Julian Hayes
Hardware & Tech Editor
7 published articles on GamersPulse
Julian Hayes is GamersPulse's Hardware & Tech Editor, covering performance, engine technology, and the hardware that runs modern games. His byline includes our reviews of Helldivers 2 and Balatro, plus technical reporting on Unreal Engine 5 geometry systems, handheld PC gaming, and PlayStation 5 Pro upscaling.
Coverage Areas
Reviews by Julian Hayes
Helldivers 2
Helldivers 2 is a four-player cooperative shooter where stratagem call-ins, permanent friendly fire, and a live, server-wide Galactic War campaign combine to create most of its best moments. Weapon balance patches have been frequent enough that favorite loadouts don't always stay favorite for long.
Balatro
Balatro takes standard poker hands and stacks 150 Joker cards on top of them, turning a familiar ruleset into a roguelike about multiplier math rather than card luck. A single run is short enough to restart immediately, which is part of why it's easy to lose track of time playing it.
Guides by Julian Hayes
Helldivers 2: High-Difficulty Terminid & Automaton Loadout Breakdown (Helldive & Super Helldive)
Optimal weapon loadouts, armor passives, and stratagem compositions necessary to extract successfully on Difficulty 9 and 10 planetary operations.
Balatro: Deck Building Fundamentals, Multiplier Sequencing, and Joker Synergies
The essential mathematical guide to conquering Ante 8: how chips and multipliers interact, Joker slot positioning rules, and high-synergy combos.
News & Analysis by Julian Hayes
Nanite Tessellation and Programmable Shading: What Next-Gen Geometry Means for Open-World Performance
A deep technical examination of Epic Games’ latest Unreal Engine geometry advancements, analyzing how runtime displacement mapping balances micro-polygon detail against system memory bandwidth.
Handheld Gaming PCs: The State of Linux Gaming, Proton Optimization, and Battery Realities
How compatibility layers, low-wattage APU architectures, and customized Linux operating systems transformed portable PC gaming from a niche hobby into an essential platform.
Machine Learning Upscaling on Consoles: How PSSR Bridges the Gap to High-Framerate 4K
An analysis of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), exploring how custom neural network hardware accelerates image reconstruction without sacrificing temporal stability.