Austin Wood
Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with 12DOVE since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.
Latest articles by Austin Wood
After loving Black Myth: Wukong, I'm pushing this new Chinese Soulslike action-RPG way up my wishlist following a bloody trailer that doubles the Sekiro vibes
By Austin Wood published
news Wuchang: Fallen Feathers looks like even more of my latest obsession
My problem with the climbing in Uncharted is basically solved in this cute Steam Next Fest platformer designed by a Disney ride engineer
By Austin Wood published
news How to make holding the analog stick just a little more interesting
I see what the creator of Balatro meant: this pachinko roguelike's Steam Next Fest demo is dangerously hard to put down
By Austin Wood published
news Ballionaire is a clever bouncy roguelike about oddball combos
Bungie teases Diablo-style "treasure goblins" and "dynamic enemy spawning" for new Destiny 2 missions you can solo in 10 minutes if you don't want the MMO experience
By Austin Wood published
news Solo Ops missions can also be played with three players if you want
Hades 2 surprises fans with its first big expansion: the roguelike's Olympic Update is out now with more gods, a new jetpack weapon, and half-naked Dionysus
By Austin Wood published
news Fan-favorite god Athena is also back, contrasting Dionysus with full plate armor
MMO Pokemon rival Temtem has a new roguelike in Steam Next Fest, and without even trying the co-op it's already one of the best demos I've played
By Austin Wood published
news Temtem: Swarm comes out swinging with a fun Vampire Survivors roguelike riff
It's no Lies of P, but the most popular Soulslike in Steam Next Fest is just the anime action RPG I was hoping it would be – and it's coming to PS5 too
By Austin Wood published
news AI Limit is a sci-fi Soulslike with uncannily familiar vibes
Combine Sekiro and Risk of Rain 2 and you're pretty close to this unhinged open-world game's Steam Next Fest demo, which I was only kind of into until I parried the ground
By Austin Wood published
news V.A Proxy is a wonderfully ridiculous game about parrying
"How can we do better than Dead Cells?": Motion Twin follows a roguelike icon with a co-op game under huge but "good" pressure with "millions" waiting
By Austin Wood published
Features Dead Cells is a legendary roguelike, so Windblown has a lot to live up to
Dead Cells dev says early access is key to help them make good games, but "it depends on the game you want to do"
By Kaan Serin published
News "At the end, it's for the player. So you need to know what they think."
Dead Cells developers felt "pressure" to match the roguelike's high bar in their next game: "It's awful and very, very cool at the same time"
By Kaan Serin published
News Windblown has very big shoes to fill
After 7 years of Dead Cells updates, devs share hopes for their new roguelike to get just as much support: "If we can, why not? If we are lucky enough"
By Austin Wood published
news "We have a ton of things to do and a ton of things to say"
Hungry for Metaphor: ReFantazio, I spent 97 minutes fighting a single godforsaken boss that the JRPG's director made 21 years ago
By Austin Wood published
Features Now Playing | This is a cry for help
RuneScape creator's new cozy MMO shouts "No microtransactions!" from the rooftops as it charts November launch after a closed beta coming this month
By Austin Wood published
news Andrew Gower's new MMORPG Brighter Shores is just weeks away
One of my favorite series is super cheap on Steam right now: $31 gets you 2 Metroidvanias, 2 XCOM-like strategy games, a city builder, and a clever deckbuilding RPG
By Austin Wood published
news SteamWorld games simply do not miss
24 years ago, Blizzard reportedly shot down a pitch to make its own version of Steam by turning Battle.net into "a digital store for a variety of PC games"
By Austin Wood published
news Meanwhile, Blizzard started bringing its games to Steam last year
Paradox boss says Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is doing well, it's "a bit more of an action RPG" and "people who have seen it talk about Dishonored"
By Austin Wood published
news The long-delayed sequel has changed devs and seemingly found its footing
Helldivers 2 Major Order threatens players with a delay: you took Claorell and the bots didn't like that, so defend it for 3 days or your space station gets pushed back
By Austin Wood published
news The Democracy Space Station "will be delayed" if this Major Order fails
Destiny 2 player locks himself in one of the MMO's hardest raids for over 400 hours until he finally solos it without dying: "I need to call my mom right now"
By Austin Wood published
news TheSnazzzyRock has done it again
Elden Ring fan spends 500 hours making a low-poly version of FromSoftware's biggest map ever because "I thought it would be cool" – and it definitely is
By Austin Wood published
news Honzaap packs The Lands Between into a low-poly wonder
Two new playable Genshin Impact characters announced for update 5.2: Chasca and Ororon
By Austin Wood published
news Genshin Impact 5.2 adds the first Anemo and Electro users of Natlan
Now rushing to finish before Capcom releases Monster Hunter Wilds, one hunter has spent 5 years and over 2,000 hours decoding the series' "Monster Hunter language"
By Austin Wood published
Features Capcom's language is "impossible" to reverse-engineer, but a lexicon was doable
Dragon Age: The Veilguard has gone gold – BioWare's long-awaited return to fantasy RPGs is ready for launch this month
By Austin Wood published
news The next Dragon Age is ready for launch
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