Rick Lane
Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.
Latest articles by Rick Lane

Almost 13 years since reveal, TimeSplitters Rewind is finally out: 'Sorry it took so long. We've only been making the largest free content video game ever'
By Rick Lane published
News Early access is available to download now.

This roguelike take on Geometry Wars is the best game I've played this month, and the latest to become a permanent fixture on my Steam Deck
By Rick Lane published
News Sektori is a blistering kaleidoscopic nightmare.

Fatshark celebrates 10 years of rat-bashing by adding one of Vermintide's 'most popular' maps into Vermintide 2, but 'things are not as before'
By Rick Lane published
News Return to the Reik shakes up an old favourite.

Classic text adventure Zork is going open source, but I'm side-eyeing Microsoft's announcement about it hard
By Rick Lane published
News Microsoft is working with the Internet Archive's Jason Scott.

Mafia: The Old Country's Free Ride update is out now, replacing its empty open world with an extremely basic one
By Rick Lane published
News Also adds photo mode and first-person driving.

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
By Rick Lane published
News On yer bike.

5 months after launch, cooperative shooter FBC Firebreak finally has integrated voice chat, but its Vampire Survivors-style wave mode is delayed until next year
By Rick Lane published
News Rogue Protocol now coming in January 2026.

This mech themed XCOM-like just got a gargantuan update that overhauls its campaign, redesigns its overworld, and adds personalities to pilots with 'over 100' unique traits
By Rick Lane published
News Phantom Brigade 2.0 is out now.

Doom: The Dark Ages' latest update overhauls its customisable arena mode, and id Software wants to add the best player-made slaughter-fests as selectable presets
By Rick Lane published
News Rip and share.

After bagging a Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 quest designer for The Witcher 4, CD Projekt snaps up BioShock 4's former narrative lead to work on Cyberpunk 2
By Rick Lane published
News Liz Albl joins CD Projekt Red.

Forget Half-Life 3, the talking rat in Fatekeeper's latest trailer is the best thing you'll see this week
By Rick Lane published
News Rat's entertainment.

Borderlands 4 has a 'very stupid' glitch that lets you unlock a character's most powerful abilities before refunding all your skill points, but don't expect it to be around long as Gearbox says 'we're on it'
By Rick Lane published
News The glitch will "change the build meta for every build" according to the YouTuber who brought it to attention.

Inundated with slop, TikTok tests feature that will let users request to 'see less' AI generated content in their feeds
By Rick Lane published
News The new toggle aims to help users "dial things down" on the AI front.

Delta Force devs apologise after Facepunch Studios exec accuses them of stealing assets from Rust: 'If you wanted to collab, you should have reached out'
By Rick Lane published
News Facepunch spied some suspiciously familiar C4 in Delta Force's most recent trailer.

The developer of 80 Days was once invited to pitch a Doctor Who game, but never heard back from the BBC afterward: 'Technically, we're still waiting for a reply'
By Rick Lane published
News And that's how we ended up with Heaven's Vault.

When Assassin's Creed's infamously dull main character was finally killed off, voice actor Nolan North didn't find out until a fan told him about it on Twitter
By Rick Lane published
News But there might be life in Desmond Miles yet.

7 years after launch and 18 years after Steam, the Epic Games Store will now let you gift games directly to your friends
By Rick Lane published
Consider it a late birthday present.

Silent Hill f fans reckon that its recent casual difficulty patch was inspired by the lead actor's livestreamed struggles with the game
By Rick Lane published
News "Konatsu Kato has made an enormous contribution to the game industry."

After the bungled launch of Cities: Skylines 2, Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order part ways as development moves to a new studio
By Rick Lane published
News Zoned out.

US Congressman calls for regulations to 'prevent companies from using AI to eliminate jobs to extract greater profit' following Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's calling card fiasco
By Rick Lane published
News "Artists at these companies need to have a say in how AI is deployed."

XDefiant was originally going to be a new Splinter Cell, according to former Ubisoft devs who went on to make Dispatch, but the publisher changed plans to chase those big Call of Duty bucks
By Rick Lane published
News "We thought we were going to be able to make something really great."

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is 'definitely not competing for resources' with Space Marine 3, because the latter is still years away
By Rick Lane published
News "Announcing a third game doesn’t in any way mean that we’re not going to continue creating content for the existing game."

The creators of zombie survival hit Vein say its launch was 'much larger than expected' and there will be 'a bit of a transition period' as it looks toward future updates
By Rick Lane published
News "We have a lot of considerations to make in terms of prioritizing features".
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