This week's highs and lows in PC gaming

The Highs

Tyler Wilde: Geralt

In a tub. On a calendar. Beautiful.

James Davenport: Discord days

With my personal PC on the fritz and a few weeks away in Montana, it’ll be awhile before I can get back into gaming. But thanks to the new PC Gamer Discord server, it feels like I never left. It’s still growing and we have yet to dedicate much promotion to it while we figure out how to run the darn thing, but during that time, we’ve accrued a good amount of regulars. I love that I can hop on at nearly any point during the day and chat about anything from PC games to chili recipes. They’re a lovely bunch so far, and I’m happy we’ve found an easy way to build and engage with our community. We hope to grow and support it over the months to come with regular community events, but in the meantime stop by and say hello. (And please petition to bring the Pokemon-gamer room back. I’ve been so empty without it.)

Chris Livingston: Prison of the body, prison of the mind

Nice to see my personal pick for GOTY of 2015, Prison Architect, is still getting some attention from its developers. In a surprise update this week, Introversion added staff needs to the prison building and management simulator, meaning employees will be more like people and less like robots. You’ll need to make sure guards and other staff members have restroom breaks, meal times, a comfortable workplace, and other considerations that previously only applied to inmates. It sounds like an interesting added challenge, and it’s the perfect excuse to dive back into the grimly satisfying sim.

Wes Fenlon: A dungeon most dark

After listening to Evan praise its darkness all year, I finally started playing Darkest Dungeon this week, and even though I'm only a couple hours in, I keep thinking about it when I'm not playing. You know it's a hell of a game when I'm excited to play more, even though I can't remember the last game that made me so tense right from the outset. The combination of RPG and roguelike immediately strikes fear in my heart because there's so much to invest in. With a game like Binding of Isaac or FTL, say, you might be invested in the success of a particular run, but you're not really invested in your character.

In Darkest Dungeon I want that RPG satisfaction of leveling up my heroes, getting them new skills and equipment, learning how they can work well together. And the thought of losing them after hours of that investment is terrifying. Except for my bounty hunter Strivelyn, who went mad from stress on his second quest and started shit-talking the rest of the party. Strivelyn can go straight to hell.

Anyway: definitely worthy of RPG of the year.