PC Gamer (US Edition) November 2022

No matter how jaded you get about the games industry, no matter how much you think nothing could surprise you, there’ll always be something around the corner ready to knock you for a loop. A new Monkey Island game, helmed by its original creator, in 2022… that’s the kind of announcement that reminds you that miracles do still happen. And what can we do when a miracle happens but slap it on the cover of PC Gamer? To say our feature delves deep to discover the origin of the miracle would be an understatement… robin.valentine@futurenet.com ROBIN VALENTINE Twitter @robinlvalentine This month Buried his greatest treasure (the Warhammer Online collector’s edition). TALK TO PC GAMER Have your say! Email us at letters@pcgamer.com…

CHRIS LIVINGSTON Twitter @screencuisine This month Started chipping away at the avalanche of frog-based indies with Time on Frog Island. FRASER BROWN Twitter @FraserIBrown This month Got an education at the school of hard knocks and slightly tricky sims in Two Point Campus. MOLLIE TAYLOR Twitter @mollietayy This month Pushed to get as many pics of her OC into our Final Fantasy XIV feature as possible. LAUREN MORTON Twitter @ComradeCupcake_ This month Let us all know why one of her safe places is a dungeon full of mad science experiments.…

The Mittani, a legendary and polarizing figure in EVE Online, has stepped down as CEO of two in-game ‘Goon’ organizations that control a significant portion of in-game space. The resignation happened in the aftermath of allegations he failed to address persistent sexual harassment and misconduct in the organization. “My people, I’m afraid that the sheer amount of smears being flung my way across the galaxy are simply too much to handle at a personal level,” The Mittani wrote. “[The accusations are] becoming simply too radioactive to continue leading Goonswarm without my presence being a net negative for the wider tribe.” “The accusations that I am aware of are unsubstantiated falsehoods, and I did not sign up to be the scapegoat for the entire galaxy … the only honorable thing to do is…

HIGHS No FT A dev punked a crypto-sponsored conference in Brazil by turning his talk into a surprise attack on NFTs. GTA gassed GTA Online stays relevant with an update based around high gas prices and a heatwave. The cat’s meow Stray has been something of an indie hit, but PC got it best with a mod that makes the cat shout ‘Jason!’ Heroes of the Gone Blizzard’s done with Heroes of the Storm, with “no plans for new for-purchase content to be added”. DisUnity Game engine Unity completed a merger with IronSource, a company which has a history in malware. Anti-porn cap The Chinese Communist Party is testing a ‘mind-reading’ helmet that detects dirty thoughts, to aid in the censorship of pornography. LOWS…

The highlight of July’s Brazil International Games (BIG) festival was a surprise for everyone, especially the event’s blockchain sponsors: game developer Mark Venturelli’s viral talk ‘Why NFTs are a Nightmare’. In an interview afterward, Venturelli said something about the convention that I’ve kept thinking about since I left Brazil: “I don’t feel I have hurt BIG by talking shit about NFTs because BIG does not need these guys,” he said. “It’s the other way around. Our biggest event here in the Brazilian industry is not going anywhere.” Outside of Venturelli’s talk, which was a brilliant takedown of the design and politics of blockchain games, BIG didn’t make international headlines. It’s not an E3 or a Gamescom, but that belies how much potential is bubbling just under the surface of the Latin…

Sound design, music composition, voice direction… Paul Weir does it all, and pretty much anything else to do with audio that you can think of. He’s a free agent with experience in games, film, radio, advertising, and more; and he’s currently single-handedly working on No Man’s Sky’s audio for Hello Games. Weir had an unorthodox route into the game industry. Using a BBC course in TV directing as a conduit to radio work and composing, he went for a job interview at the now-defunct Perfect Entertainment, the London-based dev behind the Discworld games. He didn’t get the job, but while he was there, he passed a tape of some of his self-written music to their composer. A week later, Weir signed on for welfare. An hour or so after this, his…