The best PC Gamer forum threads from this week

The Falconeer
(Image credit: Tomas Sala)

It’s been a busy week on the PC Gamer forums, and the community wasn’t limited to the latest breaking news. Don’t get me wrong, we’re pulling our hair out over Cyberpunk 2077 like everyone else. But, we’re balancing it all out by casting misty eyes over old boxed favourites. We’re even turning back the clock far enough to think about what games were surprisingly fun. Just so we don’t get too stuck in the past, though, some of us are thinking about Ubisoft’s future as well.

Oh, and giveaways seem to be popular around here, so we’ve got another one!

Here are this week’s top discussions:

Remember boxed sets?

There are few things that can bring a nostalgic smile to gamers’ faces like an old-fashioned boxed game. Whatever your preferred genre, there was just something special about a game that came in a set with some extra, tangible goodies. 

I still have a boxed copy with a thick manual for World of Warcraft. Every time i take it in my hands it acts like a brief nostalgia portal and fills me with such joy.Dakkon

I've got a lot of 90's big boxes, but I find Tomb Raider II's cover artwork is great, along with that unique shape, probably my favorite.Volley

Add your own old favourite here

The Falconeer PC giveaway

(Image credit: Wired Productions)

A huge giveaway! 

We’ve teamed up with Wired Productions, AMD, and Falcon Northwest to give away this absolute beast of a rig: the Falconeer themed Falcon Northwest Talon PC. This beasty build includes an AMD Ryzen 5900X 12-Core CPU, NVIDIA RTX 3080 Founders Edition, Asetek Liquid cooling, a 2 TB Seagate Firecuda 520 PCIe Gen 4 storage and more! 

You can enter this giveaway and see this monster’s ridiculous specs over here.  

What game exceeded your expectations once you played it?

Gaming, like many other things, is a subjective process. Despite your own gut instincts and expectations, you are always at risk of enjoying something you expected to be thoroughly terrible. This week, we wanted to hear about the community’s pleasant surprises. 

Alone in the dark (1992). I remember trying it out not long after it released, but back then I thought controlling the character was horrible and the overall feel was not a good one. I tried it again not too long ago and I managed to get into the groove of navigating the quirky character and enjoying the absolutely fantastic atmosphere. It is definitely not a perfect game, but the claustrophobic horror element is something it did incredibly well. It basically paved the way for games like Resident Evil.Frindis

Truth be told, I bought Counter-Strike on disc (I still have it here somewhere, remember when it was a modpack? damn I'm old), and never played the base game it was built on, Half-Life, until Half-Life 2 came out and I went ape for that. So insane that I blew off an instant classic for a FPS mod.Cynagen 

Here's the full thread.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Eivor

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Ubisoft survey - a possible direction they're thinking

Right now, Ubisoft is being talked about for its current massive hit, Valhalla. And yet, it’s always tempting to think about a future beyond Assassin’s Creed. One thread this week, started by imposter, writes about a feedback request survey they received from Ubisoft that sounded particularly keen to understand if they would play the publisher's AAA games on mobile, either through streaming through a PC or directly.

This got the discussion going about mobile phone's place in the world of PC gaming. Would you play Ubisoft's big titles on your mobile? Let us know in the thread. 

Somehow mobile gaming is a big market. I worked for a particular publisher right around the time they started making a big push into mobile gaming and it's a big money maker. I don't really get it, phones just don't seem like a very comfortable or capable device to game on for more than 5 minutes at a time, but perhaps that's enough to keep the market successful. I know cloud gaming is becoming more capable but that doesn't really change how awkward it can be to use something like a phone to play a game.

But then again, I'm clearly not the target audience as I prefer to sit in front of my PC when I play games.drunkpunk

Yeah, I'm also not in that market. The key is in the name: MOBILE. This is for playing games when you're nowhere near a computer but have time to kill. For me, that's practically never. But if you commute on a bus/train/subway, you could have a couple of hours every day for it. Or while waiting for the kids to finish sports/music/whatever practice so you can drive them home. And so on....Zloth 

 Here’s the full thread.  

Assassin’s Creed on a PC or a PS4?
Upgrade CPU or GPU?
Two brothers build.
Help me remember this game!

Latest in Gaming Industry
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Possibility Space concept art.
Possibility Space owners sue NetEase for $900 million over allegations it spread 'false and defamatory rumors' of fraud at the studio that ultimately forced it to close
Valve soldier man on a pc.
2024 was Steam's 'best year ever' of users buying newly released games—but I wouldn't celebrate the end of the forever game era just yet
Money money money.
Valve tracked 1.7 million Steam users who joined in 2023 to see if they stuck around—they did, and they spent $93 million
Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
Go ahead and complain the discounts aren't as steep as they used to be, but Steam just had its biggest year ever for seasonal sales
Latest in Features
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Alligator skull with glowing eyes on human body and cords coming out sitting at piano with "The Norwood Etudes" ready to play
My new most anticipated RPG let me be a kleptomaniac gourmand set loose in a noir city on a quest to make 'the perfect sandwich'
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Monster Hunter Wilds' new gyro controls are a fantastic option for disabled and able-bodied players alike
Manhunt 2
I played the notoriously ratings-board-ravaged Manhunt 2 and was quite glad for the censorship actually
A busy marketplace in The Bazaar.
The Bazaar could be the future of autobattlers, if it stops strangling itself to death with its own microtransactions
Marvel Rivals characters - Hulk with his hands out as if he's grabbing the camera.
Marvel Rivals' growing roster of heroes scares me, but the game's director seems sure that all is under control: 'Everything is progressing smoothly'