Table of contents for Issue 309 in PC Powerplay

HIGHS A literal high Steam cracked 40 million concurrent users for the first time. Cold, hard cash A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build has adopted a new pricing strategy: whatever the current temperature in London, that’s its price in US dollars. Hell house freezes Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake sold enough to make execs happy. At the last hurdle After 14 years of operation, indie developer Studio Fizbin is closing. Pilfered Horror game The Backrooms 1998 had a good launch on Steam. So good that someone stole the entire game and uploaded it to the Nintendo eShop without permission. Cookie clicker A 2023 study concluded CAPTCHAs are “a tracking cookie farm for profit masquerading as a security service”. LOWS…

2006 VIRTUA FIGHTER 5 Virtua Fighter 5 releases in Japanese arcades. As of 2025, ten versions of Virtua Fighter 5 have released in arcades. 2007 VIRTUA FIGHTER 5 ONLINE Virtua Fighter 5 releases in arcades and on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Only the Xbox 360 version supports online play. 2010 VIRTUA FIGHTER 5: FINAL SHOWDOWN Final Showdown releases in Japanese arcades and on 360 and PS3 in 2012. 2021 VIRTUA FIGHTER 5: ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN Final Showdown is remade on the Dragon Engine and releases on modern consoles.…

My favourite co-op game of the past decade is Sea of Thieves: I love sailing a galleon into dangerous territory with friends, engaging in ship-to-ship and person-to-person (or skeleton) combat, then scampering off with loot. A game like Sea of Thieves, but in space? I’ll definitely give it a try. Jump Ship is a mission-based co-op FPS from Keepsake Games where you and up to three other crew members pilot a spaceship, engage in ship-to-ship battles and first-person combat, and salvage gear and goodies you can use to upgrade your ship. I recently got to try a hands-on preview, joined by PC PowerPlay’s answer to Han Solo: Morgan Park. (I’m not sure if that makes me Luke or Chewbacca. Whoever has the worst aim, I guess.) PLAYED IT To be clear,…

Larian can afford to make something other than a sequel to Baldur’s Gate III next. Tactical Adventures, a smaller studio responsible for a game it’s probably sick of seeing called ‘the other D&D 5E CRPG’, has less freedom to subvert expectations. So 2021’s Solasta: Crown of the Magister is being followed by Solasta 2 later this year. The standalone 2.5-hour sidequest demo definitely shows some improvement. The acting’s better, and they’ve got Amelia Tyler from BGIII to be the villain (a purple fungus witch called Shadwyn). The faces and hair have improved too, with everyone sporting cool tattoos, though I don’t love the elves having moth eyebrows like in Warcraft. The character creator’s unfortunately off-limits for the demo, which hands me a premade party of four level-three heroes – including a…

Somewhere in the Caribbean, there’s been a kidnapping. A lustful pirate has rammed a ship and made off with what he describes as a ‘wench’ in a fashionably low-cut dress. Only by hacking and slashing your way through hundreds of filthy buccaneers will you be able to get her back. It’s an old-fashioned premise for what feels like an old-fashioned game, and this might have something to do with it being in development for ten years before being abandoned, then revived last year for a release in the spring. Rather than a revamp of the 1988 Captain Blood, which was a game about aliens and space travel, this puts you firmly in the boots of a pirate captain, swordfighting his way to victory after having his dinner interrupted. There’s a bit…

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…

In mid-2023, a few prophetic indie developers warned on social media that the imminent launch of Baldur’s Gate III was going to raise expectations for future RPGs to unrealistic heights. Now, in early 2025, I’m here to say that, sadly, they were right: I’m compelled to point out right off the bat that Avowed is not Baldur’s Gate III, nor is it STALKER 2, nor is it Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. It’s not Fallout: New Vegas, either. No, it’s a much more old-fashioned kind of thing. Avowed is undeniably a product of the studio responsible for The Outer Worlds and – most relevant in this case – Pillars of Eternity. It spins a gripping fantasy yarn, balancing existential severity with arch humour, while retaining that most enduring and fascinating Obsidian quirk:…

They say detective work is primarily about sitting in front of a computer, and if so, have I got the desktop for you. Armed with Nut OS 1.1, the Cashew PC offers speedy net surfing and thorough database searching – all without the bloat of a modern Windows machine, or the sluggishness of a genuine late ’90s PC. It’s the main tool in your arsenal in The Roottrees are Dead, a game about filling in a massive, tangled family tree. In the wake of a recent tragedy, which has claimed the lives of the current president of the Roottree Candy Company, along with his wife and three daughters, you’ve been hired by a mysterious client to chart the Roottree dynasty in incontestable black and white. That means combing through fictional websites,…

35% CITY BUILDER But you don’t have to manually construct the city buildings, thankfully. 20% SURVIVAL SIM You have to generate oxygen for your citizens to survive. 25% TOWER DEFENCE Albeit with fewer towers and more walls to delay the Horrors while you attack them. 15% RTS You’ll take control of units to explore the map, searching for resource piles and monster nests. 5% CASTLE FLIPPER While many blocks have tactical functions, some are purely decorative.…

Synduality Echo of Ada at first looked custom-made for me. A third-person mech action game that takes the extraction shooter formula and twists it into something more social and accessible, with an unusual structure hiding a wealth of optional story tied into a recent anime series. It aims high, but an interesting concept can only take you so far, and the result feels like three half-finished games stapled together. I thought it was all building to something. Synduality is (at least initially) an extraction shooter, inspired by the likes of Escape From Tarkov, but in lightweight mechs that remind me a bit of Hawken’s twitchy yet streamlined rumbling robots. You explore a hostile wasteland full of monsters and NPC bandits, collect loot, then try to bring it home to sell or…

NEED TO KNOW DIFFICULTY Normal TIME 30 hours I CHOOSE YOU 1 Working out exactly which weapon you’re going to use to smack monsters in Wilds is tricky. For speed, try Dual Blades or Insect Glaive. For big hits, Hammer or Greatsword. And for more defensive play, use Lance, Gunlance, or Sword and Shield. DODGY HUNTER 2 One of the first things to learn in Wilds is how to evade monsters, especially if you’re not using a big weapon that can parry or guard. Dodging is all about timing, but you can buff its distance and invulnerability by wearing armour with the Evade Extender. FOCUS UP 3 As with Wirebugs in Monster Hunter Rise, Focus Mode is the new combat mechanic introduced in Wilds. It’s pretty simple – you whack…

I finished Nine Sols just before 2024 ended – and I’m glad I did, because it’s one of my favourite games of the year. Partially because of its gorgeous art direction, solid story, and exceptional fight design. But also because it happens to be following a trend that is downright pleasing to me: the Soulslike genre is looking a whole lot more Sekirolike, lately. In case you missed FromSoftware’s masterwork, here’s a basic explanation. In Sekiro, your objective isn’t just to reduce your enemy’s health bar to zero – it’s to break their posture. To do so, you need to apply damage to it. Taking chips off their health will accomplish this, but the real name of the game is timing your blocks just-so. The window to pull one off is…

Despite her tiny frame, Vivienne now swung the warhammer towards me with a vicious, uncontrolled rage. “You just couldn't play nice, could you Ray-Tracing! All you had to do was put that cretinous console-loving pretender Stanley behind bars, but no, the famous Dick Ray-Tracing had to poke and pry until he took the glory.” As another strike missed me by inches, I caught sight of Anna and Carmen bolting toward the warehouse's entrance but, faced with armed police storming in, changed tack and, in a panic, sprinted towards the windows extending down the building's western wall. “Stop! Armed police! We will fire, creaked out over a place megaphone, but neither women halted and, as Vivienne finally caught me across the collar bone with the warhammer, knocking me off my feet…

This month Flew the USS PCPP to Omicron Persei 8 in order to deliver the latest issue to Emperor Lrrr. Big fan. This month Protected simple fisher folk by fighting a series of giant crabs in a dark cave. Oh, and in Solasta 2 he… This month Demanded to be hailed as Emperor Evendenius. Started building the almighty Baths of Ian. This month Took a week off to go backpacking around the medieval hellscape of Argent D’Nur. Toasty!…

THE SPY The Spy spends hazy late summer days smoking a pipe with Edér. As the Great Wheel turns, The Spy sits with the gods, mulling over the fates of PC gaming throughout the cosmos. “When shall Lord Gaben ascend from his cherished Hall of Knives to join us?” Abydon the forge god asks, “For I grow impatient to question him about the game the mortals call Half-Life 3.” “Yes,” rasps Skaen, god of secret hatred and resentment, “I am sick of his procrastinations. It is clear he has no love for us or the PC gamers who, loyally like rats protecting their brood mother, have followed the story of the Half-Life 3 blind in hope for decades. He dishonours us all with his inaction.” Wael, god of dreams, places down…

Fellowship offers a tantalising opportunity to MMO fans who don’t want to grind: Just bang out some fun dungeons instead. After roughly seven years of development, the game is finally nearing its early access release, and had a popular public playtest during Steam Next Fest. Fellowship combines a MOBA-like selection of characters that earn abilities and gear and a near-clone of World of Warcraft-style dungeon gameplay and aesthetics. If you’ve ever done Mythic Plus difficulty dungeons in WoW and didn’t really want to quest or grind out those character levels, or watched in horror as your favourite class became an outcast in the latest season’s meta groups, Fellowship was made for you. PLAYED IT Its dungeons are endlessly scaling, with new features and gear launching in seasons. The higher you go,…

My father has entirely too much confidence in me. He’s sending me out with a few denari in my pocket to establish a city, and expects to see me return as a successful official. It’s a lot of pressure, and it’s only made worse by the discovery my mother knows the local governor. I’ve already proven my utter incompetence by being unable to identify a robber who attacked me on the road, potentially landing us with a court case for kidnapping after the house slaves rounded up some likely suspects for an ID parade. I’ve only been playing the game for five minutes, have built just two small temples on my father’s orders, and now the governor wants a bribe. PLAYED IT Pax Augusta is a city-builder set in ancient Rome,…

THE ’UMBLE BAT Nobody actually knows the rules of cricket. That’s fine, because the rules of bludgeoning druids to death with its main implement are more than clear enough. KNIVES OUT Sam Colt might have made Americans equal, but Brits have been killing one another with swords, halberds, and other blades for literally centuries. AXE ’EMA QUESTION At range without a gun or bow? Try hoofing an axe at them. Hey, it might work, and you’ll feel cool as hell if you pull it off. LITERALLY JUST A GUN A rarity in Britain, where they’re not something you can pick up with the weekly shop. For when an encounter has to end right now.…

How pleasant it is to see that Avowed is not just a good RPG but one that seems to have a sustained future. Indeed, what we’re hearing right now, from PC PowerPlay’s inside agent The Spy no less, is that the Avowed dev team hopes to stay together and continue working on the game. No details have yet been forthcoming as to if that just means patches, or something more ambitious like an expansion, but it feels like good news for Obsidian and for PC gamers. Because Avowed is far from perfect, as our review this issue shows. It’s a fun, streamlined, narrative focused fantasy action-RPG with good writing, but it’s rough around the edges and its world is unfortunately rather dead and non-reactive. we feel that after another year…

My pirate ship is sailing through the Hawaiin seas, pursuing a speedboat. I successfully chase it into a Bond-villain style base, whereupon I continue the pursuit on foot, jumping over laser traps, fleeing a giant cannonball that rolls towards me Indiana Jones-style, and then finish up with a sword fight against a giant robot. How can I possibly give a game that contains all that any less than a 100% score? Well… the ‘boat chase’ is just a cutscene, the lasers have to be jumped over with sticky platforming controls, that cannonball sequence is a quick-time event, and that giant robot also requires that crap jumping to reach its weak point. You play as series favourite Goro Majima, suffering from gaming’s billionth case of amnesia. Majima has barely regained consciousness before…

In its first Spider-Man game, developer Insomniac already got the most important thing right: the feel of being super-powered. That was most evident in the excellent traversal, which set a new high-water mark for web-swinging, but also in the smooth and agile combat. Where it struggled was in giving you anything interesting to do with all that power, its visually impressive but largely empty open world offering only tired old side activities and filler. My hope was that this sequel would improve on the wider formula, creating a more interesting New York playground. Instead, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 not only still bears all the same flaws as its predecessor, but in many areas – particularly the storytelling – feels like a step backwards. The setup is as straightforward as ever. You swing…

GRAU You’ve watched too much anime, naturally gravitating towards demure ‘little sister’ types. Either that, or you’re an aspiring Vtuber. IBIS You are refined, professional, and desperately seek the approval of a firm but caring motherly figure. You may be Char Aznable. LOCKE You seek to project onto a blank canvas with a cool hairstyle, but struggle to define yourself. You read too many Isekai manga. GORDE You long for the tender embrace of a perfect robot hunk that will never break your heart. You have an active AO3 account.…

ROBERT JONES THIS MONTH Bested a large number of spiders. One was called Jeff. ALSO PLAYED Monster Hunter Wilds, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle One of the things I’d somehow overlooked with Avowed is that it is set in the same universe as Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity series. I was aware of this information at least on some level, with an echo rattling around in the back of my skull, but I think I’d relegated it to my mind’s forgotten realms due to the fact that, really, Avowed’s marketing had not leaned into it in any major way. And I felt that lack of push pointed to a game that, while technically based in the same universe, would move away from it and its deep lore in order to chase…

My dwarf campaign in the original Total War: Warhammer ended up being a little short (I’m getting the obvious height-related joke out of the way quick as I can there). Orcs drove me back to the stronghold of Karaz-a-Karak where I fought a siege, heroically outnumbered. Although I won against the odds, I stopped there. The idea of expanding again, reclaiming all those lost holds, seemed out of character. The dwarfish thing to do would be to squat here for a few centuries. Really stew on our grudges, you know? An update to the dwarfs in Total War: Warhammer III has made that playstyle possible. Unlock a building tree called The Deeps in one of your holds and you find a wealth of options that reward you for keeping your empire…

THE PARRY You get a very small window to pull this off, but when you do, time stands still. Your foe crumples to their knees with an appropriate ‘you’re screwed’ noise. Poor Gwyn never stood a chance. THE MIKIRI/JUMP Sekiro’s Mikiri and Jump attacks are, in essence, a timed block – they just require you to hit a different button. I will never tire of stomping on some fool’s sword. THE BACKSTEP The midpoint between a parry and a dodge roll, a backstep demands discipline over your movement. The reward? Feeling like Neo from The Matrix as played by Keanu Reeves, but better. THE UNBOUND COUNTER My favourite new addition, Nine Sols’ Unbound Counter makes you feel like a spring-coiled genius, especially since it works on regular attacks, too. The…

Steel yourselves, MercurySteam is back and looking to forge its own fantasy Soulslike with a molten twist. Every weapon you use to clobber enemies with will be crafted by your own hands – you’ll need to master blacksmithing and battle. I got hands on with this curious fantasy adventure as well as a chance to chat to the studio’s CEO and Blades of Fire game director Enric Alvarez at a recent press event about all things fighting and forging. Set in a world where a curse turns all steel to stone, Queen Neera rules all with her metal might. With an army of abominations that are the only ones able to wield decent weapons at her side, she stands unopposed. Step in Aaran De Lira – our hero and protagonist who…

THE SKULLCRUSHER A chaingun by any other name, but with a hilarious visual schtick. THE ACCELERATOR A plasma SMG rather than a rifle. Spits out those little blue balls. RAILSPIKE The trailer shows this weapon pinning imps to walls. ATLAN CHAINGUN A chaingun by its normal name, used by a 30-storey mech. ROCKER LAUNCHER Classic for a reason, truly one of the most satisfying FPS staples. SUPER SHOTGUN My oldest, dearest friend. It’s not an ultra shotgun unfortunately.…

SHAUN PRESCOTT Specialist in Scratching Orlan ears Currently playing Avowed This month Walked into people’s homes and stole stuff totally unhindered. Oh, and in Avowed he… ABBIE STONE Specialist in Bottles of rum Currently playing Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii This month Sailed around her local park’s pond on a body board stealing bread from ducks. Quackers! ROBIN VALENTINE Specialist in Buttcrack spandex Currently playing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 This month Swung around the streets of Bath while covering people in sticky excretions. TOM SYKES Specialist in Stealing toys Currently playing Cataclismo This month Built a huge wall out of Mega Bloks around PCPP Towers to keep out console gamers. MATT ELLIOTT Specialist in SpongeBob’s pants Currently playing Octodad: Dadliest Catch This month Told dad jokes, like: what do you get if you cross a cat and…

PACIFIC DRIVE The station wagon may look dumpy but start strapping some sci-fi gizmos to it and you’ll have a souped-up tank before you know it. MY SUMMER CAR Build it from hundreds of parts, maintain it, fix it, drive it, and don’t forget to take care of yourself with a few sausages, too. HALF-LIFE 2: EPISODE 2 It’s got no doors or even a roof, but the two-seater comes with the perfect companion for a road trip. FAR: LONE SAILS OK, it’s not a car, exactly, but it’s not not a car either. Keep your not-car going in a memorable journey across a dried-out ocean.…

How many whips can a single videogame contain? We might need to hold an intervention for Vampire Survivors developer poncle, because the Ode to Castlevania DLC contains, by my count, at least eight whips – and that’s on top of the ones already kicking around the base game! It’s the best kind of excessive. Vampire Survivors’ theming was already Legally Distinct Castlevania, so it makes sense that its approach to becoming Legally Castlevania was to stuff a truly ludicrous amount of vampire-killing paraphernalia into a £3 package. I’ve played more than ten hours of the DLC and am still unlocking Belmonts, their descendants, and their whips, tomes, spears, and swords of choice. Before exploring the new Castlevania stage I assumed it would just be a simple backdrop for the usual mostly…