Home//PC Gamer/July 2024/In This Issue
PC Gamer|July 2024“WITH THE FINAL SHAPE, THE STORY THAT BEGAN A DECADE AGO IS ENDING”The original Destiny changed the online first-person shooter genre forever when it launched back in 2014, its combo of explosive FPS action with RPG and MMO elements proving massively successful and a model for many subsequent games. Now, with The Final Shape, the story that began a decade ago in Destiny is ending in Destiny 2’s latest – and potentially greatest – expansion. And, as you can discover in our world exclusive access cover feature, starting on page 40, it sure looks like the saga is going out on an epic high. Enjoy the issue! ROBERT JONES Twitter @rnicholasj This month Wore a medieval helmet around PC Gamer Towers while getting Murray The Demonic Talking Skull to announce him as Lord Robert Nicholas Jones, Master of the Pwn and Defender…1 min
PC Gamer|July 2024SHOOTING STARWhile studying illustration at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, Kaz Adams developed two passions; Second Life, and (self-taught) 3D modelling. They put their skills to use in Second Life projects, until eventually they “fell in love” with Warframe. What started as a game they adored, soon became a career. “I discovered that the [Digital Extremes] offices were a two hour drive from my parents’ house,” they explain. “So I moved back to Michigan and started putting all my eggs in one basket and just had to get hired here, because I was a big fan at the time. It was a dream job situation.” After a few years as a player, they landed that dream job, initially through consultancy work which led to a full-time staff position. When it…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024CROWN WARS: THE BLACK PRINCENEED TO KNOW RELEASEMay 2024 DEVELOPERArtefacts Studio PUBLISHERNacon LINK s.team/a/1658920 X .COM, but make it medieval. This could be Xth-century COM, except it’s set in the 1300s. Crown Wars takes tactical combat with a squad of distinctive characters, adds base-building in the form of an entire fortified village, and makes thoughtful additions to the formula that key in to its setting. A council meets, presumably in secret, but their security measures must be off as the castle is attacked and it’s left to a curious group of warriors, one wearing antlers, to hold back the encroaching enemy while the councillors burn documents. Luckily, it’s the tutorial, so heavily armoured lady knight Louise can make bloody one-hit kills with her warhammer while you get to grips with action points…3 min
PC Gamer|July 2024BEAUTIFUL LIGHTNEED TO KNOW RELEASE2025 DEVELOPERDeep Worlds SA PUBLISHERDeep Worlds SA LINK deepworlds.studio I t’s not hard to see Beautiful Light’s influences: the extraction shooter owes a debt to horror fan film SCP: Overlord, but in play the objective-based extraction shooter plays a little like Hunt: Showdown, as several teams compete to get their hands on an artefact and hoof it to extraction before you get mauled by the numerous mutants. This always starts with your team finding one of the laptops to generate your own keycard. Players can generate a keycard at any time, but it only works for them. Hacking is done in real-time on the actual computer screen and my teammates, devs from Beautiful Light creator Deep Worlds, tell me it’s based on a real programming language.…3 min
PC Gamer|July 2024SHAPE OF THINGS TO COMEI n early April, Bungie released a teaser video detailing some of the new features it had planned for Destiny 2’s sixth expansion, The Final Shape. The reaction from the community was immediate: “We’re so back!” Before that teaser, the mood around Destiny 2 was decidedly different. The game’s last expansion, Lightfall, was poorly received. As the penultimate release of Destiny’s first saga, its story felt like a sidequest – rushing through poorly explained plot threads that, outside of a couple of important cutscenes, felt inconsequential to the broader narrative. More damaging, arguably, was the way the sandbox had been changed. In an effort to bring challenge back to the game, Lightfall brought sweeping nerfs to weapon damage and ability uptime – players were being asked to put in more…16 min
PC Gamer|July 2024Broken dreamsI’ve got to say that I was markedly disappointed when this month’s review of Broken Roads came in. This is a game that I know many PC gamers have been looking forward to for a long time, with its unique Australian take on a Fallout-style post-apocalypse RPG really capturing the attention. So when I read the review to discover that it had serious shortcomings, my heart sank. As our review shows, it’s not awful, and it does offer strong writing along with a unique morality system that feels fresh, but these are not enough to make it an easy recomendation. Maybe with a few patches that can change. I feel it’s a reminder to try not to get too invested in games before they launch, no matter how much personal…1 min
PC Gamer|July 2024MEIER’S BASTARDISATIONNEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?A Civ-like with a new spin on nations victory conditions EXPECT TO PAY£35 DEVELOPERC Prompt Games PUBLISHERParadox Interactive REVIEWED ONIntel Core i7 9700K, 16GB RAM,Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti MULTIPLAYERYes LINK paradoxinteractive.com/games/millennia The thing about plagues is that they tend to catch everyone off guard. That was certainly the case when I triggered a plague age in Rome in the early common era. But since these undesirable ages are triggered by the accumulation of chaos and unrest in the first place, it wasn’t as though my Roman empire was in great shape before the coughing started. I’d been fighting off barbarians for so long, I inadvertently triggered a chaos event: a rebellion, spawning pikemen and cavalry beside every regional capital. Thus I had to commit…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024ALMOST INKREDIBLENEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?A turn-based roguelike from the creators of Monster Train EXPECT TO PAY£25 DEVELOPERShiny Shoe PUBLISHERShiny Shoe REVIEWED ONAMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon Graphics (ROG Ally) MULTIPLAYERYes LINK inkboundgame.com Turn-based Hades? Don’t recall wishing for that with my cursed monkey’s paw, but I’d trust the developers of the brilliant Monster Train with my first born. Inkbound never reaches those heights, but its best ideas have huge potential. It’s an isometric roguelike wherein battles start with enemies surrounding you and kindly telegraphing exactly how they’re going to attack. You’ve got a limited amount of movement and attack power each turn to deal as much damage as possible, build up enough shield to block incoming blows, or move out of the way so you avoid…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024TANKS FOR NOTHINGSand Land NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?Toriyama’s beautiful mechanical designs trapped inside a tired marketing exercise EXPECT TO PAY£50 DEVELOPERILCA, Inc PUBLISHERBandai Namco Entertainment Inc REVIEWED ONIntel Core i9-13900HX, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 MULTIPLAYERNo LINK en.bandainamcoent.eu/sand-land/sand-land What year is it? Because this action RPG feels like a return to the bad old days of forgotten adver-games, the sort of thing that included a bit of everything. At times it’ll force a platforming section on me, complete with bottomless pits to avoid. Or I’ll have to hit buttons at the right time like QTE-ruined cutscenes never went out of fashion, or grit my teeth through multiple stealth sections. Multiple stealth sections. Which is a pity because when I’m not gaming like it’s 1999 there’s a definite charm…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024KENWAY AHEADTHEY’RE BACK OLD GAMES REVISITED by Matthew Elliott NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?A sea shanty simulator that comes with an Assassin’s Creed game EXPECT TO PAY£34 DEVELOPERUbisoft Montreal PUBLISHERUbisoft REVIEWED ONIntel Core i7-7700, 16 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 MULTIPLAYERNo (it did have it, but the servers are gone) LINK s.team/a/242050 There are few things more dispiriting than reading a review in which the writer begins by proudly admitting they don’t especially like the series, or the genre. The result of this is that the writers who review big releases, such as Assassin’s Creed, are often already aware of the game’s systems, lore and setting. For the most part, it makes perfect sense. It would be insane to get someone who hates wrestling, for example,…3 min
PC Gamer|July 2024MICROPHONESCapturing great vocal audio from your PC used to be a bit of a teeth-clenching experience. Esoteric cables, strange terminology, and fiddly equipment once made the process a lot more difficult than it needed to be. Luckily, there are now many easy-to-use microphone solutions on the market at a range of price points, taking the stress out of capturing top-quality sound. Whether you’re looking to break out as the next streaming sensation, finally start that podcast, or simply want to improve the audio in your daily meetings, a good microphone will take your audio to the next level. However, with a wealth of options to choose from, finding the right mic for you can still be a bit of a conundrum. Here are six microphones that might fit the bill…7 min
PC Gamer|July 2024BUYER’S GUIDEKEY Budget build PC gaming is for everyone. Pick these parts if you want to build a new, well-rounded PC for a good price. Mid-range build You want to run every new game at 1080p 60fps. This recommended build will see you through. Advanced build You’re looking for the best PC on the market and superior components. But you still want to spend smart. BUDGET BUILD Enjoy 1080p gaming without breaking the bank MOTHERBOARD B660M Pro RS ASRock £112 This is as cheap as we want to go while still offering room for expansion and upgrades down the line. PROCESSOR Core i5 13400F Intel £190 Intel’s added four more cores to its entry-level Core i5 and it’s become even more fantastic value. GRAPHICS CARD Radeon RX 7600 AMD £252 You…5 min
PC Gamer|July 2024“They’re not just nailing the genre, they’re defining it”I t’s always fascinating when you get to watch a new game genre emerge and evolve – over my life in gaming I’ve gotten to see it with the MOBA, battle royale, tower defence and more. For the last few years, the defining example has been auto-shooters – a genre so new, in fact, that we’ve not even really settled on that name yet. What I’m talking about is Vampire Survivors-likes. The indie hit enjoyed huge success, and spawned countless imitators, thanks to the simple format, other developers have been able to put out their own spins on the genre in record time, giving it a kind of hyper-accelerated evolution. I could list great auto-shooters for days – favourites of mine include Renfield, and 20 Minutes Til Dawn – but…2 min
PC Gamer|July 2024SHAME OF SKYRIMMOD SPOTLIGHT Bandits. Vampires. Necromancers. Warlocks. Soldiers. In a game like Skyrim, the one thing they all have in common is that… they’re common. They’re so common they don’t even have names, unless a very cruel parent once looked down at the swaddled baby in their arms and named him Bandit Plunderer. In Skyrim, these random no-name entities are there to give the world a little filler, attack you on secluded paths, lie in wait inside crumbling towers and dank caverns, or make snide remarks as you stroll around a city. If you kill one, or a hundred, it’s not something you feel bad about. It’s not like these jerks have families, friends and elaborate stories. Right? Except now they do with a mod called Shame of Skyrim. Thanks to…5 min
PC Gamer|July 2024THE PCG INVESTIGATORIT’S ALL OVER... Right off the cuff, I didn t like the smell of the gig. After dark I was to head to Den-Den Town, the old electronics district, and meet a contact codenamed Jinx who had promised they could reveal why my client Elsa's ex-boyfriend, Billy, had been killed, strangled to death with the cord of his Razer Basilisk V3 gaming mouse. It was a pea-souper of a night, and wetter than a PC gamer s pants just after Nvidia releases its new flagship GPU. Den-Den Town was a shadow of its former glory, now just a two-bit neon strip of a place selling retro PC gaming hardware at sky-high prices. I shook my head in disgust as I walked past Retro Ron's RGB Emporium and saw an Nvidia…2 min
PC Gamer|July 2024The PC Gamer teamHARVEY RANDALL Twitter @HJRwithpen This month Fully succumbed to that most dangerous of time vampires, Balatro. He’s now 108 years old. ELIE GOULD Twitter @elie_gould This month Built a base between warring cannibal tribes in Sons of the Forest. What could go wrong? TYLER WILDE Twitter @tyler_wilde This month Rode around in a tank with his mates. Always sat shotgun as it’s way more fun. True story. CHRIS LIVINGSTON Twitter @_clivingston_ This month Murdered folk and read their private letters. Oh, and in Skyrim’s Shame of Skyrim mod he… PC Gamer (ISSN 1351-3540, USPS 24170), June issue 397, is published monthly with an extra issue in April by Future Publishing, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA. UK Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named World Container INC…1 min
PC Gamer|July 2024The SpyThe Spy undertakes every single mission with maximum commitment. In the same way a tired magazine editor attacks a pint of Guinness in PC Gamer Towers’ 24-hour bar after another squeaky-bum-time deadline, the mission is not just in the execution, such as drinking the creamy, delicious beverage, but thoroughly preparing in advance. From the research, involving deep contemplation as to which tipple to take on first, to the timing, which means deciding whether it is still too early to go to the pub, proper preparation prevents poor performance. Which is why when The Spy was tasked with infiltrating the inner workings of Todd Howard’s Fallout 5 development team, The Spy started to prepare thoroughly. After all, Todd and The Spy have a history, with each major Bethesda release seeing The…3 min
PC Gamer|July 2024Incoming1 month CROWN WARS: THE BLACK PRINCE RELEASE May 23, 2024 | DEVELOPER Artefacts Studio Medieval tactics and strategy in which you play the lord of your domain and fight to crush the malevolent plans of the evil Order in brutal turn-based combat. DESTINY 2: THE FINAL SHAPE RELEASE June 4, 2024 | DEVELOPER Bungie The Final Shape promises to carry gamers on an epic journey to end the War of Light and Darkness. It’s already looking better than Lightfall, so one to keep an eye on. ELDEN RING: SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE RELEASE June 20, 2024 | DEVELOPER FromSoftware Inc What’s looking like the biggest release of the year, the Elden Ring expansion appears to be a must-buy for fans. New enemies, weapons, bosses and more incoming. 3 months…2 min
PC Gamer|July 2024KVLTNEED TO KNOW RELEASETBA DEVELOPEREvil Guinea Pig PUBLISHEREvil Guinea Pig LINK evilguineapig.com P erhaps taking titular inspiration from Robert Eggars, KVLT has been kvltivated in a kvlture of grim first-person shooters filled with Nazis and cosmic horrors. In other words, PC gaming. It’s a beautiful day in 1945, and you are a horrible occultist. Time to start shooting things like it’s Wolfenstein all over again. It begins, as so many things do, in some tunnels. You’re presented with some backstory involving crystals, and read some notes the bad guys have helpfully left laying around that refer to mysterious creatures and disappearing comrades. Then you press forward looking for something to shoot. When you eventually meet them, the Nazis are kind of hilarious. Not only are they keen on sighting down…3 min
PC Gamer|July 2024JUMP SHIPNEED TO KNOW RELEASE2024 (Early Access) DEVELOPER Keepsake Games PUBLISHERKeepsake Games LINK jumpshipgame.com F ilip Coulianos’ first vision for Jump Ship was “the ultimate Han Solo and Chewbacca simulator”. The game has changed a lot since the first prototypes he made many years ago, but it still retains a lot of that core fantasy even in its very early current form. Let’s find out more. Jump Ship is being built by a small team of 12 people at Keepsake Games, a studio founded by five university friends who just happen to have worked across Stockholm’s biggest studios for the past ten or more years. With veterans who have made games at the likes of DICE, Mojang, Hazelight and Toca Boca this is as close to an all-star team as…7 min
PC Gamer|July 2024DIGGING INIt’s been over eight years since this little retro farming game graced our PCs and stole everyone’s hearts. The nostalgia of its pixelated looks and the simple appeal of building your own farm appealed to many, and helped usher in the era of ‘cosy’ games. With over 30 million copies of the game sold, Stardew Valley has cemented itself as one of the best games of all time, but how are things looking in 2024? We got the chance to speak with the game’s creator, Eric Barone (aka ‘ConcernedApe’) to talk about what it’s been like seeing the phenomenal growth of the game and take a look at all the changes Stardew has gone through since it first launched. We asked Barone what his proudest moment making the game is:…9 min
PC Gamer|July 2024This month’s bonzer reviewers…RICK LANE Specialist inBeing limey Currently playing Broken Roads This monthThrew a shrimp on the barbie and knocked back a few tinnies with a couple of Sheilas. PHIL IWANIUK Specialist inTactical disasters Currently playing Millennia This monthBroke down his neighbour’s garden into hexes and then slowly invaded them. KERRY BRUNSKILL Specialist inAnime nonsense Currently playing Sand Land This monthGuided a rag-tag bunch of stereotypes to save the Earth from clichéd bad guys. JOSH WOLENS Specialist inMany herrings Currently playing Harold Halibut This monthInsulted us with fish puns. What a total and utter bass-tard. See, squid-pro-quo, Josh. ABBIE STONE Specialist inDrilling furiously Currently playing Pepper Grinder This monthDrilled through the floor of PC Gamer Towers. Found five vortigaunts playing Texas hold ’em.…1 min
PC Gamer|July 2024SHAMAN YOUNEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?A Metroidvania based on African folklore, and the debut title from Surgent Studios, founded by actor Abubakar Salim EXPECT TO PAY£18 DEVELOPERSurgent Studios PUBLISHEREA REVIEWED ONIntel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 MULTIPLAYERNo LINK ea.com/en-au/games/tales-of-kenzera/zau Mythologies often paint the sun and the moon as complementary opposites, two sides of an enormous shiny coin, as it were. And rarely has this relationship been clearer than in Tales of Kenzera: Zau, inspired by the Bantu folklores of southern and central Africa, where solar heat and lunar cool together help you survive its Metroidvania challenges. In short, it’s the stuff legends are made of. Indeed, most of the freshness in Tales of Kenzera stems from its setting, given that African mythologies (ancient Egypt excepted) remain a…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024SUNDOWNERNEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?A sniping puzzle game in which you control a bullet with your mind EXPECT TO PAY£12.80 DEVELOPERRené Rother PUBLISHERDevolver Digital REVIEWED ONIntel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 MULTIPLAYERNo LINK devolverdigital.com/games/children-of-the-sun There are 11 cultists in front of me, and only one round in my sniper rifle. I don’t need any more to near-instantly clear out entire compounds in this game of supernatural executions and flawlessly executed plans. My primary plan – as an ex-cult-member out for revenge – is to kill scores of anonymous cultists across stark, grungy levels until I can finally take out their leader. All I need is my rifle, one bullet and my telekinetic powers. Planning is at the heart of Children of the Sun, as you scout…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024CRUST-ACE-EANNEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?Undersea action platformer with ace Soulslike combat EXPECT TO PAY£27 DEVELOPERAggro Crab PUBLISHERAggro Crab REVIEWED ONIntel Core i5 12500H, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 4060 MULTIPLAYERNo LINK aggrocrab.com/games The most fun I’ve had with a Soulslike since Elden Ring. The less self-serious take on the genre I wanted Lies of P to be. FromSoftware should just go ahead and cancel Shadow of the Erdtree… OK, now we’re moving from possible hyperbole to outright lies. But I honestly stand by the first two. Another Crab’s Treasure is a joke game that takes being a great Soulslike seriously. A charming, creative platformer with terrific combat and a good eye for both pretty scenery and silly sight gags. You’re a hermit crab called Krill who’s had his shell stolen…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024THE DESCENTFREE GAMES REVIEWS NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAYFree DEVELOPERSole Rift LINK bit.ly/Crawl I can think of few things worse than shuffling around in a cramped, pitch-black cave, which of course makes it the perfect setting for a horror game. Here you’re crawling, literally crawling on your belly around a dark, spooky cave with only a map, camera and wind-up torch. That last bit is not strictly true, as there are also creatures that regard you as dinner, but you can fend them off by stunning them with your old-fashioned camera. Every tool is wonderfully cumbersome: to use anything you have to twist around and pick it up off your jacket, meaning you can no longer see in front of you. It only takes a few seconds to wind up…1 min
PC Gamer|July 2024ZEESY LOVERTHEY’RE BACK NEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAY £14 DEVELOPERFailbetter Games PUBLISHERFailbetter Games I am a risk-averse gamer. This is not ideal for playing a game that requires you to sail into dark places and face unspeakable terrors. Even running your vessel at full power is risky: there’s a chance doing so will cause your engines to explode. Our journey across the Unterzee, then, will be a sedate one. Sunless Sea, quite deliberately, is not a game that inspires self-confidence. Even the loading screen explains that your captains will die. My collection of expired heroes is also something of a red flag, but there are benefits: I’ve inherited a comatose ferret from one of my predecessors, although the specifics are lost on me. I can’t remember who they were or…1 min
PC Gamer|July 2024DOUBLE TROUBLETECH REPORT “ This is the way the world ends”, wrote TS Eliot in his 1925 poem The Hollow Men. “Not with a bang but a whimper.” It’s hard to say if Eliot was writing directly about Nvidia and AMD’s support for multi-GPU setups or speaking more allegorically. Perhaps we’ll never know. What we can all roundly agree on is that Eliot lands on a truism when it comes to technology in general: there’s never an announcement. Yesterday’s Next Big Thing is instead quietly escorted out of the building and stuffed into a bin away from prying eyes. We didn’t get any press releases confirming the formal demise of 3D TVs in the mid-2010s, we’ll get no such PR when VR dies in 2030 (fight me), and neither SLI nor…5 min
PC Gamer|July 2024“Beggars can’t be choosers when you’re starving, cold and slowly dying”CONTINUED ADVENTURES IN GAMING I’m nothing if not a perfectionist: I travel for days in Minecraft to find the right spot to lay down foundations for a house, and figuring out where my base will stand in Subnautica is infinitely more stressful than dealing with the Ghost Leviathan. So when I crash-landed on the peninsula in Sons of the Forest with a few of my friends, I knew agreeing on somewhere to build our settlement would be tricky. There’s a lot to think about before picking a prime real estate location in a survival game. Are you close to water? Is there enough protection from the harsh environment? Where are the boundaries between warring cannibal tribes? You know, the usual big questions for first-time buyers. After weighing up all of…3 min
PC Gamer|July 2024“I’ve earned enough to buy myself a motorbike and a sentient aubergine”NOW PLAYING Now that all of the Endwalker patches have finished and Dawntrail is approaching, Final Fantasy XIV has entered its quiet season. With no new raids to chase or story to complete, it’s a time for catching up on things you might have missed or pausing and playing something else for a while. It may be quieter, but with that the game also feels more chill – there’s no expectations to rush through anything any more. The boom season is over and now it’s time to relax. And what better way to cure all the aches of a Warrior Of Light than to revisit your personal island and till the soil. Island Sanctuary is a casual content mode that first launched in patch 6.2 and sees you farming and…2 min
PC Gamer|July 2024GET STARTED IN DRAGON’S DOGMA 21 FACE IT When first loading up the game, take your time designing your Arisen. While there is a way to change your appearance once you arrive in the city of Vernworth, there’s no way to start a new game besides the process of finding and deleting your save. 2 VOCATIONAL Picking a vocation isn’t the be-all and end-all since you can change them at the Vocation Guild early on, and you’ll need to in order to complete certain quests. Both the Thief and Fighter are solid starting choices, with the former letting you catch enemies in a net. 3 PAWN BROKER Your next most important task is creating your main pawn. This trusty sidekick will be with you for the long haul, so choose their appearance well. Thankfully, you…3 min
PC Gamer|July 2024MULTI-SEAT VEHICLESWHY I LOVEWHAT MAKES GAMES SPECIAL This only occurred to me recently, but it’s been true for a long time: multi-seat vehicles are one of my absolute favourite videogame things. In Battlefield games, I’ll even jump into a vehicle when the only seat available is a passenger seat, just to look out the window. I just love to go for rides. I’m only talking about vehicles in multiplayer games. I get no special thrill out of NPC-piloted helicopters or on-rails tanks. The real-world version doesn’t really inspire delight in me, either. When my dad’s driving a car that I’m in, I don’t think, “Wow, so cool: dad is driving”. And on aeroplanes, I really try not to think much about the pilot. Better to leave some things a mystery. But…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUMREINSTALL NEED TO KNOW RELEASEAugust 23, 2016 PUBLISHERSquare Enix DEVELOPEREidos Montreal LINK eidosmontreal.com Chattering teeth. Laughing gas. And a homicidal clown pulling the strings in the backdrop. Batman: Arkham Asylum turns 15 this year and since its momentous release back in August 2009, the DC action-adventure has been looked upon as the de facto answer for what a modernised superhero videogame could be. And rightly so! After playing through the lacklustre Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, I felt what better time to go back to the original Arkhamverse outing to remind myself of the talent behind British developer Rocksteady. No battle pass. No currencies. No constant online connection. No live service elements in any way. Just a simple story about the Joker taking over an asylum, unleashing the…8 min
PC Gamer|July 2024WHAT A SCRUBNEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT If you’ve been watching the recent Fallout TV series, then you’ll understand just how much one of the protagonists, Lucy MacLean, has had to endure. But even after all her encounters with feral ghouls and wasteland monsters, it doesn’t seem as if she has much to show for her work. In response to a question about what level people thought Lucy was at by the end of the first season of the Fallout TV show, the gaming YouTube channel Many A True Nerd posted a theory thread on Twitter that laid out the most conclusive answer we’ve seen yet. The first task was to uncover what levelling system the TV show uses. It’s safe to say that the series would use Bethesda’s rules, which is…2 min
PC Gamer|July 2024WHALE OF A TALESpecial Report PCG INVESTIGATES NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT Harold Halibut has been gestating for a long time. When the project began, art director Ole Tillmann wasn’t married – indeed he wasn’t even dating his future wife – and definitely didn’t have a three-year-old daughter to bring to the office in Cologne as indie team Slow Bros put the finishing touches on their uniquely handmade game. “She recognises the models – she’ll come to the office and be like, ‘Oh, Harold’s here!’” Tillman says with a laugh. Across more than a decade of development Harold’s team has gained and lost a publisher, done side jobs to stay afloat, moulded dozens of models out of clay and wire and tiny hand-sewn clothes, constructed elaborate sets for a sprawling underwater habitat,…5 min
PC Gamer|July 2024NO REST FOR THE WICKEDNEED TO KNOW RELEASEOut now (Early Access) DEVELOPERMoon Studios GmbH PUBLISHERPrivate Division LINK shorturl.at/lnENU Let’s get this out of the way now: No Rest for the Wicked is absolutely not an action RPG in the style of Diablo. There is loot to find, yes, but it doesn’t transform you into an untouchable god. No Rest for the Wicked is a lot closer to a Soulslike with its weighty, punishing combat and labyrinthine world. But with its isometric camera and gear rarity, it’s also unlike most other games in the genre, and that’s exactly makes it so promising. No Rest for the Wicked, which comes from Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios (a developer I sincerely hope has cleaned up its act, lest it sour something great here) and…5 min
PC Gamer|July 2024V RISINGNEED TO KNOW RELEASEMay 8, 2024 DEVELOPERStunlock Studios PUBLISHERStunlock Studios LINK playvrising.com V Rising was something of a viral hit when it went into Early Access in 2022. All the biggest streamers were playing it, then it topped the Steam charts and was the hot game of the moment. Two years later, its Early Access journey is coming to an end, with big plans for the 1.0 release. At first glance, V Rising looks like an ARPG, with a camera view, HUD and gameplay similar to the likes of Diablo. But once you get past the first moments, it becomes clear this is not your typical ARPG, and is instead a survival crafting game in which you collect resources, build your castle and increase your power level before taking on…6 min
PC Gamer|July 2024BLOCKBUSTER INCNEED TO KNOW RELEASEJune 6 DEVELOPERSuper Sly Fox PUBLISHERAncient Forge LINK blockbusterincgame.com B ack in 2005 Lionhead Studios released The Movies, a game about running a movie studio that was pretty good, and received 86% from PC Gamer US. I mention it only because Blockbuster Inc (no relation to the venerable VHS rental chain) triggers a serious rush of nostalgia for Molyneux’s game. A ‘Prologue’ version of Blockbuster Inc is available on Steam, and drops you into the comfortable shoes of a movie studio head, tasked with making films, nurturing talent, winning awards and making money. It’s such a good fit for the tycoon/management game genre that it’s surprising that there have been so few imitators since 2005. The prologue starts in 1920 and ends in 1922, giving you remarkably…3 min
PC Gamer|July 2024HELL GOES GREENAsseto Corsa Competizione With over 20 kilometres of winding tarmac in the German mountains, the Nürburgring is the most loved, and feared, track in all of motorsport. However, digitally recreating this unique track has proven difficult for countless developers. Now, KUNOS Simulazioni thinks it has nailed it with the launch of the Nordschleife in Assetto Corsa Competizione. Since launching in 2018, the most requested addition to Assetto Corsa Competizione has been the iconic Nordschleife track. With the Nürburgring GP circuit, a shorter more traditional racetrack at the same location, already being in the game, many assumed that adding in the Nordschleife (‘north loop’) would be a natural next step. However, there was one sticking point; SRO, the real-life racing championship that ACC is a simulation of, didn’t race on the…7 min
PC Gamer|July 2024LOOSE MORALSNEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?Bite-sized post-apocalyptic CRPG with big ideas and bigger problems EXPECT TO PAY£29.50 DEVELOPERDrop Bear Bytes PUBLISHERVersus Evil REVIEWED ONAMD Ryzen 5 3600, 32GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 2080 Super MULTIPLAYERNo LINK brokenroadsgame.com The Kalgoorlie Silvers have received a tip. Some rabble-rousers are plotting unrest in a nearby apartment, and the authorities have ordered a raid. The plan is to bust down the door and secure the suspects by force, and while they don’t want to kill everyone, they expect two or three bodies at the least. Having been temporarily assigned to the squad, I propose a radical alternative. How about – and just hear me out on this – we try talking to them first? Squad leader Irma Wakefield arches an eyebrow, “Convince me,” she says.…8 min
PC Gamer|July 2024BORING PLATFORMERNEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?Hectic platformer where you travel via pneumatic drill EXPECT TO PAY£12.80 DEVELOPERAhr Ech PUBLISHERDevolver Digital REVIEWED ONAMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon Graphics (ROG Ally) STEAM DECK VERIFIEDYes MULTIPLAYERNo LINK peppergrindergame.com Poor Pepper. She’s the star of Devolver Digital’s new platformer, but she would be laughed off the stage at the Annual Platforming Protagonist Awards. Not that she’d have much luck leaving that stage unassisted. Pepper’s hobbled by a pathetic jump, a mediocre little hop that can barely get her a few feet off the ground. So it’s a stroke of good fortune that she’s rammed her arm into a drill attachment that can send her swimming through dirt, then use her momentum to burst out and fly through the air. Well, maybe…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024A HEROIC ENDEAVOURNEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?A throwback RPG from industry legends packed with over 100 recruitable heroes EXPECT TO PAY£50 DEVELOPERRabbit and Bear Studios PUBLISHER505 Games REVIEWED ONAMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G, 16G RAM, AMD Radeon Graphics MULTIPLAYERNo LINK shorturl.at/agmM4 Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has a lot weighing on its shoulders. The new turn-based RPG has to deliver to crowdfunding backers, fulfil its promise of being an ode to ’90s great Suikoden, and prove that its all-star creative team still have the stuff. That’s enough pressure for anyone, but recently it’s been further burdened by the death of its director Yosh*taka Murayama. It’s amazing, then, that I couldn’t feel an ounce of all that weight during my time playing, because Eiyuden Chronicle is as sturdy and vivacious an adventure as…8 min
PC Gamer|July 2024FISH TALENEED TO KNOW WHAT IS IT?A claymation-y narrative adventure set on a stranded spaceship. EXPECT TO PAY£29.50 DEVELOPERSlow Bros PUBLISHERSlow Bros REVIEWED ONAMD Ryzen 3700x, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 MULTIPLAYER No LINK slow-bros.com/harold-halibut Harold Halibut’s most enduring running gag is about a Turkish soap opera called Sonsuz Ask. Ardent fans will try to sell you on it – just wait for it to really pick up in season 22 – but the hard truth is that you’ll have to endure a lot of long, barren stretches before you get to the good stuff. Even in space, you probably have better things to do with your time. Harold Halibut has a lot in common with Sonsuz Ask. You are Harold, the unsophisticated, sincere and (literally) wide-eyed handyman aboard…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024FINGER FOODNEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAYFree DEVELOPERSpineless Studios LINK bit.ly/LimbFromLimb There’s a simple, repetitive card game at the heart of Limb From Limb, but as the name suggests, with a grisly flourish that adds a layer of queasy tension. Every time you draw the wrong card, your character chops off a finger. Lose all five from your left hand and you lose the match. It’s certainly an incentive not to draw the ‘death’ card – as you and your similarly chop-happy opponent take turns to flip over five cards from your decks – but in a game of random chance there isn’t much you can do to mitigate it. Items bought from the shop allow you to X-ray unflipped cards, regrow fingers or force your rival’s choices, but you still…1 min
PC Gamer|July 2024PACIFIC GRIMNEED TO KNOW EXPECT TO PAY £17 DEVELOPERSupermassive Games PUBLISHERBandai Namco Europe The next big thing in entertainment? Digital scent technology. Never mind VR or haptic feedback. The thing that will provide absolute immersion is being able to smell what you can see. It would also discourage anyone from purchasing Man of Medan, a game that probably smells like a morgue and a fish counter combined. Even if you could smell it, however, this would not be the most upsetting thing about Supermassive’s branching horror game. Instead, it would be the fact that Man of Medan’s swole of hot idiots are mostly exploring a haunted ship while barefoot. Anyone who’s ever squashed a slug while running to a downstairs toilet knows that true fear, apparently, comes from stepping on something…1 min
PC Gamer|July 2024WIN-CEPTIONCollecting old hardware isn’t just a hobby now. There’s an element of archivism to it; of gathering important historical documents that might otherwise end up in landfill. Image how many Voodoo 3s are out there in landfill right now, covered in nappies and Hello Fresh leftovers and being pecked at by seagulls. Imagine. Here’s the thing, though: it’s a faff, isn’t it? All the eBay alerts. All the postage fees. All the forum-trawling, the tracking down of ol’ manuals, the hoping and praying that various disparate beige parts will sing together in harmony rather than – more likely – start a small electrical fire. There’s an alternative to retro PC gaming the analogue way: just run a virtual machine inside your modern gaming rig. The benefits to this are numerous:…5 min
PC Gamer|July 2024“TorGal had died badly”CONTINUED ADVENTURES IN GAMING Lanterns flicker in the throne room’s now dark, gloomy and shadow-filled environs. Whatever former glory this grand reception room had is now long gone, with de’Arnise banners strewn across the dirty, blood-covered floors and a pungent smell of death emanating from a pile of burning troll corpses littered around its central throne. Slumped against it is former lord of the de’Arnise Hold, his corpse cold. Hero of the hour, Volin de Taranbrace, slowly draws her two-handed weapon, the lethal and magical Sword of Chaos, from the chest of the biggest troll of all, TorGal, who had died badly. There was never any place for troll filth within these walls, though, and Volin along with trusted companions Minsc, Jaheria, Yoshimo and now rightful heir to the Hold,…2 min
PC Gamer|July 2024GUILD WARS 2Last year, ArenaNet announced a new direction for Guild Wars 2. Smaller expansions, but released more frequently – each one rolling out in stages across the course of a year. Secrets of the Obscure, the fourth expansion, was the first to be released under this new structure. It came with two open world maps, a couple of new endgame strike missions and a handful of new features. It also came with a roadmap detailing the rest of the expansion, with a new part planned each quarterly update. In many ways then, we’re still only three quarters of the way through SotO’s launch. Still, I’ve seen enough of it now to get some sense of how well this new direction is working. Broadly, I’m optimistic about the current state of the…4 min
PC Gamer|July 2024HUNTING FOR GOLD IN WRESTLING EMPIRE PART 1DIARY A glance at the Steam reviews of Wrestling Empire gives you a sense of how weird it is. In my case, it starts even before the game begins. I try the training mode to get a sense of how the game plays: wrestling titles are often notoriously complex, and Wrestling Empire is especially esoteric and emergent. Now, it’s important you understand that this is the tutorial: literally the most staid, functional mode a game has. But, after less than a minute of sparring with my tutor, Coach Emerson, another wrestler charges in to join the fray. The invading superstar, Woodrow, insists that he “should be the main event at every event”, conveniently ignoring the fact that said event is taking place in an empty arena. What should have been…9 min
PC Gamer|July 2024MUST PLAYHARVEY RANDALL 2024 is a solid year for gaming already. As is my wont, though, I’ve been dabbling in titles from years present and past. Here are my recs! HELLDIVERS 2 gloryforsuperearth.com In case you’ve been living under a rock: Helldivers 2 is very good. It’s a landmark game for Arrowhead Studios, Helldivers 2 brings the first game’s isometric camera into third person – which was apparently enough to launch it into the stratosphere. Go kill some bugs. BALATRO playbalatro.com This time-vampire game has drained hours from basically everyone on the PC Gamer team – and for good reason. Balatro is a stellar deckbuilder – ramping up your points to smash the lights out of a blind is eternally satisfying, even when I’m cursed with a terrible luck. GRIM DAWN…2 min
