Innholdsfortegnelse for Holiday 2017 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

GRIFTLANDS USES A JRPG-STYLE BATTLE SYSTEM, BUT ISN’T STRICTLY TURN-BASED NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2018 DEVELOPER Klei Entertainment PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.griftlands.com FIRST LOOK Griftlands offers your basic RPG standards: Loot, crafting, and combat. But, as with all of Klei’s games, there’s a twist. It’s a roleplaying game about grifting—about talking your way out of (and sometimes into) sticky situations, and pursuing potentially lucrative opportunities. Also, it’s set in a land. Hence the name. I see an example of this when Smith, one of three characters you can play as, takes the low road after he stumbles upon a dispute between some bandits and merchants. Siding with the bandits, he battles the merchants, taking their coin, but ultimately decides to spare their lives. The merchants don’t like being robbed, but they…

DESPITE THE ANCIENT INFLUENCES, RÖKI EXPLORES MODERN THEMES NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2018 DEVELOPER Polygon Treehouse PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.polygon-treehouse.com FIRST LOOK Striking out on your own can be scary. But for Tom Jones and Alex Kanaris- Sotiriou, it meant having the freedom to tell their own stories. Two art directors from Guerrilla Cambridge, they were forced to reassess their careers after the studio closed down in January. Undeterred, they founded Polygon Treehouse to make games on a more intimate level. Their first game is Röki, a point-and-click adventure inspired by the wintry landscapes and strange creatures of Scandinavian folklore. It follows a young girl called Tove (which in Norse mythology means female Thor), who leaves her family’s cabin on the edge of town to venture into the wilderness and…

In 1991, MicroProse launched Sid Meier’s Civilization, a game that would define turn-based strategy for over two decades, and give birth to a genre that eventually became known as 4X: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. You probably know someone who has been struck down by One More Turn Syndrome, shackled to their PC at 3am. Maybe it’s you. Meier had no idea what he was starting. Meier and Bruce Shelley had finished Railroad Tycoon, and were looking for another project. They wanted to expand on some of the ideas behind their last game, and Meier had been intrigued by the exploration system found in Empire, the turn-based wargame. It started by giving players a limited view of the world, but that viewpoint gradually unfurled as the world was explored. NEED TO KNOW…

I’m in a bank vault, up to my waist in water. This is still, technically, a ‘ghost’ run. No alarms have been sounded. But the hole in the roof above suggests a different story—one of planning, mild carnage, and, ‘Oh, what happens if I do this?’ Death of the Outsider’s third mission is a standout heist that shows Dishonored’s semi-directed design at its best. It’s not my favorite thing about this standalone expansion—we’ll get to that—but the dense network of possibilities and routes is as good as anything found in Dishonored 2. Breaking into Karnaca’s most secure bank is just another step in protagonist Billie Lurk’s plan to kill the Outsider. Lurk, having cast off her assumed identity as the captain of the Dreadful Wale, reunites with her former mentor and frenemy Daud.…

Lost and naked, players open their eyes on the shore of an island teeming with dinosaurs. Ark is an open world in the truest sense: There’s nowhere I need to go, nowhere I’m supposed to be. But I can’t just starve to death on that beach, so I set off. I tear a branch off a tree, tie it to a rock, and then I have a stone axe. Unlike other survival games, Ark’s tech goes all the way. That stone axe eventually leads to rocket-propelled grenades, forges, and forcefields. Whether I’m wearing a hat made out of grass or steel, my goals in Ark are essentially unlimited. Like many of the best PC games, Ark asks me to set goals for myself and be the author of my own stories. I can…

PHIL SAVAGE THIS MONTH Performed amazing magic tricks badly. ALSO PLAYED Dishonored: Death of the Outsider I ’m playing Heat Signature, a game made by former PC Gamer section editor Tom Francis. As Tom’s friend, I’m not going to offer a critical evaluation of the game. But I am going to tell you the story of Magnificent Vietzen. Each of the procedurally generated characters has a mission. Magnificent’s is to rescue his friend, Hamal, from a ship deep in Glitcher territory. Hamal was my previous character, and if I rescue her, I can play as her again. This is desirable: Her arsenal of non-lethal toys offers options for almost any situation. Magnificent doesn’t offer options. He offers teleporters. A lot of them. He’s basically a killer space magician. That’s cool, but…

1 THE DEVIL’S PIT MOD Carving out a new home for our gruff hero I hope Phil isn’t looking, because I’m going to use this space to recommend two Witcher 3 mods: One far bigger, and one much more bodacious than the other. The headline download is The Devil’s Pit, which bungs in a new area in the form of the, er, Devil’s Pit, a previously unused part of the identically named quarry. Interestingly, you won’t find any new quests here, but you will find a bunch of additional NPCs, one of whom can be recruited as a follower/mule to hold your stuff. The dank, dingy crevice is a new base of sorts for Geralt, so you’ll find an extra stash, along with a summoning stone to do battle with your shadow self…

A mouse-and-keyboard setup may rule for most things PC gaming-related, but there are occasions where a different sort of controller comes in handy. Racing games, beat-’em-ups, and platformers are much easier when played with a gamepad, plus sometimes it’s just nice to sit back and play a game from the comfort of your sofa, which is much easier to do with a controller. So, we’ve gathered together seven of the most popular gamepad options you can buy right now. These include all three of the main console controllers— PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch— as well as a selection of alternatives, both pricey and perfunctory. The main things we’ll be looking out for are the comfort of the controller and the precision of its various controls. Beyond that it’s all the…

OPINION TECH GAMES MONITOR THE PC GAMER VIEW OF THE WORLD VRDC Fall 2017—the virtual reality developers’ conference—took place in San Francisco in mid- September. Aside from prompting the thought that the event would sound more zingy if they were to rebrand as “Cybergoggles NOW!” the VR shindig provides a fascinating look at the priorities and projects of its practitioners. Generally I’ve thought that the best and most interesting work in the field of virtual reality would probably happen outside gaming. That’s not to say that great VR games won’t be made, but for me it’s in the same position as Microsoft’s Kinect. There were some brilliant gaming projects which used that tech, but there was also research into ideas like controlling the movement of cockroaches with the goal of…

THERE ARE TECHNICALLY MORE POSSIBILITIES THAN STARS IN THE SKY NEED TO KNOW RELEASE TBA DEVELOPER Petroglyph Games PUBLISHER Team 17 LINK www.petroglyphgames.com FIRST LOOK If Forged Battalion does its job, you should be able to tell a lot about how someone likes to play games based on the armies they create. Do they have a min-maxed RTS army? Are they focusing on swarm units? Me? I took all the unit mods that sounded fun and named the resulting fodder dumb things like ‘Angry Freddy’ or ‘Dhumpus’. Such was my time with the Faction Creator—the central hook of Forged Battalion—where players can customize their units to create unique factions, all Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts-style. It feels like a more approachable version of Command & Conquer, which makes sense. Forged Battalion is the…

MANIPULATING THE WORLD MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE A JAMES BOND VILLAIN NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2018 DEVELOPER James Patton PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.spinnortality.com PLAYED IT I’ve just launched a social media network in Europe that, based on your personality and posting habits, buys things before you even know you need or want them. But it’s a disaster. The angle is all wrong, the market hates it, and I’ve lost millions. But while this may have ruined a lesser company, the PC Gamer evil megacorporation has a plan to dig itself out of this hole. I decide to siphon cash from my pension fund, yielding up to $20 million for each worker I currently have employed. Of course, there’s a chance I’ll get caught and exposed, ruining my reputation. But it’s…

B rian Reynolds remembers when Sid Meier gave him a copy of Civilization. “I played until 2am,” he admits. “It combined the city, units, and ‘one more turn’ of Empire with the experience of Civilization the board game. Avalon Hill games were the gold standard, and I didn’t realize computer games could do that.” He was hooked. He’d been working on adventure games, trying to compete with Sierra, but it wasn’t working out and everyone was worried about their jobs. So he started developing a prototype—a game about discovery and exploration. He showed it to Meier, and a week later he’d been moved to a new department to commence work on what would become known as Colonization. Then SimCity 2000 came out. Its predecessor had been one of Civilization’s influences, but SimCity 2000…

A storm was brewing at Firaxis, and it was undeniably hexshaped. Since 1991, the series had used square grids, while more and more 4X and wargames gravitated towards the sexy angles of the hexagon. As a fan of games like Panzer General, new lead designer Jon Shafer decided to introduce Civilization and its many adherents to the joy of hex. Development started in early 2007. Shafer was 21, and he wanted to do something different. “Civilization IV was such a good game, so we wanted to put a different spin on things. We acknowledged that it was going to be controversial, not everyone was going to like what we did, but we made a conscious effort to push things in a different direction.” What could be more controversial than killing squares? A lot…

After countless attempts by Sega to refresh Sonic, it’s a straightforward side-scrolling platformer that ends up being the best one in decades. But while Sonic Mania is a love letter to the Blue Blur’s ’90s heyday, it manages to feel fresh thanks to clever remixes of classic levels and imaginative boss battles. Sonic has always thrived in two dimensions, and this is the purest expression of his fast-paced rollercoaster platforming prowess. There are 13 zones in Sonic Mania: Five brand-new ones, and eight remixes of familiar locations. Chemical Plant Zone begins in much the same way as it did in Sonic 2, but in the second act you find yourself bouncing around on pools of springy gel. In the same vein, the first act of Green Hill Zone is largely untouched, but in…

Heat Signature is quite forgiving and that keeps it fun I smashed an unsuspecting guard so hard with a Concussion Hammer that his body went sliding down the corridor, comically coming to a stop at the feet of four of his friends. Oops. As the guards began shouting and attacking, the spaceship’s captain changed course for an enemy station just 30 seconds away. I hadn’t gone more than four rooms without bungling the mission, and now I had just half a minute to salvage it before my character was captured. Heat Signature is a procedurally generated playground for those who love to experiment, fail, and adapt. Though it kind of looks like Hotline Miami, Heat Signature has the spirit of Dishonored 2, except it’s set in a space-themed sandbox. There are four…

The original still has a thing going for it: The bugs have been stamped out When was the last time you were truly immersed and engaged in an activity? Mindfulness types call this state ‘flow’, and positive psychologists say this situation of total involvement is what we really mean when we talk about happiness. So, with that in mind, Project Cars 2 is the most demanding simulation racer I have ever played, and it is a positive psychologist’s dream. With all the assists off and a decent racing wheel plugged in, it requires so much sustained attention, so many adjustments in response to whispers of feedback from the car, that there’s simply no brainpower left to think about anything other than getting your Audi R18 around the last turn at Zolder. And…

TOM SENIOR THIS MONTH Discovered dark arts on the battlefields of Titanfall 2. ALSO PLAYED XCOM 2: War of the Chosen NOW I’M A CHUNKY GHILLIED-UP CHUCKLEFUCK WITH AN INVISIBILITY CLOAK Do you love to snipe in multiplayer shooters? You’re a jerk. What’s more, I think deep down you know it. I say this with confidence because I have joined your club of murderous voyeurs. I have camped in the shadows and ruined others’ fun with each click of the left mouse button. I have punished players for having the temerity to wander around outside, and I’ve shot a few inside, too. People in videogame war zones don’t tend to board up windows for some reason. Titanfall 2 is my war zone of choice at the moment, and the Double Take…

“MYSTERY THAT’S NOT INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH IS EATEN UP BY MARKETING, WIKIS AND DATA MINING” In a 2016 documentary by YouTube channel toco toco tv, NieR: Automata director Yoko Taro said, “Looking at AAA titles, of course I find them beautiful and interesting, but after 20 minutes of gameplay, I wonder whether it is going to be the same for the following 20 hours. I am a bit tired of this. If possible, I would like to make games that are unexpected, games that keep changing form.” The spirit behind this statement drove NieR: Automata to incorporate a mind-bending, emotionally fraught narrative, and it brought the game incredible success. If this example is anything to go by, titles relying on a sense of surprise and discovery have more of an audience than ever—even in the…

PLAYERS TEND TO INSTALOCK CHARACTERS WITH A HIGH KILL CAPACITY NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Early Access DEVELOPER Hi-Rez Studios PUBLISHER In-house LINK www.paladins.com PLAYED IT Hi-Rez really needs to patch out the near-gamebreaking bug in Paladins where I’m in a tense match and both teams are one single capture point away from victory, when a man comes to the front door and needs me to tell him if the current electoral register details for the residence are correct. Relatedly, the electoral register needs to fix its own bug, which is that its stupid form doesn’t have a checkbox for, ‘Yes I do still live at this address, but in shame and defeat thanks to the timing of your visit.’ Paladins is Hi-Rez’s entry into the team-based cartoony FPS genre. You pick a…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE December 2017 PUBLISHER Bifrost Entertainment DEVELOPER Joakim Sandberg LINK www.bifrostent.com PLAYED IT Our hero, Robin, finds herself on the wrong side of One Concern, a sinister religious group looking to ban the repair of machines. Which wouldn’t be a problem if Robin wasn’t a mechanic. Cue a fight for freedom as Robin teams up with a group of like-minded allies to put an end to these creepy zealots. Development on this gorgeous puzzleplatformer started back in 2010, and the release is finally near. In it you’ll fight huge robotic bosses, solve brain-teasing puzzles, and enjoy a lot of bouncy, colorful platforming fun. I played an early build of the game, which taught me the basics of using Robin’s wrench, and here are some of the things…

EVERY SINGLE SECOND IN ASIA, A NEW SOLO MATCH OF PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS BEGINS. AT PEAK TIMES, THAT NUMBER RISES TO TEN NEW GAMES PER SECOND. WITH A CONCURRENT PLAYER COUNT THAT HAS RECENTLY SWOLLEN TO OVER 1.5 MILLION, AN UNANTICIPATED PROBLEM HAS ARISEN FOR THE UNANTICIPATED SMASH HIT. PUBG’S CLOUD SERVER SERVICE SIMPLY DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH SERVERS TO ACCOMMODATE THE EARLY ACCESS BATTLE ROYALE SHOOTER’S MASSIVE AND STILL-GROWING PLAYERBASE. I’m given this information during a visit to the offices of Bluehole, PUBG’s developer, in South Korea. Over the two days I’ve been here, I’ve twice tried to interview platform team lead Seungwoo Shin, who is in charge of PUBG’s servers. Whenever we’ve attempted to talk, he’s been simply (and understandably) too busy. We finally get to speak for about 15…

With the unexpected success of Civilization II, another sequel was inevitable, though not before some litigation over naming rights and the launch of Activision’s Civilization: Call to Power series. After suits and countersuits, the licence eventually ended up with Hasbro, and by 2001 the company had been acquired by Infogrames. Firaxis, which was founded by Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds and Jeff Briggs in 1996, could finally work on the next game. And, once again, the question became: What could possibly be added to such a huge thing? “Sid and I used to joke with each other that after designing Civilization, what else could you do?” Jeff Briggs recollects. “The scope of the game spans all of human history from the agricultural revolution to the present, so we already had everything that any other…

As soon as work wrapped up on Civilization V’s final expansion, Brave New World, the design team had already moved onto Civilization VI. And with Ed Beach leading development on both, it’s not surprising that the pair share a lot of similarities, with the latter fleshing ideas introduced in the expansion and Civilization V’s other pieces of DLC. Ever since it appeared in the third game, culture has evolved into one of the key pillars of the Civilization series, and for Beach it was a priority in Brave New World, which saw the introduction of the tourism system. It became a priority once again in Civilization VI, culminating in a new progression system that put culture on the same level as science, complete with its own tree, but for civics rather than technology. “I’m…

PAX West 2017 has already come and gone! If you weren’t able to make it, you missed one heck of a show. The ASUS ROG booth showed off its latest line of gaming hardware, including the ultra thin gaming laptop on offer, the Zephrus. Plus, ROG’s new GL503 gaming laptop made an appearance along with the latest series of gaming PCs and several custom PC builds with which visitors were able to test out and challenge other attendees in Rocket League, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Overwatch matches. For those looking for VR ready PCs, the ROG booth gave gamers a chance to play the Oculus-exclusive Unspoken on the console sized GRB II and battle their friends one-on-one in spellcasting duels to the death. If attendees were looking for more high-end competition,…

The combat is simple, fun, and disarmingly challenging at times The oversized left arm of Hob’s silent protagonist is mechanical, gifted to them by a friendly robot early in the game. This magnificent appendage has multiple uses, from charged punches that make enemies explode and walls crumble, to activating arcane machinery and changing the layout of levels. You also have a sword, letting you cut foes down in a stylish flurry, but it’s that great metal fist and its upgrades which really stand out. When you charge and unleash it, you can almost feel its immense, crushing power rippling through your controller— which, incidentally, I strongly recommend you play with. Hob is a mysterious little game, telling a wordless, enigmatic story that you have to piece together yourself. It’s not as…

ANDY KELLY THIS MONTH Served up a slice of poetic justice. ALSO PLAYED Divinity: Original Sin 2 While exploring Karnaca’s Upper Cyria district, I find a taxidermy shop hidden down a side street. The owner is pleasant enough, but because Dishonored games turn me into a raging kleptomaniac, I investigate the locked door in the back. I wait for her to turn away, snatch the key from her belt, and descend into a gloomy basement. Then, suddenly, I’m on fire, having just triggered a tripwire. Why does a taxidermist need an elaborate security system? Something is going on here, and I intend to find out what it is. At the bottom of the stairs it becomes clear why she was so keen to keep people out of her basement. On a table…