PC Gamer UK, November issue: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
It’s a big month for PC Gamer UK. The disc is gone. We put it in a paper boat and burnt it at sea (or, rather the river next to our office). In its place we have 64 extra pages. That means more reviews, more previews, bigger features and more adventures in Extra Life. To celebrate, we’re giving everyone who buys the new issue free stuff, whether you subscribe, buy online, in a shop, or even digitally. Everyone will get an exclusive Team Fortress 2 hat, and a month of OnLive access. The issue will be arriving with subscribers now, and will hit stores this Wednesday.
But what’s inside? The screaming warrior on our cover gives away our huge Skyrim preview, but there’s more. Much, much more. We turn the office into the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. We talk to Gabe Newell about his Dota 2 obsession, delve into Firefall, take a look at Planetside 2, invent the perfect version of Left 4 Dead 3 and Tim strokes a Tribble. Read on to find out why.
And in other PC gaming news…
The Minecraft 1.9 update includes some strange things. Strangest so far was the mushroom cow or ‘Mooshroom‘, apparently the result of innocent cows blundering into the mushroom biome, which Tom Francis showed to the rest of us today. “What do you think?” he asked. “Kill it!” screamed Craig in horror. “It shouldn’t be!” wept Rich. Poor Mooshroom, it only wanted to be loved.
Check inside for a selection of lumbering, mutated PC gaming news.
Renegade Ops screenshots show Gordon Freeman liberating settlements WITH FIRE
So now we know that Gordon Freeman will return in Renegade Ops. We can’t say exactly why, but we can show you what he’ll look like. See three new screenshots of Gordon’s buggy in action below, along with some new artwork in which Gordon has a bit of a glare, perhaps a bit irate at how long it’s taking for Episode 3 to come out.
Gordon Freeman returns in Renegade Ops, out next month
Gordon Freeman will be a playable character in the PC version of Renegade Ops. The top down blaster will let us play as the Half Life hero and drive around in the Half Life 2 buggy, firing off rockets, taking out tanks with mounted machine guns and unleashing swarms of Antlions to quickly wipe out dozens of enemies at a time.
Renegade Ops is the latest from Just Cause and Just Cause 2 developers, Avalanche studios. A far cry from the sprawling, open world action of their previous titles, Renegade Ops will be a more traditional co-op shooter, with a very, very strange Gordon Freeman shaped twist.
“Working with Steam and the Half-Life team makes this game extra special.” said Sega’s director of digital, John Clark. “Gordon Freeman is a deeply-established character in the gaming world and we are proud to have him included in Renegade Ops.”
Renegade Ops is out on Steam on October 14, and will cost $15.00 / £9.99 / €12.99 / AUD$ 20.00. Catch the first screenshot of Gordon in his buggy below, with more to follow on the site shortly. The One Free Man is back!
League of Legends: Dominion now live
It’s happened LoL fans! Dominion has been released. The chaps at Riot games have just announced that all the Legends (read: players) on the North American and European servers can enjoy the new mode. It’s more concerned with capturing and holding than hacking and grinding. It’s also completely awesome.
Tim got to play last week. Why not read his League of Legends: Dominion first impressions as your client updates eh?
Never played League of Legends? It’s free and loads of fun. Sign up here to see what all the fuss is about. See you on the Crystal Scar people! I’ll be playing a Yordle, because that’s how I roll. Teeeeeeeeeemo!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim perks and racial skills revealed. Be a Dark Elf, set yourself on fire
Elder Scrolls fans had a chance to get some hands on time with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim recently at the Eurogamer Expo, and have collated a big old list of information on most of Skyrim’s Perks over on The Elder Scrolls Skyrim fan site. These extra abilities can boost your major skills. One will cause your lightning bolt spell to outright evaporate your enemy if their health is low enough. Another will make items cheaper when you buy from the opposite sex you charming rogue, you.
There will be more pronounced racial differences in Skyrim, too. A scaly Argonian will have different baseline stats to a sturdy Orc. They’re more adept at picking locks, but can’t take a punch quite as well. As with Oblivion, each race will start with a racial ability of which the most impressive is surely the Dark Elf’s Ancestor’s Wrath, which surround him in wreaths of flame. In Oblivion, these abilities could often only be used once every 24 hours. A bit of Ancestor’s Wrath after breakfast would be a great way to start the day, don’t you think? Read on for the full list of perks discovered so far.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Missing Link trailer shows shirtless stealth and stormy seas
Square Enix have sent over a new trailer and some screenshots for Deus Ex: Human Revolution – The Missing Link. Tom’s played it, and it’s rather exciting. You can read his thoughts in our Deus Ex: Human Revolution Missing Link preview. The walkthrough trailer above shows us the tense opening minutes. Shirtless, and therefore powerless, Jensen’s forced to use extra caution to get around the cargo ship. It may feel a little familiar to those who have played the ship level in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.
In case you missed them on Friday, Square Enix sent over three new screenshots showing the ship’s interior, which is slightly surprising, because the improved lighting and storm effects on the deck shown in the trailer look much more spectacular. Even at sea, everything has that smokey, golden sheen.
Battlefield 3 trailer has 99 problems but a twitch headshot ain’t one
Still feeling a bit sleepy from the weekend? Here’s about 12 seconds of waaaagh-blam from Battlefield 3, featuring subliminally quick ‘splodes, huge flaming oil fields, tanks and, for some reason, Jay-Z. It’s the next stage in game trailer evolution that will end when a company puts out a trailer that consists entirely of logos and no game footage whatsoever, but this one is thankfully more footage than logos by about a second. Battlefield 3! It’s out In one month, on October 25 in the US and October 28 in Europe.
This week’s best free PC games
This week, I give up. I try to maintain some sort of level of quality in what is, ultimately, a column called ‘This week’s best free PC games’. But so inundated have I been with requests that I cover one particular monstrosity that, this week, I’ve decided to get it out of the way. So without further ado, I present to you one of the most outrageously awful first-person shooters there has ever been. Fortunately, backing it up there’s a gorgeous art game, a tense platformer, and a game where you can ride a speedboat through the mouth of an angry shark.
Star Wars: The Old Republic subscription costs are identical to World of Warcraft’s
Want to play Star Wars: The Old Republic forever and ever? Each copy comes with a month of free game-time, but if you want to play after that, you’ll need money: it’s $14.99/£8.99/€12.99 per-month. That’s exactly the same pricing structure as World of Warcraft.
Even the bulk costs are identical: a three month subscription comes to $13.99/month (paid as a one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97), while a six month subscription costs $12.99 per month (paid as a one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94).
So: here’s a good game for your Saturday. You can afford to pay for one subscription game per month. What do you pay for?
Star Wars: The Old Republic release date will ruin/save Christmas: Dec 20th in US, December 22nd in UK and Europe
Uh-oh. Might want to rethink that family Christmas. Unless your family likes land-speeders and bounty hunting. Bioware have announced the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It’s right slap-bang before Christmas. December 20th in the North America, and December 22nd in Europe.
I feel a disturbance in the force. As if a million customer support representatives suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. Their Christmas is going to suck.
Are you going to play The Old Republic on day one?
Saturday Crapshoot: Tongue of the Fatman
Every week, Richard Cobbett rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities. This week… uh… prepare to take a licking? I give up.
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Sorry, but do I really need to say anything else this week? It’s called Tongue of the Fatman! In an infinite universe where every possibility exists, is there even a slight chance that this could be anything but a slice of weapons grade badness the likes of which humanity simply isn’t ready for? Well, only under protest then, and only because your Saturday won’t fill itself up automatically. Prepare to bow before the multiverse’s mightiest man-boobs in a game that, almost certainly, actually exists.
Eidos Montreal: Deus Ex bosses a “lesson learned,” not Deus Ex enough
We’ve heard GRIP’s side of the confused, rather depressing saga that is Human Revolution’s not-so-revolutionary inclusion of boss fights, but what about Eidos Montreal? Well, the developer hasn’t augmented its ears to tune out all criticism.
Speaking with Rock Paper Shotgun, project lead Jean-François Dugas was refreshingly open about the whole mess. Don’t take that to mean he’s done with boss fights altogether, though. Rather, Dugas feels that his game’s boss fights weren’t quite comfortable in their own skin.
PC Gamer US Podcast #288: Boss Legume
Join our hosts Greg, Josh, Gavin, Logan and PC Gamer Producer Kristen Salvatore in a round table discussion. On this week’s episode, we discuses the brain busting topics of the Diablo 3 beta, PC Gamer Digital, League of Legends Dominion and, of course, the disease Josh is currently spreading to make us all his minions. We all share our guilty pleasure games and Josh has a deep dark secret that he divulges to us—make sure you don’t tell anyone.
Hard Reset revised and simplified
I’m still figuring out what I think of Hard Reset, but the 1.01 patch resolves some significant issues with the controls. In particular, switching between the N.R.G. Weapon and the firearm always felt fussy, and led to quite a few disastrous weapon-switches in the middle of combat. Putting the two weapons on a single swap key is a welcome change.
The sprint changes (see below) are interesting. Before the patch you you had to wait for your sprint bar to fill up completely before you could make another dash. Husbanding that sprint energy was a major component of battle strategy, especially since a lot of enemies will try to charge and corner you. Having just one burst to get out of trouble made combat a little more exciting and dangerous. But take what I say with a grain of salt: I still play System Shock 2 with weapon degradation.
Here is a selected list of changes. The full list is available on Hard Reset’s Steam forum page.
- Sprint (shortly) even while still recharging – Sprinting is now possible at any moment – you don’t have to wait till the sprint bar fills up.
- Sprint will now charge 20% faster than before.
- Additional Mouse button bindings – You can bind the 4th and 5th mouse buttons.
- Disable Weapon Cool-down period – Weapon cooldowns are disabled now. You can change weapon modes while the weapon is on cooldown.
- Improved the time between switching between N.R.G. Weapon and CLN Firearm.
- You are now able to switch difficulty midgame (the lowest difficulty ever chosen during the whole run determines the achievements unlocked)
- Single Switch-Weapon Button – the F key will now switch between weapons.
