wrup posts

With David Craddock and John Callaham out this weekend at QuakeCon, the rest of us are left to our own devices game-wise. Here's what we'll be playing this weekend. Be sure to let us know what games will be occupying your time!

• Rafe Brox: WoW, Supreme Commander / Forced Alliance, Dyson
• David Craddock: I'm covering QuakeCon, so.... nothing. Because when I get home on Sunday, I'll be writing QC-related features. Catch me next weekend!
• Kyle Horner: I'll be zapping everything in sight with tesla coil weapons in the Red Alert 3 beta!
• Steven Wong: I too will be playing the Red Alert 3 beta. Maybe some Team Fortress 2 if I can find the time.
• James Murff: I'm going to be played the Eegra Shindig games this weekend. Also gonna be relaxing with some Civilization IV. Someone I know just recently got hooked into one-turn fever through Civ Revolutions, so I have to show her the power of Civ 4.
• Krystalle Voecks: I'll be noodling around in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and EVE Online when I get the chance.

With E3 going on, it's possible that the Big Download staff has spent more time watching videos of upcoming games than playing current ones. But the weekend is finally here, and we're looking forward to getting some time that's hands-on instead of just eyes-on with our favorite hobby.

Lead blogger David Craddock will be taking a break from almost single-handedly holding the site together while John Callaham has been at E3 to play Final DOOM (a classic!) on his PC and Civilization Revolution on his Xbox 360. James Murff will be taking a break from his usual indie fare to play Team Fortress 2 and Company of Heroes with his buddies. When they're not around, he'll be laying the SMACdown with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Eli Shayotovich is going to be lopping off limbs in Age of Conan.

Lastly, I'm in the middle of moving halfway across the continent, and I had to ship my desktop via UPS ground, so only my notebook is gonna be accessible over the next few days. Therefore low spec games are the flavor of the weekend -- Sam & Max Episode 4 and Fallout. I'm also going to be playing a bit of Rule of Rose on the PS2 (well, technically PS3). But that's us. How about you? What aRe yoU Playing?

Ah, E3. The time of year when game writers go into overdrive. The next week ahead will involve long nights, lots of transcription, and spending quality time with the lovely and talented C₈H₁₀N₄O₂ -- caffeine. We here at Big Download will be no exception to this, and as such, we bring you the E3 roundup for WRUP; the "dude, where's my plane" edition.

Our fearless Managing Editor, Steven Wong suggested a networked game of Diablo II before we all jumped on planes this weekend, but several of us who still had packing to do just looked at him funny. As such, he's been hanging out in Civ4 and City of Heroes. John Callaham figured he'd take the "jump in, frag someone, jump out" route and opted for a little Team Fortress 2 to ease the stress. David Craddock was one of the people who thought Steven had a good idea, though and replied to Steven's request with "Is there any other game besides Diablo II? Yes - there's Diablo III. But that's not out yet. So I play Diablo II. Always. For long time."

On the writer side of the table, both Rafe Brox and Xav de Matos expressed plans to spend some time in WoW. Of course, Rafe said he'd also be playing with power tools, and Xav expressed the intent to play the "omg, get caught up on features" game, which this blogger certainly knows all too well and will be joining him in playing. James Murff is relaxing (not having to jump on a plane) with some zombie love in Survival Crisis Z. When he's not buried in brains, he'll be hopping between Team Fortress 2 and Dwarf Fortress. And of course, most of the crew will be playing the uber-leet Sleep Deprivation game. Luckily, we've all managed to beat that game several times over and we've memorized the content.

So, readers -- What aRe yoU Playing this next week? Will you play Sleep Deprivation with us and stay glued to the tubes for all the news, or will you instead kick back with your favorite game and relax?

While last week saw the team spending time in Mass Effect, this week finds the team split between the standby favorite of Team Fortress 2 and the new hotness that is GRID. With awesome action like GRID has, nobody can really blame them, though. Coming up hot on their heels was Armageddon Empires.

Our resident indie fiend, James Murff said he'll be spending this weekend playing Armageddon Empires, Team Fortress 2, and checking out Zombie Panic! Source. Kyle Horner is taking a chunk of his weekend off from PC gaming to dive into Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition -- but he assures us that he'll be planning everything on his laptop. When not rolling the bones, Kyle said he'll be relaxing in TF2 as well. Both David Craddock and Stephen Wong plan to spend most of their time tearing it up in GRID. Stephen noted that he'll probably also spend some time in Armageddon Empires, EverQuest II and will probably give Devil May Cry 4 another whirl if time allows. I'm on the road this weekend, so I'm limited to gaming on my laptop. Thus, I'll be spending time in EVE Online when I do actually manage some gaming. For this weekend, given all the great games out recently, What aRe yoU Playing?