PC Gamer (USA) - February 2016

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THE MARTIASURVIVING THE RED

PLANET IN TAKE ON MAR

DIARY

AND MORE!STAR WARS

BATTLEFRONT

STARCRAFT II:LEGACY OF THE VOID

CALL OF DUTY:

BLACK OPS 3

THE FINAL VERDICT ONTHE BIGGEST RPG OF

THE DECADE

OVERWATCHDOES BLIZZARD HAVE ANOTHERPHENOMENON ON ITS HANDS?

REVIEWS SPECIAL

THE

2015

GAME OF THE

YEAR AWARDS

From MGSV to Rocket League

Issue 275

FEBRUARY

2016







GOTY 2015There’s probably no better time to be onPC Gamer than during the Game OfThe Year Awards voting process. It’s acombination of mostly pleasant (butoccasionally furious) conversations

conducted through the medium ofSkype calls and Google docs, at the endof which we had our elite selection ofwinners and were ready to burn anintern in a giant wicker man made outof tightly woven DVI cables. Y’know, toensure 2016’s crop of games is just asstrong. Did your favorite make the cut?We await the emails typed in all caps.

T A L K T OP C G A M E R

Have your say!Tweet us

@PCGamer

T I M C L A R K

G L O B A L E D I T O R - IN - C H I E Ft i m . c l a r k @ f u t u r e n e t . c o m@ t i m o t h y d c l a r k

#275 FEBRUARY 2016

PC GAMER (ISSN 1080 -4471) is published 13 times a year, monthly plus Holiday issue following December issue by Future US, Inc., 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080. Phone: (650) 872-1642. Fax (650) 872-2207. Website: www.futureus.com. Periodicals postage paid in San Bruno, CAand at additional mailing ofces. Newsstand distribution is handled by CurtisCirculation Company. Basic subscription rates (12 issues) US: Digital $23.88; Print $19.95; Canada: Digital $23.88; Print $29.95; Intl: Digital $23.88; Print $39.95. Canadian and foreign orders must be prepaid, US funds only. Canadian priceincludes postage and GST #R128220688. PMA #40612608. Subscriptions do not include newsstand only specials. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to PC Gamer, PO Box 5852, Harlan, IA 51593-1352. Standard Mail Enclosure in the following edition: None. Ride-Along Enclosure in the following editions: None.Returns: Pitney Bowes, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2, Canada. Future US, Inc. also publishes Mac|Life, Maximum PC, and The Ofcial Xbox Magazine. Entire contents copyright 201 5, Future US, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. Future US, Inc. is not afliated with the companiesor products covered in PC Gamer. Reproduction on the Internet of the articles and pictures in this magazine is illegal without the prior written consent of PC Gamer. Products named in the pages of PC Gamer are trademarks of their respective companies. PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. We encourageyou to recycle this magazine, either through your usual household recyclable wastecollection service or at a recycling site.

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Global Editor-in-Chief Tim Clark

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Computer Large Pixel Collider

UK Editor Samuel Roberts

UK Production Editor Tony Ellis

PCG Pro Editor Chris Thursten

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Assistant Editor Tom Marks

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Dave James, Tom Senior, Andy Kelly, Phil Savage, James

Davenport, Elizabeth Elliott, Andi Hamilton, Angus Morrison,

Ben Griffin, Daniella Lucas, Tom Sykes, Ian Birnbaum

ART

Art Editor John Strike

Freelance Designers Matthew Lochrie, Andy McGregor, Fraser

McDermott

BUSINESSVice President, Sales Stacy Gaines, [email protected]

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Our team of writers

T Y L E R W I L D E

Twitter@tyler_wilde

Currently playingFallout 4

This monthThinks Fallout 4 is a greatgame but not necessarilya great RPG. Having avoiced hero can do that.

W E S F E N L O N

Twitter@wesleyfenlon

Currently playingUndertale

This monthFlew around the countryon various adventures,not entirely unlikeDon Draper.

C H R I S L I V I N G S T O N

Twitter@screencuisine

Currently playingAssassin’s CreedSyndicate

This monthHad more game of theyear suggestions thananyone. He plays a lot.

4 FEBRUARY 2016





Monitor10 THE TOP STORY

The nextDeus Ex slips to 2016.

12 THE SPYNewMass Effect rumors emerge

Previews14 Overwatch18 Dragon’s Dogma:

Dark Arisen26 Street Fighter V28 World of Warcraft: Legion

Features30 The Game of the YearAwards 2015The year’s best games decided, from

Rocket League toMGSV .

42 Build your own PCOur huge 10-page illustrated guidestarts here.

Reviews52 Fallout 458 Call of Duty: Black Ops 360 Star Wars Battlefront64 Warhammer:

End Times–Vermintide66 Anno 220568 Tales of Zestiria70 Kingdom72 StarCraft II:

Legacy of the Void

Extra Life76 NOW PLAYINGWhat we’ve been playing on PC.MostlyGTA V and Rocket League .

80 TOP 10 DOWNLOADSYour guide to the best free stuff youcan get on PC this month.

84DIARYAndy re-enacts The Martian.

Hardware88 GROUP TESTReviewed this issue: mice.

94 BUYER’S GUIDEThe best components you can buy.

R E V I E WContents #275F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6

30GAME OF THE

YEAR AWARDSThe year’s best games fromevery genre. Including sports.Car sports, anyway.

52FALLOUT 4REVIEWOur verdict on Bethesda’senormous RPG, which hasdivided audiences.

88GAMING MICETech expert Dave Jamesreviews a range of the latestgaming mice, to help youfigure out the one you reallyneed for your PC.

52

88THE

AWARDS

2015

OF THE YEA

RGAME

30

6 FEBRUARY 2016



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U S E R R E V I E W SPlaying Fallout 4 to

death. Definitely mygame of the year. It’sflaws are just abyproduct of itsdepth and

complexity.SimonIt’s going to be apretty one-sideduser review sectionthis month, isn’t it?

Fallout 4 , because Ideserve to be happy.Also Dota 2 , becauseI can’t be too happy.Sam HopkinsRegulating youremotions throughgaming is fine, Sam.

Fallout 4 for 105

hours. Also Dota 2 and Binding of IsaacAfterbirth , because Ilike being abused forsome reason.Andrew PrebleIt’s amazing youfound enough timebetween playingthose three to beable to tweet this.

I have been playingDownwell and i likehow satisfying it iseven for a 4-5 minutegaming experience.Leo LoikkanenThat’s a funny way ofspelling Fallout 4 .

I’m warming upwith Deus Ex: HumanRevolution only to behit by the news ofMankind Divided being delayed. Noregrets!Magued GhorabaOn the bright side,the delay meansyou’ll have enoughtime to squeeze in acouple more replays.

Fallout 3 , because Idon’t have Fallout 4 and didn’t want to beleft out.Sarah Wieringa

Fallout 3 didsomething

I’ve got a bone to pick with the writer

of your Fallout 3 Reinstall. In his

article, he wrote that Fallout New

Vegas was in many ways a superior

game. I couldn’t disagree more. It

may be true that New Vegas is more

streamlined and more polished, but

Fallout 3 did something that I’ve

never experienced before in a

videogame. It had so many elements

working in tandem to create a rich,

atmospheric world that made youcare about it. The quiet gloom of a

burnt-out suburb, telling the tale of

the shattered American dream.

Fallout 3 paints a vivid picture of

the horror of post-apocalyptic USA,

and adds just the right touch of

black, cynical humor to turn it into

a masterpiece. When I played New

Vegas , I couldn’t have been more

disappointed. It had more bells and

whistles, but none of that same

rich atmosphere.

Dylan Bremner

Well argued, Dylan. Although,

judging by the internet’s reaction toFallout 4 , it seems that New Vegas

still has plenty of fans. PCG

Over to youI’ve been a huge fan of PC Gamerever since Computer Gaming Worldshut down and my subscription gotkicked over to you, which is how yougot lucky enough to get the followingquestion. Now that Steam hassortable user reviews that let me findthe best games, why should I renew

my subscription next time around? Itwould spare me from The Spy’s inanegibberish each month, and the moneyI saved could be put towardsadditional games. Troy Williams

Steam user reviews are useful, but do

they detail their attempts to recreate

The Martian in Take On Mars , or

recount the time they drowned in

Grand Theft Auto V ? Put simply,

we’re not just about reviews and

inane gibberish. PCG

I’m going to pass As a huge Star Wars fan, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m goingto pass on buying Star Wars

Battlefront. I was so excited when thegame was announced, especiallysince I’m also a big Battlefield player.To have DICE build my dream gameseemed too good to be true.

Apparently it was, because from whatI can see they’ve stripped so muchcontent, even compared to past

Battlefront titles, that all you’re reallygetting is a very pretty sandbox ofStar Wars assets with no depth. It

just feels like they pulled gameplayout to either sell to us later as DLC,or to put back in later for the sequel.I just don’t feel right rewarding EAand DICE for giving us such ashallow game. Mark Scheierman

It’s a shame, isn’t it? One thing,

though: while Battlefront will have

DLC, it probably won’t add everything

we’d want. Its streamlining seems to

be an attempt at widespread

accessibility. The downside is a

shooter without any real depth, asAndy notes in our review. PCG

A blast to driveI can’t sufficiently express my joy anddelight to discover your recent,

beautiful write up for Mafia II . We’rein agreement: that game was sorelyunderrated. I’ve played through themain game and add-ons multipletimes. The cars were a blast to drive,and the music playlist is a classic.Thanks for the shout-out to one ofthe great open-world third-personshooters of recent times.

Ron Smulevici

You’re welcome, Ron. Fingers crossed

Mafia III will be a worthy sequel. PCG

W I N N E R !

Shut up, Andy, you’re wrong.

S H O O TL I K EC L I C K W A T C H F O L L O W S E N D

steamcommunity.com/groups/pcgamer

facebook.com/pcgamermagazine

pcgamer.com @pcgamerPC Gamer, Future US, Inc.1 Lombard Street, Suite 200, SanFrancisco, CA 94111 (650) 872-1642

[email protected]

youtube.com/user/pcgamer

SEND A free Steam key for the funniest or

most insightful letter every month

8 FEBRUARY 2016





Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has had its release datepushed back fromFebruary 2016 to August2016, which means that by

the time it finally appears almost exactlyfive years will have passed since therelease of Human Revolution. Whileexpressing confidence and pride in hisproject, Eidos Montreal’s David Anfossisaid “as we are now playing through thegame in full we can see that it will requiremore time in post-production for tuning,iterations and refinement to meet our

high standards.”

He goes on to apologize for the delay andfor disappointing players. On the one hand,

August feels like forever away, but on theother, I was enormously encouraged bywhat I read in Tom Senior’s cover featuretwo issues ago about how they’re building

on the previous game. The sequel to Human Revolution, I think, has the potential to beone of the great PC games of this age—andthere’s no shortage of things to play in themeantime. It joins Hitman and Mirror’s

Edge Catalyst in slipping gently down therelease schedule.

I’m actually pretty glad a bunch of gamesgot delayed in 2015. Imagine trying to fit in

XCOM 2 or Hitman around Metal Gear SolidV, The Witcher 3, Fallout and Star Wars

Battlefront—there would have beeneverything to play in December and not ahuge amount from January to August.

Samuel Roberts

“WE CAN SEE THAT ITWILL REQUIRE MORE TIME

IN POST-PRODUCTIONFOR TUNING”

DEUS EX SLIPSTO LATE 2016

Eidos Montreal’s sequel is now due five years after HUMAN REVOLUTION

T H E T O P S T O R Y

10 FEBRUARY 2016

T H E P C G A M E R V I E W O F T H E W O R L D

O P I N I O N T E C H G A M E S



SIT BETTER. WORK HARDER. GAME LONGER.IT BETTER. WORK HARDER. GAME LONGER.IT BETTER. WORK HARDER. GAME LONGER.IT BETTER. WORK HARDER. GAME LONGER.IT BETTER. WORK HARDER. GAME LONGER.

PCFEB2015CFEB2015CFEB2015CFEB2015CFEB2015

SE CODE FOR

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USE CODE FOR

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W W W D X R C E R C O MW W D X R C E R C O MW W D X R C E R C O MW W D X R C E R C O MW W D X R C E R C O M



SALTERNATIVELY, ITMEANS THAT MASS

EFFECT FANS READ TOOMUCH INTO EVERYTHING

2 FEBRUARY 2016

T

H

E

S

P

Y

W H O W A T C H E S T H E S P Y ?

O P I N I O N I G A M E S I T E C H

pace holds no interest for The Spy.The Earth is full of fascinating,mysterious and unbelievablethings—wireless electricity,Republican presidential candidatesand jean shorts, to name just three.Space, conversely, is pretty barren.It’s just immense balls of hot

plasma, floating rocks and laser-armed supervillain death fortresses.

But if three Star Wars filmsabout taxation, Gungansand midi-chlorians can’tpersuade fans that spaceis a deeply boring place,nothing will. And so itcomes as no surprise tolearn that the internet islosing its collective mindover BioWare’s muchanticipated Mass Effect:

Andromeda. Detailsremain sketchy, but it isknown that the game will feature anew protagonist, and a new regionof space—hence the title.

A new Mass Effect: Andromeda trailer was released for N7 day—orNovember 7th, as people who aren’tpart of Mass Effect fandom call it.The video features a montage ofreal-life space missions, as well asCGI

representations of planets and solarsystems. It’s narrated by JenniferHale, voice actor for the awkwardlynamed ‘FemShep’. An effective bitof fan service, then, but one thatcould also hide the announcementof Andromeda’s protagonist. Around48 seconds into the trailer, thecockpit of a spaceship can be seenas it reverses away from Earth. Inthat cockpit is a dogtag, which, if

you activate CSI’s zoom-and-enhance software, shows a name:‘Ryder’.

Fans speculate that Ryder is areference to Sally Ride, the first

American woman in space. If so, itwould fit. Mass Effect’s CommanderShepard was named after Alan

Shepard, the first American man inspace. Between the name’s probableinspiration and Hale’s voiceover, it

could be a sign that BioWare’smarketing will focus on a femalelead character—just as ManShepwas assumed to be the default leadfor the original trilogy. Alternatively,it means that Mass Effect fans readtoo much into everything, and that,next E3, the main character will be

revealed as smack-talking,quick-quipping space badass Captain JakeMurderstab.

BioWare has a goodrelationship with its fans,

but other studios are moreadversarial. Consider GTAV ’s publisher, Take-Two,who allegedly hiredprivate investigators totrack down the moddersresponsible for FiveM and GTA:MP—bothdesigned as mod-friendlyalternatives to Rockstar’sown GTA Online. Theclaims were made by FiveM creator ‘ntauthy’.

“I just got a pair of

PIs at my door claiming

to be sent by Take-Two,” the modderwrote on Reddit, “handing me aphone with a person somewhere inthe UK or US or whatever to‘discuss how to cease my activitieswith regard to GTA.’”

The GTA:MP team were morephilosophical. “Without [Take-Two]and Rockstar, we would not havethis beautiful game and theopportunities to open the game forplayers,” they posted on their site.Hopefully that was written of theirown free will, and not with a pair ofheavies standing by a computer,saying, “Nice CPU. It would be ashame if something happened to it.”

THE MANAGEMENT

Hopefully this doesn’t escalate. Ifother publishers get in on theaction, there’ll be a international PI

shortage. How will jiltedspouses settle divorcecases if privateinvestigators are too busychasing down the makersof Skyrim’s Thomas theTank Engine mod?

From one Take-Twofranchise to another,although BioShock’s PIsremain purely fictional.

Take-Two CEO StraussZelnick recently spoke at the MKMPartners Investor Day Conferenceabout the future of the series. “Thefranchise is in the hands of 2K,” hesaid. “They’ll make announcementsin due time about any upcomingreleases. But BioShock isunquestionably a permanentfranchise in our company and onewe believe in.”

Zelnick also teased Ken Levine’snew game. Levine, last seen closingIrrational after the completion of

BioShock Infinite’s DLC, is now

working on a new sci-fi project. “I’mnot going to steal Ken’s thunder,”Zelnick said, “but we’re thrilled to

be in business with Ken. What I cansay is you would expect that Kenwould work on something highlycreative and innovative. I think thatwould be a reasonable expectationfor whatever he does next.”

The Spy would hire some privateinvestigators to find out more, butthey’re all busy hunting themastermind behind Left 4 Dead 2’sTeletubbies mod. Spy out.

The Spy

The Spy knows

what you’ll donext summer.



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I’ve been on a journey with Blizzard’slatest. I’ve playedOverwatch at twodifferent events and for weeks as part ofthe closed beta. I’ve been in love with it,

been cross at it, had days when I’ve played nothingelse and others when I’ve declared myself donewith the entire thing.

Blizzard’s shooter sets its sights onmultiplayer’s toughest problems

O V E RW A T C H

IF YOU CAN PULL THAT OFF IT’S

AN AMAZING FEELING. IT’S

ALSO KIND OF A DICK MOVE

P L A Y E D

I T

unlike any other shooter class I’ve played.

She excels behind enemy lines, attacking

from one direction, rewinding back four

seconds, and then attacking from another,

convincing the enemy they’re facing

multiple different versions of the same

person. As Tracer, you don’t just need to

know where the enemy is, or where you’re

going—you need to remember where

you’vebeen , how and when to rewind to

catch a foe off-guard or snatch a freshly

spawned health kit.

It’s cerebral, challenging, and exciting,

and it sells this particular character.Tracer’s chirpy cod-Cockney accent

grates at first, but then you realize how

perfect it is that she’s kind of annoying—

because she’s incredibly annoying to fight.

My favorite thing to do in the game is dash

behind enemy lines, place her sticky

bomb on an entrenched defender, rewind,

face them and do her ‘salute’ emote just in

time for detonation. If you can pull that off

and be included in the ‘play of the game’ at

the end of the match, it’s an amazing

feeling. It’s also kind of a dick move.

TRICKY UNION

Overwatch ’s biggest issues, however,

come from this genre marriage. They’re

less to do with the game’s systems, which

are elegant and clever, and more to do

with the way these systems interact with

actual human beings. On one hand, you

have two types of game—objective-based

shooter and MOBA—that both create a lot

of interdependency between people. On

the other, these genres foster different

attitudes to that interdependency. In a

shooter, altering your loadout or class

mid-mission to suit the situation is normal

and accepted. In a MOBA, a character is

something you lock in and commit tomaster over the course of hundreds of

matches. Overwatch ’s problem is it’s very

much the former type of game, but it

looks like the latter.

Even in the limited player pool of the

closed beta, this can create some

agonizing situations: trying to push into

the last few inches of enemy territory

while half your team is determined to play

snipers and set up turrets, or trying to

hold ground with two Tracers and a couple

of Genjis (they added a cyborg ninja with a

sword. He’s popular. Go figure). Unless

you’re in a party with enough friends to

RELEASE

Spring 2016DEVELOPER

BlizzardPUBLISHER

In-houseLINK

www.battle.net

N E E D T O K N O W

I put this down to the game’s hybrid

nature. Most of its DNA comes from other

objective-based team shooters,

particularly Team Fortress 2 and Enemy

Territory (plus its descendants, Brink and

Dirty Bomb ). This is where you get the

linear attack-defense maps, the fourarchetypal character roles, the pushable

payloads and the capture points.

Conversely, Overwatch ’s character

and ability design draws heavily from the

MOBA—and I’m not just talking about

slow-recharging ultimate abilities. The

prominence of cooldown-restricted

movement powers, stuns and knockbacks

all come from this part of Overwatch ’s

heritage. As does the notion each

character you play isn’t just a class but a

hero —somebody with a name, a distinct

look, a personality and a backstory.

Much of what I love about Overwatch

comes from this successful synthesis.Take Tracer, for example. Her burst-fire

submachine guns are pure FPS, as is her

sticky-bomb ultimate, but her short-

range teleport and time-rewind power

have their roots in the MOBA. In

combination, this creates an

aggressive skirmisher who fights

14 FEBRUARY 2016

Overwatch

P R E V I EW


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“Eskim-owned!” I yelled,impressing everybody.

Mei’s ice wall haslots of applications.

This guy ruinsnew players.



“MEI REALLY SPEAKS TO ME

AND I THINK SHE’S ADORABLE

AND I WANT TO BE HER”

FEBRUARY 2016

Overwatch

P R E V I EW

have a majority influence on your team, it

sometimes feels like your enjoyment is at

the mercy of the matchmaking algorithm.

As the beta progresses, solving the

problem of player psychology will be

Blizzard’s biggest challenge—but it’s

something the team’s aware of. “Hero

switching is important to the game and we

want to make you feel OK about doing it,”

says lead designer Jeff Kaplan. “We want

to move away from things that just let you

lock in and do nothing but play one hero.”

My first fears for the game’s future

were compounded by the (widely held)

assumption that it would be free-to-play.

At BlizzCon, Blizzard announced that

Overwatch would be a full-price game,

and that its 21 current heroes would

amount to a fixed roster, at least for awhile. This should shunt public perception

of the game away from Dota territory and

back towards Team Fortress , and every

time Blizzard has discussed the business

model, it’s been linked to the importance

of encouraging character switching.

“Mei really speaks to me and I think

she’s adorable and I want to be her,”

Kaplan says, referring to the newly added

defence character Mei, a cheery Chinese

cryo-scientist who freezes foes and

creates ice walls to protect her allies. “We

didn’t want players stressing out about,

you know, ‘How do I get my hands on her?’‘What’s the unique formula that I need to

do to unlock her?’ We really want to

encourage hero switching as well, and we

felt in models that didn’t have all of the

heroes available to our players it became

very difficult to reinforce this concept of

fluidity in the team compositions.”

The developer has demonstrated a

willingness to change the game radically in

pursuit of this goal. Right before BlizzCon,

it stripped out Overwatch ’s progression

system—itself the second version of a

system that had been overhauled once

before. The first allowed you to level up

individual characters to customize theirabilities, and Kaplan describes it as “a

disastrous train wreck.” The most

recent allowed you to level up

individual heroes as in Heroes of

the Storm . “It encouraged the wrong

player behavior,” Kaplan says, citing

situations where players wouldn’t switch

character—even though it might win them

the game—because they’d prefer to earn

XP on their current hero. “We removed

that progression system, which was

pretty drastic for us,” Kaplan says. “We

have a new one—we hope it sees the light

of day in early 2016, but we have a lot of

work to do first.”

It’s encouraging Blizzard isn’t treating

player behavior as distinct from game

design, and that it’s willing to make

sweeping changes to Overwatch to

combat the fact a multiplayer game’s

biggest enemy is often that there are

multiple players . There’s a real gem of a

competitive shooter, here. It’s better and

more intelligent than the new Battlefront

in every way that matters, and it’s still in

beta—real beta, not a marketing exerciseDozens of hours in, I’m back in love

with it. With the full complement of 21

characters available, it feels intricately

balanced in a way it didn’t quite before.

Switching character mid-match to counte

an enemy composition is very satisfying,

and it feels like that sentiment is catching

on. You know you’re in for a good night

when your randomly assigned teammate

start tactically switching mid-match.

AT ITS BEST

Strategic teamplay here is just as

rewarding as being a lone gunman. Afterplaying as the archer Hanzo through a

fraught defensive round (they’re always

fraught), I like to switch to Brazilian DJ

Lucio for the attack. He’s fast, can wall-ru

using laser rollerskates, and his ultimate

drops the bass in the form of a team-

protecting shield. Even though his gun is

fiddly to use and his healing power is a

passive aura, it’s exciting to play him—

there’s a degree of speed and grace

required to keep him in the right position,

and profound satisfaction in blitzkrieging

the capture point with your team right

before dropping that ult in a way that lets

the enemy team know they’re simply notwelcome in their own territory any more.

That’s Overwatch at its best, and the

feeling that’ll ultimately (hopefully) justify

Blizzard’s decision to charge full price for

multiplayer-only game. Perhaps I’ll fall out

with the game again before then—as each

new wave of players joins the beta, more

one-sided games are inevitable. I’m now

confident, however, that Blizzard knows

what this game’s potential weaknesses

are—and that this beta represents an

earnest attempt to address them before

you’re asked to put your money down.

Chris Thursten



Pawns are essential. Don’ttry and go it alone.

Pawns grabenemies for you.

18 FEBRUARY 2016

Gamenamexxxx

P R E V I EW

It’s your destiny tovanquish this beast.



Yes, this is a fantasy RPG, full of beards,

wizards, jerkins, and goblins. But it’s by a

Japanese studio—led by Devil May Cry

director Hideaki Itsuno—and isn’t the

fusty old swords-and-elves games you

might be expecting. It takes hokeyWestern fantasy tropes and injects

them with humor, personality and

some clever game design. Dragon’s

Dogma was released three years ago

on consoles to great critical acclaim,

but it always felt like a game that belonged

on PC—and now, finally, it’s coming.

There are perks to being The Arisen,

including the ability to summon Pawns—

bodyguards who exist solely to aid you in

battle. Early on you create a main Pawn,

who’ll follow you throughout. I created a

mage called Queen to accompany my

tank-like fighter. She casts a spell in battle

that makes my sword burn with magicalfire and heals me. She’s awesome.

Other Pawns can journey with you too,

but only temporarily. You can create them

yourself, choose from a selection of

computer-generated Pawns, or—and

here’s the best bit—download them from

other players. Pawns who travel with you

gain knowledge of the places you visit and

importantly, monsters you defeat. So if

you kill a troll, anyone who downloads the

Pawns who helped you defeat it will have

its weakness revealed. But the more

experienced a Pawn is, the more

expensive it is to hire. It’s a unique system

And you’ll need help from Pawns,

because Dragon’s Dogma is tough.

There’s no indication if a part of the world

is beyond your current skills, giving the

game a genuine sense of danger and

adventure. You’ll enter a cave and get

wiped out in seconds by some unholymonster. But, later, you’ll come back with

Pawns who know its weakness and bette

abilities, and make short work of it. This

lack of hand-holding is reminiscent of Dar

Souls , but it’s not quite as punishing.

CLIMBING GAME

The combat also has echoes of Dark

Souls , emphasizing careful parrying and

blocking. But unique to Dragon’s Dogma

the ability to climb on large enemies. You

can shimmy up a troll’s leg and hack away

at its head as it tries to shake you off.

Pawns can grab smaller enemies and holthem, giving you a moment to attack

Battles are tactical and any attempts

to dumbly hack-and-slash your way

through the game will be met with a

swift, unceremonious death.

Japanese games often suffer from ba

PC ports, but the preview version of

Dragon’s Dogma I played boasts a broad

selection of graphics options, plays at a

steady 60fps, supports high resolutions,

and gets rid of the black bars that plagued

the console version. I noticed some

shadow glitches while using a lamp to ligh

dark areas, but hopefully these will be

fixed. I wouldn’t say it was a pretty gamebut the art and animation are so full of

character I don’t mind its low-poly models

and slightly blurry textures too much.

But while Dragon’s Dogma isn’t a visu

powerhouse, it is one of the most

imaginative action RPGs released in

recent years. The Pawn system is a strok

of genius, the combat is satisfying and

challenging, with a kinetic, weighty feel to

it, and a curiously Japanese sense of

humor runs throughout. It’s heartening to

see the game arrive on PC in such fine

shape. That dragon’s days are numbered

Andy Kelly

Adragon attacks your village and you bravely face it with a rusty sword. As you hack hopelessly at its legs, it plucksout your heart, tossing it into its mouth

before flying away. You lie dead on the beach—or soit seems. Waking up, you discover you’re The Arisen: a legendary warrior destined to drive the beast back to whence it came. Tough break.

A distinctly Japanese take on thehigh-fantasy RPG

D R A G O N ’ S D O G M A :D A R K A R I S E N

IT’S ONE OF THE MOST

IMAGINATIVE ACTION RPGS

RELEASED IN RECENT YEARS

RELEASE

January 2016DEVELOPER

CapcomPUBLISHER

In-houseLINK

www.dragonsdogma.com

N E E D T O K N O W

P L A Y E D

I T

Hardcore

Pawns.

FEBRUARY 2016 1

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen

P R E V I EW







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For the past year, Capcom has beendrip-feeding us information about thisupcoming installment in its franklylegendary fighting game series. With

fifteen of the sixteen launch characters now set instone and a worldwide release date of February 13,2016 on the horizon, it’s time to check in again withthe latest build of Street Fighter V .

skills to master. Two of the original ‘World

Warriors’ have recently joined the cast:

Russian wrestling beast Zangief and

tricky, fire-breathing Yoga master

Dhalsim, alongside new fighter Laura, the

Brazilian grappling ace.

Capcom has been keen to point out

that the ruthless timing of combos that

Street Fighter IV required has been

relaxed a bit—no more of those pesky ‘one

frame’ links. This means players are going

to be able to do some of the more

impressive stuff with a bit less practice,

ensuring that the real meat of the gamewon’t be endless, repetitive training mode

sessions, but more of the meta-Street

Fighter game. Namely, figuring out how to

fight specific characters with yours, and

what moves can be punished with your

special moves. This will allow players to

concentrate more on reacting to what

their opponent is doing, rather than

worrying whether or not they actually

have the ability to do what they want to do.

Another interesting aspect is the

Capcom Fighters Network, a madly in-

depth stat-tracking and social platform set

to be a big part of Capcom’s commitment

to the Street Fighter esports scene. You

can see stats detailing extremely specific

aspects of your game—such as how many

hadokens you do per match, or

something—and track other players,including those you deem your rivals.

Street Fighter V is going to be a fresh

start for experts and beginners alike, so it

makes sense that the barrier to entry has

been lowered. But Capcom has done so

without sacrificing the depth and balance

that has made the series the number one

fighting game for so long. Esports is such

a big deal now, there’s never been a better

time for a new Street Fighter—and it looks

like the original competitive scrapper is

going to take its place at the top of the

heap come release.

Andi Hamilton

THE RUTHLESS TIMINGOF COMBOS THATSFIV

REQUIRED HAS BEENRELAXED A BIT

P L A Y E D

I T

Oh, what a feeling, when you’reDhalsim on the ceiling

S T R E E TF I G H T E R V

One of the main decisions made during

development was that every character

had to be unique to play—no more Ryu/

Ken quasi-palette switches this time

around. Leaving out popular characters

such as Guile and Akuma for series ‘deep

cuts’ like Karin and R. Mika has made for a

much more varied roster, where each

character stands out with their own

unique pros and cons. Hell, even Ken—

forever a slightly different version of

Ryu—has been given a complete overhaul.

He’s now an entirely new character to play,

requiring a completely different set of

26 FEBRUARY 2016

Gamenamexxxx

P R E V I EW

RELEASE

February 13, 2016DEVELOPER

CapcomPUBLISHER

In-houseLINK

capcom-unity.com

N E E D T O K N O W

Laura squares offagainst Alpha 3’s Karin.



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Warcraft has changed. The twists andturns of the Warcraft story have takenthe heroes of Azeroth to some strangeplaces, and pitted them against threats

barely hinted at in those three original strategygames. As someone who hasn’t played WoW seriously since Cataclysm, it’s clear to me that I’ll

never catch up with it all.

old arch-enemy Gul’dan, but through him

the Burning Legion—the ultimate threat

encountered at the end of Warcraft III —

and Illidan Stormrage, the fan-favorite

elven anti-hero famous for insisting, in the

strongest terms, that you’re not prepared.

I played through the starting

experience for Legion ’s new player class,

the Demon Hunter—essentially a great big

collective act of Illidan cosplay. Your new

character even begins life as the

commander of the Illidari, a cross-faction

squad of brooding elves who like Illidan so

much they named their club after him. I’dhave gone with ‘Illi-fans’, myself.

Kicking off at level 98, you’re a melee

damage-dealer with powerful ranged

magic damage potential embroiled in a

war against the Burning Legion in an

extra-dimensional demon realm with

strong Diablo overtones. Demon Hunters

can sprout wings to glide after a jump,

dash to cross gaps and deal damage, and

place heavy emphasis on massive critical

hits—landing one discounts the resource

cost of your most potent damage ability.

Just in time to deal the killing blow to

the Legion’s leadership, you’re given your

metamorphosis power. This lets you leap

into the air and smash back down to earth

as a smouldering, super-powered demon

elf. By the time I reached the boss, I was

accompanied by a mob of fellow Illi-fans.The sight of us all transforming was cool

and silly all at once: a dilution of one of the

series’ iconic images, in one way, but also

a treat precision-tooled to please fans.

That’s Legion as a whole, as I see it:

indulgent but not unwelcome. It’s rare for

any game series, let alone a single game,

to reach WoW ’s fine old age. It’s earned a

victory lap or two. Legion could amount to

a best of both worlds: a way to draw back

former fans with nostalgia, while finally

giving those dedicated lifers the toys

they’ve wanted to play with for a decade.

Chris Thursten

LEGION COULD

FINALLY GIVE THOSE

DEDICATED LIFERS THE

TOYS THEY’VE WANTED

P L A Y E D

I T

Join the Illidan fanclub in

Azeroth’s latest adventure

W O R L D O FW A R C R A F T :

L E G I O N

This latest expansion, Legion , promises a

different type of change. There’s a faint air

of ‘reboot’ surrounding Warcraft in

general at the moment, from the

upcoming Duncan Jones movie retelling

the story of the very first game to this

latest turn for WoW , which marches the

story forwards and backwards at the

same time. Forwards because this is very

much a successor to Warlords of Draenor

and kicks off where that expansion ended.

Backwards because it uses Warlords ’

time-travel conceit to not only bring back

28 FEBRUARY 2016

Gamenamexxxx

P R E V I EW

RELEASE

September 2016DEVELOPER

BlizzardPUBLISHER

In-houseLINK

www.battle.net

N E E D T O K N O W

There’s little that’s foreignabout this Legion .



Youressential guide to

competitive gaming

www.pcgamer.com / proG E T S TA R T E D AT

L A U N C H P A R T N E R S

EVENTS

DON’T MISS A SINGLE AMAZING MOMENT

PEOPLE

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UP YOUR GAME



Awards 2015

T H E G A M E O F T H E Y E A R

t’s been an extraordinary year for PC games—particularly for giant-scalegames from big publishers, but for every other size of developer as well.Here we’ve selected the year’s best, and as we do every year, we’ve chosenaward titles to suit the games rather than the other way around. We hope

you enjoyed PC gaming in 2015 as much as we did.

THE

AWARDS

2015

OF THE YEAR

GAME

It was probably PC gaming’s best year in

a decade. Here, we celebrate 2015’sgreatest games.

i



D 4 : D A R KD R E A M SD O N ’ T D I E

D4 was the first gameto give me Firefly-stylecancellationheartbreak. It’s athree-episode arc offun QTE murdermystery withentertainingcharacters that justends, with no hint of

resolution. Like DeadlyPremonition , it’s prettyoffbeat, but focuses onstory, densely packedinteractive settingsand its charming cast,and is a better gamefor it. It’s reminiscentof Telltale’s work, but Idon’t think any part ofit could be replicatedby another developer.

Samuel Roberts

P E R S O N A L P I C K

G U I L D W A R S 2 :H E A R T O FT H O R N S

Guild Wars 2 is myfavorite MMO, butHeart of Thorns ’success goes deeperthan providing more of

it. It restructures thegame in clever ways,and provides systemsof progression thataren’t tied to levels orloot. It also doublesdown on the effortlessevent system thatrewards ad-hoccooperation betweenplayers. Each new maphas its own meta-event, funnelingplayers towards huge,shared challenges. Itfeels like what anMMORPG ought to be.

Phil Savage


FEBRUARY 2016 3

Awards 201

T H E G A M E O F T H E Y E A

F A L L O U T 4Phil: Fallout 4 is a comfortable gameto play. It’s the logical next step forBethesda’s distinct brand of

RPG—better in myriad ways, but similar

enough that you can instantly get down tothe business of shooting, looting andexploring. Some of the RPG elements have

been dialed back, but what remains is a deft,enjoyable shooter with an amazing degreeof combat customization.

Beyond that, Fallout 4’s greatachievement is The Commonwealth. Ienjoyed the Capital Wasteland of Fallout 3,

but, outside of Washington itself, never hada sense of it as a specific place. Boston iswrit large throughout TheCommonwealth—a dense urbanenvironment that takes center stage, and ispacked full of detail. On the macro level it

looks stunning, even while the small-scalegraphical fidelity isn’t anything to getexcited about. It’s a world that begs to bediscovered, and it’s easy to lose hours doing

just that.Chris L: The best stories in games aren’t theones developers tell players, they’re the onesplayers tell themselves and each other.Bethesda RPGs have always given playersample room to ignore the official narrativeand create their own characters, histories,motivations and stories, and Fallout 4 is noexception. When you step out of Vault 111

you’ll find plenty of stories waiting for your

attention, but not begging for it, leaving you

free to come up with your own. Be a hero, ascoundrel, a collector, a craftsman, theleader of a settlement, or just a lone wander.Conquer the wasteland in power armor,

sneakily pickpocket every person you meet,or try to get by on charisma and luck. Or,simply build a house and see if you can fill itwith melons. Other games may have biggerand more beautiful worlds, but none are sofilled with possibilities.Samuel: There’s a tension to exploring

Fallout 4’s environment that is entirelyunique to Bethesda’s 3D interpretation ofthis series. It’s the fear and excitement ofthe unknown, of picking through the wastesand seeing what remains of a land oncedominated by mankind. I’ll admit that I wasa bit disappointed by the downtown part ofBoston , with its fairly blank streets, but it’s

in the outskirts of the city—containingminiature settlements, curious structures inthe distance and unsettling remnants of anatural landscape—that the seven-year leapover Fallout 3 is most keenly felt. I love howmessed up the creature designs are now,too—walking through an abandonedsupermarket is suddenly as jumpy andenjoyable as playing Left 4 Dead .Chris T: A slow start almost put me off, butsettlement-building is the best new featurein a Bethesda RPG in years. TheCommonwealth is an evocative place, mademoreso by the sense that parts of it are truly

and uniquely mine.

W H A T W E S A I D

OUR VERDICT

A brilliant and massivesandbox, albeit largely the

same one that Bethesda hasbeen making for years.

SCORE

88%

TH E

AWARD

2015

SETTING

BEST



U N D E R T A L E

You don’t have to killanyone in this low-fiadventure into therealm of the monsters,but you can. If that’s all you know about itgoing in, I’d suggestkeeping it that way:Undertale delights insurprising you. It’sheartfelt, clever, andfunny—though oftennot nearly as cheerful

is it seems—and playswith the RPG genre inwonderfully deviousways, taking the littlethings you do moreseriously than youknow. The writing issharp, the charactersimaginative, and themusic will fill you with asense of realdetermination.

TylerWilde


G A L A K - Z

If the developers of’90s space shooterssuch as R-Type andGradius had been ableto code complexphysics and AI, theywould’ve made

something pretty closetoGalak-Z . I love theballetic dance betweenfiring and dodgingusing forward, reverse,and side thrusters. Afew seconds of sloppyplay can wipe you out,but weaving through acloud of enemy lasersis hugely satisfying.Leading hungry spacebugs into a patrol ofpirates and watchingthe AI tear itself apartis one of my favoritegaming experiencesthis year.

Wes Fenlon


32 FEBRUARY 2016

Awards 2015


H E R S T O R Y Samuel: This is a terrific detectivegame with a neat format that allowsplayers to actually solve the mystery

themselves, by questioning a woman about a

possible murder. Like many people, I playedthis in one intense evening, and feeling thepieces of the story slotting into place basedon my own intuition was so rewarding. Theentire mystery rests on actor Viva Seifert’sability to bring the ‘her’ in question to life,and she gives a performance that is morethan a little unsettling, so much so that

you’re not sure where the truth begins andends until you’ve trawled through every last

VHS in search of answers. The worst feelingis walking away from Her Story andrealizing that it’ll be years before anyonemakes a mystery game this good again.Andy: Her Story is a rare example of a

detective game that makes you feel like adetective. Digging through those old VHStapes, piecing the story together, it felt like Iwas uncovering a genuine mystery. Eventhough your path through the story isnonlinear, determined by the search terms

you use, it feels almost like it’s scripted.There were twists, revelations, and shockingmoments—and they were all unique to me.

A brilliantly creative form of interactivestorytelling that wouldn’t be possible in anyother medium.Chris T: This is such a staggeringlyambitious game, but so simple. It’s a puzzle

game about your ability to intuit deeper

meaning from ambiguous and seeminglyinnocuous statements, with a bulletproofscript that manages to be both natural-sounding and invested with meaning. It

then, bravely, hangs the entire game off asingle actor’s performance. It might haveworked—and been easier to achieve—as atext adventure, but Viva Seifert’s work hereis what makes Her Story so powerful. It’sintimate, personal, and deeply human in theway only real footage of a real person can

be. It would’ve been so easy to get wrong, but Barlow and Seifert got it so, so right.Chris L: This is the first time I’ve ever foundmyself wishing a game was episodic. If therewas a new chapter of Her Story everymonth, I’d be in heaven. The story had somestumbles but the format was perfect.Phil: By delivering the story in short,

nonlinear clips, Her Story seeds itsrevelations in a fascinating way. At first, Iwas writing down the names and placesreferenced; building a list of search terms topoke and prod at. Then I hit upon a termthat jumped me to the end of theinterview—Seifert’s character actingcompletely differently, hinting at things Ididn’t have the context to understand. Thestory morphed into something much darker.

Her Story isn’t just a game about uncoveringa mystery, but also about piecing thatmystery together in your own mind. It truststhe player’s intelligence in a way few games

are prepared to do.

W H A T W E S A I D

OUR VERDICT

An atmospheric, captivatingcrime thriller with aninteractive story that

unravels differently forevery player.

SCORE

90%

TH E

AWARD

2015

ORIGINAL

MOST



Awards 201

F E A T U R

C I T I E S : S K Y L I N E SChris L: 2013’s SimCity was an uglyexercise in what not to do. Withonline-only play, strict limits on city

size, and no mod support, EA frustrated andangered fans of the city building genre.Thankfully, the tiny Finnish developmentteam of Colossal Order stepped in to carrythe torch while deftly avoiding all of EA’s

blunders. Offline play means no worryingabout servers or connections, yet there’s stilla communal feel to Skylines thanks toextensive mod and asset support, whichmeans players can easily download thecustom creations of others (now exceeding60,000 in number), including a mod thatexpands the already large buildable area. Infact, there’s even a mod in the works for

multiplayer support! See, we like online play,when it’s optional.Colossal Order also listened to player

feedback, later adding a much-missed day/ night cycle (alongside paid DLC) and theability to tunnel underground. Mostimportantly, Skylines understands what stillseems to elude some publishers: modsupport is healthy for both sides of theequation. It extends the lifespan of thegame, keeps people talking about it monthsafter release, can increase sales, and letsplayers fix problems, tweak it to their liking,and contribute and share their own workand creativity with others.Tyler: I spoke to Cities: Skylines leaddesigner Karoliina Korppoo earlier this year,

and she told me that the development teamuses popular mods as inspiration for officialupdates. What a lovely, symbiotic

relationship: modders make the game morefun for everyone, and Colossal Order candirect its update efforts toward the mostdesired changes and additions by taking thafeedback onboard.

The whole thing—the game, the mods,Colossal Order’s patches and After Dark add-on—is about as PC gaming as you canget. On an open platform, no one has tosettle. If we want to add something to agame, we mod it in. If we think it wouldlook nice with a bluish tint, we inject one.

And if it just isn’t the game we want (andlaunches about as well as my first Kerbal

Space Program rocket), a small developersteps in and makes the game they wanted toplay. If there’s passion for something, it’llfind its way to the PC, the way Xenonauts recalled classic X-Com, Black Mesa broughtus back to Half-Life 1, and Cities: Skylines gave us a city simulator without overzealouonline aspirations.

And aside from how well Cities hasserved a community hungry for a better city

builder, it’s just a good game. It’s notespecially challenging—you might try Prison

Architect for that—but it’s full of little detailto manage and soothes me into a creativerhythm of balancing and designing and

building that can last hours. It’s exactly thefeeling I want from a city builder.

W H A T W E S A I D

OUR VERDICT

A handful of flaws, but thisfun and addictive

city-builder still climbs high.

SCORE

86%

THE

AWARD

2015

CHAMPION

COMMUNIT Y



Awards 2015

F E A T U R E

K E R B A L S P A C E P R O G R A MPhil: Part physics sandbox; partmanagement sim; part soaring loveletter to one of humanity’s greatest

achievements. In Kerbal Space Program, youbuild rockets and send little greenastronauts into space. That’s the aim, butKerbal makes you work for it. Theunderlying game design is based on thereal-world principles of gravity, mass andthrust. It’s ridiculously complex if you’retargeting peak efficiency, but, as it turns out,you can simply brute force a solution byadding more rockets. Kerbal’s great trick isthat it’s an educational game that doesn’texplain anything. You learn by doing,building a working knowledge of itssystems—and thus, the actual, real-world

considerations required to send things intospace—over countless hours of entertainingfailure, revision and success. It’s fun towatch your craft buckle and collapse duringa maiden voyage, and it arms you with theknowledge necessary to go back to thedrawing board and try again.

If we gave awards to early access games,KSP could’ve been a contender over any ofthe past few years. It started well, and onlygrew better with subsequent patches. Now,despite technically having been released thisyear, it enjoys the benefit of years ofcommunity feedback, iterated features, andan enormous number of mods. It’s a massive

physics playground that the developer andcommunity continue to fill with new toys.

Tom S: A brilliant sandbox game thatsimulates one of the most excitingendeavors humans have attempted. Kerbal

captures the technicalities of spaceflight ona micro and a macro level. Trajectories must

be planned with fine precision. Vehiclesmust be launched and combined in orbitwith tremendous finesse, but once you’venailed the micro stuff, you get to sit backand watch your Kerbals cross vast distances,slingshotting themselves around planets toreach faraway moons. When a mission’sgoing well Kerbal evokes the awe of spacetravel, but it’s funny too. When a spacewalkgoes wrong and a Kerbal drifts off into thedark, the horror is softened by the stupidexpression on its little green face.

I love watching the missions and buildsthat have been put together by much betterplayers than I. Some have painstakinglyrecreated real rockets from the space race.Others have created extraordinary launchsequences and docking procedures. Oneplayer made a giant robot that would catchrockets as they launched and turn themupside down, sending them nose-first intothe dirt. Why? Because you can. That’s thesort of freedom the very best sims allow.

As Phil mentioned, it’s a great platform,too. Buy the game once and you get accessto years of support and new features frommodders and fans who want Kerbal to

become more than a space sim. It’s huge,and it’s only going to get bigger.

W H A T W E S A I D

OUR VERDICT

A perfect blend of scienceand slapstick, and a robustand compelling sandbox of

possibility. Simplyoutstanding.

SCORE

96%

TH E

AWARD

2015

SIMULATION

BEST



H O M E W O R L DR E M A S T E R E D

Old games with nodigital edition riskbeing lost to history ascopies dwindle andeBay prices soar.Homeworld was simplytoo good to die.Gearbox took Relic’sclassic space RTSgames, buffed them upfor modern PCs andre-released them. Theystill hold upwonderfully. They’rebeautiful, challengingstrategy games thattell a surprisinglyaffecting space operatale. Everyone shouldbe able to enjoy thesight of the mothershipdrifting throughnebulae as Adagio ForStrings plays.

Tom

Senior


L I F E I SS T R A N G E

Like its teenageprotagonists, thisgame can be awkwardand doesn’t always geteverything right. It’s anadventure game about

a highschooler, Max,who discovers she canrewind time. This leadsher and best friendChloe into a mysterywith shades ofVeronica Mars andTwin Peaks, anexploration of a lonelyPacific Northwesterntown and the (cough)strange lives itscitizens. LiS has itsweaker moments, butit’s also romantic,dramatic, touching andunlike anything elsereleased this year.

Chris

Thursten


FEBRUARY 2016 3

Awards 201


P I L L A R S O F E T E R N I T Y Andy: Steeped in RPG history—from

Baldur’s Gate to Planescape:Torment— Pillars of Eternity takes

the best of those old Infinity Engine games

and gives it a modern sheen. Featuring beautifully descriptive writing and fun,tactical combat, this is one of the best PCroleplayers in years. The way your party’sskills complement each other makes battlesa thrill as you stack and combine theirabilities to cleverly outsmart the challengingenemies, while the world Obsidian hascreated gives the usual high fantasy tropes adark edge and the feel this could have been

based on some forgotten D&D campaign.Tom S: Pillars could so easily have been anostalgia trip that simply copied the InfinityEngine games of old. Instead, it improvesthem. Combat breaks away from the

conventions of Dungeons & Dragons,allowing for clever new class concepts likethe Cipher, who can manipulate the souls ofenemies. It’s smartly written, too, using littletext adventure skits to add flavor and detailthat the elevated camera would otherwise

be unable to show. Kickstarter backers areimmortalized as NPCs, and each has a shortstory that you can read using yourcharacter’s rare psychic powers. It’s a funreward for those loyal enough to fund theproject, but it also makes the world feel richand full of character.

It only works on PC, where players are

able to read a lot of text up-close on a

high-resolution screen. Pillars is part RPG,part fantasy novel. The choice to havecharacters voice only a line or two fromeach speech allows for more detailed

exchanges, bolstered by descriptiveinterludes that pluck at the imagination. Theresult is a long, absorbing roleplaying gamethat recognizes the heritage of the greatInfinity Engine RPGs without beingsubsumed by them.Chris T: Like going home at Christmas todiscover that somebody has prepared all of

your favorite food for days, the movies youwatched as a kid are on and somebody’sunearthed a bunch of dog-eared fantasypaperbacks from your past. And a bottle ofwhisky. I want to curl up inside Pillars of

Eternity and live there.Tony: Pillars recaptures the dizzying sense

of excitement I felt when I first played Baldur’s Gate 15 years ago. “Oh my God,there’s a whole world in here.” It’s not justthat every map is another vastBrueghelesque canvas to explore, or thatevery book you click on explodes a handgrenade of made-up history in your face. It’snot even the screens full of backstory andcharacter hiding behind almost every NPC

you talk to. It’s the realization that the gameis going to keep on doing this—for as long as

you’ve got the patience to keep on unlockingnew areas or choosing the “leave it to me!”option when someone offers you a quest.

Eternity? They’re not joking.

W H A T W E S A I D

OUR VERDICT

A deep, rich, andwonderfully written RPG

that lives up to the toweringlegacy of the games that

inspired it.

SCORE

92%

THE

AWARD

2015

OF THE PC

SPIRIT



E L S E H E A R T .B R E A K ( )This was the weirdestgame I played in 2015,and the most original.Part point-and-clickadventure, partopen-world city sim,and part puzzle game,it sees you move to anew town and join agroup of hackersfighting a dystopiangovernment. It’s set ina world where bits havereplaced atoms,almost any object canbe hacked and itsproperties changed.Tired? Hack a glass ofwater to give you anenergy boost. Need toget across town? Hacka door to take you rightthere. I’ve never playedanything quite like it.

Andy Kelly


H E R O E S O FT H E S T O R MMOBAs can becomplex, threateninggames. They havedozens of characterswith unique abilities tolearn, item stores filled

with wrong choices tomake, and a mountainof game mechanics toscale. ButHotS emphasizes everythingthat makes a MOBAfun while reworking orremoving the thingsthat make themintimidating. Learninghow to playHotS neverfelt like homework, it just felt like playing agame. It’s a MOBA Icould enjoy rightaway—and one I don’tneed to devote my lifeto continuing to enjoy.

Tom Marks


36 FEBRUARY 2016

Awards 2015


I N V I S I B L E , I N C .Chris T: I feel like I’ve written thisline a dozen times already, but:

Invisible, Inc. is the best designedgame this year and if you disagree with me I

will fight you. On a turn-based basis. In aroom divided into a big grid with lots ofcover. With slowly recharging, non-lethalweaponry. This is a game that not onlycombines the stealth sim, tactical strategygame and roguelike successfully, but does itin a way that solves a bunch of problemswith all of those sources.

To the stealth sim, it introducescompletely transparent rules. You alwaysknow what your options are, what the likelyresults of your actions will be, and yourchoices are always mitigated by resourcesthat you have complete control over. There’sno chance failure, and very little trial and

error. You either learn to make all of thesetotally fair systems dance, or you fail.

To the tactical strategy game, itintroduces a one-sided power dynamic thatcreates drama and moments of heroism.

You’re an intruder, controlling a small groupof operatives trying to find a gap in amega-corporation’s vast physical and digitalarmor. Every little thing you take is a victory,and every last-ditch escape is a triumph.Firepower doesn’t mean very much, so itdoesn’t suffer from the old XCOM problemof getting easier as you get further in.Finally, as a roguelike it dodges repetition by

giving you a choice of agents and powers

that substantially change the character ofeach new campaign. You don’t end uprepeating early levels over and over in thehope that you’ll get lucky because ‘getting

lucky’ is never the point: learning is,developing the loadouts and strategies that you’re comfortable with and that you knowhow to use. Unlike XP or credits or items,‘learning’ isn’t something you loot bychance. It’s something you’re alwaysgaining, however you choose to play, and assuch it’s always rewarding to do so.Phil: Invisible, Inc. can feel brutal. It tempts

you into tough situations, stoking your greedand then punishing you for it. Failure is anomnipresent thing, and can be disastrous for

your campaign. What makes Invisible, Inc. brilliant is that these failures are neverrandom. It’s a turn-based strategy game in

which your actions aren’t defined by dicerolls. The difficulty isn’t tied to chance, butto decision making. Get into a tricky spotand, more often than not, it’s possible toturn things around by thoroughly thinkingthrough your current situation.

More than in XCOM , or similar gameswhere safe plays are rewarded, Invisible, Inc. encouraged me to use my character’s full

breadth of abilities—finding interesting waysto escape the fine mess that I’d got myselfinto. It’s a perfectly executed heist game—giving long odds and high stakes, butproviding you with the tools to subvert its

hostile environments in your favor.

W H A T W E S A I D

OUR VERDICT

Engrossing tension betweenempowerment and

disempowerment, greed andfear, across an eminently

replayable system.

SCORE

80%

TH E

AWARD

2015

GAME DESIGN

BEST



Awards 201

F E A TUR

8 0 D A Y SAndy: It’s one of the best things I’veever read, in any medium, painting

vivid picture of a technologicallyadvanced alternate Victorian history. Notonly are the descriptions of the places you

visit rich and evocative, but it has heart too.Wes: At first I made decisions purely to getfrom one city to another as fast as possible.Slowly I began to discover how a chain ofthose decisions could lead to an encounterwith an international jewel thief, or a livingairship that would fly me halfway across thworld, or put me in the clutches ofliterature’s most famous submarine captainChris T: After you’ve played it a few times,go directly north. Don’t ask questions, justgo north and don’t stop. That’s the joy of 80

Days, for me: it has secrets and sideplots likno other interactive fiction I know. Every

play really is a journey into the unknown.

T H E W I T C H E R 3

Shaun: A strange thing happenedwhen I was playing this. Whensomeone spoke to me I listened.

When a cutscene played I didn’t mash mykeyboard in search of the ‘skip’ button.When Geralt faced a difficult decision, Istared at the wall and thought about it.Many other RPGs hit that sweet spot forplayers more patient than I, but it’s my

belief that CD Projekt RED hits it betterthan anyone else. Sitting down to an eveningof The Witcher 3 feels like diving into ameticulously written fantasy novel. It’s oneof the most rugged, despairingly bleak yetoddly beautiful worlds I’ve ever explored,and is packed with more quests than I’llever get time to finish.

TH E

AWARD

2015

SINGLEPLA

YERBEST

THE

AWARD

2015

WRITING

BEST

Andy: I tried and failed to get into the firsttwo games, but this is the one that clicked.In terms of quests, it’s one of the best RPGs

I’ve played. The writing, characters,locations and lore combine to createcompelling side-quests. It was ‘FamilyMatters’, the tale of the troubled BloodyBaron and his wife and daughter, that reallymade me love the game. It has everythingthat makes The Witcher 3 great: fantastic

voice acting, gruesome monsters, toughmoral decisions. From the snowy islands ofSkellige to the grand city of Novigrad, theworld is as vividly realized as its charactersExploring on horseback, helping people andtaking on mercenary work made me feel lika wandering samurai.



Awards 2015

F E A T U R E

G R A N D T H E F T A U T O VSamuel: GTA V was late coming toPC, but the port was worth thewait—this is the definitive version of

a game I first played two years ago. Which iswhy it’s been given this particular award, tobe honest. That extravagantly realized worldwill likely never be topped by anyone butRockstar itself, and while there’s been a fairbit of backlash over the story mode being letdown by unlikable characters, I wasentertained by the leads, and thesingleplayer missions are some of the bestfun you can have in any game. From thedynamically lit Los Santos skyline to theocean at dusk, I can’t believe someonecreated a game environment this lavish. I’mnot so keen on the chaotic playground of

GTA Online, but even so, the multi-part heistmissions, which I played with some of theother PCG guys, were some of my highlightsfrom the year, too.Chris L: Rare is the game in which a quickdrive to the clothing store to buy a new suitcan lead to an extended session of freeformmayhem and destruction. Sideswipe thewrong driver and attract the attention of thecops, and a highway chase results. Flip yourvehicle off a bridge, steal another, speed to ahelicopter pad, swipe a chopper, get shotdown over a military base, parachute to thebeach, steal a boat, jump it onto a busystreet, enjoy a shootout with more cops,

escape to the hills on a motorcycle, and getkilled by a mountain lion. What was I doing

an hour ago? Oh, yeah, right, I was going to buy a suit.

For me, GTA V is about what you do

between the things you’re supposed to bedoing. Long after the details of the storyhave faded, Los Santos will remain a big,

beautiful world perfect for hours of chaoticand ridiculous fun.Chris T: I had such a strange time reviewingthis. It’s the most extraordinary open world,a vast and immersive city that houses afreeform driving game, a lightweight flightsimulator, a racing game, a shooter, a tennissim, and so on and so on. I couldn’t standthe story or the characters and wishRockstar would reclaim some of the heartthat GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption had,

but it’s a testament to the team’s overallachievement that GTA V is still so good despite that 40-hour campaign being soderivative and cynical. Multiplayer remainsa game where you can kidnap your friendsinside their cars in a helicopter with a bigmagnet. All is forgiven, and then some.Phil: Los Santos is such a robust city, and theperfect setting for experiences both big andsmall. I love driving through it at night,listening to my custom soundtrack(Kavinsky, of course) just as much as I lovethe chaos and last-ditch saves of a successfulmultiplayer heist. For all the bluster of thecampaign, Grand Theft Auto V ’s strength is

in how it comfortably scales to whatever you want to do.

W H A T W E S A I D

OUR VERDICT

A sandbox of extraordinaryscope created with a

masterful attention todetail. A patchy campaign

doesn’t spoil this wonderful,evocative city.

SCORE

92%

TH E

AWARD

2015

OF 2013

BEST GAM

E



C I B E L E

InCibele , an old-schoolMMO clickfest sets thestage for an intimatedrama. You play Nina, a19-year-old amid socialand sexual change. Themundanity of click-killing endless enemiesevokes the desperationfor connection andvalidation many haveexperienced growingup in a digital age, so

it’s no surprise sheforms a relationshipwith another player.It’s an intenselypersonal drama, andfeels like living throughan hour of someone’sslightly abstracted lifevia a desktop. It’s eeriehowCibele nails thefeeling of coming ofage in online spaces.

James Davenport


S O M A

When it’s not trying tobe a horror game,Soma is a fascinatingand original world toexplore. Even morethanAlien ’s spacestation, its undersea

facility feels like a real,lived-in place, onlyrecently deserted. It’sa feeling made all themore poignant by theknowledge that amass-extinction eventhas wiped out all life onEarth’s surface. You’rethe last lonely man(sort of), and you’re atthe bottom of the sea,reading other people’semails and piecingtogether a story thathad already playeditself out weeks before you arrived.

Tony Ellis


FEBRUARY 2016 3

Awards 201


R O C K E T L E A G U ESamuel: Simple and brilliant, Rocket

League was one of my mainobsessions this year, and the first

competitive game I truly became absorbed

by. I’ve had so much heartache in ranked, but so many wonderful goals, near-missesand epic saves, too. While everyone I knowhas pretty much stopped playing at thispoint, the five-minute matches are a perfect

break between other games that require a bigger time commitment. It’s a well-deserved success for Psyonix, even though Ihate this game (and also love it). And fuckthe DeLorean.James: I should probably get a chairwithout wheels. No other game has elicitedan involuntary kick from both legs at once.It’s always as I speed up towards the ballafter watching a play unfold. I’ll likely miss,

kick the floor as if it will somehow correctmy virtual car’s velocity, and send me rollingtowards the back of my room, blurting aword or two I shouldn’t. It’s exhilarating.

Rocket League is the only sports game withcontrols that aren’t abstracted by layers andlayers of game mechanics. You drive fast,

jump, and hit the ball. There’s a real sense ofprecise control over a body, similar to‘control’ in a real sport, which means

behaviors and plays form naturally. Carfootball is the most natural expression of asports game ever. Who would’ve guessed?Chris T: The fact that ‘football, but with cars’

doesn’t feel like a novelty is extraordinary.

Instead, it feels like a real sport: somewhere between destruction derby, hockey andfootball, with instantly intuited rules but a

vast skill ceiling. It’s brilliant. My only regret

is that real physics won’t allow it to becomereal. The other thing that I love about Rocket League is that, through it, I’ve hadthe chance to watch Sam encounter all ofthe horrible things about seriouscompetitive play: ladder anxiety, rage atmatchmaking, utter disappointment,

bad-mannered teammates, and so on. Ithought his refusal to play Dota 2 everagain would save him from my particularpart of this hobby, but fortunately it hasn’t—and I’m delighted.Phil: I live deep in the depths of bronzeleague—a world where six cars flip towardsa stationary ball and all miss. We bronze

leaguers might understand the flow and beauty of the game, but we don’t have thetechnical expertise to translate it into action.We’re having fun anyway—except that oneguy who sarcastically spams “nice shot” andthen leaves if you so much as concede agoal. I treat Rocket League as an enjoyable,knockabout arcade game. It’s still tense asI’m barreling towards the goal mouth, andstill amazing when the ball explodes in ashockwave of success, but I also don’t feel

bad when I lose one of the five-minutematches. Within seconds, I’m loading intoanother game—ready to suck at Rocket

League all over again.

W H A T W E S A I D

OUR VERDICT

Rocket League is fast, funand relentlessly enjoyable.

The best football gamewithout feet.

SCORE

87%

TH E

AWARD

2015

MULTIPLA YE

RBEST



Awards 2015




O R I A N D T H EB L I N D F O R E S T

2015 was the year I gotfed up with 2Dplatformers.Silhouettes of 8- and16-bit pixels are searedinto my retinas. But Ori

and the Blind Forest was different. For one,its Metroidvania leveldesign was actuallyput to great use—Ori ’snew powers are funand fluid to play with,even in familiarenvironments. Manypraised it for itsbeautiful art andmelancholy story, butfor me, it simply nailsthe rawest componentof a good platformer:its sense of movementand momentumwere perfect.

Shaun Prescott


P R I S O NA R C H I T E C T

In this game I foundthe satisfaction offamiliar managementtasks—planning andbuilding, power andwater, budgets and

schedules—with thecool twist that yourcitizens don’t want tobe there. They havetheir own economy(contraband) and theirown plans (escape,primarily). Managing apopulation whoseneeds may be met butwho will still hate youcan be an engrossingand unsettlingchallenge. In a citybuilder, overcrowdingcan be a problem, buthere it can result in abloody riot.

Chris Livingston


FEBRUARY 2016 4

Awards 201


M E T A L G E A R S O L I D VT H E P H A N T O M P A I N

Samuel: As a friend of mine put itrecently, it was always the systemsthat made Metal Gear special, not

the story. But the time of Metal Gear Solid asa story-heavy series truly ended with

MGS4—this is a new era of Metal Gear, onewhere the focus lies in user-generated

stories created by throwing together gamemechanics in two massive open worlds. The

Phantom Pain’s suite of military toys starts big then simply expands, over the course ofmany missions, offering the player more andmore options with which to mess withenemies. I’ve called in airstrikes on bears,stuck numerous tanks on balloons, andpatted my dog for reassurance while beinghunted by mechs, helicopters and squads ofmen. It’s so good that I can’t quite believethis game has been made in my lifetime. I’veplayed 70 hours of Metal Gear Solid V andI’m almost certain there’s about 40 hours

worth of stuff yet to find. What could I havepossibly done to deserve a game this good? Metal Gear Solid V is just so far ahead of

other action games. Kojima Productionsretained the series’ detail and sense ofhumor, but found more ways to convey thatwith unscripted moments. MGSV is sothoroughly divorced from its boring storythat you can enjoy the game without goingnear it. It’s left games such as Assassin’sCreed Syndicate looking pretty tired in itswake. If Konami doesn’t follow this up witha sequel of a similar standard with yet moresystems and new environments, I’ll befurious. There’s a foundation here for

brilliant sequels. Metal Gear is the king ofsandbox games, and this was the perfecttime for the series to come back to PC.Andy: One of the best stealth games I’veever played, Metal Gear Solid V is a rich,complex web of interlinking systems tied toslick, responsive controls. Gazing across anenemy base at night in the vast Afghandesert, planning your attack, then adaptingas it all goes inevitably go wrong—thesethings are the most fun I’ve had this year interms of pure play. This is an incrediblypolished, tightly designed game, withimaginatively designed gadgets that let you

mess with the AI in endlessly entertaining

ways. As a Metal Gear fan, I felt the storywas a letdown and weirdly half-baked, butin light of that amazing stealth sandbox, Ican’t really complain.Phil: Metal Gear Solid V might not be themost obvious choice for a PC publication’sgame of the year, but I think it’s the right

choice for PC Gamer. If you look at our lastfew Games of the Year— Spelunky and

Alien—I think the theme is expertly craftedworlds that house surprising, delightfullyemergent systems that clash together inchaotic and playful ways. The Phantom Pain is definitely that. Like Andy, I’m a huge

Metal Gear Solid fan, but I’ve barely touchedthe story. My time has been spentwandering Afghanistan, completing side-opsand liberating resources. It’s an excuse toslip in and out of outposts, planning outroutes and approaches, then being forced toimprovise if (and when) I’m discovered. It’s

an amazing world to manipulate, and filledwith so many toys that every visit promisessomething new. It’s both an expertly craftedstealth game and a fun, satisfying actiongame—rewarding both the meticulous andthe frivolous with an expanding, upgradableset of tools that make both styles of playequally gratifying.Chris T: I hadn’t touched a Metal Gear gamein over 15 years, so The Phantom Pain’sweaknesses as a sequel (or prequel, Isuppose) didn’t mean much to me. Instead, Iwas surprised to encounter one of the bestsystems-driven stealth games in years, onewhere creativity is relentlessly rewarded

and encouraged and also where there is adog with a knife who stabs people.

One of my favorite feelings in gaming iswhen I realize that I’m not a slave to thegame’s logic, but my own. Games cut somany corners that it’s easy to assume thatcertain things just won’t work: blowing up a

vehicle that’s later scheduled to rescue a keytarget, for example, would probably causean insta-fail in any given Call of Duty. Here,the game is designed to react to you doingthat, to shape itself around your decisionsrather than force you to change to suit it.For that reason, Metal Gear Solid V is in

another league.

W H A T W E S A I D

OUR VERDICT

A generous stealth sandboxmasterpiece that’ll delightboth new and existing fans

of Metal Gear .

SCORE93%

THE

AWARD

2015

OF THE YEA

RGAME



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR E



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR

Building a PC is a huge part of the joy of PC gaming. No-one starts off as an expert PC builder, though, and herewe’ll take you through the entire process step-by-step.

BUILD A PC

By James Davenport

H O W T O



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR E

1 2

3

PREPARE THE

CHASSISLet’s build. First, take off both

side panels on the case. You’ll needaccess to both sides for inserting

hardware, cable management, and

general ease of access. It can get

crowded, quick.

Move any cables inside of the

case out of the way. We’ll get to

those soon enough.

MOTHERBOARD

PREPYour chassis should include

motherboard standoff screws, aspictured (sometimes they’re gold

instead of black). These prevent

your motherboard from making

direct contact with the back of the

chassis, which could short out the

board. Reference the holes on the

your motherboard to see where

the standoffs need to be, since this

can vary model to model. Screw

them in tightly.

Take the I/O (input/output)

shield and line it up with the frame

from inside the case. This thin plate

keeps out dust and ensures you

have more control over air

circulation. Make sure you have itfacing the right direction before

you pop it in. Again, check your

motherboard for reference. Push

in, making sure to not press too

hard on the center (but you might

have to really press hard on those

edges). There should be a

satisfying click from each side

letting you know the shield is firmly

in place.

INSERT THE

MOTHERBOARDOnce the chassis is prepped, it’s

time to insert the motherboard.

This chassis has a convenient

built-in standoff that centres the

motherboard for you. Not all cases

will have one, so when you place it

down—gently—there may be some

resistance up against the I/O

shield. This is normal. Just make

sure no metal prongs accidentallyget lodged into a USB port. Once

the motherboard is aligned with the

standoffs, screw down the

centre—don’t tighten yet—and

then do opposite corners. Screwing

in opposite corners is a good rule of

thumb for installing anything in a

PC, as it lowers the risk of

misaligning and potentially

damaging your hardware. Tighten

the screws bit by bit until the

motherboard is firmly in place, but

don’t overdo it. As long as it isn’t

jostling around, it should be secure.



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR

4SEAT THE

PROCESSORGood job. If you’re reading this

and not cursing or crying, you’vegot a motherboard in a PC case.

Next up we deal with the most

important part of any PC: the CPU.

Treat the CPU like an inexplicably

living brain in a glass jar. Hold it at

the edges and avoid touching the

underside. Any finger grease on

that sucker can mess with the heat

diffusion, which is not good on one

of the most expensive, vital, volatile

PC components. To install it, lift

the lever on the CPU socket on the

motherboard, remove the plasticplaceholder, and locate the golden

arrow on your CPU. This, and the

notches on your CPU, will let you

know how to align the CPU above

the slot. Make sure everything is

matched up, then carefully lower

the CPU straight down onto the

socket. It should fit in effortlessly,

so don’t put any extraneous

pressure on it. CPUs are easily

damaged.

Once the CPU is in place (checkagain, scrub), lower the socket

shield and secure it by pulling and

locking the metal lever down. You’ll

feel plenty of resistance, and likely

a few heart palpitations, but try not

to worry too much, everything is

(probably) okay.



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR E

6

7

READY THE RAMWith the PSU in, time for

another simple step: the memory.

First, you’ll need to locate the

DIMM slots. Any DIMM-wit coulddo it! Sorry, that wasn’t helpful.

They’re the four, thin, RAM-length

slots next to the CPU. In order to

take advantage of any dual-

channel functionality, you’ll need to

install the RAM in alternating slots.

Refer to your motherboard

documents for details, but for us,

the slots were labeled.

Placing the RAM is simple. Make

sure the locks at the end of eachslot are open, find the notch in your

RAM, line it up the notch in the slot,

insert it, and push until the lock

clicks and the RAM is securely in

place. Don’t be afraid to push down

hard. Do this and be free.

INSTALL THE

COOLERHeat sucks, especially for CPUs,

which is why installing a cooler is

vital, especially if you plan to

overclock. Now, this step will vary

depending on what type of cooler

is being installed, so be sure to

refer to the manufacturer’s

instructions for the intricacies of

installation. If you’re using a stock

Intel cooler, installation is as simple

as lining up the small fan and

pressing down each corner until

the legs snap into the

motherboard. We’ll be installing aclosed-loop liquid cooler on our

build pictured here.

Most coolers require some kind

of backplate installation, which

means you’ll be coming from the

underside of your motherboard.

For ours, we just placed the

backplate into the corresponding

holes on the motherboard

surrounding the CPU and stuck it

there with a foam adhesive that

came with the cooler. With an air

cooler, you’ll probably thread

mounting screws through the top

of the motherboard and attach

them to the backplate with nuts.

On the top side, directly over the

CPU, goes the cooler itself. Make

sure to align each corner around

the CPU before you then screw it

into place.

Throughout the inside of the

chassis, there are vents and

corresponding holes for fan

placement. With our liquid cooler,

the radiator, a square metallic

mesh used for heat diffusion,

attaches to an intake fan on the

inside of the case. The inside of

every case will have designatedareas for fans, so find one that fits

a radiator, a fan, and doesn’t force

the tubes into an awkward

position. From there, you just

screw it in.

Finally, plug the cooler’s power

cable into the motherboard. Again,

the motherboard manual should

indicate where the pins are in case

they’re not labeled on the board

itself. For our liquid cooler, we

plugged into CPU_FAN and

W_PUMP.

5PUT IN THE

POWER SUPPLY First, take a breath. The CPU is

in. Congrats. Now, for somethingmuch simpler: A PC isn’t powered

entirely by magic, so a power

supply (PSU) will be necessary.

Ours is a completely modular unit,

meaning we can plug and pull

cables as needed. Some PSUs

have cables built into the unit,

making cable management a

hassle, so if you can, go modular.

Installing is simple. Just make sure

the PSU fan is either facing the

chassis vent (or upwards if it works

in with your airflow scheme) and

then screw it in from the outside ofthe case.



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR

8 INSTALL SSD(AND/OR HDD)

Of course, every PC needs

non-volatile memory for storage,but nowadays, there’s an

allowance for plenty of variation.

What you see on these pages is a

simple build, so we’re just sticking

with a single SSD, but there’s

nothing to prevent you from using

an HDD or combo of the two.

Installing an SSD is easy in this

Fractal Design Define R5 case.

You’ll find that most cases are builtwith SSDs in mind these days: just

screw the drive into one of the

provided SSD trays, and then

screw the SSD plus tray into

wherever the chassis allows. Now

is a good time to start thinking

about cable management, too.

The drive will need power and a

way to interface with the other PC

components, so it’s cable time.

First, you’ll need to plug in the

SATA data and power cables into

the base of the drive.

Be sure to arrange your cables

with some kind of logic in mind that

prevents them from trailing across

the motherboard, if possible. Most

cases let you snake cables through

the base behind the mobo by using

conveniently placed routing holes,

but not all chassis are so lucky.

Next, the SATA data cable plugs

into the motherboard. Some plugs

have different speeds or interfaces,so check your motherboard

manual for specifics on which to

use. Last, the power cable goes to

the PSU as indicated on the PSU

itself or in the product manual.



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR E

9INSTALL THE

GPUIt’s time to seriously pump this

PC up with everyone’s favoritecomponent: the graphics card.

Fortunately, installing this in your

PC is extremely simple. First,

remove the PCI-E slot shields near

the rear of the case where your

video card will lay. You’ll find that

most of today’s graphics cards

take up two slots.

Grab your graphics card, align it

with the PCI-E slot, and press itdown gently until you feel your

card lock into place. Screw the

graphics card into place with

thumbscrews where the slot

shields used to be.

GPUs need extra power to

function, so find the power cables

your GPU requires and plug them

in (they’re typically labeled PCI-E

or VGA). Don’t worry since PSU

cables only fit where they’re meantto, thanks to an elaborate set of

square and hexagonal plug

components. If your PSU is

modular, make sure the cables are

plugged into the unit as well.



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR

10PANEL

CONNECTORSWe’re in the final stretch! Beware

fat-fingered folks: this step isn’texactly the best. In order to get the

lights and switches on the front of

your chassis to work, these tiny

cables need to plug into your

motherboard in very specific

places. Sometimes motherboards

will come with an extra bit that you

can plug the front panel connectors

into before the motherboard, but

that isn’t always the case, so refer

to the motherboard manual and

on-board labeling if necessary.

There may be some front panel

USB cables too—the pictured cablewith the thin blue head – but those

are much easier to deal with. Plug

them in as indicated.

A motherboard needs power

too. Find the 24-pin power

connector, orient it correctly, and

push it into the motherboard until

it’s firmly connected. Standard ATX

motherboards also require an

additional power connection close

to the CPU, usually 4-6 pins. Check

for one, plug it in, and then make

sure all power cables plug back into

the PSU if it’s modular.

In order for the PC to stay cool,

we’ll need to plug in the fans. There

should be fan connectors in variou

locations on the motherboard. Fin

the ones that best suit your cable

management and plug them in.

Wrap things up by doing any las

second cable management. It’s no

a bad idea to double check your

connections and make sure all of

your components are firmly

seated, either. Throw on the panelswhen you’re done. Now for the

moment of truth. Plug your

beautiful creation in and press the

power button.



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR E



How to Build a PC

F E A TUR

11 AND THEN, A PC!Be sure to take a step back and

drink it all in. You’ve (probably)

successfully expressed yourself via

expensive hardware, sweat, tears,

and a healthy dose of love. This isthe beginning of a new era in

anti-aliasing and post-processing

for you, but it doesn’t have to end

here. Feel free to add components

we didn’t cover. If you’re a fan of

antiquated tech, throw in a disc

drive. Want to open up your PC to

more peripherals? Add a bluetooth

receiver. Not enough red LEDs inyour life? Light that sucker up. The

platform is open for a reason.

Woe, destruction, ruin,

and decay! Your PC

won’t turn on, maybe

it’s beeping, or, mercy

me—it’s crashing

unexpectedly. Don’t

fret. Much. A PC should

be able to turn on and

reach the BIOS screen

with only the CPU, RAM

and GPU plugged into

the motherboard. If you

don’t see the BIOS

screen after powering

up, run through these

troubleshooting steps

to sort out the problem.

When you’re digging

around in your PC’s guts,

ensure it’s powered off

and unplugged from the

wall.

Make sure your PC is

actually getting power.Most PSUs have a switch

that, well, needs to be

flipped on first. If you’re

plugged into a power

strip, as you should be,

make sure that it’s turned

on too.

Still no power? Reseat

the connections between

the power supply and the

motherboard. Make sure

you didn’t miss anything.

Even building veterans

make mistakes.

If the power button is

still doing nada, check the

front panel cables on the

motherboard. Those tiny

things are very easy to

mix around by accident.

Make sure they’re where

they need to be.

Okay, now you’re

getting power, but not

seeing anything or

hearing a series of beeps

when trying to boot.

Make sure the RAM is

seated properly. Take it

out, put it back in, maybe

try the other set of DIMM

slots.

Check your video

cable. It should be

connected to the GPU,

not the motherboard.Reseat the GPU and

check its power

connections.

Reset the BIOS by

pulling the CMOS battery.

It’s the circular battery on

the motherboard. Taking

this out essentially resets

the motherboard

memory.

Are all your fans

plugged in and spinning?

The cooler doing it’s job?

Check their connections

Could be they’re not

doing their job and the

CPU is overheating.

Remove and reseat

the CPU and cooler,

making sure it’s properly

aligned in the slot

Finally, reseat the

motherboard. Maybe it

isn’t mounted correctly

and it’s shorting out.

Basically, rebuild the

thing. Sorry bucko, you

signed up for this.

Throw it in the trash. It

will turn to ash and come

back as a mythical

overclocked bird that can

run Crysis.

It none of that works, imight be a good time to

sort through what kind o

warranties and return

policies your component

have. Luckily, most

manufacturers have solid

support options, so even

if you’ve been dealt a

bunk chunk, there’s

probably an option for

easy replacement. The

only price you’ll have to

pay is time. We all die

someday. Time.

Troubleshooting



“THIS IS HIDEO KOJIMA’S MOST

PROVOCATIVE STATEMENT YET”

Fallout 4

R E V I EW

52 FEBRUARY 2016

“A WORLD THAT FEELS COHESIVE

AND FULL OF PERVERSE CHARM”



BIG BOSTONFALLOUT 4 is bigger, better and more of the same.

By Phil Savage

Fallout 4 ’smain story is

the bestBethesda has

created

For me, this has been Fallout 4. It’s ahighly customizable RPG in a worldpacked with things to do. Itscomponent parts are intricate, andinvite you to tailor them to yourliking. When you do, it can bewonderfully satisfying,

but also—in the sensethat you can be a hugestealth machinecarrying an antique,irradiated sword—alittle bit dumb. Fallout4 wilfully trades

immersion for anenjoyable, freeformsandbox of possibilities. Whether

you’ll enjoy it or not, I think, dependson your reaction to that openingparagraph. Does it sound like aninfuriating, dissonant mess, or thecool, emergent intersection ofplayer-driven decisions? I’m in thelatter camp.

If you’ve played a Bethesda RPG before, this will be nothing new. Fallout’s catchphrase, “war neverchanges,” has never felt moreappropriate. As Fallout 3 was to

Oblivion, so Fallout 4 is to Skyrim—the post-apocalypse of a futuristicEarth trapped in a ’50s aesthetic, nowavailable in Bethesda’s CreationEngine and boasting some interestingnew features. But for all theimprovements, the moment-to-moment experience is broadly thesame. Journeying to one of the manyundiscovered locations in your

vicinity, you’ll kill enemies, pick locks,hack terminals, collect loot andexperience a standalone vignette thatweaves into the larger story of Boston

after the bombs.

Let me tell you about my Vault Dweller. She’s a master ofstealth in flame-red power armor. Protected by her hulkingexoskeleton, she stomps quietly through buildings—efficientlydispatching her enemies with a with a sword or silencedpistol. Sometimes, the dozen or so raiders she’s hunting will

realize that something’s amiss. They’ll search the area, making threatsabout what they’ll do should they find the lumbering behemoth crouchedunseen in the corner. Occasionally she’ll watch as they fail to notice howthere’s a mass of metal armor with a hot-rod paint job right in front oftheir faces. Then she’ll murder them with a single bullet to the head.

Fallout 4 is set in a condensed version of Massachusetts, known asthe Commonwealth. Its mapincorporates much of the state’s eastcoast, from Salem to Boston—squished down like a Euro Truck

Simulator 2 version ofthe end of the world. Itopens on the day of theapocalypse, giving youthe brief chance toexperience life in thepastel-paintedsanctuary of Sanctuary

before it gets reducedto rubble. This taste ofthe pre-apocalypse isn’t all thatrevelatory. Unsurprisingly, the worldwas nicer when there weren’t anymutated dogs trying to eat your face.But it does seem to reflect a desire on

Bethesda’s part to make a morememorable main campaign.

In fact, this is the best main storyBethesda has created. That’s not ahigh bar to clear, but, for once,embarking on a main quest doesn’tfeel like a distraction. Your characterleaves their Vault 200 years after theapocalypse, in search of her (or his)kidnapped son. It’s a simple, primalmotivation, but effective in leading

you on a journey to theCommonwealth’s main source ofconflict: the appearance and distrustof human-like synths, and theirconnection to the mysteriousInstitute. The story succeeds becauseit ties in more closely to the side-plotBethesda has always been better atcreating. The factions andcompanions you meet along the wayare crucial to the overall plot. I had alot of fun playing the factions offagainst each other, leading theminexorably to a dramatic finale.

Then, it ends. As world-shifting athe events you enact are, they’redampened by the abruptness of theconclusion. I should have expectedthis, of course—I played Skyrim—andperhaps it shows how much I wasenjoying those final missions thattheir resolution left me feeling flat.

COAST APOCALYPSE

Once again, then, the campaign is justhe throughline for the many, manysidequests, miscellaneous events andunprompted acts of exploration youcomplete along the way. Bethesda’s

Fallout games are primarily about thatmosphere of the world at large, and

Fallout 4 is no different. It’s brutaland harrowing, but only up to a poinThere’s a lightheartedness that chipsaway at the tone, softening the deathand decay. Fallout 4, like itspredecessors, isn’t a survival game—even though, initially at least,resources can be hard to come by.

Graphically, Fallout 4 looks like animproved version of Skyrim. Which ito say that it looks like an improved

version of Fallout 3. That’s mostly

down to the tech powering it—even

N E E D T O K N O W

WHAT IS IT?

A p ost-apocalypticsandbox RPG.

EXPECT TO PAY

$60

DEVELOPER

Bethesda Game Studios

PUBLISHER

Bethesda

REVIEWED ON

GeForce GTX 970, Inteli5-3570K, 8GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER

None

LINK

www.fallout4.com

D O G G Y S T Y L E

Your canine pal is picky about his threads

3. Seacaptain’s hat

1. Mascot head

2. Corset

4. Goggles

2. Dog armor

1. Collar

3. Bandana

L O V E S H A T E S

1

2

3

4

FEBRUARY 2016 5

R E V I E W



The dog doesn’t judge me when

I steal all thetelephones

from a house

some of the NPC animations will berecognizable to anyone who’s spentenough time in Tamriel. The facesare better, but still not perfect. Thevoice acting is much better, but stillnot perfect. Initially, I experiencedthe mild disappointment offamiliarity. Four years after Skyrim, Iwas hoping for a more pronouncedimprovement. Now I wonder if Icouldn’t see the forest for the lowresolution tree textures. The age andlimitations of Bethesda’s engine arewell apparent, but theCommonwealth is enticing. On themacro level, Fallout 4’ s scale anddetail creates a world that feelscohesive and full of perverse charm.

Boston is a great setting. It’sdenser than the Capital Wasteland ofFallout 3, and more colorful. There’sstill a lot of gray and brown, sure, but

also reds, blues and deadly, glowinggreens. The locations, and the peoplewho live in them, imbue the worldwith character. Diamond City, one ofthe main locales, is a town built inBoston’s Fen stadium. As a collectionof shacks and huts, itfeels similar toMegaton—but moreinteresting, and moreappropriate to thesetting. Like New Vegasbefore it, Fallout 4 isn’tabout a post-

apocalypse, but rather apost-apocalypse in aspecific, recognizable place.

Elsewhere, there’s the GlowingSea—a murky, barren expanse thatstill manages to be one of the mostatmospheric places I’ve been to thisyear. A huge part of Fallout 4’s appealis the sense of discovery and mystery.Each location feels crafted, and thatgives a powerful reason to investigate.Maybe you’ll find text logs that detaila conflict between rival gang leaders,or just a note explaining how toaccess a hidden stash of loot. The

world feels lived-in and dangerous,and it’s fun to pick apart its history.

LOW VAULTAGE

That said, I do wish it was a bitstranger—or even more playful. I’m indangerous territory here, becausethere are so many sidequests that Ihaven’t found or finished. For all Iknow, there are plenty of weird andunexpected encounters to discover.But I’ve yet to find anything outsideof the main quest that’s as odd asFallout 3’s Vault full of Gary clones, or

as dramatic as the decision to let a

group of ghouls murder an apartment block full of rich jerks. I love the ideaof the Vaults as weird socialexperiments, but of the three I’ve

visited—my owncharacter’s included—none have delivered acompelling hook. Onehad a great idea behindit, but the delivery wasunderwhelming.

In general, there

seems less scope to bea pantomime villain inthis world. I think part of the reasonfor this is that my character feels likea more fully formed person this timearound. It helps that she’s fully voiceacted—every decision picked fromthe conversation wheel results in asentence or two of spoken dialogue.There’s still plenty of scope forimprinting your own whims onto

your Vault Dweller’s personality, butit happens in a more strictly definedway. My character just didn’t seemthe type to nuke a whole town full of

people for a handful of bottle-tops.She’s nice like that.

I wish the conversation interfacewas better. The dialogue wheelprovides a Mass Effect-styleapproximation of your reply, but it’sinconsistent. A given set of optionsmight contain a mixture ofstatements for your character to say,or tones and stances for them to take.

Having a voiced protagonist does,at least, give me a greater sense ofattachment to the world—particularlyto my companions. This is the first

Bethesda RPG where I’ve

consistently had an NPC along forthe ride. For once, they’re much morethan a mule to carry excess weapons.My second favorite companion, forexample, Nick Valentine, is an oldschool private eye—complete withtrenchcoat and fedora. He insertshimself into conversations, and willstop and chat to other NPCs that he’spreviously helped. It’s nice to get asense, however small, that the worlddoesn’t just exist for the Vault

Dweller to be in it.My favorite companion is the dog, because it doesn’t judge me when Isteal all the telephones from a house.I have a lot of telephones in mypockets, as well as microscopes,alarm clocks and dinner trays. This iswhy I took to wearing powerarmor—so I could carry all the crapthat I was collecting on my travels. If

you love obsessively liberating a placeof all its items, then good news:everything you can pick up in Fallout4 is useful. That’s because of the newsettlement system.

FROM THE ASHES

Settlements are Fallout 4’s major newfeature—like Skyrim’s Hearthfire DLC, but massively expanded. Gainownership of a settlement and youcan construct new items, from waterpumps and gun turrets to wholeprefabricated structures. Each has aresource cost associated with it. Awall panel simply requires wood andsteel, but something like a defensiveturret is more complex—the moredeadly ones need aluminium,

circuitry, gears, fiber optics, and a

T O U R I S T B O A R D Places to visit in the Commonwealth

1

2

3

4

1S A N C T U A R Y Decrepit shithole or new home?

Both, actually.

2S A L E MNo witches to be found. Plenty

of bloatflies, though.

3D I A M O N D C I T Y The former Fen Stadium, in the

heart of Boston.

4T H E G L O W I N G S E AWhat’s here? I don’t want to

spoil the surprise.

54 FEBRUARY 2016

Fallout 4

R E V I EW



Fallout 4

R E V I EW

Now we find out if Bertthe Turtle was full of shit.

It’s the 23rd century, and westill crank our laser-muskets?

VATS isn’t essential, but canget you out of a tight spot.

“Counter offer: pick yourown damn melons.”



Fallout 4

R E V I EW

The first annual meeting ofSpud-Faced NPCs Anonymous.

Bloody messes aren’t exclusiveto the Bloody Mess perk.

Plasma weapons turnmonsters into lootable goop.

When the world is this irradiatedone extra mini-nuke won’t hurt.

I should have brought amop. Or several hundred.



Fallout 4

R E V I E W

I have aTommy gun

that firesexploding

bullets

generator for power. Open thecrafting workshop in a settlement,and a green outline will show thearea you’re allowed to build in.Within this space, you can also scrapitems for resources. That’s fine forturning trees, cars and loose tires intowood, steel or rubber, but rarerresources must be found orpurchased out in the world.

And so you collect junk. Everyitem in the game is made out ofresources. Dump them into asettlement’s workshop, and they can

be turned into something useful. Atypewriter becomes a useful sourceof gears, screws and springs—handyfor building machinery that candefend your settlement from raiders.

It’s gratifying to watch an areaturn from a run-down ghost towninto a functioning settlement.

Nevertheless, the workshop interfaceis a bit fiddly to use. Buildings areorganized into categories, and it’s apain having to switch back and forthtrying to remember if the radio

beacon that attracts new settlers wasin ‘Power >Miscellaneous’ or‘Resources >Miscellaneous’. Worsestill, your workshop’sresource pool isn’tglobal, but tied to eachspecific settlement. You

might have enough oilto worry a flock ofseagulls, but you can’t build agenerator in Tenpines Bluff if you leftit all in Sanctuary Hills. At one point,I had to fast-travel between multipledifferent settlements just torediscover where I’d left the pocketwatch that contained the gear Ineeded to build a water pump. Youcan build supply lines that shareresources between two connectedworkshops, but it’s a clumsy system,and impractical unless you’ve alreadyput in the work to grow a

settlement’s population. You’ll acquire a fair few

settlements if you do missions for theMinutemen faction—a local militiagroup that’s working to make theCommonwealth safe for decent, hard-working folk. It can become a bitoverwhelming. Each settlementneeds a number of resources: food,water and beds. The more you havein a settlement, the more defensivestructures you’ll need to protect it.Occasionally, you’ll get alerts todefend these places. A few of my

settlements were wiped out, either

because I was too busy having funadventures against super-mutants or

just didn’t see the mission promptthat alerted me to their danger.

FULL SCOPEGuns have a crafting system, too—youcan create mods that alter theirscopes, barrels, grips and attachmentsin a variety of ways. This, to me, feltlike a much better use for my

growing collection ofminutiae. Guns are the

best thing about Fallout

4. Unlike itspredecessors, it’s anaccomplished andenjoyable shooter.While my preference

was for silencedweapons, the scarcityof ammo—at least for the first coupleof dozen hours—forced me toexperiment. I didn’t mind. Gettinginto firefights is a joy, to the pointthat, by the end, I’d all but entirelyabandoned the VATS system.

Early weapons taken off raidersare relatively weak, but as you

journey through the Commonwealth you’re guaranteed to find a collectionof favorites. Early on, you get a lasermusket—a powerful rifle that needsto be cranked between each shot.

Using it is tense and frantic, as itrequires you to dive into cover tohammer the R key, before poppingout and taking your shot. With mods,

you can imbue a musket with up tosix charges. It’s a deadly thing, if

you’ve got the space to fully load it.The best guns and armor are

scavenged off of legendary enemies,identifiable by the star next to theirname. When downed, they’ll drop alegendary item with a special benefit.I’ve got a Tommy gun that firesexploding bullets, a dual-barrel

shotgun that never needs reloading, a

chest piece that turns me invisiblewhen crouched and not moving, andof course, an irradiated sword. I can’

bear to part with any of these thingsI’d sooner throw away my precious

collection of telephones.One effect of Fallout 4’s immediat

familiarity is that I’m more consciouthan ever of the flaws of the engine. haven’t experienced many bugs, butthere are lots of quirks. AI NPCs, forexample, like to run off atinopportune moments in response tosome faraway threat that they’vedecided to deal with. In one instancea pair did this during a forcedscripted sequence—leaving mestranded and unable to move. Withso many systems working to create

interesting, emergent experiences,sometimes things break down. As a whole, this is a lovingly mad

production. It’s filled with care andattention to detail—such as theexpanded set of radio stations, or theway flash radiation storms bathe theworld in a sickly, ominous green hueIt’s a pleasure to pick through theworld to discover new sights, and topick through the perks andcustomization options to conceivethe perfect character build, however

bizarre. Many of Fallout 4’s problemas with every Bethesda RPG before i

are a consequence of what makes thegame unforgettable. That might not

be the neatest conclusion, but itexplains why, 50 hours in, I’m stillhaving fun in Fallout 4. It alsoexplains why, now that I’ve finishedthis review, I’m going to play it formany hours more.

88A brilliant and massivesandbox, albeit largelythe same one thatBethesda has been

making for years.

V E R D I C

F E E L I N G P E R K Y The best perks, no matter the build

L O C K S M I T HRemember thelockpicking in

Skyrim ? Get ready todo that a hundred

more times.

H A C K E RRemember Fallout3 ’s hacking? Get

ready to... you getthe idea.

G U N N U TGain access to new

mods, if you canfind the materials.

A T T A C K D O GMake a good boy

even better bygiving him thepower to pin

enemies.

S C R O U N G E RYou’ll always needammo. This helps

you find more of it.



INEVITABLEA fun campaign can’t save CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 3 from

established series clichés. By Ian Birnbaum

It’s easy torecommend asa loud, dumbaction movie-ish experience

CoD isn’t made by rookie developers,though, so let’s establish a few givens:this is a gorgeous FPS. It features

wild set-pieces, good actors and gunsthat feel great. These are the thingsthat make Call of Duty the giant thatit is. Black Ops 3 has an ambitioussingleplayer campaign (which canalso be played in co-op) that takessome wild chances,which it mostly almostmanages to land, andit’s easy to recommendas a loud, dumb actionmovie-ish experience.

This time aroundwe have a robo-body

with some fancy newtricks. Wall-jumpingand an enhanced combat HUD arepart of it, but the fun stuff includes aswarm of nanobots, the ability to meltcircuit boards, and a sonic pulse thatmakes people puke until they die.The augmentation powers are funenough to use that I don’t care thatthey look, sound, and play just likePlasmids from BioShock.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 hums with tension, pulled in twodirections at once. It desperately wants to be a Hollywood blockbuster action movie, but finds that players, with theirfrustrating insistence on ‘making choices’ and ‘having fun,’keep getting in the way. It’s reborn every year like a pumpkin

spice phoenix and, however many millions are spent to make it bigger andbetter, it always has that same familiar flavor.

These powers are chosen as partof a mission loadout, so you can planahead by picking a shotgun, a rocket

launcher and the ability to makepeople hallucinate attacking birds.Every once in a while, I’d sprintacross a wall, tear out a robot’s heart,throw it at a fuel tank, and blowsomeone’s head off. Enemy

movement isn’tdynamic enough tomake aiming a realchallenge, but I enjoythe improvisation.Mixing movement withmelee, shooting withaugmentation powers,

and environmentalhazards with grenadesinvariably make me feel like a badass.

But while Black Ops 3 loosens up a bit, some of CoD’s bad habits remain.There are turret sequences that don’tcare if you shoot anything as long as

you watch the explosions. There areat least three of those slow-mo

breach-and-clear sequences. But theworst part of the game is in the skies

over Egypt, where a fighter jet attacksequence screamed at me to pull up,pull up, pull up for God’s sake. I tookmy hand off the mouse and watchedthe dogfight resolve itself. Why dothey even bother with this bullshit?

NONSTOP BLOPS

There are no mysteries to themultiplayer: if you like fast-pacedCoD multiplayer, this is your annual

update jam. Most of the guns fromthe campaign are available inmultiplayer, and all feel beefy andpowerful. The big addition is a set ofcharacter classes, each with its ownunique skill. The characters look alittle different, but only in minorways that get completely lost in the

blur of battle. Compared to othercharacter-based multiplayer shooterslike Team Fortress 2, Black Ops 3 classes felt like an afterthought.

The zombie survival mode has been reworked into Left 4 Dead

meets 1940s noir. I love the noirsetting, and there’s some hilarious voice acting from Ron Perlman andJeff Goldblum. A new power-up letsplayers turn into a multi-tentacledCthuloid beast, capable of rippingzombies apart and stunning crowdswith electricity, but this ismechanically the same zombie modewe played in Black Ops 2.

There’s a lot to do and see in themultiplayer modes, even if I do findthem exhausting and repetitive, and Ienjoyed my time in the campaign.

Appreciating Black Ops 3 is like

enjoying a great B-movie: it’s not the best story around and it isn’t going topack an emotional punch, but it’sloud, it’s flashy, and it makes me havea good time. I just wish CoD’s brandof dumb action didn’t come aroundevery 12 months so I could have achance look forward to it for once.

N E E D T O K N O W

WHAT IS IT?

The biggest FPSfranchise in the world

EXPECT TO PAY

$50

DEVELOPER

Treyarch

PUBLISHER

Activision

REVIEWED ON

Windows 8, i5 4690k,8GB RAM, GTX 970

MULTIPLAYER

Online, localsplitscreen

LINK

www.callofduty.com/blackops3

75The graphics get a littleprettier, the story gets alittle darker, and anotherCoD counts time as we

march toward death.

V E R D I C T

B R I N G O U T Y E R D E A D Dos and don’ts of the zombie wave mode

DO save ammo by using your knife inearly rounds.

DO stick close to a friend.

DO rebuild barricades often.

DON’T follow the map. You have agreat sense of direction.

DO wait for clean headshots.

DON’T quote lines from Shaun of theDead. Everyone’s sick of it.

58 FEBRUARY 2016

R E V I E W



Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

R E V I EW

A firefight on an Egyptian oil rigis one of the most interesting.

Somebody order aterrorist, extra crispy?

Moments later he put downhis gun and we shook hands.

In co-op you can help knocked-down mates get back up.





Star Wars Battlefron

R E V I EW

This stormtrooperdidn’t stand a chance.

The walkers are alwaysan impressive sight.

Fett is one of the best‘hero’ characters.



Star Wars Battlefront

R E V I EW

A few more passes and thiswalker will topple over.

Hero blasters cankill in one hit.

They’re tough, but theyain’t invincible.

There’s no reloading,but blasters overheat.

The sound designis incredible.



It feels likethey’ve slicedthe game in

half to sell therest as DLC

memorable names as the RT-97C, A280C, CA-87, T-21, and SE-14C, it’sdifficult to tell them apart. Some havea faster rate of fire, some are morepowerful, some take longer tooverheat, but they all feel vaguely the

same. The moment-to-moment FPScombat lacks punch, which is aproblem in a game that’s largelyabout shooting people.

Star Cards are unlocked as youprogress, and you can bring a ‘hand’of three into battle with

you. These arelimited-use powerswith a cooldown andinclude jetpacks, sniperrifles, thermaldetonators and a reallysatisfying homing shot

that chases locked-onenemies for ages.They’re fun to use, but unlockingthem is painfully slow.

CHILD’S PLAY

It’s in the smaller modes like Blast(team deathmatch, basically) andCargo (capture the flag) that thecracks begin to show. The Star Wars

buzz wears off and you realize that you’re playing a completely rote, by-the-numbers multiplayer FPS. You’re on Tatooine, and there’s asandcrawler over there, but you’re still

just sprinting in circles, killing, dying,killing, dying. Earn XP, unlock a bettergun, kill, die, kill, die. Outside of the

big 40-player modes,Battlefront isdisappointingly generic, and noamount of beautifully crafted,authentically recreated nostalgia canmask that fact.

But it does have some ideas of itsown, including the ability for you toplay a selection of famous Star Warscharacters. The Empire gets Darth

Vader, the Emperor, and Boba Fett,while Leia, Luke, and Han represent

the Rebels. They have increased

health, more powerful attacks, andunique powers including flying (Fett),force-choking (Vader), and droppingpower-ups (Leia). I love watchingplayers flee in terror as I approachthem as Vader, but the heroes are far

from invincible: it only takes thesimplest of coordinated attacks by theopposing team to ‘kill’ them.

In Supremacy and Walker Assault,seeing Vader or Luke charging acrossthe battlefield with their lightsabers

glowing, or Boba Fettfloating overheadlaunching rockets, isgenuinely exciting,

because it happensrelatively rarely. But inHeroes vs Villainsmode, where all six

characters engage in battle at once, it justlooks daft. I laugh every time theEmperor spins through the air likeM. Bison doing a Psycho Crusher inStreet Fighter —not helped by the factthat he sounds like Mr Bean. With afew exceptions (Han’s pretty good),the voice acting is weirdly terrible.

Vader sounds like a man speakinginto a pint glass, and the guy playingLuke couldn’t sound less like MarkHamill if he tried.

For $60, you don’t get much—andthat price isn’t likely to fall any time

soon. After 20 hours with the game, Ifeel like I’ve seen everything severaltimes over. I’m bored of most of themaps, and only feel compelled toreturn to a handful of its nine modes.It feels like they’ve sliced the game inhalf to sell the rest as DLC, and the$50 they’re charging for the seasonpass is ridiculous. There’s little depthto uncover, which has really harmedits longevity for me. I don’t feel likemy skills have developed in anymeaningful way, as they would after20 hours of something like Counter-

Strike , because it’s so basic.

But games are for everyone, andnot every player wants a super deepFPS to master. Battlefront is, for all itflaws, wonderfully accessible. It’spolished, easy to play, and theinterface is simple and intuitive.

They’ve created a game that anyonecan play—from kids to adults—andthat’s admirable. Everyone loves StarWars, and it reflects that mainstreamcross-generational appeal. But thedownside of chasing such a broadaudience is that, as a competitiveshooter, it’s fairly shallow.

It’s a shame there’s no singleplayecampaign either. A selection of funmissions that can be played eitherco-op or solo—an Endor-basedspeeder bike chase, destroying

AT-ATs in the Battle of Hoth,

assaulting Echo base as Vader—areproof that, if they were strungtogether with even a loose story, itcould have worked. These missions,replicating key scenes from the filmswith some artistic license, are amongthe most fun I had with the game—buthere aren’t enough of them.

Ultimately, the best rewards inBattlefront are the emotional ones:the thrill of weaving a speeder bikethrough the trees on Endor, seeingthe twin suns of Tatooine, orwatching Imperial walkers stompacross the Hoth snowfield. The

addition of extra modes, weapons,heroes, and maps might improve thecore shooter experience and give itsome much-needed depth, but whenit costs almost as much as the basegame to get them, you have toquestion whether you’re willing tospend $110 to find out.

72

Brilliantly captures thelook and feel of classicStar Wars, but beneathits cinematic flair lies a

fairly generic shooter.

V E R D I C T

S T A T E O F P L A Y Every mode, from best to worst

W A L K E RA S S A U L TDestroy or

protect a pair ofmassive Imperial

walkers.

S U P R E M A C Y Fight for controlof five points on

a large mapon-foot and in

vehicles.

D R O P Z O N ETwo teams

battle for controlof escape podsas they fall from

the sky.

H E R O H U N TSeven rebels orstormtroopersfight against a

single herocharacter.

C A R G OBasically just

traditionalcapture the flag,but with boxes

instead of flags.

D R O I D R U NCapture and

maintain controlof three Gonkdroids. Why?Who knows.

B L A S TA classic team

deathmatchmode for 20

players. As basicas it gets.

H E R O E S V SV I L L A I N S

Three heroesand three villains

fight to thedeath.

F I G H T E RS Q U A D R O NShip-to-shipdogfights in

iconic Star Warslocations.

B E S T W O R S T

FEBRUARY 2016 6

Star Wars Battlefron

R E V I E W



RATTASHOOTYWARHAMMER: END TIMES—VERMINTIDE nails what great co-op

should be. By Ian Birnbaum

The only thingthat truly

disappoints meis the Skaventhemselves

In the world of Vermintide, the endtimes are extremely nigh. A tide ofangry ratlings, the Skaven, have risenup to swallow the realms of men. In

the city of Ubersreik, a plucky bandof mismatched heroes fights thevermin menace. From their base ofoperations, the team ventures outinto the city’s filthy streets to save theworld from a ratty apocalypse.

Vermintide is inmany ways Left 4 Dead with a Warhammer skin. Characters yellout the locations ofammunition dumpsand bandages, cry outwhen a rush of Skaven

is on the way, and begfor help when they’reinjured. Some missions involvegathering barrels of fuel anddepositing them in a getaway vehicle.You know that swoopy camera movethat pans over every L4D stage, thenzooms into the back of yourcharacter’s head? Vermintide doesthat, too. However, the meat makesVermintide its own experience.

Five distinct characters battleSkaven, each with their ownstrengths, equipment, and playstyles.

Vermintide—or, to use its Fully Licensed Intellectual Propertyname, Warhammer: End Times—Vermintide—is a cooperativeshooter that borrows heavily from Valve’s Left 4 Dead series. It borrows so heavily it feels larcenous, quite frankly, but I’m damned if it isn’t a great homage. And if you’re tired

of zombies, well, here we have rats.

Between missions, players choosegear sets that change how charactersplay. Weapon classes have differentcharacteristics, but individual

weapons have special abilities ordamage boosts. Getting a sword andshield combo can give a new playerthe ability to play the role of partytank. Getting a new, more powerfulwarhammer can be cause for

celebration, an excuseto load up the first leveland try it right away.But while the fiveheroes play in verydifferent ways, as ateam the characters areforced to work together

in a tight group due tothe danger of beingalone—it’s easy to get surrounded oroverwhelmed by a pack of Skaven,and only a friend can revive you.

SPIT AND POLISH

Vermintide’s combat shines with thepolish of expertise. While limitedammo stocks force ballistics to the

background, and controlling angle ordirection doesn’t change a swipe intoa stab—the heroes simply attack,charge up for a special attack, block,

and shove—the system’s simplicityhelps sell the power and solidity ofthe combat. Great sound design addsto the brutality.

Vermintide is also a beautifulgame—or, at least, a beautifulrendition of a town hip-deep in ratshit. In the first level, my entire teamstopped to stare across the rooftopsof Ubersreik bathed in the light of afull moon. Later, the magic in a

mage’s tower twisted the architectureinside until doorways inexplicably ledto upside-down ceilings, and ratkinpoured up horizontal stairways setinto the walls.

The only thing that trulydisappoints me about Vermintide isthe Skaven themselves. As a group,they’re a fine replacement for Left 4

Dead ’s wobbling zombie hoards. Asindividuals, though, the special ratkinare a paper-thin gloss over L4D’sspecial infected. The Rat Ogres havelost their prosthetic sword-arms and

multiple heads and been watereddown until they’re just furry,large-toothed versions of the zombieTank. The Pack Master, whose sole

job in Warhammer lore is to keep RatOgres from killing their own allies,instead skulks around alone lookingfor heroes to drag away: the ratkin

version of the zombie Smoker.However, my quibbles with the

rats are separate from my love offighting these vicious critters:absolutely every bad guy in the gameis a joy to conquer, run from, and kill.Heroic comebacks against

unbelievable odds and acts of greatsacrifice are commonplace.

Vermintide is smart, chaotic, and beautiful. It’s a game that has got mehooked on Warhammer Fantasyfiction in a way I wasn’t before. It’sdifficult, bloody, and it’s my favoriteco-op game to come along in years.

N E E D T O K N O W

WHAT IS IT?

Co-op melee FPS set inWarhammer Fantasy

EXPECT TO PAY

$27

DEVELOPER

Fatshark

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

Windows 8, Core i5,8GB RAM, GTX 970

MULTIPLAYER

Online, co-op

LINK

www.vermintide.com

90It takes too muchinspiration from Left 4

Dead , but Vermintide is nonetheless a brilliant

twist on the formula.

V E R D I C T

M E E T T H E H E R O E S There’s no lack of power here…

V I C T O Rthe witch hunter.Likes: Long walks

on the beach.Dislikes: Sinners,fun of any kind.

K E R I L L I A Nthe elf archer.

Never met a manshe couldn’t killwith a headshot

from 500ft.

B A R D I Nthe dwarf. Goodwith hammers

and axes. Hatesgetting food stuck

in his beard.

S I E N N Athe flame mage.Explodes if she

overheats from herpyrotechnics, but itsure looks pretty.

M A R K U Sthe sergeant.

Harnesses theexplosive power ofhis moustache to

annihilate enemies.

64 FEBRUARY 2016

R E V I E W



Warhammer: End Times—Vermintid

R E V I EW

Skavenslaves are naked andarmed with broken metal.

Stormvermin are armoredand always a tough fight.

This place is burning downlike it’s the end of the world.

Verticality and open space aregood for a blackpowder headshot.

Sure, the location is nice,but look at this layout.



SMALL STEPSANNO 2205 is a lean city builder that aims for the Moon but is a little short

of rocket boost to reach it. By Angus Morrison

You lay downsome dwellings

and witnessthe havoc

they wreak

With a spate of promotions, Itransformed my LiverpudlianWorkers into female Operators.

That’s aspiration for you. Too soon,however, I’d feel the consequences ofmy scorn for the working classes:Anno 2205’s bourgeoisie areinsufferable, hardly moving in beforedemanding fresh fruit, vitamin drinksand, yes, organic rice.This is standard farefor the city-buildingseries. It’s a balancingact involving cashflow, infrastructureand the increasinglyunreasonable desires of

your citizens. There’s afaint caring for theplanet moral about the whole thingalthough history seems on-course torepeat itself given your inhabitants’incredible propensity to consume.Cybernetics are all the rage in thetemperate islands that remain afterthe world’s sea-level rise in Anno2070, while the hipsters on the Moonwant Rejuvenators.

Ah yes: the Moon. Anno 2205 pitsyou against various NPC corporationsin a race to colonize the Moon andextract its delicious helium-3 with

the long-term goal of building afusion reactor. Supply lines must be

I’m a soft southern man with typist’s hands. I grind my own coffeeand I pronounce ‘quinoa’ not at all like it’s spelled. You canunderstand my terror, then, upon discovering that the entirety ofmy nascent megacorp’s all-male workforce was made up ofLiverpudlians. They were polite enough when I stopped by to

make sure I was meeting their basic needs, but simmering class war wouldsurely impact the financials—I had to gentrify, and fast.

established and maintained as amatter of priority, factoring theshipping costs into your budget. Like

all city builders it’s an optimizationchallenge but, on standard difficultywhere money flows and workers areeager to serve, not a tough one. TheLunar Licensing Program is astep-by-step guide through the

campaign that sits in your mission logalongside other ‘quests’doled out by yourcompetitors. It tells youwhat to build andwhen, leaving you toplug the funding gaps

on your own initiative. You have to bereactive rather than proactive in

Anno games. Strategy doesn’t comeinto it: you lay down some dwellingsand witness the havoc they wreakupon commodity levels beforeimproving those facilities to restore

balance. Anyone coming in fromCities: Skylines will find itminimalistic, allowing you to expand

just about anywhere with a roadwithout regard for zoning and correctmistakes as you make them.

Once Modules are introduced,

penalty-free relocation becomes anenormous benefit. No longer do you

have to build two whole factories todo a job one slightly larger factorycould accomplish. It’s cheaper andmore efficient to expand an existingfactory, which necessitates shunting alot of stuff out of the way, particularlyon the Arctic maps, where residenceshave to cluster around industry forheat. Lunar maps dictate that shieldgenerators be established first to stopmeteors making holes in rooftops.

These subtle variations are a pleasantchange of pace from the lawlesssprawl of the temperate regions.

There’s a sub-plot to Anno’stypically insipid RTS-lite elements inwhich you pilot a fleet of battleshipsaround ice floes and islands blowingup Moon terrorists and completingfetch quests for fellow CEOs. Theseare optional distractions foradditional resources—you can alsoprogress by expanding your cities.

GOOD LOOKING

Anno 2205 does look gorgeous. Thisis a city builder that can easily tax your rig rendering for a level of detailthat has no value in itself but stillmade me smile when I realized thatpeople on the Moon do hop insteadof walk. But I recommend installing

Anno 2205 to an SSD if you’ve got theoption. Lengthy loading times

between your corporate overviewand each individual region put me offpopping between maps as often asthe game seemed to want me to.

This is the most streamlined,straightforward Anno yet. It’s pacier

and much more forgiving than anyother city builder, which makes it agreat introduction to the genre. The

balancing act lacks depth, however,and coupled with the lackluster RTScomponent, it’s hard to see what aCities: Skylines veteran would get outof Anno 2205’s gentle coaching.

N E E D T O K N O W

WHAT IS IT?

A futuristic city builderand RTS-lite.

EXPECT TO PAY

$60

DEVELOPER

Ubisoft Blue Byte

PUBLISHER

Ubisoft

REVIEWED ON

Core i5-3570K, 16GBRAM, GeForce GTX

780Ti

MULTIPLAYER

None

LINK

anno-game.ubi.com/anno-2205

73An ideal gateway into thecity management sim,but with too little roomfor forward-planning for

city-builder regulars.

V E R D I C T

W A G E S L A V E S We can’t all be CEO

W O R K E R SYour basic factorygrunts and, after theinitial shock of that

accent, my favorite underlings. Theywant water, food and access toinformation, none of which you haveto fly in from the Arctic.

O P E R A T O R SI’d ship them all back toShoreditch wereShoreditch not

underwater these days. Blending adesire for organic food with a lust forcybernetics, hipsters are the firsttest of your management skills.

E X E C U T I V E SExecs want skyscrapersand luxury produce.How very predictable.

Still, I can make luxury food withouthaving to go through a tediousloading screen, so they’re definitelyalright by me.

66 FEBRUARY 2016

R E V I E W



Anno 220

R E V I EW

Organic rice and sunfloweroil. What have I become?

Space terrorist andbogeyman Virgil Drake.

Who authorized timeoff to gawp?

The RTS is mostly about pilingin and raining down nukes.

Molybdenum is your rewardfor strip-mining the Arctic.



ARTE OF WARTALES OF ZESTIRIA is a return to form for the series, and feels right at home

now that it’s made it to PC. By Daniella Lucas

If you don’t likeJRPGs this

won’t be thegame to change

your mind

Like Metal Gear Solid , Tales ofZestiria is one of those stories whereif you try to explain the complexitiesto a newcomer they’ll start backing

away in fear, but all of that talk of‘Prime Lords’, ‘Squires’, andmisappropriated names fromWestern fantasy legends will makeperfect sense to you. Mostly, however,you’ll spend your time exploringtowns and dungeons, taking in a talefilled with melodrama, and smackingbad guys over the head with yoursword in realtime battles.

It all gets off to quite a slow start,but the intro to this 40+ hour game isnever dull. The opening area feelslush and vibrant despite it actually

being quite technicallysparse. The brightanime-style and gentlegreens of the rollinghills are charming,soundtracked by ascore with an infectioussense of adventure. If,like me, you playedTales of Symphonia onGamecube, then the medieval fantasyvibe will instantly feel familiar. If youdidn’t, trust me, it’s a good thing.

I found Sorey and his merry bandof invisible friends very likeable

despite their questionable taste infeathery earrings. The scripting andcharacterization for each partymember makes each one feelrelatable and distinct. Edna the EarthSeraphim, for example, may look likeyour typical, sweet lolita anime trope,but she’s actually sarcastic anddeadpan. She delights in winding upthe rest of your little troupe, and feelslike a twisted version of Daria.

At some points you’ll find yourselfhaving to make some tough decisions,and while they don’t really affect

your progress they do feel as though

The Tales series has been around for 20 years and is known forits heavy console ties, so it comes as a bit of a shock to see it’s finally made it to PC with the release of Tales of Zestiria. Amostly traditional Japanese RPG, Zestiria follows heroSorey—a human with the ability to see the powerful and

magical Seraphim—in his bid to rid the world of evil Hellion beasts.

they have consequences in the waythey affect your team mentally. Earlyon you have to decide if you want tohelp fix a bridge using your powers in

front of a large crowd. Do you riskthem fearing you and your‘monstrous’ abilities, or wait untilthey’re gone and delay your journeyin the process. There’s not a lot ofdepth to it, but the characterisation isso well done that I couldn’t help butfeel emotionally connected to Sorey. Idecided to be hasty to help thetownsfolk faster, and felt animmediate pang of sadness as they all

backed off in fear, leaving Sorey tostare glumly at his feet.

ARTE OF WAR

Unlike other JRPGssuch as Final FantasyVII , Zestiria usesaction-based combatrather than traditionalturn-based battles. It’ssurprisingly simple toget with grips with, as

you use a combinationof physical strikes and magical ‘Artes’.While it can seem button-mashy atfirst, new elements such as

Armatization add depth, letting youfuse with a Seraphim partner for

increased damage.Even the equipment system is full

of strategic details to exploit. Insteadof just swapping out cotton vests forstronger platemail and the like, youcan fuse items together to receivespecial effects and bonuses. Theshiny new amber tiara I picked upabout five hours in didn’t come closeto trumping my regular old dime-store-costume one, as I’d alreadyfused it with more useful abilities.

Despite an engaging story duringwhich I became increasingly attached

to Zestiria’s young heroes, the

adventure can feel a little clumsy inplaces. Being a port of a PS4 game,it’s best played on a gamepad as someof the keyboard button-mapping feelsawkward in combat, and the cameracan get stuck at inconvenient anglesif a fight breaks out near a wall. I alsofound myself having to awkwardlystand in just the right place to checka monument or trigger a conversation,and it can be hard to figure out where

to go next. There’s a star icon tosignal important events, but it’ll onlyappear if you’re in the same maparea, which isn’t helpful if you needto be in a different zone entirely.

There are also a few points where‘traditional’ crosses over into just

being needlessly old-fashioned. Youstill need to make use of save pointsdotted around the countryside, but atleast there’s a quick-save feature forwhen you’re really in a pinch. Andwhile Zestiria’s dungeons are a hugeimprovement on previous series

installments (I actually exploredthings rather than just looking forthat one stereotypical dead end thatalways has a treasure chest at the endof it) areas can still feel like fancycorridors that ferry you between plotpoints. However the game hides it allwell, making up for its weak points

by having such fantastic style, and thestory is involving enough to forgiveany minor discrepancies.

If you don’t like JRPGs then thiswon’t be the game to change yourmind, but it’s one of the best in theTales series. Fans will love the vast

improvements on previous entries,and the fact it shares a similar senseof spirit to that of the legendary Talesof Symphonia (also coming to PC, andfree with Zestiria if you pre-orderedit). If you’re into the genre but havenever played a Tales game beforethen this is a great place to start.

N E E D T O K N O W

WHAT IS IT?

A traditional JapaneseRPG, and the 15th entry

in the Tales series.

EXPECT TO PAY

$50

DEVELOPER

Bandai Namco

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

i5-3230 CPU, 8GM RAM

MULTIPLAYER

None

LINK

store.steampowered.com/

app/351970/

82It’s got nothing on FF atits best, but it’s still anexcellent example of thegenre and has some fun

twists on RPG traditions.

V E R D I C T

68 FEBRUARY 2016

R E V I E W



Tales of Zestiria

R E V I EW

Alisha may be a princess, butshe’s also a tough knight.

Dungeons have widecorridors for ease of combat.

The towns may be empty,but they still feel alive.

This is a crowded roombyTales ’s standards.

Zestiria likes to ‘borrow’ fromEuropean legends. This is Ladylake.

T E L L I N GA T A L EWhile Zestiria is the firstTales game to come to PC,it’s the 15th in the series.Some have fared betterthan others. Here are theseries’ highs and lows. 1995 1997 2000 2003 2005 2008 2009 2011 2012 2015

Gold standard

Could do better

Falling short

Disappointing

Tales ofPhantasia

Tales ofDestiny

Tales ofEternia

Tales ofSymphonia

Tales ofthe Abyss

Tales ofVesperia

Tales of Graces

Tales ofXillia

Tales ofXillia 2

Tales ofZestiria

Most of the time you look like you’re talking to yourself.



With every new game of Kingdom,you spawn as a king or queen atop ahorse and canter along a forested 2Dplane until you stumble upon a fewloose coins. They can be spent onrecruiting new villagers, tools,building fortifications,or on mysteriousmonoliths hidden inthe forest. The firstrequired purchase is a

campfire. Throw a coininto the empty coinspace hovering above itand you’ve kicked offyour kingdom. You’reprompted to give some wanderingpeasants a coin, then to drop a fewmore into bows and hammers. Yournew followers will pick up whatevertool is nearest to them, providedthey’re not already equipped. Andthat’s where Kingdom stopsexplaining anything.

Mystery and subtlety are central

to Kingdom. Nothing is overtly

K

ingdom is easy at first. My job is to assign peasants tasks asthey stave off waves of monsters, and it’s like working on aslow-moving assembly line. But then the conveyor beltspeeds up and I stop recognizing the machinery. Imps attack

in numbers greater than my army of archers can handle, andphantasms appear and fly over my highest walls to chow on my builders.It’s a merciless shift from Zen to ten that robs me of my peace of mind.

communicated. Close scrutiny ofotherwise simple aspects of the game(animation, musical cues, lighting) is

vital to achieve the highest buildefficiency. For example, I found thatif I had tools ready for new villagers

back at my hold, whenI recruited them attheir camps deep in theforest, they wouldscurry just a little bit

faster than normal to join me.

But the motive topay attention didn’tcome without failure,

and I failed a lot. Monsters can attackfrom any side every night, and if theydecimate your camp of supplies andcoins, they’ll go for your crown next,which means it’s time to start over. Inmy first hour or so, I didn’t mind.Failure was often the result ofmissing an obvious cue, gamemechanic, or because I just made a

dumb mistake. But once I got a few

hours of experience in and figuredout how to build more efficiently, asingle game could last upwards of 45minutes. Lessons start to come in

smaller doses or not at all. There’s toomuch important mechanical depthhidden in Kingdom’s presentation tosend the player back half an hourwithout teaching them something.Failing these long games tested me.

Luckily, the music went a longway to keeping me sane. A softchiptune soundtrack rings in eachmorning with pleasant harmonicsand pulls my patience out of the mudwith a gentle tug or two. It serves as alovely backdrop to a beautiful,mysterious world I desperately wantto explore, which is why it’s so

painful to find the game such a grind.There were thrilling moments wherean army of monsters were throwingthemselves against my last defensesand I barely managed to make it tomorning—it just takes too long

between failures to reach the pointwhere I find opportunity to grow.

N E E D T O K N O W

WHAT IS IT?

A minimalistmanagement game with

lots of secrets

EXPECT TO PAY

$8.50

DEVELOPER

Nolo, Licorice

PUBLISHER

Raw Fury

REVIEWED ON

Win 7, i7 860, 8GBDDR3, GTX 760

MULTIPLAYER

None

LINK

www.rawfury.com/games/kingdom

70Kingdom is a fun,gorgeous managementgame that quicklydevolves into

frustrating obscurity.

V E R D I C T

BRUTAL STATEKINGDOM is a Zen garden that will do its best to break you. By James Davenport

The motive topay attention

didn’t come without failure,and I failed a lot

70 FEBRUARY 2016

Kingdom

R E V I E W

Villagers live in the forest. Toss’em a coin and they’re yours.

Whenever the moon is high,so is my anxiety.





MAJOR LASER STARCRAFT II: LEGACY OF THE VOID brings a seventeen-year epic to

a fitting close. By Chris Thursten

Legacy supports thenotion thatStarCraft is adifficult game

StarCraft’s competitive element hasbecome the thing it is best known forover the course of the series’ long life.

That makes sense: it’s the originalstadium-filling esport and one of themost skill-intensive games ever made.For the long-term fans who knowStarCraft primarily in this regard,Legacy of the Void marks the start ofthe game’s new era. It’sa suite of new units,features and balancechanges that will definethe character of thegame for the nextcouple of years.

From my position of

limited skill, I can tellyou that Legacy of theVoid ’s changes make the competitivegame faster, more skill-intensive, andless fiddly. There’s a greater emphasison making big decisions early. Youbegin your match with more workerunits than you used to, and thebusiness of setting up your economyhas been streamlined. Fights happenfaster and, as a consequence, matchesare shorter. You might get caught outby a rush strategy you didn’t see

Iam not the world’s greatest StarCraft player. That—currently—is aguy called sOs. You might have heard of him: he was the one liftingthat heavy-looking trophy at the World Championship atBlizzCon. sOs became the world’s greatest StarCraft player bydefeating somebody called Life in a seven-game series—a test of

physical dexterity, mental acuity and psychological endurance in excess ofany other competitive computer game.

coming: you type ‘GG’, surrender, tabout to TeamLiquid, read up on yourcounters, tab back, and you’re playing

again within a minute. It is easierthan ever to lose evenings to theladder in this way.

That elevated skill ceiling is aconsequence of new units that

become dramatically more powerfulif you’re capable ofmicromanaging themeffectively. Oneexample is the Protoss

Adept, a rangedinfantry unit that canact as an alternative toStalkers and Zealots. In

and of itself, the Adeptis capable enough—butits real power comes from PsionicTransfer, which creates a ghostlyduplicate of the Adept that iscontrolled separately. Thesedoppelgangers are invulnerable andafter seven seconds the Adeptteleports to the ghost’s location.Suddenly, new strategic pathwaysopen: around entrenched positionsand into worker lines, past theenemy’s own targeted abilities and

(hopefully) into victories that go beyond cheeses and strict counters.

Legacy of the Void wholeheartedlysupports the notion that StarCraft is adifficult game and that player skillshould be respected. If you get tootired or anxious to climb the ladder,there are also automated tournament

brackets that run every couple ofhours. These allow you to experiencesome of the drama of structured play

without any of the logistical hassle. You’re playing for bragging rights,ultimately, but it rounds out theexperience and it’s something I wishmore competitive games would offer.

OPEN SPACE

The reason Legacy of the Void comeshighly recommended, however, isthat it also supports the idea that youshould be able to have fun regardlessof how good you are. The competitivegame has been allowed to change inways that make it deeper, but the

game as a whole is broad andgenerous in its provision of entrypoints for new players.

If competitive StarCraft has become an art, then Legacy of theVoid ’s campaign offers a color-by-numbers alternative for those stilldeveloping their abilities. As in Wingsof Liberty and Heart of the Swarm,Blizzard treat singleplayer as its ownentity, with its own units and rules.The final part of the trilogy tasks youwith uniting the fragmented factionsof the Protoss race from aboard anancient warship, the Spear of Adun.

Your ship and the factions you pickup form the basis of the extra toys

you get to play with. Where JamesRaynor had his upgrades andKerrigan had her mutations, ProtossHierarch Artanis picks betweenmultiple versions of the same unittype. There are Templar and DarkTemplar variants on the basic meleezealot, for example, with furtheroptions unlocked as additionalProtoss forces are recruited.

Then, the Spear of Adun itself can be upgraded by investing resources

gathered by completing optional

N E E D T O K N O W

WHAT IS IT?

The fifth and final entryin Blizzard’s sci-fi RTS

series.

EXPECT TO PAY

$25

DEVELOPER

Blizzard

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

Intel i5-2500K, 16GBRAM, GeForce GTX 970

MULTIPLAYER

Local and online

LINK

www.battle.net

N O T E V E N M Y F I N A L F O R M A single Protoss unit and its variants

72 FEBRUARY 2016

R E V I E W

P H O E N I XAn air-superiority fighter that can

use a Graviton Beam to lift up to twoground units to fight them where

they’re helpless.

C O R S A I RReturning from the original game,

Corsairs can now disable theattacks of ground units below them,granting them a potent support role.

M I R A G EA robotic variant on the Phoenix

with weaker Graviton Beam that can‘phase’ to avoid damage. A little

more forgiving of sloppy play.



StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void

R E V I EW

Terrans have few lasers. Thisis why they are awful.

The lasers live inside thisspaceship. Hello, lasers!

Spice up your relationshipwith lasers: do it vertically!

I hold StarCraft II ’s manylasers in high regard.




R E V I EW

Artanis doesn’t need a mouthbecause his eyes are lasers.

I wouldn’t be where I am todaywithout each of these lasers.

I am losing this game becausethere aren’t enough lasers.

This custom Void Ray? Why,that’ll be more lasers.

This is a bad laser, but I don’tmind. Naughty laser!



This is a gamefrom the

universe wherethe RTS never

went away

objectives within each mission. Someof these upgrades are passive, such asincreased build speed, increasedstarting supplies, and shieldregeneration. Others are active,deployed mid-battle from a newcommand interface along the top ofthe screen. These include directattacks—orbital strikes,

bombardments, a giant moveablelaser, and so on—and support powers,such as the ability to freeze time forenemy units or summon a Pylonalong with reinforcements anywhereon the battlefield.

Taken in combination, this degreeof customization enables you to tailor

your approach to suit your style andskill level. I prefer a slow siege, withStalkers supported by forcefield-emitting Sentries and, later,Immortals and Colossi. I put together

a tweaked variant on that, withartillery-spewing Immortal variantsprotecting a new kind of Sentry thatlays down a power grid, allowing meto warp fresh Stalkers right to thefront line. As the scale of eachmission increases,there’s a real thrill toseeing a plan like thiscome together: theglow of dozens ofProtoss units warpingin at once, the angryred beams of custom

Void Rays strafingwaves of zerglings thatpop just so.

After over five years of StarCraft II , the new missions don’t manage tofeel quite as fresh or original asWings of Liberty’s did when it cameout. Though I wouldn’t say therewere any especially weak links,certain objectives get repetitive aftera while. You will track down anddestroy three different objectiveswhile also hunting for two or threedifferent optional objectives onseveral worlds and in several

different contexts, albeit with newunits and powers to prevent eachencounter from feeling exactly thesame as the last.

FORM AND VOID

There are certainly exceptions to thisrule. One mission strands your baseon a landlocked island with minimalresources, but allows you to movethat island along rails to reach newareas. Another allows you tocommand three different squads ofProtoss hero units in succession,

completing multiple objectives at

once in three different parts of aworld. In still another you join alliedTerran forces in a battle against theircorrupt counterparts. Every fewminutes, a psychic blast leaves everyTerran on the battlefield

incapacitated—friends and foe alike.This is either an opportunity to laywaste to a defenseless enemy or timeto defend your stricken allydepending on how ruthless you’refeeling. There’s rarely a mission

where Legacy of theVoid doesn’t innovatealong these lines, butcertain designs standout more than others.

The core Protosscampaign is theshortest of the series so

far, but it’s bookended by mini-campaignsthat, collectively, amount to asubstantial and largely gratifyingconclusion to the series. Thenebulous cosmic threat spoken of incutscenes from Brood War onwardsfinally arrives, and is dealt with not

just by the Protoss but by the Terranand Zerg characters that you’ve cometo know as well. Raynor and Kerriganget their ending, as do Zeratul,

Artanis, and all of the other Protosswho (if you’re me) you’ve probablyconfused with each other over the

almost two decades that Blizzard has been telling this story.

There was a risk that a Protossnarrative could end up feeling dryand this holds true to a certaindegree. The Protoss are part elf, part

Vulcan, part Marvel Comics Asgardian: they’re big and gold andShakespearean and silly, and if youtake the time to talk to everybodyonboard the Spear of Adun you’llhave more than your share ofconversations about Templars andNerazim and Tal’darim and the Khala

and so on. Blizzard commits to this

wholeheartedly and a hugeinvestment has been made infurnishing the campaign withimpressive cinematic moments. If

you are a fan already, this is a party being put on to serve your very

specific interests. If you are not, itmay mean little if you haven’t at leastplayed Wings of Liberty and Heart ofthe Swarm. Nonetheless, it has heartthat loud technicolor exploding metaalbum cover heart that finds its wayinto most Blizzard games.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

For the first time in StarCraft II ,some of that freeform campaign feelmakes its way into multiplayer. Inco-op, you and a friend (or an onlinestranger) pick commanders that each

offer a different spin on their factioncomplete with unique special powerand distinct units. You then take onobjective-based missions at varyingdifficulty levels for XP, which unlocknew abilities, units, and so on. This isa brilliant addition: it gets more lifeout of units designed for singleplayerand provides a welcoming way intomultiplayer for those daunted by it

Legacy of the Void feels like aBlizzard game from another era—one where the box you buy (ordownload, I guess) contains a wide

variety of experiences and promises

to sustain investment for a long timeto come. This is a game from theuniverse where the RTS never wentaway, where they kept getting madeand improved over the course ofdecades. I’d say “they don’t makethem like this any more”—but theyclearly do.

91A brilliant strategy gamethat manages to be bothbroad and deep,challenging and

accessible.

V E R D I C T

S P E A K I N G I N T O N G U E SWhich of these words do the Protoss not regularly say to one another?

K H A L A A M O N

T A L ’ D A R I M B E N E G E S S E R I T

D A E L A A M P S I B L A D E

A V O C A D O P U R I F I E R

G U Y F I E R I E N T A R O

W E H A V E P L E N T Y O F V E S P E N E G A S

A n s w e r s : B e n e G e s s e r i t , A v o c a d o , G u y F i e r i , W e h a v e p l e n t y o f V e s p e n e g a s

FEBRUARY 2016 7


R E V I E W



GTA V captures the

ocean’s otherworldly

awfulness like no other

game. It is a disorienting

hall of mirrors, but one in

which you can swim through the mirrors

endlessly and in all directions until

pressure crushes your body like a

ketchup sandwich filled with crisps. The

sea is like space with the added threat ofmonsters that will eat you, poison you,

and wilfully confuse you by pretending

to be rocks. That’s why I respect

swimmers more than astronauts.

I’m about to embark on the ultimate

dive. I shall see great schools of

flamboyant fish, high-five dolphins, and

witness the majesty of humpback

whales before bravely trying to stab

one. As homebody Michael pours into

an unflattering wetsuit and snorkels out

from his submarine dock, the vibrant

coral reef falls away until there’s nothing

but cold empty blue. Listening through

“Michael has no businessin Poseidon’s domain”

GTA V’s ocean drowns me in dread

ANNOYINGLY HUMBLED IN THEAWE-INSPIRING PRESENCE OFNATURE, I PADDLE BACK TO SHORE

ome on, ocean.will fight you.

B E N G R I F F I N

THIS MONTH

Almost encountered what

might have been a shark.

ALSO PLAYED

Fallout 4

headphones gives me the sensation myface is submerged in a fishbowl, the

sounds of forceful breathing and that

muffled flubflubflub triggering

claustrophobia as bubbling oxygen

pockets escape my mask. I’m trapped.

What if I sneeze? What if I have an itch?

What if I get bored? Man, the surface is

all the way up there.

FOR REAL

I know Los Santos’ Pacific is realistic

because I went snorkeling in real life last

year for 30 seconds. I took one look at

the infinite void under my flapping feet

then returned to the boat spitting briny

seawater and reevaluating my place in

the universe (I was actually in Madeira).

Like me, Michael has no business in

Poseidon’s domain. Who really knows

what’s down here? There could be a

portal to another universe. There could

be a big squid. My mind starts to play

tricks. I picture a great white barnacle-

covered tentacle uncurling from thedepths and pulling me downward past

an array of increasingly ugly fish.

In reality I’d already be back on the

boat, but this isn’t reality—just a

hideously accurate crack at one that

might as well be. So I push on. That’s

how I swim, by pushing the water away

76 FEBRUARY 2016

E X T R A L I F ECONTINUED ADVENTURES IN GAMING



I’m crouching in a dark

corner, watching a group of

survivors. They’ve got guns,

and they’ll open fire if they

see me emerge from the shadows. I

don’t blame them—a deadly creature is

prowling the station. But I need to get

past them, and I won’t survive a straight

firefight. So I decide to do something

terrible. I craft a noisemaker and toss it

in their direction. They panic and dash

towards the electronic shrieking, gunsprimed. Then I hear a noisy thud from

above in the vents. A black, curled

shape drips from a hole in the ceiling.

The alien is here.

NOISY SAVIOR

I can’t see what’s happening—the

noisemaker bounced around a corner

when I threw it so the survivors are now

out of view—but I can hear the sound of

screaming, thrashing, snarling, and the

wet splash of blood. I can’t help but

wince. The alien is ripping the survivors

to shreds. Suddenly, there’s silence.

Then I hear the loud stomp of the

beast’s footsteps as it hunts for anothe

victim. But there are none, and it slinks

back through a vent cover. Silence. Wel

that’s certainly solved my problem.

I use this method many moretimes before the end. Whenever I see

a group of gun-toting survivors, out

come the noisemakers. Is it morally

reprehensible? Maybe, but I’d feel a lot

worse if the people I’m sending the alie

to eviscerate weren’t looting and

shooting people. It’s an interesting

relationship: the alien is both my

relentless hunter and my savior. I even

start to feel attached to it when it clears

a path for me. I love you, you big

terrifying bastard.

This kind of systemic design is one o

the many reasons I count Alien: Isolatio

as one of my favorite games of all time.While there aren’t as many things to

play with as in games such as Deus Ex

or BioShock , I like the way it trades

complexity for an elegant, streamlined

set of rules, enemy behaviors, and

gadgets. This means whether you’re up

against humans, Working Joes, or the

alien, there are multiple fun, interesting

ways to distract, exploit, or disable

them. Unfortunately, many of the

Isolation team have drifted away to

other studios or projects, so we may

never see another game like Alien:

Isolation again.

“I hear screaming,thrashing, and snarling”

like I’m disgusted by its very presence,

because I am. Everything out here

sucks. Whales are clumsy. Dolphins are

annoying. Turtles are all right, a bit slow

maybe. Not that I’ve seen one. That is

until a vague gray shape suddenly formsup ahead and my mind plays that scene

in Jaws of Richard Dreyfuss in the shark

cage wiping his goggles before

confirming, yes, he is utterly screwed.

This is scarier than any gang war.

I look down to check there are no

sharks below me, then left and right to

check for sharks to my flanks, then up,

then down again. Swimming in the sea

is like crossing a road that extends into

every conceivable angle and all the cars

have teeth: the second you’ve checked

one angle for danger you have to check

another. “Left is clear, right is clear, but

what about left agai-AAARRGH!” is howI imagine my imminent death will sound.

I practice a few painfully slow

underwater jabs with brass knuckles,

but what works on tramps in

underpasses when no one’s watching

probably won’t work on predators that

have evolved over millennia for the sole

purpose of killing me personally so, fed

up of cloying paranoia and annoyingly

humbled in the awe-inspiring presence

of nature, I paddle back to shore and

take a taxi to my big mansion so I can

drink wine and watch TV. Thanks but no

thanks, ocean.

Loving the alien in ALIEN: ISOLATION

Never get thisclose to the alien.

“Hi, taxi? Yeah, could I geta pick-up? Uh, the sea.”

A N D Y K E L L Y

THIS MONTH

Grew strangely attached to a

ruthless killing machine.

ALSO PLAYED

Fallout 4

FEBRUARY 2016 7

THE GAMES WE LOVE RIGHT NOW

N O W P L A Y I N G



There are 10,000 people

inRocket League ’s new

Mutators matchmaking

bracket tonight. In there,

you get a randomselection of ‘fun’ variations on traditional

Rocket League —think hockey pucks, or

lowered gravity, or a larger ball with

different physics. How amusing!

Imagine all of the fun times I can have!

I was quite excited going into a

match with these on, but after two brief

games with the time warp modifier—

which slows down the game whenever

someone’s about to take a shot, but

actually just feels like the game is

simulating lag—I wasn’t impressed. I

then tried out a game with a bigger ball

and anti-gravity on. Oh cool! It’s a

skill-based game that now requires…less skill. Rad!

It’s emblematic of my relationship

with Rocket League as a whole, which

has been complicated since launch. I

know that the Mutators are a very

generous freebie and that you can just

completely ignore them and have

Rocket League as it always is, but for

some reason I have emotionally

heightened responses to anything

relating to this game. Something free

and potentially cool comes along and

I’m all like, ‘NAH MATE.’ What a dick.

Still, the Mutators suggest that Psynoix

can’t improve upon pure Rocket

League , particularly with novelty extras

that make you thankful when the match

is finally over. In anti-gravity it’s

particularly irritating because you have

to wait for the ball to hit the floor before

the match times out—and, of course,

every juggling prick thinks they’re the

life of the bloody party and the game

carries on forever.

That aside, my dynamic with RocketLeague is as temperamental as ever.

I’ve deleted it off my hard drive at least

three times in four weeks, and I’d been

languishing in the middle of Bronze III in

2v2 ranked because I’ve had such poor

fortune with talentless teammates

(that’s right, it’s nothing to do with me,

“Every juggling prick thinks they’rethe life of the bloody party”Getting all ten minutes of fun out of ROCKET LEAGUE’s new Mutators

I’m brilliant). Ever since the rankings

were reset I’ve been booted down to

Bronze II as well, provoking a feeling not

dissimilar to being put in the bottom

group for school sports.

LESS TOXIC

There are reasons to be cheerful with

Rocket League , however. Anecdotally I’d

say the audience seems a lot less toxic

than it did a month or so ago—cynically I

want to attribute it to the likes of

Assassin ’s Creed and Call of Duty

coming out on PS4 and therefore

distracting the attention of a certain

type of teenager, but it could just be

good luck. I’ve had nothing but positive

experiences lately—a lot of ‘ggs’ at the

end of the matches, and many polite

apologies when people punt the ball intotheir own net in ranked, during which I

remain silent in team chat while

grabbing a pair of drying pants off my

radiator in real life and pelting them

across the room.

Plus, you can now stick a PC Gamer

flag on your car, which is nice, though

we are in there with Neogaf, Unreal

Tournament 2004 and Reddit, so we’re

not really that special. See? I couldn’t

even have a healthy attitude about free

stuff involving us, which should pander

to my stupid ego. Screw this game. I

love it.

SOMETHING FREE AND POTENTIALLYCOOL COMES ALONG AND I’M ALLLIKE, ‘NAH MATE.’ WHAT A DICK

This is the most exciting-looking way to have no fun.

S A M U E L R O B E R T S

THIS MONTH

Wormed his way up and down

Bronze III with other has-beens.

ALSO PLAYED

Silent Hill 2, Overwatch

78 FEBRUARY 2016

THE GAMES WE LOVE RIGHT NOW

N O W P L A Y I N G

Oh yay, I’mso fulfilled.



I ’ve heard some amazing

anecdotes from 80 Days

players. Stories of

mystery, adventure, and

quiet, sad failure.

Looking over the achievement list, it’s

clear that a lot can happen on Fogg and

Passepartout’s trip. It sounds rather

exciting: a wager, a time limit, and

guaranteed hijinks. I travel a lot, but the

most eventful journey I’ve ever taken

was in an unairconditioned train thatstunk oppressively of human

excrement. I’m in the mood for

something more romantic.

Instead I get mild adventure,

pleasant conversation and accidental

efficiency. We depart from London, and

I quickly establish Passepartout as the

unflappable Fogg’s unflappable valet. I

will be calm and dependable; a man of

the world, intrigued at the march of

progress. Each time we arrive at a city, I

plan out the route ahead—sometimes

negotiating an earlier departure, other

times exploring in search of faster ormore direct routes.

Before long it’s day 19 and we’re in

Istanbul. Some canny trading means

we’ve got £11,000 in the bank. In all, it’s

been pretty uneventful. There was an

incident with some pirates, but they

were actually pretty chill. Most games

reward efficiency, but I think here it’s to

my detriment. Taking a train to Iran, I

catch a passenger using suction cups to

scale the length of the train’s exterior.

That seems mysterious, but, before

anything comes of it, we’re in Tehran. I

talk to some blacksmiths instead. They

seem nice.

SPLASHING THE CASH

Herat, Quetta and Lahore fly by. It’s day

28, and we’re in Dehli. I find a retiredairship pilot rumored to have the fastest

ship in the world. I goad her into proving

her claim by taking us to Hong Kong.

She challenges me to produce £10,000.

What the hell, it’s time for some

adventure. The pilot hates the English,

and has called her ship the Death of the

Empire. The whole journey passes

without incident. We’ve been traveling

for just over 30 days, and we’re already

in China. Why am I so good at this?

“I get pleasant conversation andaccidental efficiency”Unintentional achievement in 80 DAYS

Finally, in Hong Kong, some intrigue

An undercover detective claims Fogg is

wanted for stealing £50,000. He drugs

me with opiates in a plot to loosen my

tongue and I end up wandering the

streets looking for my master. I hear a

rumor that someone English-looking

boarded an airship for Yokohama. I

follow. I’m penniless, so I join the circus

in the hope of earning some cash.

There, in the crowd at my first

performance, I spot Fogg.It feels like I’m collecting the first ha

of every story—pirates, train-scaling

thieves, unscrupulous detectives...

these all feel like plot threads I’ve

misplaced before the payoff. I’m

becoming increasingly reckless in the

pursuit of drama. In Washington, I

charter a flight to Ponta Delgada. As it

leaves, I’m given an option: bribe the

navigator to take us to London instead.

It’s a gamble, given the airship’s fuel

load. I take it happily. We crash outside

of the UK. Hours later, a rescue ship

picks us up and takes us the remainingdistance. 67 days and only one

life-threatening disaster. I’m a bit

disappointed. Next time, I decide, I’ll ge

Fogg killed. That’ll be interesting.

HE DRUGS ME WITH OPIATES IN A

PLOT TO LOOSEN MY TONGUE AND

I END UP WANDERING THE STREETS

It was nothing. That’sthe problem, really.

OK, we did helpdeliver a baby.

P H I L S A V A G E

THIS MONTH

Failed to find a meaningful

adventure.

ALSO PLAYED

Fallout 4

FEBRUARY 2016 7

E X T R A L I F

N O W P L A Y I N G I D O W N L O A D S I D I A R





3 THE INCREDIBLE HULK

The Incredible Hulk:

Ultimate Destruction wasreleased a decade ago,and while we’ve had

plenty of super-powered sandboxgames since then, few have comeclose to that game’s sense of sillydestructive fun. GTA V ’s Hulk modrectifies that.

You don’t need cars to getaround here, because you can leaptall buildings with a single hulking

bound. You can also tumblepedestrians out of your way like bowling pins, pick up cars andlampposts and fling them, andexecute a ground-pound move thatwould make Mario green with envy.Since release, the mod has given theHulk a worthy opponent to fight,in the form of his long-timeadversary Abomination.

DOWNLOAD AT www.bit.ly/GTAHulk

HOMESICKENED

Nothing to do with a certain

Oxford-based detective,

Morse is instead a game

about relaying importantmessages via code. Specifically, you’re

transmitting coordinates during WWI,

giving your troops the location of enemy

soldiers, boats and planes. Once you’ve

pinpointed their position—or pinpointed

where they’re going to be in a few

seconds’ time—you have to input that

location with a cursor key by tapping,

holding, and releasing it at the exact

right moments to form actual lettersfrom the Morse alphabet.

You have to watch over the land, sea

and air simultaneously, something that

soon becomes easier said than done.

DOWNLOAD AT www.bit.ly/MorseGame

MORSE

A SHIP-SHAPEThese green ships are

the enemy’s, and need to bedestroyed to let your troops

advance across the board.

BSLUGGISH MORSEAs the game advances,

and the board expands, inputboth X and Y coordinates to

target enemy troops.

CCODE READYYou only play using two

buttons. One inputs the code,while the other transmits it

when you’re ready.

A

C

B

MOD We actually quite like you when you’re angry

FREEWARE Home is wherethe heart is... buried

There’s something pretty

magical about ancient

first-person games,

made before id invented

moving really fast, and before Barry

Mouselook revolutionized the genre

too. Early first-person titles feel

hugely weird to control these days,and Homesickened ’s sluggish

movement captures that alien

sensation wonderfully. The unsettling

controls mingle with a town rendered

in garish pixel art, and the end result

is something that not only looks

authentically old—it feels it too.

Homesickened ’s dreamlike village is

one of the creepiest since Yume

Nikki , home to a handful of weirdos

speaking cryptically about your past.

DOWNLOAD AT www.bit.ly/Homesickened

WEBGAME The Morse the merrier in this novel freebie

The Hulk goes on a goodold-fashioned rampage.

4

5

FEBRUARY 2016 8

E X T R A L I F




6 BACK TO THE FUTURE: HILL VALLEY

This mod for GTA: ViceCity has been indevelopment for overseven years, so the

chances of it ever seeing version1.0 are slim. Still, we can jump inat every update and muck aroundin Hill Valley anew—the best partsofBTTF:HV having already beenincluded in this lovely download.It’s all about the DeLorean, whichis in here as a vehicle you can

drive and fly around in, at leastuntil it runs out of fuel and youhave to gather up nearby litter.You can even travel through timeto a similar-looking Hill Valley, byflipping the time circuits andtaking the machine up to 88mph.

This latest version of HillValley adds the train from Back tothe Future III.

DOWNLOAD AT www.bit.ly/GTAHillValley

MOD Go back to Back to the Future

Diablo III disappointed a lot of

people, even after its many

revisions, but this giant mod

handily reminds us that its

predecessor is still breathing. The oddly

named Is Alive adds a ton to the action

RPG, including a crafting system,

additional quests and powerful

super-bosses. If you’d rather fussily

micromanage your own items than get

a qualified merchant to do that for you,

you can now mash stuff together with

the new crafting components found

throughout the world, dropped by

enemies, or given as a reward for

completing quests. New items include

the shiny gemswords, giving you

something meaningful to do with that

overflowing gem bag.

Crafting ties into the new enemies

and bosses as well, who have a chance

of dropping rare components after

you’ve done them in. Although difficult,

and quite poorly explained, Is Alive

should offer a worthy challenge to

Diablo pros.

DOWNLOAD AT www.bit.ly/Diablo2IsAlive

8 DIABLO 2: IS ALIVEMOD Craft, quest and take on rock-hard super-bosses

READ ONLYMEMORIES

DEMO A trip downmemory lane

MidBoss’s game recalls

Hideo Kojima’s influential

Snatcher , meaning it’s a

first-person point-and-

click featuring AI, robots, and

controversial body augments, with a

trans-humanism theme runningthrough it like a stick of rock. (Yeah,

it’s kinda reminiscent of Deus Ex as

well.) Read Only Memories manages

to carve its own identity, however. It’s

a progressive, thoughtfully written

story set in Neo-San Francisco, (isn’t

it about time we actually put the

word ‘Neo’ in front London or

Tokyo?) You play as a struggling

journalist, recruited by a robot to find

its missing creator.

DOWNLOAD AT www.bit.ly/ReadOnlyMemories

7

I’ll push anyone who doesn’t think Back

to the Future III is good into manure.

Is Alive is tough, so you may bedescribed as ‘Is Dead’ before long.

82 FEBRUARY 2016

T O P 1 0 D O W N L O A D S

FREE GAMES STUFF FROM THE WEB by Tom Sykes



KNOSSU

THE THREE R’SResi remaster remastered

FREEWARE Non-Euclidean horror in a glitchy maze

You’re tasked with exploring

a glitchy labyrinth in

Jonathan Whiting’s

excellent Knossu , a

first-person puzzler that mixes horror

with brain-melting geometry. There are

two fascinating things going on here,

and if you don’t want them spoiled I

suggest scrunching up your eyes.

The first thing is Knossu ’s world

makes no damned sense, containing

one-sided door-portals that transport

you to new locations, and endless

looping hallways that require a bit of

pattern-breaking to solve. However, the

absolute best part is Knossu ’s lurking

horror: an invisible mass of static that

eats away at the world as it hunts you,

hurling you back to the hub room after

noisily gobbling you up.

DOWNLOAD AT www.bit.ly/Knossu

RESIDENT EVIL HD REMASTERMODS Become the master of unlocking Capcom’s game

While it doesn’t haveany official moddingsupport, thecommunity has been busy tearing Resident

Evil’s hi-def remaster apart, beforeputting it back together in

interesting ways.Horrible oversights such as the lack

of a playable Barry Burton (a Resi cult

hero, best known for his moustache)

have been duly corrected, while others

have brought the game more in line with

the 1996 original. There’s a wealth of new

character models available, including

Leon and Claire from Resi 2 , Juliet

Starling from Lollipop Chainsaw and, er,

Halo ’s hardy Master Chief. He hardly

strikes me as someone who would be

afraid of a few piffling zombies.

I’ve selected my favorite mods in thebox opposite, but the most audacious of

all is probably the Deadly Silence mod

(www.bit.ly/RemasterDS ), which

replaces the detailed character models

of Capcom’s remaster with the low poly

cast of DS title—you’ve guessed it—

Deadly Silence . Once you’ve gawked at

that beauty, divert your eyes right and

get a load of these.

3 F L U F F Y M A N A G E RThe Fluffy Manager tool makes it easier touse mods with a variety of Resi games, butit also comes with tweaks, including dooranimation skips and optional invincibility.

www.bit.ly/RemasterMods3

2 B A R R Y B U R T O NBarry finally secured a starring role inResident Evil Revelations 2 , but I alwayswanted to play as the bearded wonder in theoriginal. Now we can, Magnum and all.


1 O R I G I N A L V O I C E A C T I N GRemaster ’s new, non-rubbish voice acting iskind of missing the point, so this mod thatadds them back in is well worth it. “Youwere almost a Jill sandwich,” indeed.


10

9

FEBRUARY 2016 8

E X T R A L I F




The Meridiani Planum is a vast, emptydesert of volcanic basalt, and my homefor the foreseeable future. There was anaccident—I remember a storm, anexplosion, and not much else—and now

I’m alone. NASA thinks I’m dead, the rest of my teamare on their way home, and the next mission to Mars is

five years away. I’m pretty much fucked.

Struggling for survival in a Marsexploration sim

by Andy Kelly

84 FEBRUARY 2016

CHEATING DEATH IN

TAKE ON MARS

D I A R Y



The first thing I hear when I wake isbeep, beep, beep. A red light is flashingin my helmet, warning me that I havethree minutes of oxygen left. Istruggle to my feet and scan thehorizon. Nothing. I’m surrounded bya red, flat plain littered with rocksand craters. Then I spot something inthe distance: a curiously geometricalshape silhouetted against the duskypink of the Martian sky.

The lander! The craft we toucheddown in, which is stocked withsupplies including sweet, precious,life-giving air. It’s far away, but Imight just make it. Beep, beep, beep. Ihave to run in bursts, because theexertion of a prolonged sprint willmake me take deep, wasteful breaths.I reach the lander and slam the

button that opens the cargo bay. It’sachingly, painfully slow. The beeping

intensifies. Thirty seconds left.The door slides open and I dash

inside, taking theelevator to thepressurized safety ofthe crew quarters.Tearing off myhelmet, I collapse inan exhausted heap. Imade it! But theelation quickly fadeswhen I rememberthat I’m still alone on a hostile planetwith limited food and water, no way

to communicate with Earth, and five years to kill. Not the best situationI’ve ever been in.

I could live here in the lander, Isuppose. It has beds, food, water. Butwhen the supplies run out—there’sabout a month’s worth in thehold—I’ll either starve or die of thirst.

I need space to grow food andsomewhere more comfortable to live.

I venture outside again. Located just south of the equator, the

Meridiani Planum is scattered with acrystalline mineral called hematite:

evidence that hot springs may have bubbled here millions of years ago.

Now it’s a wasteland, pockmarkedwith craters. In the distance, juttingincongruously out of the emptiness,is a strange ridge formation. Curiositygets the better of me.

The lander is equipped with ascouting buggy—a glorified go-kart,really—which I drive towards the

ridge. It’s incredibly slow, onlymarginally faster than walking. WheI reach the rock formation, I realizeit’s the lip of an immense crater: the

Victoria crater to be precise. Half amile wide and seventy meters deep,

it’s a colossal thing, but not much use tome. I’m gazing acrosit, listening to theeerie, lonely howl ofthe wind, when amessage flashes upon my HUD: Solarevent incoming.

Mars is routinelypounded by solar storms. If I getcaught in one, even with a suit on, I’l

receive a lethal dose of radiation. Andaccording to the data on my HUD,one is on its way. I jump back in the

buggy and start trundling back to thelander, which suddenly looksimpossibly far away. It’s another closcall, but I make it back with secondsto spare and wait for the storm topass. I decide that’s enough explorinfor me. I’ve got plenty of problems todeal with as it is.

FRESH PRINTS

I eat a freeze-dried steak for dinnerand sleep on a small cot bed in the

lander to escape the chill of theMartian night. Near the equator,during the day, temperatures on Marcan reach a balmy 20 degrees; but atnight they drop as low as -70. Whenthe sun rises, I decide to initiatephase one of Operation Don’t Die:

building myself somewhere to live. Iunpack the enormous 3D printerstored in the cargo bay and assembleit outside.

What follows is a grueling threehours of printing out corners, walls,floors and other parts, then

painstakingly slotting them together,

T H E R U L E S

1 Build a new home

on Mars.

2 Become completely

self-sufficient.

3

Get Matt Damon to

play me in the filmversion.

I DECIDE TO INITIATEPHASE ONE OF ‘OPERATION

DON’T DIE’

FEBRUARY 2016 8

E X T R A L I F


This trip to the Victoriacrater almost killed me.

And so begins the long, slowprocess of building the hab.



and make sure they’re constantlychurning out parts as I build.

Before I snap on the last few bitsof wall, I print out everything I needfor the interior: a bed, a couch,storage crates, a toilet, a table to workon, two hydroponic stations, and awater dispenser. Then I toss themthrough the gap in the wall and seal itup. The last step is the airlock, whichI’ll need to keep the roompressurized. I build a small corridor,equip it with two suit holders, andinstall a pair of heavy airlock doors.Done. I step inside, close the airlock,and hold my breath. Did it work?‘EXT. SAFE’ blinks on the HUD inreassuring green text, indicating thatI can safely remove my suit. I did it!

HAB FROM HOME

It’s not much, but it’s a vast

improvement over the lander. If I hadhelp I could have built a base withmultiple rooms, but for now this willhave to serve as both my livingquarters and my science lab. I caneasily expand later. I arrange thefurniture and equipment and end upwith a pretty swish-looking pad. Imove some of the freeze-dried meals,emergency oxygen tanks, and backupsuits from the lander to the hab andwatch a gorgeous Martian sunset as Ieat dinner. As another solar stormrages outside, I settle in for the night.

Tomorrow I can start to sort out thewater situation.

Mars may look dead, but the airand soil are rich with resources I canharvest to keep myself alive. First,water. I print out a topsoil extractor,hook it up to a solar panel, and plugin two resource canisters. Then I

build a refinery while I wait for thecanisters to fill. The yield is low, but

by processing the collected soil in therefinery I can extract fresh, drinkablewater. I fill a few canisters and storethem safely in the hab, plugging oneinto the water dispenser. I’ll makesure the topsoil extractor is runningconstantly to keep the water flowing.That’s one problem solved.

I still have a decent supply offreeze-dried meals, so I can wait awhile before I have to think aboutgrowing food in this desolate place.In the meantime, I tackle a problemthat’s been bugging me ever since I

finished the hab. In the process of building it I accumulated a massivepile of junk. Mostly parts I printedout by mistake, including a thirdairlock door. I keep bumping into itas I walk around the site, and it looksmessy, so it’s time to get rid of it. Irefuse to live in in squalor.

I use the 3D printer to construct acargo truck. It’s big and slow, but hasa massive bed for storing andtransporting stuff. I spend some timegathering all the bits of junk strewnaround the base and load them on

the back. Then I drive about half amile away and unload it. I did

After three hours ofbuilding, the hab is done.

piece by piece, to create my newhome. It’s a slow, laborious processthat would have been a lot easier ifmy team hadn’t flown back to Earthand left me here to die. I begin bydriving metal platforms—thefoundations of the building—into theMartian soil. Then I clip on floors,walls, windows, power points, and,finally, the roof. To speed things up Iprint out two additional 3D printers

86 FEBRUARY 2016

PERSONAL ADVENTURES IN GAMES

D I A R Y

E A R T HV S M A R SComparingthe Red

Planet toour own

L E N G T H O F Y E A R 365 days 687 days

L E N G T H O F D A Y 23 hours,56 minutes

24 hours,37 minutes

A V E R A G ET E M P E R A T U R E

57 degrees(F)

-81 degrees(F)

D I A M E T E R 7,926 miles 4,220 miles

O R B I T S P E E D 18.5 miles

per second

14.5 miles

per second

E A R T H M A R S

D I S T A N C EF R O M S U N

93 millionmiles

142 millionmiles



consider throwing it in the Victoriacrater, but I don’t think NASA wouldappreciate me using an area ofscientific interest as a garbage dump.I return to base, and it looks muchneater. Satisfied that I’ve had aproductive day, I eat some steak—again—and retire for the evening.

When I wake up, a dust storm israging outside, but it

doesn’t look toosevere. One of thesupply crates in thelander has bags ofpotato seeds, so I strapmy suit on, bracemyself, and stepoutside. Jogging overto the lander I pick upthe seeds, grabbing a canister offreshly-harvested topsoil on the way

back. The storm has covered my solarpanels in dust, which I’ll have toclean later. Back in the safety of thehab, I plug the soil can into one of my

hydroponics stations, along with acan of water, and plant the seeds. It’s

not long before five healthy potatoplants spring up. Just so you know,Bowie: there is life on Mars.

I spend the next few daysharvesting resources, clearing up

junk, and tending to my potato plants.I expand the hab with a small roomto put the toilet in, because having itinches from my bed just feels wrong.

I’m beginning to adjust to life onMars, despite the solitude. I keepmyself sane through routine,occasionally going for a slow drivearound the Victoria crater toentertain myself.

Before long I have my first crop ofpotatoes. I pick some to eat, and save

HAVING THE TOILET INCHES FROM MY BED JUST

FEELS WRONG

the rest for replanting. It’s taken awhile, but I’m finally self-sufficient. Ihave the means to reliably producewater, food, oxygen, and power. Itwon’t be the easiest five years, but Ishould be able to get through them.

I’ll keep expanding the hab in thecoming years, bolting on morehydroponics stations, more resource

extractors, and

more rooms. Butfor now I haveeverything I needto survive. Whoknows, maybeNASA will realizeI’m still alive andmount a rescuemission? Then I

might only be here for two years—thelength of a journey to Mars—insteadof the more daunting five.

Either way, I’ve accepted my fate.I’m going to be here for a very longtime, so I might as well get

comfortable. Now, if you’ll excuse me,I have some potatoes to harvest.

FEBRUARY 2016 8

E X T R A L I F


This drill extracts rock

from the surface.

The hab ain’t much, but

at least it’s comfortable.



By Dave James

GROUP TEST

U P G R A D E

88 FEBRUARY 2016



Q&AWhat are theobjective factors?Build quality, sensitivityand accuracy are themain points. You want thdevice to feel sturdy, but

a lighter mouse is betterYou also want it to fit youparticular type of grip.Then you want the sensoto be reliable and delivera consistent translationof your mouse’smovements in-game.

How do I know my grip?If you favor the palm grip your hand will rest fullyon top of your mouse,index and second fingerslying flat on the two maibuttons. Movements wilmostly come from your

elbow. This works bestwith a larger, weightiermouse. If you use a clawgrip only the tips of yourfingers are in contactwith the mouse andmovements are mainlycontrolled from the wrisand by your thumb, thirdand little fingers. Thisgrip best suits smaller,sensitive mice.

Do I want a laser mouseor an optical sensor?The laser sensor is lesspicky about its surfacewhile an optical mousemight struggle without amouse mat. But while alaser mouse useshardware acceleration totrack its high DPIsettings, the opticaldoesn’t, which can makeit more consistent intranslating its movemen

Wired or wireless?Lag is no longer the issuit was, but you still haveto cope with the vagariesof battery life. With agood wired mouse youronly worry is a potentiall

awkward trailing cable.

DictionaryDPI—How many steps amouse reports for everyinch it travels. The highethe DPI setting the moreaccurately it reports thesmallest of movements.

Polling rate/responserate—The number oftimes the PC will querythe mouse to determinewhere the sensor says itshould be.

Last month I checked outkeyboards and now we’re lookingat their companion, the mouse.The perfect mouse is a personalchoice, based on how it molds to

your hand and grip style. But we can still judge mice based on sensor performance,software, build quality and ergonomics.

Find the ideal gaming rodent to fit your grip

GAMING MICE

FEBRUARY 2016 8

Group Tes

H A R D W A R



Group Test

H A R D W A R E

Mind you it said pretty much the same about the

last wireless iteration of the Mamba and that was

one ropey old rodent. Battery life was measured in

minutes, lag was sometimes an issue and it was just

generally uncomfortable to use. Those issues have

been remedied, though it’s still a heavy mouse.

The super-expensive wireless Mamba shares the

same DNA with the Tournament Edition version,which is a good thing. It shares the same sleek,

comfortable design, similar to (but not as perfect

as) the Deathadder, and carries an excellent new

Philips laser sensor. It’s incredibly accurate and

beautifully smooth, even at the higher DPI settings

you need to swing across a 4K desktop resolution.

What’s new is the impressively responsive

wireless connection and the adjustable click-force of

the two main buttons, which FPS and MOBA

players will appreciate. Razer’s crafted one of the

most competitive wireless mice around,

but at a price that will leave your wallet

crying for mercy.

1 2

RAZER MAMBA

www.razerzone.com$150

I’m going to say yes. And I’m saying that because

this is the first of that style of mouse I’ve come

across that I could happily use on a day-to-day basis

and on games that aren’t demanding more buttons

than I have digits.

It’s far more suitable for the palm grip with its

weighty design and chunky body. But wait! It’s got a

bit of a trick up its sleeve in the shape of incrediblysimple, genuinely cool customization. Strong

magnets on the side allow you to switch different

pinky grips, which essentially change the whole feel

of the device.

There’s more customization on the left side

where the Nyth can hold up to a dozen buttons.

That space can be altered to suit your needs, a

dozen tiny buttons, double-length buttons, and

blank spacers can be mixed and matched. They all

feel nice and clicky and the software experience

makes custom layouts easy to assign.

This is the best implementation of an

MMO mouse I’ve seen yet.

ROCCAT NYTH

www.roccat.org$120

The latest Mamba has the tagline of ‘the world’s most

advanced gaming mouse’ and, while I’m not normally swayed by

such marketing hyperbole, Razer might actually be onto

something this time.

The Roccat Nyth is one of those classic button-festooned

mice beloved of MOBA and MMO players the world over. But

can Roccat’s design top the Razer Naga, which has been many a

gamer’s weapon of choice?

81% 85%

1

3

2



3 4When I first saw pictures of the Sabre (available in

both RGB form with either optical or laser sensors)

it immediately brought to mind thoughts of my

beloved Logitech G9 mouse, a device whose rebirth

I’ve been jonesing for. The Sabre is relatively short

and compact, and most definitely one for the

claw-grip gamer.

It’s also seriously light, giving it the same feel asthe Tournament Edition mice we’ve seen from both

Razer and MadCatz. The Avago ADNS 9800 laser

sensor gives it slick, responsive motion during

gaming, and it’s impressively smooth too. In fact, it’s

almost up there with the mighty Philips sensor in

the new Mamba.

What I’m not sold on are the ergonomics. While

the Sabre does feel like a claw-grip mouse, there’s

also something about it that meant I was holding it

slightly off-center to make it comfortable. For

normal use that’s fine, but sniping inBF4

felt inaccurate as I was sweeping the

barrel across the battlefield.

CORSAIR SABRE RGB LASER

www.corsair.com$50

The Kudos K-9 is the only mouse in this test that ha

an offset sensor. All the others have it placed

directly in the center, while the K-9 has it off to the

right almost underneath the LMB. It’s a feature

that’s always kept me going back to the excellent

Shogun Bros Ballista Mk1, as it’s almost like putting

the cursor where your index finger is pointing.

The Kudos also feels like it’s been designedspecifically for my hand, though still manages to

cater for both prevalent types of mouse grip. Well,

so long as you don’t have either monstrously large

or Tom Thumb hands. It’s also the same weight as

the Corsair Sabre RGB Laser and packs the same

sensor too, which all means it’s just as swift to throw

across your desktop, but has a more comfortable

feel to it. I also appreciate the sensitivity indicators

on the back, displaying which of the four DPI steps

you’re currently operating in.

I never thought I’d be recommending

a Speedlink mouse over a Corsair one,

but that’s what’s just happened.

SPEEDLINK KUDOS K-9

www.speedlink.com$58

Corsair has a great history of gaming peripherals, which is

especially surprising given it hasn’t been at it for very long. Its

keyboards are some of the finest, but can the new Sabre mouse

keep up that tradition?

Not normally a name you might associate with performance

gaming peripherals, Speedlink is pushing a bit harder these

days. The Torid gamepad was anything but, and the Kudos

looks to have its place too.

77% 79%

4



STEELSERIES RIVAL 100

www.steelseries.com$40

COOLER MASTER XORNET II

www.coolermaster.com$40

65To that end it’s the absolute smallest mouse in the

test, with the chassis running the length of your

fingers, giving your palm absolutely nowhere to rest.

This is a one-grip-only deal. But for that niche it fits

pretty well, giving support for your right hand’s ring

finger and offering grips for your thumb and little

finger to shift the mouse about.

Given the low price it’s no surprise that this is abasic mouse in terms of the feature set. There is, of

course, the obligatory multicolored LED, offering

16.8m colors for your scroll wheel, which can have

three different profile colors attached to indicate

which of the configurable DPI settings you’re on, but

that’s pretty much it.

It is classic optical gaming mouse fare. On a

decent gaming surface the movement translation is

accurate, responsive and smooth, and when you’re

in the midst of a tense firefight you can trust it to be

consistent. It’s basic and claw-exclusive,

but also insanely cheap for such a

trustworthy gaming gadget.

With direct 1:1 tracking and none of the hardware

acceleration needed on laser gaming mice, the

optical sensor is seen as the most accurate mouse

device, but because of its reliance on a decent

gaming surface you’ll see far more laser mice

around. As exemplified by this issue’s test.

The SteelSeries Rival 100 is a powerful mouse,

however, with an impressively low price point andsimple design aesthetic. It’s almost ambidextrous

too, with only the left-sided thumb buttons spoiling

things for the lefties.

The custom Pixart optical sensor is wonderfully

smooth in-game, but does require greater

movement on high-resolution screens because of

its relatively low DPI settings. On a 4K desktop

playing FM 2016 orDoTA it’s a bit of a mission, but in

an FPS the accuracy of its movement is a very

handy weapon upgrade.

It might be a little basic for some, but

for the ultra-serious FPS player the

Rival 100 is exactly what you need.

Where some gaming mice try to please all-comers, Cooler

Master has gone directly for a niche. The Xornet II is aimed only

at claw-grip gamers, and then only those wanting an optical

mouse for their paws.

Where do you stand in the laser vs optical sensor debate?

SteelSeries seems firmly of the belief that the pros want optical,

and with the Rival 100 the manufacturer is looking to create the

most accurate, streamlined rodent around.

80% 77%

92 FEBRUARY 2016

5 6



LOGITECH G502 PROTEUS CORE

www.logitech.com$80

7Like both the Razer Mamba and the Roccat Nyth,

the G502 sports an insanely-high potential DPI

setting. In fact it was the first to take the step up

beyond the then-standard 8,200 maximum. But

one of the most impressive things about it is the

fact it never shoved that down your throat, and it

performs just as well at its maximum 12,000 DPI as

it does lower sensitivities.That super-sensitive sensor means that at lower

settings it’s operating well within its capabilities

which in turn means it stays sharp, consistent and

accurate in-game. The same is true with the Philips

sensors in the other two top-end mice, but the

G502 adds a host of programmable buttons, too.

It’s also seriously comfortable for either claw or

palm grips, with that extra length supporting the

hand. And it’s the only one in this test to offer

different weights, though out of the box it’s a very

heavy mouse. In short, the G502 has

definitely still got it, though you’ll need a

big paw to really take advantage of it.

Once the most advanced gaming mouse in the world, can

Logitech’s G502 Proteus Core still cut the mustard against the

might of Razer et al? On the basis of its glorious infinite scroll

wheel alone it just might.

88%

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Laser Wired

Laser Wired

Laser Wired

Laser Wireless or wire

Laser Wired

Optical Wired

Optical

1,000Hz

1,000Hz

1,000Hz

1,000Hz

1,000Hz

1,000Hz

1,000Hz

8

8

18

9

11

7

6 Wired

Sensor type Polling rate Programmable buttons Connection

ESSENTIALS

STACKED UP

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Roccat Nyth

Razer Mamba

Speedlink Kudos K-9

Corsair Sabre RGB Laser

Cooler Master Xornet II

SteelSeries Rival 100

Logitech G502 Proteus Core

12,000

40G

121-139

MAX DPI ACCELERATION WEIGHT

3,500

20G

81g

2,000

20G

92G

8,200

30G

95g

8,200

30G

95g

12,000

5

126g

16,0

5

133g

FEBRUARY 2016 9

Group Tes

H A R D W A R

7



Budget buildPC gaming is for everyone. Pick the parts you want to

build a new, well-rounded PC for a good price.

Mid-range buildYou want to run every new game at 1080p 60fps. This

recommended build will see you through.

Advanced buildYou’re looking for the best PC on the market and

superior components. But you still want to spend smart.

Build the best PC for your budget

Y O U R N E X T P C

BUYER’S GUIDE

KEY

94 FEBRUARY 2016



T O T A L

$ 9 3 8

BUDGET

BUILDEnjoy 1080p gaming without

breaking the bank

Pentium Anniversary G3258Intel $70

Ludicrously cheap and overclockable, thedual-core G3258 rivals far more expensiveprocessors in gaming performance.

H81M-P33MSI $46

A bargain-priced microATX board that pairsnicely with the Pentium G3258, letting youoverclock into 4GHz+ territory.

Hyper 212 EVOCooler Master

$35

A legendary cooler, still the best for its veryreasonable price. Overclock to your heart’s

content with this.

Crucial Ballistix Sport1600MHz (8GB)Crucial

$51

Cheap, low-profile, and reliable. Does its jobThe best 8GB you’ll find.

EVGA 500W 80PLUS CertifiedATX12V/EPS12VEVGA

$45

A reliable PSU with enough juice to run yourCPU and a reasonably power-hungry GPU.

BX100 250GBCrucial

$85

Thinking about skimping and goingHDD-only? Don’t. The BX100 is much fasterand a fantastic performer for the price.

Carbide 200RCorsair

$70

The 200R gets the job done with toollesstrays and plenty of space. ATX-sized, so youcan upgrade that microATX board later.

VX2263SMHLViewsonic

$130

An affordable 1080p monitor with vibrantIPS image quality and low response times. Areal bargain.

CM Storm QuickFire RapidCoolermaster

$80

A no-frills mechanical keyboard with astandard layout and Cherry switches. Werecommend Browns or Reds for gaming.

HyperX CloudKingston

$80

Our favorite gaming headset, and it happento be as cheap as plenty of inferior cans. Agood buy for any gaming rig.

AMD R9 380 2GBSapphire

$200

AMD’s R9 380 is a refreshed R9 285, but itstill packs enough power to handle 1080pgaming at a decent price.

G303 Daedalus ApexLogitech

$46

The best gaming mouse sensor in existencepaired with buttons with extremely low clickdistance. Especially ideal for MOBA players

FEBRUARY 2016 9

Buyer’s Guid

HARDWAR

M O T H E R B O A R D

P R O C E S S O

R

G R A P H I C S C A R D

C O O L E R

M E M O R Y

P O W E R S U P P L Y

S S D

C A S E

D I S P L A Y

K E Y B O A

R D

M O U S E

H E A D S E T



MID-RANGE

BUILDOur recommended build for

playing the latest games

T O T A L

$ 1 5 9 9

Hyper 212 EVOCooler Master $35

If it ain’t broke... the Hyper 212 EVO is a greatcooler for the price. Save a bit of money in

your mid-range build.

GTX 970 Gaming 4GMSI $335

Offers the best price/performance ratioright now, and MSI’s model is cheap andoverclockable, with a quiet cooler.

850 EVO 250GBSamsung $98

Samsung retains its top spot on the SSD pilewith the fantastically priced, very speedy850 EVO. Still the best price/performance.

CX600MCorsair$65

80Plus Bronze efficient, with enough powerfor a good gaming PC. Modular design is agreat perk that cuts down on cable tangles.

Deathadder 2013Razer $58

There’s not a huge range of price differenceson the best mice, so stick with the best for your mid-range build too.

HyperX CloudKingston

$80

Even for our medium build, we stillrecommend this decently-priced headset.There’s nothing better for the money.

G257HUAcer $280

A step up from 1080p to 1440p territory,with a vibrant IPS display and good responsetimes at a strong price.

S340NZXT $75

The stylish S340 has some nice touches,such as removable dust filters and space forhuge liquid cooling radiators.

K70 VengeanceCorsair$110

A great, full-size mechanical keyboard withan ergonomic wrist rest. We recommendCherry Brown or Red switches for gaming.

Z170 Pro GamingAsus $160

The latest revision of our favorite gamingmotherboard, with an M.2 PCIe x4 slot, Intelnetwork port, USB 3.1 and SLI support.

i5-6600KIntel $243

Intel’s new Skylake processor is nearly asfast as an i7 for gaming. Comes with someimportant memory/storage speed boosts.

Ballistix Sport (8GB)Crucial $60

8GB of reasonably fast DDR4, and one of thecheapest deals you’ll find. Corsair is reliable,and the RAM’s overclockable to boot.

96 FEBRUARY 2016

Buyer’s Guide

HARDWARE


P R O C E S S O

R


C O O L E R

M E M O R Y


S S D

C A S E

D I S P L A Y

K E Y B O A

R D

M O U S E

H E A D S E T



ADVANCED

BUILDGo above and beyond with a PCpowerful enough to end worlds

T O T A L

$ 3 0 0 0

GTX 980 Gaming 4GMSI

$520

Right now the GTX 980 is the best valuesingle-GPU card for ultra 1080p and 1440pgaming, bar none.

H90Corsair

$88

Quiet even under heavy load, the H90 getsthe cooling job done with a single 140mm

radiator, easily fitting a variety of cases.

H WirelessSteelSeries $273

Our favorite wireless gaming headset, withgreat sound quality and a convenient batterswapping system for long gaming sessions.

Deathadder 2013Razer $58

Even if you’ve got money to burn, theDeathadder really is the best mouse you cabuy right now.

Predator XB270HAbprz144Hz G-SyncAcer $800

Simply the best: a 27” 1440p 144Hz IPSdisplay, with Nvidia’s variable refresh tech.

Supernova 850W G2 80 Plus GoldEVGA $145

A reliable, quiet, gold-rated EVGA powersupply, modular, with enough juice to sustatwo overclocked graphics cards and a CPU.

850 EVO 500GBSamsung $162

The 850 EVO is so good, there’s not muchneed to step up to the more expensive 850Pro for a gaming rig. Just get a bigger drive.

Core i7-6700KIntel $339

Intel’s new top-of-the-line Skylake processoIts new chipset includes important memorystorage speed boosts.

ROG Maximus VIII HeroAsus $240

Fantastic overclocking and stability, with agreat UEFI BIOS from Asus. M.2, USB 3.1 anon-board power, reset, CMOS, etc, buttons.

Ripjaws V Series DDR4 2666 16GBG.SKILL $125

16GB of fast DDR4. RAM speeds make only asmall difference, but the 2666 startingspeed is stable and widely compatible.

Noctis 450NZXT

$130

Thanks to its innovative interior layout anddaring design, this case is a pleasure to worin and a beauty to behold.

Ducky OneDucky

$120

An elegant set of keys from mechanicalkeyboard fan favorite Ducky. Renowned fortheir impeccable feel and build quality.

FEBRUARY 2016 9

Buyer’s Guid

HARDWAR


P R O C E S S O

R


C O O L E R

M E M O R Y


S S D

C A S E

D I S P L A Y

K E Y B O A

R D

M O U S E

H E A D S E T



I T ’ S A L L O V E R . . .

. . . U N T I L

FEBRUARY

2



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PC Gamer (USA) - February 2016