Ed Smith

3 weeks ago | pcgamesn.com | Ed Smith

Yes. It's happening, it's real, and it's finally been officially unveiled. Resident Evil 9 is on the way and we've just gotten our first full look at Summer Game Fest. Now, I love Resident Evil. I've been playing the survival horror series for 29 years, ever since the first (and still best) game was released in 1996.

3 weeks ago | pcgamesn.com | Ed Smith

During the zombie apocalypse, it's never the undead that are the real threat. As far back as the original Resident Evil, it was Wesker, not the T-Virus mutants, that you really had to keep an eye on. In State of Decay 2, it's the bandit enclaves. In DayZ, it's other players. In Project Zomboid, it's a tree stump that somehow suddenly jumps out in front of your speeding car.

3 weeks ago | pcgamesn.com | Ed Smith

Typically in city-building games, the ocean is something to be feared. In SimCity, alongside toxic spills, earthquakes, and UFOs, if you're unlucky, your peaceful conurbation can also be obliterated by a whirlpool or a flood. Jump ahead to Cities Skylines 2, and as much as you need the sea to survive, it can also be your undoing; fail to properly maintain your waste disposal system, and your offices, parks, and beautiful suburbs will be washed away by a tide of troublingly brown water.

3 weeks ago | pcgamesn.com | Ed Smith

What does it mean to feel like the Doom Slayer? 2016 and Doom Eternal nailed the energy. With that soundtrack ripping and tearing through your senses, you felt deadly, invincible, and full of righteous rage. But that's no good if you're getting killed every five minutes. You want a challenge. You want to feel as if you're fighting through gritted teeth. But id Software's FPS game also needs fierce momentum – it shouldn't be a stop-start uphill crawl.

3 weeks ago | pcgamesn.com | Ed Smith

I'm trying to reverse engineer the distinctive look of classic RTS games and CRPGs. It's the isometric view, it's the sprites, and it's the over-designed, semi screen-filling menus and interaction prompts. But I also think of dense, destroyed cities and yellow-brown, post-apocalyptic deserts. It's Planescape Torment. It's Tiberian Sun. It's Jagged Alliance 2, War Wind, and the first Diablo. On a strictly visual level, these are the games I love the most. DORF combines them all.