Author: Sha P.

For many in the gaming industry, April is something of a cursed month thanks to the arrival of April Fools’ Day, which is, of course, the day on which gaming companies decide to get silly. Not every studio pulled a prank on its fans for this most auspicious of days, but many did, and games journalists often curse April Fools’ Day for interfering with genuine news. Thankfully, April Fools’ Day doesn’t last all week, so there are still plenty of intriguing things to report on even without all of the “hilarious” jokes. Here’s our roundup of this week in gaming…

That’s right: the world continues to turn, and it’s time for another look at what’s been happening in the world of gaming in the past week. The industry continues to be in something of a gloomy spot at the moment, with layoffs looming and stability looking like an increasingly fragile pipe dream. Still, it’s not all doom and gloom, so let’s take a look at what’s been going on in the gaming world this week! Xbox handheld could be coming In an interview with Polygon this week, Xbox boss Phil Spencer talked at length about what it would take to…

It’s time to take another look at the trials and tribulations of the gaming industry, as well as some of its prouder moments (we hope, at the very least). Whether it’s major game updates, studio layoffs, or industry-adjacent announcements relating to retail and other ancillary areas, this week has, as ever, been chock-a-block with gaming news. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the past week in the world of gaming. UK retailer GAME might be in trouble According to a report from the ever-reliable Eurogamer this week, UK high street retailer GAME could be in trouble,…

As always, the world of gaming has been abuzz with news, rumours, and speculation this week, and we’re here to document the best parts. If you want to know what’s been going on in the gaming industry this week, look no further. Here’s our weekly gaming news roundup for March 18th through March 24th. Apex Legends esports event gets hacked Getting hacked during play is every esports pro’s worst nightmare, and this week, that nightmare came true during an Apex Legends Global Series game. Two esports pros, Imperial Hal and Genburten, were granted game-breaking assist tools during the course of…

A great multiplayer game is nothing without great map design. If the core gameplay is tight and rewarding, that’s one thing, but without an iconic staging ground on which to show off your skills, that gameplay will almost always fall flat. The best multiplayer maps in video games are unforgettable thanks to a mixture of great design, historical significance, and just plain old-fashioned fun factor. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the top 12 most iconic multiplayer maps in video games. 12. Hangar (Doom) Doom might not be the id Software game that leaps to mind when thinking…

Despite the fact that Apple’s hardware is often extremely powerful and well-suited to gaming, the number of games that feature innate macOS compatibility is shockingly low.  Most games out there right now are playable on Windows machines, and many even have Linux compatibility built into them, but lots of major triple-A releases don’t support Mac, meaning that Apple gamers are often being left out in the cold. Unfortunately, EA’s flagship FIFA franchise is no exception to this rule; most recent FIFA games simply don’t feature any kind of innate Mac compatibility, with 2011’s FIFA 12 being the last FIFA game…

Twitch for esports. We will also be looking at twitch tournaments, how to watch live esports tournaments on Twitch, and the importance of Twitch has become the go-to platform for esports and it is one of the most popular streaming platforms on the web. Twitch has been around for a few years now, but it has really started to gain traction in the esports scene in the last couple of years. In this blog post, we will be taking a look at what Twitch is, how it became the premier platform for esports, and the benefits of using Twitch for…

WoW Dragonflight will bring many new features to the game. It’s high time for players to start farming Gold with suitable classes. WoW Gold has always been an essential aspect of Azeroth since many rely on this currency. With the release of Dragonflight, many cool new things are making their way into World of Warcraft. Players are understandably stocking up as much Gold as they can to unlock every content available in the expansion. With the demand for Gold going further up, gamers are wondering which classes they should take to farm Gold.   Best Classes for Farming Gold in World…

Everything ends eventually, right? Old-School RuneScape is part of the multi-million RuneScape franchise. It’s based on an old build of the game and eventually grew into its own game, separate from the mainline one. Some players prefer it to the technologically and graphically advanced version, even! They’d like to farm and spend OSRS gold instead of the RS3 one. Still, that doesn’t stop making people wonder if it will end one day. Will Jagex ever shut down OSRS? Reasons Why Games Shut Down If we look at the common reasons why live-service games end up shutting down, there are a…

New Worlds is finally getting traction after months of declining player count. What is the current average population in Aeternum? New World is surprisingly making a comeback from its recent slump as an MMO giant hopeful. Over the past few months, the game has steadily gained back some player counts. Fans may remember that the number of active New World accounts took a dive between the end of 2021 and the start of 2022. Now, it seems that the game is finally getting back on its feet. New World Player Count Amazon’s MMO has finally gotten back on track as…

Infinity Ward are back with a sequel that largely feels like it stomps the same ground as the first game. Only this time there’s more freedom to roam. More heady realism to fall in love with. More ways to dispense of your enemies. Building on the blueprint from Modern Warfare – happy to enlist the same skull-masked characters we’ve grown to inhabit – this is another outing that cries out for a big 4K display and the best cinematic sound system you can afford.  There are few games that do immersion like the Call of Duty franchise. So, while MW2…

It’s been a long, hard road for Scorn. The interactive flesh nightmare has been in production in one way or another since 2013, when the Serbia-based development studio Ebb Software was founded. In the intervening nine years, it has gone through a series of delays, false starts, and even a little bit of controversy, all of which have only served to muddy what the game would actually offer its players. When the game was first revealed in 2014, it wowed the gaming industry with a horrifying, H.R. Geiger-inspired hellscape full of twisted imagery. Interiors made of flesh, machinery made of…

Mobile gaming may have undergone something of a sea change since its inception, but it’s still around and still going strong. Whether it’s the record $10 billion raked in by Tencent’s Honor of Kings worldwide or the presence of Xbox Game Pass on mobile devices, many people are still playing and enjoying games on their smartphones or tablets.  If you are one of the 25 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers out there and you’re looking for a way to play Game Pass games on your smartphone – assuming you’re subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, of course – then Nacon…

The time is finally upon us. EA has reached its final FIFA instalment, so get out your handkerchiefs and prepare to wave a solemn goodbye to football’s most popular franchise. Of course, that’s a little disingenuous; EA isn’t actually saying goodbye to FIFA, just the FIFA name, so the series will continue under the slightly less memorable moniker of EA Sports FC. In the meantime, however, we have this final EA FIFA game, so how does FIFA 23 stack up against its predecessors? We would say “how does it stack up against its rivals”, but the fact is that since…

The Sniper Elite franchise is an odd one indeed. On the one hand, it prides itself on its realism; it features such concepts as bullet drop-off, wind resistance, and other things that would actually factor into a real-life sniper’s decision-making. On the other hand, its bullet cam kills are so ludicrously violent that they would give Mortal Kombat a run for its money, and the franchise also features some of the least compelling storytelling in the business. Will this formula continue with the latest installment, Sniper Elite 5? Well…pretty much, yes. Sniper Elite 5’s main story mode follows Karl Fairburne,…

It’s very difficult to get a horror game right. If you pull back too much on the scares, then you risk your game becoming boring, or perhaps worse, pretentious. Too much, and you might alienate a more generalist crowd, which would obviously be bad for your bottom line. That’s why so many developers resort to making walking simulators; it’s much easier to tightly control the scares and build a sort of “rollercoaster ride” game than it is to actually construct a genuine survival horror with resource management and puzzles. It’s to Oxide Room 104’s credit, then, that it does actually…

If you play a lot of racing games, then you’ll know just how important it is to feel immersed. The rush of racing against expert opponents is unparalleled, so anything you can do to ratchet up your immersion is beneficial to your experience. This includes investing in a great sound system, building the right ambience in your room, and, of course, ensuring that you’re using the right peripherals to play. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best racing wheels you can buy on PC in 2022. Thrustmaster T248 Available on Amazon Thrustmaster’s name is an extremely…

It’s almost time for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. No, not that one; we’re talking about the sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot that was announced by Infinity Ward and Activision recently. Rumours had swirled leading up to the announcement that the next major Call of Duty project would be a Modern Warfare sequel, and just before the Summer Game Fest kicked off, those rumours proved to be entirely correct. With that in mind, what do we actually know about Modern Warfare 2? How will it continue the story of Captain Price, Soap, and their squad, and what new…

Lost Ark is an impossibly massive game full of content. With 7 continents separated by vast seas, each one containing a bounty of NPCs and quests, you could potentially invest hundreds of hours into this game before you even get close to reaching the end. However, that vastness presents its own problem: transportation. You’ll be spending most of your time walking on land, and to get across the seas you’ll have access to your very own ship. However, if you want to be a speedy, super-efficient Lost Ark player, there are several other travel options that are instantaneous, even from…

When you’re thinking of becoming a professional streamer or podcaster, there are few things more important than the microphone you’re using. After all, if your followers or listeners can’t hear you clearly, then the most important part of your content – your unique personality – will fall on deaf ears. Naturally, there are plenty of companies out there who are creating products for this audience, but they’re not all created equal. Into this world comes the EPOS B20, a microphone geared towards Twitch streamers, podcasters, and other content creators. Will it stand up to its peers or should this mic…

There are so many options on the market when it comes to gaming headsets that it can be hard to know how you’re supposed to choose one. Offerings from major companies like Razer, SteelSeries, and Corsair jostle for position, and new options are springing up all the time, making it even more difficult to navigate this increasingly crowded market. One of these companies is EPOS, which made its debut just a few years ago in 2019. Its new headset, the H3PRO Hybrid, is a high-end, premium pair of headphones designed for serious gamers. Will it stand up to its competition?…

The FIFA series is a venerable gaming institution. It stretches all the way back to 1993, when the original FIFA International Soccer was released. Today, FIFA is inarguably the most popular football game around. While pretenders to the throne keep rising up, FIFA swats them back down, remaining comfortable and seeing off any challenges that come its way. It’s fair to say that if you’re a football fan and you’re a gamer as well, you’ve almost certainly got a copy of the latest FIFA game on your shelf (or in your digital library). Those days, however, might be numbered. EA…

If you’re a PC gamer, then you’ll know the importance of a great gaming keyboard. Whether you opt for a mechanical monstrosity or an affordable membrane option, your keyboard is the workhorse of your gaming PC; it’s the peripheral you’ll likely interact with the most, alongside your mouse. It’s a good thing, then, that there are gaming keyboards available for every budget and every persuasion. If you love RGB lighting and can’t get enough of the showy stuff, there are keyboards for you, and if you’re more of a “just get it done” type, you’ll find the market full of…

One of the best ways to share your passion for gaming with the world is to become a gaming YouTuber. When you’re a YouTuber, in essence, you’re simply creating content about whatever games you like (or whatever games are currently popular). The life of a YouTuber isn’t easy, contrary to what you might think; you’ll have to work to a fairly gruelling content schedule if you want to make sure you stay in the public eye, and you’ll need to put a serious amount of effort into your content, too. However, with the right approach, it is possible. Here’s how…

It almost seems a little bizarre that you can play Xbox games on your smartphone in 2022, but here we are. Thanks to the introduction of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, it’s now possible to access Game Pass titles on your phone through the magic of cloud streaming, allowing you to play even graphically demanding games without needing to worry about your device’s horsepower. This can be a great way to enjoy some of the best games on the service without destroying your processor. Of course, playing games without a controller is pretty gruelling, especially those that don’t have native touch…

When you’re shopping for an Xbox controller, you want to know that what you’re buying is the best you’re going to get for your budget. While you might think that pretty much always means buying official, that’s just not the case. There are many unofficial or officially-licensed third-party options for controllers and other devices on the market, no matter which gaming platform you prefer. Of course, that goes for Xbox, too, and one of the most celebrated peripheral manufacturers for Xbox devices is Nacon. Of course, high-end Xbox controllers are a pretty crowded field in and of themselves, so Nacon…

It’s official: Xbox Game Pass now supports streaming. If you’re a subscriber to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service – which bundles in Game Pass and an Xbox Live Gold membership, making it ideal for anyone with an Xbox console – you can now access Microsoft’s streaming services on Android devices. You’ll need Android version 6 or greater and a device that supports Bluetooth 4.0, but once those hardware and software hurdles are out of the way, there’s nothing standing between you and streaming games to your smartphone or tablet. Here are our 10 favourite games on Xbox Game Pass…

Since the launch of the original Xbox console back in the early 2000s, Halo has been the brand’s killer app. The first Halo game revolutionised first-person shooters, combining the arcade-like sensibilities of early FPS games with the military focus and emphasis on realism which would come to dominate the latter half of the decade. Throughout each Xbox console’s lifespan, Halo has been present, and although the original Xbox is the only Microsoft console to actually launch with a fully-fledged Halo game, the two brands are now inextricably linked with one another. When Halo Infinite was originally announced, it was going…