Latest articles by Austin Wood
Activision owns up to ugly Call of Duty skins, reverses course on Black Ops 6 skins transferring and promises "authentic" skins for Black Ops 7 – a game that is already selling cyborgs and murder robots
News "Black Ops 7 needs to feel authentic to Call of Duty and its setting"
Obsidian is not screwing around with The Outer Worlds 2's Fallout New Vegas comparisons: "The critical path is maybe 10 or 15% of the total content"
News With the first game, Obsidian was quick to stress "this isn't New Vegas in space"
31 years later, XCOM creator Julian Gollop says strategy games are still "where my heart lies" and he wants to make them "more accessible and immersive" – his latest attempt is out today with co-op and Pikmin vibes
News Chip 'n Clawz vs. The Brainoids is out on PS5, Xbox, and PC today
Paying Valve $108,000 just to be on Steam is "totally worth it," says dev of roguelike strategy game made in 10 months which has now earned over $360,000
News Gnomes is exactly what it sounds like: a game about gnomes
Next week, Helldivers 2 is getting Terminid Hive Worlds with huge underground caves where your Stratagems don't work, a new Dust Devil Warbond with a harpoon gun, and it sure looks like Hive Lords are back
News The Into the Unjust update is out September 2, with a new Warbond to follow
"We aren't trying to make a game for everyone": Dev knows its first-person Soulslike is weird, says it's "much closer to Dark Souls" but "we love Dishonored and it has definitely influenced us"
News Valor Mortis is the next game from the Ghostrunner crew
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is "a little nervous" about Borderlands 4 because it can be harder than previous games and not everyone wants a big challenge
News If you just want to zen out in an RPG, you can always grind your way to the top
Just when I thought things couldn't get any better for JRPG fans, now we've gotten launch info for expanded action RPG Ys X: Proud Nordics in English
News Ys X: Proud Nordics was released in Asia this year
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
"One of those emails was an invitation from Sony": PlayStation's new Final Fantasy-style action RPG started with one dude screwing around with Unreal Engine 4 in 2014
News Lost Soul Aside is out on PC and PS5 on August 29
Bandai Namco released a short clip of Elden Ring running on Switch 2, and if I was trying to make a reportedly terrible port look decent I'd also avoid all combat and large areas
News That is not particularly encouraging
Bungie CEO Pete Parsons is out, new studio head steps up with Destiny 2 flailing, Marathon in limbo, and the eye of Sony burning
News Parsons was with the company for over 20 years
The Hollow Knight: Silksong arc needs to be studied and remembered: a small team of happy devs were just "having fun" making their game, not burning out, while the internet imploded
Opinion Opinion | Sometimes the most boring explanation is the best one
Silksong devs say there was no dev hell, only dev heaven: they've been quiet to avoid "bugging people," once thought it would be out in "a year or two," and "could have kept going" but also want to see this thing finished
News "We've been having fun"
"RTS will not be the big genre again," Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 lead predicts, but it can still be a big niche: "RTS won't kick shooters from the top of the food chain anytime soon, but that's fine, right?"
News RTS and Warhammer still have big followings, so "let's make a great game for both of these communities"
Dune: Awakening devs announce Chapter 2 update and Lost Harvest DLC, promise "no significant advantage" over people who don't buy as players worry goofy skin sickness has already started: "Dune doesn't need stupid skins like this"
News "Arrakis is full of secrets"
After Halo crossover reveal, Helldivers 2 director says Arrowhead learned from the Killzone collab and will "reprise it," find "how to reimburse players" so "everyone will have a chance to get the content"
News The Killzone not-Warbond received some blowback last year
I don't know how you re-release a PS3 JRPG in 2025 and make it run worse, but at least on non-Nintendo platforms I'm still happy to see one of my all-time favorites get a remaster
News Tales of Xillia Remastered is real, and it's coming to all platforms
I still haven't forgiven Square Enix for this name, but the legitimately good strategy RPG Triangle Strategy just got a surprise launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X with a 30% discount
News Triangle Strategy returns once again with a 30% discount
"If the reception was negative, we'd just blame it on [Todd Howard]": Fallout executive producer jokes Bethesda boss was the perfect meat shield, showrunner says season 2's trip to New Vegas will see "some of our favorite locations from the game"
News The reception was, fortunately, not negative
Black Myth: Wukong dev announces new action RPG Black Myth: Zhong Kui, admits it's "little more than an empty folder at this stage" and it has "absolutely no idea" when it's coming out, then teases more Wukong to come
News Black Myth: Zhong Kui stars a ghost-catching god from Chinese myth
The best-worst Soulslike of 2023 is getting a sequel: Lords of the Fallen 2 announced for 2026, and it sure looks like an Epic exclusive on PC
News Lords of the Fallen 2 may not come to Steam after all
Geoff Keighley breaks straight through the bottom of the barrel, shows 30 seconds of Hollow Knight Silksong gameplay at Gamescom ONL before re-announcing the Team Cherry reveal we already knew about
News No release date, though
The Ghostrunner devs have cooked up a first-person Soulslike that looks like BioShock meets Bloodborne, and oh yeah, it's set in fictional 19th century Europe during the Napoleonic Wars
News Valor Mortis is the next game from Ghostrunner house One More Level
"Quite often, and which felt very Zelda side-questy, we just have Japanese people who are so welcoming and surprised to see you": How finding The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild locations in real life led fans up and down Japan for 2 years
Feature Interview | Two video game investigators find Zelda in Japan, and find Japan in Zelda
