Interviews News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

With datamining starting, we have our first look into the Gladiator Mounts of The War Within. The gladiator mounts are an armored version of other gargoyle mounts being added in The War Within and both are similar to Venthyr's covenant mounts, albeit with way more details.

Stellar Blade is rolling out across the world today, but launch certainly isn't the end since its director has teased a crossover between the hack-n-slashin' action game and the studio's previous gacha release, best known for its - checks notes - butt-jiggling physics. 

Famed game developer Shinji Mikami, known for directing the original Resident Evil and The Evil Within, has revealed why he left his former studio Tango Gameworks despite founding it himself.

Kazuma Kaneko, whose career as a character designer at legendary JRPG studio Atlus has spanned almost four decades, has officially left the company. Kaneko has joined COLOPL, a developer and publisher headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, where he will work on a new IP.

Commander Shepard has been the face of Mass Effect since its inception in 2007, but their story came to a close in ME3 over ten years ago. Still, some fans hoped to see them return in the new game, canonising the one ending where they survive, but that doesn't look likely.

Sonic 3's producer, Toby Ascher, has confirmed that the movie will "take a lot" from Sonic Adventure 2, something that has been hinted at several times since it was announced.

Gloomhaven developer Flaming Fowl Studios has announced layoffs, and that it's putting its current project on hold.

Spoilers for the Fallout TV series.

Naguura interviewed Michael Bybee and Sean McCann about End-Game in the War Within covering Delves, Mythic+ Affixes, raid buffs, encounter difficulty and more! We've summarized some of the biggest points, but please check out the full video for full context and additional questions!

Elden Ring’s story is often attributed to two people: FromSoftware president and creative director Hidetaka Miyazaki, and A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin. This is only partially true. While Miyazaki is credited as the creative mind behind its dense lore and high-fantasy setting, a game as big as Elden Ring had a huge team working on it, and a lot of its story was crafted through gameplay and environmental world-building rather than through a more traditional narrative. Plus, there’s the whole Martin thing.

The next project from the Final Fantasy XVI developer, Square Enix's CBU 3, will likely be more lighthearted, as Yoshi-P seems to be done with dark fantasy for the time being.

Spoilers for the Fallout TV series.

Well, that didn’t take long. After tech demos from the likes of Nvidia inviting us to chat with NPCs whose entire conversations are generated by AI, it looks like the first game built wholly on that controversial idea is due to arrive this year. Uncover the Smoking Gun puts its ChatGPT-powered dialogue front and centre, as the player’s detective interviews robot suspects to solve a murder case.

As expected, there are several new alchemy potions and phials coming to The War Within, though players may be surprised by some of their new effects, which include PvP content flasks that increase honor gains! As in Dragonflight, most of the profession crafted items have three ranks of quality that increase their potency, though for the sake of simplicity, only the rank 3 versions are linked below.

Surgent Studios' is a fantastic-feeling Metroidvania that wears its heart on its sleeve. Much of that is due to the studio's (and the game's) lead, Abubakar Salim, who players may recognize as Bayek from He's also become quite a prolific actor, from working on episodes of to starring in and Ridley Scott's This year, he'll be appearing as Alyn of Hull in season 2.

Warning: spoilers for the Fallout TV show follow.

Kazuma Kaneko, who is known for his character and demon designs across the Megami Tensei series, left ATLUS in 2023 after 35 years and has joined COLOPL to develop a new intellectual property.

We've datamined new armor models for a very scarecrow-inspired transmog — take a look! It is currently unknown what items these models link to, but they certainly give off farm and harvest vibes.

Game Rant interviewed George Velev and Andrew De Sousa on Hero Talent and dungeons in The War Within, discussing the upcoming Dragonriding Escort Dungeon, the Dawnbreaker, and Hero Talents! Game Rant Interview We've briefly summarized some of the major points below, but please read the full interview for more interesting questions and full context!

In an interview with Hirumaredx, Lead Visual Development Artist Gabriel Gonzalez and Senior Narrative Designer Abigail Manuel discussed the art, story, world building, and zones coming in The World Within!

Warning: The below story contains FULL SPOILERS for Fallout Season 1, which is now streaming on Prime Video.

Baldur's Gate 3 was a runaway success both critically and commercially, and now its CEO has explained his philosophy behind treating the RPG's ever-growing community.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth could have rolled credits much sooner in the story if the game's writer stuck to his original idea.

The director of upcoming Sims competitor Life By You has said that players are free to create and monetize their future mods. 

Visions of Mana won't include a multiplayer mode like its predecessors at launch, but the game's producer has toyed with the idea of reintroducing co-op to the series "in the future."

In an interview with Associate Design Director Maria Hamilton, Taliesin & Evitel discuss the challenges of planning a narrative over three expansions in the World Soul Saga, where each expansion is at in terms of development, who Xal'atath really serves, and whether or not Azeroth is really a Titan!

The Rising Tide, the second and final expansion for Final Fantasy 16, is set to feature some of the game's most challenging combat scenarios. That's according to DLC director (and a lead combat designer for the base game) Takeo Kujiraoka, who, in an interview with Push Square, told us that the addition of DLC has allowed the development team to push the title's combat system.

Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke recently discussed various topics in an interview published by GamesIndustry. The director of Baldur's Gate 3 talked about avoiding overlap with Bethesda's Starfield (Larian's game launched in early August on PC, while Starfield was released in early September) and his respect for the studio.

Since the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era, Japanese developers have struggled to keep up with their Western colleagues, as, according to the NieR series creator, they are not good at adapting technology from overseas for multiple reasons.

Spoilers for the Fallout series.

Earlier today, Warhorse Studios officially announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the sequel to its popular RPG set in medieval Bohemia. In a private presentation to media, Warhorse Studios revealed it would be "twice as big" as the first game, among other details. It also confirmed that the sequel will continue the story of Henry, the protagonist of the first game.

The Super Mario Maker community rallied together to beat every single level uploaded to the game before the servers shut down earlier this month, and while the devs at Nintendo weren't initially aware of that effort, they now think it's pretty cool.

The director of upcoming Sims competitor Life By You says life sims are "the most complex" RPGs and crafting games ever made.  

GameSpot has released a writeup of their hands-on experience with The War Within, citing it as more of the same Warcraft, but in a good way! GameSpot Hands-on The War Within

MrGM interviewed Warcraft Vice-President Holly Longdale about lessons from Plunderstorm, experimental modes, and NA x EU cross-region play.

In a group interview with content creators in London, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas confirmed that Blizzard plans to allow Dracthyr to roll other classes besides Evoker in The War Within. During the Interview, Ion confirmed that while that's the plan for the expansion, it won't be a launch feature, but he's hoping they'll be ready early on in the expansion. A glimpse of this future happened on the BlizzCon Warbands preview, when Blizzard has a Dracthyr character wearing leather gear by accident.

Towelliee has released a fantastic interview with George Velev and Andrew Desousa on the War Within discussing many popular topics including Mythic+ Affixes, Augmentation Evoker, Raid Buffs, difficult Mythic bosses and more!

In an interview, Blizzard revealed that «Heroic Week» is returning in The War Within. Dragonflight changed the raid release schedule for the first time in a while, removing «Heroic Week» — a one week period where Mythic raids and the full loot pool of Mythic+ were not open. While removing «Heroic Week» had upsides for certain players, such as not having arbitrary caps for 1 week, it has been criticized by others for:

World of Warcraft: The War Within is out later this year, and at launch will be trying something new for a WoW expansion: a three-day, paid early access period. When this was announced, a lot of people were pretty upset! But in an interview with IGN ahead of the game's alpha launch, game director Ion Hazzikostas defended the decision, calling it an "experiment."

Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon has found a home on Netflix as a two part sci-fi epic – but the story seems far from over, with sprawling mythology and massive worldbuilding leaving the way wide open for more stories. Without spoiling any specifics, Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver certainly leaves the door open for another chapter in the tale, too. 

The first season of the critically acclaimed adaptation Interview with the Vampire was a huge hit with fans of Anne Rice’s beloved novel. As it heads out for its sophomore season, executive producers Rolin Jones and Mark Johnson promise SFX magazine that something even bigger is in store for season 2.

CD Projekt Red has revealed The Witcher 4 is being "intensively worked on," and that most of Cyberpunk 2077's devs are staying on for the sequel to "preserve" its DNA. 

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's quest director and the associate game director of the Cyberpunk sequel, Paweł Sasko, has been talking about the importance of sustainability in game development, and the benefits of not overworking teams to the point of crunch.

Star Wars Outlaws will have an optional Ultrawide display to make it "one of the most cinematic games of all time."

Stellar Blade has invited quite a lot of comparisons to other titles in recent weeks, ever since the game's demo officially dropped. First thought to be a Devil May Cry/Bayonetta inspired hack-and-slash, fans jumped into the game to see that developer Shift Up has actually taken a lot of inspiration from the likes of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Nier Automata.

If you’re one of the millions of fans of the Australian kids’ animated series Bluey, you’ll be aware that the show’s third season, which began airing in early 2021 in Australia, just concluded with an epic 28-minute special episode called “The Sign.” (Episodes are usually seven minutes long.) You’ll also be aware that the episode, and the lead-in to it, sent Bluey fandom into a tailspin of speculation that this was the end for the beloved show.

The PC Gaming Show returns in two months to celebrate what's ahead for PC gaming enthusiasts in 2024 and beyond. 

Nier director Yoko Taro says that the upcoming action RPG Stellar Blade makes him "quite jealous" as he reckons it's "much better" than Automata itself – strong words of praise, if not a tad self-deprecating from Taro. 

David Harewood's Alan Wake 2 character — the Dark Place's resident talk show host, Warlin Door — is steeped in mystery by design.

Nier director Yoko Taro says the work that inspired Nier: Automata the most was Neon Genesis Evangelion, so much so that the RPG's story is "pretty much just a retelling of Evangelion, so there's not much originality to it."

With Top Spin 2K25 now exceedingly close to its April 26 launch date, we were able to pry a few tidbits about the long-awaited fifth installment in the tennis franchise from Game Director Remi Ercolani. In our interview, we received confirmation that, unfortunately, online doubles will not be available at launch.

Netflix’s new animated movie Thelma the Unicorn isn’t exactly about a unicorn. It’s actually about a barn pony masquerading as a unicorn, once she realizes that the pink glittery glitz could be her one chance at superstardom.

The director of Nicolas Cage’s new survival horror movie Arcadian has shockingly revealed that the movie’s distinctive monster is actually inspired by a very well-known and beloved animated character… Disney’s Goofy. 

The new 13-inch, 15-inch M3 MacBook Air and the base M3 MacBook Pro all have 8GB unified RAM for the base configuration. Where Apple’s competitors have started outfitting their premium notebooks with 16GB RAM as standard, the company has taken a backseat when it comes to upping the total memory count. According to the latest interview, Apple executives have defended the technology giant’s decision by stating that this amount of unified RAM is ‘suitable’ for various tasks. Obviously, these individuals have ignored the significant number of drawbacks that come with these limitations, which we have discussed below.

Ori creator and Moon Studios co-founder Thomas Mahler has said that it will be hard to make Ori 3.

The boss of the newly independent Saber Interactive, Matthew Karch has questioned the business logic of charing $70 for a new release.

Herbert Chavez, who believes he is the world’s biggest Superman fan, has undergone 16 years of cosmetic surgery (21 in total and £4,400) to transform himself into his hero. A dressmaker from the Philippines, he has had surgeries on his nose and jaw, skin whitening, pectoral implants and abdominal implants performed in order to look like Superman. In 2018, we had the opportunity to speak with Herbert Chavez (also known as the Filipino Superman) about his love for The Man of Steel and the truth behind his obsession.

Alex Garland keeps getting asked the same question about his new movie, Civil War. It’s an obvious question. Garland, known best for Ex Machina, Annihilation, and Men, wrote and directed a movie set in near-future America, centering on a civil war that’s fractured the United States — and yet he reveals very little about how that war came about, or what the warring sides represent. Instead, he tells an almost clinically procedural action story about photojournalists crossing the country to cover that war, without ever digging into the details. Why make a seemingly apolitical movie about an American civil war in an era where so many pundits are worried that we’re on the brink of real civil war?

You meet in a tavern, the game master says at the beginning of nearly every campaign. It’s a trope as old as the role-playing genre itself, and for good reason. As owner of Violet Daisy Games, AnnaMaria Phelps, admits, it offers a lot of flexibility. “A tavern [is] a blank canvas,” Phelps said in a recent interview with Polygon. “You can start with a fight, or you can start with a rousing song. But what if you started because you met at a May Day celebration? Or what if you started because a thief robbed everyone, and you’re all chasing him together through a marketplace?”

It’s a matter of when we’ll see the Steam Deck 2, not if we’ll see it. Valve has talked publicly multiple times about its plans for a next-gen Steam Deck, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given that the original is easily the best handheld gaming PC you can buy.

Diablo 4 launched summer 2023 across PC and console, including the last generation of PlayStation and Xbox consoles. That means it was built to run well on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, hardware now over a decade old.

Ori developer Moon Studios is currently working on No Rest for the Wicked, but a new Ori game isn't being ruled out by the studio's co-founder and game director.

The BAFTA Games Awards 2024 are taking place on Thursday 11th April, with the whole ceremony being streamed on BAFTA’s Twitch, YouTube and X accounts from 7pm onwards.

Micheal Douse, head of publishing at Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios, has reflected candidly on the current state of the video game industry and described the ongoing wave of mass layoffs as «an avoidable f***-up.»

The Fallout show's release date is being moved forward, now set to premiere on April 10. This means that we'll be able to watch all eight episodes of the first season from tomorrow, available from 6PM PT onwards.

While the stars of the upcoming Fallout series on Prime Video generally avoided playing too much of the RPG series, one cast member reveals he headed to Twitch to help prepare for his role.

There's no denying Baldur's Gate 3's massive popularity, and its director of publishing, Michael Douse, has drawn comparison between it and the survival crafting game Palworld for finding success with a game that not all investors might have taken a chance on. 

GTA 6's main protagonist, Jason, isn't being voiced by famous voice actor Troy Baker.

Earlier this year, The Elder Scrolls Online announced that it had made more than $2 billion in customer spend, and its studio director says that figure got highlighted partly to help shine a light on that game's ongoing success.

Final Fantasy director Naoki Yoshida - better known among fans as Yoshi-P - says it's "probably about time" for another Final Fantasy Tactics game.

It's been a rough couple of years for the games industry, with record levels of layoffs and more and more people losing their jobs with each passing month. Xbox and PlayStation alone have laid off thousands of people between them, leading to the cancelation of promising projects, and smaller developers like Gearbox are feeling the effects of Embracer's massive spending spree in 2021.

You'll struggle to find anyone that wasn't surprised by Baldur's Gate 3's rampant success over the past year. It's an excellent RPG and one of the most ambitious the industry has ever seen, but many assumed that its genre would have been too significant of a barrier for the game to break into the mainstream.

The Elder Scrolls Online is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, and as the MMO approaches that milestone, its developers say they understand that a Final Fantasy 14-style technological overhaul could prove important.

Stellar Blade developer Shift Up has shared what the studio has planned in terms of post-launch support for its soon-to-be-released PS5 exclusive. In a recent interview with bbs.ruliweb.com, it revealed the title will receive free updates that bundle in new costumes for protagonist Eve to wear alongside a New Game+ option. It's also stated «DLC has not been determined» separately to the free content drops, which could suggest there'll be a larger Stellar Blade expansion in the future also.

Roblox is genuinely breaking brave new ground, enticing users to «make anything you can imagine» using the in-game development tools provided and finding massive success in the process. It seems Sony really was onto something with Dreams, but it stumbled in the execution. The Roblox platform currently boasts an astonishing 66 million users globally, and part of the appeal is the tantalising prospect of those users creating a game, monetizing it, and publishing it for other players to enjoy, all of it in-app. But with more than 3 million «Roblox developers» already, many of them seemingly younger, accusations of child exploitation have been brewing for some time.

In a recent interview with Ruliweb translated by Genji and confirmed by IGN, director Kim Hyeong-tae talked about what players can expect on launch day. One feature Stellar Blade fans shouldn't expect is microtransactions... at least not initially.

The Elder Scrolls Online's Matt Firor considers Skyrim, which launched before ESO while the MMO was still in development, "very much a virtual world game just centered around one player." I know this because he told me as much during our interview at Game Developers Conference (GDC) back in March. He also says that the launch of Skyrim had an absolutely massive effect on ESO and ultimately led to radical changes.

Roblox allows its players to create and monetise their own creations within its ecosystem. Across the entire breadth of Roblox game makers, a lot of money is made. At the individual level, however, the vast majority of creators making work within Roblox never earn enough to cash out their earnings - and some of those creators are children. This has long led to allegations that Roblox is exploiting child labour, generating huge profits for Roblox Studio and its shareholders in the process.

Roblox remains a gigantic phenomenon, boasting monthly player numbers of over 200 million — close to double the entirety of Steam — and a pattern of growth that defies the recent struggles of the wider games industry.

Jesse McCartney has confirmed in a recent interview that he has no idea if Roxas or Ventus will appear in Kingdom Hearts 4, as he doesn't seem to know that a new game is even in development.