Harvey Randall

Harvey Randall

Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Latest articles by Harvey Randall

Guild Wars screenshot
Guild Wars' devs tried to escape the MMO branding in 2005, citing all the things that would become genre staples 20 years later

By Harvey Randall Published

News If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

News
Illidan, a blindfolded demon hunter, snarls with the Terminally Online logo superimposed over his face.
WoW's got the right to close private servers—but in this industry layoff hellscape, I also feel like I'm watching the MMO genre's future get snuffed out

By Harvey Randall Published

NO CHILDREN Private servers are a symptom, not the disease.

8 Comments
NO CHILDREN
Left: An underwater lair entrance. Right: The resident of that lair, a three-tailed naga.
WoW's quest to add variable difficulty to just about everything continues in Midnight patch 12.1's Mythic world bosses, though there's a catch

By Harvey Randall Published

News Straight lair lurkin'.

News
Left: Neow, a giant whale in Slay the SPire 2. Right: The Aeonglass, an ominous hourglass and Act 3 boss.
Slay the Spire 2 patch fixes RNG bug after a fan's '8 hour descent into madness' proves it exists—alongside heaps of other updates and a new Act 3 boss

By Harvey Randall Published

News "Rest assured that your suffering is now truly random!"

News
Gabe Newell in an Oceanco ad
Gabe Newell buys $70.8 million mansion in Florida, and naturally it has a dock for his superyachts and a personal tunnel to the ocean

By Harvey Randall Published

News How he does like to be beside the seaside.

11 Comments
News
The 14-strong cast for Critical Role assembled in a large group shot.
D&D-inspired Critical Role's homegrown videogame is coming along well, says Laura Bailey: 'There's a lot of work being done'

By Harvey Randall Published

News Downtime activity.

News
The Warrior of Light stares in amazement at a cool shibe mount.
Final Fantasy 14 will give players in Japan a dog for paying their taxes

By Harvey Randall Published

News Trade offer: I receive financed infrastructure. You receive: A dog.

News
An orc steams with rage in Don't Kill Them All.
Don't Kill Them All make you keep orc calm so orc not smash resources—big smart, neat game, like demo much

By Harvey Randall Published

News Me can be different kind of orc.

News
An Xbox logo, superimposed on a picture of Senua from Hellblade.
It just keeps getting worse—Microsoft reportedly already had Ninja Theory in its crosshairs while pushing the announcement trailer for its next game

By Harvey Randall Published

News "Microsoft had already planned to sunset or split with the studio."

16 Comments
News
Left: A maiden in Mistfall Hunter smiles with a raven perched upon her shoulder. Right: A hero in Mistfall Hunter ascends into a golden light.
Mistfall Hunter's demo might finally convince me, a souls sicko, to give extraction games a proper go—even if it's more modern God of War than Nightreign

By Harvey Randall Published

News Kratos, is that you?

News
Commander Zavala in Destiny 2
Destiny 2 comes full circle as players honour the tradition of pushing bosses to their deaths—this time by becoming a porcupine and smacking them with a void football

By Harvey Randall Published

News No, really.

News
Left: Hi-Fi Rush's protagonist lies dead-eyed and slumped against a counter. Right: Satya Nadella laughing at the Microsoft 50th Anniversary Copilot event.
As Xbox eyes layoffs, Microsoft's CEO says its videogames aren't monetised enough—so it's not the cancelled games or $68.7 billion deals or AI overspending, then

By Harvey Randall Published

News Watch that line go up, up up up up up.

73 Comments
News
Left: A sweaty, distraught cloud from FF7. Right: A smug, happy Balthier from FF12.
Both Final Fantasy 7 remakes are dirt cheap right now in a franchise sale—but I think you should play FF12 and enjoy the series' best combat system at a discount, too

By Harvey Randall Published

News Gambits, my beloved.

8 Comments
News
A vicious dragon looms in Dragon's Dogma 2, a wicked smile on its fanged maw.
2 entire years after being raked over the coals for it, Dragon's Dogma 2 is removing a bunch of those silly little microtransactions that weren't even P2W anyway

By Harvey Randall Published

News Was it worth it? No.

News
A force user stands ready for battle in Star Wars Galaxies Restoration.
Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies vet tells me the theme park 'assembly line' MMO just isn't viable anymore, especially as dev costs spike: 'We hit the wall'

By Harvey Randall Published

CANARY, COALMINE "The MMO audience feels underserved and overmonetized, that's how they feel about what's going on."

24 Comments
CANARY, COALMINE
A split image of the Silent from Slay the Spire 2 - one of her Adrenaline card art, another of her brandishing a knife.
I've beat Ascension 10 with every character in Slay the Spire 2, and these are the Silent cards I recommend

By Harvey Randall Published

SLY SHIV REPEAT How to climb the Ascensions as Slay the Spire's silent rogue.

SLY SHIV REPEAT
Left: Witches from Witchspire soar through the air on brooms. Right: A witch in Witchspire looks at their familiar.
Witchspire is a charming Palworld-esque survival crafting game that replaces the unpaid monster labour with magic and whimsy

By Harvey Randall Published

News A pretty familiar game. Get it? Because of the witches? Ah, nevermind.

News
A split image of a casino bot proudly standing in Orgrimmar on the left, with a dead casino bot on the right.
WoW Classic players are in an arms race against annoying RMT casinos, but Blizzard's working on strategies so 'they will hopefully piss off'

By Harvey Randall Published

News The house always wins.

News
Spyro stares, determined, in Toys for Bob's upcoming Spyro game.
After a 'corporate mandate' demanded they help with Call of Duty, Toys for Bob studio head says it took 'many mini miracles' to buy their independence from Activision

By Harvey Randall Published

News "We knew that it wasn't the right fit."

8 Comments
News
Cover art for the Pathfinder 2e adventure, Ghost King's rage, sees several adventurers fighting off a terrifying wyrm in a graveyard.
Pathfinder creators Paizo have $10 million of inventory stuck in a warehouse somewhere because of Diamond Comics, forcing it to lay off staff

By Harvey Randall Published

News "Paizo and dozens of other publishers have been in court ever since, fighting to reclaim our own products."

News
The judge from Phoenix Wright stares disapprovingly.
Both lawyers in case use hallucinating AI, causing judge to throw up hands, bar them for 2 years, fine everybody, and call the whole thing off for 60 days

By Harvey Randall Published

News I believe the legal term is "absolute malarkey".

News
A player-built town in Stars Reach, a sandbox MMO by Playable Worlds, Inc.
Stars Reach could be the second coming of the sandbox MMO, with player-built cities and 40+ Star Wars Galaxies-style professions to give me hope

By Harvey Randall Published

STAR SHOOTING "Players have practically invented Steam Power."

STAR SHOOTING
A tapestry of the gods in Guild Wars 3, rendered powerfully in gold and red.
Guild Wars 3 won't have a 'battle pass fee buried in it', says studio head: 'We're not gonna hold their time hostage'

By Harvey Randall Published

News ArenaNet's not giving it a pass.

News
Left: Blade, a vampire bathed in red light. Center: A chained-up king with an iron crown. Right: Revan, a force sensitive wielding a lightsaber.
Summer Game Fest no-shows: The big games that were absent from 2026's showcases

By Harvey Randall, Jody Macgregor, Ted Litchfield, Rory Norris Published

NO SHOWS Who's out for Summer? Who's out forever?

NO SHOWS
A motorcycle plane carrying a package soars over a cosy little island in Into the Wind, a debut game by Bloom & Gloom Games.
Into the Wind is a gorgeous, Ghibli-esque adventure about taking over your missing uncle's delivery service, but with more dogfighting in your aeroplane bike

By Harvey Randall Published

News It's a bike, it's a plane, it's delivery-man!

News
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