Latest articles by Ali Jones
Assassin's Creed Shadows' new DLC weapon transforms Naoe into a samurai-bashing machine, and I'll never use anything else
Now Playing Now Playing | Consider this your PSA to use Naoe's Bo at all times
"You have to design with the time you have": Assassin's Creed Shadows Claws of Awaji had to be a tighter, more focused expansion than anything its devs had made before
Interview Interview | Ubisoft Bordeaux explains how it brought Awaji to life
Assassin's Creed Shadows' expansion has a Metal Gear Solid-inspired boss fight that officially made me the best assassin in Awaji
Now Playing Now Playing | Nowaki has many of the same stealth tricks we do
Claws of Awaji is an ambitious expansion that hides a little too much of its shine behind Assassin's Creed Shadows' familiarity
Hands-on Hands-on | Assassin's Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji doesn't just add more story, with unique mechanics making this a dense and detailed new chapter
The new D&D Starter Set solves problems I didn't even know I had, and overcomes some of the game's most daunting systems
News I'm a D&D purist, but the new Dungeons & Dragons Starter Kit offers improvements for experts and newcomers alike
007 First Light devs went through "all the source material" to create their James Bond and really nail his "Bondliness," but without doing "a retelling"
News Stop getting Bond wrong! I'll tell you about The Spy Who Loved Me.
007 First Light contains some of "the largest" missions Hitman developer IO Interactive has "ever done" before, which could make it one of the studio's biggest games yet
News After a "calm, story-driven introduction," fans can explore "larger areas"
007 First Light's James Bond is "certainly handsome" but "he isn't a Ken doll," says IO Interactive: "The human aspect of him is something we were really trying hard to give you"
News Bond's "charm and his prowess really carry the character"
007 First Light is "not a reskin" of Hitman, IO Interactive says again, and the team brought in "amazing fresh talent" including devs with "specific driving expertise" to help build car missions
News It's "about the game first," IO says
007 First Light is more than just Hitman: James Bond edition, and I'm over any fears I might have had that IO couldn't deliver
Preview Gamescom 2025 | IO Interactive is reaching beyond its known quantities, but it looks to be paying off
For the Hitman devs, 007: First Light felt like "coming home" because James Bond has been an "inspiration" for so long
News 007: First Light "encompasses everything you would expect from the Bond experience"
Ghostrunner devs abandon parkour for Valor Mortis, a first-person soulslike that might explain why the rest of the genre follows Dark Souls' lead
Hands-on Gamescom 2025 | One More Level treads brand new ground
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is set in "a much more immersive city than we were ever able to do before" thanks to the tech built for The Skywalker Saga
News "We have new opportunities because of new technology"
Beyond These Stars is the weirdest city-builder I've ever seen, thanks to a giant space whale that can go rogue if it gets too hungry
Hands-on Gamescom | This city-builder doubles as an intergalactic shipping simulator, and it was easily one of my Gamescom highlights
The stealthy spirit of Arkham Knight returns in Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, and I never believed a Lego game could pull this off
Hands-on Hands-on | Gotham's goons never saw me coming
Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight's combat was inspired by the Arkham series: "We also wanted to bring our own Lego approach to that foundation"
News "When we think about embodying Batman as a video game character today, of course we're inspired"
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is filling the Mario Kart-shaped hole in my life that World isn't, and I'm as shocked by that as anyone
News I never saw it coming
Left 4 Dead has held the horde shooter crown for 17 years, but John Carpenter's Toxic Commando is the best challenger yet
Preview Gamescom 2025 | 17 years later, could a new zombie shooter claim the crown?
Dune: Awakening dev says "when we do bring stuff like sandworm riding into the game, it'll feel like an epic moment like in the movies," but you can't "trivialize the sandworm" because that breaks Dune
news You shall respect The Maker
Dune: Awakening dev says player retention has been "extremely good" and the MMO's 10-year plan still has "so much to pull from" in the lore: "We'll go to new planets eventually"
News Production director Ole Andreas Hayley would love to visit the Atreides home planet, Caladan
The Blood of Dawnwalker "isn’t that big" because its small team with Witcher 3 vets would rather prioritize "layers" and "didn't want to make an open world for, like, 400 hours"
News The RPG will take around 40 hours to complete on a normal playthrough
Dune: Awakening is a bit more “like a Dune survival RPG” than a full MMO, with multiplayer driving "that feeling of the universe being alive”
News Survival enthusiasts, MMO socialites, PvE hermits, and PvP menaces must all coexist
"For five months there was one programmer fixing bugs": Valheim devs were not prepared for their Viking survival game's explosive success
News Got to make it playable before you can add more
