TGIF: Gaming Trend’s Weekend Lineup

The holiday video games season has officially begun, and gamers can expect big new releases every week for the foreseeable future. This week Disney Interactive unleashed their cash-devouring monster, Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes 2.0, to the delight of children (and adults) everywhere. Next week, gamers will be torn between splitting their time severing orc heads and limbs in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, or burning cute villagers and innocent yoga teachers alive with Mario fireballs in Super Smash Bros for 3DS. We are in the thick of it, and the jungle only gets wilder from here. So strap on your Gunnars, power glove, or whatever else you think you might need to wade through this tangle of video game awesomeness, because we’re in for one hell of an adventure.

Josh Devlin, Reporter

I’m still playing Destiny. The need for more exotic and legendary loot has consumed me and I will not back down until I’ve been satisfied. I’m currently in the middle of an exoctic bounty, which strings together several arduous, but enjoyable, tasks for the player to do, so that they can get an awesome weapon. Mine is for a pulse rifle called Bad Juju, that looks like something straight out of the Mad Max universe, covered in leather straps and with a hawk skull attached to the front of it. But, even with the loot draw of Destiny, I will say the lack of differing quest content has me playing Destiny a little less each day. Sunday, my friends and I will be trying our hands and bullets at The Vault of Glass, so it’ll be fun to see if that rekindles my desire to keep playing.

Besides that I’m going to crack open Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes 2.0 on PS4. I’m a huge Disney buff, and of course I love Marvel, so this is a match made in heaven. My only gripe is that I’ll have to eat ramen noodles for three months so that I can feed my Infinity habit.

Ron Burke, Editor in Chief

I’m doing something odd for the biggest release window I’ve seen in my years in this business – I’m taking a small vacation.  The wife and I decided to take a long weekend in Vegas before the real deluge of crazy starts.  It’s a quick little six hour trip for us to get to Vegas.   That said, I’m bringing my gaming laptop as a movie player, and maybe…just maybe, there might be a game or two to play out of my backlog while I’m at it.

On the topic of Destiny, I’m glad they removed the cave exploit.  “Become Legendary” should not be reduced to “shoot at this exploit – look!  You are a legend!”  I’d rather earn my way up, regardless of the time needed.  What do you folks think?

Eric Van Allen, Editor

I’ve got several games on my plate currently, both for review and pleasure, but I’ve already lost a significant chunk of time to Endless Legend. The first night I booted it up, I lost four hours before I managed to stop hitting the End Turn button. This game isn’t exactly perfect; in fact, it has some big flaws. That still doesn’t keep me from succumbing to that Civ-esque “just one more turn” addiction.

Besides Endless Legend, I’ll also be playing a ton of Dota 2 this weekend. The new 6.82 patch has released, and pretty much everything has changed. Map adjustments, new runes, major hero rebalancing, itemization choices… I could lose myself in Dota 2 patch note theorycrafting. Oh, and League of Legends World Championships are on this weekend too. What a wonderful time of year for gaming!

What are you playing this weekend? Tell us in the comments below.