Facing Worlds. Low gravity. Six beige computers hauled across town in parents' cars by teenagers who had no idea how an IPX network worked, and at least one who did. Unreal Tournament was the finest multiplayer FPS ever made, and everything since has been a step backwards.

I have 471 hours of Civilization VI on Steam. I have 18 hours of Civilization VII. Those numbers tell a story that no amount of patch notes can easily undo, and the Test of Time update has the unenviable job of changing the ending.

Pearl Abyss launched Crimson Desert, listened to everyone complaining about it, and then fixed most of it. In three weeks. While other studios are still deliberating whether to acknowledge a bug from 2022, a Korean developer has quietly rewritten the rules of what players should expect from the people making their games.

Gaming monetisation didn't arrive as a villain. It arrived as a reasonable proposition — a way to fund ongoing development and to reward engaged players. Then the reasonable proposition became a psychology experiment. Then the psychology experiment became the product. Here's how it happened and why you should be annoyed about it.

IGN gave Crimson Desert a 6/10. Players are having a considerably better time than that suggests. So who's right — and does it matter? A look at what games criticism gets wrong, what it gets right, and why the gap between critic scores and player experience keeps getting wider.