PC Gamer July 2021

ROBIN VALENTINE Twitter @robinlvalentine This month Was reminded of a lot of gruelling. apocalyptic journeys to the supermarket the year. In January 2015, a tiny fiveman team released what would become one of the most iconic indie hits ever. The gloriously cruel Darkest Dungeon was one of the first games to fully realise the potential of Early Access, turning a year of community feedback into a launch so successful that... well, it led to here. Six years on, now a team of 20, Red Hook is working on a sequel so exciting we couldn't resist putting it on the cover. It's a big departure - it's a road trip, it 's a roguelike, and , most radically of all, it's got a hopeful streak. We could all use one of those in 2021,…

WES FENLON Twitter @wesleyfenlon This month Covering games about the apocalypse and a time loop has Wes nostalgic for lockdown life. CHRIS LIVINGSTON Twitter @screencuisine This month Got to meet the stars of Mythic Quest! Of course, they lust wanted to talk about Switch games. ANDY KELLY Twitter @ultrabrilliant This month Reviewed the tall vampire lady game and spent most of his time looking at labels. FRASER BROWN Twitter @FraserlBrown This month Tried to break his Crusader Kings habit by playing basically the same thing but set in space.…

If I asked you which game developer you’d consider Oscar-worthy, how would you respond. Maybe one of Sony’s ‘prestige’ first-party studios? Perhaps a narrative-heavy developer like Telltale or Dontnod, or a triple-A powerhouse like EA or Ubisoft? Instead, the academy has chosen to award Respawn Entertainment with the prestigious award – and it wasn’t even for the wall-running FPS series it’s known for. A DOCUMENTARY FOLLOWING A 90-YEAR-OLD FRENCH RESISTANCE FIGHTER Colette, a short documentary following a 90-year-old French Resistance fighter as she visits the German concentration camp where her brother was killed, won the Oscar for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at this year’s Academy Awards. It’s a fantastic short, exploring pained family dynamics, resistance, and the brutality of Nazi rule in a tight 20 minutes. But it’s also an unlockable videogame…

HIGHS Moneycraft Minecraft modders have earned over $350M since Microsoft bought Mojang’s block-builder. Arena Legends Apex Legends’ new 3v3 Arena mode is already a fan favourite here. Long war After six years, massive Doom mod Wolfenstein: Blade of Agony is finally available as a standalone game. LOWS Crypto woes HDDs and SSDs may become as hard to buy as GPUs if a new ‘proof-of-space’ cryptocurrency takes off. Out of Steam This year’s GDC survey found only 6% of developers feel Steam’s 30% revenue cut is well-earned. Nuclear winter Call of Duty: Warzone’s nuke event was a huge letdown, because we’ve seen it do better.…

Is there any phrase in the English language that does more work for games journalists than “take this with a pinch of salt”? Maybe “it’s a free bar, right?”, but even then The Spy would argue that, without the pinch of salt defence, the entire enterprise of writing about videogames would come crashing down. The Spy has to admit that the phrase has its uses – signalling to readers that sometimes even the most credible leaks and rumours can be inaccurate. But with great power comes great responsibility, and too often it’s used as a linguistic shield that lets outlets repeat unconfirmed speculation with impunity. In the wrong hands, the Salt-Pinch Gambit is little more than a wishlist calibrated to the hopes and dreams of the people typing unconfirmed game names…

1 Revelations stands proud as the Assassin’s Creed game you probably forgot existed. But remember: Brotherhood was a pretty big deal, and so its successor felt like a worthy cover star. More importantly, publishers had realised that they could make money on PC if they didn’t saddle games with punitive DRM schemes – a true turning point from the dark days of the late-2000s. 2 A game you probably do recall: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. “One of the most impressive RPGs you’ll ever play,” wrote Richard Cobbett in his 89% review. 3 Also in this issue, we celebrated the absurd storytelling potential of Dwarf Fortress by recounting the tale of seven drunks who just happened to look like – and share the name of – PC Gamer’s editorial staff. “Decent…