Justin Wagner

Justin Wagner

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

Latest articles by Justin Wagner

Guild Wars 3 concept art
Guild Wars 3 is 'significantly more' of an MMO than the first game, but that doesn't mean it's like GW2: 'All three of our games can coexist as different experiences'

By Justin Wagner Published

News GW3 is definitively an MMO, but ArenaNet says it won't play like either of its predecessors.

16 Comments
News
Bobby Prince sits in front of a PC, smiling for the camera.
Bobby Prince, the legendary composer behind Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, has died

By Justin Wagner Published

News Prince helped define the sound which characterized the early FPS, as well as classic PC games like Catacomb 3-D.

9 Comments
News
Three sheep with big guns in Palworld.
Palworld studio says 'gamers don't want' AI in their games: 'It feels like everyone who is super gung-ho about it isn't from the industry'

By Justin Wagner Published

News It's not the first time Pocketpair's John Buckley has spoken out against the tech.

28 Comments
News
The new NBA game's street balling is strong, but it's way too sweaty for its own good

By Justin Wagner Published

Alley-oops Ice cream, ice cream!

Alley-oops
A blobby stick-figure person painted blue hides against a blue wall as another stick-figure person walks through a doorway.
Hide-and-seek game where you paint your body to blend in sells a million copies in four days

By Justin Wagner Published

News Meccha Chameleon is the latest indie smash hit centering silly multiplayer antics.

9 Comments
News
The Jailer from World of Warcraft: Shadowlands holds a super ominous ball of shadow energy in is mega-evil hand.
Blizzard sues to kill another World of Warcraft private server for 'large scale, egregious, and ongoing infringement of [its] intellectual property'

By Justin Wagner Published

News Project Ascension is in the MMO studio's sights.

14 Comments
News
A group of aliens in Spore.
Spore devs say the evolution game's previews were more ambitious than what they were actually making, and they 'built a fantasy in people's minds that was unachievable'

By Justin Wagner Published

News The evolution sim that was never meant to be.

16 Comments
News
Lamball from Palworld as it stands in a grassy area and looks surprised
Nintendo's legal battle with Palworld looks shakier than ever: It may only get '$30,000 chump change' if it wins at all

By Justin Wagner Published

News It looks like Pocketpair will come out of this largely unfazed.

News
A group of anime-esque medieval soldiers stand in front of castle walls.
'Make some noise': Vanillaware reportedly wants more of its games on PC, but it's up to the publishers

By Justin Wagner Published

News The studio behind Odin Sphere and Unicorn Overlord "totally wants" more of its games on PC.

9 Comments
News
Crimson Desert Sigil of Valor - Dog
New Crimson Desert patch lets you hoard 100 pets and gives you more chainsaw access

By Justin Wagner Published

News More pets, more chainsaws. What else are videogames for?

News
A passenger pointing over a driver's shoulder in Crazy Taxi
Generative AI 'was only used as a reference,' Crazy Taxi creator says: Artists would 'look at that generated image and draw the actual thing'

By Justin Wagner Last updated

News I don't think this really improves the situation.

55 Comments
News
CHIBA, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 26: The Xbox logo is seen during the Tokyo Game Show 2024 at Makuhari Messe on September 26, 2024 in Chiba, Japan. The gaming exhibition is one of the world's largest and will be held through September 29th. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)
Xbox's big pitch for the future sure involves a lot of going backwards

By Justin Wagner Published

Opinion The recent Xbox Games Showcase was a parade of revivals seemingly hoping to stoke the flames of console rivalry.

Opinion
sea of thieves bury booty update
Sea of Thieves will get custom games and machinima creation tools

By Justin Wagner Published

News A saltier sort of sandbox.

News
An image from AION 2 by NCSoft
Aion 2 producer says it's good to have 'friendly competition' with Guild Wars 3 'during this period where MMOs are struggling'

By Justin Wagner Published

News Guild Wars 3 isn't the only NCSoft-published MMO on the horizon, with Aion 2 gearing up for global release.

News
Michael Meyers standing in the middle of the street in Halloween: The Game
Halloween teases single-player slash 'em up campaign in grisly new trailer

By Justin Wagner Published

News Taking shape.

News
Gothic Remake - Hero
Gothic devs are 'monitoring the sentiment about lockpicking,' promise a PC patch for crashes by Monday

By Justin Wagner Published

News "We cannot stress enough how much easier this gets when you start adding skill points into it."

News
Guild Wars screen - dude in a mask holding a sword over his head like he's He-Man in fancy dress or something
Guild Wars 1 and 2 will continue to get updates even after Guild Wars 3 is out: 'We are not replacing your favorite games'

By Justin Wagner Published

News "We are not repeating the same approach as we did all those years ago," when Guild Wars 2 launched, says ArenaNet.

News
Steam store homepage
Indie devs mixed on Steam's latest redesign over visibility complaints

By Justin Wagner Published

News Some claim it will hurt indie visibility, others report improvement.

News
HAEX Cube
I really want to know what the cube is all about in Haex

By Justin Wagner Published

News Cubes 'n' co-op. Sure, I'll bite.

News
Guild Wars 3 screenshot
As someone with over 1,000 hours in Guild Wars 2, I hope ArenaNet has a better plan this time around

By Justin Wagner Published

Opinion Guild Wars 2's expansion cadence never quite hit its stride, even after a decade of experiments—will Guild Wars 3 be different?

27 Comments
Opinion
Resident Evil: Veronica trailer still.
Resident Evil – Code: Veronica remake announced

By Justin Wagner Published

news The 2026 Summer Game Fest showcase kicked off with another Resi remake.

news
Sword fighters in a desert
Ultra-hard survival sandbox Kenshi passes 3 million copies sold, teases fans with 'Kenshi 2 When?' website

By Justin Wagner Published

News The indie hit is tough as nails, but it's less niche than you might expect.

News
Jason Voorhees wearing a hockey mask is reflected in a grimy window.
'We’re just thrilled the stars aligned': Less than 2 years after his own game fully shut down, Jason Voorhees is coming to Dead by Daylight

By Justin Wagner Published

News Tch tch tch, ha ha ha.

News
Peak scout posing
Peak's success helped Aggro Crab commit to co-op, says studio head: 'We thought we were a character action studio'

By Justin Wagner Published

News Peak was "kind of a side hustle" at first.

News
The man from Spelunky brandishes a shotgun.
PC gaming's very own indie-themed Smash Bros. just added the guy from Spelunky, who I now know is named Guy Spelunky

By Justin Wagner Published

News You know, Guy Spelunky. The guy… from Spelunky.

News
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