It's The PC Gamer Show! In episode three we're introducing the new Large Pixel Collider Jr. with an afternoon of special living room gaming challenges. Can Counter-Strike maven Evan Lahti win when he's forced to play with an Xbox controller? Who will survive the frictionless mayhem of GTA 4's Carmageddon mod? Plus, we play upcoming electronic sport Videoball, and PC Gamer UK walks us through ARMA 3's awesome Zeus mode.

In this episode...

Act I: As if Octodad: Dadliest Catch wasn't already wacky enough, Evan and Tyler race against Wes and global EIC Tim Clark in a competition to become the best co-op octo-pair.
Act II: The gang goes two-on-two again in Videoball, Action Button Entertainment's upcoming minimalist electronic sport.
Act III: Evan tests out his Counter-Strike skills by playing on the LPC Jr...with a controller. Meanwhile, Tyler plays with a keyboard and mouse, as any sane man would.
Act IV: Our program heads over to the United Kingdom, where the other half of the PC Gamer team play Arma 3's Zeus mode. Vengeful god Andy Kelly controls the battlefield from above to torment his teammates.
Act V: It's carmageddon in GTA4's famous no friction mod. We race through the chaos to see who can survive the longest in a whirlwind of flying cars.

The PC Gamer Show is a new and evolving project for us, and we want your feedback to help make it better. What kind of segments do you want to see? What games should we play and talk about? Who should we have on as guests? What's coming up next?

Shout at us in the comments below, or shoot us an email directly at letters@pcgamer.com. We're listening. And we'll see you in two weeks.

What does it take to rattle 80-some veteran players of Earth s most hardcore military sim? ShackTac bossman Dslyecxi pointed me to this insane firefight and extraction attempt in one of his recent videos. Short on ammo, shorter on men, and their backs literally against a wall that may or may not be indestructible, Dslyecxi leads the survivors of a trapped infantry unit as they improvise an escape plan.



Dslyecxi contextualizes the chaos: "At the 33:40 mark, we're all critically low on ammo. As a fireteam leader, I've given everything I had left to other members of my fireteam, and I'm running around trying to see what we're going to do next. There are enemies swarming all over the exterior of the compound and we have reason to believe that they've started to breach into it in some areas as well. It's very much a fog-of-war period at that point. There are reports that the convoy has arrived, and while I saw a few of our vehicles earlier, I heard quite a few explosions and wasn't sure if they were still alive. I'm just waiting for orders and seeing where I can help out in the meantime. We get those orders a few minutes later, which starts the chain of events leading to the crazy finale."

We ve highlighted a few more of Dslyecxi and other Arma players variously heroic and hilarious moments in the past: watch them here. Dslyecxi also has a Patreon page where you can support his continued creation of combat and tutorial videos.

The Arma series is famous for its massive multiplayer battles, but there s still fun to be had on the war-torn islands of Stratis and Altis by yourself. These missions can all be played solo, with a focus on small squads, infantry, or infiltration. They ve all been created by Arma 3 players using the game s powerful built-in editing tools, and some are as impressive as anything in Bohemia s own campaign.

To play the missions, subscribe to them in the Steam Workshop, then go to Play in the Arma 3 main menu, then Scenarios. It's worth noting that updates to Arma 3 which are pretty frequent can cause bugs in user-made missions, which their creators should (hopefully) iron out promptly. Some listed here can be also be played in co-op if you have a friend who owns the game. Enjoy.


Bad Holiday
Created by Benny and Lentilburger
Type Infantry, squad, air
DOWNLOAD
A holidaymaker finds himself in the midst of a violent city siege. Scavenge weapons, repel the invaders, and call in the military. A creative premise and an enjoyable, varied mission.


Hostile Water
Created by Mr_Tactical
Type Infantry, squad, water
DOWNLOAD
Recover a classified device from a stricken British submarine. To find the vessel you ll need to secure enemy intel to discover its location. A large mission with multiple objectives.


Resist: Road s End
Created by Kydoimos
Type Infantry, story
DOWNLOAD
The first chapter of Resist, a user campaign that runs parallel to Survive. Features voice acting, cutscenes, and production values on par with Bohemia s own missions.


Operation Scar
Created by HallyG
Type Infantry, stealth, assassination
DOWNLOAD
A night mission in which you play as a special forces operative sneaking behind enemy lines to assassinate an officer. Short, but atmospheric and nicely balanced.


Revenge!
Created by Binkowski
Type Infantry, assault, urban
DOWNLOAD
A remake of a classic mission from Bohemia s first game, Operation Flashpoint. Command a large CSAT squad and take two settlements back from a group of terrorists.


Clandestine Sunrise
Created by Navarre
Type Infantry, air, vehicles
DOWNLOAD
Lead a small recon squad to covertly destroy enemy assets. Decent voice acting, unlimited saves, and excellent tactical deployment of Creedence Clearwater Revival.


Sniper Alley
Created by PFC Veld
Type Infantry, sniping
DOWNLOAD
A non-linear mission that sees you, a ghillie-suited sniper, hunting randomly-placed enemy snipers across a large valley area in west Altis. Another short one, but brilliantly tense.


Operation Hog Cove
Created by Nichevo
Type Infantry, water, assault
DOWNLOAD
A brutal, fast-paced mission that sees you and several AI-controlled squads landing on a beach and attacking an enemy force, whose numbers and placement are different every time.


Hard to Peel
Created by Gibbon
Type Infantry, air, urban
DOWNLOAD
An assault on an enemy airfield, followed by an action-packed push into an occupied city. Some great urban firefights and a custom soundtrack you ll either love or hate.


On the Other Side
Created by Bauerhousebourne
Type Infantry, stealth, story
DOWNLOAD
One of the most popular user missions on the Steam Workshop to date, and deservedly so. Cinematic, polished, well-paced, and offers plenty of scope for creative play.


Explore Altis
Created by OlejnaS
Type Exploration, non-combat
DOWNLOAD
And now for something completely different. This mod highlights points of interest across Altis and lets you teleport to them instantly. A great way to explore the island without being shot at.


Operation Greenstorm
Created by eCHo
Type Infantry, urban
DOWNLOAD
Lead a small squad and attack Altis old capital city under cover of night and thick fog. Some incredible views at the beginning, although it s quite a hike to the first objective.


Trident
Created by Ubiquitous
Type Infantry, stealth, sniping
DOWNLOAD
This slick mission offers you three different insertion points. You can sneak in using stealth, charge in with brute force, or snipe from afar. Nice briefing sequence too.


Virtual CQC Firefight
Created by Balr0g
Type Infantry, training, VR
DOWNLOAD
Arma s recent Bootcamp update added Metal Gear Solid-style VR training missions to the game. This close-quarters battle is a good way to hone your infantry skills.


Enemy Supply
Created by Kapten K
Type Infantry, stealth
DOWNLOAD
Land behind enemy lines, use stealth to avoid patrols, and destroy enemy assets. A simple, well-scripted mission that can be approached in a number of different ways.

For those not familiar with its particular brand of simulation, Arma 3 can be a daunting thing to approach. Don't let our recent, barely competent shenanigans fool you; there's a deep vein of realism at the heart of Bohemia's shooter and, with it, a level of complexity that can be difficult to parse. Hope comes in the form of the just released Bootcamp update. More than just a tutorial, it's designed to teach you the underlying principles powering the game. And all without R. Lee Ermey screaming in your face.



The trailer's description explains what to expect:

"Arma 3 Bootcamp challenges you to learn about the basic game mechanics of Arma 3. Extend your training via the singleplayer mini-campaign or multiplayer bootcamp scenario, practice combat procedures in a Virtual Reality training environment, and browse through Arma 3's extensive weapons and gear library with the Virtual Arsenal viewer."

Taking the form of a series of VR training modules, and a 'campaign' mode that acts as both tutorial and a prequel to the campaign proper, the update introduces and explains a bunch of concepts including stuff like material penetration or placeable deployment. I'm yet to investigate the full thing, but hopefully "flying helicopters without killing your entire squad" will also be covered.

You'll find the Bootcamp in Arma 3 right now, under the expanded 'Learn' menu.

This afternoon, PC Gamer will be at the mercy of a vengeful, Scottish god. We'll be playing Zeus, ArmA III's on-the-fly adventure mode, where we'll be subjected to the trials and tribulations of our own Andy Kelly. The action kicks off at 2.30pm BST check here for local times and will run until we've experienced the full scope of Andy's twisted design.

Zeus is ArmA III's free multiplayer DLC: a mode in which a player can act as an RPG style GM. Andy will be able to create objectives, spawn enemies, place vehicles, build bases and, on occasion, call down massive lightning strikes all in real time.

You'll be able catch the main stream, from the PCG team's perspective, over at the PC Gamer Twitch channel. If you'd prefer to follow the dark machinations of our overlord, Andy will be streaming the Zeus perspective at his own Twitch channel.

Here's a full run-down of the people and streams involved:


Tom Senior
Andy Kelly
Samuel Roberts
Chris Thursten
Phil Savage
Ben Griffin


Thanks to special interweb magic, you can watch streams simultaneously. This page will let you see the action from Andy's godly perspective and the ground-soldier at the same time.

Alternatively, just watch the embed below. See you at 2.30pm!

ArmA 3 is a challenging game to learn, especially so when it comes to piloting choppers. Enter the Pilot Civilian Air Rescue mod, which features a number of single-player Mohawk chopper missions, from insertion (transporting doctors to a combat zone), extraction (retrieving injured NPCs and delivering them to a hospital), and even search and rescue, in which you look for lost hikers or downed pilots and ferry them back to safety. It's a great way to hone your chopper flying skills offline while getting a warm and fuzzy feeling from helping NPCs in need.

I've been slowly edging my way into the daunting ArmA 3, but I'm still a bit too bashful to play online for fear of getting yelled at by (understandably) impatient human players. I'm doubly self-conscious about my piloting skills, and trying to fly while being shot at (or screamed at) doesn't really help with my concentration. So, I'm really enjoying this mod's rescue missions, which allow me to practice piloting with only the AI looking over my shoulder, and also lets me learn the map due to the randomized placement of rescues.

Are you knelt in prayer? Well, you should be. Now get in.

The mod starts you at your base, where you can get into flight gear and receive your first mission. There are options to choose from in terms of weather, forecast, and time of day, as well as the level of hostility you want to face when flying into enemy territory. I began by setting hostiles and antiaircraft fire to zero, but if you're more experienced, obviously, you'll probably want to ratchet it up to make your missions more challenging and exciting. If your mission involves delivering passengers, they'll be waiting for you in a polite crouch near your Mohawk.

Come with me if you want to live. Briefly.

My first mission was a search and rescue: some hikers had become lost and needed to be located and transported back. I did a great job of locating them, but there was a bit of an issue while landing, and that issue was a small collision that led to a large explosion. Whoops! My next mission was to pick up a team of doctors in the field, and return them to base. I landed a bit better -- nothing exploded -- but still managed to destroy my chopper's engine so they didn't bother getting in. Well, third time's the charm, right?

Third time is not the charm.

Actually, no, I somehow managed to flip my chopper over during takeoff, crashing it while still in sight of my back-up chopper. After that, though, things started going a bit better. I was tasked with flying out to retrieve an NPC who had sustained a gunshot wound as the result of some conflict in Altis. I managed to fly out and locate the fellow, who was being guarded by friendly troops.

I think he's trying to choose between bleeding to death and taking a chance in my chopper.

A shaky -- but safe! -- landing later, he scuttled his way to my Mohawk and we took off, bound for the hospital. Landing on the hospital roof, for a noob pilot like me, was harrowing, but I was quite pleased to pull it off after only three hours of white-knuckled hovering. I was then a bit disappointed when the NPC crab-walked out of my helicopter and threw himself off the side of the roof. I know my flying isn't great, but sheez. No need to be so dramatic about it.

I guess healthcare on Altis is just a little too pricey?

I checked the mod's discussion page and I guess that's just what the AI does when you complete a hospital delivery. You've passed the mission, so the AI just takes the shortest trip back to the ground. Oh, well, at least it's amusing. After carefully parking my chopper downstairs I visited the jumper's body and took his watch. I'm a hero like that.

I said I carefully parked the chopper. I didn't say I properly parked the chopper.

It you do crash, no worries! A rescue op will launch and another chopper will be dispatched to pick you up and fly you back to base. There's also a service center for your chopper if you get a little dinged up. The mod also allows for random weather settings if you want to leave your conditions up to chance, and even lets you turn on random mechanical failures if you're the type of player who likes big surprises at altitude.

Thanks for coming to get me, guys. I had another oopsie.

I think the ability to set your own conditions makes this a fun mod for both beginners and pros. Like I said, I'm still pretty green, but after completing a bunch of missions and getting a bit better at flying, I turned everything on -- bad weather, hostile response to incursions, mechanical failures -- and had a blast. Searching for some downed pilots in a thunderstorm while the enemy is closing in on me is a real thrill. Not so thrilling for the downed pilots: they didn't make it back. Though, if they had, they'd probably just have jumped off the hospital roof.

See! I'm not the only one who crashes choppers.

Installation: Subscribe to the mod in the Steam workshop here. Launch the game, select Play from the menu, then go to Scenarios, and the mod will be listed there.

You thought it was funny that Arma 3 now has kart racing, didn t you? Well pull yourself together, because the April Fools gag is now an actual feature, and it's managed to raise a million Czech koruna for the country s Red Cross. That s nearly US$50 grand.
Everyone wins, because it means Bohemia Interactive has road tested its unique approach to DLC, which provides access to all new content free-of-charge with a few reasonable restrictions that you can pay remove. The model is designed to avoid splitting the playerbase between the DLC have and have-nots, and it seems to have worked out well.

"Alongside helping us to evaluate Arma 3's new approach to DLC, with the backing of our community, Arma 3 Karts has managed to raise money for a great cause, Arma 3 creative director Jay Crowe said. A big thanks to our players, both for their support and their valuable feedback, which we'll use to refine our implementation. Overall, we're positive about the preliminary results and responses, which seems to benefit Arma 3 players and help sustain Arma 3 development."

Arma 3 Karts is still on sale for EU$1.49 / US$1.99 / 1.19, but can also be purchased in a bundle alongside the forthcoming Helicopters and Marksmen DLC.

As promised in May, Bohemia Interactive will release a substantial Arma 3 update imminently. The Bootcamp update will introduce a range of modes and features designed to ease new players into the notoriously complicated military sim, and to prove that Arma is far from impenetrable . These include a Bootcamp campaign, a special Bootcamp multiplayer mode, Virtual Training and a Virtual Arsenal.
The Bootcamp campaign is the most significant addition, and is the factor most likely to sway nervous Arma 3 newcomers. According to creative director Jay Crowe writing on the Arma 3 website, the mode will introduce the basic principles of infantry combat - actions, navigation, and weapon handling. The mode will feature gameplay which informs, supports and challenges players to complete real objectives.
Meanwhile, the Bootcamp multiplayer mode will team new players up with veteran Instructors . Instructors, taking on the role of a Zeus game master, teach Recruits with a set of predefined objectives. Recruits are led and supported by their Instructor as they fulfil the tasks given to them on-the-fly.

These will be supplemented by a Virtual Arsenal, which allows new players to explore the full extent of the game s customisation, and a special Virtual Training arena. The latter is an austere grey environment where the player is free to learn the game s mechanics without being shot at. Three principles are central to its premise, Crowe writes. Simple tasks, instant restart, and progressive difficulty. At any point, recruits can reset , clearing and respawning the topic content.

Aside from welcoming new players, the Bootcamp Update will also bring good news to the modding community. "Essentially, Workshop support for addons involves handling the discovery, installation and maintenance of all kinds of community content vehicles, mechanics, total conversions, etc. akin to the way custom scenarios are currently accessed via Steam.

"We're also set to publish the first iteration of our Game Launcher. Alongside useful basic functionality - such as command-line parameters - this separate executable helps to organise, maintain and load mods."

No specific release date for the Bootcamp Update was confirmed. The military sim has managed to sell over a million copies since its launch last year, which is pretty impressive. Oh, and if you prefer karting to warfare, Arma 3 has you covered.

The Steam Summer Sale is off to a good start this week. After good deals on The Wolf Among Us, Tomb Raider, and Skyrim over the weekend, a few more of our favorite PC games go on sale today.

Don t forget to check out GOG s summer deals, too.
Reminder: if a game isn't a daily deal or a flash sale, it could pop up later in the sale for an even lower price. If you want to be safe, wait until June 30 to pick up a sale-long deal.

5 - Surgeon Simulator 2013
75% off: $2.49 / 1.74 - Steam store page
To enjoy Surgeon Simulator, you have to like that the impossibly finicky controls and unpredictable physics game-breaking flaws anywhere else are by design, and that you ll occasionally stab your patient in the eye with a scalpel when you meant to pick up a saw. The jokes that endear us to Surgeon Simulator that QWOP-like surgery is hard, that throwing a heart into an open chest cavity qualifies as a transplant are used up pretty quickly, but there is some joy to mastering all the operations, especially when taking turns and laughing at the failures of your friends.
4 - Risk of Rain
75% off: $2.49 / 1.74 Steam store page Flash sale: Buy it before 8 p.m. EST
Where most roguelikes are slow and methodical, Risk of Rain is fast and frenetic. A constantly ticking clock increases the game difficulty every few minutes, until dozens of weak enemies turn into massive piles of bosses. Risk of Rain is a tough game, but it also strikes a great balance between skill and luck there are 9 playable characters, each with unique attacks and special abilities, and there are dozens of power-ups to memorize. Hunting for that perfect combination for a successful run is what a good roguelike is all about. Bonus: Risk of Rain's devs recently updated their blog to announce that they're moving the game to a new engine, which will fix some of the game's technical issues.
3 - Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition
75% off: $4.99 / 4.99 - Steam store page
Dark Souls often gets discounted to $5, but if you haven't picked it up already, you're missing out on one of the best action RPGs of the past five years. It's brutally difficult but rewards the determined with a deeply interconnected world to explore, precise combat to master, and so, so many secrets to find. Dark Souls almost never tells you where to go or what to do, which is so uncommon these days that it's initially daunting. Dig in, and you'll realize how refreshing it is to discover and defeat everything yourself. Just remember to install DSfix, the mod that fixes Dark Souls' terrible locked resolution and other issues.
2 - Arma 3
50% off: $29.99 / 17.99 - Steam store page
The sandboxy war simulator has never dropped below $35, so this is the cheapest Arma 3 has ever been. Bohemia has done some good work augmenting Arma 3 with the free Zeus DLC recently, and over 7,700 mods and custom mission content await in Steam Workshop. Make sure you re close to the recommended spec, but this is absolutely one of the highest-fidelity, open-ended, moddable, and malleable PC games you can own.
1 - Hitman Collection
80% off: $8.99 / 5.99 - Steam store page Flash sale: Buy it before 8 p.m. EST
Hitman: Absolution wasn't exactly our thing, but this collection includes the game that made us disappointed in IO Interactive's latest stab at the series: Blood Money. Blood Money, released in 2007, is where it all came together: the elaborate maps, complex AI, arsenal of deadly weapons, and the incredible varied ways all those pieces can come together. Take Tom Francis' word for it: "Hitman is a murder simulator, and that might be a terrible thing. I don t know. But if you re going to make one, make it as beautiful as Blood Money. Make it a dark and complex work of interactive art, a working model of the mathematics of lies. Six years later, people like me will still be too enthralled with playing it to care." Unfortunately this collection omits 2004's Hitman: Contracts (it's also on sale separately for $1.99 / 0.99) but it does include the first two games, which are a fun nostalgia trip that show how far the series has evolved.

Other great deals today
Remember that games not categorized as Daily Deals or Flash Sales may be reduced further later in the sale.

Castle Crashers (90% off) $1.49 / 0.99
Dungeon Defenders (75% off) $3.74 / 2.49
Saints Row 4 (75% off) $9.99 / 7.49
Rogue Legacy (75% off) $3.74 /
FTL: Advanced Edition (60% off) $3.99 / 2.79

While it offers an experience altogether different from the zombie violence of its sister-game DayZ, Arma 3 also looks to have struck a chord in the hearts and minds of PC gamers since its release last year. The military sim has sold one million copies, according to an announcement this week by Bohemia Interactive head Marek Spanel.

Both of Bohemia Interactive's hits have proven themselves popular in a year when so many games seem to want to be everything to everybody on every platform available with varying levels of success. As PC exclusives, that hasn't been the case with the complex and technically demanding Arma 3 or the two-million selling, Early Access alpha that is DayZ.

The future of Arma 3 isn't settler either. Modders are busy, and Bohemia is planning to pay some special attention in the form of helicopter and marksmen DLC set to begin appearing later this year. For a quintessential taste of what's possible in Arma 3, be sure to check out our review as well as the footage we captured on the Large Pixel Collider.

Thanks, Eurogamer.