Feature archive

April 2026

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87 articles

April 23
- After 18 years of beating roguelikes, I think I've finally found my kryptonite
- Best graphics cards in 2026: These are the GPUs worth spending money in right now
- PC Gamer magazine's new issue is on sale now: Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred
April 22
- 15 years ago, anyone could send PC Gamer magazine text messages. We got some weird ones
- I'm sick of breaking the bank buying AAA releases, so I've hunted down overlooked alternatives to 2026's biggest games
- I was worried Owlcat couldn't pull off Mass Effect-style cinematic action in its big new RPG, but after an hour of blowing stuff up in The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, I'm feeling very reassured
- Data, not guessing: Looking at Nvidia's past GPUs to predict the specs for its future RTX 60-series graphics cards
- At least there's one tech company making me feel sane in an increasingly insane world
April 21
- 17 years ago, a free-to-play Battlefield predicted our grim live service present
- Laptop vs desktop: which Alienware Area-51 is right for you?
- Combing through a house full of a dead loved one's possessions to figure out who they were feels like the anti-Unpacking
- Petit Planet is exactly the Animal Crossing clone it looked like, but after 15 hours of it I'm shocked by how many new ideas it has too
- After 15 years and 323 hours, I've finally beaten Fallout: New Vegas, and this game doesn't need mods as much as you think it does
April 20
- The new World of Tanks hero shooter is shockingly fun, and the beta is still up for a few days
- Barely Breathing is the most fun I've had as a parkouring fish in a long time
- Steam week in review: Pragmata and Windrose face off, with sad sci-fi dads proving no match for tree-chopping pirates
April 19
- What is the best licensed music to make its way into videogames?
- Dave Oshry, CEO of New Blood Interactive, will never uninstall Doom from his PC, and has over 488 hours in Fallout 76: 'It's the best cryptid hunting game'
- The coolest in-game art is in Arthur Morgan's journal in Red Dead Redemption 2, and no you can't convince me otherwise
April 18
- Help! The Millennium Bug made all the robots in my mansion go berserk, and only Homer Simpson can save the day
- Dedicated nature watchers are combing every millisecond of GTA 6 trailer footage to exhaustively catalogue all of its animals
- I've already raced through Pragmata 3 times, and it's cemented Capcom's mastery of the modern action game speedrun
- I found out the hard way that Linux is not a dad-friendly gaming OS, and maybe neither is the PC
April 17
- After the death of Dragon Age, it's a megaton bummer to go back and hear BioWare's founders talk about the series' bright future
- Battlefield 6 'seasons' should be big moments, but they're not, and it's because EA keeps drip-feeding us like hamsters in a cage
- I've found a Dark Messiah-inspired action sandbox where you can make banana spike traps and possess enemies to walk off cliffs, and I need it now
- Some takes don't age: Back in 2009, a creative director warned about the risks of 'obsessively self-referencing' existing hit games
April 16
- Moves of the Diamond Hand will be one of 2027's best RPGs, and it just launched in early access
- Hello Kitty Island Adventure's City Town DLC makes the Wheatflour Wonderland expansion seem like a dress rehearsal
April 15
- It's been a month since release and I'm still not sure if Pearl Abyss knows what it wants Crimson Desert to be
April 14
- After 4 hours of pirate survival in Windrose, I'm reinstalling Sea of Thieves
- A floating magical skull goes to war with his own headless body in this necromantic roguelike that combines Vampire Survivors-like combat with Teamfight Tactics-inspired army building
- Marathon isn't going to be the big hit Sony wants because it's just too much of a sicko game
- You can now add 'playing pool' to the list of Lovecraftian horrors that will drive you insane, thanks to this bizarre roguelike that's got me shooting dead fish and vomiting upgrades
- Why the new OLED display really makes Alienware Area-51 laptops shine
- Find Your Words uses a way of communicating I've never experienced in a game before
April 13
- Five new Steam games you probably missed (April 13, 2026)
April 12
- Life is Strange's soundtrack is full of licensed bangers, and still hits even 11 years later
- Question time: Do you care about fashion in MMOs, or do you just chuck any old gear on and call it a day?
- Cosplay is not consent, and I wish we'd stop feeling so entitled to shoving our phones in people's faces without asking them first
- DayZ creator Dean 'Rocket' Hall has over 2,000 hours in Kerbal Space Program and played the original XCOM at Mount Everest base camp: 'I think when I die, I will still be playing that game'
April 11
- How BioWare can make an unlikely comeback, and why it never will: The first step is cancelling Mass Effect
- Revisiting Redfall after its final update reveals the ghost of the game it wanted to be
- The Razer Viper V4 Pro has reminded me that few things can beat great build quality in a mouse
April 10
- Esoteric Ebb creator reckons most players only saw half the game, and that's fine by him: 'You've got to miss stuff in order to feel like the world is bigger'
- Treasure Beach is a scavenger game where you can sell what you find hidden in the sand to stingy shoppers—and let me warn you, it isn't easy
- During a memory crisis do you really need fast memory for PC gaming? No, no you do not
- Look, 16 GB of RAM is absolutely fine for PC gaming in 2026. Though there are some caveats to that...
April 9
- My first campaign in Europa Universalis 5 may have ruined the entire series for me
- Before Imagine Dragons, brothers Dan and Mac Reynolds always wanted to make videogames—now their first, Last Flag, is about to release
- If you've ever wondered what it would be like if Vampire Survivors was about driving around a medieval castle on wheels, then surprisingly I've got the perfect roguelike for you
- The best part of Overwatch's latest hero trailer is that it keeps the overarching narrative front and centre, right where it should be
- Where does your PC live? There is obviously one correct answer, can you pick it out?
April 8
- Trippy, psychedelic alien shooter ChainStaff shows there are still new ways for games to be 'retro'
- The ethically-sourced wizard school life sim I've been waiting for finally has a playable demo and launches this year
- 'Everybody should play every fighting game' says Invincible VS director: 'They're just fun'
- Oh you think you know hidden object games? Then go find a four-leaf clover in the hardest cozy game I've ever seen
- Logitech Superstrike vs Razer Viper V4 Pro: The battle for the competitive crown
- Finally, a cosy game that’s not afraid to kick my teeth in
- 'Humans can't reliably recall colours': Dialed.gg is a simple colour game that made me realise I don't know what pink looks like
- Forza Horizon 6's Japan map is the series' best yet
April 7
- A decade ago, Call of Duty sidelined its iconic progression system to dabble in gacha instead, and I was glad I'd forgotten
- Five new Steam games you probably missed (April 7, 2026)
- 11 years after launch, Pillars of Eternity's new turn-based mode feels like the way it's meant to be played
- I watched the first TV show ever based on a game and it made me realize: we've really got it good these days
April 6
- Your joys will always be someone else's junk
April 5
- In 2007, two game music GOATs collaborated on the criminally underrated soundtrack to a similarly underrated D&D RPG
- I tried to become a pro bowler but I skipped one important step: learning how to bowl
- Never doubt the commitment of horse-girl fans: Umamusume cosplayers are having actual races at tracks around the world
- Tarn Adams, co-creator of Dwarf Fortress, has over 1,400 hours in Factorio and is currently obsessed with terraforming games: 'Dwarf Fortress just doesn't accommodate a full-on sci-fi thing'
- After over 150 hours with Crimson Desert, it still makes no damn sense—compels me though
- It's not just Arrow Lake that's been refreshed: Intel's whole approach to the consumer market seems like a new direction
April 4
- Thank goodness Magic: The Gathering isn't doing a Harry Potter crossover set
- I bought a PS5 on launch day but I won't be buying a PS6, even though its exclusives aren't coming to PC anymore
- MindsEye is a glitchy, incoherent mess I wouldn't recommend to anyone—and it might also be my favorite game of 2026
- Final Fantasy 14's latest variant dungeon is so good, it deserves better—the MMO needs to figure out its rewards so all this great work isn't wasted
- This Nightdive-remastered 3DO shooter shows why it took Halo to break PC gaming's FPS hegemony
April 3
- This AI startup envisions '100 million new people' making videogames
April 2
- Revisiting the last truly great Call of Duty
- Open world crime game Samson had to be pared back mid-development, which led to its unusual structure: 'It's become more unique'
- The new PC games of April 2026: Pragmata, the next Diablo 4 expansion, and Final Fantasy 14's big month
- Crimson Desert's commitment to cleaning up its clunky controls shines the brightest in how satisfying it feels to fly around Pywel now
- There's just no good reason why WoW's story mode raids aren't available right away—and I'm saying that as someone who cleared normal just fine last month
- Life is Strange: Reunion does its best to give Max and Chloe fans what they want at the expense of almost every other character in the game
April 1
- Our cozy games of April list is looking so chilled out that there isn't even a single farm sim on it
- Apple turns 50 today: here's what it does better than PC (no foolin')
- After layoffs, Fortnite's future is shakier than it has ever been