Table of contents for #237 March 2015 in PC Powerplay

CEO of Telltale Studios since 2004, Dan Connors has stepped down to take on an advisory role for the company, which has named co-founder Kevin Bruner as its new CEO. Telltale has also taken this opportunity to announce its plans for growth in 2015 which will see, amongst other things, the release of a new, original IP. Over the past couple of years Telltale has built much of its success around narrative-driven, adventure games based on licensed properties such as The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Game of Thrones. So the announcement of a completely original game in development alongside the latest instalments of Game of Thrones, Tales from the Borderlands and The Walking Dead stirs a lot of interest in fans who are no doubt intrigued by…

If memory serves, as it’s not usually want to do, PCPP #46 (sometime towards the end-phase of last century) was the last issue in which I wrote words on these pages. Fast forward to now, and here we are again in a freaky culmination of unexpected good fortune. I, for one, have the tingles. A crazy big circle has turned and I’m now sitting next to the PCPP workspace, working once again for PCPP’s original publisher nextmedia (which passed hands through different owners over the years), where I’m the editor of PC & Tech Authority. The company that owned that mag was recently bought by nextmedia, you see. So, a very long time after founding PCPP, then leaving to found Atomic as a direct competitor (all is apparently forgiven), Daniel…

One of the first things to catch my attention in previews of Divinity: Original Sin was the mechanical, walking bomb; Wind-Up Toy. Essentially, the cute little feller toddles up to you and detonates itself, while chuckling madly. To me, the impression this gave was that combat would be gimmicky and not incredibly deep. Despite a few silly (but hilarious) encounters, like with a lonely madman and his veritable army of Wind-Up Toys, this initial idea was quite wrong. Firstly, you can wet or freeze the little guys (in one of many, many ways) so that they can’t light their fuse. Or, you can hit them with fire while they are in a cluster of their allies, for a six metre damage blast. Should they scuttle a little too close, you…

WARHAMMER – THE END TIMES: VERMINTIDE DEVELOPER FAT SHARK PUBLISHER FAT SHARK DUE LATE 2015 www.fatsharkgames.com Fat Shark’s offices are being invaded. There are armies on the march, vile Skaven inhabiting showcases, shelves, and desktops. A couple of giants and a band of ogres have taken over the larger meeting room, and there are more evils lurking in boxes all over the joint. The company has, basically, gone Warhammer mad. It’s been a while coming, too. Since the formation of the company, before it was even an independent game publisher, its staff played Warhammer Fantasy Battles as a way of relaxing after work, and a lot of staff kept at it even after they moved to other companies. But even back then, as Fat Shark moved from supporting other companies…

DEVELOPER TECHLAND PUBLISHER WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE PRICE $71.99 AVAILABLE AT STEAM, RETAIL dyinglightgame.com Dying Light fell to pieces on me nearly 9 hours into the game. Up until that moment, the game was able to capture my attention well enough, even if I wasn’t exactly enjoying everything I did in it. Then, after getting to about 20% of the game played (I was taking my time), all of my progression and gear wiped -- my character had to start from scratch, with no weapons and not even the ability to dodge, while still remaining halfway through the fairly difficult mission I’d reached. To some extent Dying Light actually improved for a time. Suddenly I was scrambling for any weapon I could find, searching every nook and cranny for medkits, desperately…

DEVELOPER DEEP SILVER VOLITION / HIGH VOLTAGE SOFTWARE PUBLISHER DEEP SILVER PRICE $19.99 USD AVAILABLE AT STEAM, RETAIL www.deepsilver.com Following Saints Row IV it was hard to imagine how developers Volition could possibly push their increasingly over-the-top series, once mocked as a shameless albeit pretty damn enjoyable Grand Theft Auto clone, to new selfparodic heights. But it seems we were all looking in the wrong direction with Gat Out of Hell, a standalone expansion slash spinoff, shifting the outlandish open world shooter to an underworld setting for an agreeable if short distraction. While celebrating fan favourite character Kinzie Kensington’s birthday the Saints inadvertently contact Satan himself through a Ouija board, opening a portal to hell through which the leader of the Saints (the series’ usual player character whose appearance can…

While I’m still waiting for my damn hoverboard, I guess I’ll just have to make do with all the other lovely bits of technology due to land this year. Unlike prior years, 2015 is truly shaping up to be a biggie, with the final release of the Oculus Rift, a Virtual Reality headset that has the potential to totally revolutionise the way we play our PC games. This could be a watershed moment for PC Gamers, but it’s also wise to remember that it’s day one in a long journey towards the Holodeck experience we’ve all been craving since Star Trek: The Next Generation made the concept so popular. As for the rest of the PC hardware market, I think it’s safe to say that AMD and NVIDIA will continue…

Space… one of the first frontiers of videogames. Thankfully game developers decided early on to reach into their imaginations and bring the gaming world fantastic experiences. Imagine if the first games were, I don’t know --Nintendogs. As a child of the mid-eighties I didn’t play anything like Elite, but my first memory of a space simulator is crystal clear. My sister and I were with my father on a work day and passed through the office of one of his clients. Although I don’t recall the name of this man, I do remember that I was seven or eight years old and learning about Star Wars for the first time. And loving it. He had given my parents two old models from his own collection of kits to give to…

FOUR MOST IMPRESSIVE FEATURES: 1. 3X 27” Asus MX279H FULL HD Frameless Monitors 2. 2-way Sli Gigabyte Ge Force GTX 780ti Windforce OC 3gb 3. ASUS Rampage IV Extreme LGA 2011 4. Samsung 840 EVO 500GB LAST UPGRADE: 32GB Corsair Vengence Pro Black 2133mhz DREAM UPGRADE: Another Gigabyte Ge Force GTX 780ti Windforce or a Corsair K70, my Microsoft office keyboard is a bit out of hand. *Hysterical laugh* FAVOURITE FEATURE: It has got to be my 3 screens, even though it make me slightly dizzy in games, it just looks... MAJESTIC! WHY SO SPECIAL?: I built the Machine myself and took me ages, my sweat and tears have melded into the artwork. 1. 81” of sweet ASUS monitors give ample room for gaming, working, adult content (when he gets…

I’ve never gotten into the Might & Magic series, which probably makes me some kind of inhuman monster. But, I’m an understanding monster - some of my best friends are Might & Magic fans! And happy those fans will be, at the news that Heroes of Might & Magic III: HD Edition is out now. The game features all new graphics, but still has the same rock-solid gameplay that made this one of the best games in the series. It also has local multiplayer, a new Steam Lobby, and a map editor for endless replayability. And it’s also out on iOS and Android, if you like getting your old-school PC on with a new-school tablet.…

A BIRD STORY DEVELOPER FREEBIRD GAMES PRICE $5 freebirdgames.com/games/a-bird-story/ Children often take matters into their own hands, perhaps more than they should. It’s part of growing up, hopefully not too soon. Regardless of a caring teacher’s advice, or kindly vet’s instruction, they know themselves what is best on a rainy day, or for an injured creature. This is most poignant when you see a child who is used to self-determination. If your interactions with family are conducted through notes on the fridge and umbrellas by the door, why not look after yourself, little guy? We get it. A Bird Story is about friendship, loneliness and imagination. It is not a sequel to Kan Gao’s To the Moon, more a standalone vignette which (perhaps) serves to frame the next full chapter.…

We’ve mentioned that Fat Shark is full of Warhammer nerds, but it really is. “Everything in the game is our vision of how Warhammer would look in reality,” Victor Magnusson proudly states. “It’s our interpretation of the setting. There are so many guys in the company who are so passionate. Even our accountant is a big fan!” As we’ve said, there’s boxes of Warhammer minis all over the office, and more than a few armies on display. One of them is even a Golden Demon winner - the highest painting accolade in the Games Workshop world. That one belongs to the game’s creative director, who is charmingly shy about his painting ability.…

DEVELOPER MOULDY TOOF STUDIOS PUBLISHER TEAM 17 PRICE $14.99 AVAILABLE AT STEAM escapistgame.com When people call games an escape from reality, they don’t mean it quite as literally as The Escapists does. This is a prison break game, tasking you with busting out of a series of increasingly difficult prisons while maintaining the illusion of having resigned yourself to your fate. The tutorial makes this seem simple enough, but by the end of your first full day in the game’s easiest prison it becomes clear that the logistics of busting out are not so simple. Getting your hands on the tools required means an awful lot of fighting with other prisoners, sneaking away to search their cells for items, and trial-anderroring your way through the crafting menu until you’ve figured…

DEVELOPER DOUBLE FINE PRODUCTIONS PUBLISHER DOUBLE FINE PRODUCTIONS PRICE $14.99 AVAILABLE AT STEAM doublefine.com After so many years of pining for a re-release of Grim Fandango, it’s sort of shocking to realise, fairly early on, that the game isn’t perfect. This was my hype level going in: after a decade of longing, of hearing the game’s name evoked repeatedly and scanning my eye over the PC section of every Gametraders I encountered, Grim Fandango existed in my mind as a sort of mythical, perfect, face-melting game. Actually playing through it now, I am reminded that it is, after all, fallible...but despite this, I’m in no way disappointed. Grim Fandango is very much a product of its time, for better far more than for worse. The point and click adventure genre…

1. Montblanc E-Strap Price: $400 • Distributor: Montblanc www.montblanc.com While most tech-savvy wrist adornment aficionados have been rushing to snap up the latest smart-watches, those of us style have been sitting back, waiting for an uncompromising device that allows us to display our exquisite taste, with smart-watch convenience and functionality. This might be it. POWERED UP: The smart-bit is in the strap. So you can keep your Cartier or JLC chronograph for the world to see, receiving emails and notifications discreetly on the 0.9” monochromatic display. PLAYED OUT: Adds a little bulk to the underside of the strap. 2. Choc Edge Choc Creator V2 Price: $7200 • Distributor: Choc Edge chocedge.com How much do you like chocolate? Okay, well how much do you like designing chocolates and chocolate-related things in…

LETTER OF THE MONTH WINS! Write in to PCPP with your rants, considered opinions, and endless run-on sentences of pure awesome. The address is letters@pcpowerplay.com.au. Each letter read by hand! This Letter of the Month winner scores himself a sweet PD-G1 headset valued at $199 thanks to the good people at Audio-Technica! LETTER OF THE MONTH BROWN SPACE TROUSERS Alien Isolation. Wow! What a game. You guys really hit the nail on the head with your review for this one. From the anticipation of the game’s release to the, repetitive but, enticing dev talk about the game, its atmosphere, its level design, its INCREDIBLE lighting and sound. Yes, there are some issues, like having to restart the first mission a couple of times till you got the sequence wrong and…

Shadow Realms DEVELOPER BIOWARE AUSTIN PUBLISHER EA DUE 2015 www.shadowrealms.com Evolve may be the first asymmetrical cab/game off the rank in 2015, but Shadow Realms is hot on its heels. Four players take the role of heroes in a dark, fantastical version of the real world whilst the fifth takes the role of the Shadowlord, a sinister power bent on destroying them. Rather than simply being a single entity, the Shadowlord can summon minions as well as individually possess and control them, making them far more powerful and dangerous to the heroes.…

WARHAMMER 40K: ETERNAL CRUSADE DEVELOPER BEHAVIOUR INTERACTIVE PUBLISHER GAMES WORKSHOP DUE TBA (CURRENTLY IN EARLY ACCESS) www.eternalcrusade.com 40k has always been about massed armies facing each other on the bloody field of battle and that is exactly what Eternal Crusade promises to deliver. This third-person combat MMO allows players to choose a faction and battle it out over vast planetary arenas. No real word as yet if there will be much if any real non-pvp action, considering the overall thematic elements of the 40k franchise, that shouldn’t really matter. Eternal Crusade will also launch as free-to-play, so the price is definitely right. JUST CAUSE 3 DEVELOPER AVALANCHE STUDIOS PUBLISHER SQUARE ENIX DUE 2015 Justcause.com Rico Rodriguez return for another ridiculous adventure so you can expect more of the action that…

process choosing ’s protagonists was always going to be a challenge. From the earliest days of the project, Fat Shark knew they wanted to make a cooperative game, but which of the many Warhammer races would make the best villain? “We looked at the Tomb Kings and the Vampire Counts,” Liam explains, “because skeletons and undead are always cool.” “But,” he admits, “the undead are a bit… “ “Overdone?” we suggest, and he nods emphatically. Other choices included the instantly recognisable Orcs and Goblins, but they came with their own problems. “Orcs are, well, just orcs,” says Liam, “and while the Goblins are great for providing a horde, they’re a lot more comedic than we wanted.” The Skaven, human-sized rats that tunnel under the entire Old World… those guys are…

DEVELOPER FULL CONTROL PUBLISHER GAMES WORKSHOP PRICE $US29.99 AVAILABLE AT STEAM www.spacehulk-ascension.com There are more Warhammer games being worked on right now than I think there’s ever been made, and, oddly, Games Workshop, for all its money, seems content to stick with smaller projects. Mobile games, card games, scrollers... you name it. Even Space Hulk, last year’s digital rendition of the popular board game, was more or less a straight conversion. It was fun, but if it’s going to be an exact copy of a physical game I already own, I’d rather play that. But Full Control are on top of things. Space Hulk: Ascension feels like the game that should have been released in the first place - it’s Space Hulk, but with more built on top to create…

Whew, what a year. I don’t know about you, but 2014 was a nonstop barrage of blistering hardware and cool components in my world. I’m privileged enough to be in the hardware hot-seat, blessed to be able to play with all the latest technologies without having to spend a cent to do so. Sadly it also means all the cool toys have to be returned once I’ve fallen in love with them, but it means I get to experience a very unique viewpoint on the PC hardware industry. Unless you’re running a PC store, chances are you don’t get to see basically every new product released in 2014. Luckily I did, and as a result I’m pretty confident that I’ve got a good idea of which products were worthy of…

It might have taken years longer than every other civilised nation on the planet, but the moment Australians have been pining for is nearly upon us. No, we’re still not getting decent broadband infrastructure (thanks Tony!). We’re referring to the impending release of Netflix down under. Many Aussies have already jumped through the VPN hoops necessary to use this fantastic Video on Demand (VOD) service here, but it’s soon going to be as simple as plugging in your payment details and hitting play. It’s not the only VOD service to land in the coming months, so we’re going to show you how to build a super cheap VOD-BOX that’ll give you the best streaming experience possible. THE SERVICES While Netflix is due to dazzle our eyeballs on March 31, there…