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Articles by Dave Spanton
GravHounds Early Access Launch is More Bark Than Bite
The one question I sat with the longest while playing GravHounds was… Why Dogs. It started as a curiosity, and then ended up spiralling in to a grand philosophical thought process. Was there a deeper meaning to the dogs. Did they represent the inner strength we have inside us. That fight? I’m sure there’s an answer buried deep somewhere, or just a single email line to the devs away, but for now you’ll have to ask yourself a harder question. Who is the goodest boy.
Soulframe Preludes 17 Verse of the Veilands Brings Mounts, A New Pact, and Access to Everyone on November 6th
Soulframe Devstream #’18 today revealed a host of upcoming news about Soulframe Preludes 17: Verse of the Veilands, and brings huge news that Soulframe is moving to “Open Preludes” which means that a key is no longer required and anyone can hop in from November 6th by just going to the website and signing up. The biggest news coming with Verse of the Veilands is that your cute cub pet that you’ve been looking after can now be turned in to a full on mount.
One Piece Grand Gourmet Review
There has never been a better time to be a One Piece fan with the amount of focus on the monolithic franchise. Of course that doesn’t mean that everything is going to be gold worth plundering. It does mean though that there are a ton of different options of different scales to scratch that itch. ONE PIECE: Grand Gourmet brings a Straw Hat coat of paint to the beloved Kairosoft gameplay. This time in the form of running a brand new restaurant to take on a fake Baratie that has sprung up.
Valor Mortis Review – So Close to Parkour Parrying Perfection
If there’s one genre in gaming that everyone can agree on it’s Souls-Likes. The happy death day to you meat grinder simulators that enable you to throw yourself in to a fight ad nauseum until you’ve honed yourself down in to the perfect parry machine, only to then fall off a cliff a moment later. Soulslike games are always trying to iterate and expand upon the concept, and Valor Mortis is no different.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival Review – A Fine Line Between Pleasure and Pain
Inside all of us are two wolves. The first wolf is an aged curmudgeon complaining. The second is just listening to caramelldansen on repeat and thinking things are kinda fun. After 15 hours spent inside the world of Hellraiser I’m still not sure exactly which one of those two wolves is right. Duality plays an important role throughout Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Revival.
Star Wars Galactic Racer Review – Claiming That Crown
I had a neat little intro written here about 90s nostalgia and the through line from Star Wars Episode 1 Racer to Star Wars: Galactic Racer, but instead I’m going to share a weird fact with you. Did you know Star Wars Episode 1 Racer holds/held a Guinness World Record? Neither did I until about 10 minutes before writing this. Best Selling Sci-Fi Racing Game. Which tells me three things. Firstly that we are overdue a new Wipeout Game.
Satisfactory Get’s New DLC! Satisfactory: Core Values Revealed.
Coffee Stain just announced a brand new Satisfactory DLC Core Values in their Big Break Showcase. At Gamescom Dave sat down with Game Director Emmet Burke and Senior Game Producer Calen Stivers to mine as much information from them as he could about their new underground Expansion. In Core Values you will be drilling down through the crust, mantle, and core of MASSAGE 2(A-B)b.
Sega’s Upcoming Line-up has something for Everyone. Gamescom 2026 Previews
Recently we were given a few hours to do a whirlwind hands on session of Sega’s upcoming line-up, and every title we saw impressed us. We’ve already talked in a separate article about Alien: Isolation 2 and how it feels like an evolution of horror, so we’ll try to avoid talking about that one too much, but the rest of their line-up was just as impressive.
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival Interview Gamescom 2026: Game Director Emil Esov on Balancing Action with Stealth & Authenticity
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival sits firmly at the top of my want list… My darkest desire, I want it to show me such sights when it finally arrives on October 8th. I wasn’t sure how to spend my time waiting until then, so I did what any sane person would do… Booked a flight to Germany to sit in a small room and talk to a man about horror, BDSM, and how Hellraiser at the end of the day… Is about friendship.
Silver Palace Preview Gamescom 2026: A New Trailer Drops & We Go Hands On
Silver Palace showcased a new trailer (found at the bottom) at Gamescom recently highlighting the multiplayer mode ‘House of Greed’ which took a significantly sharp turn away from the hustle and bustle mechpunk stylings of the game we had seen so far. This new mode feels more akin to a survival horror style game. Tight corridors, dark spaces, and just an overall feel from the trailer definitely increased my interest in finding out what exactly is going on under the surface of Silver Palace.
1001 Threads of Mizan: Crafting Authentic Stories. Lars Bonde Interview – Gamescom 2026
If 1001 Thread of Mizan announcement at Opening Night Live was a surprise, it was nothing compared to the fact that MBC Game Studio brought a playable demo for both press and consumers. The demo consisted of combat, magic carpet flying and a boss battle. This carpet ride was less Aladdin showing us the world and more screaming at the screen as bullet hell rained from the skies.
Gundam Rogue Orbit Gamescom 2026 Hands-On Just Left Me Wanting More
After spending 30 glorious minutes playing Gundam Rogue Orbit at Gamescom recently, I’ve just been craving more. Deep in the halls of the Messe we were sat down and given 30 whole minutes to slide, boost, smash, and shoot our way through 2 missions of the upcoming Bandai Namco Mech fighter. We were given 3 preset mobile suits, and 3 weapons to try for this session. The Assault Sword, Whip Sword, and Sword Lance. Honestly 30 minutes flew past and was no where near enough time.
Armatus Gamescom 2026 Preview: Running Rogues Like…
A lot of chaos can happen at a show like Gamescom, and normally it doesn’t warrant talking about as it’s par for the course. Our Armatus appointment though was booked to happen, then didn’t, and then did by sheer happenstance and I wanted to just include part of that story here. Turning up at a booth and having the odd hiccup can happen, so we sadly weren’t able to get our original appointment.
Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons Gamescom 2026 Preview: Open World, Spell Slinging, Wonders Await
First mentioned all the way back at The Game Awards last year with the announcement that Trica Helfer would be picking up the protagonist role of Kaatri, Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons went radio silent after that point until just recently.
1666: Amsterdam Gamescom 2026 Interview: Patrice Désilets discusses Freebird, Witchcraft and how to tell a Dual Timeline Story
1666: Amsterdam is out in Early Access, and has potential if the underlying framework can be utilised. Rough edges are what Early Access is designed for. Of course the team at Panache have their work cut out for them with not only an interesting premise, but the battle of reputation after all the AI issues. We sat down at Gamescom recently to talk to Patrice about the game, how launch is going so far, and why Freebird… In the interest of transparency.
Dwarf Fortress is a game that means so much to so many people, even if they’ve never played it they might have heard grand tales of Boatmurdered or other scenarios, listened to their friends disasters or faced them themselves. At Gamescom recently we sat down to talk to creator Tarn Adams about the past 20 years, what it means to him, and why cats cause so many problems.
Mouse: P.I. for Hire Interview Gamescom 2026: DLC, World Building, and a Gouda Time
Mouse P.I Came out earlier this year, and so we caught up with CEO & Co-Founder, Mateusz Michalak, and Lead Narrative Designer & DLC Game Director, Mateusz Lechowski, recently at Gamescom to talk about how that realise went, building out indie worlds, and try unsuccessfully to get them to talk about the DLC. Dave: The Game went live in April, can you talk about the months leading up to you pressing that button? Mateusz L: As it tends to be in game development, it’s a hectic time.
Gamescom 2026 Indie Round-Up: WTF, Croak, Ballgame, N Plus Infinity Times 2, Hello Sunshine, Cassette Beasts: 2002, Wilderings: The Lost Spring, Beyond these Stars, My Cannibal Family
While a lot of people go to shows like Gamescom for the big titles, the indie games and smaller titles on display are something that should not be skipped. The Indie Arena Booth on its own this year had close to 200 titles on display. Which is on one hand frankly crazy, and on another… Awesome. We wanted to just highlight a few of the titles we saw during the show that grabbed us in one way or another in one handy dandy place.
Gamescom 2026 Hands-On Stuntman: Hollywood – Old School, New Cool
There was a period of time at the turn of the 2000s where Playstation had just a fantastic run of driving games. Driver, Gran Turismo 3, Need for Speed Underground. For me, Stuntman was also in that mix. It appealed to my young gooey brain. Drive cars in dangerous situations that look cool, and then after you succeed at the stage you get to watch back your stunt movie and see how cool it looks in early PS2 era graphics.
Aion 2 is Shaping up to be a Collectors Dream.
Aion 2 is just around the corner, gliding in to players hands on October 5th, but before that at Gamescom we were lucky enough to get a presentation showing off some of the world designs, and other little pieces coming to the game as well as asking the devs a few questions. Fans of the original Aion should have no surprise knowing that the team wanted to make sure Character Customisation was going to help talk Aion 2 to the next level.
Arkheron Interview Gamescom 2026: Bonfire Studios CEO Rob Pardo. Designing PvP and Remembering The Player
PvP isn’t always everyones cup of tea, so it can be hard to tempt new players in to any game that does such a thing. That’s why it was refreshing to talk to Rob Pardo Head Honcho over at Bonfire Studios about Arkheron their upcoming 3 vs 3 PvP Isometric Looter. Honestly I could have talked to Rob all day about his past working at Blizzard or the lessons he’s learnt over the years.
Like or Die Interview Gamescom 2026: The Dev Team talks Finals, Streamers, and Narrative
It definitely feels like NC Soft is just heads down with how many games they’re currently working on, and ‘Streamer Shooter’ Like or Die was revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live ’26. Getting to talk to the team during a Group Interview session, we managed to ask them about this spin on the FPS genre and how they intend to stand out from the obvious Finals comparisons. Note: This was a group interview, so some questions were asked by non-members of our team.
Exodus Gamescom 2026 Preview: No We’re Not Mentioning The Other Space Game… Except Once for SEO.
I’m going to try and get through this entire preview without mentioning… That other Sci-Fi game. Which given that Exodus at times definitely feels like a copied homework situation isn’t exactly the easiest task. I’ll be upfront about this and say, none of this is meant as a negative, it’s all just poking fun at a game that very clearly wears its influences on its sleeve.
Enshrouded Gamescom 2026 Preview: 1.0 Release Plans to Build Worlds Within Worlds
Recently we had the pleasure of sitting down and talking to Keen Games about the upcoming 1.0 release for Enshrouded and out of everything they showed us one thing stuck out more than anything else. Their new logic system. The logic system was shown off as a way to be able to essentially create automatic doors at first, and then more complex systems and invisible triggers were shown off.
Afterworld Interview Gamescom 2026: Game Director Dan Lind – Post Apocalyptic Strategy For The New Age
At Opening Night Live Paradox revealed a brand new strategy game set in a brand new time. Afterworld sees you trying to take a group of survivors and build them up in to the grand strategy that Paradox are known for. It was a true pleasure to sit down and have a very quick conversation about how they approached this idea with Game Director Dan Lind. Dave: As a huge Paradox fan, it’s really great to see you. Can I be honest?
Wolf Among Us 2 Gamescom 2026 Preview: Bigby’s Back.
It’s been 13 years since Bigby Wolf led us on a brutal mystery in The Wolf Among Us, and ever since then players have been asking, clamouring, begging, for The Wolf Among Us 2. Through everything that happened to Telltale that community held strong, their support never faltered, and next year their wishes will all come true as The Wolf Among Us 2 will step from the shadows with a brand new case requiring the wits, and wiles of our favourite wolf.
Like most people when they’re in College, I played too much Magic: The Gathering and like most people when they leave college, I eventually shook that habit and then relapsed. Like many people my most recent relapse was thanks to Universes Beyond.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Review – Soaring to New Heights
Soaring through those early September skies and barrel rolling out of the way of the onslaught of October titles… THIS is Ace Combat 8 – Wings of Theve We live in an incredibly peaceful time. If you look outside your window there’s nothing but sunshine, cheap gasoline, and eggs for miles. What better way to just kickback and mix things up than with a game involving propaganda, PTSD, territorial warfare, and the a whole heaping helping of getting excited for the military industrial complex.
Dune: Awakening Interview Gamescom 2026: Lead Producer Ole Andreas Haley talks Console development, the journey so far, the future path and the challenges along the way
Dave and Dune: Awakening Lead Producer Ole Andreas Haley sat down in a wide open room, reminiscent of the deserts of Arrakis, and discussed all things Dune, including the console release and the journey so far. While Kerri played on PS5 and teased Shai-Hulud to experience the controllers new haptic feedback system. Dave: I really want to ask about Dune as a whole, but let’s start with the console because that’s why we’re here.
Game of Thrones: War for Westeros – Interview Gamescom 2026: Game Director Ryan McMahon discusses designing a Strategy Game, loving the Franchise and crafting hero identities
At Gamescom we sat down with Ryan McMahon Game Director in a room decked out like we had travelled into Westeros, swords and dragon eggs included. Game of Thrones: War for Westeros is an upcoming Real Time Strategy game currently planned for release in 2027. We hope you enjoy the insight into this new game from our interview. Dave: When you’re designing a strategy game, taking Game of Thrones out of it for a second, what do you think is the part that players gravitate towards more.
Big Walk Review: Co-op craftsmanship at its finest
I’ll keep this super short. Back in March during our last review I mentioned I was having surgery and honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to return to doing this, and if that was the case I’m happy that the game I went out on was one where I was able to play in a silly playground with my friends.
Tennocon unveils Tau System, Gumshoe Warframe, Citrine Prime + Soulframe Gets Wolf Mounts & Ben Starr
Tennocon always brings together the Warframe community to celebrate everything Tenno and this year was no different. Showcasing upcoming changes to Soulframe and Warframe We were given a sneak peek behind the curtain just before Tennocon to see all the upcoming delights for both Soulframe, and Warframe, and if you’re a fan of Digital Extremes, honestly it’s going to be hard to decide how to split your time between the two games.
Tennocon unveils Tau System, Gumshoe Warframe, Citrine Prime + Soulframe Gets Wolf Mounts & Ben Starr
Tennocon always brings together the Warframe community to celebrate everything Tenno and this year was no different. Showcasing upcoming changes to Soulframe and Warframe We were given a sneak peek behind the curtain just before Tennocon to see all the upcoming delights for both Soulframe, and Warframe, and if you’re a fan of Digital Extremes, honestly it’s going to be hard to decide how to split your time between the two games.
REANIMAL Review - Darkly Beautiful World Building Carries this Creepy Couch Co-Op
From the minds that brought you unsupervised child horror’s Little Nightmares 1 and 2, comes “If you’re going out take your sister with you” child horror game REANIMAL. It’s a no brainer that companies should stick to their strengths and I’m all for it, and it’s been said a million times during the lead up to the release of REANIMAL you don’t need to squint that hard to see what they were going for.
HighGuard Interview: Jason McCord and Carlos Pineda on Designing a Raid Shooter, Letting The Game Speak For Itself, Rust, Bed Wars, and The TGA Moment.
This Interview took place in LA during a preview event for Highguard on January 21 2026 . Our travel, hotel, and food were paid for by Wildlight Entertainment. During a Highguard preview event in LA last week, we had an interview with Jason McCord (Design and Creative Director) and Carlos Pineda (Lead Game Designer) from the Highguard team and got to talk about what inspirations they had, how they approached making Highguard, some of the iterations it went through and nailing that fun factor.
Blue Prince Review: A Mansion Mystery, Room Drafting dilemma, and Plenty of Puzzles
As always this review is spoiler-free as best it can be. All of the footage has been taken from the first few days and is mostly used to showcase mechanics. Sat on my desk are a stack of notes and scribbled drawings that show the slow decent in to madness of someone who tried to find the 46th room in a Manor filled with only 45 rooms.
Promise Mascot Agency Review
Promise Mascot Agency from Kaizen Game Works gave me a few firsts. I never thought one of my best friends in a game would be a sentient block of depressed Tofu. Nor have I ever had to reassure someone that the Cat who has a proclivity for minimal pixelation adult videos, was covered in Yam and nothing but Yam… It’s YAM ok?! But these are just daily occurrences when you run the Promise Mascot Agency. It’s context time. Mascots are real, got it? Cool. Onwards.
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