Paul Allen
Indie-first gamer based in Penang, Malaysia. Pays for his own games. No publisher relationships.
44 articles published
KARMA: The Dark World Is the Most Visually Stunning Horror Game I've Ever Played
Critics gave KARMA: The Dark World a 72 on Metacritic. They were wrong. Pollard Studio's first-person psychological thriller set in alternate 1984 East Germany is a genuinely extraordinary piece of work -- the most beautiful horror game I've played, with a story that earns every one of its surreal moments.
5 May 2026 · 8 min
Poppy Playtime Chapter 5 Sold 275,000 Copies in a Week. When Does This End?
Poppy Playtime Chapter 5 broke every record the franchise had set, hit number one on Steam, and ended on another cliffhanger. It's also 3-5 hours long and costs $20. With Chapter 6 already confirmed and a film adaptation in development, it's worth asking how many more of these we're actually going to get.
5 May 2026 · 8 min
ARC Raiders Just Did a Helldivers 2. The Industry Still Hasn't Learned.
ARC Raiders dropped to Mixed reviews overnight after the Riven Tides update. Players are calling it the Helldivers 2 playbook -- nerfs disguised as buffs, a community that trusted the devs, and a studio that squandered it. This is the same mistake, second time around.
5 May 2026 · 8 min
Nintendo's Fastest-Ever Console Is Already in Trouble. Here's Why.
The Nintendo Switch 2 broke every launch record in gaming history. Then the 2025 holiday season happened, Nintendo cut production by 33%, sued the US government, and started thinking about another price hike. Here's what's actually going on.
5 May 2026 · 8 min
Saudi Arabia Just Bought EA for $55 Billion. Here's What to Expect From the Largest Acquisition in Gaming History.
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is acquiring Electronic Arts for $55 billion -- the single largest acquisition in gaming history. They've done this before with Scopely. Here's what the track record actually shows, and what it means for Battlefield, The Sims, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age.
4 May 2026 · 10 min
Subnautica 2 Early Access: The Developer Betrayal Story You Need to Know Before May 14
Before you buy Subnautica 2 on May 14, read this. Krafton's CEO used ChatGPT to scheme his way out of a $250 million bonus owed to the developers. A Delaware court just ruled it fraud. The full story, with citations from the court record.
4 May 2026 · 10 min
Sony Keeps Replacing Male Leads With Women and Wondering Why the Numbers Drop
The God of War Faye spinoff rumour isn't the issue. The issue is a pattern Sony keeps repeating: take a beloved male character, sideline him, and act surprised when gamers notice. Here's the track record.
1 May 2026 · 10 min
Crimson Desert Is Game of the Year 2026. The Patches Sealed It.
Pearl Abyss launched their first single-player game to mixed reviews in March. Five million copies and six major patches later, Crimson Desert is the best open-world game of the year. Here's what changed.
1 May 2026 · 8 min
Windrose Is the Pirate Game Everyone Has Been Waiting For. Buy It.
Kraken Express launched their first game into Early Access and 222,000 people showed up on the same weekend. Here's why Windrose is the survival-crafting game of 2026 and what it gets wrong.
1 May 2026 · 8 min
Xbox Hiked Game Pass 50%, Got Torched, and Is Now Pretending It Was a Learning Experience
Microsoft raised Game Pass Ultimate from $20 to $30 in October 2025. Six months later, new CEO Asha Sharma admitted it was too expensive and rolled it back. This is not a pivot. This is a company getting caught.
1 May 2026 · 9 min
Pragmata Made Men Want to Be Dads and Critics Are Losing Their Minds Over It
Capcom's Pragmata is one of the best games of 2026. It also made a lot of male gamers feel something unexpectedly wholesome. The discourse that followed says more about the critics than the players.
1 May 2026 · 8 min
Hollow Knight Is One of the Greatest Games Ever Made. Here's Why It Earns That.
Team Cherry made a Metroidvania in 2017 that redefined what the genre could be. Nine years later it is still the benchmark. Here is exactly what makes Hollow Knight exceptional and why the Silksong wait is worth it.
24 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Destiny 2 Is the Most Predatory Game Ever Made by a Studio That Used to Make Halo
Bungie built the FPS genre twice. Then they spent a decade building a slot machine. Destiny 2 is the most sophisticated psychological manipulation engine in gaming, disguised as a loot shooter.
24 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Hades Is Not a Roguelike and Calling It One Misses What Makes It Special
Hades is the most acclaimed roguelike of the last decade. It is also not really a roguelike in any meaningful sense. The distinction matters because it explains why nothing else can replicate what Supergiant built.
24 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Game Pass Killed the Mid-Budget Game and Microsoft Doesn't Care
Hi-Fi RUSH won every award. Microsoft shut down the studio that made it eight months later. This is not a coincidence. It is what Game Pass does to the games that don't generate subscriptions.
24 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Darkwood Is the Most Underplayed Horror Game of the Last Decade
Acid Wizard Studio built the best top-down survival horror game ever made in 2017. It sold modestly, got decent reviews, and just about nobody talks about it. That needs to change.
24 Apr 2026 · 10 min
Dead Space: How EA Killed a Franchise by Fixing What Wasn't Broken
Dead Space was a successful horror franchise. EA added co-op, microtransactions, and action set pieces. Sales declined. EA closed the studio. The IP sat unused for six years. This is the story of how publishers destroy their own franchises.
24 Apr 2026 · 10 min
Redfall: How Microsoft and Bethesda Took Arkane's Best Team and Made the Worst Game of 2023
Arkane Austin made Prey. One of the best immersive sims ever created. Then Microsoft told them to make a live service co-op shooter. The result was predictable to everyone except the people making the decision.
24 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Anthem: How BioWare and EA Burned One of Gaming's Greatest Studios to the Ground
Anthem was not just a bad game. It was the visible symptom of EA systematically destroying the studio that made Mass Effect and Dragon Age. The full story is worse than you think.
24 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Skull and Bones: $750 Million, Seven Years, and the Most Expensive Lesson in AAA Hubris
Ubisoft spent seven years and somewhere between $650M and $850M making a game that reviewed as mediocre and sold as disappointing. Then their CEO called it quadruple-A. Here's the full story.
23 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Cyberpunk 2077 at Launch Was Not a Mistake. It Was Fraud.
CD Projekt Red knew what they were shipping. They knew it didn't work on base consoles. They hid review copies from console reviewers. They shipped it anyway. Let's call it what it was.
23 Apr 2026 · 11 min
The 10 Best Games of 2024 You Probably Missed
2024 was dominated by Black Myth: Wukong and Elden Ring DLC headlines. Meanwhile, ten genuinely exceptional games came out and just about nobody covered them properly.
23 Apr 2026 · 7 min
The 10 Best Psychological Horror Games on Steam That Will Actually Disturb You
Not jump scares. Not gore. Psychological horror, the kind that gets inside your head and stays there. These are the 10 best psychological horror games on Steam.
23 Apr 2026 · 7 min
The 20 Best Indie Games Under $15 on Steam (2026)
The best indie games on Steam that cost less than $15. No filler, no asset flips. Just the games that genuinely deliver more value than their price suggests.
23 Apr 2026 · 7 min
The 15 Best Horror Games on Steam Right Now (2026)
The definitive list of the best horror games available on Steam in 2026. From psychological horror to survival horror to horror roguelikes, ranked, reviewed, and priced.
23 Apr 2026 · 6 min
Fear & Hunger Is the Most Disturbing and Important Horror RPG Ever Made and Almost Nobody Has Played It
Miro Haverinen made a horror RPG in RPG Maker that goes to places no commercial game would be allowed to go. Fear & Hunger is not for everyone. It might be the most honest horror game ever made.
23 Apr 2026 · 10 min
Outlast Is a Technical Achievement That Proves Jump Scares Are the Lowest Form of Horror
Red Barrels built one of the most oppressive horror environments ever put in a game. Then they filled it with jump scares. Outlast is a fascinating case study in a developer who understood atmosphere completely and narrative horror barely at all.
23 Apr 2026 · 10 min
The Elden Ring Difficulty Discourse Is Exhausting and Everyone Involved Is Wrong
Every time FromSoftware releases a game, the internet spends two weeks arguing about whether it should have an easy mode. Both sides of this argument are tedious. Here's the actual take.
23 Apr 2026 · 10 min
The Last of Us Part II Is a Better Game Than the First. The Backlash Was Embarrassing.
The Last of Us Part II is a more ambitious, more technically accomplished, and more thematically complex game than the original. The online backlash against it in 2020 was one of the ugliest things gaming has produced.
23 Apr 2026 · 10 min
The Witcher 3 Is Overrated. There, I Said It.
The Witcher 3 is not the greatest RPG ever made. It is a very good open world game buried under 100 hours of filler, a mediocre combat system, and a fanbase that will not hear a word against it.
23 Apr 2026 · 8 min
Darkest Dungeon's Stress Mechanic Changed How Horror Games Work and Nobody Gave It Enough Credit
Red Hook Studios built a roguelike in 2016 that understood something most horror games still don't: the scariest thing is not the monster in the room. It's watching your own people break.
23 Apr 2026 · 10 min
Disco Elysium Is the Only RPG That Treats Players Like Adults and the Industry Hasn't Learned a Thing
Every RPG since 2019 has been measured against Disco Elysium and found wanting. Here's why ZA/UM built something the genre hasn't been able to follow.
23 Apr 2026 · 11 min
Signalis Is the Best Horror Game of the Last Decade and Nobody Talked About It
A two-person team made a survival horror game that references Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Evangelion simultaneously, pulls all of it off, and left just about everyone speechless.
23 Apr 2026 · 9 min
SOMA Is the Scariest Sci-Fi Game Ever Made and Most People Missed It
Frictional Games followed Amnesia with something worse: a horror game that gets inside your head philosophically and never lets go. SOMA asks questions about consciousness that will haunt you long after the credits roll.
23 Apr 2026 · 10 min
Amnesia: The Dark Descent Is Still the Best Horror Game Ever Made. Nothing Has Come Close.
Fourteen years old. Still terrifying. The reason every indie horror game since 2010 exists. Here's why Amnesia remains the benchmark nobody has matched.
23 Apr 2026 · 10 min
Dave the Diver, Stardew Valley, Hades: Why Cozy Games Are the Fastest Growing Genre
The average gamer is in their mid-30s. They have jobs, families, and limited time. Cozy games exist for them. Here's why the genre is exploding and what it means for indie developers.
17 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Ubisoft's Slow Collapse: A Timeline of Every Bad Decision Since 2020
Ubisoft's share price has collapsed, key talent has left, and game after game has underperformed. Here's the full timeline of how it happened.
17 Apr 2026 · 9 min
Steam's Discovery Problem: How to Actually Find Good Indie Games in 2026
Steam publishes 14,000+ games per year. The algorithm is optimised for engagement, not quality. Here's how to actually find the good ones.
17 Apr 2026 · 6 min
EA Just Killed Another Studio. Let's Talk About Why This Keeps Happening.
EA has a documented, decades-long pattern of acquiring beloved studios and closing them when the numbers don't work. This isn't incompetence. It's the model.
17 Apr 2026 · 8 min
The Best Roguelikes on Steam in 2026: Ranked by Someone Who's Actually Played Them
The roguelike genre is flooded with mediocre games. Here are the ones actually worth your time, ranked with honest opinions on difficulty, price, and what makes each one tick.
17 Apr 2026 · 8 min
Hollow Knight: Silksong Has Been in Development for 6 Years. Here's What That Tells You.
Silksong was announced in 2019. It's 2026 and Team Cherry is still working on it. This isn't a scandal. It's a case study in what it actually takes to make a great game.
17 Apr 2026 · 10 min
Balatro Is the Best Game of 2024 and It Was Made by One Person. Think About That.
LocalThunk made Balatro alone, in spare time, for a fraction of what Concord cost. It won Game of the Year. Concord was shut down after two weeks. There's a lesson here.
17 Apr 2026 · 11 min
Why AAA Gaming Is in Crisis (And Why That's Good for Everyone Else)
AAA game budgets have hit $300M+, studios are closing, and publishers are panicking. Here's why that's actually good news for players.
17 Apr 2026 · 8 min
The 50 Best Indie Games of 2025 You Probably Missed
A genuinely ranked list of the best indie games from 2025. No algorithm, no PR, just one person who played them and has opinions.
17 Apr 2026 · 7 min