Darren Edwards

Doom 3 is bloody scary, and jumpy as hell.

How the “hell” do you follow up on such a well received and crafted game such as Doom? Why, give players more of the same it seems.

Hype, hype and more hype. As with the build up to E3, speculation around potential announcements has been going into overtime ahead of Gamescom this year. Will we see more of Project Scarlett? Will we finally see some Halo: Infinite gameplay? Will Splinter Cell 7 get confirmed? Still, there was a steady stream of reveals throughout the day and just in case you missed anything, here are the 7 biggest announcements from Xbox and opening night at Gamescom 2019.

If you've played Doom before, you'll immediately be hit with a wave of nostalgia with Doom (1993).

“Pulse pounding” and “stunning” are just a few words that are used to describe the action on offer in Subdivision Infinity DX, at least according to the official synopsis, and in a competitive market games such as this really have to stand out from the rest.

10 years ago? Surely not. We’re talking about the year when President Obama was first inaugurated and Michael Jackson passed away. Feel old yet? It’s particularly scary as that was the year I started University, and my housemate introduced me to a cracking little game by the name Trials HD. We ploughed hours into chasing personal bests, climbing online leaderboards and had a great laugh in the process. That is the beauty of this game, as the addictive and entertaining gameplay is perfectly balanced by its slapstick charm.

I was lucky enough to attend, and got to spend some quality time with Doom Eternal, id Software’s much anticipated sequel to the excellent 2016 release Doom. The demo was pretty generous and set around, and on, a besieged Mars and nearby space station.

I approached the entrance to Codemasters’ HQ with trepidation and excitement in equal measures. It was my first experience of such an event, and was immediately put an ease by how friendly everyone was. This was especially true of GRID’s Director, Chris Smith, who was bursting with passion for his latest project. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to put some questions to him…

It crept up on me. No, not a ravenous Demogorgon looking for its dinner, but the first season of Stranger Things on Netflix. It arrived with no considerable hype or build-up, instead dropping seemingly from nowhere all at once. One of the reasons I love Netflix, and the generation of entertainment we are currently enjoying, is discovering the next binge-worthy series. This was it. The series was well received all round and spawned a companion game for mobile devices which was also widely praised. Three years later and three series’ in, the franchise enjoys continued success, and as a result a more ambitious companion game has been released to Stranger Things 3.

Have you ever found yourself with some leftover Xbox Live Credit and thought, what can I possibly get with this? I know I have. But fear not, as I have scoured the Xbox Store and found the best Xbox One games available, right now, for under a fiver each.

I’m a big fan of racing games. So when I got the opportunity to go and experience the upcoming GRID release, I jumped at the chance. It’s being developed by the legendary Codemasters studio, who have a long and rich history of releasing quality racing titles. Their latest project is due for release on October 11th 2019, and I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the newly rebooted GRID.

Put your hands up if you have ever wanted to drive around in a huge monster truck and smash things up. I thought so. Thankfully, Monster Trucks Steel Titans is here to make that dream come true. Well, sort of. I went in with no expectations apart from “give me monster trucks”, yet the more time I spent with the game, the more I started to discover its many flaws.

Originality in games is naturally harder and harder to come by nowadays as our beloved industry goes from strength to strength. But there are some that immediately grab your attention because they have an original idea at their core. Verlet Swing is one such game. Prepare to enter a curiously weird game world where your only chance of escape is to swing to safety like a demented Spiderman trapped in an '80s bootleg video game.

Here we go again. Another year has passed us by and E3 2019 has given us plenty to talk about. Bethesda were third out of the traps to showcase what they had to offer the gaming masses this year. Understandably, you may have missed the briefing, as it was broadcast in the UK at 01:30am. But never fear, dear readers, as right here you will find plenty of reasons to be hyped about what Bethesda had to show. 9 in fact.

50 years. That’s a long time in anyone’s book, but yes, 2019 is Konami’s 50th anniversary and things are shaping up very nicely indeed. To celebrate, the good people at the Japanese games company are treating us to three different collections: Arcade Classics, Castlevania and Contra Anniversary Collections. Most recently, gamers were invited to “trace the origins of the historic vampire franchise”, with the release of eight games in the Castlevania series. After such a long time, are these titles worth a revisit, or have they, er, lost their bite?