Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

When Warframe originally launched back in March 2013, PC Gamer magazine had a then unreleased game called The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on its cover. Fast-forward a decade and PC gamers are not only still playing both these games but, amazingly, great new official content is still being made for them. And, for Warframe, its new The Duviri Paradox expansion is an incredibly fitting way to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Indeed, now seems the best time ever to jump into the free-to-play online shooter, as our huge feature on page 32 excitingly shows. robert.jones@futurenet.com ROBERT JONES Twitter @rnicholasj This month Threatened the PC Gamer team with the noble art of karaoke if they failed to submit reviews on time. TALK TO PC GAMER Have your say! Email us at letters@pcgamer.com…

1 An early version of a ship that would become legendary in Warframe lore as the Zariman Ten Zero, a vessel that only recently appeared in the game. 2 The hero’s suit easily resembles the Excalibur warframe, which is used throughout promotional materials. 3 Grineer troopers had a more generic design back in 2005, but the foundation for them is clearly there in older models. 4 Even all those years ago the warframe method of extraction, strapping in to the exterior of their shuttle, was in place.…

THE SECOND DREAM Undeniably the point where most players sit up and pay attention is when it’s revealed the warframes are simply remote-controlled bodies. The moment you meet your Operator is memorable. THE WAR WITHIN The next big step on the journey was learning the full extent of your powers, culminating in the moment when the Operator projects their mind across the solar system to help rescue a mate. THE NEW WAR This questline had many big reveals, but none as mindbending as finding out the mysterious Drifter is really your Operator… and then finding out they’re you from another timeline.…

BRUTES These are hard to kill, especially if you shoot them from the front. Your best bet is to slow them with stasis, then circle around and use the Ripper to slice ’em. DIVIDERS Though these Necromorphs are rare and hunt alone, be wary of their grab attacks. Once dead, their bodies ‘divide’ and all the parts attack at once. GUARDIANS You’ll likely hear this wall-mounted Necromorph before you see it. Sever the limbs attaching it to the wall before it fires out too many turrets. HUNTERS There isn’t much you do against a Hunter except run. These Necromorphs regenerate, so chop off their legs and use stasis to slow them down.…

THIS MONTH Ruined a manicure by bashing my nails into my keyboard. ALSO PLAYED Guild Wars 2, Stranger of Paradise Music is pretty cool. Do you know what’s even cooler? Music where you also jam your fingers into a bunch of keys to the beat. I’ve always loved rhythm games, but my desire to play them over the years has waned. I even bought DJMax Respect V two years ago, played for an hour and wondered if maybe I just wasn’t much of a rhythm gamer anymore. That’s until recently, when I’ve been hitting the arcade a whole bunch with a good pal of mine. He’s one of those incredibly annoying friends who is cracked at everything he tries, yet so humble about it you can’t hate him for it.…

THIS MONTH Watched other people play Stardew Valley. ALSO PLAYED Midnight Suns, Portal RTX My entire family is addicted to Stardew Valley, and it’s all my fault. The tale begins with a familiar refrain from the lips of my daughter, who’s six: “I’m boooooored.” And what better way to stave off boredom than videogames? Naturally, she wasn’t going near my PC—I sit at it all day and use it for everything from writing to games to photo editing, so a PlayStation 5 was acquired, along with a small selection of suitable games. Most were tried once and discarded, though Peggle 2 made a bit of an impression, but Stardew Valley sank its hooks in deep. It’s not a game that you can play alone when you’re six, however. The daily…

Cyberpunk 2077 has undergone some serious changes and improvements over the past 18 months, with lots of bug fixes and the addition of long-requested features like transmog coming to the first-person RPG. Providing another big boost to the playerbase is the Netflix anime series that’s gotten people back in the mood to either revisit Night City or to try the game for the very first time. And modders have been busy, too. There are now troves of mods to download and install, featuring everything from flying cars to improved motorcycles to overhauls of combat and the police force. Below, you’ll find our picks for the best mods for Cyberpunk 2077 as of early 2023. GANG RELATED Let’s start with your enemies. Are Night City’s gangs feeling a bit too copy-and-paste?…

As an immersive sim obsessive, Prey should rank highly among my favorite games. Yet when I first played Arkane’s ode to System Shock back in 2017, I didn’t fully get along with it. I admired much of what it did—the art-deco labyrinth of Talos 1, the freeform exploration, those exquisitely tricksy Mimics playing the solar system’s deadliest game of hide and seek. Despite this, something didn’t click. I’ve thought about it often in the years since (like I said, I’m an obsessive), and I’ve concluded the problem lies with Prey’s combat. I relied on shotguns and psychoshock too heavily in my first run, and combat perhaps isn’t Prey’s greatest strength. Consequently, I’ve decided to try the game again, but with the added rule that I’m not allowed to kill any…

ROBUST CLOTH There’s regular cloth in The Witcher 2, but that won’t do. It must first be transmuted into the venerable Robust Cloth, a key ingredient in the various jerkins, breeches, boots, and mittens you’ll be chasing for incremental armor upgrades. HARDENED LEATHER You’re going to need a ton of Hardened Leather to craft high-quality weapons. Vendors have a limited amount, so you’ll have to go on a little quest getting regular leather you can craft into Hardened Leather. STUDDED LEATHER Oh, and Hardened Leather can actually be crafted into Studded Leather. You’ll need lots of Studded and Hardened Leather to outfit your six slots. I needed a paper and pen to calculate how much detritus I had to accumulate. TIMBER Alright, am I playing The Witcher or is this…

HARDWARE LABS Can Yukari and Fuuka overcome Dave James in avatar form, a monstrous Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 adorned with a crown of bank notes? ECOMMERCE WING Jacob and Katie’s daemonic army of the best gaming chairs lies in wait here, testing Akihiko’s penchant for a comfortable butt to the max. SCUMM K ARAOKE BAR If Ken and Aigis aren’t careful they’ll be dancing all night, trapped by Rob ‘Voice of an Angel’ Jones’ beastly crew of living microphones. EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Robin, Rich and Tyler take no prisoners in ed ops, with Mitsuru and Shinjiro having to deal with waves of brutally random living hot takes. EXECUTIVE SUITES PCG overlords Evan and Phil are the ultimate test for Junpei as they’re in so many meetings that finding them is nearly…

CHRIS LIVINGSTON Twitter @screencuisine This month Soul-jacked a bemused crab to solve a puzzle in Tchia, while also evading spooky cloth zombies. SEAN MARTIN Twitter @RemainsToBeSean This month Fought mutated undead horrors in space daily, also he reviewed the Dead Space remake. TYLER WILDE Twitter @tyler_wilde This month Injected ’90s-style FMV cutscenes into his eyeballs in puzzle game Grand Inquisitor. JODY MACGREGOR Twitter @jodymacgregor This month Wore a set of pixelated 8-bit sunglasses while fighting a giant chicken in Lost Ark.…

ANGER A harsher, more hostile landscape where enemies are bolstered with fire. HAPPINESS Bright and more colorful than usual, this will apparently have more indirect effects on Duviri. ENVY Dipping the sky in a moody green and giving enemies poison to dish out. SADNESS A more melancholy Duviri, no small feat in a realm with an absence of color. CALM The mood that will set a baseline for Duviri while players do its main quest.…

2016 Steve Sinclair at the very first Tennocon, three years after the game’s launch. It was held in the home of Digital Extremes: London, Ontario, Canada. 2017 Fans are treated each year to a whole variety of novelties like this impressive real-life recreation of the in-game Warframe foundry. 2018 “Just being in the online space for so long, I think there is a Warframe bubble,” Ford says of its much friendlier online player base. 2019 The final Tennocon before the Covid pandemic struck, with a massive turnout. Warframe is a game with a huge, dedicated community. 2020-2022 During the pandemic Digital Extremes held Tennocon within the game, with a live event and stream to promote The Duviri Paradox. 2023 This year will be the first in-person Tennocon in three years.…

IMPROVED VISUALS The remake was built from the ground up in the Frostbite engine. NEW GAME+ After you’ve completed it you can jump back in with Phantom Necromorphs. BETTER GUNS Weapons have new special abilities; such as the Pulse Rifle’s proximity grenades. SECRET ENDING If you can find 12 Marker Fragments in new game+ you can unlock a new ending for Isaac. SIDE STORIES New sidequests tell the story of Nicole, and Brant Harris, patient zero for the Necromorph attack. ZERO-G Dead Space now has the free-floating sections seen in the second and third games.…

CLERE Clere looks so chill. Not a thought behind his eyes. He’s just a li’l guy who loves sleep, cuddles and being fed. ARAMAK Aramak appeals to my cold, goth heart. If I could own a slightly strange, fantasy cat, it would be this one. KALPANA Kalpana may well be the prettiest cat in all of Athia. If she was human, she’d be the popular blonde girl who always had gum. LEITE I can’t explain this, but Leite reminds me of a smart, kind but slightly frazzled old man. The kind of cat with amazing stories.…

THIS MONTH Transformed into a cup, rolled under a table. ALSO PLAYED Pentiment, Prodeus I’m hunted by a Nightmare, Prey’s biggest and most deadly foe, and I’m honest enough to admit that I’m shortly going to need a change of trousers. This hulking, tentacled, Lovecraftian shadow monstrosity is a walking bringer of death. It’s equipped with a smorgasbord of deadly attacks and powers, it’s physically massive and, quite naturally, its harrowing scream induces fear into all who hear it. I’m low on ammo, too, and I know from past experience that my usually trusty GLOO cannon, which allows me to immobilize basically all other Typhon foes on the Talos 1 space station, is no good here—it would be like trying to glue-up a Balrog. No, my only chance is to…

Like every MMO, Lost Ark wants to hook you with its endgame so you keep playing forever. You’re not done when you hit level 50. That’s just your character level. After that there’s a gear level to grind up for hundreds more hours. The grind’s alleviated by a steady drip-feed of additions, the biggest of which add entire new continents with quests that extend the storyline, while between those are smaller events, often taking place on an island somewhere. The latest is an odd choice: a crossover with The Witcher. While Geralt’s cameoed in other games like Soulcalibur VI and Monster Hunter World, The Witcher is dark fantasy in the Elric tradition while Lost Ark is so light you need shades. In fact I have a pair, a set of…

TRAM CONTROL 1 The first marker fragment is easy to get since it’s next to where you have to collect the Data Board in Tram Control during chapter one. Look to the right of the workbench to spy the fragment on a bookcase, though you may have to shoot some books to access it. KYNE’S OFFICE 2 The second fragment is located in a secret room in Dr Terence Kyne’s office. You can find his office in the Research Wing of the Medical Deck during chapter two. Use kinesis and slide his bookcase aside to reveal the room with the fragment. ENGINE ROOM 3 During chapter three you have to head to the Engine Room on the Engineering Deck to keep the Ishimura afloat. Head to the center of the room, turn left,…

One of the best game design trends in recent years is, practically speaking, a little boring. I can’t stop thinking about the firing range—an old staple of videogame tutorials that, in the age of the service game, has taken new form as a reactive training ground for beginners and veterans alike. We’re in the middle of a competitive shooter golden age, and I’d argue one crucial indicator of a developer that really ‘gets it’ is a fully featured firing range. If your practice range is little more than a few plywood targets with a bullseye, you’ve messed it all up. The best videogame firing ranges are closer to training compounds, packing Willy Wonka levels of extravagant features and doohickeys purpose-built for experimentation, fact checking, and aim training. In 2023 it’s…

ROOK Safe, reliable, boring. Rook provides a flat damage bonus with no downsides. Really I’m just interested in its name: this potion doesn’t show up in the other games, and I always associated it with chess before finding out it’s actually a species of bird. GADWALL Another eye-catching name, this one referencing a species of “dabbling” duck. Gadwall cranks down your damage output in favour of tuning up your hit points and health regen. Fairly useful in a game where everything kills you in three hits. THUNDERBOLT Glass cannon mode, DPS time. Thunderbolt halves your max hp and regen but ratchets up the damage you deal. With feats that reduce the negative effects of potions, it synergizes with Gadwall to boost you across the board. Shame potions are such a…

MOTHERBOARD B660M Mortar WiFi MSI $180 This MSI board delivers everything we need in a compact package and allows us to use much cheaper DDR4 memory. PROCESSOR NEW ENTRY Core i5 13400F Intel $196 Yes, this is the same CPU as the budget build. It’s simply too good value to miss and perfect for high fps gaming. GRAPHICS CARD GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Ed. Nvidia $350 The RTX 3060 Ti is a little overkill but we’re willing to make sacrifices elsewhere to make it work. COOLER Laminar RM1 (included with CPU) Intel $0 Intel bundles a redesigned CPU cooler with some 12th Gen processors. This little chip chiller will serve us well for a while. MEMORY NEW ENTRY Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x 8GB) Corsair $45 With plenty of capacity…

PLUS GET 2 FREE GIFTS* ORDER FORM COMPLETE ALL INFORMATION BELOW & RETURN WITH PAYMENT TO: PC GAMER PO BOX 2029 LANGHORNE, PA 19047-9957 *Offer is valid on US orders only, visit us at magazinesdirect.com or call 1-800-289-9839 for international pricing and other subscription options. Free gifts are fulfilled once payment is processed. T-shirt design may vary. Digital book will be emailed 7-10 days after payment is processed, device is not included. Your first issue and T-shirt will arrive 4-6 weeks after your payment is processed, please allow additional time for overseas deliveries. Newsstand cover price is $11.99, 13 issues annually. Offer valid until June 30, 2023.…

Right away, back in 2013 when the game first came out, the thing that stood out to me about Warframe were the titular warframes themselves. Strange, biomechanical bodies that evoked classic ninja archetypes but also their own hybrid of shapes. Eric Vedder is lead concept artist on the game. He started at Digital Extremes 12 years ago, working on games such as Star Trek and The Darkness II. “A small group broke off and started working on Warframe. This free-to-play and I was like, ‘What’s free-to-play?’ [laughs].” After other projects were wrapped up, Warframe was all that was left. “It worked in our favor because everyone ended up liking this game they were doing, this beta.” Vedder was first brought on to work on props for the game. “At the…

“Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?” a dying woman sings over the elevator speakers as I climb through the decks of the doomed ship Ishimura. I’m not a big fan of that whole nursery rhyme horror cliché, but it fits for Dead Space. This was never a series about exploring the wonders of the universe or of space as a wild frontier where the worst evil we can imagine is corporate greed dominating the stars. No, this is a game about how space is downright scary; an abyss into which we gaze and see our nightmares reflected right back. It’s hard to marvel at the universe with a Necromorph’s blades in your gut. Necromorph is a fancy space word for zombie, by the way, and you’ll…

SHINJIRO ARAGAKI He’s not quite the hardass he pretends to be, but that may go unnoticed if you miss his interactions with the female protagonist. MITSURU KIRIJO She may not be a romance option, but Mitsuru’s Social Link certainly feels more intimate than friendship from the female protagonist’s perspective. AKIHIKO SANADA Akihiko’s a little more cool and confident in battle. Persona 3’s story touches on the loss of his sister but his Social Link dives into how that grief drives his day-to-day. KOROMARU Koromaru’s design and Social Link are based on Japan’s famously loyal pup, Hachikō. His tale of devotion and love fits perfectly into the setting’s challenges.…

1 POTTY MOUTH Resistant to foul language and curse words. Any attempts to swear at Frey will be reflected back. Shit! 2 CAT’S PYJAMAS Weak to feline friends. Putting one in her line of sight will cause her to be distracted and chase after it. 3 FRESH CREPS Susceptible to stylish sneakers that will inevitably be displayed on a shelf instead of worn like a normal person. 4 KILLER KINDNESS Resistant to friendliness. Convinced kindness is transactional and will remain hesitant. 5 KING’S ENGLISH The best way to tackle Frey is to be an incessant, unremovable sentient British bracelet that berates her.…

THIS MONTH I died to an Oggdo and got up again. ALSO PLAYED Overwatch 2, A Space for the Unbound I started Jedi: Fallen Order with Andor on my mind. Disney Icursed every future Star Wars thing by releasing a television show as precise and transformative as Andor and Jedi: Fallen Order retroactively has to deal with it too. No other Star Wars media goes as hard as Andor does when it comes to its anti-imperialist roots. Jedi: Fallen Order’s first few hours aren’t as riveting as Andor, but I found its perspective compelling nonetheless. Cal Kestis is a Jedi Padawan disguised as a scrapper, afraid of being caught by the Empire who is still working to eradicate every Force user in the universe. Jedi: Fallen Order takes place in…

DRESSING GOWN The magenta dressing gown really brings out the colour in your abs. Though that draws the eye, don’t ignore the boots that let everyone know you’re ready for bed, or piracy on the high seas. LEGGINGS Who said leggings need to cover both legs? Just because the word’s plural doesn’t mean your hose should be. Feeling draughty on the left thigh is a small price to pay for looking this iconic. PUMPKIN With this vomit-orange romper, pumpkin mask, and witch hat combo you’ll be ready for midnight screenings of The Nightmare Before Christmas all year round. PANTS Forget all the bother of remembering clothes and simply wander out of the house in underpants. Don’t forget accessories, as with that low an armor class you’ll need a magic staff.…

CD Projekt Red recently unleashed The Witcher 3: Next Gen, a big ole 4.0 update with new items, quests, graphical enhancements, a revamped camera, and ray traced lighting that nobody’s GPU can handle. It was, of course, time for a replay, and I’m obsessive and neurotic about these enormous RPGs where choices carry from game to game, so replaying The Witcher 3 means replaying The Witcher saga. I tore through The Witcher making the same choices I always do (what kind of hall monitor sides with the Order of the Flaming Rose anyway?) and arrived at The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. This is the game that put CD Projekt on the map, a graphical powerhouse that laid rigs low with übersampling. It’s a memetic icon of RPG choice with two…

COME APART UNRAVEL ea.com/games/unravel →Yarn-based hero Yarny might seem cute at first, but then you realize that he sacrifices the very structure of his body to traverse the puzzling environments these cold-blooded game developers have laid out for him, literally unraveling for our satisfaction. SAVE MAGIC ZORK: GRAND INQUISITOR bit.ly/3HfCPOa →Come for the 1997 FMV cutscenes featuring brilliant shouting by Erick Avari as the magic-hating Grand Inquisitor, stay for the delightfully stupid puzzle solutions, like a spell that turns things invisible, and one that simplifies instructions. One of my favorite games of all time. RISE UP REMNANT: FROM THE ASHES remnantgame.com →Since a sequel was recently announced, now’s a good time to give this 2019 co-op shooter a go. Its weird fantasy horror world is best experienced with friends, who…

MOTHERBOARD B660M Pro RS ASRock $120 This is as cheap as we want to go while still offering room for expansion and upgrades down the line. PROCESSOR NEW ENTRY Core i5 13400F Intel $196 Intel’s added four more cores to its entry-level Core i5 and it’s become even more fantastic value. GRAPHICS CARD Radeon RX 6600 AMD $220 AMD’s RX 6600 has become a budget champ for its affordable price and great 1080p performance. COOLER Laminar RM1 (included with CPU) Intel $0 There’s room for an upgrade here, but on a budget the included CPU will work just fine. MEMORY Vengeance LPX 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Corsair $42 You could bump this to 16GB, but to save as much as possible we’ll stick to 8GB. POWER SUPPLY Pylon 450 XPG…

MOTHERBOARD MPG Z790 Carbon WiFi MSI $470 This MSI motherboard brings the latest chipset to bear without going overboard on excessive features. PROCESSOR Core i9 13900K Intel $589 This is the best all-round processor money can buy. It’s a little overkill, but that’s what this build is all about. GRAPHICS CARD GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Ed Nvidia $1699 The RTX 4090 is immense, in every way. The performance it offers is unmatched by any GPU out there. COOLER Kraken X63 NZXT $150 One of the most stunning AIO coolers rebuilt with an updated pump, LGA 1700 bracket, and RGB lighting for more pizzazz. MEMORY Trident Z5 RGB 32GB G.Skill $250 This is a new memory standard for a new era of memory speed. DDR5 is blisteringly and fantastically quick. POWER…