Alan Wen

One of my favourites of 2026 so far, so don’t miss out on this bargain

Let’s-a-fucking-go!

What 1000xRESIST is not:
❌ a game with combat
❌ an emotionally cozy game
❌ a quick story

What 1000xRESIST is:
✅ a doomed yuri simulator
✅ a game that will break your heart (& maybe not put it back together)
✅ a story you won’t forget anytime soon

Get it for 40% off! ⬇️

Why new sci-fi adventure Obex was made with low-fi DIY effects – and no AI “There are smarter, faster ways, but they lose something,” director Albert Birney says of his ode to retro games and physical media.

Obex is having its UK premiere right now at the Glasgow Film Festival. Here’s an interview I did with its filmmaker and star Albert Birney on using lo-fi DIY filmmaking techniques to make his video game-themed story and why AI can’t replace it www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-gam...

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age for GameCube with CEX stickers and price at £15

Passed it the other day at CEX, still here today, so let’s have it

Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

Resi 7-9 runs great in Switch 2, but whose idea was it for motion controls to have the x-axis control like a steering wheel? Also the gyro aiming in Pragmata demo is as it should be

Uh-oh, just saw the GameCube version at my local CEX…

Why Resident Evil Requiem is Nintendo's best since the GameCube era Resident Evil’s Nintendo history is stranger than you remember.

More Resi stuff from me as I wrote about the series’ history of innovation and limitations on Nintendo platforms, and how Requiem fares on Switch 2 www.creativebloq.com/entertainmen...

How Resident Evil defined and evolved horror in games over three decades | Stuff As Resident Evil Requiem hits PC and consoles, we look at what kept the iconic series coming back for more scares

With Requiem releasing later this week, here’s a look at the Resident Evil games that defined and evolved horror in game over the series’ 30-year history www.stuff.tv/features/how...

TrickStyle on Dreamcast, running on CRT TV

TrickStyle Dreamcast PAL case in worn and broken condition

Who recalls this deep cut from the Dreamcast’s European launch? (The case definitely has seen better days though my recollection it was in that state even back then, perhaps why it never got traded in with all my other games)

Throughout it all, even when things went bad, Spencer clearly understood games as a medium, a profession, and a business. Having an Actual Game Guy at the top of a big gaming company is far rarer than it should be, and while there was a lot of facade to Spencer — particularly towards the end, when he used faux-candour and his gaming credentials to try to mask the godawful shitfest he had spawned — I imagine this is the aspect of him we will come to miss the most. Heartening though it is to at last see a woman in the big chair in this most historically blokey of industries, I do not see much in Asha Sharma’s track record to suggest things are about to get better. (And that’s before we get into all the birthrater stuff.) So, yeah. Phil was a good bloke, and he did some good stuff. I believe his heart was in the right place right up until the end — but unfortunately for him, and the rest of us, Microsoft these days is no place for hearts. Let’s have a quick look at the three big moments where, to my mind, it all went wrong for Phil Spencer.

On Phil Spencer newsletter.hitpoints.co/362-dank-spe...

Zelda’s 40th Anniversary is the perfect time to try this retro indie Ratcheteer DX, the Game Boy Color-inspired Zelda-like is finally coming to Switch.

Given it’s the 40th anniversary of Zelda, this is an indie spotlight of Zelda-like Ratcheteer DX, previously a Playdate game that’s getting the Link’s Awakening DX-style treatment www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-gam...

Nintendo's biggest flop remains its most fascinating curiosity I try the Virtual Boy on Switch, with some surprises.

Why yes, I did buy the Virtual Boy for the Switch so that I could write about it. At least less of a loss-making exercise than buying an actual one on eBay for the around the same price as a modern VR headset, and that’s not even with the games. www.creativebloq.com/entertainmen...

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...

Again, I cannot emphasize enough: do not go to the US even if you're privileged enough to have never been scared or worried of a border crossing in you're life. Do not go ESPECIALLY for something as optional & outrageously expensive as GDC.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Well, at least the Nintendo Today app remembered Zelda’s birthday lol

This filmmaker is reviving a '90s game style everyone abandoned Inside Obey the Insect God’s six-year quest to modernise Mortal Kombat-style sprites.

This week’s Creative Bloq indie spotlight is Obey the Insect God, an action game with 90s-style digitised sprites. A fun interview with underground filmmaker-turned-game dev Charles Davis on bringing back this lost art form, and there’s a Steam Next Fest demo too www.creativebloq.com/3d/video-gam...

FFS

IGN Entertainment Strategy Guide Writer Freelancer Application Form The pitch: IGN/Gamer Network is looking for paid strategy guide writers and/or strategy guide video editors. This is not an entry level position: We are looking for people with published strategy guid...

Hello! The IGN Guides team is looking for more freelancers. If you've got published writing or video samples and are interested in working with us, fill out the form below! We don't respond to individual applicants but do keep responses handy for when we need more folks.
forms.gle/NhZ7sRJAjAEZ...

Edge magazine issue 421 digital edition as viewed on an iPad, with No Law on the cover

New Edge day, where I have impressions on Cthulhu: Cosmic Abyss, a review of samurai/ninja-swapping Nioh 3, and also offered thoughts on Yakuza Kiwami 3, which despite its divisive reception, gives Kiryu the life he’s always deserved.

“No, I’m looking for Edge, not Edging…”

Amusing to walk into a local WHSmiths (not rebranded… yet) to find that Edge is now a top-shelf mag

It’s cuz the songs are by Charli XCX. Watched it last night so I was prepared for something very deliberately anachronistic like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette but it’s actually quite subtly used

A court has ruled that the government's authoritarian ban on Palestine Action was unlawful.

Time to stop criminalising the people protesting a genocide - and start ending the UK's complicity.

While I don’t get to review Romeo is a Dead Man, it’s absolutely nuts, jumping from one unexpected visual style to the next, though some of those boss fights are some bullshit and I might’ve binned it off had it not been for the chances to revive. It’s a Grasshopper game then.

Mario Tennis Fever may not be the new Mario Switch 2 exclusive I want, but its new rackets do give me plenty of Mario Kart vibes Mario Tennis Fever serves up new wacky mechanics that add to a fun and varied arcade tennis game even though it's not a complete smash hit

Mario Tennis Fever has the most content of any game in the series (though also the priciest) and the fever rackets are almost like Mario Kart items on the court, even if it’s no substitute for a full-fat new Mario platformer www.techradar.com/gaming/mario...

I’ve always liked this story and think this does a good job of updating it with the mechanics and features of the more recent game, even if opinions do seem quite mixed. Dark Ties did nothing for me tho, though I didn’t factor that into the review at all.

Kiryu and Rikiya posing in Print Club pictures in Yakuza Kiwami 3

Right be controversial or a bias from watching Tokyo Vice, but I do like Show Kasamatsu as Rikiya

Screenshot from Yakuza Kiwami 3. Kiryu dressed in shiny black suit and a blonde wig, sitting with a woman in a club. Dialogue reads: “Kazzy. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Also some good news for those who felt sore about the absence of Kiryu getting to be a host in the Yakuza 2 remake…

Yakuza Kiwami 3 Is a love letter to old-school Sega, hidden inside a crime drama My review reveals a Switch 2 game packed with deep-cut Sega nostalgia.

Caveats on the controversies or the fact I didn’t really care for Dark Ties but I think Yakuza Kiwami 3 is my favourite of RGG’s remakes yet, and also the place for you to play Game Gear and weird obscure Model 3 arcade games www.creativebloq.com/entertainmen...