Joe Donnelly
Joe Donnelly is a sports editor from Glasgow and former features editor at GamesRadar+. A mental health advocate, Joe has written about video games and mental health for The Guardian, New Statesman, VICE, PC Gamer and many more, and believes the interactive nature of video games makes them uniquely placed to educate and inform. His book Checkpoint considers the complex intersections of video games and mental health, and was shortlisted for Scotland's National Book of the Year for non-fiction in 2021. As familiar with the streets of Los Santos as he is the west of Scotland, Joe can often be found living his best and worst lives in GTA Online and its PC role-playing scene.
Latest articles by Joe Donnelly

The best hidden object games to lose yourself in
By Alex Avard last updated
Best List Our guide to the 10 best hidden object games will put your ocular power to the test

The 10 best Lego games of all time
By Alysia Judge last updated
Best List Here's our ranking of the best Lego games that you should play today, from Lego 2K Drive to Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Slitterhead: Everything you need to know about the Silent Hill creator's new horror game
By Joe Donnelly last updated
Features The Slitterhead release date is finally here, so here's everything you need to know before you start playing

The best Persona games, ranked
By Malindy Hetfeld last updated
Features With Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Royal released, we rank the 12 best Persona games to see how the classics stack up

Skate 4 trailer, playtests, and everything else we know
By Josh West last updated
Features Upcoming free-to-play game Skate 4 has been retitled Skate and is coming out in 2025

10 games like GTA you need to play while waiting for GTA 6
By Iain Wilson last updated
Features Games like GTA: Whether it's the fast cars or the loaded guns you love, here's everything you need to check out

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has the same crippling claustrophobia I haven't felt since this 27-year-old console horror slasher scared the crap out of me
By Joe Donnelly published
Now playing Opinion | I first discovered the PS1 classic by accident on a 1997 magazine demo disc

There are 5 expansions that changed the face of video games – here's why Shadow of the Erdtree is one of them
By Joe Donnelly published
List Opinion | The best expansions are still worth talking about 25 years later

Skyrim mods have been downloaded over 6 billion times from the biggest modding site – will anything ever come close to the RPG's stunning legacy?
By Joe Donnelly published
Opinion Opinion | The fifth Elder Scrolls entry is a giant in so many ways, and it still, somehow, shows little signs of slowing down

Shooting Nazis in the arse while lying flat out in the prone position in the middle of my living room might be the best video game experience I've ever had
By Joe Donnelly published
Now Playing Now Playing| And I think I've finally seen through the VR looking glass

Rediscovering the brilliant and brutal 22-year-old RPG that charges a ridiculous 1,000 in-game coins just to save your game
By Joe Donnelly published
Opinion Now Playing | The game's party recruitment system can also lead to a bloodbath revolt

My favorite Spelunky character is a masterclass in roguelike risk versus reward: "Stealing in games is fun in the same way running across the top of the screen is in Super Mario"
By Joe Donnelly published
Interview Interview | The game's creator Derek Yu explores the workings of Spelunky's grumpy, and deadly, shopkeepers

GTA players are still discussing how to 100% this top-down classic – proving it was years ahead of its time at the turn of the millennium
By Joe Donnelly published
Opinion Opinion | Is Grand Theft Auto 2 the most underrated of all GTA games?

The Rogue Prince of Persia is an unlikely roguelike slant on the 35-year-old series from one of the best genre developers in the business
By Joe Donnelly published
Preview Preview | The Rogue Prince of Persia is a strange but welcomed roguelike take on the newly revitalized series

As we stare down the Elden Ring DLC, I can't decide which of my all-time favorite builds to take into the RPG's Shadow of the Erdtree expansion
By Joe Donnelly published
Opinion Opinion | I'm juggling save files in the Lands Between and I'm terrified I'll make the wrong call

With Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Ninja Theory is learning from player feedback and past experience in its sustained push to challenge mental health stigma
By Joe Donnelly published
Interview Interview | How Hellblade 2 is building on the foundations laid by 2017's Senua's Sacrifice

Sometimes unashamedly riffing on the biggest genre hits works – just ask Nightghast, a creepy budget horror game in the vein of P.T., Resident Evil and Silent Hill
By Joe Donnelly published
Features Indie Spotlight | Nightghast is short but sweet and proper unsettling

Rediscovering the 25-year-old console JRPG whose jaw-dropping CGI cutscenes I once considered the indisputable pinnacle of video game graphics
By Joe Donnelly published
OPINION Opinion | And the biggest question is: How could I possibly forget this bygone PS1 classic?

Elden Ring's DLC can only be reached from a very specific late game location – 13 years later, is this signature FromSoftware access method still practical?
By Joe Donnelly published
Opinion Opinion | Accessing added content has never been straightforward in FromSoftware's esteemed action RPGs, but is this a good or a bad thing?

Lego Fortnite is my new obsession, but I remain unconvinced it (or anything else) can ever match Minecraft's sense of wonder
By Joe Donnelly published
Opinion Opinion | I'm singing the same tune 13 years later, but this time it's through a new, more profound lens

I'm so obsessed with Elden Ring's twisted sickness cult that my family has banned me from talking about it at home
By Joe Donnelly published
Opinion Opinion | And it's only going to get worse when the action RPG's long-awaited Shadow of the Erdtree DLC lands later this year

20 years later, Half-Life 2 Deathmatch still my favorite online multiplayer FPS of all time
By Joe Donnelly published
Opinion Opinion | You can rip toilets from the wall and kill enemies with them. Enough said?

Holstin, the action horror game that lets you seamlessly flip between first and third person, showcases its latest terrifying trailer
By Joe Donnelly published
News Holstin looks positively ghastly in all of the right ways
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