Innehållsförteckning för Issue 282 från PC Powerplay

One of the very best perks of this job is being able to get a glimpse of great games ahead of the curve. It’s also one of the oddly annoying things, too – and in the case of this issue’s cover feature, it’s even worse. Yes, I have gotten to play a bit of Cyberpunk 2077. Yes, it is looking as good as all the hype suggests, and yes, I am now gnawing my own limbs off in anticipation of the game’s final release. I cannot say any more forcefully that five hours simply wasn’t enough, and that I am already deeply invested in this game. But I gotta wait. Thankfully, it’s not as if there’s not a whole mess of games I can sink my teeth into in the…

Most games are about one thing hitting another. A bullet and a soldier’s head; a platform and your foot; a sword and a demon’s arm; a jaw and a Shoryuken. And that means a lot of games are all about hitboxes, the invisible geometry which tells them when things collide. But while they’re ubiquitous, hitboxes also exist in a thorny tangle of hard math and soft player perception. There’s a real art to making them feel great to play with, and there’s real genius in getting them to work right, since computers are surprisingly bad at dealing with collision. The result is that different games take completely different approaches to the ways hitboxes work. In games like Monster Hunter World, your character’s hitbox pretty much matches what you see, so…

Luckily she’s created her version of a blanket fort; Rimworld, where she’s been stockpiling rice and chocolate. Indeed, the threat of impending doom neatly ties together this issue’s collection, including vengeful, encroaching armies and murderously negligent hospitals. Even Thimbleweed Park’s Delores, in her own standalone adventure, notices ominous signs that things are not quite right. Read the indie pages, or hide under your bed’s covers. We respect your decision, either way. RIMWORLD: ROYALTY DEVELOPER Ludeon Studios PRICE $28.95 RELEASE Out now. ONLINE https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149640/RimWorld__Royalty/ As you may recall, at the end of the last collection, I was neck deep in spiders, thanks to one of Rimworld Royalty’s many hilarious, new quests, involving a greedy pawn and his penchant for jelly. The expansion had arrived like appetising raiders to a hungry ice…

I SOON HAD A SECOND SETTLEMENT IN PLACE WHICH GAVE ME ACCESS TO HORSES. You start Humankind as a nomadic tribe in the Neolithic era. The wilderness around you holds pockets of treasure: a resource deposit here, a volcanic pool there. As I move my tribe across the map I’m rewarded for discovering the Great Blue Hole, a circular underwater ravine. I’m discovering the world, and I haven’t built my first settlement yet. Amplitude’s strategy games have been getting better and better since the studio formed in 2011. The Endless Space series introduced some truly bizarre factions to the space 4X formula, but Humankind owes more to the studio’s fantasy game, Endless Legend. Humankind has many similar features, in the way that your cities grow district by district, and battles…

Sometimes the real world weighs heavy on us all. This year, it’s felt like about 2,020 kilos’ worth. It can make luxuries like videogames feel pretty frivolous. But, at the same time, your PC can provide the perfect escape. Virtual worlds, despite more often than not being embroiled in their own wars and conflicts, are happier, simpler places, where everything makes sense and, as long as you keep plugging away, you’re always making progress towards resolution and success. They can show you beautiful, impossible things; provide a sandbox for your creativity and imagination; or just be a warm and pleasant space to exist in for an hour or two. When times are dark, that’s a magic worth celebrating more than ever, not dismissing. Over the following pages, that’s exactly what…

Hereby, I offer my apology to every environment artist working in games, past, present, and future. How many hours do they spend creating lavish, gorgeous, massive open worlds? Hundreds? Thousands? Huge teams spend years bringing to life spaces we could only dream of exploring – resplendent fantasy vistas and detailed historical reimaginings both. And how do I respond to this work? By running face first into a mountain. IT TURNS OUT THERE’S ESCAPISM IN PREDICTABILITY AND ORDER. My strongest memories of Skyrim are of being pressed against a cliff texture. Yes, it’s a game filled with big moments – the dragon attacks, the dramatic battles, the fun sidequests discovered in unlikely locations – but those are punctuations on a game that’s often about simply travelling through an enormous world. Less…

WALK THE STREETS OF KAMUROCHO AND YOU’LL HEAR MUSIC LEAKING FROM BARS. It’s interesting how two of the most atmospheric, detailed and well-realised worlds on PC – Yakuza’s Kamurocho and Shenmue’s Yokosuka – are among the smallest. Each game presents a painstakingly  recreated, but economical, slice of Japanese life, rooting their fantastic stories of revenge and conspiracy in a lavishly mundane reality. In both games, a grimy Tokyo real estate office or a budget travel agent will have as much detail, if not more, as the story’s more glamorous locations. In the Yakuza series we explore a semi-fictionalised version of Kabukicho, Tokyo’s infamous red light district; in Shenmue, the port city of Yokosuka. By the standards of most games, these are small spaces. But by focusing on a few streets,…

I TAILED HER FOR A LONG TIME AS SHE RODE OVER HILLS AND THROUGH FORESTS. The most compelling open worlds are the ones that feel like they would exist even if you never visited them, and the key to that illusion is to fill the world with convincing people. I’m not talking  about the main characters, the quest-givers, or the speech-makers. I’m talking about everyone else – the background extras that fill the gaps in the world, the ones you tend to barely notice unless you slow down and start paying attention to them. Early in my life as Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, I came across a woman being abducted. After killing her kidnapper and cutting her ropes, she thanked me and told me she was going…

EVERY MISSION FELT LIKE A REAL JOURNEY, WITH ALL SORTS OF DIVERSIONS. Fast travel is ubiquitous in open world games. I get why – it’s a time-saver in an industry more packed with massive games than ever. But I think it also undermines the scale of these virtual realms. More and more I find myself swearing off using it completely. Riding across the dunes of Assassin’s Creed Origins, I experienced so much more of a genuine sense of place than I would have zipping around the map. I came to learn the geography and its landmarks, and every mission felt like a real journey, with all sorts of diversions and twists along the way as I stumbled into other events and sidequests. Give it a try, next time you pick…

PRICE $89 ONLINE www.thermaltake.com.au If you do have 2.5in SSDs installed, things are going to be particularly cramped. While Thermaltake continues to push various iterations of its hyper-designed Level 20 series, the case-maker is still keeping a watchful eye on on the budget end of the market, and the S100 Tempered Glass is a great little sub-$100 case for the frugal  builder. Thermaltake calls it a ‘micro chassis’, but it is a nonetheless squat and broad case that still makes quite a physical statement. The case’s big selling point is right there in the name; one side panel is a single piece of smoked tempered glass, and this sits in a drop hinge. It’s secured closed by a pair of magnets, so it can easily swing open at any time,…

We learned last month that the US Army’s Twitch stream was being trolled by viewers who, instead of focusing on the games or players — the Army has its own esports team — insisted on asking about war crimes. The pointed questions put a spotlight on the dubious (some would say extraordinarily unethical) practice of seeking out recruits from among an audience that contains many young, impressionable gamers, and on top of the “UwU”ing being generally objectionable to many, it turns out the Army may have been outright decietful in its efforts. According to a report by The Nation, Army Esports streams on Twitch regularly featured an automated chat prompt with a link that promised a chance to win an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller. But Twitch viewers who clicked…

RYU STREET FIGHTER V When Capcom reduced the length of Ryu’s crouching medium kick they undermined classic Ryu play and the competitive scene stopped playing him. ORNSTEIN AND SMOUGH DARK SOULS A bug causes boss hitboxes to invisibly persist in the world after you kill them. Normally it doesn’t matter, unless you fight two at once… PATHFINDER APEX LEGENDS Pathfinder’s hitbox was originally larger than his body, making him the easiest character to hit. After fixes, his thin legs made him seem one of the hardest. NERGIGANTE MONSTER HUNTER WORLD Nergigante’s palm-slam attack can flummox newcomers who don’t know that when its arm is damaged, it grows spikes which make the hitbox bigger.…

One of the most important cyberpunk novels ever written opens with a stark image. “The sky over the port was the colour of a television tuned to a dead channel” – so begins William Gibson’s seminal book, Neuromancer. It’s a novel that went on to inspire many other writers, and was certainly part of the sinew of the roleplaying game that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on. But in Cyberpunk 2077 glimpses of the sky are few and far between, mere snatches of darkness and light caught from the ground, as skyscrapers, billboards, and vectored-thrust vehicles crowd your vision. Only the rich get a view in Night City – everyone else has to crane their necks from the depths of steel and concrete canyons… If you’re thinking that we might be…

Space is mostly bleak and empty,” says Michael Schade, CEO of Rockfish Games, the developer of Everspace 2. Without getting too Douglas Adams about it, this makes open space combat games “boring, because most of the time you shoot at tiny pixel clusters in the distance without having a concrete sense of player orientation and movement”. We’re playing the prototype build of this space shooter, the one that appeared at PAX East back in late February and which would have been shown off at this summer’s entertainment shows if they hadn’t been cancelled. It’s playable, in that it functions – you fly through space exploring, shooting and trading. It’s not exactly coherent yet, however, with little sense of purpose or mission structure. A whole mission-tracking system exists in the game…

The scene before me is unfathomably ghastly. Charred limbs and torsos the colour of charcoal are only things that suggest that these are humans littering the ground as I pick through the gore to find a man’s lost brother. I’ve witnessed the carnage that remains of this battle between the forces of Nilfgaard and Temeria before in the deceptively-quaint region of White Orchard before, some years ago – so what possessed me to return to this nightmarish world? Well, for a start, The Witcher 3 isn’t all battlefields and rotting flesh. In fact, it’s frequently staggering in its beauty, from the rugged pastoral scenes of Skellige to the bustling metropolis of Novigrad. Nevertheless, amid the bucolic rolling hills and the sparkling rivers running between them, tragedy lies. Civilians are murdered…

The reason space sim MMO EVE Online’s universe is so special – and enduring – is its relationship with its players. Thanks to an interwoven tangle of reactive systems, it’s a sandbox that plays host to dynamic politics, economics, espionage and warfare on a grand scale. Whether it’s hitmen spending ten months undercover to bring down a rival corporation, or explorer Katia Sae embarking on a nine year journey to visit all 7, 805 solar systems, or an enterprising pirate scoring loot worth US$60,000 in real money from one month-long raiding spree, it’s a game that has spawned a thousand fascinating stories – with more arising every day.…

PRICE $6,399 ONLINE dell.com/en-au/ The Alienware m15 laptops have been a staple of Dell’s gaming laptop range for years now and as per the company’s business model you can get this new 15-inch rig with just about every CPU and GPU combo you could want. At the lower-end this includes a new 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10750H CPU, an Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM and a tiny 256GB PCIe SSD for $3,199. If however, you’re after a top-tier pro setup then you can drop $6,399 on a unit with a Core i9-10980HK CPU, a Nvidia RTX 2080 Super GPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB PCIe SSD. The entire range come with a base FullHD 144Hz (7ms response time) IPS panel with G-Sync that can be swapped…

PRICE $1,699 ONLINE www.vive.com The Cosmos Elite is essentially the original Cosmos bundled with the first generation base stations and controllers, and a different faceplate attached to the headset. If you’ve already bought the Cosmos, you can upgrade it with a new faceplate, although you’ll need to buy your own base stations separately to use it. This modular approach also means that you add such goodies as the wireless adapter, but this solution can get expensive quickly. There are a few things to set up with base station-based VR, and there’s a regimented order for getting everything up and running too. It isn’t just about plugging in the headset and throwing yourself into a virtual world like it is with the Oculus Rift S or the original Cosmos. Luckily the…

01 C-Face Smart Mask PRICE $60 DISTRIBUTOR Donut Robotics www.donutrobotics.com Given how 2020 is going we’re surprised this didn’t happen sooner. Of course it’s a smart mask. Because we’re living in a world now where wearing a mask outside might be the only way you get to keep living. POWERED UP: ANYWHO, this thing hooks up to your phone’s Bluetooth, translates speech to text, makes calls, or can just amplify your voice – like if you wanted to loudly and incredulously ask “CAN THIS YEAR GET ANY WORSE?!?” PLAYED OUT: Doesn’t actually protect you – it’s to wear over your OTHER, MORE PROTECTIVE mask. Yay 2020. 02 Toadi Robot Lawnmower PRICE $3550+ DISTRIBUTOR Toadi www.toadi.com You might be thinking “Wow! Three and a half thousand dollars sure is a lot…

Yandere Simulator is the Star Citizen of indie gaming. In development for over six years now, it is a pig’s breakfast of spaghetti code and broken promises cobbled together by an egotistical hack who is demonstrably incapable of realising his vision. On paper, Yandere Sim seems like a winning formula. You control a high school girl who is hopelessly in love with one of her classmates, and who will do absolutely anything to eliminate her perceived romantic rivals. A Hitman clone with the visual trappings of a cheesy anime show – the perfect opportunity to deliver emergent stealth gameplay and black comedy. Heathers for the 21st Century. What could go wrong? As it turns out: absolutely everything. For the first few years of development fans and onlookers were willing to…

I was doing OK for the first few weeks of Covid-19 isolation; glad to be teaching from home, helping my younger son with his (rather abominable) spelling, drinking lots of tea. Things got hectic; my older son broke his arm, my day job moved to shaky ground and I gave myself shin splints by jogging too much. Somehow, my fragile peace of mind now entirely depends on whether a guy from work finishes Florence, by Mountains. I know he got to Chapter 8 and I haven’t heard from him since. I can’t quite ask again. I often say that recommending games to people is my raison d’être. In the absence of other things I love, like Thai food and swimming laps, Covid tested this assertion. It holds up, if a…

IF YOU DON’T LIKE A PARTICULAR EVENT, YOU CAN SPEND CURRENCY TO SKIP IT. Project Cars has amassed a large, loyal following of virtual motorsport fans, thanks in part to its impressively realistic car physics. But the series has always  been missing a few of the features expected from a modern racing sim – something its developer is remedying in this scaled-up sequel. First up, career mode. This has been rebuilt from scratch, with the intention of giving players a better sense of progression. In your career you’ll progress through ten car classes, earning XP as you go, unlocking upgrade parts and new events. But if you don’t like a particular type of event, you can spend in-game currency to skip over it. This is so players don’t feel tied…

BOTCHLING Botchlings are deformed fetuses born from miscarried babies not given a proper burial. In Family Matters, you have the choice to either kill the being, or try to turn it into a kindly guardian spirit called a Lubberkin. WRAITH It’s likely you’ll hear one of these before you see them: They’re known to scream in pain and linger in places special to them in life. These spirits remain due to a sense of being wronged, driven by an eternal anger. SIREN These adept hunters are known to use their bodies to seduce sailors before killing them with razor-sharp talons. Legend has it they weren’t always hostile: it’s said that Sirens once accepted the courtship of men.…

Underwater levels in games can make you flounder. Weird water physics, breath timers, and clunky character movements have historically made submerged worlds daunting. But Giant Squid’s subaquatic adventure ABZÛ takes all that away, turning even the clumsiest of player inputs into the graceful movements of an aqua-dancer. It’s an effortless, relaxing adventure that makes you feel totally at home in its aquatic world. ABZÛ is a wordless story set within the depths of the ocean. You play as a diver who’s helping restore life back to parts of the sea that are decaying. As you delve deeper, you’ll begin to unravel the mysteries of an ancient civilisation and start to understand the diver’s origins. The game has moments of quiet reflection, rushes of action, and playful interactions that use its…

VENDORS PLY THEIR TRADE, ILLUMINATED BY THE GAUDY LIGHT OF NEON SIGNS. When it comes to virtual tourism, it’s hard to beat the atmospheric streets of Sleeping Dogs’ Hong Kong. It’s at once an authentic snapshot of a unique and historic city, and a kind of exaggerated martial arts flick soundstage writ impossibly large. On hazy streets, market vendors ply their trade, illuminated by the gaudy light of countless neon signs above. Cars honk their way along clogged roads, towered over by forests of skyscrapers. A world gorgeous enough to simply stroll through, transporting yourself to another place – but also dynamic enough to sprint and leap across for yet another parkour chase, scattering crowds and plates of street-dumplings like John Woo doves. Not bad for a studio based in…

Many fervent Dark Souls fans have written off Dark Souls II as an accident. But, in the words of Bob Ross who’d no doubt look over Medula with a tear in his eye, the sun setting over an endless sea, bathing the ruins of a once proud civilisation in golden light: it’s a happy accident. Dark Souls II has all the ‘serious’ series staples, of course. There are ruined castles, dead kings, piles of lore implying terrible histories of avarice and sorrow. But in contrast with those expectations, Dark Souls II folds in endless absurdity, humour, and creativity, particularly in its boss design. This is a grim fantasy world, but it’s one that never takes itself too seriously, which is why I remember more of Dark Souls II beat-by-beat than…

Every one of its stealthy encounters is its own puzzle, and every puzzle is a chance to experiment and, more often than not, fail. Desperados III is all about a team of specialists working in sync, using preternatural precision and timing to overcome seemingly impossible odds, but the journey to perfection is full of slapstick escapades and catastrophes. A split-second or an inch can mean the difference between an effortless display of teamwork and a team full of corpses, but with quicksave in one holster and quickload in the other, you’ll get there eventually. Maybe your very clever attempt to drop an entire wall on someone was foiled because a guard turned around and spotted you at the last moment, so you try again but this time send someone in…

I’ve lost track of how many people I’ve eaten. My mission was to consume ten golfers, and since people don’t golf in the ocean I had to jump out of the water and shimmy my way onto the golf course to start chowing down on them. Three patrol boats filled with gun-toting shark hunters appeared, so I ate them, too. I’m probably up to about 17 humans eaten now, though I still need to eat three more golfers to finish my gory quest list. More hunters in patrol boats and on jetskis arrive so I consume them too, along with a few divers. And then a celebrity shark hunter appears, flanked by several escort boats. It’s Candyman Curtis, important enough to warrant his own introduction in a cutscene. I leap…

I’m in a dark crypt, surrounded by skeletons and creepers. I’m blasting mobs with my firework arrows which explode into a cloud of colourful sparks, dual-wielding sickles that freeze enemies, and harvesting the souls of the fallen to power my laser cube that obliterates everything in my path. Throughout this whole spectacle, the llama I’ve summoned keeps charging head-first into mobs in a throw of spitting rage. It’s ridiculous, and I’m enjoying every second. The story is mostly just a reason for mindless brawling. It’s safe to say that Minecraft Dungeons doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s set in the same universe as its sandbox predecessor, but there’s no crafting or building in his world. It’s a dungeon crawler that challenges you to furiously hack-and-slash your way through hordes of…

Storage may not get the blood racing in the same way that a CPU or graphics card does, but it is an increasingly important component of any gaming system. With the next-gen consoles both looking to make the most of their PCIe SSDs, it seems only reasonable that tomorrow’s games will put a greater emphasis on storage than they currently do. And as it is, there’s a lot to be gained from moving up to speedy SSDs, from games loading quicker to day-to-day operations just not taking as long and Windows booting almost instantly. When we’ve looked at SSDs before, you’d find this list stuffed with SATA-based drives from top-to-bottom, with potentially only one or two PCIe SSDs lurking at the high-priced extreme end. It’s now becoming increasingly hard to…