So, the Xbox One reveal is a thing that happened, but we’re here to talk about games that you can play right now. Defiance is free-to-play from May 23 (yesterday) until this Sunday, 1 PM (Pacific). SimCity is now up to version 4.0, and despite what John Yan is saying, probably none of us at Gaming Nexus is logging back in. And you Far Cry 3 map editors can now spin your VHS tracking knobs with Blood Dragon content.

What are you playing this weekend?

Russell Archey | staff writer | Twitter @neoscyther
I finally finished up with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Yes, you read that right. I finally finished the main quest in Skyrim--and boy did I overdo it. Full dragon plate armor, free destruction spells, the works. Well enough about that. This weekend I'm planning to enjoy an old classic thanks to Steam's Unreal Deal being only $10 until May 27, so I'll likely be playing something with the words "Unreal Tournament" in it somewhere.

Sean Cahill | staff writer | Twitter @seancahill2
Unfortunately with one hand fully bandaged, I'm going to have to play some old school role-playing games and nothing new, so I dusted off the Wii and plan on playing Final Fantasy VI a bit.

Nathan Carter | staff writer | Twitter @natedoggcata
It’s Memorial Day weekend, and that means all hands on deck where I work, so I won't be able to do much gaming. If I get time, I'll probably try to get some practice in with Injustice: Gods Among Us. Other than that, it will probably be quick games of Left 4 Dead 2 when I can. My regularly scheduled gaming will continue next week when I get my hands on Donkey Kong Country 3DS. 

Sean Colleli | staff writer
I'll be finishing up Resident Evil Revelations on Wii U. If Capcom keeps going like this, we might actually get the sequel to Resident Evil 4 that it deserved. After that, I'll be enjoying Super Metroid on the Wii U Virtual Console, and maybe some more System Shock 2 on Steam.

Jeremy Duff | senior staff writer | Twitter @duff3c
I will be spending my weekend finishing off FUSE before its launch, and boosting up my virtual card collection in Prime World Defenders. Between that and welcoming the true start of summer with the opening of the pool season, I should find a means of enjoying the extended weekend.

Charles Husemann | editor-in-chief | Twitter @chusemann
I'm going off into the woods for the weekend so it's going to be nothing but iPad games like Temple Run 2, Bookworm Heroes, and  Jetpack Joyride. I'll also be playing fun outdoor games like "Which kinds of snakes are poisonous again?" "No, I thought you packed that," and "WHAT WAS THAT NOISE? OH GOD, WHY DID I WATCH ALL THE FRIDAY THE 13TH MOVIES THE WEEK BEFORE SPENDING A WEEKEND IN A CABIN IN THE WOODS?"

Randy Kalista | staff writer | Twitter @randykalista
Hoping to lose a little sleep as I roam Among the Sleep's alpha. My own post-toddler (is that an age? "Post-toddler"?), well, she gets to trippin' in the middle of the night sometimes, images of her dream world leaking over into her real world. Good times. Checking out this horror game played from the perspective of a two-year-old is probably my worst idea ever. Love the game's title though. Among the Sleep. I mean, I guess that's where you'd eventually find yourself if you were told to "go to" sleep.

Mike Mahardy | staff writer | Twitter @mmahardy
I'll be finishing up FUSE for review, as well as the yearly playthrough of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night that always throws off my backlog schedule. Other than that, I'll keep playing Injustice: Gods Among Us, as it has me completely hooked. I particularly love Green Arrow and Lex.

• Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition coming to PC later this year
• Van Helsing begins his quest on Steam
• DLC and season pass is coming to Metro: Last Light
• EA Sports ignites next-gen sports on Xbox One
• New DLC available for Strike Suit Zero, plus all Strike Suit content 50% off on Steam

• Sony teases the PlayStation 4 a day ahead of the next Xbox reveal
• Kevin Conroy WON'T be voicing Batman in Arkham Origins
• Prepare for the finale of the Penny Arcade: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series with a free copy of Episode 3
• Love the Unreal games? How about five for only $10?
• New Splinter Cell: Blacklist trailer details cooperative stealth
• Xbox Live discounts dozens of new titles and add-ons until June 3
• Rain down fire in new Guncraft trailer
• First trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins and information about the Deathstroke pre-order pack.
• Now Loading for the week of May 20, 2013: Better Late Than Never Edition
• OUYA will be at E3 in a parking lot across the street
• The Last of Us will be available for digital download on launch day

GeoGuessr, a Google Experiment using Google Street View, has people getting lost and found all over the globe. Among the Sleep, an indie horror game played through the eyes of a two-year-old, went into open alpha on Tuesday, nabbing its $200,000 Kickstarter along the way. But with System Shock 2 hitting Steam this week, Gaming Nexus is gaming like it's 1999.

What are you playing this weekend?

Russell Archey | staff writer | Twitter @neoscyther
I got System Shock 2 last week and have enjoyed it so far, except for those stupid monkeys that my wrench never seem to hit, but that may be my own fault (and yes, I was crouching). As much as I try to take a break from it, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim keeps drawing me in.  The good news though is that I'm near 100 in smithing, which was my last goal before taking on the final set of quests, so hopefully I'll be able to finish this one up this week and can finally move onto something else.

Nathaniel Cohen | staff writer | Twitter @seven_hells
I'd never played System Shock 2, but now that I'm just about finished with it, I have to say that while I love the complexity of the gameplay, I miss the complexity of the story. I sort of expected System Shock 2 to have a BioShock-style story, but it's actually really bare bones, and the twist--even though I knew about it beforehand (doesn't everyone at this point?)--seems extra obvious. I would love a BioShock game with the stats and character building of System Shock 2. Also, I’m about to fire up Freespace 2 for the first time. Wish me luck, guys.

Sean Colleli | staff writer
I knew it would happen, but I'm completely sucked in by System Shock 2 again. It's great to finally have such a classic on Steam, and it reminds me why I was just a bit disappointed by all the BioShock games. Ken Levine seems more focused on making games with really complicated stories, instead of really complex gameplay, which is fine, but it's cool and a little sad that Irrational will never match the depth and terror of System Shock 2 again.

Jeremy Duff | senior staff writer | Twitter @duff3c
Things are finally slowing down for my game life this weekend. In addition to fitting in a few rounds of Injustice: Gods Among Us where I can, I will be getting my co-op on with Mike Mahardy in some FUSE.

Charles Husemann | editor in chief | Twitter @chusemann
My gameplay this weekend will be another edition of Farm Simulator: Suburban Edition as I finally get around to buying and planting new plants in my garden. Will probably work a bit on MechWarrior Online and resist the siren call of Metro: Last Light.

Randy Kalista | staff writer | Twitter @randykalista
Last week's dip into the Xbox Indie pool refreshed me, so I'm cannonballing back in. Zoning out on the clink of quarters jangling down the coin slot in Arcadecraft. Fighting my three-year-old for control of the gamepad on the Atari Breakout-like Wizorb. And nodding my head knowingly to DLC Quest which, despite being a couple years old, might still be the funniest commentary on modern gaming since.

Mike Mahardy | staff writer | Twitter @mmahardy
I'll be playing FUSE with Jeremy. Now that Metro: Last Light is out, I might replay a few of my favorite levels throughout the game between rounds of Injustice: Gods Among Us and Mass Effect 3 multiplayer.

• First printing of The Art of BioShock Infinite sold out in stores 
• EA getting rid of online passes. Good riddance!
• LOTRO: Treachery of the White Hand is live 
• Wolfenstein: New Order screenshots 
• NBA 2K14 takes to the court on October 1 
• PS3 and PC games now streaming on 360... via Twitch 
• EA opens up a new DICE studio specifically for Star Wars games 

• 32 Indie PC games on sale for the next 7 days
• 2K Games will release WWE 2K14 on October 29th
• New Killzone Mercenary trailer
• Now Loading for the week of May 13, 2013: Pay Your Fare Edition
• Resident Evil Revelations Dev Diary 3: Shock and Panic
• Relive Super Mario Bros. 2 this week
• Build your Deck ins Wargame Airland Battle

GameStop stops taking your PlayStation 2 as a trade-in next month, EVE Online shared its tenth birthday with Orson Welles, and EA just announced The Sims 4 for 2014. By the way, if you were to buy The Sims 3 plus all of its expansions right now, it would cost you $539.78.

What are you playing this weekend?

Russell Archey | staff writer | Twitter @neoscyther
I'll be spending more time with Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move. So far I'm kind of liking it as it doesn't control like the past games. In fact, it's kind of like Pipe Dream, of all things. It's a different way to play the series and requires a different strategy than the past games.

Sean Cahill | staff writer | Twitter @seancahill2
Now that my semester is over and I have a lot more free time outside of work, I'll be kicking Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen into high gear. I've been going back to Tomb Raider to try and knock that off the list (47 percent complete) so it can go on the completed stack. Outside of that, I might indulge in some World of Tanks while testing out a couple new mice and a headset.

Nathan Carter | staff writer | Twitter @natedoggcata
I’ll be putting in some more practice with Injustice: Gods Among Us. I started playing Hawkgirl who is now my anti-Solomon Grundy, Deathstroke and Aquaman spam weapon, and I have Green Arrow and Harley Quinn as my backups. I’ll probably be playing some more Zombie Tycoon 2, which is a really fun real-time strategy for consoles. I have never been a fan of RTS because, for me, it’s usually clicking a bunch of boxes that fill your screen and I have no idea what is going on. Zombie Tycoon 2 simplifies all that, and what you have is a very fun and addicting game. Finally, I am about two years late to the party but I actually picked up and started playing Dragon Age 2 which I really enjoy. Now, I never played the first game. Why does everyone hate Dragon Age 2 again? Doesn't seem like anything is wrong with it to me. 

Nathaniel Cohen | staff writer | Twitter @seven_hells
I'll be spending some relaxing time on Far Cry 3’s Rook Island, stabbing dudes, getting inked, and popping hallucinogenic substances. Other items on my to-do list include more Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, and spending some quality time with System Shock 2.

Sean Colleli | staff writer
I'm in full-on review mode for Zeno Clash II, so I'll be exploring the world of Zenozoik for the most part. I'm also wrapping up my reviews for all the cool tech Nyko released for the Wii U, so I'll be revisiting my modest Wii U library for some final testing.

Jeremy Duff | senior staff writer | Twitter @duff3c
Along with Mike, you can make that two for Metro: Last Light. I love this franchise so much. And Mike, the second one is just as lovely. I have a preview build on the debug Xbox 360 with the first couple of hours of the game on it. You're in for a treat.

Travis Huinker | staff writer | Twitter @travishuinker
I plan to spend some quality time with Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and hopefully set some time aside for playing the recently-released Neverwinter with John.

Charles Husemann | editor-in-chief | Twitter @chusemann
Another week a bunch more MechWarrior Online to play. I've gone whole hog with a long-range missile boat build and I'm working on tweaking it so that I can safely deliver the "rain of pain" from a distance without taking any direct fire.

Randy Kalista | staff writer | Twitter @randykalista
One of two things is about to happen. Either 1) I square away my EVE Online account and start turning Gaming Nexus into gameEVE nexONLINEus as far as coverage is concerned--John loves this idea--or 2) I flip through my recent shopping spree of Xbox Indie Games and start bashing them into my face one at a time: Snops Attack! Zombie Defense, qrth-phyl, Kodu Game Lab, radiangames Fluid, Arcadecraft, and Quiet, Please! I somehow managed to avoid the top 20 most downloaded, all of which have the word "miner" in the title.

Mike Mahardy | staff writer | Twitter @mmahardy
I'll be playing Metro: Last Light. Metro 2033 is one of my favorite shooters of this generation, so I can't wait to dig into 4A's sequel, especially since they have creative license to deviate from the book's story now. Other than that, I'll be putting more time into Injustice: Gods Among Us and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

The PS2 classics section of PSN just keeps getting better and better as Rockstar announced that two of their most underrated gems of the PS2 era are coming to the PSN soon.

Next week on May 14th, the gritty, stealth action game Manhunt from Rockstar games will be available for $9.99. 

I am extremely excited about this. Sure, Manhunt may be well known for its brutal and realistic violence but underneath that is one of the best stealth games I have ever played. I thought that it was very unique with the use of security cameras and a mad man forcing you to kill tons of enemies so he can film another snuff video to sell to you sick freaks out there. It was one of the first games I played where the violence actually made me sick to my stomach and that's what I loved about it. 

In even better news, one of the most underrated games of all time in my opinion, The Warriors will also be making its way to the PSN store at some point. No release date has been announced but Rockstar stated in their official news post that Manhunt "will also soon be joined by The Warriors - stay tuned, Boppers..."

 

• Diablo III patch 1.08 brings down real money auction house because of gold duping
• Dark Horse sells out of Dragon Age: The World of Thedas art book
• Two new images from Battlefield 4 released
• New World of Warships screenshots of New Mexico-class battleship
• NHL 14 Cover Vote continues. Take it to Twitter!
• First Injustice: Gods Among Us DLC character, Lobo, is now available
• The Showdown Effect receives free update
• Sealed play comes to Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014
• Bethesda big announcement is Fall--... A NEW WOLFENSTEIN!
• Van Helsing sets a course for 05/22/2013

5/3/2013

• Netherealm Studios makes it official. Batgirl is the next DLC character for Injustice: Gods Among Us
• Now Playing: Blood Dragon's Dogma Edition
• World of Tanks Blitz on Wargaming TV News Block
• Techland announce Hellraid
• May PS Plus goodies bringing some serious quality
• Tower Defense + CCGs = ...what?

5/5/2013

• Fuse Digital Comic explores character backgrounds
• Team up with Overstrike 9 on May 7
• Wii U Update is live

Beyond: Two Souls has a 2,000-page script but will only have 10 hours of gameplay. Activision's CEO is one of the highest-paid in America, while EA lopped off limbs left and right. But it's wasn’t all bad this week--Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon’s pulpy VHS shtick won hearts and minds, and critical darling Fez finally spun its way onto PC.

What are you playing this weekend?

Russell Archey | staff writer | Twitter @neoscyther
More than likely I'll be working on my next review piece, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move. It's been awhile since I've played a Mario vs. DK game, so I'm really looking forward to spending time with this one.

Sean Cahill | staff writer | Twitter @seancahill2
I'll be sitting down for some Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen on the 360 for the latest review piece. Outside of that, after beating BioShock Infinite in the past couple of days, I'll probably return to Tomb Raider to finally beat that and, perhaps, Far Cry 3.

Sean Colleli | staff writer
It's time to hit the indie Steam backlog, probably with some They Bleed Pixels. I might also pick up DLC Quest; my girlfriend tells me it's pretty funny. Then again, I might also get Mars: War Logs, Zeno Clash II, or of course Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Decisions, decisions.

Jeremy Duff | senior staff writer | Twitter @duff3c
This weekend I need to sink a bit of time into The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, which is shaping up to be way better than I expected. I might also have to dip my toes back into Soul Sacrifice because, well, those monsters aren't going to slay themselves.

Charles Husemann | editor-in-chief | Twitter @chusemann
This weekend will be spent working on Farm Simulator: Suburban Edition as I finally get around to cleaning up the garden areas in my backyard and start working on taming the yard. On a digital game front, I'm going to be spending time with MechWarrior Online as I continue level grinding on my next sets of mechs to elite status.  Time permitting, I'm going to try and progress a bit on BioShock Infinite and possibly even start a playthrough of Half-Life 2 as a recent HL2DM session has reignited my love of the game.

Randy Kalista | staff writer | Twitter @randykalista
My 14-day trial of EVE Online expired, so my character's early explorer/archaeology career is on ice indefinitely. They've done extensive work with the tutorials. It unlocked entire branches of gameplay too complicated to figure out on my own before. So now I need a pick-me-up. I would revisit The Walking Dead or Planescape: Torment but, ugh. Downers. Some Sacred Citadel beat 'em up action might do the trick. Jeremy and I co-op'd a bit, but it crashed as soon as we reached the first boss, some ancient, 'roided-up Treant.

Mike Mahardy | staff writer | Twitter @mmahardy
I've been getting back into nightly loot fests in Diablo III, so those will be punctuated by attempts to finally become a fighting game fan. I have a tendency to try out most new fighting games, but after trying Injustice: Gods Among Us at GDC, I think my love for the license will pull me through.

• New Fuse trailer tells a different side of the story
• Theater of War mode adds new angles and challenges to the Eastern Front
• Call Of Duty: Ghosts now available to pre order
• The hoard has arrived! Zombie Tycoon 2 now on Playstation Network
• New trailer confirms Call of Duty: Ghosts
• DUST 514 launches on 5/14

• Playstation debuts Beyond: Two Souls at Tribeca Film Festival
• This Watch Dogs trailer is out of control!
• Microsoft shows off more of their concept IllumiRoom
• Activision opens a teaser site for Call of Duty: Ghost
• New Mega Man Unlimited trailer released as the game goes Alpha
• NHL Cover Vote, Round Two and predictions for the Stanley Cup Finals.
• Want to join the Gaming Nexus team?
• Now Loading for the week of April 29, 2013: Give and Take Edition
• Is this new art for Rainbow Six Patriots?
• Game Dev Tycoon gives pirates a little taste of what they do