We owe Skyrim's beloved Stealth Archer to one of the designers of an all-time classic PC stealth game, who wrote Todd Howard 'a big document of stealth in 20 different games'

We owe Skyrim’s beloved Stealth Archer to one of the designers of an all-time classic PC stealth game, who wrote Todd Howard ‘a big document of stealth in 20 different games’

I love stealth games, and I love playing a sneaky guy in bigger RPGs: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Cyberpunk. You best believe that, when given the option, I’m crouch walking for 80 hours straight. I’m not alone in that preference either: The Stealth Archer in Skyrim, which plays exactly how it sounds, is a memetic,…

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GTA 5’s character-swapping system was a stroke of genius that was supposed to feature in San Andreas 9 years earlier—this masterclass mod makes that dream a reality

As I flitted between Peter Parker and Miles Morales boroughs-apart in Spider-Man 2’s New York City, I thought: why haven’t more games copied the character-swapping system from GTA 5? Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 first swung onto PS5 consoles towards the end of 2023, and breached the shores of Steam at the beginning of this year. Grand…

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A former Valve dev revealed how, while a VR version of Half-Life 2 was being made, a single metro cop’s toe created a ‘time-travelling’ bug that softlocked all versions of the game

One of the coolest things about Half-Life 2 is its physics engine, but as anyone who has played a physics-based game will know, even the best-in-class tech is prone to quirks here and there. Valve’s legendary narrative shooter was no exception, as former Valve developer Tom Forsyth shared in a thread on Mastodon. In the…

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STERN OF THE UNION ADDRESS – NOVEMBER 2025

The Stern of the Union Address, your monthly resource for news, information and highlights on all things Stern Pinball. Without further ado my fellow pinheads: The Walking Dead Remastered: There’s a Horde coming with a technologically advanced version of one of the most beloved pinball games of all time… The Walking Dead Remastered! Stay tuned…

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Tavern Keeper’s early access is already a crunchy management sim, a cosy blanket, an interior decor game, and a furniture designer all at once

Tavern Keeper’s a game with a bit of a history—taking Greenheart Games a whopping 11 years to make, it finally released into Early Access earlier this month after a series of solid, but limited demos, expanding the scope of what we could mess around with from one tavern to three. And despite not being in…

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Cities: Skylines 2’s bicycle update adds a lot more than just bikes, as Colossal Order prepares to hand over development to a new studio

Colossal Order will soon part ways with its difficult second child, Cities: Skylines 2, but at least the developer got to teach the sequel to ride a bike before sending it to live with adoptive parent Iceflake Studios. The newly released bike patch actually adds bicycles and electric scooters into Skylines 2, along with all…

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