David Smith is the former games and technology editor at The AU Review. He has previously written for PC World Australia. You can find him on Twitter at @RhunWords.
Don’t let the new title fool you. Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia is still a fully-fledged entry in Creative Assembly’s long-running series of historical strategy games. But where older Total War titles have selected a particular real world empire or historical era to focus on, Total War Saga narrows its scope. It focuses not…
Read More
Heroes of the Storm, the hero brawler/MOBA title that mashes all of Blizzard’s most popular heroes together like action figures in a toy box, hasn’t ever really felt the need to explain itself. This set it apart from other Blizzard games where lore and backstory have always played a crucial part in keeping players hooked….
Read More
The Sons of Dutch are coming. Following their announcement of a trailer drop a few days ago, Rockstar have delivered a two-minute in-game trailer for the hotly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2, the clearest and most interesting look at the game yet.
Read More
“When we announced State of Decay 2 last year, we were prepared for cries of ‘Do we really need another zombie game?’” says Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain during his short intro to our little group of games journos at Soultrap Bar in Surry Hills. “Our answer was yes.” It’s the kind of emphatic ‘yes’ I’ve…
Read More
I can’t imagine that Retro Studios took on the job of making a new Donkey Kong Country game lightly. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it kept a lot of them up at night. Donkey Kong Country is quite rightly regarded as a masterpiece, a feat of technical wizardry and genius game design even…
Read More
I imagine almost everyone who’s ever ridden a motorcycle has heard the same worried refrain from their mum about how motorcycles claim thousands of lives on the road every year. For those who decide to put mum’s mind at rest and stick to a car, TT: Isle of Man is a great consolation prize, an…
Read More
It’s good to know that Rockstar can bring us to our knees with a two paragraph, 55-word press release. The latest trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 arrives this Thursday but you’ll need to be up past your bedtime if you want to see it the moment it drops.
Read More
The Sony Alpha Awards, an annual competition celebrating the best in Australian and New Zealand photography, has named this year’s prize winning artists and pieces.
Read More
7Mate video games program ScreenPLAY surprised fans yesterday afternoon with the abrupt announcement that the show had been cancelled, citing “commercial realities in TV” as the reason for its demise.
Read More
We’ve covered a few of Edifier’s range of bookshelf speakers on The Iris before, so taking the S880DB twin set for a spin made sense. In keeping with the company tradition of quality sound in a compact package with a price point that may make you wince on first inspection, the S880DB represents the perfect speaker…
Read More
It’s that time of the month when we all crane our necks to see what we can wring out of Sony for free this month. It’s been a pretty solid run for the PlayStation Plus freebies, with titles like Bloodborne and Mad Max going gangbusters for the platform. This month Sony wants to get you…
Read More
You review enough gadgets and speakers and eventually you get a sense for The Order of Things. You can tell a lot about a device just from looking at the promo images — you get an idea of their size, the design philosophy and where their predicted strengths and weaknesses will lie. And sometimes they…
Read More
The Microsoft Store in Sydney’s Pitt St Mall will be hosting a brand new course these school holidays centred entirely around teaching students about what it takes to succeed in the rapidly emerging world of competitive esports.
Read More
For a company like Sony to release a soundbar isn’t terribly surprising — every electronics maker and their Google Assistant speaker’s got one these days. What is surprising is the amount of forethought, of user consideration that has gone into Sony’s HT-MT300 soundbar. It’s thought about space, its thought about features, its thought about potential…
Read More
With only 199 days to before before the best weekend of the year, badges for PAX Aus 2018 are now on sale and early bird pricing is currently in effect.
Read More
You know you’re in for a bit of a ride when the courier delivering the television you’ve been sent to review complains about the weight of the box. His complaint was fair — Sony’s A1 OLED, contrary to most modern panels, weighs an absolute ton. But is it worth its weight in picture quality?
Read More
I know, that headline doesn’t make a lot of sense. Here’s what’s up: Microsoft dropped their latest piece of kit, the Surface Pro with 4G this morning which is good news for tech fans looking for their new portable machine. Not content to run a typical marketing campaign, Microsoft AU decided to send Australian DJ…
Read More
After the record-breaking success of the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, there was no way Activision was going to leave Spyro the Dragon on the bench for long. Good news, PS1-era platforming fans — your fave purple dragon is making a comeback.
Read More
World of Warcraft‘s seventh expansion pack, Battle for Azeroth, will let slip the dogs of war on August 14 bringing with it a slew of new locations, new races and new mechanics.
Read More
For the longest time, I railed against gaming headphones across the board. As an audiophile, there was no part of them anyone did right. They were all huge, heavy and ugly with huge bass that blew the sound to hell. In the last couple of years however, I’ve found myself finally coming around on gaming…
Read More
If Amazon has an ace up their sleeve in the race to produce smart speakers for the home, its that they currently boast a larger model line-up than any of their competitors. While having plenty of options is great, this may only complicate things for consumers that aren’t especially savvy when it comes to the…
Read More
March was one of the most exciting months on record for Sony’s monthly PlayStation Plus free games offer. Those hoping for more excitement this month might be a little disappointed, however there are still some very strong titles in this month’s group.
Read More
Huawei’s MediaPad T3 is an 8 inch Android tablet that is lightweight and surprisingly nimble for its entry-level spec. For those looking for an every day tablet that can be easily thrown in a bag while travelling, you may have found the one you want.
Read More
I used to wonder what would happen to the video game systems of my youth. Whether they would be left to rot once they were no longer being produced and their hardware stopped working. The C64 Mini is the latest in a run of miniaturised retro video game hardware that answers that question and, like…
Read More
Multiple news outlets are reporting that YouTube’s San Bruno, California headquarters is currently under lockdown with local police indicating an shooter is active within the building.
Read More
Another month, another collection of free games for Xbox Live subscribers. This month’s offerings, from puzzlers to survival horror, are once again doing their best to offer a little something for everyone. Hit the jump for the list.
Read More
When it comes to gaming headphones, Razer’s cans have never been my favourites. They’ve always been clunky, heavy things with sound that rarely came close to meeting my expectations. I wanted to put all that on front street because, if the Electra V2 is any indication, Razer’s headset efforts might have finally found their groove…
Read More
Logitech have made a name for themselves in the world of simple, workman-like office PC peripherals. Their keyboards are often no-frills affairs, designed to be slotted into a business environment without a fuss. It’s not that they’re pedestrian by any stretch, just that they tend to focus on practicality over flashiness. Their newest high-end wireless…
Read More
Far Cry 5 has been something of a curiosity since it was announced. While an unquestionably brave move to set this new installment of the 14 year old franchise in the United States, many were curious about the game’s motives — given the political and social turmoil in which the US currently finds itself, would…
Read More
As I write this, three days after a rather bumpy launch, its clear that Sea of Thieves is a bit of a mixed bag. There are things that I love about it, there are things that I don’t love about it and there are things that I feel are not particularly well understood by those who…
Read More