I’m a big fan of narrative games. Finding a compelling story is as vital as good mechanics, multiplayer or visuals. But having some hard decisions that pull at my heartstrings or wrack my brain with guilt is the icing on the cake. I don’t just enjoy hard decisions in games; I love them. And it looks like science has the answer to why.

I love history. I have historical books, movies and texts on every shelf at home and a big fat history degree on my wall that’s mostly useful for… well, articles like this. Being a history nerd also means that when a game takes inspiration from a particular historical epoch, it makes me all the more interested.

Games have always been a powerful form of escapism, but what I’ve found over the last few years is that they’ve also been inspiring me to seek out new experiences in my real life. In a previous article, I talked about how The Witcher 3 inspired me to take up sword fighting. I also bought my first motorbike after cruising around Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV.

The open-world genre - if you can even call it a genre, given how, well, open that descriptor is - continues to evolve and go from strength to strength, giving gamers around the world massive sandboxes to play in and stories to discover. I’ve always played a lot of open-world games, and lately I’ve been thinking about the things my favourite games of this type have in common.

With 2018’s God Of War, Kratos and his son Atreus have stepped out of the shadow of Mount Olympus, and into the wilds of Midgard. They’ve been exploring the fabled worlds of Norse mythology, fighting drooling Nordic beasties and making sense of ancient stories about gods and monsters. See why Jonathon Dornbush called it a ‘Masterpiece’ in IGN's God of War review here.

We take a look at some of the most iconic tools of destruction to ever grace our screens. The gaming world is filled with more evil super-weapons than an 80s spy movie. We’ve got more maniacs, evil geniuses, misguided scientists and evil super-beings than we know what to do with - and most of them want to destroy humanity in a hundred different ways.

My name is Nathanael, and this is a story about why I play games, what they mean to me, and how they help me to cope with chronic pain. It will be a look back on my life so far, my experience as a gamer, and the games that have helped me. In writing this piece I hope that other people in pain can find some commonalities in what I have to say, and together we can keep looking for new worlds to live in, escape to or in which we can simply spend a few hours away from our worries.

Tutorials are essential to every game experience. In that time we learn the game mechanics, the key players, and of course the main quest. The first few hours of a game can easily make or break our opinion of it. So what makes a great tutorial? Beyond just explaining the controls, what do some games do that hook you at the start and keep you coming back?

I'll never forget when I was a bright-eyed young gamer and home consoles were starting to boast online play. I loved the idea of sitting at home on the couch and playing with my friends a few suburbs over. I’d always been a PC gamer, but this new wave of consoles intrigued me enough to buy one.

Happy Holidays everyone! The Thermal Giving 2016 competition has wound down for the year. So let’s celebrate all the fun we’ve had and say congrats to our friends who won some new toys for the holidays.

Whatever your reason for buying a new car, there are plenty of options for those on a budget. We've rounded up some examples for those of you looking for an upgrade on your car. Imagine an open, winding road meandering through the hills of Victoria’s iconic Great Ocean Road. The MX-5 is the car you want to be driving.

Debt consolidation loans are there when you need a bit of extra help to manage your finances and day to day cost of living. It’s about taking credit card debts, personal loans and car loans and then putting them all in one place to make managing repayments a bit easier. ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investment Commission) have a credit card debt clock, which looks at the average debt held by the everyday Australian.

As part of February’s PlayStation State of Play, the Monster Hunter development team debuted a new launch trailer for Wilds that takes a closer look at many of the monsters coming to the game in just a few short weeks. Alongside post launch content and fa

You’re riding through the forest, you have a longsword on your hip that your father made just before he died — you reforged it, and it is stronger than ever. Your horse has been with you through bandit attacks, sieges and all over this country. To your le

Monster Hunter Wilds is gearing up to be the biggest Monster Hunter title to date. During the open beta in October, we were able to check out the new Windward Plains map, which far more varied and sprawling than similar maps in previous titles. The new Se

Monster Hunter has been around since the early 2000s, and since then the game has evolved immensely. But with that history can easily come a trepidation for new players getting into the series. I felt that myself in the early games. Sure, they intrigued m