It's a big month for PC Gamer UK. The disc is gone. We put it in a paper boat and burnt it at sea (or, rather the river next to our office). In its place we have 64 extra pages. That means more reviews, more previews, bigger features and more adventures in Extra Life. To celebrate, we're giving everyone who buys the new issue free stuff, whether you subscribe, buy online, in a shop, or even digitally. Everyone will get an exclusive Team Fortress 2 hat, and a month of OnLive access. The issue will be arriving with subscribers now, and will hit stores this Wednesday.

But what's inside? The screaming warrior on our cover gives away our huge Skyrim preview, but there's more. Much, much more. We turn the office into the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. We talk to Gabe Newell about his Dota 2 obsession, delve into Firefall, take a look at Planetside 2, invent the perfect version of Left 4 Dead 3 and Tim strokes a Tribble. Read on to find out why.



We have seen the future, and it is glorious. It involves a team of PC gamers clustered around PCs, pretending to pilot a starship without nuking themselves to death. The game is Artemis: Bridge Simulator. The mission: boldly pilot a ship around the place. Expect carnage, incompetence, and more than a few Star Trek gags in our eight page Artemis feature.

In other future news, our writers have flown all over the place to see some of the most exciting upcoming releases, including Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Mass Effect 3, Bordlerlands 2, Tribes Ascend, Anno 2070, Planetside 2, World of Warplanes. That's all before our enormous ten page Skyrim preview, in which Tom Francis heads to the depths of Skyrim's deepest dungeons to electrocute, and then punch anyone who tries to steal his mighty battleaxe. Then we present 50 reasons to be excited about the upcoming free-to-play jetpack shooter, Firefall.

In the huge reviews section this month, we turn our glowing mono-eye of judgement on *deep breath* Dead Island, F1 2011, Desktop Dungeons, Age of Empires Online, Space Marine, Supreme Ruler: Cold War, Call of Duty: Black Ops Annihilation, Bastion, The Baconing, Achron, War inc. Battlezone, Chantelise...

*gasp* ...Storm: Frontline Nation, Traffic Manager 2011, Men of War: Vietnam, Pirates of the Black Cove, Serious Sam: Doubled, Cthulhu Saves the World, Dungeons of Dredmor, E.Y.E.: Divine Cybromancy and Tim Stone's review of magnificent German Bus Simulator, OMSI.

It's not just our reviews section that's massive this month. Extra Life has grown, too. This month, Tom F dives into TF2 as a Scout and is accidentally really good at it, Chris Donlan prays to the crate gods in Super Crate Box, Phil Savage becomes Frozen Synapse's equivalent of a Pool Hall shark, Tim goes back on the WoWcrack and Tom Hatfield mods Fallout 3 into something else entirely. That's before Tom S gets Japan drunk to make more ninjas in Shogun 2, Rich gets to the chopper in ARMA 2 and Duncan Geere destroys the entire universe and bowls with stars in Universe Sandbox.

New to Extra Life this month, we introduce the Battle Report. Rich gives a blow by blow account of one of the finest matches in the Major League Gaming Anaheim tournament. In Update Tom Hatfield goes a bit tank mad in World of Tanks, Tim plays Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops and makes them fight, and Chris Livingston goes on safari to see explosions in the wild in Far Cry 2. We also take a good look at the making of Total War: Shogun 2.

There's still the hardware section, this month's competition, our special report on the million dollar Dota 2 tournament, the Face Off and even more to discover. It's too many pages to fit into one web post. There's only one solution, and that's to pick it up and read it for yourself. We hope you enjoy it. For an insight into how it all came together, check out our series of video diaries on the making of issue 232. If you're inclined to subscribe, you can do so now to get every issue delivered to your door, cheaper, faster, and clad in our exclusive subscriber covers.

Elder Scrolls fans had a chance to get some hands on time with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim recently at the Eurogamer Expo, and have collated a big old list of information on most of Skyrim's Perks over on The Elder Scrolls Skyrim fan site. These extra abilities can boost your major skills. One will cause your lightning bolt spell to outright evaporate your enemy if their health is low enough. Another will make items cheaper when you buy from the opposite sex you charming rogue, you.

There will be more pronounced racial differences in Skyrim, too. A scaly Argonian will have different baseline stats to a sturdy Orc. They're more adept at picking locks, but can't take a punch quite as well. As with Oblivion, each race will start with a racial ability of which the most impressive is surely the Dark Elf's Ancestor's Wrath, which surround him in wreaths of flame. In Oblivion, these abilities could often only be used once every 24 hours. A bit of Ancestor's Wrath after breakfast would be a great way to start the day, don't you think? Read on for the full list of perks discovered so far.

Perk Trees
Speech

Buying and selling price 10% better (5 ranks)
10% price buying from opposite sex
Invest in shops and increase available gold permanently in invested stores
Master Trader – every merchant in world gains 1000 gold for bartering
Buy and sell from any merchant regardless of what they normally buy and sell
Intimidation attempts twice as successful
Persuasion attempts more likely successful

 
Alchemy

Potions 20% stronger (5 ranks)
Potions for restore health, magicka or stamina are 25% more powerful (maybe ranked)
Poisons 25% more effective (maybe ranked)
Poisons last for twice as many hits
Two ingredients are gathered from plants
50% resistance to all poisons
All negative effects removed from potions and all positive removed from poisons
2 effects of an ingredient are revealed when testing it for the first time (instead of just one)

 
Illusion

Dual casting overcharges effect for more powerful spell
Cast Novice spells for 50% less magicka
Cast Apprentice spells for 50% less magicka
Cast Adept, Expert, Master etc spells for 50% less magicka (more levels this time around)
Spells work on higher level animals
Spells work on higher level people
All spellcasting (from ANY school) is done silently
Spells work on undead, daedra and automatons
Fear spells work on higher level enemies

 
Conjuration

Novice for 50% magicka etc (up to Master)
Dual casting overcharges –> greater spell effect
Bound weapons do more damage
Bound weapons cast Soul Trap on target
Bound weapons banish certain creatures (and I think summon creature in their place, not 100% on that though, dodgy recording)
Reanimate undead with 100 more health
Summon 2 Atronachs or reanimated zombies
Summon Atronachs at twice the distance
Summoned Atronachs twice as strong

 
Destruction

More damage for each school (fire, frost and shock) – ranked
Novice for 50% magicka etc.
Shock damage chance to disintegrate targets if their health is under 10%
Frost damage chance to paralyse targets if health low
Fire damage chance to make low health enemies flee
Place runes 5x farther away

 
Restoration

Healing spells also restore stamina
Novice for 50% less magicka etc
Healing spells do 50% more healing
Recharging healing spells
More is recharged with each hit with healing spells (unclear)
Spells more effective against undead
Once a day chance to autocast 250HP restoration when health drops low
Magicka regenerates 25% faster

 
Alteration

Novice for 50% less etc
Alteration spells have greater duration (ranked)
Absorb 30% magicka that hits you

 
Enchanting

Enchants are 20% stronger (ranked)
Enchanted armour 25% stronger
“Soul gems provide extra magicka for recharging” – again, dodgy recording but that’s what I heard, even if it doesn’t make much sense
Death blows to creatures but not people trap souls for weapon recharge
Health, magicka and stamina enchants stronger
Extra effect on already-enchanted weapon can be applied
Shock, Frost and Fire enchants 25% stronger (individual perks for each element)

 
Heavy Armour

Increase armour rating 20% (5 ranks)
Unarmed attacks with heavy armour gauntlets – damage increased by gauntlets’ armour rating
Half fall damage if all in heavy armour
Heavy armour weighs nothing and doesn’t slow you at all
Additional 25% armour if in matching set
25% armour bonus if all in heavy armour (not necessarily matching)
50% less stagger if all in heavy armour
10% damage reflected back to enemy if all in heavy armour

 
2-handed weapons

2h weapons do 20% more damage (5 ranks)
Attacks with warhammers ignore 25% armour (ranked)
Attacks with battleaxes do extra bleeding damage (ranked)
Attacks with greatswords do extra critical damage (ranked)
Power attacks cost 25% less stamina
Standing power attacks do 25% bonus damage, chance to decapitate
Sprinting power attacks do double (critical) damage
Sideways power attacks hit all targets
Backwards power attacks have 25% chance of paralysis

 
Archery

Bows do 25% more damage
Zoom in
Zooming slows time
10% crit chance
Move faster with drawn bow
Recover twice as many arrows from dead bodies
50% chance of paralysing for few seconds (might be 15%, can’t really hear…)
Draw bow 30% faster

 
Sneak

20% harder to detect (ranked)
Sneak attacks do 6x damage with 1h weapons
Sneak attacks with bows do 3x damage
Sneak attacks with daggers do 15x damage (end perk on skill tree)
Noise from armour reduced 50%
No longer activate pressure plates
Sprinting while sneaking performs silent forward roll
Running does not affect detection chance
Crouching can make hostile enemies lose sight of you and search for a target

 
Racial Abilities

ORCS: Beserker
REDGUARDS: Adrenaline Rush
WOOD ELF: Resist poison, resisit disease, command animals
NORD: Battlecry
KHAJIIT: Night-eye, claw attacks
IMPERIAL: Voice of the Emperor, find more coins when looting
HIGH ELF: Regenerate Magicka more quickly
DARK ELF: Ancestor’s Wrath (surround self in fire), resist fire
BRETON: Dragonskin (absorb spells), resist shock
ARGONIANS: Histskin (regenerate health quickly), resist disease, breathe underwater

 

The biggest dose of Skyrim yet! This fantastic twenty minute video is what was shown to press at the Skyrim E3 demonstration. Narrated by Producer Todd Howard, it shows you... well just about everything. There's horse riding, mountain climbing, dungeon crawling, flower picking even a massive battle against one of Skyrim's unlimited dragons.

So settle down and make yourself a cup of tea, because you're going to be watching this for a while. If you're still hungry for more information, check out our Skyrim preview, or read the 12 page Skyrim feature in the next PC Gamer UK.

See parts two and three inside.

Recently Bethesda held a competition on Facebook challenging fans to help exercise Skyrim's character creator. After a couple of polls to decide the new character's race and class, a dark elf thief was eventually selected and posted on the Skyrim Facebook page. You can see him in all his, angry, squinty glory below, above a comparison shot of an Oblivion dark elf.

There's a few reasons that this screenshot is particularly exciting, beyond the fetching top knot. Firstly, this dark elf looks so much better than Oblivion's red eyed, purple cheeked creatures. Secondly, check out the rolling miasma clouds in the sky. This otherworldly aurora effect was a common feature in Morrowind. The E3 Skyrim demos were spectacular, but looked a lot like an advanced version of Oblivion. This shot suggests that Skyrim could have some of the strangeness that made Morrowind so memorable.

Bethesda have detailed the contents of the Skyrim Collector's Edition boxed set. As well as a huge 200 page art book and a making of DVD, fans will get a 12" tall model of a dragon perched on top of one of Skyrim's "dragon walls."

Also known as "walls," these great stone artefacts bear the scrawled graffiti of the great flying lizards of old, and are infused with the magical power of the dragon that created them. In the game, they can be read to unlock "dragon shouts" to "dragon kill" your enemies. Sadly this will not work when you read the Collector's Edition dragon wall, as it is crafted of "high quality PVC."

Standing one eight of an inch taller than the dragon model, the art book will be a bigger lure for many Skyrim fans. "Featuring over 200 pages of striking, full-color illustrations, sketches and models, this stunning 9 3/8" x 12 1/8" coffee table book showcases the characters, creatures, environments, and weaponry of Skyrim," reads Bethesda's blurb. There's also a behind the scenes DVD which includes "interviews with the Bethesda Game Studios team as they take you from concept to creation." You get the game as well, of course.

The boxed set will be sold in "extremely limited" numbers, and will sell for $149.99 / €149.99 / £129.99 / A$199.99. It'll go on sale alongside ordinary copies when Skyrim comes out on November 11. It's currently available to pre-order from Amazon, GameStop and Best Buy. What do you think, worth the expense?

Notch has just tweeted with news that he's received a legal notice from Bethesda: "Just got a letter from Bethesta's lawyers. They claim "Scrolls" infringes on their trademark and everyone will confuse it with Skyrim," he writes. We've reached out to Bethesda for response, but they have "no comment at this time."

This comes on the same day that Notch also revealed that Minecraft has now passed three million sales. Notch has since tweeted to say "I still <3 Bethesda. This is hopefully just lawyers being lawyers." He also posted a picture of the document, which he says is 15 pages long.



We met up with Notch at E3 earlier this year, and got him in to see the Skyrim demo. See how excited he was in the video below.

A post on the Team Fortress 2 blog from Robin Walker tells us how to get how to get hold of the new TF2 Skyrim, Brink, Rage and Fallout items we mentioned yesterday. If you buy or pre-order the relevant game from Steam during Quakecon, they'll unlock automatically in Team Fortress 2.

Pre-order Skyrim to get the Heavy Nord helmet, pre-order Rage to get the Wingstick for the Engineer and buy Quake IV to get the Quake launcher for the Soldier. Owners of Fallout: New Vegas will get a Pip Boy for the Engineer and owners of Brink will pick up a hood and mask for the Sniper.

The deal ends with Quakecon, so you'll be sure to buy or pre-order the games you want before 10:00 PDT / 18:00 BST on August 8

In the same blog post, Robin Walker also talks about Team Fortress' debt to id Software and Quake in particular. Team Fortress started out as a Quake mod in 1996.

"At the time it only had five playable classes, no maps, and--believe it or not--no hats, writes Robin. "There wasn't even a concept of teams yet."

"That's right, we didn't actually get teams into a game called Team Fortress until a couple of releases after the initial launch. (The next time someone says their game isn't ready to release yet because they're missing a core feature, you can helpfully point this out to them.)"

"When Quake celebrated its 15th birthday this past June 22nd, we realized just how damn many of us at Valve are here because of id software. Some of us were inspired by their games' technical prowess, and others by getting their first taste of game development thanks to Doom and Quake's revolutionary approach to user-generated content."

Quakecon is happening right now in Dallas, Texas. To celebrate, you can play Brink for free this weekend and loads of id's game are on sale on Steam where you can also download and play Team Fortress 2 for free.