What are you playing this weekend?

The holidays are over, and it's time to get back to normal. Whatever normal is, really. What's normal for you may not be for someone else.

For instance: a normal day for me (of late anyway) is getting up early, grabbing a couple of handfuls of unsalted peanuts, and stepping outside to spread them onto a shiny plate. Then, I grab a caller out of my robe pocket and use it to hail the local pair of Crows to breakfast.

When we moved back to our hometown two years ago, one thing I noticed about the neighborhood in which I purchased our home was that it had at least three sets of Crow pairings. I became all giddy at the thought of corvids visiting my yard. You see, we lived on a large farm for 12 years before we had to move house, and while there was a multitude of birds of every species known to our region (even owls, hawks, and once a Bald Eagle), for some reason we never had any crows. Maybe one or two would pass through, but they never stayed long or came close to the house.

During our stint on the farm, I made friends with a pair of Blue Jays. Bribing them with cat food worked wonders and eventually, one of the jays became comfortable enough to take a piece of kibble right from my hand. Of course, the bird feeder helped bring the jays in, but they absolutely love dry cat food. So do raccoons, but I digress.

Missing my Blue Jays, I decided when we moved here that I would try to befriend the Crows. After failing to grab their attention after about a year, despite all the peanuts put out (squirrels love them too apparently), over the holidays, I purchased a Crow Caller and a plastic decoy for the birdbath. I have been using it every morning for the last week, and sure enough, the pair that rule my street have started to pay more attention to me.

Tomorrow, I am going to try to bribe them with scrambled eggs and cat food, and next time I cut the fat off our steaks, I will save it for them. Maybe then they will consider me a friend, start hanging around my yard, and eventually, do my bidding by spying on my enemies and robbing my neighbors of their hard-earned coin. Mwahahahaha!

Anyway, that's normal for me. I have no life. For the rest of us here at VG247, after gulping down plenty of spirits and eating too much food during the holiday festivities, it's back to playing video games. Not that we didn't play any over the holidays, because we did, it's just we're back to doing it "normally" instead of binging or playing sporadically.

Here's what we're playing this weekend:

Connor Makar, Staff Writer - Sunless Skies

I'm a little burnt out on games at the moment, but nonetheless I'll be spending some time playing some fun stuff this weekend. Most likely, some Sunless Skies which I've jumped back into recently. I'm also tempted to boot up League of Legends again, which is an awful idea, but hey, what the hell. Maybe I have the mental fortitude for it.

I'll also be reading through a book I got over Christmas, Jon Ronson's "Them". I know right, an actual physical book. Hopefully, I get through this funk soon, before some of the big games of this year come out!

Dom Peppiatt, Features Editor – Bloodborne

If you read my feature from earlier this week, it’ll be no surprise to you that I cleaving and tearing my way through Yharnam with a pistol in one hand and some sort of ludicrous broadsword-cum-epee in another. I am tinged with bloodlust, raving with madness, pulling apart wild beasts like they’re naught more than rotting meat and sinew. FromSoft has possessed me, granted me the knowledge of the old ones, and made me lethal. There’s no way I’m going to step back from the brink before everything and anything that’s been given life in this foul land has fallen to my greatsword.

And you know what I’m going to do after that? I’m going to play Dark Souls. I’ve never really played it – not properly – and the idea of stepping back into Lordran to soak up the doomed ambiance properly now that I’ve been afflicted with the FromSoft curse feels me with a giddy sense of masochistic joy. There’s a worldwide event kicking off this week that aims to bring lost souls back to the original Dark Souls, so I feel my timing is spot on. If you’re eager to remind yourself why this is one of the most influential games ever played, I look forward to seeing you on the ramparts, too.

James Billcliff, Guides Editor - Prey

I have played the opening of Prey (which is a very good set piece and almost worth playing the game for in and of itself) a grand total of four times. Once in a pre-release demo on PS4, again on PS4 when it was on PS Plus, then when I first bought in a Steam sale a couple of years ago, and now - hopefully for the final time - on the Steam Deck.

I love Arkane games and Bethesda-published RPGs, but for some reason I've never managed to stick with Prey past installing the first Neuromod. But now I've loaded it into the ultimate backlog-buster, the Steam Deck, maybe this is finally the time I'll get the most out of it.

With orange-jumpsuited Alien vibes out the wahzoo, and at least a visual similarity to the wrench-core combat of Bioshock, I still can't believe I've left it this long.

And that's us. What about you? What are you playing this weekend? Were you gifted a super cool game over the holidays, or did you take advantage of the myriad sales? Tell us all about it!