Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i PC Gamer

Centroid is a giant of the motion capture world, having worked on multiple blockbuster movies, streaming shows and globally successful games. Despite being CEO, Phil Stilgoe’s route into that world wasn’t quite what you might expect; once upon a time, he was working as a chef on cruise liners. “I was interested in photography,” explains Stilgoe, “so I understood cameras. We started as a family business many years ago, and it was just a bit of a passion project to begin with. And we went from strength to strength”. Joe Ells meanwhile, the company’s post production manager, started in the game industry, working on Guitar Hero – which was making use of Centroid’s services at the time. When it comes to games, the fundamental requirements for a motion capture job…

Shoot = 1. Wait = 0. Hit = 1. Miss = 0. The language of videogame technology lends itself to conflict. It’s been part of its DNA since Spacewar! took MIT by storm in 1962, and we’ve been playing war on the tabletop, from Chess to Risk, for thousands of years. But… War is a preoccupation of mine. As a writer of historical fiction, I’m immersed in battle. It’s a dark fascination, especially for a pacifist of sorts, but wars show humanity at its very best and its very, very worst. They are the turning points of history itself. We are defined by them. I’m also a gamer, and love sneaking and sniping, dropping bombs and torpedoing ships. However, that can often provoke moral questions that I struggle to answer.…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?The second turn-based JRPG in the Like A Dragon/Yakuza series EXPECT TO PAY£60 DEVELOPERRyu Ga Gotoku Studio PUBLISHERSega REVIEWED ONIntel Core i9-13900K, 64GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 MULTIPLAYERLocal for some minigames LINK infinitewealth.sega.com Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth feels indulgent in a way few games get to be. Enough drama to fill two normal Yakuza games, a Hawaiian city sparkling in the sun and an absurd lineup of minigames including resort management and creature taming. It’s impossible to go five minutes without it excitedly thrusting another glossy distraction in your face, even as stakes escalate. Honestly, it’s better than most vacations I’ve been on. Most of Infinite Wealth’s issues come and go in the first 15 hours of its sprawling narrative as it tries…

NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAYFree DEVELOPERErik H Jørgensen LINK bit.ly/RisingUpGame In the film Falling Down, it’s a traffic jam that sets Michael Douglas’ blue-collar worker off on a violent spree. In the cheekily titled Rising Up, it’s a malfunctioning printer. When it breaks down in this sidescrolling action game, an office worker loses his rag and goes on a rampage. If you’re familiar with Streets of Rage, this plays almost exactly the same. Enemies (as in your co-workers) attack you, and you defeat them to advance across the stage. What stands out here is the pixel art, which realises the heightened, comic violence of the premise with exquisite attention to detail. Take any frame of animation – from the cluttered desks in the background to the chaos happening…

NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAY£25 DEVELOPERCapcom PUBLISHERCapcom Perhaps I’ve been doing this column too long, but I’ve decided that this month’s theme is ‘games with a colon in them’. I did try to find a colonic irrigation simulator, but, it doesn’t seem to exist. This is no reflection on Monster Hunter: World, which is as far removed from the soapy, medically-dubious removal of faecal matter from the large intestine as it’s possible to imagine. The closest it gets is when you accidentally fire your Gunlance up the business end of a Pukei-Pukei; a sentence that will make no sense to anyone who hasn’t lost hours to the game. On the face of it, the entire series should be immediately familiar: thrilling, skilful boss fights against a variety of fantastic…

“ When I was a child I spake as a child,” so it says in the Bible, presumably before the invention of the word ‘spoke’. “But when I became a man, I put away childish things.” It’s true, isn’t it: time passes, new hardware arrives and we box up our former treasures, their VGA leads dangling, pleading with us as we send them up to the loft. We forget about them, sometimes for decades, and then we see a TikTok of someone playing a Windows 95 game, feel an overwhelming urge to do the same, start Googling and realise that the old desktop PC we boxed up and banished in 2001 is worth a grand now on eBay and there’s a whole community of collectors with alerts set up for…

NOW PLAYINGTHE GAMES WE LOVE RIGHT NOW ROBERT JONES THIS MONTHHad an emo-off with the Outsider. ALSO PLAYEDThe Inquisitor, League of Legends A twitchy old granny, wandering aimlessly around an abandoned house, stares me in the eye and asks me ever so sweetly to deal with her gentleman callers, three armed goons who are battering on the home’s locked front door and demanding entry. Help her, and she’ll give me an item of power. Power in Dishonored comes in the form of otherworldly abilities as granted through whalebone runes by the mysterious and sinister emo lord, the Outsider. This guy, who looks like a reject from My Chemical Romance, has empowered me with a range of superhuman powers that, being honest, are mainly geared around killing foes in a bloody,…

1 month HOMEWORLD 3 RELEASE May, 2024 | DEVELOPER Blackbird Interactive The new game in the classic sci-fi series promises to deliver a stunning space-based RTS. Delayed to May, a demo of its War Games mode has been delighting gamers. DRAGON’S DOGMA 2 RELEASE March 22, 2024 | DEVELOPER Capcom The Japanese studio’s slightly mad singleplayer narrative driven action-RPG sequel promises a truly immersive fantasy world in which to adventure. HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST RELEASE March 21, 2024 | DEVELOPER Guerrilla, Nixxes Software The visually impressive third-person action-adventure game arrives on PC with improved graphics, ultrawide monitor support and all DLC included. 3 months STAR WARS OUTLAWS RELEASE 2024 | DEVELOPER Massive Entertainment What’s looking like the biggest Star Wars game of 2024, Outlaws sees you play as rogue scoundrel Kay…

PLAYED IT NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Out now (Early Access) DEVELOPER Keen Games GmbH PUBLISHER Keen Games GmbH LINK shorturl.at/gmCD5 Co-op survival crafting games are not only numerous on PC, but the quality and scale of them is now at a higher level than it has even been before. A few years ago if you wanted to get your co-op base-building, cooking, weapon crafting and monster slaying kicks then you’d have to venture forth into the realms of, mostly, low-fi, small-scale indie games. Enshrouded is Valheim crossed with Zelda: a big, mysterious and mostly serene fantasy realm where you build a base, craft gear and weapons, cook over a campfire, go exploring, fight monsters and complete quests. And, if you like, you can bring along a whole bunch of…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?A dark fantasy adventure in which players try to solve crimes and unearth heretics as a holy inquisitor of the church. EXPECT TO PAY£35 DEVELOPERThe Dust SA PUBLISHERKalypso Media REVIEWED ONAMD Ryzen 7 5700X, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti MULTIPLAYERNo LINK shorturl.at/bvwCM There’s no doubting the pitch for The Inquisitor catches the attention. You play Mordimer Madderdin, a holy inquisitor of the church whose job it is to hunt out heretics and enforce the faith – even if that means a spot of torture. That faith, by the way, comes courtesy of none other than Jesus himself, who in the world of The Inquisitor did not die on the cross but instead broke free from it and then went on a bloody rampage…

FREE GAMES REVIEWSCOOL TITLES FOR NO CASH NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?A first-person platformer with wall-running and grappling EXPECT TO PAYFree DEVELOPERUnlimited Fries PUBLISHERUnlimited Fries REVIEWED ONIntel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 MULTIPLAYERNo LINK bit.ly/grimhook There’s nothing grim about first-person action adventure Grimhook: a delightful game about movement, and unleashing mayhem on a horde of cute little robots. Alas, it does take a while to get going – probably too long, considering its brief run time – but, when your move set is fully unlocked and you’re free to leap and fling your hook with abandon, this is a game that makes you feel kind of amazing. Grimhook feels a lot like Titanfall 2, a game that was surely a massive inspiration. The protagonist has the…

THEY’RE BACKOLD GAMES REVISITED NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?If the Japanese homeless experience was a Dragon Quest game EXPECT TO PAY£55 DEVELOPERRyu Ga Gotoku Studio PUBLISHERSega REVIEWED ONIntel Core i7-7700, 16 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 MULTIPLAYERNo LINK store.steampowered.com/app/1235140/Yakuza_Like_a_ Dragon/ This feels like a weird one to re-review, since Like A Dragon, according to my mental timeline, is the ‘new’ Yakuza game. Except it definitely isn’t, and, in the time you’ve taken to read this, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has released at least one spinoff or sequel. But losing years of your life, and, by extension, a global pandemic, is a very Yakuza thing. Perhaps it feels new because it’s so different. The Yakuza games have always had an interesting approach to reinvention. The series changed from being…

Picking a processor is a tough decision, but for all the right reasons. It’s a mega-competitive market out there with Intel and AMD delivering new, innovative and affordable processors. Intel’s 14th-gen Core chips have been less innovative and more iterative, but it’s still managing to hold up to AMD’s 3D V-Cache in gaming performance, and that’s keeping both companies a little more honest. The most exciting development in CPUs lately has been on AMD’s side, where you have the breakthrough 3D V-Cache technology. This allows AMD to stick heaps more cache onto its processors, and you know what sort of application adores cache? Games. 1 Ryzen 7 7800X3D AMD £439 Cache, cache baby This is the best gaming processor AMD has ever produced. We don’t say that lightly, as lately…

KEY Budget build PC gaming is for everyone. Pick these parts if you want to build a new, well-rounded PC for a good price. Mid-range build You want to run every new game at 1080p 60fps. This recommended build will see you through. Advanced build You’re looking for the best PC on the market and superior components. But you still want to spend smart. BUDGET BUILD Enjoy 1080p gaming without breaking the bank MOTHERBOARD B660M Pro RSASRock £112This is as cheap as we want to go while still offering room for expansion and upgrades down the line. PROCESSOR Core i5 13400F Intel £199Intel’s added four more cores to its entry-level Core i5 and it’s become even more fantastic value. GRAPHICS CARD GeForce RTX 4060Nvidia £290One of the cheaper ways to…

MOD SPOTLIGHTMAJOR MODS, ANALYSED NEED TO KNOW RELEASEMay 5, 1994 PUBLISHERGT Interactive DEVELOPERid Software LINK shorturl.at/abfsv I was just young and naïve enough when The Blair Witch Project came out to be suckered in by the premise that it was real – that someone had found this real-life footage after the fact, or that it was just a movie but one based on real events. Even now when you Google it, the first ‘people also ask’ result is: was Blair Witch based on a true story? After 20 years of horror movies aping that gimmick, the Google doc that accompanies Doom II mod MyHouse. wad doesn’t really have a chance of tricking anyone into thinking it’s a true story about a modder trying to finish their dead friend’s project…

NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT Nintendo is a legendarily litigious company – with mods and emulation often falling under the gaze of its burning, all-seeing eye. Nexus Mods, the world’s biggest mod hosting site, has even enacted a ban on Pokémon conversion mods for Palworld, citing Nintendo’s record of “submitting legal challenges”. No one knows that record better than YouTuber Toasted Shoes, who received a DMCA notice after posting a teaser trailer for his Palworld to Pokémon mod that he was going to release for free to the community. But Nintendo got there first. Before the video could accumulate even 100,000 views, the corporation swept in to take it down. But Toasted Shoes wasn’t one to be stopped, and quickly assembled a team of modders to devise an infernal concoction…

Special Report PCG INVESTIGATES NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT We all save scummed in Baldur’s Gate III, right? A bad roll, fight’s not going well, time to mash quick load, baby. In stealth games this behaviour may manifest as a compulsion to pull the ripcord every time you get spotted, while 4Xs see us setting up a temporal base camp right before declaring a risky war. But what if living with the consequences of your actions could be fun? Usually I’d say I do enough of that in real life, but a recent dalliance with Baldur’s Gate III’s permadeath Honour mode gave me pause. With save scumming at the top of our minds, it was time to get to the bottom of things by asking a professional for…

Was it a dream? No, it was Parcel Corps!” These were the words uttered by Billy Goat Entertainment studio director Will Barr upon showing me the launch trailer for the indie developer’s new bicycle adventure game. It was here that I had the pleasure of meeting the team and going hands-on with world-exclusive gameplay for its upcoming release. It’s a mild, grey February morning in Belfast. The streets are relatively quiet. Appropriately, a transport strike had been in full effect the previous day meaning no buses or trains were operating. As a result, an influx of cyclists are now on the road. About ten minutes from the city centre, nestled in between an estate agent and an independent deli, Billy Goat Entertainment’s headquarters can be found. If you didn’t know…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT? Deckbuilder set in spaaaace with ace spaceship duels EXPECT TO PAY £16.75 DEVELOPER Rocket Rat Games PUBLISHER Brace Yourself Games REVIEWED ON AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon Graphics (Rog Ally) MULTIPLAYER No LINK braceyourselfgames.com/cobalt-core Well, I’m doomed. I’m down to one health and there’s an incoming attack aimed directly at my ship. Shields? Ha! Buddy, I haven’t drawn a shield card in years. I have no movement left, and only one card in my hand will give me more. But it’ll also finish overheating my ship, killing me at the end of my turn. Hey, at least I’ll be out of the enemy’s line of fire so I can enjoy overheating to death in peace and… Hang on. Didn’t I play…

NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?An amateur detective game where your snooping can get you into trouble EXPECT TO PAY£21 DEVELOPERLowbirth Games PUBLISHERLowbirth Games REVIEWED ONAMD Ryzen 7 3750H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660Ti MULTIPLAYERNo LINK lowbirthgames.com At the time of writing, I’ve never been employed as a space marine, supersoldier, bard, Spider-Man, or most of the jobs that characters in videogames tend to have. But in This Bed We Made you play as Sophie, a maid in a 1950s hotel. I have worked as a cleaner in a hotel, so I speak with some authority when I say that Sophie should be fired immediately. You ‘clean’ each room by emptying the bins (good), scrubbing the bathtubs (great), placing fresh towels in the bathrooms (lovely), and making the beds…

NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAYFree DEVELOPEROllie Powell LINK bit.ly/stretchmancer Stretchmancer is a puzzle game with an original central mechanic: you can squish or expand the world at ease. Say you need to squeeze through prison bars. Just stretch the room until the gaps are large enough. As with Portal’s titular gun, it’s so much fun to just use your power, turning a small room into a lengthy corridor or contracting the walls to bring a distant platform closer. You can push or pull almost any wall in the game as you advance through its small selection of puzzle chambers, and while the puzzles make good use of the power, I feel like we’ve only been given a glimpse of what’s possible, with such an exciting and transformative ability…

NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAY£45 DEVELOPERCreative Assembly PUBLISHERSega There’s something telling about a game that reduces grand conquest to a series of delicate agreements which often ends in a fist fight. It’s been at the heart of most Total War games since their inception, but Three Kingdoms feels like the most elegant iteration of it. Compared to the earliest games, it’s the difference between sending your paramour a scented love letter in copperplate calligraphy, or armpit-farting the Morse code for ‘DTF’. Diplomacy has long been a weak point in the series, often reduced to threats, submission, or open bribery. What was often missing was the option to deal with mutual problems without a longstanding agreement, and with it, a sense of pragmatism and humanity. Three Kingdoms, in many ways,…

We’re familiar with the trope by now: a nervous Swedish lad in a flammable-looking black T-shirt with his esports team logo emblazoned across it, arms folded confidently, endorsing a new mouse, keyboard, or gaming chair. Since peripheral manufacturers realised they couldn’t use partially dressed women to sell their gear any more, and slogans alone weren’t shifting units, they turned to professional gamers. And it worked. It’s healthy to have a bit of cynicism about this sales tactic. In our heart of hearts, we all know that buying PC gaming gear endorsed by the pros doesn’t bring us any closer to pro standard any more than cracking an egg into a Hexplate pan makes us Gordon Ramsay. There’s something implicitly disingenuous about the whole thing. And yet, esports pros might have…

JODY MACGREGOR THIS MONTHRelaxing in XCOM. RelaXCOM. ALSO PLAYEDSovereign Syndicate, Warhammer: Vermintide II The Firaxis formula has been copied but never bettered. It’s the little things, like the way the camera swoops in when you’re aiming or the last squaddie hustles into cover at the end of a turn. I feel more connected to my guys if the sensation of being an invisible giant playing soldiers gets broken every now and then. Instead of replaying XCOM 2 for the Nth time, maybe with a mod that makes everyone look like Sisters of Battle, I decided to go back to the previous XCOM. I wanted to remind myself what had changed. XCOM 2 can be overwhelming, it’s a flood of mission types and mechanics, so I thought hopping back a few…

NOW PLAYING MATT KILLEEN THIS MONTHYearned for ‘Champagne football’ without the alcohol. ALSO PLAYEDHorizon Zero Dawn, Hardspace Shipbreaker This game drives me to drink. It’s a basic Pavlovian response. I started playing FIFA 20 in the darkest days of lockdown, when there was no football, while waiting for my five-year-old to finally fall asleep, knowing that I’d have to try to home-school him in the morning and that tomorrow would be the same as today, and every day for the foreseeable future. I would eventually get to stop and, like most people back then, have a beer. The two became linked. This respondent conditioning is one reason I resisted installing the latest iteration on launch day, as is my wont. Playing gets me all riled up, and then I want…