Author: Frances Addison

I'm a freelance writer with a passion for stories - give me an RPG and I'll be happy for days.

The Art of Abandonware Preservation

The Art of Abandonware Preservation

Despite video gaming’s relative youth compared to other media, many games have already been lost to time. Around the world, archivists have been striving to record and preserve such abandonware and return it to the players. We spoke with so...

How Close Are We To Truly Immersive Gaming

How Close Are We to Truly Immersive Gaming?

Let’s take a look at some of the technologies available and in development to take players from behind the screen and into a game. While games are becoming more realistic with each new generation, our ability to interact with them has remai...

Beacon Pines Review: A Small Town Mystery With a Lot of Heart

Beacon Pines Review: A Small Town Mystery With a Lot of Heart (PC)

With beautiful visuals and an intriguing mystery to explore, Beacon Pines lays out an incredible gaming experience for anyone who enjoys stories. By making small, butterfly effect decisions, players are given free rein to explore the hidden...

10 Perfect
Overwatch 2's Monetisation Changes Risk Alienating Players

Overwatch 2’s Monetisation Changes Risk Alienating Players

A sweeping overhaul to the way Overwatch makes money will be good news for Activision Blizzard, but runs the risk of driving away the existing fanbase. With a series of poorly-received announcements about a paid beta and the possible price ...

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Urbek City Builder Review: A Beginner’s Guide to City Planning

With hundreds of buildings to explore, Urbek City Builder gives you control over a city of entirely your own design. Experiment with building placements to create new neighbourhoods and rearrange your resource incomes to make sure your popu...

7 Good
The Planet Crafter Preview: A Deeply Rewarding Experience

The Planet Crafter Preview: A Deeply Rewarding Experience

A wonderfully responsive and rewarding survival experience, The Planet Crafter might still be in early access, but there’s already a lot to love about this game. If you’ve been waiting for a new, slow-paced crafting adventure, then definite...

How To Unlock The Six Rarest Hero Achievements In Overwatch

How To Unlock The Six Rarest Hero Achievements In Overwatch

Struggling to unlock the last hero achievements in Overwatch? You’re not alone – the rarest have been unlocked by less than 1% of Xbox players and are challenging even to the most experienced of gamers. This guide will outline what the rare...

We Were Here Forever Review: A Triumph of Teamwork

We Were Here Forever Review: A Triumph of Teamwork (PC)

Building on the three titles that came before it, We Were Here Forever is an excellent co-op puzzle game that will test your abilities to communicate in ways that few games can. With an immersive atmosphere and some very original puzzle des...

9 Amazing
Why Is It So Hard To Make A Lovecraft Adaptation?

Why Is It So Hard To Make A Lovecraft Adaptation?

A century after it was first written, Lovecraft’s Mythos is more popular than ever, so why are we still waiting on a high-quality video game adaptation? From the confines of story structure to the limits imposed by a visual medium, bringing...

More Games Companies Announce Donations To Support Ukraine

More Games Companies Announce Donations To Support Ukraine

The announcements follow on from 11 Bit Studio’s commitment earlier this week to donate profits from This War Of Mine to the Ukrainian Red Cross, with several developers making similar promises for their own titles. One developer has also c...

Profits From This War Of Mine To Be Donated To Ukrainian Red Cross

Profits From This War Of Mine To Be Donated To Ukrainian Red Cross

All profits from This War Of Mine and its DLCs generated in the next week will be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross, following Russia’s invasion of the country. 11 Bit Studios also called for players and developers to stand together in sup...

Submerged: Hidden Depths Preview: A Soothing Post-Apocalypse

Submerged: Hidden Depths Preview: A Soothing Post-Apocalypse

A former Stadia exclusive, the sequel to Submerged is now coming to PC and consoles, inviting a new host of players into this chilled out, laidback post-apocalypse. Team up with Miku and Taku to explore a beautiful, no combat world and star...

Team17 Cancels Their Newly-Announced NFT Collection

The response from fans following the announcement of the MetaWorm collection was overwhelmingly negative, even in fan-only spaces like the studio’s dedicated Discord server. As a result, Team17 has been forced to cancel the project just day...

EGX Birmingham 2022 Expo Cancelled

EGX Birmingham 2022 Expo Cancelled

Despite tickets only going on sale two weeks ago, organisers have made the decision to cancel EGX Birmingham 2022 over Covid-19 concerns and a reported hesitancy from their partner companies. Anyone who has already purchased a ticket will r...

PUBG Goes Free-To-Play On All Platforms

PUBG Goes Free-To-Play On All Platforms

Nearly five years after it was initially released, the ‘original battle royale’ game PUBG: Battlegrounds has now gone free-to-play across all platforms. The changes come as similar, free titles such as Fortnite continue to dominate the gami...

Disney Patents New 'Virtual-World Simulator' Technology

Disney Patents New ‘Virtual-World Simulator’ Technology

Such simulators could allow users to experience a virtual world without needing to wear headsets or glasses. By combining high speed projectors with spatial monitoring technology, the system can track where multiple simultaneous users are a...

In-Person E3 Cancelled For Third Year Running

In-Person E3 Cancelled For Third Year Running

The planned in-person games expo will no longer be going ahead according to organiser ESA, due to health concerns regarding Covid-19. While last year’s cancelled event was replaced by a digital alternative, it’s currently unclear if a simil...

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Dead By Daylight Drops ‘Racist’ Leatherface Masks

Following reports of racially-motivated harassment, developer Behaviour Interactive is removing The Cannibal’s cosmetic mask challenges in Dead by Daylight’s upcoming update. Players had condemned the cosmetics, citing the mask of Claudette...

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In Defence of Bad Graphics

Let's look into why we shouldn't be quick to dismiss games with bad graphics. As game visuals grow increasingly elaborate and powerful, there’s a forgotten power to the mysterious, indistinct styles of retro games. When playing a horror exp...

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Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against Sony Interactive Entertainment

The accusations of gender discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination were raised by a former IT security analyst who worked at Sony for 6 years. The filing also includes a request to form a class of current and former female emplo...

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This Land Is My Land Review: An American West Sandbox

The fight for America has begun! In this survival adventure, players must take their place as a Native chief determined to protect his home and his people from the paleface invaders. After two years in early access, the full experience of l...

5 Average
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What’s Going On With Blizzard’s Gender Discrimination Lawsuit?

Activision Blizzard can’t seem to stay out of the headlines lately, but what’s going on? Let’s go through the highlights step by step, starting with the explosive gender discrimination lawsuit levelled against Blizzard in July, along with h...

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Where Are The Female Characters in the Mario Movie?

The main cast for next year’s Mario movie has been announced and it’s not great news for gender diversity so far. Of the nine named characters revealed at Nintendo Direct, only one of them was female. What happened to Daisy? Or Rosalina? De...

Why Is It Still So Hard To Buy A Next Generation Console cover

Why Is It Still So Hard to Buy a Next-Generation Console?

Despite nearly a year having gone by since their release, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are both still perpetually out of stock. But why? Is it the Covid-19 pandemic? Brexit? The US-China trade war? The answer, it turns out, is none o...

What Does It Take To Be a Solo Games Developer Cover

What Does It Take To Be a Solo Games Developer?

What does it take to go from having an idea for your own IP to bringing a fully-fledged game to market? Three solo developers share some advice for following in their footsteps and getting started in a field that is becoming more and more a...

The Ethics of Simulating the Covid-19 Pandemic cover

The Ethics of Simulating the Covid-19 Pandemic

When is it too soon to make a game centred on reliving a real-life tragedy? With the pandemic still ongoing, should game developers be profiting off of it? The Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to a great many simulators that pit players aga...

The Successes and Failings of Rezzed Digital

EGX Rezzed has gone virtual, trading their exhibition halls for livestreams. But has something been lost in the transition? Let’s take a look at the successes and failures of an event that has been completely rebuilt in the wake of the pand...

Thronebreaker The Witcher Tales Review A Return to the World of Witchers Android cover

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales Review: A Return to the World of Witchers (Android)

Return to the dark and dangerous world of The Witcher series in this Gwent-based RPG, now available on Android! Complete with all-new characters and a unique story, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales sets you off on an adventure with Meve, Qu...

9 Amazing

The Decline of True Single-Player Character-Driven Stories

The last few years have seen single-player character-driven story experiences gradually falling out of the spotlight, but for a few notable exceptions. Instead, we’re seeing a big push towards online play and indie games with silent protago...

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