Innehållsförteckning för Issue 303 från PC Powerplay

People overestimate the importance of getting into things. “Oh, we ended up in the VIP lounge,” you humblebrag to your colleague, as they silently regret asking what you did over the weekend. “Oh, we’ve bought a timeshare in the Maldives,” you enthuse to your sister, her forced smile betraying her impatience with how irresponsible you’re being with your money. “Oh, there was a complex series of steam vents The Spy used to reach the underground volcano base,” The Spy tells The Spy’s handler, who stares forward impassively, never moving, never blinking, always listening. The Spy loves a good infiltration as much as the next person, but it’s only half the story. What if, after you’ve arrived, you really, really want to leave? The VIP lounge is loud and tacky. The…

First-person games tend to hand you a shotgun then send you off in search of someone to unload it into, so it’s a refreshing change to play a game in which the most dangerous thing you’ll be waving around is a cordless drill (and you’ll need some batteries for that too). Plane Accident is not a game about causing a jumbo jet to plummet from around 30,000ft, but instead casts you as an investigator, first on the scene following a crash and responsible for working out what happened using drones, email, and little flags that mark the location of debris. The tutorial mission is entirely set in a warehouse, with all the parts and items you’ll need in easy reach, but once you’ve sniffed out the reason this plane crashed…

SpellRogue is a roguelike that makes you feel like a genius. As you pick up spells you’ll start to create combinations that just feel too powerful and would surely have been nerfed if the developer had noticed. Then, after a while, you’ll realise this is exactly what they wanted you to do. Best described as Slay the Spire but with dice, SpellRogue is less about building a big deck of spells and more about making the most of your limited options. You’ll start out a run with three base spells and can add up to four more. You’ll have access to all seven spells every turn, but you will need to roll some dice and get some luck to use them. Some require specific numbers whereas others just require a…

HATCHING A PLAN 1 The trailer opens with a shot of a withered arm dangling from a cracked, round egg. This is Miquella’s cocoon. Found in Mohgwyn palace deep beneath Caelid, it’s through this cocoon players will access the Land of Shadow. ON THE TRAIL 2 This area with the graves was shown in the key art, with Miquella riding on horseback. The fact that the Tarnished rides through the same area demonstrates that players will quite literally be following Miquella’s trail. BOUGH TO YOUR MASTER 3 The tree looming over the Land of Shadow does not appear to be the Erdtree. Interestingly, Miquella’s Haligtree has a similar split trunk, although one of the splits is broken when the player visits the Haligtree in Elden Ring. The veils above the…

We don’t know about you, but we here spend far too much time behind the wheel of our cars. And not in a pleasurable way, but a ‘school runs and commuting’ type of way. And, worse, when we’re not driving we’re fixing up the car to keep it roadworthy for more driving. Thank goodness therefore that it’s easy to spend spare time getting behind the wheel of a virtual car… wait a minute… [checks notes] and also spend time fixing up the virtual car… [checks notes again] hey, are we sure this is right, guys? The thing is, though, as our Pacific Drive review shows, this is a fantastic game about fixing up, driving and making a personal bond with a car that’s loaded with character, in a game that’s…

SCOUT CAR HALF-LIFE 2 This dune buggy was one of the most memorable parts of Half-Life 2, carrying the player across beaches, coastal roads and dirt tracks in style. MAKO MASS EFFECT Yes, this six-wheeled tank-turned-utility vehicle handled like crap, but it sure made traversing alien worlds quicker and squishing enemies easy. MIGHTY FOOT DUKE NUKEM FOREVER The game it’s in is mostly memorable for the wrong reasons, but crushing aliens with Duke’s truck was plenty of fun.…

The appeal of Skull and Bones is laser focused. It’s about being on a boat. You have to want the fantasy of sailing big pirate boats and you need to not want much else for your time and money. You may come wanting to live the fantasy of being a ruthless waterborne pilferer, but to live that fantasy you first need to love sailing a boat in the direction of crafting materials. In Skull and Bones you’re allowed to get off your boat, but only to interact with vendors, mission-givers, mayhaps a buried treasure chest. In the vast island-dotted expanse of the Indian Ocean there are two major pirate settlements where blacksmiths, carpenters, refiners, and most contracts (missions) are doled out, both for the main quest and its endgame component.…

ORBITAL STRIKE A brute-force earth scorcher from above, useful for taking out buildings as well as hostiles. Can also be used to coat an area in smoke or toxic gas. EAGLE A jet fighter is always ready to perform a deadly fly-by, hammering the ground with bullets or bombs as it goes. Steer well clear as it approaches. AUTOMATED TURRET A great choice when you’re defending a position, thinning out crowds. It will only fire at enemies, but tough luck if you get in the way. MINES A pod scatters these around an area, and each one is visibly marked with a red light. That doesn’t mean you’ll always notice in the heat of battle, though. HEAVY WEAPONS From machine-guns to laser cannons and beyond, you’ll need these to back…

CRYSIS Imagine pressing a button in the graphics options and watching your framerate double. We’d have been able to play it. BOILING POINT The thing is, it wasn’t that bad. The pioneering shooter might actually have been playable, with AI’s help. GEOFF CRAMMOND'S GRAND PRIX 3 Trying to gain the upper hand over messrs Schumacher, Hakkinenn and Villeneuve at 10fps was not easy. METRO 2033 2010’s finest barely playable tech demo. The shooting was really meaty too, not that you could ever enjoy it at the time.…

AUSTRALIAN PC AWARDS And the winners are… The time has come for the big reveal – as we announce the 2024 winners across all categories of the Australian PC Awards! After exhaustive testing, comparisons, benchmarking and taking into account value, innovation, quality and features, we have our winners. Everything important that goes inside a PC, connects to a PC, or is important to the PC has been rated by the team of experts at PC PowerPlay, with help from our colleagues at APC, TechRadar and PC Gamer. If you’re looking for an upgrade – this is the list you want. And if you’re planning a complete new rig, well you can’t go wrong with choosing the gear here. Maybe you already run something we’ve awarded, in which case you are 100%…

MONITOR NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT Helldivers 2’s galactic war is much more than a mission selector. In a short time, players have become invested in the status of their favourite planets and reacted to gains and losses in a sector’s liberation. The simulated conflict has become an unexpected focal point of the Helldivers 2 experience. Unexpected to players, that is. To developer Arrowhead Game Studios, the war is a product of planning and storytelling by a specific behind-thescenes individual pulling the strings: what Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt described to PC PowerPlay as Helldivers 2’s ‘dungeon master’. “We have an actual person with the job title of game master,” Pilestedt told PC PowerPlay. His name is Joel, and he takes his job very seriously. “We have a lot of systems…

PREVIEW Manor Lords Ah, the life of a medieval central-European peasant. Untroubled by the taste of Doritos or the mental anguish over whether to buy a Steam Deck or not, their only cares in life were where their pigs had got to and the constant threat of dying in a thousand imaginatively grisly ways. No wonder they’re such great fodder for videogames. Manor Lords contains many such peasants, doing wholesome things such as ploughing with oxen and planing trees down into timber, but also features spearmen, disease and the leading cause of death among the common people of the time: lords of the manor. Despite its developer’s inspiration from actual historical events, Manor Lords isn’t set in any particular time period. And in contrast to a certain other game in this…

UNOBSTRUCTED EYEGLASSES No more choosing between a hat or some nice specs. Dawntrail is giving equippable glasses their own slot so you can both see and look stylish. TIME TO STRATEGISE Strategy Boards are coming to Dawntrail, offering a much nicer way to demonstrate mechanics and positionals. The UI is still in the works, but what we’ve seen looks like it’s gonna be helpful. MORE DYE SLOTS Take a dye slot, double it, and bam, you got two. Dawntrail will have two dye channels for a ton of its gear, letting you experiment with more colour schemes and create unique palettes. PIXEL FACELIFT Dawntrail will start to trickle in a larger graphical upgrade. Things like shadows and lighting will be given a nice revamp too, giving the decade-old MMO a…

CHRIS LIVINGSTON Specialist in Stroking camshafts Currently playing Pacific Drive This month Legally married a Buick Estate. We all went to the wedding. KERRY BRUNSKILL Specialist in Backflipping with guns Currently playing Tomb Raider This month Shot bats, lots of bats. Oh, and in Tomb Raider I-III she went and… SHAUN PRESCOTT Specialist in Pieces of eight Currently playing Skull & Bones This month Shopped for parrots on Tortuga. A pirate must have an on-trend feathered friend. JON BAILES Specialist in Mindless patriotism Currently playing Helldivers 2 This month Dispensed FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY muchly and with extreme prejudice. HEATHER NEWMAN Specialist in Midnight operations Currently playing Persona 3: Reload This month Spent far too long giving cutey Koromaru tickles behind the ears. Stayed up very late.…

RETURN TO MONKEY ISLAND Ron Gilbert’s return to the point-and-click series that made him famous is buckets of piratical fun. SEA OF THIEVES If sailing around an archipelago in search of treasure with your mates sounds good then this is the pirate life for you. SID MEIER'S PIRATES! If a slower paced, more strategic piratical life if what you crave then Sid’s got the goods. ASSASSIN'S CREED IV BLACK FLAG Took naval combat to a new, more exciting level. Stab and shoot your way to booty.…

Banishers imagines a world where the restless dead are a common occurrence, be they wisps, giant monsters or chatty ghosts bearing unfinished business. Much as you’d call a plumber to fix a leaky pipe, here you send for a Banisher to remove a troublesome spirit, either by hacking it to bits or peacefully ascending it to another plane of existence. They’re basically Witchers, but without the genetic experiments that leave them emotionally bereft. If anything, Banishers is a game that goes the other way, practically wallowing in the full emotional palette as you aid a landscape that has been torn apart by trauma. There’s the trauma of the resident ghosts – many of which are literal manifestations of anger or sorrow – but also the trauma of the two main…

The Pc 'Piratical Company' PowerPlay Code 1 No console gamer shall be allowed among the crew, upon pain of death. 2 No crewmember shall pc game for money upon the ship, only for bragging rights. 3 Each crewmember shall keep their mouse and keyboard clean and fit for service. 4 To desert the ship while pwning console gamers shall be punished with death. 5 Quarrels about who is most 1337 at cs2 shall be ended on shore. Gabe Newell adjudicates. 6 Successful raids shall see the XP and looted booty shared equally among the crewmembers. 7 No person shall talk of giving up PC gaming until at least 170,000 console gamers have been defeated. 8 Any crew found to have cheated at online gaming shall be marooned with a Tamagotchi…

HIGHS Share the love Larian won big at the DICE Awards, and used its speech to speak out against layoffs. Incognito mode Steam has launched a ‘Mark as Private’ function, letting you hide your more, ahem, delicate games. Space Quest NASA has released a tabletop game that asks: what if a dragon stole the Hubble Space Telescope? Low blow Unionised YouTube workers were told they’d been laid off in the middle of a live-broadcast Austin City Council meeting. Out of the game EA let go of five percent of its workforce in February. Cursed Tomb Tomb Raider I-III Remastered on the Epic Store was mysteriously better than every other version, until Aspyr yanked it offline. LOWS…

Dungeonborne came out of nowhere to be the surprise hit of Steam Next Fest. A medieval fantasy extraction dungeon crawler that is effectively Escape From Tarkov but with swords and skeletons, it is difficult not to love. It also isn’t difficult to figure out where its inspiration came from. You’d easily be forgiven for thinking you’ve seen Dungeonborne in action before. Despite only breaking cover as Steam Next Fest kicked off, it will feel instantly familiar to anyone who is aware of Dark and Darker, the similar game that blew up last year only to be bogged down by legal battles. From the setting to visual style and of course, the main gameplay loop, almost everything in Dungeonborne feels like it has been taken straight out of Dark and Darker…

RETURN TO IVALICE: STORMBLOOD These Final Fantasy XII-themed alliance raids are fun. Sure, one of the bosses tortures you with maths, but the fights and visuals are still unrivalled. SIGMASCAPE 4.0: STORMBLOOD Final Fantasy VI’s Kefka remains the coolest series villain, so it’s no surprise he makes an appearance. He even gets a rearranged version of his theme, Dancing Mad. BARBARICCIA: ENDWALKER One of the many FFIV references in Endwalker, Barbarricia has a fantastic modern design and a fun hair-filled and windy fight to go along with it. THE MANDERVILLE GOLD SAUCER: A REALM REBORN You can’t do Final Fantasy references without FFVII, and what better way to honour the game than with its giant casino complete with minigames?…

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…

Lara Croft may need no introduction, but her first three artefact-swiping, wildlife-bothering, lever-pulling adventures were in real danger of becoming exactly the sort of forgotten relics she hunts for. Tomb Raider I-III Remastered hauls this trio of excellent action-adventure-puzzle hybrids and their original expansions – foundational examples of a style of game we’re still enjoying today – back into action. This is the definitive version of these games, feeling both 25+ years old and also brand new at the same time. Tomb Raider I-III Remastered runs fantastically: whether played on PC or Steam Deck, it scales to whatever my current display’s maximum resolution is without effort or fuss. No matter how long I played or how many times I jumped between games, saves, or hardware, it never did anything other…

Before WASD and mouseaiming became the norm, there were all sorts of crazy control schemes for first-person games, and in that light Neural Parasite’s isn’t too bizarre. You move with your feet – by which I mean you click on a pair of on-screen feet, alternately, to make your character walk. So that’s left click to step forwards, or right click to step backwards, clicking the left shoe then the right, well, you get the idea. To turn around, you click the arrows at the edges of the screen – it’s as if keyboards were never invented. I’m struggling to imagine a worse control scheme for a firstperson shooter. Luckily, Neural Parasite isn’t an FPS. It’s a first-person survival horror, a genre where control awkwardness isn’t just expected, it’s almost…