In early role-playing games, unlocking new characters marked meaningful moments tied to story advancement, exploration, and player decisions rather than random rewards. Each addition to the party reflected narrative growth and reinforced a sense of earned progress. Looking closely at how these early systems functioned helps clarify why modern games still rely on those foundations….
A generation that half-lives on screen Walk through any city where the buses run late, and the rent runs high, and you will find the same small ritual: headphones on, eyes down, thumbs moving in practiced loops. For many young people, the day does not end when the door closes behind them; it continues in…
The great escape. Rayman 2 has been added to the Nintendo Switch Online N64 library. His fight for freedom against a literally iron-fisted despot represented a braver, weirder time for Ubisoft, and today Francisco looks back on a classic… For many of us, Super Mario 64 changed platforming forever by introducing the boundless possibilities of…
Category: Responsible Gaming December 17, 2025 How to Engage with Your Kids’ Gaming – Practical Tips from Parenting Expert, Dr. Becky Xbox Wire Team One of the standout insights from our recent Culture of Play Report is that more than 70% of players want to share their love of gaming with the next generation. To help parents and caregivers navigate that journey, we partnered with clinical…
Category: Responsible Gaming December 17, 2025 How to Engage with Your Kids’ Gaming – Practical Tips from Parenting Expert, Dr. Becky Xbox Wire Team One of the standout insights from our recent Culture of Play Report is that more than 70% of players want to share their love of gaming with the next generation. To help parents and caregivers navigate that journey, we partnered with clinical…
RAM prices have been, uh—bad. You can keep track of them yourself via the work of our diligent hardware team, but the rampant use of generative AI by big tech has led to such sharp increases, you could basically watch them climb in real time. This has also impacted Larian, of all people. That’s per…
Game-Key to success. Game-Key Cards have been perhaps the hottest topic of the Switch 2’s lifecycle so far. Outside of particularly large releases, the running theory is that many studios are turning to a Game-Key physical release because Nintendo has failed to offer small/cheap options for those who don’t want to cough up for the…
As if skyrocketing RAM prices wasn’t enough, Kingston’s Datacentre SSD Business Manager Cameron Crandall says to expect rising SSD costs throughout 2026, confirming what we already feared. Why? Crandall, who has worked at Kingston for 29 years, says the company is experiencing NAND wafer price spikes the likes of which have never been seen before….
It might feel like tech news is a stuck record at the moment, with every other headline reporting on the grim effects of the current DRAM supply crisis. And at first glance, a report that Nvidia is planning on cutting discrete GPU production by up to 40% just seems like a case in point. However,…
“I wouldn’t go in there,” warns traveling storyteller Ugetsu, as Atsu approaches two large and looming wooden doors. “Because you may not return.” It’s a caution many Ghost of Yōtei players loved to ignore. As the trigger point for revered side-quest The Spider Lily General, that ominous gate is the start of a haunting mythological…