The Best PC Game of All Time

Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4 Reviewed On: Xbox One Developer: Ubisoft Publisher: Ubisoft Singleplayer: No Multiplayer: Yes Review copy provided free of charge by the publisher. A lthough it never exactly wowed critics, Ubisoft are not ones to give up on a potential franchise that could earn them extra cash, so here we are with a sequel to The Crew. The design motto seems to have been, “more, more, more!” resulting in a game that packs in about as much as it can. But does more mean better? According to Ubisoft, yes. Yes, it does. For me, the game was at its very best when it embraced its massive map of America. Once you finally buy a hypercar you unlock a few races, but these races have you driving across the digitally recreated country in events that take up to 30-minutes. These are where The Crew 2 excels when it ditches the boring laps, gives you an awesome car and lets you enjoy the ride. It’s just a shame it never abandons the checkpoints completely in favor of giving you ...

Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4 Reviewed On: Xbox One Developer: Milestone Publisher: Milestone Singleplayer: Yes Multiplayer: Yes Review copy supplied free of charge by the publisher. Milestone have been around for years, quietly pumping out a variety of racing games that have rarely amazed but have clearly found themselves small audiences. Now, though, Milestone are back with another original IP and while it’s unlikely Gravel is going to be competing with the big boys of the genre it’s a surprisingly robust and enjoyable arcade racer that revels in letting you scream around corners. But to get to that good stuff you’ve first got to deal with the presentation which feels like it took note of the DiRT franchise’s foray into “extreme!” and pitches itself as some sort of TV show named Gravel presenting the Off-Road Masters races. At the start of events, you’ll be subjected to a thankfully skippable chunk of commentary from the show’s presenter, and there are even FMV sequences invo...

This post contains a sponsored advertisement link. The seething mass of bodies all packed into one place is a stark reminder of just how big games have become since I was but a lad in the ’90s where it was still seen, along with comics, as a geeky hobby. Now it seems everyone plays games, either casually on a phone or tablet for a few minutes a day or on a custom PC that costs a terrifying amount of money. Games are just part of everyday life now, and conventions are springing up all over the place. Now there are people from all walks of life celebrating a medium that has gone from strength to strength. Walking the concrete floors are kids, teenagers, moms, dads, businessmen, grandfathers, grandmothers and more. There are no barriers now that games have gotten almost complete mainstream acceptance, and it’s amazing to see. This is 4TG’s second year, and stepping into the venue at Aberdeen AECC I was eager to see if it had gotten bigger since its 2016 debut. It had. Sure, the event i...

Out of every single video game purchase I’ve ever made in my life, across games, consoles and accessories, I don’t think I’ve made a more sensible purchase than Microsoft’s Xbox Elite controller. First released in 2015, it was—and remains, even with a successor on the way!—expensive as hell. As Phil Spencer said at the time, it was “an elite controller for the elite gamer”. Back then, based on just Microsoft’s original pitch, I saw the price and got ready to ignore the entire project, saw the customisation options I would never use and figured the controller to be a luxury, and figured the whole idea was just something for rich kids and people who are sponsored to sit in Gamer Chairs. It was being sold as an indulgence, targeted at a niche, implied it was something fancy, something optional. It was wrong, though, to think of the Elite controller in those terms. It was more like a good pair of boots. You wouldn’t think twice about spending $150 on a pair of well-made winter boots if you...