PC Gamer

I love world building in games. There’s something magical about the way writers, artists, and designers come together to create their own new reality – a place you can step into and peel back the layers of its stories and ideas as you play. So naturally the idea of a survival game that crafts a BioWare-like fantasy world while you’re crafting your stone axes appeals to me. Nightingalehas the potential to offer proper fantastical escapism with friends – Valheim, but stuffed with lore. Find out more by travelling to the mystical realm of PC Gamer issue 370… ROBIN VALENTINE Twitter @robinlvalentine This month Punched a tree. I didn’t want wood or anything, I was just angry at nature.…

CHRIS LIVINGSTON Twitter @screencuisine This month Spent a day with the creators of Nightingale, and just came back with loads of stuff about hats. IMOGEN MELLOR Twitter @ImoMellor This month Discovered the pure and innocent joy of shooting Nazis in the testicles from 600 metres away. WES FENLON Twitter @wesleyfenlon This month Claimed Star Trek was better when it was about diplomacy rather than explosions. Nerd. RICH STANTON Twitter @RichJStanton This month Had to email CD Projekt RED to ask them the difference between a cat and a lynx.…

CD Projekt has announced that a new Witcher game is in development “kicking off a new saga for the franchise”. While the details are scarce at this stage, the most immediately noticeable part of the announcement is that – after basically building the studio on it – CD Projekt is leaving behind its latest iteration of REDengine, the tech behind Cyberpunk 2077, and moving to Unreal Engine 5. Ever since the Witcher 3’s final DLC, players have been ravenous to find out what’s next: but Cyberpunk 2077 put that on the back-burner for many years, and that game’s story looms large here. The simple version is that, while this was always coming at some point, CDPR’s reputation took a battering over Cyberpunk’s release while the Witcher TV series brought the series…

HIGHS Epic gesture Epic donated two weeks of Fortnite profits to help Ukraine. Elden running Speedrunners have well and truly hit the Lands Between and the record is now 18 minutes to complete it. Colossal comeback Ken and Roberta Williams, Sierra Online founders, are working together again after 20 years on a remake of Colossal Cave Adventure. LOWS Twitch Pro-no! Twitch trialled a feature called Boost Train except it got hijacked, became the Porn Train, and is on hiatus. COD fish COD streamer Kenji was accused of cheating: he disputed it by sharing clips that… showed wallhacks. PSwow! Sony is re-jigging its PlayStation Plus service tiers, which matters to PC gamers because accessing PS Now is going to double in price.…

The Spy has spent decades watching the industry – observing the full domain of videogames and the people who make them. At times, The Spy has been tempted to step in; to lead confused and frightened executives away from their undoing and towards their salvation. Duke Nukem Forever? Aliens: Colonial Marines? Anthem? The Spy could have helped, could have prevented disaster. But doing so would break the covenant of The Spy – the very thing that gives The Spy purpose, maybe even power. The Spy can only watch, never touch. The vigil must continue. The Spy would like you to know that this is very frustrating. “You fools,” The Spy will shout, unheard, “You can’t just throw every shooter trope into a game like an algorithm spitting out keywords. Either be…

ISSUE 240, June 2012 ON THE COVER Company of Heroes 2 IN THE CINEMAS Marvel Avengers Assemble 1 At 94%, Company of Heroes is still the highest score PC Gamer has awarded an RTS. The sequel, alas, couldn’t quite match up. “Huge, powerful, and just a little bit broken,” our review would say. More interesting was what happened after, as Russian users flocked to Metacritic to condemn the game’s depiction of the USSR’s troops. An early review bomb in action. 2 In a review section filled with niche RPGs and strategy games, Paradox stands out with the truly awful Gettysburg: Armored Warfare. Score: 19%. 3 Developer Robert Yang takes us on a tour of the weird, experimental world of indie FPSes. From ambient sound machines like Proteus andFract OSC, to reality-twisting puzzlers like Cities of Day and Night…