Rick Lane

Rick Lane

@ricklane.bsky.social

Freelance journalist, critic and consultant. Bylines at The Guardian, PC Gamer, NME, Eurogamer and more. Immersive sim geek. Contact: rick@ricklane.co.uk

1,136 Followers 350 Following 882 Posts Joined Sep 2023
Posts Following
1 day ago
Preview
“He doesn’t have a heart, but he has heartstrings”: The making of Nick Valentine, Fallout’s best-loved companion Fallout 4 lead designer Emil Pagliarulo digs deep into Nick Valentine, the game's fan-favourite private eye companion

I interviewed Bethesda’s Emil Pagliarulo about the surprisingly personal roots of Fallout 4’s fan favourite gumshoe. Really pleased with this one. www.rockpapershotgun.com/he-doesnt-ha...

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14 hours ago

Sounds like lawyer time to me!

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20 hours ago

It also looks very likely that @societyofauthors.bsky.social is using an AI generated image to promote its "human authored" campaign.

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1 day ago

2026 is a real good year for people wanting to turn blood into ammo.

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1 day ago

Just once I would like to be an adult not in the midst of economic crisis.

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2 days ago
Preview
A decade before Stalker, this obscure Ukrainian Quake clone was quietly breaking new ground for first-person shooters Chasm: The Rift is an early European contender to American FPS supremacy.

Thoroughly in sicko mode on PC Gamer this weekend, writing about 30-year-old Ukrainian first-person shooters nobody else cares about. www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/a-...

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2 days ago

Bottom right has definitely had a cappuccino in it.

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4 days ago

The Killing Stone is now just 2 reviews away from hitting that 50 review threshold and getting that coveted "Very Positive" review score. If you've played it and haven't left a review yet, please do!

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3 days ago

Still got a little ways to go on it but Resi Requiem is such a great time. So confident and assured in its ideas, and the hospital is a fantastic bit of 3D level design.

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4 days ago
Me interacting with what is definitely an "aye eye" and it drew me a wonderful birb

I love this site so much youraislopbores.me

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6 days ago

Anyone who signs off with a Red Dwarf quote should be hired on the spot.

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6 days ago
Hello everyone. I come with the sad news that as you are no doubt already aware, we're saying goodbye to several of our friends and colleagues here at Eurogamer. Leaving us are Tom Orry, our editorial director; our video team of Ian Higton, Zoe Delahunty-Light, and Alix Attenborough; Alex Donaldson, our editor-at-large; and Will Judd, who worked across Digital Foundry, hardware and deals. I'll start with Tom, who over the past year-plus had made himself a hugely valuable source of advice, expertise, desert-dry humour and world class poker faces (I think we just about made him laugh once, for a moment, on his final day). Tom initially began the role when Tom Phillips was our editor-in-chief here, mostly working away diligently in the background in a two-Tom-tandem doing editorial director things, before taking on a more prominent role on the site itself over the past 11 or 12 months, gracing us with some signature console nostalgia and unjustifiably intense Project Gotham Racing enthusiasm. Tom, Dom, Alex and I, along with the rest of the team, worked together closely on what a 'new Eurogamer' might look like last year, and his experience in running multiple games media sites was consistently our rock to lean on. While he may have initially seemed an outsider of sorts compared to Eurogamer chiefs of old - at least to some on the surface, coming from his 20-plus years across our sister sites VG247 and USGamer, and before that the cult-favourite site he founded in our once-rival VideoGamer - I can't stress enough how much Tom 'got' Eurogamer. His goal was for us to be at the heart of the big stories that mattered most to our readers with original, diligent reporting and on-the-button commentary, and that will absolutely continue. In immaculately on-brand, limelight-dodging Orry style, Tom opted to sneak his farewell into this past weekend's What We've Been Playing column, but I'll be damned if he gets away with it that easily. Sorry Tom. Here's what he had to say…

From myself and the whole team at @eurogamer.bsky.social, a very fond farewell and huge thank you to our friends and colleagues (thread).💙

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6 days ago
Preview
Sony is U-turning on its 'let's put our games on PC' strategy, says report Nothing gold can stay.

The first line of this writeup on Sony's PC backtracking from @joshuawolens.bsky.social made me honk with laughter. www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...

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1 week ago

Breathtakingly stupid, short-sighted and wrong. Basically waving through the biggest art heist in human history

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1 week ago
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Monthly Update: Feb '26 | Yarn Spinner We have a huge amount of work planned for 2026, with more ongoing projects and ambitious goals than ever before. To keep the community across what we’re working on during this busy time, we posted a 2...

We're working on it!

Not wanting to write an Unreal version that is just the Unity version + conventions w/ the serial numbers files off is why we spent years writing now 2.5 versions of an Unreal port. Finally happy with the alpha we released literally yesterday! 🎉 yarnspinner.dev/blog/monthly...

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1 week ago

Incredibly jealous that Jeremy got this (excellent) interview with Emil. Green as a super mutant.

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1 week ago
A screenshot of text cropped from a PC Gamer webpage that reads as follows: I write all of my videogame scripts in Scrivener, unless there's an actual tool, which is rare. I wrote all of Void Bastards in Scrivener. I wrote all of Ghost Town in Scrivener. A lot of it is just because it can organise text in a really useful way. It also has screenwriting format, which is easy for actors to read from. It's mainly because, unfortunately, game engines like Unreal have literally no narrative tools. I think the great shame of videogame engines is that they do not ship with any form of narrative tool. It's a disgrace. Even if you are a sound designer, you can work within Unreal's very basic sound design tools to put sounds in, and most people have a desire to work in Wwise because it's a standardised tool. There is no standardised tool for a narrative designer or a writer in videogames.

Cara also made a Very Good Point about how poorly served writers and narrative designers are by videogame design tools.

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1 week ago
Preview
Cara Ellison, senior narrative designer on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 before Paradox switched developers, discusses her love of Troika's original RPG: 'Everyone on the team helped really m... The narrative designer of Void Bastards and Ghost Town walks us through what's on her PC.

In this week's Disk Cleanup, @caraellison.bsky.social took me on a tour of her PC. We talked about Titanium Court, Bloodlines, Vertigo and David Mamet's penguins. www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/ca...

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1 week ago
Preview
Help raise £30000 to Coming Together to Support Our Family in a Time of Crisis or Supporting Our Family Through Loss, ICU Care, and Recovery – JustGiving Crowdfunding Iʼm raising money to Coming Together to Support Our Family in a Time of Crisis or Supporting Our Family Through Loss, ICU Care, and Recovery. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.

I just want to give a bump to the fundraiser for Patrick Dane's family as they deal with the long aftermath of the horrific car accident that took him away from us all. They need it for the enormous costs incurred. Time off work. Fights. Hotels. Etc.

www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

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1 week ago

I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon whereby an expert engages with any of the LLMs on their field of expertise and is instantly horrified by the wrong answers, and then goes on to use it for things they are not experts in as though it won’t be just as bad for those.

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1 week ago

Well then. After 9 years my role of Editorial Director at Eurogamer/IGNE has been made redundant. If you’re reading this and feel I have a lot of valuable experience (I do), I’m keen to explore any opportunities (full time, consulting, other) in the games industry. I am great.

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1 week ago

To everyone making the same Matt Badlose joke, I implore you, please continue.

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1 week ago

Could it be? A nugget of purest green?

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1 week ago
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Metacritic has sent a reminder email to all games site editors/publishers which is pretty strong, and great:

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1 week ago
Craig Charles @CCfunkandsoul 26m X Earlier today I was informed of the passing of @realrobgrant.i am in total shock.He was one of the funniest people I've ever met. A visionary. My heart goes out to his family and friends. The impact he and Doug had on the course of my life is immeasurable RIP ROB

I've been a huge Red Dwarf fan all my life. Sorry to bring bad news to RD fans who may not know yet.

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1 week ago
Preview
PC Gamer magazine's new issue is on sale now: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 Plus, Solasta 2, Resident Evil Requiem, Terra Invicta, Mewgenics, Going Medieval, Forza Horizon 6, Duke Nukem 3D, gaming mousepads, and much more, too

The latest @pcgamer.com magazine is out now, with world exclusive access to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4. Plus, Solasta 2, Going Medieval, Forza Horizon 6, Resident Evil Requiem, Nioh 3, Duke Nukem 3D, Mewgenics, gaming mouse pads, and much more, too. 💥
tinyurl.com/3hnnn7sm

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1 week ago

truly some bottom-rung stuff to staff your site with AI when games freelancers will already turn in 2000 words for an egg sandwich

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1 week ago

Oh it's gorgeous. So sleek. Much shiny. Very analogue.

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1 week ago

On this subject, I just finished The Invincible, which is a very pleasant slow burn sci-fi adventure.
The writing lets it down a bit, but the visuals and atmosphere are immaculate. And it's done and out in 7 hours. Peak unc game.

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1 week ago
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