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Subscribe from just £3 Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£9.99Subscribe now Gamescom 2025 schedule Battlefield 6 Horror Special New Games for 2025 Recommended reading Survival Games Brutal survival game Kenshi developer says "too many games let the player succeed," which is "mind-numbingly boring" Survival Horror Games Dying Light: The Beast director says he's "a little bit surprised" that more studios haven't followed Techland's "go anywhere" approach to open-world game design Adventure Games A former Hytale dev is bringing other veterans let go from Hypixel Studios onboard to make a fantasy-themed Hytale mode for their eldritch horror survival sandbox game Adventure Games Hytale studio founder isn't giving up yet on reviving the canceled game, but says "suggestions to use another game or engine" to bring it back are "out of touch" Hytale's original dev wants to buy it back from Riot, but "a lot of content would be cut early on" to release it as quickly as possible "We cough up a chunk of our soul": 32 game devs, from Doom's John Romero to Helldivers 2 and Palworld leads, explain what people get wrong about games "It's OK" to have secrets that players "will never see" says creator of hit open-world indie adventure A Short Hike, praising Dark Souls' exploration for its "depth and richness" Survival Games Ex-DayZ boss says survival games should give players as much power as developers and "expose damn near every single variable" they can mod: "Expose as much as possible" Ashley Bardhan 14 August 2025 Brian Hicks wants you to have ultimate control When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Bohemia Interactive) It's not enough to simply build something like a big hot dog out of diamond bricks in Minecraft anymore – former DayZ creative director Brian Hicks thinks survival games should give players ultimate control. So, you actually want to have hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, chicken wings… or, more realistically, decide you want to bump enemy aggression up a couple thousand notches. Hicks tells PC Gamer in a new interview he doesn't understand why more survival game devs don't just commit to "exposing as many of the levers and switches that developers and designers use, to tweak the difficulty settings and the vibe of the game" and allow players to start "soft modding" it. Softmods, in computer tradition, usually involve beating hardware into submission with the power of software exploits – making it so you can do things like crack your Wii and play Wolfenstein 3D. In this case, Hicks is advocating for game devs to start "exposing all of" their behind-the-scenes tricks "to the player in a custom difficulty setting. Because why not?" You may like Brutal survival game Kenshi developer says "too many games let the player succeed," which is "mind-numbingly boring" Dying Light: The Beast director says he's "a little bit surprised" that more studios haven't followed Techland's "go anywhere" approach to open-world game design A former Hytale dev is bringing other veterans let go from Hypixel Studios onboard to make a fantasy-themed Hytale mode for their eldritch horror survival sandbox game Hicks continues to commend survival horror game 7 Days to Die developers for "the way they expose damn near every single variable in that game on the XML side to the players – why the fuck not? "If you're essentially saying, 'I built this world, these systems, here you go, tell your story, make your environment,' then why gate variables behind hard modding? If it's there already, expose as much as possible." Original Hytale studio founder "in active discussions with Riot Games about acquiring" the Minecraft-inspired survival game after offering "10x what the true market value is." Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. See more Games News Ashley Bardhan Senior Writer Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11. 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Brutal survival game Kenshi developer says "too many games let the player succeed," which is "mind-numbingly boring" Dying Light: The Beast director says he's "a little bit surprised" that more studios haven't followed Techland's "go anywhere" approach to open-world game design A former Hytale dev is bringing other veterans let go from Hypixel Studios onboard to make a fantasy-themed Hytale mode for their eldritch horror survival sandbox game Hytale studio founder isn't giving up yet on reviving the canceled game, but says "suggestions to use another game or engine" to bring it back are "out of touch" Hytale's original dev wants to buy it back from Riot, but "a lot of content would be cut early on" to release it as quickly as possible "We cough up a chunk of our soul": 32 game devs, from Doom's John Romero to Helldivers 2 and Palworld leads, explain what people get wrong about games Latest in Survival Games Original Hytale studio founder "in active discussions with Riot Games about acquiring" the Minecraft-inspired survival game after offering "10x what the true market value is" The Subnautica 2 drama intensifies as Krafton accuses former Unknown Worlds leadership of pushing to release an unfinished game and secretly downloading "massive amounts of confidential information" Grounded 2 Northern Scorpion locations, drops and strategies Best Grounded 2 weapons and all unique weapon locations With the Palworld lawsuit rumbling on in the background, the Nintendo Switch welcomes "Palland" – a survival game that looks a whole lot like Pocketpair's creature collector Where to find and use the Frostbitten Key in Grounded 2 Latest in News I've spent 32 years dreaming of a game that looks like Jurassic Park: Survival, and this slice of pre-alpha footage and the devs' work on Space Marine 2 have me more hopeful than ever Metal Gear Solid's OG Snake voice actor finally told himself to "stop being a baby" and play The Phantom Pain after he was recast, and now thinks it has "my favorite gameplay of the series" Chainsaw Man movie unveils its killer ending song with sneak peek, as it confirms involvement of Kingdom Hearts legend Hikaru Utada Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies gives hilariously cryptic response when asked about the sci-fi show's future: "Behave!" 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