FREE GIFT WORTH £5
PLAY AS FENRIR IN SMITE + EXTRA SKIN
GTA V Is coming!
DOTA 2
20 things you must do in the PC version
How PC Gamer trained for war
Exclusive access
Microsoft’s new PC era starts here THE BEST PREVIEWS World of Warships Hearts of Iron IV Sid Meier’s Starships
April 2015
New D&D RPG First details on Sword Coast Legends
REVIEWED!
EVOLVE / TOTAL WAR: ATTILA SUNLESS SEA / DYING LIGHT Grow Home / AND MORE!
Hardware SSDs rated, GTX 960 reviewed and more
#277 april 2015 Future Publishing Ltd Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA Tel 01225 442244 Fax 01225 732275 Email pcgamer@futurenet.com Web www.pcgamer.com EDITORIAL Global Editor In Chief Tim Clark Editor Samuel Roberts Deputy Editor Chris Thursten Art Editor John Strike Production Editor Tony Ellis Web Editor Tom Senior Section Editor Andy Kelly News Editor Phil Savage CONTRIBUTORS Andrew Cottle, Andy McGregor, Matthew Lochrie, Wes Fenlon, Evan Lahti, Chris Livingston, Tom Marks, Tyler Wilde, Dave James, Dan Griliopoulos, Jon Blyth, Emanuel Maiberg, Ben Griffin, Joe Skrebels, Richard Cobbett, Jordan Erica Webber, Ben Wilson, Cassandra Khaw Photography Future Photography Studio Advertising For Ad enquiries please contact: Michael Pyatt, michael.pyatt@futurenet.com Marketing Group Marketing Manager Laura Driffield Marketing Manager Kristianne Stanton Production & Distribution Production Controller Fran Twentyman Production ManagerMark Constance Printed in the UK by: William Gibbons & Sons Ltd on behalf of Future Distributed by:Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT, Tel: 0207 429 4000 Overseas distribution by:Seymour International Circulation Trade Marketing Manager Juliette Winyard – 07551 150 984 Subscriptions UK reader order line & enquiries: 0844 848 2852 Overseas reader order line & enquiries: +44 (0)1604 251045 Online enquiries: www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk Email: pcgamer@myfavouritemagazines.co.uk Licensing International Director Regina Erak regina.erak@futurenet.com +44 (0)1225 442244 Fax +44 (0)1225 732275 Management Content & Marketing Director Nial Ferguson Head of Content & Marketing, Film, Music & Games Declan Gough Group Editor-In-Chief Daniel Dawkins Group Art Director Graham Dalzell NEXT ISSUE ON SALE… April 9
Magic numbers Every now and then, there’s a conversation about review scores – whether they should be altered, scrapped or changed into a series of gifs of dogs at various stages of elation (my suggestion). The first issue of PC Gamer I vividly remember reading was PCG 63, many years ago. It contained the Half-Life review, where the magazine awarded that seminal Valve game 96%. I loved how much of a statement that sent, and the value of using a score to do that has never been lost on me. It was saying, “This is a milestone in the history of this medium.” A powerful declaration. Consider Andy Kelly’s review of Alien: Isolation, our game of last year. It was an authoritative review from an experienced writer on a subject he knows inside and out. When you reached the end of that review and saw the 93%, it perfectly rounded off the experience of reading it. Scores for videogames aren’t political or arbitrary, they’re informative and fun. I’m so confident in that principle, and in our history, that I’m certain the scoring paradigm of PC Gamer will never change. What do our scores mean to you, loyal reader? I’m interested to find out – feel free to drop me a line below.
A member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations
19,276
January-December 2014 Future is an award-winning international media group and leading digital business. We reach more than 49 million international consumers a month and create world-class content and advertising solutions for passionate consumers online, on tablet & smartphone and in print. Future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR). www.futureplc.com
Chief executive Zillah Byng-Maddick Non-executive chairman Peter Allen Tel +44 (0)207 042 4000 (London) Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 (Bath)
All contents copyright © 2015 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, stored, transmitted or used in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price and other details of products or services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any changes or updates to them. If you submit unsolicited material to us, you automatically grant Future a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in all editions of the magazine, including licensed editions worldwide and in any physical or digital format throughout the world. Any material you submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents or subcontractors shall be liable for loss or damage. We encourage you to recycle this magazine, either through your usual household recyclable waste collection service or at a recycling site. We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from well managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. Future Publishing and its paper suppliers have been independently certified in accordance with the rules of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council).
SAMUEL ROBERTS EDITOR samuel.roberts@futurenet.com @SamuelWRoberts
bringing you the scoops this month...
Tony Ellis Finished his first platforming game, a rock-hard affair featuring the character from Braid. Samuel awarded it 64%.
Andy Kelly @ultrabrilliant This month, got to channel his obsession with trucking games into something healthy.
Chris Thursten @CThursten Taught us to play Dota, patiently training a team of barely-walking wizard toddlers.
april 2015
Tom Senior @PCGLudo Went to a banquet with loads of people and only one toilet. Good job the fish wasn’t off.
5
#277
april 2015
Subscribe to Check out the digital bundle! See p72
MONITOR 08 THE TOP STORY SOE becomes Daybreak.
10 THE SPY Espionage is his middle name. And DOB.
12 FACE OFF
Are auteurs in games a good thing?
14 SPECIAL REPORT
The future of biometrics in games.
16 E-Sports
Dota 2’s Asia Championship. PREVIEWS
18 World of Warships 20 Sid Meier’s Starships 24 Blitzkrieg 3 26 Hearts of Iron IV 28 Mortal Kombat X 30 Project Sprawl 32 Darkest Dungeon 36 Sword Coast Legends 38 The Witness 40 Offworld Trading Company 42 Besiege
FEATURES 44 Fable Legends
Inside Microsoft’s Windows 10 exclusive spin-off.
50 Grand Theft Auto V
20 things we’re looking forward to in the long-awaited PC version.
54 American Truck Simulator Andy takes to the highway.
58 Warhammer Vermintide Skaven meet Left 4 Dead.
64 Dota 2
Chris trains the rest of us to wage war in three lanes.
44
44
50
54
Lionhead brings its new spin on the Fable universe, and we sent Joe Skrebels to the studio in sunny Guildford to see if it’s working or not.
Twenty fun things you absolutely have to do in Rockstar’s sprawling sandbox when it finally hits PC. And only some of them involve killing people.
Andy writes about driving trucks across barren highways because that’s what he loves.
FABLE LEGENDS
GIFTAGEDDON Play as Fenrir and get a free skin in Smite ! Turn to page 34 6
MONTH 2013
GTA V
American Truck Simulator
64 NETWORK 74 SEND
Your opinions arrive at the PC Gamer offices by gyrocopter, and are then read to us by our robot butler.
50
54
REVIEWS 78 Evolve 84 Sunless Sea 86 Gravity Ghost 87 The Escapist 87 Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty 88 Dying Light 92 Grow Home 94 Might and Magic 3 HD 96 Total War: Attila 100 Life is Strange: Episode 1 Downloadable Content
101 Crusader Kings II: Way of Life Early Access
102 Infinifactory THEY’RE BACK
107
78
104 Akalabeth: World of Doom 105 Resident Evil HD Remaster 105 Sam & Max Hit The Road 105 Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II 105 GEX
The Hard Stuff 107 SUPERTEST
Dave James puts SSDs on trial. It’s the perfect time to upgrade your old drive.
112 REVIEWS
Is the new Nvidia GTX 960 worth the step down from the 970? Read our verdict.
114 THE PC GAMER RIG
The best PC you can buy for under £1,000, including every component you need.
EXTRA LIFE 116 NOW PLAYING
Wrestling with the brilliance of refined remake Chaos Reborn, and more.
120 TOP 10 DOWNLOADS
64
78
Chris Thursten trains PC Gamer for war, and the team takes on the hippies over at Rock Paper Shotgun. Check out what happened in our massive feature.
Evan plays the long-awaited 4v1 FPS from the makers of Left 4 Dead. Sure, it features great big scary monsters, but does that make it fun to play?
Dota 2
Evolve
107
Solid State Drive supertest
Want to get the right high-speed storage? Verdict on the best SSDs on the market.
Check out Outer Wilds and other free games in our regular round-up.
124 UPDATE
It’s been a while since we checked in with Starbound. Cassandra takes a look.
126 REINSTALL
Andy Kelly revisits Westwood’s curious Blade Runner adventure.
128 MUST PLAY
The best games in every genre.
april 2015
7
MONITOR
T HE P C G A MER V IE W OF T HE W ORL D
SOE becomes Daybreak THE TOP STORY
Sony sells PlanetSide 2 and EverQuest studio, which becomes Daybreak Game Company and makes layoffs
P
lanetSide 2 developer SOE has become Daybreak Game Company, after the studio was sold to an investmentmanagement firm called Columbus Nova in February. “We are excited to join Columbus Nova’s impressive roster,” said president John Smedley. “They have a proven track record in similar and related industries, and we are eager to move forward to see how we can push the boundaries of online gaming.”
8
april 2015
Later the company made a round of layoffs, including that of EverQuest development director and key figure of EverQuest Next, Dave Georgeson. That same week, creative director of PlanetSide 2, Matt Higby, left, saying, “This is a move I’ve been considering for a while... and the reorganisation provided the right opportunity for me to exit.” He emphasised that PlanetSide 2 is in safe hands. It’s unfortunate to hear of long-term staff leaving the fray, particularly Georgeson,
who I met at GDC last year and is absolutely the sort of ambitious lead you want for a project like EverQuest Next – one that aims to reshape the MMO genre. Work continues on Landmark and EverQuest, DayZ-alike H1Z1 has regularly been placed in the top five bestsellers on Steam, even if it didn’t amaze us at launch, and PlanetSide 2 continues to be a worldclass large-scale shooter. Hopefully Daybreak has a bright future. Samuel Roberts
One dead sun
One arena
One magic mouse PlanetSide 2: in safe hands.
MONITOR
Tale of Wow
dead exciting Telltale’s debut original work is “ambitious”
If you ever hoped to see Telltale breaking away from episodic adaptations of existing works, good news. CEO Kevin Bruner recently revealed that The Walking Dead studio is working on its first original property. It sounds like it might be a cut above the studio’s usual solid fare, too. “It’s probably the most ambitious thing the company has ever done,” Bruner told Gamesindustry.biz. As we went to press,film studio Lionsgate announced a partnership with Telltale, too. SR
Shadow fall
4vNone BioWare’s 4v1 game Shadow Realms is dead
PlanetSide 2 development continues at Daybreak.
Unseen since it appeared at last year’s Gamescom, the gothic multiplayer RPG Shadow Realms is now a confirmed fatality. “We’ve made the decision to not move forward with development of Shadow Realms,” said BioWare Austin’s general manager Jeff Hickman, confirming an earlier report on its cancellation in Game Informer. Seems a shame – we thought it looked really cool with its TV-drama episodic model and trademark BioWare morality choices. Never mind. SR
HEALTH BAR CHECKING THE GAME BIZ’S PULSE WINNERS Bethesda E3 conference Whatever the publisher is going to announce in June, it’s big enough to justify its own show. Besiege Medieval machine-building game generates impressive and hilarious creations. Elite: Dangerous With the 1.2 wingmen patch, players can properly team up with their fellow pilots.
Godus 22 Cans’ god sim isn’t what its backers hoped it would be, and probably never will be. Assassin’s Creed Unity Required use of companion apps has been patched out. Was it ever a good idea?
H1Z1, in which a guy stares mournfully at buildings in fog.
Rise of the Tomb Raider Snow! Bears! Winter coats! But still not coming to PC. Not yet, anyway.
LOSERS april 2015
9
THE SPY
BUT WHO WATCHES THE SPY?
The Spy will be with you, always.
T
he Spy knew that Grand Theft Auto V was going to be delayed. The elite espionage carrier pigeon The Spy sent to the PC Gamer office with the information made it just in time to prevent them from running ‘GTA is here!’ on the cover. Phew. Still, at least that would have been technically correct: GTA is here, on console, and has been for coming on a year and a half. Makes you think. Ubisoft’s anticipated pre-apocalyptic shooter The Division may be due for an alpha test before release. Reddit users have been mining the game’s website for data, and have discovered a hidden section dedicated to one. The page leads nowhere, which could either mean it was planned and dropped, or that it’s being prepared for this year. 2015 is the only release date we know of. The Spy knows all about the benefits of rigorous testing. Whenever there’s a new gadget to test in the field, The Spy is first to volunteer. The latest device is a pen disguised as a gun. It would probably make more sense the other way around, but you’d be surprised how many times The Spy has been in a situation where a gun is perfectly acceptable to brandish, but a pen must be carefully concealed. Very surprised indeed. Footage has emerged of a cancelled Square Enix game based on the Legacy of Kain series, called Soul
Reaver: Dead Sun. The game, which looks like the Arkham series crossed with Assassin’s Creed, was binned in 2012 because Square Enix said it didn’t “meet sales projections.” A developer who allegedly worked on the game says the structure was inspired by the Zelda series. Will Dead Sun ever see the light of day? The leaked footage has been well received, so maybe they’ll bring it back from the dead. In The Spy’s dreams. Coincidentally, The Spy once infiltrated an evil organisation of Triads called Dead Sun in Hong Kong. The initiation ritual involved climbing a mountain and retrieving a sacred flower. Little did they know, The Spy used a hidden grappling hook to climb to the peak without so much as breaking a sweat, and while wearing a full dinner suit, too. Rumours are rife in the underworld of a new Guitar Hero game in the works. The plastic-instrumentbothering music title was once one of the biggest properties around, but then everyone got bored and Activision stopped making them. The new game, which may be revealed at E3, is supposedly being developed for Xbox and PlayStation. But is a PC
Rumours are rife of a new Guitar Hero game in the works version out of the question? They’re missing out on a potentially massive audience if they don’t release the game on Steam. The Spy once played guitar in an all-spy band. They played quite a few gigs around the world between missions, but eventually broke up due to creative differences. The Spy wanted to head in a reggae/metal direction, but another spy was convinced that jazz fusion was the way to go. To protect The Spy’s cover, all band members had to be quietly garroted backstage. For the first time, Bethesda will have its own event at E3 2015, in a move that puts the publisher alongside giants like EA and Activision. Most likely the show will provide a platform for new games. This, of course, has led people to believe that the company will be revealing either a new Fallout or a new Elder Scrolls, two series that are in dire need of a sequel. Bethesda and its parent company Zenimax recently spent a fortune on The Elder Scrolls Online, which didn’t perform as well as expected. So announcing a new game for either of those beloved series would certainly be a wise move, if only for the stock price. Zenimax recently forced the makers of a game called Fortress Fallout to change the title, because it infringed on the Fallout trademark, so perhaps that’s a sign of what’s to come. That’s another month of rumours and news nuggets done. The Spy is getting misty-eyed about the band days, and might break out the guitar for old time’s sake. There’s a machine-gun hidden in the neck, just in case any of the sniper’s friends decides to get revenge. The Spy has weapons concealed in everything. Even some of the knives in the kitchen cutlery drawer contain secret knives. Spy out. The Spy
2
MONTH 2015
FACE OFF
let the flame war commence
Samuel Roberts is a faceless cog in the machine, but demands that his face be at the front of the magazine every month.
Andy Kelly thinks games need bold auteurs leading the project, otherwise they’ll increasingly become a sad beige slurry.
Are videogame auteurs a good thing? YES All great art is the result of an unflinching creative vision, and games should be the same. NO Games are collaborative, and praising just one person doesn’t make a lot of sense.
AK When Ridley Scott was making Blade Runner, everyone hated him. He made the cast and crew endure hours of gruelling takes on dark, rainy, foggy movie sets, and people would routinely quit the production. And the results speak for themselves. Scott had a bold, unwavering creative vision for the film and, even though it pissed a lot of people off, it resulted in a genuine masterpiece. That’s what games need. They need someone who won’t compromise to appease the suits, and who doesn’t design by committee. SR There are some games where that’s seemingly been the case, like Ken Levine at Irrational on the BioShock series – he’s a fairly famous example. But at its height, over 100 people were working at Irrational – and creative vision is as much about course correction as it is about seeing it through. BioShock Infinite went through six years of development and, while Levine was lead writer, four others are credited on the writing of that game. Studio culture and the way it informs the finished product is way more powerful than the influence of one individual. Filmmaking has a much more direct power structure that relies on the vision of the director. Games are too complicated for that to work the same way.
consider or have considered an auteur in the games industry, like Levine or Peter Molyneux. It’s proportional relevance. Could you really see someone attaining that status out of a modern studio with 100-200 people in it? It’s a little different with indie studios, where the team sizes mimic the earlier days of games development. But even then – auteur? Really? It’s a bit highfalutin as terms go for Bloke Who Does Press Interviews or Stage Demo Figurehead. Those are more relevant job titles, Andy. Every studio should have those two people instead. AK Auteur is a bad word to use. Anything French sounds pretentious, like raison d’être or croissant. A Levine or a Kojima takes years to develop, and is usually the result of them making a hit game. But what studios should do is actually hire someone whose job is being the creative driving force behind a project. Their word is law, and everything goes through them for approval. Like an artistic dictatorship. That’s how Ridley Scott made Blade Runner amazing, and I think developers would massively benefit from having someone like that to answer to. Will it ever happen? I doubt it. Not when the suits are there waving their spreadsheets. But it should, because it stops games feeling like cynical cash grabs. AC Unity felt like a product to me, in the way, say, a Stanley Kubrick film doesn’t. I know I’m living in a naive fantasy world, but I like it here. Leave me alone.
AK Making games is a complex process, no doubt. But when you look at something like Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima’s presence is felt in every scene. Even though attributing the series’ brilliance exclusively to SR So you’re comparing auteurs to croissants now? him is unfair to all the talented artists and coders who Why not just hire a senior croissant consultant and do make his mad fever dreams a reality, they’re still away with auteurs altogether? Or a chief creative guided by his hand. Kojima is enormously raison d’être? They can drive the creative respected and influential at Konami, and a direction of this industry – who needs rarity in the industry, but I’d love to see The debate auteurs when someone has croissant in more of that. When publishers start is over – but who their job title? I think I’ve won this one. meddling in game development, you end up with stuff like the microtransactions gets to bid farewell AK Look, I know I’ve spent several pages in Assassin’s Creed Unity. Having a Kojima to sausage? Let us this issue talking about Blade Runner, but or a Scott at the top of a project is the best know @pcgamer. what games really need are genetically way to keep their dirty, money-grubbing engineered super-developers who are made poison away from the art. up of the best bits of legendary directors. A bit of Kojima, a bit of Levine, a bit of Mikami, a bit of SR Hey, I make an exception for Kojima. His games Molyneux. There’s always a chance they could go are so confidently bizarre that I can’t possibly think rogue and turn murderous, but then I’d get to put on a how you would get those results in any other way. trenchcoat and hunt them down in a cyberpunk city as He does come from an era of smaller teams, though – Vangelis follows me around playing a synth. he’s been a fixture for a while, as has anyone we 12
april 2015
ENJOYED READING THIS MAGAZINE? Subscribe and make great savings at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk