Here's what the PC Gamer community has been discussing on the forums this week

(Image credit: PCG Forum)

This week on the PC Gamer forums: we celebrate the spooky season with a PCG virtual Halloween Party and chat about new concepts that should be in games, lock picking minigames we're great at, and if you had $7.5 billion, what game company would you buy?

The PC Gamer forums are a great way to chat with people about your shared love of everything PC related. Want some game recommendations, feedback on your PC build, or stuck on a game and need some advice? Hop on over and start a discussion—there might be others who are thinking the same.

Here's what the forum has been chatting about this week:

PCG's Virtual Halloween Party

The PC Gamer forums are celebrating the spooky season with some fun Halloween giveaways! Post a video or screenshot of your best Halloween themed build from whatever game you choose and you could win a PC Gamer tote or a PC Gamer coffee mug. Read the full instructions over on the forum post and winners will be picked before Wednesday, October 28.

Want to go the extra mile? Here are some quick things you can do to help make this a terrifyingly good giveaway: Encourage other members by giving likes on their submission. Tell us the inspiration behind your spooky submission. If sharing a group/guild/clan build, feel free to call out the game and clan name. Share thoughts on your favorite scary games. Tell us what you're doing for Halloween.—SHaines Community Manager

Here's a link to the thread.

If you had $7.5 billion, what game company would you buy?

After Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media, we've been thinking about what companies would be worth nabbing next. Once you've hypothetically bought the company, what would you do? Force them to bring their entire game catalogue to PC, or maybe you have bigger changes in mind? Let us know in the comments.

If I had $7.5 billion I'd buy CD Projekt Red... Oh, wait... That's not enough! In this case, I'd fund my own studio which would develop my dream game: an RPG in space with some very unique features and a plot which I can't reveal here.—Sarafan

I would buy this little company called Zloth Inc... what? No?? OK OK.... I'll take Paradox and do whatever it takes to get Kerberos to come back and make a proper Sword of the Stars 3. Then see if Monte Cook would like to play around in Darkspace again. Depending on how far BattleTech 2 is, I might try and get Harebrained to do a Star Fleet Battles: Federation & Empire game. (If they can resolve the IP mess of BattleTech, surely we can get Kzinti back into Star Trek!)—Zloth

Here's a link to the full thread.

New concept you wish games had

Ever played a game and thought that one little tweak would make it better? Have your say in this thread. ShadowTiger has started a thread about features they would like to see in games, one being an overflow for health storage and the second being an overflow for money storage for those moments where you're maxed out at 999 and can't pick up that 20 gold you found. If you have any ideas, pop them in the thread and check out what others have said.

I would very much like the option of doing a shorter tutorial, preferably one that can be started separately from the rest of the game. The tutorial of some games take way too long and it would be nice to just get a quick refresher when I get back to a game after not playing it for a while without having to go through the entire tutorial.—Pifanjr

What upsets me in a lot of games is lazy construction, and yes, I'm talking about things like adding trophies and achievements that not only have no reward or use in game, they are often ridiculously easy to get. For instance in Titanfall 2, for collecting the Pilots Helmets, you only get achievements. They cannot be used for upgrades, or even buying so much as skins (not a big fan of skins though, unless they have a functional vs just visual purpose).—Frag Maniac

Here's the thread.

Resident Evil 3 Remake Lockpick Simple Lock Raccoon City Jill — (Image credit: Capcom)

Which lock picking or hacking minigame are you good at?

For this weekend's question, Jody asks the forum what lock picking or hacking mechanic they are good at. Normally I'm terrible when it comes to these types of minigames, but I got pretty good at the lockpicking in Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments where you had to switch between different picks depending on the puzzle.

I'm a Bioshock pipe hacking expert! But I vaguely remember that Obscure 2 had some really out of the left field hacking minigame where you have to guess password out of anagrams that made no sense. I might be wrong, it's been a while I've played it.—Dakkon

I got pretty good at the "find the match block of gibberish text before the time runs out" hacking method in Mass Effect 2. Way better than ME1's Frogger-like minigame. Though I was decent in that one, too. I also really liked the lockpick minigame in Oblivion with the tumblers. (By comparison, I hated the trial-and-error required in Skyrim, though that got easy too as you progressed.) I don't think any of them ever made me think the skill would translate to real life, however. Especially not the Mass Effect ones.—Krud

Here's a link to the forum thread.

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Rachel had been bouncing around different gaming websites as a freelancer and staff writer for three years before settling at PC Gamer back in 2019. She mainly writes reviews, previews, and features, but on rare occasions will switch it up with news and guides. When she's not taking hundreds of screenshots of the latest indie darling, you can find her nurturing her parsnip empire in Stardew Valley and planning an axolotl uprising in Minecraft. She loves 'stop and smell the roses' games—her proudest gaming moment being the one time she kept her virtual potted plants alive for over a year.