In the Eighties, computer games required replay value to sell and coin-ops had to keep players’ games short to be profitable, so it stands to reason that the earliest attempts at 3D rally games for PCs differed from their arcade equivalents. Take the 1988 PC title Lombard RAC Rally. It was hardly realistic, but it replicated actual courses and entire seasons. The 1989 coin-op Big Run, by comparison, was Out Run with rally cars.By 1996, console games had a foot in both camps. They required longevity, but they were also expected to provide an arcade-like experience. This explains the thinking of a Codemasters team whose project took inspiration from both arcade and PC rally titles, as former Codemasters coder Chris Southall remembers. “A lot of us on the team were big Sega Rally fans,” Chris notes. “We had a Saturn in the office with one of those early steering wheels, and we played a lot of Sega Rally at that point. There was another game on PC that we spent a lot of time playing called…

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Our FC 25 guide hub is picking up pace as Christmas approaches, and footy obsessives sink deeper into the latest FIFA follow-up. Ultimate Team is the focus as ever, but there are new elements to enjoy too – such as brilliant five-on-five mode Rush. Whether you’re an FC noob or have been playing since the Mega Drive days, there’s loads of intel stashed here on those favourites, career mode, skills moves and more. It’s all found in your comprehensive FC 25 guide hub.ReviewEA Sports FC 25 review Pondering a purchase? Then you clearly need to know how the ‘new FIFA’ (even though it’s not officially called FIFA anymore) plays. Read our verdict on Rush, career more tweaks, Ultimate Team innovations and all-important gameplay changes in GR’s FC 25 review.GameplayFC 25 tips If you’re looking for general help across the board, our FC 25 tips guide should be your first port of call. It introduces you to Rush mode a…

Update (October 16):Nobuo Uematsu has clarified that he’s “not retiring” after Fantasian Neo Dimension, saying that “there seems to be some misunderstanding” from a comment he made saying the JRPG would be his “final project as a composer of video game music.”In a tweet shared overnight, the JRPG legend asks fans to “calm down,” and says he just wants “more time to make the music I want to make.” He explains: “Wait, wait, wait! Everybody calm down! There seems to be some misunderstanding, but I’m not retiring from video game music work!”I’m going to cut back a bit on my video game music work because I want to have more time to make the music I want to make,” Uematsu continues. “It would be difficult for me to take on the entire soundtrack of a video game because the time commitment for composing would be too long, but I would like to continue to work on jobs such as one theme song.”So, we’ve not heard the last of Uematsu’s work yet, which is sure to be a relief for fans. It’s also intr…

The Silent Hill 2 Remake Wood Side safe code and combination is part of a puzzle you’ll need to solve within the very same room, using the riddle and drawings marked on all the walls. It’s relatively simple to figure out the safe code once you know the principle of the puzzle around it, but if you’re having trouble, we’ll lay out everything you need to know about the Wood Side Apartments safe puzzle in Silent Hill 2 and how to figure out the code combination.What is the Wood Side safe code in Silent Hill 2 Remake? The Silent Hill 2 Remake Wood Side safe code combination is: 13 right, 7 left, and 11 right, (at least on Normal Puzzle Difficulty).If you want to know why, I can explain, although just using that combination should work without putting any effort in.You’ll need to find the Silent Hill 2 Remake Golden Apple before you can even access the safe, let alone start working out the combination. With the apple you’ll be able to access the room marked above through a wardrobe you can…

Marvel Rivals is set to launch this December, and NetEase’s answer to Overwatch has certainly piqued my interest. The upcoming hero shooter will pit some of the most famous Marvel heroes and villains against one another, as two teams of six fight for points on the scoreboard and territorial control. A recent Marvel Rivals beta gave us a good sense of what to expect from this free-to-play shooter, with its fast action, lushly presented battlegrounds, and solid 26-character roster. Still, with that launch window fast approaching, there’s still plenty to get up to speed on with this anticipated upcoming Marvel game. So while you wait, why not get up to speed on everything you need to know about Marvel Rivals.Marvel Rivals release date NetEase has confirmed that the Marvel Rivals release date is December 6, 2024! It will also be free-to-play on all platforms listed below, and all 25 heroes will be available to play right away, no unlocking required.Marvel Rivals platforms The Marvel…

For the last two decades, Football Manager has always come out in time for October or November. It’s one of the year’s most reliable sights in league with Call of Duty or Christmas trees, but someone better keep an eye on Santa because Football Manager 2025 has been delayed to next year.Developer Sports Interactive and publisher Sega announced the series’ first delay in 20 years via a blog post, revealing that Football Manager 2025’s November release date had been pushed until next March with “specific platform release dates” still to come. The annual sports series had a minor delay earlier in the year, but the studio explained that “this additional time has not been sufficient to ensure the game quality and experience meets your expectations and our very high standards.” Different areas of production had apparently “been moving slower than we had predicted – despite everyone in the team working at an incredible pace to try and get everything done.”Sports Interactive called Footba…

How long is Metaphor: ReFantazio? I estimate a general playthrough will take between 80 and 90 hours to complete if you pack your in-game calendars with activities like side quests and bond conversations. That playtime will vary significantly, however, depending on how much side content you decide to do, as well as what difficulty you choose.Anyone with experience of Atlus JRPGs like Persona 5 Royal and Persona 3 Reload will know not to expect a game you can blast through in one weekend. In the buildup to its launch, Metaphor: ReFantazio director Katsura Hashino teased that we can expect it to run as long as the notoriously chunky Persona 5, but is that true?The short answer is yes, potentially. So let’s look at the specifics.How long to beat Metaphor ReFantazio? For reference, my own playthrough was finished in 87 hours, which I completed on ‘Normal’ difficulty. In that time I completed every possible side quest, bounty request, and bond conversation for my Metaphor: ReFantazio revie…

A genius Legend of Zelda fan has compiled various clips from A Link to the Past and Echoes of Wisdom to show off the similarities between the two Nintendo games – and boy, are there a good few.In a YouTube video showcasing the clips side-by-side, Rebecca Stone highlights portions of both games’ maps to portray just how similar regions in Echoes of Wisdom are to the 1991 classic. Despite some changes to the terrain, the newer game’s Hyrule is evidently the very same one fans grew to love decades ago. It seems there’s just one major difference – Kakariko Village is no longer where it used to be.As longtime Zelda players point out in the comments, “there are what appears to be ruins” in the spot that housed Kakariko Village in A Link to the Past. There are lots of other cool details of note, too – for instance, as one fan explains, “the Gorons, Sea Zora, Deku Scrubs, and Gerudo all live outside the A Link to the Past portion of the map, which retroactively would explain why they weren’t p…