PC Powerplay #243 September 2015

PCPP issue 243 has it all. We talk to legendary game developer Koji Igarashi about his recent Kickstarter success, investigate why Starcraft is declining as a competitive game, go hands on with World of Warships, review vehicular soccer game Rocket League and more. We also have a comprehensive roundup of the best CPU coolers, take a look at variable refresh rate and road test Logitech’s two new racing WHEELS.

I DENNE UDGAVE

In This Issue

German Efficiency

I wish I was in Germany. Due to a couple of factors involving deadlines and other important work related matters I was not able to make it to Gamescom this year. Instead of being on the show floor, getting hands on with Fallout 4, I’m instead here at my desk writing the final page of issue 243. Hopefully next year I can organise things so I can be there. It’s going to be important to start making inroads with European developers and distributors in the near future. While development in the US and UK hasn’t died, it has certainly become more consolidated (at least outside of indies) into the larger franchises, leaving greater Europe as the hotbed of interesting AAA PC game development. You’ve got Wargaming, CDPR, Haemimont, Paradox Interactive,…

2 min

In This Issue

THIS MONTH...

DANIEL WILKS Angered some people online @drwilkenstein MALCOLM CAMPBELL Ate another sandwich BENNETT RING Got whooping cough @bennettring JAMES COTTEE Suffered feature creep @j_cottee MEGHANN O’NEILL Ate long pig @firkraags JAMES O’CONNOR Stanted getting educated @jickle BEN MANSILL Fretted over haikus NATHAN LAWRENCE Went to Germany PATRICK STAFFORD Weathered a Blizzard @pdstafford DAVID HOLLINGWORTH Grew a beard ALEX MANN Kept trying to make coffee dates CAMERON FERRIS Had a deviated septum @pcpowerplay SEAN FLETCHER Became KFC…

1 min

Regulars

Inbox

LETTER OF THE MONTH WINS! Write in to PCPP with your rants, considered opinions, and endless run-on sentences of pure awesome. The address is letters@pcpowerplay.com. au. Each letter read by hand! This Letter of the Month winner scores himself a K65 RGB mechanical keyboard courtesy of the fine folks at Corsair! LETTER OF THE MONTH MISTY WATERCOLOURED MEMORIES I think I have to disagree with Mr Lundberg on his article in issue #241 about nostalgia. Often is the case when you talk highly about previous games, it’s easy for people to disregard it as nostalgia and perhaps the experience was not actually as good as we remember it to be. While it certainly might the case in some situations - I don’t believe it’s the rule. There is…

3 min

Regulars

JACK AGE 17 | PORT LINCOLN, SA

4 MOST IMPRESSIVE ELEMENTS: 1. 3 monitors. This triangle formation is awesome for multitasking (I would have them side by side, but my computer isn’t powerful enough to run games at that resolution...) 2. Dual Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB GPUs. 3. 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz Corsair memory. More than enough RAM for me. 4. Cooler Master Storm Stryker Case. I love people’s reactions when they see this case. LAST UPGRADE: My last upgrade was the case. I originally had a cheap Antec case, but I upgraded to the Stryker because the case had poor cooling performance, and was very loud. DREAM UPGRADE: My dream upgrade would be a new video card. As of now, my video card of choice would be the GTX 980 Ti, as I…

2 min

Frontend

AUSTRALIAN GAME ARMELLO GETS RELEASE DATE, NEW CHARACTERS

Armello, in the words of its creators - League of Geeks - is a “fantasy board game come to life”. It’s a game of evil lion kings, heroic animal clans, and the struggle to claim the throne and save a terrorised population. It’s pretty intense, adorably cute, and really, really good. It’s also Australian, and League of Geeks has just announced its release date - the game will be hitting PC and PS4 on September 1st this year. The Geeks have also announced two new heroes: Zosha the rat and Barnaby the rabbit. Both will be playable at PAX this year.…

1 min

Frontend

RAZER BUYS OPEN-SOURCE CONSOLE-MAKER OUYA

For a lot of people, the Android-based Ouya console was a dream come true. It was open source, it was cheap, and it crowdfunded to incredible success. But a troubled launch and stagnant life has left the dream, if not a nightmare, then at least nothing to get excited about. And now, following Razer’s acquisition of the company, Ouya officially dead. Razer’s more interested in the software side of the company, including its digital store, which will be rebranded as Cortex for Android TV, for Razer’s own Forge TV platform. “Razer has a long-term vision for Android TV and Android-based TV consoles, such as the Xiaomi Mi Box and Alibaba Tmall Box, to which OUYA already publishes” said Razer Co-Founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan in the recent announcement. “OUYA’s work…

1 min