Latest articles by Austin Wood
Action RPG devs at The First Berserker: Khazan studio take on the ultimate final boss, capitalism, striking to protest alleged bonus bias for executives over the people who make the games
News Dungeon Fighter demands spill over
Umamusume players hold a digital funeral for Grass Wonder, the real, 30-year-old racehorse behind one of the game's beloved anime horse girls: "May you eat dandelions in heaven"
News Developer Cygames also "share our condolences"
Square Enix down ¥11 billion in game sales because it can only re-release Kingdom Hearts so often, but says don't worry boss, we've got some great JRPGs in the chamber
News More Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Octopath Traveler are on the way
A bunch of "nerds" are turning Risk of Rain and Diablo into a roguelike with a secret ingredient I'd never expect, and I can't get it out of my head
Feature A small Korean team's Shape of Dreams is shaping up to be a special kind of roguelike
Take-Two boss says good games are the new bad games: "Some of our competitors have realized maybe a little late in the day that consumers are not okay with okay"
News "Good is the new bad, great is the new great"
When your MMO's community is "practically forming a religion" based on a big crab, you just go with it: "Oh, the Gemstone Crab's taken another life. And it's funny"
News Mod Kieren says "it has been awesome to see the love the crab's gotten"
We can thank Valve and Team Fortress 2 for the best weapon in Crysis 3: Crytek lead says "I was playing a lot" of TF2 using the Sniper and his bow, and wanted a composite bow of his own
News Crysis 3's iconic bow is a distant ancestor of TF2
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
