June 2016: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture
Samuel: I seem to remember the brief for this one being, 'let's pay GamesRadar's Matt Elliott to write loads of impenetrably British things that may or may not be in Everybody's Gone To The Rapture'. I enjoyed his words about Sir Galahad, although naturally the best All Over gags are the ones you immediately get from the visuals. You probably don't with this one.
Phil: Writing loads of impenetrably British things is Matt's superpower, and so naturally his copy ran long. The original text ended with a child shouting, "A Curly Wurly! A Curly Wurly fell out of his arse! Hurrah!"
Tony: This is pretty much what the real game felt like to me.
July 2016: Battlefield 1
Chris T: I came up with 'Wilfred 0wned' and to be honest it was all downhill from there, by which I mean that I am probably going to Hell. I liked writing real World War I historical figures as internet idiots, though. That's not something I ever thought I'd do in this job or indeed in my life.
Samuel: Chris later topped this in an edition of PC Gamer Highs and Lows with the header 'Somme Like It Hot'.
Chris T: Is this my thing? World War I puns? Is that what I'm for? Oh well.
Tony: My great-grandfather was injured in WWI, Chris. I hope you’re happy.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
August 2016: Mirror's Edge Catalyst
Phil: Oh god, yeah, we did this. Why did we do this?
Chris T: How close to deadline were you when this happened, guys?
Andy: Honestly, I don’t get this, on any level. But maybe that was the point?
Phil: I have no memory of how this came together, but it was the E3 issue so we were definitely very tired and sad.
Tony: This is a thing of beauty. Pure, visual trolling, without any silly words to turn it into some sort of laboured joke.
Samuel: It was an extension of the Bathtub Geralt running Twitter gag that we became slightly famous for this year. An extension I now regret. In answer to your question, Chris, we are always close to deadline when making these. This is rubbish. Next!
The collective PC Gamer editorial team worked together to write this article. PC Gamer is the global authority on PC games—starting in 1993 with the magazine, and then in 2010 with this website you're currently reading. We have writers across the US, UK and Australia, who you can read about here.