I guess we should have seen this coming, but it kind of snuck up on us. Following on from this amazing Far Cry 3 Minecraft mod, someone has only gone and made a Dishonored one, which adds Corvo's iconic weapons and equipment to the all-consuming crafting game.

You can download the set here, which includes Corvo's outfit, his sword, a wheellock pistol, the Blink rune (featuring working teleportation), whalebone charms, Sokolov's Elixir and - everybody's favourite - whale oil, which explodes when thrown. If you have the relevant materials, you can even craft these items yourself.

To test them out, we suggest using the Imperial City map, which could easily pass for part of Dunwall - and it will have to, until some mad, wonderful fool decides to recreate every inch of the city in Minecraft. It's only a matter of time. Blink to the following video to see the Dishonored mod in action.

It's rare that you get a glance inside an art director's sketchbook, which makes the concept art that Bethesda sent over a bit of a treat. Each of the ten images comes with a few words from Dishonored art director, Sebastien Mitton, offering a bit of insight into the lengthy pre-production phase that locked down Dunwall's grimy aesthetic. There's even mention of a cut level set in an insane asylum. Let's take a look.



Sebastien Mitton: This is the very first pencil drawing we did when the game was set in London, in 1666. I’m a bit nostalgic when it comes to this one, but in a positive way. This is the piece of art that triggered lots of excellent work in terms of architecture - all the landmarks…there were more than 80 cathedrals in the skyline by that time. There is this very specific skeleton aspect to the facades, there is a canyon feeling in the streets, there are strong shadows.



Sebastien Mitton: The plague plays an important role in our game. After many hours of research exploring narratives from the Black Plague period, we used some testimonies as a starting point for visual expression. The purpose of this exploration was to give the player a great visual impact by increasing this dystopia feeling in the city. The inspiration from this specific example (cut for gameplay consistency) came from the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who mixed with the lime wash used in mass graves.



Sebastien Mitton: As a visual designer, it is a fun experience and a great challenge to align visual appeal, engineering and functionality, nice animations, and a sense of power with a handcrafted weapon that you can upgrade in different ways!



Sebastien Mitton: I really love this ship, with its moving nose that can trap whales when harpooned. The story of its inception started one day when I was visiting our office in Austin.

I noticed a guy on stilts cleaning the building façade and told Harvey (co-creative director) we could put stilts on our town crier (loud speakers replaced this guy). He agreed, and the guy instantly became a Tallboy. Then slowly, game designers modified his original purpose, and the Tallboy became a guard, armed with its bow.

I then proposed to place a canister on his back, full of phosphorus, to get nice visual effects when he shoots arrows. Harvey preferred to use whale oil. Ok, but now we need Whales right? Hard to see Whales if you don’t swim in the middle of the ocean, so it was time to design a whaling ship. Here’s the result!

I then realized that the game universe was autonomous, no need to add anything from our real world. This world had its own needs and its own solutions as its own universe.



Sebastien Mitton: This one is a close-up. It’s the “Regent” painting done by the artist Sergey Kolesov, who is one of the most talented painter/illustrators worldwide in my opinion. This painting won the 2012 into the pixel at E3. It has everything I love in paintings. It has that second layer of visual storytelling when you look at the bodyguard. It’s not in your face at first sight, but it’s there when you take the time to really look at it. It is the role of a bodyguard to stay discreet, you’d say!



Sebastien Mitton: It is always sad when you have to cut features, ideas, concepts. But that’s the nature of our role in this industry. As an artist you have to stay really agile and react positively for the sake of the project.

In this case, we had to cut a mental institution which was haunted by some locals called Lunatics. I really liked the mechanics of those non-fighting guys who are really sensitive to sounds, and who drive the player into a corner, hooting when they’ve detected you.



Sebastien Mitton: After a long phase of gathering really good references from museums and libraries, it’s time to throw ideas on paper, and align them with the bullet points and visual filters we’ve decided upon.

I like this board because it shows how crazy we go sometimes during our concept session.
Jean-Luc, my assistant, not only takes notes during our brainstorms, he draws pages and pages.



Sebastien Mitton: One of my main goals during the creation of Dishonored was to bring iconic characters to life. This girl is the result of intense research during photo trips to London and Edinburgh, analysis of mug-shots and studies of typical English traits we found in books and pulp illustration. By drawing on those known characteristics, your characters convey emotion before they talk or move. This is visual storytelling.



Sebastien Mitton: This screenshot shows, if not the first, at least one of the early integrations of one of our characters in game. This is a moment of joy, when you feel everything is in place. You’re heading in the right direction, and you suddenly don’t care about the hard days ahead.



Sebastien Mitton: I talked previously about visual storytelling. Here’s a perfect example of what we love at Arkane: creating a dense and visceral universe!

For more on Dishonored, listen to our Dishonored podcast special, read our Dishonored review and watch Chris' video diary in which he tries to navigate Dunwall without leaving a trace.

Yesterday we asked you which of my three daft approaches to Dishonored you wanted to see blown out into a full video diary series. Each take on the game had its supporters, but the clear winner in both the comments thread and the Facebook poll was 'oh dear, what a terrible accident'.

The idea is to complete every mission in the game without leaving a trace of Corvo's involvement - hence the name of this series. That doesn't mean that there can't be evidence, but that evidence needs to point to other people: essentially, there needs to be an explanation for events that's simpler and more believable than "a teleporting, man-possessing, rat-summoning magic ninja did it."

In the game's linear tutorial prison break sequence, that's easier said than done. It's a part of the game with very little freedom - but I wanted to take it on anyway, and see if there's a way of explosively escaping from jail while still making it look like someone else's fault. Was I successful? Decide for yourself by watching the video below. Needless to say, expect to have the game's opening somewhat spoiled.



New episodes of No Trace are planned for Fridays and Tuesdays until I finish the game. Let us know what you think in the comments, and subscribe to our YouTube channel to have future installments slipped discretely into your internets.

Earlier in the week we recorded a podcast special where we discuss all of Dishonored - including major plot points - in some detail. Check it out here.

One of Dishonored's most oh-so-satisfying accomplishments is a Ghost and Clean Hands run, which rewards two Achievements for evading detection and performing non-lethal takedowns for the entirety of your time in Dunwall. The video here shows the complete opposite of that scuffed coin with the circular elimination of six guards in but a few seconds. And it looks simply amazing.

Using a combination of bent time, rat swarms, teleportation, and plenty of deadly sword swings, player "kekkoSoNicSyNdIcAtE" (whoa) successfully infused the majesty of Inigo Montoya in full berserk mode with cinematography seemingly directed by the Wachowski brothers. Two Tallboys and four City Watchmen crumple beneath Corvo's kinetically balletic attacks, a sequence of brutality underscored by the first-person view.

You, too, can shove sharp pieces of metal into people's necks as well. (Dis)Honestly. Read our review for more info.

We left discussion of Dishonored out of our latest podcast because only Tom F, Graham and I had finished it at the point of recording: but it's one of the best games this year, and we've got a lot to say about it.

In this podcast special, we talk about our experience of the game in detail, including the plot, mechanics, missions and more. Needless to say, there are major plot spoilers throughout: do not listen to this unless you've finished the game.

Read Tom's full verdict on the game in his Dishonored review. You can also check out my three alternate rulesets for the game - and vote on which you'd like to see turned into a diary series - here.

Note on the audio: A few speakers become quiet as they're talking in this episode. This is because we have a tendency to gesticulate that sometimes takes us away from our microphones. Next time, we are going to use elastic bands to tie people to the desk. By their necks.

Late last week, Chris posted a video showcasing three silly ways to play Dishonored. Some of you have told us that you'd like to see a video diary series based on one of these approaches, and we agree! We're not sure which one to do, though, so we figured we'd put the question to you directly.



Let us know which one you like the best and tomorrow we'll embark on a journey through the whole game, either using no magic, leaving no trace, or swordfighting every single person in our way. You can vote for your favourite on our Facebook page, or just let us know in the comments. We'll pick a winner at noon GMT tomorrow.

Tyler, Omri, and T.J. discuss what a wonderful time it is for PC genres that were once considered forgotten. Dishonored brings back stealth simulation, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a sleep-depriving boardgame, Star Citizen asks why resource-intensive PC space sims ever left us, and Project Eternity takes a pre-rendered isometric point-of-view on the whole modern RPG situation.

All that in PC Gamer Podcast 332: Yo genre so old...

(Plus more weird tangents. Like Garfield.)

Have a question, comment, complaint, or observation? Leave a voicemail: 1-877-404-1337 ext 724 or email the mp3 to pcgamerpodcast@gmail.com.

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The rotting city of Dunwall is filled with mystery, but Dishonored's dystopian depiction of the once-great industrial empire might be the only glimpse we get of Arkane's stealth- and steampunk-infused excellence. In an interview Kotaku, Dishonored co-Creative Director Harvey Smith stated he "can't say" whether he'd like a continuation of the neck-stabbing, maid-punting universe he helped design.

"Part of me would love to see future games leverage this world," he said. "And part of me would love it if the vault door was just closed, and that's it. This is your one view into the Empire of the Isles and into the city of Dunwall."

We came away mightily impressed from our time beneath Corvo's ghastly mask, but experiencing a full-fledged sequel could diminish Dunwall's strong identity by virtue of repetitive environments. Of course, Arkane's DLC plans involve branching out into other cities, characters, and nations in the Isles and beyond, so it's a fair bet we'll be honored with more Dishonored in the future.

The first time I completed Dishonored, I did what I'd recommend anyone to do: I played according to my own personality and morality and saw where that took me.

That doesn't do for a second playthrough, however, so I've been brainstorming some new rule sets that make the game substantially harder and very much sillier.

Bear in mind that this video includes spoilers for Dishonored's first proper mission. If you haven't played it yet, come back when you have.



Let us know which of these approaches you like the best in the comments, and check out Tom's Dishonored review for more on the game.

An analysis of the Windows 8 app certification requirements by programmer and tech blogger Casey Muratori suggests that games with a rating over PEGI 16 or ESRB Mature will not be allowed on the Windows 8 storefront.

This means we won't be seeing many of the current crop of games on the store, or, given the proliferation of rating-baiting neck-stabbing seen at E3, many of next year's either - not unless publisher's are willing to heavily sanitise their content.

The guidelines are pretty explicit about creating a walled-garden within Microsoft's hitherto anything-goes OS. As section 6.2 of the certificaiton requirements state: "Your app must not contain adult content, and metadata must be appropriate for everyone. Apps with a rating over PEGI 16, ESRB MATURE, or that contain content that would warrant such a rating, are not allowed."

As Kotaku pointed out, this might not be such a problem in the US, where relatively few games receive a mature rating, but it will be very significant in Europe, where games such as Dishonored, Skyrim, Sleeping Dogs, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty all fall foul of the restriction.

Of course, you'll still be able to buy and install these games on the OS - you just won't be able to get them from the official Windows storefront. So is this a problem? Perhaps - games that don't make the cut won't be able to make use of Windows 8's bespoke features, and by bifurcating the platform Microsoft risks fragmenting the PC gaming marketplace. If games are rated as mature in one location and not in another, will that create stark regional differences? And what's more, from a creative perspective, it may force developers to censor themselves in an attempt to reach that wider audience.

It's a curious direction to take for a platform which prides itself on being open, and the reaction among devs is sure to echo the fears already annunciated by the likes of Gabe Newell, Blizzard's Rob Pardo, Notch and others.