Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

Control was one of the most exciting games I saw at E3. Playing Quantum Break, it felt like Remedy had been shackled by Microsoft’s desire to make a game that was also a TV show. Now Remedy is free, and once again making weird, captivating worlds. Control may be its strangest yet. Control isn’t the only game that should be on your radar. Whether it’s Mount & Blade II, Doom Eternal, or Transmission, this issue is full of reasons why PC gaming will be exciting and vibrant for years to come. phil.savage@futurenet.com PHIL SAVAGE Specialist in Quality Control by Jurassic 5 Twitter @Octaeder This month Forced the team to play Fortnite, ostensibly for research. (I just wanted people to play with.) TALK TO PC GAMER Have your say! Email us…

HIGHS Fallout 76 Bethesda has revealed griefers get a bounty on their head that’s paid out of their own pocket. Divinity: Original Sin II A free update to our 2017 GOTY brings you the Definitive Edition Ray Tracing Regardless of whether Nvidia’s next-gen RTX graphics cards change gaming, learning about light rendering has been fascinating. LOWS Riot Games Riot apologized after Kotaku’s report on its toxic culture. Its actions will be more important in effecting change. Battlefield V Dice’s military FPS is delayed by five weeks, from October 19 to November 20. The Gamescom poo That Epic even had to deny a tale about a Fortnite fan pooing in a bag to stay in a queue is worrying.…

MAINTAIN EXISTENCE Phil Savage Editor I took a week off this month to indulge in the sort of ‘holiday’ where you don’t go anywhere or do anything, but instead just try to maintain existence with as little movement as possible. As a result, my list has grown significantly. I played Madden NFL 19. I played Dragon Ball FighterZ. I played Warframe. I played Dead Cells. I played Hollow Knight. I played Monster Hunter: World. I even played Fortnite. I’m not sure how many I’ll stick with, but it’s been good to sample vastly different worlds, figuring things out as I go. I also played Unavowed, which stands apart from everything else in that I finished it too. It feels like a nice progression from the Blackwell series—adding some light RPG elements…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2019 DEVELOPER id Software PUBLISHER Bethesda Softworks LINK www.bethesda.net It’s called the ‘Meat Hook’: a pair of spikes that sit under the barrel of the shotgun. When fired, it rockets forward on a chain, attaching to demons and letting the player pull themselves to their target. The possibilities of new movement options and combo attacks are already tantalizing in Doom Eternal, and it doesn’t even come out until next year. FIRST LOOK The sequel to id’s Doom reboot was announced at E3 with a brief teaser, but it was officially revealed in August at QuakeCon with long, unbroken minutes of carnage-filled in-game footage. Throughout the weekend of QuakeCon, at panels and interviews, id Software’s executive producer Marty Stratton and creative director Hugo Martin laid out Eternal’s…

It’s that time of year, when the people who thought they had broken free of WoW’s subscription-based orbit start talking about going back to Azeroth. Luckily, Battle for Azeroth sounds like a great excuse for a return visit. I mean, a stabbed planet is now oozing geological blood which can be weaponized. I’d say that was peak videogames, but we also had a hospital management sim where lightheadedness replaces heads with lightbulbs, a mobile-game-within-a-PC-game about raccoons running a donut delivery scam, and a digital pet cemetery. Peak videogames is just videogames… philippa.warr@futurenet.com HOW WE REVIEW We review each game on its own merits, and try to match it to a reviewer who’s a passionate expert in the field. The main aim of reviews is to help you make buying decisions.…

1 THREE CONCENTRIC RINGS Each require a higher Heart of Azeroth level to unlock. You can only choose one trait from each ring. 2 BLIGHTBORNE INFUSION Spells and abilities have a chance to draw a Wandering Soul that increases your critical strike for a period of time. 3 GAPING MAW Using Soul Cleave grants you a shield that absorbs a bit of damage, increased by up to 100% based on missing health. 4 UNBOUND CHAOS Your inner demon slams into nearby enemies at the end of your Fel Rush dealing chaos damage. 5 SOULMONGER Consuming a soul fragment shields you for three seconds. 6 AZERITE FORTIFICATION When stunned, immobilized, or knocked back, you heal for a set amount of damage. 7 AZERITE EMPOWERED Increases the level of this item by…

Phantom Doctrine is a stranger XCOM with rougher edges. The combat doesn’t compare well to Firaxis’ cinematic chess game, and it does little to explain core systems that differentiate it, like stealth and detection. As you approach the end of its campaign, each mission begins to feel like the last. It reminds me a lot of Jagged Alliance—occasionally brilliant moments emerge from unpredictable systems and opaque rules, but more often I just felt bored. At the beginning, you decide if your main character is ex-CIA or ex-KGB, and this choice sets up a distinct intro to the bad guys, a conspiracy group called The Beholder Initiative. When you’re not playing the turn-based portion of Phantom Doctrine, you’re engaged in a pausable global board game against this shadowy opponent, moving your…

MOCK STAR Like Theme Hospital’s King Complex, but objectively better. NIGHT FEVER Disco has risen from the grave, and needs to be put down again. LIGHTHEADEDNESS A terrible affliction that… wait, how is he doing that without a mouth? JEST INFECTION A disease nearly as bad as its pun—patients should be put in a tent. SHOCK HORROR There’s only one cure for spontaneous shocks. More electrocution. PANDEMIC Otherwise known as ‘stupidity’, Two Point’s only real-life ailment.…

For years now, a Dreamcast has sat dutifully under my TV. Because, until now, Sega’s ill-fated console was the only way to play the original Shenmue. Yu Suzuki’s bold, divisive martial arts adventure that was, at one time, the most lavish, expensive videogame ever made. But I no longer have to endure the whirring and grinding of the Dreamcast’s GD-ROM drive, or those achingly slow load times, because now I can play it on PC. It’s 1986 and on a bleak, snowy November day, teenager Ryo Hazuki witnesses his father’s murder at the family dojo. Swearing revenge, he dedicates his life to finding the man responsible—a mission that takes him from the streets of Yokosuka, Japan to the sprawling metropolis of Hong Kong and beyond, across two huge, ambitious and…

From humble beginnings—first releasing in 2005 as a balance mod—Mental Omega has grown and expanded over the years to become what its creators call an “unofficial expansion pack” for Red Alert 2: Yuri’s Revenge. It’s hard to argue with their assessment. This is a massive mod that not only expands the conflict with new factions and units, but, as of writing, features a campaign with over 70 missions—with more on the way. Quantity isn’t a great indicator of a mod’s success, but the missions I’ve sampled so far have all been well made. More than just a sequence of skirmishes, most offer specific, custom objectives—some more inventive than those found in Westwood’s original. Take the first Allied mission of the mod’s first act, which is a retelling of Red Alert…

FRIENDS, FAMILY AND COLLEAGUES 1 A great starting point is people who know your individual tastes well. If you have a group you play games with, you can ask them for recommendations or see what friends with similar interests are playing. STEAM 2 Steam’s interface is getting better at helping you find what you’re looking for. The recommended games service is hit and miss, so try browsing the tags of games you like, reading wishlists, or following curators whose tastes align with yours. ITCH.IO 3 Itch is a fantastic site for indie games. The front page shows some noteworthy titles, but sort by ‘recently added’ for new additions or check tags you like the sound of. Games tend to be free or cheap, so you can try new things easily.…

ANDY KELLY Specialist in She’s Lost Control by Joy Division This month Nearly lost control after spending an hour in the presence of Sam Lake. PHILIPPA WARR Specialist in Standing in the Way of Control by Gossip This month Highs: The International finals. Lows: trying to find enjoyment in Spore. CHRIS LIVINGSTON Specialist in Out of Control by Hoobastank This month Braved the fires of Hell to see Doom Eternal. Wait, not Hell… Texas. TOM SENIOR Specialist in Y Control by Yeah Yeah Yeahs This month Somersaulted through Gamescom in order to play My Friend Pedro. PC GAMER (ISSN 1080-4471) is published 13 times a year, monthly plus Holiday issue following December issue by Future US, Inc., One Lombard Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94111 (650) 872-1642. Phone: (650)…

FLOW CHART 1 Chandler starts by giving writer/designer Dave Gilbert a sketch to test the playability and flow of a scene. “After this I focus on compelling blocks of color,” he says “At this stage it’s more about atmosphere than detail.” URBAN DECAY 2 “I’d wanted to do a fiery red palette in a sci-fi game for years,” says Chandler of Unavowed’s striking colors. “But seeing a similar palette in Hellblazer and Batman: The Animated Series convinced me it would work in an urban setting.” WORD CLOUD 3 Gilbert, who is primarily a writer, describes scenes to Chandler with adjectives rather than coming up with visual ideas. “I wanted the city in Unavowed to echo his narrative and reinforce the tone he wanted the game to convey.” OLD SCHOOL 4…

What to do I don’t know what to do with the Top 100. Usually your team is on point. This year, am I to believe that over 50 of the best games of all time came from 2015 and later? You name Deus Ex and Doom II, but every other game has some enhanced edition or sequel. Hopefully you figure out a consistent criteria—historical impact being one of them. David Run Phil: The Top 100 is a list of what we’d recommend right now. In fact, I disagree that historical impact should be a factor at all. The list should change, and games should come and go as tastes shift and evolve. All wondering I was reading the Top 100 with my children, and we were all wondering: Where’s Minecraft?…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE March 8 2019 DEVELOPER Capcom PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.devilmaycry5.com Nero has had his demon arm from Devil May Cry 4 ripped from his body and he’s replaced it with a succession of disposable robot arms in Devil May Cry 5. In the playable Gamescom demo, disposable robot arms litter the streets. I find one on a ledge near some fridge-sized insect monsters. I find three in a plaza just before a boss fight. Devil May Cry is hardly the most realistic hack-and-slash series around, but this is bizarre. PLAYED IT There are two types of roboarm in the demo: Blue and green, though the final game will have eight versions. The blue arm has a thrusting electric attack. The green arm gives you a spiralling upwards…

DEATH RALLY 1996 Remedy’s first project was, oddly enough, a top-down, Mad Max-style vehicular combat game. Don’t expect a sequel to this one any time soon. MAX PAYNE 2001 The stylish slow-motion shooter that made Remedy’s name. A noir detective story set in New York City with thrilling Matrix-inspired combat. MAX PAYNE 2 2003 This ambitious, lavish sequel to Max Payne combined hard-boiled action with a surreal, self-aware Lynchian weirdness, to memorable effect. ALAN WAKE 2010 Remedy traded the gritty streets of New York for the rugged wilds of the Pacific Northwest in this quirky, atmospheric psychological horror game. QUANTUM BREAK 2016 A big, loud, expensive action movie in videogame form, with a dense time travel plot and live action TV segments that react to the player’s choices.…

STEVEN MESSNER Specialist in MMOs, parrots Currently playing World of Warcraft This month Is still playing WoW. The review is done! Can you hear us? EVAN LAHTI Specialist in Spies, conspiracies Currently playing Phantom Doctrine This month Investigated whether PCG harbors sleeper agents by shouting nouns in the chatroom. PHIL IWANIUK Specialist in Racing, F1 jokes Currently playing F1 2018 This month Asked us to show due reverence over suspension refresh rates. Was let down. FRASER BROWN Specialist in Hospitals, queuing Currently playing Two Point Hospital This month Claimed total ignorance of the Hippocratic Oath and behaved accordingly. PHILIP PAWARR Specialist in Donuts, daytime Currently playing Donut County This month Decided a donut delivery service would be worth complete urban devastation. ANDY KELLY Specialist in Forklift driving Currently playing Shenmue…

ALLIANCE DARK IRON DWARF These bad-tempered dwarves have eyes that glow with fiery fury. Years ago they tried to stage a coup in Ironforge. LIGHTFORGED DRAENEI These ethereal draenei underwent a ritual that infused their body with holy light to help them battle the Burning Legion. VOID ELF Most people who try and harness the corruptive magic of the Void end up driven to madness, but these shadowy elves managed it. HORDE MAG’HAR ORC This shamanistic tribe of orcs has long been isolated from the Horde and personal honor is an important part of its culture. HIGHMOUNTAIN TAUREN These tauren are descended from an ancient war hero called Tuln, and have an affinity for the spirits of earth, river, and sky. NIGHTBORNE The nightborne live in the ancient elven city…

BRAINWASHING Erase any potential allegiances, but at the risk of forgetting skills too. MASON GAMBIT Agent automatically fights for your side when combat triggers. INTERROGATION Less exciting than it sounds: Grants some free intel or gear blueprints. SABOTEUR Bomb implant. The next secret hideout this agent visits is destroyed. LOCATOR BEACON Reveals the position of this agent on the world map. CONVERSION Can’t beat them? Force them to join your cause instead. CONTROL PHRASE Convert an enemy agent mid-mission. EXECUTION Captured agents accrue ‘danger’, so you’ll want to get rid of them.…

To survive, you’ll need to turn your enemy’s traps against them. Look out for slices, booms, stabs, and burns. Each is set off by a red button because they were built millennia ago with game design in mind. SPINNING BLADES A wheel of giant knives. Very popular with disgraced interior decorators. EXPLOSIVE BARRELS Egyptians were famous for leaving this stuff all over the place. SPIKE TRAPS A pile of defective spears spring-loaded and aimed squarely at your feet for when you step over them. FLAME JETS The wealthiest merchant of the ancient world sold flame jets and flame jet accessories.…

Donut County is delicious. A story-based physics puzzler where you play BK; a raccoon who ostensibly works as a donut store delivery dispatcher. But instead of dispatching donuts he is dispatching holes (via a mobile game interface) in order to suck up objects, people, and creatures because a) raccoons LOVE to collect trash and b) BK really wants to level up his game and earn a sweet quadcopter. After he ends up at the bottom of one of his own holes with pretty much everyone else in town, BK’s bestie, Mira stages an intervention. The game alternates between citizens detailing their gripes about a Certain Raccoon Jerk and you playing BK’s mobile game, controlling the hole to enact the events that led to the animal’s specific complaint. The puzzling is…

PATROLLING BOTS You’ll need to sneak past these grumps. If you alert them, hide in cover until their antennae go back to green. PATROLLING ORBS You can’t alert these in the same way as the bots. The downside is that if you cross their beams you’ll die. LASERS Some laser fire is there purely for atmosphere—it’ll just sail past you for the most part, or destroy an object to open up a route. FLIES These are more of a beetle-y looking version of the patrolling bots. Just hide amongst the glowing eggs to lose them. ROBOT Often, the bigger foes you encounter are part of a solution to a puzzle. Be warned: They can still definitely kill you, though.…

ARCADE Visit the seedy You Arcade in Dobuita and you can play a selection of SEGA classics including Hang On and Space Harrier. GACHAPON These machines spit out little capsules containing toys, some of which are very rare. Try and complete the collection. DARTS You can play electronic darts in the arcade and harbor lounge. Earn more than 300 points, and you’ll win a rare capsule toy. SHOPPING You can spend your yen at the Tomato Convenience Store. Be sure to grab some fish for Megumi’s orphaned kitten.…

PHILIPPA WARR THIS MONTH Knocked a third of a game off her Steam backlog list. ALSO PLAYED Everything (the game not the concept) When Undertale came out back in 2015, so many people told me that I would love it and that it was EXACTLY my kind of game that I lost all desire to even boot it up. Partly that’s because of a contrarian “I will not be pigeonholed” streak. But it’s also because sometimes, when so many people are talking about a game, it’s hard to simply play it and enjoy it. One advantage of waiting is that if I’m not playing a game, potential spoilers wash over me—if the names and places have no meaning I’ll usually forget them by the time I actually get around to…

DANIELLA LUCAS THIS MONT Learned never to do any favors for aliens. ALSO PLAYED Stardew Valley, Overcooked 2 Aggression just isn’t in my nature. I’m the kind of person who will apologize to a lamppost if I bump into it, which is why I’ve been enjoying getting back into No Man’s Sky’s space exploration, gently pottering from one planet to another while giving any animal I find an amusing name. I like to avoid conflict, but sometimes, conflict ends up finding me. While out exploring a rotten planet I pull into an outpost with a Vy’keen inspecting a clipboard inside. Thinking I might get some useful language advice or directions, I speak to him—he’s really worried about something and in need of aid. Thinking it would be a simple bounty…

SIEGFRIED Faction: Allied Nations Subfaction: European Alliance Basically weaponized Einstein. He shoots unstable time fields. CHITZKOI Faction: Soviet Union Subfaction: Russia This cyborg dog is immune to radiation and poison, and can bite tanks to death. Who’s a good boy? LIBRA Faction: Epsilon Army Subfaction: PsiCorps Oh, is a cyberdog not anime enough? How about a floating woman who can levitate tanks? FIN & ALIZE Faction: Foehn Revolt Subfaction: Hailhead Fin kills soldiers, Aliza kills vehicles. They’ll rapidly regenerate their health when kept together, too.…

I find myself really wanting Spore to be good Back in 2008, Spore was a source of daft community character creation joy, incredibly uneven ambition, and a massive row about the digital rights management software EA insisted on using at launch. In many ways, Spore was No Man’s Sky before No Man’s Sky. There are two Spore experiences I remember clearly from 2008. One was waddling around on land for the first time after graduating from the Cell stage to the Creature stage, and the other was the row about DRM. But the experience of actually playing any of it has faded and been replaced by the sense that it was one of those games that just didn’t really seem to go anywhere. Booting it up a decade later (or…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASED November 10 2015 OUR REVIEW 83% EXPECT TO PAY $60 LINK www.tombraider.com The tale of Baba Yaga was once told to children as a sinister lullaby. A creature from Slavic folklore, the crone Baba Yaga lives deep in the forest. She resides in a hut said to have chicken legs, and can sometimes be seen flying across the land in a giant mortar. Her visage brings to mind cruel grandmothers who send you to bed without dinner, or playground whispers of frightening old women who feast on the flesh of naughty children. Baba Yaga’s portrayal as a frightening old woman is evident in her name. In traditional Russian, the word ‘baba’ is thought to inform ‘babushka’, an affectionate name for grandmother, and ‘babka’ for a midwife,…

ANIMAL ARMOR To play upon Baba Yaga’s portrayal as a witch, Serafima dresses in bones, with a deer skull over her face. POLLEN Serafima discovers a way to weaponize the Vale’s hallucinogenic pollen, and uses it to poison the Soviet soldiers with fear. CHICKEN HUT Lara sees Baba Yaga’s hut in the Vale, which carries the witch around on huge chicken legs. It turns out to be a simple contraption. WICKED VALE Serafima lurks in the ominous Wicked Vale. To get there, Lara must first overcome a landscape of ice walls and steep cliffs.…

PHIL SAVAGE “Videogames,” I say into the microphone. “More like video-lames, am I right?” The crowd stares, blankly, and I die a little inside. So this is what it feels like to sell out. “You’ve been a wonderful audience.” MOVE THE BALL MADDEN NFL 19 www.easports.com A dystopian bloodsport about massive, ham-hard men locked in a seemingly eternal struggle to move an object ten yards. While the objective is simple, it’s enhanced by decades of tactical iteration, creating a compelling real-time strategy that plays out over a series of brief, intense bursts of action. BEFRIEND A PLANET ANACHRONOX www.bit.ly/2ovKaAE Go on a ridiculous space adventure with wacky companions—including a washed-up superhero and a miniaturized planet—on a grand mission to stop being a useless deadbeat (and possibly save the universe). It’s…

These days, mice can come equipped with all sorts of bells and whistles, but for gaming performance simple is generally smarter. Forget wireless, forget weights, forget dozens of buttons. This month, I’ve grabbed five lightweight, high-performance mice to find out which is worthy of your competitive desires. Q&A Why so few extras? The apparent preferences of hardcore gamers have swayed over the years, but often elite FPS players prefer simple mice with a focus on performance. What about wireless? The latest Lightspeed wireless technology from Logitech is the closest thing to a wired mouse we’ve experienced, but wireless mice still tend to be heavier and less responsive. What’s lift off distance? Good gaming mice should be quick to recognize when a mouse has been lifted, stopping any onscreen movement until…

Detective stories are a staple of fiction, but despite advances in technology and narrative ambition, games have struggled with the genre. That is changing, and it’s partially thanks to philosophies adopted by developers like Ben Wander of pulp mystery game A Case of Distrust. “An interactive mystery should evoke great detectives, making the player feel part of that esteemed club,” says Wander. “If the game allows players to solve the mystery themselves, it resonates with players’ sense of pride and accomplishment.” Players want to feel like a detective, and developers are trying interesting new methods to facilitate that. “IF YOU WANT TO CREATE A DEEP MYSTERY YOU JUST NEED TO MAKE YOUR CLUES SUBTLE” But that is easier said than done. One difficulty developers face is the implied freedom of…

When Rodrigo, the Freehold flight master, offers me a sum of gold to get revenge on the pirates that have been bullying him, I can’t refuse. Rodrigo asks me to fly around on one of his giant parrots and drop bombs on the brigands. I soon realize Rodrigo wasn’t being literal. At the push of a button, a green turd erupts from the parrot’s rear and splats on a pirate. Far below me, I hear a scream, “Argh, my eye!” Battle for Azeroth almost feels like two expansions rolled into one Welcome to World of Warcraft, a place where I’m shitting on people one minute, and an hour later slaughtering civilians who have become infected by Lovecraftian brain slugs. Don’t get me wrong, though, I love that WoW flashes between…

PRINCESS TALANJI Daughter of the god-king Rastakhan, Princess Talanji is a powerful troll mystic who calls upon Zandalari nature spirits (called Loa) to assist her during times of trouble. Believing her father to be ignorant to his kingdom’s troubles, she sets out on her own to thwart the blood trolls that have been invading from the swamps of Nazmir. JAINA PROUDMOORE Once an advocate for peace, this powerful sorceress and heir to the Kul Tiran throne is haunted by the death of her father and destruction of her city at the hands of the Horde. She returns to her homeland of Kul Tiras in hopes of repairing its damaged relationship with the Alliance, but is confronted by a mother who sentences her to death.…

KITCHEN Ine-san, the Hazuki family’s loyal housekeeper, can usually be found working in the kitchen. She’s like a mother to Ryo. BEDROOM This is the bedroom of Fuku-san, a young student at Iwao Hazuki’s dojo. He seems to be a fan of the Virtua Fighter series. DOJO The pristine Hazuki family dojo, which hides an intriguing family secret, is a quiet place for Ryo to practice his martial arts. LOUNGE The household contains a SEGA Saturn, despite the fact the game is set in 1986 and that console was released in Japan in 1994.…

There’s a wonderfully calming rhythm to starting a new farm in Stardew Valley, from deciding where to put those first parsnips to planning out future upgrades as your ambitions start to grow. But all of that goes out of the window when you start playing with others. Where once you were the sole arbiter of taste and path-style choices, now it’s done by committee. Which is great if you’ve all got similar tastes and can work towards common goals, but it’s disastrous if you do what I did, and invite a partner who’s never so much as held a virtual watering can. Setting up a multiplayer game of Stardew Valley is easy. There’s an added co-op button in the main menu where you can either host a game or use…