Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2017 DEVELOPER Relic Entertainment PUBLISHER Sega LINK www.dawnofwar.com PLAY EDIT WHEN BATTLE IS JOINED, FORCES BLAST EACH OTHER INTO BLOODY CHUNKS One of the Eldar faction’s biggest war machines is a wraithknight piloted by twins—one dead, one alive. The living twin pilots the walker using its psychic connection with the dead twin. As I sucked the knight off its feet using an orbital space laser and slowly roasted it to death, I wondered if this counts as one kill or two. The wraithknight requires overwhelming force. Once it gets set and unleashes its mega-laser, everything it touches gets melted. It can also create a searing maelstrom that can damage even the lumbering dreadnought mechs of the Space Marines—the Eldar love a good maelstrom. I encountered this…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE October DEVELOPER Flying Wild Hog PUBLISHER Devolver Digital LINK www.shadowwarrrior.com PLAY EDIT THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT THIS STILL FEELS LIKE THE HYPER-AGILE SHOOTER FROM 2013 Appearances can be deceptive. At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking Shadow Warrior 2, the sequel to Flying Wild Hog’s 2013 FPS hit, was retreading the arcade blaster footsteps of its predecessor. What we’re getting instead is firstperson Diablo, plenty of gore, and dick jokes. Lots of dick jokes. Shadow Warrior 2 still feels like Shadow Warrior. It comes with crass gags, a brash attitude and the ability to slice demons into small pieces, but there’s so much more to it now than taking out wave after wave of monsters in a corridor. For a start, the corridor is…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE October 28 DEVELOPER Respawn Entertainment PUBLISHER EA LINK www.titanfall.com NEW INFO IT’S ODD SEEING STUFF LIKE THIS IN THE OFFSHOOT OF A FAST-PACED ARENA SHOOTER The process of making Titanfall 2’s campaign sounds like a game jam to me. Twenty developers on the game’s design team would tackle the theme of building a weapon, level or feature for a singleplayer component with just one rule—it had to feel like Titanfall. That’s why you can still double jump, and why there are still big robots knocking around. Some of the quieter moments between the large-scale action are a little more unexpected. Platforming, puzzles and exploration in Titanfall? The previously online-only mech shooter? Sure, why not. The team evolved a process of creating “little compartmentalized action blocks,” in…

Being the best at what you do can really take it out of you,” crackles a recorded voice from a speaker. “It’s time to unwind! Gamble, shop, or take in a show, all at Fort Frolic, where the best and brightest celebrate success.” Fort Frolic is the seventh level in the original BioShock. Protagonist Jack is trapped in a neon-lit adult playground by the demented artist and impresario Sander Cohen, who forces him to help in the creation of a macabre work of art. The design of the level was led by Jordan Thomas, whose previous work included Thief: Deadly Shadows’ infamous Shalebridge Cradle, and who would later go on to direct BioShock 2. “I came onto the BioShock team about a year from ship,” says Thomas. “The level was…

BEN GRIFFIN THIS MONTH Discovered you’re never too old for elite sporting contests. ALSO PLAYED No Man’s Sky, Life is Strange IT’S A BIT LIKE SHOOTING FISH IN A BARREL WITH A 50% CHANCE OF THE FISH SHOOTING BACK “I enter the triathlon using a bold tactic: zero training of any kind” Taking GTA V’s triathlon scene by storm Michael De Santa has stuffed his wardrobe with Hawaiian shirts, bought a loud car, and rather fancies getting his ear pierced. Middle-age has this 45-year-old floundering so wildly he’s even taking up triathlons. A boozy retirement spent doing little more than bickering with his family might show on the tubby waist of this former career criminal, but at least when Michael’s legs give out he’s got a bottomless well of rage…

Sometimes a good controller is all you need, especially if you have a PC hooked up to an enormous TV in your living room. Consoles have been using these things for decades, so it should be no surprise to see the words PlayStation and Xbox turn up here where they don’t usually belong—console controllers are well made, and many games are designed with them in mind. That said, the PC is the natural home of the third-party manufacturer, and a few of the usual suspects, Razer, SteelSeries, have entries in this sector that rival the console offerings. Q&A Why on Earth would I want one of these? Like it or not, game designers make games with controllers in mind. They’re also a must-have for VR: it can be tricky to…

YOUR REVIEWS Downwell. The surprising amount of depth in technique from such a small action-centric game is neat to explore. Jack That’s a very verbose way of saying, “Gun feet are cool.” Just finished a Deus Ex: Mankind Divided pacifist run. Not sure punching people counts as being a pacifist but I’ll take it! Steve T Gandhi would have strong opinions on that, but as long as you got the achievement you’re probably fine. Playing the new Atlas of Worlds expansion and Essence league in Path of Exile. Lots of fun, lots of loot left to get! Doomie PC gaming: there is always lots of loot left to get. Metal Gear Online (from MGSV), one of the most hardcore competitive games at the moment. Dablim More hardcore and competitive than…

Pipe Dreams GAMES THAT DIDN’T LIVE UP TO THE HYPE ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES A digital sequel to Aliens was an exciting proposition, but Gearbox squandered it on a dumb, poorly designed FPS. SPORE Another procedurally generated space game that has become the go-to example for over-promising and under-delivering. DAIKATANA Romero’s first-person shooter had an aggressive marketing campaign, selling itself as the next big thing. And, well, it was just a bit crap, really. WATCHDOGS An impressive E3 trailer showcasing next-gen processing power proved to be a poor reflection of an average, gimmicky open-world game. THE ELDERSC ROLL SON LINE The promise of a massively multiplayer Tamriel was exciting, but the game was let down by its clunky, old-fashioned design. I’VE SEEN SOME STUNNING PLANETS, BUT MOSTLY A LOT OF QUITE…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE October 21 DEVELOPER Firaxis PUBLISHER 2K LINK www.civilization.com IT’S MUCH EASIER TO READ AND PLAY, GIVEN THE MASSIVE UI IMPROVEMENTS PLAYEDIT T his is the quinquennial Civilization game. Since 1991, Sid and friends have cooked up a slice of history every five years and each time the old hands at Firaxis have been invigorated by a new lead designer, with a new big idea. Erstwhile boardgame creator Ed Beach was responsible for the salvation of the shonky Civ V, so he’s been called in for this one. As Phil described in issue 294, this time around the design change is about unstacking cities the same way that Civ V unstacked armies, so that mature conurbations sprawl across much of the map. It’s obviously inspired by Endless…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE November 15 DEVELOPER Ubisoft Montreal PUBLISHER Ubisoft LINK www.watchdogs.com PLAY EDIT I CAN SEE BOUNTY MODE TAKING OFF AS A QUICKFIRE, FUN MULTIPLAYER OPTION At Gamescom, I got to try Watch Dogs 2’s bounty hunt mode, where you can optionally allow human players to enter your game and hunt you down for causing mischief with San Francisco’s police force. Conversely, if you’re on the lam and escape these other players’ lines of sight during your getaway, you win ‘followers’, the game’s currency. Bounty mode appears very slick. You don’t have to rile up the police to get human players to chase you—you can also activate a command on the in-game phone that immediately tags you as the city’s most wanted criminal. Next, find a decent car…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2016 DEVELOPER TaleWorlds Entertainment PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.taleworlds.com NEW INFO IF YOU CAN SNEAK INTO A VILLAGE AND ASSASSINATE SOMEONE, THE AI CAN TOO After a while, tactics and strategy no longer come into play. This is just combat,” says the developer showing me Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. After an elegant defense firing arrows from the battlements, he’s standing shoulder to shoulder with allied troops, swinging his axe wildly. There’s blood. There’s so much blood. Action-RPG Bannerlord has been in development for five years now, and it shows in the little details—smoke and debris on the battlefield, crumpled corpses of attackers filled with arrows. It’s the same game as before, where you gather armies and power, and plough through the game map getting into huge…

ANDY KELLY THIS MONTH Went under the sea, like in that song by that crab. ALSO PLAYED Hitman, No Man’s Sky I didn’t know anything about Abzû going in, which is rare in this line of work. For some reason I thought it was an arty side-scrolling platformer. Then I loaded it up and found myself swimming around a beautiful threedimensional underwater world. I was pleasantly surprised, and the deeper I swam in this vibrant, colorful place, the more I fell in love with it. In the graphics options you can set fish to ULTRA, and I suggest you do so if your PC can handle it. Abzû’s deep waters are teeming, and the sheer amount of beautifully animated sea life in every frame had me staring wide-eyed. After years…

1 BREACH & CLEAN FREEWARE Enjoy good clean fun with this freebie Spare a thought for your poor hotel cleaner. Your room doesn’t just magically tidy itself; no, a staff member has to sneak in, probably while you’re still asleep, flushing toilets and discarding pubic hairs against the clock. That’s how cleaning functions in the aptly named Breach & Clean, anyway, a wonderful silly freebie that’s equal parts Rainbow Six and Viscera Cleanup Detail. On each floor of a big hotel, you’re tasked with tidying a bunch of rooms against a strict time limit. As you clean, you’ll have to deal with the increasing ire of the hotel’s ungracious guests, who for some reason don’t want you fiddling with their toilet while they’re watching TV. You’ll mop up mysterious spills,…

THE PC G AMERVIEW OF THE WORLD THE ALTERNATE TIMELINE IS A TIDY WAY TO AVOID MEDDLING WITH KOJIMA’S LONG-RUNNING STORY Konami has revealed its first Metal Gear Solid game since the dramatic departure of series creator Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear Survive is a four-player co-op game that takes place in an alternate timeline immediately following the events of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. At the end of The Phantom Pain’s superb mini-prequel we see Mother Base being destroyed by Skull Face and his XOF soldiers, and this is where Metal Gear Survive picks up. A wormhole opens in the sky and sucks the shattered remains of the base and surviving MSF soldiers into it, transporting them to an alternate reality. The soldiers find themselves in a strange, alien-looking…

HIGH JUMPER In 18 years, Grasshopper has yet to make an unreservedly marvellous game, or a boring one. The studio is something of a cultural omnivore, and partial to celebrity collaborations. Hellbound shooter Shadows of the Damned is a joint effort with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, inspired by Kafka. Grasshopper’s games can be quite lecherous— it’s hard to defend Gigolo Mode in Killer Is Dead—but releases like Lollipop Chainsaw can also be read as satires of sexism. How to summarize the games of Goichi “Suda51” Suda? We’re talking about a designer whose portfolio resembles a series of controlled explosions at a J-pop convention—from Wii brawler No More Heroes, the tale of a washed-up otaku turned swaggering hitman, to Sine Mora, a diesel punk biplane shooter in which killing enemies…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Late 2017 DEVELOPER Ice-Pick Lodge PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.pathologic-game.com NEW INFO IF YOU DON’T SAVE A CHARACTER, THE STORY WILL MOVE ON WITHOUT THEM Released in 2005, Pathologic was a chilling and memorable survival RPG about a town afflicted by an otherworldly plague. Ice-Pick Lodge’s debut game was unique and oozing with pestilent atmosphere, but also badly translated, unfinished and somewhat broken. Now the studio is trying again, with the help of the $333,127 raised through Kickstarter. In Pathologic, your character has only 12 days to cure a remote steppe town. But unlike many RPGs, time isn’t an abstract thing that waits while you finish sidequests. Events happen on a fixed timeline. If you’re not around to witness an important scene, you’ll miss it. If you…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE September (Early Access) DEVELOPER Amplitude Studios PUBLISHER Sega LINK www.endless-space.com PLAY EDIT “IT WOULD BE BETTER TO HAVE AN UNBALANCED GAME WITH CRAZY FACTIONS” The Lumeris are Endless Space 2’s trading faction. They’re masters at generating Dust, the currency of the galaxy’s more primitive inhabitants. An hour into my session with Amplitude’s 4X sequel, I’m generating hundreds of Dust per turn. An aggressive minor faction sends a fleet of ships in my direction. In retaliation, I bribe them into subjugation. If you’ve played Endless Legend, you’ll be familiar with Amplitude’s asymmetrical approach to factions. The differences go beyond units and bonuses—each has its own specific purpose, ideology and systems. For instance, the Lumeris don’t send big ships filled with millions of people to colonize planets. Instead,…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE TBA DEVELOPER Cloud Imperium Games PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.bit.ly/2bycM5N NEW INFO THE SHIP SEAMLESSLY WARPS FROM THE STATION TO THE ORBIT OF DELAMAR This year’s Gamescom was an opportunity for Cloud Imperium to show off version 3.0 of Star Citizen. Backers playing v2.4 or v2.5 begin on a space station, and can cruise around together in spaceships, but the experience is mostly about combat, with limited sandbox appeal. Version 3.0 brings the first proper star system to the game, and it’s a major advance. I’m shown a system containing four big planets, a smaller one, space stations and moons—places where you can trade, haul cargo or partake in piracy. There’ll be a range of missions, some templated, some scripted and voice acted. In this case the…

Remember when Mafia was all about wiseguys and assorted pastiches of Italian American guys you’d seen in various Scorsese movies, like Goodfellas? Particularly Joe Pesci? Mafia III is a game about the end of that particular era of mobster, and you play the guy who brings that so-called golden age of organized crime crashing down. It’s not just Mafia’s cinematic influences that have been updated—this is a substantial shift in design from the more linear first and second entries, which used open worlds more as a backdrop than a GTA playground. Mafia III is an ongoing turf war, where you deplete criminal rackets of their cash-making facilities and goons until they belong to you. What happens to these rackets afterwards—prostitution, for example—is in your hands. Vietnam veteran and orphan Lincoln…

Los Santos, the city of angels. Or is that Los Angeles? The line between the two is blurred. The hills of the wealthy overlook a city where shuttered shops line the streets, graffiti on their walls. The white peeling paint of picket fences betrays the lie behind the dream. But where one urban sprawl is wreathed in smog, the other has a bluish haze that fills the horizon. The virtual cars rolling down its streets and highways aren’t the cause. Instead, it’s a technical pollution—the virtual world straining up against the limits of the hardware it was built for. Enter the graphical modders. They saw the sights. Did some crime. They had a lot of fun, but they always came back to that old modder’s adage: the game looks great,…

After 45 hours, I’ve warped through hundreds of solar systems, landed on almost 200 planets, and cataloged over 500 alien species. Yet oddly for the biggest open-world game ever made, I don’t have many stories to tell. My experience has been at times enjoyable and relaxing, at others awkward and frustrating, but never all that interesting. I’ve touched an infinite universe and walked away with some nice vacation photos. No Man’s Sky, the first-person space exploration and survival game developed by Hello Games, presents a universe filled with 18 quintillion procedurally generated planets. You begin standing on one, gazing at the hull of your broken starship. Within minutes, the core of the game is revealed: slowly wander the planet on foot (and awkwardly fly using a jetpack) looking for resources:…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? An expansion that lets you join raider gangs, set in a theme park. EXPECT TO PAY $20 DEVELOPER Bethesda Game Studios PUBLISHER Bethesda Softworks REVIEWED ON Intel i5-6600K @3.5GHz, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 MULTIPLAYER None LINK www.fallout4.com Other raiders attacked my settlement just minutes after I raided it I’m leading a party of raiders in an attack on a settlement. Not just any settlement: Sanctuary Hills, my very first settlement, where I spent ages building, decorating, defending, recruiting farmers to tend crops and traders to sell goods. Now, I’m happily massacring those same settlers, farmhands, and minutemen, and blasting away at Preston Garvey with his stupid hat and his giant dumb hand-cranked laser cannon. I’m a raider, baby. Finally. Fallout 4’s final…

I ’ve missed having a big chunky strategy game to sink my teeth into. I was raised on Age of Empires and feel it’s time to dive back into the world of military tactics, diplomacy, and a whole heap of numbers and names to get my head around. I’ve never played a Total War game before. What I know about Warhammer would barely fill a mouse’s shot glass. I decide Total War: Warhammer will be the game for me. Luckily my brother is a veteran of both Total War and Warhammer, so I have my own personal advisor on hand. He’s certainly more use than the old guy in the corner of the screen who keeps popping up to have a go at me. The game doesn’t do a lot…