When Aaron Vernon started building Land of Livia he never intended for it to become one of Apple App Store’s most accessible games. Building the mobile-based role playing game was a side hustle for the Australian tech worker, who was at the time hopping between gigs in New York. He was fed up with the… Read more »
This latest release blends the chaos of 24-player races with an open world full of tricky skill-based shortcuts to reinvent the wheel. You haven’t lived until you’ve been hit by a blue shell just before you’re about to cross the finish line. For those not in the know—or whose last Mario Kart was the 64… Read more »
The rise of creator reviews has shifted power to publishers, giving them unprecedented control over games journalists. Ben Schuster was at his wit’s end. The editor of Qualbert, an Australian gaming news and review website founded in 2021, was negotiating for access to a review code for Croc: Legend of the Gobbos Remastered. Given it… Read more »
We waited about 90 minutes before we called it. After getting a taste of what Elden Ring Nightreign had to offer, playing with one other random online, we were sitting in the lobby area waiting to be matched with one other player for another game. The game pulled together our first party almost instantaneously. After… Read more »
A quick look at a weekend stuffed full of game trailers, with some reflections on what was missing. Blink and you may have missed Summer Game Fest over the weekend — especially if you were busy playing the new Switch 2. The event consisted of 16 major showcases this year, featuring everything from new major… Read more »
I had a conspiracy theory back when Pokémon Violet and Scarlet launched on the Switch in 2022. Given the games were so buggy, lagging and pushing the Switch’s ageing architecture to its limits, I genuinely thought they were meant for the next Nintendo console. They must have been brought forward to fill a release calendar… Read more »
A meaningful, fully realised game about grief. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Grief is a dicey topic to tackle in a video game. Unlike many other mediums, you have the space, visuals and performances to tease out ideas and explore to a rich and meaningful conclusion. Yet, many role-playing games (RPG) that… Read more »
When enhanced graphics just aren’t enough. And why that’s now an issue for Sony. Let it be known: I’m a sucker for a tech upgrade. I’m one of those weirdos who tries to update their phone every two years. I swapped out my PlayStation 4 for a PlayStation 4 Pro. My original Switch for the… Read more »
As hype for the new console leads to sellouts around the world, there’s still a rare few places where its readily available. Australia is curiously one of them. Australia has a long history of fumbling its tourism marketing campaigns; the only message that seems to resonate is that we’re a country full of poisonous and… Read more »
A global romp that compliments the films, only let down by some janky moments and odd enemy AI. It’s a shootout of true Indiana Jones proportions. Playing as the intrepid archaeologist, I’m hiding out in Giza on a small wooden platform secured to the side of the Sphinx, surrounded by Nazis. The few that are… Read more »
We all have our morning rituals. Mine often involves waking up, taking a look at my phone and scanning the news. There’s only a few sites that I can be bothered to visit while my eyes adjust to the light. They are mostly Australian news websites, but one overseas site makes the cut. It’s not… Read more »
The first room you’ll see in Blue Prince. And you’ll see it a lot. I pull the lever and the piano music starts to swell. The stone shutter covering the door to the coveted Room 46 starts to open. Finally, I’ve cracked the game. I’ve spent about 50 hours plotting rooms and solving light maths… Read more »
This article is part of a quarterly series I’m launching The Greatest In Gaming, where I poll writers across Substack and the broader community on a unique aspect of gaming that’s special to them. You can find the last piece on gaming’s greatest love stories here. While you might not hear video game music on… Read more »
Greens Senator Nick McKim wants to end would-be Prime Minister Peter Dutton… in Fortnite. The veteran Tasmanian senator — whose career has spanned over two decades in federal politics — is perhaps the only politician who has taken to a gaming platform to pitch himself and his party to voters ahead of the May 3… Read more »
The brightly garbed Ronin isn’t happy. A few inches to the left with my stray kunai throw and he would have been dead. But I missed, and now he’s on the warpath. Along with his crew, he’s chasing me through a wheat field. I’m using the reeds for cover as I pick them off one… Read more »
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