Latest articles by Harvey Randall
Slow down—World of Warcraft: The War Within's best stories lie in its side quests and optional conversations
HEAR IT OUT Patience is a virtue.
Mouse: P.I. for Hire devs share ambitions to make a game that's more than 'just a cool art project': A satirical metroidvania shooter with 'adult, deep, gripping storylines'
News "In a way, Mouse is the dark, twisted reflection of 1950s America."
Larian looked to popular homebrew D&D rules for Baldur's Gate 3: 'We were like—okay, we're not crazy, some people do it, so maybe we can try it as well'
News "We literally went through forums looking for homebrew rules."
After 10 years of reinventing The Elder Scrolls Online, its devs say they'd have only done one thing differently: 'Pick the game you want to make'
News Studio director Matt Firor and creative director Rich Lambert say ESO's early struggles ultimately made for a better game.
'I sat with Todd Howard for about 3 months': The Elder Scrolls Online devs talk working with Bethesda to make sure they don't break the lore of future games
News Keeping the scrolls in good nick.
Deadlock's lanes are utterly fascinating when it comes to MOBA design, and it's because of its shooter elements—not in spite of them
FUN AND GUN Cover challenges.
Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus 2's revamped Cognition system is incredibly clever, bridging the gap between wargame vets and tactics fans
News Work smarter, and harder.
Space marines are so big the Space Marine 2 dev team had to spend a considerable amount of time just getting their walking and running animations right
News Each one is an absolute unit, it's true.
Phantom Blade Zero plays less like Sekiro, more like Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty—and I couldn't be happier
News Mixing it up.
Tavern Keeper is immediately charming, narrated by a prolific audiobook actor, and has a furniture system so freeform I already know I'm gonna lose hours to it
News Give me unrestricted scaling and you'll have my heart.
I'm glad WoW: The War Within players are having a ball with their hero talents, but I had to cobble together an ugly custom UI just to feel something on my Rogue
COIN COUNTING Heads or tails.
Final Fantasy 14 director Yoshi-P talks about the Scion's 'half-hearted' role in Dawntrail, says they'll likely use smaller, more selective groups of beloved NPCs in the future
News "It's important that we don't do things in a half-baked way."
'Of course we are tired': After working for 2 years in the shadow of Russia's invasion, Stalker 2 developers see finally finishing the game as a way to tell the world, 'We are here'
news Technical producer Evgeniy Kulik says support from fans is helping the team move forward.
Smite 2 is a full-on sequel because the original is just too old: 'There were lots of little janky bits about Smite 1 that we were unable to address'
News Smite 2, out today in alpha, aims to 'build a stronger foundation for the next decade of Smite.'
WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas says they're already drafting up plans for The Last Titan's patches—that's 2 expansions after The War Within, in case you're keeping score
News Look to the future now, it's only just begun.
Final Fantasy 14's Yoshi-P says 'if the question is whether I was shocked' by the mixed reception to Dawntrail's story, 'the answer is no, not really'
News "I had already predicted that we would have some sort of mixed response this time."
World of Warcraft: The War Within is out—kicking off with banger zones, stupendous side quests, and early access gripes
News Earthen, a second wind, and flame wars.
Despite being one of the biggest Unreal Engine 5 games ever, Stalker 2's locations are almost entirely hand-crafted: 'It took a lot of time, took a lot of effort, but we're happy with the result'
GSC Game World said it tried using procedural generation for some elements of the game, but it just didn't fit.
World of Warcraft director Ion Hazzikostas says the Worldsoul Saga is letting Blizzard give its villains some much-needed character: 'Dragons are really cool, but it's hard to grasp the motivations of a being the size of a city'
News "What if we give this some time to breathe and give us some time to let the story go where it ought to go?"
Crimson Desert, the first single-player game from the Black Desert devs, is shaping up to be an absolute riot to play so far
Extreme Viking I want more viking nonsense.
The best Baldur's Gate 3 builds
Kensai/Mage Why stick with just one class when you could have, like, four?
Tactical Breach Wizards review: Excellent turn-based tactical combat wrapped up in a joyful, tightly-written story.
TUSSLE WIZARDS I cast gun.
After Morrigan's surprise cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard's release date trailer, VA Claudia Black says she 'wasn't lying … I honestly thought they were done with my fave mage'
News Morrigan, again.
