Rick Lane

Contributor

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

Samson screenshot
Liquid Swords, developer of open-city crime sim Samson, has gone bankrupt following staff claims that they haven't been paid in two months

By Rick Lane Published

News The administrator is currently seeking a buyer for the studio and its assets.

17 Comments
News
The new action-RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker's protagonist, Coen, holding a sword and staring directly at the reader.
The Blood of Dawnwalker's first major update will add directional animal petting and a new story mode that's easier than the previous story mode

By Rick Lane Published

News "What happens when you merge a directional combat system with an ability to pet dogs and cats?"

News
A screenshot of Drunken Goddess Reflux, showing the player preparing to drink a shot of alcohol while facing a pink-haired demon lady.
Developer cancels public demo of its upcoming horror drinking game, fearing it will be instantly cloned by AI vibe coders: 'We sincerely apologise for the short notice'

By Rick Lane Published

News Alliance Arts will instead host "closed sessions" for Drunken Goddess Reflux.

37 Comments
News
A hooded figure with blue eyes in Dune: Awakening
Funcom is laying off yet more developers as it pivots to supporting Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles

By Rick Lane Published

News CEO Rui Casais to depart the company at the end of the year.

News
Warlock
I was excited by Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons until the protagonist pulled out a sword

By Rick Lane Published

Mage wars Can't we just stick to the magic?

97 Comments
Mage wars
Planet Zoo 2 review
Planet Zoo 2 review: Superstar animals and frustrating micromanagement

By Rick Lane Published

Doctor Zoo-fiddle The animals are as beautiful as ever, but they're trapped in a cage of rote micromanagement.

47 Comments
Doctor Zoo-fiddle
Etre's protagonist, Xyle, floats in a kaleidoscopic void.
This Control-inspired action game set in a 'planet-scale alien mind' has one of the most stunning art styles I've seen this year

By Rick Lane Published

News Studio Lifeforms' Etre is shaping up to be a visual feast.

News
'I'm the type of player who loves to 100% a game': SungWon Cho on achievement hunting, why he doesn’t like multiplayer games, and the one Balatro joker that nearly drove him to despair

By Rick Lane Published

ProZD Plays Games The actor and YouTuber guides us through the games on his PC.

ProZD Plays Games
A screenshot of Teach My Little Sister How To Drive, showing your virtual sibling grinning terrifyingly at you at the wheel of a car.
The developer of an AI-powered driving instruction simulator is spending $1,000 per day just to keep its demo running

By Rick Lane Published

News Teach My Little Sister How to Drive centres around a costly chatbot.

14 Comments
News
A cropped image of Wing Commander 3's cover art, showing Mark Hamill, an anthropomorphic cat alien, and a spaceship
It looks like Wing Commander 3 is getting a remaster, after EA producer discovers the original FMV source tapes in the company's archives

By Rick Lane Published

News Plans for a 30th Anniversary Edition of the classic space sim were revealed at Portland Gaming Expo.

18 Comments
News
A Minesweeper board sits in the middle of a black screen. The main character, the Sweeper, exclaims "Oof! A Mine!"
Triple-A Minesweeper is a gleeful send-up of blockbuster gaming's worst habits, from yellow paint to characters who talk too much

By Rick Lane Published

News "Oof, a mine!"

News
The advent of first-person shooters introduced a wild frontier of unregulated video game level packs, and it ended in a lawsuit that changed copyright forever

By Rick Lane Published

Pack It In Revisiting the forgotten fourth state of PC gaming.

Pack It In
Silent Hill 2 remake screenshot - Pyramid Head standing in the rain
Expect plenty more Silent Hill over the next few years, as Konami has plans for 'second and third waves' of new games in its revived horror series

By Rick Lane Published

News "We're currently looking at a number of projects," says producer Motoi Okamoto.

8 Comments
News
A player battles a zombie peasant in Heathen.
'If you're skilful enough, you can chop the head off a monster, kick it midair, and then kill another monster with it': Consider me sold on this indie first-person ARPG

By Rick Lane Published

News Heathen puts a new perspective on Diablo, and it looks brilliant.

News
Tonda Ros in front of a UFO 50 backdrop
Tonda Ros, creator of Blue Prince, has played UFO 50 for almost 700 hours: 'I think it's easily my favourite game of the last 20 years'

By Rick Lane Published

Rosplay The designer of 2025's celebrated puzzler guides us through the games on his PC.

Rosplay
Gothic spires loom from a purple mist in Quake Rooftops Jam.
Yet another free fan level pack for Quake has arrived, and this one's all about a feature rarely seen in id Software's classic shooter

By Rick Lane Published

News Quake Rooftops Jam takes a bird's eye view to level design.

News
GTA 6 character Real Dimez
Grand Theft Auto 6 features 'detailed decapitation' and 'frequent and prominent' drug use, according to hastily deleted PEGI rating

By Rick Lane Published

News Jason and Lucia can also snort cocaine "directly from their hand at any time."

25 Comments
News
Starcraft Protoss cover
An OpenAI model was caught trying to cheat at StarCraft, and of course it did it by stealing a human's work

By Rick Lane Published

News GPT-6 Astra tried to get a leg-up in Blizzard's RTS by pilfering a human-created bot.

8 Comments
News
A screenshot of Deadlock hero The Rat King. A giant rat wearing a metallic crown and a cape sits on a throne of scrap metal.
Deadlock's new hero Rat King has over 100 voice lines dedicated to throwing rats at you

By Rick Lane Published

News Chat King.

News
An Aston Martin Valhalla drives down a road, sparks flying from its rear.
007 First Light gets free DLC that will finally let you drive James Bond's Aston Martin properly

By Rick Lane Published

News Extended Operations adds two TacSim missions, new game plus, and a photo mode.

News
Leon Kennedy mog
Capcom announces plans to transform its RE Engine into an 'AI-generation game engine'

By Rick Lane Published

News But that isn't necessarily the same as a generative AI game engine.

20 Comments
News
No Law screenshot
No Law might be the open-world Deus Ex that Cyberpunk 2077 wasn't

By Rick Lane Published

On trial CD Projekt's sci-fi RPG was close to being my perfect game. But it fell short in one specific area.

14 Comments
On trial
A Dota 2 screenshot and a headshot of William Pugh
William Pugh, co-designer of The Stanley Parable, has over 1,600 hours in Dota 2: 'It's not a game made of love. It's a game fuelled by hate and a desire to conquer'

By Rick Lane Published

Crowing The founder of Crows Crows Crows guides us through the games on his PC.

Crowing
A purple, three-eyed monster viewed through the front-facing window of a submarine in The Temple
This ambitious Half-Life 2 mod asks: what if Iron Lung had a submarine and an airship?

By Rick Lane Published

News Oh, and a space shuttle.

News
An anime lad with spiky, white and orange hair looks toward the camera.
The spiritual successor to classic JRPG Wild Arms has seemingly been cancelled, four years after its Kickstarter raised nearly $3 million

By Rick Lane Published

News The developers of Armed Fantasia had completed a vertical slice as of March this year.

8 Comments
News
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