Table of contents for Issue 302 in PC Powerplay

League of Legends, now celebrating its 15th year, remains to this day one of PC gaming's most played games. This is a MOBA that had more than 150 million players enjoying it last year at its peak, and which boasts over 160 champions to play as. As you might expect, LoL also has one of the most vibrant communities in PC gaming. Despite this immense success, though, LoL's maker Riot Games is just getting started, and with its latest content update is shaking things up like never before. Turn to page 34 for the exclusive inside scoop. Enjoy the issue. ben.mansill@futurenet.com…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE February 22,2024 DEVELOPER Ironwood Studios PUBLISHER Kepler Interactive LINK pacificdrivegame.com In the mid-20th century it seemed that new science, from DDT to nuclear power, would save us all. By the time the ‘70s rolled round, the legacy of ignorance, corporate greed and government arrogance was clear. So it was, in one beautiful corner of the Pacific Northwest. Amongst the redwoods and fir trees, research into a potentially limitless energy source – LIM – unleashed a series of increasingly deadly anomalies. In the end the government evacuated the population, walled off the whole peninsula and left it to descend into eldritch chaos. This is the setting for Pacific Drive, a debut first-person driving-survival-adventure game by Seattle-based Ironwood Studios, a proudly anti-crunch group with an eclectic track record…

HOW WE REVIEW We review each game on its own merits, and try to match it to a reviewer who's a passionate expert in the field. The main aim of reviews is to help you make buying decisions. To this end, we're selective about what we review, and try to focus on the notable, interesting, exciting or surprising. DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT DLC might be new missions for a game, or it might be a single new item. If we think you want to know about it, we'll review it. EARLY ACCESS Any released alpha, beta, or otherwise unfinished game that you can currently pay for. For these games, we won't assign a score, but we will tell you whether they're worth your time. THEY'RE BACK Whenever there's a bargain or re-release…

You can see why the original House Flipper was such a hit. Its cosy fantasy of home ownership and fulfilling work was a soothing balm after a miserable day at the office, and that fantasy is only strengthened in this sequel. The basics remain the same: jobs appear in your email, from cleaning tasks to full-on home renovation, and you can use the profits to buy properties from the auction house, ready to be glowed up and flipped for a profit. Accept a job and you'll appear outside the house with your bag of tools. Bin bags to collect the rubbish, one measly cloth to wipe down the surfaces, a roller for painting, and so on. I haven't played the previous game, but the interface for managing these tools seems…

The basic idea baked into a city builder is that I'm creating something to last. So when Against the Storm presented me with the premise that each of my handmade habitats would be wiped away by a terrible tempest as part of an unavoidable, cataclysmic cycle, I wasn't sure how to feel about it. But it is one of the most clever, engaging, and endearing strategy games I've played in years. In the world of Against the Storm, some kind of horrifying, magical disaster has turned the once-idyllic fantasy countryside into a rain-soaked, ruin-strewn morass in which everything outside of the magically-shielded capital, The Smoldering City, is annihilated by hurricane-force gales every year. As the queen's viceroy, your job is to set out during the brief windows during which the…

MEDIC + MG Both medics and machine gunners tend to hold back during stealth segments, so drop expensive abilities like suppressive fire and carry a medical satchel instead of taking an extra soldier. Gun ‘em down, patch ‘em up. GRENADIER + SCOUT You might think that giving the scout very loud grenades is bad, but using their scout ability to peek over a wall and then throw grenades from a stealthy position is the height of tactics. Plus, the grenadier's sprint is handy too. RIFLEMAN + WORKER Riflemen use fitness to be ultra-tough, and their willpower passive lets them add it to combat effectiveness. Where does worker come in? Guess what stats they pump doing all the upgrades you need? DOCTOR + ENGINEER Both of these benefit from intelligence, but…

DIARY PERSONAL ADVENTURES IN GAMES EXTRA LIFE NOW PLAYING | DIARY Meet Jett Johnson. A wise-cracking 24th-century jerk-of-all-trades who at one time made the Kessel Run in 11 parsecs, or so he tells people. Jett's been doing these odd jobs for a while now; once a pro, now he's gotten sloppy. The end goal is to earn enough credits to retire somewhere desolate and peaceful at the edge of the galaxy, where he can live away his days drinking cocktails with teeny tiny umbrellas that wouldn't look out of place in the hands of Del Boy. Another few years should do it. Anyone who has jumped into Bethesda's new space epic will be well aware that Starfield begins in a mining outpost, the last place my plucky protagonist wants to be.…

MONITOR Veteran developers from RPG specialists like Obsidian and BioWare had an interesting Twitter exchange recently, and collectively reckon that the temporary death of the CRPG in the early 2000s was down to retailer meddling. A conversation between Nathaniel Chapman (a designer at Timberline with former credits at Blizzard and Obsidian) and Josh Sawyer (studio design director at Obsidian) discussed the role that retail giants formerly played in the life and death of game genres: and not with approval. “I completely forgot how big a deal it was for Best Buy/Walmart/etc buyers to see your game, which determined your shelf space and thus your sales,” said Chapman, in response to which Sawyer noted Walmart had been “prudish” about content in the past (while hypocritically clearing the shelves for GTA). ACCORDING…

THE TRYHARD CALL OF DUTY Every shooter has a fancy mask guy who's trying way too hard to look cool. Just take it off, eejit. THE SOMEHOW $40 VALORANT Looks cool. You want it, but immediately lose your appetite once realising it costs more than a dinner for two. THE META HUNT: SHOWDOWN The callsign of a sweatlord. Fashion doesn't matter here, as long as it grants a slim profile or camouflage. THE BUNDLE HALO INFINITE You want a cool gun skin, but you're not getting it unless you buy ten other things you don't like.…

PREVIEW United 1944 NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Out Now (Early Access) DEVELOPER Novarama PUBLISHER Novarama LINK united1944.com United 1944 was bleeding out before my eyes. The first day I played this WWIIthemed squad shooter, there were barely enough players to fill a single server. Each day, the number has dwindled. The life draining out of a young, promising game, barely days into Early Access. As it stands, United 1944 is two surprisingly different games sharing a set of mechanics. One, a 16vl6 team shooter that draws equal inspiration from Day Of Defeat Battlefield, Fortnite and survival sandboxes. The other, a low-stakes take on the extraction shooter formula that doesn't feel nearly as well thought out as its big-team counterpart. Between them, a game with a lot of potential, at least when…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE Sep 15, 2023 (Early Access) DEVELOPER Felipe Aulló PUBLISHER IndieArk LINK railroadsandcatacombs.com The name may conjure images of a goth railway management game in which you transport skeletons between the ossuaries beneath Paris, but in reality Railroads & Catacombs has far more in common with Darkest Dungeon than Train Sim Underworld. Although that actually sounds like an excellent idea for a game. Instead of a carriage or staircase to convey you between areas, here you're on a train. It's a rickety locomotive that requires coal, scavenged from your victories in the field, and it gradually fills with characters and extra cars as you travel and upgrade. New recruits come through a portal to replace those lost in the wilds surrounding the track, while decks can be…

TELEPORT CHANGES Teleport “leads to some stagnation in pro play” according to the devs, so it's on the list of things to explore further. NEW BASES After years of looking the same, 2025 could be the year we get a visual overhaul of the bases and how they are set up. SPLIT PUSHING Split pushing was on the agenda for 2024 but was cut early on, so 2025 could be the year it gets an overhaul to make it viable. DRAGONS After the success of Baron changes this year, the team wants to see if they can do the same for Dragons next year.…

Unique among Warhammer Fantasy stories in that it features a teenage (in dwarf years) female protagonist, this is basically a disaster movie in a Dawi hold. Everything goes wrong and it'll make you sad, in a good way. GRUDGE BEARER BY GAVIN THROPE An epic tale that basically sums up why there's no dwarf word for ‘forgiveness’. Like the Dammaz Kron in-game, it's a collection of wrongs that must be set right, and what that actually means for the dwarfs involved. SKARSNIK BY GUY HALEY If you fancy seeing the everlasting war between greenskins and dwarfs told from another perspective, this is for you. Although if anything, it'll make you even more afraid of the brutal cunning (or cunning brutality) of Skarsnik. HONOURKEEPER BY NICK KYME Read this if you…

The cinematic FPS adventure game Crysis, released back in November 2007, quickly become known as a technical showcase for the next-generation of PC gaming graphics. To run Crysis at anywhere near its maximum settings on release required a monster of a PC gaming rig, loaded with state-of-the-art components. The result was that most PC gamers didn't experience Crysis as its developer, Crytek, intended. Fast forward to today, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora seems to be actively pursuing its own Crysis point. If you can run the game on its maximum ‘Unobtanium’ settings, then you're in for a spectacular, next-gen visual treat. However, like our review this issue reveals, right now many PC gamers won't get that experience or, even a stable one.…

Like its babbling crew of outlaws, Gangs of Sherwood tries to compensate for its fundamental shortcomings with a brash persona and propulsive energy. It's a fast-paced, four-player shooter-slash-brawler with a vividly drawn alt-fantasy world, a knockabout comedy tone, and lively combat. Unfortunately, these colourful distractions fade away all too quickly, revealing Robin Hood rummaging through your purse as he tries to lift $58 out of it. Oddly, what I like most about Gangs of Sherwood is the thing I was least convinced by before playing – the setting. Gangs of Sherwood takes the familiar Robin Hood tale and plonks it in an alternate, sci-fi history. Generally I'm not a fan of gaming's fixation with alternative takes on Robin Hood. But Gangs of Sherwood quickly won me over with its vivid…

YRLIET One of the alien Aeldari who regards you as little better than an animal. CASSIA A three-eyed mutant Navigator who pilots your ship through the warp. HEINRIX An Interrogator who works for the Inquisition and keeps you in line. PASQUAL The tech-priest who keeps your ship running with prayer and sacred oil. ARGENTA A nun with a gun, no patience for heretics, and a mysterious past. ABELARD Your Seneschal, and the obligatory boring first companion man.…

Experimental, genre-bending approaches to interactive storytelling have always been inkle's stock-in-trade, from the increasingly ambitious multi-part adaptation of Steve Jackson's Sorcery! to the high-seas intrigue of Overboard!. And A Highland Song is arguably inkle's most multi-faceted work yet. Moira McKinnon has never been to the sea. She does not get along with her mother who insists she cannot go to school because she wouldn't fit in. Her father has been absent for all her life and her little brother is a bore. So when Uncle Hamish, a kooky lighthouse-keeper who regularly mails her postcards with fanciful stories about heartbroken selkies and furious giantesses, asks her to visit in time for Beltane – the Gaelic May Day – she does what any restless teenage girl would do in her place. She…

HIGHS Mod life Check out Daggerfall Unity, a rebuild of Bethesda's 1996 RPG Pre-Portal Portal: Revolution is a free fan-made and Valve-approved seven-hour prequel to the Portal games. Heroes of the mod Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm has now become a fully featured StarCraft 2 mod. Minecraft Leg-Ends Moang and Blackbird are wrapping up development on Minecraft Legends. Starry eyed Star Citizen's Legatus bundle offered everything in the game for… $48,000 to you, good citizen. Post-Portal N64 whiz James Lambert got two thirds of the way through the demake Portal 64 before the cease-and-desist landed. LOWS…

NEED TO KNOW RELEASE December 17, 2023 DEVELOPER Battlestate Games PUBLISHER Battlestate Games LINK arena.tarkov.com Escape From Tarkov has some of the most satisfying gun fights in any shooter, with one well-placed bullet being all you need to win a fight and a map design that makes positioning key, so it makes sense to make a game that is all about that experience. Escape From Tarkov: Arena is that game. Built on the same engine as the regular Tarkov and using all the same systems, it could be classed as a new mode that is being sold as a separate title. But this is Tarkov as you have never seen it before. Without the large maps, the focus on looting and the fear of losing your best gear Arena gives…

FEATURE 1997 Grand Theft Auto Where it all began The project that became Grand Theft Auto began life as an isometric fighting simulator similar to Syndicate Wars. Too similar, in fact. When Bullfrog made its sci-fi sequel public, GTA’s developer DMA Design changed trajectory, coming up with a plan for a top-down vehicle game called Race ‘n’ Chase. Race ‘n’ Chase's design document describes it as “a fun, addictive and fast multiplayer car racing and crashing game”. But the defining lines in the document have little to do with racing. “It will also be possible for players to get out of their car and steal another one,” the document reads. “This will mean controlling a vulnerable pedestrian for a short time. Trying to steal a car may result in an…

37% MURDERING GROBI SCUM The good things about goblins is that there are lots of them, and killing them feels amazing. It does take rather a lot of time, though. 8% GRUMBLING The beer was too flat. The enemies too soft. The elves too nearby. 12% RETAKING Actually retaking the dwarf holds we set out to liberate. 24% PEST CONTROL Skaven are everywhere in the Old World. Including, apparently, beneath the holds Belegar already owns. An inconvenient distraction. 19% FLOUNDERING Faffing around trying to save our floundering High King.…

NOAH SMITH Specialist in Painting himself blue Currently playing Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora This month Learned the Na'vi language. Used it to say naughty words. RICK LANE Specialist in Merry men Currently playing Gangs of Sherwood This month Wore green tights and disappeared into the woods after dark. Wouldn't say why. JODY MACGREGOR Specialist in Hunting heretics Currently playing War hammer 40,000: Rogue Trader This month Had his presence announced by a flying robot skull in a wig. DANIELLA LUCAS Specialist in Scrooge McDuck quotes Currently playing Disney Dreamlight Valley This month Released a rap album with Scrooge McDuck called ‘Money Bin Mad’. MATT ELLIOTT Specialist in Totalitarianism Currently playing Tropico 5 This month Demanded everyone in the PCPP Towers bar salute while hailing him as ‘El Presidente’.…

Over the pandemic everyone seemed to find comfort in the gentle virtual maintenance of their Animal Crossing islands. Pootling about, talking to villagers, and designing things just so. Nothing else has come close to replicating that weird state of zen that comes with pulling weeds and paying debts. Until now. Disney Dreamlight Valley is very much like Animal Crossing in that you start on a barebones island, hunt down some tools, help out a money-hungry animal (this time it's Scrooge McDuck rather than Tom Nook) and gradually shape things to your liking. The valley starts off in a right old state, having been overcome by The Forgetting, a curse leading to boarded-up buildings and an infestation of giant thorns. Slowly, you start to clean up, and things go from derelict…

In Last Train Home, a military management game and tactical RTS, you're in charge of the Czechoslovak Legion as the Russian civil war breaks out. Unable to return home by going west, you make a desperate plan: capture an armoured train and traverse Siberia. Your management of the journey is both on the train, assigning jobs and doling out supplies, and on the battlefield, controlling units of ten soldiers in pausable, tactical RTS battles. Last Train Home is not so much concerned with historicity as with giving you a glimpse into the desperate mood of a time and place. The Czech legionaries don't want to fight on either side of the Russian Civil War. They really just want to go home, but nobody wants a large band of unaligned armed…