This weekend's PCG Q&A is a spicy one, inspired by PC Gamer's Andy Kelly putting this out there on Twitter (before being disappointed by the answers, which is just Twitter all over, really). What's the one game you think people pretend to like the most?

Below, we provide our answers. It's just a bit of fun, really—we mostly take shots at games that have been talked about to death, or whose reputation and meme potential have outgrown how enjoyable it actually is play. Let us know your choices in the comments. 

Andy Kelly: Deadly Premonition

Yeah, I get it. It's endearingly ambitious, it's weird, it's a bit like Twin Peaks, sort of, and it has some quotable lines. But I've tried playing this thing a few times and I really can't get my head around its popularity. The shooting is painful. The environments are blocky and sterile. The loading times are absurd. And the conversations are achingly slow.

I'm sure a few Deadly Premonition fans will be reading this and thinking I'm a jerk who just doesn't get it—and they'd be right. I don't. I just think people like the idea of Deadly Premonition more than the game itself. But hey, watch this space: I might try it again one day and the magic will suddenly take hold. I'd actually love that, but I'm not holding my breath.

Samuel Roberts: Far Cry 4 or 5

Andy's call of Deadly Premonition is a good one—I think the game has a lot of charm, but on PC the crashes were so bad at launch that they absolutely evaporated any goodwill I might have towards it. At least make sure the slightly bad game works. 

I'm so tempted to say Far Cry 2, which is deliberately not the most fun to play, given how the game successfully conveys its themes. But that might just be because I've read so many opinions on it over the years where the person is straining to show off how clever they are for understanding the game. Mate, I studied A-level English Literature too: I get it. 

I'm being mean! And I like Far Cry 2 a lot. Below is a more cowardly answer. 

I'll pick on the two more recent Far Cry entries. People talk favourably about the kind of wacky stories created by these games: about how a gunfight will be invaded by an animal's rampaging attack and how exciting that is. Personally, I think its specific kind of sandbox experience is too incoherent and random to actually be exciting after the first two or three times something ludicrous happens. It's just a collision of stuff, and instead of being impressively dynamic or a cheery step away from overly scripted shooter games, it's kind of a mess. I don't entirely get why the series is so popular in its current form.

Steven Messner: Dark Souls

Whenever someone tells me how much they like Dark Souls I immediately suspect them of lying—but I totally understand why they would. Dark Souls is a gaming phenomenon that is also so entwined in that 'git gud' attitude that people use as the litmus test to measure how much of a True Gamer you are, and I think there are loads of people out there who pretend to worship every bit of it because they feel like they have to. And I get why: I've witnessed the bloodbath firsthand when someone admits to not liking Dark Souls or thinking that it's overrated—suddenly, people are climbing out of every nook and cranny to tear that person to bits and tell them why they're objectively wrong. Witnessing that, I think people do the smart thing and decide to pretend to enjoy Dark Souls lest the obnoxious True Gamers who Got Gud find out and, like the KGB, drag them kicking and screaming into the shadows where we'll never hear from them again. Sometimes it's just easier to nod along and say Dark Souls is cool.

Wes Fenlon: Metal Gear Solid 2

You say you like Metal Gear Solid 2. You probably even think you like Metal Gear Solid 2. But how could you, with that godawful clunky first-person aiming and those top-down camera angles that make it impossible to see what's going on half the time? No, what you really like is watching cutscenes written by Hideo Kojima and thinking La-li-lu-le-lo? Hell yeah, man. That's some deep shit. You don't know what it means, but you like thinking it means something. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, with a camera actually designed for three dimensional games, was the first time a MGS game was actually enjoyable to play. Everyone who says otherwise is lying (to themselves).

Philippa Warr: Stephen's Sausage Roll

Although when I say "people" pretend to like it I mean I pretend to like it. Stephen's Sausage Roll is a hard game. It lurks at the back of my mind as an unfinished challenge. I am actively annoyed that I have not finished it, even though it's been about a year since I last had an evening with it. (Life gets in the way.) You have a pronged fork and you have to push and pull gigantic sausages around a blocky space, trying to roll them over grill pads and cook them on all sides. It's simple, and it's infuriatingly difficult. I don't think there's another game out there which annoys me so much and which I haven't abandoned forever. The idea of dying while this game still thinks it's better than me is unacceptable. I still recommend it to hardcore puzzle fans. I just also have to pretend that I like it, because otherwise I must admit to myself that I've committed to a potentially lifelong pissing contest with a piece of code.

Jarred Walton: Deus Ex

This was a great immersive sim game when it launched, and it pretty much defined the genre. But here's the thing: it has aged badly. There are loads of people that never played the original, and for all the hype and praise it receives, that's probably for the best. It came out over 18 years ago, and it feels every bit of its age. It's not a bad game even today, and there are various mods that try to make it a bit less...ugly, but this is one of those classics that I think is best left in the past. Even if everyone around you sings its praises. "Remember that Statue of Liberty level? It was awesome!" Yeah, maybe you only played the first level and then stopped.

Tim Clark: Half-Life 2

C'mon now, none of you really liked that crate stacking bit.

Far Cry 5 narrative director unveiled Far Cry: New Dawn with a new trailer at The Game Awards tonight, confirming the numerous leaks about the game that sprung earlier today. The new game is still set in Hope County, but 17 years after the global nuclear war that concluded Far Cry 5

The video showcases a peaceful settlement that comes under attack by a gang led by a pair of women—sisters, maybe—who seem determined to either take it over or burn it down. The whole thing has a very obvious Road Warrior vibe, but it's far more colorful, and with the usual Far Cry elements firmly in place: There are friendly animals and weird weapons and all kinds of unsafe vehicles, and some very in-your-face pink coloring that's more than a little reminiscent of the also-post-apocalyptic Rage 2. 

There's also an odd twist at the end in the form of Joseph Seed, the fanatical dickhead who caused so much trouble in Far Cry 5, and who also correctly predicted the onset of war. He portentously acknowledges that the new world is not the glorious place he expected, and I have to wonder if that hints at some sort of oncoming redemption arc. After spending Far Cry 5 fighting and killing Joseph and his family, could we end up stepping into his shoes in New Dawn? That'd be a hell of a twist. 

Far Cry: New Dawn is set to come out on February 15. Find out more at farcry.com.

Update: The Far Cry project teased yesterday is called New Dawn, and here's a look at the box art.

It wouldn't be a Ubisoft game if it didn't leak early, right? The box art comes to us via the reliable Wario64, and gives us a little look at what we assume are two protagonists, a ruined but re-growing Montana behind them (including the church from Far Cry 5), and a probable cult member tied to a car.

So, it's an expansion, but perhaps a standalone? A complete game coming in 2019? Or 2020? We don't know yet, but we'll find out more at the Game Awards, unless something else leaks before showtime. (Edit: which it has – scroll to the bottom for some new screenshots).

Original Story: If you haven't yet played Far Cry 5 and don't want to spoil the ending, you're going to want to avoid Ubisoft's tease for a Far Cry announcement that's coming during the Game Awards. It really gives it away. 

I won't even embed the video until the end of the post—I will simply say that some sort of Far Cry news is coming during the big show tomorrow, and if you're interested, you should watch it. (Although watching it will spoil you too, so maybe this is all wasted effort.) 

In any event, Far Cry 5 ended with a surprise nuclear Armageddon: It turns out that Joseph Seed, the apocalyptic preacher at the heart of all the trouble in Hope County, was right all along. I thought it was a fantastic twist, plenty of other players did not, but either way it appears that Ubisoft is going follow up that ending with some sort of Mad Max Montana mayhem.

The new game, expansion, or whatever it turns out to be will take place many years after the events of Far Cry 5: Enough time for the radioactive winds of war to disperse, for a new world to emerge from the old, and for humanity to get to work screwing it all up yet again. How that screwing-up will take place is the mystery. It could be a themed Far Cry-style FPS, like Blood Dragon—objectively the best Far Cry game, despite what you may have read elsewhere—or Ubisoft might be aiming for a slice of the battle royale pie. Whatever it turns out to be, one thing is certain: We will be shooting at stuff. 

The Game Awards begins at 5:30 pm PT/8:30 pm ET on December 6. And finally, here's the tease:

...and here are some screenshots provided by the aforementioned Twitter user.

Put your hard hat on and try not to get hit by falling SSD prices. They've come down fast and hard over the past several months, and how low they'll ultimately go remains to be seen. In the meantime, there are deals to be had, such as this one for a Samsung 960 Pro 512GB NVMe SSD.

Samsung launched its 960 Pro series almost exactly a year ago. Out of the gate, the 512GB model carried a $329 MSRP. What a difference a year makes, though—it's now on sale for $179.99 on Newegg, and it comes with a download code for Far Cry 5 to boot.

This is a fast drive that is rated to deliver sequential read and write performance of up to 3,500MB/s and 2,100MB/s, respectively. You don't need that kind of speed for a gaming PC, though if you frequently shuffle files around, it can come in handy.

Go here to get this drive. Otherwise, you can still get Crucial's 1TB MX500 (SATA 6Gbps) SSD for $151.

Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.

We know why blockbuster series ultimately exist: if the games remain good enough to their audience, they'll generally keep selling big numbers. And hey, we love a whole bunch of them, but sometimes a cooling off period can't hurt. Take Assassin's Creed, which was flagging after the release of Unity and took a break after Syndicate, but came back last year with the far better Origins. 

This week, then, we ask the PC Gamer writers this: which game series should take a break? Guest contributor Fraser Brown also kindly takes part. As ever, we want to read your answers in the comments too. 

Joe Donnelly: Sonic the Hedgehog

I should probably say FIFA, Pro Evo or Football Manager here, given the fact each annual iteration could probably be reduced to a paid-for patch. But I actually enjoy the ritual of buying each new game—and drawing a line under the previous one—each year. Call me daft in the comments. 

Sonic, on the other hand, could do with a rest. If Sonic Mania taught us nothing else, it's that Sonic can still be relevant and, crucially, enjoyable in today's market when it sticks to what it knows. I'm a sucker for nostalgia, admittedly, but who really wants more Forces, Runners and Boom and the likes? Not me. Put your feet up for a wee while, Sonic. Chill out. Let's keep things simple moving forward.

Wes Fenlon: Total War

I write this while being fully excited for the next Total War game, Three Kingdoms, but: I wouldn't mind waiting a few years between big, majorly improved Total War installments. With the launch of the Warhammer series, the Total War dev team has obviously grown to support the simultaneous creation of new historical Total War games and the fantasy spin-off. Now that the two exist side-by-side, we can expect one or more new Total War releases every year, and these aren't games you just blast through in a sitting. They're deep and replayable for months on end, and the longer they have to gestate with the community, the better the mods for them end up being. I'm hopeful that Three Kingdoms brings with it some major changes to a formula that's been starting to get stale. I'd be totally fine with a new Total War game coming out every three years and being a major event. 

Fraser Brown: Assassin's Creed, maybe

I’m in two minds about Assassin's Creed. Origins ended up being one of my favourite games last year, but everything that connected it to the rest of the series was crap. The Order of the Ancients, First Civilisation and Abstergo stuff just didn’t matter. It was a game about a loveable Ptolemaic sheriff solving everyone’s problems. Odyssey looks like another step in a new direction, pushing the RPG stuff even more and throwing mythological monsters into the mix. I’m actually excited about the series again, but it’s entirely in spite of them being Assassin’s Creed games. 

So while Assassin’s Creed definitely needs a long break, I’m equally keen to see more open-world RPGs that blend history and mythology, but free from all the bloat and convoluted narrative that has developed over the last decade. 

Chris Livingston: Far Cry

Since 2012 a new Far Cry has come along almost every year (if you include Blood Dragon and Primal). I think they're generally good, fun, entertaining games, though they have sort of settled into a comfortable formula. Maybe it's time for a major re-think, rather than just a new map, new setting, and some tinkering with features. Far Cry 2 was vastly different than the original, and 3 was different than 2, so it would be great to see the next one, whenever it arrives, really step away from the mold, even if it takes an extra year or two. 

Jarred Walton: Final Fantasy

Okay, I admit I've never really been into the Final Fantasy games, but when 15 launched on PC I gave it a shot. And bounced off it so hard, I can't even imagine how people enjoy the series right now. The prologue was this lengthy teen-angst-meets-soap-opera and made me care about none of the characters. I hear it gets better, but it's going to take a lot to get me to consider wading back in. Maybe it's time to live up to the "final" part of the name and give it a rest.

Also, every yearly sports game. Madden 2018, NHL 2018, FIFA 2018, and so on. Working on those yearly installments must require some serious passion for the specific sport which I lack.

Samuel Roberts: Halo

Halo has already been on a break of sorts, if you don't count Halo Wars 2. Three years have passed since Halo 5 was released on a console I will probably never own (unless my 360 breaks, and I no longer have access to older Halos and Red Dead), and Halo Infinite made a splashy but detail-free appearance at E3. I think 343 has a lot of reverence for the lore of Halo, and clearly some of its multiplayer innovations (like Warzone) have gone down really well. But it's missing something for me: a big, sandbox-y campaign, and it has been since Halo 3. 

I'm predicting Halo Infinite will be in the 'living' looter shooter vein of Destiny and The Division, based simply on the name and the current shooter trends. I'm hoping that when Halo finally returns to PC, they put more of those classic larger-scale exciting encounters in the game, along the lines of Assault on the Control Room from Combat Evolved, or the double Scarab fight in Halo 3. This is what the series was always best at. 

AMD is pushing out a new driver package for Radeon graphics card owners. The new Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.8.2. release coincides with the launch of Strange Brigade, with claims of up to a 5 percent performance boost for Radeon RX Vega 64 owners in that specific game.

That's when running the game at 4K. AMD provided one other performance metric, a 3 percent bump for Radeon RX 580 8GB owners when playing Strange Brigade at 1440p. We haven't tested the new driver package ourselves, so we can't say if the performance claims are accurate or not.

The 18.8.2 release is also optimized for F1 2018, which came out last week. Plus there are a handful of bug fixes, two of which address issues in Far Cry 5. They include:

• Some games may experience instability or stutter when playing with FRTC and Instant Replay enabled.
• Upgrade Advisor may not appear in Radeon Settings game manager.
• Far Cry 5 may experience dimmed or grey images with HDR10 enabled on some system configurations.
• Far Cry 5 may experience an application hang when changing video settings on some system configurations.
• Radeon Chill min and max values may not sync on multi GPU system configurations.
• Radeon FreeSync may fail to enable when playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

Strange Brigade is one of three games you can get for free if you buy an AMD RX Vega, 580, or 570 graphics card from select etailers. (The other two games are Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Star Control: Origins, when they're launched.) Strange Brigade is a 1930s pulp fiction take on Left 4 Dead style gameplay, using Rebellion's Sniper Elite engine. Or if you prefer, it's a bit of a sequel to Rebellion's Nazi Zombie Army trilogy. We're working on a review of the game, but performance is quite good on the GPUs we've looked at.

Go here to grab the new driver package.

Ubisoft announced today that Dead Living Zombies, the third and final part of the Far Cry 5 season pass, will be out on August 28. The expansion will support solo or co-op play through missions set in military bases, farmlands, and "urban rooftops," complete with narration provided by D-list film director Guy Marvel, who describes his latest cinematic venture in a new teaser as "Return of the Living Dead meets Bridges of Madison County."  

Also: It's Romeo and Juliet, but "set in a zombie-filled world"—and Romeo is a hulking, hideous mash-up of all the pop-culture monsters you can think of. Like Frankenstein, right? (Yes, I know, "Frankenstein's monster.") The Juliet role isn't explained but my bet is that she's a gun-toting, take-no-guffola heroine at the front of the fight, where she'll lead the stand against the brain-sucking hordes while simultaneously struggling to come to terms with her feelings for one of them. Mmm, gravitas.

There's some obvious potential there for good fun, and I hope Dead Living Zombies lives up to it: The previous DLCs, Hours of Darkness and Lost on Mars, showed similar camp-comedy promise, but while they both seemed aimed at recapturing the glories of Blood Dragon, I don't think either of them matched up to it particularly well. It'll be nice if Dead Living Zombies can wrap things up on a high note.   

Hurk Drubman fans take note: the lore and history of Hurk, already quite extensive from previous Far Cry games, is expanded upon greatly in Far Cry 5's add-on Lost on Mars (my review here). If you manage a fan page or wiki about Hurk Drubman Jr., your fingers are going to be sore from all the updating you're about to do.

In about four minutes of extremely spoilery footage in the video above (also here on YouTube) we quickly learn that Hurk:

• once made Nick promise to help if he was ever seduced by a sexy AI
• sometimes forgets to warn people about the existence of deadly space crabs
• thinks his large calves make him the ideal godfather
• got lost in a laser tag tunnel on his birthday and cried
• gets jealous when seeing others be badasses
• is just as tired of "climbing shit" in Far Cry games as we all are
• blames Total Recall for lying about 'three-titted women' on Mars
• isn't sure how long you can eat eggs after their sell-by date
• knows in his gut that Yetis like to party, but wants confirmation
• will hang out with nerds if he gets to ride on their rockets
• will occasionally offer to let close friends squeeze his man boobs
• likes to pet cows

What can I say? The man is an open book. Maybe it's not the fanciest book, but it's an extremely honest and forthcoming one. Long live Hurk.

After a number of huge games and reinventions, Far Cry has accumulated an absurd amount of thematic obligations. Emotional sincerity and nuance sit right next to Grand Theft Auto-style 'satire' and unapologetic violence. New entries need to include brutality to the point of repulsion, have some sort of philosophical or subversive layer, and offer breathtakingly beautiful virtual tourism, all at the same time. This mix isn’t just contradictory—it’s impossible to truly pay off without choosing an element to emphasize. 

This is why I believe that accusations that Far Cry 5 doesn’t have anything to say, or that it refuses to take a stance on the many subjects it approaches in its over-the-top tale of reclaiming Americana in rural Montana, is false. It just says these things in individual pieces, each beholden to a different portion of what has become an inherently conflicted series.

In Far Cry 5, a pseudo-Christian group known as the Project at Eden’s Gate established itself in a small, struggling, isolated segment of rural Montana, and preached about a coming end: The Collapse. This is an inevitable event where the economic and political elite would destroy themselves and the world in the process, leaving only the faithful alive. The damaged and economically disadvantaged flocked to this message, with its promise of salvation and a turning of the tables to come, to the point that the so-called “Peggies” became the de facto power of the region. The now dominant religion is headed by four figures. The Father, Joseph Seed, and his ‘Family’ of three lieutenants, each helping to control the members of the cult with a unique philosophy and methodology.

Joseph Seed, with his tinted sunglasses, preaches words that are alternately welcoming, reasoning, and vengeful. Faith Seed is the manipulator of the group, claiming innocence while dancing through hallucinogenic fields of a mind-altering drug she manufactures called Bliss in a lacy white dress. Military veteran Jacob Seed sees the world in shades of nihilism, brainwashing the player character to react to the trigger of the song ‘Only You’ by The Platters and monologuing about the need to cull the herd of humanity of weakness. Finally, John Seed spouts self help-adjacent phrases behind a brilliant smile and baby blue eyes, but harbors a sadistic need to carve the names of sins into one’s flesh and tear the skin off in strips to absolve the person of sin.

The charismatic leader, the seeming innocent, the grizzled soldier, and the not-so-undercover sadist. As caricatures with nothing more to do than misuse portions of Christian scripture to sound extremely creepy (and therefore being suitable targets in the eyes of the player), these figures could be effective enough. Far Cry 5, however, does feel the need to say something—to be more than a romp against cartoonish villains in the Midwestern United States. It attempts to give these characters nuance, in portions, and so undermines itself in an approach that is increasingly revealed to be typical of the game.

Faith Seed isn’t so much a name as a title. The woman currently holding it is just the most recent in a long line of people who have been taken advantage of by Joseph, and the cult by extension. In your final confrontation, you learn that Faith’s redemption was a false one under a cloak of ultimately hollow religion. She reveals that she was plied with drugs and threatened by Joseph when she was still practically a child to assume her current role. Manipulated when she was alone, addicted, and desperately needed help, to turn her into the manipulator of others that she is today. This is confirmed by other documents you find throughout the game. Notes from caring friends, and even those who were close to previous Faiths. In Far Cry 5, the character of Faith is both deceived and deceiver: tragic, like her brother John.

When you’re strapped to a chair in John’s torture dungeon, things don’t look great. He begins to monologue, talking at the player camera in the type of sequence that has become infamous since Vaas Montenegro screamed about the definition of insanity in Far Cry 3. However, when he begins to speak about his past, the theatrical posturing suddenly falls flat. John Seed’s story is one of child abuse. Internalizing the need for pain, he found ‘the power of Yes’ by seeking out every source of agony and debasement he could find. Suddenly, the cartoon sadist becomes a damaged person with a very sharp knife. Someone whose personal struggles have been redirected by leadership in the cult, into their very worst forms. Someone who was redeemable once.

The swings in characterization and nuance are so drastic that they pull you out of the loop of blowing shit up and running that you tune into to play Far Cry, and question the very premise of the experience. If these villains are people...what do their deaths mean? What is the game saying about them?

Is this the point?

And that’s the thing about Far Cry 5—it has so much content, and says so many different things (often with an admirable amount of internal commitment), that a search for one overriding message is futile. 

Shooting brainwashed cultists to the beat of Disco Inferno with an enthusiastic pyromaniac, you could easily believe Far Cry 5 is a goofy if tone-deaf romp. Searching for what is possibly a certain alleged tape with a loud undercover agent, you might see Far Cry 5 as a GTA-esque satirical morass. Murdering cultists next to a massive bear you can pet after he’s torn your enemies throats out, you could conclude Far Cry 5 just offers an over-the-top setting for an exciting FPS. Depending on the missions you played, that would seem correct for the most part. 

However, you might then play a mission where you take Nick Rye, one of your recruitable companions, to the hospital with his pregnant wife. That’s it. That’s the mission. A moment of humanity at the end of the world that immediately contradicts whatever single comfortable narrative you believed you found.

Apart, any one of these scenarios could be representative of a specific tone and subject matter for an experience. Together, they’re the confused mess that has become Far Cry’s modern identity...Which is why I’m increasingly excited about its divisive ending.

At the end of Far Cry 5, the Collapse occurs. Mushroom clouds rise in the distance as you race to a nearby fallout shelter, only to find yourself taken prisoner by Joseph in the deserted bunker as a captive member of his new ‘family’. All your friends are dead, Joseph hisses “I was right” into your ear, and he sits in a chair across from you, triumphant.

When I first saw this ending, I was frustrated. There was no closure. No final message to rearrange the many, many thematic pieces I had been given into even a partial picture. Then, I realized that...Joseph might have a point. Maybe the sole, inevitable way for Far Cry to move on was to destroy its world first.

Someone has to be right—why not him?

Lost on Mars, the second of three expansions slated to come to Far Cry 5, will be out on July 17, Ubisoft announced today. The DLC will take players away from the friendly confines of Hope County—and the planet Earth—for a stand-up fight against the spiders from Mars, who are plotting to invade our world. 

In the expansion, players will take on the persona of local plaid aficionado Nick Rye, a bush pilot and Far Cry 5 NPC who rushes to the rescue when his friend Hurk (because of course it's Hurk) takes up arms to ward off an alien invasion. The usual terrestrial arsenal will be bolstered by off-world weaponry like the Blaster of Disaster, the Taser Phazer Annihilazer, the Morphinator, and the Obliteratorrrr, while "Space Jets" will help players get around more quickly. The expansion will also bring new Mars-themed assets to the Far Cry Arcade, which all players will have access to. 

This expansion strikes me as more blatantly Blood Dragon-esque than the first Far Cry 5 DLC, Hours of Darkness, perhaps because it's so much more otherworldly and goofy than the core game. That's a pretty big plus for an expansion: After the relative seriousness of Far Cry 5 (and yes, I know, there's a bear named Cheeseburger who will fight for you on command), it's nice to spin off into something into something so willfully silly. 

Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars will be available for $10, or as part of the $30 season pass or the $90 Gold Edition of the game. The third and final expansion, Dead Living Zombies, is expected to be out in August.