Something for the Weekend News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

The sun’s out in my part of the world, so it’s shaping up to be a rather lovely holiday weekend. Is that going to be enough to lure you outside and hunt those pesky eggs tomorrow? Or will you stubbornly stay indoors?

If you’re a fan of motorsports, this weekend is a great time to see if the World Endurance Championship is for you. It’s the 6hrs of Spa today – starting at midday in the UK – with a now bustling field of Hypercar teams having to weave through the GT3 class competitors, and this iconic track will act as a prelude to the 24hrs Le Mans next month. I love seeing all these cars going flat out for hours at a time, the contrasting strategy calls and reactions to incidents.

It’s a double celebration this weekend, with Star Wars Day coinciding with the May Day bank holiday weekend and all the Jack in the Green shenanigans that are due to take place on Monday. Are you more likely to dress up like a Stormtrooper or a big anthropomorphic bush this weekend?

It looks like it’s going to be a lovely weekend, so I’ve got plans to head out into the garden and do some gardening. There will obviously be some gaming in the evening, but I’ve got to make the most of the weather! What are you getting up to this weekend?

It’s that rare part of the year for avid European Formula 1 fans where we’re faced with the decision of setting alarm clocks and getting up at awful time of the morning to watch the Australian Grand Prix. Given the absolute dominance of the sport that we’ve seen in the past 18 months, I was not in that number for Qualifying this morning, but then, what was that I spied in the replay a few hours later? The glimmers of an interesting race? Well, now I’m wondering if I really want to set my alarm for 4AM tomorrow…

The sun is out and shining in my part of the world, with a lovely spring day coinciding with the end of this year’s Six Nations. It feels like a foregone conclusion that Ireland will wrap things up against Scotland, but maybe I’m just trying to jinx them for a surprise final day turnaround that sees Scotland, France or England win it instead? Imagine the drama!

Is it just me, or did that week race on by? In video games, it was highlighted by the Xbox Partner Preview and Dune: Awakening’s reveal, but just in general the past five days have felt a tad quicker than usual. Maybe it is just me.

It’s been another brutal week in the video games industry. Sure, there’s been massive highlights like the launch of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, but the crushing wave of layoffs and redundancies that is sweeping across the games industry has hit Sony, EA, Deck Nine and more. The only glimmer of hope is seeing developers potentially being spun off into independence instead of closed down.

It’s been a strange week in the games industry’s big three. After far too much speculation and back-and-forth reports, Microsoft had their “business update” podcast that was about as restrained as you should have expected this whole saga to be. Then Sony suggested that the next year could be quite quiet from their first party studios (if you’re a sequel-liker, that is), and now there’s reports that the Switch 2 isn’t coming until 2025.

Things have kicked into gear as we move into February, and all eyes are on Microsoft ahead of their upcoming announcement on the future of Xbox. Whilst there’s plenty of rumours swirling about, we’ll just have to wait and see what Phil Spencer’s announcement holds next week.

The start to 2024 for those working in the games industry has been a difficult one, and this week has been no different with Microsoft making a huge number of people redundant across their gaming businesses.

It’s only a couple of days away from the big day, and if you’re like me you’ll be frantically buying last minute presents and attempting to master the art of wrapping. Or, are you one of the more organised ones that means you’re able to put your feet up this weekend and get some gaming in?

It’s been a great week in the gaming world; we kicked off with the trailer for GTA VI, and rounded things off with a whole bunch of announcements and trailers from this year’s Game Awards!

Between the temperature plummeting, the Black Friday sales being in full swing, and our friends across the pond celebrating Thanksgiving, it’s starting to feel a bit Christmassy!

This week, Rockstar managed to grab everyone’s attention with an announcement that the first look at GTA VI – technically “the next Grand Theft Auto” – will arrive in December. We already know that we’re returning to Vice City, but I’m sure there will be more than a few surprises when the trailer finally drops!

It’s been another miserable week weather-wise, and things haven’t been very cheery in the gaming industry either. This week saw a number of upcoming games being delayed, and the big release of Cities Skylines 2 was marred by performance issues.

Big, bad Babet has been battering the British Isles this week with wind and rain, which has made the decision to stay indoors and play games or watch sports, movies or Deep Space 9 clips on YouTube this weekend quite easy. That, and there’s a bunch of fantastic games that have come out this week, including Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 and plenty more.

It’s been a busy week in the gaming industry, with big game releases, a new PS5 and, after months of to-ing and fro-ing, Microsoft finally completed their acquisition of Activision Blizzard to the tune of $68.7 billion!

With the Ryder Cup on this weekend, I have the sudden urge to dust off my old Wii and practice my swing again in Wii Sports! Or maybe I’ll pick up one of the more modern golf games, what do you think?

After a few quiet weeks, things are picking up in the gaming industry as we move into the autumn. In fact, whisper it, but today marks 100 days until Christmas!

The Rugby World Cup kicked off in Paris last night, so watching rugby is sure to dominate most of my weekend in the absence of Formula 1. Of course, there’s also the Payday 3 open beta, which I might try to find the time to dabble with. What have you got planned for this sunny weekend?

Taking those first steps into September and the traditional glut of games that the autumn brings is always a bit daunting. The coming week sees two gigantic RPGs launching on consoles – Baldur’s Gate 3 on PS5 and Starfield on Xbox (but it’s really already out in early access) – and that’s just for starters, with the next three months absolutely rammed with big releases. And to think we’re still plugging away at the reams of Gamescom coverage!

It’s been a frantic, non-stop week of bouncing between games and preview sessions at Gamescom. Dom and I have both seen dozens of games in the space of a few days, and now have the tough task of trying to remember everything as we write up all the previews through the next couple weeks.

We’re now only a matter of days away from Gamescom’s Opening Night Live on Tuesday evening, and excitement is beginning to build. Are there any surprise announcements or reveals you’ve got your fingers crossed for?

F1 has reached its summer break, the Ashes are over and the weather has been decidedly unsummer-y, but on the bright side, Gamescom is now only a fortnight away, and Baldur’s Gate 3 just came out on PC!

It’s a slightly funny situation for sports fans to see cricket in England played in lovely sunshine, while there’s rain regularly sweeping through Spa-Francorchamps threatening the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. Only one of these events is living up to stereotypes this weekend, though the weather gods have chosen the correct sport to barrage with the wet stuff – F1 can actually handle a bit of rain, as proven by today’s Sprint qualifying and racing.

The school summer holidays, which means there’s plenty of free time for younger gamers and teachers to catch up on our gaming backlogs, but probably less time to think and game for parents, while the rest of us can carry on blissfully unaware. Depending on the side of fence you’re on, are you planning to make a dent in yours this weekend?