Author: Jay Allsopp

If you’re an Xbox gamer, you’ve probably come across Xbox Live Gold before. The service was much more popular during the Xbox 360 days, but it remained active throughout the Xbox One era and has made it into the Xbox Series age as well. The option for subscribing to Xbox Live Gold can be pretty well-hidden within the Xbox UI or online, though, and there’s a good reason for that. Let’s take a look at exactly what Xbox Live Gold is and whether it’s worth subscribing to it in 2023! What exactly is Xbox Live Gold? Xbox Live Gold is…

If you’re an avid Xbox or PC gamer, you’ll find plenty of options out there when it comes to third-party controllers. You may, for whatever reason, not particularly like the standard Xbox controller made by Microsoft, or you might want to pick up a second controller for another player. Whatever your reason for wanting a new controller, Nacon makes some pretty excellent peripherals, and the Pro Compact controller is no exception to that rule; it’s a solid piece of gear and it’s great for Xbox and PC gamers alike. Nacon just released a set of new colours for the Pro…

We may well be approaching the Nintendo Switch’s twilight years. The console has had a pretty incredible run. It was introduced back in 2017 and proceeded to take the world by storm, offering a gaming experience that could be readily switched between handheld and home console depending on your preference.  Games like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey codified the Switch as a household mainstay, and despite the Switch’s waning technical power, its release schedule remains packed, although the upcoming post-Christmas release schedule is a little lighter on games than other months. Here are the best Nintendo Switch…

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X|S consoles are showing no signs of slowing down. The more powerful Xbox Series X has some excellent games to look forward to in 2023, while a slew of indies and less technically demanding games await the Xbox Series S. January is traditionally a quieter month for games, and that’s looking like the case this year as well, although there should still be plenty to enjoy, especially if you’re an Xbox Game Pass subscriber. Here are the best Xbox Series X|S games for January 2023. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot – January 13th Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot has,…

When Christmas is over and a new year begins, the game release schedule can sometimes dry up a little. All the major releases publishers were hanging onto will have been set for October or November the previous year, so January can sometimes represent something of a dry spell for the industry. Happily, that doesn’t appear to be the case this year; there’s an embarrassment of riches to get your hands on as a PC gamer. Here are the best PC games for January 2023! One Piece Odyssey – January 12th There have been many One Piece games over the years,…

Marvel’s Spider-Man was one of the unexpected gaming delights of 2018. The Spider-Man franchise hadn’t been performing too well in the gaming sphere for a number of years at that point, so a great Spider-Man game was going to take its developer pulling out all the stops. That’s exactly what Insomniac Games did, thankfully, and we got what might as well be the definitive Spidey experience, with excellent web-slinging, great combat, and a surprisingly heartfelt story to boot. In late 2020, two years after the original release of the game, Spider-Man Remastered launched for PS5, bringing the game to parity…

Ah, the humble stick figure. Beloved by children and poor artists (like us) the world over, stick figures are a great way to quickly and cheaply render a human being for whatever reason you might need. Just because stick figures are simple, though, that doesn’t mean they can’t be well-animated; quite the opposite, in fact.  Many of the best Flash animations and classic internet videos throughout history have starred stick figures, and the world of gaming has its fair share of them too. If, for some reason, you’re desperate to play a game about stick figures, allow us to take…

The virtual world is knocking on the door of our real one. Every year, new and exciting ways to experience high-resolution mixed reality are brought to us. So that one day we might all slip into the virtual dreamscape and scarcely remember the transition.  Meta Quest Pro is just one more example of how we might be able to seamlessly interact with our virtual surroundings. While still being anchored in a physical space in full high-definiton colour. Benefits of Mixed Reality Essentially we are being brought into the inner workings of our computers. One huge benefit of this is the…

For some reason, Christmas hasn’t quite taken off in the world of video games as it does in movies, music, and other media. It’s probably because players usually like to revisit games numerous times, replaying them over and over again, and this is more difficult when a game has a specific seasonal slant. However, that doesn’t mean there are no Christmas video games out there to play, so if you’re looking for a festive treat this holiday season, here are the best Christmas video games you can check out today. 1. Spider-Man: Miles Morales Taking place entirely at Christmas, Spider-Man:…

While modern video game graphics can be breathtaking, the biggest reason so many people play video games on their PCs is that they are just fun. We are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to connect with other people and play various games with them from our own homes. Because let’s face it – it’s always better to get mad over a loss with someone rather than by ourselves. Of course, some games will take days or months to complete. For instance, starting a Valheim server is a commitment you and your friends make. It can take months before your…

2022 is almost over, and it has been a year packed full of awesome video game experiences from start to finish. With the number and sheer quality of games that were released in the past 11 months, some might even consider this to be one of the best years for video games of all time. Do you feel that way? Join us as we talk about The Best Games of 2022 so you can decide for yourself. Kirby and the Forgotten Land First up, we have Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Regardless of how you feel about Kirby games, you…

What makes a great video game villain? Maybe heroes need to be invincible, but they also need a counterpart to drag them to their extremities. What we want is for an unstoppable force to meet an immovable object. So, whoever it is, they need to arrive with an impact and stir up a chaotic maelstrom of events. Then it’s that swirling spiral of good and evil, which spins those epic rivalries and recurring battles we remember.  In this blog, we’re taking a look at some of those gaming villains who transformed the titles they were part of. Cartoonish creatures, narcissistic…

Path of Exile 2 will be further discussed in ExileCon 2023. When will the game finally be released? News about Path of Exile 2 has been around since its announcement in ExileCon 2019. Many gamers have anxiously awaited more details about the sequel, including new PoE currencies and release date. Considering that Grinding Gear Games is a relatively small company and pandemic conditions have forced some limitations, Path of Exile 2 is expected to go live in 2024.  Path of Exile 2 2024 Release Date Before the pandemic, Path of Exile 2 was expected to be released in 2022. However,…

Who would you say are the most important people involved with the success of a particular game? Would you say it is the programmers who make sure the game runs smoothly? Would you say it’s the art department who ensure the game is as beautiful as it can be? Or is it the writers who create a compelling narrative? All of these departments are incredibly important to the overall development of a game. But the success of a game comes down to one group of people. The fans. The people who actually pay and play the game. The people who…

2022 has been an undoubtedly fantastic year for gaming. We saw a lot of amazing titles released. Stray put us into the paws of a cat exploring a future world where all humans have been replaced with robots. Sifu let us live out our karate movie dreams as we sought revenge in a sleazy underworld. Mario and Rabbids: Sparks of Hope made us laugh as we watched our favorite Nintendo characters once again join forces with the larger than life Rabbids.  But one genre that really saw a lot of love this year was the multiplayer FPS genre. So today…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as the song goes, and that’s traditionally when all the best game releases come out to play. October, November, and to a slightly lesser extent December are all great months if you’re a gamer, and although most of the major AAA releases will already have launched by the time the final month of the year rolls around, that doesn’t mean we’re starved for choice when it comes to great gaming experiences. Let’s take a look at the best games arriving in December 2022! Need for Speed: Unbound – December 2nd The Need…

VR, according to many industry analysts, represents the future of gaming. It’s hard to disagree with them if you’ve ever experienced true VR; strapping a Valve Index or even a Meta Quest 2 to your head and playing an immersive game like Half-Life: Alyx is a hard experience to match in traditional gaming terms.  Note to Readers: Looking for the latest and greatest in VR MMORPGs? Check out our updated list for 2023 here, where we cover the newest and most exciting games in the genre! Of course, with that in mind, it stands to reason that the MMORPG genre…

If you’re a gamer, it won’t be news to hear that Google Stadia is shutting down. Google announced the news recently, saying that access to the cloud gaming service will likely end in 2023 – mid-January.  The good news is all Stadia store purchases of hardware, games, and in-app supplemental material will all be eligible for refunds from Google. So what does Google Stadia closing mean for gamers? Well, if you’re a fan of Google Stadia, you’ll need to find another platform to play your games on. There are plenty of other options, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble…

November is historically a great time for gamers, and this November is no different. If you love games, you’ve got some treats to look forward to this month, especially if you’ve got access to a variety of different systems; things are looking great for PS5 owners, Xbox players, and Switch gamers. Whether you’re into life sims, 3D platformers, RPGs, or shooters, there’s a huge range to choose from, so let’s dive right in and take a look at the best games for November 2022! Harvestella (PC, Switch – November 4th) Harvestella is Square Enix’s take on the burgeoning life sim…

Horizon Zero Dawn is arguably one of the greatest open-world games ever made. The game was hampered by its proximity to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in terms of release dates; Breath of the Wild effectively pioneered a new open-world design style, leaving Horizon to be somewhat overlooked by many players who might otherwise have enjoyed it.  Still, the time-honoured Ubisoft-style method of designing open worlds has its strengths, and Horizon Zero Dawn displays all of those strengths prominently. Here are 12 great games like Horizon Zero Dawn to play when you’re done with Aloy’s first adventure.…

Have you played Rec Room yet? If not, you should definitely give it a try. Launched back in 2016, this first-person VR experience lets you loose in a high school-style setting and allows you to try out a bunch of games created by users, including twists on old favourites and new, innovative games alike. Don’t worry if you don’t have a VR headset, though; Rec Room is entirely playable without one, although the experience is significantly augmented if you are lucky enough to have a VR set. With or without VR, though, you’ll find that Rec Room is home to…

Nintendo has a reputation as a casual-friendly company, and while that reputation is certainly well-deserved, it isn’t the whole truth. The fact is that Nintendo caters for gamers of all stripes; whether you love cuddly experiences like Animal Crossing or brutally violent excursions like Doom, your Switch will cater for you.  With that in mind, there are a lot of excellent Nintendo Switch shooters you can play right now. From space blasters to first-person classics, the Switch is a great hub for indie and triple-A shooters alike. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the best shooter games for…

Unless you happen to have been born in the past few months (in which case, you wouldn’t be reading this), you’ve probably played Skyrim. The legendary action-adventure RPG was originally released 11 years ago, but has been re-released no less than four times in that period. Those subsequent re-releases have resulted in the game selling over 30 million copies as of last year. If you didn’t play it after that 2011 release, you probably played one of those later versions just based on the hype around the game, and have since finished it. So, if you’re a gamer who is…

Rocket League was released on July 7, 2015, and in the short 7 or so years it’s been out, Rocket League has already taken the world by storm. Online streamers adopted the game as their main title and built brands around it, esports leagues and teams were drafted in order to play Rocket League at a professional level, and the game keeps getting updates and keeps getting bigger and bigger.  But I’m not here to talk about Rocket League; rather, this article is all about 12 other games that are similar to Rocket League in some way that you might…

Until Dawn is one of the most compelling horror experiences of the last few years. The PS4 exclusive is a loving homage to slasher films and sees a group of teens descending on a house in the woods for a reunion party, whereupon they are, of course, beset by horrors that could be natural or supernatural in origin. If you’ve already made your way through Until Dawn and you’re looking for more games that capture the same feeling, then you’re in for a treat (or several), as there are actually plenty of games out there like Until Dawn. Here are…

There’s no denying that Xbox Game Pass represents incredible value for money. Whether you want to play great shooters, excellent platformers, or superlative sports games, you’ll find all of them and more on Xbox Game Pass, and they’re all available at a shockingly low price. With that said, there are so many games on Game Pass that it can be hard to know where to start, and your time is valuable, so it’s important to separate the also-rans from the real classics. Here, in no particular order, are the 10 best games on Xbox Game Pass in 2022. 1. Yakuza…

Some say that in order to be a PC gamer, you need to have a top-of-the-range, powerful desktop tower, but this simply isn’t the case. If you pick your games carefully, then it’s entirely possible to game on a device as relatively basic as a laptop, even if that laptop doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card. Some of the best gaming experiences out there don’t require much power from your PC at all, so without further ado, here, in no particular order, are the 15 best games to play on a laptop (assuming you don’t have a gaming laptop, of…

If you know where to look, you can have a great time with your gaming PC without spending a penny. There are some incredible free games available belonging to almost every genre, so no matter whether you’re looking for an immersive MMORPG, a competitive shooter, or even a Breath of the Wild-style open world adventure, you’ll almost certainly find it free of charge on your PC. Here are the best free PC games you can play in 2022. Genshin Impact The amount of content available in Genshin Impact means that it feels almost criminal to play it without spending any…

Avalanche Studios’ Just Cause series has become one of the most iconic franchises in the video game industry since the first game was released in 2009. Over the course of the past 13 years, Just Cause has grown into a sprawling sandbox destruction simulator with some of the most realistic physics and effects available in a game. Like any series that runs this long, Just Cause has had its share of misfires and failures, but the series’ highs are genuinely breathtaking. Just Cause’s main protagonist, the dashing Rico Rodriguez, serves as a suitable Antonia Banderas-esque action hero while also endearing…

Back in March, the ESA announced that E3 2022 wouldn’t be going ahead in any form. The association had previously revealed that this year’s event would be digital-only, but eventually, it was decided that there would be no E3 at all. That hasn’t stopped developers and publishers holding their own events, though, full of exciting game reveals and surprising moments. While some announcements were more disappointing than we expected, others took us by surprise, so we thought now would be a good time to take a look back at the best announcements of the definitely-not-E3 period. Final Fantasy XVI…

When you think about PC gaming, your mind doesn’t immediately jump to Linux. Though the Linux ecosystem has been beloved by PC enthusiasts since its launch back in 1991, it hasn’t quite crossed over into mainstream acceptance, despite a number of user-friendly graphical Linux interfaces springing up over the years. However, there’s still a significant contingent of PC gamers who prefer Linux, and Valve knows this, because it’s based its SteamOS system on Linux. As such, there are plenty of great gaming experiences to be had on the OS. Here are the best games on Linux in 2022. Stardew Valley…