Samuel Tolbert
Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter @SamuelTolbert.
Latest articles by Samuel Tolbert

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 tops the US sales charts for January
By Samuel Tolbert published
Gaming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the best-selling game of January 2025 in the U.S, but Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth sees a huge sales surge thanks to its PC debut.

Marvel Rivals hits 40 million players, but the specter of layoffs lingers
By Samuel Tolbert published
Gaming Marvel Rivals' success isn't stopping as the game crosses 40 million players so far and new characters are on the way, but the time is weird with recent layoffs.

Call of Duty hint appears to tease new Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game
By Samuel Tolbert published
Xbox A hint found in the "Grind" map recently added to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 suggests an announcement for a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game is coming soon.

Sea of Thieves Season 15 gets Megalodon variants and more
By Samuel Tolbert published
Xbox Sea of Thieves Season 15 kicks off, bringing new types of Megalodons to threaten players on the seas.

Hades 2 gets a familiar god to thirst over in its second major update
By Samuel Tolbert published
PC Gaming Hades 2 gets a second major update, adding the god of war Ares, as well as new boss fight and more.

Microsoft's latest AI experiment uses a forgotten Xbox game
By Samuel Tolbert published
Xbox Microsoft Research is partnering with Xbox studio Ninja Theory to debut "Muse" — an AI model that can generate artificial gameplay clips.

Microsoft Gaming CEO wants AI to help preserve classic games
By Samuel Tolbert published
Xbox Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer envisions a world where generative AI models can be used to study and port older games to new hardware.

Avowed: All Godlike powers and abilities
By Samuel Tolbert published
Guide As the Envoy, your Avowed character has access to Godlike abilities, so I've pulled together the full list of Godlike powers you can find.

Marvel Rivals team hit with layoffs despite its massive success
By Samuel Tolbert published
Gaming Marvel Rivals developers are being laid off, despite the free-to-play title's tremendous success since launching last year.

Xbox Game Pass gets one of the best Warhammer 40K games soon
By Samuel Tolbert published
Xbox Owlcat Games' Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is coming to Xbox Game Pass as part of the second wave of February 2025 titles.

Avowed Ygwulf guide: Should you spare him in An Untimely End?
By Samuel Tolbert published
Guide Avowed gives you the option of sparing or slaying your killer Ygwulf in the An Untimely End quest. Here is a guide for the consequences of each path.

Phil Spencer says Game Pass helps smaller single-player games
By Samuel Tolbert published
Xbox In an interview with XboxEra, Microsoft's Gaming CEO discusses how Xbox Game Pass helps support smaller, single-player games.

Here's all the Xbox games launching from February 17 through 23
By Samuel Tolbert published
Xbox Here's all the Xbox games launching the week of February 17, 2025, including the standard edition of Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed.

Obsidian's Avowed is the top seller on Steam in the US right now
By Samuel Tolbert published
PC Gaming Obsidian Entertainment's Xbox role-playing game Avowed is the best-selling game on Steam in the U.S. right now.

Indiana Jones wins three awards at 28th D.I.C.E. awards — but not GOTY
By Samuel Tolbert published
Gaming Bethesda Softworks and MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle won three nominations at the 28th D.I.C.E. awards, but Astro Bot won Game of the Year.

Avowed reviews are in — here's a roundup
By Samuel Tolbert published
Xbox The reviews are in for Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed, so here's what critics think of the latest Xbox RPG.

Avowed guide: Should you free Ilora from the prison?
By Samuel Tolbert published
Guide Avowed has a bunch of decisions for you to make, and you'll have to choose whether or not to free Ilora from the prison.

Avowed PSA: Keep your save files in case of DLC or expansions
By Samuel Tolbert published
Guide When playing Avowed, keep your pre-completion save files before hitting the endgame in case of future DLC or expansions.

Avowed guide: Should you make a deal with the mysterious voice?
By Samuel Tolbert published
Guide You'll encounter a mysterious voice in Avowed that wants to make a deal, but should you accept it?

Avowed already has DLSS 4 at launch, Indiana Jones gets support next week
By Samuel Tolbert published
PC Gaming Obsidian's Avowed supports NVIDIA DLSS 4 override technology at launch, and MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is getting support next week.

Monster Hunter Wilds features 40 FPS Balanced mode on Xbox Series X
By Samuel Tolbert published
Gaming Monster Hunter Wilds features a 40 FPS Balanced mode on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, Capcom has confirmed.

All PC and Xbox games shown during PlayStation State of Play February 2025
By Samuel Tolbert published
Gaming Here's all the games from the February 2025 PlayStation State of Play that are also coming to Xbox and PC.

Overwatch 2's Perk system radically changes how the game is played
By Samuel Tolbert published
Xbox Overwatch 2 is getting a new Perk system, letting players choose Major and Minor perks that radically shake up how a hero is used.
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