Harvey Randall

Harvey Randall

Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Latest articles by Harvey Randall

A witch in The Blood of Dawnwalker looking a little pensive, sun beaming on her face.
The Blood of Dawnwalker's most interesting mechanic took a bite out of my inner RPG completionist, who would've otherwise played hooky with a witch

By Harvey Randall Published

DE-QUEST Ignoring a quest becomes a roleplay option when the clock's ticking.

DE-QUEST
A worgen looks very surprised in World of Warcraft Classic.
WoW Classic player hits 60 on hardcore self-found with every class, decides that isn't enough, does a naked run for good measure

By Harvey Randall Published

News "Naked fire mage was a damn cat with 9 lives."

News
Wrath of the Lich King Classic
It looks like Blizzard's escaped Xbox's grim reset scythe for now, though there's still time to be caught in the second 1600-strong layoff wave coming 2027

By Harvey Randall Published

News I'm sure this is great for morale.

News
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25 foolproof ways to get laid off in the videogame industry

By Wes Fenlon Last updated

Protips Tired of making games? Just use one of these simple tricks!

34 Comments
Protips
A group of adventurers charge an enemy in The Elder Scrolls Online.
Elder Scrolls Online developer left reeling by Xbox layoffs—with teams gutted, senior talent gone, and roadmaps 'shifting' as a result

By Harvey Randall Published

News A grim outcome from Xbox's latest round of reaping.

12 Comments
News
Asha Sharma in Microsoft's Unlocking the AI Revolution showcase: "Join us for this insightful interview with Asha Sharma where she will outline the forward direction for AI products, focusing on how they can assist administrators and IT professionals in managing costs and enhancing their operations. Asha will also highlight exciting use cases and real-world applications of AI that have emerged over the past year and a half."
Xbox's CEO wants its games to cater to 'more than a billion people each day', or 24 times more than the peak population of Steam, which is delusional

By Harvey Randall Published

News Alternate title: Does Xbox CEO Asha Sharma know what a billion is?

52 Comments
News
Arthas, from Wrath of the Lich King: Classic, stares through his unholy visor with a smirk on his face.
WoW server suffers outbreak after a debuff breaches containment, giving me flashbacks to a 21-year-old incident so large Covid-19 researchers referenced it

By Harvey Randall Published

News Not quite Corrupted Blood 2.0, but close enough.

News
Alleria Windrunner looks, unimpressed, at a little orb stuck to the PC Gamer's Terminally Online logo.
This little orb's going to be sitting on my minimap for the rest of WoW's current expansion, and I couldn't tell you why

By Harvey Randall Published

MARCO FOLIO Omnium Folio, why art thou?

8 Comments
MARCO FOLIO
Monoco from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 stares with an unassailable masked expression.
Clair Obscur is flawed on purpose, says director: 'Games that try to be perfect, that try to fix all their flaws—they're usually just really boring'

By Harvey Randall Published

News "My theory is that it's just like people."

10 Comments
News
A group of adventurers, including a stern human warrior, gather their forces to defend Azeroth in World of Warcraft: Midnight.
World of Warcraft's on the quality-of-life boost warpath, with fixes including an auto-loot setting that's been mildly inconveniencing alt-lovers for years

By Harvey Randall Published

News Helm tipped.

News
An image of game director Ion Hazzikostas in front of art for Mists of Pandaria: Remix - showing Garrosh Hellscream roaring with an axe held in hand.
WoW's bug-filled April patch was actually from trying to fix too much too fast, says director Ion Hazzikostas—like an elevator from 13 years ago that blew up housing

By Harvey Randall Published

News "This is going to inspire some spaghetti code memes, but…"

7 Comments
News
Brian Heder in Grand Theft Auto 6.
Rockstar UK employees say the GTA 6 developer's still plagued by gender pay gaps, crunch, and vague bonuses which make them 'as pliable as possible to their boss's whims'

By Harvey Randall Published

News "A fifth of your salary could be withheld without any justification."

News
Several tight-wearing superheroes surge towards the camera in a heroic fashion in City of Heroes.
The ESA quietly starts walking back baffling statements about private servers being 'illegal', though it's still tutting and wagging its finger

By Harvey Randall Published

News I get the sense the ESA still doesn't like them, much.

News
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaking on stage.
'I cannot do my job when Microsoft refuses to do theirs', say Xbox union workers as destructive reset looms from a company that spent over $80 billion on AI last year

By Harvey Randall Published

News "Why would a game developer bother to put forward their best work under these conditions?"

News
David from Cyberpunk Edgerunners has a 1,000-yard stare.
I wasn't convinced Cyberpunk: Edgerunners could have a sadder ending until I read its writer's other pitches—and boy did we get off easy

By Harvey Randall Published

News Counting my cyber-blessings.

News
A split image. Left: A character from concord looks grimly determined. Right: A character from Destiny 2 carries another into a bright, burning light.
Sony games boss says company will bravely keep sending live services over the top, despite cancelling 8 of the 12 ones planned for 2025 and wiping out most of Destiny 2's developers

By Harvey Randall Published

News "The genre itself is relatively new."

12 Comments
News
A pandaren standing in the Mythic+ portal for World of Warcraft, with the Terminally Online logo imposed over it.
Discussion time: Most big MMOs are seasonal now—do you prefer it that way, or do you loathe the FOMO checklist?

By Harvey Randall Published

WELL SEASONED 'Tis the season.

WELL SEASONED
A split image showing the art from the Vampire: The Masquerade crossover and Strahd from D&D.
Vampire: The Masquerade's D&D crossover is a condescending cave-in to people who are afraid of trying something new

By Harvey Randall Published

BLOOD DRAINED The d10s can't hurt you, I swear.

9 Comments
BLOOD DRAINED
Art of the Corrupt Court Official card from Magic: The Gathering, illustrated by Drew Baker.
D&D and Magic owner Hasbro is reportedly trying to get child actors from Peppa Pig to sign away their voices to AI

By Harvey Randall Published

News This doesn't bode too well for Hasbro's videogames, either.

15 Comments
News
Two criminals waiting in a glossy club in Grand Theft Auto 6.
GTA 6's preorders mark the start of a long wait for it to come to PC, despite the fact we'll likely make up '50% of the sales'

By Harvey Randall Published

LEFT OUT What are we, chopped liver?

24 Comments
LEFT OUT
Key art of Path of Exile expansion Keepers of the Flame. A character wearing a red hood and ornate armor holds a bright purple flame in their hand.
Path of Exile co-creator used to think 'live service was entirely upside, in all cases', but 10 years of experience and games like Baldur's Gate 3 have shown him another way

By Harvey Randall Published

News "This is a far more nuanced field than I thought it was 10 years ago."

News
Andrew Wilson, chief executive officer of Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), speaks during the company's EA Play event ahead of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Saturday, June 9, 2018. EA announced that it is introducing a higher-end version of its subscription game-playing service that will include new titles such as Battlefield V and the Madden NFL 19 football game
The grim industry summer continues as EA lays off staff ahead of $55 billion sale to Saudi Arabia, likely to soothe the sting of its $20 billion debt

By Harvey Randall Published

News The layoffs will continue until… well, something improves.

News
Art of a Hunter character walking away from the camera, holding a dead Cayde-6.
Warframe dev says 'no one is celebrating' Destiny 2 winding down: 'A game is healthy when you have competitors'

By Harvey Randall Published

News We all lift together.

11 Comments
News
Travis Willingham reassures the cast that he has a backup character in Critical Role's Cooldown.
I had my doubts about Critical Role's new 13-player D&D campaign, but its latest episodes have me fully bought into its grand, ambitious promise

By Harvey Randall Published

HIGH ROLLERS Three parties, one city, high stakes.

HIGH ROLLERS
Guild Wars screenshot
Guild Wars' devs tried to escape the MMO branding in 2005, citing all the things that would become genre staples 20 years later

By Harvey Randall Published

News If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

News
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