Rick Lane
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

The Expanse RPG's developers are 'humbled' by comparisons to BioWare's heyday, but don't expect it to be a straight Mass Effect clone: 'We make our story a little bit differently'
By Rick Lane published
News "We’re making more choices and consequences."

Total War: Warhammer 3's Tides of Torment DLC is delayed: 'We asked ourselves if this next DLC met the standards that we’ve set in recent releases, and the short answer was no'
By Rick Lane published
News A new release date will be revealed later this year.

This wildly ambitious Yakuza 5 co-op mod lets you play together as Kiryu and Ichiban, even folding Like a Dragon's protagonist into the game's cutscenes
By Rick Lane published
News Explore, fight, and dance together in RGG's massive fifth adventure.

You can now play both campaigns of the original Command & Conquer in 2-player co-op, thanks to one of its best mods
By Rick Lane published
News Joint Operations.

Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader just received another 'massive' update, this time directed at its expansion
By Rick Lane published
News Update 1.4.1 makes a new party character appear earlier in the game, among many other changes.

Norland's 'big summer update' is even larger than March's 'damn big update', introducing a politics system, a new economy and more authentically medieval buildings to the Crusader Kings-inspired colony sim
By Rick Lane published
News Developer Long Jaunt plans to focus on roadmap features going forward.

Two Point Museum's latest update lets you manage a museum atop a massive mountain, and allows all players a taste of its upcoming fantasy-themed DLC
By Rick Lane published
News Starter dungeon.

Witchfire's massive next update is inspired by games like Syndicate and Bloodborne, and it's the biggest one yet: 'We really mean it'
By Rick Lane published
News The Webgrave update arrives July 28.

Ken Levine wanted System Shock 2's final level to be set in outer space, but the idea was shot down by its senior designers: 'They're like dude, we have 14 months to make this game'
By Rick Lane published
News "I still went and made a level that looked entirely different and played entirely different."

Warren Spector was so desperate to make Deus Ex that it almost became a Command & Conquer RPG: 'I was going to find a way to make it one way or another, even if it meant making another damn sci-fi game!'
By Rick Lane published
News PC gaming history could have been very different.

Deep Rock Galactic Survivor is gearing up for launch, literally—adding a fully-fledged gear system when it hits 1.0 in September
By Rick Lane published
News Gear of Dwarves.

Preservationists discover a 'nearly complete' build of a lost Animaniacs game 22 years after it was cancelled, and you can play it right now
By Rick Lane published
News Animaniacs: Hollywood Hypnotics hasn't been seen since 2003.

Rust's developer is overhauling the survival sim's mission system so it can create in-game quests faster and more easily: 'The process to create new missions internally is quite cumbersome and error prone'
By Rick Lane published
News Latest update also adds a party system and "improved erosion".

What happened to the creator of Gunman Chronicles, Valve's forgotten FPS? 'My relationship with Gabe didn't really go that great'
By Rick Lane published
Digital fossils Tracing the history of an ancient Valve artefact.

Runaway city-building success Manor Lords is getting a major overhaul to its systems: 'It's not just a new feature or two. It's a full rework'
By Rick Lane published
News "Because we're working on all these big changes, we haven't been able to put out smaller patches."

Chaotic destruction sim Teardown breaks cover on its multiplayer update, revealing 8 player team deathmatch and support for modded servers
By Rick Lane published
News Will be available for experimental testing soon.

RoboCop: Rogue City's expansion will let you play as ED-209, but I'm more excited about having some guns I might use instead of the Auto 9
By Rick Lane published
News Also, what's going on with that voiceover?

Here's a mod that puts Halo's multiplayer into Half-Life, which to me feels like putting tea in your coffee
By Rick Lane published
News Halo Goldsource brings Slayer and Firefight into Valve's classic shooter.

Wreckfest 2's latest update lets you drive a grotty motorhome that's definitely had meth cooked in it, and ensures that 'realistic damage mode is now more realistic'
By Rick Lane published
News New tracks and demolition derby arenas also added.

For the first time in three years, Sable is free to keep on the Epic Store
By Rick Lane published
News Grab Shedworks' beautiful open-world game gratis for the next week.

The brilliant Half-Life-inspired survival game Abiotic Factor cascades into 1.0 this July
By Rick Lane published
News Deep Field Games wraps up early access development next month.

I played Lovecraftian doctor simulator Do No Harm, and let me tell you, my brother in Cthulhu, I did some serious harm
By Rick Lane published
Hippocratic oaf Doctor Eadful is in the house.

Dying Light continues celebrating its 10th anniversary with a big graphical facelift, but don't you dare call it a remaster
By Rick Lane published
News The Retouched update is "about squeezing out even more from the Dying Light you already love."
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