PC Gamer (US Edition) April 2023

ROBERT JONES Twitter @rnicholasj This month Hired a bunch of dwarves to fortify PC Gamer Towers against raids by console gamers. As a PC gamer since the early 1990s I couldn’t be more thrilled to see the iconic System Shock on the cover of this issue. And, after reading our detailed feature on the new game, I’m sure you’ll be just as excited, too. As this is no simple remaster of the sci-fi horror classic. Nightdive Studios has spent eight years upgrading the systems, gameplay, visuals and audio to modern standards, while also fighting to maintain what made the original game so beloved. It looks like it has succeeded, too, with SHODAN reborn in all its terrible glory. robert.jones@futurenet.com TALK TO PC GAMER Have your say! Email us at letters@pcgamer.com The PC Gamer team RICK LANE Twitter @Rick_Lane This month Crushed skulls with a Thunder…

The war in Ukraine has made Russia an international pariah, and begun a period of isolation which to many looks like Cold War 2.0. It’s fair to speculate that this is not the outcome Russia was expecting and, with no end to the war in sight, it is looking to shore-up those domestic areas that have been badly affected, one of which is tech, videogames, and “digital sovereignty”. There have been various initiatives, most of which have suffered sudden encounters with the real world. Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising plan was for a state-funded Russian ‘national game engine’ to compete with the likes of Unreal Engine. This was announced with typical bravado, backing from major Russian tech companies like Rostelecom, and Pravda-like promises that domestic developers would receive grants for developing using…

Acclaimed indie colony/existence sim Dwarf Fortress launched on Steam on December 6, 2022, and within hours the PC’s most famously complex game had 2,000 positive reviews. Someone on the Steam forums asked if all the people reviewing the game on Steam after launch had been “playing free DF for 25 years and just waiting for an opportunity to pay $30?”. A week later, nearly every post in the 253 page thread was someone answering, “Yes.” Other game developers gushed about Dwarf Fortress and its influence on launch day. Publisher Kitfox Games tweeted that Dwarf Fortress had blown past its predicted two-month sales figure in less than 24 hours. In less than a week Dwarf Fortress sold around 300,000 copies, developer Tarn Adams told PC Gamer. “Tanya [Short, of Kitfox Games] posted that…

Today, Graham Goring is a freelance writer working, alongside a few other devs, on a game of his own called Phantom Island (but a series of YA novels using the same name has triggered a search for a new title). He used to work at TT Games, and first entered the industry… “…[by speaking] to a stranger on the internet,” says Goring, “sort of the digital equivalent of getting into a white van”. He first started using the internet while at university in 1994; and John Pickford, of the Pickford brothers, was very active in one of the newsgroups Goring used to frequent. They kept in touch for several years. “Back in about 2000, I was pissed off with my current job, and made a new year’s resolution to get out…

Footfall Station is an Imperial outpost on the edge of the Koronus Expanse, a wild sector of frontier space that I plan to tame as a newly minted Rogue Trader. Before we arrive at Footfall, however, one of my tech-priests asks a question. Do I want to be greeted with the formality my title deserves? Or do I want to enter the station incognito? Frankly, I’m insulted by the question. I’m a bloody Rogue Trader! I’m a one-man East India Company, given special warrant by the Imperium to explore uncharted space, expand its borders and milk the colonies I establish for everything they’re worth. In the callous meat-grinder of the Imperium, I’m one of the few allowed to turn the handle. I want the red-carpet treatment. Trumpets, confetti, adoring crowds and…

From Theme Park, through Rollercoaster Tycoon, and on to Planet Coaster, PC gaming has always been the true home of theme park management games. And 2023 is going to see that lineage continue, with Limbic Entertainment’s Park Beyond looking to take theme park management simulators to a new level, both in terms of fun and craziness. As a firm fan of theme park management games, I sat down with Park Beyond’s creative director, Johannes Reithmann, to learn how the developer was attempting to push the boundaries of the genre and get a closer look at how the game is shaping up. Take one look at Park Beyond and it’s clear to see its indebtedness to that previously mentioned PC gaming park management heritage. From a mechanical point of view, Park Beyond is…