Joshua Wolens
One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.
Latest articles by Joshua Wolens
Palworld has now got a staggering 19 million players, an unstoppable rise that means it's got a bigger population than the Netherlands
By Joshua Wolens published
News But fewer Poffertjes.
The Day Before was an even bigger disaster than you thought: devs reportedly made to pay fines for bad work, learned it was an MMO from the trailers, and no one's sure where the bosses are
By Joshua Wolens published
News Less than Fntastic.
Deep Rock Galactic and Dwarf Fortress call on their fans for a Steam revolution: a new dwarf tag to unite the games under one label
By Joshua Wolens published
News "Strike the Earth! Rock and stone!"
Weird, niche mods make PC gaming great, and these ones prove it
By Joshua Wolens published
Mods most modest If I can't play Guitar Hero as Barack Obama what's even the point?
Witcher remake studio boss says it'll remake what's 'bad, outdated, or unnecessarily convoluted' without naming the sex baseball cards we all know he's talking about
By Joshua Wolens published
News But Fool's Theory's Jakub Rokosz also says the remake will highlight "the parts that are great" and "should be retained."
Palworld player uncovers secret Mewtwo-like hidden in the game files that looks too legally actionable even for Palworld
By Joshua Wolens published
News Mew-who?
Don't think of Avowed as Obsidian's Skyrim but as a Fallout: New Vegas and Outer Worlds-style take on first-person fantasy, says the studio
By Joshua Wolens published
News You have my interest.
Obsidian's design director would love to add the immersive sim elements of Baldur's Gate 3 into a 'Pillars-y' game: 'we have mostly 2D worlds, so that's a lot more difficult'
By Harvey Randall published
News "But even in a 3D world, it's not easy."
Adam Jensen voice actor says cancelled Deus Ex likely 'wasn't a Jensen story anyway' and that 'I gotta be honest, I gave up on it a long time ago'
By Joshua Wolens published
News Embracer cancellation or no, it seems we were never going to see a conclusion to the Jensen arc anyway.
Hearts of Iron 4 beefs up Brazil and invites you to save South America from fascism in its latest DLC
By Joshua Wolens published
News Where hearts (of iron) were entertaining June.
Stunned devs left scrambling for livelihoods in wake of yesterday's layoff bloodbath: 'In the end the contributions didn't matter'
By Joshua Wolens published
News Devs have found themselves adrift in the aftermath of swingeing layoffs across Activision-Blizzard and Xbox.
Dwarf Fortress' missing best mode is tantalisingly close to release, just as soon as they nail down how to 'target toes with your crab pincers'
By Joshua Wolens published
News Adventure Mode has been absent from Dwarf Fortress' premium version since it came out.
Walls between PC and console continue to crumble as Horizon Forbidden West announces March release date
By Joshua Wolens published
News An un-Aloyed good.
Palworld becomes second game in Steam history to hit more than 2 million concurrent players
By Joshua Wolens published
News Just me and a couple million best pals.
Palworld fights 'cheating on the official server' with new patch, but 'it is currently difficult to completely prevent all cheating immediately'
By Joshua Wolens published
News Cheating? Unpalworthy behaviour.
11 years in, Old School RuneScape's toaster graphics are about to look better than ever
By Joshua Wolens published
News An official HD mode is due, with an alpha planned "very soon."
Florida Joker issues new ultimatum to Rockstar over apparent GTA 6 trailer cameo: 'Let me voice the character'
By Joshua Wolens published
News And he still wants his millions, too.
World's biggest mod site says no to Palworld Pokémon mods after taking one look at Nintendo's record of 'mercilessly submitting legal challenges'
By Joshua Wolens published
News You won't find a Pikachu pal on Nexus Mods.
The Day Before studio asks whether you're going to believe it or your own lying eyes as it attributes the game's catastrophic performance to a 'hate campaign' by 'bloggers'
By Joshua Wolens published
News Fntastic shut its doors in December, but it's still making statements.
Former Pokémon legal chief says Palworld 'looks like the usual ripoff nonsense I would see a thousand times a year ' and he's 'surprised it got this far'
By Joshua Wolens published
News Say how you really feel.
Obsidian's Avowed is going 'classless', ditching Pillars of Eternity's crunchy stat-heavy builds in favour of Skyrim-like ability trees
By Joshua Wolens published
News I suppose classlessness is the logical next step for a studio so keen on historical materialism.
Palworld players discover you can kidnap and sell humans just like pals, although you will be warned it's not very polite
By Joshua Wolens published
News "On Palpargos Island, capturing humans in Palspheres is considered inhumane."
18 years on, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion's unmatched comedic timing is still enough to go viral
By Joshua Wolens published
News I don't trust these snow guys.