August 2025

Nexon says it has discovered “certain irregularities” in a recent ad campaign for its gooner-looter-shooter The First Descendant, and is now “we are conducting a thorough joint investigation with TikTok to determine the facts.” A quick refresher course: It came to light over the weekend that a recent series of ads for The First Descendant,…

Maybe it’s just years and years of games like Fallout and Dying Light and Metro, plus a few decades of movies like Mad Max that take place after some civilization-shattering calamity… but I’m just a bit burned out on post-apocalyptic wastelands. Bleak, barren landscapes. Ruined buildings and rusted metal. Grubby survivors wearing tattered clothes. I’ve…

Phasmophobia is one of those games that shows early access at its best. It first released in September 2020 and had the core ghost-hunting experience nailed from the start, but it also felt a little like a proof-of-concept: There weren’t too many maps, the environments leaned heavily on asset packs and soon felt a little…

Polish up that forklift certification, wolf down one of Tom’s hot dogs, and prepare to ask your neighbours about sailors: Shenmue is back. Again. Specifically, Shenmue 3 is getting an enhanced re-release six years after it first came out (via Gematsu) with whizzier graphics and various quality-of-life tweaks. Publisher Inin Games didn’t deign to furnish…

Look, I wouldn’t blame you if you looked at the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhabab Edition and thought, hmm, I’m not sure it’s worth remortgaging the house for. The Middle East-only card was briefly available for around $7,000, although prices have fluctuated since then and I’ve seen the odd second-hand model float around for…

The legendary rapper turned actor Ice Cube is amazing at inhabiting the image he’s cultivated over many decades, and is comfortable playing around and sending himself up. And somehow, this is how we’ve ended up with Ice Cube as a Minecraft claims adjuster. Last year Mr Cube starred in a new take on The War…