Ollie Toms

For many - okay, fine, all - the best part of starting a new RPG is always the character creation process. And The Outer Worlds fails to disappoint in this regard, with its finely crafted array of attributes and skills that you can use to start carving out the path of your character before you even set foot on Halcyon. Our The Outer Worlds skills…

Tagged with feature, guides, Obsidian Entertainment, Private Division, The Outer Worlds.

The Outer Worlds does a pretty bang-up job with its arsenal of weapons, giving you a great deal of scope for choice and customisation - but it's all at the cost of complexity. Each weapon has many more associated stats than we're used to seeing in most games of its ilk, not factoring in weapon type buffs, damage types, special effects, mods, and anything else…

Tagged with feature, guides, Obsidian Entertainment, Private Division, The Outer Worlds.

What's a holiday to The Outer Worlds without Companions to share the journey with? Obsidian's latest open-world(s) RPG is very reminiscent of games such as Mass Effect, providing you with six different Companions to bring aboard your ship, the Unreliable, and help you in the quests and battles you face. Each Companion has different personalities, skillsets, side quests, and combat powers - and our The…

Tagged with feature, guides, Obsidian Entertainment, Private Division, The Outer Worlds.

The Outer Worlds gives you a great many tools to help you stay alive in the treacherous and dangerous regions of Halcyon, Monarch, and all the other planets you'll hop between throughout your journey; but Armor is definitely one of the most important of these tools. Not only does equipped armor give you damage reduction against oncoming attacks, but many pieces of armor will give…

Tagged with feature, guides, Obsidian Entertainment, Private Division, The Outer Worlds.

The Outer Worlds may not quite be the largest RPG we've ever seen, but it sure does have a great deal of stuff to explore and experiment with. From the first moments (or in my case, half-hour) of character creation to the many different quests, enemy types, combat mechanics, stories, and interconnected systems you'll encounter throughout your travels, there's an awful lot more to learn…

Tagged with feature, guides, Obsidian Entertainment, Private Division, The Outer Worlds.

I am truly a masochist for deciding to write about Defend Your Castle. I mean, who on earth would willingly subject themselves to the task of typing an article, when their fingers and wrists have been mangled beyond repair in just five minutes spent reacclimating to this diabolical browser-based Flash game? This harbinger of repetitive strain injuries? This annihilator of tendons and ligaments and souls?…

Tagged with feature, Have You Played, XGen Studios.

Put down your fidget spinners, all you people who use fidget spinners. If you want something to do while you're doing something else, there's very little better than Floating Point - a simple free-to-play game on Steam about grappling and swinging around constellations of floating blocks. It's by Tom Francis, the creator of other excellent games such as Gunpoint, Heat Signature, and Morphblade - but…

Tagged with feature, Have You Played, Suspicious Developments, Tom Francis, Floating Point.

I owe my game design passion at least in part to ZZT - the wonderfully obscure 1991 ANSI art game by Tim Sweeney, that chap who went on to found Epic Games and create the Unreal Engine. I have no idea how long I played ZZT as a child, bumping heads with centipedes made of zeroes and running away from Pi symbols that the game…

Tagged with feature, Have You Played, Potomac Computer Systems, Tim Sweeney, ZZT.

Oxygen Not Included mods, it turns out, can tell you a lot about the game itself, and how phenomenal it already is. Most of the really good mods out there opt for the "making life better" route, rather than the "tonnes of new features" route like the mods of most other games. It's a testament to the brilliance of Klei and their endlessly enjoyable suffocation…

Tagged with feature, guides, Klei Entertainment, Oxygen Not Included.

There have been a great many games like Minecraft over the past decade. Which is to be expected, because who wouldn't want to capitalise on the runaway mainstream success of the decade, and the best-selling video game of all time? There are many things that are very special about Minecraft, and remain more or less unmatched even ten years later; but we've done our very…

Tagged with 505 Games, Anego Systems, Chucklefish Games, ConcernedApe, Double Eleven, Epic Games, feature, Freejam, guides, Hello Games, Klei Entertainment, Mojang, Picroma, Re-Logic, Roblox Corporation, Strange Loop Games, Studio Wildcard, Transhuman Design, Wube Software, Xbox Game Studios, Ark: Survival Evolved, Cube World, Don't Starve, Don't Starve Together, Eco, Factorio, Fortnite, King Arthur's Gold, Minecraft, Minecraft: Dungeons, No Man's Sky, Oxygen Not Included, Roblox, Starbound, Stardew Valley, Terraria.

The Disco Elysium Thought Cabinet is one of the game's defining features. And that's saying something, considering the many different ways in which ZA/UM have deviated from the traditional RPG structure. In Disco Elysium, it's not just tools and clothes that you can equip but also Thoughts that you can mull over and adopt, almost always with both positive and negative results. Our Disco Elysium…

Tagged with feature, guides, ZA/UM, Disco Elysium.

The Disco Elysium skills and character creation system, much like the game itself, is big, brilliant, bizarre, and bewildering. With the four primary abilities of Intellect, Psyche, Physique, and Motorics each influencing a set of six distinct secondary skills, there's an enormous amount to learn and figure out before you even begin to delve into the story itself. Our Disco Elysium skills guide will walk…

Tagged with feature, guides, ZA/UM, Disco Elysium.

The 122 Borderlands 3 Legendary weapons on offer are, quite literally, spectacular. They're a spectacle. Spectacle-ular. While every other weapon in Borderlands 3 is procedurally generated and extremely variable, the uber-rare gold Legendary weapons have been carefully crafted to offer a completely new (and often very bizarre) experience with each one. But how do you get your hands on them, and which of them could…

Tagged with 2K Games, feature, Gearbox Software, guides, Borderlands 3.

The Borderlands 3 weapons are utterly insane. Blasting far beyond the standard set by the previous games in the series, Borderlands 3 throws gun after gun after gun at you throughout its lengthy campaign, each with a multitude of attributes and effects that can completely change how the gun is used and how effective it can be in the right hands. There's a lot to…

Tagged with 2K Games, feature, Gearbox Software, guides, Borderlands 3.

If you're one of the many experiencing the unbridled frustration of intermittent (or in some cases near-constant) Borderlands 3 lag and stuttering issues, believe me when I say I understand your pain. I've put together the below list of potential fixes which have solved the issue for a great many people, so that with some luck, you'll be able to rid yourself of these micro-stutters…

Tagged with 2K Games, feature, Gearbox Software, guides, Borderlands 3.

All the Borderlands 3 Endgame content on offer really blows the game's predecessors out of the water. From Mayhem Mode to Guardian Ranks, from the Proving Grounds to the Circle of Slaughter, Gearbox have given us a great deal of extra challenges to complete and high-value loot to gather after your first 30-or-so hours in the Borderlands 3 campaign. Our Borderlands 3 Endgame guide will…

Tagged with 2K Games, feature, Gearbox Software, guides, Borderlands 3.

If you're one of the many players confused about why everyone's discussing Borderlands 3 Shift Codes, VIP Codes, Golden Keys, and all these other bizarre terms - give yourself a pat on the back, because you've found exactly the right little corner of the Internet that'll give you all the answers you need. In our Borderlands 3 Shift Codes and VIP Codes guide, we'll walk…

Tagged with 2K Games, feature, Gearbox Software, guides, Borderlands 3.

The above quartet of Borderlands 3 characters are pretty much everything Borderlands players could have asked for. They're colourful, they're varied, and they're larger-than-life gun-toting terminators with oodles of customisation options thanks to their intricate Skill Trees and Action Skills. With Amara the Siren, FL4K the Beastmaster, Moze the Gunner, and Zane the Operative, you'll have your hands full from the very start of the…

Tagged with 2K Games, feature, Gearbox Software, guides, Borderlands 3.

Amara the Siren is one of the four playable characters in Borderlands 3, and one of just six Sirens - women with legendary magical powers whose reputation is known far and wide across the Borderlands. With her trio of explosive and spectacular powers, she is both a powerful solo Vault Hunter and a brilliant team player who can be upgraded and customised to suit pretty…

Tagged with 2K Games, feature, Gearbox Software, guides, Borderlands 3.

FL4K the Beastmaster is a great many things, but one thing that cannot ever be said of them is that they are lonely. With the unique ability to bring along one of three loyal and vicious pets wherever they go, and the ability to mix and match these pets with their three unique Action Skills, there is a huge amount of scope for customisation with…

Tagged with 2K Games, feature, Gearbox Software, guides, Borderlands 3.