Rick Lane
Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.
Latest articles by Rick Lane

Civilization 7's post-launch roadmap will bring the Bermuda Triangle and Mount Everest to all players in March
By Rick Lane published
News While paid DLC adds Ada Lovelace and Simon Bolivar.

I didn't think Factorio needed swarms of robot ants, but the trailer for this upcoming factory sim has convinced me it missed a trick
By Rick Lane published
News Build and program a synthetic ant colony in Microtopia.

Snowrunner follow-up RoadCraft shows off its roadbuilding and logistics automation in a new trailer, and I'm already in love with its mobile quarry
By Rick Lane published
News The cleanup begins on May 20.

Split Fiction's latest trailer shows off its side-stories, which let you fly through space and ride giant desert fish in worlds 'completely different' from the main adventure
By Rick Lane published
News Off the page.

Nightdive's remaster of Doom + Doom 2 gets multiplayer mod support, spectator mode for co-op play, and stops you from losing your mind searching for red doors
By Rick Lane published
News Play with your mates as we wait for Doom: The Dark Ages.

Elder Scrolls voice actor Wes Johnson shares message of thanks after waking from coma to $175K GoFundMe: 'I love you all. I'm not going anywhere'
By Rick Lane published
news "I found out there's a lot of love in this world that I didn't know was out there."

Firaxis celebrates Civilization 7's launch with the Civ World Summit, a live streamed five-way strategy showdown with 'an exciting announcement' planned
By Rick Lane published
News Airs February 8.

Hyper Light Breaker gets a community-driven update that makes 'some pretty big changes' to the game's enemies and medkit system, following its debut to mixed reviews on Steam
By Rick Lane published
News Further updates and an early access roadmap coming soon.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's director says 'I respect the modding community' and uses mods himself, though he still thinks we shouldn't use ones that 'detract from the intended game experience'
By Rick Lane published
News Mods cons.

The Video Game History Foundation launches its digital library later this month, providing access to over 1,500 videogame magazines and 'never-before-seen game development materials'
By Rick Lane published
News Back issues.

The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced a Her Story-like game where you hack into Lady MacBeth's computer
By Rick Lane published
News Out damned Spotify.

Celeste developer starts 2025 with a 'huge, heartbreaking, and yet relieving failure' as creative difficulties and internal conflict lead to the cancellation of Earthblade
By Rick Lane published
News "We gave it all we got, and life goes on".

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 2 will let players battle on boats and bullet-trains, with the Terminator entering the fray 'shortly after launch'
By Rick Lane published
News Excellent.

'That's why they call me the Elden Ring sicko' proclaims streamer as he beats FromSoft's RPG at NG+1000 without taking a single hit
By Rick Lane published
News Skumnut's run is "first in the world" and "probably the last" of its kind.

The best GTA 5 mods
By Christopher Livingston, Joe Donnelly, Rick Lane, Heather Newman last updated
New and updated! Our favourite tweaks include forests in San Andreas and more than 50 new heists.

Baldur's Gate 3's shows off its upcoming photo mode by going haywire with memes
By Rick Lane published
News "We've also reminded Minthara that 'knocked out' does not mean 'dead'."

Bethesda intended Starfield to be more violent, including 'meat caps' for beheaded astronauts, but the gore was toned down for technical reasons and because it 'didn't fit thematically'
By Rick Lane published
News "It turned into a big Rat's Nest."

Total Chaos, the full-fat remake of one of Doom's best mods, is a getting a demo 'very shortly'
By Rick Lane published
News The FPS overhaul will introduce "completely new" areas.

The worst Tomb Raider game is getting cut weapons, areas and voice lines restored as part of its upcoming remaster
By Rick Lane published
News But will the changes make The Angel of Darkness any better?

Crysis director says it was so hard to run it became a meme because its highest settings were meant for future PCs: 'I wanted to make sure Crysis does not age'
By Ted Litchfield published
news "A lot of people tried to maximise Crysis immediately, and I'm like, 'Oh, that's not why we built the Ultra mode, or Very High.'"

Climbing a lighthouse that was determined to kill me in Peaks of Yore was genuinely revelatory—now I understand mountaineers
By Rick Lane published
Belayed gratification Next stop, Everest.

Sons of the Forest's first patch in 6 months is a doozy, adding buildable rafts, a procedural wall system, and fixing more than 100 bugs
By Rick Lane published
News Also improves weapon aiming and warms up the hell cave.

Galaxy-brained high schooler ports Doom to a PDF file, paving the way for a bloody revolution in invoicing
By Rick Lane published
News A true Adobe acrobat.
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