Austin Wood
Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with 12DOVE since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
Latest articles by Austin Wood
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"It makes me sick": Skyrim modder with 475,000 downloads, fed up with "daily harassment," abandons modding after "thousands of hours" of work on what she calls "the most advanced follower to ever exist"
By Ali Jones published
News Their departure has sparked another conversation about how the modding scene looks after its own
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In an expansion-heavy time for Xbox, Phil Spencer says he doesn't like "expansions that are manipulative" – "I don't want it to be, like, the third level that you cut"
By Austin Wood published
news "Not every game will do expansions"
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A Deep Rock Galactic player became a real-life explosives miner as "a direct result" of the "silly little dwarf game," and he couldn't be happier with his career
By Austin Wood published
Interview Interview | Yes, he has an epic beard
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Ubisoft kills "inaccurate rumors" around Assassin's Creed Animus Hub: rewards are "entirely free," no paid sub or battle pass, and "no extra cost" to missions
By Catherine Lewis last updated
News Update: Ubisoft steps in to set the record straight
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Meet Elden Ring's newest hero: the Lore Accurate Knight, a sword-and-board legend crushing bosses with a simple Dark Souls-inspired loadout
By Austin Wood published
news "Imagine how they must feel losing to a common knight"
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Helldivers 2's new Democracy Space Station is killing so many Helldivers that the devs are giving out free shields and extra lives in a "temporary" emergency fix
By Catherine Lewis last updated
News Update: Arrowhead agrees the DSS is a team-killing nightmare
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That slick Prince of Persia action roguelike from the Dead Cells co-dev is getting a huge update that throws out the old art style and doubles the content
By Austin Wood published
news The Prince of Purple is gone, but may return in a skin
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Avowed is selling 5 days of early access, and in a surprise twist fueled by Xbox buying everyone, Obsidian's RPG is coming to Activision Blizzard's Battle.net
By Austin Wood published
news Fork over $90 and you can play Avowed five days early
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Under PS5 dominance, Microsoft says you don't need a console at all, actually everything is an Xbox, and "you're probably reading this right now from an Xbox"
By Austin Wood published
news What isn't an Xbox, really?
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No Man's Sky dev shares another reminder of how hard game dev is: 20 different formats to balance, with "around 140 combinations of graphics options" on PC
By Austin Wood published
news "Which I hope conveys the complexity involved in releasing a large cross platform game like ours"
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The First Descendant devs have "important news" for fans of the RPG shooter: "A decision has been made to add the much-requested 'Jiggle Physics'"
By Austin Wood published
news You asked for it
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Xbox faces hundreds of striking employees as union at Bethesda parent ZeniMax stages a walkout to "tell Microsoft to stop dragging their feet"
By Austin Wood published
news ZeniMax Workers United reckons "Microsoft runs on outsourcing"
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Destiny 2 is kind of a mess right now: bugs are making it harder to enjoy my favorite MMO and it only seems to be getting worse
By Austin Wood published
Feature Opinion | Weightgate is frankly the least of Destiny 2's problems
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"Please give it a chance": After 3,200 mixed Steam reviews for his new MMO, RuneScape creator explains the soft-reset class design confusing some players
By Austin Wood published
news Brighter Shores plays very differently from RuneScape, even if it can look similar
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Sony boss admits forcing PC gamers into PlayStation accounts can "invite pushback," but insists they have to keep games safe – which doesn't really track in single-player
By Austin Wood published
news Horizon Zero Dawn remastered is the latest PC game to require a PSN account
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Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero "saw outstanding sales," and Bandai Namco says roughly 90% of that was from European and North American fans
By Austin Wood published
news Dragon Ball, in general, is orders of magnitude bigger outside Japan
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Genshin Impact community rallies to pummel one player "shamelessly admitting that I want friends" with so many friend requests that they can barely respond to everyone
By Austin Wood published
news "I managed to play on co-op with one person last night briefly, and they were really kind"
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Now that's a nasty MMO bug: Old School RuneScape players watched in confusion as thousands of bolts and arrows vanished in a black hole strapped to their shoulder
By Austin Wood published
news Dizana's Quiver in OSRS was bugged and eating ranged ammo
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Monster Hunter Wilds players use the Palico character creator to remember lost pets: "I have shed tears multiple times but I also feel happy that I can still fight monsters with my buddy"
By Austin Wood published
news "They can accompany us into a whole new world," said one player
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Days after Wii U gem Xenoblade Chronicles X was finally announced for Switch, Nintendo says the JRPG series has seen roughly 500% growth on Switch vs 3DS and Wii U
By Austin Wood published
news Xenoblade has sold over 7 million copies on Switch
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The best Persona games, ranked
By Malindy Hetfeld last updated
Feature With Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Royal released, we rank the 12 best Persona games to see how the classics stack up
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Artist reimagines Elden Ring as a Baldur's Gate-style top-down RPG "despite my love-hate relationship with the game," is surprised to see it's absolutely stunning
By Jordan Gerblick published
news Elden Gate has a nice *ring* to it
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After 800 hours of practice finally paid off, hitless runner explains why a no-hit run of Borderlands 2 was way harder than games like Dark Souls or Skyrim
By Austin Wood published
news A hitless Borderlands 2 clear didn't even seem possible for a long time
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