Author: Oliver Mackenzie

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is one of the most visually stunning games of the year. Built on Epic’s Unreal Engine 5, the game takes place in an incredibly detailed and strikingly lit world, featuring outstanding character rendering. At least that’s how the game fares on Xbox Series X, so the question is how lower-specced…

Bethesda’s Starfield was generally a well-regarded RPG, but the game’s 30fps target on consoles was the subject of some controversy. The game’s massive scope arguably justified that 30fps refresh rate, with only high-end PCs capable of hitting 60fps and higher, but now Bethesda has changed course and opened the floodgates on Xbox Series X consoles…

Valve’s Steam Deck is a highly capable piece of kit, often reaching parity with last-gen consoles at ~720p, while more demanding current-gen efforts can prove quite playable as well – even including some of the top-end Unreal Engine 5 titles. The RDNA2 graphics hardware inside the Deck is even capable of ray tracing, though this…

Sea of Thieves stared off life as an Xbox exclusive, growing over time into a genuine hit with a large, committed community. Now, in an effort to increase its audience still futher, it’s become a key part of Microsoft’s multi-platform push. Yes, Rare’s pirate co-op title is headed to PlayStation 5, kicking off with…

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is shaping up to be one of the most visually exciting games of the year. Ninja Theory’s cinematic sequel should be making excellent use of Epic’s Unreal Engine 5, producing some truly stunning results. At the same time, a lot of early footage for the game has been brief, hard-to-follow,…

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a technically advanced title that is often quite stunning, packing some of the best lighting I’ve seen this generation – while the gameplay mechanics have attracted multiple plaudits. However, on the flipside, there’s no doubt that it’s also saddled with performance issues and configuration problems, producing an occasionally unsatisfactory experience…

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a highly anticipated open-world RPG and the most advanced RE Engine title we’ve seen to date. Beyond the excellent gameplay and concept, this game undeniably looks good, combining high-detail assets with beautiful lighting, but performance concerns are also widespread amongst reviewers and users alike. With that in mind, how have graphics…

It only lasted for a little while, but Insomniac Games gifted us a fascinating insight into the inner workings of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. The studio inadvertently released developer tools in version 1.002 of Spider-Man 2, enabling debug options and level selections that offered us a peek under the hood of one of the most…

The second part of the long-awaited Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy is finally here. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth releases today, an expansive RPG that is perhaps this year’s most significant PS5 console exclusive. We took a quick look at the first few hours in a piece last week, but with all embargo restrictions now removed,…

The original Final Fantasy 7 pushed technical boundaries on the PS1 and set new standards for storytelling within gaming. Its long-anticipated remake trilogy – starting with 2020’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake – is similarly ambitious, seeking to flesh out and rework the RPG on modern hardware. Due on February 29th, the middle part of…