What we are playing is a weekly column that appears each weekend. Various staff members let the world know what games had them hooked the past week and which ones they look forward to

John Laster – Finally off my Dungeon Defenders kick. Now it’s time to play through the best of fall retail; Skyrim, Saints Row 3, Modern Warfare 3, Assassins Creed: Revelations await me.

Perry Jackson – Haven’t really played much beyond some older retro games like Mega Man 3. But I did pick up Orcs Must Die! on sale and it’s so very good. Wish it had co-op though.

Nick DePetris – After two months, I finally managed to 1000/1000 Skyrim. I also managed to beat Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet and start working on L.A. Noire, but decided to take a break from those darker games with a trip down memory lane by playing The Maw.

Nick Santangelo – I got Deus Ex: Human Revolution for Christmas and finally popped it in a few days ago. I’m liking it, but I wish Adam Jensen’s voice actor wasn’t channeling Christian Bale’s Batman so much. If he tells somebody to “Swear to Sarif!” I’m out. Other than that, I snuck in a few rounds of Gears of War 3 and Halo: Reach.

Matt Liparota – With the market free of big releases for the moment, I’m taking time to play catch-up. Rayman Origins, the best game from 2011 that nobody played, has spent a lot of time in my Xbox and I’m still working my way through Skyward Sword on my Wii. And, whenever I catch a spare minute, I run through a level or two on Super Mario 3D Land.

John Drawdy – So far this week I have played quite a bit of Iron Brigade, finally getting acquainted with the survival mode. On top of that I have been making my way through AMY, make sure to check out my review on that.

Mark Seymour – Still hooked on Battlefield 3. Playing through Uncharted 3, Mario Kart 7 and Quarrel too, which just about rounds off my backlog of games from 2011. Hooray.

Nathan Bowring – I recently finished Batman: Arkham CIty, and all I can say is wow. I also picked up Orcs Must Die!, proving I have no skill at strategy, but it’s still incredibly fun.

Ryan Reynolds – I played a lot of Horde in Gears of War 3 with my friends this week. Additionally I just started Deathspank, but I haven’t made it very far yet.