MOBAs are always better when you're playing with friends. Whether you win or lose, it's guaranteed to feel that much better if you're praising your buddy's clutch Javelin of Light, or laughing off a whiffed Guttling Hook. Whether or not you're familiar with these abilities, we'd love to fight by your side or teach you the ropes in Heroes of Newerth. Read on to find out how you can get involved in what is sure to be the HoN (casual) clan of the century.

HoN's got quite the robust clan functionality, and we aim to make the most of it. There's numerous ways you can apply for , so no matter where you are, you can still join the PC Gamer posse. If you're the kind of person who needs his (or her) MOBA fix daily and is often online, whisper one of the following officers in-game: Ljrepresent, Alvis, Makurosu, or YouJelIy (YouJeliy), and they'll invite you straight away. Don't have time to play much lately, but still want to join the clan? Just check out our handy clan page to apply; while you're there, you can check out our sweet stats.



We've also got a hub for voicechat, thanks to YouJelIy. If you want to get your chat on, download Mumble (the latest in VoIP; similar to Ventrilo) and join our server at:
Address: 66.135.59.124
Port: 5787

As more and more people join the newly-minted PCGC, we'll organize game nights for in-house 5v5's and matches with members of the PCG staff—hopefully ones that don't result in our pride being shattered to pieces. And there's always someone logged in, so you'll never have to join games with random troll-teammates again (unless that's what you're into). Hop on HoN, join your fellow PC Gamers, and let us conquer Newerth with the Coconut Monkey armies.

There's going to be a closed beta for Activision's new Call of Duty Elite service, which will bring a suite of social networking features to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops' multiplayer components. A lucky selection of players will get early access to these features as part of the closed beta, which is set to kick off "later this summer." You can apply for a spot right now on the Call of Duty Elite site. All you have to do is enter an email address, your date of birth, and your platform of choice, which will be PC, naturally. Good luck!

Who needs big budget film adaptations? These bright sparks have turned Portal into a stage play. It might be low tech, but it puts all those terrible Hollywood game adaptations to shame.

Today in PC gaming we were zerg rushed with info on Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Meanwhile the headlines belonged to Call of Duty, with the announcement of the controversial Elite payment scheme.

Activision Blizzard (or Actard as we like to call them) aren't the only ones making news though, click through for a selection of other interesting stories from the world of PC gaming.


Portal adaptations seem to be the big thing, with Gamesradar reporting on stunning fan film Outside Aperture
GTA4's Liberty City now has it's own version of google maps.
Atari are selling off Cryptic.
IO say Hitman: Absolution will be "more accessible"
Section 8: Prejudice has a map pack on the way
Bioware admit that Dragon Age 2 had faults, and will look towards fixing them in future installments.
Relic have patched Company of Heroes including adding new maps. That's some after sale support.
Gamestop will apparently honour even the oldest Duke Nukem pre-orders.
Minecraft just got more amazing. It turns out maps can play youtube videos.

 
Everyone seems to be experimenting with new payment models these days, be it free-to-play, subscription or microtransactions. Is there still room for good old money down purchasing? Tell us readers, how do you prefer to pay for your games? What's your ideal pricing method? You aren't allowed to say everything free, that's cheating.

I chatted to Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor and Microsoft Games' Danan Davis about their new free-to-play game Age of Empires Online. Chris also talks about making Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, and Danan about making Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends. And everyone has a lot to say about the future of PC gaming.

Download the MP3, subscribe, or find our other podcasts here.

Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and it’s obvious from Fable III’s opening that it won’t be long before it’s weighing down yours.

You play the sibling of the current, overly cruel king of Albion, and you’re quickly catapulted from the castle into a life of RPG rebellion achieved by winning the support of the general populace. As heir to the throne, there’s only one place you’re heading with that sort of behaviour.

Yet exposing Fable III’s endgame is no spoiler: not only is your fitness to rule taken for granted by everyone you meet, but the game has already been out for half a year on every other platform but ours.

Fable’s fights can be approached with firearms, magic or melee weapons, but jumping between the stances is far from intuitive if you’re using mouse and keyboard. You have to scroll between styles with the mousewheel, which makes your combat changes the result of planning, not brilliance. Couple that with a strange mouse lag evident on turning the camera, and I quickly switched to an Xbox 360 controller. It made fighting more fluid: whacking a skeleton with a hammer before shattering its bony body with a pistol shot becomes a satisfying process.



But it’s a process too often repeated. Combat is Fable III’s default state, and it doesn’t deviate much. If anything, it gets simpler. I chose to pump my guild seals – collectables awarded for doing most things, from bashing enemies to kissing dudes – into levelling my magical abilities. Once I’d hit rank five, combat was a case of holding my area-of-effect spell until it was charged, then just letting go until the B button was hanging limp.

Lionhead used the time between 360 and PC versions to add a new ‘challenging’ mode to the game, but I blazed through the final conflicts with one hand free to drum on my desk. The difficulty of tougher fights – werewolves are particularly brutal – is defused by your respawning just a few centimetres from your corpse, the loss of a pouchful of guild seals your only punishment.

In short bursts, the fights are cheerful and rewarding and the quests have a sense of humour and grace that’s missing in other RPGs. But you never get either in short bursts. Even the most engaging quests – shrinking down to play a real-life game of Dungeons & Dragons, or chasing a ghost drunk on power (and ale) through a graveyard – seem to panic when they reach their midpoints. Then they throw in a glob of turgid combat against cloned enemies.



My burgeoning aversion to combat led me to Albion’s other timesinks. I was able to chat to nearly all of the kingdom’s citizens, but beyond the welcome ability to belch in a child’s face, I had little to gain from engaging with my soon-to-be subjects. Fable III’s approach to morality is regimented: players can be saintly good or cartoon evil, neither of which alters the game in any serious way. Scold your staff, deny your friends or stuff your fat face with pies in front of starving children – you’re still set for power.

The only true choice comes at the end of the game, and the outcome can be either utterly mystifying or underwhelming, as a threat from across the seas either kills all your subjects, or doesn’t. This in a game predicated on talking to everyone. A little harder when they’re dead.

Fable III is pockmarked with kernels of delight and imagination, but they’re harder to root out among such a bland backdrop.

We've just got the details of Brink's first (free) DLC, Agents of Change. It seems like the war for the Ark is going to be shaken up a little: "Secrets, lies and double agents. Nothing and no-one is who they seem as the Resistance and Security factions deal with the arrival of a mysterious ship from the outside world."

Blimey, that's different. Agents of Change is slated for June. Click more for the details.

Agents of Change will include two new maps, five new abilities, two new weapon attachments and two new outfits. The level cap will also be increased to 24.

If you're still deciding if you should buy Brink you can find our review here. If you're in the UK, however, you still won't be able to get it on Steam.

New Maps:


Founders’ Tower – The revolution finally reaches the island’s iconic spire and takes the battle
for the Ark to dizzying heights.
Labs – Venture into the depths of the Ark’s original research and development laboratories, a
submerged high-tech facility so far untouched by the civil war


New Player Abilities:


UAV – This stealthy and lethal device allows Operatives to automatically mark nearby enemies on their radar. For more explosive fun, they can even take direct control of the UAV and detonate it near unsuspecting foes.
Napalm Grenade – Soldiers can use this new grenade to cover an area in a sea of deadly flames.
Pyro Mine – Engineers can plant these mines and leave enemies in the epicenter of a massive napalm explosion.
Field Regen Unit – Medics can deploy these units to increase the health regeneration of any nearby teammates.
Tactical Scanner – This universal ability allows players to reveal the active buffs of their opponents, allowing them to pick off enemies more strategically.


New Weapon Attachments:

Bayonets – Gain the edge in melee combat and cause extra damage with these deadly blades.
Weapon Shields – Take cover from enemy fire and prevent headshot bonus damage behind riot-style shields.


New Character Outfits:


The Sad Punk – Add a touch of Steampunk to your Resistance character.
The Limey – Bring order to the Ark with this outfit inspired by traditional European police lawmen.


How are you getting on with Brink? We've got two official PC Gamer UK servers up at the moment, but they're sadly empty. To find them, just search "PC Gamer" in the browser.

Blizzard have told us that they would consider removing units for StarCraft 2's second expansion, Legacy of the Void. Speaking at a recent press event, StarCraft 2 lead producer Chris Sigaty told us that "it would be a mistake for us to just put out units to put out units," adding "will we do that again for Legacy of the Void? I don’t know. It may be that putting out new units for Legacy of the Void is a mistake."

Sigaty was speaking to us at the first press showing of Heart of the Swarm, for which Blizzard plan to add new units. We asked Sigaty about Blizzard's golden rule for StarCraft 2 which says that for every unit introduced, something has to go. How would Blizzard manage that with two expansions?

"The golden rule is there," says Sigaty, "there’s only so much more we can put in. We’re already at the Brood War expansion level number of units right now, so there might be a little bit of wiggle room right there, but not much more.

"It may be that find and replace becomes a reality for a race, or all the races… our intention for Heart of the Swarm right now is to add, but we could take it away."

Is it possible that we could see well known multiplayer units disappearing as well? Sigaty remains tight-lipped. "Multiplayer is something we’re not locked down on, and we’re just exploring," he says.

For the first details on the first StarCraft 2 expansion, check out our Heart of the Swarm preview, and the first teaser trailer.

In Metro 2033, bullets were like gold; literally, in the case of the military grade bullets, as they were the main form of currency, but also metaphorically for the equally scarce lower-grade ammunition. In Metro: Last Light (due 2012), our protagonist Artyom has just snuck into Reich station, a fascist stronghold and found a gatling gun, and proceeds to blow away the scenery with high-calibre currency. As a metaphor for how the game has changed it’s powerful, if somewhat misleading.




For Metro: Last Light is very much the slightly-more handsome twin of its predecessor. 4A studios, the Ukrainian developer, are very keen to keep the game aligned with the first game’s vision, whilst fixing its flaws and stepping up the graphical fidelity even further. The initial scene of the presentation shows off the latter ambition admirably, showing a vista of post-apocalypse Moscow, complete with streets full of hundreds of cars, presumably abandoned by fleeing civilians just before the blast hit, and monstrosities roving across the derelict Kremlin, before closing in on our heroes as they descend through a manhole into Reich station.



The atmosphere of the first game has also been maintained, with Artyom and another ranger progressing from the sewers to a checkpoint (where Artyom blows all that money/ammo), to the central hall of Reich station itself. This is decked out in facist decor, with very familiar red strip flags dangling from the ceilings, and is filled with brown-shirted chanting Nazis, being roused by a demagogic orator. Suffice to say Artyom’s attempt to brazen his way through this crowd is nerve-wracking to watch, but is swiftly followed by a nerve-jangling chase sequence through the slums of Reich, pursued by a pack of facists. It looks really impressive - and more importantly fun.



As Artyom and his partner roll under a closing door, the chase is only halfway done. Hopping into a powered rail cart, the other ranger drives while Artyom uses a grenade launcher and bolt-action rifle to dispose of pursuing enemies. Soon we catch up to the target; a prison train sending Reich’s prisoners elsewhere. Artyom clears the decks of guards, then we move close enough that he can leap aboard, and fights his way forward, using a shotgun pistol to dispose of the armoured guards. As he nears the front of the train, it catches light and explodes, knocking him out...


This sequence is an E3 demo, so it’s not likely to feature in the final game, but it’s a nice demonstration of 4A’s ambition. The game itself hasn’t changed that much - but with a new storyline, focused on the struggles between the factions now that the Dark Ones have gone, and a not-detailed yet multiplayer mode, fans should definitely be looking forward to this.

Blizzard have released tons of chitinous screens for insectiod sequel Starcaft II: Heart of the Swarm. You might have seen some of them in our preview earlier, but there's plenty more inside to whet you appetite. Not enough? Check out the new trailer.



The screens show off two early missions, Charr and Kaldir, the two new Zerg characters, as well as the new Zerg 'evolution chamber' upgrade system.

The Dismounted Soldier Training System is a new military sim commissioned by the US government. The sim will be used to train new soldiers as early as next year, and cost a hefty $57 million to make. GamePro report that it's likely that most of this went on development of the the new technology that will capture soldiers' movements on a ten foot square pad. New recruits will experience the simulator through a virtual reality headset that will run from a state-of-the-art custom laptop strapped to their back.

The sim is powered by the Crysis 2 engine, and aims to provide a flexible training tool that should ultimately be cheaper than running similar live exercises. Directors running training excercises will be able to mod new missions using intelligence on a target area. This will allow soldiers to move through a mission in virtual reality before attempting it in real life. Once a mission is completed, soldiers receive a score and a report on their actions in the mission.

The sim is being developed by Intelligent Decisions is designed to be able to realistically model helicopters and ground vehicles, as well as environmental effects like footprints, disturbed foliage and realistic weather effects. Multiple soldiers will be able to play in the same instance, allowing troops to practice squad tactics.



The director of strategic programs at Intelligent Decisions, Floyd West tells GamePro that "a soldier could practice a scenario alone or with squad members, just as they would play an online video game. Soldiers and instructors could also play roles within the simulation. For example, they might play civilians that interact with someone from that squad, or they could play an opposing force, an enemy combatant. They could also control a group of semi-automated forces in the world."

"With CryEngine 3 being used for Crysis 2 and the capabilities that game engine provides, it allows us to make the most realistic simulation possible. We're able to transport soldiers to accurately recreated locales like Afghanistan and Iraq, where we can simulate everything from visuals to 360-degree sound."



The virtual reality headsets the trainees wear will run from a backpack unit similar to a top of the range gaming laptop, called the 'Man Wearable Unit'. "While the man wearable units aren't running on an off-the-shelf Alienware, the internal components themselves are commercial off-the-shelf CPU's and GPU's like NVIDIA graphic cards and whatnot," says West.

Given the ten foot square area needed to run the game, it's unlikely we'll see a commercial release of the Dismounted Soldier Training System. For now we'll have to make do with America's Army, another training and recruitment game developed by the US army. For more information on the DSTS, check out the info from Intelligent Designs. We really want to try it.