Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2025 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

NEED TO K NOW RELEASE January 30, 2025 DEVELOPER Rebellion PUBLISHER Rebellion LINK rebellion.com A naive part of me expected Sniper Elite Resistance to deviate from the Sniper Elite formula, if only a touch. I thought maybe we’d be shooting something other than Nazis, perhaps during a point in history that’s not World War II. No: Sniper Elite Resistance is still about shooting Nazis during WWII. Not only that, but like Sniper Elite 5, Sniper Elite Resistance is set in France. I guess it has to be Nazis every time. No other baddies are as unambiguously villainous in the history of sniper rifles, except for zombies, and Rebellion has a whole other series for that (the Zombie Army series, where the zombies are, I shit you not, Nazis too). When the violence…

NEED TO K NOW RELEASE Nov 12 (Early Access) DEVELOPER Triassic Games PUBLISHER Microprose Software LINK microprose.com A Microprose game about Cold War naval battles? For gamers of a certain vintage, those words will come with expectations of a large cardboard box and a particularly thick manual, accompanied by at least four floppy disks. Sadly, in the age of Steam, we can no longer enjoy such luxuries. FIRST LOOK For the ships in Sea Power, however, it’s very much the age of diesel. The team at Triassic Games includes the lead designer of Cold Waters, the 2017 submarine sim developed and published by Killerfish Games, so there’s an experienced hand on the tiller. What we get here are some of the most exciting naval jet aircraft recreated in the Unity…

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NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? The latest in virtual aviation that includes the highest-fidelity recreation of our planet in any videogame to date EXPECT TO PAY $70 DEVELOPER Asobo Studio PUBLISHER Microsoft REVIEWED ON Ryzen 7 3700X, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super, Logitech Extreme 3D Pro MULTIPLAYER Leaderboards LINK flightsimulator.com/microsoft-flightsimulator-2024/ Presenting the entire Earth in even greater fidelity than its 2020 predecessor, it’s hard to overstate what a remarkable technical accomplishment Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 represents. The aircraft and cockpits are astoundingly detailed, both visually and in how they function. The physics of flight are delightfully authentic, and while it has its quirks, no one has ever even tried to include our entire planet in a game with such fine-grain detail. Before we get ahead of ourselves,…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? Eyeball-searing cyberpunk pinball bliss EXPECT TO PAY $15 DEVELOPER WIZNWAR, FLARB LLC PUBLISHER FLARB LLC REVIEWED ON IntelCore i9-13900HX, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 MULTIPLAYER No LINK xenotilt.com I thought I could handle this. I knew I was in for another round of traditional pinball skill mixed with shmup-like sprays of bullets, just like the developer’s previous “occult pinball action” hit, Demon’s Tilt. But no, I was initially as overwhelmed by Xenotilt: Hostile Pinball Action’s riot of color, fireworks, and pixelled retro cyberpunk style as anyone. There are energy scythes, cyber-scorpion women and dragon-adjudicated billiards here. Xenotilt has just one table, but it’s so big it’s essentially three different pinball machines stacked on top of each other, each zone feeling like a section…

NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAY Free DEVELOPER Guillem Espias LINK bit.ly/CampsiteGame Warm-hearted adventure game The Campsite has some of the best pixel art I’ve seen in, well, any game. The characters are expressively animated and the backgrounds are sumptuously drawn. You can understand why there are only a few of them, but a satisfying adventure nevertheless unfolds in this small, detailed space. The adventure takes the form of a treasure hunt, where three kids liberate a classic car and head off into the jungle in search of the booty, and there are some lovely, not too tricky puzzles as you work your way to the conclusion. Many of them revolve around that car, as you manipulate its outside and interior to build your camp and ultimately access the dig…

NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAY $11.40 DEVELOPER Cloak & Dagger Games PUBLISHER Wadjet Eye Games It’s always lovely when a game set in England shows us somewhere other than London. It might be four times smaller than California, but Old Albion has a tremendous degree of variety: accents change every five miles and the landscapes can switch as quickly as the word for ‘bread roll’. The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow probably takes place in bun territory—further north would be barmcakes; further west, breadcakes—in a village called Bewley, which is pronounced as written but feels like it should be spelled Beaughlieugh. What starts as an antiquarian mystery quickly becomes personal for Thomasina Bateman, and Samantha Béart’s performance brings believable warmth and drive to the story. Even when surrounded by gruff,…

It’s an odd rite of passage, when you think about it. You might have 10,000 hours in Dwarf Fortress. You might have a favorite DPI. You might even be able to name every 90% PCG review back to the ’90s, including the mad ones like Braveheart. But on some level, you only reach a certain level of enthusiast cred once you’ve willfully dismantled the box that makes your games happen, and then had a guess at how to put it all back together again, but this time with a new thing inside it. It’s an endeavor that’s equally fraught with peril and rich with payoff, and which there’s no adequate preparation for, no matter how many hours of Linus you watch beforehand. Learning how to build or upgrade a PC…

NEED TO K NOW RELEASE 2025 DEVELOPER FromSoftware PUBLISHER Bandai Namco LINK bandainamcoent.com FromSoftware producer Yasuhiro Kitao asks us to forgive him if he seems nervous. He doesn’t, but I’d have sweated through my socks if I was in his shoes—he’s about to let us play FromSoftware’s next game and, after the phenomenon of Elden Ring, it’s the last thing any of us expect. Because it looks—and I say this with zero shade—like a mod. Modders delight in remixing the familiar FromSoftware RPGs into games that are easier (or harder), sillier (or scarier). The Seamless Co-Op mod for Elden Ring has been downloaded by more than 2.5 million PC gamers. Randomizers that shuffle Souls games’ items and enemy locations are mainstays of speedrunning events. So who says FromSoftware can’t get…

Following the modest success of the first remastered Tomb Raider trilogy, it was as inevitable as the turning of a hidden ancient mechanism that the next three games in the series would meet the same fate. Thing is, games IV, V and VI—known here as the Darkness Trilogy—are a bit of a mixed bag. Best of all is IV—1999’s The Last Revelation—in which Lara accidentally wakes up an ancient Egyptian god and goes on pyramid-based adventures to stop him ending the world. Game V is Chronicles, a series of flashbacks over Lara’s life framed by her own funeral, and introduces stealth to the series as she slinks around New York. But she’s not really dead, as while Core Design had tried to kill her off, the games’ publisher wasn’t having…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Nov 18 (Early Access) DEVELOPER Gemelli Games PUBLISHER Gemelli Games LINK s.team/a/2148970 Final Fantasy Tactics meets League of Legends” reads the press release announcing turn-based tactics game Skygard Arena, a bold claim invoking two titans of their respective genres. Its blend of solo campaigning and PvP arena battles backs the boast, though its turn-based combat definitely favours one side of the comparison. FIRST LOOK With ‘Arena’ in the game’s title, the singleplayer portions of the game may come as a surprise. They’re story-based, and see a party of three heroes, each with two personas and primary, secondary and ultimate abilities, moving through maps that have a hint of a fantasy XCOM 2 about them, with their high and low barriers, water features, mysterious glowing things and…

When Ubisoft published Far Cry on March 23, 2004, it was a watershed moment in gaming. Casting players as an ex-soldier battling mercenaries across a tropical archipelago, Far Cry dragged first-person shooters out of tight linear corridors into vast, open-ended levels. A glimpse of gaming’s future, Far Cry was a hit, selling 2.5 million copies and spawning one of the most successful shooter series’ of the last 20 years. Inside Crytek, the neophyte German studio that had developed Far Cry, the general feeling was euphoric. “The ego was boosted across the board,” says Cevat Yerli, Crytek’s founder and former CEO, and Far Cry’s director. “Everybody was like, ‘We can build Far Cry 2 in a year!’” Ubisoft was likewise keen for Crytek to capitalize upon its success, and follow-up Far Cry…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A first-person, globe-trotting adventure starring everyone’s favorite archaeologist EXPECT TO PAY $70 DEVELOPER MachineGames PUBLISHER Bethesda REVIEWED ON Intel Core i5 12600K, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 MULTIPLAYER No LINK indianajones.bethesda.net I wasn’t over the moon about the prospect of a triple-A Indiana Jones game before starting The Great Circle. A new MachineGames joint, now that’s something I’d hang my hat on, but Dr Jones? How many stories could there be left to tell about the Connecticut-based archaeologist named after Illinois’ weird little neighbor? It turns out he had at least one fantastic videogame left in the tank—MachineGames’ finest to date. The pairing made sense on paper: the neo-Wolfenstein games were pulpy adventures with tons of heart where an all-American protagonist gave those…

NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAY $20 DEVELOPER Hidden Fields PUBLISHER Annapurna Interactive It’s nice to see a hand-drawn game I can relate to. That’s not to suggest, on any level, that I’m capable of recreating the art in Mundaun. More that the game’s mix of scratchy, sepia-toned pencil etchings feels more relatable to me than the sleek lines of a Hollow Knight or Cuphead. It also helps with the cloying sense of alpine dread. From the opening moments, the look and feel of Mudaun recalls those bleak, upsetting animations that traumatized you as a child, causing you to Google them years later as a means of catharsis. This bold design choice encapsulates everything good and bad about the game: at its best, it’s unique, unsettling, and effective; at its…

The last year has been one of change for AMD and Intel, with both rolling out new ranges of desktop CPUs. The former launched the Ryzen 9000-series in August, using its Zen 5 architecture, which is an overhaul of Zen 4 for more speed. Intel released the Core Ultra 200S lineup in October, based on Arrow Lake, its first multi-tile chip for desktop PCs. The old Core names are now gone, along with Hyper-Threading and support for DDR4. In their place is a big reduction in power. Let’s go! Ryzen 5 9600X AMD $279 Little Zen 1 It’s the cheapest of all the new processors from AMD and Intel, but don’t let the price deceive you. The Ryzen 5 9600X might just be all the gaming CPU you need. Compared to…

1 month ASSETTO CORSA EVO RELEASE January 16, 2025 | DEVELOPER KUNOS Simulazioni A driving simulator geared towards hyper realism, EVO promises plenty of top marques and racing thrills, with different classes spanning across the history of motoring. MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 RELEASE January 30, 2025 | DEVELOPER Insomniac Games The visually impressive action-adventure game starring the famous web-throwing wonder finally hits PC. Here’s hoping we get the quality port this game deserves. SNIPER ELITE: RESISTANCE RELEASE January 30, 2025 | DEVELOPER Rebellion The violent sniper simulator returns, promising new stealth and tactical third-person combat mechanics, as well as a fresh campaign set within the heart of WWII-era France. 2 months SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION VII RELEASE February 11, 2025 | DEVELOPER Firaxis Games The latest installment in the long-running 4X strategy…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE February 18, 2025 DEVELOPER Obsidian Entertainment PUBLISHER Xbox Game Studios LINK avowed.obsidian.net I walked through the front doors of Obsidian Entertainment with a singleminded mission: find a gun in fantasy RPG Avowed as quickly as possible. So much of Avowed—which Obsidian has taken pains to point out is not a sweeping open world game like Skyrim—looks deeply traditional. Cozy. Unsurprising. But then there are the guns. Where else might it diverge from the stock fantasy playbook? “The things that set Avowed, and really all the [Pillars of Eternity] games we’ve made in the world of Eora apart, are that blend of a very grounded political story and a very philosophical and metaphysical story,” says director Carrie Patel. “You almost always have a player character with one…

FIRST LOOK RELEASE Nov 15 (Early Access) DEVELOPER Ranela Games PUBLISHER Ranela Games LINK s.team/a/1723780 Sitting in a sauna and beating yourself with a bundle of twigs is a bit of a first for videogames, but what is a creative medium without the ability to surprise? Finnish Cottage Simulator offers all the bucolic joys of off-grid nordic property ownership, with hunting, fishing, grilling, chopping logs, illegal alcohol distillation and all the other things they get up to in what claims to be the world’s happiest country.…

I’m Niccolò Machiavelli, emperor of the Han Dynasty, and Harriet Tubman’s archers are menacing the farmers on my southern border. What a pickle. I ought to stand up for myself, but can I really denounce the hero of the Underground Railroad? It doesn’t feel right, so instead I spend Civilization VII’s new Influence currency to steal a piece of technology from the famous abolitionist. Is that problematic? Stealing the idea for bronze working from Harriet Tubman? More to the point: has Civilization jumped the shark? The turn-based grand strategy games have always been abstractions, allowing players to, say, found the United States in 10,000 BC as immortal autocrat George Washington, but this meeting of ancient China, Renaissance political philosophy, and the American Civil War was still a little jarring. There…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A big wide systemic FPS sandbox set in the Chornobyl exclusion zone EXPECT TO PAY $60 DEVELOPER GSC Game World PUBLISHER GSC Game World REVIEWED ON AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 MULTIPLAYER Yes (but not at launch) LINK stalker2.com I admit it: I was scared. The gleaming trailers, the Microsoft showcases, the Unreal Engine 5—STALKER 2’s marketing didn’t look like any STALKER I’ve known and loved. Had GSC Game World traded in all the series’ beloved jank in pursuit of streamlined console success? Had it made Metro by another name? Well, never trust a trailer. It might be shinier and it might have gamepad support, but STALKER 2 is still STALKER down to its bones, that unique and unreplicable…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? Bloodsoaked action game in which you quantum leap into different bodies to fight monsters EXPECT TO PAY $50 DEVELOPER Bokeh Game Studio Inc PUBLISHER Bokeh Game Studio Inc REVIEWED ON Intel Core i5 12500H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 MULTIPLAYER No LINK store.steampowered.com/app/2631250/Slitterhead/ From the creator of Silent Hill and Forbidden Siren comes a game that spits in the eye of survival horror. Slitterhead is a bloody ridiculous action slaughterhouse. You play a mysterious floating entity with no memories (of course) who can possess almost any NPC in the game. You spend your initial moments bouncing between bodies until someone down a dark alleyway greets you with their head exploding, revealing a Slitterhead. Luckily, you can fight back with any NPC you possess,…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A turn-based, top-down adventure that feels like a gentler Ultima EXPECT TO PAY Free DEVELOPER Aquatic Ranger Studio PUBLISHER Aquatic Ranger Studio REVIEWED ON Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 MULTIPLAYER No LINK bit.ly/TravellersHymn In the wake of Moonring and Skald: Against the Black Priory, here’s another vaguely Ultima-esque top-down RPG with a beautiful tileset and some modern bells and whistles. Where you could lose yourself in Moonring’s systems and lore, Traveller’s Hymn is a smaller, more streamlined affair. It’s a comfortable stomp round an autumnal forest where you’re unlikely to trip over a hidden branch or lose your way among the trees for too long. In fact, Traveller’s Hymn’s color palette might be my favorite thing about it, as you…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? Like going to The Evil Dead’s house for dinner and dessert EXPECT TO PAY $20 DEVELOPER Capcom PUBLISHER Capcom REVIEWED ON Intel Core i7-7700, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 MULTIPLAYER No LINK store.steampowered.com/app/418370/Resident_Evil_7_ Biohazard Relatable horror is a powerful, underused thing. I recall an audience of men groaning in sympathy as Cillian Murphy shaved off his beard with a blunt Bic razor in 28 Days Later. In many ways, it’s more effective than arms being yanked from sockets or kneecaps exploding. Resident Evil 7 presents the most visceral, relatable horror of all: going to somebody else’s house. The first hour of Resi 7 does a magnificent job of toying with these latent fears. It’s like visiting a long-lost, aggressively-fragranced aunt in her house…

I was one of those people who played Red Dead Redemption 2 before the first. In hindsight, it feels wrong, but now I’ve got to experience the chronological order of my favorite western adventure, I’m glad I waited. Going from playing as heartwarming Arthur Morgan alongside the Van der Linde Gang to playing as the solo, rather gritty John Marston driven by nothing but anger was certainly a change of pace. But going into the game fueled by my already existing knowledge of the characters I was inevitably going to hunt down to kill only made the game more enthralling to play for the first time. It feels like a tale as old as time, given Red Dead Redemption released 14 years ago now. But as the opening notes of…

The first major patch since Dawntrail’s launch started setting the tone for what’s to come for the next two years with some tantalizing story revelations and a fight with an incredibly angry bunny, but it was the nods to games of the past that caught my attention. Alongside patch 7.1’s additional story, new dungeon and extreme fight came the start of a new 24-man raid series based on the first Final Fantasy MMO—FFXI. It’s the one Final Fantasy game I’ve never tried—having good internet access or access to something that could run it never seemed to line up for me at a point when I had the time to play it. It also seemed intimidating to sign up for let alone get into. Thankfully FFXIV has given players a chance…

Short answer: it was supposed to be Cyberpunk, wasn’t it? The last vestige of that great ‘I’m going to buy a new graphics card for this!’ tradition lay in CD Projekt’s hands, along with the collective expectations of several million unreasonably excited RPG fans, and it fumbled it. It’s a wonderful experience now, of course, but at the time V’s arrival felt like a slow-mo slap in the cheek with an unnecessarily reflective glove. But asking that question—the last game that felt like one of those moments where we all went out and upgraded our PCs to meet its specs and experience it at its best—reveals something deeper about how our culture’s changed. Or been changed. Because it’s not generally about the games any more, is it? It’s about the…