PC Gamer UK April issue: Guild Wars 2

PCG238.cover.indd

The April issue of PC Gamer UK is here, which means it's Spring in magazine land. There are lambs prancing about the office and we're farming them for experience, except NO! MMOs do not work that way any more. Or so ArenaNet say. We've played a ton of Guild Wars 2 to find out if this year's most anticipated MMO has the chops to drag the genre into a new age, free from floating exclamation marks and endless grind quests.

Is it really that good? Subscribers already have a good idea, but you can find out for yourself in our six page preview teased on the cover of the latest issue of PC Gamer UK. This month our readers also get a free copy of Crusader Kings and a code for £10 worth of stuff in the browser-based MMO, Juggernaut (here's how to redeem them ). Here's what else we've been writing words about this month.

Do you enjoy gritty death? Jeeps? Guns? Literal subtitles? Medal of Honor: Warfighter could be right up your street. Find out all about it in our four page preview. We've also taken a good look at everyone's favourite slo-mo sideways man, Max Payne, to see how his third outing is shaping up. Elsewhere in this month's preview section We lift the lid on Shootmania, pull the hood back on Project CARS and disembowel Prototype 2 before taking a trip around our favourite frozen circle in in Naval War: Arctic Circle.

We also give the world of MMOs a jolly good shakedown this month, testing the condition of gaming's best online worlds including Fallen Earth, Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft, Aion, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Rift, DC Universe Online, Eve Online, Everquest 2, Star Trek Online, Age of Conan: Unchained and Champions Online.

With Diablo 3 finally announced, we bring you some top tips from the beta, with advice on each of the five classes and their most devastating skills. After that, our clicking fingers were simply too exhausted to do any more typing, so we powered up our resident robo-pedant, The Judgementinator, to assign numerical values out of one hundred to all the latest releases. reviewed in this issue: Total War: Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, Aerofly FS, Alan Wake, King Arthur 2, Fortune Summoners, Syndicate, Batman: Arkham City DLC, SOL: Exodus, Dead Island: Ryder White DLC, Crusader Kings 2, Gotham City Impostors, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Analogue: A Hate Story, Storm in a Teacup, Unstoppable Gorg, Cannon Fodder 3, Shank 2, Dustforce and Oil Rush.

We just about had time to point him at Pineapple Smash Crew before he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror, made a snap judgement, found himself wonting and promptly exploded. New office rule: no more bloody robots.

There's plenty more in this month's issue. In Extra Life, Tim goes on a rampage in Orcs Must Die! Tom Francis contemplates the fine art of punching men as Catwoman in Batman: Arkham City, Graham invades Russia in Unity of Command and Chris plays Mass Effect for the fifteen billionth time, and still loves it. We also lift the lid on the making of Command and Conquer, offer up some top tips on how to survive X-COM: UFO Defence and go back to Battlefield 3 to see if it's fixed yet.

The issue should be in shops now. You can also buy it online , or digitally via Zinio and Apple Newsstand . If you enjoy our words about PC games, you can subscribe and receive every issue earlier and cheaper over on MyFavouriteMagazines . This month, subscribers get a BONUS WOLF on the cover. He might be a good solution to our lamb problem. Enjoy the issue!

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.