Joshua Wolens
One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.
Latest articles by Joshua Wolens
![Tribes 3: Rivals screenshot - red heavy armor flying past a base](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kmqT7iZmbN2ot4DzTMPmHb-320-80.jpg)
Tribes 3's Next Fest demo has me hopeful for a Tribes game that finally sticks
By Joshua Wolens published
Tribal loyalty Shazbot and all that.
![Key art for Dead Cells' Bad Seed DLC, showing the Beheaded stalking through a room full of monstrous plants..](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SLCKrFD3maZGUWRDFWLP8G-320-80.jpg)
Dead Cells is calling it quits 7 years after its meteoric early access release
By Joshua Wolens published
News A hell of a run.
![Squall and a flaming gunblade](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ZH2i5ajvdMSpmmWZs9K85H-320-80.jpg)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake director would give an emphatic 'No!' if someone asked him for an FF8 remake, and FF8's original director isn't keen either
By Joshua Wolens published
News The fate of FF8 seems faint.
![A close-up of Diablo's face from the Diablo 2 box art.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oNKihuEynucezyvjCWuKxJ-320-80.jpg)
Diablo 2 speedrunner effortlessly trolls audience by breezily selling ultra-rare rune it's taken others 20 years to find
By Joshua Wolens published
News 35K gold! Who could be angry at that?
![A load of tiles showing games Nexus Mods has mods for.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/pnReekZs3N2K9g2kZmMYt7-320-80.jpg)
The world's biggest mod site pops the cork on 10 billion downloads and $7 million-worth of payouts: 'If every download were a footstep, you could walk to the Moon 11 times'
By Joshua Wolens published
News Or cover New York in pizza.
![Makoto Yuki and his persona from Persona 3 Reload.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/N9qEYzk4tJdqEcXXKfcCKk-320-80.jpg)
Anime more powerful than ever as Persona 3 Reload becomes the fastest selling game in Atlus' history
By Joshua Wolens published
News That's a lot of baby, baby, babies.
![Palworld - A player stands in front of Zoe & Grizzbolt in their party](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bNP4EUfLJbdaWgX7N2NvUQ-320-80.jpg)
Palworld's latest patch stops its capture chance boosting items making capture chances worse, and prevents your breeding Pals from being sent to a farm upstate forever
By Joshua Wolens published
News Daedream's gone to sleep and he won't wake up.
![The titular protagonist of adventure game Indika, surrounded by jeering nuns.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iw9dXTanJqXASAuxYRaSXQ-320-80.jpg)
Indika is a bit like an old Resident Evil with no combat but more Satan, and its freaky Next Fest demo has made it my most anticipated game this year
By Joshua Wolens published
The Devil in Me What's your Indika build plan looking like? I'm speccing hard into grief, I reckon.
![LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 13: Gina Carano attends the premiere of Disney+'s "The Mandalorian" at El Capitan Theatre on November 13, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YZ3hBBehTRN7odRioDE4SU-320-80.jpg)
Ex-Star Wars actor Gina Carano wants courts to force Lucasfilm to give her job back using Elon Musk's money, praises Twitter as 'one of the last glimmers of hope for free speech in the world'
By Joshua Wolens published
News Carano was dropped from her role in The Mandalorian in 2021.
![Palworld early access](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/JQG5QcAFq3pJQp9qtEh3Jm-320-80.jpg)
Palworld players stumble on cunning new strat to defeat bosses in one hit: a literal 'stairway to heaven'
By Joshua Wolens published
News 'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
![The covert art from Cyberpunk 2020, showing a man with glowing eyes wielding a sci-fi pistol.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/jfw7j492qp79z5oWfMXa7k-320-80.jpg)
You can nab a trove of Cyberpunk RPG books for a few eddies on Humble Bundle right now
By Joshua Wolens published
News Preem.
![A man angrily throws down an inexpertly Photoshopped pair of Apple Vision Pro goggles.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/HqB4zrtjQSBR8qLzvHFPEL-320-80.jpg)
Spendthrift gooners left deeply frustrated their new $3,500 Apple headsets don't support existing VR smut, damn the tech as 'worse than PSVR2'
By Joshua Wolens published
News You hate to see it.
![Windows 7 physical copy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iXun2SoicCDggrhjmNi2FC-320-80.jpg)
God's own operating system continues the hurtle to oblivion as even Rockstar abandons Windows 7
By Joshua Wolens published
News Were you a good operating system? No, Windows 7, you were the best.
![Aigis from Persona 3 Reload readies her weapon.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/xuWFpTuixkNjFCcFUWx3tf-320-80.jpg)
Atlus pinky swears that 'fans can rest assured knowing that Persona 3 Reload offers a complete experience,' so you won't be buying Persona 3 Reload: Royal years from now
By Joshua Wolens published
News But it does mean my hopes of seeing the return of the female protagonist seem dimmer than ever.
![A man and a woman in vault suits stand over irradiated and hostile ghouls in keyart for Fallout 1.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Ay3oLBVTdVWnTWVbCwRZvf-320-80.jpg)
Free GOG keys for the objectively best Fallout game are on Twitch Prime right now
By Joshua Wolens published
News Everyone knows 1 is the best Fallout game. Now to take a big sip of coffee and check out the comments.
![Palworld Ancient Civilization Parts - Grizzbolt with a minigun](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Wm5J7zVNWYiJyyAL7pv7wi-320-80.jpg)
Palworld has now got a staggering 19 million players, an unstoppable rise that means it's got a bigger population than the Netherlands
By Joshua Wolens published
News But fewer Poffertjes.
![The Day Before](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3V4scHiYmCESXa27tbdm93-320-80.jpg)
The Day Before was an even bigger disaster than you thought: devs reportedly made to pay fines for bad work, learned it was an MMO from the trailers, and no one's sure where the bosses are
By Joshua Wolens published
News Less than Fntastic.
![Dwarves fighting go get back to the extraction point in Deep Rock Galactic.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4CBhhumsEBLSHwfAizjd3b-320-80.jpg)
Deep Rock Galactic and Dwarf Fortress call on their fans for a Steam revolution: a new dwarf tag to unite the games under one label
By Joshua Wolens published
News "Strike the Earth! Rock and stone!"
![George Washington performs on stage in a mod for Guitar Hero World Tour.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/x8Zcwo2jBuiuQ3dvnRjpaS-320-80.jpg)
Weird, niche mods make PC gaming great, and these ones prove it
By Joshua Wolens published
Mods most modest If I can't play Guitar Hero as Barack Obama what's even the point?
![Dandelion strums a lute in between two undead women in The Witcher 1.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/CHt4bqTYUcgec59piiinS8-320-80.jpg)
Witcher remake studio boss says it'll remake what's 'bad, outdated, or unnecessarily convoluted' without naming the sex baseball cards we all know he's talking about
By Joshua Wolens published
News But Fool's Theory's Jakub Rokosz also says the remake will highlight "the parts that are great" and "should be retained."
![The Dark Mutant pal layered atop a blurred piece of colourful Palworld keyart.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mFAHfehVL7jtCeh5C4SJCA-320-80.jpg)
Palworld player uncovers secret Mewtwo-like hidden in the game files that looks too legally actionable even for Palworld
By Joshua Wolens published
News Mew-who?
![Avowed — the player character faces a plague-ridden bear in combat, pointing their longsword towards the bear as it roars.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UkW2o5atgCbNr8pNACD4sD-320-80.jpg)
Don't think of Avowed as Obsidian's Skyrim but as a Fallout: New Vegas and Outer Worlds-style take on first-person fantasy, says the studio
By Joshua Wolens published
News You have my interest.
![A drider (a spider-like drow mix) holding a bright moonlantern to his face while he smiles happily, from Baldur's Gate 3.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/H7h2BdvgoytZnj78NbSbRU-320-80.png)
Obsidian's design director would love to add the immersive sim elements of Baldur's Gate 3 into a 'Pillars-y' game: 'we have mostly 2D worlds, so that's a lot more difficult'
By Harvey Randall published
News "But even in a 3D world, it's not easy."