Gaming articles

The government won't protect your access to live service games
An attempt to protect gamers against publishers’ abrupt shuttering - or “sunsetting” - of live service games failed this week, after the government stated that there are “no plans to amend UK consumer law on disabling video games”. A petition that had passed the 10,000-signature threshold for parliamentary discussion was...
⚔️ Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 looks fantastic. Having watched some of the gameplay circulating online, it strikes me as what I thought a Bethesda RPG might look like by 2025 back when I was playing Oblivion. I don’t know when I’ll next have the time to put aside for such a sprawling adventure, but it’s certainly earned a place on my backlog for when I do.
🏁 Forza Horizon 5 is coming to PlayStation 5 this spring. Another Xbox crown jewel landing on Sony’s console raises some interesting questions about the future of the games industry. If all the studios Microsoft bought are too costly to run on Xbox sales alone and their games must be released more widely, what reason will be left to buy an Xbox to begin with?

GTA VI might get away with a $100 price tag, but your game can't
After a decade-long wait and with development costs reportedly stretching into the billions, it has long been rumoured that Rockstar might try to crank up the price of Grand Theft Auto VI when it launches. The standard price for games has already increased from £50 to £60 in recent years,...
🏯 Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been delayed again. The release date for Ubisoft’s controversial title has dropped to 20th March to allow extra time for polish. To appease fans, the developer released a video showing off the game’s parkour. However, the environments steal the show for me. I have little confidence in its story or gameplay, but I might well be tempted to explore the world once Shadows is fully patched and heavily discounted.

The Long Drive: A surreal road trip that's too weird to put down
It’s 2am, and I’m driving down an empty road in the middle of the desert. The pitch black night stretches out to the horizon, my car’s headlights and the stars providing the only illumination over the barren landscape. Suddenly, my engine dies and the lights cut out, plunging the scene...

The Precinct: 80s police simulation with a retrowave kick
The Precinct threatens to scratch an itch I didn’t realise I had. Playing Falling Tree Games’ upcoming title, I realised I’d always thought that the action-packed parts of Grand Theft Auto roleplay cops’ jobs looked quite fun, but that the amount of grinding and bureaucracy to navigate to get there...
☢️ Can you believe that Half-Life 2 is 20 years old already? Rather than cobbling together a typical anniversary edition to rake in the cash, Valve made an updated version of the game free on Steam to mark the occasion. They also released a two-hour YouTube documentary documenting its development, which is fascinating and nostalgic in equal measure.

Spy Drops attempts to revive PlayStation-era stealth action
Spy Drops wears its inspiration on its sleeve. In the words of its creator, Rainy Night Creations, the upcoming indie title promises “PlayStation generation, low-polygon 3D stealth action”, and its visual language so closely matches its muse that any screenshot could be mistaken for the original Metal Gear Solid. The...
🐈⬛ We’ve had another small glimpse of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. During a 90-minute session at the Tokyo Game Show, Kojima Productions showed off a few new cutscenes and an odd Instagram-esque photo mode. The clips got my hopes up that Sam will spend more time with a fleshed-out team on his latest journey, giving more character to a game that had a lot of interesting ideas but too many soulless holograms for my taste.