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The daftest spin-off of all time?

FEATUR E

The dream fantasy crossover is here

EVE Valkyrie

All-new details on VR’s First killer APP

The Long Dark

The amazing story behind one of PC’s best survival games

Issue 288 february 2016

GRAPHICS CARDS RATED get the best visuals from your PC games

#288 FEBRUARY 2016 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 Phil Savage Art Editor John Strike Production Editor Tony Ellis Web Editor Tom Senior PCG Pro Editor Chris Thursten Section Editor Andy Kelly Staff Writer Angus Morrison CONTRIBUTORS Matthew Lochrie, Wes Fenlon, Chris Livingston, Tyler Wilde, Ian Dransfield, James Davenport, Jon Blyth, Dave James, Elizabeth Elliott, David Lyttleton, Ben Griffin, Tom Sykes, Craig Lager, Fraser McDermott, Richard Cobbett, Andy McGregor, Zak Storey, Leif Johnson, Edwin Evans-Thirlwell, Dan Griliopoulos Photography Future Photography Studio Advertising Commercial Sales Director Clare Dove Advertising Director Andrew Church Advertising Manager Michael Pyatt Account Manager Steven Pyatt 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 Senior Licensing & Syndication Manager Matt Ellis Matt.Ellis@futurenet.com +44 (0)1225 442244 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

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Hello there, 2016 My favourite feature this month is Andy’s profile piece on Hinterland Studio, the makers of The Long Dark (p60). It’s a team made up of veterans who left jobs at big development studios in major cities to make an innovative survival game in a secluded, albeit gorgeous part of Canada. It’s a romantic success story – and it’s the sort of behind-the-scenes piece we love making for you in the magazine. This issue also features lots of great previews looking ahead to the next 12 months, including our selection of the 15 games you must play on PC in 2016. Enjoy!

SAMUEL ROBERTS EDITOR

samuel.roberts@futurenet.com @SamuelWRoberts

The PC Gamer team P h i l S a v a ge

A n d y Ke l l y

C h r i s T h urs t e n

Specialist in All PC games

Specialist in Cyberpunk, Twitter

Specialist in Electronic sports

Twitter @Octaeder

Twitter @ultrabrilliant

Twitter @cthursten

This month Kept a manfully straight face while the Far Cry Primal devs confused owls and binoculars.

This month Dug up the corpses of Kane & Lynch, to offer them the faint praise they deserve.

This month Took the act of seeing Star Wars at midnight so seriously that he dressed up as The Emperor.

FEBRUARY 2016

Contents

#288

february 2016

Subscribe to Check out our digital bundle! See p96

Monitor

08 THE TOP STORY

Double Fine is bringing Psychonauts back via crowdfunding.

10 Opinion

Phil Savage on why a new engine wouldn’t make Fallout 4 better.

12 THE SPY

The all-new Kojima Productions is bringing its first game to PC.

14 FACE OFF

Andy and Samuel argue about the merits of the Steam Controller.

16 ESPORTS

Chris Thursten looks at how money is changing pro-gaming.

Previews 18 Far Cry Primal 22 Grip 24 EVE Valkyrie 26 Hue 30 Oxenfree

Features 37 2016 Preview

Fifteen games we can’t wait to play on PC in the next twelve months.

38 Total War: Warhammer Dan Griliopoulos explores the campaign map.

60 The Long Dark

Andy profiles Hinterland Studio, the team behind The Long Dark.

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february 2016

binoculars and upgraded them with the ability to perform airstrikes.

Which are the games of the coming year we’re most excited about? These ones.

Dan Griliopoulos chats to The Creative Assembly about their crossover strategy game.

Far Cry Primal 2016’s biggest Total WaR Based on true pre-history, pC games Warhammer when cavemen used owls as

Network

2016 PREVIEW

66 PLAY

Checking in with the Mint Imperials.

67 SEND

Your letters, printed in a magazine.

Reviews

70 Rainbow Six Siege 74 Life is Feudal: Your Own 76 Nuclear Throne 78 Game of Thrones 80 Assassin’s Creed Syndicate 82 Dragon Quest Heroes 84 Dirt Rally 86 Chaos Reborn 88 Hard West Downloadable Content 90 Total War: Attila – Charlemagne Early access 92 Elite Dangerous: Horizons THEY’RE BACK 94 Wheelman 95 Saints Row IV 95 Dynasty Warriors 8: Extreme Edition 95 Tembo The Badass Elephant 95 Bulletstorm

Hardware 100 GROUP TEST

This month: graphics cards.

100

106 REVIEWS

Our round-up of the latest hardware.

108 BUYER’S GUIDE

For budget, mid-range or high-end rigs.

Extra Life 112 NOW PLAYING

This month’s gaming exploits.

116 TOP 10 DOWNLOADS Tribes heads our freebie round-up.

Making The Long Dark Andy Kelly talks to Hinterland about leaving city life behind to make a survival game.

Rainbow Six Siege James Davenport hammers his way through the doors of Ubisoft’s team shooter.

100

Graphics cards rated Dave James pits Nvidia vs AMD in his exhaustive test of mid-range graphics cards.

120 UPDATE

Tom Hatfield takes a look at The Old Republic’s story-based expansion.

122 REINSTALL

Revisiting Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

126 WHY I LOVE

Just Cause 2’s air propulsion gun.

128 MUST PLAY

Andy Kelly’s pick of the best PC games.

february 2016

O P I N I O N

T E C H

G A M E S

T he P C G a m er v i e w o f the w or l d

THE TOP STORY

Double Fine reveals Psychonauts 2 The long-awaited sequel from Double Fine is on its way (probably)

sychonauts 2 is coming to PC, thanks to a successful campaign on Fig, the not-aswell-named-as-Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Double Fine was looking for $3 million to make the game, and at the time we went to press was well over 80% of the way there with days to go. So, it might not happen, but it seems very likely that you’re getting a sequel to the oft-talked about 3D adventure. Probably. Psychonauts was a platform adventure starring the psychically-powered Raz, who escaped from his family’s circus to join a

february 2016

psychic summer camp with the eventual goal of becoming one of the titular secret agents. The sequel will be set inside Psychonauts’ HQ, which will be a mini hub world, and the game will include new and existing abilities for Raz. A lot of the game’s original devs will be getting together to

A lot of the game’s original devs will be getting together to make this sequel

make this sequel, which asked for pocket change of $3.3 million on the investorfriendly (let’s not get into that) Fig platform (which again, isn’t as well-named as Kickstarter). Assuming it hit its target. Which it almost certainly did. After Double Fine got the rights to Psychonauts back in 2011 and it was resold digitally, the game’s cult following grew and grew thanks to Steam/GOG sales and Humble Bundles. This is Double Fine’s third crowdfunded project following Broken Age and Massive Chalice. Now, undoubtedly, the studio’s most beloved game is getting a sequel! Almost certainly. Samuel Roberts

OPINION

Why is Jarvis Cocker in Psychonauts? He just wants to be with uncommon people.

GAMES

TECH

Highs & lows

THE MONTH IN PC GAMING

highs System Shock 3

Is a sequel to such a well-regarded classic a good idea? Somehow, we’re going to find out.

Far Cry Primal

Incredibly daft but certainly enjoyable, Primal looks like a suitable spin-off for Ubi’s open-world FPS.

Warhammer: Vermintide

Fatshark’s great Skaven-ridden co-op shooter captures the ludicrous and fun side of the Warhammer universe.

Overwatch

No paying for heroes in Blizzard’s colourful multiplayer shooter.

Old console games on PC

Disgaea, Tales, Dragon Quest, old Final Fantasies – more and more old RPGs are making their way to our platform.

More games clients

Epic’s launcher joins Steam, Origin and Uplay on the growing list of clients we didn’t ask for.

Final Fantasy VII remake

Looks absolutely stunning, but if FFXIII is anything to go by, we’ll be playing it long after console-owners in 2021.

Telltale’s Batman

This episodic adventure will have to work pretty hard to offer something that Rocksteady’s games don’t.

Space-hungry games

Just Cause 3 is an absurd 50GB – and that’s rapidly becoming the norm for game installations on PC.

LOws

february 2016

OPINION

GAMES

TECH

o P I N I O N

Fallout 4 is fine. Let’s move on.

Old dog, new tricks Amazing games created in ageing engines

P o r ta l 2 Source

The highly modifiable Source engine still allowed Valve to experiment with new scripting and visual tricks.

FEBRUARY 2016

B i o Sh o c k In f i n i t e Unreal Engine 3

Ten years after UE3’s debut, Irrational created a beautifully sumptuous floating city full of racists.

D r ag o n Ag e : In q u isi t i o n Frostbite

The latest iteration of DICE’s engine powers all of EA’s new games, including BioWare’s stunning RPG.

K e r b a l Spac e P r o g r a m Unity

The most versatile engine around, powering everything from Angry Birds 2 to this complex space sim.

OPINION

GAMES

TECH

“Fallout 4 didn’t need a new engine” As development costs rise ever higher, studios should be praised for working within their means

he internet is a sea of opinions, and, as I write, many of them concern Fallout 4. Hot takes roam the comment threads like Deathclaws prowl the Commonwealth. “Fallout: New Vegas is a vastly superior game,” argues one, oblivious to all of New Vegas’s many faults and failures. “It’s a really bad FPS with statistics,” reckons another, blind to the fact that it’s a great FPS (with statistics). “A brilliant, massive sandbox of systems,” says me, in my review. It’s opinions all the way down. Most are harmless enough, and some even make a good point. But one repeated refrain bothers me greatly. It’s the idea that Bethesda should have created a new engine; the suggestion is that, by sticking with Skyrim’s Creation Engine, Fallout 4’s developers were in some way being lazy. This isn’t just wrongheaded, but damaging. It propagates the idea that developers should be forced to utilise the latest, best tech, despite all the ways that could harm a project. On some level, it sounds sensible. Fallout 4 has its fair share of bugs and glitches. It functions in a way reminiscent of past Bethesda games. It even looks like like past Bethesda games. Given the increased popularity of Bethesda’s RPGs, it’s understandable to see familiarity breeding contempt. It’s easy to get carried away when you play Fallout 4 – to imagine a version that’s prettier, smoother and more polished. The problem is that game development doesn’t work like that. Fallout 4 is a complex, dense production. It works because its development team is now very good at making the kind of games Bethesda makes. They’re deft at weaving together disparate systems into a player-led adventure filled with moment-to-moment choice. A whole new engine could well upset that balance. I suspect that’s why, for all of Skyrim’s improvements, its Creation Engine was just a heavily modified version of Gamebryo. It’s this tech that allows Bethesda’s designers to do what they do,

and so it seems counterintuitive to expect them to deviate from it. The assumption made is that, because Bethesda is a successful studio, it’s also a large one. That isn’t so. A photo of the development team was released at the time of Fallout 4’s launch, showing just over 100 employees (and a dog.) That isn’t many people. I think Bethesda should be celebrated for sticking to a modest, sustainable model, because the alternative is fraught with problems. As open worlds become more complex, the returns need to be so much higher. It’s likely this reason that Assassin’s Creed games now flirt with microtransactions; why Metal Gear Solid V has a tumultuous development history; and why Just Cause 3 is a huge, lavish, beautiful space with sod-all in the way of interactivity. Fallout 4 has a season pass, but, based on the studio’s past games, its DLC will at least be substantial. And where every other big release features a lengthy, complicated pre-order reward plan, Fallout 4 had none. There are big consumer benefits when a company can afford to develop its games properly. The Creation Engine has other benefits, too. The most obvious of these is mod support. Time and again we’ve seen developers invest in new, more complex engines, resulting in an editor too unwieldy to release to the public. Mod support is the lifeblood of any Bethesda RPG. It will keep Fallout 4 relevant for years to come. Despite all this, Bethesda is, to an extent, responsible for the criticism it has received. The announcement trailer for Fallout 4 was pure marketing hype – presenting moody and beautifully lit versions of environments that look much plainer in-game. The most egregious shot is Nick Valentine walking through the town of Goodneighbor. In the trailer, it’s bathed in smoky reds and purples – a scene impossible to recreate in-game without mods. But bullshit marketing is a different problem. It’s not a reason to criticise Fallout 4’s developers for creating an excellent game within their means. Phil Savage

The problem is that game development doesn’t work like that

The Fallout 4 team: not huge.

FEBRUARY 2016

OPINION

GAMES

T H E S P Y

TECH

w h o wat c h e s t h E s p y ?

he Spy is a very busy person. Every few weeks, The Spy must tail a growing list of rival agents, compile a report on the latest PC gaming rumours, and steal a source of debilitatingly expensive vicuña wool in order to knit a fetching attache case cover. Lately, though, The Spy has struggled to fit these essential activities around a new and allconsuming obsession. To explain: recently, in a letter published in this magazine’s pages, a reader referred to The Spy’s informative regular report as ‘inane gibberish’. The Spy has never been more offended – or at least, not since foiling that regional cyberterrorist. Turns out a mildmannered computer hacker’s insults can be disarmingly specific after they’ve stolen all your personal data. But enough about The Spy’s weird birthmark. The Spy is highly perturbed by this reader’s comments. Is it The Spy’s fault that life is a seemingly random series of non-sequiturs that occur with no overarching plot or connective tissue? And so, The Spy demands satisfaction. Of course, The Spy can’t reveal what’s in store for the aforementioned reader – that would ruin the surprise. Just know, Troy Williams, who works in the

Argos on Dunstable high street, that The Spy has big plans for you. (Disclaimer: The Spy does not really know where Troy Williams works or lives. The Spy thought that if, by some astronomical chance, that guess was correct, Troy would be so freaked out that The Spy wouldn’t have to spend time on any actual retaliation.) On the subject of gibberish, here’s the conclusion to the Kojima/ Konami saga. As was speculated a few months ago, it has now been confirmed that Kojima has left the company and formed his own, independent studio – Kojima Productions. The new studio, then, has the same name as his old studio, albeit without the (alleged) threat of any of its employees being demoted down to janitorial staff. While no game has been announced, this Kojima Productions reboot has already announced a partnership with Sony in a video featuring SCE CEO Andrew House beaming for all the world like a cat

pioneering spirit,” tweets Kojima. Whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. The Spy preferred it when he was posting pictures of sausages. The Spy wonders if the new studio is located on a remote platform off the Seychelles, but has yet to confirm this. In other platform semiexclusivity news, it’s likely that Lara Croft’s latest adventure will escape its Xbox prison sooner than expected. It had previously been revealed that Rise of the Tomb Raider would be coming to PC in 2016, but it hadn’t been expected until spring at the earliest. According to an Amazon France listing, though, it could be with us as early as January 29.

bucket list

Amazon listings are famously inaccurate, and so it’s possible – even likely – that someone has pulled the date out from a bucket of enema discharge. However, it’s also easy to see why Square Enix would want to get the new Croft adventure onto another platform as soon as possible. Reportedly, only 330,000 copies were sold worldwide in the first week of sale on Microsoft’s console tomb. Of course, releasing on the same day as Fallout 4 probably didn’t help matters, but, whatever the cause, PC sales will undoubtedly be much stronger. Last month, Otherside Entertainment announced System Shock 3 – the surprise sequel to a 16-year-old game. Details are extremely light right now, but a survey that can be taken on the game’s website makes reference to VR – presumably in an attempt to gauge just how interested System Shock fans are in leaving behind their mundane reality for one open to control by a manipulative, stuttering AI. The Spy would have taken the survey, but it asks too many personal questions, like “have you played System Shock 2?” That may sound pretty innocuous, but The Spy already regrets mentioning the birthmark thing. At least if an AI does attempt to take over all virtual reality, there’s a certain regional cyberterrorist that would really like The Spy’s boot to stop repeatedly kicking his ribs. Inane gibberish indeed. Spy out. The Spy

Lara Croft’s latest adventure may escape its Xbox prison sooner than expected

The Spy knows the location of the Rebel base.

MONTHXUK 2015

who’s stumbled upon a large bowl full of cream. While the news will surely be a kick in the nethers to Xbox bosses, PC gamers have little cause for concern. In a now deleted Q&A, SCEE’s community manager posted a statement to the effect that, after a period of PlayStation exclusivity, Kojima Productions’ first game will come to PC. So far, the only official image from the studio is of the new Kojima Productions logo – a skull in what Kojima describes as a cross between a medieval helmet and a spacesuit. Does this mean the new game stars a skeletal space knight? Probably not. The logo represents “aiming the new world with the latest technology and

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