Lincoln Carpenter
Lincoln has been writing about games for 11 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.
Latest articles by Lincoln Carpenter

In this airship-building survival game, I faced an enemy worth punching trees over: 'The hubris of man'
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News I don't know if you can destroy mankind's wretched ambition with cannonballs, but I'm certainly going to try.

Helldivers 2 CCO Johan Pilestedt says the industry's got it backwards by putting features over fundamentals: 'We talk way too little about the core philosophy'
By Harvey Randall published
News Visualise, then execute.

Johan Pilestedt warns that Helldivers 2 took 4 more years than planned because Arrowhead skipped pre-production and dove right in: 'Always do your homework before you start spending millions and millions and millions of dollars in making a game'
By Morgan Park published
NEWS Sound advice, but easier said than done.

Helldivers 2's Johan Pilestedt says developers need to start taking more risks: 'Safe bets are a death sentence for the studios that try to make them'
By Andy Chalk published
news Pilestedt says the game industry has a "convergence problem," and it won't find sustainable success until it breaks out of it.

Arrowhead’s CEO got a call from PlayStation when he said players could save their money and wait to buy Helldivers 2 until the servers were fixed: They ‘asked me what the f*** I’m smoking’
By Justin Wagner published
News It’s said you should always be closing, even on Super Earth.

The United Nations asked Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead if it'd give a talk on psychological manipulation: ‘Could we brainwash an entire community to fight for a fascist state? … Would we be okay with that? Turns out, yeah’
By Justin Wagner published
News Players’ eagerness in the fight for Super Earth begs the question: are we the baddies?

'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News Many such cases.

2024 was Steam's 'best year ever' of users buying newly released games—but I wouldn't celebrate the end of the forever game era just yet
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News Number goes up. Or does it?

Monster Hunter Wilds weapon tier list
By Lincoln Carpenter published
HIGH RANK Our recommendations for what to wield next.

Monster Hunter Wilds players can't stop blowing themselves to smithereens with its rollable barrel bombs
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News Nobody could have foreseen this.

The latest Monster Hunter Wilds event quest gives piles of Armor Spheres for hunting a Chatacabra, making this a very bad week to be a frog in the Forbidden Lands
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News It's a perfect time to stock up for armor upgrades.

Attention, fashion hunters: There's a Monster Hunter Wilds mod to disable all those obnoxious glowing buff effects that distract from your fits
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News Turn the glow off for a glow up.

I wish Monster Hunter Wilds wasn't so afraid of letting me play Monster Hunter
By Lincoln Carpenter published
LOW RANKLED A story on rails gives Monster Hunter the wrong kind of guidance.

Best Switch Axe build in Monster Hunter Wilds
By Lincoln Carpenter last updated
Axe-iomatic Carve through the Forbidden Lands with two ways to cut.

Best Bow build in Monster Hunter Wilds
By Lincoln Carpenter last updated
Full quiver Turn those monsters into pincushions.

The first Monster Hunter Wilds event quests let you wear an adorable forest creature as a helmet, which means my headgear is locked in for the next few months
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News Peak fashion achieved.

Best Hammer builds in Monster Hunter Wilds
By Lincoln Carpenter last updated
Bonk 101 Clobber your way across Low Rank and High Rank with these recommendations.

Monster Hunter Wilds feels easy at launch—but after a decade of fighting post-release elder dragons and Master Rank monsters, I'm not worried about the light warmup
By Lincoln Carpenter published
Flat circle Ask me again in two years.

I've been playing Monster Hunter for 10 years and even I'm terrified of this Wilds speedrunner deleting a Tempered Gravios in 37 seconds
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News Surely this is for the ecology's benefit.

There's already a Monster Hunter Wilds mod to change your appearance without a DLC voucher
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News How safe it is to use is another matter.

You can save rare hunts for later in Monster Hunter Wilds, so you can come back for that Rey Dau gem when it's convenient
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News A monster saved is a monster… slain. Eventually.

All monsters in Monster Hunter Wilds
By Lincoln Carpenter last updated
Hunter's Guide A hunting handbook for every new and returning monster.

PSA: If Monster Hunter Wilds is crashing, try turning off frame generation
By Lincoln Carpenter published
News The extra frames are nice. The exploding software, less so.
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