Latest articles by Austin Wood
There was a predictable lack of Hollow Knight: Silksong at today's Nintendo Indie Direct, but one of the other best Metroidvania devs in the biz announced a new one, and it looks great
News Well Dweller goes right to the top of my wishlist
Legally distinct Final Fantasy 15, better known as the PlayStation-published anime action RPG Lost Soul Aside, has gone gold ahead of its PS5 and PC launch this month
News In case you forgot about this one
Beaver-collecting mastermind behind 13,000-hour MMO account suggests things got a bit out of hand: "I sort of realized it would be possible to do something unique and stupid and get the most beavers"
News The only goal is "more beavers"
2 years of Sekiro anime rumors suddenly look a lot more believable: a new web domain from FromSoftware owner Kadokawa points to "Sekiro-Anime"
News I pray Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice gets the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners treatment
The new Borderlands 4 Vault Hunter that I knew the least about suddenly looks like one of the most interesting characters, and I didn't expect him to remind me of the modern God of War games
News Axes, fire, ice, beard – I'm catching a vibe here
I was contacted by probably the best fisherman in World of Warcraft, if not any MMO ever, and I was not prepared for how deep the waters went: "It's literally been an almost 10-year battle"
News "Stardew Valley is the only [other] game I've gone insane in fishing"
The best stealth games you can sneak through right now
Best List Move like a shadow and strike down your foes in the best stealth games, from Hitman to Assassin's Creed
Stormgate, the RTS from ex-Starcraft and Warcraft devs, launches out of Steam Early Access with perfect balance, by which I mean with 50% positive user reviews: "We plan to be in active development for a long time"
News Stormgate's Necrolyte update introduces not-really-1.0 with the Ashes of Earth campaign
"Literally never seen this before in 120 hours": Elden Ring Nightreign player shares hidden castle treasure chests so handy I'm about to boot the game up just to loot them
News Elden Ring Nightreign players continue to remind me how hasty I am
$80 games have retreated for now, but analyst says the old $60 or $70 pricing model is dead in the "Wild West" of 2025: "I know a lot of people don't like it, but people still buy these games at these high price points"
News "There's going to be billions of eyes looking at everything Grand Theft Auto does next year, no matter what it is
After 5 million sales, dev of hit underwater Soulslike tells people to just pirate its new viral mounting climbing game Peak instead of wasting time and money on "microtransaction-riddled Roblox slop" ripoffs where you can buy a win
News Just play Peak
Analyst says "I expect a $100 price point" for GTA 6, estimates Rockstar's development cost is over $1.5 billion, and predicts it will earn "$10 billion lifetime and another $500 million annually from GTA Online"
News Let's hope some of that ends up being wrong
"Are you folks doing okay?" Larian asks the 350 Baldur's Gate 3 players responsible for one of the weirdest class choices I've ever seen in an RPG
News Minsc doesn't strike me as a Death Domain Cleric
With a new record 240,000 players online, Old School RuneScape is roughly 8x bigger than its sister MMO and would be the fourth-biggest game on all of Steam if not for a technicality
News Old School RuneScape enters its "golden omega platinum age"
Shadowheart is the most-respecced Baldur's Gate 3 companion and it's not even close: everyone knew to make her a Life or Death Domain Cleric, which Larian says "checks out"
News The Trickery Domain is for squares
"Most players have no idea" how much games cost to make and "everything's more expensive than people think," devs say, as indie hits like Balatro are "the exception"
Feature Dragon Age, Monster Train 2, and more devs reckon costs are misunderstood in game dev – sometimes on both sides
Elden Ring Nightreign's big new challenge is one of the most hated, polarizing bosses in FromSoftware history: "I wish it was longer and he traveled a full zip code away with every attack"
News Some people seem to like Everdark Augur, but its haters are tireless
Original Plants vs Zombies artists say nobody at EA contacted them about the new Replanted remake: "I'd be down to help with it... whatever, I guess"
News "Would've been happy to do those reworks myself"
Analyst says stumbles like Monster Hunter Wilds' PC fiasco are only getting uglier with intense competition: "A prominent streamer or YouTuber can single-handedly, by showing one screenshot, really impact what the perception of a game is"
News "Wilds is a very interesting case, because the fan base was so enthusiastic, so dedicated, so loyal, that they really showed up day one"
Someone actually did it: an Umamusume player got so into horse girls that they "bought a racehorse" for £6,000 a year, says she "mostly reminds me of Gold Ship"
News New horse co-owner Oxijinn says their horse Jax Belle is doing well
Battlefield 6 open beta starts next week, weekend dates and early access revealed – DICE says it's "the most content we've ever dropped in an open beta in Battlefield history"
News You've got three chances to play the Battlefield 6 open beta in August
Echoing Nier's Yoko Taro, Peak devs blast "puritan" group behind recent Steam and Itch game takedowns: "It'd be foolish to assume that any game is safe"
News "It threatens video games' ability to operate as art in any way whatsoever"
Square Enix hasn't abandoned turn-based JRPGs, but the creators of Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default have followed Final Fantasy with a new action RPG – still in the gorgeous HD-2D style
News The Adventures of Elliott: The Millennium Tales has a demo out today
Where Eric Barone used his indie bucks to buy a proper PC, creator of Stardew Valley-inspired hit Rusty's Retirement says he's got the same $1,000 rig after selling half a million copies: "We've literally done nothing else differently"
News How Jordan Morris of Mister Morris Games balances games as an art and business
