Scott Miller first got into PC gaming with the original IBM PC, having been writing games since 1975 for machines like the Wang 2200 and the Commodore PET. "I don't really know what got me playing games on the IBM PC, I was probably looking at games that were free or whatever on the internet", he says. "That's eventually what led me to start making games and releasing them on the internet too."

Founding Apogee Software in 1987, Miller pioneered the shareware model of releasing a game's first episode for free online, with customers able to purchase the remaining episodes. Through this model, Apogee published the Commander Keen series and Wolfenstein 3D. When Apogee became 3D Realms, Miller went on to produce games like Max Payne and 2006's Prey.

Miller is still at the renamed Apogee Entertainment today, handling its publishing operations. "We have like 12 projects that we're currently working on," he says. "One of the games I'm really fond of playtesting here is Vexlands. It's a little like Forager, but you're opening up little spots of land constantly, and each time you open up a spot of land, it's almost like pulling the handle on a slot machine. You don't know what you're gonna get."

Miller took a break from testing Vexlands to share the wares currently installed on his PC. Together we drifted from the golden years of the MMO into the far, far west.

What game are you currently playing?

The current game that I'm really diving into is Far Far West. I'm only about an hour into it, but I'm really, really liking it. It's a fun game. It's in early access and it's kind of a futuristic, robotic western-themed game.

It just does a lot of things right. You can level up your weapons, your character, your spells. It feels like an open-world game, but it's not. But it gives you that feeling you can jump around and do whatever kind of quests or side quests that you want to do in whatever order you want to do it. There's fun bosses, there's fun puzzles. It's just a fun game.

I've only played it singleplayer so far. You can play up to four people, so I'm looking forward to giving that a try too.

What was the previous game you played, and is it still installed?

It was a point-and-click game called The Drifter. And maybe the best one I've honestly ever played. This goes back to the Sierra games, you know. I love games like Space Quest and King's Quest and those games. But this is gritty. It's [got] a great story, great atmosphere, lots of twists and turns, good puzzles. I'm about halfway into it and it's really sucked me in.

Before that, I was playing Stray. A little late to the party on that one; that's a really impressive game too. I just liked the whole atmosphere that they set up. I thought the cat movement was really well done. And yeah, I fully enjoyed that game.

That's my recent list. I do play a lot of our games that are in development. I probably play our games way more than other games, because there's always new builds of games, and you've got to play through them and provide feedback to the team. So there's a lot of that going on too.

What is the oldest game (by release date) currently installed on your PC?

Path of Exile. That's what, 15 years old at least? [He's close—it launched in 2013.]

I played the first five big chapters. I think there have been nine chapters now. I decided to restart the game, just to get refamiliarized with the whole thing, because I know there's new chapters that are out now, and I know there's a Path of Exile 2 that's coming out. So I really want to get caught up on Path of Exile 1 before I dive into number two.

I'm always playing warrior style characters. I'm all about the melee. I like to get right in their face and pound away.

What is the highest number of hours you have in any given game, according to Steam?

I don't know where to look that up, but I do know that the highest number of hours I've got in any game ever is World of Warcraft. I was such a fan of that game when it first came out. For the first two years [after it] came out I was totally into it every day, practically. So I imagine there's at least 1,000 or more hours in that game … I played all the original expansion packs that came out. I think it was around level 80 when I stopped playing.

EverQuest was big before WoW and I had friends who played it, and I watched them play. It just seemed really difficult. You were heavily penalised when you died. It just seemed like too hard of a game. So when WoW came out, I had friends who were playing it in the company, and they were playing it as a singleplayer game, just having a ton of fun, making great progress.

And I thought 'Well, you know, looks like they did this game to accommodate single players. I don't really team up with other people when I play. So that's the game I dove into, and it just immediately hooked me because it was a very fair game as a single player.

Then at times later down the road, you know, I was teaming up with friends and stuff, and we would go on quests and adventures together. But for the most part, you could just play that game as a singleplayer game and just keep levelling up. So that's how I like to play games.

And that game really did scratch that itch. Just the whole vastness of the world, unlocking new areas. It was a very eye-opening experience for me.

What game will you never, ever uninstall?

I don't know if I have a game like that. For the most part, when I finish a game, that's usually it. I always feel like if I'm going to play a game, I'd rather play something I haven't done before. Try something new.

There are certain iPhone games, which are my go-to little quick-fix games. I'm a real fan of minigolf games and stuff. And I've got several of those on my phone that I'll put five or 10 minutes into every day, just for a quick little break. So those kinds of games, those kinds of long-term games, are really more on my phone.

What's a piece of non-gaming software installed on your PC that you simply couldn't live without?

I don't really use [many tools] on my PC. I've got my browser. I've got Discord. And what else do I use? I'll use Word once in a while.

I've got a snipping tool, I'll use that three to four times a week. But I honestly try to keep things super simple on my PC, because when I load up my PC with stuff, it seems to always cause problems. So for the most part, I just use a browser and I have Discord, and those are the two things I'm in 99% of the time during the day.

How tidy is your desktop screen?

It's pretty well organised. I don't know if you'd look at it and say it's tidy. I've got a huge 5k screen that's I think 40-inches across. I've never been one of these people with two monitors. I just prefer having the biggest monitor I can get. And so I've got Discord on [one] side, I've got the browser on [the other] side, and I've got an area in between that relates to things I'm currently working on.

I guess we can call Forza Horizon 6 letting players go to Japan and race against a mech a success then. The incarnation of Forza Horizon with kei trucks and indestructible cherry blossom trees in it is available four days early for people who buy the premium edition, and they have turned up in droves. It hit a peak of 178,009 players on Steam alone according to SteamDB, which puts it well ahead of Forza Horizon 5, the previous entry peaking at 81,096 players on Steam four-and-a-half years ago.

Racing games really have become one of those genres where a single competitor ends up streets ahead of everyone else, to the point where it's the only option for serious heads. Word is that Motorsport was killed off in Microsoft's cuts, and Need for Speed's been put on hold so Criterion can focus on Battlefield. Even Lego 2K Drive is being delisted.

It does seem like Forza Horizon 6 has earned that dominance, though. Our Phil Savage gave it an 84 in his review, saying, "There is a staggering amount to do, and an absurd number of cars to do it all in. No other racing series operates on this scale, with this much sandbox freedom."

Those players forking out $120 for the premium edition (or £110 in the UK, or $190 in Australian dollarydoos), aren't just doing it for the privilege of playing four days early, though. That outlay also nets you two expansions, a car pass and two car packs, as well as a welcome pack and a VIP membership. If you know you're going to be buying the DLC anyway, I can see why you'd put your money down ahead of time. As the kind of person who bought a lot of Total War DLC the piecemeal way, I can understand why you'd rather take the hit to your budget all at once, in advance.

Star Citizen has a problem. No, not the fact that it's been in development for well over a decade, or that it still has no hard release date on the horizon despite raising almost $1 billion in development funds. The problem is that the markets in Cloud Imperium Games' space sim alpha are riddled with questionably obtained goods.

Unscrupulous players are using various exploits to duplicate valuable items en-masse, enabling them to make money and buy expensive ships quickly while flooding the market with duped goods. Not only is this viewed as unsportsmanlike by many players, but it's also throwing the game's economy out of whack.

The situation has been threatening to boil over for a while, but it finally came to a head in the runup to the release of Star Citizen's latest update. With the release of patch 4.8, Cloud Imperium Games had committed to a partial wipe of the servers, resetting players' bank balances, in-game resources, and vehicles purchased with in-game currency (i.e, earned by playing the game). Crucially, however, it left out ships that had been acquired through trading with Wikelo, which led to widespread complaints that players who spent money earned from duped items on Wikelo would be exempt from the wipe.

Cloud Imperium Games responded to this on Tuesday, saying that it had been "closely following the conversation surrounding 4.8's upcoming wipe." In response, the studio has now enacted a "full reset" of Star Citizen's universe, wiping everything except player blueprints and items and vehicles players have bought with real-world money.

CIG also said that the patch would include "additional safeguards aimed at reducing exploits and duplication issues", though it didn't specify what those safeguards are, and the patch notes don't seem to mention any features specifically targeting exploits either. Players, meanwhile, are still reporting that duping is occurring, though CIG didn't say the patch would stop the exploits entirely, stating that there are "more improvements to come."

As for what else Alpha 4.8 brings. It chiefly introduces a new, endgame "Tactical Strike Group" mission designed for "large, organised player squads", which involves assaulting a fortified asteroid both from space and on foot. It also introduces flight suits that have an effect on your tolerance for G-Forces, improves the game's refuelling missions, adds a couple of new infantry weapons, and much more.

It's a substantial update, though the game's 1.0 still seems a long way off completion, potentially as far off as 2028. Its single-player component, Squadron 42, is still scheduled to launch this year, though CIG also cast doubt on this prospect in September last year.