Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2020 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

ROBIN VALENTINE Specialist in Heavenly writing and hellish opinions. Twitter @robinlvalentine This month Received a vision of the true afterlife. It’s mostly queueing. World of Warcraft is more than just an institution – after over one and a half decades of enduring popularity, it’s practically PC gaming bedrock. Which makes it all the more amazing that it’s still finding ways to break new ground. In fact, it’s breaking reality itself this year, propelling players into the afterlife with the Shadowlands expansion. Join us as we go behind the scenes to find out how the worlds of the dead are breathing new life into an MMO that refuses to fade away. PRINT EDITOR robin.valentine@futurenet.com TALK TO PC GAMER Have your say! Email us at letters@pcgamer.com…

HACK ‘N’ SLASH Hit an enemy with your sword and you can reprogramme its health to zero. Weirdly better than the full game it grew into, which requires a Computer Science degree to get into. AUTONOMOUS Build robots from found parts in this first-person sandbox game from Stacking designer Lee Petty. Eventually expanded for the Leap Motion hand-tracking controller. LITTLE PINK BEST BUDS Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward led development on this comedy experiment about tiny homunculi who yell at you to be their best friend.…

UTHER LIGHTBRINGER Perhaps the most famous Paladin in Warcraft history, Uther was Arthas’ mentor before he betrayed him and cut him down. That probably still bugs him a lot. DRAKA Though she never appeared in the game, Thrall’s mom is a big deal—she’s the mother of the most famous Horde warchief! Maybe she has some baby photos she can show us. KAEL’THAS SUNSTRIDER Used to be the leader of the Blood Elves before he turned all evil on everyone. Now he’s spending an eternity with the Venthyr practicing mindfulness……

IT’S ONE THING TO ATTEMPT TO SET OUT TO PLAY EVERY SINGLE GAME IN AN ENTIRE GENRE. BUT TO FINISH EACH ONE IN THE ORDER THEY WERE RELEASED AND THEN TO BLOG DETAILED ACCOUNTS OF THEM IS A QUEST BEYOND. THAT’S WHAT CHESTER BOLINGBROKE, AUTHOR OF CRPG ADDICT, SET OUT TO DO IN FEBRUARY 15, 2010, WHEN HE WROTE THE BLOG’S FIRST POST. OVER TEN YEARS LATER, HE’S STILL GOING. So far, Chester has ventured through the very first mainframe-based computer role-playing games, charted the rise of Ultima, and battled through generations of computers. He’s faced adversity, balancing the thousands of hours his adventure demands against the needs of his personal life. He’s worked on it from his home in Maine, grappling with emulators and translations, and from hotels across…

I’ve become completely tangled up in Crusader Kings III’s plots and family trees. It’s my jailer, keeping me far too busy orchestrating murders and becoming pen pals with the King of France to leave the flat. I should probably do something about that, but I’ve got this succession crisis to sort out. You know how it is. There never feels like a good time to step away from Paradox’s grand strategy RPG. It’s One More Crisis Syndrome and I’ve got it bad. Anyone who’s played Crusader Kings II should be familiar with the ailment and well-prepared for the sequel. Once again, you’re the head of an early medieval dynasty, and you’ll try to keep it trucking for as long as you can by click, click, clicking on an elaborate map…

SACRED LIES This tenet makes deceit a blessed art form—snake oil salesmen are considered pious and honesty is forbidden. Time for holy fake news. HEDONISM Party like the world is coming to an end with the Hedonism tenet. With gluttony now a virtue, you can get down with your grossest self. PASTORAL ISOLATION Maybe you just want to be left alone in a field. Perfectly fine. Everything is bad, so let’s just hang out by this tree. RITUAL CANNIBALISM Why else would God make us so tasty, huh? This is the only logical endpoint for our current trajectory, I reckon.…

One of my resolutions for 2020, back before… all this, was to be more proactive with my tabletop hobbies. I’m good at buying little plastic models and big boxes of cardboard, but less good at making the time to play them with people. This year, that was going to change. And, at first, it did. I had an old friend over for a day of SAGA: Age of Magic battles. I joined a wargaming club, and started getting weekly games of Warhammer Underworlds in. I got connections going with like-minded geeks in the local community. Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly meeting up in person to take turns touching each other’s toy soldiers didn’t seem like such a hot idea. My resolution seemed to have become impossible. But the situation…

Hello Games’ controversial space sim has always been about wonder and discovery. You don’t think twice about jumping into a new system. You just slam the pulse drive and dive straight in, eager to see what strange creatures or alien worlds await you. It’s optimistic sci-fi in the Star Trek mold, not the kind where cosmic horrors lurk around every black hole waiting to devour your ship. But now, with the arrival of the Desolation update, No Man’s Sky has taken a turn for the dark. To get started you can go to a space station, and you’ll see a new vendor, the scrap dealer, who will sell you a new item called an Emergency Broadcast Receiver for 5 million units. Equip this, and your ship will scan for distress…

BY THE CAMPFIRE 1 Aloy’s world is huge, so you’ll want to fast travel eventually. Craft Fast Travel Packs and visit as many campfires as possible to do that, then save up for the Golden Fast Travel Pack to zip around as many times as you want for no extra cost. COLLECTOR’S ITEMS 2 Buy collectible maps from merchants whenever you can. Not only will they give you a searchable area for each rare trinket on your map, but enthusiasts at major hub areas will give you special rewards in return for full collections. FREE STUFF! 3 But before you head out collectable-hunting, pick up your free Treasure Box from every new merchant you meet. So long as you haven’t snagged one from them before, find the ‘Treasure Boxes’ tab…

Schafer was influenced by Mad Max and Kurosawa movies To me, Full Throttle isn’t so much a point-and-click adventure as a point-and-kick adventure. While many adventure game protagonists are usually bumbling, unlikely heroes who make up for their physical shortcomings by relying on their wits to solve problems in their world, square-jawed biker Ben is more comfortable using his fists and feet. More than one puzzle in the game is solved by kicking something, and this refreshingly no-nonsense approach is what sets Full Throttle apart from other classic LucasArts adventures. I mean, why solve a series of increasingly absurd puzzles to unlock a door when you can just boot it off its hinges? Released in 1995, Full Throttle was written and designed by Tim Schafer, whose name has become synonymous with LucasArts adventure games,…

Microsoft Flight Simulator has recently been mocked for including a seemingly impossible 212 floor tower in the middle of a Melbourne suburb. But while other outlets enjoyed a chuckle at the game’s expense, here at PC Gamer we put in our due god damn diligence. Our reporters set out to Melbourne to find the truth for themselves, and what they discovered will shock you. Asobo Studio was right all along: The obelisk really exists. And thanks to our competitors’ intellectual laziness, we have the exclusive lowdown. … UNTIL NOVEMBER 3…

WES FENLON Specialist in Loud ninjas This month Delved into a corner of Twitch ruled by ’80s action heroes and the Hindu god Hanuman. RACHEL WATTS Specialist in Mind crimes This month Explored a world of memories in The Signifier, but still can’t remember where she left her keys. STEVEN MESSNER Specialist in Barrens chat This month Put on his Writing Hat of the Tiger +4 and bashed out one hell of a World of Warcraft feature. FRASER BROWN Specialist in Corporate slap fights This month Investigated the Epic vs Apple suit to find out who’s the goodie and who’s the baddie.…

ODDWORLD: STRANGER’S WRATH Lorne Lanning broke away from platformers with this western shooter. But Oddworld’s offbeat character is everywhere in Stranger’s Wrath. CALL OF JUAREZ: GUNSLINGER This first-person shooter might appear like a straightforward western, but it has a woozy grip on reality thanks to its unreliable narrator. HARD WEST An XCOM-alike set in a west muddied by demons, satanic cults, psychics, and more. It’s true to the cinematic genre, though: You can spot enemies by their long shadows.…

PSYCHONAUTS Super Mario 64 but with brain-diving. ONCE UPON A MONSTER Sesame Street tie-in on Kinect. DOUBLE FINE HAPPY ACTION THEATER Sweet party game designed for Schafer’s daughter. KINECT PARTY The last in the line of motion games. IRON BRIGADE Top tower defense in the mode of Orcs Must Die!. MASSIVE CHALICE One of the best XCOM-alikes released to date. BRÜTAL LEGEND A highlight of the early open-world genre. COSTUME QUEST Tasha Harris directed this JRPG, with Schafer on writingduty. COSTUME QUEST 2 Another Halloween childhood fantasy. BROKEN AGE Schafer’s messy, but brilliant, return to point-and-click. PSYCHONAUTS IN THE RHOMBUS OF RUIN A well-liked stopgap story told in VR. PSYCHONAUTS 2 Double Fine’s debut as an Xbox studio, due in 2021. STACKING Sandbox puzzler. Kid-friendly Hitman. HEADLANDER Steal enemy bodies,…

PATH OF ASCENSION KYRIAN Play as a Kyrian champion with their own powers in a boss-rush mode to earn unique loot and upgrades. ABOMINATION FACTORY NECROLORDS Love Warcraft III’s Abomination units? Make your own! Each one becomes a permanent part of the Necrolords. QUEEN’S CONSERVATORY NIGHT FAE It’s Stardew Valley except instead of crops you tend to soul seeds that blossom into spirits that give you loot. THE EMBER COURT VENTHYR Vampires love a good party, so you get to throw one. Choose guests, entertainment, food, and more.…

Chet isn’t the only in-depth game history blogger around. There are others who match his ambition and commitment, and who’ve adopted his template to cover some of the other genres out there. DIGITAL-ANTIQUARIAN filfre.net Jimmy Maher’s exhaustive history series tells the surprising and often dramatic stories behind some of the most legendary gaming series. THE ADVENTURE GAMER advgamer.blogspot.com Founded in 2011 with the idea of doing CRPG Addict for adventure games, but now written by a group of contributors. DATA-DRIVEN GAMER datadrivengamer.blogspot.com Just started in 2018, writer Ahab traces the ancestry of leading games and then plays each one in order.…

IRELAND Playing in Ireland became the unofficial way to start Crusader Kings II, and now it’s enshrined as a proper tutorial. Even returning players should consider trying someone like the Duke of Munster in 867, even if they skip the tutorial bits. It’s a good place to expand in peace for a while. DARFUR The Chiefdoms around Darfur control a strip that goes across Africa, with only impassable terrain to the north and south. On both sides are lots of independent realms with different religions and cultures, and that means opportunities. Maybe you can pick them off, or you can try to unite them. HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE You haven’t lived until you’ve tried to get stuck into the scrum that is the Holy Roman Empire. Don’t go for the Emperor…

I’ve never been more embarrassed to like a game than I have Phantasy Star Online 2. On the surface, it’s a grindy, free-to-play MMO with an obsession for scantily clad anime women wielding ridiculously large swords. Hanging out in the player hub, half the people I meet are either Gundam-style robots, barely clothed women, or barely clothed women robots. One of the outfits you can buy is just a shawl of soap bubbles that conveniently covers your breasts and genitals. It’s absurd. But that’s also part of the charm of PSO2. It’s bursting with fan service and anime cliches while simultaneously being inventive, challenging, and damn good fun. See, despite being an MMO, PSO2 shares a lot more in common with games like Diablo and Monster Hunter: World. You take…

FOUNDATION This update added modular base building to the game. A strange addition to a game about exploring an infinite cosmos, but people really got into it and made some amazing stuff. PATH FINDER Before this update, players were forced to explore planets on foot. But the addition of exocraft in Path Finder really spiced things up. I particularly love the bouncy off-road Roamer. EXO MECH Not as game-changing as the other updates here, but the introduction of big, stompy robots to No Man’s Sky is worth celebrating. Great for mining and exploring hazardous worlds. BEYOND Although I really prefer playing No Man’s Sky alone, the Beyond update finally added proper multiplayer, allowing four people to team up and explore together—or fight each other.…

TYLER WILDE TRIBES ASCEND bit.ly/3fwupRs It’ll never get another update, and it’s been hidden from Steam searches, but you can still download Tribes Ascend, log in with a Hi-Rez account, and join a server. Loyal fans lurk in its crypt-like menus, waiting for a game of capture the flag to materialize. Won’t you join us in the twilight realm? 5D CHESS WITH MULTIVERSE TIME TRAVEL bit.ly/3gyk7By When a politician does something stupid, there’s always someone who claims that we just don’t understand the 5D chess game they’re playing. Well, now I’ve played 5D chess, and let me tell you, it is a lot harder than looking like a complete asshole in a TV interview. BEAT SABER beatsaber.com This rhythm game is a really fun workout if you’ve got a VR…

IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME HE WOULD GO ON TO RESHAPE THE BUSINESS In 1997, John Romero was driving around the US handing out blank cheques to some of the country’s greatest game designers. To Tom Hall, his old Doom comrade, he gave penthouse space in Dallas to make the brilliant JRPG Anachronox. For Warren Spector, he funded an office full of immersive sim nerds in Austin who went on to create Deus Ex. And in San Francisco, he approached Tim Schafer to make a point-and-click adventure under the auspices of Ion Storm. Schafer, however, wasn’t ready to leave LucasArts, the company that had given him access to Skywalker Ranch, and to his mentor, Monkey Island’s Ron Gilbert. He turned Romero down. It’s a decision that might have suggested a…

KYRIAN OF BASTION The Kyrian are the valkyries of the Shadowlands. They have owl butlers. Signature ability: Summon Steward Call up your own owl butler, who offers you a refreshing beverage and can perform several services once per day, like hunting for Legendary item materials. NECROLORDS OF MALDRAXXUS The military might of the Shadowlands. Signature ability: Fleshcraft Form a shield of flesh and bone that protects you. Using the ability near corpses enhances Fleshcraft, making it capable of nullifying up to 50 percent of incoming damage. NIGHT FAE OF ARDENWEALD The druids of the afterlife, the Night Fae oversee the cycle of life and death in the afterlife. Signature ability: Soulshape Turn into a spirit animal and teleport forward while also increasing your movement speed. You can reactivate the ability…

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Chet has finished more CRPGs than anyone in history, which gives him a unique view of the art of a good ending. Trouble is, he says that most games up to 1992 had no idea how to finish out an adventure. ULTIMA V (1988) “There’s a note in Ultima VI about how the mother of one of the characters met the Avatar at the party at the end of Ultima V, but there is no party! You just got shoved through a moongate!” STARFLIGHT (1986) “Although maybe the literal ending isn’t that memorable, the last few hours have some amazing plot development, so it’s part of one big ending sequence.” QUESTRON (1984) “Charles Dougherty believed in rewarding the player for completing the game, so it has this fairly drawn-out ending…

ANIMAL KINGDOM A hidden mode in Crusader Kings II lets you play in a world full of intelligent animals. It’s amazing. Want to date a dragon? Go ahead. This obviously needs to be a priority for III. CRUSADER KINGS: BATTLE ROYALE All games will inevitably feature a battle royale mode, so Paradox might as well give in now. One hundred players. A shrinking map. Start fabricating those claims. CRUSADER BLING You can dress your rulers up and give them haircuts, but there’s so much more that could be added. Toss in some brooches, more hats, scepters, maybe a bird that sits on your shoulder. HOME VISIT Microsoft Flight Simulator lets me fly right to my flat, but that’s currently beyond the capabilities of Crusader Kings III’s, unable as it is…

he original Portal is the closest we’ve ever gotten to a perfect game. It’s inventive, hilarious, full of surprises, and has a perfectly balanced learning curve that throws new challenges at you just when you’re ready to tackle them. And of course, it introduces us to GLaDOS, one of the best videogame villains in history. As a game it’s wonderfully short, taking maybe three hours to complete, which means it never has a chance to grow stale, and lets you finish it in a single sitting. The first time I completed Portal, it left me delighted and hungry for more that I immediately started playing it again from the beginning. Portal has naturally been overshadowed by Portal 2, which has a bigger scope, a greater variety of puzzles and systems, and more characters…

The labyrinth beneath the small bug town of Dirtmouth is a dangerous place. Exploring the ruins of Hollow Knight’s kingdom is an isolating experience, and running into the creatures there will always ends in confrontation. Although the scale of these caverns is unnerving, exploration and discovery are the main pillars of Hollow Knight. You have to embrace the feeling of getting a little lost and letting curiosity lead the way—even if it gets the better of you. Thankfully, you’re not alone in this pursuit. Throughout your journey you bump into another traveler on their own quest—Quirrel. He embodies the game’s sense of discovery wholeheartedly. His curiosity for the mysteries of Hallownest pulls him deeper into the kingdom for reasons he cannot explain. He’s a bit of a mysterious character, describing himself…

Perhaps the most nuanced part of any PC build, the humble motherboard is not often the star of the show when putting together your parts list. Nevertheless, that shouldn’t mean you pay any less attention to choosing a suitable one—and that’s where our handy guide comes in. With AMD Ryzen closing the gap on Intel in gaming performance, many of us are choosing to opt for team red’s processors for our builds. That means compatible AM4 motherboards are more crucial than ever. But there’s also more competition, so we’ve put in the hours testing and tinkering to uncover the wheat from the chaff. MPG X570 Gaming Pro Carbon WiFi MSI $260 The best AMD X570 motherboard 1 If you want to get the most out of your 3rd Gen Ryzen…