GSC Game World, developers of STALKER, are back in business

Stalker is my very favourite game based on a ponderous Tarkovsky film, and also one of my top five games of all time.

Stalker is my very favourite game based on a ponderous Tarkovsky film, and also one of my top five games of all time. I imagine a lot of people feel similarly, which is why the following news is rather exciting: Stalker (or, if you prefer, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) developers GSC Game World are back in business. They're working on an "old-fashioned, full price", unrevealed new game at the moment, though whether it's a Stalker type game or a Heroes of Annihilated Empirestype game, or even a Cossacksyone is still unclear. It could also, obviously, be something completely different.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, GSC spokesperson Valentine Yeltyshev (it's not clear how many other devs have remained—many went on to form Metro's 4A, and Survarium's Vostok Games) had a lot of interesting things to say, not just about the sad demise of Stalker 2, but about the future of GSC, and about the persistently dodgy West Games, who have just reappeared with another shady crowdfunding project. Let's start with that, shall we?

When asked about the bizarre tale of West Games' Areal, Yeltyshev had the following to say.

"I don't really know enough about them, but the story is quite funny. These guys were basically promoting themselves as being the STALKER team, that they were working on STALKER, but that's not true. When we were working on STALKER 2, we were also planning on releasing a browser game based on STALKER so we could keep the audience engaged until released.

"That project was never finished. There were mistakes. But the guys at West Games, that was the STALKER project they were working on - a flash game. So when they promoted themselves as having worked on STALKER, I was quite surprised. We would definitely win the legal action against them, but we won't start it. They used a lot of the ideas from STALKER... I don't know what they were thinking, starting that. I haven't heard from them for quite a while."

The interview seems to have been conducted prior to West Games' return with the probably-trademark-flouting STALKER: Apocalypse—I'd imagine GSC might have something to say to them now.

"So there were a lot of complex reasons that led to the decision to stop development. We were never closing down forever, but at the time we were aware of some pretty obvious obstacles that we weren't going to be able to overcome. Maybe we needed more team leaders. Still, we'd built some levels, areas of the zone, some characters, a new engine. A completely new engine, written from scratch, which was already a next-gen engine at the time.

"The X-Ray engine was quite ahead of its time, but only in 2007, not 2010. The new engines in CoD and Battlefield had started to arrive so we needed to get better. It was maybe 70 to 80 per cent ready. It was a huge step up from X-Ray. It was oriented on PC and Xbox 360, and there were plans for it to work on PlayStation eventually.

"Everything is stored! We have all the assets, materials and engine."

That last part is very good news. As far as I can tell, GSC Game World still own the rights to Stalker, so there's still an X-Ray of hope for Stalker 2. (The rights situation, as impressively detailed here, is enormously confusing.) As for their new game, "we don't think free-to-play is the right model for the game we want to make. So we're making an old-fashioned, full price game, we think our audience will be happy about that. We're expecting a lot of our old audience!"

Read into that what you will. (And when you've done that, be sure to read the whole GamesIndustry.biz interview, as it's fab.)

Take A Tour Of Randy Pitchford's Office

Randy Pitchford is a bit of a collector.

Randy Pitchford is a bit of a collector. His office is filled with odds and ends that vary from bobble-heads to a ColecoVision. He has an impressive collection of video game consoles and handhelds, so expect a full history lesson as he works his way down the line. There is also plenty of merchandise from Gearbox's games and a few insights into the kind of environment that Randy tries to uphold within the studio. Check out the video below to enter Randy's gaming cathedral.

Learn more about Borderlands 2 by clicking on the link to our hub below.

Elder Scrolls Online: Dark Brotherhood trailer is just a bunch of people getting stabbed from behind

The Elder Scrolls Online is expanding today, with the release of The Dark Brotherhood DLC pack.

is expanding today, with the release of The Dark Brotherhood DLC pack. As the name suggests, you'll be allowed to join the Dark Brotherhood, who – judging by the below launch video – just love to stab people in the back! The  video is pretty much just a stream of various clueless, innocent bystanders copping knives in the back. It's relentless.

It makes sense because they're assassins, you see, but that fact doesn't make the video any less brutal. In brighter news, the Dark Brotherhood pack will open up the Gold Coast of Tamriel, which we haven't visited since Oblivion. Check out the trailer below, if you dare.

The Dark Brotherhood rolls out for PC today. ESO Plus subscribers get it immediately, but otherwise it's 2,000 in-game Crowns.

Magnetic by Nature – Full of Robotic Adventure

Imagine – you’re the last robot still functional.

Imagine – you’re the last robot still functional. Your friends are scattered throughout ruins, disabled and lost, and you must make your way to each one to reactivate them. This is the premise of Magnetic By Nature , a “platformer without platforms” from Tripleslash Studios. Successfully funded on Kickstarter, the game was feted at the 2013 Utah Game Wars competition as both Best Developed Game and Audience Choice. Now the developers are looking for player support to bring it to Steam.

“ Experience a fast-paced, single-player adventure mixing fluid motion, split-second decision making, stylized machine-age visuals, and a dynamic soundscape .”

As the last remaining robot, it’s a challenge to move through the different kinds of terrain. Luckily for you, there are magnets all over the place, and your robotic body is, of course, made of metal. You must utilize these magnets in an innovative way to propel yourself through more than 120 levels of the dangerous, fragmented world. The game is designed for PC, Mac, and Linux, and you have your choice to control the game solely with the keyboard or with a combination of keyboard and mouse. Not keen on either of those options? Hook up the controller from your Xbox 360 – the game is compatible with that too.

Beating the game will unlock the special “hell zone” that will test your faculties in the extreme! For speedrunners, beating the base game will also unlock a special mode designed to appeal to your particular interest. International cross-platform leaderboards let you compare your achievements with those of other players, indulging your competitive side.

The developers, Tripleslash Studios, are a ten-person team who originally came together as senior-year schoolmates in the Entertainment Arts and Engineering program at the University of Utah. Based in Salt Lake City, they work to create unique community-driven games for players everywhere. Magnetic By Nature was their senior capstone project, and gamers and industry professionals alike have since praised it at GDC and other conventions.

Help Magnetic By Nature come to Steam by supporting the Greenlight campaign here. You can also read about the successful, concluded Kickstarter campaign, and be sure to check out Tripleslash Studios on Facebookand/or Twitterfor more exciting announcements.

STALKER: Lost Alpha "Developer's Cut" announced

STALKER: Lost Alpha was a Shadow of Chernobyl mod released back in April .

. Once planned as an official STALKER expansion, it was leaked ahead of time—putting an end to the paid-for deal. Disappointed but undeterred, the team eventually released the mod for free.

That, it seems, is not the end of the story. "Some people already buried our project, but we are still working on our dream game," writes the mod team in a new announcement. They compare Lost Alpha's initial release to an "early access" project, saying, "many people simply did not understand they are playing a work in progress game."

The next update, it seems, will be the biggest by far—so much so that they've decided to mark it as a special "Developer's Cut" enhancement.

"What do we plan to add? More life to the Zone, earlier unlocked freeroam for NPCs, less empty places on huge levels, revised weapons and trading system, revised atmospheric Ukrainian weather," they write, before continuing to list lots and lots of other things. You can see the current patch notes here, although they'll be continually revised as the mod approaches completion.

Lost Alpha's original aim was to restore cut content to Shadow of Chernobyl. Eventually, it expanded in scope—becoming a completely parallel campaign across restored and re-imagined areas.

The Legend Of Zelda's Top Ten Items

Destroying bosses, exploring dungeons, and solving puzzles are all crucial elements of the Zelda series, but finding new items might be the most exciting of them all.

Destroying bosses, exploring dungeons, and solving puzzles are all crucial elements of the Zelda series, but finding new items might be the most exciting of them all. Considering that a new item could be the key to destroying that boss, exploring that dungeon, or solving that puzzle, collecting them is the most important part of any Zelda game. Whether they're an awesome weapon to add to your arsenal, a way to cross a seemingly uncrossable gap, or just a container for that crucial fairy, these items are the best in the long-running franchise.

10. The Spinner

Most of Link's items are either weapons to attack enemies or tunics and shields to defend himself. While the Spinner does minimal damage to enemies, it's primarily useful as a navigation tool. In the Arbiter's Grounds dungeon, Link can ride it like a skateboard through various grooves in the walls. Not only does it help you get around the dungeon, but it's also utilized in the awesome boss fight against the skeleton Stallord.

9. Bottles

No item in the Zelda franchise is more versatile than a simple bottle. It can save you from death if a fairy is enclosed, house a useful killer bee in A Link to the Past, trap Poes, and even reflect magic back at several of the series' bosses. Collecting all four of these in any Zelda game isn't a requirement, but they'll make your journey much easier.

8. Blast Mask

Bombs are one of the trademarks of the Zelda series, appearing in virtually every entry. In most of the games, you have to spend time cutting grass and looking under pots if you run out of bombs. Majora's Mask features the Blast Mask, however, which essentially gives you infinite bombs any time you want. Hitting the B button with this mask on literally makes your face explode , but there's a way to escape taking damage. Simply hold up Link's shield before hitting B, and you've got yourself a harmless face bomb at the press of a button.

Elder Scrolls Online reportedly removed from retail shelves amid free-to-play rumours

[ EB Games has sent a statement to MCV Pacific saying that there's nothing untoward about The Elder Scrolls Online recall.

saying that there's nothing untoward about The Elder Scrolls Online recall. "This is just part of a normal stock recall. Post-Christmas we ask stores to send back anything that they may have too much of in store," it said. "This time we included many titles, including The Evil Within, Destiny and The Elder Scrolls Online."]

Australian retailer EB Games will remove The Elder Scrolls Onlinefrom its bricks and mortar shelves on January 13, a Kotaku AUsource claims. If the report is true then it serves as fresh evidence that Bethesda intends to scrap the MMO's monthly subscription fees in favour of a free-to-play model. Both boxed copies of the game, as well as pre-paid subscription cards, will reportedly be discontinued.

The development follows news late last year that players can no longer purchase six-month subscriptionsto the MMO, which was met with mixed reviews when it launched last year. While a moderator on an official French TESO forum claimed the six-month blocks were discontinued due to lack of demand (ie, customers prefer to buy shorter blocks), evidence is certainly mounting that a change is imminent.

Our Chris Thursten wasn't impressed by Elder Scrolls Online, describing it as " capable, but ultimately hard to recommend". A huge updateis due later this month, ushering in dramatic changes to the MMO's post-game.

Take Up Your Sword: Stronghold Crusader 2 to Launch in September

Medieval enthusiasts may remember the original Stronghold Crusader , which debuted some dozen years ago.

, which debuted some dozen years ago. Billed as ‘the original castle sim,’ it was a successor to Firefly Studios‘ original game Stronghold , and in more recent years has been re-released on Steam in high definition.

Now, the legendary game is getting its own sequel in Stronghold Crusader II, set to launch both online and in hard copy form worldwide on September 2, 2014.

In the words of the developers, this will be the game they have always wanted to make. A new 3D engine will provide players with “addictive, fast-paced gameplay.” They believe the new game will “define old-school real-time strategy with fiendish AI characters, fast-paced skirmish gameplay, and new troops, traps, and castles.”

The main protagonist of the Stronghold series has always been King Richard the Lionheart of England, and he returns to once again be part of the action in this new game. As history buffs may recall, Richard was the leader of the Crusades, and the new game will take the player into the desert as he makes his presence known there. The developers assure the players that they make great efforts for historical accuracy, but not at the expense of fun.

PC gamers should mark their calendars for the September launch date; the original Stronghold Crusader sold well over two million copies and still has an active player base today, so there is every reason to think that Stronghold Crusader II will do at least as well. Visit the game’s websiteto read more details, watch videos, hear advance releases of the soundtrack, and join the player forums. You can also follow along on Twitterfor more exciting announcements as the release date approaches.

Areal studio founder Eugene Kim addresses crowdfunding controversy in exclusive interview

With a new, in-house Areal crowdfunding campaign underway, West Games founder Eugene Kim took some time to answer a few questions about why the Kickstarter was suspended , what he knows about the big, late-day contributions that pushed the project past its goal and why the studio continues to use Stalker assets to promote its new game.

The new Arealcrowdfunding campaign was launched very shortly after the Kickstarter was suspended, seeking the same amount of money—$50,000—and offering the same rewards for the same donation amounts. But a number of questions remained unanswered, so we put them to Kim:

PC Gamer : Has Kickstarter contacted you to explain why the Areal project was canceled?

Eugene Kim : Kickstarter basically sends you a standardized letter that gives you a list of possible reasons for why your project might be suspended. They do not take the time to give a personalized response, and that's perfectly understandable, since Kickstarter manages thousands of projects. Their policy on suspensions are final, so none of our backers have been or will be charged for pledging on our Kickstarter. That's why we have restarted funding via our website, and we're doing pretty well so far.

PCG : The Vice articleyou say brought in a lot of new donors ran on July 21 but Kicktraqindicates only 31 backers that day, and 13 the next, with a total donation amount of $1105. The big donations that pushed you over the top came before it went live, on July 19 and 20. Where did those big donations come from?

Kim : We were suspended right when the vice article was getting a lot of views, which was unfortunate. But it's still such an honor for motherboard to write about us. I highly suggest checking out the Russian Roulette series that they have up on youtube. There were 2 big donations; one for 10,000 and the other for 5,000. They both came from Russia and were first time backers. I can't say for sure, but I think that they weren't real, and if our Kickstarter continued, they would have probably retracted their pledge at the last second. This happened before on our second day; a guy named Ivan pledged 10,000 dollars, and then retracted that pledge. Keep in mind that Kickstarter does NOT charge anyone before a Kickstarter ends (they only authorize your credit card). It's kind of like bidding on ebay in a way.

PCG : How does the crowdfunding campaign on the Areal website work? When backers pledge to this campaign, is the money taken immediately?

Kim : It works in the same way as most other direct-to-site crowdfunding campaigns work, with a great example being Star Citizen. Actually, at the top right corner, you can see how much we've raised, as well as our base goal. You can see stretch goals in the store section. Our site is constantly evolving, and we are working hard to make our website as user friendly as possible.

PCG : Given the controversy surrounding your use of Stalker assets in the Kickstarter campaign, why are you still using the Stalker trailer to promote Areal on your site?

Kim : Because we have every right to use S.T.A.L.K.E.R. footage for our trailer. If that is controversial, then so be it. We also have a video of our team on the first page and an early gameplay prototype teaser in the gameplay section."

Kim claimed that many of the Areal Kickstarter's problems arose from people trying to discredit it, including around 200 backers who pledged $1 each but then withdrew their pledges, one or two at a time, whenever a new backer signed up. He offered a link to an imagethat he claimed was a list of those backers, and while its legitimacy is impossible to verify, the names on the list do correspond with names of those who backed the Areal Kickstarter.

He also acknowledged that West Games is partially responsible for the trouble, because it didn't do a better job of addressing the unexpected controversy. "To be completely honest, we have never been in this type of situation before," he said. "We know how to make games, but haven't been as adept in publicity."

Yet the controversy doesn't appear to be over. The fund-raising total in the top-right corner of the Areal website that Kim mentioned is not actually a running total at all, but simply a number hard-coded into the page's HTML. It hasn't changed all day.

Update: Eugene Kim responded today to our inquiries about the Areal crowdfunding counter, which at the time of this update had reached $12,500. "The number is updated by hand around 3 times a day. That's going to change, and we are going to add statistics like you see in Star Citizen," he wrote. "We have a standard refund policy of 30 days (which is more [than] paypal's policy), so if someone changes their mind, then they are free to get their money back. We're adding in a lot of new features for our website, with some of them being a Russian language version, FAQ and forums eventually. We also post updates relatively frequently on our website, and on facebook."

Our Impressions Of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Outside of Nintendo's hallowed halls, nobody has played more of Zelda: Skyward Sword than Game Informer's Phil Kollar and Dan Ryckert.

Outside of Nintendo's hallowed halls, nobody has played more of Zelda: Skyward Sword than Game Informer's Phil Kollar and Dan Ryckert. It's fair to call these two editors our resident Zelda super-fans, so we were all curious about their thoughts on the latest entry in the series. In the park behind our office, the two of them discussed the biggest changes to the Zelda formula and their overall impressions of their time with Skyward Sword. Check out the video to learn all you need to know before the game is released on November 20.

For more information on Skyward Sword and the Zelda series overall, click the link to our hub below.

Righting the ship: a look at Elder Scrolls Online's future

"Look up, here it comes," the guy behind me whispers.

"Look up, here it comes," the guy behind me whispers. There's something akin to reverence in his voice. I look up at the screen on QuakeCon'smain stage to see footage of some thug pilfering the crates and boxes surrounding a shopkeeper's stand, taking care to avoid her gaze. The text accompanying each of the items is red; he's stealing. A guard catches him, and he's asked to hand over the value of the items, which amounts to a measly five gold. He obliges. The guy behind me is snickering now, and I hear a slap that must be a high-five he shared with his friend.

The perspective shifts; we're now behind the twin blades of some Nightblade slinking about the Daggerfall Covenant town of Wayrest. He sneaks up behind poor Phillic Menant, who's just strolling over to chat with the local stablemaster. The blades flash, Phillic falls with a bloody splash, and the crowd around me collectively leans forward. This is something new; something unexpected. "We'd like to encourage everybody to start killing NPCs in the game," says Paul Sage, ESO's creative director, just as we see an archer fire an arrow through an NPC enjoying the morning air. And the entire crowd goes wild.

The last time I'd experienced this level of excitement for Elder Scrolls Online, I was sitting in a cramped room in Maryland with other journalists watching the first reveal of the game's first person combat. In that moment, we saw a glimpse of an Elder Scrolls MMO that could live up to fans' expectations and distinguish itself from the morass of bland competitors. Like that crowd at QuakeCon, we gasped. Over the intervening two years or so, I've often wondered if ZeniMax and other developers would benefit from gathering a crowd of MMO enthusiasts in a similar room, presenting them with concept footage, and then focusing exclusively on the bits that gets the room o ohing and ahhing .

Paul Sage seems to feel the same way, although he attests he gets most of his insights into the game's health from ESO's forums and his own experience from leveling a character. In an interview after the presentation, he speaks of the clarity he finds in the post-launch development process that isn't as strong in the beta. With so many people treating the game's beta as a straight preview, he says, there's a danger of focusing on false positives.

"After launch, you don't have people who come in and say, like, 'I don't like this' within five minutes or they have weird patterns because they haven't paid for it," he says. "People in betas are sometimes looking for that 10-minute thrill versus the long play, although an MMO is really about your investment in your character and community. I think that investment doesn't get to happen in beta."

The footage I saw in Dallas depicted an improved game that seems tailored to meet most of the criticisms bandied about in reviews by folks who weren't quite so receptive. The list of changes is impressive—staggering, even. The footage of killing and stealing sprang from only one segment of the two-hour presentation, which centered on a new Justice system that would encourage world PvP by allowing players to hunt down folks who engaged in such misdeeds. Other features include:

New, smaller PvP and PvE zones within the besieged Imperial City Horse racing A new veteran dungeon Dungeon scaling Updated facial animations Tweaks to combat responsiveness New crafting motifs that introduce armor from series favorites like the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild.

Much of this new content centers on broadening the existing experience rather than tacking new content on at the end, in an effort to deliver gameplay that's genuinely "Elder Scrolls." It's exactly the kind of content I'd hoped for when I expressed the need for ESO to “grow” earlier this month.About 30 percent of the ideas in the presentation are new, Sage says—the rest were considered in the initial development process but sidelined by the demands of the release window. "It's fun to do a leveling game," Sage says, "but I think there's something magical about having all these activities that you can do regardless of your level."

ZeniMax's desire to improve the core experience popped up in other entries on the list, revealing an ambitious vision for improving the game that would more comfortably fit in an expansion pack for most other MMORPGs. Spellcrafting, for instance, at last makes its appearance (although it's kept in check by a series of rules that keep you from being able to nuke Daedric lords with one fireball). Reviews at launch tended to criticize the game's phasing and its tendency to keep group players from seeing each other in the world; in a future update, groups will automatically sync with the leader, and the journal and quest tracker will show which quests you share with your comrades. The veteran experience, which I deplored somewhat in a recent article, will be augmented with the "Champion" system that rewards passives via constellations much as in Skyrim.

That's an impressive list by any measure, and it was easy to get the impression from the presentation that we'd be seeing this all in a matter of weeks. Not necessarily so; during the Q&A session a viewer on Twitch asked when we'd see some improvements to ESO's werewolves, and the answer from Lead Gameplay Designer Nick Konkle involved "months."

This marks a sharp departure from the practices of most other MMO developers, who tend to either drop patches with little warning or after a testing period lasting only a few weeks. Almost never do they announce this many upcoming features at once. I asked Sage why they took the risk.

"We're being pretty open at this point because I want feedback on these systems before we release them," he says. "I think the earlier you get feedback from the playerbase and you gauge the excitement level, the better your systems will grow with your playerbase."

How does Sage expect to make that playerbase grow? By making ESO's current players as happy as possible. In time, he seems to suggest, that commitment should attract others and win over players who may have already jumped ship. For my money, it wouldn't hurt to keep pumping updates full of "wow" moments such as the ones we saw when ESO's formerly inviolate NPCs fell dead underneath a storm of player arrows.

The more Elder Scrolls that gets put into Elder Scrolls Online, the better.

Indie Links Round-Up: Style Points

“Cards Against Humanity has made well more than $12 million, all because some Highland Park 20-somethings wanted to avoid conversation.”
“Finally a new PixelProspector video!

The story of Cards Against Humanity, iPad suggestions and much more – in today’s Indie Links.

Eight Nerds Get Rich Off A Game Where Oprah Sobs Into A Lean Cuisine(Chicago Grid)

New Compiliation Video(Pixel Prospector)
“Finally a new PixelProspector video! :)This video shows a selection of 55 fresh indie games that…were all released in 2012/2013* (or are still in development), are on Steam Greenlight.”

Rawbots(Pixel Prospector)
“Rawbots is a very promising robot sandbox game with huge(!) potential. You basically build and program your very own robots from many parts and play around with them (sandbox style only… there are no goals at the moment).”

Preview: under heavy fire in twin-stick shooter Assault Android Cactus(IndieGames.com)
“I recently had the pleasure of spending some time with a preview of the upcoming co-op focused, twin-stick shooter: Assault Android Cactus by developer Witch Beam – a three man team from Brisbane, Australia. Although you may have seen a few games with a similar premise (in a broad sense it feels like a modernized version of Smash TV with a number of twists), the execution and general polish of presentation in Assault Android Cactus set it apart from many others for me. Players will need to shoot through wave after wave of enemy robots which get progressively more chaotic while keeping kill chains up. Players must also adapt to frequently changing and dynamic environments, or even other quirks like the lights going out. If that wasn’t enough, every few levels leads up to a huge boss battle which may contain some bullet-hell style dodging madness.”

iPad-ing the Roster(Indie Game Reviewer)
“It is time to check in with the increasingly busy tablet market. In this round, we focus on the big guy in 10″ land – the venerable and ever-popular iPad.”

New Xbox Live Indie Games for week ending May 10, 2013(IndiePub)
“Best bets this week include: Avatars on the Edge, a stunt avatar game; Naoki Tales, a cute arcade/adventure game; Orbit Crash, a beautiful monochromatic space game; Loot Fest 2, a multiplayer explorer game; and Adamant Ants 2, a game where you control ants to rescue the queen!”

Dinora(Indie Gamer Chick)
“Dinora bears a strong resemblance to Terraria, the sleeper-hit that’s climbing up the charts on XBLA, and of which I reviewed the PSN version. As a reminder of what I felt of Terraria, I was annoyed by its numerous game-killing glitches, then went on to lose 50+ hours to a borderline-addiction to it. So, I guess you can say I’m a fan of it. Oh, I’m done with it. For reals this time. I swear. No really. Stop looking at me like that. Look, Brian and me went to play it a little more and the glitches they patched out were replaced by even worse glitches that made half the world invisible to me. So seriously, I’m over it. It’s out of my system. Had a good time while it lasted, but the thrill is gone. At least until they patch it some more.”

The Lunduke Experimental Artificial Intelligence Terminal Interview(Independent Gaming)
“This game really straddles the line between game and… er… experience? A game so odd and slightly scary, it literally scared Paul away so I’m doing it instead. It isn’t as frightening and damaging as it seems though.”

Mod of the Week: Autumn Aurora 2, for STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl

Ah, Autumn.

Ah, Autumn. It's a time for brisk walks through the woods with crunchy, colorful leaves underfoot. A time for taking deep lungfuls of crisp, fresh air. A time for stuffing diet sausages into your mouth while firing panicky rounds from an inaccurate pistol as irradiated dogs leap and snarl from the thick undergrowth. A time for the Autumn Aurora 2 mod, for STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl.

While it adds a number of new features and elements, Autumn Aurora also serves as compilation mod, so it adds a bunch of stuff that's appeared elsewhere. Add that to the fact that It's been ages since I've played any "vanilla" version of the Stalker games, and having used various mods over the years like Complete, LURK, the Zone Reclamation Project, Oblivion Lost, Misery, and others, I have completely lost track of what was included in the original games, which mods add which weapons, animations, sounds, textures, features, bug fixes, and so on. In other words, some of the following may seem a bit familiar if you've already spent some time in modded versions of Shadow of Chernobyl or the other Stalker games.

First things first, though: the Autumn look. It's nice, though subtle. The Zone feels considerably more Autumn-like, with some orange, red, and amber shades and tones, though it preserves the bleak and hopeless nature of the Zone from the original game. The mod adds some new tree, grass, and plant models, textures, and colors, using an edited version of the Absolute Naturepack. There are some revised weather effects, and new sounds -- again, nothing that's going to hit you over the head or radically change the feel of the game, but you'll definitely notice improvements over the original and changes from some of the other mod packages out there.

A number of tweaks from the mod serve to retrofit Shadow of Chernobyl with elements from Call of Pripyat. Artifacts aren't just bumping along on the ground, completely visible, as they used to be. You'll need a detector to even know they're nearby, and they'll remain invisible until you're within very close range (similar to artifacts in CoP). This is a great addition, because artifact hunting is not only fun, but such sought-after relics should be a little harder to come by than just spotting and collecting them like Pac-Man dots. There are three different detectors available in the game, from the barely-functional Echo to the much more precise Bear.

Keeping your gear in workable order is important, as anyone who has had a misfire during a frantic bandit encounter can tell you. In addition to paying vendors to fix your guns, there are weapon repair kits you can carry around with you, and they're actually fairly common in the world as loot (I found three of them within a few hours of play). There are also repair kits for keeping your armor in good shape, though they seem to be much harder to come by, as I only spotted one during my time with the mod.

Medkits, when used, don't instantly heal and aren't instantly consumed. While you're using one, you won't be able to fire a weapon, so you'll have to hole up in some cover for a few long seconds as you listen to the sounds of first-aid being applied. What's more, your health won't instantly spring up, but ever-so-slowly climb back to normal. And, you can't just pop open three medkits at once: while the effects of one are underway, you can't use another until the first has finished.

There are spots to sleep, giving you the option to crank the clock ahead, if you're looking to run some daytime excursions and avoid the pitch blackness of night (I think this was part of vanilla Call of Pripyat). There is also a requirement to eat, and it's pretty well balanced: I never felt like I was constantly having to stuff food in my craw, but it happened often enough that I'd always remember to bring food along on expeditions.

Add in an extremely minimal HUD, a few new weapons, and a smooth, bug-free experience, and you've got a nice mod for rediscovering the dark and spooky embrace of Shadow of Chernobyl. It doesn't feel like a major departure or complete overhaul, and doesn't transform the game into anything we haven't seen before, but it adds some subtle changes and plenty of enjoyable features. If you're looking for a break from a mod you've been using for a while, or looking to mod Shadow of Chernobyl for the first time, this is a good place to start.

Installation : It's a hefty 4 gig downloadfrom Moddb, but it's got its own installer, so there's no manually mucking around with a bunch of folders and files. One note: if you play Stalker via Steam, there may be a conflict with the Steam overlay. This FAQ will explain how to void it by disabling the Steam overlayif you experience any start-up crashes.

Spoiled! The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker

As part of this month's ongoing coverage of our The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Zelda 25th anniversary, we're proud to bring you a video of three goobers talking about the end of Wind Waker in the Game Informer vault.

As part of this month's ongoing coverage of our The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Zelda 25th anniversary, we're proud to bring you a video of three goobers talking about the end of Wind Waker in the Game Informer vault. Basically, Jeff Cork, Ben Reeves, and myself drool over the fantastic finale involving Link's sword and Ganon's,.. well, if you haven't seen it just take a few moments to watch this episode of Spoiled .

spoilers

Spout off in the comments below what you though of this game's climax. And if you didn't bother beating it or even picking it up to begin with, tell us why.

Click on the link to the hub below to check out a bunch of other exclusive Zelda content.

The state of Elder Scrolls Online: 3 months after launch

A week after E3, I logged into Elder Scrolls Online expecting the worst.

expecting the worst. It was a pivotal moment for the future of ESO in the notoriously fickle MMORPG genre—the colorful rival WildStarhad gone live but days before, the new "Craglorn" patch was settling into maturity, and most importantly, the first month of subscriptions had run dry for most early adopters. After the barrage of criticisms from critics and bitter players alike, I'd all but convinced myself that mine would be the only name shining on my favorite guild's roster upon entering Tamriel.

I couldn't have been more wrong. I logged in to find almost every player at Veteran Rank 12 rushing to complete one of the new "Trials," and they bugged me about why I hadn't been logging in as though all the factors above weren't into play. I needed that; it gave me hope that the roughly 400 hours I've spent with the game to date weren't for naught, and that other players shared the same begrudging affection for it as I do. The pieces, it seems, are in place to get back on track after a rocky start. ZeniMax has shown some competence so far in delivering an end game that its loyal players want to play, but now the question is whether it can overcome lingering issues with balance, fresh content, and a tedious leveling experience beyond the level cap.

Miles to Go

MMORPGs depend on the lively interactions and coordinated group efforts that greeted me upon my return, and ESO inexplicably holds this aspect of its experience at a distance. Reaching the level cap in most of its competitors resembles crossing a finish line of sorts, granting access to better loot through high-level dungeons and raids as a reward. In ESO, it's more like starting another lap. MMOs seldom take you from the high note of battling a fiend like a daedric lord to knocking you back to the beginning in the style of an action RPG like Path of Exile, but ESO insists on making you play through the leveling content of the other two factions before you reach the true level cap of Veteran Rank 12.

Reaching the highest veteran rank takes around 300 hours, which discourages players from leveling alts. Worse, the design whisks players out of their faction homelands and ships them off to the lands of their enemies, resulting in Nords who hang around and do their business in High Elf cities. It shatters the concept of a shared ”culture” among members of a common faction that usually makes faction-based MMOs so appealing, and it lessens replay value since you've already seen every quest by the time you're done. Think of it this way: It's like starting a Horde character in World of Warcraft and ending up playing through Alliance zones by the time you're done. It's hard to dredge up the conviction to shout "For the Horde!" when you're hobnobbing with dwarves and gnomes.

Elder Scrolls Online complicates this design further by slapping the veteran levels with harder encounters in both the open world and instances, resulting in characters that feel weaker at the level cap than they did when they were running around in the dungeons of Coldharbour. That's not to say that the challenge isn't welcome—it encourages player interaction in a way the 1-50 experience seldom did—but it's the kind of thing that should have been in place from the beginning.

The Trials of the Companions

If you can stick it out to Veteran Rank, Elder Scrolls Online's end game shows promise. The dungeons found in veteran ranks alone are worth the effort it takes to reach them, as some of the encounters resemble mini-raids that demand at least a modicum of coordination and cooperation among random players. Here the depth of ESO's combat best reveals itself, and the resulting challenges reveal weaknesses in builds that weren'tapparent when bulldozing through the core 1-50 content. I'd spend the majority of the veteran leveling process in the dungeons if I could, but poor XP for repeated runthroughs and boss loot that's easily salable in guild stores diminish some of the appeal.

But for weeks after launch, those dungeons constituted the end game experience aside from faction battles in the PvP zone of Cyrodiil (and why, ZeniMax is there no world PvP?). The Craglorn patch back in May added an "adventure zone" dedicated to group content, whether it be dynamic events and world bosses, public dungeons that required other players to complete, or two new 12-player "trials" that filled in the need for raid-like encounters. It was one of the first signs that ZeniMax might know what it's doing with late-game content, after all.

It's thus a shame that the trials, while fun enough, serve as a poster child for the issues Elder Scrolls Online faces every time it tries to deliver a non-standard MMO experience. The emphasis is usually on speed, as the trials limit the number of resurrections and reward players with leaderboard rankings depending on how fast they clear them. In another MMO without similar pressures, players usually allow concessions to support a player with a build or class that's not quite optimal for specific encounters.

Forget about that in ESO. Random groups actively turn away damage-focused Nightblade characters, as the class' DPS is in such a pitiful state right now (particularly for stamina builds) that bringing them would likely result in a lower ranking or outright failure. Balance as a whole remains a problem, and it's not uncommon to see trial groups composed almost entirely of players equipped with destruction staffs and clad in light armor regardless of class.

Good thing, then, that the trials aren't the only attraction; Patch v1.1.2 also introduced Shada's Tear, a sprawling multi-wing four-player dungeon as a nod to old-school dungeon running à la World of Warcraft's Scholomance and Blackrock Spire. I spent five hours in there the day after it launched, and figuring out the encounters in the absence of online wikis was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in an MMO in years. ESO could use more things like this. It's a welcome alternative for players who want it, although the loot currently doesn't really justify the time commitment.

The Craglorn patch overall represents a healthy stab at creating content that keeps players busy, and it doesn't hurt that it alleviated some of the pain of the veteran leveling process. Thanks to a boost to enemy XP in the veteran ranks, newly minted level 50s now head straight to Craglorn to participate in the overland group events when they're not in the mood to slog through nearly 200 hours of story from a faction that they never intended to join in the first place. Most importantly, it seasons the experience with more variety, which is something ESO has needed since the beginning.

And it could stand to have more yet. After just a day of sampling its attractions, even Craglorn starts to feel like just another zone. A new patch this week introduced the veteran version of the Daggerfall Covenant's Crypt of Hearts dungeon along with a bundle of much-needed tweaks and bug fixes, but there's something inescapably dissatisfying about running through the same dungeons you saw as a fresh-faced adventurer even when you populate them with new bosses and enemies.

Variety is something that WildStar got so right, while ESO's oh-so-conflicted desire to remain true to the single-player games holds it back. Take it from Elsa, ZeniMax: Let it go.

The Spice of Life

What could this variety consist of? I saw a hint of it at the Bethesda booth at E3, where the ZeniMax team had set up a king-of-the-hill style PvP battleground called Colovian Crossing specifically for the event. A lone flag stood at the center of the arena, and players from the three factions rushed in to hold it and fight off their enemies. It was a simple affair designed to let random passersby enjoy and get a feel for the game despite not knowing jack about its gameplay, and here's the thing—it worked. I know of at least one person who was determined to pick it up after playing, but I never learned if he knew that small, focused content like that isn't even in the game.

It should be. ESO remains overly focused on the big picture: big zones, big questlines, and lately, big dungeons. But contemporary MMOs thrive on the little things as well, such as the PvE scenarios in a game like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online or the focused, structured PvP content you find in WildStar or Guild Wars 2. Content, in other words, that you could log into and complete in the span of a lunch break or in the few free minutes before dinner. It's the kind of stuff that keeps players logging back in even when they don't have the time to bother with larger projects but still want to feel as though they've accomplished something for the day.

Elder Scrolls Online already has a devoted and friendly playerbase that's remained true to the game in the face of enticing competition. Some of us actually prefer its brand of combat where you click your mouse and your mace thunks down on your enemy; still more enjoy its muted color palettes that evoke the cold realities of medieval life over Pixar-inspired rainbowscapes. Thus far, ZeniMax has done a good job of eradicating the bugs and bots that scarred the first few weeks of release, and they've done a good enough job to warrant forgiveness for missing their ambitious update schedule.

But now the work begins. An MMORPG is a living thing, and Elder Scrolls Online needs to grow. It may be too late to do something about the drudgery and awkwardness of the veteran leveling experience beyond 50, but ZeniMax can lessen some of the damage by introducing new bite-sized activities while still finding time to remedy massive issues with balance. The latter issue's so bad that I've even started leveling a Dragonknight to continue enjoying my time with the game. At the same time, this frustrated endeavor gives me an odd sensation of hope—if I thought ESO wasn't capable of staying the course, I wouldn't have bothered at all.

...

Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Our Verdict Street Fighter 5 is deep, endlessly fun, and immensely inviting, but local competitive play is currently the primary way to enjoy it. Pros As inviting accessible and explorable as Street Fighter has ever been Genuinely endless fun in local vs. multiplayer New systems bring down the learning hurdles Cons Very limited single-player content at launch Online

Video: How theater influenced the design of Kentucky Route Zero

Games often draw inspiration from big-budget summer blockbusters, but in the long history of film and theater there lies a wealth of other genres and techniques that developers can learn from.

For example, Cardboard Computer's Tamas Kemenczy took to the stage during the GDC 2014 Independent Games Summit to deliver an intriguing talk about the the environment design and cinematography of Kentucky Route Zero that delves into his studio's use of theatrical stagecraft and "slow cinema" in game design.

Borrowing the lens of scenography, Kemenczy runs down some notable set designs, architecture, and filmmakers that influenced Kentucky Route Zero 's art direction, and how the game balances mood, realism and the mundane through its various set pieces.

We've gone ahead and embedded the free video of his intriguing presentation on "Scenography of Kentucky Route Zero " above, but you can also watch it right herevia the GDC Vault.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vaultoffers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech

Dishonored: The Heritage Of Arkane Studios

While their eyes are set on crafting a new IP called Dishonored, the team at Arkane Studios can't forget the past.

While their eyes are set on crafting a new IP called Dishonored, the team at Arkane Studios can't forget the past. The offices (one in Austin, Texas and the other in Lyon, France) contain developers that have helped create titles like Deus Ex, Half Life 2, and Arx Fatalis. While visiting Austin, we spoke with members of the team at Arkane Studios about their past in the gaming industry and which games and ideas have helped to shape the direction of Dishonored. Check out the video below.

Click on the link to our hub below to learn more about Dishonored.

The Elder Scrolls Online fan-run item market endorsed by Zenimax Online

Psst. Hey you, looking to score a Beech Lightning Staff of Flame in The Elder Scrolls Online ?

? I know of a place that could hook you up. The fan-run TESO Elite Forumshas set up an unofficial marketplace, where you can post the stuff you're looking to buy or sell. The marketplace has even been endorsed by developer ZeniMax Online.

Looking to buy, sell, and trade in-game goods and services in #ESO ? Then @TesoElite 's new marketplace is for you: http://t.co/ufnKNCTBMV April 10, 2014

The whole reason this third-party marketplace exists is because there isn't an official, in-game auction house in TESO. As gameplay designer Nick Konkle explains to Shoddy Cast, ZeniMax decided not to include a global auction house (a common feature in many MMOs), because it could devalue the best gear in the game. It's not clear, then, why ZeniMax would endorse a workaround that accomplishes something similar.

TESO Elite's marketplace seems pretty functional. You post the item you want to buy, sell, or trade, which server you're on, and there's even a feedback system to keep everyone honest. If you want to take full advantage of it, the forums even include a simple how-to guide.

We have reached out to Bethesda for comment on why it's endorsing a third-party market. In the meantime, be sure to read Chris' reviewof The Elder Scrolls Online.

Is it possible to make a game without graphics?

Is it possible to make a game without graphics? As the industry acclimatises to the visual fidelity of the next-generation of games consoles, we chat to Steve Willey and Jamin Smith of Incus Games about Three Monkeys – a PC game without graphics. Three Monkeys is a very different kind of game – it’s ambitious, it’s innovative and it’s intriguing. Developer Incus Games has decided to take the game

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria sells 2.7 million in first week

Blizzard announced today Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's fourth expansion, sold 2.7 million units within its first week since launching on September 25.

Blizzard announced today Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's fourth expansion, sold 2.7 million units within its first week since launching on September 25. Active subscriptions also jumped past 10 million as a result.

By comparison, World of Warcraft's previous expansion, Cataclysm, quaked onto 3.3 million computers after just 24 hours and reigned as the fastest-selling PC game of all timebefore passing the mantle to Diablo 3.

Also: awesome review with pretty pictures. Enjoy!

The World Of Dishonored

Dishonored tells the story of one man's quest for revenge in an otherworldly industrialized city.

Dishonored tells the story of one man's quest for revenge in an otherworldly industrialized city. While touch-points recall elements of our real world, Dishonored is actually set in a startling and dangerous land quite different from our own.

Though the game is primarily set within the boundaries of a single city, the folks at Arkane Studios feel that there needs to be a depth and authenticity to the game world that can only be provided by creating a complete fiction beyond the borders of that city.

Our interactive map shows the breadth of that vision, detailing elements of the surrounding world from geography and science to religion and industry. Click on the image below to begin your exploration.

For all our detailed articles on Dishonored and interviews with the developers at Arkane, check out our game hub by clicking on the banner below.

Razer Stargazer wants to be top gaming webcam

The Logitech C920 has perched above my monitor for years now, resolute, watchful, and consistently on top for quality, aesthetics and affordability among webcams.

for quality, aesthetics and affordability among webcams. But that's not good enough for Razer. Announced at CES, the Razer Stargazeris a $200 all-seeing, all-chroma-keying eye built with streamers in mind.

The Stargazer uses Intel RealSense for a number of features in the Kinect family, such as gesture and facial recognition, and 3D scanning. More intriguing is its promise to do away with the need for a green screen to separate you and your racing chair from the background on stream. The Stargazer has three lenses, and uses depth perception to decide what is gamer and what is bedroom wall. There's very little footage of the hardware in action, but a video by The Vergeshows the background clipping in distinctly. Still, it may be a viable alternative if you lack somewhere to store metres of green cloth, and as all the processing happens onboard it won't sap CPU power.

It records in 720p 60fps or 1080p 30 and boasts a noise-cancelling dual-microphone array. I can see that being useful on the move, but it strikes me that any streamer willing to spend $200 on a webcam will have a condenser mic to hand.

Part of the C920's appeal is 1080p quality for £50—do you think the extra features of the Stargazer will invigorate the webcam market?

Hatred: Building a Game on it has Consequences

( Warning : the trailer above contains very graphic scenes of violence)
Last week, Polish indie studio Destructive Creations released the first trailer for its newest production, Hatred .

. To their apparently-planned delight, Hatred received an enormous response online, with nearly every major gaming news outlet reposting the video. The clip, embedded above, shows a brutal protagonist massacring innocents, cops, bystanders, you name it. No particular race seems to be focused, though the anti-hero is white. Perhaps the devs themselves described the product’s ideology most aptly: “ Hatred is an isometric shooter with disturbing atmosphere of mass killing, where player takes the role of a cold blood antagonist …just don’t try this at home and don’t take it too seriously, it’s just a game. :). ” [Bolded for emphasis.]

That attitude of “not taking it seriously” seems to pervade the philosophy of the team, Destructive Creations. Responding to the powerful wave of criticism from the net , their new blog post sheds some light, and admits that they certainly wanted to generate buzz. Well played as a publicity stunt, sure, but even more revealing are statements from the team. The CEO, Jaroslaw Zielinski, aligns with the game description: “The hateful title I’m working on (where virtual character hates virtual characters), doesn’t have any connection to what I truly believe and think, there is a real-life outside, you know? Maybe you should try it? I will never ever again respond to any of those accusations, this is my ultimate statement.”

Conversation closed, I guess.

Not exactly, because a conversation between a creator and his or her audience is never limited just to what they say in some internet writing. Just like book authors have symbols and interpretations that come out regardless of their intentions, saying that there is no connection to the work is naïve, at best. Even if one makes a game opposite to his or her beliefs, that doesn’t disconnect an audience from making connections or interpreting the work. And it certainly doesn’t mean an audience will be able to distance themselves from the content.

“…just don’t try this at home and don’t take it too seriously, it’s just a game. :)”

It’s true that not every game offers, or even can have, a political message. Early classics like Tetris , and stripped-down mobile games, have little to go on in relaying themes that can easily be applied to real-world messages and, at most, operate in abstracts. We know people yearn for escapism, either for the simple enjoyment of gaming, for infinite lives, or sometimes for separation from the real world.

But when you make a game with realistic-looking people and voices, with high-quality graphics using Unreal Engine 4, don’t be surprised when people make parallels with reality, with violence and hatred happening around the globe so often driven by sexism, racism, intolerance, or revenge.

The developers counter by saying that there’s equal representation in their game – that characters of every race and sex are randomly generated, ready to be killed in a consequence-free digital world. (But what’s to stop them from including settings or mods that do target particular civilians?) Again, the realistic murder depictions make it far from something inconsequential, even if they’re just in a video game. It’s fetishizing of hatred and violence, depicting it in a manner designed to derive pleasure from it. The devs say as much when they describe the game as, “something different, something that could give the player a pure, gaming pleasure . Herecomes our game, which takes no prisoners and makes no excuses.” [sic] [Bolded for emphasis.] So the developers want those that play Hatred to distance themselves emotionally from indiscriminate killing, and yet also derive pleasure from it?

Whether or not they claim to design in some sort of vacuum, with today’s culture and society bent closer and closer to fostering diversity and welcoming people of all backgrounds, the reality is that companies today, small and big, make political statements through their works, regardless of intent. Nintendo, by not including same-sex marriages in their games, suffered a big backlash, even if their company values don’t stand by it. Ubisoft didn’t garner any support by saying women are more costly or difficult to animate (more accurately, that creating a full second set of animations costs more resources), even if by some technicalities that can be true. Indie devs currently hold smaller accountability because they have lesser impact and outreach, therefore they feel more artistic freedom. But Destructive Creations wanted a lot of attention, and now they have it. Speaking more to their motivations, the devs state that, “these days, when a lot of games are heading to be polite, colorful, politically correct and trying to be some kind of higher art, rather than just an entertainment – we wanted to create something against trends.”

“[The] Player has to ask himself what can push any human being to mass-murder”

It’s even more sad to see the developers bringing up their historical roots on their company page. You don’t need to be a history buff to know how much Poland suffered from Nazis during World War II, among others, as millions of Jews, Poles, and other “undesirables” were routinely killed in concentration camps. I won’t even to attempt to say that there is an actual connection there, or that in some way they want to reflect that. But when it came to light what kind of pages and ideologies the CEO subscribes to,  it’s hard not to make connections between being a fan of “Polish Defense League” and Hatred . As much as the creator says that this a news source and he doesn’t watch TV, it’s pretty telling when his news source is an ultra-conservative, Muslim-phobic fan pagewhose goal is to gather groups of male Poles to “defend unsuspecting women” from “falling prey” to “dark skinned predators.”

“We say ‘yes, it is a game about killing people’ and the only reason of the antagonist doing that sick stuff is his deep-rooted hatred. Player has to ask himself what can push any human being to mass-murder,” [ sic ] the websitesays about the game’s description. But do we get much background revealing what he hates? Why? In the beginning of the trailer, the “villain” is awfully unspecific in his hatred, as he is in his own name. It’s adamantly clear that the game is about killing for the sake of killing, and if players are to remain unattached to the violence onscreen, it stands to reason we wouldn’t be given a chance to understand or relate to the character.

Somehow I doubt the creators will want to delve much into his past. And as for the question of the player “asking himself what can push any human being to mass-murder,” how will the gameplay reflect that? Do we have any choice to not kill the innocents? From the trailer and information provided so far, it’s pretty clear that Hatred ’s exclusive aim is to bloodily eviscerate the lives and faces of anyone at hand, without venturing too much into the “hateful mind” of the main character.

Final judgments on Hatred remain on hold, but the developers’ political beliefs, as neutral as they want to make themselves out to be, present themselves clearer than ever before. At best, their development does beg questions any game developer should consider before putting mouse pointer to code line: What are my values? How will they be represented in my creation? Games aren’t absolved from political views, history, and personal reaction, no matter how much escapism some provide. The issue is not one of “if you don’t like it, don’t play it.” Rather, the point is that a game like this can’t simply hide behind asking players to become emotionally detached to justify its content.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will feature a futuristic Nuketown map

Nuketown was one of the most popular maps in Call of Duty: Black Ops' back shooting filling multiplayer, and a favourite of fans.

Nuketown was one of the most popular maps in Call of Duty: Black Ops' back shooting filling multiplayer, and a favourite of fans. Now an IGNreader has spotted a poster at Irish game store Xtravisionthat indicates the beloved map is coming back, but not for everyone.

The redesigned map is called 'Nuketown 2025' and will be updated to fit with Black Ops 2's more futuristic approach. It's unclear if the Nuketown will be a special edition bonus (the sign does say 'limited edition') a pre-order bonus (it also says 'driving pre-orders... and day 1') or an retailer specific bonus. Either way it's described as the 'biggest incentive in Call of Duty history', which while it will no doubt excite retailers, is just an additional annoyance for fans.

Maps are always a controversial choice when it comes to bonus incentives, as EA and DICE found out last year when gamers attempted to organise a boycottin the mistaken belief that Battlefield 3's Back to Karkand would be day one DLC for pre-order customers. The fear is that it will unnecessarily split the community, although given that Black Ops sold 20 million map packs, Activision could probably split their community several times over and still have more players than almost every other FPS.

Bonus maps aside, the new Call of Duty actually looks like it's trying some new and interesting things. Check out our Black Ops 2 previewfor more.

The Legend Of Zelda's Ten Best Bosses

Zelda has always been a series based firmly in long-standing trademarks .

. Its gameplay varies wildly based on which game in the series it is and what weapons are available, but almost all of them boil down to the "go to dungeon, find item, defeat boss" pattern. Take a look below as we focus on the third part of that pattern and rank the Legend of Zelda's best boss battles.

10. King Dodongo (Ocarina of Time)

While Ocarina of Time isn't the first appearance of a Dodongo boss, it's the first time that the fight consists of more than putting a bomb in front of their dumb mouths. After taking on a few Lizalfos and bombing his way through Dodongo's Cavern, Link descends into King Dodongo's lair. A circular arena with lava in the center, this open area allows the beast to roll around freely. His habit of inhaling deeply before breathing fire ends leads to his defeat, however, after Link tosses several bombs into King Dodongo's mouth and takes him down.

9. Stallord (Twilight Princess)

We liked Twilight Princess' spinner item enough to place it on our list of top ten Zelda items, and it factors into this boss fight prominently. Primarily used for navigating the Arbiter's Grounds, the spinner becomes an offensive weapon when put up against the dungeon's protector, the massive skeleton Stallord. Link must ride the top-like item across a pit of sand and use it to knock out three of Stallord's spinal vertebrae, which causes his head to float around and spit fire once completed. It's one of the larger-scale boss fights in the series, and it's also one of the most exciting.

8. Gleeok (The Legend of Zelda)

While the original Legend of Zelda introduced elements that would last throughout the series, it features the simplest and shortest boss battles. From the aforementioned Dodongo encounter to a one-shot arrow kill, these weren't the most exciting fights Link has encountered. However, the fight against Gleeok (which happens more than once) is a genuinely engaging one, requiring our hero to dodge fireballs and flying dragon heads on his way towards rescuing Zelda for the first time.

Visionary births $30,000 PC

At PC Gamer, we've long known this day would come—it's an inexorable part of PC ownership—but it doesn't make it any easier to face.

At PC Gamer, we've long known this day would come—it's an inexorable part of PC ownership—but it doesn't make it any easier to face. The Large Pixel Colliderhas been outmatched, and shall lie in state for seven days before being fired into the sun. At the feet of LinusTechTips' $30,000, seven- Radeon R9 Nano, eight-1TB SSD and 256GB DDR4 RAMmutant, the LPC looks frail and defeated.

This is not a creature of science but of black magic. There's a trick to getting all those components to cooperate—or rather, to make sure they don't cooperate. This beast is seven rigs in a single tower, feeding into shared CPUs and split into seven virtual machines. Two Xeon E5-2697 hyperthreaded 14-core processors provide the equivalent of a quad-core CPU for each virtual machine. One seventh of this abomination is equivalent to a sturdy desktop rig.

Actually, that's not accurate. The only way to get 256GB RAM into a motherboard that's not from the future (the Asus Z10PE-D8 WS) is to use eight 32GB sticks. Each VM has 32GB DDR4 to itself, all powered by a 1600W EVGA PSU.

And it lives! From the 12-minute mark you can watch Crysis 3 being played at 60-110fps in ultrawide 1440pwhile six Unigine benchmarks rumble on alongside. I'm sure there are laws against this sort of thing.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Indie Intermission – ‘Kim Jong-Un’s Glorious Missile to Liberate the Nations DX’

Over the past couple of months North Korea has been in the public eye once more for their dubious missile testing.

Over the past couple of months North Korea has been in the public eye once more for their dubious missile testing. They seem to always find a way to upset the world but are they really ruled by an evil tyrant? Or are they just misunderstood?

Kim Jong-Un’s Glorious  Missile to Liberate the Nations DX is a great political satirisation by Dremelofdeath that puts you in the hands of Kim Jon-Un’s Christmas holiday missile. Although you must take this rocket half way around the world to bring the glory of the holiday to the White House and the west is not going to just let this rocket bring holiday cheer to the White House are they.

The game plays out like many traditional high speed arcade games in which you must dodge pretty much everything, as this rocket seems to be made of cardboard and birds appear to be massive.

Each level has its own unique setting and the game starts off ridiculously easily, but rapidly becomes very taxing. The settings are rather amusing, if not rather unbelievable especially when rabbits managed to jump up into the sky at you, or monkeys swing from the sky jumping down on you.

Although I have yet to discover the true intentions of  North Korea as the third level is rather difficult. One thing is for certain, I am sure Ban Ki-Moon is playing this game as I type this to try to establish Kim Jong-Un’s true intentions.

Average play time – 8 minutes

Kim Jong-Un’s Glorious Missile to Liberate the Nations DX has been created in this fantastic retro style that reminds me a lot of the early Nintendo days. With a great sound track and a lot of humour imparted on this game it really is hard not to love it.

Kim Jong-Un’s Glorious Missile to Liberate the Nations DX can be found on the official Ludum Dare site here. If you enjoy the game consider voting and checking out some of the other great titles.

If you are a developer with A fun indie game that can be played over a coffee break, we want to hear from you! Private message us on twitter @IndieGameMag or shoot us an email at editors@indiegamemag.com with the subject “Indie Intermission” and you could be our indie intermission pick of the day!

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria goodies galore giveaway

Mists of Pandaria launches this very night!

Mists of Pandaria launches this very night! From 8:00pm (BST), players will descend on London's confusingly-named Café de Paristo cheer in the latest expansion to Blizzard's venerable MMORPG. To get you in the celebratory spirit, they've kindly offered to give away a haul of Pandaria-flavoured kit.

So what's to be found in this high level loot drop?

Just what do you need to do to get your soft, downy paws upon these coveted collectibles? Just tell us which two creatures you'd most like to see face-off in a Pandaria-style pet-battle, which would ultimately win and why. Drop it in an email entitled "Pandaria launch giveaway" to pcgamer@futurenet.com. Submissions close at this time tomorrow.

Darksiders II: The Evolution Of Death

Darksiders II is breaking what some would consider rule number one for video game sequels: Never change the main character.

Darksiders II is breaking what some would consider rule number one for video game sequels: Never change the main character. Not satisfied to send gamers on another adventure as the hulking War from the first game, Joe Madureira and the team at Vigil instead went back to the early concepts they had sketched out for the other three Horsemen of the Apocalypse to find a new lead character. During our recent trip to Vigil, we talked to Madureira about the process of creating this new character and dug up some old sketches of the character.

“The earliest vision for Darksiders was to play the four horsemen cooperatively, so for our pitch and prototype, I had already loosely concepted all four of them,” Madureira explains. “We knew roughly what playstyle and what personality they would have at that time, since we were planning to do all four.” Digging into those early pieces, one character stood out as someone who would give the sequel a truly unique feel from the original: Death.

“We wanted to get basically as far away from War as you can,” Madureira says. “War was a very stoic, slow-moving, hulking, massive warrior. We gave Death movements more like an assassin or a rogue. He’s very agile, very quick, very aggressive, whereas War was a little more reactive.” Madureira’s excitement is evident in his voice as he describes the dark new hero: “I like those kinds of characters, so it’s perfect.”

This focus on faster movement affects every level of the character design, right down to what he wears: “If his armor gets too heavy, obviously he starts to get into War’s territory.” This became an even greater concern as Madureira realized that loot was going to become a major gameplay element for the sequel. “Not only do the pieces need to look good as a whole set, but you might equip shoulders from one set and the chest from another set with the boots from another set,” he laments. “It could look ridiculous, so we have to test each and every piece against itself so that hopefully it looks cool no matter what combination.”

From an art design standpoint, Madureira describes the loot system as “limiting” but “a lot more rewarding.” This is especially true for the players: “Changing something on your character every 10 or 15 minutes that you’re playing is pretty exciting.”

As Madureira set out to work on a final design for Death, Vigil decided they wanted to focus on the supernatural elements in series in general and the character specifically. “We wanted to play up the dead aspect of him and make him look almost zombie-like,” Madureira says. “He’s as close to a zombie as you’d want to get for the main character of a game.”

Nvidia GTX 960 roundup

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The Best Indie iOS And Android Games Of 2012 Roundup

2012 is over and we’re now a few days into the new year!

2012 is over and we’re now a few days into the new year! Making these articles was a good reminder for all the amazing games that 2012 brought us. No matter what genre your into, there’s something for everyone in the mobile market.  If you disagree with any of our picks feel free to leave a comment below and tell us what indie game you thought should have been included! Here’s to another prosperous year in gaming for 2013!

So here it is, all in one list of Mobile IGM’s “Best of 2012” articles:

That’s a lot of categories!

Mists of Pandaria will fix Talents "once and for all," say Blizzard

"Talents should be meaningful game-changers" says WoW's lead systems designer, Greg Street.

"Talents should be meaningful game-changers" says WoW's lead systems designer, Greg Street. He's been dissecting the successes and failures of Cataclysm in a frank post mortem on Battle.Net. Talent trees are one of the thorniest problems the World of Warcraft team has had to deal with over the last few years, but Street insists that the major overhaul Blizzard are planning for WoW's talent trees will fix the problems players have been having with the system "once and for all."

Cataclysm made important changes, bringing in a class specialisation choice at level 10 and pruning passive skills that players felt they had to take to maintain the most efficient character build. While Street says that the addition of a level 10 spec choice was "as close to universally acclaimed by players as anything we've ever done," he admits that there are still big problems with the current system that Blizzard are determined to resolve in the next expansion.

"We weren't very happy with the rest of the talent tree overhaul," Street said. "We definitely pruned some dead wood from the trees and got rid of some talents that weren't a lot of fun, but players felt like they weren't getting anything out of the bargain." The problem, he went on to explain, is that the changes to the talent trees were a compromise that "didn't solve the original problems it was intended to solve."

WoW's designers had come to realise that the entire original design idea for the talent system was flawed. "The talent tree model where you pick up tiny performance increases here and there (and where there's, mathematically, nearly always a 'right' answer and a 'wrong' answer) is not a great model," he said. "The Mists talent design is a major revamp that should fix this problem once and for all."

At Blizzcon last year, Blizzard revealed their plans for the new structure. Once it's implemented players will get to pick one of three talents every 15 levels, which can then be swapped around at any time. Blizzard are hoping that this will make for more meaningful build choices and less cookie-cutter class building. "The fact that you'll have more flexibility to change your talents should help keep gameplay fresh, even with that character that you play most often," says Street. "At absolute worst a given talent may be the right one only situationally, and at best, players will have a lot more customization to make their play-style stand out."

Mists of Pandaria was revealed at Blizzcon last year. It'll add a new race of Pandas, a new continent and "Talents 2.0." Find out more in our Mists of Pandaria preview. If you're considering getting back into WoW, or want to encourage a friend to join your questing, check out the revamped Scrolls of Ressurection, which will give a returning player the opportunity to instantly level one of their characters to 80.

Touch Of Death: The Combat Of Darksiders II

Originally conceived as a cross between The Legend of Zelda and Devil May Cry, combat proved to be one of the highlights of the first Darksiders.

Originally conceived as a cross between The Legend of Zelda and Devil May Cry, combat proved to be one of the highlights of the first Darksiders. Death's introduction as the main character in the second entry radically changes the way players will face off against enemies in the game's dungeons. Aside from the addition of loot and a skill tree, combat in Darksiders II will be faster and more agile. Watch the video to see combat in action and to hear the game's director Marvin Donald explain the differences between War and Death.

25 of the best cases for your next PC build

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Written by Kevin Lee.

Written by Kevin Lee. Updated November 20, 2015 by Tom Marks.

Picking the right computer case is a monumental decision. Perhaps even more important than choosing the motherboard. The frame you choose decides what components will actually fit inside. It affects how easy your system will be to build, how air will flow across your components, and how your computer will fit into your gaming setup. PC chassis come in a variety of sizes, from miniscule Mini-ITX systems meant to sit on your desk, to massive full towers designed for maximum expandability.

With this in mind, we’re going to look at 25 of the best computer cases to start with for your next system build, spanning a spectrum of sizes, shapes, and price points.

These aren’t just cases that look pretty. Some are our personal favorites, cases we've built our own rigs with. Others come highly recommended by do-it-yourselfers and professional reviewers. We’ve dug through buyer feedback and reviews to find cases that are as cleverly designed and reliable as they are attractive.

A note on affiliates: some of our stories, like this one, include affiliate links to stores like Amazon. These online stores share a small amount of revenue with us if you buy something through one of these links, which helps support our work evaluating PC components.

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Corsair Graphite 760T

Price: $190 (£157) on Amazon
Form factor: Full tower

Big side windows have risen in popularity over the last few years and the Corsair Graphite 760Trepresents the inevitable evolution of this trend. Rather than having a traditional side panel made of metal or plastic, the 760T’s flanks are made almost entirely out of transparent polycarbonate. Looks aside, its a huge full tower case with nine expansion slots for quadruple SLI or three cards taking up three slot with plenty of room to spare for water cooling.

Anandtechalso had some equally great things to say about the case. “The Graphite 760T offers a great variety of options and combinations, allowing each end user to find their desired balance between thermal performance, acoustics, and cost,” Anandtech’s E. Fylladitakis wrote. “It is aesthetically attractive without being too aggressive, offers good stock thermal performance without being too noisy, and is very versatile without being too expensive.”

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Silverstone Raven RVZ01

Price: $80 (£77) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini-ITX

Here’s a case that’s just a bit smaller than an Xbox One, but can take a full-length graphics card. The Silverstone Raven RVZ01was designed to be a discrete media PC, but it can just as easily be used to build a small gaming PC for a home theater setup.

Bi-Tech’s Antony Leather had this to sayabout the Silverstone Raven RVZ01:

“It's very different from pretty much any other mini-ITX case we've tested but somehow, amazingly, it all comes together cooling-wise and beats the Fractal Design Node 304 at GPU cooling and matches the Silverstone Sugo SG08's godlike CPU cooling. It's compact, has an optical drive mount, space for hefty GPUs and despite being limited to a low profile cooler, coupled even with a modest one like ours, there's enough cooling here to cope with a 4.5GHz Core i7-4770K with ease.”

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Phanteks Enthoo Pro

Price: $100 (£87) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full Tower

With most budget cases costing around $100 you don’t expect a lot of luxuries, but the Phanteks Enthoo Procomes with a surprising number of bells and whistles including rubber grommets, dust filters for every intake, and even a power supply cover to neatly hide all your cables.

The Enthoo Pro is a very affordable and surprisingly fully featured full tower case that will also show off your internals with two side windows.

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Fractal Design Define R4

Price: $110 (£120) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

Silence is golden and the Fractal Design R4comes with sound dampening material to drone out the sound of spinning fans and any bleeps or bloops emanating from the motherboard. Sporting a plain but all steel exterior, this is also a good choice if you don’t want a PC that screams that it was built for gaming.

Just in case you want a newer version of Fractal Design’s silent case, the company also just announced the Define R5, which features a slightly retooled “ModuVent” system for airflow in and out of the top of the case, velcro cable management straps, as well as a few other improvements.

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Cooler Master HAF X

Price: $168 (£136) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full tower

Liquid cooling is nice and efficient, but if you want a simple air cooled computer look no further than Cooler Master’s HAF Xcase. You can fit some massive fans inside the HAF X including one 230mm fan on the front as well as two 200mm fans up on top and another one on the side. Larger fans can help push more air without needing to wind up to full speed and produce more noise. The HAF X is also a very beefy full tower case with nine expansion slots and tons of room for storage including two hotswap bays.

And, of course, you can still install a closed-loop liquid cooling system if you fancy. The HAF X isn't the sleekest case around, but it's an old standby: rugged, versatile, and spacious. It has a 5 star review average on Newegg with over 1300 reviews for good reason.

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Cougar QBX

Price: $72 (£49) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini-ITX

We first saw the Cougar QBXat Computexand it immediately impressed us. Now that we've gotten our hands on it and built a rig inside of it, we can confidently say that it's one of the best mini-ITX cases around. It's got a sleek exterior, a great price, and an incredibly compact design for how much you can fit inside of it—with enough room for an ATX power supply and full length Graphics cards.

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Corsair Vengeance C70

Price: $110 (£97) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

This is a personal pick because we actually use a Corsair Vengeance C70case for one of our own gaming rigs. It’s an olive green, fully metal case that’s very reminiscent of an ammo box. The the side panels are secured by snapping latches. This military motif also extends to the reset button which is hidden behind a sort of missile launch cover.

Aesthetics aside, the C70 is a very practical case with lots of room for a big ATX motherboard build. Even with the system fully loaded there’s still headroom to install a liquid cooling system with push-pull fans. Corsair call this chassis a mid-tower but it definitely errs towards being a full-size computer tower.

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Fractal Design Node 804

Price: $116 (£157) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini ATX Cube Case

Going with a small case does not mean settling for a lower-powered system. Take the Fractal Design Node 804, for instance; thanks to a dual chamber setup you can fit Micro ATX board with a full-size GPU and long power supply. All the while, there’s no need to worry about cramped conditions as Tweaktown’s Chad Sebringexplains, “things look a bit cramped when first looking at this, but once we start installing the gear, we find quite a bit of room is available in this design.”

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EVGA Hadron Air

Price: $127 (£144) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini-ITX

The EVGA Hadron Airis an even smaller, and very unique, mini-ITX chassis. It comes with a hefty $179 price tag, which is largely thanks to its built-in 500-watt U1 style power supply (which is normally used to power servers). The most notable feature of this case is its compact design that still allows users to pack in a powerful components like the Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan.

Hilbert Hagedoorn of Guru3Dspoke highly of the cutest and most tiny chassis from EVGA:

“Yeah, you can build a PC that is massive in performance whilst being small in size. Combine that with decent enough airflow and the sheer looks then I have to say that EVGA's Hadron is a nice first Mini-ITX chassis release, it offers a massive amount of features for what is the smallest form factor. It is tiny and cute and if you do things right, it'll be grand in performance.”

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NZXT Phantom 410

Price: $100 (£74) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

NZXT makes some very solid cases and the Phantom 410is a very good, feature-packed mid-tower chassis. The frame, like many of NZXT’s cases, is very reminiscent of Alienware, with a bit of the company’s own personal flair making the design unmistakable even from afar.

The Phantom 410 is an affordable $99 mid-tower that comes with an adjustable rear fan set on slits rather screw holes, integrated fan controller, rubber grommets, and an almost completely tool-less design; altogether this makes the 410 an accessible case for first time builders. At the same time, experienced builders can take advantage of the ample clearance for a 240mm top radiator.

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NZXT Phantom 820

Price: $210 (£196) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full tower

The NZXT Phantom 820is essentially the Phantom 410’s bigger, full tower brother. Everything about the 820 is bumped up with more hard drive caddies, expansions slots—and just overall, a ton more room. Liquid cooling aficionados will also especially like this case because it supports a top 360mm radiator as well as a bottom 280mm radiator. For even more cooling the case can also be equipped with an additional 140mm rear fan and three 200mm fans.

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Silverstone Raven RV03

Price: $160 (£117) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full tower

Silverstone is best known for producing computer cases that exhaust heat upwards, which goes with fact that hot air rises. The company is up to the fifth version of its Raven tower, but the best one Silverstone has arguably made is the RV03. Building in this case is a little different as the motherboard tray is rotated 90-degrees so that all the I/O ports face upwards. Otherwise, the RV03 is a solid platform with room for plenty of expandability.

Here’s what some Raven RV03 owners on Newegg have to say about the case:

“Incredible design. I'm not sure why more case manufacturers have adopted this model. The 90 degree rotation makes for an incredibly efficient cooling design. The result is amazing temps, with low fan speeds, and a cleaner case as a result of the lower airflow in combination with the filters." ~ Matthew M.

“Stunningly good looking. I bought the case for a combination of aesthetics and performance, and it delivers superbly on both fronts. The window allows for full view of everything you want to show off (mobo, CPU, cards), and nothing you don't (drive and their bays).” ~ Wesley H.

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Thermaltake Level 10 GT

Price: $177 (£160) on Amazon
Form Factor: Full tower

A few years ago Thermaltake came out with a revolutionary Level 10 case that separated every component into its own compartment to individually cool parts. The Level 10 GTis a consumer-oriented, slightly less insanely priced, extension of the original Level 10’s philosophy. The unique design isn’t just for looks, as it also affords some very good heat management while making it quieter to boot.

“The Level 10 GT incorporates all the enthusiast wants; hot swap, large fans with removable dust filters, maximum cable routing, and a sleek black paint job inside and out,” TechPowerUp’s mlee49 wrote. Lee goes on to praise Thermaltake Level 10 GT for getting all the details right with black cabling, the fan power connector built into the side panel hinge, a hidden door release.

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Corsair Obsidian Series 900D

Price: $280 (£270) on Amazon
Form Factor: Super tower

Speaking of top-of-the-line builds, the Corsair Obsidian Series 900Dis a giant PC case ready to house the biggest of builds. Standing in at just a little over two feet, this “super tower” features an extra compartment at its base for a massive water cooling block, dual PSUs, or 12 additional storage drives. Users can also pack in an absurd number of liquid cooling reservoirs with room for a 360mm block on the front and top of this frame.

In HardOCP’s 900D review, Steve Lynch listed his many likes of the case including its “solid construction, bold looks, and sleek styling combined with a strong focus on functionality.”

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Cooler Master Cosmos II

Price: $327 (£311) on Amazon
Form Factor: Ultra Tower

As a direct competitor to Corsair’s Obsidian Series 900D, the Cosmosis a massive ultra tower that weighs in at 47.3-pounds—and that’s just the weight of the case by itself. Like the 900D, this case also features a separate bottom compartment in which users can fit the longest of power supplies as well as six additional storage drives. The main compartment will take practically anything you throw at it with room for a XL-ATX motherboard and 11 expansion slots, which is more than enough for a quad Nvidia SLI or AMD Crossfire setup.

Former Maximum PCeditor Nathan Edwards called the Cosmos II “a thoroughly modern product with massive cooling potential, strong cable-management chops, and wide-open spaces.”

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BitFenix Ronin

Price: $50 (£165) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid Tower

The BitFenix Roninis another affordable and well equipped computer chassis. There isn’t much to complain about as it comes with tool-less sleds for both HDDs and SSDs, and dust filters all around. BitFenix also designed it to handle easy swapping of CPU coolers, if you like to mix up your build by testing air coolers versus liquid. It can handle a 240mm liquid cooling radiator, and is a big enough mid tower to hold a couple graphics cards.

There’s even a neat stealth cover to hide the storage bays and cables tucked along the base.

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Fractal Design Arc Mini

Price: $102 (£74) on Amazon
Form Factor: Micro ATX

Here’s a precious little case. The Fractal Design Arc Miniis about the closest thing you can get to a chibi computer—a miniature mid-tower, basically. Aside from the adorable aspect of this chassis, we can personally vouch for it as a great platform to build a small computer in. It’s solidly built with all the trimmings including dust filters and room for big graphics.

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Rosewill Thor V2

Price: $130 on Amazon
Form Factor: Full Tower

Rosewill, Newegg's house hardware brand, is better known for producing keyboards and computer peripherals, but it also makes a bang up full tower called the Thor V2. The case is largely made of metal and up top there are also chevron shaped vents, which users can close to stop dust from settling inside the frame.

It’s not a show-topper of a PC chassis like the Corsair 900D or Cooler Master HAF X, but the Thor V2 is a fully featured full tower case for an affordable price. And it has a really, really big fan on its side panel.

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Antec 900

Price: $110 (£83) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid Tower

It’s an oldie but a goodie. The Antec 900is another excellent full tower choice. There isn’t anything too noteworthy about the case today, but it's highly recommended amongst the gaming PC community for its good air flow thanks to multiple large fans as well as its excellent build quality. This is the old faithful of custom PC building.

Here’s what a few users from Newegg had to say about the case:

“I have owned this case for 4 years now and I still am incredibly impressed with it. The overall design and construction are superb, I have hauled this thing back and forth between houses and it sure has taken a beating like a champ.” ~ Michael R.

“Fan overkill! Literally, I don't need any fans besides the stock ones to cool my system and I'm overclocking everything I can. All components have been running at healthy temperatures and are stable.” ~ Alexander N.

“I bought two of these in 2007 and they are STILL my main cases. I've added and removed tons of hardware with ease. The fans are still as quiet as the day I bought it. If I do ever get a new case, I'll throw away ALL of my other ones before this one. I don't think I have ever kept a case past the first motherboard swap because the PSU or fans are choking or a bunch of cheap plastic bits have broken or the case has just become ugly with fading and discoloration. Not the 900. This is the gold standard in cases and I can only hope that the Lanboys will be as sweet.” ~ Anonymous

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NZXT H440

Price: $130 (£100) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

If you’re looking for a perfect mid tower, this is it. The NZXT H440mixes together a nice blend of conservative styling, useful features, and great build quality. One of the H440’s most notable features is a shroud at the bottom of the case, which pairs perfectly with the large side window to create a very clean look. Even better, it comes with four fans pre-installed, which is more than enough cooling for a system build—although there’s always room for liquid cooling.

The H440 makes it easy to achieve a professional-looking build,” Steven Walton wrote in his TechSpot review. “it runs cool with four 140mm fans from the factory, and it supports huge gear like 360mm radiators or up to 11 HDDs via mod. What's not to love?”

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BitFenix Prodigy

Price: $85 (£63) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini-ATX/Micro-ITX

Another case we use in one of our personal rigs, the BitFenix Prodigyhas a short and stout shape. It’s only 14” tall and has plastic handles on both the type and bottom, though they are a bit flimsier than they look. The handles and small form factor allow your rig to be a very portable machine, but, as is the problem with most mini-ITX cases, leaves you less room for cable management. There are vents with removable filters on the top and bottom of the case, and the bottom set of handles keeps your PSU fan from resting directly on a surface.

The Prodigy also comes in six different colors, though some of the brighter ones are becoming increasingly rare. We went for the bright “half-life” orange, but the standard black or white cases tend to be on the cheaper side. The inside of the case has removable drive trays, leaving space for at least eight drives if needed.

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Corsair Carbide 200R

Price: $51 (£50) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

Currently the best selling case on Amazon, the Corsair Carbide 200Ris just a good standard case. It’s reasonably priced, won’t take up a huge amount of space on or under your deck, and doesn’t look too bad either. It definitely has a few problems, namely its drive cage's quality and placement, but it's a good choice on a budget.

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Rosewill Dual Fan Mini Tower

Price: $30 on Amazon
Form Factor: Mini tower

Speaking of budget cases, the Rosewill Dual Fan Mini Toweris just that. It’s a small, well made case for only $30. That’s an appealing thought right off the bat, and though it’s surely not without problems at that price point, it also has great reviews on Amazon to back that up.

C. B. Smith says: “I've put together three systems for family members using this case, and I don't think you can beat it for the cost. This is a very clean looking case with no bling so it doesn't looks cheap. As others have noted the case material is light weight but once the side panels are installed the case is solid.”

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Corsair Carbide Air 540

Price: $119 (£109) on Amazon
Form Factor: Mid tower

Recommended to us in the comments below by reader jom jim. A case all about good airflow, the aptly named Corsair Carbide Air 540has two separate chambers to separate your graphics card and CPU from things like drives and your PSU. This lets cool air hit the parts that need it the most.

It’s essentially a large cube instead of the traditional tower case we think of, but the space is used well and it allows for a unique layout inside. Additionally, the larger area inside would make for an easier working area if this is one of your first builds

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Antec 1900

Price: $180 (£136) on Amazon
Form Factor: Super tower

A tall, slick looking tower, the Antec 1900has more drivebays than I think anyone could possibly use. That’s just me, maybe you have a reason to use its huge amount of space. The 1900 comes in a couple of different colors, and its large inside means you’ll always have room to swap out and upgrade over time.

An unfortunate misstep on Antec’s part is that this massive case doesn’t have much support for higher-end cooling systems, but for $200 it is on the cheaper end as huge cases go. The Antec 1900 might fall into a weird twilight category of “high-end budget,” which I’m sure someone has a need for.

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