Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2022 i PC Gamer

It’s not always easy to be upbeat at the moment, eh? With everything going on in the world, it’s natural to have the feeling that there’s little to look forward to. But that only makes it all the more important to take stock and realise just what a great year ahead it is for PC gaming. Let us be your beacon of positive thinking this month, as we lay out everything you should be psyched about for 2022 and beyond – from enormous upcoming games, to killer hardware innovations, to the trends taking the industry in bold new directions. The future’s bright, and the future’s now. ROBIN VALENTINE Twitter @robinlvalentine This month Sacrificed a kerbal and read the future in its adorable entrails.…

HIGHS Catholic tastes The Vatican played the Undertale song ‘Megalovania’ as jugglers performed in front of the pope. Direct line To Hell Someone rigged up id’s Doom to be played via rotary telephone. Cheaters never prosper Tencent is winning massive payouts from companies that sell cheating software. Final Fanta-NFT Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda is the latest exec to drink the NFT Kool Aid. GPU what? Stolen EVGA GeForce RTX 30-series cards have now turned up… in mining rigs sold from Vietnam. Norton my watch Norton antivirus is now installing Ethereum crypto-mining software on users’ machines. LOWS…

The ’90s Lara Croft still lives. While Crystal Dynamics reinvented Lara as Girl Rambo, dedicated fans are keeping her original lycra-clad incarnation fighting fit thanks to the editing tools included in 2001’s Tomb Raider V: Chronicles. Community hub TRLE.net hosts over 3,000 new adventures to play added over the years, many full-length games packed with fresh environments and enemies. For more than 20 years fans have been mastering and refining Chronicles’ tools, which let you export standalone games for easy sharing. Tomb Raider’s 25th anniversary has brought out the very best, though even 2021’s most notable releases are still just a sampling from a vast vault of treasures. Movement At The Monastery by Australian developer Lochie is an example of what ‘classic’ Tomb Raider looks like today. Challenging even for…

YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER HOUSES IS A HUGE PART OF THE STRATEGY The Crusader Kings series revolutionised grand strategy by switching the genre’s emphasis from countries to. But a quirk of CK’s design is that you rarely know what those characters are doing. There’s a gap between the social simulation and what happens on the map, meaning your family members can move halfway across the world without you realising. Where Crusader Kings only gives you the highlight reel of your character’s experiences, Great Houses of Calderia plans to give you the live feed. This debut grand strategy by Finnish developer Resistance Games takes the broad structure of Crusader Kings, but puts your family members directly on the map, tying your actions to their presence in the world. “Whatever you do…

THE LONG ERA OF CONSOLE EXCLUSIVES IS ENDING In September 2011 I moved 2,500 miles from one coast of the United States to the other, leaving behind friends and family for a city where I knew almost no one. For some of those relationships the move meant a huge change: I went from seeing friends weekly to just once or twice a year. But for others it was an easy transition, because we already spent most of our social time playing games together online. In 2011 if we were conscious and not stuck at work, we were mainlining League of Legends like droogs with our eyes wired open. We later had trysts with Battlefield 3, Terraria, Smite and Dungeon Defenders, all games we could pay just enough attention to, to…

I THINK THAT VALVE HAS A SHOT AT ITS OWN IPOD MOMENT IN 2022 Apple isn’t a bajillion-dollar tech juggernaut today because it comes up with ideas first. Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player, but the iPod dominated because it had a better design, better aesthetics, and better ads. Apple didn’t invent the smartphone, but the iPhone crushed its nascent competitors with better hardware and a brilliant touch interface. Being first never mattered as much as flexing those brand and design muscles to make everyone else look old and busted. I think that Valve has a shot at its own iPod moment in 2022. The Steam Deck isn’t the first portable gaming PC, but it might be the one that changes everything. The pieces for a sea change moment for…

Over the past few pages, we’ve laid out all sorts of exciting things in PC gaming’s future – but we reckon there’s even more to look forward to. Indulge us as we make our boldest predictions for the events of 2022, combining expert speculation, wishful thinking, and a glimpse into our crystal balls. Of course, this hobby is one of unbridled chaos – games rise and fall, technology constantly surprises us, and a global pandemic throws everything off its axis whenever it can. Nothing is set in stone. But we still feel pretty good about these predictions. If they come true, we’ll be vindicated, and lauded as the prophetic geniuses we surely are. If they don’t… well, you can enjoy making fun of us on January 2023. The pandemic has…

Plants become makeshift bridges to inaccessible areas As SteamWorlddeveloper Image & Form’s first attempt at a 3D world, The Gunk’s six hours of platforming and puzzling are a promising showcase of the studio’s versatility. Unfortunately, while there’s a degree of visual polish on show as you wind your way through an alien world, which may make for a pleasant afternoon of adventure, the brief runtime and unambitious plot mean it’s unlikely to leave a lasting impression. You play as Rani, one half of an interplanetary scrapper duo who are forced to make an emergency fuel stop on a mysterious alien planet. It soon becomes clear that this once thriving natural environment has been overrun by the titular malevolent black gunk, and with wildlife nowhere to be seen it’s been left…

Final Fantasy VII Remake has arrived on PC months after its PlayStation release, at a price of £70. The hope was for a definitive version, but at launch, I can’t say this is it. Which is incredibly disappointing, because in spite of Square Enix giving it the kind of PC port the publisher is infamous for – not as bad as Nier: Automata, but still somewhat underwhelming – the Final Fantasy VII Remake is excellent and great to play. A serious story full of mysticism and melodramatic twists After the lacklustre, confused, and unfinished-feeling Final Fantasy XV, this new take on one of the most beloved games in the series feels like it truly has vision. It balances faithfully recreating the original 1997 game (1998 if you first played it…

I’ve been searching, half-heartedly, for the perfect golf game for years. Somewhere between a detailed simulation, and the breezy simplicity of crazy golf. VGA Golf comes pretty close, while also tapping into my old-man nostalgia for the days of low- poly 3D and poorly digitised sound clips. Playing the game is simplicity itself, despite a dated aesthetic Forgoing the trendy analogue swinging of the recent PGA Tours, or The Golf Club series, VGA Golf uses a more traditional on-screen swing-o-meter, which achieves much the same result, but with a single button. You line up the direction of your shot (while accounting for the wind); you tap the button to start your swing, then stop it on the swing-o-meter to decide its power. There are a couple of extra steps to…

If only I could write this intro like a Yakuzagame. Pattering rain and neon signs reflected in puddles. Pulsating soapland ambience. And, eventually, familiar text and echoing drums to remind you what you’re reading: Bhum-bhumm.‘Feature intro: 70 words.’ Unfortunately, for it to work, it would have to be 40 minutes long and be followed by a 10-year spell in prison for being too metatextual. The changes to the original story help keep things engaging Even having played it all before, the early parts of Kiwamirequire serious mental investment. There are clans, friendships, romances, rivalries. All of the families have different levels of responsibility. Not all patriarchs are created equal. But this is perhaps what makes the series so compelling. It constructs the sort of tiered, interlocking crime drama that Takeshi…

This is one of those games to which screenshots cannot possibly do justice. When static, it looks like someone’s scattered Jolly Ranchers on a blueprint. But there’s an intuitive, almost unconscious ease to Monacothat makes it irresistible. It’s even fun when things go wrong and your meticulously-executed heist turns into slapstick. It’s fun when experienced alone, but there’s something magnificent about sharing your failures and triumphs with real people – even if it does make a successful mission harder: partly because other people are unpredictable, and partly through the fear of being the one who bollocks it up.…

The shadow of the past looms large over Back 4 Blood. Hell, just in case it wasn’t clear that this was intended to be a Left 4 Dead follow-up, the team at Turtle Rock studios even follow the same naming convention by putting a number in the title. Perhaps it’s an early sign that this new take on zombie slaughtering was always going to struggle to carve out its own identity. Still, I find my time gunning down the Ridden leaves me pondering who this game is actually for. Now, I understand I have already said it follows in Left 4 Dead’s lineage and could assume it was made for fans of that game. Except Back 4 Blood doesn’t seem like it understands what made its forebear so engrossing. Few…

Let’s Build a Zoo isn’t quite a traditional tycoon game. The main goal is to construct and run a home for wildlife, attracting and catering to visitors and making sure your animals are well looked-after, but there’s an intriguing Jurassic Park-esque twist on offer here. Not content with just letting you look after your animals, or even breed new ones, Let’s Build a Zoo lets you create your very own hybrid monstrosities from whatever animals you have on display. Early on, my goal was clear – I would create the most horrifying new animal possible with the tools at my disposal. That was easier said than done, however, as your dedicated DNA-splicing building comes prefabricated and ready to go quite early in the game. At that point, my zoo still…

SABLE shed-works.co.uk/sable I’ve been looking forward to Sable since I first started seeing gifs of it back in 2018. Shedworks took a tasteful amount of inspiration from the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and paired it with a stunning art style that satisfied a craving I didn’t even know I had. NIER REPLICANT VER.1.22474487139… nier.square-enix-games.com/en-us This action RPG has a way of sticking in your head. Initially met with a tepid critical response,NieR has gotten a positive reappraisal since the release of its 2017 sequel, Automata. If you’ve never tried it, I can’t recommend it enough. WOLFENSTEIN: THE OLD BLOOD bit.ly/3IrVMf4 MachineGames’ reboot of the FPS series has been excellent, but my favourite entry remains this 2015 expansion to The New Order. The Old Blood pays homage to…

WAR OF THE WORLDS BY MATEUSZ DZIECIOL A cinematic, lengthy game pushing the engine to its limits. BIOHAZARD BY BRADLEY SMY Give Lara a T-Virus shot in the arm. Spooky mansions, limited ammo, and zombies define this full-length game. FANTOME BY DELCA Created for a community jam using only classic TR assets. A focused aquatic adventure reimagining parts of TR 2. LEGACY OF ODA NOBUNAGA BY LEIF MELLES A scenic, ninja-infested Japanese trip fusing old and new.…

2012 Mistranslations for the Modern Gamer writes: “The most recent blow is the announcement that Diablo 3 will be released on consoles… What Diablo’s console debut means is that its developer, Blizzard, has left PC exclusivity, and that, internet, is a monumental blow.” Nah, it wasn’t. 2015 Wired writes: “No, Really, the PC Is Dying and It’s Not Coming Back,” after fewer PCs are predicted to ship that year, and Apple sells loads of iPhones. Hundreds of millions of PCs continued to sell every year, and sales even increased year-over-year in 2019. Turns out people like both computers and phones. 2019 Marketwatch writes: “PC gaming is in a decline,” arguing that PC games aren’t good anymore, unlike old Amiga games that “had only one goal: to entertain”. And yet PC…

SLAY THE SPIRE OK, it’s not really testing the limits of the hardware, but the Switch version has already proved that this enduring deckbuilder is the perfect game to dip in and out of on the go. RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 There you go, here’s a test of the hardware. If the Steam Deck can run RDR 2 at a decent framerate, it’ll be a game-changer – one of PC’s biggest, richest open worlds in your pocket. CRUSADER KINGS III Will the controls be able to handle CK III’s dense UI? That’s still in question. What isn’t in question is my desire to rule a medieval empire while I wait for the bus.…

ARCANE AND CASTLEVANIA BOTH USE THEIR EPISODES TO DIG DEEPER Castlevania, the game, started as a pastiche of Universal monster movies, sending an orange guy with a whip to fight a mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, and big bad Dracula. Castlevania, the show, spent its fourth season exploring the relationships of a quartet of immortal vampire queens, reflecting on how we process grief, and looking absolutely incredible in motion. I don’t think it’s an outcome that anyone expected, but seven years after the last (maligned) Castlevaniagame, the Netflix series has become the new benchmark for videogame adaptations. I can imagine an alternate universe where we never got Netflix’s Castlevania because Konami was still scarred by a disastrous ’90s Hollywood adaptation. Dolph Lundgren was a yolked Simon Belmont, John Travolta was the most…

The faint remnants of The Matrix Online still radiate somewhere in the ether. I’m not saying it’s possible to jack in, but… well, do some Googling and you may or may not find a website dedicated to emulating this beloved, doomed MMO long after its funeral. You may or may not uncover a hyperlink that downloads a preserved version of the game client and a crack designed to jailbreak it from Sony’s rigor mortis grasp. You may or may not be asked to fabricate login credentials, and you may or may not watch your computer seize up as it attempts to render assets that have been left to atrophy since 2009. But if you follow the white rabbit far enough – if you take the red pill and slink past…

Several new mechanics that enhance the hunting experience It’s been a genuine pleasure over the years watching Monster Huntergo from a niche favourite to wild success in Japan, making inroads in the West, before smashing through and becoming a global hit. That’s perhaps over-simplifying the arc for Capcom’s beast-basher par excellence, but the series now has a huge fanbase and the kind of resource behind it that has resulted in years of better and better games, as well as a distinct split. There’s the Monster Hunter: World take on the series, which has the fundamentals but is a seriously big-budget endeavour – a visual and aural spectacle with gorgeous, flowing animations and jaw-dropping monsters Monster Hunter: Rise is the other branch, following in the footsteps of games like Generations and…

Has an incredible talent for ruining its own fun It’s midnight in Salobia. My squad’s insertion to the derelict factory compound was clean – two patrols neutralised with just two suppressed shots each. And as two more sentries swing around the building’s corner while I’m arming a breaching charge, my AI squadmates drop one of the gunmen before I can even react. We should be fine, I think, still believing that Thunder Tier One will play out like an action movie. But then my squadmates stop shooting, even as the surviving patrolman answers with unsilenced barks from his rifle. I’m scrambling, pleading for them to fire – until I hear one of my comrades yell that he’s throwing a frag. I watch in horror as he throws impossibly wide, confidently…

1 LEVIATHAN AXE The axe of Kratos’ late wife. As sharp as it is cold, this axe will always return to its owner when called. 2 SPARTAN SHIELD A memento from his Sparta days, Kratos’ shield is wrist-mounted and unfolds to its full size when needed. 3 BAG OF ASHES The ashes of Kratos’ late wife, Faye, stored in little baggie that somehow never leaks or spills. 4 THE LIGHT OF ALFHEIM You may have to fight through an army of dark elves to find it, but this power source is handy for lighting the way in caves.…

I grew to care about the bizarre people of Rain City So, a dog, a gangster, and a witch walk into a bar. This is where you expect me to say “stop me if you’ve heard this one before”, but I won’t because you haven’t. Wolfstridefrom Ota Imon is different from other games, a self-described RPG for grown-ups that wallows a bit too frequently in immature humour. Wolfstridenever fully builds on its narrative promise, but the setting and cast make it a spin on an often stagnant genre. With its dramatic opening, you’d be forgiven for thinking Wolfstridewas faster paced than it is. The curtain first rises on one of those mech battles, where your loveable but doofy pilot Knife Leopard (aka Pineapples, for some reason) faces off against a…

Many developers are influenced by other games, but no one’s made their homage quite as obvious as Uprising Studios did here – one look at Scarf’s titular piece of wool, and its impossible not to be reminded of Journey. While Scarfgoes for a similar mood, it’s absolutely its own thing, for better and worse. More than just some magical thread, this garment is a sentient being, and the key to the game’s puzzle-platforming. You simply follow the available path and collect some light Scarfstarts with your unnamed character coming into being, a little blue person with a funky haircut, anime eyes, no mouth, and a black hole right in the middle of its chest. The scarf comes to them in the (very rough) shape of a Chinese dragon, calling them…

Pathfinder’s central mechanic is one I’ve not seen too often: it’s a puzzler in which you guide glowing balls of light around, to activate switches. As a little green person, you have to leap around, push crates and fiddle about with mirrors, all to get the balls to go where you want them to. The order is the most important thing. It had me restarting each stage a number of times. You need to shift that crate to the teleporter, but before you activate that ball, so the crate doesn’t block its programmed path. Oh, but the ball was going to power the teleporter – hmm, now I need to rethink this whole level. Stages are manageable enough that I was able to sustain the puzzle in my head, chewing…

Sophia, the protagonist of Marvellous Miss Take, isn’t like the other, bad criminals on this spread. Nope. She’s only stealing priceless artefacts back from the cultural elite so everyone can enjoy them. Like the Robin Hood of looking at shit and pondering. But even with that wholesome thought in mind, her exploits are only partially satisfying. The game looks fabulous, but over-familiar levels sap your desire to reclaim Sophia’s collection, however noble her cause. It gets more interesting when the varied skills of her associates are brought into the mix, but the gameplay loop doesn’t match the design. There’s an art analogy in here I’m not cultured enough to make.…

Never thought I’d say it, but it’s lovely to play as a goblin. Too much time wasted in the Warhammer fantasy world means I go in expecting to be a jittering, capering villain, only interested in sticking people with sharp things. But Master of Shadows is more cerebral than that. In the first five minutes alone there are fragile alliances, political grievances, and ancient magics. But however it’s framed, there’s still a specific thrill in being a little green monster who silently kills people.…

From a PC gamer’s standpoint, Arm’s widespread usage outside our bubble is humbling. The UK-based microprocessor design company’s chips have been used in all Apple smartphones since 2008. They’ve effectively powered the total cultural and societal change we’ve experienced over the last decade. They also power most other smartphones and mobile devices, and there are around 180 billion chips out there to date. Even the PlayStation 4 snuck one into its architecture as a secondary processor, hidden away so discreetly it wasn’t discovered until 2020. It’s a bit like stepping into a McDonalds in Tokyo, seeing that the menu’s totally different, and realising the world’s much bigger than your Intel x86, Big Mac brain had previously conceived. In September 2020 Nvidia placed a $40bn (£31m) bid for Arm. Governments on…

I’ve never been a fan of timed events – the early Tomb Raider games saw to that. Trying to get Lara from lever to a closing door, often across a series of obstacles, had me tearing my hair out all those years ago. So why do I suddenly feel the need to get all the achievements for Final Fantasy X – some of which involve timed minigames? I spent the first half of the Christmas break finishing my current playthrough of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. Boxing Day saw me sitting through Quickening sequences – the short cutscenes that accompany what is essentially a Limit Break attack – as I attempted to nab the final achievement I needed. I had to get every concurrence through Quickening chains, which requires…

TREBUCHET A massive beam with something nasty on the end, hauled back by manpower then sent flying skyward by a counterweight. CANNON Cheating, in some people’s opinion. A long tube with gunpowder at one end, some sort of projectile, and a bad attitude. NEST OF BEES Replaces the mangonel in Chinese arsenals. This is firework-shotgun useful against massed troops and, it seems, trebuchets. RIBAULDEQUIN Despite being difficult to spell, this useful five-barrelled gun can cut down ranks of infantry, but falls in the face of fire arrows.…

On the 32nd anniversary of Back to the Future III, Rockstar will release an update that links RED DEAD ONLINE with GTA ONLINE via a modified steam train. Nintendo will soon follow Sony and Microsoft’s lead and start porting its games to PC. As a result, MARIO KART 8 will be the best-selling game on the STEAM DECK. The GAME AWARDS 2022 will take place entirely in VIRTUAL REALITY, with Geoff Keighley hosting in the form of an anime catgirl avatar. A re-release of CYBERPUNK 2077 will spark a critical reappraisal of the game, despite the controversial dubbing over of Keanu Reeves with Peter Dinklage. PETER MOLYNEUX will promise to turn himself into a “physical NFT”. Six months later, all he’ll actually have done is tattoo the word ‘DIGITAL’ on…

Project Zomboid was first released as a tech demo in April 2011, before releasing on Steam in November 2013. It had a rocky ride in those early years, with a big game leak and the theft of two laptops containing a bunch of code which hadn’t been backed up: developer The Indie Stone would, rather winningly, go on to give an industry talk titled How (Not) To Make a Game. “WE KNEW WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL BREWING WITH BUILD 41” Indie Stone now need to write another presentation: how to turn your passion project into a viral hit ten-and-a-half years after release. Since December 2021 Project Zomboid’s player numbers have gone through the roof: the cause is a major update that overhauls the game from the ground-up. Build 41 introduced…

“IT MADE ME THINK ABOUT GAMES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CINEMATOGRAPHY” It’s a nostalgic time for Chandana Ekanayake, who spent much of his early career living inside The Matrix. He joined Shiny Entertainment at the height of red pill fever, when the studio was swept up in the Wachowskis’ plans for crossover movies, comics, anime, and games. “The first thing I got to do was read the scripts for the sequels,” Ekanayake recalls. “They were still shooting it. The Wachowskis were very much involved and writing stuff for the game. It was an Expanded Cinematic Universe, before that was a thing, really.” Working as a character modeller on Enter the Matrix, Ekanayake was sent 3D head scans and photos of Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss – posed Christ-like in costume…

Skald: Against the Black Priory is careful in how it echoes the past. This retro-styled CRPG might seem hardcore, but in fact it’s pretty approachable. Autosaves have your back, you can do almost everything using only the mouse, and there’s even a button to automate the turn-based combat. This despite resembling Ultima VI’s grimdark fantasy cousin. No, there’s no virtuous Avatar here to dispel the forces of evil, just salty mercenaries such as yourself. In Skald’s meaty prologue demo, you arrive (shipwrecked) on an island to search for a woman with troubling magical powers. Said powers may have transformed the wildlife into giant, feral beasts and might have something to do with the cult of fishermen currently tearing the island apart. If I’m unsure, it’s because the demo ends abruptly,…

THE ONLY EVER-DEPLETING METERS ARE HEALTH AND THIRST. VERY MANAGEABLE Within my first 30 minutes with this game I’d punched the living coconuts out of a tree, nearly been killed by a rat the size of a mini fridge, repeatedly smacked a giant crab with a stick and eaten my own weight in berries. One thing this isn’t, is forgettable. Casually browse the website and Steam page for Breakwaters, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a game full of huge enemies, naval exploration, world shaping, and customisation. While all of those things are present, none of them are easily accessible. This is first and foremost a survival game, and you need to work for everything that’s on offer. That’s not to say that it’s tedious, overly demanding…

Company of Heroes 3 RELEASE:2022 2022 is the year the RTS returns from the grave, as genre veterans Relic Entertainment bring back the iconic WWII series. We’ve been hands-on a couple of times now, and it’s blown us away each time. It’s a good year to be a strategy gamer. Starfield RELEASE:Nov 11, 2022 It’s been a decade since Skyrim and seven years since Fallout 4. In other words, it’s been a long wait for a new Bethesda open world, but 2022 is finally the year – and with its intergalactic setting, it looks like the developer’s most ambitious project yet. Marvel’s Midnight Suns RELEASE:2022 You know it’s going to be a good year for PC gaming when there’s a big new release on the way from the XCOM team.Midnight…

NVIDIA’S DEEP LEARNING SUPER SAMPLING KICKED IT ALL OFF There are two things we are confident about seeing in 2022. The first is that the silicon shortage will continue well into the end of the year, making graphics cards still the most sought after, most expensive part of any gaming PC build. That’s rather depressing, and I’m sorry to have to kick off the year confirming the ongoing technical torpor of PC gaming hardware. But the second thing we’re confident about seeing is far more positive, and means that maybe we shouldn’t care about chasing that ephemeral upgrade and love the rig we’re with. Because there are some things happening in 2022 that mean you’re likely in line for higher frame rates and improved gaming fidelity from your existing gaming…

DEVIL MAY CRY The creators of the Castlevania show are already working on giving Devil May Cry the same treatment, with an eight episode season to come and further seasons planned. Dante, Vergil and Lady are confirmed as the leads. HALO After a long wait, the Halo TV series should finally be debuting this year. Pablo Schreiber (American Gods) is playing the Master Chief himself, while Cortana will be played by Jen Taylor, who’s portrayed her in the games. ASSASSIN’S CREED News has been quiet on this one since it was announced at the end of 2020, but in theory Ubisoft is still bringing a live-action series to Netflix – and presumably hoping to wipe away the stain of the film adaptation. CUPHEAD A full TV show based on the…

20% RIDING YOUR DOG Dashing, drifting and wall-running on your Palamute never stops being the coolest way to get around. 10% TWEAKING YOUR GUILD CARD Got to make sure your profile looks as ridiculous as possible. 5% GETTING CARTED Rise starts out gentle, but things ramp up, and if you’re not paying attention you’ll be wheeled off before you know it. 15% SHOPPING You’ll come to love the blacksmiths who make new weapons and armour for you out of monster parts. 50% HUNTING MONSTERS Capcom’s trimmed away the fat to ensure that you can spend as much time as possible just doing what you’re here to do.…

God of War is a PC game. That still felt weird to say as I wrapped up my second playthrough over the holidays. Not far above it on my Steam library sits another game that is ‘of War’ for a different master – Gears 5. Just a few years ago, these two tentpole series existing on the same device was impossible. Now they share a virtual shelf. Kratos left a now-godless Greece and wandered into the Norse lands Sony’s latest angry dad game is evidence that the PC is the ultimate videogame unifier, and a great reminder of how the platform can bring out the best in games. I’ve killed my way across Midgard at 30fps on a PS4 and 4K on PS5, but I don’t think I can go…

It’s taken me hours but finally I’ve built a digital legacy for Robertus Atellius Somethingus that’s worthy of the glory of Rome. I’ve assembled legions that have conquered Asia Minor, North Africa and Gaul, I’ve besieged cities, toppled senators, assassinated enemies with my Wild Bunch of praetorians, plus impressed a particularly horny Cleopatra, and her god complex, with my arrogance. It’s a solid CV for anyone applying for the role of Ancient Roman Consul. Really shines in its attention to historical detail Expeditions: Rome is a historical RPG with elements of strategy that sees you conquering much of the classical world while navigating high-level Roman politics on the home front. Fiddly RPG traits like levelling, trade and inventory management are simplified, which you may be grateful for in a game…

Did you know, windjammer was a slang term for a sailing ship once upon a time? I could not have guessed from the name alone that Windjammers was also a lesser known ’90s sports game about two opponents locked in competitive Frisbee. Is this a real sport? Not really, but a quick search showed me there is Ultimate Frisbee. In all I’ve learned so much from Windjammers 2, I only wish it was better at teaching me about itself. When you master it though, its rapid pace is enthralling No surprise if you’ve never heard of the original, there’s been over two decades between its release and this sequel. The fundamentals of the two are more or less the same. Not just in its controls and design but in the…

Jenga meets WarioWare. I could probably end the review there, but I suppose you’re wondering if that unusual mash-up is any cop? It certainly earns points for style. Where WarioWareis characterised by its anarchic pixel art and gleefully childish sense of humour, Jingokuis more understated, minimalist, and dare I say classier, its assortment of timed microgames including plenty of silly scenarios – but no nose-picking. Instead, you’re Flappy Bird-ing a paper aeroplane, you’re playing tug-of-war, and hurling a pesky hat onto a hat rack. But while Nintendo’s classic series offers a mixture of tough and easy games, I was only ever able to scrape together a few successes in Jingoku. It might be that the time limit is stricter, or it might have something to do with this game’s less…

Here’s a game that shows me endless reasons I wouldn’t survive prison. If the repetition didn’t kill me, the other inmates definitely would. It’s probably something to do with selling them back their own stolen blankets. Or robbing them while they’re unconscious. Or flushing all their contraband down the bog, just for a laugh. The more I think about it, the more The Escapists reminds me of a British boarding school with nightsticks and better internet. Perhaps because of this, it requires a level of patience I’m not sure I have. My first job is laundry duty, and the temptation to pop on a guard uniform and sashay to freedom is overwhelming. But nothing in The Escapists is simple. I can reach the exterior fence easily enough, but chopping through…

Using a projector for gaming might sound like a joke, but you’d be surprised how far beamers have come over the years. Sure, the contrast is unlikely to beat the deep blacks of an OLED TV, but the stuff that really matters for gaming – latency, portability and definition – have all seen major improvements. The projectors of old couldn’t hold a candle to the gaming abilities of these modern illuminators, and it seems it’s no longer laughable to consider buying a projector instead of a TV for gaming. Besides, gaming isn’t the only thing these beamers bring to the table. There are plenty of other benefits to swapping your TV for a projector. Not only will you save space, you’ll be able to shift and store your home entertainment…

WHAT’S MINE IS YOURS Crypto mining demand has driven Nvidia’s value up from $50bn in 2016 to $300bn in 2022. ARM AND A LEG During that same period, Arm’s company value grew at a comparatively much smaller rate – $2bn per year. CRASH OVERRIDE Japanese holdings company Softbank sold its stake in Nvidia during the 2018 crypto crash. GROWING PAINS Softbank also cuts ties with Arm just five years after its $32bn acquisition following poor growth.…

It’s one of our great modern myths, our answer to the titans of old: the great green knight and the naked blue lady who lives in his hat, delivering us from the terror of big ugly guys yelling “wort wort wort”. In order to spiritually prepare myself for Halo Infinite, I’ve been going back and reliving the epic saga of Master Chief Petty Officer John 117 via the quite good Halo: The Master Chief Collection. I remember in middle school playing the original trilogy solo or co-op with my fellow little gremlin boys, and for the life of us we could barely beat even a single level on the max-out Legendary difficulty. I figured: it’s been years, I’ve grown and changed, beaten Mass Effect on Insanity and soloed some of…

1 SEVERED HEAVEN Aim to dismember monsters for greater damage and loot. For example, use bladed weapons to sever tails, and blunt weapons to remove horns and for a chance to stun your target. 2 FORTY WINKS Pay attention to monster status effects. If your target is limping, stunned, or asleep, that’s your opportunity to get in more damaging attack combos that take longer to execute. 3 SHEATHING PAINS The vast majority of weapon types are bulky, so it’s not surprising that pocketing them boosts your movement speed. If you need more mobility, put it away if you can.…