Late last week we learned that Arma 3 won’t initially release with any campaign content (something that should make it an interesting challenge to review, for one thing). Instead, Arma 3 will launch with 12 single-player showcases, nine multiplayer scenarios, eight firing drills, and its mission editor, while campaign episodes will parachute in shortly after release. This should allow the military sim to emerge from beta sooner at the cost of staggering its content.

I got in touch with Joris-Jan van't Land (Project Lead) and Jay Crowe (Creative Director) to learn more about about this decision as well as what we should expect from the content of the campaign.

PC Gamer: Help me make sure I’ve got this right: Arma 3 will launch with zero campaign episodes, but you’ll begin releasing them one per month for the three months following release. Is that accurate?

Jay Crowe: Spot on, sir. Well, perhaps with the additional note that, of course, they're free.

Joris van't Land: We see the launch of the game as a solid starting point. We've focused on creating single-player showcases and challenges, multiplayer modes and, of course, the highly anticipated, Altis terrain, together with the editor and its range of units, vehicles, modules, etc.

Crowe: Exactly, we hope that Arma 3's release content provides a big variety of gameplay out of the box. We want to show players what the game is all about—what opportunities it offers—built on a solid platform, which we can gradually extend with free additions like the campaign episodes.

van't Land: But, honestly, we will admit that this is not our originally planned release strategy. It is one borne from the problems the project faced over the past years, the insightful experiences of releasing public Alpha and Beta versions, and wanting to deliver a quality campaign.

Can you give us an overview of the campaign’s story and the player’s role?

Crowe: The player is a regular soldier, a Corporal who's part of a NATO peacekeeping mission in the Mediterranean. Originally deployed in the wake of the total economic collapse of the Republic of Altis—a nation something like the size of Malta—a situation that flared up into a bloody civil war. It's been a couple of years of uneasy peace following a cease-fire. This US-led force is now in the process of a staged drawdown, tasked to decommission the bases and coordinate the scrapping of military equipment and vehicles that they can't afford to ship back home.



This withdrawal takes place in the context of decades of recession in the west and a rise in power and ambition of nations under the banner of CSAT, the Canton-Protocol Strategic Alliance Treaty. Stratis—the island where the player's unit is based—is a key strategic position between east and west. But, with the US more concerned about its interests and influence in the Pacific and traditional European powers looking inwards at their flatlining economies and mass unemployment, it's become something of an unaffordable operation.

The vacuum left by withdrawing NATO forces is being rapidly filled by CSAT, creating the conditions for, one might say, a flashpoint. The campaign follows the player from this point and examines his role across three distinct episodes: Survive, Adapt, Win.

How are the campaign episodes connected?

Crowe: Together, they form three parts of a single overarching story. Our “Episodes” are actually something like sets of interconnected missions—each a mini-campaign—related to the others in terms of the progression of a single timeline and in the gradual introduction of responsibility to the player.
"We ask the designers to think about what 'winning' actually means."
van't Land: The episodic design is not new. It's not something that we implemented after deciding on these release plans. Though, admittedly, we originally intended to release them together.

Crowe: When we came to redesign the campaign, the game—the sandbox platform—was in a considerable state of flux. The episodic nature of our revised approach was partly geared towards managing that, and partly on trying to investigate some distinct themes.

van't Land: Arma 3 is now built on a singular vision—combined arms military with an infantry core—but it’s still a very broad topic, so the themes help to focus that a bit more.

Crowe: While each episode looks at a different theme, there's a consistent thread between them all—yes, in terms of narrative—but, perhaps more importantly, in terms of gameplay. If you look at the Showcases, for example, they generally give the player an objective, a tool or a set of tools, and offer some freedom in terms of how to go about achieving that goal. In the process, one aspect of the game is "showcased." They work because they're simple enough for us to test, but open enough to allow players to enjoy completing them without being led by the hand. Our campaign episodes are similar, but—rather than focusing on a single “thing,” like “tanks” or “scuba”—they develop a single theme over the course of a few missions, deploying a range of meaningful and appropriate features that, hopefully, serve to create a consistent, enjoyable experience.



Will the result of certain events affect how the campaign plays out or ends in Arma 3? What are some examples?

van't Land: Branching and player agency over the plot is not what we're after with the Arma 3 campaign. We went back to a simpler approach that is focused on fun, and one we can test properly.

Crowe: The gameplay itself provides some opportunities for players to approach their objectives with a degree of autonomy. An example would be one mission where you have the choice to go to a weapons cache. It's an optional objective but, if you do go there, you'll be able to scavenge weapons to use in the following mission that best fits your style of play. However, if you mess up, that mission becomes more difficult.

van't Land: So there is some persistency between scenarios and episodes, but it's fairly limited and not the focal point of the experience. Big “cinematic” choices aren't really something we want to confront the player with too much—at least to begin with.

Crowe: The decisions the player does have are fairly organic. Pick the right way to complete the objective. Do so with as few casualties as possible. Unlike in Arma 2's “Harvest Red” campaign, where one had to—somehow or another—babysit your comrades, in the A3 campaign everyone can die on a mission. Sometimes, it'll be your fault for being a crappy leader; other times, it's because that helicopter you shot down crash-landed in the middle of your unit. C'est l'Arma.
"Sometimes, it'll be your fault for being a crappy leader; other times, it's because that helicopter you shot down crash-landed in the middle of your unit. C'est l'Arma."
What feedback did players give you about the Arma 2 campaigns?

van't Land: As with a lot of feedback regarding the Arma games, it was quite ... mixed. Some people really enjoyed playing them. Some were frustrated with the initial release versions not working and having showstopper bugs. Others waited for patches and re-played them in a much better state. Myself, I remember several of the missions fondly and it being very different to other games I was playing—in a good way. My favorite campaign would still be the Resistance expansion.

Crowe: I think “mixed” is a fair description. There were a lot of great things in the campaign, which—one way or another—players couldn't always access. The very nature of the design made it a bit of a nightmare for QA to test, and—unsurprisingly—that meant, where'd you'd have one person having a solid play-through, you'd have another—like me—aborting two or three hours of progress—or, indeed, restarting the entire campaign—because it needed to be patched up. There's also something to be said about the general framing of the campaign. In A2 you were playing as a fairly elite recon leader. I think some people missed the feeling of being more down to earth, something like “a nobody”—just one cog in the war machine—that eventually comes to play a bigger and bigger role.

van't Land: We went for too much complexity and cinematic approaches that we could not execute well enough. Ambition has always been something that drives our games—it's important to creatively challenge yourself, but it also can mean we take on too much. Something that was also true of the original concept for the Arma 3 campaign. Plus, the use of higher-than-squad command in the Arma 2 campaign has always been a bone of contention. The Warfare mode, base building and such elements in single-player—a lot can be said about that ...



Crowe: Indeed, but, I'm afraid much of it is negative! When we set that kind of experience against our goal of trying to convince players to give Arma a chance and discover the beauty of the game, well, I think it's asking too much from one campaign. Joris is spot on about the need to be ambitious and challenging, what we've tried to do is find a good balance between stability and innovation. When we look at the awesome experiences you can have—that people have been having—during the Alpha and Beta, it only hardens our resolve to deliver something more worthy of A3's potential.

What sort of tactical situations do you want to put players in? What experiences do you want them to have in the campaign?

van't Land: Very many different ones—that's sort of the point of the three stages. My personal favorite situation is being a grunt in an infantry squad, taking part in a combined arms assault. Another great experience is roaming the massive terrain and finding opportunities as an underdog—locating weapon caches, setting up ambushes, avoiding conflict when that's more appropriate. But there is a lot of subjectivity at play there—others enjoy being in command or being a lone operator. Or driving a tank, flying a helicopter, etc. We returned in some way to our approach with Cold War Crisis and Resistance, where many types of gameplay are offered, but none are dominating. So if you dislike a certain type of gameplay you're not stuck with it through most of the campaign.

Crowe: Let's take the most awkwardly named episode. I mean—"Survive," "Adapt"—those themes immediately conjure up some sense of the experience, but "Win," well, perhaps appears more two-dimensional. Smells a bit like tiger blood or something. So, here, we ask the designers to think about what "winning" actually means. There are the obvious things like, being part of a dominant force or striking serious blows against your enemy, but one might also consider things like the price of victory, winning at what cost, winning against the odds, despite friendly fire, etc. We want our game mechanics and features to be meaningful and, to do that, we want to put players in specific situations and challenge them to think about how to complete their objectives.

Bohemia has more campaign information on the Arma 3 blog. Arma 3 is currently available for purchase through Steam Early Access.

ShackTactical's Dslyecxi is back for another official Arma 3 community guide. Given how long the game's been available in its alpha/beta state, the community have had more time to get to grips with its basics. To keep up, this latest video focuses on the advanced lessons: like keeping an improbably hovering metal box from crashing into the ground.

If you're not yet ready for the effective handling of skyward death traps, Dslyecxi's previous videos should get you up to speed. You can find guides on teamwork and infantry combat here, and a progress update on the game's future plans here.

I’m inside of a wall, inside of a fire station. I see a fellow survivor—only not really, because I’m inside of a wall. Mashing V repeatedly, I slowly slide down to the ground floor of the four-story tower. As my feet touch the floor, I sprint back into the traversable interior of the fire station and begin the hunt. I step outside and immediately spot N3m3sis. Zeroing in on his head, I pull the trigger and he drops to the ground.

DayZ players everywhere anxiously await the impending launch of the DayZ Standalone’s alpha. People aren’t content with the dated graphics, the endless list of bugs, and the general state of the DayZ mod. DayZ Arma 3 is here to change that. The Zoombies team has ported the DayZ mod straight into Arma 3. You’ll be seeing the exact same models, zombies, and weapons rendered in the full glory of the Arma 3 engine. Let me be the first to say that it looks absolutely amazing.

Can something so beautiful really be the backdrop for a zombie game?

On my rig, DayZ Arma 3 runs much better than the standard DayZ mod—a credit to Bohemia’s Arma 3 optimization. Even if many of the textures are just upscaled, the difference in lighting and detail is terrific. Even the guns look amazing. In the DayZ mod, the Lee Enfield is abhorred by experienced players everywhere for being an aural flare gun. Shooting it alerts every zombie within an almost ridiculously large radius. In DayZ Arma 3, that same gun transforms into a beautiful amalgamation of wood and metal. It's not functionally different, but it looks amazing. Throw in Arma 3's improved physics and all the weapons feel as powerful as they look.

I hope he has knee pads.

The ragdoll physics of Arma 3 are hilariously applied to the zombies. One minute they’re alive and well, zigzagging across Chernarus for a chance to take a swipe at you. The next, they're somersaulting backwards into the pavement. Seeing a zombie faceplant is inherently satisfying and makes killing zombies so much more fun.

Although the zombie animations are still awkward because of their tendency to random stop, player animations have seen some subtle improvements. There's a distinct sense of weight that accompanies each stance—running, walking, or sprinting. I noticed each and every step that I took which is important in a game where being seen or heard is tantamount to being dead. Although many of the animations look nearly identical to their Arma 2 versions, additions like prone sprinting and a better walk animation go a long way towards making the game look tighter.

The Arma 3 inventory: I would be happy even if he didn't have two guns.

There’s one thing that makes DayZ Arma 3 infinitely better than the original DayZ mod—inventory. Arma 2’s inventory system was never to meant to support a loot-driven game like DayZ. Zoombies has fully integrated Arma 3’s glorious, low-input inventory system with multiple inventory spaces (backpack and vest) as well as near instant interaction. Picking up an item isn’t nearly as hard as it used to be.

If you have ever had any interest at all in DayZ, go try this right now. DayZ TV has a great guide on how to get DayZ Arma 3 installed. Braver readers can visit the official site and figure it all out themselves. The bugs may not be fixed, but the games looks, feels, and plays so much better.

Arma 3's new beta trailer is a veritable shop window of soldierly hardware—stealthy helicopters, mini subs, and fearsome sniper rifles. But it's not just a training exercise as we also get a look at how all those weapons of war might be put use in Bohemia Interactive's upcoming military sim.



The Arma series is of course known for its massive scale. It has huge maps, heaps of equipment to master, and an impressive attention to detail. The new trailer dials up the detail level to 11 and invites us to wonder—is there anything we can't do in this giant sandbox world? We get a glance at firing drills, co-op missions, and night operations, among other scenarios. It's safe to say there's going to be a lot to mobilize when Arma 3 eventually releases.

You can purchase access to the beta through Steam and will then receive a release copy when the full game is finished. The first beta patch has already been added and it appears feedback is flowing in the right direction as all the early-adopters take the battlefield.

For more on Arma 3, check out our hands-on look at the alpha-phase gameplay.

If passwords were soldiers, you'd not entrust them to protect even the most minor strategic point. They may look the part, but they're always getting captured. Arma 3 developer Bohemia Interactive are the latest group to fall victim to nefarious internet mercenaries - who broke into the website and took users' account names, emails and passwords. Luckily, those passwords were encrypted, ensuring the hackers are just getting the Geneva Convention standard: name, rank and number.

Here's the statement from Bohemia:

"We have unfortunately discovered that an illegal attempt has been made to access certain of our online websites, leading to the download of a database containing usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords. Please note due to the encryption of the passwords it is very unlikely that anything nefarious can be done with this information.

"We would like to reassure everyone that no other information such as credit card details is stored by us and thus was not at any risk from this illegal breach."

Passwords have now been reset, so to access your Bohemia account you'll need to pop over to the recovery page and create a new one.

Looking on the bright side, despite a recent spate of compromised services, sites seem to be much better and handling security issues than only a few years ago. Encrypted passwords and off-site card details have become the norm. And while it's minor annoyance having to think up yet another series of letters and numbers, at least the important stuff is being kept out of unscrupulous hands.

Bohemia have released the latest in Dslyecxi's Arma III community guide video series. Where previous videos have guided newbies through teamwork, infantry combat, and modding, this time we're being given an overview of the alpha's development history, as well as a feature round-up of the newly beta'd version's features.



Given the amount of additions and fixes Dslyecxi runs through, it's hard to fault Bohemia's treatment of the alpha. Plus we also get some top picks of the mods and missions that are already building a solid community within the game.

With the beta update, the game now includes more showcase missions, new weapons and vehicles, and an extra faction. The big addition - the 270 km2 main island of Atlis - won't arrive until the full game is ready. That's currently expected for some time this Autumn.

We've got loads more coverage available through our Arma 3 hub page. Alternatively you could go and look at these nice screenshots.

Now that the blinding glare of every major publisher simultaneously projecting marketing at us has dimmed, we have a clearer picture of what E3 2013 revealed, what's important to us, and what we expect to be playing on PC within the next couple years. And here it all is.

In this list, we've compiled every game announced—as well as a few which were shown again—and their PC release statuses, with a few exceptions. We left out games already released on PC, like Diablo III and Planetside 2, as well as long-running console exclusive series and other accepted PC no-shows, such as Kinect Sports Rivals, Super Smash Bros., Killzone: Shadow Fall, Infamous, Halo, and so on.

Alright, so it's actually a list of almost every game shown at E3, but even when you cut E3's Nintendo, Halo, Killzone, and Madden announcements, there's a ton to see, and it's all alphabetized here. We've also color coded each entry: GREEN means confirmed for PC, BLUE means it's a maybe, and RED means we doubt the topic will be discussed anytime soon, but hey, anything can happen.

Table of Contents: A-E | F-M | N-S | T-Z
Arma 3
Announced for PC? Of course!
Release date Beta begins June 25, 2013

Arma 3 is already in alpha, but that didn't keep Bohemia from showing it at E3. Speaking to us at the show, the developer revealed that the beta, with new vehicles, scenarios, and a new faction, will begin on June 25th. We also saw a dozen new screenshots, some of which were grabbed from the beta.


Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date October 29, 2013 (NA), November 1, 2013 (EU)

Want to watch a really weird music video about pirates, but maybe also about drugs? The Assassin's Creed IV "Horizon" trailer, embedded below, is all yours to consume with a cocked eyebrow. If you want to know more about Black Flag's story and protagonist, however, try the E3 cinematic trailer, which begins with a bar fight, and then- oh, wait, nope, another weird music montage. Or you could read our most recent preview of the pirate adventure.


Battlefield 4
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date October 29, 2013 (NA), November 1, 2013 (EU)

Battlefield 4's multiplayer was the focus of E3, and we got to play a round on the Siege of Shanghai map. It was a good time, though we're a bit concerned by the lack of core changes to the Battlefield 3 experience. Still, the vastness of the map and its central, collapsible skyscraper aren't at all trivial features—see how it looks from the perspective of an expert player in a much better organized match below.


Below
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

The beautiful Below, a Capy game with music from Jim Guthrie (the same duo behind Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery LP), was shown at E3 with the enticing trailer below and the tagline "Explore. Survive. Discover." It's only announced for Xbox One, and with Microsoft Studios publishing it may stay that way, but Capy has brought other games to PC.


Black Tusk Studios (untitled game)
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

Black Tusk Studios is one of Microsoft's first-party developers, so whatever this teased game is, it's another expected Xbox One exclusive for all eternity. Unless... Windows 8? Maybe?


Call of Duty: Ghosts
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date November 5, 2013

I wasn't very impressed by the Call of Duty: Ghosts demo shown at E3, but there's still plenty of time for Activison and Infinity Ward to show us something more impressive before the November release. One of our main hopes for Ghosts' campaign is that it'll take risks. So far, the gameplay's novelty looks to rely on sets and set pieces (as seen in the diving level below) and not mechanics. Let's hope we see some experimentation with the latter—I want to see what players are allowed to do on their own, without the precise direction of a soft voice in their ears.


Contrast
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2013

Contrast was announced for PS4 at the show, but it'll be on Steam too, according to the official site.


Crimson Dragon
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

From the creator of Panzer Dragoon comes Crimson Dragon, which looks a lot like a new Panzer, just missing an extra 'o.' Oh, and it's an Xbox One exclusive. Darn.


D4
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

Another Microsoft Studios game, another likely Xbox One exclusive. D4 is an episodic murder mystery set inside a Photoshop filter which somehow makes time travel possible.


Dark Souls 2
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date March 2014

This time, Dark Souls II is coming directly to PC—none of this petitioning malarkey—and we're damn excited to be damned again. We're so excited, we named it the best RPG of E3 2013. That's not a knock on The Witcher 3, which we also expect to be incredible, just acknowledgement of DSII's fantastic demonstration. That mirror boss (about 50 seconds into the video) is just diabolical.


Daylight
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2014

Daylight is a horror game from Zombie Studios announced for the PC and PS4. Abandoned hospital? Check. Flooded basement? Check. Fluorescent light cut into shadows by a slowly spinning ceiling fan? Check. Glimpse of a shadowed figure? Check. Cracked, eyeless porcelain doll? Check! Daylight has all the makings of every horror game ever!

Really, though, it's one we're watching, especially for the "procedurally generated world" which is said to restructure the environment for each new game.


Dead Rising 3
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date November 2013

Dead Rising 2 made it to PC right along with its Xbox 360 and PS3 buddies, but Dead Rising 3's fate lies as an Xbox One exclusive launch game, just as the first in the series was an Xbox 360 exclusive.

Aw, we want to craft electric saw hammers too! If it does well, we can hope DR2 gets a PC port after the second wave of big Xbox One games hits, but don't expect to hear a peep about it during the initial marketing push.


Destiny
Announced for PC? Nope, but it's not been ruled out
Release date TBA 2014

Bungie isn't interested in discussing its new MMO shooter's potential on PC, except to say that the idea is loveable and appetizing. For now, all we can do is look on at the co-op alien killing with fingers crossed that PC support won't be seen as a distraction from console support.


Divekick
Announced for PC? Yep, it's on Greenlight
Release date TBA

Divekick is a 2D fighting game which uses two buttons. One evades, one divekicks. To win, you must divekick your oppenent—one hit earns a knock out. That's Divekick. It sounds a bit ridiculous on paper, but in practice, I'm hearing great things about the game of positioning, timing, and nerves.


Dragon Age: Inquisition
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date Fall 2014

Dragon Age III: Inquisition has become Dragon Age: Inquisition, a sequel with three fewer 'I's (though "inquisition" already has enough, doesn't it?) revealed to be coming next fall. Though the E3 trailer doesn't show any gameplay, it's called "actual game footage," which we assume means "rendered in real-time in Frostbite 3," as "actual pre-rendered cutscene" wouldn't be much to brag about.

We don't know a lot more than what's revealed here, but this is what we'd like to see in DA: Inquisition.


Driveclub
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date November 2013

Evolution Studios, creator of MotorStorm, is building this promising racer exclusively for the PS4. And, like MotorStorm, it'll probably stay that way. Keep on driving, folks, The Crew and Need for Speed: Rivals are just down the road.


Dying Light
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2014

Techland (you probably know 'em from Dead Island, or the recent, surprisingly good Call of Juarez: Gunslinger) has a new zombie game, and it has an urban parkour CG trailer. The video isn't quite the marketing phenomenon that was the Dead Island CG trailer, but it's an enticing offer. That is, assuming the game looks and plays anything like it.


EVR — EVE Virtual Reality
Announced for PC? Sort of
Release date Nope

EVR (EVE Virtual Reality) is the Oculus Rift dogfighting game CCP showed off at Fanfest 2013 and then E3, and it runs on PC...but isn't announced for anything. The pet project is probably being shown to gauge interest in Rift games, and so far, our interest is very, very high.



Table of Contents: A-E | F-M | N-S | T-Z



Table of Contents: A-E | F-M | N-S | T-Z
Fez 2
Announced for PC? TBD
Release date TBD

 All we know about Fez 2 is that it exists, and we hope it comes to PC—even after word that Fez would never escape consoles, it eventually made it to Steam, so our hopes are high.


FIFA 14
Announced for PC? Yep*
Release date September 24, 2013

It's no shocker that there's a new FIFA, and that it's coming to PC later this year. There is a catch, though. *The next-gen "Ignite" engine won't be coming to PC, at least until it can "facilitate the open nature of PC architecture."


Hex: Shards of Fate
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date Beta this year

Hex, a Kickstarted trading card MMO from Cryptozoic, was hidden away at E3, but it was there, running PvP battles and everything. Our friends at GamesRadar recorded the developer demo below:


Hohokum
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

I'm not sure if PixelJunk's stylishly quirky visuals are native to the devs, or if they're a Sony-patented console feature. Hohokum, a downloadable PS4 exclusive from London-based studio Honeyslug, has a lot of that same mojo.

The company has a history of publishing PC and web-based games, so Hohokum may not stay locked up forever. Though if Sony doesn't ever want it to leave, it won't.


Killer Instinct
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date 2013

So this is what Rare has been working on. Killer Instinct is almost certainly stuck exclusively on the Xbox One, but I included it so that you too can enjoy hearing "ULTRAAA COMBOOOOO!"


Knack
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

SCE Studio Japan's Knack could be a trailer for a Dreamworks movie—an unlikely hero, a bit of cute, and some surprisingly good voice acting. It's also an action-platformer that looks at home as a PS4 exclusive, so we don't expect it to wash up on PC shores.


LEGO Marvel Superheroes
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date Fall 2013

It's a LEGO game, so it's coming to every platform there is—I'm surprised Atari Lynx support wasn't announced.


LocoCycle
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date November 2013

I know it's just the set up for a joke, but calling the Xbox One "the most advanced gaming system ever conceived" has to elicit a cross-armed pshhhh. I can't help it. Anyway, this is LocoCycle, Twisted Pixel's unlikely candidate for a PC port.


Lords of the Fallen
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date TBA

Deck 13 and City Interactive are producing an action RPG. It's being compared to Dark Souls. The guy in charge is Tomasz Gop, a former Witcher 2 developer. And, and, it's been announced for PC. Hallelujah.


Mad Max
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2014

Warner Bros. has got Avalanche Studios—creators of the Just Cause series—working on a Mad Max game to be released next year. As expected, it's an open-world game, and if you can get past the oppression of Australians, it's one to be excited for. Avalanche is just the studio for the job.


Mercenary Kings
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2013

Mercenary King looks a lot like Metal Slug, but with added RPG-style depth in the form of weapon crafting. And an adorable dog robot boss. It's coming to PS4, but first, PC pre-orders are already being accepted on the official site.


Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

Kojima won't say whether or not Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be released on PC, but he did say that there's hope. So, hope and a new trailer are all we have.


Mirror's Edge 2
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date "When it's ready"

The sequel—or more likely prequel, now that we've seen it—to Mirror's Edge has been long requested and rumored. Five years after its first release, it's finally here. Well, not here here—DICE won't say when it's releasing, but I'd put my money on late 2014.



Table of Contents: A-E | F-M | N-S | T-Z



Table of Contents: A-E | F-M | N-S | T-Z
Need for Speed: Rivals
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date November 19, 2013

The twentieth Need for Speed game brings back the cops vs. racers play of last year's NFS: Most Wanted in an open world. According to EA, NFS: Rivals introduces "seamless" multiplayer.

"Paths cross and experiences merge," reads the official site. "Imagine your race and your friend’s pursuit colliding creating a world where no two events will ever feel the same." Imagining... Imagining... Imagining complete. Yep, sounds cool.


Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee New 'n' Tasty
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date Holiday 2013

It's a "New 'n' Tasty" recreation of 1997's Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, of course.


Outlast
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2013

Red Barrels' Outlast horrified crowds at PAX, and the news at E3 is that it's coming to PS4. But no worries, that shouldn't affect the PC release, which is planned for this summer. Hey, that's right now! Outlast should be on Steam soon, if development is still going as planned.


Payday 2
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date August 13, 2013

 Payday 2 was playable at the show, and in our maiden heist, Evan Lahti, Cory Banks, and I failed. We were told that heists can be handled with stealth, but, covered with bulky armor, we went in masks on and guns drawn. Pretty soon, the bank was surrounded, hostages were fleeing, and gas was choking us. After our drill popped the safe open, we started shoving cash into our bags, but the SWAT team was already inside the bank. Evan was the only one to make it out.

We'll have more on Payday 2 soon—in the meantime, Sony posted the interview below, and check out our most recent preview.


Peggle 2
Announced for PC? TBA
Release date 2013

The only information we have about Peggle 2 is "PEGGLE 2!" and a mid-air freeze frame that was just missing the freeze frame. We assume PopCap's next ball-and-peg game will come to PC, but we can never be too sure—the PC wasn't listed as a launch platform for Plants vs. Zombies 2. Assuming it's not just iOS and Android, though, here are a few things we'd like to see.


Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date "Coming soon"

PopCap's Battlefield parody was announced at E3 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. It's a four-player co-op shooter—perhaps similar to Dungeon Defenders? We'll see when PopCap releases it "soon." My best guess is early 2014.


Project Spark
Announced for PC? Yep*
Release date TBA

Project Spark is a game-making game—something a bit like Square Enix's GameGlobe—in which players design and sculpt worlds and behaviors to create multiplayer experiences. In the awkward demo below, it's all about fighting goblins, but if Spark's simple scripting is as open as we hope, it could be the start of a great community of tinkerers. It was poorly communicated in the demonstration, but we've heard word from colleagues about such potential.

Spark has been announced for Xbox One and PC...that is, *Windows 8 PCs. The requirement is a bit frustrating, but at least it'll be free-to-play.


Quantum Break
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

Remedy's Xbox One exclusive was announced back at Microsoft's first Xbone reveal conference. We got a new trailer at E3, and more talk of its tie-in TV show, but no word on PC support. That's not a surprise. Given that it's Remedy, though, we won't count it out just yet.


Ray's the Dead
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date TBA

Ray's the Dead, yet another indie coming to PS4, is already on Steam Greenlight with planned Windows, Mac, and Linux releases. It's a zombie game, but rather than fighting zombies, you are one—the devs sum it up as "Pikmin meets Stubbs the Zombie."


Ryse: Son of Rome
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

Crytek is building this Xbox One exclusive, which looks a bit like a third-person action version of Total War: Rome II. Unfortunately, it also looks like an Xbox-only game through and though ("press Y smash head" and all that).


Shadow Warrior
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2014

Flying Wild Hog is the Polish developer behind cyberpunk shooter Hard Reset, which wasn't great, but I liked a lot about it. Since then it's been working on Shadow Warrior, a remake of 3D Realms' absurd 1997 FPS. This one'll probably be a bit more politically correct, but that won't stop it from being ridiculous.


Star Wars: Battlefront
Announced for PC? TBA
Release date TBA

All we have is this teaser trailer, but DICE and EA know that's all we need to get hyped for a new Battlefront. It's DICE and it's Frostbite 3, so we can pretty much assume it'll be on PC (and yes, that means Origin). After all the speculation and rumoring—most recently, Disney signing a deal with EA—we're just happy we can finally stop wondering and start hoping for the best.


Sunset Overdrive
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBD

Even if this trailer is just a pre-rendered concept, everything about Insomniac's new game looks fun. Fun that our friends over at Xbox 360 The Official Magazine will likely be having without us, sadly.



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Table of Contents: A-E | F-M | N-S | T-Z
The Crew
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2014

Ubisoft showed off The Crew at its press conference this year with a great trailer about a poltergeist who builds cars. The gameplay walkthrough below is a clearer picture of how the game looks, and what it is: an open-world, MMO-ish, racing and objective-based driving game.


The Elder Scrolls Online
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date Spring 2014, Beta signups now

The Elder Scrolls Online showed up to E3 to talk up its Xbox One and PS4 releases, but we just came for the new gameplay footage.


The Evil Within
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2014

Shinji Mikami, the creator of Resident Evil, is making a new survival horror game. You bet we're excited—The Evil Within is gory, unsettling, and doesn't look like it fits into the "action FPS with slimy enemies that walk weird" category, something we've come to expect from the mutated survival horror genre. Nope, Bethesda is calling it "pure survival horror," and that's how it's looking so far, which is lovely.


The Order: 1886
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

I like almost everything about the debut trailer for The Order: 1886, which was shown at Sony's conference this year. I like alternate history London, complete with regular history fog and smog. I like the spark guns. I like the horse carriage defense scenario. The only thing I don't like is the PS4 exclusivity.

It's kind of a big thing, unfortunately, and it's doubtful that Sony and Ready at Dawn—a developer known for PSP games—will ever send it our way.


The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Announced for PC? Of course!
Release date 2014

The big Witcher 3 news at E3 was that it's coming to Xbox One—no surprise, as the last game was ported over to the Xbox 360, too. That shouldn't affect what we'll be seeing on PC, and so far, what we're seeing is gorgeous: a massive open world to ride and sail through, and all the morally gray decisions we expect Geralt to gruff his way through.


The Witness
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date TBA

Braid creator Jonathan Blow's next game—a puzzle-exploration game set on a MYSTerious island—is a PS4 exclusive, but according to Blow, the deal only applies to competing console platforms, and doesn't prevent the game from releasing on PC. We hope similar agreements apply to some of the other indies Sony snagged for the PS4—from the looks of it so far, we could see a bunch of them on PC.


Thief
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2014

Our first glimpse at Eidos Montreal's Thief reboot was at GDC 2013, and I was impressed by the hands-off demo, as well as by my terrible memory of the series. Square Enix has now delivered more details in a new interview, a bunch of new E3 screenshots, and the trailer below to keep the new Thief at the front of our minds. Get even more Thief coverage here.


Titanfall
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2014

Respawn Entertainment—the developer formed from the ashes of Infinity Ward and Activision's dispute—has finally played its new hand. Titanfall was our favorite new shooter of the show, a futuristic multiplayer FPS which combines some of Tribes' jetpack agility, some of Call of Duty's guns and speed, and some of Hawken's mech battling to create a frankenshooter of great potential.


Tom Clancy's The Division
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date 2014

The Division looks so interesting, the lack of a PC announcement was our biggest disappointment of E3 2013. Hope is far from lost, though—there's a darn good chance Ubisoft is just latching on to the next-gen console train for now and will hop off sometime after it passes launch station this winter.

There's already a petition for a PC release, and by all means sign it if you're interested, but it's doubtful it'll make a difference. I don't expect Ubi needs signatures to know there's interest in a PvE/PvP survival shooter set in all of New York City.


Transistor
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date Early 2014

Supergiant Games' Bastion follow-up got a new trailer at E3, and, of course, its PS4 reveal. It'll be on Steam, too, though. We even got to play it at last year's PAX—have a read of that preview and our latest coverage for more.


Trials Fusion
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date 2014

My eyes are starting to get sore picking out the little "PC Software" logos at the ends of trailers, but at least this was a great trailer to watch. The next of RedLynx's torture chambers for ragdoll motorcyclists, Trials Fusion, is coming to PC in 2014.


Watch Dogs
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date November 19, 2013 (NA), November 22, 2013 (EU)

We were skeptical of Watch Dogs' promises when it was announced at last year's E3, but Ubisoft has slowly chipped away at our skepticism with impressive demos since then. This E3 gave us a weird new CG trailer, the much better gameplay demo below, and some new details on the multiplayer.


Wolfenstein: The New Order
Announced for PC? Yep
Release date Winter 2013

Bethesda and MachineGames's new Wolfenstein is a single-player, id Tech 5-powered addition to the classic series set in a 1960's where the Nazis won. And, as we've seen, it's full of the expected alternate history tech. We'll have more from its E3 showing soon—in the meantime, there's of course a new trailer:


Zoo Tycoon
Announced for PC? Nope
Release date TBA

Yep, Blue Fang's Zoo Tycoon, which is published by Microsoft Game Studios, is an Xbox 360 and Xbox One exclusive. Sure, why not?



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Military sim fans rejoice! Bohemia has confirmed that Arma 3 will be heading into beta later this month, June 25 to be exact.
Additions will include new arsenals and vehicles to test and new scenarios that include a co-op and multi-team, wave-based defense scenario. Additionally, a new "Independent" faction consisting of a military native to Altis and Stratis was mentioned. You know, in case you were tired of Blufor and Opfor.
Another change is that uploading player-created missions to Steam Workshop will be directly integrated into the Arma 3 mission editor, which should streamline things a bit. This isn't necessarily going to be available during the beta, but it is a confirmed feature. Eventually. 
If June 25 is too long a wait for you, be sure to check out our recent hands-on with the alpha.
For the latest from E3, check out our complete coverage.

With E3 2013 just around the corner, we gathered around the Rectangular Coffee Table of Hopes and Dreams to discuss what we're looking forward to rubbing our eyeballs gently across at the show. Will Payday 2 address its predecessor's shortcomings? Might we get a glimpse at Fallout 4? Prey 2? As long as we can dream...

Keep an eye out over the next few days to watch the rest of our discussion, including the impact of this year's expo on the PC as a whole, and our rampant speculation on E3 2014.