Innehållsförteckning för Issue 300 från PC Powerplay

THE SPY The Spy summers with Lestat de Lioncourt on Lake Como. The Spy is at home in the world of darkness. After all, covert operations work best under the cover of night. One consequence of these nocturnal wanderings, though, is that The Spy has become rather familiar with rubbing shoulders with the undead, and specifically vampires. Indeed, it was only after Lestat de Lioncourt was particularly taken with The Spy that The Spy could then pass freely among the children of the damned unmolested. It just goes to show what a night of reading PC PowerPlay can do, even when those being read to were born in 1760. One thing The Spy has learned from two-stepping with blood-sucking brethren is that you need to be prepared for long periods…

IMPORTANT FRIENDS It didn't take long before the PRs were all over us, lining up interviews, and, quite quickly, bringing big devs out for Australian tours mainly for us. We made proper friends with many. Id Software's Tim Willits and Paul Steed (RIP dude) made almost-annual pilgrimages down under, and we'd hang and laugh and it was great. Age of Empires Bruce Shelley was one of the nicest and most genuine devs you could ever hope to meet. Loved the game and the man. The same is true of Battlecruiser 3000AD Derek Smart. Much maligned, and yes, true, slightly… aggressively eccentric, but he had all the time in the world for us. Literally. In 1997 we lined up a phone interview with Dr Smart, and Jere Lawrence and I spent…

As related, the years from 1994 (when PC commoditisation really kicked off in Australia) to 1999 were a heady time for people selling advertising space for PC games. With over a dozen game publishers and distributors to approach, each issue of the mag was stuffed full of weird games and weirder ads. From 2000 though, things were about to change. Game publishing and distribution would quickly consolidate around six or seven key publishers – some with names we recognise today like EA and Activision, and others with names half-forgotten like Vivendi and THQ. This made us do weird things, and make some questionable decisions. But it also made ‘videogaming’ a part of the mainstream media, turning it from a niche curiosity into a multi-billion dollar sector that would soon eclipse…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE 2024 in Early Access DEVELOPER Blackbird Interactive PUBLISHER Team17 LINK earthlessgame.com I'm the first journalist in the world who's laid hands on the new sci-fi strategy game from the studio behind Hardspace: Shipbreaker and Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, and I've just broken it to pieces in front of them. I'm having a great time. Every time I preview a game that has unfinished art and narrative dead-ends scattered around like landmines, there's the potential for an awkward moment where the game flat-out breaks. The developers take control to sidestep a bug or reboot after a crash; they apologise, keep it light with some smalltalk. Earthless, though, which is a hybrid of a roguelike deckbuilder and a grid-based strategy game, hasn't bugged out or airlocked itself straight…

FRASER BROWN Specialist in Losing his life Currently playing Baldur's Gate III, Starfield This month Went mad trying to review BG III. Started talking to a hamster. ROBIN VALENTINE Specialist in Jumping in portals Currently playing Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Starfield This month Summoned a freaky mushroom man to aid him in battle. You heard! DOMINIC TARASON Specialist in Pirate arrrs Currently playing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, Starfield This month Walked around PCPP Towers with a parrot on his shoulder. RICK LANE Specialist in Looting while shooting Currently playing Remnant 2 This month Consumed blazing hot videogame vindaloo. Then proceeded to find-a-loo. Ha ha! Pun! MATT ELLIOTT Specialist in Monkey business Currently playing Ape Out This month Threw humans off very tall buildings while laughing and listening to experimental Jazz.…

REVIEW Baldur's Gate III After spending 160 hours unravelling conspiracies, setting fire to monsters and finding increasingly fancy hats for my Bard, I can now confidently say that Baldur's Gate III is the greatest RPG I've ever played. If I wasn't writing this review, I'd be rolling a brand-new character and jumping in for another hundred hours. I've got it bad. It's my dream game: the best parts of Ultima, Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Divinity: Original Sin. But it also does so much more than tap into the RPG greatest hits, finding a way to unite disparate philosophies like cinematic storytelling, unhinged sandbox mayhem and tabletop-style roleplaying. Yes, it says, you can have your cake and eat it too. And boy is it absolutely massive, as deep…

ADOPTAN OWLBEAR CUB After you ruthlessly murder an owlbear in Act I, you can eventually adopt its cub, slightly making up for your bloodlust. It's adorable. READ SOME WEIRD FANFIC Did you know that brothels have libraries? Apparently they do, at least in Baldur's Gate, and you'll find some literature inside. RECRUIT SOME OGRES You'll meet some ogres in the Blighted Village, and if you can avoid becoming their dinner, you can summon them in battle. DIG FOR TREASURE The people of Faerûn love to bury chests everywhere. So make sure you carry a spade at all times, as you can dig them up and loot them. WEAPONISE A GNOME You can pick up nearly everything in Baldur's Gate III, and that includes gnomes, which you can then throw at…

I am a space ninja, carving up robot sentinels on an artificial planet stranded in time. A few hours ago, I was blasting cockney elves off a dilapidated clocktower with a gun that fires cubes. Before that, I was having my life drained by a cursed boardgame in an antechamber of a vast golden palace. Oh, and let's not forget the time I chased my friend through an ancient temple as he was dragged underground by a sentient tree. If variety is the spice of life, then Remnant 2 is a blazing hot videogame vindaloo. It can barely go half an hour without throwing some weird mystery box at your feet, and only half the time do its contents pop out to kill you. As someone who deeply distrusts the…

HARDWARE Corsair HS80 Max Wireless The HS80 Max is a headset that doesn't just lead with its audio quality but has a plethora of tricks up its sleeve. The previous iteration of the HS80 was a great all-rounder and had a rich warm soundstage, a comfortable headband, and a clean aesthetic. The HS80 Max is a revised version of the previous model that aims to further these points. Other than a little more clamping force than we would like, the comfort here is spot on, just like on the previous headset. It features the same ski-band style suspended headband made of a soft fabric. You can adjust this to alter the size of the headset, unlike the traditional method where you pull down on either cup. Soft cushy earpads round off…

NOW PLAYING THE GAMES WE LOVE RIGHT NOW Cosiness and MMOs are my two main vices, so Palia feels like it's being made specifically for me. I've got a bit of emotional investment in its success, I'll admit, so I voluntarily played a good bit more of Palia's alpha than I really needed to for work purposes. In Palia you are not a hero. You're one of many, many humans who've popped into the world after the local Majiri people believed you'd all gone extinct – a nice deviation from the usual MMO setup, which asks us to believe that the world is primarily populated by chosen ones. There's no PvE or PvP combat, and your goal is to become a member of the village. Unlike a typical life or farm…

IT'S ALL OVER… 1 COCKPIT Lined with posters of Gordon Freeman, water-cooled tower PCs, and PCPP magazine spreads to keep moral high. 2 GYROS AND ACTUATORS Created by none other than Gabe Newell himself in his Steam Workshop, these allow precise, rapid movement. 3 ARMOUR PLATING When a big console gaming exclusive foe appears, these tough reinforced armour plates mitigate its attacks. 4 JUMP JETS PC gaming moves faster than console gaming, and these jump jets allow the PCPP BattleMech V30 to outmanoeuvre foes. 5 TARGET TRACKING SYSTEM Great for keeping track of incoming releases, as well as hardware orders from Overclockers and Amazon. 6 BALLISTIC CANNONS If console gamers are foolish enough to try to break into PCPP Towers on foot, then these bad boys welcome them. 7 MISSILES Great for wiping out pockets of weak,…

ADS FOR LADS In the 1990s game ads were pitched at males, thankfully advertisers have now realised gaming is for everyone. WINDOWS 95 IS COOL, GOT IT? Get Windows 95 and game with attitude. They said. We'll give them a point for the boot pun, though. SQUATTER The famous Squatter ad ran for many months in PCPP. We hope you all bought a copy and still play it today. FUNNY OLD TECH Having a laugh at the clumsy old tech we used to use is de rigeuer in a magazine retrospective. MOD SQUAD PCPP was always big on personalising one's rig, and for a long time RGB was the exception not the rule. EDGY ADS Early game ads had a certain adolescent humour, and even the conservative EA didn't hold…

PREVIEW Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin NEED TO KNOW RELEASE November 17 DEVELOPER Frontier Developments PUBLISHER In-house LINK aosrealmsofruin.com In Shyish, the Realm of Death, Nagash the Great Necromancer moulds the souls of the deceased into his personal army. Cursed with new forms that reflect their mortal sins, he creates endless hosts of wailing, suffering spirits known as the Nighthaunt. And then he sends them all to capture my bloody control points. When this real-time strategy game set in the mythic fantasy world of Warhammer Age of Sigmar was announced, only two of the game's four factions were revealed: the shining warriors of the Stormcast Eternals, and the vicious, swamp-dwelling Orruk Kruleboyz. As I play through two of the game's campaign missions, I get to meet a third –…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE February 2024 DEVELOPER Blackbird Interactive PUBLISHER Gearbox Publishing LINK homeworlduniverse.com With Homeworld 3, Relic's classic space RTS looks set to join the pantheon of returning PC gaming gods. Blackbird Interactive (the new studio, helmed by many of the original Homeworld devs) invited me to test-drive War Games mode, one of its big new features: a roguelike-inspired PvE mode for strategists in a hurry. While no slouch as serious competitive games, the Homeworld series was always carried by its grandiose vibes, surprisingly powerful storytelling and spectacular, messy space battles. If that sounds even slightly intriguing, I recommend picking up the recent Remastered bundle of Homeworld 1 & 2, plus the GOG release of Homeworld: Emergence, the excellent but un-remastered middle game in the series. These are classic…

REVIEW Starfield In my first 90 hours of Starfield I walked on over 100 planets, docked with two dozen space stations, blew up more than 50 ships, and smuggled contraband human organs and illegal religious texts. Then immediately got arrested for smuggling contraband human organs and illegal religious texts. Whoops. The more I've played Starfield, the more I've liked it, and for the same reasons I enjoy Bethesda's other RPG sandboxes. It's got the fun collision between structured quests and unpredictable systems which create moments that feel more personal and memorable than many other games. It took me a while to get there. Starfield's introduction is unusually straightforward for a Bethesda RPG, and the first handful of places you visit, including the game's capital city of New Atlantis, are pretty dull.…

THE DRIP With their big fancy hats and bejewelled tunics, bards are undeniably the slickest looking heroes in all of Faerûn. THE INSTRUMENTS Your instrument can be used to perform flashy bardic magic, but you can also put on musical performances, netting you gold. THE PATTER As a bard you get lots of unique dialogue options that often veer into the cheeky, salacious and, quite often, hilarious. THE SKILLS Bards are masters of persuasion and deception, while their focus on charisma and dexterity makes them well-rounded adventurers.…

In En Garde! 17th century Spain is slathered with a sense of nostalgia. Not for the setting itself, of course – I'm not that old – although it is an enticing reimagining, with its piñata colour palette and kitsch flamenco soundtrack. Rather, because it reminds me of Asterix books, of Dogtanian cartoons, and black and white episodes of Zorro on Sunday mornings. Of simpler times, in other words, and simpler forms of entertainment. Playing this swashbuckling adventure, meanwhile, tickles a different memory gland. En Garde! is like the remaster of an early 2000s console effort that never existed, from a time when developers were figuring out how the scrolling beat-'em-up might evolve into three dimensions. Superficially, it bears a family resemblance to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, but…

HOW TO GET MORE FROM YOUR GAMES EXTRA LIFE HOW TO IGNORE THE META 1 As you'd expect from a game based on Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur's Gate III puts a lot of emphasis on roleplaying a character. While it might make the game a little harder, try not to min-max everything, and instead just lean into doing what you want. LOOT HERE 2 It might not be quite as immersive to take everything not nailed down and sell it to vendors, but it's a good way to get gold to help you buy items. Your characters all have a good carry capacity, and with four of them, that's a whole lot of loot you can lug around. SAVE YOURSELF 3 Traps and monsters wait around every corner in the Forgotten Realms, and…

HIGHS Most impressive Nightdive is remaking 1995's Star Wars: Dark Forces. Re-Deck Valve has once again done a Valve, and you can buy a refurbished Steam Deck. Black Isle's 25th Obsidian has been celebrating 25 years of its predecessor Black Isle, one of the greatest RPG studios. Salut, you beautiful bastards. R2 Much A streamer spent so many hours grinding for every skill point in Jedi Survivor's opening level that they just gave up. Red Dead Take-Two has re-released RDR1 on consoles without any enhancements, but no PC release. Don't tempt me reader Post Malone bought the Ring of Sauron Magic: The Gathering card valued at $2million. LOWS…

POTATO FLOWERS IN FULL BLOOM Three-character parties, complex multi-elevation dungeons and surprisingly tactical combat. INFINITE ADVENTURES This one's beefy: six-character parties, randomly generated maps and complex character progression. HEROES OF A BROKEN LAND 2 Still in Early Access. As well as Wiz-esque dungeoneering, there's a strategic town-building world map layer to master. STAR CRAWLERS Wizardry! In! Space! Four-character parties with much more intricate missions and combat.…

FOR THE LOVE OF THE BOX It's not merely my custom-made case that inspires envy from the folks I'll be shooting in Counter-Strike over the next 24 hours, surviving on a well-balanced diet of Red Bull and Skittles to stave off sleep. The top-tier components within, which I'm lucky enough to receive early thanks to my role as PC PowerPlay's hardware reviewer/ deputy editor, are enough to make any 486 DX-100 owner weep. Intel’ brand-new Pentium 4 2.53B resides in the hot-seat after wrestling AMD's mighty Athlon XP from its top spot as the gaming CPU of choice, its powerful single core purring along with a blazing 3GHz overclock, paired with a staggering 512MB of DDR SDRAM. If I inhale hard enough, I can still smell the freshly minted PCB…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE TBA DEVELOPER GSC Game World PUBLISHER In-house LINK shorturl.at/iqFT8 The demo starts, and my health is already draining. Welcome to STALKER 2, I guess. This Gamescom, for the first time, GSC Game World's long awaited sequel is available to play – albeit just the smallest possible slice. But while the demo may be only 15 minutes long, it manages to pack in all the grim, dystopian misery a STALKER fan could want. Case in point, my health. I'm unconscious in an irradiated field full of anomalies. But that isn't what's killing me off. No, my character finally opens his eyes, and I discover the culprit: a mutant dog that's been snacking on his leg. My character pulls out a gun. It jams. The dog lunges at…

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…

FALLOUT 3 You're literally born and then grow up in Vault 101. Best. Tutorial. Ever. 10/10 OBLIVION Meet Patrick Stewart, then flee assassins in the sewers under Imperial City. Fantastic. 9/10 FALLOUT 4 Your idyllic suburb gets nuked as you seek shelter in a Vault then get frozen for 210 years. 8/10 SKYRIM “You're finally awake” is iconic, but the dragon attack? Honestly a bit dull. 7/10 STARFIELD Find a weird space artefact, kill some space pirates, meet some nice space explorers. 6/10…

SPEAK WITH ANIMALS Some of Baldur's Gate III's funniest moments are down to its critters, but you'll never know without this brilliant spell. SPEAK WITH DEAD Corpses aren't nearly as fun as animals, but sometimes the dead will have information for you, especially if you're trying to solve their murder. DETECT THOUGHTS It's a bit rude to read someone's mind without permission, but you've got a world to save and no time for niceties. COUNTERSPELL Stop enemies from murdering you with magic by neutralising their spells. This can make some of the game's toughest battles a doddle. FIREBALL Sometimes you just want to set the world on fire. And if you do, then throwing around a few fireballs is how to do it. Seriously, they're deadly.…

ADALIA Our confident and cocky hero with unmatched fencing skills, a strong sense of what's right for her community and a reckless adventurer's will to match. ALEJANDRO Brother to Adalia, he fancies himself as a hero too, but lacks his sister's panache. Also bears a resemblance to the mysterious ‘El Vigilante’. COUNT DUKE The local authority whose hobbies include raising taxes and hatching schemes to make himself even richer at the expense of the poor. ZAIDA A famed outlaw who's after the count duke's fortune for her own purposes. Adalia is starstruck and enamoured by her presence, but should she be trusted?…

NOW PLAYING THE GAMES WE LOVE RIGHT NOW The drow raider lies mangled in a pool of his own blood, his limbs twisted and broken, the consequence of a bad end in a savage battle. Evidence as to why this drow, along with a pack of goblins, had attacked a coaching inn is sparse, and aside from the fact that a high-ranking official from the city of Baldur's Gate has been abducted from the inn, nothing else is known. It's a good job, then, that my party of adventurers in Baldur's Gate III currently includes not just one but two clerics, masters of support magic, religious studies and, as this is the glorious world of DnD, rituals that allow them to commune with the dead. And, let me tell you, Baldur's…