Home / Samuel Horti

PC Gamer • 12th January 2018

Why cracking a tough mission in 2014’s Door Kickers is one of the best things I did last year | PC Gamer

It looks slick, doesn’t it? A polished SWAT squad that knows exactly when to move and which angles to cover. When Door Kickers comes together it’s a fluid dance of flash grenades, muzzle flashes, and dead terrorists. The problem is ...

Gamasutra • 27th July 2018

How a Gears of War dev built the chill Shape of the World on the side | Gamasutra

Stu Maxwell spends his days designing blood splatters and giant guns at a triple-A studio, and his nights making a serene exploration game about planting seeds and floating across treetops. It’s a development life of contrasts: his indie game, called ...

TechRadar • 29th September 2018

Failure by design: We Happy Few, and five other games whose worlds disappointed

Even more frustrating than a bad game is a bad game that could easily have been great, but for a few poor design choices. It’s especially frustrating when a developer builds a fascinating world but doesn’t give you anything exciting ...

GamesMaster • 10th April 2018

QUBE 2 — Review | GamesMaster

It might look simple, but this puzzle game boxes clever

PC Gamer • 5th May 2018

Does Braid deserve its status as the iconic breakthrough indie game? | PC Gamer

Braid is one of those games that rolls lazily off the tongue in conversations about the most influential indie games of all time. Depending which of the many breathless pieces you've read about it over the years, Braid was either ...

PC Gamer • 22nd April 2018

My Little Blacksmith Shop is relaxing and overwhelming at the same time | PC Gamer

An adventurer with a pink shirt and luminous green beard steps over the threshold. They're after a one-handed copper sword, and they've come to the right place. The copper ingots are already heating on the forge. I kick into action, ...

CityMetric • 5th May 2018

Inside PATH, the 30km network of walkways, tunnels and malls beneath Toronto | CityMetric

Since moving to Toronto nine months ago, I’ve found serendipity hard to come by. I’m only here for two years, so if I’m going out to eat, or grab a coffee, or meet a friend, I’ll look up endless lists ...

Gamasutra • 23rd July 2018

Meet the dev making his first DOS game -- in 2018 | Gamasutra

“It’s frustrating,” says David Murray, developer of Planet X3, which has raised over $100,000 on Kickstarter. “You Google [a programming problem], it will pull up some forum that will say ‘here’s how you do that, check this link’. You click ...

PCGamesN • 8th June 2018

BattleTech's FTL mod is for pilots without much time | PCGamesN

Small failures in excellent mech game BattleTech can easily snowball and wreck your whole campaign, but you might not realise until hours later. On my first run as the leader of a freelance crew, I dug myself into a hole ...

GamesMaster • 25th May 2018

BattleTech review | GamesMaster

Go ahead, mech my day.

Gamasutra • 23rd July 2018

How Bossa relied on players to help build its skyfaring MMO Worlds Adrift | Gamasutra

Creating a massively multiplayer online game with a persistent world, physics-based combat and complex open-world flying mechanics would be difficult enough with a 100-strong team of talented developers. But four years ago, Bossa Studios set out to do it with ...

GamesMaster • 10th April 2018

Surviving Mars — Review | GamesMaster

A small step – not a giant leap – for game-kind

ZAM • 9th May 2018

Into the Breach: Guide to All Squads | ZAM

Make the most out of Into the Breach's dynamically different mechs with our essential primer.

TechRadar • 2nd August 2018

Fortnite on Android: everything you need to know | TechRadar

Battle royale shooter Fortnite is the most-played video game on the planet, with PC, console and iOS gamers logging on in their tens of millions to try and win one of its 100-player, last-man-standing matches. Android users are yet to ...

Rock, Paper, Shotgun • 19th September 2017

Wot I Think – Ark: Survival Evolved | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I had it all planned out. I’d reach level 21 and unlock tranquiliser arrows, which I could then shoot at a triceratops to knock it out long enough to tame it. Then I’d craft a saddle for my newly-owned Trike ...

PC Gamer • 17th April 2018

Apocalipsis is a point-and-click adventure that creeps me the hell out | PC Gamer

I'm standing on top of a fish the size of a house. It has a knife stuck in its eye. I grab the handle and pull it out because I need the blade to slice up one of the smaller ...

PC Gamer • 13th March 2018

Orwell: Ignorance is Strength is more about puzzles than politics | PC Gamer

Captain Oleg Bakay can't hide anything from me. I have his passwords, his military records, his text messages, audio recordings of his phone calls, the name of his daughter and which school she went to, all of it laid out ...

PC Gamer • 5th April 2018

The best weapons in Fortnite | PC Gamer

It’s possible to win a round of Fortnite with nothing but a basic pistol and a handful of grenades, and you can even do it without firing a single shot. But you’ll have to be really damn good or very, ...

Rock, Paper, Shotgun • 13th March 2018

The Joy of Oxenfree’s natural dialogue system | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Few games nail the ebb and flow of conversations like Oxenfree, the supernatural drama about a group of teenagers on a deserted island. The cast speak over one another, cut their friends off mid-sentence and leave realistic gaps of silence ...

TechRadar • 14th February 2018

Kingdom Come: Deliverance has a main quest you won't want to stop playing | TechRadar

I can never bring myself to finish open-world games. I've sunk hundreds of hours into the likes of Skyrim, The Witcher 3 and Far Cry 4 without completing their main stories, and I'm completely fine with that. For me, the ...

Samuel Horti

Wot I Think – Ark: Extinction | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

After 15 years, Max Payne 2's ridiculous physics still make it a must-play | PC Gamer

10 years on, here’s how Dead Space went from horror to action horror in three games | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Call of Cthulhu review | PC Gamer

FIFA 19 review – in off the crossbar | VG247

Weaving through the streets of Hong Kong with Sleeping Dogs’ designer | TechRadar

Pillars of Eternity 2's Secret Weapon is '90s-Style Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Books | Kotaku UK

Four developers of scary games explain how to make scary games very scary indeed | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Clear 100 hours in your calendar, ‘cos CRPGs are here to stay | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 Review | PC Gamer

About me (writing example highlights above, and scroll down for more)

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What Mike Bithell learned in writing his first sequel: Quarantine Circular | Gamasutra

Happy 18th birthday Deus Ex - let's get drunk together | PCGamesN

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Rolling the Dice in Kingdom Come: Deliverance | Kotaku UK

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s save system shows you just how fun failure can be | PC Gamer

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Science and tech writing

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Google is building a smart city in Toronto – here’s what you need to know | TechRadar

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Why the Netflix version of Puss In Boots could be the future of TV. Fur real. | GamesRadar+

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These are the invisible cameras of the future | TechRadar

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Has the slow death march of the smartwatch begun? | TechRadar

Additional writing examples

Why cracking a tough mission in 2014’s Door Kickers is one of the best things I did last year | PC Gamer

How a Gears of War dev built the chill Shape of the World on the side | Gamasutra

Failure by design: We Happy Few, and five other games whose worlds disappointed

QUBE 2 — Review | GamesMaster

Does Braid deserve its status as the iconic breakthrough indie game? | PC Gamer

My Little Blacksmith Shop is relaxing and overwhelming at the same time | PC Gamer

Inside PATH, the 30km network of walkways, tunnels and malls beneath Toronto | CityMetric

Meet the dev making his first DOS game -- in 2018 | Gamasutra

BattleTech's FTL mod is for pilots without much time | PCGamesN

BattleTech review | GamesMaster

How Bossa relied on players to help build its skyfaring MMO Worlds Adrift | Gamasutra

Surviving Mars — Review | GamesMaster

Into the Breach: Guide to All Squads | ZAM

Fortnite on Android: everything you need to know | TechRadar

Wot I Think – Ark: Survival Evolved | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Apocalipsis is a point-and-click adventure that creeps me the hell out | PC Gamer

Orwell: Ignorance is Strength is more about puzzles than politics | PC Gamer

The best weapons in Fortnite | PC Gamer

The Joy of Oxenfree’s natural dialogue system | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Kingdom Come: Deliverance has a main quest you won't want to stop playing | TechRadar