Author: Harvey Randall
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Square Enix’s new years resolution is to become ‘aggressive in applying AI’, and I’m very tired
After singing its fingers on the hot stove of NFTs, Square Enix has decided to go in for another cheeky touch with AI—as stated by the company’s new president Takashi Kiryu in a New Year’s letter to his employees. “I believe that generative AI has the potential not only to reshape what we create, but…
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Starfield enters 2024 with ‘Mostly Negative’ recent reviews on Steam
Starfield isn’t having the happiest of new years. Bethesda’s landmark RPG (one designed to be played for a long time) has “Mostly Negative” recent Steam reviews at the time of writing, with only 29% of reviews scored positive in the last 30 days. Its overall rating is still “Mixed”, with 64% positive reviews. There’s a…
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After 2023, I’ve had my fill of 100+ hour sprawling mega-games for a while
Games are big nowadays. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—it’s good to get value for your money. But the industry at-large has gone from having an identity Crysis over visual fidelity into wanting everything to be bigger, better, and forever. I’m left with a single question: is anybody else tired, dude? Some time in the…
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Best Shooter 2023: Remnant 2
A confident sequel that not only improves on every aspect of its predecessor, but takes huge strides forward in both looting and shooting, Remnant 2 was a huge surprise. For more awards, head to our Game of the Year 2023 page. Harvey Randall, Staff Writer: Remnant 2 came at a difficult time, landing in the…
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If you liked 2023’s soulslikes, you should go play Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice—because they’re all great tutorials to its unrivalled combat
Any soulslike game—usually characterised by a rigid checkpoint system, weighty combat, punishing deaths, and deep RPG customisation—is going to be compared to Dark Souls. It is what it is. Yet in 2023, something interesting happened. Four big soulslikes—Lords of the Fallen, Lies of P, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty—borrowed far more…
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Hi-Fi Rush is a tubular action game that turns the rhythm up to 11, and I couldn’t let 2023 go by without singing its praises
Personal Pick (Image credit: Future) In addition to our main Game of the Year Awards 2023, each member of the PC Gamer team is shining a spotlight on a game they loved this year. We’ll post new personal picks, alongside our main awards, throughout the rest of the month. 2023 has been an absolutely absurd year…
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‘This experience has been extremely distressing’: Insomniac shares a statement in response to catastrophic ransomware attack, including hopes for Wolverine’s future
Last week, reports began to emerge that Insomniac Games had been the victim of a ransomware attack that had seen details of an upcoming Wolverine game (as well as personal information of several developers) revealed to the public. Ransomware group Rhysida demanded that Insomniac give them roughly $2 million in BitCoin, or it would release…
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‘Every stone will not be turned for years’ says Baldur’s Gate 3’s principal narrative designer, on its many hidden outcomes
While Baldur’s Gate 3 is appreciably big in size—its three acts spanning a lot of square miles —its sheer largeness comes more from the amount of pieces on the board. A tool recently discovered that the thing has around 1,800 characters and over 110,000 lines of text. So when the game’s principal narrative designer Lawrence…
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Shares in Chinese gaming giants tumble as the CCP imposes strict new regulations and spending limits, alongside a ban on login bonuses and ‘luck-based draw features’ for minors
Regulators of the Chinese Communist Party have come down hard on several key pieces in the live service model, leading to spiralling shares for major players in the market as investors scramble to assess the damage. According to a Reuters report, “nearly $80 million in market value” has sloughed off Tencent Games and NetEase Games:…
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Five Nights at Freddy’s Roblox game debuts by accident because series’ creator ‘approved a skin’—devs say it was a beta, then nuke its Discord over unholy NSFW content
Five Nights at Freddy’s, a cultural gaming giant big enough to have its own movie (that was apparently Just Okay, according to critics) has come to Roblox—wait, hold on a second, it’s gone. Now it’s in beta? Oh, but the beta’s been “taken down for a few weeks.” Err. The whole thing was a comic…