Each week PC Gamer's writers take gaseous form and co-mingle until they achieve the perfect ratio of opinion-to-outrage. Here are the results…
Andy Kelly: Sims subversion
This week, I had fun torturing a tiny man. I've never really played a Sims game properly before, and I'm absolutely hooked on The Sims 4. But I'm not playing it the way you're 'supposed' to. Instead, I'm seeing how dark I can make it. The presentation of the game is so cloyingly saccharine, it's just begging to be subverted. That's why I made The Cube of Despair , and will be doing another equally sinister diary next week. I get a weird feeling when I play The Sims, like it's bringing on an existential crisis. I'm sitting here watching a small man taking a shit while my own, real life slips away. I need a lie down.
Cory Banks: Copy that, Desert Rangers
My last week at PC Gamer [sniff] has been a good one. Wasteland 2, inXile's crowdfunded follow-up to one of the best classic RPGs and the inspiration for Fallout, is done and out and playable. And probably sitting in your Steam or GOG account, if you were a backer. I played it for our review , and think it's fantastic. It's not perfect—no game is—but it's got some of the best writing in a game from this year, and continues 2014's trend of an RPG renaissance. In a lot of ways, it's the Fallout sequel we never got but always wanted. I can't wait to hear what you all think when you play.
Tim Clark: B A N K S B O Y S
My high is Cory leaving. /braveface
Sam Roberts: Evil most Resident
I don't think anyone actually liked Resident Evil 6 by the time it arrived on PC last year, but this week—partly prompted by the game being on sale for almost no money on Steam recently—I've become absorbed by its Mercenaries mode, a staple of the series that arguably kicked off the horde concept popularised by Gears of War and then subsequently found in every major shooter from about 2008-2012. This bonus mode is more fun than playing the main campaign, which is 30 uneven hours long across four storylines (in total, there's about one-and-a-half classic Resi games in there, but way too much filler surrounding the great bits—hence why no-one really likes it).
Mercenaries, though, demonstrates how surprisingly well-judged some of Resi 6's combat abilities are, particularly the jumping slide that's perfect for avoiding gunfire and arriving into a crowd of zombies with ludicrous panache. It's about keeping a combo going and finding more time around the environment to extend the countdown. You then do your best to take a chunk out of the 150 enemies the game throws your way, while exploring each arena for items along the way.
The campaign clearly isn't for everyone, and I'm quite convinced my obsession with Resi has become unhealthy (I was playing it until 2AM last night). This was the last place I was expecting to find an interpretation of the third-person shooter where it actually feels like there are new things to learn and perfect. Tl;dr I have gone mad and decided Resi 6 is at least partly a great game.
