steam list, and I still haven't touched Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. But this lunchtime I discovered just how good Aeon Tech 3 Missile Ships are, so that's my weekend shot.
Graham and I were playing against two of the hardest possible AIs, with an extra 30% build speed and resources for our enemies. We were both getting pounded, and the enemy had just landed a transport full of the toughest conventional assault bots in the game on my island. That's when my first missile ship finished, miles away. But it turns out 'miles away' does not translate to 'still alive a few seconds after a tech 3 missile ship finishes'. The first volley hit over the course of about ten seconds - the volleys are big - and ended in a white flash and a few hulks of wreckage.
I've been playing SupCom for four years, but I'm still discovering the joys of units I've never properly used, or new ways to use them.
Craig Pearson - Island Hopping
I'm in a mood for something pure. One-button game Island Hopping has that awful, terrible, clammy need to keep playing it, but without using any of my important brain CPU cycles.
You have no control over your speed, just the direction and when you jump. The challenge is to leap across the little islands, using your mouse to aim and jump. There are subtleties: the island are colour co-ordinated, and keeping to them pokes at the the little OCD part of my brain: I'd rather drown than break a chain of greens.
But what are you playing, PC gamers? Tell us while we still have the energy to read.
