Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2018 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

PHIL SAVAGE Specialist in Japan (in the ’80s) Twitter @Octaeder This month Could finally claim that the hundreds of hours spent playing Yakuza games were for work. What is a PC game? Metro Exodus is releasing for all platforms, but, perhaps in part because of the developer’s history, or because we love a well-paced shooter, it feels like a PC title. Also, we review Yakuza 0, a game with a strong console heritage that feels at home on PC. We also unveil Steel Division 2 and Desperados III, both from genres that are PC to the bone. My point is the route a game takes to get to us doesn’t matter. A PC game is any game that you play on a PC, and this issue is filled with great…

HIGHS No Man’s Sky Since the Next update, Hello Games’ space explore-’em-up has been one of the top-selling games on Steam. Dragon Ball FighterZ The anime fighter was the most watched game of Evo 2018 thanks to a nail-biting tournament. Fallout: Miami Another cool-looking mod project? Yup. This one promises a “DLC size” chunk of post-apocalyptic Florida. LOWS Microsoft Store No, there’s no news, but Microsoft’s digital shopfront is still a mess. Steam Games designed to scam people have been appearing on Steam. How about a little quality control, Valve? The Culling II Had a launch so bad the developers removed it from sale, and went back to working on the original game.…

XALAVIER NELSON JR. I’m a full-time game writer and narrative designer, with credits inside and out of gaming. The water cycle is one of the first scientific concepts you learn about. Water evaporates from the surface of the Earth, rising, accumulating, and condensing before returning to lakes and oceans in forms, such as rain, before beginning the process all over again. I don’t have to explain what rain is to you. You know rain. It’s a part of many of our daily lives, and among the most common stylistic elements in fiction. Considering its familiar nature, it’s surprising how little we know about how rain is created in videogames—and how widely these approaches can vary. “WHEN IT VANISHES OFF THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN, IT GETS MOVED BACK UP TO…

FORZA HORIZON 3 Strikes a balance between arcade and realism, with a massive roster of cars. DIRT RALLY You can no longer buy Dirt 2 digitally, making Dirt Rally the de facto best rally game. TRACKMANIA 2: CANYON Enjoy the wild imagination of its community’s eccentric, twisting tracks. RIDGE RACER UNBOUNDED A bizarre racer, where you’re encouraged to crash into obstacles to go faster. ASSETTO CORSA Probably the best pure sim racer around, with meticulous attention to vehicle handling. Want to track your progress? Print out our checklist at www.bit.ly/pcgchallenge…

OH SHIT, A BEAR! I SEE IT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A FOREST, SILHOUETTED IN MOONLIGHT. IT SCARES AWAY A PACK OF WOLVES WITH A ROAR, AND THEN CROSSES THE ROAD TO REVEAL ITS MASSIVE, MUTATED BULK. IT COULD EAT A PICKUP TRUCK. IT VANISHES INTO THE TREES, AND I REALIZE THAT I’M ABOUT TO GO IN AFTER IT… There was a mutant bear in Metro: Last Light too, but this one is much bigger. In fact, everything about Exodus feels bigger. The game is moving out of the underground and into the wilderness on a four-season journey into the east. The forest this bear lives in is a wide corridor, full of squirrelly little side paths and elevated networks of wooden pathways. As I move up into the…

Overwatch’s new player-rating Endorsements system has, Blizzard claims, led to a dramatic reduction in toxic behavior. But what do they actually mean? GOOD TEAMMATE You’re a healer who remembers to heal people or a tank stays with the team. You observe spawn room protocol, like watching people dance. SHOT-CALLER You, as you’re playing Zarya or Ana, say “group up” once or twice during the match and sync up your ultimate effectively with your team’s Genji. SPORTSMANSHIP You try to capture the point as Mercy in the last minute, while everybody else on your team is busy trading emotes with the other team’s Doomfist.…

JAMES DAVENPORT Specialist in Monsters, hunters Currently playing Monster Hunter: World This month Knew how/where to find fantastic beasts. PHILIPPA WARR Specialist in Puzzle boxes Currently playing GNOG This month Tried to escape the office by prodding everything. Spoiler: use the lift button. ANDY KELLY Specialist in Law, lore Currently playing Unavowed This month Discovered you can’t kill a demonic hangover with soft drinks and bacon. TOM SYKES Specialist in Arm day, pants Currently playing Muscle World This month Forgot his gym kit and had to do the Traversal Across Ceiling class in his underwear. CHRIS SCHILLING Specialist in Agonizing journeys Currently playing The Banner Saga 3 This month Faced down a concerning snake-pocalypse. PHIL SAVAGE Specialist in Excuses for karaoke Currently playing Yakuza 0 This month Finally got paid…

STATS AND YOU Scrolls let you upgrade one of three stats, but remember: the biggest health boosts come from improving your weakest attributes. DAMAGE CONTROL After you take damage, part of your health is highlighted in yellow. You can earn some of this health back by doing damage to enemies as quickly as possible. GOOD TIMING Early stages have doors that lock after a certain amount of time. These are a great source of cells—prioritize them when you’re working on an important upgrade.…

Having established a reputation for mercilessness, Stoic’s Norse epic was never likely to allow its exhausted heroes some respite. If anything, The Banner Saga 3 is even more crushingly grim than the previous two episodes—though that’s only fitting, since this is, in every sense, the end of the line. As a small group ventures into the wastelands beyond Arberrang’s fragmenting walls, looking for the serpent that’s about to destroy the world, you’re not just left wondering if all the characters are going to make it. The more pressing question is whether, if they do succeed, there will be anything for them to come back to. Austin Wintory’s score swirls and eddies ominously “Despite everything that’s going on, it’s still mankind that worries me the most,” says Rook astutely, moments before things go…

LEVEL: 3 - 5 Watch out for: Plate shortages—you’ve only got two, and you can’t throw them. Tip: Drop everything to grab the plates. LEVEL: 4 - 4 Watch out for: High winds across the bridges. It’s all too easy to lose your completed dishes. Tip: Exercise caution when you’re switching sides. LEVEL: 5 - 4 Watch out for: Those portals can waste valuable seconds. And pancakes are tricky to make. Tip: Chop the chocolate—it’s easy to forget about. LEVEL: 6 - 5 Watch out for: Well, you can hardly miss half the kitchen sinking every so often. Tip: Only fry meat just after the water has risen.…

KIRYU BRAWLER Your usual punches, kicks, and throws, with the twist that you get more moves when you’re a bit drunk. RUSH Fast punches and snappy dodging make this is a useful style for taking on strong, lumbering enemies. BEAST Attack like you’re holding a grudge, walk like you’ve got constipation. Beast mode is a heavy hitting style. MAJIMA THUG It’s a lot like Kiryu’s Brawler style, but with some added eye poking. Majima fights dirty when given the chance. BREAKER Inspired by breakdancing. Spin and flip into long combos, but remember to strike a pose. SLUGGER You know what? Screw fancy brawling. Why not just beat the shit out of someone with a baseball bat?…

Suffer now! And live the rest of your life as a champion!” It’s an inspirational quote I’m thinking of pinning to the fridge—or perhaps over the toilet, in case of curry the night before—and I have the grueling Muscle World to thank for it. It’s a quote that spurs you on every time you dare to rest inside its (possibly endless) cavern, before your pants-clad avatar picks himself up to resume his arduous journey. Muscle World is a game of careful resource management What, exactly, is your mission here? Why have you clambered into this labyrinth, wearing nothing but your tight underwear? Muscle World isn’t the type of game to simply dish out easy answers. Instead, the real story lies in the process, as you push yourself ever harder to reach the…

We now have conclusive evidence of dick jokes on Mars. From a gun called the Nut Hugger, to an ability called the Cock Blocker, to a mission to locate a detached human penis, it’s recently been officially confirmed that the red planet can support dozens of dong references. Unfortunately, Lost on Mars, the second add-on for Far Cry 5, doesn’t support much else. Ubisoft’s tower climbing puzzles make an unfortunate comeback You play as pilot Nick Rye, one of the companion characters from Far Cry 5, but Hurk Drubman Jr. is the real star of Lost on Mars. Hurk’s body has been dismembered by arachnids and scattered around the planet, with Hurk spending most of the adventure as a hovering ‘Brobot’. After teleporting you to Mars, Hurk becomes your sidekick…

Back in 2016, Final Fantasy XIV released its first ‘Deep Dungeon’, The Palace of the Dead. Featuring 200 randomized floors full of traps, curses, and beasts for your party of four adventurers to challenge itself against, you never quite knew what you’d come up against. Patch 4.35 brings a new Deep Dungeon, Heaven-on-High, with new twists and a beautiful east Asian design aesthetic—albeit this time across just 100 floors. After being thoroughly impressed by The Palace of the Dead, I went into this patch expecting similar tales of near-death and derring-do—being bundled together with three other people of the exact same class, but still managing to scrape through by the skin of our teeth despite limited resources. It’s an incredibly hard act to follow: Heaven-on-High follows the same format, so…

Seven years on, this is still a great immersive sim When I think of Human Revolution, I think of black and gold. Few big-budget games have such a distinctive look, but that’s part of what makes Eidos Montreal’s prequel so immediately striking. As a Deus Ex fan, I was sceptical when I heard a new game was in development. But then I saw those first screenshots, of a futuristic Detroit bathed in shades of black and gold, and knew the series was in good hands. “That’s the first thing I said when I started on the project,” said art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête when I interviewed him back in 2011. “I wanted the game to be very distinct. You see one screenshot and you know it’s Human Revolution. Art in games…

MIRROR In the bathroom you’ll find a not-so-subtle clue that Jensen isn’t totally cool with his recently augmented robobody. DESK The desk in Jensen’s bedroom is littered with dismantled watches and electronics. Gotta have a symbolic hobby. BOOKS A book on cybernetic prosthetics sits next to Jensen’s PC, which is essentially the user manual for his new limbs. FURNITURE Jensen’s furniture is tastefully ornate. He may be a cold, augmented cyberwarrior, but he has a favored aesthetic.…

One of the many highlights of the Yakuza series is its minigames. In Yakuza 0 alone, you can go bowling, sing karaoke, play OutRun, and even run a cabaret club. While many of these are entertaining, most are throwaway distractions—cute slice-of-life moments designed to reinforce the idea that Kazuma Kiryu is a human being with interests and hobbies outside of beating people up. Not mahjong, though. Mahjong is a deep pit from which there is no escape; a terrifyingly complicated and intricate pastime designed to fool you into thinking you could possibly become good at it. It is a deceptive creature that delights in toying with your hopes and dreams. I love it, and I’ve played far too many hours of it. Before Yakuza 0, I thought mahjong was a…

Q&A What about framerate caps? Limiting the appeal of these displays is that some games are capped at framerates lower than 240Hz. For instance, Titanfall 2 is limited to 144fps, while Star Wars Battlefront 2 is limited to 200fps. Do these monitors include Freesync or G-Sync? AMD and Nvidia’s adaptive sync technologies work at up to 240Hz, and indeed all the monitors here feature one of these. Dictionary TN—The displays use TN-type panels. These have the worst viewing angles and color accuracy, but the fastest response of 1ms. Response time—The time it takes for a pixel to transition from one color to another. Backlight strobing—A mode that flashes the backlight on and off. This tricks the brain into seeing a clearer image when there’s fast movement happening on screen. For…

…UNTIL OCTOBER 9…

TOM SENIOR Specialist in Moscow (in the post-apocalypse) This month Battled bears, cultists and heat stroke to bring you our cover feature. PHILIPPA WARR Specialist in Space (specifically the bit located in Guildford) This month Was given an entire universe to explore. Chose to visit Hello Games. ANDY KELLY Specialist in Detroit (in the dystopian robo-future) This month Went back to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Yes, reader, he asked for this. FRASER BROWN Specialist in Eastern Europe (in the 1940s) This month Continued his ongoing campaign to write about every strategy game. PC GAMER (ISSN 1080-4471) is published 13 times a year, monthly plus Holiday issue following December issue by Future US, Inc., One Lombard Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94111 (650) 872-1642. Phone: (650) 872-1642. Fax (650) 872-2207.…

REFLECTIONS Rain creates damp, reflective surfaces, like puddles or a trenchcoat’s ‘sheen’. The glossy edges and blurring needed to replicate this effect are expensive to calculate due to the need to ‘accumulate’ light from several angles. LIGHT REDUCTION When it rains and the sky darkens, the world has less light. Physically-based rendering now makes it easier to reuse assets under different lighting, but some previous approaches required textures to be radically changed! SO MUCH CODE Whether it’s raindrops, rain sheets, or splashes, VFX and particle systems require coding assistance. Code to calculate where the ground is so splashes are properly generated, layer raindrop effects in order, and so on. DYNAMICISM Turning rain effects on and off can be easy, but having the world itself (from clothing to city streets) transition…

Monster Hunter: World is an action game about dominating the food chain and looking good while doing so. It’s renowned for its endgame, where you go on challenging hunts in search of rare items needed to craft an armor set that’ll crown you the min-max champion of the world, but Monster Hunter’s essence and greatest strength is its prolonged, desperate, and tragic fights with beautiful beasts. Gods or dodos, hunts work the same throughout the entire game Unlike the story, murdering World’s dozens of intricately designed monsters has a point. There’s no levelling up and skill point allocation in Monster Hunter, so crafting armor and weapons is the only way to permanently buff your stats. Gear crafted from monsters reflects their strengths and weaknesses, so if you’re having trouble with…

If you’ve ever woken up after a wild night out and cringed as a friend recounted every embarrassing thing you did in excruciating detail, you’ll likely resonate with Unavowed. Except the main character didn’t drink too many caipirinhas at happy hour and get thrown out of a club for being sick on the dancefloor; they were possessed by a demon who used their body to go on a murderous rampage across New York City. Unavowed begins as the demon is being forcibly extracted from you on a rain-lashed rooftop. In this dramatic intro you decide whether you’re a man or a woman and choose from three backgrounds—actor, cop, or bartender—each of which has its own origin story and unlocks dialogue options later on. The marriage of the everyday with the…

DREDGE CLAPPER Where to get it: That bell Sparr warns you not to pull later on? Ignore him. Give it to: A high-level Varl who can withstand the aggro increase for the huge strength boost. TRYGGVI’S NECKLACE Where to get it: When your eccentric spearman stops to chat, hear him out. Give it to: Well, Tryggvi. He deserves a chance to showcase his talents. GOLD BRIDLE Where to get it: Pause by Arberrang’s merchant stalls on the second day. Give it to: Useful for anyone, but it fits a horseborn perfectly. Canary’s a good call. MALA PRAYER BEADS Where to get it: You will gain these after a chinwag with Zefr. Give it to: Any ranged units who could use the armor, resistance, and accuracy increase.…

It seems like a simple job. Travel to a nearby town and rescue a few villagers who have gotten themselves lost in the local coal mine. But when your rookie knight arrives in the snowy hamlet of Karthas, he learns the true horror of what has happened. Something terrible has been awakened in those deep, cavernous mines—something evil—and it’s a good thing the knight has brought his sword along with him. It’s a deeply old-fashioned game—by design, of course Chasm is a side-scrolling platformer in the Metroid mould, with games such as Castlevania, Zelda, and Spelunky coded into its DNA. The titular chasm is the mazelike network of tunnels that yawns beneath Karthas, from the dusty coal mine just below the surface, to the ancient dungeons and arcane temples hidden…

1 BOWLING Theater Square Alley is the place to go to knock down pins and acquire a chicken. 2 SHOGI On Senryo Avenue, find a game that’s like chess, only I don’t understand it. 3 MAHJONG Nakamichi Alley hosts a building full of people who are into moving tiles. 4 KARAOKE A bar on Pink Street North will let you fantasize about being a rock god. 5 OUTRUN You’ll want the SEGA arcade on Nakamichi Street. The other one has Space Harrier. 6 DISCO Become lord of the dancefloor as you bop though this tough minigame.…

I think it was level two where I swore at the screen and quit to the desktop in this (otherwise lovely) puzzle game, and that usually doesn’t happen until, at least, the fifth or sixth stage. It was only by reading about the game online that I would later learn what I had missed: a tiny, yet vital, platform almost completely obscured from sight. A Wish’s central system sees you raising and lowering the game’s many platforms, in order to create pathways leading from each stage’s entrance to the exit. Unfortunately, A Wish throws you straight in at the deep end, requiring what seem like advanced tactics nearly immediately. To circle back to that missing platform, it’s never inferred that the game is going to hide such things from you.…

At a certain point in Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s story, medieval everyman Henry helps to clear out the bandit-occupied village of Pribyslavitz, eventually killing the gang’s leader. The hamlet is left abandoned and in ruins after the battle. Now, though, if you buy From the Ashes — Kingdom Come’s first DLC package — you will be given the opportunity to restore the settlement to its former glory. Naturally, he asks the son of a blacksmith to pay for everything You start the quest by speaking to Lord Divish in Talmberg. Story-wise it’s designed to slot into the middle of the game, but you can start it in the epilog, too. Divish names Henry the village bailiff, but says he can’t spare any coin, so, naturally, asks the son of a blacksmith…

BUS SIMULATOR 18 Drive a bus around a city picking up passengers, printing tickets, and giving back the correct change. DEADSTICK It’s not out yet, but I’m excited about it. Pilot planes across a wilderness, battling the elements. EURO TRUCK SIMULATOR 2 Our favorite sim. Deliver cargo around a massive, atmospheric recreation of mainland Europe and the UK. SPINTIRES In this sim you’re tasked with driving giant, unwieldy Soviet ATVs through incredibly rugged, muddy landscapes.…

MAJOR TIMESINKS Phil Savage Editor While the PC version of Yakuza 0 took up the majority of my month, I did find time to investigate a couple of games with the potential to become major timesinks in the not-too-distant future. The first is Quake Champions, id’s attempt to dress up an old-school arena shooter in a more modern hero shooter’s clothes. I’m enjoying it a lot. Despite offering different characters with unique skills and stats, this is still an arena shooter at its core. You speed around maps, picking up weapons, ammo, and armor, and blasting people to death in frantic firefights. The second is Total War: Warhammer, which I’ve been meaning to play for years. I’ve started a campaign as the Dwarfs, and it’s been enjoyably relaxing, although my…

JARED ON HANZO “I don’t even care to play him [now]—he’s almost too easy. Easy to avoid flankers by just leaping away from them. Easy to melt tanks with Storm Arrows. Easy to win duels against any DPS character, except another Hanzo. Easy to teamwipe with the Zarya-plus-Hanzo ultimate combo.” NICO DEYO ON MERCY “Valkyrie isn’t a bad ult per se, but it lacks the impact and character that old Resurrection did. It’s an easy ult to charge up quickly to boost the team healing or DPS, but its overall power and ability to turn fights is not even close to what Resurrection was.” NICOLE WESTBROOK SMITH ON SYMMETRA “If they’d just changed her right and left-click and her turrets, she would’ve been fine. Her teleport is [still useful], but…

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. To this end, we’re selective about what we review, and try to focus on the notable, interesting, exciting or surprising. DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT DLC might be new missions for a game, or it might be a single new item. If we think you want to know about it, we’ll review it. FREE GAMES In addition to giving buyer’s advice, our review pages are a tool for recommendations. To that end, we’ll also pick out some recent free games to review each issue. THEY’RE BACK Whenever there’s a bargain or re-release of a significant…

Dead Cells has robust DNA. This is an action platformer with Castlevania’s environments and gothic bestiary, wed to Dark Souls’ exploration and sense of risk. From Diablo it inherits weapons with randomized effects and deep combo potential, and from Spelunky it learns how to create that ‘just one more run’ feeling with new surprises to discover. This is an ambitious act of successful synthesis, as its components have been executed beautifully. It’s gorgeous, for a start. Smooth animation, evocative pixel art, and gratifying effects cast Dead Cells in a good light from the off. Its moody fortresses and haunted villages are atmospheric but never drab, and each zone introduces a new splash of color to the game’s palette. Defeated enemies erupt in a shower of gems and weapons strike with…

ELEMENTALS One character you meet meddles with powerful magic and is cursed to become an endlessly burning fire spirit. JINN They don’t grant wishes, but do live in bottles. Jinn of note include the leader of the Unavowed and your companion, Mandana. MER-MEN Your second case with the Unavowed involves this massive, fishy military general from another plane of reality. GHOSTS You encounter ghosts regularly on your travels through New York City, but only one companion can actually talk to them.…

The first thing you do is beat up a gang of street thugs. The second thing? Before the crime drama unfolds, before a real estate turf war earns you hundreds of millions of yen, before you battle your way through the Japanese underworld, you sing karaoke. You tap your way through a rhythm action minigame; the dingy bar transforming into a concert stage as series lead Kiryu imagines himself rocking out to an ’80s power ballad. It’s a prequel, making it the perfect entry point for new players Welcome to Yakuza 0, ostensibly an open world action game, but one that blends arcade-style brawling with a visual novel’s languid conversations, throws in a selection of weird and wonderful minigames, and wraps it all up in a world where the sublime…

In This is the Police, Jack Boyd spent his last days as Freeburg police chief in a frenzy of corruption, trying his best to keep the city clean while also working with the local mafia and collecting as many kickbacks as he could. In an all-too-realistic move, the sequel sees him evade justice and slip into a brand-new job advising the sheriff of a small town’s police force. Which, it turns out, is not an easy retirement at all. It feels like the game is asking you to spin too many plates at once In theory, this is a strong setup for a story. The snowy town of Sharpwood has a Fargo-esque vibe that serves as a nice change of pace from the big city of Freeburg. In practice, however,…

DIG OUT YOUR OLD GAMES 1 If you bought your old games online there’s a high chance they have already been patched and updated to work on modern systems, but the collection of CDs at the back of the wardrobe? Those will take some more work. REGISTER THEM ONLINE 2 Most people don’t know this, but you can sometimes register your older games on services like Steam, Origin and Battle.net. If the code is recognized you’ll be rewarded with a fully patched digital version, letting you skip the next step. DOWNLOAD THE LATEST PATCHES 3 If that doesn’t work, you’ll need to find and install the most recent official patches manually. This can be tricky if the official site has shut down. Check the fansites, they’ll likely have put up…