That makes handing out our awards every year an excruciating task. Because there are plenty of games that did things well and many games that do them extraordinarily well, but only one that can be said to have done something best. These awards are a tribute to those games—the ones that, in a year of outstanding work, stood above the rest; the games that set the high mark for each category and put the challenge to developers in 2012: top that.

MMO of the Year:

DC Universe Online

The epic showdowns from the comic books and TV shows we grew up with are masterfully recreated in DC Universe Online with often grim intensity—and we’re not forced to be the good guy. Combat is refreshingly deep, the player customization gives incredible freedom (in both looks and play style), and Gotham and Metropolis are filled with secrets to explore and collectible goodies to find. Its costume collection system is the best ever made, and every MMO should steal its two-person Duo dungeons design. Every gamer should have this MMO installed, and play through it at least once—there’s hardly any reason not to, given the game’s generous free-to-play content—and then keep an eye out for content packs that emphasize their favorite characters, including Flash, Green Lantern, and Brainiac (pictured above).

Publisher Sony Online Entertainment
Developer Sony Online Entertainment

Simulation of the Year:

DCS: A-10C Warthog

Meticulously crafted by Moscow-based Eagle Dynamics, this über-accurate study simulation of the USAF’s A-10C Thunderbolt II close air support fighter sets the bar for PC combat flight sims so high it may never be eclipsed. From its fully clickable and stunningly accurate 3D cockpit to its high fidelity avionics and flight modeling, DCS: A-10C Warthog delivers a master class in advanced flight simming. If you want to be a fighter jock—a real fighter jock—it doesn’t get any better than this.

Publisher The Fighter Collection
Developer Eagle Dynamics

Strategy Game of the Year:

Frozen Synapse

Forethought is the key to any great strategy game, and Frozen Synapse delivers a brilliant tool to predict (but never guarantee) what’ll happen—a preview button. It’s around this single mechanic that all the other elements come together so elegantly. Positioning, setting the timing and rules of engagement of units—it’s all intuitive battle-programming, analogous to writing down a musical score and having it played back to you by an arena of rockets, machineguns, and splattered blood.

Publisher Mode 7 Games
Developer Mode 7 Games

Action Game of the Year:

Batman: Arkham City

Outside the confines of Arkham Asylum, Batman has, quite literally, the freedom to soar. After proving that it had the imagination and skill to make administering Batman’s signature rough justice to Gotham City’s worst a thrilling videogame experience, Rocksteady aimed even higher in the wide-open world of Batman: Arkham City. The result is a superhero game that convincingly immerses you not only into the being, but also the psyche of a lethal vigilante who—let’s face it—gets off on terrorizing his prey.

Publisher Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer Rocksteady

Adventure Game of the Year:

Gemini Rue

The lo-fi graphics, the classic adventure game mechanics, the Blade Runner-style combination of hard science fiction and gritty noir—Gemini Rue is steeped in PC gaming nostalgia. But don’t let that fool you: its fusion of a strong, linear narrative with gameplay that doesn’t leave the player on the sidelines is absolutely cutting-edge. Instead of overwrought puzzles and make-work, the game challenges us to navigate a labyrinth of conspiracy and deceit, questioning every character’s motives along the way—including our own.

Publisher Wadjet Eye Games
Developer Joshua Nuernberger

Indie Game of the Year:

Dungeons of Dredmor

We died from kicking a door down. We gained ludicrous XP from performing feats of “Heroic Vandalism.” We foolishly charged into a monster zoo, thinking our Dire Sandwiches could save us. And we paid with our lives. Again and again. But thanks to the creativity and diversity of character traits (rolling a wizard with Flesh-smithing, Fungal Arts, and Necronominco-nomics, to name just a few), Dredmor’s randomized dungeons and perma-deaths are an essential part of the fun, with every grisly demise leading to fresh possibilities and unique stories.

Publisher Gaslamp Games
Developer Gaslamp Games

First-Person Shooter of the Year (Single-player):

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Most games manage to slip in a spectacular set-piece or two into the action: Modern Warfare 3 strings them together like bullets on a bandolier. Completing a mission in the middle of a sun-occluding sandstorm; floating Inception-like in the cabin of an airplane as it comes apart while trading rounds in the air; accidentally blowing up the Eiffel Tower; wrecking enemies with a remote-controlled tank. Everything’s at stake, there’s a clear enemy and a team of men who only speak in catch phrases and military shorthand determined to stop him—it’s a trope-filled template, but the spectacle of Europe and New York under attack in Modern Warfare 3’s campaign is beautifully tuned action-movie indulgence.

Publisher Activision
Developer Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games

First-Person Shooter of the Year (Multiplayer):

Red Orchestra 2 Heroes of Stalingrad

Both sides in Red Orchestra 2—Axis and Ally—have a unique sprinting animation that reflects the way they were trained to run with a rifle. That isn’t realism for realism’s sake—it’s a useful moving silhouette for distinguishing Fedor from Franz at 200m. In these kinds of details, Tripwire wraps its reverence for WWII history around thoughtful FPS design that rewards those players with the most battlefield awareness. Detailed damage modeling means enemy bodies don’t act like bags of hitpoints, but a body of simulated limbs and organs with specific vulnerabilities. Real bullet behavior is the other side of that; seeing a grey-coat run behind a brick wall, then tagging him in the heart (because you’re pretty sure he crouched behind it) honors your skill and intuition as a soldier.

Publisher Tripwire Interactive
Developer Tripwire Interactive

Puzzle Game of the Year (Multiplayer):

Portal 2

Portal 2 wove humor, drama, adventure, and puzzles into a single tightrope and then led us gracefully across it—and such was the combined strength of these threads that we eventually forgot that we were solving puzzles at all. Instead, we were confronting life-or-death challenges; we were meditating on physics and geometry. And that incomparable experience was followed by yet another: brilliant cooperative play that required precision maneuvering, punished every lapse in teamwork, and carefully cultivated moments of insight that made us rocket out of our chairs and yell “Wait, I GOT IT!”

Publisher Valve
Developer Valve

Mod of the Year:

No More Room in Hell

Derived from the classic, shuffling-zombie template of the George Romero movies, No More Room in Hell feels uniquely more like a horror game than an FPS. Every bullet matters, and you can’t hold a flashlight and a weapon at the same time (other than your pistol), so illuminating a zombie with your Maglite while a teammate applies his sledge-hammer is typical of the game’s excruciatingly tense, realistic teamwork.

Requires Source SDK (free)
Developer No More Room in Hell Development Team

Update of the Year:

League of Legends

The category we used to call “Expansion of the Year” got a name-tweak to reflect the continuously evolving nature of many PC games, including shooters, mods, MMOs and multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs). A case in point: With only two exceptions in all of 2011, League of Legends received a new champion every two weeks, which players could try for free a week after its release. But it’s the capture-point gameplay mode Dominion that takes away this year’s prize. While not designed for pro-level tournament play, it solved the biggest question holding the entire genre back: how the hell do we get our casual friends playing with us?

Publisher Riot Games
Developer Riot Games

Wonder why you haven’t seen a certain game yet? Hop on over to the next page, and bask in the glory of our Game of the Year 2012 award. We’ve also got personal picks from each of the editors: games that weren’t quite GotY material, but we love them just the same.

This week, Lucas carries out the cult rituals of the PCG tribe with Evan, Josh, Tyler, and Gavin as they seek the answers within to the most pressing of questions. What game determined their path through life? What is their deepest, darkest PC gaming passion? How do they nourish themselves whilst gaming like champions? And who, pray tell, participated in a LAN for a whopping 52 straight hours?! Don your cabalistic cloaks and join us in this inward-looking ceremony.

PC Gamer US Podcast 303: 52 Hours

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Every two weeks, we give you our verdict on whether or not the latest League of Legends champion is worth buying. Take a seat at the table with Josh, Lucas, and Hollander Cooper as they wax poetic on the joys of blowing people up with magical bombs as a maniacal Yordle. Could Ziggs be the diminutive demolitions expert you’ve been looking for?

If you are one of the lucky millions fortunate enough to have your mind blown by seeing Jurassic Park in the theaters, then Dino D-Day is a game tailored specifically for you. Unfortunately, this nostalgic, Source-modded cream dream—featuring flying raptors, exploding compies and a machinegun-mounted T-Rex!—somewhat failed to set the web on fire during its initial release. However, an enormous update late last year (as well as a recent PCG screening of those delicious Jurassic Park Blu-rays) reignited our passion for NAZI DINOSAURS something fierce!

Now featuring new maps, modes, and playable thunderlizards, we felt Dino D-Day is well worth a second look. Hell, it’s practically your patriotic duty to watch…

NEVER FORGET

Oh, and you can watch out epic battle with the Dino D-Day developers right here.

The clash of teeth and hot lead will fly today in less the 30 minutes! The PC Gamer US team is jumping into Dino D-Day to compete against the developers themselves, and the pride of editors and dinosaurs everywhere is on the line. Watch our victory or shame LIVE starting at 12pm (PST). Feel free to live chat along with us after the jump.

Chris C., Evan, Josh, Greg, and Tyler discuss the cancellation of Blizzcon, product placement in games, plastic DLC, and a very important announcement from one of the staff.

PC Gamer US Podcast 302: Goneiskey

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In the latest installment of the League of Legends Champion Roundtable, Josh and Lucas are joined by GamesRadar’s Hollander Cooper to give the run-down on Sejuani, the newest female tank to storm onto the Fields of Justice. Is she really worth your money? Only one way to find out.

GamesRadar

• PS Vita: It will definitely succeed. Although it might completely fail. Here’s why…
• The 42 best, funniest and weirdest photos of Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto being brilliantly odd
• Why winning at FIFA 12 disgusted me so much I’ll never play it again

Official PlayStation Magazine

• PS Vita pre-order guide: the cheapest prices, best bundles
• Resident Evil 6 characters: who can, and who can’t come back?
• The Last Of Us’ Joel is “a violent thug, a brutal killer and a torturer”

Official Nintendo Magazine

• Best 3DS games
• Wii U release date must hit peak season
• New Super Mario Bros 3DS: What we want to see

Official Xbox Magazine

• Mass Effect 3′s Insanity Mode: deeper, “harsher” yet fairer
• Mass Effect 3′s characters: the fates of Garrus, Ashley, Mordin and more
• Mass Effect 3′s races: what they face, how to save them

Computer and Video Games

• Sony PlayStation Vita review
• The 5 best boss fights ever
• GTA 5: The 7 biggest rumours analysed

This week, Lt. Logan, Chris #1 and Chris #2, and intern soldiers Greg and Gavin hunkered down in the PCG compound to prepare for all-out war on crappy legislation. Gavin gives us the scoop on the new TOR flashpoint, Kaon Under Siege, Greg patents his ingenious idea for 3D printers, and Logan lights a torch and passes out pitchforks around the office in preparation to take down SOPA.

PC Gamer US Podcast 301: Drop the SOPA

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In this Protip, Josh explains how to snag three WoW achievements with the help of furry little nature friends. How you proceed just depends on how thirsty you are for the blood of the innocent…so, how many critters do you want to kill?

Kill a few critters…

KILL ALL OF THE CRITTERS!

But I love the critters… :(

Congratulations to Andre Mitchell, Christian James Watson, Kristoffer Harrington, Andrew Gabriel and Richard Jones for allowing their names to be sullied in the pursuit of free kaboodle. They shall be rewarded with randomly-selected prize packs, which include a Diablo III Book of Cain book, a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic art book, a TOR-tastic mouse and headset from Razer, and a 1/7th-scale Star Wars Senate Guard Statue. Thankfully, the only real losers were the ones on mic. Haven’t listened to ELECTROCATFANTASTIC yet? Do so NOW! Be sure to check your Twitter DMs and Facebook messages, you lucky winrars.

What is Catfantastic? CATFANTASTIC IS MEOW! Run with Evan, Josh, Tyler, two Chrises and hostmaster Logan Decker as they navigate a gauntlet of incredibly cruel trivia, electroshock therapy, and a blackhole of math and fairness for the epic 300th episode of the PC Gamer US Podcast!

PC Gamer US Podcast 300: ELECTROCATFANTASTIC

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Computer and Video Games

• The Old Republic: the ultimate tips and guide
• Why multiplayer gaming is not the future
• The best Minecraft texture packs

GamesRadar

• SOPA and PIPA: A sneak preview of tomorrow’s draconian internet
• The Top 7… Amazing video game maps
• Hitman Absolution may not be the Hitman game you want. Here’s why.

Official PlayStation Magazine

• Bioshock Infinite: new game mode announced
• Hitman Absolution interview
• Resident Evil 6 release date?

Official Xbox Magazine

• Kingdoms of Amalur: eight things to do
• No sex in new Tomb Raider, combat reveal at E3 2012
• Five ways Mass Effect 3 is better with Kinect and three it isn’t

In this edition of PC Gamer Plays, Evan and Chris spread the randomly-generated joy of one of our favorite games of 2011: Dungeons of Dredmor. If you’re unfamiliar with the game, watch the video above to find out what it is and why Chris still won’t stop talking about it, then spy on the duo’s misadventures in the videos that follow…

Evan’s Playthrough

Chris’ Playthrough

We’ve dug into Valve’s sorta-sequel Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to try and gather some data on the only question we (and probably you, too) care about—what’s different? Within, we compare map segments, weapon animations and audio, smoke grenade opacity, bomb planting time, and other elements from all PC versions of Counter-Strike.

Tell us what other aspects of CS you’d like to see scrutinized, and we’ll get crackin’ on them.

You can find it all and more on newstands now! Or, if your house is surrounded by small rabid beasts which have somehow made it clear that only your flesh can satiate their voracious appetites, you may want to stay inside and check us out on Coverleaf.com and Apple Newsstand.

We haven’t abandoned the site; over the next couple of days we’ve asked left Roger the Christmas Robot in charge of the CMS. He’ll be posting the Game of the Year awards, our grand 2012 preview, and some interviews and opinion pieces.

We’ll also be playing all of our favourite games online, so don’t be a stranger. Come and find us. You’ll see us in the TOR guilds, on Battlefield 3, and in our Steam community.

From everyone at PC Gamer, have a very merry Christmas, and a happy 2012. We’ll see you online.

Tyler, Chris A., Lucas, and Greg discuss the first days of The Old Republic, the last days of Star Wars: Galaxies, and wrap-up 2011 with fond gaming memories and a desperate need for USB coffee warmers and other junk people wrap in paper this time of year.

PC Gamer US Podcast 299: A Galaxy Torn

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Jryy nera’g lbh whfg gur png’f cnwnznf? Frr lbh va 2012!

To snag your new swag, just head to the counterpart post at GamesRadar and follow the instructions there. You’ll have a leg-up over the competition when you net your 5-slot Adventurer’s Bag, extra storage, HP and MP potions, and some resurrection scrolls—the perfect set of items to get your heroic journey started.

As we ready ourselves for the Christmas feasts and New Year’s celebrations to come, we thought it would be the perfect time to look back and celebrate the very best of 2011 in our Game of the Year Awards. We also take a good look forwards at the most exciting games of 2012. The new issue contains a comprehensive run down of every game scheduled to come out on PC next year, so you can plan ahead, or simply reflect on how awesome PC gaming is going to be in the next 12 months.

There’s more inside, of course. Much, much more, including free access to Settlers Online, a free car in APB Reloaded, and our review of this little indie game you may have heard of called Minecraft. The issue will hit stores next Wednesday, andwill also be available to buy online, via Apple Newsstand and on Zinio. Read on, Padawan, and learn the secrets of Issue 235.

With every single game of 2012 successfully previewed, we switched our favourite review-bots from “dormant” to “judgemental” and let them loose on the latest releases. First, there’s the small matter of our six page review of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Tom Francis took care of that one. Then we left-clicked on Steve Hogarty to select and right-clicked on Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, used RICHARD COBBETT on LA NOIRE, para-dropped Graham onto Modern Warfare 3 and sent Jaz tunnelling deep into Minecraft’s bountiful crust.

This issue we also review Need for Speed: The Run, Sword of the Stars 2, DC Universe Online free to play, Jurassic Park: The Game, The Tiny Bang Story, Disciples 3: Resurrection, The Binding of Isaac, Fifa Manager 12 and Lord of the Rings: War in the North. Then, to top it all, Jon Blyth steps out of the shadows swirling a glass of cognac and offers another overview of this month’s eclectic selection of re-releases in They’re Back.

In this month’s Now Playing, Tom F can’t stop killing Orks in Space Marine, Chris Thursten can’t stop killing Orcs in Orcs Must Die! Tom H can’t stop killing cops in Payday, Rich can’t stop shooting men in Battlefield 3 (with his camera) and Henry Winchester can’t stop … licking boxes. With his cybernetic tongue. In Deus Ex: Human Revolution. After that, Chris pulls his axe out of an Orc and takes a nostalgic trip through Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Phil Savage takes a look at the latest Team Fortress 2 update.

There’s even more PC gaming goodness locked away between the covers this month. Discover the best in portable gaming in our rundown of the latest laptops in the Tech section, learn about Microsoft’s increasing support for Kinect on PC, and follow the adventures of Dragonbjorn in an exclusive excerpt from Stormcloak McCarthy’s bestselling new novel, Nord Country For Cold Men. If you’d rather receive each issue early, clad in our coverline-free subscriber covers (like the one above), then you can subscribe, and save a wad of cash in the process. Enjoy the issue!

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s early-access went live today, and we’d love to show it to you. Join our very own MMO mastermind Josh Augustine as he starts from scratch, streaming character creation and gameplay on the PC Gamer’s Twitch.tv page from 2 to 5 PM PST today. Watch as he opens his corrupt heart to the powers of the Dark Side and rolls an Imperial Agent. Or, channel your inner Jar Jar and troll the stream—either way, we invite you to check out TOR’s early game with us!

The Tempest 210 isn’t all that large, measuring in at 19.3 inches deep, 17.9 inches tall, and 7.7 inches wide. It does manage to squeeze in a decent amount of stuff for its size, though, including two fans (a 14cm top exhaust fan and 12cm rear exhaust fan) with support for five more. There are seven PCI expansion slots, and although it comes with just three optical drive bays, it does include eight toolless hard drive bays and an SSD mount at the bottom of the case.

Three cable-routing cutouts keep the wiring neatly organized behind the motherboard, and the case accommodates extra-long graphics cards, though at the expense of some hard drive mounts. Building into the Tempest isn’t too tricky, although the cutout for the 8-pin CPU power cable is barely usable. The Tempest is still definitely a budget case. Its front panel connectors include just one USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 port, and the hard drive mounts are a little on the flimsy side. On the other hand, two fans are better than one, and given that, for budget standards, it has slightly roomier confines and better stock cooling-performance, it should definitely appeal to some.

Outlaw BitFenix
SCORE: 74

BitFenix’s Outlaw is a petite steel midtower case with a restrained, refined aesthetic. The BitFenix signature “SofTouch” coating is restricted to the front panel, while the rest of the case is painted matte black inside and out. So why is it it called the Outlaw? Probably because the motherboard mounts upside down. The Outlaw has four hard drive bays, four optical bays, and room for one SSD at the bottom of the chassis, and the hard drives and optical drives attach with thumbscrews. The case has seven PCI expansion slots. Though it has mounts for seven additional 120mm fans (two each on the top, front, and side panel and one on the bottom), the Outlaw only ships with one 12cm exhaust fan.

The odd motherboard placement works well for the Outlaw—long video cards easily clear the top of the hard drive compartment. Spare power cables fit behind the hard drive trays, so a clean-looking install is pretty easy. Though small (18.9 inches deep, 17.3 inches tall, 7 inches wide), the Outlaw is a good choice for a budget build. If USB 3.0 and multiple fans are must-haves, though, look elsewhere, cowboy—the four front-panel USB ports are 2.0 only.

Thor v12 Rosewill
SCORE: 88

Rosewill’s Thor v2 is aptly named. It’s big, it’s burly, it’s heavy, and it’s really roomy. OK, my metaphor just broke down, but the Thor is huge on the outside and even bigger on the inside, and packed with features that are standard on cases twice or thrice its price. How nice! The Thor can accommodate motherboards in Micro ATX, ATX, E-ATX, and XL-ATX form factors. Its motherboard tray has squillions of rubber-grommeted cable routing holes to make wiring your case a snap, and it also comes with three 23cm fans and one 14cm fan, with two variable-speed controllers that can control up to three fans each. Six hard drive trays and six optical drive trays mean the Thor can handle all your storage and optical drives, with room left for a water reservoir or two.

Building a system into the Thor is easy, and the stock fans keep your rig cool while running quietly. You can swap the top 23cm fan for a dual 120mm or 140mm radiator (if water-cooling’s your thing), or stick four 12cm fans on the side panel for massive intake. The top has cooling vents that can open and close, though I can’t imagine closing them unless you take out the top fan. The Thor’s build quality can’t quite match top-tier full towers like Corsair’s 800D or Silverstone’s TJ11, and its front-panel connectors can get in the way a bit, but it’s solid enough, easy to build into, and keeps your components cool quietly. For the gamer who has everything (and wants to put it all into the same build), the Thor v2 is a good case for surprisingly low price.



Carbide 400R Corsair
SCORE:83

Corsair is known for cases that are stylish, well built, and on the pricey side. The Carbide series is aimed at the budget-conscious—and $99 is cheap for a Corsair case. The Carbide 400R is a midtower, although at 20.5 inches deep by 19.2 inches tall by 8.1 inches wide, it’s slightly larger than the BitFenix or NZXT cases in this roundup, and it feels much larger inside. The 400R contains two 12cm front intake fans and a 12cm exhaust fan, with five additional 12cm/14cm fan mounts, and the top panel can accommodate a 240mm radiator. The front and bottom panels have removable dust filters.
The 400R’s four optical drive bays are toolless, and the six removable hard drive trays have toolless hard drive mounts, though screws are still required for SSDs.

The motherboard tray has four rubber-grommeted cutouts for cable routing, and in true Corsair tradition, hardware installations and cable routing are extremely easy, with plenty of room behind the right side panel for cabling. The case easily supports the longest graphics cards. The 400R’s front panel contains two USB 3.0 ports (with pass-through cable and USB 2.0 adapter), FireWire, and audio jacks, as well as a switch for the front fan’s white LEDs. At twice the price of the Tempest or Outlaw, the 400R might be too much for the extremely budget-conscious, but it has Corsair’s build quality and ease of use, though there are certainly $100 cases that offer more bang for the buck.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/13/hard-stuff-case-roundup/feed/ 9 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/12/hard-stuff-maingear-vybe-super-stock-review/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/12/hard-stuff-maingear-vybe-super-stock-review/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:54:00 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=66597 [..]]]> The pitch line for the VYBE Super Stock is “Geared for gamers—priced for the masses.” But can you really get something that sports a reasonable price tag and can also meet the specialized needs of gamers?

The VYBE SS doesn’t feel like a budget box. In fact, the customized BitFenix Shinobi case has a nice quality to it and is fairly quiet. And looking inside the case, it’s obvious that Maingear didn’t skimp on CPU. Using Intel’s epically fast and cheap quad-core 3.4GHz Core i7-2600K, the VYBE SS makes no apologies to any other chip save Intel’s new Core i7-3960X, which is a hell of a lot pricier. Maingear takes advantage of a self-contained water-cooling system to overclock the 2600K by 1GHz to 4.4GHz. The Core i7 is mounted in a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3-iSSD motherboard, which features a mini 20GB Intel 311 SSD on it. This SSD is used to cache often-used files to immensely speed up access to the machine’s single 1TB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive. Other important specs include 8GB of Kingston DDR3/ 1600 RAM, a 24x DVD burner, and a fairly quiet Seasonic 660-watt PSU.



Who knew something's insides could look so cool.


The most important part of any gaming system is the graphics setup, and Maingear opts for two GeForce GTX 560 cards in SLI. Why not a single GeForce GTX 580 instead? The simple truth is that two GeForce GTX 560 cards often outgun a single GTX 580, and a single GTX 580 would be more expensive by about a hundred bucks too. The dual-card setup can hamstring you should you ever want to upgrade—you’ll have to jettison both older cards to do so—but for someone looking to pack in performance on a budget, the 560 cards makes immense sense.

In performance this baby doesn’t disappoint, and for kicks, I also fired up EA’s Battlefield 3 beta on the VYBE SS and found it pushing out around 50fps at 1920×1080 when set to high.
At $1,700, the Maingear VYBE SS does what it claims to do—gives gamers pretty damn good performance for a pretty damn good price. In other words, it’s all damn good.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/12/hard-stuff-maingear-vybe-super-stock-review/feed/ 27 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/09/champion-roundtable-volibear-the-thunders-roar/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/09/champion-roundtable-volibear-the-thunders-roar/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:58:16 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=66535 [..]]]>

With a new champion released every two weeks in League of Legends, it can be hard to figure out where your money (RP) and time (IP) are best spent. That’s why we’ve devised the Champion Roundtable, where we examine the latest champion’s mechanics and talk about what we liked or what left us unsatisfied. Join Lucas and Gavin as they discuss their best moments with Volibear, the armored polar bear champion, and whether or not they think you should pick him up.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/09/champion-roundtable-volibear-the-thunders-roar/feed/ 23 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/09/pc-gamer-us-podcast-298-simply-the-best/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/09/pc-gamer-us-podcast-298-simply-the-best/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 19:44:33 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=66534 [..]]]>

We ask the big questions, point-blank: was 2011 PC gaming’s best year ever? To find out, Evan leads Tyler, Antista, Greg, and Lucas on a journey of self-discovery, as they look at the best gaming years past, what we’re loving now, and what we have to look forward to in the near future. It’s a magical journey of nostalgic tear-shedding, forward-thinking futurism, and intern mockery. Peer into our crystal monitors as we divine which year of PC games we look back on most fondly.

PC Gamer US Podcast 298: Simply The Best

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@tyler_wilde (Tyler)
@CAntista (Chris A)
@Ljrepresent (Lucas)

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/09/pc-gamer-us-podcast-298-simply-the-best/feed/ 20 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/06/pc-gamer-us-january-issue-hell-awaits-you-in-the-secret-world/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/06/pc-gamer-us-january-issue-hell-awaits-you-in-the-secret-world/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 01:06:55 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=66334 [..]]]> Is it getting hot in here, or is it just the January 2012 issue of PC Gamer US? This issue’s molten center features the exclusive reveal of The Secret World’s Hell Dimension with a whopping eight pages of insight into the paranormal MMO, its character builds, quests, 500-ability Skill Hive, large-scale PvP system, and more. And when you’re done soaking in the horrors of Funcom’s underworld, you can dig into our take on WoW’s Mists of Pandaria expansion, a story from inside the WoW Arena, an in-depth Star Wars: The Old Republic preview, and a look at the best entries in the 2012 Independent Games Festival. Then get the verdicts on two high-profile three-quels, Battlefield 3 and Saint’s Row: The Third, alongside a bevy of other reviews for gems like City of Heroes: Freedom and Might & Magic Heroes VI.

It’s all on newsstands now! Or, if you’re under house arrest, we’re also available on Coverleaf.com and Apple Newsstand.



]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/06/pc-gamer-us-january-issue-hell-awaits-you-in-the-secret-world/feed/ 8 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/05/pc-gamer-uk-podcast-62-world-of-warcraft-skyrim-battlefield-3/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/05/pc-gamer-uk-podcast-62-world-of-warcraft-skyrim-battlefield-3/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:24:11 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=66329 [..]]]>

Nothing is safe in a post-Mists of Pandaria announcement world. This month Tim, Tom, Rich and Graham get together to discuss the revelations at Blizzcon. It’s not long before the conversation turns to Skyrim. Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3 and Steam sales also get turned over in episode 62 of the PC Gamer UK podcast.

Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our older podcasts here.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/05/pc-gamer-uk-podcast-62-world-of-warcraft-skyrim-battlefield-3/feed/ 8 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/03/exploiting-miners/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/03/exploiting-miners/#comments Sat, 03 Dec 2011 10:00:08 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65763 [..]]]> This article first appeared in PC Gamer UK issue 233. Written by Matt Lees.

What are you doing, Matt?” asked my friend. It was March 2002 and he had spotted me through the window of our college computer room. Why wasn’t I in the pub with the rest of our friends? I explained that I was playing a free fantasy MMO called Runescape. Technically, that was true. It was certainly true enough to suffice as an answer for now.

“Oh. Right.” He was clearly unimpressed by the low-resolution 3D blobs trundling around the screen. “Is it to do with killing dragons and goblins?” “Yes,” I lied. “It’s just a bit of fun.” I wasn’t happy that my new friends at college thought I was spending all my free time killing waves of magical monsters, but it was better than the truth. The truth was that, driven by impatience and greed, I had found myself running a coal mining business fuelled by child labour.

In my defence, I didn’t intend for it to end up this way. I don’t think anyone living in rural Cheshire ever really intends to get into child exploitation. I never really planned to start buying Rage Against the Machine albums, and I wouldn’t recommend that either.

None of what I achieved back then could be carried out today, anyway. In 2007, Runescape’s developers introduced the Grand Exchange, a marketplace in which players are able to easily buy and sell their goods for fair and reasonable prices. Back in 2002, though, Runescape was a wild new world. Outside of the game’s NPC shops, buying and selling items usually relied on players simply standing on the streets for hours at a time, shouting their best offers at anyone who’d listen. It was a world ripe with opportunity for deceit.



Wizards and chickens, a classic combination.

I wasn’t always a manipulative git. My earliest obsession with Runescape was driven by a confused fascination. My younger brother had started playing shortly after the game first went online in 2001, and initially I was happy to watch over his shoulder as he mindlessly pottered around this strange and muddy world of unappealing shapes and colours.

Most of his exploration revolved around an area known as ‘the Wilderness’, an anything-goes PvP zone that was especially deadly for low-level players unaware of the dangers. My brother explained that if you were quick, you could nip across the border and grab bits of unwanted loot from the corpse of the winner’s victim. The trinkets were cheap, but he seemed to enjoy playing the part of a professional vulture.

Mostly though, he’d be in the windmill. “I’m making pies,” he said, picking up two freshly spawned tins from the kitchen floor.

“You collect grain from outside, then grind it in the mill to make flour,” he explained. “Then you get clay to make a jug, and fill it with water to turn the flour into pastry. You put that into the tin with some berries or meat, then it goes in the oven and you sometimes get a good pie.” This specific distinction explained the abandoned black discs that covered the kitchen floor, and why none of the other players seemed interested in scavenging them.



Magicpants was a lover, not a fighter.

Part of me knew I should stay away, but there was something strangely compelling about an MMO that wouldn’t give you the ability to make a pie until you’d burnt about 15 of the bastards. In February of 2002, my character Magicpants was born.

At first, Magicpants just wanted to be a warrior. After hours of constant battle, he learned the true cost of warfare: fruity pies. Healing up naturally took ages, so it was always best to stock up on tasty cakes before dashing into the field. Pies were expensive to buy though, so most of the world’s bravest warriors would run out in to the Wilderness, fight for a while, and then retire to the kitchen to master the art of pastry. It was odd. The elves in The Lord of the Rings might have had a penchant for magical chunks of bread, but you can hardly imagine Legolas nipping off to make a cheeky Bakewell tart. After seeing the carbon-coated carpet of the windmill’s kitchen, I decided I’d be better off risking death.

Unfortunately, this meant that I often found myself biting off more than I could chew. Fights were tough, and weren’t made any easier by a zoomed-in interface that made it almost impossible to move and talk at the same time. To compensate, players would boil down messages to impenetrable acronyms that, even now, make very little sense. Sporadic bursts of movement paired with exclamations of “HH” usually translated as: “Oh God, help me! I’m being killed by a goblin!” Few players ever worked out these cries, causing me to fall again and again to depressingly avoidable deaths.

After one too many, I realised why so few people in the game seemed capable of social interaction.

Go to page two for the rise of the Magicpants empire.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/03/exploiting-miners/feed/ 52 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/03/pc-gamer-us-podcast-297-friendly-fire/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/03/pc-gamer-us-podcast-297-friendly-fire/#comments Sat, 03 Dec 2011 01:55:15 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=66274 [..]]]>

The new Counter-Strike beta is a GO, and Evan has been on the frontlines to bring us his thoughts on the rebooted counter-terrorist warfare. Josh fills us in on the biggest updates to hit WoW, EVE, and DCUO this week, while Greg and Chris barely make it out of their encounter with Serious Sam: BFE with their miniguns intact (and live to tell about it). And, try as we might, we just can’t help ourselves but talk about Skyrim. Then again, who could blame us?

PC Gamer US Podcast 297: Friendly Fire

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

Follow us on Twitter:
@pcgamer
@elahti (Evan)
@Havoc06 (Chris C)
@jaugustine (Josh)
@CAntista (Chris A)
@greghenninger (Greg)

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/03/pc-gamer-us-podcast-297-friendly-fire/feed/ 5 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/01/blacklight-retribution-beta-key-giveaway-with-pc-gamer-weapon-tag-us-only/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/01/blacklight-retribution-beta-key-giveaway-with-pc-gamer-weapon-tag-us-only/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:26:59 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=66105 [..]]]> We don’t know about you, but we’re getting a little tired of constantly having to “stay frosty” and yell “frag out.” If you’ve had your fun with the MW3s and BF3s, why not try something even more moderner and without a $60 entry fee? Thanks to Zombie Studios and Perfect World Entertainment, an answer has arrived…

Not only will you be able to hop into the futuristic, mech-infused Blacklight: Retribution early, you’ll also get an exclusive PC Gamer in-game weapon tag that’s yours to keep. To receive your key, you’ll need to be logged into a GamesRadar account – you can sign up for one here if you don’t already have one. After that, just head here to grab your beta key now (access is limited!). Also note that codes for this beta program are currently limited to North American audiences.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/01/blacklight-retribution-beta-key-giveaway-with-pc-gamer-weapon-tag-us-only/feed/ 26 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/01/the-best-gifts-for-pc-gamers/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/01/the-best-gifts-for-pc-gamers/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:31:32 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65834 [..]]]> This article originally appeared in PC Gamer UK 234.

Welcome to the PC Gamer gift guide! A guide to gifts for gamers who PC. What’s that? You don’t know any of these ‘PC’ gamers? Why, that’s no problem! The gifts are for you.

So let’s get on with it. Either send this link to someone who could feasibly end up buying you a Christmas present, or bring your own credit card and click away! Please note, our prices were accurate at the time of publishing but the internet being the fickle place that it is, they are subject to changes. Just click the link for the most up to date UK and US prices.


Cyborg Gaming Lights



£90 or $100

Here’s a way to make your gaming ever so slightly better, while slightly alarming your neighbours. Install these lights behind your monitor and they’ll project the shade of light on screen across the back wall, turning your gaming room into a laser disco. At night, your gaming room window will look like the coolest/loneliest room on the street. Result.

Cisco E3200 Router



£110 or $135

So, you’re born to the forbidden union of the queen of Minos and the white bull of Poseidon, the king to imprisons you in a vast labyrinth, and you cannot get a Wi-Fi signal. You need the Cisco E3200 – a dual-band wireless-N router that’ll give you much better transfer rates and signal strength than the generic one your service provider gives you.

PNY Liquid Cooled GeForce 580



£445 or $669

Battlefield 3 is out now, and if you haven’t upgraded to play it you probably should. Spend your credit limit on a liquid cooled GeForce 580. This PNY card comes pre-overclocked. What’s the benefit of liquid cooling? You get to say: “Yeah, my PC is liquid cooled. Bitches.” And they run a bit quieter.

Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Gaming Mouse



£70 or $85

Craig used to swear by the R.A.T.7 mouse – all the dials and gears mean you can adjust the shape to fi t your hand, and the weight to your exact muscular definition. Craig’s dead (to us) now, yet the R.A.T.7 remains. Now there’s a recommendation.

Minecraft Pick



£23 or $20

This foam pick doesn’t have the heft to damage anything, but it does mean you can bash your office and only get escorted off the premises for looking like a mental.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/01/the-best-gifts-for-pc-gamers/feed/ 70 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/28/face-off-single-player-games-can-be-too-long/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/28/face-off-single-player-games-can-be-too-long/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:27:22 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65901 [..]]]> Face Off pits two verbal gladiators against each other as they attempt to tackle gaming’s most perplexing conundrums. This week we decide if single player experiences can be too drawn out, or if more is always better. Grab some popcorn and get ready to see these two contenders duke it out with argument uppercuts and logic bombs.

Intern Lucas Sullivan: Sometimes, Dan, less is more. Sometimes, I just want to finish a game and go on living my life (which usually entails starting a new game).

Reviews Editor Dan Stapleton: Kids today, with your flea-sized attention spans! More game is a problem in the same way that more money means mo’ problems—if you’ve got to have a problem, that’s a pretty good one to have.

Lucas: There’s something to be said for cutting out aimless content if it makes for a more focused experience. It’s the same reason most people would prefer a tightly edited action flick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) to one that has pointless, go-nowhere side-plots (Terminator Salvation). You just can’t craft a compelling 100-hour story.



'Take the screen man, this axe is heavy!'

Dan: Not with that attitude, you can’t. I’d argue that Bethesda did a pretty good job of it with Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Fallout: New Vegas. They allow you to head straight for the end of the story if you want, but if you do, you’re missing out on the best parts of the game. Even after exploring those games for 100 hours, there’s still stuff I haven’t seen.

Lucas: If you want to talk to more stiffly animated NPCs, then be my guest. But unless you’re playing a sandbox game, a story needs to move you forward and keep you engaged, not task you with a bunch of busywork and errands.

Dan: You only need to look as far as television or comicbooks to see how a story can be extended practically indefinitely with an episodic structure. You have the one overarching story, and within it you can have countless stories that each give their own sense of closure without closing the book. Dragon Age: Origins is a pretty good example of that style.



Vladimir was invincible until owned by tickle lightning.

Lucas: What if side-quests are getting in the way of your sense of closure? A game’s finale loses a lot of impact when you can barely recall what you’re fighting for in the first place. Remind me why Commander Shepard’s scanning for minerals when she should be saving the universe?

Dan: Hey, if you know of a way to save the universe without a healthy dose of Element Zero, I’d like to hear it. Besides, you can stop playing a game when you’ve had your fill and watch the ending on YouTube, but you can’t play more of a game you’re enjoying when it up and ends before you decide you’re done. Replaying just isn’t the same.

Lucas: Remember Lord of the Rings: Return of the King? Remember how you just kept wanting it to end during those last 20 minutes? That’s what unnecessary sections near the end of a game feel like. You can’t tell me you’ve never loaded up a level and prayed that it would deliver the final boss.



More action, less shoot probes at planets kthx.

Dan: I remember going out and getting the LOTR Extended Edition on DVD. I also remember that most game endings suck, and the longer they can be delayed, the better (I’m looking at you, BioShock’s Frank Fontaine and Borderlands’ random tentacle monster).

Lucas: Let me finish a game while it’s still fresh, so I’m left wanting more. When it comes to a single-player narrative, there’s such a thing as overstaying your welcome. If you’re still starving for content, well, that’s what DLC and sequels are for.

Dan: A game that goes 60-plus hours—provided it’s a good game, of course—is the gift that keeps on giving, and I’d rather play one long, great game than one short great game and two forgettable ones. n

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/28/face-off-single-player-games-can-be-too-long/feed/ 78 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/23/pc-gamer-us-podcast-296-happy-gamesgiving/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/23/pc-gamer-us-podcast-296-happy-gamesgiving/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:56:00 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65658 [..]]]>

Happy Gamesgiving, everyone! We celebrate the Turkeyist time of the year with another hearty podcast loaded with the usual news discussion and a heaping side of what we’re thankful for this year in games. Josh fills us in on everything TOR-related now that the embargo has been lifted off his weary shoulders. Greg plays an instant classic out of the Vietnamese shooter 7554, and we all can’t help ourselves from talking about the Muppets.

PC Gamer US Podcast 296: Happy Gamesgiving

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

Follow us on Twitter:
@pcgamer
@jaugustine (Josh)
@tyler_wilde (Tyler)
@CAntista (Chris)
@greghenninger (Greg)
@GavinFYG (Gavin)

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/23/pc-gamer-us-podcast-296-happy-gamesgiving/feed/ 16 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/22/dev-man-talking-popcaps-jeff-green-on-the-little-things-in-game-development/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/22/dev-man-talking-popcaps-jeff-green-on-the-little-things-in-game-development/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:34:05 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65603 [..]]]> Each Month, Dev Man Talking invites a prominent developer to share their thoughts on a particular aspect of the games industry they’re passionate about. This month Jeff Green, PopCap’s Director of Editorial and Social Media, explains how tiny mistakes can massively change the course of game development and how great developers know what their game is and isn’t. Want more Green? He can be found ranting on Twitter as @Greenspeak.

You’ve just started playing a new game. For a brief moment, you’ve forgotten your troubles, your homework, the economic crisis, and the sad fact that sometime within the next 100 years you are going to be dead. Everything’s awesome! And then suddenly you hit a spot that strikes you as the most idiotic thing you’ve ever seen.
“Wait, seriously?” you yell at your monitor. “I have to backtrack through the entire level just to get a stun gun to beat this guy? Didn’t these devs even play their own game?”

What I’m here to tell you is this: Yes, they did play their own game. And I guarantee you that someone on the team had the exact problem as you and brought it up in a meeting. Maybe 30 people brought it up. Maybe the entire team agreed. But the sad truth? There was probably not a dang thing they could have done about it.

Even on a well-managed team, there are simply too many moving parts, all dependent on one another, for things to go right all the time, or even half the time. And unless you’re the rare company like Blizzard or Valve, with the luxury to ship “when you’re ready,” development is a zero-sum game. You can’t accommodate or perfect or even fix what’s broken in a game without it impacting something else.

Too big not to fail



Traffic cones really are an underused accessory.

Here’s one tiny example. One day I wrote a couple lines of dialog and then went to lunch. When I returned, I discovered that because I’d failed to save correctly, I’d broken the entire game and halted 60 people’s progress. The result of that was that an engineer, who could have been perfecting one of the game’s lame-looking animations, had to fix my mistake. The next day he was pulled away for something else. And so the following week, when he was finally able to fix that lame animation, he was unavailable to the designers, who had a great new idea for a puzzle, but couldn’t ensure it would work without his help, except now he had no time because he’d fallen behind because of my mistake a week earlier, and so the puzzle was cut.

Every day is like this. Every game is a gargantuan, hulking, creaking monstrosity of code, teetering along in its development, ready to be wrecked by any number of obstacles, from an artist’s broken stylus to a momentary server outage to an engineer eating an old burrito and getting food poisoning. As a developer, you see things you want to fix, things that could make the game better, or even functional, but you can’t do it.




Matching groups of four or more gems is excellent résumé material.


You start cutting your losses, not because you don’t care about the game, but because you have no choice. The game has to come out that quarter, because shareholders are expecting it, because your company’s entire fiscal plan counts on it, and because this is a business, whether you like it or not, and (in the short term at least) a timely broken product trumps a late, perfected product. So, against your own judgment, you swallow your pride. You plan for patches. You pray the critics and gamers won’t notice.

Of course, none of this matters at all as far as gamers are concerned. Nor should it. All that matters, to gamers, is what they paid for: the game that’s in the box. The secret truth is that when the critics and gamers do start bitching, the developers not drunk on their own Kool-Aid already know what’s coming. They know better than anyone just what their game could have been, and they also know what it isn’t. And the developers who don’t know this? They’ll never make a good game anyway, no matter how much time and money you give them.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/22/dev-man-talking-popcaps-jeff-green-on-the-little-things-in-game-development/feed/ 15 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/22/four-steps-to-recover-from-mmo-account-hacking/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/22/four-steps-to-recover-from-mmo-account-hacking/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 18:01:20 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65530 [..]]]> Everyone who has been hacked can tell you a nasty tale of stolen goods and naked characters. It’s not an experience you’d wish on your worst enemy. Well, maybe that one guy who ganked you for hours in your favorite MMO. Yet the process of recovery doesn’t have to be so frustrating and confusing. In our latest issue we walked you through four steps to help you get back in the game with a smile. Check inside for a full-sized printable page to prevent the “I’ve been hacked” blues.

Click the image below to see the full page.



]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/22/four-steps-to-recover-from-mmo-account-hacking/feed/ 23 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/21/a-look-at-eight-new-mouse-pads-to-ramp-up-your-game/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/21/a-look-at-eight-new-mouse-pads-to-ramp-up-your-game/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:35:45 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65417 [..]]]> Mousepads are an often overlooked piece of gaming hardware. I tend to consider mine more of a coaster for coffee than something that can improve my gaming. Yet thin sheets beneath our mice can go a long ways in helping define comfort and precision. These mouse pads just scratch the surface on the multitude of options to aid your next killstreak.


GP-MP8000


Some people say that size doesn’t matter, but I guarantee you that those people haven’t actually experienced anything this big. So, yeah—this sucker’s as big as a 13-inch laptop (and it’ll invade your precious desk space, shoving your keyboard aside with its imposing dimensions), but it’s worth it. Heavy-duty MMO raiders and StarCraft strategists will drool over the real estate; they’ll also adore the fact that the mouse doesn’t drop off the pad while they’re swinging about frantically. As long as you’ve got a gigantic desk and some long arms to accommodate it, this monster will last you for years.
Score: 85

9HD


The 9HD is a bare-bones professional mousepad, but it still performs like the big guys. It’s roughly the size of a magazine, is easy to slide in and out of your backpack, and can be cleaned with a quick wipe of a damp cloth. Mice coast across it effortlessly, and you won’t lose tracking even with sporadic gesticulations as you’re struggling to heal your troops in Team Fortress 2. If your focus is more on travel and LAN parties (and you’re not bathing in cash), the 9HD is a terrific choice.
Score: 85

Microtracker


The MicroTracker Mousepad’s makers posit that it’ll eliminate all of your mouse frustrations forever. They’re wrong. Very, very wrong. Guiding an optical or laser mouse across the MicroTracker’s microfiber surface is like pushing a vacuum cleaner over a shag carpet—it drags along and pulls the microfibers every which way, which is damned aggravating. Don’t think about playing games on this thing, or even moving your mouse across it for simple tasks like opening a document. On the other hand, you could always just use the MicroTracker for its other advertised use—cleaning your screen.
Score: 40

Ironclad


If only life were as smooth sailing as a mouse on the Ironclad’s delightful, aluminum surface. This entire pad is literally a metal sheet, and its sandblasted surface is perfect for lining up long-distance headshots. Better yet, the Ironclad’s rubber base stays put while you’re focusing on the important stuff such as machine-gunning Tangos in Counter-Strike. The surface is easy to clean and doesn’t attract any mouse gunk, and it’s perfectly safe to transport in the included (and stout) plastic carrying case.
Score: 95

Behemoth Regulator


This mousepad’s texture is a total throwback to the ’90s, when foam reigned supreme. (I vaguely recall buying one like this in a bargain bin at Fry’s.) Despite its chintzy appearance, however, it’s surprisingly comfortable—like a Tempur-Pedic mattress for your wrists. Its long, rectangular shape means tons of tracking room, so there’s a considerable safety net to avoid your mouse dropping off the edges. But because of its surface, it’s a dust-bunny magnet, which is annoying when you’ve gotta pick them off the bottom of your mouse. It’s a decent pad overall, but its large shape isn’t for everyone.
Score: 73

Fierce Teflon and Steel


Because of the Teflon’s frictionless, metallic surface, your mouse will coast across this pad just as easily as your breakfast comes off a Teflon pan. Its overall size is roughly identical to the SteelSeries 9HD, but much more brawny. It’s pleasantly smooth to the touch, though it’s a magnet for greasy fingerprints. It’s a good feel for first-person shooter fans who need the quick reaction time, but if you also use your mouse for things like graphic design, the tracking feels a little loose. If you’re looking for a smooth metal surface, Rude’s Teflon mouse surface is a fair buy. But if you can afford it, stick with the Ironclad.
Score: 74

Warpad


The WarPad’s 17- by 14-inch surface clips to the edge of your desk, which prevents the mousepad from slipping backward during feverish gameplay. Additionally, it enables fantastic wrist support, which is key for ergonomics—something that gamers should always take into consideration when they’re shopping for gear. The WarPad’s design also leaves your desk space’s sovereignty intact since it lies vertically rather than horizontally, and the tracking is nice and easy. Finally—a cloth mousepad that does it right!
Score: 92

Mionix Sargus 460


There are big mousepads, and then there are some so maddeningly bloated that you have to start charging them rent. Mionix’s Sargas 460 is one such offender. Measuring in at about the same size as a standard 21-inch monitor, dealing with where to put your keyboard so it’s still accessible (and level) is a frustrating conundrum. Fortunately, mice feel amazing as they shoot across the surface, and you can get away with orienting it vertically to save some space on your desktop. But again, as the Sargus proves, there is such thing as overkill.
Score: 70

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/21/a-look-at-eight-new-mouse-pads-to-ramp-up-your-game/feed/ 36 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/21/pc-gamer-uk-christmas-issue-mists-of-pandaria/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/21/pc-gamer-uk-christmas-issue-mists-of-pandaria/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:29:50 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65463 [..]]]> For most people, Christmas is a day, but for us, it’s a whole magazine. This year we’re celebrating with Crimbo the Christmas Panda, who adorns our cover. What does Crimbo have for good boys and girls? Why it’s an enormous twelve page feature on Blizzard’s new games. From Mists of Pandaria to Heart of the Swarm, to Blizzard Dota, Christmas elf Rich McCormick has scooped all his Blizzcon news up into a big snowy wordball. Oh, and every reader gets a free copy of King Arthur – The Roleplaying Wargame.

You can read it all in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, which should be on shelves shortly and arriving with subscribers right now. It’s also available online, digitally through Zinio and Apple Newsstand, and it should already be with subscribers now.

Our second enormous feature this month is the Christmas gift guide, in which the PC Gamer staff dress up in their Christmas outfits and bring you the best novelties for your oversized stocking. There’s graphics cards and gaming lights, touch screen gloves and a Minecraft pickaxe, Tim even dares taste the infamous Baconaise. He was rushed to hospital shortly afterwards. He will never eat bacon again.

In our previews section this month, Chris Thursten tells the story of twenty hours as a straight laced Jedi Consular in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Meanwhile Rich saves the galaxy from the killer spaceship robots in Mass Effect 3′s new multiplayer mode and Graham learns how to kill a man humanely in Introversion’s darkly comic Prison Architect. You’ll also find previews of King Arthur 2, The Secret World, Crusader Kings 2 and Ghost Recon Online.



In reviews, Graham gives his definitive verdict on epic man shooter Battlefield 3, while Tom Senior discovers his inner pimp in Saints Row: The Third. Richard Cobbett straps on his spandex to check re-review the now free to play City of Heroes before quickly descending into villainy in Payday: The Heist. We also manage footballs in Football Manager 2012, defend dungeons in Dungeon Defenders and murder greenskins in Orcs Must Die! You’ll also find verdicts on Might and Magic Heroes 6, Stronghold 3, Take on Helicopters, Renegade Ops, Deus Ex: The Missing Link, Serious Sam: The Random Encounter, Airline Tycoon 2, Train Simulator and Dead Rising: Off the Record. Finally, Steve Hogarty reviews The Sims 3: Pets.

Elsewhere in the issue, Adam Oxford checks out the best gaming laptops, Dan Griliopoulos uncovers the secret history behind the making of Football Manager. We also take a look at the Witcher 2′s 2.0 patch, and reminisce about Croft Manor in Tomb Raider 2.

Want to know what the PC Gamer staff has been playing lately? Well it’s a good job we have the Now Playing section then isn’t it? In his last ever PC Gamer article, Craig Pearson builds himself and his girlfriend little place in the country in Minecraft before becoming one with the force. Graham shares the shame of how his addiction to Fifa 12 tore him from Supreme Commander’s embrace, Richard Cobbett cries his way through Limbo’s looming arachnids, Tom Francis gets stuck in an infinite loop replaying the Diablo 3 beta over and over again and Tom Hatfield makes a meal of attempting to cook soup in Project Zomboid.

Would you like to get an extra stylish subscribers cover next time your order PC Gamer? Perhaps you’d like to get it before it even hits the shelves? Well help is at hand, because you can subscribe now and save money. You can also get a digi-mag from Apple’s Newsstand app or Zinio if you’re some kind of futuristic science person.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/21/pc-gamer-uk-christmas-issue-mists-of-pandaria/feed/ 17 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/18/pc-gamer-us-podcast-295-fond-farewells/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/18/pc-gamer-us-podcast-295-fond-farewells/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:08:36 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65409 [..]]]>

Parting is such sweet sorrow, but it doesn’t have to be all bad. We bid Dan Stapleton a fond farewell on this week’s podcast, with Evan, Josh, Chris and Lucas giving him the best podcasting sendoff they can muster. You’ll find out the answers to some of life’s most profound questions: what’s the best game of the last 8 years? Is there anything bad about Skyrim? What’s the deal with quicktime events? And, most importantly, what’s the difference between a zombie and a mummy?

PC Gamer US Podcast 295: Fond Farewells

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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Follow us on Twitter:
@pcgamer
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@elahti (Evan)
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@Havoc06 (Chris)
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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/18/pc-gamer-us-podcast-295-fond-farewells/feed/ 44 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/18/future-round-up-3/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/18/future-round-up-3/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:07:15 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=66206 [..]]]> Official PlayStation Magazine

Making of Uncharted feature

Skyrim PS3 Review

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations most brutal counter kills

Official Nintendo Magazine

Mario Kart 7 review

Mario Kart 7 shortcuts video guide

Nintendo: GBA Ambassador games are coming this year

Computer and Video Games

Mario Kart Review 7

PS4: Why it won’t be what you expect

15 Essential Tips to Conquer Skyrim

GamesRadar

Mario Kart 7 Super Review

GamesRadar UK Podcast Episode 002

When is a gaming community not a gaming community?

Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand hands-on

Mass Effect 3 multiplayer: 6 reasons to drop it

Rainbow 6 Patriots: 11 things you need to know

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/18/future-round-up-3/feed/ 0 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/16/saints-row-the-third-custom-pc-giveaway-winner/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/16/saints-row-the-third-custom-pc-giveaway-winner/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:01:53 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65233 [..]]]> Congratulations to Logan Tenhet of Tennessee! He’s the randomly selected winner of this blinged-out, custom-painted Saints Row: The Third gaming rig, courtesy of THQ. It always makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside to see an awesome prize like this go to a deserving guy like Logan, who says he’s been reading PC Gamer since way back in 1995. We know he’ll give it a good home.

Now is a fantastic time to have a new PC, since it’ll play not just the hilariously great Saints Row: The Third, but also the amazingly awesome Skyrim, the mind-blowingly pretty Battlefield 3, and (eventually) the irritatingly tardy but inevitably awesome Batman: Arkham City.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/16/saints-row-the-third-custom-pc-giveaway-winner/feed/ 16 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/11/pc-gamer-us-podcast-294-giants-are-strong/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/11/pc-gamer-us-podcast-294-giants-are-strong/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:57:23 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65117 [..]]]>

It’s the biggest PC gaming week of the year, and we’ve got a big podcast to go along with it. Join Dan, Greg, Chris, Tyler, and Evan as we bring you our impressions from the unspoiled frontier of Skyrim, and loads of anecdotes from our travels (as spolier-free as we can make it). We also touch on the monster that is Modern Warfare 3 and the overshadowed LA Noire.

PC Gamer US Podcast 294: Giants are strong

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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Follow us on Twitter:
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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/11/pc-gamer-us-podcast-294-giants-are-strong/feed/ 9 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/10/win-a-totally-blinged-out-saints-row-the-third-gaming-pc-us-only/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/10/win-a-totally-blinged-out-saints-row-the-third-gaming-pc-us-only/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:54:42 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65005 [..]]]> Saints Row: The Third is just four days away! You weren’t planning to play it on a plain old off-the-shelf PC, were you? This is, after all, a game in which you can skydive out of a VTOL jet totally nude except for a gorilla mask. An over-the-top, insane crime spree like this demands a PC with some street cred, and we’re co-oping with THQ to give you a shot at exactly that.

This custom-painted beauty is packed with almost $2,500 worth of hardware, including an AMD Phenom II 1100T, a Radeon 6-series GPU, and 8GB RAM, and we’re just giving it away! Hit the jump to find out how to enter and make it yours!

Update: A winner has been selected! As soon as his eligibility is verified, we’ll make it official.

Entering is as easy as blowing up a tank with a remote-controlled missile.

Step one: Be in the US, and not in Rhode Island. (We’d love to let everyone else enter, but your state/country/fiefdom has laws that make that a pain. Take to the streets and demand international sweepstakes reform!)

Step two: Email contests@pcgamer.com with “Pimp my PC” in the subject line and your name and mailing address in the body before 12:00 PM PST on November 15.

Step three: Be randomly selected as the winner that evening.

If you’ve got in-depth questions or are really bored waiting for the game to come out, you can read over the epic-length legalese here. But your time is probably better spent pre-building your Saint with the Initiation Station. Or just click the pics below to admire the craftsmanship of the custom-painted case and drool for a while. Either way!



Important note: The SRTT paintjob does not prevent this PC from playing other games.



Your Saints may vary.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/10/win-a-totally-blinged-out-saints-row-the-third-gaming-pc-us-only/feed/ 28 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/10/pc-gamer-psa-skyrims-giants-are-strong/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/10/pc-gamer-psa-skyrims-giants-are-strong/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:18:21 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=65001

You’ve been warned.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/10/pc-gamer-psa-skyrims-giants-are-strong/feed/ 44 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/08/pc-gamer-us-holiday-issue-diablo-iii-and-15-years-of-diablo/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/08/pc-gamer-us-holiday-issue-diablo-iii-and-15-years-of-diablo/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:25 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=64593 [..]]]> 15 years ago, the original Diablo hacked and slashed its way into PC gaming history. Now, on the run-up to Diablo III, we take a trip to Blizzard to look back at how all began, and forward at where it’s going—including insight into the Diablo III that almost was! Plus, we’ve got Battlefield 3 sniper survival tips, a special report on what Windows 8 means for gamers, and an emergency guide to wrestling your accounts back from hackers. Then read our reviews of Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad, Rage, Hard Reset, Driver: San Francisco, and more!

It’s all on newsstands now! Or, if you can’t make it to the store, we’re available on Coverleaf.com and Apple Newsstand.



]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/08/pc-gamer-us-holiday-issue-diablo-iii-and-15-years-of-diablo/feed/ 15 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/07/pc-gamer-us-podcast-293-tribesunal/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/07/pc-gamer-us-podcast-293-tribesunal/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:28:45 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=64663 [..]]]>

For the first time in awhile, we’re all playing the same game at PC Gamer—Tribes: Ascend. And we’re more than glad to share our hours of experience in the game’s just-launched beta. It can’t last long, though: Call of Duty, L.A. Noire, Batman: Arkham City, Skyrim, all loom in November, each powerfully incompatible with a healthy personal life. Between those upcoming releases, we also chat about the bungled launch of Sword of the Stars II, Blacklight 2, the GTA V trailer, and Mechwarrior Online.

PC Gamer US Podcast 293: Tribesunal

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

Follow us on Twitter:
@pcgamer
@elahti (Evan)
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@greghenninger (Greg)
@jaugustine (Josh)

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/07/pc-gamer-us-podcast-293-tribesunal/feed/ 13 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/29/battle-chicken-whats-his-story/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/29/battle-chicken-whats-his-story/#comments Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:29:16 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=64277 [..]]]>

Chicken out the latest Battlefield 3 news.

UPDATE: We have a winner! Congratulations to bt545, the Official 2011 PC Gamer Halloween Caption Hero in both our hearts and our minds.

Sometimes an image shows up in the PC Gamer compound that confounds even the most brilliant of our caption writers. So we’re challenging PC Gamer fans and poultry enthusiasts to give the Battle Chicken pictured above a caption that befits such a brave and noble creature with excellent taste in websites.

To enter, leave your caption in the comments below. It can be humorous, pensive, gripping, free-associative, tautological, or any combination of the above. On Monday October 31st we’ll repost the image with the winning caption and the winner will be the Official 2011 PC Gamer Halloween Caption Hero!

But if you just can’t work up the inspiration for a great caption, take heart: you can still enjoy a Halloween you’ll remember for years to come if you build yourself this nice flamethrowing jack-o’-lantern.

Have at it, peeps!

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/29/battle-chicken-whats-his-story/feed/ 119 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/28/pc-gamer-us-podcast-292-prattlefield-3/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/28/pc-gamer-us-podcast-292-prattlefield-3/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:00:08 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=64272 [..]]]>

The man. The myth. The legend. Chris Antista enters the wild world of the PC Gamer podcast, far from home and without a clue where he is (or, he’s recording a podcast in the very same room where he did Talk Radar). Alongside Dan, Lucas, Gavin, and Greg, they’ll traverse the misty plains of Battlefield 3 impressions, encountering singleplayer goofiness and multiplayer war stories. Then they’ll trudge through the deserts of BlizzCon impressions, the sea of Truthiness and Falsity, and the Swamps of Torment, where Xbox games appear in the Playlist. It is, without a doubt, an epic venture.

PC Gamer US Podcast 292: Prattlefield 3

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

Follow us on Twitter:
@pcgamer
@Ljrepresent (Lucas)
@DanStapleton (Dan)
@CAntista (Chris)
@Gavinfyg (Gavin)
@greghenninger (Greg)

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/28/pc-gamer-us-podcast-292-prattlefield-3/feed/ 11 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/28/what-we-want-from-gta-5/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/28/what-we-want-from-gta-5/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:52:21 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=64197 [..]]]> In five days, we’ll get our first look at GTA V in the announcement trailer. But for now, all we know is this: it has a V in it. So what are we hoping for this time around? What did GTA IV get right, where did it fail, and where does the series need to go next? We’ve gathered our thoughts into deliciously digestible list form. Add yours in the comments.


Realism



'Hey cousin! I'm going to be loud and obnoxious!'

Here’s a thing. Rockstar make amazing places. They create deliciously realistic cars and vehicles for you to traverse them. They build gorgeous lighting models and a spectacular weather patterns. They imbue them with brutal, explosive physics. And then they fill them with cartoon characters. Their illusion is shattered.

The problem is with character animation and faces. The detail in the people in GTA games has never matched the life and clarity of the places they’re set in… if the cities are impressionist paintings, the people are caricatures. It means that all dialogue is dialled up to 11, that scenes are written to be catastrophically over-the-top, rather than subtle or quiet, and that plotlines tend the absurd. That used to be fine. But Liberty City is/was gorgeous. It’s just the inhabitants were murderous lunatics.

I think I know how Rockstar can achieve. LA Noire’s performance capture technology could give the chance for actors to imbue their characters with life and emotion that goes well beyond the cartoons we get today. If they do that, they can start telling compelling, human, real stories. Taking the game from the excesses of GTA IV, to something closer to the kind of adult entertainment we’ve dreamed about for years.

Less-scripted missions



Rockstar, nothing you can script will live up to this.

Tightly scripted missions are pretty dull even when they’re done well, but in the open worlds of the GTA games, they almost never work. Remember that time you were chasing that guy, and you caught up to him and uzi’d him in the face from your bike, only he wasn’t scripted to die yet so he was completely invincible? It was all of the times.

GTA games are open worlds, a genre we love for the freedom it gives us. So it’s weird that when it comes to missions, Rockstar keep writing movie scenes and expecting the player to stick to the script.

They’re also games that cast you as a criminal, rebelling against the law. So it’s weird that they seem to think we’ll obey an arbitrary set of rules about where we can go and what we can do, in order for their overwritten missions to make any sense.

We’re gamers: we love to break things. That fits beautifully with both the genre and the themes of the whole GTA series. Embrace it. By all means tell us why we’re chasing this guy, then get the hell out of our way and let the glorious chaos of the simulation take over.

A little love for the PC



Pictured: The process of getting GTAIV to work on PC.

On PC, GTA IV requires you to sign into three different DRM services to play: Steam, Rockstar Social Club, and Games for Windows Live. Idea: don’t do that, ever again, for any reason.

It’s also weirdly demanding, even today, despite looking pretty drab by PC standards. And it doesn’t trust you: it won’t allow you to crank the graphics settings higher than it thinks is safe, even in the rare case that the game is running well.

I know, the PC isn’t a priority for Rockstar: they like to show up to the platform late, unannounced and half-heartedly – if at all. But the PC is as big as you want it to be. This time, we want GTA optimised, ready to run, and to hit shelves alongside console versions on release day.

If you turn a game that runs perfectly on a six year-old box into something that chugs on PC hardware many times more powerful, you turn the biggest gaming platform in the world into a niche. And if you wrap it in the most widely hated DRM system, on top of your own, you turn the most sociable and influential gaming community into a weapon against you.

Get people who know what they’re doing on PC. Stick to Steam as the only copy protection. Put some love into it and find out how big PC gaming really is.

Proper mod support, please!



How can you not want more of this?

Every Grand Theft Auto game has played host to fantastic, ridiculous mods, from the addition of multiplayer to Grand Theft Auto 3 to the astonishing graphics tweaks and silly zombie mods in Grand Theft Auto IV. But the community has made these mods – and often fixed bugs in the original game – without any support from the developers. What could those passionate, committed gamers make if, in Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar made a commitment to supporting mods by releasing official tools, providing documentation, and did their best not to break everything with each new patch? Amazing things that would give the game a longer, better life, we’d bet.

Cross-platform gaming



Imagine switching seamlessly to this.

The core GTA experience has remained pretty much unchanged since the original game back in 1997. Yes, there are helicopters, experience points and cutscenes, but at it’s heart its just running around a city and driving vehicles.

DS and iPhone versions of Chinatown Wars prove that the franchise can work on handhelds. It would be mind-blowingly awesome if you could start a game on your PC in full 3D, then switch to your phone and do a bit in 2D, and continue back on the PC. Microsoft promised something similar a while back, and the whole GFWL deal Rockstar has means that it could actually come to fruition.

More Flock of Seagulls



Way cooler than Nico.

Vice City worked incredibly well because it was an 80s pastiche done properly. It didn’t matter that the characters and vehicles looked a bit basic because everything was lit in neon pink and soundtracked with classic 80s tunes. It also employed a cinematic level of self-reflexivity with its references to Scarface and Miami Vice.

GTA IV took itself far too seriously in this regard – yes, there were jokes and comedy missions, but it felt self-conscious in its attempt to be a “modern” product. The problem could be that, following San Andreas’ early-90s adventure, there’s nowhere for the series to go. The 70s are unlikely to connect with its target audience, and the early-2000s are too embedded in recent memory. Surely there’s some room for some retro action, though.

Bikes?



Oh CJ's pushbike, how we've missed you.

Thanks to rising petrol costs the popularity of urban cycling has increased massively in the few years since the notably bicycle-free GTA IV. And although everyone soon became bored of the human-powered transport in San Andreas, they could still serve as a speedy and efficient way of getting around whichever city V’s set in.

We’re not talking San Andreas’ BMXs and mountain bikes, either – we want proper road bikes with skinny tyres and dropped handlebars. In real-life you can hit 30mph on a road bike, and yet at slow speeds they’re manoeuvrable enough to turn tight corners and dodge between traffic. Imagine being chased by the cops and then skidding down a tight alleyway to make a getaway. There’s so much untapped potential.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/28/what-we-want-from-gta-5/feed/ 68 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/27/all-hands-on-desk-pcg-plays-the-best-star-trek-game-youve-never-heard-of-artemis-spaceship-bridge-simulator/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/27/all-hands-on-desk-pcg-plays-the-best-star-trek-game-youve-never-heard-of-artemis-spaceship-bridge-simulator/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:39:40 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=64065 [..]]]> This feature originally ran in PC Gamer UK issue 232. Check out our Video Blog about the photoshoot for behind the scenes footage.

Artemis isn’t an official Star Trek game, but it is the Star Trek game you’ve always dreamed of. It’s a bridge simulator, in which multiple players take on the roles of starship crew. There are six slots in a bridge crew: a captain, a helmsman, a weapons master, an engineer, a science officer and comms. The captain hosts a server. Everyone else logs into the server to play their role. Everyone but the captain gets their own screen and their own jobs. To succeed, crew members must communicate and work together. Science officers need to provide bearings and scan readings to helmsmen and weapons officers. Engineers need to divert power between the warp drive and weapons. Everyone needs to listen to the captain’s orders.

Artemis is an exciting new take on asymmetric cooperative multiplayer.

Whisper it, but it’s basically liveaction roleplaying with viewscreens. Without pausing to read any instructions or forum posts, the PC Gamer team flung itself into a randomly generated mission. What could possibly go… oh.


Episode One – The Kobayashi Maru

Stardate: Wednesday. Lunchtime. About a quarter past one.

Our rookie crew has embarked upon a randomly generated combat mission without looking at the manual, Wiki or readme. We quickly choose our roles and launch the game. No one has any idea how to play, or what the buttons do. All we know is that there are enemy cruisers out there, and we have to kill them.

Captain Tim Edwards: I’ve made my first decision of the day. I’ll command the Starship Artemis with my feet on the desk, eating a sandwich. This will be known as ‘The Edwards manoeuvre’. As I do this, my T-shirt rides slightly up. I pull it back down. No no no. Straightening my T-shirt will be called ‘The Edwards manoeuvre’. My first order to the crew: “What the hell is going on?”

Science Officer Graham Smith: As our ship’s Science Officer, I assume I’ll be standing off to Tim’s right, looking stern and raising a single, curious eyebrow at confusing human ‘feelings’. Which sounds like a regular Thursday. Instead, my screen is a muddle of numbers and graphs. The first screen has a triangle in the middle, with three lines poking out and a circle around it. The second screen has an empty grid with space in it. The third screen shows a poorly rendered 3D spaceship.

I check the computer’s databanks (the Artemis Wiki, bit.ly/artemiswiki) to find out what the hell I’m supposed to be doing. While being the sexy voice of reason, I can also use the ship’s long-range scanners to bring up tiny numbers about enemy ships. Like that enemy ship half a dozen sectors away.

Tim orders us to attack – or rather, “Attaaaaaaaack!” I relay their position to our Helmsman, Tom Senior, so he can plot a course, and then let Weapons Officer Tom Hatfield know their shield frequency so he can program the torpedoes. Our course is set and we… go nowhere.

Owen ‘Welshy’ Hill: I’m the engineer, which means I control the power to everything on the ship. Except, as soon as I load the game up, I’m confronted with a giant screen covered with blue blobs. The rest of the team seem to know what they’re doing and are gleefully making jokes and shouting out instructions. I think back to the two episodes of Star Trek I’ve seen. What do the engineers do? What is warp? What is impulse? I vaguely remember something about lithium crystals. Ah, it’ll come to me. I tell Tim that I’ve got impulse engines, shields and warp power. And repair crews. He asks if I know what I’m doing. I nod sagely.

“Then why aren’t we moving?”

“I’m sure the helmsman will know.”

Phew. Dodged that one.

Senior Ensign Tom Senior: Finally, I get to pilot a starship. It’s my job to get from point A to point B via either sluggish impulse propulsion, or warp speed – which is so powerful it reduces your ship to a smear that streaks across the galaxy. As I jump into the game I half expect to see a bank of complex course-plotting software. The reality is, thankfully, much simpler. A small green icon in the centre represents the ship. It’s surrounded by a ring, labelled with bearing degrees.

But where’s the ‘go fast’ button? Oh, there it is, a pair of small sliders at the bottom left of the screen. What happens if I set warp to maximum? Absolutely nothing. There’s no power. I’m not in charge of that.

Welshy: Oh no. Everyone’s looking at me again. Apparently I’m in charge of power. I’m starting to figure this out. I can use sliders to distribute power across different systems. I should put all of our power to impuuuuuuuuuuuuullllse… That works. We’re no longer docked.

Uhurich McCormick: I’m working the communications rig and am supposed to use the ship’s arrays to chat directly with the things hanging in space around us: to secure docking permissions, check the status of allied ships, things like that. I’d previously been wittering away happily with the station’s manufacturing teams to get some more photon torpedoes, but out in the inky blackness of the void, there’s no one to talk to. Aww. Wait, we’ve just scooted past something!

Some red dots on the ship’s scanner. I call over to Graham and ask for his expert analysis on what they are. “Red dot things, over there!” he squeaks. Thanks, Graham. Are they hostile? Let’s find out.

I bring up my communicator and find their designations. They’re marked under ‘enemies’. Time for a chat. I have four gambits with which to begin my fledgling diplomatic career, three of which are insults. I think today I’ll start with their mothers.

Captain Tim: Red dots. Awesome. We’re going to have a scrap. I put down my sandwich, stand up and shout at the crew. “Engineering, shields up. Helmsman, impulse power. Weapons, load torpedoes.”

Ooh, weapons. I forgot to check what guns we’re carrying.

Science Officer Smith: I scan the ships, which brings up little numbers next to their names. “There’s a Torgoth Cruiser and it has RS200 and FS150! Does anyone know what that means? Also, (M74) BRG, DMG and 2K! Guys, I think we’re fighting a motorway.”

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/27/all-hands-on-desk-pcg-plays-the-best-star-trek-game-youve-never-heard-of-artemis-spaceship-bridge-simulator/feed/ 23 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/23/late-to-the-party-we-play-the-games-we-missed-first-time-around/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/23/late-to-the-party-we-play-the-games-we-missed-first-time-around/#comments Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:00:36 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=62398 [..]]]> This feature originally appeared in PC Gamer UK 230.

Most gamers have a secret shame. There’s always one classic title everyone raves about that you never quite got around to playing at the time – either because nobody was raving about it back then, or because you played the first level and couldn’t make head or tail of it.

It’s a quirk of PC gaming: a lot of our true classics, particularly the old ones, are baffling or intimidating to play. It’s their complexity that makes them so great, but it’s also what makes them off-putting if you don’t immediately grasp how they work. A game that gives us a great amount of freedom also gives us the freedom to miss what’s good about it.

So we moan at each other, endlessly, to play the things we love. Graham, how have you still not played Deus Ex? Rich, why would you skip Morrowind? Craig, you like crosshairs! Play IL-2 Sturmovik!

It’s time to find out what we’ve been missing all this time.


Graham Smith – Deus Ex


What is it? A first-person RPG set in a cool, trans-humanist future with nanotechnology, robot arms, vast government conspiracies and people who wear shades indoors.
How late? 11 years.
Excuse for lateness: I was obsessed with Half-Life and Counter-Strike at the time, and paid no heed to what seemed like another shooter.

Deus Ex has been at the summit of PC Gamer’s annual Top 100 for the last two years, and in the top five for most of the time before that. I’ve also played the opening chapter of its second sequel, Human Revolution, twice. Yeah, it’s kind of ridiculous that I haven’t played the original.

The first thing I notice is the game can’t run at 1920×1200. Tom recommends Deus Ex Launcher to fix that, so I download and install it. The second thing: all the characters sound like a Dalek with a heavy smoking habit using an electronic voice box. I turn off Direct Sound in the launcher and try again. It works! Enter JC Denton, super-agent.

I skip the opening cutscene – I’ve seen the edited version on YouTube, so I’ve already got the gist. Electronic old men, whatever. I also hop past my brother Paul on the docks of Liberty Island, leading him inland before starting our conversation. When we’re done, I’ve got the crossbow and there are four terrorists waiting to kill us. Paul takes them all out while I hide and loot their bodies. I’ve now got a pistol, a knife, a baton and some cigarettes. I love this game already. And then I die, and die, and die and die.

The enemies are totally incomprehensible. Sometimes I’m directly next to them and they can’t see me. Sometimes they psychically know I’m behind them when I’m sneaking. They’re so stupid that I can’t predict their behaviour.

Eventually, I reach some crates piled next to the base of the Statue of Liberty and start to climb up. It’s an alternate route! Everything I’ve ever heard about Deus Ex is true!

I fall off near the top, but succeed on the second attempt. I shoot and stab my way to the terrorist leader. He surrenders, so I pepper spray him in the face. He runs back and forth across the room while a UNATCO soldier arrives and tells me they’ve killed all the terrorists; they were right behind me the whole time. Hey, doesn’t that make my role totally irrelevant?



Back at UNATCO HQ – also on Liberty Island, making the whole terrorist thing pretty embarrassing – I meet Manderley, Gunther Hermann and Anna Navarre, the latter two of whom are instantly great. I hear the orange soda conversation. I access Gunther’s emails and read about his idea for a skull-gun. I’ve never played this, but it all feels familiar, as if I’m visiting a famous PC gaming tourist destination. I spend another 30 minutes in UNATCO headquarters, stealing and chatting and being told off for going in the ladies’ toilets.

When I’m done, Anna Navarre and I head to Manhattan. I remember hearing something about her being evil later in the game. Is there enough freedom that I can kill her now? A few moments later, when I’m dead, I discover the answer is no. I also find that there are no auto-saves, not even when you start a new mission, and not even when it says ‘Saving’ on the screen. Crap.

I’m back on Liberty Island, and this time I shoot the terrorist leader in the head before even starting a chat. Manderley tells me off for it, but Anna is impressed. I think this time I’ll try not to kill her.

I’m hooked. All these years later, Deus Ex is clunky and in a lot of ways old-fashioned, but its style, sense of humour and impressive ability to make the player feel inventive mean it’s still totally worth playing.

Craig Pearson – IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946


What is it?WW2 flight sim. Pilot mechanical marvels as they hurtle through the clouds battling for sky-based supremacy
How late? 5 years.
Excuse for lateness: I’m terrible at flight sims. Whenever I step into a sim’s virtual cockpit, bad things happen.

When most people flick the virtual switches of their cockpits, they imagine getting the kill count of German World War II fighter pilot Erich “Bubi” Hartmann (352). Me? I just want to be PC Gamer’s resident flight-sim expert Tim Stone (0, hopefully).

When IL-2’s training chocks are, er, chucked it’s clear I’m no Tim Stone. Even the menus are terrifying. Where he can gracefully ascend this rickety tube of metal into a sky full of Nazis and return with his cup of tea unspilled, my sorties suck.

The training seemed to go well. I’m methodically walked through the surprisingly simple series of switches to flick to get the gleaming Ilyusha into the skies: start the engine, fix the flaps, put the throttle up… I was up in the air before you could say Marmaduke Thomas St. John “Pat” Pattle (51+ kills).

It was a little too easy. Where was my usual veering awkwardly off the runway into neighbouring fields? Why wasn’t I crying and on fire right now? That’s how it’s supposed to go with me, joysticks and complex flight models. Either reading Tim’s words had somehow imbued me with the skills of Theodor Weissenberger (208 kills), or something was wrong.

Ah. Turns out I wasn’t in control – IL-2’s training missions aren’t interactive. It was all in my head.

Outside of my mind, things are as they should be. I grasp the AV8R-01 stick sat in front of my keyboard and go through the pre-flight conditions that I wrote on a post-it note during the tutorial. Except I scribbled them.



Is that a ‘B’ or a ‘D’? What am I pressing ‘V’ for again? I just want to move! I’d give my cockpit for WASD controls! Then, somehow, the engine’s thrum moves from ‘limping bee’ to ‘orgy of vacuum cleaners’, and beneath me the plane rumbles into action, aching to meet the clouds. Soon, my pretty.

Even though I’m not moving the stick, my Ilyusha is careering down the runway and curving steeply off to the right. This is why I keep away from these things: even not doing something can lead to picking bits of plane spotter out of your hair. It turns out that single-engine planes simply do this during take-off. That seems like a cruel joke to me, and I blame Einstein. The only way out of this twisty physics puzzle is to compensate with the rudder. A twist of the joystick starts to right the plane, before sending it away to the left. I end up drunkenly snaking off down the runway as if I’m dodging invisible traffic cones. I believe this is known as ‘over-compensating’ in flight schools. I over-compensated the hell out of that take-off.

What would Jesus (Antonio Villamor) (4 kills) do? He’d probably yank back on the stick, thinking that being in the air is preferable to being on the ground, where people have left a lot of inconvenient buildings and fences. I yoink. I’m airborne! I’m up! I’m up! I’m UPSIDE DOWN! All of Hans-Joachim Marseille’s (158 kills) life flashes before my eyes and I pile into the ground.

That was fun. Not the crashing bit; the taking off. It was hard, but it felt responsive. Each climb got easier, the subtleties of stick control became less cloudy. I learned to put distance between me and the ground before performing complex manoeuvres, such as daring to turn. But that first successful take-off had got me hooked. I’m already considering getting a better joystick and I’ve downloaded the sequel. Now, I just need to learn how to land the dambusting thi… KABOOM.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/23/late-to-the-party-we-play-the-games-we-missed-first-time-around/feed/ 50 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/21/pc-gamer-us-podcast-291-a-torrent-of-star-wars-news/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/21/pc-gamer-us-podcast-291-a-torrent-of-star-wars-news/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:30:34 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=63786 [..]]]>

The embargo has (partially) lifted, and its time to open the floodgates on a ton of Star Wars: The Old Republic news. Josh and Dan share their hands-on experiences with interns Greg and Lucas, who grill them for info on lightsabers, aliens, enemies, story, and what makes this a great Star Wars game. Then we field listener questions on Battlefield and sound design, plus all the games we’re playing this week.

PC Gamer US Podcast #291: A TORrent of Star Wars news


Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/21/pc-gamer-us-podcast-291-a-torrent-of-star-wars-news/feed/ 5 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/18/get-a-free-issue-of-pc-gamer-via-the-ios-newsstand/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/18/get-a-free-issue-of-pc-gamer-via-the-ios-newsstand/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:14:13 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=63541 [..]]]> Previously we mentioned that both PC Gamer UK and PC Gamer US have hit iOS devices. Now, for a limited time, one free issue PC Gamer UK is yours to download and read on any Apple i-device of your choosing!

PC Gamer UK issue 231 is now available as free downloads via Apple’s new Newsstand service. To grab your free digital edition, simply search for PC Gamer on the App store, or access it through Newsstand. You can buy the latest issue for £2.99, or subscribe. The new iOS edition means means you’ll be able to sensually stroke your way through your free issue using Apple’s touchy-feely interface. Oh yes.

Be sure to download your free issue soon while the offer lasts, and let us know what you think.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/18/get-a-free-issue-of-pc-gamer-via-the-ios-newsstand/feed/ 21 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/pc-gamer-us-december-issue-hands-on-with-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/pc-gamer-us-december-issue-hands-on-with-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:28:53 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=63071 [..]]]> Skyrim. The very name makes all other roleplaying games tremble in fear. But not PC Gamer—we charged into Bethesda’s breathtaking new game world without regard for personal safety. We emerged hours later with a sacred tome containing the tales of our adventures therein, which we now present to you in the form of this month’s cover story.

Once you’ve read and reread the Skyrim feature, be sure to check out the 50 things you need to know about the free-to-play MMO shooter Firefall. We’ve also got a preview on Gearbox’s gorgeous-looking Borderlands 2, in-depth insight into PlanetSide 2, and the review of Relic’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Also, see which mouse tied the highest review score ever. This, fellow PC gamers, is sexy hardware at its best.



]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/pc-gamer-us-december-issue-hands-on-with-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/feed/ 27 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/pc-gamer-us-podcast-290-rage-against-my-machine/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/pc-gamer-us-podcast-290-rage-against-my-machine/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:10:06 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=63070 [..]]]>

Killing in the name of! That’s how every PC Gamer podcast would start if Chris and Lucas were the only participants. As it stands, we have Gavin in the lead this week with Chris, Dan, Evan, and Lucas in tow, discussing their experiences thus far with Rage, our TF2 Killer Exclusive, the glory that is orc genocide in Orcs Must Die!, and Neverwinter MMO heartbreak. And when Evan calls a Truthiness and Falsity question “a good one,” you know it must be excellent: does playing defense suck?

PC Gamer US Podcast 290: Rage Against My Machine

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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Follow us on Twitter:
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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/pc-gamer-us-podcast-290-rage-against-my-machine/feed/ 7 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/30/pc-gamer-us-podcast-289-mechs-ico/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/30/pc-gamer-us-podcast-289-mechs-ico/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:51:47 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=62742 [..]]]>

PC Gamer Digital is a go, and as the rest of the staff skips with glee throughout the office, Lucas, Evan, Dan, Chris, and Greg take to the recording studio to make good on their ancient podcasting pact. This week, we’re talking PCG Digital, even more LoL: Dominion ownage, the Battlefield 3 beta, TOR’s release date, and more. And get on your earmuffs, kiddies: Evan’s channeling his inner sailor this week.

PC Gamer US Podcast 289: Mechs-ico

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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Follow us on Twitter:
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@DanStapleton (Dan)
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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/30/pc-gamer-us-podcast-289-mechs-ico/feed/ 8 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/27/pc-gamer-uk-podcast-60-skyrim-space-marine-and-diablo-3/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/27/pc-gamer-uk-podcast-60-skyrim-space-marine-and-diablo-3/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:07:42 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=62582 [..]]]> We’ve gathered together for an extra long PC Gamer podcast to celebrate our return after a bit of a hiatus. We discuss Tom’s trip to play Skyrim, get excited about Firefall and Planetside 2, have a think about Space Marine co-op and chat about Diablo 3′s spectacular runestones.

Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our older podcasts here.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/27/pc-gamer-uk-podcast-60-skyrim-space-marine-and-diablo-3/feed/ 12 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/23/pc-gamer-us-podcast-288-tktktk/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/23/pc-gamer-us-podcast-288-tktktk/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:48:05 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=62439 [..]]]>

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.

PC Gamer US Podcast 288: Boss Legume

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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Follow us on Twitter:
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@kristenss (Kristen)
@jaugustine (Josh)
@logandecker (Logan)
@GavinFYG (Gavin)
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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/23/pc-gamer-us-podcast-288-tktktk/feed/ 10 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/23/golden-joysticks-guess-the-game-3/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/23/golden-joysticks-guess-the-game-3/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:54:05 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=62403 [..]]]>

We’ve heard from Tim, we’ve heard from Graham, now it’s the turn of Tom S to tease his favourite for this year’s Golden Joysticks. You’ll probably get this instantly. After all, how many games can claim to let you nuke Ghandi? Not enough, that’s for sure.

The answer will be revealed later on the Golden Joysticks Facebook page, and you can cast your own vote on the Golden Joysticks 2011 site. If you vote in every category, you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win all of the Golden Josticks nominees, and a lovely Alienware laptop.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/23/golden-joysticks-guess-the-game-3/feed/ 7 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/21/blizzards-diablo-3-experiments-%e2%80%9coh-this-feels-even-better-with-direct-control%e2%80%9d/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/21/blizzards-diablo-3-experiments-%e2%80%9coh-this-feels-even-better-with-direct-control%e2%80%9d/#comments Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:21:47 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61230 [..]]]> Everyone knows what classic Diablo plays like, but Blizzard has never been afraid to experiment. Part of that process for Diablo 3 involved looking at different control systems – up to and including seeing how the action would work with an Xbox 360 controller, or how its demon-slaying might play on consoles.

Yes. Diablo 3. On an Xbox controller. Read on to find out how Diablo 3′s game director feels about that.

“We don’t see ourselves as a PC developer – we see ourselves as a game developer. It’s just that the games that we wanted to make suit the PC platform,” game director Jay Wilson told us. “We don’t believe you can make a Starcraft style RTS and make it Blizzard great on a console. We do believe you could make an RTS that would be on a console, but we would have (to have) that idea, and that spark and that passion to make it.

“One of the reasons why we’re exploring the idea of a console version of Diablo 3 because we feel that the controls and the style of the game lend itself to a console. With some of our early experiments in putting a direct control scheme into the game via a 360-like analogue controller, I’ve been ‘Oh this feels even better, with direct control…’”

Don’t panic though. This doesn’t mean Diablo 3 itself is giving up its classic mouse controls, a la Dungeon Siege 3. It does speak to the chance of other versions further down the road though, which could even benefit the PC. “I can pretty much guarantee that if we decide to do a console version that we will look to support a pad on the PC,” says Wilson. “But initially with release I don’t think we’ll be ready.”

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/21/blizzards-diablo-3-experiments-%e2%80%9coh-this-feels-even-better-with-direct-control%e2%80%9d/feed/ 66 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/17/pcg-us-podcast-takes-a-bye-week/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/17/pcg-us-podcast-takes-a-bye-week/#comments Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:26:17 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=62033 [..]]]> Our shiny new PCG Digital won’t replace the podcast, but this week it sucked up too much of our time to do both. Stay tuned: we’ll be back next week!
]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/17/pcg-us-podcast-takes-a-bye-week/feed/ 12 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/12/xenonauts-dev-diary-2/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/12/xenonauts-dev-diary-2/#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:45:52 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61784 [..]]]> PC Gamer routinely features Developer Diaries: tales of what goes on behind-the-scenes in the development studios making your favorite games. In this entry, Xenonauts Project Lead Chris England talks about the evolution of the look and feel of indie developer Goldhawk’s X-COM: UFO Defense/UFO: Enemy Unknown homage. Let us know what you’d like to see developers discuss in future diaries in the comments.

All has been quiet on this blog for a while now. The previous post showed the bare skeleton of the game; the basic systems around which we would build the rest. Three months’ more refinement means we can now show off a much better representation of the final game.

The nature of independent development is that community support is needed for success, and we thought we could trust our audience to look past the flaws and see the potential of the project. While our art style came in for a bit of stick, our site has had a significant increase in the amount of pre-orders and forum users. It’s good to discover so many people are willing to look past shiny graphics (or the lack thereof) in this day and age, and we greatly appreciate the support we’ve received.

We hope to start blogging much more frequently than we have been; this post and those following it will each discuss an important system within the game, discussing the mechanics behind it and the ramifications it has on gameplay. This week: the terrain-generation system and the battlefield itself.

Firstly, the tiles themselves. While the key attraction of the game is not its graphics, we are still trying to make Xenonauts visually appealing. We made a decision that the previous Farmyard tileset was too bright and cartoony to suit the Cold War setting of the game, and we’ve been working on the Industrial tileset shown in this post as proof of concept of the grittier and more realistic style we’ll be using in the final game. A few examples are below.



It’s not finished yet (there’s still work to be done on the ground blending), but we think things have improved significantly since our last outing. The limitations of the engine we’re using mean Xenonauts was never going to be conventionally beautiful, but we’ve worked hard to find a distinct ‘look’ and we’re hoping the hand-painted style will win some admirers of its own.

A few people have asked why it’s taking so long to generate tilesets, so here’s a quick breakdown of the process: first, every single tile is modelled and textured in 3D. It is then rendered out using an isometric camera setup, and tested in the engine to make sure it has the correct dimensions and basic appearance (and revised until it does). After that, each tile is painted over in 2D to add the fine detail, with damaged and destroyed variants of each tile also being painted for use in the destructible terrain system. (Click to enlarge the images.)




This is not so bad for a single tile, but when performed on a large scale it is a very labour intensive process and represents a significant drain on our resources. We plan to have 7-8 different tilesets, each containing a variety of ground tiles, tileset-specific outdoor props, and 4 different buildings (which also contain building-specific props). The Industrial tileset alone currently runs to roughly 800 tiles (including different variants for each), each which needs to go through that process.

Tilesets will also have unique civilian and AI soldier skins – so in the Industrial tileset you’ll find factory workers, and may encounter some SWAT officers trying to deal with the alien forces themselves. In the Desert tileset, the civilians would be in Arab dress and you might find yourself fighting alongside local mujahedeen. This sort of variation is also a lot of work, but not optional if we’re to be able to complete in the marketplace against more established strategy offerings.




Secondly, we’re substantially expanded the systems supporting battlefield tile properties. Now each individual tile has customisable values for all kinds of attributes – its hit points, whether it blocks line of sight, whether it can be used as cover, the % chance of a bullet passing through / over it, whether it is explosive (and if so, how large and powerful the blast is), and so on.

Further complexity is that each tile has three states – undamaged, damaged and destroyed, with attributes for each state set independently. Thus a damaged piece of cover can offer less cover than an undamaged one, or a window can stop projectiles when undamaged and not once smashed. Sticking with windows as an example, undamaged states can be set to have few HP compared to the walls around them – thus if there was an explosion near a building, it would shatter the windows but leave the structural walls unaffected.




We’ve also spent a lot of time on sound design, as we feel it is important for immersion. Our sound designer’s previous credits include Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Magicka, and he has a pretty neat job – if you’re curious, we’re put together this short video where you can see him at work on our SFX.

We’ve integrated sound into the tile properties, so footstep sounds, projectile impact sounds and destruction sounds can be specified for each tile. A different sound is played when a unit walks across dirt or grass to concrete, and it sounds different when a bullet smacks into a metal pipe to a wooden post. This system lets us tailor the sound effects to whatever is in the tile, rather than using generic sound templates.

While individually none of the features mentioned above are groundbreaking, when combined together they provide a powerful set of tools for modelling realistic interaction with the battlefield. Destructible terrain was one of the greatest features of X-Com, and we’ve been working hard to ensure that our own system is even better than that.

Thirdly, we’ve improved the terrain generation. With the Farmyard tileset we were using fully randomised maps, which tended to leave lots of empty grass spaces between each sub-map (fields, orchards, barns etc). This, clearly, was never going to make good-quality battlefields – but fully static maps were equally undesirable, as playing through the same maps over and over gets old very quickly.

Instead, we went back to the drawing board and developed a method that combines the best of both worlds, producing randomised maps that retain a coherent structure. This is done by using two editors for map generation – the first a level editor, the second a sub-map editor.

The sub-map editor is what most people would recognise as a conventional terrain editor, allowing users to construct sub-maps from the individual tiles discussed above. When the building or area is finished, it is saved as a small standalone sub-map.




The level editor is quite a basic tool, but it allows people to assemble full maps / levels from the sub-maps created above. However, instead of specifying specific sub-maps to go into the level in that position, the user only specifies a type of submap – ie, a factory.  On map generation, the factory sub-map used is randomly chosen from any number of variations of factory sub-maps that are held in the appropriate folder, and placed on the map appropriately.

So even if you were unlucky enough to get the same mission map twice in a row, all you would know is the vague layout – e.g. the top corner of the map had a factory in it. The size, layout, appearance and the exact positioning of the factory would differ from map to map and, with every section of the map being similarly randomised, you may as well be in a completely different map. Coupled with everything mentioned above, this should ensure every mission offers different tactical options and plays out differently.

So, that’s a brief run-down of all the systems involved in the generation of battlefield maps in Xenonauts; I hope you found it interesting. The next entry is likely to cover the AI systems we’re implementing – both at the strategic invasion level and for individual battlefield units.

If what you’ve read / seen above has piqued your interest in the project, you can visit our website here or our forums here.

Finally, we’re going to be showing the game off in the Indie Games Arcade section of the Eurogamer Expo over in the UK later this month, so if you’re going to be in attendance please do drop by and have a look!

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/12/xenonauts-dev-diary-2/feed/ 11 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/09/pc-gamer-us-podcast-287-smaz-space-marines-and-zombies/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/09/pc-gamer-us-podcast-287-smaz-space-marines-and-zombies/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:57:52 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61706 [..]]]>

Slowly but surely, the intern takeover/revolution is beginning. Join us as Gavin leads Dan, Evan, Lucas, and newcomer intern Greg into battle, discussing their impressions of Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, Dead Island, Hard Reset, and the trials and tribulations of proximity mines in Goldeneye: Source. We also (attempt to) answer the age-old question: do unlocks in multiplayer FPS games enhance or encumber our experience?

PC Gamer US Podcast 287: SMAZ (Space Marines and Zombies)

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/09/pc-gamer-us-podcast-287-smaz-space-marines-and-zombies/feed/ 7 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/09/pc-gamer-us-november-issue-league-of-legends-dominion-in-depth-guide/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/09/pc-gamer-us-november-issue-league-of-legends-dominion-in-depth-guide/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:46:41 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61656 [..]]]> For our first-ever cover featuring a free-to-play game, it had to be the incredibly popular League of Legends. Our in-depth guide to LoL’s upcoming new Dominion mode will ensure that you have the advantage on launch day by taking you through the ins and outs of the map, plus a look at the map creation process and upcoming champions in the works at Riot Games. As if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also find a code in every issue for an exclusive Caitlyn skin (good on North American servers only) which will also unlock the champion herself if you’ve yet to purchase the sultry sniper.

In other mega-news, our extensive Diablo III hands-on preview will tell you everything you need to know about the much-anticipated hack-’n'-slash ahead of the beta, and addresses your Auction House concerns. Meanwhile, we’ve the inside scoop on supernatural steampunk-style FPS thriller Dishonored and the verdict on the tropical zombie-bonanza that is Dead Island. Missing this issue is, in a word, inadvisable.



The Arctic Warfare Caitlyn skin in all its glory. This could be yours to show off to your friends!



]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/09/pc-gamer-us-november-issue-league-of-legends-dominion-in-depth-guide/feed/ 65 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/08/city-of-heroes-dev-diary-rogues-gallery/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/08/city-of-heroes-dev-diary-rogues-gallery/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:30:44 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61587 [..]]]> In the last installment of the City of Heroes dev diary, we got a look at the massive monsters of the First Ward zone, which demand a entire super-team of players to take down. But what about the mobs you’ll face throughout the area on your own? Here’s Gilbert Martinez, CoH’s art lead, with the inside scoop on the new villain groups of the First Ward, complete with mutated psychic-tumor women and freaky, masked carnies.

As players experience the all-new zone of First Ward in City of Heroes Freedom, they’ll encounter a plethora of new villain groups, each with their own unique look and story to tell. We’ve chosen four of these factions for a closer look at their role within this zone, and how their visual style developed out of their stories.

The Carnival of Light
The Carnival of Light are a band of mystics whose ultimate goal is to restore the balance of good and evil in the alternate world of Praetoria. Existing City of Heroes players may be more familiar with their darker counterpart on Primal Earth, the Carnival of Shadows. When we designed the Carnival of Light’s unique look we made sure to assemble costume pieces that echoed their origins in the Carnival of Shadows, the Midnight Squad, and the Legacy Chain. We chose white as their general color, with gold as an accent, since this echoed the “light” in their name. A set of new custom masks with the “third eye of wisdom” theme were designed for them by Character Artist Eric Chyn. These masks were heavily inspired by French carnival masks, and their complexity indicates the rank of each individual.



For these girls, every day is Halloween.

D.U.S.T.
Villain groups don’t come tougher then the new Direct Urban Strike Team (D.U.S.T.) units in First Ward. The D.U.S.T. use First Ward as a training ground for their new weapons, and to them, First Ward’s citizens are merely moving targets. These urban fighters are taken from the best ranks of the Praetorian Police Department, so it was important to us to keep their costumes consistent with that particular group. To reflect their elite status, we added military-style camouflage textures to their costumes. Players may notice that the D.U.S.T. use new, oversized plasma rifles as their weapon of choice. These rifles are actually modified, resized versions of the gigantic Anti-matter drone turrets located in Praetoria.



Timmy got the cold shoulder for hoarding the sweet plasma launcher.

The Awakened
The Awakened are the result of failures in the Seer creation process, with uncontrollable psychic powers. Although they come in several “flavors” of psychic disturbance, the most distinctive members of this villain group are the Suppressors. These creatures’ psychic mutations have manifested themselves in horrific physical form resulting in heads deformed by massive tumors and multiple dangerous tentacles growing from them. Each tentacle was animated separately by Lead Animator Colin Brown. If you’re able to get close enough to these creatures, you’ll even notice that the slimy skin on their tentacles animates as well, adding an extra level of disturbance to their look. The “psychic abomination” vibe in this villain group was inspired by certain Japanese films such as Akira. Character Artist Jay Doherty also deserves praise for building out the final character designs seen in this villain group.



Daaaaang, girl! How long did it take to do your hair!?

The Talons of Vengeance
The Talons of Vengeance are the most single-minded of the four factions reviewed here. The Talons serve the Well of Furies, a sentient source of great power in City of Heroes. Their sole purpose is to punish all of those who break their oath to the Well. Who is the target at the top of their list? Emperor Marcus Cole, Tyrant of Praetoria. This villain group was visually designed to echo these themes of vengeance, magic, and the embodiment of the apocalypse. Their bodies have been twisted, turned monstrous and feral with rage. Some have become snake-like, others have developed clawed feet, some have crow-like wings, and still others have maws of pure evil, stretched beyond human recognition. The harpies of Greek mythology were a strong source of inspiration for this villain group. Credit goes to Cheryl Austin on the character art team for bringing these terrifying creatures into existence.



'You found me beautiful once.' 'Baby, you got reeeal ugly.'

Thanks for taking a moment to learn a little bit more about the exciting new content we’ll be revealing in City of Heroes Freedom in the near future. We can’t wait to hear what you all think, and be sure to let us know which villain group is your favorite!

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/08/city-of-heroes-dev-diary-rogues-gallery/feed/ 9 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/08/pc-gamer-video-blog-extra-life-now-playing-and-universal-sandbox/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/08/pc-gamer-video-blog-extra-life-now-playing-and-universal-sandbox/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:00:52 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61612
]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/08/pc-gamer-video-blog-extra-life-now-playing-and-universal-sandbox/feed/ 16 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/08/eu-giveaway-win-a-vindictus-closed-beta-key/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/08/eu-giveaway-win-a-vindictus-closed-beta-key/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 09:31:15 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61581 [..]]]>

 
The closed beta for action MMO, Vindictus is headed to Europe. The Source-powered brawler will be crashing onto European servers next Thursday September 15, and we’re offering you the chance to grab a key right now. All you need to do is open the huge stone doors below and beta access is yours. I’m not kidding, there is a giant stone door down there. Go see.

Once you’ve got your key, you can redeem it on the Vindictus site as soon as the beta goes live next Thursday. The key will still be valid until Monday 19 September. As long as you validate your code in that window, you’re in, free to hack up the evil hordes of Mabinogi until the beta ends. The free-to-play hack and slash will get a full release later this year. Meanwhile, I promised you a door. Here it is!
]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/08/eu-giveaway-win-a-vindictus-closed-beta-key/feed/ 32 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/02/pc-gamer-us-podcast-286-jurassic-remark/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/02/pc-gamer-us-podcast-286-jurassic-remark/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:13:40 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61428 [..]]]>

Sometimes, only a classic documentary about the resurrection of dinosaurs can help you explain your thoughts. Join us for this week’s velociraptor-themed podcast, with special guest Ian Hardingham of Mode 7 games, makers of the excellent strategic-warfare-meets-Counter-Strike Frozen Synapse. Share in the delightful recollections of our favorite games and quirkiest surprises from PAX Prime 2011, including in-depth discussions on the PC Gaming Press Conference, Tribes: Ascend, League of Legends: Dominion, Warp, and more. Also: effortless Jurassic Park metaphors.

PC Gamer US Podcast 286: Jurassic Remark

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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@IanHardingham (Ian)
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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/02/pc-gamer-us-podcast-286-jurassic-remark/feed/ 5 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/02/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-12/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/02/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-12/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:53:54 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61389 ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/09/02/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-12/feed/ 14 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/30/video-the-pc-gaming-press-conference-pax-2011/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/30/video-the-pc-gaming-press-conference-pax-2011/#comments Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:55:09 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61259 [..]]]>

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended our PC Gaming Press Conference last Friday at PAX. It feels damn nice to pack a room with PC gamers, and talk directly about some of the innovations, ideas, and good things happening on our platform. If you weren’t in Seattle last weekend, we’re delighted to bring you video of the full presentation. Inside this post, we’ve also broken out the video into timestamps for your convenience.

We’re really looking forward to doing this again next year in a bigger way. Obviously we don’t think of ourselves as the keepers of PC gaming as a platform, but if someone isn’t going to get on stage, gather some exciting upcoming games and say nice things about the PC, by jove, we’ll do it. To that end, if you have any suggestions for format, content, or who you’d like to see at such an event, let us know in the comments.

The PC Gaming Conference @ PAX 2011

“The Only Platform…” video (0:00-1:28)

Logan Decker‘s welcome to PC Gaming Press Conference (1:28- 4:00)

Minecraft Adventure Update
• Markus “Notch” Persson and Lydia Winters on stage (4:00 – 4:54)
• Game footage and commentary (4:55 – 10:20)

Cobalt intro from Jens Bergensten and Lydia (10:20 – 12:49)
• Game footage and commentary (12:49 – 16:20)
• Item giveaway (16:20 – 17:21)

Evan Lahti introduces GOG.com (17:22 – 19:00)
• Recent GOG releases: Wing Commander 1 + 2 and Dungeon Keeper 2 (19:00 -19:42)
• Announcement of new GOG releases: Ultima I-IV and Populus (19:42 – 21:10)

Chris Comiskey introduces Chris Stewart (21:10 – 21:59)
• Chris Stewart introduction and commentary for Sword of the Stars 2 (22:00 – 28:40)

Logan introduces PC Gamer Digital (28:40 – 29:39)
• PC Gamer Digital video (29:39 – 31:33)
• Logan talks about PC Gamer Digital (31:33 – 34:14)

Logan introduces Min Kim from Nexon (34:15 – 37:45)
• Nexon’s Dragon Nest trailer (37:47 – 39:05)

Josh Augustine introduces Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes (39:05 – 40:40)
• Warhammer trailer (40:40 – 41:40)

Josh introduces Firefall (41:40 – 42:23)
• Firefall trailer (42:23 – 44:01)

Evan introduces Paradox Interactive’s Mattias Lilja (44:01 – 44:30)
• Mattias announces Warlock: Master of the Arcane (44:30 – 46:12)
• Warlock trailer (46:12 – 47:05)

Evan introduces Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad (46:12 – 47:52)
• Red Orchestra 2 gameplay footage (47:52 – 49:14)

Evan introduces Hawken (49:15 – 50:14)
• Hawken gameplay footage (50:14 – 52:37)

Logan’s thank you to attendees (52:38 – 54:37)

Special thanks to our helpful Enforcers in the Unicorn Theatre, all of our presenters and participants, to David Coffman at Penny Arcade for his constant help, and to Future Studios for recording the presentation.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/30/video-the-pc-gaming-press-conference-pax-2011/feed/ 34 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/26/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-8/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/26/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-8/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:52:47 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61036 ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/26/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-8/feed/ 15 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/25/at-pax-come-to-our-pc-gaming-press-conference/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/25/at-pax-come-to-our-pc-gaming-press-conference/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 22:10:30 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=61005 [..]]]>

We’re at PAX! And we’d be delighted to see you at our presentation tomorrow. We won’t be podcasting this week, but look forward to a surprise on Monday.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/25/at-pax-come-to-our-pc-gaming-press-conference/feed/ 31 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/25/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-7/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/25/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-7/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:30:00 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60964 ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/25/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-7/feed/ 13 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/24/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-6/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/24/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-6/#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:14:35 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60889 ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/24/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-6/feed/ 30 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/23/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-5/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/23/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-5/#comments Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:55:59 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60850 ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/23/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-5/feed/ 26 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/19/pc-gamer-us-podcast-285-good-to-know/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/19/pc-gamer-us-podcast-285-good-to-know/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:57:46 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60800 [..]]]>

Do you know the PCG editors’ deepest, darkest secrets? You may not find out about figurative/literal skeletons in the closets in this week’s podcast, but you will get a heap of podcasting tomfoolery with Chris, Evan, Dan, and Lucas. Get to know the editors’ hobbies, what they think of Battlefield 3, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and what they sound like when they’re podcasting on film.

PC Gamer US Podcast 285: Good To Know

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

Follow us on Twitter:
@pcgamer
@ELahti (Evan)
@havoc06 (Chris)
@danstapleton (Dan)
@Ljrepresent (Lucas)

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/19/pc-gamer-us-podcast-285-good-to-know/feed/ 26 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/19/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-3/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/19/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-3/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:53:31 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60749 ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/19/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-3/feed/ 12 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/18/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-2/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/18/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-2/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:45:11 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60701 ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/18/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232-2/feed/ 23 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/17/congratulations-to-stephanie-estby-our-big-digital-stormvalve-giveaway-winner/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/17/congratulations-to-stephanie-estby-our-big-digital-stormvalve-giveaway-winner/#comments Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:08:54 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60696 [..]]]> Random.org’s random number generator has smiled upon Stephanie Estby of Oregon, AKA Props. Angel on Steam. She’s been picked as the winner of this dazzling $3,700 Black Ops Hailstorm Edition PC from Digital Storm and a magical Steam code that unlocks every existing Valve game, plus every Valve game Valve will ever release. Congratulations Steph!

This great PC couldn’t have gone to a more worthy gamer. “I’ve been a PC gamer since before PC games had graphics,” Steph says. “I’ve been gaming on PC since Zork, way back in the DOS computing days, and I remember how amazed I was when I could play Dig Dug on my Franklin Ace. Playing video games is my number-one hobby, and I’m fully planning on gaming until I die. I think it’ll be awesome to someday be able to say ‘you just got your butt kicked by a granny’ followed by an aged cackle.”

She’s not kidding: her Steam stats show 108 hours of in-game time in the past two weeks, with the main culprits being Just Cause 2 and Team Fortress 2. Her lifetime TF2 play time? A staggering 1,803.4 hours!

This liquid-cooled, six-core 3.2GHz Core i7-970 CPU, 12GB RAM, and GeForce GTX 590 (with 120GB Corsair Series 3 SSD and 2TB hard drive) will replace her aging 2.6GHz Phenom II X4, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD 4890 and 500GB hard drive. “I remember using PC Gamer to help spec it out, and it’s been a great machine up until lately,” Steph recalls. “It’s had to endure thousands of hours of gaming and, as a result, it’s definitely approaching the end of its days.  A number of my USB ports have been going out and I think my graphics card has been, too.”

Somehow she’s also managed to work in some studying time, and is coming out of school and into a tough job market that would’ve made a new PC tough to come by. “I’ve been on Pell Grants and student loans for the last few years, so I have quite the tuition bill racked up,” she says. “I’ll be still paying down my loans for a good while as opposed to computer shopping.  Now I don’t have to worry about my computer dying for a good while! :)”

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/17/congratulations-to-stephanie-estby-our-big-digital-stormvalve-giveaway-winner/feed/ 73 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/17/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/17/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232/#comments Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:54:11 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60654 ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/17/pc-gamer-video-blog-the-making-of-issue-232/feed/ 26 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/16/bounty-hounds-online-releases-new-trailer/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/16/bounty-hounds-online-releases-new-trailer/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2011 21:19:38 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60618 [..]]]>

Post nuclear war? Check. Mercenary-on-Mercenary action? Check. Big aliens in need of a smack down? Oh yeah. We haven’t covered the sci-fi MMORPG Bounty Hounds Online much before now, but it’s currently in closed beta and has some intense larger-than-life bosses for you to pump full of lead. There are five different classes, including one awesomely named the Chemical Brawler, and every character can build their own mini-transformer robot pet that fights alongside them.

Sounds like something you might be interested in? Check out the newest trailer and some screenshots below, and visit the game’s website to sign up for the closed beta.











]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/16/bounty-hounds-online-releases-new-trailer/feed/ 9 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/16/city-of-heroes-dev-diary-giant-monsters/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/16/city-of-heroes-dev-diary-giant-monsters/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:50:01 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60555 [..]]]> PC Gamer routinely features Developer Diaries: tales of what goes on behind-the-scenes in the development studios making your favorite games. In this entry, City of Heroes’ Art Lead Gilbert Martinez explains the concepts behind the artistic design of the three giant monsters that players will have to battle in the upcoming “Issue 21: Convergence” update. Let us know what you’d like to see developers discuss in future diaries in the comments.

More mobile, more danger: the Hamidon


One of our goals for the new Praetorian incarnations of Hamidon was to raise their threat level while keeping them tied visually to the original blob-like mass players are familiar with. We felt that it was important to design these creatures in a way that emphasized their power and scale and made it clear that they are worthy of going toe-to-toe with the all-powerful Tyrant. We evolved them, made them more mobile, and gave them more sentience so that they could continue to play an important role in the lore of City of Heroes Freedom.

Enemy evolution: the Avatar


The task of concepting the Avatar of Hamidon fell to Bill Balzer. His initial sketches were inspired by the look of the Devouring Earth enemy types, and featured vegetation, tangled wood, and other organic elements as a kind of armor. The big visual link to the original Hamidon is the incorporation of the jelly-like substance at the core of this creature. For his solid bits, we chose a dark, charred wood material to give him a sinister edge. Cheryl Austin worked closely with the environment art team to match the materials and textures used for this creature with the ones developed for the Underground Incarnate Trial. She was so successful that when designers Chris Behrens and Tim Sweeney put this creature into his lair for the first time, they thought the Avatar wasn’t there because he was so well camouflaged.

To the skies: the Seed



After two terrestrial versions of the Hamidon incarnation, we decided to do something different for the Seed of Hamidon in First Ward. We developed the concept of the Seed as a flying fortress-like mother ship that could rain death from above. We explored many different kinds of shapes before we ultimately chose a wide, crab-like form that felt organic but still threatening and could loom over characters in a menacing fashion. We applied the same kinds of materials used on the Avatar, for consistency, and added appendages to provide the movement that makes him feel alive. These include a tail that sways behind him as well as several tentacle-like protuberances along his back. Colin Brown from the animation team re-purposed tech developed for the Failed Seer bosses to make the tentacles even more eye-catching.

Surprise attack: the Shivan



At the end of our new Galaxy City tutorial for City of Heroes Freedom, you are faced with a terrifying menace: a gigantic Shivan. We gave the Shivans a new look to match the devastation and chaos of the destroyed Galaxy City. Since the Shivans absorb the contents of their surroundings, we incorporated rebar and other dangerous objects from the environment and a glowing, veiny material that pulses with danger. Players can thank Sean “Dr. Aeon” McCann for this new scout of the Coming Storm. We asked ourselves, how do we introduce players to City of Heroes Freedom and blow their minds? Dr. Aeon’s answer: a fight with a giant monster! Why? Because it’s cool! But be warned, we have far deadlier opponents waiting for you in future issues. Start preparing!

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/16/city-of-heroes-dev-diary-giant-monsters/feed/ 2 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/15/city-of-heroes-first-ward-concept-and-zone-art/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/15/city-of-heroes-first-ward-concept-and-zone-art/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:24:10 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60547 [..]]]> PC Gamer routinely features Developer Diaries: tales of what goes on behind-the-scenes in the development studios making your favorite games. In this entry, City of Heroes’ Art Lead, Gilbert Martinez, explains the concepts behind some of the zone’s art . We hope you enjoy this exclusive look into City of Heroes’ art design and let us know what you’d like to see developers discuss in future diaries in the comments.


City of Heroes’ First Ward: Concept and Zone Art

First Ward is Emperor Cole’s first settlement, a lost corner of Praetoria destroyed by a Devouring Earth attack. When the city’s levees broke, the sea flooded the city’s center and its inhabitants fled. Up until now, this dangerous place has been off limits to the citizens of Praetoria, a no-man’s land frozen in time, apparently deserted and forgotten. But looks can be deceiving, and First Ward is far from empty.

What follows is only a brief glimpse of the content awaiting characters in First Ward. Many thanks go out to the artists responsible for the look and feel of this amazing new zone: Ryan Roth, Chris Gregory, and Don Pham from the environmental art team; Leo and Keetsie Braz da Kunha from the VFX team; creature animator Colin Brown; and David Nakayama and Bill Balzer from the concept team.

Where It All Begins: Genesis



First Ward, our most daring zone to date, had many inspirations. One of the biggest was the idea of bringing magic to Praetoria, a goal since the days of City of Heroes Going Rogue.™ This zone was also inspired by modern-day natural disasters, the stories of the missing, and the harrowing tales of survivors. Because we had already done a ruined city, we wanted to take this idea even further, pushing the capabilities of our tech and challenging ourselves to add more drama and visual variety. All of this fed into the overall design of First Ward, resulting in a post-apocalyptic no-man’s land infused with the magic and power of Hamidon.

Visual Indicators: The Tentacles



A key characteristic of First Ward is the gargantuan, petrified tentacles of a Devouring Earth creature that nearly consumed the central portion of the zone, known as the Sunken City. We wanted these to be visual indicators of Hamidon’s attack on First Ward, dramatic monuments to his power. Rising up out of the murky water, these frozen forms plunge into and out of the skyscrapers. Gaping recesses mar the buildings around them.

More Natural Terrain Tech



We had an ambitious goal for the terrain of First Ward: a large, flooded, destroyed zone that gives characters a distinctive view no matter which way they face. To the south are the dusty, barren wastelands of the Forbidden Crags. To the west can be seen the lush, green wetlands of Mercyview and the dark, hallowed earth of the Mercyview Cemetery. And to the north lie the shattered edges of Eltentown and the Free Fire Zone. This variety of terrain was accomplished using terrain blending, a technique that creates more natural looking terrain without relying on a patchwork of single-texture terrain tiles.

Husk as Art: The Fallen Seed



Not everything that in City of Heroes is planned. Sometimes, cool ideas come up as the game is being created. The Fallen Seed is a perfect example. Off the coast of the Forbidden Crags lies an island in which the majestic husk of a Seed of Hamidon is partially buried. This unique location came about when we ended up with a large, flooded lake between the Forbidden Crags and the Sunken City. We needed to fill the dead space, and Eric Chyn, the character artist who created the Seed of Hamidon giant monster, suggested using that creature’s bony husk as a set piece. We thought the idea was brilliant, and the island of the Fallen Seed was born.

Visual FX Brings First Ward to Life



The visual effects department extends the visual drama and movement of First Ward with critter and environmental VFX. Characters who visit Mercyview Cemetery in the evening will encounter flitting bats. Fish leap about near the swamps and shores, and in the deeper waters perhaps a shark or two lurks. Throughout the zone, seagulls circle, looking for a bite to eat. As characters explore the Forbidden Crags, occasional tumbleweeds bounce past. On the city streets, dust can be seen blowing in the distance, emphasizing the desolate nature of First Ward. But the biggest source of movement of all lies directly above the Sunken City: a gigantic, magical vortex that covers most of the sky. Will players be able to discern its true nature, or will its mysteries be revealed in future City of Heroes Freedom content? Only time will tell.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/15/city-of-heroes-first-ward-concept-and-zone-art/feed/ 5 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/12/pc-gamer-us-october-issue-batman-arkham-city-hands-on/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/12/pc-gamer-us-october-issue-batman-arkham-city-hands-on/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:50:56 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60496 [..]]]> The Bat Signal shines on the sky above Gotham! PC Gamer’s plucky reporters are on the scene to cover the Caped Crusader’s ass-kicking adventures in Batman: Arkham City in a huge hands-on story that covers a ton of new crime-fighting gadgets and Catwoman’s debut. You’d think that’d be the best thing in the issue, but what’s this? The amazing Deus Ex: Human Revolution review! You may need a brain augmentation to grasp how great this game is. You’ll also find our hands-on adventures in Guild Wars 2 and Tribes Ascend, tips straight from the developers to get you started right in Age of Empires Online, and a smorgasbord of our favorite demos from throughout PC gaming history! Bonus: this new-and-improved PC Gamer comes augmented with super-thick paper strong enough to stop a bullet. (Warning: do not use PC Gamer as body armor.)



]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/12/pc-gamer-us-october-issue-batman-arkham-city-hands-on/feed/ 36 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/12/pc-gamer-us-podcast-284-cliche-catwoman/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/12/pc-gamer-us-podcast-284-cliche-catwoman/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:00:32 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60488 [..]]]>

L.A. Noire. Red Orchestra 2. Tribes: Ascend. Batman: Arkham City. Torchlight II. There’s a scary, money-demanding gang of games still coming in the waning quarter of 2011. In this ep., Dan, Chris, Tyler and new intern Gavin pick their favorites. Evan also leads a rousing round of truthiness and falsity, in which we confront the controversial issue of alltalk (on or off?), ask if multiplayer gaming is better than it’s ever been, and wonder what PC gaming would be like if Valve declared itself a platform holder.

PC Gamer US Podcast 284: Cliché Catwoman

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/12/pc-gamer-us-podcast-284-cliche-catwoman/feed/ 16 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/09/dwarf-fortress-developer-interview/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/09/dwarf-fortress-developer-interview/#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:51:20 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60192 [..]]]> Dwarf Fortress is an incredibly complex game of base building and Dwarvern survival (or more often lack of survival) of rendered in ASCII graphics. Following our recent diary about the game we spoke to co-designer Tarn Adams about the ups and downs of the game.

PC Gamer: Dwarf Fortress was once 2D. Was it a pain adding depth?

Tarn Adams: It was mostly a tedious slog, looking for every relevant (x,y) pair and adding a z, with some more difficult changes for fluids and cave-ins. The z-axis was added in part to alleviate some problems with fluids vs bridges, and I think it was definitely worth it, since we don’t have to handle bridges and similar buildings as special cases now, and especially because we can make some really cool maps, even if the display doesn’t handle them very well. There are still some bugs from the change though, a few years later.

PC Gamer: Did many prefer the 2D game? How did you coax them into digging vertically?

Tarn Adams: Yeah, a lot of people prefer the 2D maps, especially at first, although other parts of the game have moved on as well so it’s difficult to go back to the old 2D versions. The 2D version had a very stratified river-chasm-magma setup, and a gamey progression of metal availability, which is appealing in its way. There were also specific mechanics like filling the chasm with magma and so on. The new maps generally have a fairly shallow grade, so digging downward is necessary to build an underground fortress, for the most part. For experienced players, digging deep is mostly encouraged by magma, which is a fuel source that frees up a lot of your need for lumber. People who are aware of the deeper dangers probably don’t feel enticed to dig deeper, but the promise of finding something exotic down there probably entices newer players to try it out. There’s a geology rewrite upcoming which might shake this up a bit, but we’ll see.



PC Gamer: Did you have some idea of what you wanted players to discover if they continued digging downwards?

Tarn Adams: When you are in a 3D space, the old ‘1D’ rivers/ chasms from the two dimensional plane suddenly become very sparse and hard to find (string in a haystack vs string on a table), so it was clear that we had to move over to larger 2D ‘planar’ features that would be struck almost inevitably if you dig downward. It took a while to get the basic ones up and we’re still working on it.

PC Gamer: What interesting features would you still like to add to the depths?

Tarn Adams: Anything’s fair game within reason, and it’s just a matter of finding time and getting started. Aside from adding more critters and plants, we’d like to get better underground rivers (eg, ones that have current or that exit outside through a cliff face) and ruins linked to world generation down there, and we’ve got underground civilizations like those of the various animal peoples that aren’t realised at all.

PC Gamer: Dwarf Fortress has a remarkable roster of bizarre and hilarious creatures. How regularly do you add to it?

Tarn Adams: Most recently we’ve been doing animals from the sponsorship drive, and the big April 2010 release had about 30 new underground critters. We’ve also done some night creatures recently. Adding critters is a bit of a project because the text definitions for them have become more and more involved. Gremlins are my favourite – stories based around “something has pulled a lever!” are fun to read. Zach (Tarn’s brother and Dwarf Fortress co-designer) likes the bogeymen that appear at night to torment the adventurers

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/09/dwarf-fortress-developer-interview/feed/ 18 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/06/pc-gamer-us-podcast-283-golden-house/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/06/pc-gamer-us-podcast-283-golden-house/#comments Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:09:40 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=60128 [..]]]>

On this week’s episode, Evan, Josh, and Logan deliberate the recent Diablo 3 news, give impressions on League of Legends’ new game mode, discuss Bethesda’s strange legal poke at Minecraft, and Chris files a report from the floor of QuakeCon. Forgive the late-ish post this week–most of us were out of the office on Thursday, when we usually record.

PC Gamer US Podcast 283: Golden House

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/06/pc-gamer-us-podcast-283-golden-house/feed/ 18 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/pc-gamer-us-podcast-282-neurotransmitters/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/pc-gamer-us-podcast-282-neurotransmitters/#comments Sun, 31 Jul 2011 23:10:20 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=59863 [..]]]>

You’re tuned into 133.7, Radio PCGP, on this fine Sunday afternoon. I’m your soft-spoken host Tyler Wilde, comin’ at you with the smoooooth sounds of topical game discussion. This week, I’m joined by guests Evan, Andy, and Lucas as we take your ears on a magical journey of podcasting perfection. We’re talkin’ about League of Legends, Unreal Tournament, female Shepards, and Street Fighter blood feuds. Come join us, won’t you?

PC Gamer US Podcast 282: Neurotransmitters

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/pc-gamer-us-podcast-282-neurotransmitters/feed/ 12 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/22/pcg-us-podcast-281-indie-invasion/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/22/pcg-us-podcast-281-indie-invasion/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 21:01:00 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=59334 [..]]]>

This week, Lucas takes the helm of the PCG Podcasting Pinnace with crew-mates Chris, Tyler, Evan, and Josh, as they discuss a week’s worth of tantalizing news stories. You’ll find out which indie games we’re lovin’ right now, what constitutes a worthwhile Collector’s Edition, the verdict in co-op versus competitive multiplayer, Chris’ physical dependencies to Civilization V, and many more amusing anecdotes. Message of the week: drink booze to regain mana!

PC Gamer US Podcast 281: Indie Invasion

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/22/pcg-us-podcast-281-indie-invasion/feed/ 11 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/15/pcg-us-podcast-280-not-california-an-interview-with-day9/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/15/pcg-us-podcast-280-not-california-an-interview-with-day9/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:58:48 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=59335 [..]]]>

This week, Evan, Dan, Josh, and Lucas circle the wagons to address new cyberpunk FPS Hard Reset and 2K’s recent comments that “strategy isn’t contemporary” in light of its changes to XCOM. Josh recalls his pool party-filled time at SOE’s Fan Faire and tells us his impressions on PlanetSide 2, and Evan tells us what a great time he’s having on our new GoldenEye: Source server, tackles Tribes: Ascend, and more!

At the end of the podcast, Lucas sits down with one of PC gaming’s most-loved men, Sean “Day9″ Plott, to talk eSports, why attacking in StarCraft 2 is good, and his favorite card game.

PC Gamer US Podcast 280: Not California

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/15/pcg-us-podcast-280-not-california-an-interview-with-day9/feed/ 10 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/08/pcg-us-podcast-279-pcg-for-president/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/08/pcg-us-podcast-279-pcg-for-president/#comments Fri, 08 Jul 2011 19:56:54 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=59031 [..]]]>

On this seminal episode of the PCGP, Evan and Logan explain their criticism of Kotaku’s recent esports “coverage” (recently rebutted by our own Rich McCormick), which leads us to a broader, meaningful discussion about the state of esports and the inescapable supernova known as free-to-play (or is it?). We also ask: are unmoddable games proper PC games? How stable is a hat-based economy? What’s the best Civ game? Would Harry Caray make a good StarCraft commentator?

PC Gamer US Podcast 279: PCG for President

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/08/pcg-us-podcast-279-pcg-for-president/feed/ 10 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/05/ms-splosion-man-coming-to-pc/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/05/ms-splosion-man-coming-to-pc/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:41:22 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=58719 [..]]]>

Word reaches us from RPS that Twisted Pixel’s upcoming Xbox Live title, Ms. Splosion Man may be on its way to PC. RPS say that it appeared very briefly as a listing on Steam, but was swiftly pulled and replaced with the less explosive “ValveTestApp105420.”

Ms. Splosion Man is a platformer in which you get around by blowing yourself up. Nearby enemies are eradicated by the explosions and the percussive force of each blast can propel you to otherwise unreachable ledges. The follow up to Splosion Man will now let you fire your exploding character out of exploding cannons to maximise the amount of explosions you’ll be causing per second. Unlike the first game, there will be levels set outside of the laboratory in which Splosion Man and Ms. Splosion Man were created.

Twisted Pixel’s first release, The Maw, was released on the PC along with Microsoft’s big black box, since then their games have only been released via Xbox Live. It would be great to see Twisted Pixel return to releasing on the PC, and Ms. Splosion Man could be a good way to return to the fold.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/05/ms-splosion-man-coming-to-pc/feed/ 7 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/05/star-ruler-demo-is-out-now-is-on-sale-on-steam/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/05/star-ruler-demo-is-out-now-is-on-sale-on-steam/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 10:30:53 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=58710 [..]]]>

4X galaxy conquering game Star Ruler now has a demo available ahead of its upcoming September retail release. Star Ruler has a procedurally generated 3D galaxy that can spawn up to 10,000 star systems into your game. With numerous research and diplomatic routes at your disposal, there are nearly limitless possibilites to explore. Just be careful not to go space-mad.

Upon the release of the retail version, Blind Mind are planning a massive update that will add new features for owners of the digital version of the game. You can grab the demo from the here. The game’s currently available on Steam, too, and is currently on sale at 66% off.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/05/star-ruler-demo-is-out-now-is-on-sale-on-steam/feed/ 8 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/05/a-new-beginning-demo-is-eco-thrilling/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/05/a-new-beginning-demo-is-eco-thrilling/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:46:11 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=58708 [..]]]> The first English language demo of ‘eco-thriller adventure’ game A New Beginning has been made available. From German developers Daedalic Entertainment, A New Beginning puts you in the shoes of Fay, one of small group of humans left alive on Earth in the year 2500. With the planet ravaged by climate change Fay is sent back in time to try to steer humanity from a path to disaster.

The demo features the prologue and parts of the first chapter of the game. The point and click adventure game picked up three trophies at the German Developer Awards, including Best Story and Best Soundtrack. You can download the demo from Strategy Informer or Worth Playing.

Whoever said games can’t teach us anything about the environment clearly hasn’t played this.

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/05/a-new-beginning-demo-is-eco-thrilling/feed/ 12 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/01/pc-gamer-us-podcast-278-days-of-yore/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/01/pc-gamer-us-podcast-278-days-of-yore/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:49:39 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=58665 [..]]]>

On this week’s podcast, the rag-tag PCG squad members Chris, Dan, Tyler, and Lucas join forces once again with recurring special guest Brian Brushwood. Listen in awe as they chat about post-apocalyptic themes, Zynga’s intimidating market share, World of Warcraft’s Rage of the Firelands, and some more zany Truthiness and Falsity questions. Also: find out which nostalgic games we love, and which ones aren’t looking too hot these days.

PC Gamer US Podcast 278: Days of Yore

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/01/pc-gamer-us-podcast-278-days-of-yore/feed/ 7 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/28/pc-gamer-us-podcast-277-freed/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/28/pc-gamer-us-podcast-277-freed/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:05:50 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=58475 [..]]]>

To free, or not to free? Does a game by any other price play as sweet? On this week’s podcast (a few days late, due to crows), we break down the significance of Team Fortress 2 being a $0 game, and decide which class “won” the Über Update. Also talked: Arma 2: Free, L.A. Noire’s arrival on PC this Fall, and Evan sings the praises of his favorite community-made L4D2 content, Questionable Ethics and Let’s Build A Rocket.

PC Gamer US Podcast 277: Free’d

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]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/28/pc-gamer-us-podcast-277-freed/feed/ 9 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/22/team-fortress-2-uber-update-day-2/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/22/team-fortress-2-uber-update-day-2/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:18:44 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=58134 [..]]]> Our wildest dreams have come true: there are indeed 4+ classes getting new items in this Thursday’s Über Update. Valve have just declared today to be Timbuk Tuesday, and they’ve revealed weapons and hats for two of our bestest favorite classes of preferred choice: the Demoman and the Sniper. We asked our resident Demo and Sniper experts (Evan and Lucas, respectively) to weigh in on these glorious new items. Whoops—I think I just gave away the fact that these weapons are rocking our worlds.

PCG’s Gut Reactions™:



The Sniper

• The Bazaar Bargain: Oh my god, yes. The Sydney Sleeper irked me with its incentive to act less like a Sniper and go exclusively for bodyshots. The Huntsman didn’t float my boat either, with its lack of zoom and delayed arrow trajectory. But this…this is just a thing of beauty. If you can nail a string of headshots, you’ll be walking on sunshine as you dominate left and right. But if you crack under pressure, and start firing bullets in a panic, then no bonuses for you!
• The Shahanshah: Enemy players up in your grill? Whip out this spiffy sword, and you’ll be holding your own, even in a losing fight. It’s like Obi-Wan always said: Strike me (to 50% hp, not down, please), and I shall become (25%) more powerful than you can possibly imagine (unless you can imagine me at 125% power).
• Lawrence of Australia: I’ve been looking for the perfect hat to drop some real cash on—ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner. It kills two birds with one stone: I get to support Valve for giving me loads of free content and constant updates, AND shield myself from the hot sun as I camp out with my reticule covering a doorway.

 


The Demoman

• The Splendid Screen: Look up, look down. Now back at me. Your Demoman is now a rhino. The “can deal impact damage at any range” gives Demos another close-quarters option when enemies are annoyingly just out of melee range. On paper, we prefer the defense of the other shield—the Chargin’ Targe (50% resist fire, 40% resist explosions)—it makes one-on-ones with Pyros easily survivable.
• The Persian Persuader: Good lord. While carrying this sword, collected ammo replenishes health, so the weapons of felled enemies suddenly become easy pick-me-ups of HP. Paired with the Demo’s new shoes, this scimitar could produce a devastating new melee-only Demo variant that chains charges together. You’ll be able to charge every six seconds.
• Ali Baba’s Wee Booties: The increase in turning control (by 100%) will probably be more useful defensively than offensively, when you’re usually flying straight at an enemy. The +25 health boost mitigates the health lost if the Eyelander is your melee weap’ of choice, too.
• One Thousand and One Demoknights: A festive turban, equally tasteful in cp_egypt and pl_frontier_final. Any hat with a feather in it is a good hat.

 
The shift from Mafia dons to Saharan soldiers has us wondering where Valve plans on taking us next. What’s your opinion of the new gear? Let us know in the comments, or let us know with your real voice by joining our games at 7pm tonight—just hit up our Steam group, and you’re halfway there!

]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/22/team-fortress-2-uber-update-day-2/feed/ 38 http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/22/sword-of-the-stars-ii-developer-diary-4-encyclopedia-of-the-stars/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/22/sword-of-the-stars-ii-developer-diary-4-encyclopedia-of-the-stars/#comments Tue, 21 Jun 2011 23:43:57 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=58127 [..]]]> PC Gamer routinely features Developer Diaries: tales of what goes on behind-the-scenes in the development studios making your favorite games. In this entry, Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter’s Lead Writer, Arinn Dembo, details the challenging and rewarding task of fashioning and maintaining the series’ vast cosmic narrative. For more information, read the first, second, and third entries, and let us know what you’d like to see developers discuss in future diaries in the comments.


Sword of the Stars II developer diary 4: Encyclopedia of the Stars

I have been the Lead Writer for the Sword of the Stars franchise for seven years, and in that time I have created a fictional backdrop which spans two full games, two full expansions, a bonus ship pack and a published novel. I started the first game with four playable Races: the standard Humans were joined by the Tarka, a reptilian race, the Liir, a cetacean race, and the Hivers, who looked and acted a bit like eusocial insects, although they were a lot smarter and more dangerous than your average termite.

In each full expansion, I was able to introduce a new playable race. The Zuul, a pack of savage and rapacious scavengers, joined the game in Born of Blood. The Morrigi, a very ancient species of star-faring avian reptiles, descended on the universe in A Murder of Crows. Threaded throughout all four of the titles in the opening era of SotS was an overarching story about the “Lords of Winter”—a mystery faction absent from the present-day scene, but remembered by the Liir, Zuul and Morrigi for the atrocities it had committed while it was active in local space.



For seven years, in other words, the Lords of Winter have been a hidden mystery, waiting to be unlocked. For players who enjoyed the original game and its expansions, getting the chance to finally see and play the Lords is part of the overall experience. The ancient enemy has returned, just in time to crush or be crushed by the brash new upstarts who have boldly ventured forth into the stars.

Designing titans

To work this long on a single persistent universe has been quite a challenge, especially when the story I’m telling has to enfold at a genuinely cosmic scale. To create the “background fiction” for a space 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game, your characters are not individual people but gigantic empires, races and civilizations that have existed for thousands of years. These titans crash into one another on battlefield that spans the galaxy. They wrestle for control of a universe filled with danger and mystery.



While building and protecting new homes for their people, players encounter the colonies and fleets of neighboring empires, as well as the relics of past civilizations. These relics include ancient mining drones, abandoned and now run amok; races which transcended their carbon bodies and left all flesh behind; cosmic booby-traps set by races long extinct; and unspeakably ancient engines of war and peace which still roam the universe, long after the Elder Races who built them turned to dust.

A story told on such a massive scale makes even the standard epic look like pretty small potatoes. “Boy-meets-tyrant, boy-overthrows-government, boy-establishes-new-order” is great for a novel, a movie or even an RTS campaign, but it doesn’t get the job done for a 4X game. Instead you have to tell the story of whole races and how they advance over time, not just technologically but politically and socially.

The little things

This “Big Picture” story is present in Sword of the Stars, but some players have always wanted more. After they’ve read the manual and played the game, an amazing number of people still come directly to the Kerberos forums to ask me questions about the little details. They want to know more about the races they’re playing: their history, their art, their music, their religious beliefs. They want to know more about the technology they’re researching. They want to know why AI’s will always rebel if you push your research into Artificial Intelligence too hard and too fast. They want to find out the hidden stories behind the Grand Menaces and the minor nuisances they keep running into while exploring space.



One of the great things about working at Kerberos, of course, is that there is really no filter between the writer and the public. If people come to the Races forum and ask me a question about my work, I typically answer it right away. Over the years, this process of question and answer has produced a huge backlog of fictional tidbits. It makes the people who love immersive detail very happy! And fans of the game have worked very hard to incorporate this information into an on-line Wiki for the game and its expansions. The Wiki is one of the best resources available for new players, but of course, inevitably there are details missing.

Compiling the lore

One of my goals for Sword of the Stars II has been to place as much background information as possible at the player’s fingertips, from the moment they first purchase the game. The Encyclopedia of the Stars—EoS for short—is one of the features I am working hardest to implement. When new players open the EoS for the first time, they will find basic entries on all of the races and factions of the game, as well as discussion pages for important gameplay features. Many pages will also unlock through play: new entries will appear the first time a new Technology has been researched, a new alien Menace in encountered, or when you meet new Independent Races for the first time.



Of course, all great books of lore have nice broad margins, where generations of readers can scribble their notes. Every page of the Encyclopedia will include a space for the player’s “Marginalia,” the jotted ideas and responses that come up along the way. These notes will be incorporated into a batch file which players will be able to exchange and upload, so that your personal version of the EoS can incorporate your own Marginalia, and the notes of two other players—whether these are your family and friends or some veteran/guru who has played the game so long and well that he’s got All the Answers.

Naturally I know that there will always be more questions. I’ll still be there on the Kerberos forums to answer them when I can, and the fan Wiki will always contain more insider information. In general, I’m hoping that new players will enjoy the Encyclopedia and that using it will help to catch them up to speed, not only on the background “Story of the Universe” but on the game’s working features. The EoS will cover the old Races and the new Factions, but it will also give detailed information on many other topics: planets and their development; fleets, admirals and missions; domestic politics and diplomacy; trade and piracy; stations and support; ships and sections; research and technology; psionics and mechanics—and of course, the true nature of the Lords of Winter.

See you next time!

-Arinn Dembo
Lead Writer, Kerberos Productions

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This week is all controversy! Free-to-play games on Steam?! I mean, really Valve?! Oh, right. Well, that’s actually pretty good news, but other than that, controversy! Josh, Dan, Tyler, and Lucas weave through Duke Nukem Forever’s critical assassination and PR gaff attack, Battlefield 3 preorder bonus nonsense, EA’s digital exclusivity ambitions, and the rampant hax0ring of boxes. Plus, feel free to laugh at Tyler’s first attempt to host a PCG podcast (excluding E3). Just keep in mind that he can hear you listening. That’s how the internet works.

PC Gamer US Podcast 276: Duking it out

Have a question, comment, complaint or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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