Patrick O'Rourke
Patrick O'Rourke is News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead at XDA, covering gaming, entertainment, and consumer technology through hands-on stories that show how real people play, drive, and live with their devices.
Hands-on gaming and PC modding
O'Rourke distinguishes his gaming coverage by participating directly in the projects he writes about, often rebuilding or modifying games himself before filing.
In his story about creating his own version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on PC, he uses tools such as Ship of Harkinian, OoT Reloaded, and updated 3DS character models to assemble a remaster that stays faithful while feeling modern.
His coverage of a teenager's three‑month effort to make Half‑Life 2 playable in a web browser highlights the ingenuity of individual creators and the technical constraints of running a classic PC shooter inside modern browser environments.
Across these pieces, he treats nostalgia titles as living software that can be reshaped, focusing on what it takes to get them running and how the result feels to play rather than only recounting development milestones.
Android Auto, CarPlay, and in-car interfaces
O'Rourke returns frequently to Android Auto and CarPlay, concentrating on reliability, interface design, and the features drivers overlook.
In his comparison of CarPlay and Android Auto, he argues that CarPlay’s cleaner user interface and more consistent performance make it easier to trust on the road, even though he does not dismiss Android Auto outright.
Complementing that piece, his guide to hidden Android Auto features explains how to use developer options to tweak default USB behaviour, increase display resolution, and access other advanced controls that improve the experience without modifying the car itself.
He also writes from direct experience with native wireless Android Auto in his own vehicle, giving readers a sense of how the platform behaves over time rather than relying only on spec sheets or marketing claims.
That focus on practical in‑car behaviour extends to product coverage such as his evaluation of Ottocast’s Cabin Care in‑car baby monitor, where he weighs cost, usefulness, and peace of mind instead of just listing features.
Consumer tech reviews and everyday gear
Beyond software platforms, O'Rourke reviews hardware that sits in the same ecosystem, connecting phones, accessories, and entertainment devices back to how people actually use them.
His Cabin Care review frames the monitor as one of the few expensive baby products that genuinely earns its price because it solves a real problem for parents driving with young children.
This emphasis on lived context rather than isolated specifications carries through his consumer coverage, where device stories are grounded in situations like long commutes, road trips, and family routines that expose strengths and weaknesses quickly.
News editing, entertainment coverage, and tech industry narratives
As News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead at XDA, O'Rourke shapes how the masthead covers gaming and entertainment, blending breaking news with explainers and opinionated columns drawn from his own testing and play.
His experience spans multiple technology and business outlets, including prior roles with Pocket-lint, MobileSyrup, Financial Post, Postmedia, and Canada.com, giving him a perspective that crosses enthusiast, mainstream, and financial audiences.
He continues to work as a freelance technology journalist alongside his editing responsibilities, producing stories that dig into how corporate decisions and historical missteps ripple through the current tech landscape.
An example is his piece on former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky’s retirement negotiations after the Surface RT launch, written in light of newly released Jeffrey Epstein files and focused on what those documents reveal about high‑level manoeuvring inside a major tech company.
Taken together, his newsroom role and reporting portfolio result in coverage that treats games, cars, and platforms as parts of a connected technology story, rather than isolated beats.
4 more gaming journalists.
Adam Vitale
Adam Vitale is Editor-in-Chief at RPG Site, with coverage distinguished by detailed tracking of the full lifecycle of role-playing game releases. He reports concrete information for players, focusing on demos, platforms, sales milestones, downloadable content, and post-release updates for a wide range of RPGs. His work includes structured release calendars that list every upcoming RPG in a given year and news posts that map out release dates, formats, and platform rollouts. He regularly covers announcement trailers, gameplay videos, screenshots, and storefront page launches, with a strong emphasis on Japanese and indie RPGs and adjacent genres. Alongside this daily news, he writes longer features on RPG themes and systems and takes part in developer interviews, combining editorial leadership with consistent, granular reporting on how individual titles move from announcement to long-term support.
Al Landes
Al Landes is a long-time tech writer who treats emerging consumer technology, gaming, and AI as systems of power and consequences rather than hype. He writes news and explainer pieces for Gadget Review while managing a team of review writers, blending fast-moving coverage, clear technical detail, and practical guidance. He covers Apple hardware, software, and leadership transitions as a single evolving ecosystem, from iPhone 18 Pro and Apple Intelligence memory thresholds to Touch ID in foldables and Tim Cook’s last day as CEO. A core strand of his beat is AI, privacy, and device security, including AI worms, smart TV tracking, and regulation of superintelligence. He reports on labor and organizing in video games, experimental consumer tech and public infrastructure, and how money, logistics, and policy shape everyday devices and urban transport.
Andrew E. Freedman
Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom’s Hardware and stands out for covering how hardware design, platform policy and pricing shape PCs, consoles and handheld gaming. He oversees laptop and desktop coverage and closely follows news in technology and gaming. His beat includes PC hardware, laptops and desktops, console and handheld gaming ecosystems, and AI infrastructure and data center investment. He reports on platform transitions, new desktop designs, memory and component costs, budget laptops, Xbox and Nintendo strategy, Windows-based handhelds, and large AI buildouts. His work has appeared at Tom’s Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex. He uses detailed specifications, pricing breakdowns and corporate context, with a hands-on approach to evaluating portable hardware and product changes.
Andrew Webster
Andrew Webster connects video games, movies, and television as one culture beat. He is a senior entertainment editor at The Verge, where he oversees coverage of games, film, and TV. He reviews games, movies, and shows, including nearly every Pokémon title, and covers consoles, new releases, streaming shows, genre movies, franchises, and the technology that shapes how people watch and play. His reporting links hands-on criticism with attention to visuals, stories, creators, studios, platforms, and digital business models. He has covered E3, TIFF, Sundance, and GDC, judged at The Game Awards and E3, and interviewed Shigeru Miyamoto, Phil Spencer, and Hironobu Sakaguchi. He joined The Verge in 2012. His work has also appeared in Ars Technica, Wired.com, Eurogamer, CNN, Gamasutra, the Toronto Standard, and VentureBeat. He also contributes video and podcast work.