PC News

Doom is probably one of the most influential titles of all time. Why? You had to be there. id created something that changed the course of video game history. It’d be a lie to say there was nothing else like it at the time, although it wouldn’t be too big an exaggeration. Wolfenstein – again from id – had come out the year before. But there was something that just clicked with Doom. It probably helped that it was eventually…

For a company most famous for its speedy mascot, Sega has been pretty backward about coming forward. Let’s face it, the glory days of Sega are far, far behind them. Gone are the genre-leading Dreamcast and Megadrive days. Instead, we’re left with a company not really pushing to its limit. Revivals of old IP – even the brilliant Sonic Mania and Streets of Rage 4 – are experiments outside of the main teams that develop these games. Besides that, we’re…

Re:verse – finally! It’s the third-person action shooter starring characters from the Resident Evil franchise – you know, the one we’ve all been asking for? Okay, it’s the weird multiplayer addition nobody ever even hinted at wanting, but get through the initial shock and maybe, just maybe, it won’t be as bad as all that. See, there’s one simple issue: hype. If this was some rubbish little tie-in that was just an extra option in Village, nobody would care. It’s…

Life of Fly features 12 short stories each revolving around the life and weird thoughts of another fly. Be prepared to experience some very unusual content, some interesting thoughts that go way beyond the normal life of a fly, and some entertaining short stories with a twist. Just the description of the game alone sounded weird enough to interest me. In this game as mentioned above, you take on the role of one of twelve different flies and take each…

There’s no doubt about it that competitive gaming is becoming bigger than many of us ever expected. The image of dusty school halls filled with overweight middle-aged men lugging CRT monitors about is now officially a thing of the past. Playing video games to a professional level is now cool and, hell, even women are getting involved. Take that, every 90s sit-com. The writing is on the wall. This is the future – whether we like it or not. Outlive…

No licensed music, characters that look nothing like their film counterparts and stories that only slightly resemble the source material – tie-in games used to be things of beauty. Alas, those days have gone. Development is harder than ever, taking years and years. Throwing together Hogwarts in six months is no longer an option. It’s more than a little depressing. There’s an entire generation of children who’ll never buy the worst video games just because they recognize the face of…

Loot boxes are just the latest solution to the “problem” of increasing profits within the gaming industry, but really they’re no solution at all. On paper, they’re perfect. Monetise optional extras which can be earned through hard work or, for a small number of whales, be purchased. Fair enough, right? But it’s pretty clear that in recent years, developers are pushing this system to the limit. Overwatch is the perfect example, where little tricks and annoyances have added up to…

Super Mario 64 is old. And that means those of us who played it at release are also old. That’s the most depressing takeaway from my revisiting it nearly 25 years later. The good news is that it’s still the precursor for pretty much every 3D game created since. Yes, it has been bettered technically in every imaginable way, but the heart and soul are still there to beat. When I think of gaming in the mid-to-late 90s, it still…

There are too many games to play, not enough time and every developer wants to create a sweeping open world with a million question marks to visit. Enough is enough. Open world is the forced stealth levels of the late 2010s/early 2020s. It’s the tower defence that we all got bored of in 10 minutes flat a decade ago. And yet, like that one cookie-cooker enemy that you fight in every single location of an open world game, it just…

How do you make old games even more of a good time? Well, for me, you add achievements. Call me a sucker, but those digital trophies are like crack. On one hand, it’s a good way of making sure you get the absolute most out of your purchases. On the other, it’s a guide to things you might’ve missed in a game you’re loving. I get they’re not for everybody. Neither is chocolate or music. I don’t get it, but…