Wonder Boy in Monster Land released in Japanese arcades in 1987 and for the Sega Master System the following year. Its success led to numerous ports, including to ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Atari ST. Oddly, it never received an official PC port, though that long absence appeared to have come to an end on September 28. Did fans rejoice? Not really.The Steam listing for Wonderboy in Monster Land raises...

In the age of near photorealism, it takes a lot for a game's visuals to impress me. As cramming yet more pixels into a videogame character's face provides diminishing returns, standing out from the crowd is increasingly about how creative developers get in applying that power. All that said, I was genuinely mesmerised by the debut footage of Etre, an upcoming action adventure game with a truly eye-popping art style.Created...

Dungeon Master(Image credit: Future)Welcome to Dungeon Master, PC Gamer's regular RPG column, where Online Editor Fraser Brown delves into PC gaming's most beloved and enduring genre. Grab a seat in our badly-lit tavern and please ignore the goblin puke.Most videogame RPGs are selling a power fantasy—the idea that you are competent, clever and regardless of the odds will still manage to save the day. Fate has made you a hero,...

Cheating: it's why we can't have nice things. Whether your online shooter of choice is beset by players targeting you through walls, or you're a Linux user who would definitely be playing more games were it not for kernel-level anti-cheat systems, the actions of a few spoil the fun for many. Banning cheating players is the obvious thing to do, but what's to stop bad eggs making fresh accounts?A student...

Arc Raiders' Pendola Pass is packed to the gills with loot. No matter where you search, you're likely to come away with some rare items, whether you're smashing open iced up doors to get into sealed rooms, or climbing into hard-to-access spots with the Grappling Hook and yoinking everything not nailed down.But some of the best loot spots I've found are the Storm Huts. Pendola Pass has a special weather...

We've been running a knockout tournament that puts graphical effects in games against one another in a fierce battle of public opinion. Each round saw two effects go head to head, and only one made it out to fight another day. We whittled it down to just two effects, chromatic aberration and motion blur, and after 7,000 votes cast across the tournament, we can finally declare the effect that sucks...

World of Warcraft: Forever has me in a chokehold, and it's partially because—well, it's relaxing. As my colleague at PC Gamer so succinctly put it: "Sometimes it's fun to hit a scorpion with a club for 38 seconds." Despite aping an era seen as more 'hardcore' to some players, Forever's lack of blaring and annoying seasonal grist is honestly refreshing.Speaking with associate production director Clay Stone about why I'm certainly...

Terminally Online(Image credit: Future)This is Terminally Online: PC Gamer's very own MMO column. Every other week, I'll be sharing my thoughts on the genre, interviewing fellow MMO-heads like me, taking a deep-dive into mechanics we've all taken for granted, and, occasionally, bringing in guest writers to talk about their MMO of choice.World of Warcraft: Forever seems, at first blush, like an antidote to the idea of a modern MMO. I...

Just as Star Wars Zero Company was set to launch earlier this year, developer Bit Reactor furloughed over 80% of its staff over sales uncertainty. In other words, much of its staff were receiving no pay, despite technically being employees, right when players were getting their hands on the game. Earlier this week on Bluesky, the studio announced it had begun undoing this "difficult decision" (via gamesindustry.biz).Bit Reactor CEO Greg...

Certain ideas that crop up every so often in games will always grab my attention. One of them is letting players defeat enemies with bits of other enemies. As such, my interest in Heathen—an upcoming indie dungeon crawler—went from 'mildly curious' to 'smashing the wishlist button' when its most recent trailer revealed you can beat your foes by volleying other enemy heads at them.Developed by solo developer Christoper Yabsley, Heathen...