Bring Out The Big Gun

Doom, more than any other sequel or reboot in recent memory, is defiantly, well, Doom-like. That might sound like a strange statement to make, but such confident force of identity is surprisingly rare in today’s games. As budgets spiral, and risks get higher, and entire trends are born and die during the length of the development cycle, even the most established of franchises find themselves partaking in a bit of portmanteau design. Call of Duty now contains as much Titanfall and Mirror’s Edge as Modern Warfare. Every Ubisoft game is Assassin’s Creed to some degree, and even Master Chief has learned to doublejump and ground-pound.

The lion sleeps tonight

In the wake of Fable Legends’ cancellation and Lionhead Studios’ proposed closure, we celebrate one of gaming’s most eccentric developers

Making videogames is a high-cost, high-risk industry, and sadly studios going out of business is a common occurrence – both big and small. In the last decade, we’ve lost names such as Bizarre Creations (Project Gotham Racing), Eden Games (Test Drive Unlimited), Neversoft (Tony Hawk), Rockstar Vancouver (Bully) and more besides. But as gutting as those closures were, it’s been a long time since something properly winded us like the recently announced demise of the storied old studio that brought us the Fable series, Lionhead.

Total War: Warhammer - War Has Changed

Magic and monsters will make Total War: Warhammer a strategy game like no other

Every Total War game has reinvented itself, cutting even popular ideas to ensure each one feels unique. Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War play completely differently, and so they should: the political machinations and warfare of those cultures were entirely different. Tactics change over time, too. How do you fight Samurai? How can you protect your cannons from Russian Hussars? The launch of Total War: Warhammer introduces further questions: how can I best utilise dwarfen artillery? How do I stop the colossal Arachnarok spider from eating my zombies?