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

Stormgate is leaving early access before it's technically finished: 'We believe that our campaign and 1v1 are ready for a broader audience'
By Rick Lane published
News Both the co-op mode and terrain editor are still in active development.

These fanmade reload animations for Abiotic Factor are so good the game's own art director praises them: 'You absolutely nailed the vibe I was going for'
By Rick Lane published
News (Re)active reload.

The Elder Scrolls' weird relationship with expansions began a full decade before the horse armour DLC, in the form of a 16-quest addon to Daggerfall exclusive to one US retailer
By Rick Lane published
Secrets of the ancients Investigating the history of the Daggerfall CompUSA special edition.

Total War: Warhammer 3's siege rework beta is live now and runs into August, letting you have your say on pocket ladder prohibition, battle AI improvements, and more
By Rick Lane published
News "This is your chance to get hands-on with the changes."

Crash Bandicoot's original lead programmer reckons the overhauled N. Sane Trilogy 'got almost everything right' except for one tiny detail: 'they completely botched how jumping works'
By Rick Lane published
News "Every jump on the remake is huge and floaty."

After a forgettable launch, Ubisoft's Avatar game is getting a huge new update later this year, introducing new game plus and a third-person mode
By Rick Lane published
News But you'll have to wait until December.

'The age of gameplay mechanics has already passed' says Shadow of The Colossus director as he praises Katamari Damacy creator's new game for not being systems-driven
By Rick Lane published
News "Even if there’s nothing novel about the mechanics, you can push the game further with a certain vibe or artwork."

Co-op Kaiju Horror Cooking is a game about medieval monks catapulting meals into the mouths of giant monsters, and it's out later this month
By Rick Lane published
News But you can get in early via an ongoing playtest.

Ubisoft CEO responds to the Stop Killing Games petition, stating the publisher is 'working on' improving its approach to end-of-life support, but that 'nothing is eternal'
By Rick Lane published
News "Obviously support for all games cannot last forever."

Soulframe dev says launching in 2025 is now an 'aspirational goal', but you can play the fantasy RPG's pre-alpha right now if you're quick
By Rick Lane published
News "We have ambitions to release it as soon as we can."

Peak's latest beta patch ensures the cooperative climbing sim actually checks players are alive when they reach the summit of its mountain: 'You no longer win if you die'
By Rick Lane published
News Patch 0.8.d also adds two new items and the option to reduce camera bob.

Destiny 2 dev denies accusations that The Edge of Fate introduced 'stealth nerfs' after players identify missing changes in the expansion's massive changelog: 'We would be completely out of our minds if we thought we could slip something under the rug'
By Rick Lane published
News "We're looking to get details out ASAP on the missed notes."

The Sims 4's rampant pregnancy bug was apparently caused by 'performance optimizations' and has now been fixed
By Rick Lane published
News "Any Sim pregnancy related mods should return to their pre-update functionality."

Fanatical's latest build your own bundle lets you grab 23 shooters for under $2 apiece
By Rick Lane published
Get Dusk, Amid Evil and, er, Pathologic 2 for less than a cup of coffee each.

Ubisoft confirms it is working on a new Ghost Recon game, and it sure looks like it'll be a live service affair
By Rick Lane published
Possibly first-person too.

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."
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