Designing an Escape Goat 2 level with creator Ian Stocker

"My usual approach to puzzles is to build backwards," says Ian Stocker.

"My usual approach to puzzles is to build backwards," says Ian Stocker. Most of the 100 puzzles in Stocker's game Escape Goat 2started that way—with a door for the goat to escape through and an idea of how it would get there. In early April, Stocker updated the Steam build with a beta level editor and Steam Workshopsupport. When the build launches out of beta, all of Escape Goat players will be able to create puzzles with the same tools Stocker used for his own levels.

To get a jump on the inevitably heated Workshop competition, I sat down with Stocker to make a PC Gamer puzzle. After 30 minutes of building and brainstorming, I've got a co-designer credit to my name.

As usual, we started the puzzle by building backwards. I wanted the final form of the puzzle to be a fun nod to the PC Gamer logo. But how would we build that? We started by sketching out the basic layout with placeholder vines which we could build on top of with real blocks. Designing the architecture of the level, though, doesn't make it a puzzle. We had to make it challenging to traverse.

Stocker suggested making the puzzle's primary gimmick a series of moving blocks that snap into our final shape after a sequence of button presses. That way, the payoff of the level won't be obvious from the outset. Pushing three buttons would be too easy, so Stocker suggested obstacles--reapers and spinning blades that turn the poor goat into mutton. To force a specific sequence to the puzzles within the room, we also created blockades that would move after pressing each switch.

Even after adding a death-defying leap, solving the final leg of the puzzle was too easy. I suggested adding a key that would be impossible to reach without clever use of the mouse, the goat's small-but-powerful sidekick. That meant more reapers. We also put the door near the beginning of the level. Symmetry!

Turned out that made the level a little bit impossible, though. To give players a fighting chance, we threw in a magic hat, and the level was complete.

Stocker was obviously fast with the Escape Goat editor's keyboard controls, but I was impressed by how quickly and easily pieces can be placed, rotated, and copied. The GUI is still unfinished, but it's already a powerful tool for crafting puzzles as complex as those in the real game.

Watch The Largest Crowd Assembled In Assassin's Creed Unity

During E3 2014, Ubisoft showed off its new gameplay footage of Assassin's Creed Unity that had a crowd of 5,000 NPCs gathered around a guillotine.

new gameplay footage of Assassin's Creed Unity that had a crowd of 5,000 NPCs gathered around a guillotine. We were all very impressed, but had no idea that was just a fraction of what the game's engine was capable of. While visiting Ubisoft Montreal for our September cover story on Assassin's Creed Unity and Rogue, we spoke with the team lead crowd Aleissia Laidacker and crowd life director Jesse Sweet about the new development team within Unity's production that's focused on building out the massive crowds. From the mocap sessions to the surprisingly difficult task of implementing hand-holding couples for the first time in the series, Laidacker and Sweet have become experts on how to bring the revolution-torn city of love to life. Ubisoft was kind enough to let us film off of Laidacker's screen, so please keep in mind that the gameplay footage in the video is very early and doesn't represent the final product.

Watch the video below to see an interactive crowd of 12,000 NPCs that will be in a mission for Assassin's Creed Unity and learn much more about the team's work.

To learn much more about Assassin's Creed Unity and Assassin's Creed Rogue, click on the banner below and stay tuned to hub of exclusive content.

Wonderful WASD: Legend of Grimrock and the value of easy input

I like most of Legend of Grimrock's impenetrable puzzles.

I like most of Legend of Grimrock's impenetrable puzzles. I like the way it makes consumables scarce. I like its shadows. I like the way its spell system feels like Simon. I don't like its damn electric bats. I like that it's the most insulated I've felt in a game space since BioShock.

But an under-mentioned thing I love about it is that I can play it mostly one-handed. You know, while swirling a tumbler of Mountain Dew, or something.

This is a pretty basic observation. But I think it's a valuable one—it's a joy to touch a control scheme that mirrors the design of the game space itself. In one way, WASD is the intersection of two axes, divided into four units. Grimrock is played on two axes that you traverse by stepping north, south, east or west in one-unit increments. As physical metaphors go, it's 1:1.

http://youtu.be/sYbTgRBMiKM

That scheme makes piloting Grimrock on WASD (using Q and E to rotate) feel like a cozy joystick. But it also helps express Grimrock's guiding theme of helplessness. The literal tunnel vision of the first-person camera—you can only view one quadrant at a time while moving—represents the eyes of a quartet of prisoners, all thrown into a dungeon-tower designed to kill you and break your mind. You're powerless, and you have to play by the crypt's cryptic rules to escape.

Having a maximum of four movement options at any time those options can be meaningfully restricted or taken away. It's a system that creates incidental verbs that reinforce that guiding feeling of helplessness: players can be blocked, attacked from behind, trapped, surprised, surrounded.

It also asks the player to visualize areas of the game space that they can't see. At a given moment, your brain might retain: “If I move left onto that trap door, I'm dead. There's a wall to my right. There's a skeleton in front of me, I can't go that way. Behind me is clear.” It's a set of simple, consistent rules built for problem solving; some rooms draw on your spatial awareness directly with puzzles that ask you to move in a specific pattern in order to pass.

If Grimrock had foregone the quaternary style of movement of Dungeon Master, its spiritual predecessor, this mental process of elimination wouldn't be possible. If the player had gradients of movement—if they could shift around in small increments or move diagonally—being surrounded or blocked wouldn't have the same binary effect. It's a mild reminder that freedom of movement isn't necessarily the universal fun-producer we may think it is.

This is a just long compliment, I guess. I think it's a wonderful system, and it's an instance of an old design that arose from technical limitations still having a place and purpose in modern gaming. I like it when that happens. It's a sensibility you can notice in games like Unity of Command, which sticks its complexity beneath the skin of the game. Understanding how a supply chain works will help you win, but operating the game itself is a cinch: click on a dude, click where you want to go, click on who you want to kill.

You also see the payoff of simple movement in Dawn of War II's spin-off mode, The Last Stand. It went from being a single-map co-op survival mode to a $10 stand-alone release with seven pieces of paid DLC. That's unprecedented. Plenty of games have survival modes: Mass Effect 3, Left 4 Dead, Age of Empires Online, Call of Duty—what did The Last Stand do? Instead of shepherding an army, you controlled a single hero character. That eliminated the selection click entirely, which probably halved the amount of input needed to play the game. It's not unlike the control schemes of MOBAs like League of Legends, most of which cut out the selection click middleman.

PC gamers have more buttons and modes of input at our disposal than anyone else. I can jump into Arma 2 with an infrared head-tracker mounted to my face, steering wheel in my lap, and desk-mounted joystick. But I love PC designers that exercise the restraint to make "less is more" their method.

World Of Warships review

World Of Warships review Wargaming’s latest military bonanza suffers slightly at the hands of its predecessors and its subject matter, despite being one of the boldest and most intriguing online games available. It’s a shame, really, that it lacks the frenzied, intense approach of World Of Warplanes and the infallible, innate playability of World Of Tanks. Every sortie is quite a slow burner, resulting

The 15 best Arma 3 player-created solo missions

The Arma series is famous for its massive multiplayer battles, but there's still fun to be had on the war-torn islands of Stratis and Altis by yourself.

The Arma series is famous for its massive multiplayer battles, but there's still fun to be had on the war-torn islands of Stratis and Altis by yourself. These missions can all be played solo, with a focus on small squads, infantry, or infiltration. They've all been created by Arma 3 players using the game's powerful built-in editing tools, and some are as impressive as anything in Bohemia's own campaign.

To play the missions, subscribe to them in the Steam Workshop, then go to Play in the Arma 3 main menu, then Scenarios. It's worth noting that updates to Arma 3—which are pretty frequent—can cause bugs in user-made missions, which their creators should (hopefully) iron out promptly. Some listed here can be also be played in co-op if you have a friend who owns the game. Enjoy.

Bad Holiday

Created by Benny and Lentilburger

Type Infantry, squad, air

A holidaymaker finds himself in the midst of a violent city siege. Scavenge weapons, repel the invaders, and call in the military. A creative premise and an enjoyable, varied mission.

Hostile Water

Created by Mr_Tactical

Type Infantry, squad, water

Recover a classified device from a stricken British submarine. To find the vessel you'll need to secure enemy intel to discover its location. A large mission with multiple objectives.

Resist: Road's End

Created by Kydoimos

Type Infantry, story

The first chapter of Resist, a user campaign that runs parallel to Survive. Features voice acting, cutscenes, and production values on par with Bohemia's own missions.

Operation Scar

Created by HallyG

Type Infantry, stealth, assassination

A night mission in which you play as a special forces operative sneaking behind enemy lines to assassinate an officer. Short, but atmospheric and nicely balanced.

Revenge!

Created by Binkowski

Type Infantry, assault, urban

A remake of a classic mission from Bohemia's first game, Operation Flashpoint. Command a large CSAT squad and take two settlements back from a group of terrorists.

Clandestine Sunrise

Created by Navarre

Type Infantry, air, vehicles

Lead a small recon squad to covertly destroy enemy assets. Decent voice acting, unlimited saves, and excellent tactical deployment of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Sniper Alley

Created by PFC Veld

Type Infantry, sniping

A non-linear mission that sees you, a ghillie-suited sniper, hunting randomly-placed enemy snipers across a large valley area in west Altis. Another short one, but brilliantly tense.

Operation Hog Cove

Created by Nichevo

Type Infantry, water, assault

A brutal, fast-paced mission that sees you and several AI-controlled squads landing on a beach and attacking an enemy force, whose numbers and placement are different every time.

Hard to Peel

Created by Gibbon

Type Infantry, air, urban

An assault on an enemy airfield, followed by an action-packed push into an occupied city. Some great urban firefights and a custom soundtrack you'll either love or hate.

On the Other Side

Created by Bauerhousebourne

Type Infantry, stealth, story

One of the most popular user missions on the Steam Workshop to date, and deservedly so. Cinematic, polished, well-paced, and offers plenty of scope for creative play.

Explore Altis

Created by OlejnaS

Type Exploration, non-combat

And now for something completely different. This mod highlights points of interest across Altis and lets you teleport to them instantly. A great way to explore the island without being shot at.

Operation Greenstorm

Created by eCHo

Type Infantry, urban

Lead a small squad and attack Altis' old capital city under cover of night and thick fog. Some incredible views at the beginning, although it's quite a hike to the first objective.

Trident

Created by Ubiquitous

Type Infantry, stealth, sniping

This slick mission offers you three different insertion points. You can sneak in using stealth, charge in with brute force, or snipe from afar. Nice briefing sequence too.

Virtual CQC Firefight

Created by Balr0g

Type Infantry, training, VR

Arma's recent Bootcamp updateadded Metal Gear Solid-style VR training missions to the game. This close-quarters battle is a good way to hone your infantry skills.

Enemy Supply

Created by Kapten K

Type Infantry, stealth

Land behind enemy lines, use stealth to avoid patrols, and destroy enemy assets. A simple, well-scripted mission that can be approached in a number of different ways.

From Revelations To Unity: Creative Directing Assassin's Creed

Every year we hear about the increasing team sizes that develop the Assassin's Creed games.

Every year we hear about the increasing team sizes that develop the Assassin's Creed games. Expanding beyond Ubisoft Montreal to become a synchronized global development, creating each entry in the series is a gigantic and complicated task that always manages to land on its feet. Leading the charge with Assassin's Creed Unity is creative director Alex Amancio. While he previously worked in the same role on Assassin's Creed Revelations, he is quick to note that the development of Unity feels quite different. We spoke with Amancio about the stressful development of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, the early days of the Unity project, and how you manage and focus hundreds upon hundreds of game developers.

Watch the video interview with creative director Alex Amancio below to learn what it's like to be the creative director on an Assassin's Creed game.

To learn much more about the gameplay of Assassin's Creed Unity and Assassin's Creed Rogue, click on the banner below and stay tuned to hub of exclusive content.

Hack, slash, and kick it old-school with a free copy of Legend of Grimrock [Giveaway]

There's been quite a kerfuffle as of late around Almost Human's Legend of Grimrock , the traditional grid-based dungeon crawler that's coming to Steam and GOG.com this April.

this April. Truth be told, we're stoked to try out the game's first-person, party-of-four questing—slashing skeletons and avoiding trapdoors like it's 1990. Want to see what it looks like when you marry Skyrim-level graphics with gameplay from two-decade-old RPGs? Read on to see how you can snag a copy free of charge.

We've got ten GOG codes to give away, so you'll be able to download the game right away when it's released on April 11th. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment below stating your favorite old-school RPG below and what you love about it —we're talking Eye of the Beholder, Dungeon Master, Shadowgate-type games. We'll select the lucky winners on Tuesday, April 3rd, who'll receive a code for the game in the inbox of the email that they used to register their PCG forum accounts. Good luck, and try not to step on any spike traps in your pursuit of treasure.

...

Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Provides traditional RPG feel like no other One of the best looking DS games ever Promises hundreds of hours of play Cons Multiplayer options occasionally hurt story Too old school for some Heavy accents steal focus from plot Go to page: Dragon Quest V? Yes. Dragon Quest V? Yes. Final Fantasy XIII? No, but its close. Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver? Maybe. Dragon

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's first map of the next operation revealed

Valve's official Operations for CS:GO have proven to be remarkably popular among CT's and T's alike.

Valve's official Operations for CS:GO have proven to be remarkably popular among CT's and T's alike. Naturally, Valve are readying for the game's third major Operation, and have been holding a vote to determine which community maps would get the official server treatment. While, according to Valve, those votes are still being counted (what, are they doing it by hand?), some maps have proved popular enough to have already secured a place. In a post on the CS:GO blog, Cache is announced as the operation's first confirmed battleground.

Cache is a bomb defusal map, set in Chernobyl of all places. Unlike other video game representations of the city, this one isn't inhabited by mutants, but instead by terrorists who are attempting to destroy a weapons cache. It's already available through the Steam Workshop, albeit not on the pristine pings of an official Valve server.

If there was any doubt about the popularity of the map, an infographic accompanying the post reveals that 11,753 hours are played in Cache every day. That and other incidental facts can be found over at the CS:GO blog.

Meet Battleborn's Rath, Marquis, & Caldarius

Gearbox's new cooperative and competitive shooter, Battleborn, features so many playable characters that we've devoted an entire week of
coverage to highlighting just a few of them.

Gearbox's new cooperative and competitive shooter, Battleborn, features so many playable characters that we've devoted an entire week of
coverage to highlighting just a few of them. So far we've covered everything
from a telekinetic rapier-wielding technocrat named Phoebeto the hulking
goliath with a Gatling gun, Montana. We're ending the week with three more
eclectic characters. Rath is an immortal samurai warrior that wields not one
but three energy-infused blades; Marquis is a stylish robo-butler with a golden
cane that doubles as a sniper rifle; and Caldarius is a shock trooper that
sports a pistol, a chainsaw sword, and a jetpack. Read on to learn about their
unique weapons and abilities, and for more of our hands-on impressions of the
game.

Click on the image for a larger version

Name: Rath
Faction: The Jennerit
Empire
Rath is kind of like a cross between a samurai, a vampire,
and a Sith lord. The katana-wielding warrior was a member of the elite guard
that protected the empress of the imperialist Jennerit Empire. However,
political infighting left him disillusioned and eager to get back to honing his
combat skills on the frontlines. As a member of the Jennerit's elite upper
caste known as the Sustained, Rath is immortal, but can still be killed in
combat – though with three separate blades and some devastating melee-focused
abilities, that's not a likely scenario.

Primary Weapon:
Katanas
Rath is focused purely on melee combat, and performs
horizontal slashes with his dual katana blades via the right trigger and
vertical attacks with the left trigger. Rath's horizontal slashes can be
chained together in combos, while his vertical attack is a much slower and more
powerful downward strike.

Abilities:

Catalytic Smash – Rath's
Catalytic Smash causes the warrior to jump into the air and slam his third,
massive sword into the ground. The impact emits a rolling shockwave directly in front of
Rath; enemies hit by it are stunned and knocked into the air, setting up easy
combos from his other abilities.

Crossblade – Most
of Rath's attacks require him to get up close and personal with his enemies,
but Crossblade gives the swordsman some breathing room. The ability causes Rath
to cross his katanas, unleashing an energy projectile that travels a short
distance in front of him.

Genetic Syphon – This
vampiric ability allows Rath to absorb a percentage of the damage he deals to
his enemies, keeping him on his feet during frenzied battles.

Ultimate Ability:

Dreadwind – Rath's
powerful ultimate ability causes him to spin wildly for a few seconds, dealing
continual damage to anyone hit with his blades. Rath can still move while
performing Dreadwind, allowing him to pursue fleeing enemies.

Hands-on Impressions:
As a melee fighter in a game full of gun-toting killers,
Rath might appear to be at a disadvantage. It didn't take much play time to
convince me otherwise; an opposing Rath caused abject terror whenever he was
spotted on the battlefield. His primary sword attacks can quickly whittle away
your health bar, and his Catalytic Smash and Crossblade abilities make him
dangerous from medium range as well. Rath is also one of the speedier
characters we saw, making him difficult to elude when he sets his sights on
you. His appropriately named Dreadwind ability is particularly deadly, but can
be countered by some characters – Montana's Lumberjack Dash let me put an
abrupt end to Rath's twirling attack and dish out some damage of my own. That
said, Rath should not be underestimated, and is a great choice for players who
aren't afraid to bring a sword to a gunfight.

Coming Up Next: The
most polite killer robot you'll ever meet...

Nostalgia Corner: '90s Nickelodeon Games

The early '90s brought a slew of
beloved Nickelodeon shows that are still talked about to this day.

The early '90s brought a slew of
beloved Nickelodeon shows that are still talked about to this day. From the
crazy game shows, Guts and Double Dare , to zany cartoons like Rocko's Modern Life and The Ren and Stimpy Show , the network
dominated kid's TV programming, making the '90s often referred to as the
"golden era" of Nickelodeon. The nostalgia still lives on, so much so that Teen
Nick brought back some of its '90s entertainment to much fanfare. I thought I'd
do the same by taking a look at some of the licensed video games that emerged
to complement the programming.

Double Dare

Double Dare started the '90s
Nickelodeon video game era off by releasing its NES port (it hit DOS two years
earlier). The video game mimicked Marc Summers' TV show to a tee, having two
rounds of trivia and a final round with an obstacle course where things were
guaranteed to get messy (unfortunately, the video game failed to match the mess
of the show). The game had the show's standby physical challenges and made
players find hidden flags in a frenzied, booby-trapped course. Obstacles are
taken right from the show, as were some of the virtual prizes you could win
like a BMX bike or NES. Of course, the TV show's biggest draw - the obstacle
course - was never as impressive or chaotic in the video game. See for yourself
in the video below, captured by Youtube user NotEntirelySure.

The Ren and Stimpy Games

The testy Chihuahua and
feeble-minded cat were a different breed for Nickelodeon, with Ren and Stimpy's
offbeat humor more in the vein of Southpark than the squeaky-clean cartoons airing alongside it. Perhaps that's exactly why
it worked. The Ren and Stimpy Show was so successful that it spawned multiple video game releases and was featured
in Nickelodeon ensemble games well after it went off the air in '96. Six games
for multiple platforms released during the show's run. Game Boy's Ren and
Stimpy: Space Cadet Adventures may have started the video game
adventures, but Veediots! and Stimpy's Invention are the more well-known
titles. The games were great takes on episodes of The Ren and Stimpy Show and had cameos from memorable side
characters like Super Powdered Toast Man and the dog catcher.

Check out some gameplay that
Youtube user Seraph22xcaptured of Stimpy's Invention.

Guts

Do, do, do, do you have it? The
game show hosted by Mike O'Malley and refereed by Moira "Mo" Quirk was all the
rage in the '90s; it was only a matter of time before Nickelodeon let players
complete virtually for a part of a pixelated Aggro Crag. The game featured
footage from the show to make you feel like you were in an episode. Playing
against a friend and/or AI player, it let you take on memorable Guts events like "Slam Dunk." Of course,
it was all secondary compared to getting a chance to step on the Aggro Crag - a
tall mountain two contestants had to climb, hit switches on, and avoid
obstacles through to get to the top first, all in the name of getting a piece
of its rock. Best way to cut costs to run a game show, ever.

Here's some footage of an event
below from the game, thanks to Youtube user djgyixx

Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day

Rocko, the wallaby complete with
an Australian accent, may have been the star of his own show, but his adorable
dog Spunky often stole the spotlight. Spunky earned his name in the title for
the first and only Rocko's Modern Life game produced, Spunky's Dangerous Day. In the game, you play as Rocko and
attempt to protect Spunky as he chases down an object. The majority of levels
are based off episodes of the show, with only one being completely new. In our
Home Improvement episode of Replay, we actually checked it out as our roulette.
Tune in to the 31:15 mark to see how Andrew Reiner, Tim Turi, Dan Ryckert, and
Ben Reeves liked it.

Ahh! Real Monsters

Ickis, Krumm, and Oblina went
through plenty of torment at Monster Academy from their mentor, the Gromble.
They just couldn't please the four-legged monster with the constant scowl. The
Ahh! Real Monsters video game continues that tradition with having Ickis,
Oblina, and Krumm trying to pass their "scare exam" to graduate. The Gromble
orders you around, telling you to collect items and who to scare, eventually
taking you out of the sewers and into the human world. Ickis, Krumm, and Oblina
all have their own special skill and moves, and can all work together for a
team attack. The game also didn't forget the monsters' favorite thing: garbage.
You can chuck it at enemies and eat from it. See some of the action for
yourself below, captured by Youtube user SuperSegaDreamcast2

Rugrats

Tommy Pickles and company didn't
make their video game debut until the late '90s, but by far had the most video
games released. Babies are always a sure bet for people to take notice. Most
gamers probably remember PS1's Rugrats: Search For Reptar, or when the babies
attempted to cash-in on their film debut with The Rugrats Movie for both Game
Boy and Game Boy Color. Search for Reptar focused on finding Tommy's missing
Reptar (a dino cooler and badder than Barney) puzzle pieces. During different
levels you got to control Chuckie, Phil and Lil, and even that brat Angelica.
Search for Reptar captured more of the old-school Rugrats, while The Rugrats
Movie game introduced Tommy's new brother Dil Pickles (best name ever).
Unfortunately, that's when the show felt different to those of us who were
early 90's fans.

Get a look at Search
for Reptar below, thanks to Youtube user xSymbiote

Did you play any of these games? Would
you like to see one of these on Replay? Let us know in the comments!

Note: I want to give a shout out
to Doug's Big Game, which couldn't be included on this list due to it releasing
in '00, and Doug being a part of Disney at that point. Still, Doug was my
favorite Nick toon.

...

Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Easy to learn hard to master and addictive as hell Free-to-play done right Production values are through the roof Cons Requires a bit of grinding to be even remotely competitive No offline mode I was in middle school when I got my first deck of Magic: The Gathering cards. Whether I was playing pick-up games at school or trading cards with friends at the local

Duke Nukem 3D adds multiplayer, co-op modes on Steam

Grab your 56 kbps modems and triple-barreled machine guns.

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Editionhas just been updated with multiplayer and cooperative modes. The Megaton Edition, which includes the original game and three expansion packs, is also discounted by 60 percent on Steam until Friday, down to $4.

This eight player multiplayer and cooperative mode is not the result of some weird mod that was added to the game years after the fact. It's the genuine article: an online multiplayer FPS from 1996, only three years after Doom was released and gave us the first signs that this was about to become a thing .

The update includes the original maps, plus Steam Workshop support that makes it easy to install literally hundreds of user generated maps. Duke Nukem 3D always had a really active and interesting modding community and it seems like that's still true today.

More importantly, Duke Nukem 3D is actually a good game, which is absolutely still worth playing if you haven't already, for historical reasons alone. Chris Comiskey played through it last year in one of our Reinstall featuresand found that "Duke Nukem 3D is still gaming's best popcorn shooter, and revisiting it reminds me of how seriously FPSes have taken themselves since."

Metal Gear Online video shows classes, tactics, fulton extraction

Metal Gear Solid 5's competitive online mode won't reach PC until January next year.

Need more Metal Gear? Check out the rest of our coverageor read our review.

Metal Gear Solid 5's competitive online mode won't reach PC until January next year. This is a shame, because Metal Gear Online looks great.

The 11-minute narrated in-game footage from Tokyo Game Show covers classes, game modes and tactics. You can salute fellow team mates to form a buddy link; you can paralyse snipers with puppy plushies; you can use the fulton extraction device to steal enemy team members and redeem their kill total as tickets for your own team. It's good to see the trademark blend of military seriousness and slapstick silliness make it into multiplayer.

Snake and Ocelot have also made the leap online. Ocelot can dual-wield revolvers and ping bullets round corners. Snake can deploy his rocket fist for some tactical espionage punching. It's not clear if fultoning a hero character will grant you extra rewards, but bragging rights should suffice. We love the fulton extraction system so much we wish every game had it.

Evolve goes gold, Turtle Rock and 2K Games donate $23,000 to charity

Evolve has gone gold, which is a nice but not particularly important bit of news, since we already know that it's coming out on February 10.

has gone gold, which is a nice but not particularly important bit of news, since we already know that it's coming out on February 10. Turtle Rock is also marking the moment by releasing the intro cinematic, and more significantly, joining with publisher 2K Games to kick in nearly $23,000 to Child's Play.

Back in January 2014, members of Turtle Rock made the " No Shave 'Til Ship" pledge: No shaving of beards for the men, and no cutting of hair for the women, until Evolve passed certification. The studio promised to donate $50 to Child's Play for each inch of hair grown and cut, and with 227.5 " hairy inches" produced between now and then, it adds up to a very impressive purse of $11,375. 2K agreed to match that amount, taking the total donation to $22,750.

Turtle Rock said it will now focus on the upcoming open beta, which unfortunately is exclusive to the Xbox One, although some PC players will be able to take part in a smaller "closed technical test" beginning on January 16. After that, work on the planned DLC will resume.

The opening cinematic, meanwhile, is about what you'd expect—four hunters, one monster, lots of pyrotechnics—but even though it's not terribly surprising, it is a handy reminder: If your plan to subdue a 30-foot-tall fire-breathing monster is to stroll up and give it the stink-eye, you really need to come up with a better plan.

Extinction Mode's Aliens Replace Zombies in CoD: Ghosts

Extinction Mode's Aliens Replace Zombies in CoD: Ghosts In a departure from the Black Ops Zombie modes, Extinction will see you utilise different classes and weapons to suppress an alien force (colloquially referred to as ‘space bugs’, it seems) whilst trying to eliminate their bases – or ‘hives’. It looks like you’ll have the opportunity to implement a series of barricades and defences to keep the

Team Fortress 2 now accepting Halloween item submissions

I like to think that creators who've had their TF2 Steam Workshop items accepted into the game were alerted to the fact by an ominous rumbling from their monitor.

I like to think that creators who've had their TF2 Steam Workshop items accepted into the game were alerted to the fact by an ominous rumbling from their monitor. Without warning, the screen gaped open, and a shower of money fired out. Would you like your own money shower? You can have one - assuming you possess the raw talent to create spooky virtual headgear from nothing - because Valve are now accepting Workshop submissions for their annual Team Fortress 2Halloween event.

Normally at this point, I'd quote a relevant section from the developers' announcement post. As it's TF2, that's not going to work, because said post is full of lines like: "That man was Bruce Willis in the haunted house classic Die Hard, and it should teach you a valuable lesson about showing a little advance respect for Halloween." There are tangents all up in that blog, is what I'm trying to say.

To pick out the relevant details, all submissions must be tagged Halloween 2013in the Workshop. As with other Halloween items, they'll only be wearable during the event and on full moons. Because of that, creators have more leeway to stretch the game's usual tonal restrictions.

[Image Source: Dark Orchestra by Rain*]

PC Gamer Podcast #370 - Octodad: Taxi Simulator

It's a grab bag of gaming topics this week as we close out the first month of 2014.

It's a grab bag of gaming topics this week as we close out the first month of 2014. Cory and Wes swap stories about actiony roguelike Risk of Rain, Evan is octoglad to talk about his love for Octodad: Dadliest Catch, and Tyler talks about shooting and slicing in Strike Vectorand Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. We also share early impressions on Steam's in-home streamingfrom PC to Linux.

Even if you don't have eight appendages, you can still click here to listen to PC Gamer Podcast 370 - Octodad: Taxi Simulator.

Have a question, comment, complaint, or observation? Send an MP3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com or call us toll-free at 877-404-1337 x724.

Subscribe to the podcast RSS feed.

@ELahti(Evan Lahti)

@wesleyfenlon(Wes Fenlon)

@tyler_wilde(Tyler Wilde)

@demiurge(Cory Banks)

Mine-Thon 2 raises over $10,000 for Child's Play charity

The second Mine-Thon concluded at 11AM PST today, with the weekend-long event earning a total of $10,148 for Child's Play --more than double the amount raised last year.

--more than double the amount raised last year. Like old-school telethons, the fundraiser, created by Ethan Smith in 2011, has a simple concept: Six brave volunteers play Minecraftfor 72 hours straight and stream their adventures on the Internet to inspire donations. All proceeds, processed by PayPal, go straight to Child's Play, a game industry charity devoted to improving the lives of sick children.

Smith understands the needs of hospitalized children first-hand. When he was seven years old, he was diagnosed with Lyme Disease, a bacterial infection that can cause paralysis and vision loss. Smith recalls relying on his Game Boy Color to occupy his time in the hospital, helping him make a full recovery.

“Being stuck in a hospital is never fun--especially during the holidays--and that's why the Mine-Thon volunteers are committed to bring the holidays to the hospitals,” said Smith. “Child's Play Charity ensures that hospitalized children throughout the world won't go without this holiday season.”

Congratulations to the Mine-Thon volunteers and to everyone who donated. We sincerely hope Smith and crew can dream about something other than Minecraft over the next several hours.

Dead Rising 2 review

Dead Rising 2 review There are all kinds of different schools of thought as to what a sequel should and should not be. For many, a follow-up should take the foundations of its predecessor and build upon them in new, clever ways while correcting the original’s flaws in the process. Others ask far less of developers, content with only minor progression in a few areas or even one major improvement or

Duke Nukem 3D gets Steam Workshop support, dozens of fan-made maps

Earlier this week the Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton edition was with the level editor, Steam Workshop support and a guide explaining how it all works.

explaining how it all works. AND LO, the mapmakers did come, and make a wide and varied collection of Duke levels for us to download and play for free while making happy nostalgic noises to ourselves.

There are 75 available already, many of which are redistributions of classic fan-made Duke maps. The collection brings the efforts of prolific back into Steam's wide limelight, so think of it as an awesome little museum full of perfectly playable and entertaining levels. Beyond the Steam Workshop you'll find thousands more on sites like the Duke Repository.

Andy's played a few good 'uns this morning, including the puzzly space-borne WGSpace1 map, the detailed Hotel La Dukeand CITY OF SCREAMS.

Duke Nukem 3D is also on saleon Steam at 75% off to celebrate its arrival on the Steam Workshop, and it'll be that price until December 16.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance now available to pre-purchase on Steam

You probably noticed that the Steam Holiday Sale is on and that all your money is quickly disappearing.

is on and that all your money is quickly disappearing. But your shopping frenzy may have distracted you from the news that Metal Gear Rising: Revengence was also made available to pre-purchase for a 33 percent discount, bringing it to $20. It will unlock and be available to play on January 9.

You can also get the game from Amazonfor the same price, but still need a Steam account to play it.

The PC version of the game includes all three DLC missions (Blade Wolf, Jetstream, and VR mission) as well as all the customized body upgrades for Raiden, including the White Armor, Inferno Armor, Commando Armor, Raiden's MGS4 body, and the obligatory Cyborg Ninja.

Other minute additions made to the PC version include the ability to play the game's cutscenes and codecs conversations from the main menu, the ability to jump directly into the boss battles of your choosing, and basic graphics configuration.

Minimum and recommended system requirements are as follows:

OS: XP or Vista or 7 or 8

Processor: Intel Core i5 2400

Memory: 2 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTS 450

DirectX: Version 9.0c

Hard Drive: 25 GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

OS: XP or Vista or 7 or 8

Processor: Intel Core i7 3770

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 650

DirectX: Version 9.0c

Hard Drive: 25 GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

We haven't seen a Metal Gear game on the PC since the first Metal Gear Solid, way back in 1998. It's good to have it back! Hopefully this is another signthat we'll get to play Metal Gear Solid 5 on PC as well.

Gamers holding Rumble in the Bronze StarCraft 2 charity grudge match

Rumble in the Bronze is a charity StarCraft 2 event in which six teams are set to fight for donations to hospitals of their choice.

Rumble in the Bronze is a charity StarCraft 2 event in which six teams are set to fight for donations to hospitals of their choice. This competition has more going for it than a good name and a good cause, the first match will be fought with an interesting ruleset. It's a 2v2 scrap in which the base building and economy is handled by Diamond players, while all the nitty gritty troop control is done by less experienced Bronze players. The whole event will be broadcast live, and they're taking donations for Child's Play now. Read on for details.

The event was organised by Penny Arcade forumites who teased each other to the point that a grudge match was required. Instead of settling their differences in private they decided to broadcast it to the world for charity. The whole event will be broadcast this Saturday on StarCraft Arcadia, and donations can be made now at the event's donation page. There are more details about the match ups on the Penny Arcade forum thread, and there's even a rousing trailer for the competition, embedded below.

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z trailer – Keiji Inafune's new zombie game revealed

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z trailer – Keiji Inafune's new zombie game revealed Keiji Inafune, creator of Dead Rising has announced his newest zombie game, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, which features all of his favourite things, “zombies, ninjas, robots, and action”.

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Our Verdict Dragon Age: Inquisition creates a massive, vibrant world on a scale far greater than its predecessors, and does an excellent job of making you feel in command. The heart of this game rests with its characters, who keep you invested in the action. Pros An extremely dense gigantic world Vibrant color pallet breaths new life into combat and exploration

Don't Starve gets fed Steam Workshop support, has new Ruins level for dessert

It should be fairly easy not to starve in Don't Starve now, what with Klei's survival game having been given Steam Workshop support.

now, what with Klei's survival game having been given Steam Workshop support. Simply use the modding tools to whip up a tasty delicacy, or download someone else's from this rapidly expanding buffet. There's already rather a lot of cool mods available for the game, and now they can be more easily shared and integrated into yours. Additionally, Klei have added a new level to the Caves system: "the abandoned ruins of a once great civilization", home to an Ancient Guardian and a Dangling Depth Dweller Spider. Now that's alliteration.

Available mods include a Dutch translationfor the game, several new characters, and even the concept of dawn. In addition to Steam Workshop, and the extra level, creatures and items (more on those here), the latest update also lets you keep track of how many times you've died on the new Morgue screen, in true roguelike style. You know, if that's something you feel the need to boast about.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Exploring The Concept Art Of Assassin's Creed Unity

Establishing the themes and mood for games in concept art is essential.

Establishing the themes and mood for games in concept art is essential. These ideas often give birth to even more creative implementations. Assassin's Creed Unity is no different. The French Revolution drove much of its initial art and introduced some of the important conflicts the writers wanted to explore. We sat down with art director Mohammed Gambouz for some insight into the process and what he wanted to convey with the concept art to further understand the goals and ideas behind Unity.

Note: Click on images to see full-sized versions.

The was one of the earlier concepts the team produced. They focused on only using colors on the important things, like the dead bodies and flag. This was to highlight the revolutionary conflicts and the brutality of the era. "We wanted to have an aggressive image with an aggressive atmosphere," says art director Mohammed Gambouz.

The picture above illustrates the beauty of Paris before it was full of massacre. The team chose to focus on letting the vegetation showcase its liveliness.  "We wanted something happier, more village-like. Something that hadn't yet been impacted by the revolution fully," Gambouz says. "The architecture is well structured, so you feel less chaos."

This was one of the first iconic images Ubisoft created for Unity. "We didn't know the scope or the size, but we were sure [the game] was about the Assassins and [French] Revolution," Gambouz says. They purposely wanted aggressiveness in the shapes, so you'll notice a lot of spike-y images, like roofs and towers in the distance. "I really wanted a thick and heavy atmosphere," Gambouz says. "That's why you see the smoke blending in with the sky and that's something that's very characteristic to many paintings that depicted that era." Again, colors were used widely to make sure that only the important things were front-and-center, like the flag and the fire. "These are the only two aspects that has saturated colors," Gambouz says. Gambouz jokes that they had some resistance to the gargoyles because of Batman, but it was true to the era.

This shot was done exclusively for the area that Ubisoft presented during E3 2014. "We really wanted to convey the richness of the materials and the colors to make a big contrast with the exterior," Gambouz says. "It shows the different worlds. The poor and rich people." Gambouz says outside you feel the oppressive atmosphere, but when you step inside buildings you will often go through lavish structures. "We wanted to invest many resources on the light and to make it show on new-gen," Gambouz notes. This image shows the light coming in from the window and various reflections from crystals to the walls to support that.

Elise has a similar color palette to Arno, which is focused on blues. This was intentional, so you'd associate them together. "We wanted to push a visual familiarity between the two," Gambouz says. "But that flashy red hair from Elise is a touch to distinguish her from him. She's more of a flamboyant rebel, compared to him who's more of a calmer guy." Gambouz says one of the biggest challenges was coming up with designs that matched up with the history, so Ubisoft had to do a lot of research through pictures and films.

Gambouz wanted to show off the rich interiors with a touch of chaos here. "That's actually what the Revolution is about," Gambouz says. "The revolution is against the novelty. The revolution is against the Monarchy. We wanted to represent that visually, so we put really a fancy interior and some chaos into it." You also see the lighting effects come through that the team was focused on making more realistic.

"We have seven districts in Paris and each district has its own flavor," Gambouz says. "For this one we wanted to push the rich and party [atmosphere]." These people are totally disconnected from what's happening in Paris, which is true to history. People thought this would eventually just go away; that people would get tired of fighting, and so some districts were naive to what was going on around them.

For more information on both Assassin's Creed Rogue and Assassin's Creed Unity, be sure to visit our hub.

Gamers holding Rumble in the Bronze StarCraft 2 charity grudge match

Rumble in the Bronze is a charity StarCraft 2 event in which six teams are set to fight for donations to hospitals of their choice.

Rumble in the Bronze is a charity StarCraft 2 event in which six teams are set to fight for donations to hospitals of their choice. This competition has more going for it than a good name and a good cause, the first match will be fought with an interesting ruleset. It's a 2v2 scrap in which the base building and economy is handled by Diamond players, while all the nitty gritty troop control is done by less experienced Bronze players. The whole event will be broadcast live, and they're taking donations for Child's Play now. Read on for details.

The event was organised by Penny Arcade forumites who teased each other to the point that a grudge match was required. Instead of settling their differences in private they decided to broadcast it to the world for charity. The whole event will be broadcast this Saturday on StarCraft Arcadia, and donations can be made now at the event's donation page. There are more details about the match ups on the Penny Arcade forum thread, and there's even a rousing trailer for the competition, embedded below.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update adds cs_militia, reworks hostage rescue system

Valve has sent out a patch for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that focuses on tweaking Hostage Rescue rules for stronger balance and to entice players away from the long-favored Bomb Defusal.

for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that focuses on tweaking Hostage Rescue rules for stronger balance and to entice players away from the long-favored Bomb Defusal. Most notably, CTs have now adopted the tactical doctrine of draping hostages across their shoulders like a squishy scarf, and only a single rescue is needed to secure a win for the good guys.

You'll need to interact with a hostage for a lengthy four seconds to get him to hop on for a ride, and a new "rescue kit" shortens pickup time to a single second by presumably wowing hostages with attractively padded and comfortable-looking shoulder guards to rest on. Taking a note of influence from community-made maps such as cs_motel, hostage spawns are now randomized per match.

Valve is also continuing to stock GO's maps with updated versions of classic Counter-Strike levels, with cs_militia being the latest addition. It's structured similarly to cs_assault, where Ts benefit from an entrenched interior location to bunker in while CTs attempt rescue through multiple points of entry.

Defusing bombs got a small but significant change as well: turning too far away from a bomb while defusing it will cancel the process, a jump in risk and exposure for CTs trying for the win while Ts yet linger to guard the bomb. They could sure use one of those hostage-capes for extra protection.

Oh, and the rumored Support Passfor a community map rotation on official servers isn't happening. Valve even pokes fun at earlier reports of the pass with a new data string, "CSGO_Ticket_CommunitySeasonOneSpring2013_Leak," and its single-word description: "lol." Oh, Valve. Don't ever change.

See the rest of the patch notes over on Steam.

Designing The Future Of Assassin's Creed

We hope you've enjoyed our month of coverage on Assassin's Creed Rogue and Unity , and we're closing things out with a look to the future.

, and we're closing things out with a look to the future. While visiting Ubisoft Montreal for our cover story, we spoke with the creative director and brand content manager for the series, Jean Guesdon, about the team's road map for the next generation of games. Guesdon hints at plans to expand even more into the online capabilities of the new consoles and why Abstergo Entertainment will make its return in Unity, eliminating the concept of a playable character that's separate from the player for the present-day sections.

Watch the video interview below to learn more about planning for the future of the Assassin's Creed series, how they're creating the " first real-time trans-media universe," and what Guesdon sees as the biggest threat to the brand.

Learn much more about Assassin's Creed Rogue and Unity by clicking on the banner below and checking out the features in our content-complete hub.

Playing Terrible Xbox Live Indie Games With Their Comedian Creator

We recently had the opportunity to connect with comedian Pat Susmilch who, before getting on stage to tell jokes, tried his hand at making video games for the Xbox Live Indie channel.

who, before getting on stage to tell jokes, tried his hand at making video games for the Xbox Live Indie channel. We brought him into the office to play some of his games and detail the process.

Susmilch appeared on NBC's Last Comic Standing and was one of the opening acts for Kumail Ninjianiwhen he was in town doing a show, which is how we crossed paths. Part of Susmilch's act details the tribulations of making terrible video games (his words not ours) to appear on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. In his act, Susmilch describes he and his team’s first title, Cold War Commander, where players collect jelly beans as President Ronald Reagan during the Cold War, and laments about what could have been the next Angry Birds, had someone not stepped in the way of their creativity and shut the project down.

We talk about and play all of Susmilch’s terrible games (again – his words not ours) and about the difficulty of working with Microsoft and fellow peers to release games on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel.

For Susmilch's appearance on NBC's Last Comic Standing , check out the clip below. You can also follow him on twitter by heading here.

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros Rollicking good adventure Can be who you want Packed with cheery joy Cons Not as clever as it could be Long load times Clunky inventory screens Forget acorns growing into oak trees. Forget a hero moulded by moral choice. Forget a world forged over 30 years. This is role-playing in the child’s sense: dress up and pretend. Example: at one point we played a highwayman

Reinstall: Strife, merging shooter and RPG elements years before Deus Ex

Reinstall invites you to join us in revisiting classics of PC gaming days gone by.

Reinstall invites you to join us in revisiting classics of PC gaming days gone by. This week, Paul returns to the ambitious Doom-era FPS/RPG hybrid, Strife.

Article by Paul Dean

Strife did Deus Ex before Deus Ex – sort of. Released in 1996 and powered by id's Doom engine, it didn't manage to pull off that same fusion of roleplaying elements, stealth and freedom of choice that made Deus Ex great a few years later, but it certainly took one of the first stabs at it, and 17 years after its release it still does a pretty fine job.

Strife was one of the first games to take an engine used by first- person shooters and to bolt all kinds of extras onto it, showing that it could be used for far more than just blasting away at monsters. It's a Doom-a-like set in a hub-based persistent world where you can talk to just about anyone, albeit through terrible, cheesy voice acting. It's an ambitious last hurrah for the Doom engine, following more simplistic games such as Heretic and Hexen, and it wears that heritage proudly: you get to do a lot of shooting with a lot of novel weaponry. And people explode.

The game marries science fiction and the medieval, putting you in a world of peasants and power armour, taverns and teleporters. It's a world that has fallen victim to a terrible virus and then been subjugated by a mysterious Order, a strange religious organisation that took power when everything went to hell. You're the one fighting to restore freedom with a crossbow and rocket launcher.

Coming back to Strife is a delight. The hub that sits at the centre of the game is a town within the iron grip of the Order. Armed and armoured guards are posted on every corner, just waiting to strike should you decide the best way to rebel is to fight in the streets. You're better off hanging out in the tavern, seeing if you can pick up any jobs and buying equipment for the missions ahead. It's not long before you'll find the nearby headquarters of the resistance, and they'll start both training you and plugging stamina implants into your body to beef you up.

Your missions will have you trotting off across the hub to various new levels, each of which is impressive in both its size and its complexity, especially considering that the Doom engine couldn't model rooms above or below other rooms. You visit a sprawling warehouse, the frustratingly complex sewer system and the Order's castle. The latter you'll find yourself assaulting with a detachment of comrades.

None of these areas are particularly pretty and the years haven't been kind to Strife's grey corridors, but the game's mixture of the historical and high-tech is distinctive. Deep in the bowels of a mighty citadel you'll find huge computer screens mounted across the stone walls, while the private quarters next door might boast no more than candles and a four-poster bed. It serves to give the locations you visit variety: that castle you assault is fortified by both force fields and thick stone walls.

Many of these levels have secrets and alarm systems, and while Strife is a game that's very much about shooting, it's possible to stealth or part-stealth these levels, creeping through them with a crossbow loaded with poison-tipped bolts. Many mission briefings encourage playing this way, but it's almost inevitable that things are going to get noisy sooner or later.

When combat does break out, it's not as fast or fluid as Doom, though it does still feel very similar. What it lacks in speed it makes up for in its interesting selection of weapons: as well as the usual rocket launcher and assault rifle, there's a flamethrower, improvised mines and one of gaming's earliest grenade launchers.

Strife is similarly basic in its introduction of roleplaying elements. You can talk with almost anyone, but your conversation choices are very limited, while character improvement is restricted to a few very rudimentary advancements such as improving your weapon accuracy or gaining ten more hit points. There are, however, multiple endings, depending upon the order that you complete certain tasks in, or if you fail outright.

What made Strife great was how many ideas it introduced to what at the time was a pretty simple formula. It was always providing something new to see or play with. There's the infiltration mission where you're in disguise, the teleporter tool that beams your allies to your position, and the Sigil superweapon, assembled in five stages and more powerful with each addition.

Then there's the horrible, tempting Chalice mission, a quest to steal one of the Order's prized possessions. It's a set-up, an attempt by your enemies to bait and kill you that you're offered at the very start of the game. If you try it then, you're doomed to failure, but later on, once you're souped up and much savvier, it's a much easier proposition. That's just one example of Strife trying its best to be non-linear, and it prefigures the sort of thing Dark Souls gets lauded for today. Just because you can try something right now, that doesn't mean you should.

Strife is still an interesting game with an unusual premise and a lot to show. It's not a great shooter, a great RPG or a great stealth game, but it does an admirable job of wearing each hat it tries on. If it had been released a few months earlier, it might have been a success.

Sadly, it wasn't the cutest kid to graduate in the class of 1996. Its engine was already eclipsed by the shinier, show-off interactivity of Duke Nukem 3D, and Quake was only weeks away. Many gamers may simply have assumed it was just another second-rate texture-mapped shooter, of which there were an unholy number at time. It's not.

Strife is worth remembering today for offering an early open world, and for the variety of ideas it smooshes into it. It certainly doesn't deserve to languish in obscurity. Given that it's now abandonware, there's no reason for you not to give it the attention it never received in its day.

Is Battleborn A MOBA? Here's What Gearbox Says

Yesterday we unveiled Battleborn as our August cover story .

. Gearbox describes their new game as a "hero shooter," but the hive-mind of the Internet oversimplified it as "another MOBA." While visiting the studio in Plano, Texas, we spoke with design director John Mulkey and creative director Randy Varnell about comparing the game to the MOBA genre and what separates the two in their minds. We talk about the variety of modes that'll be available in Battleborn, how embracing first-person action has shaped the game, and we wring out as much as they can tell us about their vision for the game's co-operative campaign.

Watch the video interview below to learn what elements Battleborn draws from MOBAs and why the game doesn't neatly fit into that genre classification.

To learn much more about Battleborn, click on the banner below to enter our content hub that we'll be filling up throughout the next month.

Diablo 3 celebrated its second birthday last week. Here's why I'm still playing

The best thing about the black hole spell isn't the way it scrunches nearby enemies into an orb of writhing limbs, though that is nice, it's the way it positions an entire horde into the radius of a single meteor strike.

The best thing about the black hole spell isn't the way it scrunches nearby enemies into an orb of writhing limbs, though that is nice, it's the way it positions an entire horde into the radius of a single meteor strike. With two clicks I can drag a mob into a tiny space, and then scatter their broken ragdoll forms across the scenery with a massive explosion.

Yes, I'm playing Diablo 3 again. The lure of this week's 100% increased legendary drop rate—introduced to celebrate Diablo 3's anniversary—proved too great. I thought I'd just dip in and grab a couple of legendary items while the going was good, but idle curiosity quickly turned to fervour. Diablo 3's legendaries drop with a CLANG sound that elbows ambient battle noise aside. Legendaries fire a golden laser into the sky to announce their presence. The beam is to treasure hunters as the bat symbol is to Batman, a call of duty for obsessives seeking ever sweeter loot.

Diablo 3 is more moreish than ever, and I'm still trying to pin down its appeal. In part, I have to credit Blizzard's talent for creating innately satisfying audiovisual cues, but with the addition of adventure mode they've successfully broken the campaign down into a series of easily hurdled challenges. Complete five tasks in an act and you receive a chest, which contains keys that let you unlock Nephalem Rifts—the most entertaining and rewarding levels in the game.

Hearthstone has its own version of this absorbing structure. You complete daily challenges to earn currency, and then spend currency on keys to enter the arena. This is a survival mode in which you 'power up' your key with wins to unlock card packs and crafting materials. I wouldn't say that Diablo 3's progression structure makes it a better game—caving to compulsion isn't the same thing as being entertained—but those layered rewards generate a gentle sense of ongoing achievement that justifies repeat play, and the Nephalem Rifts are fantastic best-of mash-ups of Diablo 3's familiar zones. When I sit down for a half-hour of fun, a game that will leave me with a sense of having earned something will often win out, even if that something is a magic hammer that makes my virtual wizard's fireballs more explode harder. That's why Diablo 3 has dethroned Titanfall as my go-to action hit.

You can only successfully build that addictive crumb-trail of objectives around a satisfying core, and in Diablo that's theorycrafting and combat. To the outside observer who watches five minutes of a wizard blowing up goblins on the ramparts of act 3, the idea that a player can do that for 100 hours must seem like high madness. But imagine that the player revisiting that level isn't doing so to see a certain location again, or fight a certain combination of monsters, or even to earn another paragon level, imagine instead that they're testing a thesis.

Proposal: slotting a ruby into my weapon, which grants me a flat damage increase across all of my attacks, will give me a greater overall damage output per second than an emerald, which doubles the damage output of occasional critical hits. Testing methodology: raid the ramparts of Bastion's Keep, observe damage output and measure time taken to clear the area. Additional research: find out how the "damage" stat on my character sheet factors in sudden damage spikes caused by critical hits, and then note changes in the DPS measurement with both a ruby and an emerald equipped.

Welcome to the world of a Diablo nerd. Sometimes, there's huge satisfaction to be found in massaging a complicated mathematical system into a more streamlined form, especially when you're rewarded with the ability to melt goblins faster. Now consider the fact that there are five varieties of gem, each with 19 tiers. Then consider the five classes, with dozens of abilities, each of which can be modified with a series of runes, and accentuated with passive abilities. Diablo 3 took some stick for throwing out traditional skill trees in favour of a toybox approach that lets you reform your character at any point, but the ever-broadening array of options available to my characters makes them more fun to use as time passes. Since the Reaper of Souls update, it's even easier to gift a couple of amazing gems to a low-level alt and usher them up through the difficulties in no time at all. The game feels wide open in a way it previously wasn't.

Then there's the interaction between the character build and the tide of loot you collect. The conclusion to my gem problem, to illustrate the point, was that rubies gave me a greater damage increase. That's a false positive. In truth there's ultimately greater damage potential in a higher crit chance, boosted by a big expensive emerald. Now I prize items that improve my ability to crit, and use the enchanting system added by Reaper of Souls to try and turn almost-useful items into useful ones. The rabbit hole is deep and dark. Two years after launch, I'm still exploring.

Path of Exile is probably a better choice for theorycrafting purists, but I value the heavier feedback Diablo 3's fancier engine. I like to find an aesthetically satisfying combination of abilities, and then rework my build to support them. I recently replaced my Darth Sidious lighting spell with a move that hurls chunks of flaming rock through enemies. Each one leaves a smouldering trail in its wake. Between black holes and meteors, I bowl burning orbs across the battlefield to paint the floor with orange fire. I've found a combination of fire spells I enjoy, and favour item drops that improve their effectiveness, even if they mean a slight stat cut in other departments. I'm slowly building a fiery synergy across Diablo 3's interlinked skill and gear systems.

That's just with my wizard. Maybe I'll roll a crusader soon, opening another chapter in my Diablo 3 obsession. That won't be before the 100% legendary buff expires, mind. You have until tomorrow to jump in and reap the benefits.

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Jump to Section: Best Price Comments Pros As sickening as they come Inspired zero-grav gameplay Near-perfect RE4 clone Cons Shamelessly steals ideas Some repeated enemies Normal difficulty is too easy Take the controls. It’s no wonder that after playing Dead Space, Resident Evil 5 director Jun Takeuchi has opted to swap RE’s classic set-up for Dead Space’s sidestepping freedom; a change we vehemently

Saturday Crapshoot: Strife

Every week, Richard Cobbett rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities.

rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities. This week, a shooter/RPG hybrid that was Doomed from the moment it went into development, sadly in more ways than one.

Remember Strife? Come on, you remember Strife. The hugely ambitious game that came from developers looking at the Doom engine and thinking "We can start down the road towards Deus Ex before anyone even thinks of it!" The game that merged cutting edge shooting and equally advanced RPG action, its only mistake being to come out several years later? You know. Strife! The little game that could... or to be more accurate, could have , had anyone been paying attention to a Doom game in a world with Duke Nukem 3D out, and Quake only a month or so away from shelves.

The fact that most people have never even heard of it remains sad. Not surprising . But still sad.

When your armour bleeds this much from one blow, it's time to reconsider your decision to join the baddies.

Let's get this out of the way first - Strife has aged about as well as a carton of Ribena left behind the radiator for an equivalent amount of time. It's not a good shooter, and by modern standards, yes, it's a simplistic RPG. The key words there are 'by modern standards' though, as so much of what it did simply hadn't been done at this point. Take the city it's set in. At this point, shooters were primarily done level by level, with only a couple of exceptions like Hexen dabbling in hub worlds. Strife gave it a shot though, with levels that weren't only linked together in an overworld style, but that changed and evolved.

That story begins with you, as an anonymous freedom fighter, captured by a group called The Order. So, evil, obviously. There will never be a good organisation called The Order, any more than The Cabal or The Legion; it's the kind of name that people only choose if their five year plan ends with "Become complete dicks." The Order has achieved this with style, turning the world into a theocratic dictatorship and equipping their troops with the scariest helmets that threatening to castrate craftsmen with their own sharpened femurs can provide. Luckily, either the medieval/sci-fi technology of the city not having stretched to scanners or the Order's guards being too squicked to conduct a full cavity search, you've managed to hold onto a punch dagger. With this in hand, though probably kept at a bit of a distance, imprisonment isn't exactly a big deal. Hey! Guards? You just got punched with a dagger!

"Who said that?" "Me. Behind the subtitles."

It's what happens next that starts Strife down the road to being memorable though; wandering into what we can probably charitably call a shop. It's right next to where the punch-daggering happened, but nevertheless the owner, Rowan, decides he's going to act like he's Connected. "In a small world, word travels fast," he says - winning the official Saturday Crapshoot "No Shit" award for understatement. "I hear you just removed some obstacles from your path. Nice work." Hmmmmm.

I'm pretty sure what he meant was "I just heard you remove some obstacles from your path," since he couldn't really have missed it. Or alternatively "Hi, the designers weren't sure where they were going to put me." In the demo version, someone else was standing here - a guy who sends you on a bullshit assignment to steal a chalice. Actually doing this just ends up being a pure trap. You do it. You go to collect your reward. It turns out he's sent you to go see the guy you stole it from, who also turns out to be the guy who runs the city. He summons his guards to kick your arse, and even if you kick their arses instead, it doesn't matter; you can't win the game any more. This is extra-bullshit in a game with exactly one save slot . Overall, Captain Information is probably a better intro, and only wants a harmless murder.

On the way though, it's possible to explore the town a little. There's extra gear you can't afford, and lots of doors you can't go through, but also a few NPCs around who can be talked to and guards to tell you to piss off. The writing in this game being... well... you'll see... the main character can come across as a bit weird. Try to use anything that can't be used and he announces "Nope!" in a really weird way.

As for character dialogues, they tend to go from endearingly polite...

Meh, brainwashed haters gonna hate...

...to a little creepy

Yes. Later. When you least expect it , I will be there. And so will you. But you probably guessed that part.

The first mission takes place in the Order's Sanctuary, where a traitor to the cause has been locked up pending interrogation by the Programmer - one of the Order's heavy hitters. It's a level, but it's designed more like a real place than you'd expect. Give or take the limitations of the Doom engine, obviously. You can just nip in, shoot him and leave, with nothing really to distract from that. Grab his ring, return to Rowan, and for demonstrating front, are given an invite to join The Front - this world's Rebel Alliance. Nice and easy. I'm almost positive that won't hint that they're a bunch of complete incompetents.

Specifically, the invite is a comm unit featuring something literally unheard in the rest of the game - a woman's voice. "If this comm unit is working, that means you're 100% human," she starts. "Betray me, and pay. Oh, and by the way, you can call me Blackbird." So, she sounds nice. The plot explanation for this is that the Order is actually being controlled by mysterious voices in their heads after a comet destroyed the world, and all the women have either been kidnapped or hidden away for safety.

Normally, I'd say this is to cut down on the characters that would need to be rendered, but with these graphics... yeah. Moving on. And past Outcast, another awesome game that did the same thing.

The Front turns out to be based out of a futuristic science base that no rag-tag group of rebels could possibly have built, which turns out to be a bit of a hint, now I think about it, and led by a man named Macil. He explains that while obviously his team is full of great minds and brave revolutionaries, they're depressingly lacking in people who can... how to put this... actually do stuff. And that's where you come in, with Blackbird acting as Mission Control, chipping in at regular intervals. This had been done before, but was still pretty neat, adding to the liveliness of the world and filling in details the graphics couldn't.

Step 1: Steal Order chalice. Step 2: Use as chamberpot. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Most of the actual missions aren't worth covering, being things like a choice between two tasks - "One messy, the other... bloody..." Over the next few, you essentially bop round the town and dismantle the Order piece by piece. Strife though had one big feature on its side - escalation. You'd think from the set-up that the goal was to free the town from the Order, with the final assault being on the Castle to save the day, take out the baddies, and probably lead the way for a sequel where the Front goes on to try and do the same for the rest of the world. That seems about right for a game like this, doesn't it?

Well, nope! The castle is Mission 3. And it is amazing.

Seriously, post a comment if you're not amazed. I bet there's not a single one!

Again, time is a factor. But imagine this. It's 1996, a time when 'lone space marine saves the world' is still considered a fresh take on a game, more or less. Then you find yourself not simply charging into a castle with a crossbow and a couple of other weapons to conquer it, but being part of a mass invasion of friendly soldiers, stomping battle mechs and pumping music. You arrive with the battle in full swing, with the Front already having seized parts of the map and warring over others; your goal as King Rebel being to go after the big prize - the Programmer. This was awesome stuff, even if by modern standards the lack of characters on screen makes it more a minor squabble than an all out war, and a squabble between morons with additional lobotomies at that. Only really Marathon and a couple of other games had factored friendly AI in at this point, and again, once you take the castle, the castle becomes the Front's new base. Nothing else was changing world state like this at the time.

Of course, the Front remains pretty stupid. Hunting for the Programmer, King Rebel finds a guy in a room full of computers. "Programmer? Who told you that?" demands the guy whose name is 'Programmer'. There is no Programmer. Don't tell me the Front actually believed that crap."

"Dead end here," sighs Blackbird, making her the most gullible rebel since the guy Darth Vader tricked with "Obi-Wan never told you there were cookies at the bottom of this shaft." She's right of course, but still, the baddie just being able to send his murderers away by mocking them would have made for a much funnier ending. There is however a Programmer who fits the bill; it just isn't this guy. It also isn't the Programmer in the extensively booby-trapped and heavily-guarded Keep, who sounds too sleepy to keep up the facade and just points out "Do I look like I wield ultimate power?" without quite going as far as "Look at me. Look. I'm a generic NPC sprite. Give our developers some credit here, pal."

Or you bought one of those Eve Online monocles. Either way, death's too good for you!

Of course, the real Programmer is safely concealed in the mysteriously named "Programmer's Keep". Clearly, he is a master of Subtlety. He also apparently has far, far too much time on his hands, having built this special welcome area just to dick with anyone who comes visiting.

Dhalsim? What are you doing here?

Well, if you say so...

Ooof. Now that's what I call a Yoga Flame.

You've been waiting years for someone to break in so that you could do that, haven't you? "When the going gets weird, the weird get going," says Blackbird, as the inevitable trap fires. It's all pretty standard, until you get to the end and meet the Programmer himself. As expected, no generic NPC sprite he...

I wonder how he reaches the keyboard...

Ah, game bosses. Nothing ridiculous about the torso of a man flying a UFO and hurling down lightning on all those who displease him. Certainly, more powerful than the average programmer, naming garbage collection functions after them and giggling while typing "void bobsbrain(void);" He probably doesn't have Futurama posters on his cubicle wall. Or, being the god of the city, a cubicle.

Killing him though makes him drop a magic weapon, a piece of one of those DIY superweapon things called the Sigil. This is what the Order is worshiping, and now a fifth of it is tuned to your life force. "One piece constitutes awesome power. Possession of all five pieces would be devastating, and would give the user complete control of the planet," declares Macil, dramatically over-selling a weapon that's at best 'okay' even when assembled and even then is as good at killing you as anything you shoot it at.

Again though, Strife opens up. Now you get to leave the city and head out into the Borderlands to go and speak to a guy called the Oracle - though not without noting that the Front has taken over the entire castle. In a wonderful detail, it's still possible to head back to their old base and find it completely deserted. There's a medical station, a training area, a new item to buy that will teleport Front soldiers to your location - officially the coolest thing ever at this point, even if Marathon did do it first - and a few other bits and pieces. Best of all, as the hero of the rebellion, the man who destroyed the Programmer and wielder of one-fifth of godlike power, all of your equipment is now provided for free.

Hahahahahahahaha, just kidding. That never happens.

*ring ring* Hello! You could be owed a refund as part of our PPI scam! I mean... oh crap *click*

Again, the plot that follows isn't desperately exciting - essentially you move from saving the city to taking out the Order's heavy hitters. Adding a little of interest though is that you get to choose the order, which affects the ending depending essentially on how cynical you were. Each has a piece of the Sigil, and it will of course come as exactly no surprise that Macil is one of them and has to be put down like a dog. Each piece improves its lightning powers until finally it's spraying stuff out all over the place, and I'm not saying that couldn't be useful in dealing with problems in daily life. If you actually wanted to take over the world with it though, it'd take bloody forever and cost a fortune in medical kits. It's only really useful here because the bosses ignore attacks from anything else, and even then its random attack spewing usually pales in comparison to a regular Big Damn Gun that doesn't suck your HP dry.

However you play though, you end up at the same place - an alien ship, fighting a big blobby entity whose intro speech in my head at least is "Yeah, so, I'm a little disappointed about myself too. Let's just do get this over with." There are three endings in total - one good, one bad, one meh - with hints in one that Blackbird isn't actually the helpful lady that everyone thought she was but may actually be the Entity. Unfortunately, there's no two-way communication, giving no chance to ask "So, what the hell are you, anyway?" before applying a dozen medical packs and emptying the Sigil into it a few million times.

Behold, the conqueror of the world! They're not kidding when they say 'UFO'. What the hell is that meant to be?

The plot isn't the point though. The fact that Strife actually tried to have one beyond 'Uh... that guy's being a dick, go kill him. Here's a pistol...' put it well above the competition for the time, and the effort that went into branching paths and NPC interactions and even little details like the Programmer having a bedroom complete with a four poster bed in his lair rather than it simply being lots of gunmetal grey and computer screens really made all the difference. Unfortunately, giving it a quick look just made it seem like an out of date shooter, and the bits where shooting was involved... that was a fair comment.

Still, as much as we remember games like Deus Ex that tried something new and succeeded, it's important to remember those that didn't quite get there. Without Strife, we'd probably still have the games that took these ideas and ran with them. Playing it when it came out though was a great preview of what we had to look forward to, once the details had been hammered out and the technology was ready. It's a pity it didn't do better, but that's the cruelty of life - not everything can get the success it deserves.

17 things every PC gamer should own

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Before you scroll down to type it in the comments: yes, our assumption is that you already have a PC.

Your PC is a project, and building and maintaining it takes special tools. Aside from the obvious holy quadrinity of PC gear (mouse, keyboard, headset, monitor), this is the stuff you should keep handy for building, cleaning, and keeping your PC performing at its best. We’ll add to this list over time as we find more gear and utilities that we consider must-have.

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Magnetic screwdriver

Your master implement. Your Mjölnir; your lightsaber; the magic wand that makes your PC possible. We like telling people who are curious about building a PC that “if you can turn a screwdriver, you can build a PC,” but it’s also true that a high-quality, versatile screwdriver will save you an immeasurable amount of potential discomfort and frustration. The latter is the most dangerous, because frustrated PC builders cut corners and make mistakes.

There are a ton of excellent drivers out there, but we really like Snap-on’s ratcheting hard handle screwdriver(above). It’s made of solid stainless steel, stores bits internally, and will probably survive long enough to be passed down through multiple generations of your computer-constructing brood. If you prefer a rubberized grip, try Bacho’s ratcheting driver.

If you go with a ratcheting screwdriver with removable bits, it’s a good idea to keep a backup screwdriver with a long shaft (8 inches or more) for tighter spaces. Screwdrivers that rachet or have removable bits often have thicker shafts, which can make it hard to reach around heat sinks and other features when securing a tiny screw in place.

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​​Secondary tools

You should supplement your driver with a handful of tinier tools. Getting your hands into narrow spaces to secure jumpers, rescue screws, or plug in those hair-thin front panel cables is half the effort of building a PC. A set of smaller screwdrivers is a must, too.

We like iFixit’s Pro Tech Toolkitbecause it doesn’t leave anything out. At the heart of it is a 54-bit driver set that will more than cover every obscure screw type you’ll come across in your PC building career. If you’d rather go à la carte, get the ESD-safe tweezersand anti-static wrist strap, both of which are included in the kit.

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Cable ties

Poor cable management can turn your PC into a hot mess, figuratively and literally. Outside the case, good cable management can reduce the chaos behind and on top of your desk. Inside the case, good cable management makes any build look much nicer, and will improve airflow which keeps your components cooler. Don’t use single-use plastic zip ties if you can help it. Go with hook-and-loop tieswhere you can; you can use them forever, and you won’t have to snip anything when you want to extract a cable from the group. Colored ties are great help for identifying which cables belong to what (red: audio, etc.) when you’ve got your head under your desk.

You can also find rolls of hook-and-loop tapethat you can snip to any length you need. Also keep in mind that colored hook-and-loop straps can help tame the backside of your PC, using a single color inside your case will make your build look more consistent. (That is, if you care about that kind of thing.)

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Dust management

Dust is the enemy of performance and the lifespan of your components. Compressed air is great, but why pay $9 or more for something disposable, that you’ll ration in the fear that you’ll run out, anyway? Nothing’s more effective over your long career as a PC gamer than an electric duster like the Metro ED500. It’s not a vacuum (we wouldn’t want you inviting static electricity into your PC, right?), but a powerful, motorized air blower that you can plug into any wall socket. I use mine to air out my horrific-smelling hockey equipment, too.

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A cleaning brush

Sometimes a burst of air won't do, though. Maintain your delicate components and peripherals with an electronics-friendly silicone brush.

If you want a brush that can work with optical devices too (like VR headsets), check out the Lenspen. The Lenspen has a retractable brush on one end and a carbon cleaning pad on the other. These little pens are built for photographers and are issued to U.S. Marines to help keep weapon optics clean and clear.

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Ergonomic gear

Your gaming setup is powerful, but is it healthy? Don’t shrug off the importance of good ergonomics; your 10 billion dpi mouse won't count for much if it hurts to use. Invest in a wrist cushion for your keyboardand mouse. If that doesn’t feel like enough, consider an ergonomic keyboard—I use this split model by Goldtouchfor writing at the PCG office, and it doesn’t hold me back much when I’m fragging in CS:GO.

Ergonomic gear doesn’t stop at the desk, either.If you work or game at your desk for long periods of time, it is well worth the money to invest in a decent chair to help maintain good posture and avoid looking like Quasimodo. Your spine will thank you later.

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Screws and standoffs aplenty

When you're upgrading or building a new PC, apart from frying a component, nothing's worse than stripping a screw that you don't have a replacement for. We keep a ton of sorted spares handy around the office. Remember: using screws that are too big can potentially short your motherboard. $10 or so for a kit of screwsis a small price to pay for not having to run between local hardware and fledgling Radio Shacks to see if they have what you need.

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Headlamp

PC cases can get cavernous. Whatever the wattage of the bulbs hanging overhead, it’s rarely good enough to illuminate every corner of your PC’s guts; that good light often gets occluded by your own hands, head, and arms as you’re working inside your case. Seeing clearly is half the job of PC surgery, and no amount of clumsily-positioned iPhone flashlights is going to get the job done.

Amazon has some hilariously cheap headlamps, like the Lighting EVER LEDlamp for $7, which includes AAA batteries. iFixit also sells these magnifying tweezersif you really need to inspect closely.

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Controller

Your mouse and keyboard are irreplaceable, but what’s more PC than being able to steal and use the input devices of any other platform? Both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controller work on PC with an ounce of supplemental help, but our budget favorite is the wired Xbox 360 pad. More and more gamepad-friendly games are populating Steam (600 as of October 2014), and more same-screen co-op games seem to come out every week. If you want a pad that isn’t made by Microsoft, Razer, Mad Catz, and even Valvehave alternatives.

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Mousepad

...you are using a mousepad, right? And it’s not, y’know, the same sort of mousepad that your local library uses, or the branded, flimsy pad that came with your motherboard, right?

Gaming without the right mousepad is like playing basketball with sandals. You want a surface that gives you the kind of friction you’re looking for. For some people, that’s a hard, lower-friction surface like the Razer Destructor 2, which will give you a more textured feeling under your mouse. But soft pads like the Steelseries DeXare equally great, offering higher friction and a comfier deck for your wrist and arm.

The key for us is to get the biggest pad your desk can accommodate—we like having as much room as possible to glide around. This is especially important if you use a low mouse DPI, because you’ll have to move your mouse further to move the cursor a corresponding amount. Another thing to keep in mind: mice with optical sensors work well on both hard surfaces and cloth pads, while laser sensors can perform worse on cloth pads. Why? Because the laser actually looks too deeply into the structure of the fabric.

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A high-quality microphone

Everyone has that one friend on their Mumble server, or on their CS:GO team who has a crackling, Fisher Price microphone that makes them sound like they’re transmitting from the moon. A good mic matters in competitive games. If you’re truly obsessive about audio quality, having a discrete mic allows you to use extremely high-end headsets. We like Blue’s stand-up mics, especially the Yeti.

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Gifcam

Getting beautiful, high-resolution images of the games we review and write about is really important to us, and Frapshas been our utility-of-choice for screenshot capture for more than seven years. Fraps’ lightweight footprint is what we love about it: we can grab BMPs or JPEGs, and raw, uncompressed video that we convert into delightful GIFsfor your education and amusement.
If you have an Nvidia card, Shadowplayis a terrific alternative that won’t dent your framerate as much, although you won’t get uncompressed video.

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Fraps

Getting beautiful, high-resolution images of the games we review and write about is really important to us, and Frapshas been our utility-of-choice for screenshot capture for more than seven years. Fraps’ lightweight footprint is what we love about it: we can grab BMPs or JPEGs, and raw, uncompressed video that we convert into delightful GIFsfor your education and amusement. If you don’t want to drop $37 and have an Nvidia card, Shadowplayis a terrific alternative that won’t dent your framerate as much as Fraps, although you won’t get uncompressed video.

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NZXT CAM

NZXT’s CAM softwarestarted off as a humble cooling controller, but now it’s probably the best way to measure your PC’s health while in-game. Fraps has been the go-to for frame rate overlays for years, but CAM steps it up to the next level. CAM’s overlay not only displays minimum, maximum, and average frame rates, but the vitals of your system as well. CAM shows usage, fan speed, and temperature for both your CPU and GPU, as well as RAM and VRAM usage stats.

CAM will also keep track of your performance, and separate statistics and history per game. All of this data can be synced to the cloud, and different PCs can submit data under separate profiles for the same account.

You’ll also want to use CAM if you use NZXT’s cooling solutions (Kraken), as it’s the best way to control fan speed curves for those devices.

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MSI Afterburner

If you’ve ever wanted to overclock your graphics card, MSI’s Afterburneris a tool you need to have. Even if you never touch your clocks or voltages, Afterburner allows easy manipulation of fan curves for your graphics card. The program can also throttle your GPU based on power or temperature, which can keep your GPU healthy and keep you gaming when your system might otherwise crash.

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A PSU tester

You should avoid buying a cheap PSU not only because it can fail, but because a bad power supply can damage or kill other components. When a system is ailing and won't post, it's sometimes hard to diagnose the culprit, and a cheap PSU testercan help eliminate (or validate) different suspects, saving hours of headache.

If you just want to see if your PSU is working without attaching it to your system, most modern PSUs come with a clip that attaches to the end of the motherboard power cable. (You can also use a paperclip to jump the connection in a pinch, though using the supplied clip is less accident -prone.) If you attach the clip and power on your PSU, the power supply should stay on. We used this to keep our second PSU running in the 2015 Dream Machine.

While we’re on the subject, we recommend using PSUs rated 80 Plus Gold or higher because they tend to be better made and offer more robust warranties.

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A good filing system

We don't like to think about it, but sometimes disaster strikes. When it does, the last thing you want to do is dig around for copies of warranties and receipts to replace a expensive parts.

There are several ways to do this. Evernoteis a great online filing system, but there's also Google Driveand Microsoft OneNote. Even if you prefer to keep paper, make sure you have all those warranties and receipts safe in a place you can easily find them. You know, just in case.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Raised by a Team Fortress Classic clan, Evan can only communicate using multiplayer FPS jargon, sort of like that Star Trek: TNG " Darmok" episode. 2fort, when the walls fell...

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