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.
I come from a generation of tech nerds for whom dunking on Microsoft was simply the done thing. Apple was nowhere to be seen when I was a teenager and we grew up using Windows machines. To this day, whenever I see the House of M’s name attached to anything, I must fight an old,…
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After spending years accruing Ubisoft shares in what appeared to be preparation for a hostile takeover attempt, French media conglomerate Vivendi have thrown in the towel, selling their entire 27.3% stake in Ubisoft for $2.4 billion USD.
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You wouldn’t think there’s much difference between Google Assistant speakers, but there is. Some are better at interpreting your commands than others. Some have better overall sound. The JBL Link 20, and its little brother the Link 10, are great examples of simply aiming for the happy spot in between.
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It’s been around six months sine Assassin’s Creed Origins arrived and in that time, the game has proven itself to be one with legs. With Curse of the Pharaohs, the game’s latest and largest DLC expansion to date, Ubisoft looks to keep Bayek’s adventure rolling with a trip to Thebes.
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I have a genuine love of job simulator games that is both unnerving and inexplicable. I also find them deeply hilarious. The seriousness with which they take themselves and my absolute refusal to take anything seriously makes for a very entertaining combination, at least as far as I’m concerned. Thus, when a code for Pure…
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Because every great seafaring adventure should begin with a truly filthy pirate anthem requested via online video platform, Xbox ANZ have organised what they’re calling a “Sing Us A Shanty” service for players jumping into Sea of Thieves today. The service will allow players to request a live song from an actual, honest-to-Poseidon pirate band…
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I might be too old for portable speakers. The market is aimed rather squarely at beautiful young 20-somethings that do things like beach trips or Sunday sessions and require tunes 24/7. I am not this market. But I am a writer who moves from spot-to-spot in the house throughout the day and I do like…
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The SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards is one of the biggest and most comprehensive awards nights of the entire festival. A moment in the spotlight for just about every facet of the tech and interactive side of the industry, this year’s awards were big on AI, smart tech and wearables. Hit the jump for the complete…
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If Burnout Paradise Remastered does anything, it makes the EA of 2008 look like a benevolent creativity incubator when compared to the strife-prone publisher of today. For one thing, the game is great fun. For another, its clear that developer Criterion was given the room they needed to properly execute on their vision. It’s a…
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In the last twelve months, I’ve gone from having never played a Yakuza game to having played three of them and what I didn’t expect was for them to grow on me so quickly. This series has always felt very By Japanese People, For Japanese People, there’s so many cultural nods and gestures that don’t…
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Event organiser ReedPop have continued their string of high-profile 2018 announcements, revealing that the long-running EB Expo will merge with PAX Australia later this year to form a single, massive convention.
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Geralt. G-Man. My dude. My gravelly-voiced brother. You have come home to me at last. Please hold still while I hit you with an anime sword.
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When I was a kid, third party controllers were to be scoffed at. There was always one janky unofficial controller in the set that no-one wanted to use on Multiplayer Night. Times have changed though and the third-party peripheral market has never been quite this robust. Razer’s latest tilt at a high quality controller is…
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Is there anything Razer can’t do? Any demographic of gamer for whom they can’t accommodate? One of the peripheral giant’s latest pushes has been into the still-rapidly growing broadcaster market. People looking to get started on Twitch are always in search of the right gear and Razer are ready with an array of toys purpose-built…
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Thinking about heading out for a Saturday drive? Even if you weren’t, you should because Google is making your dream of competing in real life Mario Kart come true right this very second.
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Attack on Titan has struck a chord with audiences, reaching a level of popularity at home and in the West that many of its contemporaries can only dream of. A video game adaptation was only a matter of time. With 2016’s successful A.o.T.: Wings of Freedom under their belts, developer Omega Force returns for the…
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For those of you partial to a bit of For Honor in your downtime, life is about to get a lot more bearable. One year after the game’s launch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will notice the game’s team-based, medieval-era multiplayer will run much more smoothly thanks to the rollout of dedicated servers around the…
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Another day, another AAA developer getting their carefully orchestrated reveal taken away from them by European leaks. Yesterday it was Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Today it’s The Division 2, the follow up to Ubisoft’s successful tilt at the MMO shooter genre.
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After several days of leaks, some rather obviously “leaked “by PR and others genuinely leaked from sources close to the developer, Activision have finally confirmed that this year’s installment in the Call of Duty series will be Black Ops 4.
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It’s been a little while since we’ve had a proper Nintendo Direct broadcast. The last few video dispatches from Nintendo have been short and sweet — Nintendo Labo, or the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Nintendo Direct Mini back in January. Good news: there’s a new broadcast coming tomorrow, and it appears be full-size.
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Twelve months after launch, some Nintendo Switch owners are discovering that their data relating to total playtime logged on games played a year ago are gone. Games played on or prior to the console’s launch date of March 2, 2017 had their playtime counts reset to 0, which seems to indicate the Switch was only…
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I can be prickly when reviewing headphones. I try not to be, but as the son of a musician I was raised in a home where good quality sound was considered very important and its an expectation I’ve never been able to shake in adulthood. I expect a lot from my headphones, even the cheap…
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I frequently argue in my headphone reviews that the look, the exterior design of a particular kit is rarely terribly important to me. If a pair of headphones sound great, I’m usually happy to wear them no matter how hideous they may be. Sony’s WI-1000X Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones have broken my resolve. They do…
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How often do you jump onto Spotify looking for something to listen to and find yourself staring at the screen, unable to make a decision? Like scrolling endlessly through Netflix for something to watch, music streaming platforms are so content rich that users may find themselves paralysed by indecision. They know what they like the…
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3D Realms knows what they’re good at — old school, fast-paced, gore-soaked 90’s shooters. Who better to create a genre throwback than one of the very developers who pioneered it — using their own original engine no less?
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StarCraft, Blizzard’s evergreen (and only surviving) real time strategy series is turning 20 next month. If, like me, you were there and wondering if your Pentium 133 would run the game when it launched in 1998, you may be reading this in the grip of an existential crisis, horrified by the relentless passage of time….
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Atomik: RunGunJumpGun is absolutely maddening. I’ve been trying to come up with a way to describe it for a week now and the best I’ve got is “the bastard offspring of a bullet hell shmup and Flappy Bird.” That really covers all the bases I think. You will know, based on this description, whether Atomik…
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March is looking very good for PlayStation 4 owners with an active PlayStation Plus account.
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Xbox have announced today that a handful of fresh Xbox 360 titles coming to their backward compatibility program. Further, all four of these games have been updated with Xbox One X Enhanced compatibility meaning they’ll look nicer and run better on the higher end hardware.
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After several days of teasers and speculation, Blizzard have revealed the latest hero joining the now 27-strong line up in Overwatch. Brigitte Lindholm, daughter of Swedish weapons master Torbjorn, is a tank/support hybrid, sporting one of the most unique kits of any character introduced so far.
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