Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2019 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

PLAYED IT As a future Earth slowly becomes uninhabitable, humanity begins relocating to Mars for a better life. The problem is, only the stinking rich can afford a ticket. And you? You’re just a regular kid with a beat-up hoverbike and enough dollars for a bowl of ramen and not much else. But what you have plenty of is determination, and you’ve decided to use your hoverbike, and knack for driving, to earn enough money to make it to the Red Planet. You’ll hunt bounties, deliver pizzas, and take part in racing tournaments, all to a wonderfully chill, lo-fi hip-hop soundtrack. Developer Oscar Brittain cites Akira and Cowboy Bebop as influences, and that’s clear to see in the stylish, colorful, fast-paced visuals. Whatever you’re doing in Desert Child, whether it’s…

Song of the Caverns is the 11th mission in Thief: Gold, and the last of the three added in the Gold expansion. It sees Garrett hunting for the Water Talisman, which will help him open the doors to the Haunted Cathedral and steal a jewel called the Eye. His search leads him to an opera house containing the Water Talisman. The story behind Song’s development offers an insight into both Looking Glass’s process and the atmosphere of the studio. Song was designed by Terri Brosius, who started work in games in a different capacity entirely. “I entered the game world sideways, I was a musician first,” she says. Specifically, she was in a Boston-based band called Tribe with fellow Thief veterans Eric Brosius and Greg LoPiccolo. Several Looking Glass employees were…

Looking Glass Studios announced its closure on May 24, 2000, just four months after the launch of its final game, Thief II. The studio had weathered financial troubles for many years, but its end still came as a shock. This was because Looking Glass had all but settled a new deal with Eidos Interactive, with the primary focus of the deal being on the Thief franchise. Indeed, when Looking Glass closed, it had been hard at work on a third Thief game for the best part of a year. “Thief became one of the best-selling games Looking Glass ever did,” says Paul Neurath, the founder of Looking Glass Studios. While it was a slow-burning success, the initial sales figures were enough that Eidos wanted a sequel. “But they wanted Thief…

One does not simply walk through the futuristic corridors of Warframe’s facilities. After watching YouTubers play the game at a much higher level, I now understand that the done thing is to ninja slide into a ninja leap, and then in midair do a ninja lunge back into another ninja slide. Using this technique you somersault through levels, pausing only to headshot some enemies or scoop up an objective. Nothing is straightforward in Warframe. You don’t just level up your character, you level up all of your weapons and your pet dog. Every time one of these levels up your character’s overall ‘Mastery’ rank increases, too. You can earn rep with factions to earn gear, but half of them hate each other, so when you earn rep with Red Veil,…

Path of Exile is not the same game it used to be. When it first launched in 2013, it was a charmingly grim but janky throwback to Diablo II that doubled down on character customization using an obscenely complex progression system. In the years since then, however, that obscene complexity has spread to nearly every other system, creating a sprawling, daunting, and deeply satisfying RPG that evolves at such a rapid pace it’s a challenge to keep up. Thanks to a rigorous schedule of four expansions a year, Path of Exile is a free-to-play game that never stays in one place for long. Take Delve, Path of Exile’s last update, for example. Like all of Path of Exile’s Challenge Leagues, Delve requires players to start a new character from scratch.…

ACER $670 Since forever’ is a long time to wait, but that’s how far back you have to go to find a decent mobile CPU from AMD. In other words, it’s debatable whether AMD has ever made a competitive laptop chip. Yes, its mobile processors based on the Bobcat core were okay for budget devices, but Intel’s dominance was even stronger in laptops. At least until Ryzen proved how complacent Intel had become. But that was just desktop, right? On paper, the Acer Swift 3 is ideal for weighing up the relative pros and cons of the latest mobile CPUs from AMD and Intel. That’s because it’s one of the few mobile rigs offered with both AMD Ryzen and Intel Core processors. Yes, variables remain, but the critical bits, like…

RAZER $170 There’s no getting around it: The Razer Raiju Tournament Edition controller is a luxury item. Designed as a premium alternative to the PS4’s DualShock 4, at $170 it’s more than triple the price of its first-party alternative. The most obvious difference between the Raiju and the DualShock 4 is the former’s size: It’s definitely more of a fistful, and yet it’s a delight to hold—especially for those who prefer the bulkier dimensions of Microsoft’s Xbox One controller. There’s a textured grip on the underside of each wing, and the L2/R2 buttons are more angled upwards at the edges. The four face buttons audibly click when pressed, and the ‘Share’ and ‘Option’ buttons protrude from the controller itself, making them much easier to press on the fly. You also…

Peter Calloway, a writer who has worked on Marvel spin-offs Legion and Cloak & Dagger, is developing a TV series based on Alan Wake. Remedy’s psychological horror game was written and directed by the studio’s creative director, Sam Lake, who will serve as an executive producer on the series. “Alan Wake was basically a TV series that was put into a game,” says Tomas Harlan from Contradiction Films, the series’ production company, in an interview with Variety. “That was Sam’s vision. It was influenced by The Twilight Zone, Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks. A lot of US TV. We plan to work closely with him on this. It’s his vision.” Contradiction has suggested that we’ll be spending time with Alan before horrors start invading his life. “We can’t just start the…

YOU CAN CONTROL THE WHEEL BY SPINNING A PHYSICAL TURNTABLE There simply aren’t enough rhythm action games on PC, but Australian developer Super Entertainment is helping fix that with the massively entertaining Spin Rhythm. It combines elements of DJ Hero and Rock Band, but gives the genre its own spin with a fantastically tactile wheel-based input system. At the bottom of the screen is a two-color wheel, and it’s by turning this that you interact with the music and keep the beat flowing. Then things get more complex as button taps, spins and other twists to the formula stack up during a song. It’s a beautifully elegant control system, and makes you feel genuinely connected to the music, as all good rhythm action games should. The music in the game…

Sound plays a crucial role in Thief’s design. Players must be wary of how much noise they make as they walk across different surfaces, and must listen to the footsteps of guards to figure out when to slip by. Its bespoke audio engine propagates sound realistically, to the point where players can press against doors to eavesdrop on conversations. But Thief’s audio design goes way beyond what is mechanically necessary. Atmospherically it is one of the strangest and most distinctive games ever made. Its hypnotic, haunting soundtrack becomes the main contributor to immersing the player in Thief’s world, and is one of the key elements that has preserved Thief’s playability through the years. SOUNDS GOOD Thief’s audio design was led by Eric Brosius, whose other credits include the 1995 shooter…

Garrett’s original adventures may have come to an end, but that hasn’t stopped a legion of admirers following in his wake. According to the Thief wiki, almost 1,000 fan missions have been designed for Thief over the last 20 years. These range from dedicated fan expansions to the original Thief story, such as T2X and The Black Parade, to ludicrous flights of fancy like Fables of a Penitent Thief, which uses the Dark Engine in a completely different way. This map-making community, based around Forum site TTLG, is made possible by DromEd, the Thief level editor designed by Looking Glass, which the studio released free when it closed down. “[DromEd’s] biggest advantage is you can modify most of the game without learning to program,” says Romain Barrilliot, known on TTLG…

I’m trying to drink a dwarf under the table. He’s currently ahead, but our competition has drawn spectators and I’m buoyed by the attention. I take a chance and play a card that consumes my remaining actions—in this instance, the ability to quaff a drink—and returns them twofold on the next turn. The dwarf continues to drink at a steady pace. On the next turn I’m rewarded with an abundance of actions, but it’s still not enough. I play another card that lets me take two drinks per action. That does it. The battle is won. I am the best at outdrinking a dwarf via abstract card abilities. In The Witcher 3, Gwent is a card game that depicts warring armies. In Thronebreaker, warring armies are depicted by the card…

Do not let the adorable isometric sprite artwork, endearing character portraits, and cute sound effects trick you into feeling safe. Bad North is not a lovely new friend. It’s here to rob you of your time, beat you up, and possibly even burn your house down. Certainly I wanted to burn everything down in a fiery fit of rage after I lost all my hard-earned progress to a silly mistake for the third time. It’s a simple strategy game, almost closer to being a puzzler. You have to defend a little island, or more specifically the cottages dotted around it. You have up to four units to hold off waves of Viking invaders. Bad North is about shuffling units around to make sure someone is on the beach ready to…

It’s only been three years since the first Rusty Lake game, but we’re already on our 13th puzzler set in the macabre world. The latest game, Paradox, belongs to the Cube Escape sub-series, meaning it’s shorter, and free, and tasks you with escaping, yes, a room by pointing and clicking. Where Paradox differs from previous entries is its presentation. It’s a little more polished, and a tiny bit more story-focused, once again roping in serial puzzle-solver Dale Vandermeer, who enjoys nothing better than unravelling moderately tricky puzzles. As part of his murder investigation, detective Dale has to prod at lamps, open drawers, and use objects in unusual ways—if you’ve played previous entries, there will be little here you haven’t seen before. And if you haven’t had the pleasure, these games…

Given everyone’s getting into Assassin’s Creed Odyssey I finally caved. “Time to get in on a popular game bandwagon while it’s all hot takes as far as the eye can see!” I thought. “Perhaps I can have opinions about experience boosts and so forth, and really get to grips with a huge timesink of a game.” Now, before we go any further I want it on record that I did finally get in on a popular game bandwagon, and I do have opinions about experience, and I am getting to grips with a mammoth project. There’s just one tiny technicality. So tiny that it’s barely worth mentioning, really. It was Stardew Valley instead of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. I swear that I installed Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. I learned how to poke…

No other component can have as big an impact on your gaming experience as graphics cards. Processors, memory, mobos, and storage are important, but the GPU is the heart of any gaming PC. As such, it warrants a big chunk of your budget, regardless of if that’s an extreme build costing thousands or an entry-level PC. HOW WE TEST While the CPU is the brain of your PC, games will push your graphics card to its limits. It’s the component you’ll want to upgrade most frequently. For gaming systems, it’s also likely the most expensive part. It’s critical to find one with the best ratio of price to performance. With the new RTX 20-series cards from Nvidia, it’s easy to get caught up in a race to the top. Smooth framerates…

LOGITECH $200 Logitech might not be the best bet for the modern audiophile, but these are the most immersive speakers I’ve tested for gaming. While the lighting was a huge factor in the immersion aspect, the precision of the positional audio impressed me, too. I don’t normally like the virtual surround of 7.1 digital headsets, but was surprised with how well DTS:X worked with the G560. It’s the perfect compromise if you want surround sound without the hassle of a 5.1 or 7.1 set. They’re a steal at $200, and I recommend them to anyone who wants fantastic set of speakers. SPECS Weight: 1.79kg (SATELLITES) 5.5kg (SUB) / SIZE: 5.8 x 6.5 x 4.6 INCHES (SATELLITES) 15.9 x 10 x 8.1 INCHES (SUB) /DRIVERS: 6.5-INCH SUBWOOFER, TWO-INCH TWEETERS / SUPPORTED…

Until now, the only way to play the original Shenmue was on the Dreamcast. But thanks to a relentless campaign by fans to bring it to modern platforms, and UK development studio D3T, Yu Suzuki’s ambitious martial arts epic has finally been given a new lease of life. Shenmue I & II collects the first two games in the series, enabling you to play them in 4K with a few subtle visual tweaks including anti-aliasing and subtle bloom lighting. “The love and passion that went into these games is clear to see,” says Noel Austin, technical director at D3T, when I ask him why he thinks Shenmue has such a cult following. “The world is incredibly detailed and researched, and really makes you feel like you’re living in Yokosuka in…

You might assume that cutscenes are a simple piece of game development, without all that pesky interaction. This is not the case. In fact, examining the production process for cutscenes reveals a messy truth underlying most games—the inherent risk accompanying their nonlinear development. “For us, the cutscenes were written months before the gameplay was finalized, so we were writing these cinematic beats of high tension and emotional fulfilment… when all the lead-up to those moments hadn’t even been conceptualized yet,” says Dead Rising 4 writer Shannon Campbell. “We had a map and we knew the rough destinations we wanted to hit, but the road we’d take to get there was a complete mystery.” This process is not atypical, as corroborated by Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4 creative director…

PLAYED IT Once upon a time, Valve made a shooter. Then they made some more shooters. Then they made a shop, a funny puzzle game, some zombie games, and a MOBA. I lay it out like that in order to establish some context for the phrase ‘Valve are making a card game’: They have rarely entered a new field and not left a considerable mark. Artifact marks Valve’s arrival in a competitive arena—digital card games have become, in the years since Hearthstone, a fixture of the PC landscape. It is also the first substantial expansion to the fantasy universe they established with Dota 2, acting as a narrative prequel to the company’s flagship competitive game. Designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield and developed by a team that includes…

PLAYED IT A tonal swerve takes Amanita Design from the comedic daftness of Chuchel’s cherry-based point-and-click and into the mysterious Gothic platform puzzles of Creaks. This is a game about lights and ladders where you must lead your pullover-wearing character through a labyrinthine house while avoiding monsters. You use light to convert snarling beasts into household objects, which you can clamber on or use to press switches. It’s a way of using childhood fear as a game mechanic: a terrifying shape in the corner of the room is definitely a wolf right up to the moment you switch on the light and reveal… an innocent dressing gown. NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2019 DEVELOPER Amanita Design PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.amanita-design.net…

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s take on battle royale, Blackout, feels like an unintentional commentary on the series as a whole. It’s a sales-driven version of one of the most popular trends in gaming right now, expertly tuned to the whims of a capricious community. Blackout is a variation on ideas forged by bolder games. But with its usual array of compulsive multiplayer modes and the most instantly thrilling battle royale mode to date, Black Ops 4 has reignited my interest in the series. Note the lack of singleplayer in that description. If you haven’t heard, Treyarch has jettisoned the usual glossy eight-hour corridor campaign from this year’s game. Though I have fond memories of the Call of Duty campaigns of yesteryear, especially Modern Warfare 2’s, recent entries have…

The Red Strings Club developer Deconstructeam regularly releases freeware games that play around with the adventure game genre. In its latest, Behind Every Great One, you explore life from the point of view of a woman lost in her self-obsessed artist husband’s shadow. While he works on his art, you undertake an assortment of chores, walking between a series of hotspots in a pleasantly drawn house. As with real chores, you’ve never enough time (or energy) in each day to do all of them. The jobs you have neglected will be brought up over the dinner table, and even those you’ve achieved will be torn apart when the artist’s horrible parents come to stay. Behind Every Great One is a game about the more subtle, insidious side of sexism, where…

Theme parks are my happy place. I’ve never found a rollercoaster I didn’t immediately want to rejoin the queue for afterwards. To be honest, my not-so-secret life’s dream is to buy up the UK’s Alton Towers, live in its house, and run it solely for my own pleasure, no public allowed. Sadly, that wealthy long-lost aunt who’ll remember me fondly in her will remains long-lost. This is why I love Planet Coaster’s eye for detail. Go on a ride, and the restraints will click down over your virtual head. You’ll see the rivets on the lift hill. And you can tinker with everything. The flipside is that its tiny virtual guests are an utter nightmare to please—always complaining about something, from the lack of bathrooms to, if you can credit…

The states released for American Truck Simulator so far—Arizona, Nevada, California—feature fantastic, atmospheric driving, but they’re all pretty similar: Dry, sun-baked, and dusty. Which makes the addition of Oregon in the latest expansion all the more interesting. Oregon is some of developer SCS’ best work to date, with golden wheatfields, dramatic forests, and sweeping views across the mountains. The towns, including my starting location of Bend, are pure Americana: Diners, hardware stores, motels, and giant fiberglass effigies of woodland creatures. I must admit, a lot of the appeal of this expansion for me is that it reminds me of Twin Peaks. In fact, nerd that I am, I accompany my journey with Angelo Badalamenti’s score for the TV series. As I cruise down a long country road flanked by tall, majestic trees,…

One of my biggest problems with Fallout 4 is how most of the quests boil down to walking through some dilapidated corridors, killing a load of ghouls or Gunners or whoever, then returning for your reward. Which is why Echo, a quest created by modder Kilosandwich, is so refreshing. This one-to-two hour long quest features a load of custom voice acting and music, multiple endings, a few secrets, and it uses mostly vanilla assets, meaning you will be able to play through it without installing a mountain of other mods. Once installed through the in-game mod manager (search for ‘employment’, it’s the only result) you can start the quest either by discovering the Dartmouth Professional Building, which lies southeast of the Boston Public Library, or by grabbing the ‘All Aboard’…