Arc Raiders Skill Tree Forces Players to Choose: ‘We Believe That Creates More Interesting Choices’
Raiders' skill tree forces players to choose a few abilities instead of unlocking everything, a bold change that narrows options.
CLAY TRIBUNE / THE ARCHIVE
Tag: game design
Diablo 5’s Level-Scaling System Looks Set to Draw More From Diablo 2 Than Diablo 4
Blizzard reveals Diablo 5 will ditch automatic level-scaling for a Diablo 2-inspired approach, promising a more rewarding sense of progress.
Valve’s Founder Still Believes Games Should Be Released Without the Arcade Mode
Valve's Gabe Newell said in 2013 that devs mistake player tricks for hacks, a lesson MMO lore still remembers.
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave Developers Explain Why One Save File Suffices — and Reveal the Game’s Eight Original Leads
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave devs explain why one save file beats multiple — and reveal they added a late fifth protagonist to tie four stories together.
Game Reviews8.5/10
Resident Evil 4 Turned Survival Horror Into a Shooter, and the Genre Never Went Back
How Resident Evil 4's over-the-shoulder camera, laser sight, and Los Ganados enemies rewrote survival horror and set the template for third-person shooters.
World of Warcraft: Forever Will Let You Play Solo as a Shaman — But Not as a Tank
Lead designers reveal new details on WoW: Forever, including raid tiers, mounts, PvP rankings, and why the game is called 'Forever'.
Diablo 5’s Design Shift: Blizzard Abandons Diablo 4’s Open World in Favor of Tighter Zones
Blizzard explains why Diablo 5 returns to procedurally generated terrain, avoiding the static open-world pitfalls of Diablo 4.
Game Reviews6.6/10
Eight Years On, Sea of Thieves Still Makes Its Best Stories Out of Other Players
Rare's pirate sandbox asks strangers to trust each other. We break down its cosmetic-only progression, 15-minute encounter spacing, and no-tutorial design.
Game Reviews8.3/10
Bushido Blade: The Fighting Game Where One Clean Strike Ends the Match
Bushido Blade (1997) killed the health bar: one clean strike ends the match. A look at the PlayStation fighter's body damage system and why it still matters.
Game Reviews9.6/10
Metal Gear Solid Review: Kojima’s Stealth Masterpiece Still Holds Up
Metal Gear Solid dropped players into Shadow Moses with a radar and a rule: being seen is failure. Why the 1998 PlayStation classic still defines stealth.
Thief Designer Says the Graphics Arms Race Should Have Ended With 2010’s Alan Wake: ‘The Fidelity Curve Has Become Outrageous’
Thief designer Randy Smith Evergreen says the graphics arms race peaked with 2010's Alan Wake, and modern fidelity costs too much for immersive sims.
Game Reviews8.9/10
Ikaruga’s Black-and-White Polarity Is Still the Smartest Idea in Shoot-‘Em-Ups
Ikaruga, Treasure's 2001 polarity shooter, explained: the black-and-white absorb mechanic, chain scoring, Shinra's story, and why the design still holds.