Genghis Khan’s Civilization V DLC is out
Last week we mentioned that there would be free downloadable content appearing for Civilization V. Now it’s out! The update should apply automatically when you boot up Steam, giving you the ability to play as Genghis Khan and run riot over the steppes with armies of super fast horsemen. Firaxis have also released the Babylonian pack, which was originally released as part of Civ V’s Digital Delux edition, but now it’s available to all on Steam for £2.99, ideal if you’re looking for a more refined and well washed leader.
Win Half-Life 2: Episode 29!
Attention PC gamers! We’ve got a giveaway so momentous that it stands to eclipse epochal moments in history going all the way back to the discovery of fire by an unfortunate troglodyte in a lightning storm about one and a half million years ago. In fact, it’s so spectacularly massive that it may create a singularity unimagined by even Stephen Hawking at his most fanciful after a fifth of bourbon. What could be so huge? How about this: a magical Steam code that will grant you free, permanent access to Valve’s entire catalog—which includes some of the finest PC games ever made—and every game Valve ever will make. That’s right: you can win Portal 2, Dota 2 and even Half-Life 2: Episode 3.* It’s the prize that keeps on giving, year after year!
But wait, that’s not all! Click through to see what else, and how to win it!
Update: Winners have been drawn, and notifications are going out. We’ll post the list of winners soon!
Update 2: Winners posted!
Buy Dogfighter for just over a pound
Dogfighter is a crazy multiplayer aerial combat game that has you battling for control of the skies in your trusty biplane. It’s a cracker jack combination of Quake like blasting, breakneck turns and dizzying loop the loops, and this evening it will be on sale on Steam for just £1.05.
Global Agenda devs announce new Tribes game
The developers of class-based first-person shooter Global Agenda have confirmed that they are working on a brand new entry in the classic Tribes series, called Tribes Universe. It’ll have huge battlefields, vehicle combat and will feature massive scraps involving more than a hundred players. Oh, and jetpacks. It wouldn’t be Tribes without jetpacks.
Diablo 3 trailer and footage shows Demon Hunter in action
Blizzard unveiled the final class for Diablo 3, the Demon Hunter at Blizzcon. They announced her arrival with a kick ass trailer and 20 minutes of brutal in-game footage. All of these videos can be found below, along with more information about Diablo 3′s shootiest class.
WoW: Cataclysm will be taking pre-orders soon
Blizzard have announced that pre-orders will soon be available for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, letting you download the game ahead of its release on December 7th.
Speaking at Blizzcon, Blizzard’s President, Michael Morhaime announced that ”For the first time, you will be able to pre-order the expansion directly from Blizzard,” saying that “all of the content on the game DVD can be downloaded in advance and you can start playing the moment we turn the servers on, which will be at midnight Pacific Standard Time on December 7th.”
Subscribe to PC Gamer UK, get it half price
It’s winter, which at PC Gamer means free overtime from our inking orphans because it’s too cold for them to go back to their cells at night. So we’re passing these human rights violations – or ‘savings’ – on to you: it’s now just £10.69 quarterly to subscribe by Direct Debit, or £46.49 for a year if you prefer to pay by card. The PC Gamer Maths Prawn tells us that’s £3.28 and £3.58 an issue respectively – good job, Maths Prawn! Back in your tank!
For the most ridiculous saving of all, subscribe for two years for £77.99. Your loyalty lets us plan for the future by abducting a whole new orphan, safe in the knowledge that after twelve months, the cadmium poisoning from the ink will have rendered it almost numb to the papercuts. And since we work four-week long Journalism Months to avoid light stabbings from our overlords, we do 13 issues in a year. That’s less than £3 an issue, says the calculator we replaced the Maths Prawn with after the tank fiasco. Compassionate and smart.
Subscribers also get their issues with the clean, gorgeous, clutter-free covers you see above. As well as looking sexy on a coffee table, the time the orphans save from the lack of cover lines means we can send each issue out to you sooner than the shops.
Crap Shoot: Duke Nukem
Richard Cobbett steps back for time in this special Before They Were Infamous edition of Crap Shoot, returning to the dark days when nobody really took the PC seriously as a gaming platform.
Looking back, it’s almost impossible to comprehend just how fast PC games moved in the early 90s. The original Duke Nukem came out in 1991. Duke Nukem 3D came out in 1996. That’s five years to go from a simple 2D side-scroller to full, multilevel 3D worlds that at least took a crack at recreating the real world. It’s five years in which Duke went from a generic platform game character who almost got renamed over fears that he might be mistaken for a Captain Planet villain into the poster-boy for adolescent power fantasies. It’s safe to say that when the first game came out, nobody would have predicted the world would still be on tenterhooks, waiting for his next adventure. After all, when’s the last time you heard anyone talk about the far more popular Commander Keen, or other contemporary characters like Johnny Dash, Major Stryker, Snake Logan or Mylo Steamwitz? Come on, you know Mylo! From Crystal Caves?
The original Duke Nukem definitely isn’t an obscure game as such. Most people are at least dimly aware that the series didn’t start with Duke Nukem 3D, and that game originally shipped with both the original and its sequel (the unsurprisingly named Duke Nukem II) on the CD. However, chances are most people haven’t played it. This week then, we’re going back to before anyone knew to bet on Duke.
Chainsaw-wielding maniacs want to know: have you hit F5 lately?
I got an interesting question on my Formspring profile that seemed like it’d be fun to answer here, where the rest of PC Gamerdom can weigh in in the comments. Go nuts!
Q: Do you think we sometimes rely too much on autosave?
A: How can you rely too much on autosave? Yes, it’s a modern convenience to not be forced to replay a section of a game after an unforeseen death as punishment for neglecting to manually save every couple of minutes by habitually hitting the F5 key like a lab monkey earning his food pellets. Perhaps playing the same area of a game multiple times built character, in the same way that losing a limb to gangrene built character before the discovery of antibiotics. Kids today just don’t understand the fun they missed back in the old days.
Play with PC Gamer – Global Agenda Halloween event
Come play dress-up with the PC Gamer US editors in Global Agenda on Wednesday, October 27, at 4PM PST and be one of the first to run through the new Halloween themed mission, Oasis Checkpoint of Doom.
Oasis Checkpoint is a Defense Raid mission where 10 players defend a facility from waves of NPC attackers. It’s decorated with “tricks” and “treats” for the holiday event, lasting from October 27 through October 31. Learn more about Raid Defense in this developer video blog.
Players must be level 30 to be able to join in the raid.
Blizzard working on official DOTA, Left 4 Dead clones for Starcraft II
Kerrigan versus an angry Murloc. The Blademaster versus Sylvanas. All of this is now possible with the forthcoming Blizzard DOTA, that’s been revealed and is playable, at Blizzcon. It follows the same template as traditional DOTA games, with teams of five heroes hiding behind hordes of automated armies, beating up towers. Heroes then level up, and buy new abilities and items.
They’ve also revealed Left 2 Die – a co-op version of the zombie defense mission in the Starcraft II single player campaign.
Blizzard lift lid on Diablo 3 Demon Hunter; PvP arenas, more
At Blizzcon, at the Anaheim Convention Centre, Blizzard today revealed the final class in the Diablo 3 roster: the demon hunter, alongside new PvP and character customisation features.
The Demon Hunter is Diablo 3′s more traditional ranged archetype, dual wielding crossbows and using traps and dark magic to pew pew monsters from afar. The class is fast, violent and sleek – featuring skills like Bola shot (shoot an explosive rope around a monsters neck: BANG), spike traps, and a super-efficient multi-shot.
Also featured, rated arenas in which PvE players can bring their character to fight, kill, and splat in rounds of three or five. Rewards will include vanity items and achievements.
PC Gamer is at Blizzcon in force: we’ll bring you more video, more news, and more impressions as soon as possible.
Microsoft to relaunch Games for Windows Marketplace
Microsoft are set to completely reboot the Games for Windows Marketplace. The service will relaunch next month with a new website, pre-order deals and over a hundred games available to buy at launch. Could this be the service to rival Steam?
Team Fortress 2 modders make a fortune
Valve’s recent Mann-conomy update for Team Fortress 2 added a crate-full of user made items and weapons to the game, along with the ability for players to buy those items. We’re divided on whether that’s a good thing or not, but 25% of the money earned from every sale goes to the modders who created the item. Now we know how much those modellers and artists have made so far, and holy moly, it’s a lot.
DICE on Battlefield 3: PC gamers “have higher expectations”
A Senior Gameplay Designer at DICE has addressed concerns from players that Battlefield 3 would be dumbed down in the wake of the success of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the Playstation 3 and the XBox 360, saying that “Battlefield 3 needs an extra bit of special attention on the PC.”
