Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i PC Gamer (US Edition)

HIGHS Time well spent Tavern Keeper’s dev ‘burst into tears’ when it reached Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam. Can’t argue with him John Romero delivered the correct answer when voting for the most satisfying weapon in gaming history: the Super Shotgun. New Civ, who dis? Civilization VII will get the option to play as one civ from start to finish. Dead World New World is dead: Amazon ends new content updates. Just gross US government uses Halo images in a call to ‘destroy’ immigration. Microsoft declines to comment. What do execs know? Capcom execs were bewildered that people might want to play original Resident Evil when GOG approached them about it. LOWS…

Greek myth is fertile ground for developing videogames, the characters and situations often seem made for players to toy with, or be toyed with by. Minos takes Dungeon Keeper and blends it with Pac-Man and tower defense by way of the legend of the Minotaur. It’s a potent mix. Developer Artificer is based in Warsaw, Poland, and its CEO And creative director Kacper Szymczak was able to fill us in on the studio’s genesis, as well as his plans for Minos. “We used to work at CreativeForge Games, where we developed Hard West and Phantom Doctrine,” he says, also mentioning that he worked at Techland on the Call of Juarez series. “After an investor-imposed shift in studio direction, the entire team decided to leave. We then partnered with Good Shepherd Entertainment and founded Artificer.” None of…

“We were trying to figure out what it means to be a space samurai on the moon,” says game director Leszek Szczepański. Sol Shogunate’s feudal Japanese iconography, contrasting futuristic, cyberpunk space setting, and banging J-rock make it seem to me like it’s struck gold. This samurai space opera kicked off the PC Gaming Show Most Wanted, and if you couldn’t tell already Szczepański explains that, “it’s a game about samurai in space with strong musical elements to it”. At its heart, Sol Shogunate is a narrative action-RPG. It’s got cinematic boss fights set to awesome music that synchronizes with enemy movement, but it’s not a rhythm game. Attack when you want, but allow the music to flow through you and get you in the mood for violence. You’ll play as…

A new Call of Duty has come out every year like clockwork since Call of Duty 2 in 2005. By this point, everyone knows roughly what to expect. I mean this in a positive way, but it’s like junk food—you know it’s not going to be oozing creativity, it’s not going to be artistically challenging, but it is fun all the same. I was surprised then that Black Ops 7 is actually an entry that’s got me torn. On the one hand, I’m glad the pace of combat has slowed down somewhat, and its launch multiplayer maps are generally very strong. On the other hand, its campaign is messy, there’s AI artwork, and it’s very soulless. And with hits like Arc Raiders, Dispatch and Clair Obscur this year, nothing’s more…

We haven’t seen a good combat flight sim in a while, and G-Rebels appears to pick up where Psygnosis’ 1997 G-Police left off, with a dystopian open world Deckard would probably feel at home in. This time it’s set on Earth, not the moon Callisto, and a flooded near-future that’s led to floating mega-cities that need to be policed by law enforcement officers in armored flying machines who have no problem pulling the trigger. What we’ve seen of the game so far reveals pitched battles between skyscraper towers, the stream of missiles and energy weapons lighting up the buildings as much as the neon advertising signs that sell a lifestyle out of reach for ordinary citizens. We’ve had a glimpse of a ravaged Venice, destroyed by war and waves, as…

TRICERATOPS Tears trees out of the ground and lugs them on its back to your stockpiles. Is deforestation secretly the real threat here? ATROCIRAPTOR Will hunt for food for you and bring it back to camp. So you’re eating food that’s had dinosaur slobber all over it? RAPTOR You’ll want to upgrade the building you need to spawn this immediately, as riding the raptor makes exploration much easier. JOBARIA Speeds up construction Body copy by in carrying building supplies here with and some crew. Well, they would, words if they about didn’t walk so freaking slowly.…

DILOSOPHAURUS Slows down units by shooting sticky tar at them. Ewww. I guess this is technically a nicer fate than being eaten, but still. SCUTOSAURUS Built thick stone walls around your base, buddy? Adorable. Now weep as the scutosaurus burrows beneath them with ease. Sob. ANKYLOSAURUS A siege dinosaur that delivers devastating area of effect attacks. If you haven’t mastered dodge-rolling you’ll be in trouble… PACHYCEPHALOSAURUS No, we didn’t spell that right first time, what of it? Anyway, this melee dino uses its thick skull to bash its enemies. Relatable.…

The Outer Worlds 2 was a slow burn at first, and it was the midgame, act two climax that won me over. It includes a pair of classic Obsidian conversation boss fights, and I had a big, dumb smile on my face as I contemplated dialogue options—some available to me, some grayed-out—gated by skills, background traits, quest choices, and even an out-of-the-way optional conversation I’d had ten hours previously. Since I specialized in speech, and had gone for nonviolent resolutions whenever possible, I was able to pull off a satisfying ‘everybody lives!’ conclusion to these missions. Comparing notes with PCG guides writer Sean Martin, who adopted a more trigger-happy playstyle, he was locked into a less happy path where somebody had to die, with the choice potentially locking him out…

Keeper can’t be accused of chasing trends. It doesn’t have hyper-realistic graphics; it doesn’t have crafting; it doesn’t have a battle pass; it doesn’t even have humans. It’s a game about a lighthouse and a bird going up a mountain that ends in around six hours. But all six hours of it are gorgeous. Leave it to Double Fine, the developer that made a level out of psychedelic album art in Psychonauts 2, to create an entire experience that feels like exploring a surrealist painting: a trip through an alienlooking planet that glows with pinks and greens and oranges, starring a sentient lighthouse with spider legs. Keeper is an adventure nobody else could make, and one of Double Fine’s best. Keeper’s post-apocalyptic world is brighter and more colorful than the festering…

By taking a step back, you can acquire a whole new perspective on things. I Made A Game For You is a solid, cartoony FPS, but it’s also a conversation between a father and daughter. Your dad has made this game, and you’re playing it to keep him happy. If only he wouldn’t keep texting to ask what you think about it, particularly when you’re in the middle of a firefight. It’s a fine line to walk, presenting two games at once, but I Made A Game manages it with aplomb. On the one hand, you’re playing an FPS in the traditional fashion, strutting your stuff with WASD and waggling your eyeballs with the mouse, while the right mouse button has been reserved for communication. Every time your dad sends…

According to one study carried out by a Turkish university, the prevalence of periodontal diseases in mine workers was a shocking 96.2%. Which is a long way of saying that spending extended periods of time deep underground is horrible for your health. And yet, despite this, something about Dungeon Keeper II makes me crave dank, reeking underplaces. The presentation undoubtedly helps. The repetitive ‘shpp shpp shpp’ of your faithful imps digging through the dirt is like ASMR for dark overlords, especially when it’s followed by the angelic, choral noise of paving slabs magically appearing on the floor of your dungeon. And it certainly helps that the wryly amusing voice of the Mentor is provided by Richard Ridings, who’s perhaps better known as Daddy Pig (and the voice of Thorgrim Grudgebearer…

Watching other people play games is perhaps not as much fun as doing it yourself, but it does have its advantages. I’ve been assisting my daughter as she plays Infinity Nikki, the free-to-play adventure game from Papergames, and being the co-pilot gives the experience a completely different flavor. Infinity Nikki is not, I admit, the sort of game I’d choose for myself, but in its bright colors, cute creatures and delight in dressing up it reveals an enthusiasm for gaming—I honestly love the way Nikki changes costumes with a pop in the middle of a jump just so she can glide for a bit. But to me, a befuddled parent not in charge of the controller, it seems unnecessarily complex. It’s not that I can’t keep up, or so I…

Have you ever stood up from your desktop to go answer the door or grab a drink, only to find your headset violently yanked off your head or ripped out of a port on your PC? If you have, this group test is for you. You don’t have to spend all that much on a headset these days. Even with the low-latency 2.4GHz connection that is all but required for competitive PC gaming, you can pick up a budget model and find it perfectly serviceable for modern-day gaming. Though there is a broadening of the market happening today, on both sides. There are more affordable options, just as there are more expensive options. This group test covers the latest models on both ends of the spectrum. There’s the affordable Logitech…

Yoshiro Kimura seems to only be half kidding when he tells me that he “escaped” from Squaresoft in the mid-1990s, where he’d started his career as a game designer on Romancing SaGa 2 for the SNES. Even then, he wanted to work with a smaller team, where his own ideas could shine through. “Making games, money aside, it’s fun, and it needs to be fun to make something fun,” he told me over coffee in Tokyo in late September. “With a smaller group of people, you’ve got all the essential elements to make a game, and they’ve all got their own special abilities. One is great at art, another is great at programming. And to share the vision, it’s a lot less work.” With his John Lennon glasses and a tweed newsboy…

As the Halo series continues its drift from legendary to mediocre within the FPS genre, the groundbreaking original game that started it all is back again. And by again, I really do mean again, as lest it be forgotten that Halo: Combat Evolved was already rereleased as the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary remaster in 2011. So, what we have here in Halo: Campaign Evolved is a remake of a game that has already had a (well-done and well received) remake, and one that follows a series of weak, uninspired mainline Halo game releases. But… Halo: Combat Evolved, right?! Master Chief and warthogs and Truth and Reconciliation blaring out at stupidly loud levels. Surely a return to the series’ roots once again is cause for celebration after the mess of Halo:…

As I send my dual-axe-wielding lumberjack charging full speed at an unsuspecting opponent, windmilling both arms in wild swings that chop away at my helpless target, my victory feels all but certain. Suddenly, I’m teleported up into the sky, nary an enemy in sight, wondering how on Earth I got here. When I come crashing back down, my ego bruised, I stubbornly get back into the thick of it. But then I get zapped into the air again, and again, and again by my not-so-helpless opponent. Tucking my tail between my legs, I decide this 1v1 isn’t for me, and I’d be a better asset to my team looking for the flag. Last Flag is nostalgic reimagining of hide and seek combined with capture the flag—it featured in the PC…

An early look at this grand real-time strategy game of tanks, jets, and helicopters reveals depth and complexity as resources flow across the map, exchange rates fluctuate, diplomats negotiate and, when all else fails, bullets and missiles become the last resort. Shaping monetary policy can be as important as your armored formations, but once war breaks out over 150 units can clash across its 25 hand-crafted maps. RELEASE Q4 2026 DEVELOPER Play of Battle SA PUBLISHER Play of Battle SA LINK s.team/a/3270430…

LEAP The Lord leaps into the air and comes crashing back down with a massive AOE attack. Saved me more times than I can count, this. EXECUTE Occasionally you can finish off a dinosaur with an execution that also heals any nearby friendly units. Nice! QUIVER Surprisingly powerful archery on a strict cooldown. Becomes very handy for hunting distant animals for crucial food. COWARDICE Well, technically it’s called ‘Dash’, and it’s an attack. But it’s also very handy for abandoning your units in a fight that’s going badly.…

Some of us will do just about anything to avoid having a thought, so let’s talk about a particularly good thought-eradicator: PowerWash Simulator. It plays a lot like the name suggests. You get a beefy hose, fancy attachments and hop from client to client blasting grime off of surfaces, and that’s its biggest appeal: just the raw, sensory satisfaction of stripping dirt off of things. It’s the perfect brain treat when I both want and do not want to do something. As you can imagine, there’s not a lot about powerwashing to change or expand on in a sequel, but PowerWash Simulator 2 didn’t need to reinvent spraying water at dirt to be worthwhile, just refine it, and it does. Among PowerWash Simulator 2’s improvements are fresh new attachments for…

Ninja Gaiden 4 has a very specific crisis of identity: it is simultaneously too much, and not enough, like the seminal 1993 action comedy Surf Ninjas. Surely Ninja Gaiden 4 has virtually nothing (aside from ninjas) in common with a notorious flop of a kid’s film co-starring Rob Schneider and a magical Sega Game Gear, you might be thinking. Well, my friend: guess what happens in this videogame when you get to the water level. I spent the 15 hours it took to slay 2,580 enemies in Ninja Gaiden 4 hoping that I’d arrive at the answers to two questions: does it feel like a proper sequel to Ninja Gaiden (2004) and Ninja Gaiden 2 (2008), which are both on my shortlist of the finest action games ever made? And…

Summer is nearly over, and you have stones on your mind. Big stones, little stones, precious gems, even gold: all are waiting to be uncovered in your little plot of land. Summerfall gives you this plot to explore, to dig and to fish, as the final sunset descends on your summer holiday. All with the aim of gathering those stones, which grant you tangible benefits. If slotted in your backpack, they might increase your jump height, or improve your chances at catching something juicy from the lake. However, the stones slow you down, so you’ll regularly need to dump them back at your cabin, although this comes with benefits as well. Sequestered stones grant different, usually better boons, so as you collect and bank stones from all round your lakeside…

Side-scrolling games, in most cases, are as dim as a binbag in a coal shed. You just walk right and brutalize people. In the rare cases where there is a story, it’s usually ‘rescue the women’, ‘avenge your master’, or, in sequels, ‘avenge the people who died avenging you’. Chronicles of Mystara displays spiralling levels of depth. The heart of the game is still ‘kill all the creatures that enter your zone of terror’—a conceit so direct even Golden Axe could understand it—but there’s more going on here. There are varying paths, random loot drops, character builds, and even alternate endings. It makes the games it inspired, such as the pendulous cleaving-heavage-’em up-Dragon’s Crown, feel simplistic by comparison. The newer of the two games included, Shadow Over Mystara, even has…

I awake surrounded by gore and decay, my ragged, white smock smeared with the dark crimson of dried blood. Beings died here, badly, and judging by my physical state I was at the center of the carnage. I stumble forward, disorientated and confused. The last thing I recall was… so long ago? An era of smoke, jazz, and blues… I can faintly still hear the music, I think. I have been sleeping for… how long? And why am I now awake here? Before any answers arrive, mortal men with weapons come hunting for me. I skitter through the ruins of the dilapidated building, embracing the shadows and the gutters reserved for the rats, scrambling through the gaping holes in the floors to ascend and descend beyond my pursuers’ reach. What age…

What separates us from the other gamers, aside from a historic proclivity for the color beige and an innate ability to discern one shadow quality setting from another, is that PC gamers build their own PCs. There’s nothing inherently wrong with gaming on a pre-assembled machine, of course, but doing it yourself is peak PC gaming. The modularity of our chosen platform means that building a rig up from scratch has been a crucial part of PC culture for as long as there have been games to motivate us to do so. But there’s building a PC, and then there’s building a PC. When we buy individual components and then attach them to a motherboard, we’re essentially indulging in a PCB-heavy version of Lego. There’s a unified design language, a…

It’s a humid afternoon in the PC Format office, circa 2011. Among the writers, who are diligently typing deeply informative articles, their keystrokes in perfect unison, is an array of miscellaneous magazine office set dressing. A blow-up sheep, from a photoshoot nobody can seem to remember precisely, and which it’s broadly agreed is best left unacknowledged. A Michael Myers Halloween mask, which people are equally reluctant to talk about or bin. All the world’s SATA and IDE cables, strewn around gaily like tech bunting. More graphics cards, coolers, and hand-shredding PC cases (this is 2011, before manufacturers smoothed off the sharp bits) than is sensible to keep in any one place, let alone an office where people regularly eat McDonald’s at their desks. And most ubiquitously of all, in every…

Streamer Emily-Beth ‘Emiru’ Schunk has released a statement criticizing streaming platform Twitch after she was assaulted at a TwitchCon meet and greet on October 17. This incident comes as high profile streamers, mostly women, have dealt with increasingly common incidents of in-person stalking and harassment by viewers. In video on social media, a large man approaches Emiru, pulls her into a forceful hug and tries to kiss her. A bodyguard Emiru personally hired for TwitchCon then rushes in to shove him away. The video ends as the man walks back into the crowd. Twitch released a statement calling the incident “completely unacceptable and deeply upsetting”. The company said that it has banned the offending individual from the convention, Twitch itself, and future in-person events. “HE WAS ALLOWED TO WALK AWAY…

CHULIP 2002 A bit like Animal Crossing, but with way more kissing: solve problems for the citizens of a strange town. RULE OF ROSE 2006 This horror game starring teen girls was criticized for obscenity and had its UK/AU/NZ releases canceled as a result. LITTLE KING’S STORY 2009 A Pikmin-esque Wii strategy game that eventually made its way to Steam. Simplistic by PC standards. DANDY DUNGEON 2019 This “rom-com, roguelite puzzle game” stars a naked game developer and started life on mobile before hitting Steam.…

The first Mechanicus is one of those often overlooked gems in the world of Warhammer videogames. Creative turn-based strategy design and brilliantly sharp, funny writing elevate what could have been just another XCOM imitator. So it’s lovely to discover that Mechanicus 2 is shaping up to be even bigger and better. After going hands-on, I’m really impressed with how the core strategy has evolved. In the first game’s Adeptus Mechanicus vs Necron battles, the key was a resource called cognition. Harvested from terminals and pillars in the environment, it was used to fuel special abilities and extra movement, but was shared across your whole team, forcing careful decision-making. For the sequel, that system’s been ramped right up. Now, cognition is generated by units directly in ways that define their role…

After a long time languishing in the doldrums of mediocre let-downs, we’re finally starting to see the Warhammer 40,000 world successfully tapped into in games once again. Last year’s Space Marine 2 was a riotous romp through hordes of Tyranids, while WH40K: Darktide has become a pitch-perfect FPS. Even other recent Warhammer 40,000 games like Rogue Trader which, at launch, missed their mark somewhat, seem to have been turned around quickly into genuinely good, unique gaming experiences. And then there’s the promising new WH40K games that are incoming like Mechanicus 2 (see elsewhere this issue) to factor in as well. Yes, I think it’s fair to say that we’re living through a new golden age of Warhammer 40,000 games. The most kick-ass game to tap into the WH40K world as…

The demo for Nighthawks, called Night One, lasts about an hour. It’s time that passes quickly, and it’s well judged, so you’re left wanting more at the end. Nighthawks has been around for a while now following a Kickstarter campaign, so it’s good to see the actual game. It might be worth noting that the writer of Nighthawks is Richard Cobbett, who used to write the Crapshoot column for PC Gamer’s website, and did some other stuff too, until he decided he’d suffered enough, and went into game development in order to relax. Nighthawks is his first original project, having contributed to Sunless Sea and The Long Journey Home, and is best described as a text adventure with art. There’s a lot of reading to do, though much of it…

Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Wise words there, from Jeff Goldblum’s Dr Ian Malcolm in the original Jurassic Park. Words that he would have done well to heed when he signed on to star in Dominion, and words also ignored by Danish studio, Northplay. Because it hasn’t ‘just’ made an RTS with dinosaurs. It’s also attempting to mash-up two genres, pinching some of the best ideas from action-RPGs and tearing down RTS fundamentals that many deem sacrosanct in the process. Good lord, Northplay. You sure you wouldn’t rather open a theme park with real dinosaurs instead? Sounds like a less risky endeavor… Thankfully, this developer hasn’t overreached and ended up with a Jurassic Park: Trespasser. Even…

1 RESOURCES Along the top are your resources. Villagers, food, wood, iron, stone, money, eggs, and amber. You wanna keep all of these from being at zero. Just like I, er, haven’t. 2 TROOPS Here you can see all your units, and which ones are currently following you. It can be easy to misplace dinos on the map, so keeping an eye on this is crucial. 3 SPECIALS The Lord’s health, along with several special attacks hotkeyed to the number keys. They’ve got loooong cooldowns, but are great for turning the tables in a pinch. 4 ORDERS After selecting units, you can have them follow you, stay in a spot, or attack. Luckily, they’re smart enough to attack nearby enemies of their own volition. Well, usually. 5 COUNTDOWN This bar tells you how long is…

Precision is at the heart of the match-three genre, but what if everything was a bit more wobbly? Rather than the tetrominoes slotting neatly into a grid, what if they just tumbled this way and that—less like a rigorous jigsaw puzzle, and more like mixed nuts jostling in a bag. That’s the setup for Face to Face, which gradually drops colored shapes onto the game board. They don’t automatically disappear, when making lines of the same color or shape, but rather nestle into each other, waiting for your input. It’s your job to click on a shape, which gives it a cute smiley face, and then to link it to another similar playing piece. If the two shapes are touching, they will both disappear from the board. However, the game…

It’s quite revealing looking back over the screenshots I’ve taken of Legend of Grimrock II. “The readers of PC Gamer will convulse with excitement when they see the moment I found the Horn of Summoning on a subterranean plinth!” Perhaps, in hindsight, it’s not the visual phantasmagoria suspected at the time. Allow me to provide some context. Grimrock, at first glance, looks slow and ordinary to the point of it being comedic. Your fellowship of four heroes shuffles around a tiled map, fighting monsters and uncovering secrets. I realize that the thought of a cluster of adventurers waltzing shoulder-to-shoulder through a fantasy environment sounds like the setup to a joke: “Two humans, a ratling, and a minotaur walk into an inn.” But, somehow, you immediately forget about the systemic absurdity,…

1 COOLER Kraken Core 360 RGB NZXT $120 NZXT has finally released a brand-new budget-friendly, 360mm AIO, and boy, does it look good. Let’s be fair, as a company it has launched some absolutely epic AIO liquid-coolers, but practically all of them have come with a hefty price tag. With a beautiful new compact design, a single frame-fan included, full RGB compatibility, and a surprisingly quiet pump-head, not only is it easy to install, but it’s also more than capable of handling even the hottest of chips with no drama. The only downside? It doesn’t come with NZXT CAM support. 2 PROCESSOR Ryzen 7 9800X3D AMD $449 Thanks to AMD’s innovative 3D V-Cache, this dominates practically every other chip out there. 3 MOTHERBOARD ROG Strix B850-G Gaming WiFi Micro-ATX Asus $200 With…

KEY Budget build PC gaming is for everyone. Pick the parts 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 MID-RANGE BUILD Our recommended build for playing the latest games ADVANCED BUILD Go above and beyond with a PC powerful enough to end worlds…