Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2020 DEVELOPER Blizzard Entertainment PUBLISHER In-house LINK worldofwarcraft.com Few places in Azeroth aren’t covered in the boot prints of World of Warcraft players. We’ve been to every major continent, alternate magical dimensions, and through dark portals to sundered worlds. Hell, we’ve even been to space. But this summer, Blizzard is taking us to a realm no living soul has been before: The afterlife. NEW INFO Called the Shadowlands, these kingdoms of death are a typically well-oiled machine where dead souls are sorted and sent to different realms based upon their deeds in life—or it would be if some nefarious villain hadn’t broken the cycle, forcing every new soul to be dumped straight into a hellish abyss. “The Shadowlands pose a threat to our existence, to life, and what…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE May DEVELOPER Amazon Game Studios PUBLISHER In-house LINK newworld.com Earlier versions of Amazon’s MMO nagged players with thirst and hunger, but now a sip of water just replenishes a little health. Not much is precious to this team: if it isn’t working it gets cut, or revised. The survival systems didn’t make it, but you can still camp and cook up buffs. PLAYED IT New World’s action combat system is one of the few exceptions. Amazon is committed to making you physically connect swords and arrows with your targets—no clicking once and watching ‘X hits Y’ scroll by in the chat window. It’s impressive that hit-detection works as well as it seems to in 100-player battles. A few times an arrow or bullet whizzed by me…

Huddled alone in a corner near bomb site A, I knew I didn’t have a chance of sneaking in and planting the package strapped to my back. The defense had just wiped out the other four members of my team, and they knew the bomb was close. They’d be waiting to dome me as soon as I stepped around a corner. So instead I activated my ult, an ability I’d been charging up for half a dozen rounds. After a tense, vulnerable few seconds, I teleported clear across the map to bomb site B and armed the bomb, adrenaline pumping at the thought of pulling off a 1v4 upset. “Unloseable!” says League of Legends shoutcaster David ‘Phreak’ Turley, who was helping my team of journalists learn the basics of Valorant,…

Almost anyone who has ever played a game has wondered what it would be like to make their own, but childhood dreams don’t need to stay dreams. With a lot of hard work, and some guidance, you can help create new worlds that change the way we play forever. First things first, though, you’ll need a good education to get there. That’s where these awesome game design college programs come in. The Princeton Review has done all the heavy lifting of determining and rankingthe best undergraduate and graduate game design programs across North America and Europe. Wondering which school has the best teachers, the most prestigious graduates, or maybe the best classrooms and resources? We’ve got you covered on all that and more. Whether you’re taking your first steps or…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? Platformer meets point-and-click in the third (and final?) Ben and Dan game EXPECT TO PAY $20 DEVELOPER Size Five Games PUBLISHER Size Five Games REVIEWED ON Intel Core i3-8350K CPU, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX 1060 MULTIPLAYER No LINK sizefivegames.com Genuinely funny games are a rarity. So without overlooking the ingenuity of a game that fuses point-and-click adventures with platform-puzzlers, the highest praise I can give Lair of the Clockwork God is that it made me laugh from start to finish. Its central pair—alter-egos of creator Dan Marshall and co-writer Ben Ward—would hate the phrase ‘interactive comedy’, so I’ll simply say that this is a gag delivery device with an outstanding hit rate. It opens in a Peruvian jungle, immediately establishing its central hook. While Ben is…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? Articulate action-adventure game about death and psychosis EXPECT TO PAY $30 DEVELOPER Ninja Theory PUBLISHER In-house REVIEWED ON Intel Core i7-7700 CUP @ 3.60GHz, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, Windows 10 MULTIPLAYER No LINK hellblade.com Much like how you can tell a lot about a person from their shoes, it’s possible to glean information from the way a game handles its ladders. Stay with me. A game that lets you recklessly slide down suggests an underlying sense of mischievous fun. Conversely, if it could, I get the sense Hellblade would explain to me in great detail how each rung of every ladder reminds Senua of some half-repressed trauma. That’s an empty way of saying Hellblade, understandably, takes itself very seriously. It demands I listen…

This “micro-adventure game” presents you with six bite-sized bits of paranormal investigation, each lasting around 40 minutes. That sounds short, but that’s the point—I love being able to dip in, complete a case, then come back another day. It’s a simple, dialogue-led adventure: The characters don’t even move, but I’m too busy enjoying the buffoonery of Officer Dooley to notice. And it’s a game that nods to so many other mediums that it looks like it has a nervous twitch. Thanks to its humor and episodic presentation, it’s like the video game adaptation of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace we never knew we needed. 78…

KEY Budget build PC gaming is for everyone. Pick the parts you want to build a new, well-rounded PC for a good price. Mid-range build You want to run every new game at 1080p 60fps. This recommended build will see you through. Advanced build You’re looking for the best PC on the market and superior components. But you still want to spend smart. BUDGET BUILD Enjoy 1080p gaming without breaking the bank MID-RANGE BUILD Our recommended build for playing the latest games ADVANCED BUILD Go above and beyond with a PC powerful enough to end worlds…

Lago IV Class: Warrior Who could tank better than a World of Tanks tank? Let’s see those idiot orcs get past that. G-Man Class: Wizard We’re not 100 percent clear what his magical powers actually are, but he seems like he’d be useful. Agent 47 Class: Rogue Turns out he disguised himself as a Mind Flayer and killed the boss monster three weeks ago. Doom Guy Class: Healer Listen, he may not be the conventional choice, but he always knows where the heath packs are. … UNTIL APRIL 21…

The launch of Warcraft III: Reforged seemed like it was going to be an easy win for Blizzard—it had already remastered one beloved RTS, and people were ravenous for another strategy game set in Azeroth. Instead, it’s been hammered by negative user reviews and Blizzard is now offering no-questions-asked refunds. Poor communication, delayed and missing features, and changes to the end-user licence agreement (EULA) have overshadowed the launch—and that was pretty shaky in its own right too. Back in 2018, Warcraft III: Reforged was pitched as something between a remaster and remake, with new art, graphics, cutscenes, UI, and even changes to the campaign. Blizzard showed off one of the new cutscenes at the time, which had a more dynamic camera and animated characters. Many of these features were walked back at…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE April DEVELOPER Capcom PUBLISHER In-house LINK residentevil.com/re3 The breakout star of the Resi 2 remake was undoubtedly Mr X, the massive fedora-wearing mutant who relentlessly hunted Leon and Claire. But imagine if Mr X could jump, use weapons, and choke you with slimy tentacles. You’ve just imagined Resident Evil 3’s Nemesis, whose meme-spawning predecessor seems a minor inconvenience in comparison. PLAYED IT While the previous game was largely confined to the shadowy corridors of the Raccoon City Police Department, this remake takes the action to the streets. It’s a compelling change of scenery, with dark, claustrophobic alleyways opening up into big, open areas lit by neon signs. Set 24 hours before the events of Resident Evil 2, Jill Valentine is trapped in the city with the aforementioned Nemesis, a…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2020 DEVELOPER Torn Banner Studios PUBLISHER Tripwire LINK chivalry2.com There are many ways to swing a sword in Chivalry 2: a basic left mouse button swipe, alternate swings bound to side buttons, jabs, and overhead strikes thrown with the mouse wheel, and a special attack bound to Q. There’s also a ‘yell’ key. For those moments when you need to yell. PLAYED IT I didn’t want my time with Chivalry 2 to end. It was fun even as a sloppy newcomer to the medieval combat genre, but what got me excited was the sense that a person could get really, really good at swinging one of these swords around—that it’s grounded in physical techniques. Like its 2012 predecessor, and popular newcomer Mordhau, Chivalry 2 aims at delivering…

Every fortnight, a visit to Sokpop’s Itch page—and, more recently, its Steam page—guarantees a new treat. Maybe you’ll drive through the rain to hunt down bounties in Blue Drifter, explore a pink sky castle in Labyrinth, or spend an hour solving puzzles on Pear Quest’s little island. In two years, Sokpop has released more than 50 games, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Aran Koning, Ruben Naus, Tom van den Boogaart, and Tijmen Tio met around five years ago when they started doing game jams together, including the popular Ludum Dare. When there wasn’t a formal one to go to, they’d just jam at home. Those events always came to an abrupt end, but they wanted to keep it going. The collective grew from that, leading the four of them to…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A generous free-to-play card game based on League of Legends EXPECT TO PAY Free DEVELOPER Riot Games PUBLISHER In-house REVIEWED ON GTX 1080Ti, Intel i7-8086K, 16GB RAM MULTIPLAYER Yes LINK playruneterra.com I don’t think I can stomach buying another booster pack after playing Legends of Runeterra. It’s a necessary part of physical card games where cards often have real-world value, but their prevalence in digital card games is just an excuse to sell the worst kind of lootboxes. It’s enough to make anyone cynical. But thanks to a generous reward system that avoids booster packs altogether, Legends of Runeterra is one card game that’s easy to love. You’d be forgiven for rolling your eyes at the thought of a free-to-play card game based on League of Legends.…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A remaster of the classic RTS EXPECT TO PAY £25 DEVELOPER Blizzard Entertainment PUBLISHER Blizzard Entertainment REVIEWED ON GTX 1080Ti, Intel i7-8086K, 16GB RAM MULTIPLAYER Yes LINK playwarcraft3.com This reborn RTS spins a yarn about a host of factions fighting over the course of several campaigns, and then again in multiplayer battles and skirmishes. But there’s also another conflict: the one between 2002 and 2020. There’s the classic original game with its elaborate faction design and clever RPG flourishes, and then there’s the ‘Reforged’ part. It’s an attempt to bring the game into the modern age, but one that feels half-hearted. This is not the remaster that Warcraft III deserves. Blizzard hasn’t done a great job of communicating what Warcraft III: Reforged actually is. Initially, it…

I feel like Ghostbusters: The Video Game is what seven-year-old me would have asked for from the Make A Wish foundation. The attention to detail is almost overwhelming. Proton packs jangle as you run. PKE meters bloop in exactly the right way. And somehow, a soundtrack from a 35-year-old movie is expertly retrofitted to a modern(ish) action game. I get misty eyed just hearing the menu music. But the most striking thing is still the characters. Murray oozes back into Venkman’s sleazy charm. Ray is relentlessly chipper. And Winston is inexplicably missing from the first hour, just as he was in the movie. It’s amusing, well written, and implemented in a way that rarely feels forced, although the new recruit could hardly be more generic if a team of CIA plastic surgeons…

In The Sims, it’s usually an accident when your inhabitants end up being terrorized by a vengeful spirit. (That, or you’ve entombed the deceased’s ashes in a secret compartment so they can never find peace.) But in 2003’s Ghost Master, it’s precisely the point. It’s essentially a haunted puzzle game in which you have to scare people by tethering ghosts and ghouls to specific items or areas. The result feels like if James Wan produced a movie about the disappearance of Mortimer Goth. 70…

STEVEN MESSNER THIS MONTH Laid ambushes on players he couldn’t kill. ALSO PLAYED World of Warcraft, League of Legends I am not a brave man. Where Escape From Tarkov’s battlehardened veterans will actively look for a fight, I flinch at even the most distant sounding gunshots, scurrying from bush to bush and outright avoiding the most well-trafficked areas unless I absolutely have no choice. In the grand food chain of Escape From Tarkov, a hardcore mil-sim survival shooter about looting gear in a post-apocalyptic Russian city, I am not a bear or a tiger. I am a rat, feasting on the remains left behind by more skilled players. And I kind of like it that way. Though Escape From Tarkov has much in common with both survival games like DayZ and battle…

Investing in a mechanical keyboard can alter the whole feel of your PC. There’s nothing wrong with using a stock keyboard, but opting to upgrade one of the main ways you interact with your computer gives you a more personalized experience. Their signature feel is down to the mechanical switches, giving each one a little bit of tactile personality. There are some cool benefits to switching to mechanical too, even if you’re not primarily using your keyboard for gaming. First of all, they’re strong on customization, meaning you can choose the look and feel that suits your needs best. RBG lighting seems to be a given on PC hardware these days, but there’s also the option to choose the type of switch—whether that’s the staccato pops in Razer Greens or…

In the summer of 2019 a group of Olympians assembled in Atlanta, Georgia, to discuss development of the god-themed MOBA, Smite. The Olympians were players halfway through their year-long terms as council members, each there to represent player interests across Smite’s multiple modes, platforms, and community niches. The idea for using player councils originated with Smite’s sibling game Paladins in the run-up to the 2018 Hi-Rez Expo event. The Paladins team were focusing on quality and community, explains brand director Alex Cantatore. Their thinking was, “It would be great to actually just get [the community] involved in the decision-making process and give them early looks at the things that we’re doing and find out if this is something we should be doing.” There had also been a slight shift in the workforce.…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE May 22 DEVELOPER Tripwire PUBLISHER In-house LINK tripwireinteractive.com/games If it were easy to make games about being a shark, I’d be able to name more than just Jaws Unleashed—a 2006 game Tripwire played as it figured out how to build its shark-based RPG. With the caveat that there isn’t much competition, Maneater may be the best shark action yet. PLAYED IT Fish don’t talk, which makes storytelling difficult. To solve that, Maneater is framed as a reality show akin to Deadliest Catch, with actor Chris Parnell narrating your movements in the water, explaining your shark nature as you swim around devouring hapless beach-goers. You have a human nemesis, a shark hunter who’s the star of this reality show, as well as underwater enemies, apex predators who’ve muscled into your…

Jesus Christ,” mutters Larian CEO Swen Vincke as another arrow hits his unconscious wizard. We’ve barely started our journey to Baldur’s Gate, and we’re close to a second party wipe. Vincke gets creative. He takes off his boot and throws it at a bandit, dealing a very small amount of damage. Five minutes later, unrelated to his missing footwear, he slips on some stairs and dies. Baldur’s Gate III promises an epic yarn full of cosmic invaders, trap-filled dungeons, and more characters with a mysterious past than an Agatha Christie mystery. And just like its tabletop progenitor, a few unlucky rolls and some interesting decisions can transform it into a brilliant comedy of errors. Details were slim last time we spoke to Larian about its next big RPG, but this time…

Bernband An explore-’em-up set in a moody alien city, Bernband is a joy to get lost in. It’s a pure walking sim, in that it’s all you do. You can wander under flying cars, hit up a space nightclub, and experience a snapshot of alien life. The 2014 original is free, and a new one has been in development for a while. Soko Loco Deluxe This miniature train tycoon game hides a surprisingly deep management sim underneath its cute pixel art aesthetic. Across 20 randomly generated levels—and many more, thanks to the scenario editor—you have to construct a railway empire, deliver cargo, and nurture little towns. It’s one of Sokpop’s larger games, but it still feels like a bite-sized game you can dip into for 20 minutes. Simmiland Nurture a…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A point-and-click adventure game of Americana and weirdness EXPECT TO PAY $25 DEVELOPER Cardboard Computer PUBLISHER Annapurna Interactive REVIEWED ON Intel Core i3-8350K CPU, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX 1060 MULTIPLAYER No LINK kentuckyroutezero.com It’s taken seven years for developer Cardboard Computer to release all five episodes of its otherworldly adventure. It was first Kickstarted in 2011. Where games like The Walking Dead or Life is Strange will drop episodes at most months apart, Kentucky Route Zero irregularly wandered into our lives with two hours of surreal, evocative story before disappearing once again—slinking back into the aether until it was time for the next episode. It’s strange having to review a game that I’ve been playing for over seven years. In some ways it’s a weirdly nostalgic experience, a reminder that…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? The story of Nazi Germany, as experienced by a fictional group of its citizens EXPECT TO PAY $15 DEVELOPER Paintbucket Games PUBLISHER HandyGames REVIEWED ON GeForce GTX 1650, AMD Ryzen 5 3550H, 8 GB RAM MULTIPLAYER No LINK paintbucket.de/en/ttdot No matter how intelligent or empathetic you are, it’s incredibly difficult—arguably impossible—to truly comprehend the enormity of the atrocities of Nazi Germany. Videogames usually seek to loosen your grip on the concept further, by saying little more than “go shoot every Nazi soldier you find in the face”. But this pigeonhole-defying game, while still fully failing to communicate the scale of events, opens your eyes somewhat wider in a very impressive way. The result is an incredibly affecting emotional journey through history. You and your…

Another ghostly title set in New York, The Blackwell Legacy was the second game from Unavowed’s Dave Gilbert, released back in 2006. Luckily, point-and-click games don’t age. The story holds up and most of the scenes have conflict and purpose. The stakes are clear for hero Rosa, who has to work with spectral guide Joey or risk being institutionalized. It’s a knowing adventure game: There’s even an animal puzzle that nods to Broken Sword’s wretched goat. Couple this with characters that feel relatable if not always likable, and it’s a good alternative to the Ghostbusters approach to undead relations. 84…

JOANNA NELIUS THIS MONTH Slew monster bullies with a flashlight. ALSO PLAYED The Outer Worlds If you’ve ever had a nightmare about your hometown turning into something macabre and barely recognizable, that’s Gylt. The town is devoid of life. Abandoned cars litter the cracked and crumbling streets. Humanoid monsters with boils on their black skin wait for you around every corner. And you play as a little girl named Sally in this Stranger Things-esque world trying to save your cousin, Emily, from the creatures hell-bent on destroying her and you. Gylt is a Google Stadia exclusive that I’ve been chipping away at ever since I completed my review for the platform back in November. Google hasn’t said when it will offer free subscriptions to its service, so if you want to…

When I installed the Stardew Valley Expanded mod, I hadn’t played Stardew in several months. I’d yet to try the enormous ‘everything’ update that added a plethora of new items, crops, clothes, and bug fixes. If I were to succinctly explain SVE’s level of quality: I didn’t know the difference between what had been added in the official update, and what was part of the mod. Stardew Valley Expanded, true to its name, does what a proper expansion can for any other game. It adds new characters, new locations, events, and feels like it could have been a part of Stardew Valley from the start. I start a new farm and, having apparently evaporated every ounce of creativity in my body, name it the Expanded farm. I’ll remember which is my modded save file, at…

For many decades now we’ve been melting sand and making it think. The current photolithography process for making microchips, such as the CPU and GPU inside your PC, dates back to around 1977, and involves painting light-sensitive chemicals onto a wafer of silicon, then shining UV lasers through a mask so that they mark the chip’s pathways into the chemical, then a bath in something nasty that dissolves the top layer of silicon not protected by photoresist. The process has been evolving, but now it’s starting to reach the end of its useful life. Why? Because chip pathways are, if you believe the PR exhalations of chip manufacturers, now as small as 7nm across. They’re not, of course, as the nanometer measurements are more like marketing terms these days, and…