Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2020 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

The problem with couch co-op is that it involves (shudder) Full Human Interaction. Valve to the rescue! Steam now offers (in the beta client) Remote Play Together, which allows local co-op games to be played over the internet. There are over 4,000 supported games at launch, and I’m not listing them here because we only have so much space. The host invites somebody from their friends list to play, the game is streamed to their screen, and away you go. While we’ve found that internet speeds have an effect on quality, it’s surprisingly solid so far.…

Remember when Steam was a drab olive green? That was a long, long time ago, and yet Steam’s library, the place we go to launch games every day, has rarely changed in that time. In fact, rumors and leaked images have pointed to a new library design since 2017. Valve’s been taking its time, but it’s finally here: a spiffy new library with smarter tools for organizing games, and big, shiny box art that makes browsing a pleasure. “There are three main goals,” said Valve’s Alden Kroll when he showed off the library redesign at an event in Seattle. “To help players find the games that are in their library and find what to play next. Secondly, to stay up to date with the things happening in the games, what…

“My favorite reference is a tiny encounter which actually doesn’t feature Ciri. When arriving in Oxenfurt, the player, controlling Geralt, can come across a conman presenting a ‘basilisk’ in a cage. Geralt recognizes that the monster in question is actually a [wyvern]. The creature breaks free a moment later, and it’s up to our favorite witcher to clean up the mess. This whole encounter is a nod to a scene from The Time of Contempt, where Ciri goes through a similar event.”…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Spring 2020 DEVELOPER Massive Damage, Inc PUBLISHER Raw Fury LINK starrenegades.com This sci-fi RPG doesn’t exactly make the best first impression in its early demo build. After some supremely forgettable exposition about a space rebellion and a corresponding evil empire, it launches into a barrage of bad chat between our rugged hero and his antagonistic robot helper. PLAYED IT But it doesn’t take long for Star Renegades to start showing off its more appealing side. As I start making my way around its overworld map, I’m struck by the colorful 2D art-style. It’s tempting to think there’s nothing new under the sun when it comes to indie pixel art, but thanks to crisp detail and some really clever lighting effects, the game’s chunky environments stand out…

think it’s safe to say there are few inviolable elements in videogames. It can often seem like anything goes, as in the pure chaos of each new world, players are tried, duped, terrified, and thoroughly tested—we play games, and they play us right back. It could be weeping as you repeatedly stomp an already dead jump-scare Necromorph, worrying about your heart rate as you face off against Ornstein and Smough yet again, or watching, transfixed, as the causality of your in-game decisions is brought to bear in the most tortuous manner possible. Games take their toll, whether through intensity, horror, emotion, or simply sheer visual noise. Enter safe rooms, the wonderful answer to the question, “How do we get players to take breaks if they won’t stop playing the game?”…

PROFILES Chris ‘Irontaxi’ Greig VP of Publishing One of the original designers of Squad. Norbert ‘Norby’ Rothermel Producer Served in the German Armed Forces. Teamwork is a hard thing to pull off in a competitive military FPS. In Battlefield, a friend with an ammo bag or medic kit is nice to have, but ultimately unnecessary. In Rainbow Six Siege, teamwork means providing intel or synergizing your gadget with another. In Call of Duty, it means… not a lot. This is by design—coordination in shooters ranges from a nice bonus, to a compelling but gamified act that lays out clear combos between player abilities. That is not how Squad, a tactical FPS soon leaving Early Access after years on Steam, sees teamwork. Squad is about being a cog in a grand machine. Matches are…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A stylish, dialogue-heavy detective RPG EXPECT TO PAY $40 DEVELOPER ZA/UM PUBLISHER In-house REVIEWED ON GTX 1080, Intel i5-6600K, 16GB RAM MULTIPLAYER None LINK zaumstudio.com You are not well. You’ve woken up on the floor of a grimy hotel room with a hangover so devastating you might as well be dead. You don’t remember who you are, which city you’re in, or what happened the night before. Apparently you’re a detective, in town to solve a murder, but you don’t feel like a cop. You feel like total, utter crud. Disco Elysium is a detective RPG of improbable depth. It’s part Planescape: Torment, part police procedural. Your hungover detective peels himself off the carpet, nude except for a pair of soiled underwear, and begins…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A branching narrative adventure set in Hell EXPECT TO PAY $20 DEVELOPER Night School Studio PUBLISHER Night School Studio REVIEWED ON GTX 1070, i7-8700, 16GB RAM, SSD MULTIPLAYER None LINK Link: nightschoolstudio.com/afterparty Hell is where everything you order is delivered by UPS. Hell is where you have to read every single subtweet that might be about you. Hell is a queue that never ends. Hell is only two days off work a year. Hell is being kicked out of a bar because you have to fill out paperwork. Hell is where you condemn a terminally ill med student to the ninth circle of hell in order to get into a party. Oh, and there’s also an Arby’s. Welcome to Afterparty. Afterparty is a branching narrative…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? The spooky third expansion for loot-shooter Destiny 2 EXPECT TO PAY $35 DEVELOPER Bungie PUBLISHER In-house REVIEWED ON GeForce GTX 1070, 16GB RAM, i5-6600k MULTIPLAYER MMO-ish LINK bungie.net It was a mistake to refer to Destiny 2 and its ilk as ‘games-as-aservice’. ‘Service’ implies consistency and a smooth user experience. Destiny 2 is something else. Destiny 2 is games-as-an-infrastructure—a subway system that gradually builds into something bigger and more sprawling; that needs to be constantly maintained; that will sometimes keep you waiting because such projects are complicated and the people running them can’t do everything at once. With Shadowkeep, Bungie is redrawing the map. The expansion adds a revitalized tourist destination—the Moon, returning from the first Destiny with a handful of new attractions and a fresh coat of paint—but also…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A hex-based tactics game set in the John Wick universe EXPECT TO PAY $20 DEVELOPER Bithell Games PUBLISHER Good Shepherd Entertainment REVIEWED ON Windows 10, Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 1060 MULTIPLAYER None LINK johnwickhex.com Grunt 1 rounds a corner, and I lash out at him like a coiled snake, judo-flipping him to the ground. Grunt 2 spots me, fires a shot, but I duck back into cover, finish off Grunt 1, then run out to meet the pursuant Grunt 2 with another takedown. Grunt 3 tries running up behind me, but I whip round and gun him down, timed perfectly to greet the recovering Grunt 2 at my feet with concussive smack across the chops. OK, that last bit may not…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? The first CCG’s latest and possibly greatest videogame incarnation EXPECT TO PAY Free-to-play DEVELOPER Wizards Digital Games Studio PUBLISHER Wizards of the Coast REVIEWED ON Windows 10, Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 1060 MULTIPLAYER 1v1 LINK magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena There are countless online collectible card games inspired by Magic: The Gathering these days, but there’s one element almost all of them fail to capture: That feeling of a magical duel. A good game of MTG is like that scene in The Sword in the Stone. Merlin plays caterpillar, Madam Mim plays chicken to eat the caterpillar, Merlin plays walrus to crush the chicken. Though it’s top dog among physical CCGs, previous attempts at bringing Magic onto screens have always been second-rate at best, and…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A funny RPG that tours a corporate-owned solar system EXPECT TO PAY $60 DEVELOPER Obsidian PUBLISHER Obsidian REVIEWED ON GTX 970, Intel i5-6600K, 8GB RAM MULTIPLAYER None LINK outerworlds.obsidian.net On the edge of the solar system, an old scientist runs through the corridors of an abandoned colony ship. He pauses before a cryostasis control panel and, of all the thousands of scientists and engineers he could thawed out, for some reason he chooses me: a janitor called Pippin with a twirly moustache and a wonky moral compass. This is the beginning of a quirky romp across a solar system ruled by brutal corporations. The Outer Worlds is a light-hearted RPG that aims to emulate the Firefly fantasy. You fly from planet to planet, gather…

If Gone Home is all about reconnecting with bygone youth, Crossing Souls is about never growing up. It’s a celebration of walkie-talkieing, BMX-riding ’80s adventures, with obvious influences from the likes of The Goonies, Stand By Me, and ET. It’s honest, unadorned, nostalgic fast food that refries old tropes in a loving if wholly predictable way. The group has all the archetypes of the era—leader, nerd, big guy, girl, etc—and the mystical MacGuffin that unites them is suitably perilous. It’s nothing new or groundbreaking, then, but that’s probably the point: It’s a loving, if slightly clumsy ode to the Hollywood American childhood. 70…

HIL SAVAGE THIS MONTH Honked with careless abandon. ALSO PLAYED Destiny 2 As a piece of software designed to accept input from your hands to produce lights and sounds for your eyes—in the most utilitarian and reductive sense—Untitled Goose Game is fine. Sometimes I want the goose to move quickly, but the somewhat awkward control scheme interprets it as a leisurely waddle. But overall: Good. The reason Untitled Goose Game succeeds to the extent it does—the reason it is now more meme than game—is, I think, as much about the setting as the malevolent goose. It’s a masterful depiction of English country idyll as a mask of tranquility that threatens to crack at any moment. A boy is playing in the town square. A man is enjoying a quiet afternoon in…

NEED TO KNOW DIFFICULTY Easy TIME Ten hours VITAL LINKS Lore guide: bit.ly/2OKQCBc Best guns: http://bit.ly/2N3po6w PvP tips: http://bit.ly/2qvTxUn NEW LIGHT 1 Bungie brought down one of the biggest barriers to entry for Destiny 2’s third year: The price. Now you can access hundreds of hours of interstellar action for precisely nada. Zoom in on your Sparrow, and get your feet wet. YEAR ONE 2 But what do you get? Everything from the first year of Destiny 2 is yours for nothing: The base game and first two expansions. You also have Crucible, Gambit, Strikes, the Leviathan Raid, and you can explore every planet. LORE ENFORCEMENT 3 Destiny 2’s wider narrative can be confusing, but don’t let that put you off. All you should know is that your character, a…

Activision Blizzard isn’t having the best year. After laying off hundreds of employees in February and killing the Heroes of the Storm esports scene overnight, it’s now suspended Hearthstone pro player, Chung ‘Blitzchung’ Ng Wai, after he shouted “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!” during a post-match interview livestream—referencing the ongoing political situation between China and the region. Blizzard ruled that Chung’s statements were in violation of tournament rules, banning him from competing for a year, and revoking his prize money—and, in a bizarre display of collateral damage, even suspending the two casters who conducted the interview, despite them literally ducking under desks to avoid being caught up in the incident. THE BLOWBACK AGAINST BLIZZARD’S DECISION HAS BEEN INTENSE The swift and disproportionate action sparked a wave of public outcry that quickly grew…

You can check out p28 and p30 for the new games, but there’s plenty more announcements from Paradox’s annual convention to talk about. Battletech’s Heavy Metal expansion, for example. Eight new mechs! Flashpoint mini-campaign! Plus a free update to the base game, with two new mechs and official mod support. All coming November 21. Stellaris gets an expansion called Federations. Based on negotiating with aliens rather than blowing them up, this DLC will let you make alliances and be a space politician. The Lithoids Species Pack—with new species portraits and ship models—is out now. Age of Wonders: Planetfall’s first expansion lands November 19. Revelations offers two campaigns, a new faction, and more. With Hearts of Iron 4’s La Resistance expansion too, there’s plenty to keep Paradox fans busy.…

GET SMART New Dynamic Collections are the best way to organize. Pair tags like ‘Co-op’ and ‘FPS’ to round up what to play. PICTURE PERFECT Near the top of a game’s library page, Steam inserts a box of the screenshots you took last session for easy access. MOVE IT Animated box art! Download from reddit.com/r/steamgrid. Right-click a game > Manage > Set custom artwork. PERFORMANCE MODE Disable some graphical niceties, and use less bandwidth by enabling Low Bandwidth and Low Performance.…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2020 DEVELOPER Riot Games PUBLISHER In-house LINK leagueoflegends.com The lack of a second title in Riot Games’ roster has been a community in-joke for many years. The League of Legends developer has dined out on the success of its smash-hit MOBA for a decade, but for its tenth anniversary, it’s finally adding a new card-shaped arrow to its quiver. FIRST LOOK Legends of Runeterra is a card game set within the League of Legends universe, drawing on characters found throughout that game’s expansive lore. Long-term fans will already be familiar with the setting; Runeterra is the continent on which LoL and the political machinations that underpin it take place. While League of Legends’ 140-strong roster of characters hail from every corner of its world, Legends of Runeterra’s first…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Spring 2020 DEVELOPER Surgical Scalpels PUBLISHER In-house LINK surgicalscalpels.com Finally, a game brave enough to answer the question on all of our lips, “What would happen if there was a gunfight on the International Space Station?” This multiplayer shooter tackles its pleasingly silly premise with a surprising seriousness, kitting out its astronauts with plausible near-future tech and maintaining a clean, NASA-appropriate aesthetic. PLAYED IT Crudely speaking, this is Call of Duty in zero-G—two teams of five pick loadouts, jump into a map, and shoot at each other a bunch… in space. But over the course of my hands-on, I’m delighted to find that the setting is far more than just a gimmick. A generous jetpack allows for all the freedom of realistic zero-G movement without any…

“It’s a bit technical, but bear with me!” says Uchiyama. “A chord is made up of multiple notes; for a basic major chord, the first note determines the basic sound (eg the note C), and then two more notes at the third and fifth intervals above this note make it a chord. So for C, that would be C-E-G. Major chords sound upbeat or happy to us, whereas minor chords (in this case C, E flat and G) sound sad or scary. I intentionally removed almost all the third-interval notes (in the above example, that would be the E note) from the chords in the save room theme and added an unsettling element by sprinkling in some sixth and seventh interval notes, and sometimes seventh or ninth chords as well.…

TOUGH LUCK Damage modeling for vehicles is especially realistic. Most games simplify tank armor down to a vulnerability to shots from the rear, but Squad takes things far further. TREAD FLAG This diagram from the game’s tutorial shows how the game assigns a unique armor value to every piece of the exterior. So you get different results depending where you hit. BOOM OR BUST Penetrate that armor, and the effect will vary based on where you target—often you’ll simply disable the engines, though hitting the ammo storage results in a dramatic explosion.…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A big-budget reboot of an extremely influential single-player and multiplayer FPS EXPECT TO PAY $40 DEVELOPER Infinity Ward PUBLISHER Activision REVIEWED ON RTX 2080, Intel I9-7900X, 32GB RAM MULTIPLAYER Up to 64 players LINK callofduty.com/modernwarfare This latest sequel/reboot has sold itself as a return to the setting that “started it all”. It’s a snappy marketing line, and it’s not entirely misleading. The warfare is once again modern and Captain Price is your squad dad. Yet it’s Modern Warfare’s moments of unfamiliarity that impress me—rebuilt weapon handling, new modes, and characters that aren’t the cookie-cutter operatives we’ve seen in the last decade. Unfortunately this evolution is only half-realized in multiplayer. Here the relics of 2007 clash with fresh ideas. Modern Warfare aspires to be grounded and…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? Tedious and confused open-world tactical shooter EXPECT TO PAY $60 DEVELOPER Ubisoft PUBLISHER Ubisoft REVIEWED ON Windows 10, AMD Ryzen 5 3600, Nvidia GTX 2080 Super, 32 GB RAM, MULTIPLAYER Up to 4 player co-op, 8 player competitive LINK ghost-recon.ubisoft.com Ghost Recon: Wildlands was a middling experience, but it wasn’t entirely devoid of potential. With more diverse missions, a greater range of tactical gadgets and abilities, and a better thought-out story, it might have succeeded in justifying its huge world and absurd number of activities. As a sequel, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint adds none of these things. In fact, Breakpoint adds nothing of value to the Ghost Recon template. Instead it transplants into Wildlands’ structure several systems from other Ubisoft franchises, systems that have no…

BLOOD FOR, WELL, ME Vindictive Vampire gives a point of life when one of your creatures dies, Bloodthirsty Aerialist gains +1/+1 whenever you gain life. Sacrifice minions to heal while bolstering these vamp acrobats. HEAL TURN Ajani’s Pridemate gains +1/+1 whenever you heal, Bishop of Wings gives life when you play an angel. Stack a deck with enough winged warriors, and you’ll finish matches with more life than you started them with.…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A ‘back to basics’ arcade racer that’s a little too basic for its own good EXPECT TO PAY $60 DEVELOPER Codemasters PUBLISHER Codemasters REVIEWED ON AMD Ryzen 5 3600, Nvidia GTX 2080 Super, 32 GB RAM. MULTIPLAYER Up to 16 player competitive LINK codemasters.com/game/grid After the precise simulation of F1 2019 and the outright terror of the Dirt Rally games, GRID sees Codemasters promise a return to the arcade joys of its beloved 2008 racer. Here, slightly mistiming a turn isn’t going to ruin your race, and taking the lead from the back of the pack is not just viable within three laps, but actively encouraged. GRID is about enjoying the fantasy of being a racing driver, rather than recreating the reality of it. It’s a promise partially delivered. On the track…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? Pulsing, top-down murder simulator with a fine line in animal masks EXPECT TO PAY $2.50 DEVELOPER Dennaton Games PUBLISHER Devolver Digital REVIEWED ON Intel Core i7-7700 CUP @ 3.60GHz, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, Windows 10 MULTIPLAYER No LINK hotlinemiami.com There’s definitely a quicker way of doing this. ‘This’, in the introductory anecdote you’re currently enjoying, is murdering a room full of people who intend me harm. And my chosen method—the thing that’s slowing me down—is to slice them all up with a samurai sword, especially those enemies with automatic weapons. It’s a futile, ill-timed, self imposed challenge that represents everything I love about Hotline Miami. Sometimes I glide through rooms elegantly dispatching everyone, then get shot by someone offscreen. Other times I’m…

There are a few reasons I picked Outdrive. The Steam reviews are good, and it’s dirt cheap. The premise, too, is the most ’80s thing conceivable: The only way you can keep your dying girlfriend’s heart beating is by driving fast down an endless glowing road. It’s nonsense, but the thought of racing to a pulsing soundtrack doesn’t sound so bad. Unfortunately, Outdrive is wretched. The onscreen feedback is practically non-existent, a problem exacerbated by some clumsy translation. Your level of success is measured by ‘Girl Lifetime’, which might be the most depressing metric imaginable. Like Hotline Miami you can press R to restart. You just won’t want to. 52…

ROBIN VALENTINE THIS MONTH Developed a lifelong grudge against Mr X ALSO PLAYED Unavowed, Disco Elysium, The Outer Worlds Heading into this lavish remake, I had my reservations. My assumption was that much of the original’s retro strangeness wouldn’t hold up in the harsh light of HD graphics and modern sensibilities. No amount of clever streamlining and updated controls could make its Scooby Doo-esque police station, replete with elaborate statue-based puzzles, an impressively stocked library, and secret underground passages, make sense. The original’s setting, though deeply atmospheric, was a product of an era when we expected less logic from videogame settings. Transplanted to 2019, and invested with so much more detail and realism, how could it possibly maintain the suspension of disbelief that’s so vital to truly tense horror? And…

The world loves Wi-Fi. Perhaps a bit too much, with congested frequency bands and routing chips struggling to keep up with the amount of data we demand to transfer through thin air. But how can we ensure that we’re getting the best speeds and how can Wi-Fi be improved for our expanding needs? Obviously, the cool kids will have everything connected by Ethernet, especially anything used for streaming 4K (and nothing says ‘I love you’ more than a spouse consenting to 50m of CAT-6 being run beneath the stair carpet) but phones, tablets, tiny IOT devices, and slim laptops frequently eschew the network interface controller, and rely instead on Wi-Fi. But Wi-Fi isn’t just Wi-Fi any more. It recently went through some retrospective rebranding, so the standard we knew and…

HIGHS Fortnite After its child-enraging black hole event, Fortnite returned with an impressive new map. The Sims 4 The latest expansion for the life sim behemoth is Discover University, letting your Sims enroll in education. Resident Evil 2 Modder ZombieAli is working on replacing Mr X with the goose from Untitled Goose Game. Genius. LOWS Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines 2 Hardsuit Lab’s ambitious sequel has been delayed until 2020. Fallout 76 Following the delay of the next major update, Bethesda launched an ill-advised subscription service. Planetside Arena Daybreak Games has laid off more employees, including a chunk of the team working on Planetside Arena.…

What would you say is the appropriate way to celebrate a game’s tenth birthday? If you’re Riot Games, and the game is League of Legends, you would apparently say “announcing everything, and then one more thing”. Blizzard’s reputation has taken a hit lately (see page 8), and Riot’s huge push into new ideas, genres, media, and IPs is surely not a coincidence. LoL itself gets an update named Rise of the Elements. This is running on the PBE right now, going live with update 9.22 due before the end of November. The biggest news here is arguably the earthquake-level shakeup for the main map, Summoner’s Rift. Killing an Elemental Drake will still give your team a buff (though some of these buffs have been tweaked), but now such a kill can…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE TBC DEVELOPER 2 Ton Studios PUBLISHER Big Sugar LINK 2tonstudios.com/unto The frozen world of Unto the End is a quiet, desolate place. Armed with only a sword and a dagger, a father must make a dangerous journey to return home to his family. After fighting against the elements, scavenging off the land and surviving dangerous encounters, will his family recognize him at the end of this brutal journey? That decision is up to you. PLAYED EDIT Unto the End is an action 2D adventure that takes place across rugged and bleak highlands. The game’s developers have created a survival game with a focus on environmental storytelling and combat being a last and desperate choice. It’s a dangerous world of deadly traps, unforgiving landscapes, and aggressive enemies, but with…

NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAY £15.50 DEVELOPER Iceflake Studios PUBLISHER Paradox Interactive LINK survivingtheaftermath.com My first survivor dies after his house is flattened by a meteor. Things aren’t looking good for humanity in Surviving the Aftermath, the post-apocalyptic follow-up to Surviving Mars. Surveying my burning colony, I have a lot more things to worry about than the now rotting corpse. PLAYED IT Like its predecessor, Aftermath drops you in a hostile world that you’ll need to make safe for a group of survivors. Sometimes they will die. This time, however, we’re back on Earth and with a new developer, Iceflake Studios, at the helm. It’s also a bit more conservative. On Mars we had domes, drones, and flashy future-tech, but back on Earth it’s all about the basics of…

Rain World’s ‘Karma’ reflects a progression based on your actions during each cycle, building toward a series of end-game achievements. Tame a lizard? You might get ‘The Friend’ achievement. Gain a reputation with the Scavengers? You might become ‘The Chieftain’. Each time you successfully hibernate following a cycle, your base level also increases, allowing you to access new areas and progression, which are often gated by a Karma requirements. This not only incentivizes survival, but allows Rain World’s safe rooms to act as a space where players can reflect—whether upon their actions, the events of each cycle, or on their place within the ecosystem.…

Communication is a fundamental pillar of Squad, and that’s best exemplified by its excellent voice comms. The audio quality is crystal clear, so there’s no need to gather separately in Discord. In fact, that’d be doing the game is a disservice, as it adds on subtle audio effects to distinguish between chatter heard over your in-game radio (like orders from your squad leader) and local chat spoken by soldiers in your vicinity. Voices are spatially relevant, so a medic can listen to a soldier’s cries for healing to determine their location.…

ERIANA’S VOW What is it? Exotic hand cannon Poses the question: What if a cannon was a sniper rifle? Answers it by being good. DEATH BRINGER What is it? An exotic rocket launcher Angry metal and Hive magic. Drops big, dirty void orbs that carpet bomb the area. PLU PERFECT What is it? A legendary assault rifle Pretty standard, but it just makes an incredibly satisfying noise when you fire it. OPTATIVE What is it? A legendary hand cannon Sure, it’s just another hand cannon. But look how cool all the new Vex weapons look! THE RECLUSE What is it? The best gun in the game OK, so it’s not a new gun. But Shadowkeep hasn’t stopped it being the best gun in the game.…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? Visual novel/town management sim EXPECT TO PAY $20 DEVELOPER A Sharp PUBLISHER Kitfox Games REVIEWED ON Intel i5, 16gb RAM, Nvidia GTX 1660 MULTIPLAYER None LINK blog.sixages.com The council of clan elders look at one another gravely. This year’s harvest has been poor, and our people need food to make it through the winter. The warmaster, a young fire mage called Yakatan, pipes up, “Perhaps we could raid a nearby clan, and steal their cows?” But Shaman Kimka has an alternative plan: “How about if we get one of our farmers to put on a mask and prance around pretending to be the cow goddess, until they get transported to a mystical otherworld, commune with the gods, and ask them to beam down 100…

After the twitching brutality of Hotline Miami, it’s lovely to play something as genteel as Gone Home. At least, it should be lovely. But instead, I find myself in an empty house, with a storm raging outside, stumbling about in the semi-gloom looking for hidden compartments. Gone Home maintains its restraint, and in doing so manages to capture something few other games do—the persistent fear of being alone in a familiar place. It’s not that you’ll see anything scary, more that you know how frightening it would be if you did. The sense of unease is heightened by cryptic notes suggesting the house is haunted. The real story, however, is far more real and effective than any traditional ghost story, even if the tension and detective work feel like they’re from the…

Whether it’s tunneling through walls or hacking computers, most problems in Monaco can be solved by walking into them. That might make this slick, purloin-’em-up seem simple, but it’s anything but. It’s most entertaining when things go wrong, and it usually reaches peak failure when you’re trying to coordinate a heist in multiplayer. Much like writing a children’s book, everyone thinks they could plan one perfect crime. The excellent Monaco reminds us how wrong we are. 88…

ANE VENDEN THIS MONTH Abused an app’s innocence ALSO PLAYED Borderlands 3, Elite Dangerous One of the greatest decisions Microsoft took when designing Windows 10 was to include the Game Bar, a video capture utility that was meant to run in the background while you’re playing a game. And only when you’re playing a game. My day job often involves creating tutorials on how to use Windows apps, and these need to come with screenshots. I’ve taken to recording video of what I’m doing, and then capturing screengrabs from that rather than trying to set something up artificially and wait for Snipping Tool to do its stuff, only to catch itself in its own screenshot and forcing me to start all over again. This is the way a lot of…

There’s no shortage of things to do in Fallout 4. Main quests, side quests, and all the random skirmishes you get into along the way. There’s exploration, gathering, and crafting, and—if you opt to take Preston Garvey’s nagging advice—lots and lots of settlements to liberate and manage. But hey, no matter how long your to-do list already is, there’s no reason not to add a few more items to it, right? The Missions Committee mod for Fallout 4 is perfect in that respect. It allows you to volunteer for challenging combat missions of several different varieties, which can take place nearly anywhere in the Commonwealth. Think of the Missions Committee like a group of shadowy overlords sitting in a conference room with their fingers on the Bat Signal. Via a holotape you pop into your…

THE MODEM/ROUTER Routers move data in and out using antennas on the top and Ethernet sockets on the back. WIRES EVERYWHERE A wired Ethernet connection is still your best bet to get data quickly and safely over long distances or through walls. MESH TOGETHER Some cell towers operate a bit like a mesh network already, wirelessly passing data between one another. PLUG AND PLAY Homeplug can be combined with Wi-Fi to create a mesh network that engulfs your whole home in a cloud of internets.…

King Robin Oddly preoccupied with the printing press, with which he produced heretical pamphlets rating the leading religious sects out of 100. King Phil the Savage Winner of the first recorded ‘battle royale’, in which 100 kings were catapulted onto an island to fight to the death. King Tom the Senior Survived five assassination attempts, believed orchestrated by Tom the Junior. Subsequently became obsessed with the concept of ‘destiny’. King Andy Declared himself ‘Content King’, distributing viral woodcuts by messenger pigeon to his reluctant subjects. …UNTIL DECEMBER 31…