Will’s 2016 Games of the Year
2016 has been a good year for me and games. While at points 2016 has lacked for quality, it certainly made up for it in quantity. Both AAA and indie devs threw everything at the wall to see what stuck. We've also had unconventional release patterns, sleeper hits, and a few…
Salt and Sanctuary Beginner’s Guide
Ahead of its release tomorrow, we’ve compiled a short beginner’s guide for Ska Studios’ Salt and Sanctuary, to help you get off the boat and into the fight as quickly as possible. These tips and tricks will hopefully aid in your quest to save the princess and discover whatever the…
The Cycle of a Dark Souls Fan
I swore that I wouldn’t get suckered into the hype this time. After being burnt by Dark Souls II, I was going to remain as uninterested in Dark Souls III as humanly possible and go into it with no excitement for the final instalment in the trilogy. This plan failed…
Entering the Dojo: The Importance of Fighting Game Tutorials
With the upcoming arrival of Street Fighter V and Capcom’s new Pro Tour to create competition for their new fighter, there is going to be a large influx of new players into the game. These may be people who fell off the Street Fighter wagon years ago, players from other…
Top 5 Speedruns from AGDQ 2016
AGDQ 2016 wrapped up over the weekend and it was a fantastic week of speedruns. You had the TASbot breaking games in ridiculous ways, people speedrunning certain games blindfolded as well as various runs of incredibly difficult titles. There were so many great runs from this year’s AGDQ and I…
2015’s Top 5 Gaming Misfires
At this time of year, when we all look back and celebrate the good stuff that has come our way this year, it is also important to remember some of the absolute Grade A cock ups that have happened in the games industry. Incredibly shoddy ports, unethical business practices and…
5 Things to Expect From Tomorrow’s Smash Direct
The hype train is fuelled with hundreds of Shovel Knight amiibo and it’s on course for its final destination, so let’s speculate on 5 things to expect from tomorrow’s final Direct dedicated to Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS. This list will be a mix of pretty standard…
EGX 2015: Friday Round-Up
Today was my first on the show floor down at EGX 2015 in Birmingham, with there being a massive range of games to demo and see played within the halls of the NEC. I mostly got to play indies today, as the line for the big names were up to…
Metal Gear Solid V Beginner’s Tips and Tricks Guide
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is finally in our hands and everyone is no doubt dying to get stuck into the world of Venom Snake. Whether you are a veteran of the series or a first time Diamond Dog, we'd thought we give you a few tips and…
VGU’s Guide to Attending Tournaments
Over this summer, I've thrown myself into the Smash Bros competitive scene. Naturally, this involves going to a lot of tournaments and spending a lot of time in cramped venues with a lot of other sweaty people. While they are a hell of a lot of fun, tournaments can be…
Press X for Punchline: The Comedy Game Genre
Comedy games are a tough genre that hasn't really been cracked yet. Sure, they are a lot of games which are comedic and many style themselves are 'comedy games', a rare few actually achieve the status of being both a great game, as well as a funny one. Like with…
VGU’s Beginner’s Guide to Smash Bros Lingo
So, we’ve covered traditional fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, now onto Smash Bros. Smash isn’t your typical fighting game, as the focus is not on taking down an enemy’s lifebar but by racking up enough damage onto an enemy to send them flying off stage. Due to…
E3 2015: The Year of Shock and Awe
This E3 is being heralded as the best one for many years. Blockbuster announcements, revivals of old franchises and games long though dead have risen from the graves for studios to parade around as the conquering heroes for fans to throw money at. On first glance, this year's show is…
The Wild West of Sm4sh
If you follow Super Smash Bros in any capacity, you will be aware of the recent hubbub that consumed the Sm4sh community for the last few days. For those of you who don't know, the best Sm4sh player in the world right now, Gonzalo 'ZeRo' Barrios, called out a bunch…
Kickstarter and Nostalgia Overload
This week has seen the launch of yet another spiritual successor Kickstarter, with Koji Igarashi revealing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and having it funded fully within a matter of hours. This is on top of the continued success of Yooka-Laylee and the release of Broken Age Act 2, signalling…
Sony’s To-Do List for E3 2015
A month from today, gamers up and down the land will be boarding hype trains and getting their press conference bingo cards ready, as E3 2015 begins to usher forth a whole new wave of announcements and news. We have covered Microsoft's list of things it needs to do and…
5 Ways Gaming Could Improve the General Election
With the UK General Election being just under a week away and all parties are gearing up for that final election push, here are 5 ways the whole election experience could be improved by adding some elements from the gaming world.
A Microdefense of Mortal Kombat X’s Microtransactions
So, the Twittersphere has blown up over the past few days in both praise and despair at the launch of Mortal Kombat X. People have lauded its Story Mode, Variation system and the surfeit of content that kombatants can dig their teeth into. Others have lamented at its dodgy netcode,…
Top 10 Predictions for 2015
We’ve done our look back, now it’s time for a look forward. As tradition dictates for this time of year, let’s make some predictions for the next year in the gaming world. The list will be broken down into 5 industry-specific and 5 game-specific predictions in no particular order, so…
The Winners and Losers of 2014
2014 is nearly over which means it is time for the mandatory ‘end of year’ list, where we sum up everything that’s gone on this year. 2014 has been a pretty lacklustre year if I am honest, being that awkward transitional year between last gen and current gen when everything…
Bedlam Preview
We have seen many books that utilise pre-existing game worlds to tell a story but we rarely see books adapted into games. Besides the hilarious 8 bit Great Gatsby game and the Witcher series, I can’t think of many other books that have made a successful transition to games. Bedlam…