They’re off to have a new adventure called: How to do a university
Alas, more sad news today, folks. Our brilliant guides writer Hayden Hefford has just completed their final day at RPS. From the end of September, they’ll be starting a new life of scholarly enlightenment as they head off to university, undertaking that most noble of pursuits: the quest for infinite knowledge. We’ll miss them dearly, so please join me in the comments below to say farewell.
In hindsight, Hayden’s forthcoming ascension to academia shouldn’t have come as a surprise, as they were always looking for ways to improve both their writing and their wider skillset as a writer. I still remember the day when, just a few months after Hayden first joined us, they came to Alice Bee and myself asking if they could write a little thing aboutProject Zomboid, which they’d been playing over the Christmas break. It was their first bit of non-guides work, and they were quite nervous about whether it was any good. And honestly, I was so bowled over bythe finished article, that I wanted to reach through my monitor and give them a high-five.
Hayden went on to stretch their feature-writing muscles after that, combining their extensive guides knowledge with their personable style of writing, telling us about how Elden Ring’s Mimic Tear Ash nerfleft them broken-hearted, and the effects ofDiablo 4’s disastrous pre-season one patch. They also threw themselves into our themed feature weeks, collecting together5 games that make your mate the monsterfor Halloween last year, and thelovely Ikenfellfor our Magic Week back in February.
They also threw themselves into review writing, taking on ourSniper Elite 5 review, as well asAs Dusk Falls,Temtem,Grounded,Terra Nil,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s RevengeandLil' Gator Game, awarding the latter with a Bestest Best.
I think my favourite piece of Hayden’s, though, will always be their big interview feature aboutthe making of As Dusk Falls, which not only has one of my all-time favourite quotes in a headline, but it was also Hayden’s first big interview full stop, and their very first studio visit. Doing these sorts of features is no easy feat when you’re still quite new in the world of games writing, but Hayden rose to the occasion brilliantly.
We’ll miss them greatly, but I have no doubt Hayden has a very bright future ahead of them. We wish them all the best on their university adventures, so please join me in saying farewell, goodbye and happy studying in the comments below.
PS: nope, that doesn’t mean TIE Fighter’s going back on our list ofbest Star Wars games. Hayden’s ranking remains pure and true on that front, so you’ll just have to let that one go, young padawans.
