Innehållsförteckning för Issue 298 från PC Powerplay

Rebellion can take many forms. Sometimes it’s standing up to the evil empire that’s working to destroy your way of life, setting you up for a journey of discovery. Sometimes it’s in smaller acts - like The Spy realising that if you write even a veiled reference to a specific movie franchise in the intro for your column, you might be able to claim your Disney+ subscription as a business expense. Sometimes rebellion is finally breaking the silence about a corporate decision you disagreed with. That was the move taken by one Michael Barclay, current lead designer at Naughty Dog and a former junior designer at Free Radical. “I feel like it’s been long enough now to come out and say Star Wars Battlefront III was gonna be legit incredible,”…

FEATURE The Most Controversial Games on PC Batman: Arkham Knight RELEASED June 23, 2015 | DEVELOPER Rocksteady Studios | PUBLISHER Warner Bros How broken does a port have to be to get pulled off sale entirely? In June 2015 we found out, with the average PC player experiencing the shadowy streets of Gotham at about 10fps - if they could run the game at all. At the time, we advised readers to “treat Arkham Knight as a game still in development". Just a day after launch, sales were suspended, retail stock was recalled, and refunds were offered to anyone who wanted one. It didn't return to sale until several patches later in October 2015, though it still had plenty of issues, and in the end Warner Bros was so keen to…

Sometimes you just want to relax with a game by yourself. Low pressure, soothing sounds, just enough challenge to keep you engaged but not frustrated. Environmentalist strategy puzzler Terra Nil fits the bill, and puts a refreshing low-key spin on the city-builder genre, making it all the more surprising that it comes from Free Lives, developers of raucous meathead action games like Broforce, Gorn and… err… Genital Jousting Officially billed as a ‘reverse city builder’, it’s not inaccurate to describe Terra Nil as such. It’s a game about spending and generating resources, building synergistic chains of structures to achieve numerical goals. Despite this, Terra Nil owes more to puzzle games and solitaire than anything else. Terra Nil is a meditation on what we – as a species – owe to…

It’s impossible to review Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened without addressing its circumstances. Caught in the chaos of Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine, developer Frogwares decided to crowdfund a project that might be quickly achievable amid regular power cuts, internet outages, and worse disruption: a remake of its 2008 Sherlock Holmes/HP Lovecraft mash-up. The surprise, then, is that the resulting game doesn’t feel troubled by its fast and difficult development. Far from a rushed retread of the original game, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened feels fully reimagined with care and polish, and the result is an impressive, modern detective game that will feel fresh for longtime fans, but also requires no nostalgia or knowledge of the original to enjoy. It helps that it has a killer premise: iconic detective Sherlock Holmes taking…

AGE OF WONDERS: PLANETFALL Triumph’s last game took the AoW formula to space and features plenty of exotic factions and great unit customisation. ENDLESS LEGEND Amplitude’s greatest 4X contains faction design at its best, where each is an elaborate and singular superpower overflowing with unique mechanics. SINS OF A SOLAR EMPIRE Part 4X, part RTS, Sins is a unique strategy romp that still features some of the best battles around. And a sequel is finally on its way. ALPHA CENTAURI Firaxis’ first sci-fi 4X has yet to be outdone, even after all these years. Phenomenal faction design, a cracking story and so much personality.…

After enjoying Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened so much this month (see my review on p72), my appetite was whetted for Lovecraftian horror. Hazily I remembered a game from a few years back with a pretty similar premise: Call of Cthulhu. Just as I had the thought, it popped up at a deep discount on Steam. Call of Cthulhu, based on both Lovecraft’s work and the board game, is a pretty classic mythos tale. A private detective is hired to investigate a death, travels to an isolated community to investigate, and finds himself drawn into bizarre events that sap his sanity. So far, so good, and indeed the game makes a great first impression. My introduction to the crumbling fishing village of Darkwater is wonderfully grotesque and creepy – surly fishermen…

PREVIEW Jagged Alliance 3 My squad of mercs were enjoying a day at the beach, following up on intel that an explosives expert was there. Instead, they found themselves in a minefield surrounded by foes. Several goons were grouped together, which was handy for my shotgunwielding medic. One turn in, half of the opposition were dead. Then my mechanic stepped on a mine. Chaos took hold. One of my squad went berserk, ran out of cover and just started spraying bullets. Another panicked, tried to flee and, of course, stepped on another mine. Someone thought it would be a good idea to toss a molotov into the mix. More mines went off. Bullets pinged off rocks as shots missed their targets. There was shouting, plus screaming and threats. A miraculous headshot…

STORMGATE Stormgate is a spiritual successor to StarCraft II, developed by ex-Blizzard veterans, set in an apocalyptic world where sci-fi and fantasy collide. HOMEWORLD 3 This unexpected revival is shaping up to be wonderfully faithful to its predecessors, while adding new depth to its spectacular spaceship battles. TEMPEST RISING Taking inspiration from the Command & Conquer games, Tempest Rising pits three alternate history factions against each other after a nuclear war.…

STAR WARS: 1313 By far the most famous cancelled Star Wars game – 1313 would have seen players exploring the subterranean slums of Coruscant as a young Boba Fett in a game that was heavily inspired by Uncharted. 1313 was killed when Disney acquired Star Wars and shut down LucasArts. BATTLE OF THE SITH LORDS This gritty action game would have seen players assume the role of a descendent of Darth Maul embroiled in a Sith civil war. The game’s lightsaber combat would have combined mechanics from The Force Unleashed and Batman: Arkham Asylum. Like 1313, it was cancelled. PROJECT RAGTAG Project Ragtag was conceived as a Star Wars heist adventure inspired by Oceans Eleven. Mechanically it would have resembled Uncharted, but with the ability to play as multiple characters,…

HOW WE REVIEW We review each game on its own merits, and try to match it to a reviewer who's a passionate expert in the field. The main aim of reviews is to help you make buying decisions. To this end, we're selective about what we review, and try to focus on the notable, interesting, exciting or surprising. DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT DLC might be new missions for a game, or it might be a single new item. If we think you want to know about it, we'll review it. EARLY ACCESS Any released alpha, beta, or otherwise unfinished game that you can currently pay for. For these games, we won't assign a score, but we will tell you whether they're worth your time. THEY'RE BACK Whenever there's a bargain or re-release…

SINGLE SABER • You like to keep things simple, because who needs more than one saber? • You really want to recreate Luke’s saber down to every detail. • You like a stance that can do a little bit of everything. DOUBLE BLADE • You want to kill everything Cal touches quickly. • If the game allowed, your saber would be red in honour of Darth Maul. • You reenacted the Kenobi/Maul duel in your backyard. DUAL BLADE • You just want to mash the button and blocking is for nerds. • You’re jazzed for the Ahsoka show, and probably coloured your sabers white to get in the spirit. • Seriously, why not double your lethality? BLASTER • You’ve always wondered why Jedi don’t carry blasters. • You preordered Jedi:…

TEMPERATE: RIVERS Your expansion will be defined by natural waterways, but sometimes you’ll have to carve out your own with excavators. POLAR: LAVA Before you can create a winter wonderland, you’ll need to blast for geothermal power and volcanic rocks to kickstart life. TROPICAL: FOUNDATIONS With the map covered in water, you’ll need mineralizers to grow outcroppings to build wind farms. CONTINENTAL: RADIATION Mankind’s old mistakes will come to haunt you in these city ruins, but sunflowers can help mop up all those nasty isotopes.…

Minecraft Legends captures the flavour of standard Minecraft well: the action strategy spinoff has a familiar art style, a colourful world, and a procedural map. It doesn’t bring along Minecraft's substance, though, and the result is a genre mashup that’s disappointing as an action game and as a strategy game. I start out in Minecraft Legends as I would in standard Minecraft: exploring different biomes - forests, badlands, swamps and tundras, but no caves, sorry - and collecting resources. I direct my Allay friends to mine coal or iron or redstone, which automatically fills my resource meters. One Allay chips away at the edge of a nearby forest to collect 500 wood logs that I’ll use to build a perimeter wall around a village while another gathers a surface iron…

ARRIVAL A young Sherlock returned to his childhood home on the island of Cordona, with his confidant Jon, who is imaginary. DISCOVERY In the process of investigating local matters, he discovers buried truths about his family and unravels his own trauma. CATHARSIS He confronts the repressed memory of his mother’s descent into madness and finally death, under a suspicious doctor’s care. BYE, JON Having come to terms with his past, he lets go of his imaginary friend Jon. Back in London, he meets the real John Watson.…

CARLA A mechanic who specialises in taking on multiple zombies at once and tanking damage. Also apparently “hates being bored". RYAN Contrary to his appearance, Ryan was a stripper and not a fireman before the outbreak. Just wants to be reunited with his lost brother. AMY A Paralympian who really, really just wants to make it big, undeterred by the fact that there’s an ongoing zombie outbreak occuring. JACOB Painfully British caricature of an East End London bloke. Loves saying “bruv”. Probably knows all the words to Mary Poppins songs.…

FIRST PRIORITE 1 You can find these sparkly Priorite Shards on Coruscant and across Koboh, but once you rescue Zee the droid during the main story, you’ll be able to spend them at Doma’s shop in exchange for snazzy new Jedi outfits, weapon styles and even a health stim. ESSENTIALLY 2 If you’re finding all of the perils of Koboh too much to contend with, search out and meditate at essence points. These handy little nodes of blue light provide extra health and force points, and can give you new ability points to spend, or perks to equip. HEALTH STIMS 3 BD-1 only carries so many health vials for Cal, but you can get more by finding stim consoles. These are pretty rare, but there’s one to grab in the…

HIGHS Granny fever Hunt: Showdown added an elderly woman to its roster, and fans are going ga-ga to be in the granny gang. Past words Google is to roll out passkey tech - a replacement for passwords. Cheat this Activision's Ricochet anti-cheat system is now tormenting Call of Duty cheaters. Watt? Cryptocurrency mining in the US sucked down more energy than every computer in the entire country last year. Redfail Arkane's vamp-'em-up arrived to disappointing review scores. This is fine Geoffrey Hinton, 'the Godfather of Deep Learning', has resigned from Google. LOWS…

ANTI-DELL SENTIMENT Circa 2018, found on the PC Master Race Facebook page. All that’s missing is a free copy of Norton antivirus. THE PICARD TREATMENT Circa 2015. A downright ancient meme in the catalogue. There is no indignity quite like being an 15-year-old PC gamer. ICEBERG BENEATH THE WAVES Found on Build-Gaming-Computers.com. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what all those numbers mean. THE VOICE OF REASON I’ll be honest, Marques isn’t wrong! But with gaming PCs so easy to build now, it’s a fact that you can save money with DIY.…

PREVIEW Shadows of Doubt Everything pointed to Li Li Qiao. It was her husband splattered across the kitchen floor, her fat, wet thumbprint on the hilt of the blade that lay next to him, and her blood-caked size 12 boots that had traipsed tremulously out the door not long after the crime was committed. Her associates backed it all up: a chat with the neighbours revealed she'd been seen emerging from the apartment in a state of visible distress around 7pm, smack-bang in the middle of the period that my cursory field forensics told me was the time the murder took place. When I visited her office, I was told she failed to turn up to work the next day, and she hadn't returned since. One coworker said they’d seen her…

PREVIEW Humanity Before I declare Humanity a new member of the videogames-as-art canon, I should confess that I know embarrassingly little about art. My mum is an artist, yet I somehow developed no vocabulary for the subject -I spent the time I should’ve been writing about this brilliant videogame trying to decide if it was futurist, or constructivist, or minimalist. Did you know there’s a post-minimalism? I should try my hand at being a post-postminimalist writer and turn in an empty page next time I’m on a deadline. But that wouldn’t be fair to Humanity, which I’ve been playing nightly for the last couple of weeks. Perhaps this is a more useful aesthetic reference point: Humanity is an early 2000s physics tech demo turned into a proper game. It unabashedly pairs…

TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER This trilogy is about as loving and authentic a tribute as the original Warhammer Fantasy setting could receive - as well as some of the most expansive and rich grand strategy you can play on PC today. WARHAMMER 40,000: MECHANICUS This XCOM-like, about cyborg weirdos excavating an alien tomb, features both compelling turn-based combat and the best writing of any Warhammer game. WARHAMMER: VERMINTIDE 2 Grab a sword and join three friends for co-op action at the end of the world. Few games nail Warhammer’s dark sense of humour as well, and its fast-paced melee combat is a blast. WARHAMMER 40,000: CHAOS GATE DAEMONHUNTERS Chaos Gate’s turn-based clash of Grey Knights and Nurgle cultists feels authentic - hopefully a good sign for Realms of Ruin.…

JEDI KNIGHT The Jedi Knight series is not canon, meaning Kyle Katarn did not in fact steal the Death Star plans. Weirdly, Dark Troopers were reintroduced into canon in The Mandalorian. KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC Darth Revan was re-established into the canon in The Rise of Skywalker as the namesake of the Sith Eternal Army’s 3rd Legion. What this means for KotOR in general is unclear. THE FORCE UNLEASHED Starkiller, Vader’s apprentice who turned to the light, was supposedly instrumental in the founding of the Rebel Alliance. But Disney explored this with Andor.…

MORGAN PARK Specialist in Midi-chlorians Currently playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor This month Drank too many Ruby bliels, dropped his lightsaber in the lav PHIL IWANIUK Specialist in Battling shader caches Currently playing The Last of Us Part 1 This month Waited over two hours to play TLOU Part 1 on PC, then really wished he hadn’t bothered. RICK LANE Specialist in Cockney voiceovers Currently playing Ravenbound This month Popped into a draugr camp for a spot of tea and a few cucumber sandwiches. Died. MATT ELLIOTT Specialist in Cake jokes Currently playing Portal 2 This month Opened two linked portals in PCG Towers, then fell through them both endlessly. LAUREN MORTON Specialist in Tickling piglins Currently playing Minecraft Legends This month Became the ultimate helicopter parent to keep zigzagging…

10 years before STAR WARS EPISODE 3: REVENGE OF THE SITH 2005 Anakin goes evil, the Jedi are wiped out, Luke and Leia are born. 5 years before STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER 2019 Cal Kestis joins forces with Greez and Cere to find force-sensitive children. 1 year before SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY 2018 Han Solo steals stuff, earns the Millenium Falcon, and becomes a bounty hunter. Now STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR 2023 Cal Kestis searches for a planet in an old High Republic squabble. Now OBI-WAN KENOBI 2022 Obi-Wan rescues a young Princess Leia from inquisitors and fights an old friend. 5 years later ANDOR 2022 Cassian Andor is recruited into a burgeoning rebellion. Events ensue that you should watch if you haven’t yet.…

PLANK Archer-like wood golems that do more damage against enemy units. They’ll be your backbone for defending villages from piglin invasions. COBBLESTONE These are great at pounding away on enemy structures. Try to take out piglin spawners first when assaulting an outpost. MOSSY These support golems spray water to heal your other mobs. Make sure to bring a few along with you when you assault fortresses. GRINDSTONE These special mobs can stun enemies, so be sure to have them lead the charge against Lava Launchers and Pigmadillos.…

H.P. LOVECRAFT Of course there are loads of references to Lovecraft’s stories - including a statue of Dagon, one of Pickman’s sinister paintings, and Herbert West’s medical kit. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS A sinister doctor called Gygax and a wealthy eccentric called Arneson reference Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, two of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons. THE SINKING CITY A familiar unlockable outfit allows you to dress up like the protagonist of The Sinking City - a past Frogwares game currently embroiled in a legal dispute.…

Magic is rarely wondrous in its frequent videogame appearances. It harms, it heals and if you’re lucky it maybe transforms enemies into sheep or frogs. Not so in Age of Wonders 4 where it drives every component of this arcane 4X, transforming worlds, cities and the creatures that inhabit them. With your expansive collection of magical tomes, you can dabble with god-like powers to your heart’s content. Age of Wonders 4’s structure should be familiar: you start with a single city, erect new buildings, develop the surrounding provinces, recruit armies and explore the map to find treasure and new enemies. Resources like food, gold and mana must be managed, rival rulers can be engaged diplomatically or aggressively, and eventually you’ll start working towards one of the victory conditions, perhaps focusing…

QUI-GON CHIN STRIP A high-maintenance beard worn by Cal mostly while duelling and chopping down trees. OBI-WAN GOATEE While undercover in Empire-controlled coffee shops, Cal blends in by going full hipster. DARTH MOUSTACHE Cal got dumped regularly for some reason when cultivating this look. That is why you fail. COUNT DUCKTAIL Cal’s aristo look when infiltrating meetings of corrupted nobles from galactic high society. EMPEROR PENCILTINE Facial hair infused with dark Force energy allows Cal to look a bad boy while on the pull. BEN SOUL-O PATCH While wrestling with his daddy issues, Cal decides to show his isolation in beard form. …UNTIL AUGUST 7…