The Rise of Esports Betting in the UK

In recent years, the United Kingdom has seen a remarkable surge in the popularity of esports betting. Esports, competitive video gaming, has transcended from a niche subculture to a mainstream entertainment phenomenon, and the betting industry has taken notice. This article explores the rapid growth of Esports Betting in the UK, its legal framework, popular games, and what the future holds for this exciting industry.

The Growth of Esports in the UK

Esports in the UK have grown exponentially, thanks to a thriving community of gamers, dedicated esports teams, and a burgeoning fan base. Major esports tournaments and events, both local and international, have contributed to this growth. Esports has captured the imaginations of people of all ages and backgrounds, with fans filling arenas to watch their favourite teams compete in games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Dota 2.

KeyWe Nintendo Switch Review 7.5/10 "You'll quickly fall in love with the game's charming Kiwi bird protagonists" 🦃🦜 @stonewheat #IndieGame #GameDev

Looking for an adorable and entertaining game that's perfect for all ages? Look no further than KeyWe, a short co-op puzzle game featuring cute animal protagonists. While it looks like it is aimed at children, adults looking for a fun and engaging game will also enjoy it. 

You'll quickly fall in love with the game's charming Kiwi bird protagonists - Jeff and Debra - but the chaotic puzzle platforming levels will keep you hooked. The levels are challenging and require teamwork, making it a great game to play with friends or family.

Gamedec Soundtrack Vinyl Review "Gamedec will fit snugly on your shelf as you dive into cyberspace" 💿 #VideoGameVinyl #Vinyl

Anshar Studios’ Gamedec was a game that I followed pretty much throughout its development cycle, until its eventual release. An impressive, combat-free cyberpunk adventure that really tried to take a lot on and perhaps overreached its grasp, it is a game that stayed with me long after playing due to its eschewing of fighting/shooting mechanics and absolute focus on narrative and player freedom. As such, it was a pleasure to get the opportunity to cover the vinyl release of the soundtrack, which fully captures a musing mood of mystery and suspense for those dark and stormy evenings.

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Reasons To Level Up Your Graphics And Improve All Gaming Experiences 💪

 

https://unsplash.com/photos/G86jAn1Y1S0 

If you are a gamer, you will know all about the development of graphics over the years. If you are an ultra-competitive gamer, the graphics may not be your first thought, but they still come into things. 20 years ago, we thought we saw an astonishing level of improvement regarding the graphical side of things - now we know that it was only the tip of the iceberg. In this day and age, video games are like interactive movies as the realism is off the charts. 

Bit Trip Rerunner + Runner Maker PC Ten-Minute Taster Gameplay "Keep Runnin' Runnin' " 🏃 @TotallyChoice #IndieGame #GameDev

 
Rich jumps into the classic rhythm platformer BIT.TRIP RERUNNER + RUNNER MAKER! The fun of the original now sports fresh mechanics, art, and soundtrack – plus RUNNER MAKER, which allows you to create custom levels. A must-play for rhythm newbies, experts, and everyone in between.

Daymare: 1994 - Sandcastle PS5 Review 6.5/10 "Backtracking to the ‘90s" 🧟 @transvaalgf @InvaderDevs #IndieGame #GameDev

The original Daymare lives in infamy to me. When originally reading about it, the developer had published a list of features for the game and within said list was ‘backtracking’. I found it very amusing, as although I loved old school horror, I never had nostalgia for running back through areas I had already been through, but to my surprise, when I finally joined Twitter and engaged with Twitter horror gaming fans I found that yes, people did indeed love a bit of backtracking!

If you search for ‘horror game backtracking’ on Google, Reddit pops up with a lot of pro-backtracking articles, and the third hit is a thread entitled ‘I love backtracking (especially in horror games)’ so I realise that, although it is something I have never thought about, it was genuinely a feature to some and in the case of Daymare - a very important one, as the game is completely sold on nostalgia. Its biggest selling point is it’s going to try to take you back to the good ol’ days of survival horror.

Video Game LoFi: Kingdom Hearts vol. 2 - The Ocean Between Vinyl Review by Lo Fi Lee 💿 @CuragaRecords #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl

Hot on the heels of the original album, here we have the second volume in the Video Game LoFi series, from Curaga Records, featuring reworked songs from the Kingdom Hearts series. 

This one comes from the mind of the producer foreteller with a little help from others. The major difference between volumes 1 and 2 is that this one is generally instrumental, with only the opening and closing tracks featuring guest vocalists. 

The presentation is in line with much of the Video Game LoFi collection, comprising a holographic jacket, paper sleeve and a pretty blue, purple and pink marbled record on 180g vinyl.

One week until One Special Day: Over 90 industry partners back SpecialEffect’s flagship fundraiser 💙 @SpecialEffect #OneSpecialDay

 
One week today, on Friday, 6 October, some of the biggest names from the worldwide games industry, including the likes of Xbox, Supercell and EA, are uniting behind SpecialEffect, the gamers’ charity, for their annual One Special Day flagship fundraising campaign.

At the heart of the campaign is the opportunity for gamers to raise money for the charity by purchasing and playing qualifying titles from the partner companies, who will donate some or all of the resulting revenue from the day.

A wide range of titles will be available through both the One Special Day Steam Promotion, running from 5-8 October, and the Mobile Promotion on One Special Day itself.

Samorost 3 Vinyl Soundtrack Review "Samorost 3 is pure Floex through and through" 💿 @FloexOfficial @Amanita_Design #Vinyl #VideoGameVinyl #VGM

I was a big fan of Tomas Dvorak’s soundtrack for Samorost 2, it also holds the wonderful distinction in our household of being the first music that my – then 1-year-old – son had ever danced to, which was a very special moment for us as a family. 

Dvorak (A.K.A – FLOEX) has a special way of creating unique, alien landscapes, aurally, through his blend of strong, emotive melodies and idiosyncratic instrumentation, and this continues here in his compositions for Samorost 3, with that signature clarinet vibe hitting home each time it’s used on the album.

There is a real difference in the art styles used in the cover here when compared to Samorost 2, whereas the prequel was abstract and paint-flecked, here we are treated to a luscious evergreen landscape, set underneath a darkened sky spotted by pinpricks of light.

Almost alone, and very small and vulnerable in this image is the protagonist, blowing through a horn as he is watched by a strange, bearded wanderer that is almost hidden in the foreground – ensconced in the shadows, and surrounded by a peppering of fantastical animals.

Graeme Mason Interview "It was a pleasure to learn more about ZX Nightmares and also to find out where Graeme’s pixelated quill will take us next" 📖 @Wizwords @Retro_Fusion #Retrogaming

I recently thoroughly enjoyed Graeme Mason’s new book, ZX Nightmares, published by Fusion Books, and found that reading the book was such a fun experience that I wanted to know more about the background of its creation.

I have a little bit of personal history with Graeme, in that it was through his contacting me through Retro Gamer magazine for a ‘Collectors Corner’ article that my now evil editor endgame boss, Rich, caught wind of my existence and asked me to begin writing for The Mighty Games Freezer waaay back in 2017 –I definitely owe Graeme a pint at some point!

It was a pleasure to learn more about ZX Nightmares and also to find out where Graeme’s pixelated quill will take us next. 

I hope you enjoy this article about one of the most active writers in the retro gaming scene today. 📖

Arthur Parallax – On Starfield "I performed my gaming ritual - a ceremonial removing and burning of the trousers" 🔥👖 #Starfield

Ah, Starfield. Bethesda has taken us across wastelands; the frozen, fantastical north; wowed us with dragons; crazy quests; zany characters, and hundreds of memorable moments for well over two decades, and most recently they offered up an entire universe for exploration…in Starfield.

I was so excited at this premise that I left my wife in preparation, and signed over total custody of our two children, Brian and Flelilda. It may seem extreme to some, but they would doubtless become nought but a distraction as I travelled the far reaches of space, taking me out of my gaming fantasies for such menial reasons as requiring heat, food, and illustrations of love (my third album).

Such piffling quibbles would completely remove me from my immersion in Starfield, and so it was best for all that I move to a single-bed bungalow in rural Scotland, paint all of the windows black and lose myself in Bethesda’s newest creation, a creation that was over a decade in the making!

I tried to stay away from finding out early scores and thoughts – I wanted this experience to be unsullied by others and be mine, and mine alone - but I admit, I did catch wind of the incredible ratings, the 95/100s, and the 10/10s, my engorgement was almost complete.

THE CRPG BOOK: A GUIDE TO COMPUTER ROLE-PLAYING GAMES (EXPANDED EDITION) REVIEW ⚔️ @BitmapBooks #CRPG

The release of a new Bitmap Book is always a good thing, and this expanded edition of The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games weighs in at a mammoth 684 pages and is the perfect sibling to their A Guide to Japanese Role-Paying Games – released back in 2021.

Each of these tomes is beautifully designed, and can be used to fend off burglars, so thick are they with glorious information and imagery. This book, in particular, took me a lot longer than usual to review purely because I was poring over each page, devouring the words and constantly getting side-tracked in marking where I was and then watching YouTube videos on the releases covered therein, because the passion of the text drew me in so much that I yearned to find out as much as I could about the games covered.

I’d had my eye on the CRPG Book since a reprint was announced several months ago, and I vividly recall spending a few moments on the Bitmap Books website genuinely getting lost in the cover art alone.

I’ve said this before, I’m not a student of art, and the visual arts are very much not my forte, so when something grabs me in that aspect, I really enjoy the sensation, a sensation which was spiked upon seeing the cover of this book. The richness of the illustration here absolutely captures the feeling of RPG gaming, where the imagination takes over and boundaries between game and gamer bleed into each other, the sense of dynamism and kineticism in the characters bursting forth from the screen is ‘framed-poster-worthy’ (definitely a term, don’t look it up) in how it almost hypnotises the reader into opening the book and getting lost in the pages. Awesome stuff, thank you Jan Pospíšil!

Sentry City Nintendo Switch Ten Minute Taster 🤖 @CrashableStudio #IndieGame #GameDev

Sentry City is a cyberpunk-style side-scroller with gameplay that is part trial-and-error, and part reaction time-based. Traverse the city using the motorcycle overworld map, blast and think your way through the levels, and fight tough bosses to uncover who is behind the city's AI disruption.

Soulvars Nintendo Switch Review 7/10 "a mobile port that’s actually worth playing" 💥 @ShueishaGamesJP #IndieGame #GameDev

SOULVARS is that rarest of things – a mobile port that’s actually worth playing. It’s got clear JRPG roots, with turn-based combat, and a pixel art style providing a nostalgia hit for the old-timers.

The game is the work of Ginolabo, a solo developer, which results in the double-edged sword of it being an impressive feat for one person (self-taught, too), but having some areas of the game where collaboration might have polished it up a little. 

NASCAR Arcade Rush Nintendo Switch Ten Minute Taster "1 Million Miles Per Hour!" 🏎️💨 @GameMillEnt #IndieGame #GameDev

 

The thrill of NASCAR meets the rush of arcade racing in a new NASCAR Arcade Rush game that puts you in the driver’s seat of a completely new NASCAR experience with re-imagined, iconic racetracks in unmatched high-speed, wheel-to-wheel action!

Atelier Marie Reamake Nintendo Switch Ten Minute Taster "Cauldron Troubles" 🧙‍♀️ #ateliermarie #AtelierMarieRemake @koeitecmoeurope @GustAtelierPR @gust channels

Rich finds out that Atelier Marie Remake is not about saving the world. In this "leisure adventure RPG," failing student Marie pursues alchemy, adventures, and quests while aiming to graduate in five years. "Atelier Marie," the origin of the Atelier series, has been remade with new elements!

Alaskan Road Truckers PC Ten Minute Taster "Mother Trucker!!" 🚛 @alaskantrucksim #IndieGame #GameDev

In Alaskan Road Truckers you get to experience life in the definitive trucker simulator. Deliver cargo to make your business a success. Get out of your truck to explore Alaska on foot!

Stray Xbox Series X Review "A Purrfect way to spend an evening" 🐈 @HKdevblog #IndieGame #GameDev

It was only a few weeks ago on my movie-centric podcast that I was discussing emotional manipulation with my co-host. He was more bothered by it than me, but I still find that overtly sentimental forms of media that aim purely to tug at the heartstrings irk me somewhat.

This ties into my initial – misjudged – thoughts on Stray. When it was released last year on PlayStation, the positive reviews that it received – and more so the comments surrounding it – I found actively off-putting in the comparisons to games of a more ‘cinematic’ vibe.

After receiving it for review purposes and playing it through in two straight sessions I really do recommend it, if you were - like me – put off by the thought of a saccharine gaming experience. This is Tokyo Jungle territory.

The Life Of A Magical Circle PC Ten Minute Taster "I wandered lonely as a circle..." ⭕️ @solideo_games #GameDev #IndieGame

 
The Life of a Magical Circle is a narrated roguelite in which you dodge obstacles and pick up circles. Some of the circles are part of your goal, but some of them are just for fun. It's up to you to figure out which is which and to try to stay focused.

Rainbow Skies Nintendo Switch Review 6.5/10 “One For The Die Hard Fans” 🌈 @RainbowSkiesRPG #GameDev #IndieGame

Rainbow Skies is a strategy RPG and a sequel to 2012’s Rainbow Moon. Rainbow Skies was originally released in 2018 but has now been ported to the Nintendo Switch. I somehow managed to miss both of these games on the PS Vita, which is weird as I’ve owned the console since 2012 and I’m a fan of JRPGS - and there are only about six games available for the Vita - so I’m bewildered at how they got past me!

I was a bit sad that I wasn't picking up my dusty old Vita and bringing it out of retirement, but instead, I picked up the Nintendo Switch and set out to see what I had been missing out on for a number of years.