Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i PC Gamer

HIGHS Total Warhammer II Creative Assembly’s grand strategy sequel is coming within two years of the last one. Hooray! Batman VR The impressive first-person vision of Batman’s world finally comes to PC. Bayonetta We’re delighted that more and more console classics are making their way onto our computers. Dishonored 2 trial If you haven’t yet taken the plunge, sample some hours of our Game of the Year 2016 for free. Watch Dogs 2 In June, you can explore Watch Dogs 2’s fun vision of San Francisco with three other players. LOWS Andromeda bugs We liked the game a lot, but it feels like there’s a lot of work to be done on polishing it. Quiet time From the end of 2016 onwards, it’s been an absolutely dire time for exciting…

Samuel: Hero shooters, then, Phil. Or indeed any competitive game with a wide range of wild and wacky character designs, from Dota to LoL to Overwatch to Paladins. Clearly this is one of the biggest genres on the planet, and some of these characters resonate deeply. Overwatch’s Tracer, for example, is one of the most strikingly different, original and iconic hero characters I’ve seen in the last few years. But for every hit, there are a few misses. Take Winston, for example. He’s a (presumably articulate) gorilla wearing glasses. What the hell? Phil: Whoa there, Sam. Let’s not condemn an entire genre based on one erudite ape. I agree that the slapdash design of hero shooters can make for a disjointed aesthetic – and there are much worse offenders than…

“WE WANTED TO KEEP PEOPLE CHALLENGED AND ON THE EDGE OF THEIR SEAT” NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2017 DEVELOPER The Creative Assembly PUBLISHER Sega LINK www.totalwar.com The Creative Assembly’s definitive take on Warhammer Fantasy returns with part two of its planned trilogy, which includes bondage pirates, dinosaurs riding dinosaurs and a bold new plan to fix Total War’s ‘endgame fatigue’. Warhammer Fantasy and Total War always seemed like a perfect match, so much so that every Total War game ever made has a Warhammer mod. Last year’s Total War: Warhammer was the culmination of geek fantasies everywhere. The Creative Assembly wants its trilogy to cover every part of Games Workshop’s beloved low fantasy world, and the setting this time around is the New World, the Americas…

SHE REVEALS TO HARVEY THE UNION ACT IS DUE TO PASS IN FOUR HOURS VIA REFERENDUM NEED TO KNOW RELEASE TBC DEVELOPER White Paper Games PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.occupation-game.com The Occupation is a political first-person narrative game that explores themes of paranoia and government surveillance. It’s set in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in ’80s Manchester, where the government has proposed the Union Act, which will threaten the freedoms of British citizens. You, whistleblowing reporter Harvey Miller, will shape the outcome. This comes from the team behind narrative puzzler Ether One, which PCG liked a lot back in 2014. This time the team has been heavily influenced by the systems of immersive sims like Thief and Dishonored – more for their stealth game design and highly interactive…

IMPERIAL PALACE OBLIVION Your dubious career with the Thieves Guild in the fourth Elder Scrolls game peaks with the mother of all heists: breaking into the heavily guarded Imperial Palace and stealing a priceless Elder Scroll. THREE LEAF CLOVER GRAND THEFT AUTO IV An epic bank heist inspired by Michael Mann’s Heat. Robbing it is the easy part, because as soon as you leave the LCPD throws everything it has at you, including deadly SWAT teams. THE BIG BANK PAYDAY 2 An enormous bank stuffed with untold riches. One of the most lucrative heists in Overkill’s bank-robbing co-op shooter, but fighting through the cops if you sound the alarm will test even veteran bank robbers. PANAMA BANK SPLINTER CELL: CHAOS THEORY Sam Fisher has to quietly sneak into the heavily…

HOW WE REVIEW We review each game on its own merits, and try to match it to a reviewer who’s a passionate expert in the field. The main aim of reviews is to help you make buying decisions. ALPHAS & BETAS This means we’ll review any released alpha, beta or otherwise unfinished game that you can currently buy. For these games, we won’t assign a score, but we will tell you whether they’re worth your time in their current state. DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT DLC might be hours-long new missions for a game, or it might be a single new item. Either way, if we think you want to know about it, we’ll review it. THEY’RE BACK Whenever there’s a bargain or re-release of a significant game, our expert will revisit it…

Weapons even have their own backstories, revealed as you upgrade them NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A post-apocalyptic action RPG. EXPECT TO PAY £40 DEVELOPER PlatinumGames PUBLISHER Square Enix REVIEWED ON GTX 1070, Intel i5-6600K, 16GB RAM MULTIPLAYER None LINK www.niergame.com On a ruined Earth, the last fragments of humanity are locked in a seemingly endless war with a robot army. Controlled by a mysterious alien intelligence, these machines have conquered the planet and driven the survivors to flee to the Moon. From here, in a facility known as the Bunker, humanity wages war on the invaders using machines of their own. Androids are sent to the surface to work with local resistance fighters and battle the enemy. And one of these androids is the protagonist of…

Expect to witness the most shocking first-person scenes in games NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A stealthy first-person horror adventure EXPECT TO PAY TBC DEVELOPER Red Barrels PUBLISHER In-house REVIEWED ON Windows 10, i7-6700K, 16GB RAM, GeForce GTX 980 Ti MULTIPLAYER None LINK www.redbarrelsgames. com/games/outlast-2 What if the most deranged doom-saying cultists are correct? Outlast 2 prods this question with a pointy stick until it bleeds, festers, and wails in agony. Structurally, it’s a very conventional first-person horror game, a string of tense stealth scenarios where you hide from monsters before they chase you through dense forests and flooded mines. The story is too opaque and the trial-and-error necessary to figure out most of the stealth sequences is maddening, but through it all, Outlast 2…

This was Mass Efffect’s Empire Strikes Back, wasn’t it? You get to start the game with an existing investment in the characters, so you know you’re going to enjoy yourself. But then you realise they’ve made everything better. The combat has moved along the slider from RPG towards action, and the mix of old and new characters make the loyalty-earning side missions as compelling as the main plot. You also get to kiss and shag aliens, even if the camera does fade to black before you see any of the good stuff. That’s fine, BioWare – be coy. I just wish you got to hear some filthy noises and a couple of swanee whistles in the darkness, that’s all.…

MOTHERBOARD H270M Bazooka MSI £86 Kaby Lake has landed and the 270 series chipsets with it. MSI’s Bazooka H270M is a perfect fit for our new CPU. PROCESSOR Pentium G4600 Intel £75 Two cores, four threads and a lot of single core IPC performance. This core performs just as well as an i7-7700K in games. GRAPHICS CARD Radeon RX 480 4GB Powercolor £176 If you’re gaming at 1080p, 4GB of RAM and a Polaris GPU will keep your framerates well up into that 60fps sweetspot. MEMORY Fury Black 8GB @2400 HyperX £62 DDR4 packs higher speeds, better energy efficiency, and larger capacities. 8GB is still perfect for most games, too. POWER SUPPLY EVGA 500W 80PLUS Certified ATX12V/EPS12V EVGA £54 A reliable PSU with enough juice to run your CPU and…

In the decade and a bit since Half-Life 2 ’s release – yes, it’s been that long – modders have done weird and wonderful things to Valve’s first-person shooter. Thankfully Steam makes Half-Life 2 total conversions a doddle to install, and so it’s the perfect way for beginners to experience the power and possibilities of modding. Here’s our guide to the best Half-Life 2 mods of the past 13 years. STORY TIME THE STANLEY PARABLE The story of a man named Stanley. While The Stanley Parable is now a full, standalone game, the original Half-Life 2 mod is still something special – a more focused narrative choice-’em-up with some fun surprises specific to its Source material. You pick a…

JOHN STRIKE Specialist in Modern warfare, dogs This month Went back to Battlefield 4 after just a few months playing Battlefield 1. Maybe next time DICE will be able to crack our Art Ed’s hardcore clan. TONY ELLIS Specialist in Cats, working from home This month Proofed his final issue of PC Gamer. He’ll be greatly missed, after 14 years of kicking entire generations of PCG writers into shape. ANDY KELLY Specialist in Banks, heists Twitter @ultrabrilliant This month Did his usual thing of writing about immersive sims, this time Mankind Divided’s bank level.…

THAT’S A STORY FOR ANOTHER TIME, IN A COLUMN WITH A MUCH BIGGER WORD COUNT Maybe The Spy is imagining things, but it feels cosier in here this month. The Spy’s column surely hasn’t been reduced in size? PC Gamer wouldn’t do such a thing. Not to one of its longest-serving members of staff. Of course, The Spy is used to squeezing into tight spaces. Like the suitcase that was smuggled through Soviet territory in the back of a truck. The Spy survived for six days in there eating nothing but scraps of raw potato shoved through a hole in the side. And there wasn’t a single crease on the The Spy’s pristine white dinner jacket when it was finally sprung open. But now it’s time for some PC gaming…

“SOME OOBLETS ARE JUST GOING TO LOOK LIKE BEARS WEARING PANTS” NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Mid 2018 DEVELOPER Rebecca Cordingley PUBLISHER Double Fine LINK www.ooblets.com Adorable. Captivating. Charming. Squee-inducing . Maybe if I get all the delightful adjectives out the way first, it’ll make it a little easier to write about a farming sim where tiny creatures, some of which look like mushrooms and jellyfish on legs , trot along happily behind you as you go on adventures. Nope, I still want to burst. Damn it. Don’t worry, Ooblets isn’t just a pretty face. Originallycalled Moblets beforea swift name change late last year, this almost unforgivingly appealing looking combo of creature collection and crop watering might just be the one to prise your green…

Released back in 2003, Jedi Academy was, by most accounts, a really good game. Age hasn’t been kind to it. Try it today and you’ll notice that the graphics don’t hold up, the AI is shoddy at best, and the presentation and design are relics of the mid-2000s. Despite that, it’s still fun – a testament to the strength of the combat, and the quality of its realisation of the Star Wars universe. Jedi Academy is also highly customisable, with populated servers and a bustling mod scene. These are invaluable tools for one small community, called JEDI. Initially a clan of players who were skilled at Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, they transitioned to being a roleplayfocused community when they moved over to the…

PLAZA A public plaza littered with stone monoliths, with segregated areas for naturals and augmented people. A large sculpture in the centre bears the Palisade logo, establishing their control over the district. LOBBY You can wander this public space freely, which gives you a chance to survey the building and get a sense of how tight security is. A striking animated sculpture made of undulating cubes hangs from the ceiling. SHAFT You can sneak into this shaft through the parking lot under the bank and access the secure vaults of companies including Tarvos Security Services and Tai Yong Medical, providing you’ve found the key cards. LOCKERS These lockers aren’t as secure as the main vaults, but you’ll still need a key to get in. Bypass the door, however, and you…

No gaming genre can generate stories quite like the colony sim. Almost entirely unique to PC gaming, colony sims task players with building and sustaining a habitat for a group of AI characters, which could be anything from dwarfs to demons. Although the player controls how the colony is shaped, constructing rooms or buildings and filling them with useful objects, they do not control the inhabitants directly. Instead, the colonists interact with their surroundings and other NPCs via AI systems that simulate their needs and desires. Through these desires and the player’s ability (or inability) to meet them, colony sims produce incredible, incidental plotlines; tales of dwarves who delve too greedily and too deep, unleashing hordes of monsters into their fortress, of bitter rivalries between demonic creatures that tear apart…

We’ve had to wait almost eight years for a PC release of Bayonetta. OK, technically we’ve had to wait since the creation of the universe – the forming and coalescing of atoms, the evolution of life, the specific mix of invention and imagination that led society towards this moment. But for the past eight years Bayonetta has actually existed, and been available for consoles. That made the wait much more annoying. After all that time, is Bayonetta still worth buying? Turn the page to find out. Also this month, Andy tackles Platinum’s more recent Nier: Automata, and Chris Schilling explores the Stalkeresque shooter, The Signal From Tölva. We continue to wait for the year’s big stars to emerge, but it’s nevertheless a quietly successful month. LET US KNOW WHAT YOU…

FINAL FANTASY XV Chance: 95% Almost every other Final Fantasy game is now on PC, and there’s no reason why this won’t join them. It’s a matter of when, not if. VANQUISH Chance: 85% Platinum’s other barmy action game, this time with robots. Given it’s by the same developer and publisher as Bayonetta, the chances are good. YAKUZA 0 Chance: 50% Another Sega series, this one with an annoying loyalty to Sony’s PlayStation consoles. There’s no reason this couldn’t happen, but will it? BAYONETTA 2 Chance: 20% Nintendo helped fund Bayonetta’s sequel. As such, it’s trapped on Wii U. Maybe everyone involved will see the sense in a PC version. Doubtful. ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD Chance: 0% It will never, ever happen. At least we have emulation.…

There are fascinating hints at the history of the place NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A deliberately-paced sci-fi mystery: three parts wandering to one part shooting. EXPECT TO PAY £15 DEVELOPER Big Robot PUBLISHER In-house REVIEWED ON Reviewed on Intel Core i5-4440 CPU @ 3.1GHz, 8GB MULTIPLAYER None LINK www.thesignal from.com Following on from the interestingly flawed Sir, You Are Being Hunted , The Signal From Tölva is a game about adapting to and managing your limitations. Which is exactly what developer Big Robot has done: this tiny British team has defied its constraints with a rugged and characterful sci-fi shooter that skilfully blends splendid world-building with taut action. You explore the planet Tölva remotely, hijacking a surveyor robot to investigate the…

STUBBY These basic grunts are the most common enemy in Nier. Easy to kill, but can be surprisingly tricky to deal with in large groups. GOLIATH BIPED A group of Stubbies combined to create a towering machine. Can float in the air briefly and pummel you with its massive, heavy arms. EXPLODER Big groups of theses brainless, suicidal machines will rush towards you and explode if they get close. Don’t try to reason with ‘em. REVERSE-JOINTED GOLIATH An advanced machine that can move quickly on a pair of springy legs and fire projectiles. FLYER The airborne version of a basic Stubby. These things shoot balls of energy, and are best dealt with using the pod’s ranged attack.…

The fighting isn’t terrible, it’s just pointless NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? An old-school 3D platformer. EXPECT TO PAY £35 DEVELOPER Playtonic Games PUBLISHER Team17 REVIEWED ON Windows 10, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX 970 MULTIPLAYER 2-4 player party minigames LINK www.playtonicgames.com/games/ yooka-laylee The hardest enemy I had to fight in Yooka-Laylee was the camera. The minions sent by evil corporate book-napper Capital B were easily killed, but wrestling the third-person camera into submission was like trying to get an actual bat to ride on an actual iguana. Guiding Yooka the iguana and Laylee the bat on a quest to collect magical Pagies brought both a welcome sense of nostalgia and all the familiar flaws of N64-era 3D platformers. Yooka-Laylee is a sequel in everything but…

I thought it was odd when the Vast Womb put out a huge tit asteroid for the lesbians to use as an erotic bouncy castle in space. But then I played Panzermadels, an interactive novel that reaches beyond human sexuality for comic effect, while still relying on the same old drawings of anime girls. They’re girls, right – traditionally attractive archetypes, to boot – but they occasionally say tank things. This gets old fairly quickly – even with a genderswap Hitler in the mix. If you’re into comedy objectophilia, just read a Chuck Tingle novel. They’re shorter, and way gayer.…

1 DIAMOND COOLER Nvidia’s 10 series cards look good and are a fantastic cooling solution. The blower design excels in small form factor cases, and those lacking suitable internal airflow. 2 OVERCLOCKING PROWESS I took a retail sample all the way up to 2.0GHz core clock and 12Gbps memory bandwidth with ease, boosting performance by near 15%. 3 GOOD VALUE? Although Nvidia has been charging us near £700 for the past year for the GTX 1080, and £1,200 for the Titan, it still doesn’t feel like we’re being short changed with this card. 4 1440P & 4K KING Whether you game at high refresh rates at 1440p, or just 4K, this card is the king. I’m curious to see what’ll happen when I put two of these beauties together… GPU…

MOTHERBOARD Z270 Gaming M3 MSI £144 Likely the best value-for-money board out there, the Gaming M3 comes phenomenally well equipped, and with a cool aesthetic. PROCESSOR Core i5-6600K Intel £202 The 6600K is £20 less than the newer 7600K, which amounts to a 5% overclock, and it’s not locked to Windows 10. GRAPHICS CARD Windforce GTX 1070 8GB Gigabyte £363 The 1440p killer, Gigabyte’s GeForce GTX 1070 will run quiet, cool and absolutely keep you at 60fps, even at WQHD. COOLER Kraken X31 NZXT £58 To get the most out of a good CPU you need a cooler to match. The Kraken X31 is powerful, quiet and great for overclocks. MEMORY Savage Black 16GB @2400 MHz CAS 12 HyperX £136 Thanks to insanely low timings, these two 8GB sticks of…

1 PAID STEAM MODS Black Mesa and Garry’s Mod blur the definition of ‘mod’. They cost money, and they don’t require Half-Life 2 to play. Simply buy them through the Steam store and you’re good to go. 2 FREE STEAM MODS Mods such as Double Action: Boogaloo and MINERVA can be downloaded directly through Steam. You need to own the base game, but otherwise these act like any other Steam game. 3 EXTERNAL MODS Other mods must be downloaded externally, usually through ModDB. Extract the zipped files into the ‘sourcemods’ folder in your Steam directory. When you restart Steam, they’ll appear in your library.…

THE PEASANT MOB COSTS LESS TO RECRUIT THAN TO MAINTAIN. I HIRE THEM AS CANNON FODDER NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Out now DEVELOPER The Creative Assembly PUBLISHER Sega LINK www.totalwar.com With its latest free add-on, Total War: Warhammer is complete. But as any Games Workshop customer will tell you, Warhammer games are never really finished. While The Creative Assembly has moved on, what it’s moved on to is more Warhammer – the second game is out later this year and previewed earlier this issue. While we’re all waiting for that, I’ve been playing this final DLC, which makes the NPC faction of Bretonnia playable. These humans differentiate themselves from the Empire with semi-French accents and feudalism. While their Imperial neighbours march into the Renaissance, all…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASED November 2015 EXPECT TO PAY £40 OUR REVIEW 88% LINK www.fallout.com enjoyed my 70 hours with Fallout 4, but despite finishing Bethesda’s latest open-world RPG around a year ago, I find myself unable to recall much about it. Perhaps this is because it felt so structurally similar to the other 3D Fallouts and Elder Scrolls games, despite looking a lot nicer and having significantly better combat. Or maybe it’s because following up such a rich vision of a post-apocalyptic American city was always going to feel like slightly diminishing returns. When asked by a friend recently to recall the best bits of the game, two moments came to mind. One was stepping into the heavily irradiated wastes of the Glowing Sea and finding the eerie chassis of…

1 This issue was dedicated to all things Valve, with an enormous feature by Tom Francis taking centre stage. His ten-page epic focuses on the string of all-time greats Valve released between 2007-08, including Left 4 Dead, Portal, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and Team Fortress 2. That’s an astonishing number of incredible games released in a very short period. 2 Jim Rossignol savages Halo 2, giving it 66% and calling it “achingly, repulsively mediocre.” Maybe that’s why it was the last game in the Halo series to get a PC port. 3 In Long Play (what we used to call Reinstall), Craig Pearson revisits the superbly weird Jurassic Park spin-off Trespasser, calling it “the game that no one loves”. He describes it as being separated from other videogames by millions…

1 WATER WORLD  In orbit around TRAPPIST-1 4, the only truly Earth-like planet in the system. The green suggests an abundance of life. You’ll notice my pilot has a face (and very nice hair) instead of a helmet, which is a new feature introduced in the latest update. 2 DEEP IMPACT  Flying close to TRAPPIST-1 7, an icy world at the very edge of the system, scarred by thousands of impact craters. It’s impossible to tell how close these planets are to the real things, but the Stellar Forge has a track record of being fairly accurate. 3 ROAD TRIP Taking my SRV for a spin on the barren, desert-like surface of one of TRAPPIST-1 4’s pair of rocky moons. A fairly dull place, to be honest. Some of Elite’s…

1 BETTER SPACE BATTLES The old system is gone, and Criterion is creating a better one that suits a big old starfighter melee. 2 SINGLEPLAYER Become a vengeful Imperial soldier who comes from a background of thinking the Empire were a solid bunch of dudes. 3 CLASSES, BETTER PROGRESSION Four classes on both sides should encourage a little more cooperation between players. 4 MORE WORLDS AND HEROES Seven planets have been revealed already, while the original game launched with just five. 5 BETTER HERO ENCOUNTERS Hero play has been revamped, so each Star Wars icon has more physicality in battle.…

INITIATE The lowest rank, this is a new student without a mentor. PADAWAN Initiates with a mentor are Padawans, and have more experience, but still lack skill, knowledge, and Force powers. JEDI KNIGHT After proving themselves through four trials, Padawans are knighted, and have more Force powers. JEDI MASTER The best Jedi Knights, the ones who mentor and play a positive role, are made Jedi Masters, leaders of the community. COUNCILLORS The top of the hierarchy. The folks who run everything in the background, including the finer details of the community.…

REMOTE HACKING The abundance of security cameras in the bank makes this augmentation vital. You can avoid their gaze, of course, but being able to disable them for a few seconds from a safe distance makes your life much easier. GLASS-SHIELD CLOAKING SYSTEM The cloak arguably makes Deus Ex too easy, but there’s no denying its effectiveness. As well as sneaking past guards, it also lets you move through laser grids without triggering the alarm. ICARUS DASH Those stylish brutalist sculptures in the lobby aren’t just for show. You can use Icarus Dash to climb up them and access alternate routes through the level. Also comes in handy when moving around the vaults. LIDAR MARK-TRACKER There are Tarvos guards all over the bank, but with this eye augmentation you can…

PHIL SAVAGE Specialist in Action, hair demons Currently playing Bayonetta This month Tried to surreptitiously play Bayonetta’s Climax scenes in a crowded office. ANDY KELLY Specialist in Adventure, FBI agents Currently playing Thimbleweed Park This month Was the only choice to review an adventure game with Twin Peaks and X-Files influences. CHRIS SCHILLING Specialist in Shooters, robo-pals Currently playing The Signal From Tölva This month Forced robots to commit murders for him (and in the game). JAMES DAVENPORT Specialist in Horror, religion Currently playing Outlast 2 This month Pondered the religious significance of CRT monitors. TOM MARKS Specialist in Platformers, bowties Currently playing Yooka-Laylee This month Visited a saccharine world of twee affectations. Yes, this is a San Francisco joke. KATHARINE BYRNE Specialist in Puzzles, reading Currently playing Zero Escape…

Franklin is a ghost trapped in the hotel where he was murdered NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? A point-and-click murder mystery. EXPECT TO PAY £15 DEVELOPER Terrible Toybox PUBLISHER In-house REVIEWED ON GTX 1070, Intel i5-6600K, 16GB RAM MULTIPLAYER None LINK www.thimblewee dpark.com Federal agents Ray and Reyes are investigating a murder in the remote rural town of Thimbleweed Park. A body was found under a railway bridge on the edge of town, but none of the locals seem to know anything about it, or even who the victim is. The agents have a checklist of tasks to complete, including identifying the body and finding the murder weapon. But fingering the killer won’t be easy, because this is a point-and-click adventure game. One of the first puzzles is taking…

1 SCAN VISOR Like everything in the game, it’s appealingly low-tech. It crackles noisily, producing a weird visual filter that can look ugly and strangely beautiful by turns. 2 ARTEFACTS There’s something hypnotic about the visual signature of scannable relics, as waves of energy spread out from the source, undulating like alien tendrils. 3 BODY SWAPPING Switching to a new chassis briefly produces a screen that looks more like a 1980s computer booting up than a piece of far-future technology. Nerd heaven. 4 CLOSING THE MAP The tiniest of touches, but quitting the map screen causes the image to briefly flicker and distort before you can see properly through your robot eyes.…

CITY RUINS The eerie, shattered remnants of one of mankind’s greatest cities, now reclaimed by machines, wildlife, and nature. AMUSEMENT PARK An abandoned theme park that’s been taken over by mechanical clowns, many of whom are actually friendly towards you. DESERT An endless ocean of sand dunes littered with the crumbling remains of some forgotten ancient civilisation. FOREST KINGDOM A dense, sun-dappled forest full of aggressive armoured machines who worship a mysterious forest king.…

All of Yooka-Laylee’s worlds take place inside giant magical books, but what are those books actually about? Here’s what I’d guess. MOODYMAZE MARSH A hard-hitting work of political non-fiction about pollution and climate change. TRIBALSTACK TROPICS Abandoned minions wrestle for control of a Pagie folded into the shape of a conch. CAPITAL CASHINO A murder-filled mobster novel, it’s a blessing Yooka’s kneecaps weren’t broken while here. GLITTERGLAZE GLACIER A lone iguana is trapped for days on an arctic peak, eating only frozen bat to survive. GALLEON GALAXY A steamy romance novel set on the high seas… of space.…

PRIME X370-PRO Asus £155 Asus’s Prime X370-Pro is the only direct step down from the prestigious ROG Crosshair, and I’ve not been impressed with it so far. Although the connectivity and overall looks are solid, memory performance has been flaky. It seems Asus’s ROG dev team pumps out BIOS far faster and to a far better degree than its Prime compatriots. www.asus.com AORUS GA-AX370-GAMING 5 Gigabyte £205 The first Gigabyte offering on the table, and what a beauty it is. The satin white finish really helps this board look the part in any colour matched system. Couple that with its solid BIOS and its plug-and-play attitude, and Gigabyte has nailed it on this one. Memory support is still a little flaky this early on, but that’s to be expected. www.gigabyte.us…

MOTHERBOARD Z270 Gaming M5 MSI £173 Both the M5 and M7 in MSI’s latest gaming series look stunning and offer an expansive feature set. A solid purchase either way. PROCESSOR Core i7-7700K Intel £306 Four cores, eight threads and the ability to turbo up to 4.5GHz make this CPU more than capable of gaming at the top of the range. GRAPHICS CARD GTX 1080 Ti Founder’s Edition MSI £707 The king of high end performance right now. Don’t be fooled by its 11GB of VRAM, this will crush games at all resolutions. COOLER Kraken X62 NZXT £143 The Kraken is the culmination of three of our favourite things: an infinity mirror, a 280mm radiator and slick braided cooling. MEMORY Savage Black (4x8GB) 32GB @2666 HyperX £267 Take advantage of that…

1 ROOTLESS This adventure game deals with oppression in a humorous and imaginative way, set in a world that surrendered all higher thought to an infallible supercomputer. Oh dear. www.bit.ly/ResistJam1 2 SONDER A puzzle game about the power of friendship and pushing Sokoban-style blocks. It’s an urban environment, and the cops are trying to arrest you. www.bit.ly/ResistJam2 3 HEART OF THE ISLANDS Or, to give it its full title: In the Heart of the Islands, the Red Earth. Philippines-based creator sociohat has infused this visual novel with a painterly style. www.bit.ly/ResistJam3…

LOUEN LEONCOEUR King of Bretonnia, Duke of Couronne, and a powerful knight. Rides a hippogryph named “Beaquis”. FAY ENCHANTRESS Morgiana le Fay is high priestess of the Lady of the Lake, rides a unicorn, and commands sorceresses. ALBERIC DE BORDELEAUX Duke of Bordeleaux, which is Bretonnia’s greatest port and absolutely not pronounced “bordello”. ISABELLA VON CARSTEIN Added as a separate DLC with Bretonnia, this vampire countess runs the new Von Carstein faction in Sylvania.…

OSIRIS Keep the God of the Nile happy and he’ll improve the yield of your farms. Annoy him, on the other hand, and he’ll wipe them out. And probably laugh. PTAH Upset him and he’ll torch one of your storage yards... just hope it isn’t the one holding your beer supply. SETH Keep him sweet and he’ll give your troops a boost, but vex him and death will come on swift wings. BAST Pay her enough respect and this cat goddess will make sure your homes and bazaars are stocked with food and not a fat slice of plague cake instead. R A Incur his wrath and your Kingdom Rating risks being sent plummeting. Recovering from that sort of hit can be an uphill struggle.…

TONY ELLIS Has edited enough words about games now, thanks. It’s been an adventure. 80 DAYS www.inklestudios.com/80days Like all the best travel fiction, somewhere along the way this admirably written adventure stops being something you’re reading and becomes a real journey you’re on – a seemingly endless procession of colourful incidents, once-in-a-lifetime sights, arduous setbacks and incredible experiences. Take a trip. VIRGINIA www.variablestate.com OK, so I’m not sure I even like this surreal, silent mystery story that much. The fiery autumn scenery is dazzling, and it builds a fine sense of mystery, but it’s not very interactive: a little too Mulholland and not enough drive. But this isn’t Games Tony Likes, it’s Must Play, and you must play this unique, strange game. ANACHRONOX www.bit.ly/2ovKaAE Variously funny, moving, irreverent and cinematic,…