The PC Gamer January digest: the best news, reviews and features of the month

News

January tends to have more slow news days that most months, as publishers become very sleepy after eating all of that Christmas money. Nevertheless, a lot did happen. You can enjoy some of the month's biggest stories in bullet point form.

• The Oculus Rift pre-orders go live, along with a $600 price tag.
• An absurd no-gold pacifist Hell run is completed in Spelunky.
• Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw has left Valve. :(
• The founder of a Chinese hacking site claims Denuvo could defeat piracy.
• To The Moon sequel Finding Paradise has been announced.
• Titanfall studio Respawn is working on a third-person adventure game.
• Elite: Dangerous has space barnacles. Repeat! Elite: Dangerous has space barnacles!
• The lovely Lovely Planet is getting a sequel.
• Hitman is now officially episodic, instead of kinda episodic.
• It only took 21 years, but John Romero has made another Doom WAD.
• Minecraft: Education Edition is a thing now.
• Danganronpa is coming to Steam. So is its sequel.
• Hey, Bethesda, Obsidian is totally up for making another Fallout.
• Future Mortal Kombat X DLC packs will be skipping PC.
• The Overwatch beta returns next month.
• The creators of XCOM's The Long War mod are making official mods for XCOM 2.
• Former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider has left Bioware.
• An ARG has been discovered lurking in a bunch of unrelated indie games.
• Her Story 2 is happening, although it won't be called Her Story 2.
• Quantum Break has been rated for PC in Brazil.
• PC digital sales are trouncing mobile, says a market research firm.

Features

Websites are hungry beasts that live on a diet of words. We keep feeding our website words, but it is always hungry for more. Here, I shall recycle our past month's best words into a list, in the hope of tricking the site into a temporary cessation of its mewling.

• The team rounded up the RPG settings they'd love to see.
• James and Chris L played a game that pits suicidal baby against protective parent.
  
• We updated our list of the best FPS games. It is now 100% correct.
• Andy dug out some of the best PC game concept art.
• Tim gets Shipwrecked in Don't Starve's early access DLC.
• Rift or Vive? Wes compares the two big VR players.
• What is under the blanket? Chris L investigates.
• In our regular Why I Love column, Tom S praises Tomb Raider's Croft Manor.
• Chris T considers the value of selfishness in Dota 2.
• Jody reports on the Dawn of War mod scene.
• The team gets angry, and posts their best (worst?) ragequit moments.
• We list the 50 most important PC games of all time, with contributions from famous developers.
• Fredrik Salomonsson explores CS:GO's climbing scene.
• If you're planning to play Dragon's Dogma, Steven Messner has some tips.
• Chris L is trapped in an endless sandbox of destruction (and in the game). It's Garbage Day.
• Does Hearthstone's Druid combo need a nerf? I don't know, but Shevek does.
• I get some hands-on time with The Division's impressive PC build.
• Chris L tackles Metal Gear Online, with mixed results.
• Andy talks to a record label that's embracing games.
• Shaun spends time with Far Cry Primal's owl binoculars.
• Numenera master Chris T offers his thoughts on Torment's early access build.

Next Month

January will be a tough month to beat, but February has a good chance. For one thing, it's the release month of one of the biggest PC exclusives of the year... American Truck Simulator. SCS Software's follow up to the marvellous Euro Truck Simulator 2 will initially release with two of America's many states: California and Nevada. Will it do enough to distinguish itself from its predecessor? Does it even need to? Here's Andy's review.

The biggest PC exclusive of the year is probably XCOM 2, which also releases next month. It's a ridiculously exciting prospect, because Firaxis' first XCOM was such a fine resurrection of the series. The sequel seems to be improving on every aspect, and will offer full mod support to boot.

Other big games for February include Firewatch and Street Fighter V, both of which seem like a nice way to roll on 2016's great start.